Showing posts with label 31 Days of Halloween. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 31 Days of Halloween. Show all posts

Thursday, November 2, 2023

Your Black Star

 

I haven't listened to Your Black Star in a pretty damn long time, and although I have absolutely no idea what put them back on my radar, yesterday, I'm glad it happened. I love this band's 2006 record Sound from the Ground; this came out the same year I moved from Chicago to L.A. My ex-wife was a music journalist, and back in those days, we'd have CDs arriving in the mail all the time. A lot of stuff from small, completely independent labels. Not all of it was good, but boy did I find some gems that way. Young Widows, These Arms Are Snakes, and Your Black Star were top of the list. 

Listening again, I realized that while I'd always recognized The Cure's influence on these guys, it wasn't until diving back in that I realized how much this opening track is influenced by the title track to Pornography, arguably my favorite Cure record. Listen to those pounding drums, the way the bass comes in and the 'static' guitar. Gorgeous.

31 Days of Halloween:

I didn't get a chance to post the last two days, so here's the end tally for 2023's 31 Days of Halloween:

1) When Evil Lurks/VHS 85/Adam Chaplin
2) Tales From the Crypt Ssn 1, Ep 6 "Collection Complete"
3) VHS
4) All You Need is Death
5) Slashers (2001)
6) The Beyond/Phenomena
7) The Convent
8) Evil Dead 2
9) The Autopsy of Jane Doe
10) Totally Killer
11) Ritual (Joko Anwar)/The Final Terror/Grave Robbers
12) Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (w/Joe Bob)
13) Never Hike Alone/Never Hike in the Snow/Never Hike Alone 2
14) Puppetman
15) Creepshow Season 4 Episode 1
16) Return of the Living Dead
17) Don't Look Now
18) When Evil Lurks
19) Barbarian
20) Demons 2/All Hallows Eve
21) May
22) Let's Scare Jessica To Death
23) The Birds/30 Coins Ssn 1 Ep 1
24) 30 Coins Ssn 1 Ep 2/The Church
25) Elvira Mistress of the Dark
26) To Kako (Evil)/To Kako: Stin epohi ton iroon
27) Tourist Trap (w/ Joe Bob)/Totally Killer
28) Amusement
29) The Rocky Horror Picture Show/There's Nothing Out There
30) Planet Terror/Arsenic and Old Lace/George A. Romero's Bruiser/976-Evil
31) Halloween 78 (w/ Joe Bob)/Flatliners 91/Night of the Living Dead

Watch:

How has it been twelve years since I watched Robert Rodriguez's Machete? This might be one of the best action movies ever.


This flick is such a rip-roaring good time, and watching it again last night made me realize I'ver never seen the sequel, Machete Kills. Time to remedy that.

Playlist:

The Misfits - Static Age
Wytch Finger - The Dance EP
Skinny Puppy - Remission
Ministry - The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste
Umberto - Prophecy of the Black Widow
The Misfits - Collection I
The Sisters of Mercy - Floodland
Boy Harsher - Careful
Trust Obey - Fear and Bullets (98 Edition)
Ghost Cop - One Weird Trick
Your Black Star - Sound from the Ground
Deftones - Gore
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry - Talk About the Weather

Card:

Just one card from my Thoth deck for today. 


Yeah, that's an understatement. The endeavor to move my folks from South Suburban Chicago to Clarksville was almost complete, and then... thwarted at the last minute by an inspection. That's not the change denoted here; this generalized pull is really just reminding me that although my preoccupation with the move has me blinded to it at the moment, there's a lot of change on the horizon. That's a pretty surface-level reading, especially when using the Thoth deck, but that's all I've got. I fried.
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Sunday, October 29, 2023

Type O Negative - Paranoid

 
One of the best covers I know and perfect for this rainy lead-up to Halloween.

31 Days of Halloween:

1) When Evil Lurks/VHS 85/Adam Chaplin
2) Tales From the Crypt Ssn 1, Ep 6 "Collection Complete"
3) VHS
4) All You Need is Death
5) Slashers (2001)
6) The Beyond/Phenomena
7) The Convent
8) Evil Dead 2
9) The Autopsy of Jane Doe
10) Totally Killer
11) Ritual (Joko Anwar)/The Final Terror/Grave Robbers
12) Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (w/Joe Bob)
13) Never Hike Alone/Never Hike in the Snow/Never Hike Alone 2
14) Puppetman
15) Creepshow Season 4 Episode 1
16) Return of the Living Dead
17) Don't Look Now
18) When Evil Lurks
19) Barbarian
20) Demons 2/All Hallows Eve (w/ Joe Bob)
21) May
22) Let's Scare Jessica To Death
23) The Birds/30 Coins Ssn 1 Ep 1
24) 30 Coins Ssn 1 Ep 2/The Church
25) Elvira Mistress of the Dark
26) To Kako (Evil)/To Kako: Stin Epohi Ton Iroon
27) Tourist Trap (w/ Joe Bob)/Totally Killer
28) Amusement
29) The Rocky Horror Picture Show/There's Nothing Out There

Read:

I finally started reading the collected Mike Baron/Kelley Jones Deadman I picked up a few years ago after Chris and I interviewed Mr. Jones on A Most Horrible Library.


Deadman is one of the DC characters I don't hate, but I also don't really care about all that much. UNLESS Kelley Jones is drawing him. And Mike Baron has been a favorite since his run on the original ongoing Punisher series circa... 1987? Either way, I blew through this in a little over a day and absolutely loved its ghoulish flair.

Playlist:

The Smiths - Louder Than Bombs
Type O Negative - Origin of the Feces
Type O Negative - Bloody Kisses (digi pak)
Sisters of Mercy - Floodland
The Knife - Silent Shout
Zombi - Shape Shift
††† - Goodnight, God Bless, I Love U, Delete
Crystal Castles - II
NIN - Year Zero
Type O Negative - Life Is Killing Me
The Cure - Pornography

Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.


• King of Cups
• Four of Cups
• Seven of Pentacles

Lots of emotion will threaten Victory in Earthly matters. I know this has to do with the house hunt for my folks, which just makes me not want to go any further in-depth with this. 
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Friday, October 27, 2023

The Cramps - Cornfed Dames Live in Auckland, NZ

 

From the live album RockinnReelininAucklandNewZealandXXX (Live). A stellar example of how awesome and bizarre The Cramps were. 

31 Days of Halloween:

One of the things I'm trying to do for this year's 31 Days of Halloween is watch all the movies I have on DVD that I pull out every year and then never end up getting around to. I nailed one with Michele Soavi's The Church a few nights ago, and I got another yesterday with Yorgos Noussias's 2005 oddity, To Kako, or Evil as it was known here in the States. Here's a trailer:


I refer to this film as an oddity because, despite being a fairly low-budget Rage Virus/Zombie flick, Noussias leans into a tone that is severe yet also often subtly comedic. I'd never go as far as to call Evil a Horror Comedy, but there are moments that make me laugh out loud. The editing is super original on this one, too. Lots of double, triple and even quadruple split-screen stuff, none of it ostentatious enough to detract. In fact, the split screen really enhances the fast-paced narrative and adds a severity that makes this one a keeper. 

In watching this yesterday, it came to my attention there was actually a sequel released in 2009! I had no idea To Kako: Stin epohi ton iroon or Evil: In the Time of Heroes existed, but to my good fortune, this film is actively streaming on Tubi at the moment. While I'm not a super fan of any streaming site that by default includes commercials, in 2023 Tubi seems to be a safe harbor for a lot of films that would otherwise be impossible to find - see The Horror Vision's recent episode on La Horde - so for that, I'm grateful.


Turns out, Evil: In the Time of Heroes is even better than its predecessor! There's a considerably larger budget, so much so, Billy Zane appears in this film! Seeing both of these inside of twenty-four hours, I must say, it's a shame that Noussias did not keep making films. He has such an original voice, I would have loved to see more from him. 

1) When Evil Lurks/VHS 85/Adam Chaplin
2) Tales From the Crypt Ssn 1, Ep 6 "Collection Complete"
3) VHS
4) All You Need is Death
5) Slashers (2001)
6) The Beyond/Phenomena
7) The Convent
8) Evil Dead 2
9) The Autopsy of Jane Doe
10) Totally Killer
11) Ritual (Joko Anwar)/The Final Terror/Grave Robbers
12) Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (w/Joe Bob)
13) Never Hike Alone/Never Hike in the Snow/Never Hike Alone 2
14) Puppetman
15) Creepshow Season 4 Episode 1
16) Return of the Living Dead
17) Don't Look Now
18) When Evil Lurks
19) Barbarian
20) Demons 2/All Hallows Eve
21) May
22) Let's Scare Jessica To Death
23) The Birds/30 Coins Ssn 1 Ep 1
24) 30 Coins Ssn 1 Ep 2/The Church
25) Elvira Mistress of the Dark
26) To Kako (Evil)/To Kako: Stin epohi ton iroon

Read:

I finally finished reading Clive Barker's The Scarlet Gospels. Take it from me, if you're a fan of Mr. Barker, skip this one. My current working theory is he actually did not write the book but conceptualized and outlined it before passing it to another writer to build the prose. That's all I'll say on that because Barker remains one of my all-time favorite authors.

I've moved on to the much-recommended Greener Pastures, the first short story collection by Weird Horror writer Michael Wehunt. 


One story in, and I adore this man's writing. I feel a similar "Stark Lushness" to Laird Barron's early short stories, never mind that the two adjectives I've just employed would seem to contradict one another. There is a manner in which prose can offer a staunch worldview that in itself decorates the fiction in an expansive manner, and that's the vibe I picked up from opening story "Beside Me Singing In The Wilderness," which applies a very satisfying Southern Gothic spin to a classic monster module, all in a lush Appalachian or Southern realm that I felt I could "step into" at any moment.

Playlist:

Chelsea Wolfe - Spun
Graham Parsons - The Avalon Tapes (Live Flying Burrito Brothers)
The Cramps - RockinnReelininAucklandNewZealandXXX (Live)
Misfits - Collection 1
Jeff Grace - House of the Devil OST
Ritual Howls - Turkish Leather
Ozzy Osbourne - Ordinary Man
Deftones - Ohms
Snake Eats Boy - Occupado (single)
Perturbator - Nocturne City

Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.


• Five of Cups
• VII: The Chariot
• Knight of Cups

Lots of emotions tied up in the cards again today. This is on the nose, as the reality of my parents' impending move and the forfeiture of my childhood home has begun to sink in and stir up weird mortality anxieties. Of course, I recognize that I've been lucky enough to have my parents and that home in my life for as long as I have, so I'm not complaining. Five of Cups appearing at the center of this pull suggests emotional conflict, and while The Chariot often suggests more upbeat things, I'm reading it as a warning to think things through as we proceed. This also fits, as we are trying to ensure that, in their rush to exit the house by the closing date and find a new one to move into, my folks don't settle on a house just to have one. This then introduces the third phase of the pull, Knight of Cups, where Force of Will is applied to Emtion, hopefully for the benefit of everyone involved. 
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Wednesday, October 25, 2023

Sexores - Mar del Sur E.P.

 
Wow. Taking another page from a recent post by Heaven Is An Incubator, I dove into Sexores, a  Quito, Ecuador two-piece that skews toward Darkwave but always ends up injecting a healthy dose of sheer beauty into its albums. Really great band and their new Mar del Sur EP is a great place to start with them. If you dig, head over to their Bandcamp and throw down some support.

31 Days of Halloween:

1) When Evil Lurks/VHS 85/Adam Chaplin
2) Tales From the Crypt Ssn 1, Ep 6 "Collection Complete"
3) VHS
4) All You Need is Death
5) Slashers (2001)
6) The Beyond/Phenomena
7) The Convent
8) Evil Dead 2
9) The Autopsy of Jane Doe
10) Totally Killer
11) Ritual (Joko Anwar)/The Final Terror/Grave Robbers
12) Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (w/Joe Bob)
13) Never Hike Alone/Never Hike in the Snow/Never Hike Alone 2
14) Puppetman
15) Creepshow Season 4 Episode 1
16) Return of the Living Dead
17) Don't Look Now
18) When Evil Lurks
19) Barbarian
20) Demons 2/All Hallows Eve
21) May
22) Let's Scare Jessica To Death
23) The Birds/30 Coins Ssn 1 Ep 1
24) 30 Coins Ssn 1 Ep 2/The Church

NCBD:

Here are my picks for this week's NCBD:


This series has been a mixed bag, but I'm curious where it's going to go. 


Street-level crime at its finest. Newburn puts me in mind of Lawrence Block's Matthew Scudder novels, and as each individual storyline plays out, I'm really feeling the first edges of something epic. How long will Newburn's position as a fixer for all the New York crime families, the Yakuza, and the NYPD last? More importantly, who will the inevitable fall take down with him when it happens? These are the questions that keep me anticipating this book. 


Looks like the current New Mexico arc of SIKTC ends with issue #35, so whatever the outcome, it probably starts here. 


I have a Chicago trip coming up early next month, so I'll be stopping by Amazing Fantasy Books and Comics for the books in the pull I set up there. Ribbon Queen issues Three and four will be waiting for me. This book is a very welcome return to the crazy violent Horror Fiction Garth Ennis flexes every couple years, and it's made me want to jump back into a re-read of 


Who's that running around disguised as Captain Krakoa in Uncanny Avengers? Pretty sure issue two answered that with a flashback, but we'll see. Really glad I took a chance on this one.


In just four issues, Robert Kirkman once again has my most anticipated book each month. Last month's Void Rivals #4 raised the bar for the series yet again, with some major revelations that, when all is said and done, I'm pretty sure will constitute the very tip of a proverbial iceberg.


Having just read issue fourteen late last week, I'm pretty pumped for this one. I still think I need a full series re-read to bolster the stakes, however, Boss and Rosenberg's fucked up little world is always a fun romp with or without all the context. 

Playlist:

Wytch Finger - The Dance EP
Fvnerals - Let the Earth Be Silent
Spotlights - Seance EP
Sexores - Mar del Sur EP
Trevor Something - Trevor Something Does Not Exist
Trevor Something - Deep Wave Data Dark Web Daemons
Bauhaus - Burning from the Inside
Joy Division - Substance 1977-1980
Chasms - On The Legs Of Love Purified
Feuerbahn - The Fire Dance EP
Chelsea Wolfe - She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She (pre-release singles)
Skinny Puppy - Remission
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Saturday, October 21, 2023

New Music from †††!!!


††† dropped the title track from their new album! You can snatch this up directly from the band HERE. I'll admit the way ††† have been releasing songs, I was a bit confused as to what was the EP and now the full-length. Either way, it's good to have Chino's "other" band cranking music out, as their nine year hiatus left me wanting a lot more.

31 Days of Halloween:

1) When Evil Lurks/VHS 85/Adam Chaplin
2) Tales From the Crypt Ssn 1, Ep 6 "Collection Complete"
3) VHS
4) All You Need is Death
5) Slashers (2001)
6) The Beyond/Phenomena
7) The Convent
8) Evil Dead 2
9) The Autopsy of Jane Doe
10) Totally Killer
11) Ritual (Joko Anwar)/The Final Terror/Grave Robbers
12) Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (w/Joe Bob)
13) Never Hike Alone/Never Hike in the Snow/Never Hike Alone 2
14) Puppetman
15) Creepshow Season 4 Episode 1
16) Return of the Living Dead
17) Don't Look Now
18) When Evil Lurks
19) Barbarian
20) Demons 2/All Hallows Eve

Read:

While I'm still dabbling away at the last ten percent of Clive Barker's The Scarlet Gospels (I hate to say this, but it's awful beyond what I ever could have imagined), I couldn't help but begin reading Weird Walk's new, collected tome. 


If you are not familiar with Weird Walk, it's a British zine whose contributors walk the countryside in an effort to reconnect with the natural world of their ancestors. The ideology behind this often has to do with a hauntological approach to innoculating the failings of the present with the knowledge of our past. To quote the book's preamble:

"In Britain today we live in thrall to timetabels and technology, our lives increasingly scheduled and surveiled. Much of the population live in towns and cities (83 percent as of 2019), disconnected from the rural lives of our ancestors...The accepted notion in our modern present is that any kind of magical thinking... belongs to an older age...We are conditioned to push back against any sense of innocent bewilderment with nature and it's mysteries... If ubran and suburban surroundings reinforce this desacralised thinking, it follows that a shift to more pastoral realms might be a first step towards opening the door to re-enchantment."

As I said, the initial format of Weird Walk is an almost pamphlet-like paper zine. Seeing the content recreated in this gorgeous hardcover brick feels like a massive accomplishment for intellectual thought; the kind of victory that, in 2023, feels far too scarce.

Playlist:

My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult - I See Good Spirits and I See Bad
Cristobal Tapia De Veer - Smile OST
Bauhaus - Burning From the Inside
Prince - Sign O' the Times
Deth Crux - Mutant Flesh
Rein - Reincarnated
Ulver - Teachings In Silence
††† - Good Night, God Bless, I Love U, Delete

Card:

During my recent travels I had to rely on the Mini-Thoth deck my good friend Missi gave me. It'd been a minute since I'd used this one; I carry it with me daily, however, my daily Pulls usually occur at my desk, and I have my Bound Tarot and full-size Thoth there, so I hardly ever pull the travel deck out of my backpack. Using it again, I realized I have a bit of a disconnect from the cards, so I'm trying to remember to use it at least once a week.



Lots of big themes at play today. We have Change, Will and - in this case at least - I'm reading Trump IV as Exploration. This fits. My parents are in town, and we're looking for a house for them now that theirs is sold. The deadline is coming up fast, so there's definitely a feeling that our shoulder is against the grindstone (moved by Will alone). My Father is expressing doubts they can pull this off, but I have no doubts whatsoever - here's our path forward. Heed the cards.
Picture 

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Thursday, October 19, 2023

New Music from Idles!!!

 

From the forthcoming album TANGK, available February 16th on Partisan Records. Pre-order HERE. 

I really dig both this track and this video, which is a rarity all around. Idles has such a fantastic way of revving up the chaos but somehow keeping it streamlined and a touch poppy. 

31 Days of Halloween:

1) When Evil Lurks/VHS 85/Adam Chaplin
2) Tales From the Crypt Ssn 1, Ep 6 "Collection Complete"
3) VHS
4) All You Need is Death
5) Slashers (2001)
6) The Beyond/Phenomena
7) The Convent
8) Evil Dead 2
9) The Autopsy of Jane Doe
10) Totally Killer
11) Ritual (Joko Anwar)/The Final Terror/Grave Robbers
12) Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (w/Joe Bob)
13) Never Hike Alone/Never Hike in the Snow/Never Hike Alone 2
14) Puppetman
15) Creepshow Season 4 Episode 1
16) Return of the Living Dead
17) Don't Look Now
18) When Evil Lurks

Watch:

A trailer finally dropped for William Brent Bell's new film, Lord of Misrule. Check it out:  

I can't say I've seen Mr. Bell's other films - not out of any kind of boycott, more just a lackadaisical oversight - but when I saw this mentioned as a Folk Horror film a few months ago, I made a mental note to be on the lookout for more information. I watched about half the trailer, and I'm in, so the release date of December 8th can't come fast enough.

Playlist:

The Damned - Evil Spirits
The Cramps - RockinnReelinInAucklandNewZealandXXX
The Misfits - Collection II
King Woman - Celestial Blues
My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult - Confessions of a Knife
Adam Egypt Mortimer - The Obelisk
Soul Blind - Feel It All Around
Bauhaus - Burning From the Inside

Card:

Back to the old trusty Thoth deck for today's Pull:


Absolutely no time this morning to decipher this, so I'm merely posting for posterity's sake, but from a glance, looks to be another "lust of result will fuck you up" Pull.
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Wednesday, October 18, 2023

Nuthin' But a Gorehound

 
From their 1983 live album, Smell of Female, here are the immortal Cramps with a song I think a lot of Horror fans can relate to.

I'd never heard this live album before, but like most of those I have heard from The Cramps, it's fantastic. There are some hysterical introductions and asides from Lux, and Ivy's guitar seems particularly "trash heap" in its stringing and tuning, which of course, adds to the band's overall sound this particular night in 1983, arguably smack dab in the middle of their prime.

31 Days of Halloween:


1) When Evil Lurks/VHS 85/Adam Chaplin
2) Tales From the Crypt Ssn 1, Ep 6 "Collection Complete"
3) VHS
4) All You Need is Death
5) Slashers (2001)
6) The Beyond/Phenomena
7) The Convent
8) Evil Dead 2
9) The Autopsy of Jane Doe
10) Totally Killer
11) Ritual (Joko Anwar)/The Final Terror/Grave Robbers
12) Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (w/Joe Bob)
13) Never Hike Alone/Never Hike in the Snow/Never Hike Alone 2
14) Puppetman
15) Creepshow Season 4 Episode 1
16) Return of the Living Dead
17) Don't Look Now

NCBD:

My picks for NCBD; watch for this week's episode of Drinking with Comics tomorrow where I'll talk a bit more in-depth about each of these:


Coming out of that Wolverine Crossover, I'm not entirely sure where we are in Benjamin Percy's Ghost Rider. That's not the book's fault; I actually think this issue might be the start of a new arc that gives us a little more information on Talia Warroad and her upbringing in the Cult of Mephisto. Could be very cool to explore the MCU's version of a "Satanic Cult," only based around Mephisto. I'd love to see a character like Frank Castle's old nemesis The Reverend pop up here, but that's doubtful. Still, if they could tap into a tone comparable to those old Mike Baron Punisher stories, that'd be fantastic, but I'm basing this on absolutely nothing outside my own agenda.


I'm digging that we get to see so much Corinthian for sure, however, I feel like I need to go back and re-read all of Nightmare Country and Nightmare Country: Glass House in order to move forward. The Thessaly one-shot that carried the story between Part 3 and 4 threw me a bit. Time to recalibrate. Tynion's doing an incredible job of giving us a new story worthy of having "Sandman Presents" on the cover, with a tone that definitely falls right in line with the first two trades of the original Sandman series. 


Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino's Tenement is picking up speed, and every issue gets darker, weirder and, well, better! Can't wait to see where we're going today.

LOVE this cover. I'm an issue or two behind on TMNT, so here's another one that it's time to catch up on.

Playlist:

Joy Division - Closer
My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult - Confessions of a Knife
My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult - I See Good Spirits and I See Bad Spirits
Ministry - The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste
The Cramps - Smell of Female (Live)
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry - Talk About the Weather
Trust Obey - Fear and Bullets (half 1994 Edition and half 1998 Edition)
Bauhaus - Burning From the Inside

Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.



• Queen of Cups - the watery aspect of water - High Emotional Understanding
• Three of Wands - Inner aspirations 
• XII: The Hanged Man - Sacrifice

Sacrifice for your Art. There's really no other way to read this. Seeing this, I'm going to make a point to spend extra time working on the book this weekend. I'm in what is probably the second-to-last pass on Black Gloves and Broken Hearts, and it sounds like it's time to turn up the productivity levels a bit more than I already have.
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Thursday, October 12, 2023

No Love Lost on Grave Robbers

Traditionally, my love of Joy Division becomes particularly strong in Autumn. Or at least that's how it was before I moved to L.A. Well, order appears to have been restored because it's October and Substance is once again running in my veins. Here's "No Love Lost," which always sounded a lot more like Warsaw-era to me.

31 Days of Halloween:

I basically rode Shudder TV's Slashics for the majority of the evening. Here's what I saw:

 
This movie is nuts. I caught it from about ten minutes in, but you get it right away. Well, you don't 'get it' until the end, but that's what ended up turning this one into a positive viewing because otherwise, Joko Anwar's Ritual goes to some places I don't normally like to go. I'd definitely count this one as a "recommend," but you have to come with your game face on because there's some rough shit here.

Next, A rather passive rewatch of Andrew Davis's brilliant Backwoods Slasher/Survival flick The Final Terror: 

 
I posted the same trailer a few months ago, after the first time I caught this one. A really solid film that does what a lot of Backwoods Slashers try to do and fail (F13 - looking at most of your early works). Also, young Joe Pantoliano and Darryl Hannah, and some really beautiful photography by the Director, who doubled as Cinematographer. Susan Justin's score is pretty bitching as well, and all of this adds up to produce a flick I'd rank up there with Jeff Lieberman's Just Before Dawn and Peter Carter's Rituals with Hal Holbrook.

Finally, Slashics ended my night with Rubén Galindo Jr.'s 1989 clusterfuck Grave Robbers:

 
I'm sorry. Did I say the last movie was nuts? Nope. THIS flick is nuts. I think Rubén Galindo Jr. saw every 80s Slasher, Possession and Zombie flick and his brain just blendered them into a crazy, gory, Satan Smoothie, and I'm here for it. This is criminally underseen, but it's on Shudder, so seek it out. Just make sure your expectations don't stray above, "Get f*cked up and gawk at the ludicrous."

1) When Evil Lurks/VHS 85/Adam Chaplin
2) Tales From the Crypt Ssn 1, Ep 6 "Collection Complete"
3) VHS
4) All You Need is Death
5) Slashers (2001)
6) The Beyond/Phenomena
7) The Convent
8) Evil Dead 2
9) The Autopsy of Jane Doe
10) Totally Killer
11) Ritual (Joko Anwar)/The Final Terror/Grave Robbers

Read:

Oh man, it arrived:

After only reading one 'issue' of the Weird Walk zine, I was absolutely smitten. Paying for the shipping, though, was often daunting. When I saw the creators were compiling many (or maybe all? This one's thick!) of the floppies into a tome, I immediately pre-ordered it. And forgot it, which was cool, because when I opened the box yesterday, there was a moment where I felt like a kid receiving a fabulous Christmas gift. Can't wait to dig in.

Playlist:

Cristobal Tapia De Veer - Smile OST
Walter Rizzati - House By the Cemetery OST
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Blood
Joy Division - Substance: 1977-1980
NIN - Not The Actual Events

Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.


• Ten of Cups
• Queen of Cups
• Four of Pentacles

My parents are poised to sign a contract to sell their house, and that means A LOT of work and stress up ahead for the remainder of the year as we take the steps to move them and find them a house. No sweat, but there's the inevitable emotional deluge that will hit me at some point, the one people have asked me if I've felt yet. We moved into that house in 1986 when I was ten. That's a long time, and I love the house, the area, everything. The part of Palos I grew up in is essentially a tiny enclave in the middle of a forest preserve (if you reaed Shadow Play Book One, yep, that was the inspiration for Gallows Hill). Anyway, I read this as a warning that emotions are going to step in and gum stuff up for me; can't let that affect the work. 

Hell, now that I 'say' that out loud, this might also be a warning about interrupting my writing. I just finished the second draft of Black Gloves and Broken Hearts, my *ahem* Young Adult Giallo novel, and I'm hoping to have it out by Christmas or, at latest, January 1. I need to keep that in my sights regardless of what happens with the move.
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Sunday, October 8, 2023

Deth Crux - Phantom Blood

 
I'll be leaving L.A. later today, and I take that leave with a heavy heart. Not sure when or if I'll be back. My company is moving our department to Arizona, so I won't have a free ride out anymore. Because of this, I wanted to post an L.A. band that brings out the best of the city's vibes, and that band is definitely Deth Crux. I found these guys through Joe Begos, who used them first in Bliss, and then again for the soundtrack to Christmas Bloody Christmas. I tracked down a vinyl copy of their debut album Mutant Flesh and just love it from start to finish. Hoping we'll hear more new music from them at some point. In the meantime, it's in this band's grimy post-punk that I find the perfect balance for my love/Hate relationship with the City of Angeles.

31 Days of Halloween:

1) When Evil Lurks/VHS 85/Adam Chaplin
2) Tales From the Crypt Ssn 1, Ep 6 "Collection Complete"
3) VHS
4) All You Need is Death
5) Slashers (2001)
6) The Beyond/Phenomena
7) The Convent
8) Evil Dead 2

Watch:

Kids show or not, you tell me Boys in Trees director Nicholas Verso has a new show on HULU, and I'm watching it. 
 
I'm not even going to bother watching the trailer or reading about Crazy Fun Park, as I want to go in blind and hope that, if this is a success, we might finally get a Bluray release of Boys in Trees, which I feel should be in most Horror fans annual October viewing schedule.

Playlist:

Sylvaine - Nova
Zeal and Ardor - Eponymous
Deth Crux - Mutant Flesh

Card:


I keep seeing this Defeat Five of Swords card. This coupled with the Queen and Three of Cups leads me to believe this is a picture-perfect snapshot of my emotional state at the moment - I am ready to be home and feel like the longer I'm here in L.A., I'm undoing or defeating all the progress I've made in the last year.
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Friday, October 6, 2023

New Music from Mars Red Sky!

From the upcoming album Dawn of the Dusk, out December 8th on MRS and Vicious Circle. For whatever reason, I can't seem to find a link to pre-order the physical media, but I'm sure that will arrive before the record's release. In the meantime, digging this new track.

31 Days of Halloween:

My friends and I had the absolute privilege of rounding our 2023 Beyondfest out with a double feature at the lovely Los Feliz 3. 

First up, Documentarian Paul Duane's first narrative film, All You Need is Death. Please believe me when I say this one was revelatory! 

If you search go HERE, you'll see the inception of my stated fascination with "British Occult Films" - this is what I was using to discuss what has essentially become branded as modern entries in the resurgence of Folk Horror. Back when I was seeking out films like The Droving, Without Name, and the like in the wake of seeing Ben Wheatley's Kill List, Folk Horror hadn't yet become a household word, so English or UK Occult. Regardless of genre tags, these films were entries in a much more nuanced attempt to use the pre-Christian origins of modern society as the soil from which to mine Horrors born of folklore and the swirls mists of the pre-English, pre-industrialization world. That is very much the impetus for Duane's All You Need is Death, which explores the world of people who collect ancient folk songs. There's no trailer for this one yet, as in talking to Mr. Duane after the film he stated XYZ Films is releasing All You Need Is Death to the U.S. in mid-March. I'll definitely be watching for it, so when more info becomes available, I will post it here. In the meantime, here's a poster:


Next up was the new remaster of Maurice Devereaux's 2001 game show parody Slashers. This is one Terror Vision is putting out on BluRay in a couple of months. I couldn't find a trailer I could report, so here's the opening sequence:


This is a fun little gem from the early 00s and also, a movie my good friend Dennis had recommended to me over and over back when we'd hang out once or twice a week and watch flicks. I never saw it back then, and it had actually been on my mind about a week before Beyondfest announced this screening; fortuitous indeed.

The tally for 31 Days of Halloween so far:

1) When Evil Lurks/VHS 85/Adam Chaplin
2)Tales From the Crypt Ssn 1, Ep 6 "Collection Complete"
3) VHS
4) All You Need is Death
5) Slashers (2001)
6) The Beyond/Phenomena

Read:

I'm still slogging through Clive Barker's The Scarlet Gospels; truth be told, I haven't had much chance to read since I've been in LaLaLand, but there's also not a lot of excitement for me to finish the final 80% of the book. That said, I saw my A Most Horrible Library cohost Chris Saunders the other night, and as he always does, Chris gifted me a small handful of books he found thrifting. I'm mailing most back home to Tennessee so I don't have to weigh my luggage down with them, however, one that I'm keeping out in case I have some time and can't bring myself to return to the Gospels is this old gem: 

Originally published in 1990 and edited by Steve Niles long before he hit it big with 30 Days of Night,  I've seen this one around for years. I might have even had a copy at some point. Either way, what a great line-up of authors for one Anthology. Pretty excited to dig into this. 

Playlist:

Led Zeppelin - Get the Led Out Playlist
Spotlights - Seance EP
Mars Red Sky - Dawn of the Dusk (pre-release singles)
Frankie and the Witch Fingers - Data Doom
The Damned - Evil Spirits
Wire - Pink Flag
Pigface - Notes From the Underground
Gang of Four - Entertainment!
Drug Church - Hygiene
Gang of Four - Songs of the Free
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry - Talk About the Weather

Card:


Sometimes, what looks like defeat is actually a breakthrough (if you're wise enough to see that). Not entirely certain what this is in reference to. I'm tempted to read everything as being about work at the moment, but that's just because I'm on-site in person and a little baffled by the manner in which things are changing. I guess we'll leave it at that.
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Monday, October 2, 2023

No Sleeping at Beyondfest Triple Feature!

The only time I'd ever heard of Sleep Token before this past Saturday night was when my friend Josh asked if I'd heard of them, as his algorithm maintained a consistent recommendation. Driving back from a friend's house in Santa Clarita, my friend Bridget played several songs, and I almost instantly became intrigued. When Ray dropped me off at the hotel, I had a head full of smoke and laid down with their first album, Sundowning, on my headphones. I was transported somewhere I had never been before. This is the reaction I am most fond of with music, and based on that, I'm kind of an overnight fan here, despite the fact that some of the textures Sleep Token employs in its genreless music are coopted from styles of music I don't particularly care for. That said, in the context of this band's music and mythology, most of it works. 

31 Days of Halloween:

Thanks to Beyondfest, I was able to kick off 31 Days of Halloween yesterday with a triple-feature over at the Aero. Here's what we saw:
 
Having just rewatched Demián Rugna's 2017 film Terrified, I wasn't entirely certain what I was in for with When Evil Lurks. Turns out, When Evil Lurks won the day. This film is relentlessly dark, it doesn't hold your hand, and it pays back what it demands of the audience with one of the most original and gnarly Horror flicks of the year, if not of the last few.

Next, the latest installment in the V/H/S series:
 
As I've stated here previously, this series is always a mixed bag for me. When I saw Gigi Saul Guerrero, David Bruckner and Scott Derrickson attached to direct segments in V/H/S/85, I had hope for a really solid anthology film, and I got one.

The one thing about the VHS that still wears on me is how they play with the mechanism of the format. Tracking lines, pops, squiggles, dither and interrupted interstitial elements - these contrived artifacts add little at this point, and I think take up far too much time. I know having these creates the VHS illusion. However, they're just such a given at this point it does nothing for me. I also thought a few of the shorts had some pacing issues, but overall, this is easily my favorite all-around entry into the series since the original. Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill's "Dreamkill" was easily my favorite here, with its bloody set pieces that felt right out of an early 80s Video Nasty.


 Finally, the night ended with Emanuele De Santi and Giulio De Santi's 2011 bloodbath, Adam Chaplain:
This movie would make an absolutely perfect double feature with Gabriel Bartalos's Skinned Deep. It's low on budget but a veritable "how to" lesson on shooting and FX when you have more Will than money.

As with last year's 31 Days, I'm aberrating my usual a-movie-a-day format due to the fact that I'll still be in a hotel room until the evening of the ninth. I always bring my firestick with me when I travel, however, working and seeing people come first, so I cannot guarantee I'll have the time every single day to watch something. With that said, Day #1 takes care of the next 3 days (not to say I won't try to watch something every day, it's just doubtful.

Playlist:

Jóhann Jóhannsson - Mandy OST
Deth Crux - Mutant Flesh
Baroness - Stone
The Warlocks - Vevey Live
Sleep Token - Sundowning
Sleep Token - Take Me Back to Eden
Voyage - Paradise (single)
Voyage - Second Light

Card:

I'm on the road, so all my Pulls will be from my mini Thoth deck for the next two weeks. Not a bad thing, but wanted to put up a reminder that Grimm's new Tarot Deck, The Hand of Doom Tarot, is both gorgeous and live on Kickstarter until Tuesday, October 3rd. Here's the LINK.


• II: The Priestess
• Three of Cups: Abundance
• IX: The Hermit

Another pretty easy one - an abundance of emotion can lead to isolation. This is, I believe, another tip for dealing with issues at work. It's pretty easy to become overwhelmed and transported right back into the "Manager Mode" that made me successful while I was still living and working here in L.A. That's a mistake, and I appreciate the Universe's constant reminders that is no longer my role. 
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Friday, October 28, 2022

New Music From Fever Ray!


This dropped a few days ago and I totally missed it. New music from Fever Ray, and if what I read is accurate, this track reunites Karin with her brother Olof, effectively making this a The Knife reunion!

31 Days of Halloween:

10/1 - Trick 'r Treat
10/2 - Barbarian
10/3 - Hellraiser ('84)
10/4 - Phenomena
10/5 - Hellraiser (2022)
10/6 - The Dark Backward
10/7 - Sick/The Beyond
10/8 - Werewolf By Night
10/9 - Something in the Dirt
10/10 - Let the Right One In Episode 1/Lux Aeterna
10/11 - My Best Friend's Exorcism/Grimcutty
10/12 - Smile
10/13 - Monstrous/VHS (Amateur Night segment)
10/14 - Halloween Kills
10/15 - Halloween Ends/Ed Wood/Plan 9 From Outer Space
10/16 - Spider Baby/101 Scariest Horror Movie Moments/Night's End/Behemoth
10/17 - Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon
10/18 - Random Acts of Violence/Two Witches/Let the Right One In Episode 2
10/19 - 976-EVIL
10/20 - Alison's Birthday/Tone Deaf
10/21 - Elviria's Haunted Hills/Popcorn
10/22 - Resolution
10/23 - The Endless
10/24 - VHS 99
10/25 - Tigers Are Not Afraid
10/26 - Bliss
10/27 - Deadstream/Host

Deadstream has been on my radar for a while, but when I saw the trailer at this year's Beyondfest, I felt certain the film wouldn't be for me. Movies that feature influencers/youtubers as unlikeable protagonists who eventually receive a comeuppance don't usually make up for actually having to follow them through the first act-and-a-half. I wrote a bit more extensively about this in my Letterbxd review HERE, but suffice it to say, I ended up really liking this flick. 

Found footage films are a dime a dozen, however, when done right they may be the last corner of Horror capable of truly frightening me. I'm not talking about jump scares or gross-outs, I'm talking about the Magic that occurs when a film truly inspires sustained and palpable fear in me as a viewer. 

 

After this and the To Hell and Back segment they did for V/H/S/99, I can't wait to see what Joseph and Vanessa Winters do next.
 

Watch:

Servant's fourth and final season lands in January, and they've dropped a trailer. I'm posting this, but probably not going to watch it.


Damn, I love this show. Hope it goes out with a "Bang."

Playlist:

A001 - Necro (single)
Type O Negative - Origin of the Feces
The Thirsty Crows - Hangman's Noose
The Veils - Total Depravity
Fever Ray - What They Call Us (single)
The Knife - Heartbeats (single)
The Knife - Full of Fire (single)
Various - Joe Begos' Bliss Playlist
Electric Wizard - Dopethrone
Electric Wizard - Wizard, Bloody Wizard
Bad Looks - Bad Looks Single

Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.


The results I'm after will only be achieved through a combination of Will and Emotional detachment/clarity.

Also, only four days left to get in on Grimm's Kickstarter for The Art of the Bound Tarot hardcover art book. I'm throwing down today, you should too if you dig the art on these glorious cards. Back the project HERE.
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Thursday, October 27, 2022

Antonio Sánchez feating Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross


New music from world-renowned drummer Antonio Sanchez. This is the first single off his upcoming Shift (Bad Hombre, Vol. 2) album, and it features Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. You can order the new album  HERE.

31 Days of Halloween:

10/1 - Trick 'r Treat
10/2 - Barbarian
10/3 - Hellraiser ('84)
10/4 - Phenomena
10/5 - Hellraiser (2022)
10/6 - The Dark Backward
10/7 - Sick/The Beyond
10/8 - Werewolf By Night
10/9 - Something in the Dirt
10/10 - Let the Right One In Episode 1/Lux Aeterna
10/11 - My Best Friend's Exorcism/Grimcutty
10/12 - Smile
10/13 - Monstrous/VHS (Amateur Night segment)
10/14 - Halloween Kills
10/15 - Halloween Ends/Ed Wood/Plan 9 From Outer Space
10/16 - Spider Baby/101 Scariest Horror Movie Moments/Night's End/Behemoth
10/17 - Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon
10/18 - Random Acts of Violence/Two Witches/Let the Right One In Episode 2
10/19 - 976-EVIL
10/20 - Alison's Birthday/Tone Deaf
10/21 - Elviria's Haunted Hills/Popcorn
10/22 - Resolution
10/23 - The Endless
10/24 - VHS 99
10/25 - Tigers Are Not Afraid
10/26 - Bliss

No matter how many times I watch Joe Begos' Bliss, it just gets better and more inspiring. 


There are ideas in this film that I think rank among the greatest contributions to the modern Vampire myth, and the execution only helps seal that. My big regret from this year's Beyondfest was that I already had tickets to see Zeal and Ardor at the Echoplex when Begos' new film Christmas, Bloody Christmas screened. That's the first of his films I haven't seen on the big screen at Beyondfest since a bunch of friends and I saw Mind's Eye, which sealed my love of his aesthetic.

Watch:

I finally got to see Moonage Daydream on the big screen. This was one I almost missed, but with my good friend Grez in town, we headed into Nashville to the wonderful Belcourt Theatre and saw a late showing. 


So how is it? Fantastic. Not a documentary with a narrative so much as it is a constantly evolving series of clips - interviews, performances, personal journal stuff - a slightly linear trajectory through David Bowie's life as an artist, or perhaps rather, a series of artists, dappled with some intimate peaks behind the thin, white curtain at the man behind those personas. Built for the big screen.

Playlist:

King Woman - I Wanna Be Adored (single)
The Stone Roses - I Wanna Be Adored (single)
Cold Cave - Cherish the Light Years
Type O Negative - Dead Again
Lindsey Buckingham - Gift of Screws
David Bowie - The Next Day

Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.


Pretty straightforward. 

Only five days left to get in on Grimm's Kickstarter for The Art of the Bound Tarot hardcover art book. I'm throwing down today, you should too if you dig the art on these glorious cards. Back the project HERE.
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Wednesday, October 26, 2022

Second Still - Altar

 

The bass guitar at the end of this track is like some heady hallucinogenic concoction. Man, I forgot how much I love Second Still, whose Bandcamp is HERE.

31 Days of Halloween:

10/1 - Trick 'r Treat
10/2 - Barbarian
10/3 - Hellraiser ('84)
10/4 - Phenomena
10/5 - Hellraiser (2022)
10/6 - The Dark Backward
10/7 - Sick/The Beyond
10/8 - Werewolf By Night
10/9 - Something in the Dirt
10/10 - Let the Right One In Episode 1/Lux Aeterna
10/11 - My Best Friend's Exorcism/Grimcutty
10/12 - Smile
10/13 - Monstrous/VHS (Amateur Night segment)
10/14 - Halloween Kills
10/15 - Halloween Ends/Ed Wood/Plan 9 From Outer Space
10/16 - Spider Baby/101 Scariest Horror Movie Moments/Night's End/Behemoth
10/17 - Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon
10/18 - Random Acts of Violence/Two Witches/Let the Right One In Episode 2
10/19 - 976-EVIL
10/20 - Alison's Birthday/Tone Deaf
10/21 - Elviria's Haunted Hills/Popcorn
10/22 - Resolution
10/23 - The Endless
10/24 - VHS 99
10/25 - Tigers Are Not Afraid

NCBD:

All hail NCBD!!!

Spidey vs. Hobgoblin? 'Nuff said.


Loved the first issue more than I liked most of what they've done with the new series on Shudder. Let's go issue two!


A new Wytches story? Sold. 

Okay, let's see just how "Earth-shaking" this finale is.


Werewolf By Moon Knight? So this is picking up where the story in last week's Crypt of Shadows left off. Super cool. After all, 'tis the season for Werewolves.


It's come to my attention that at some point, this book is likely to switch back over to following Stephen Stange. Nothing against ol' Steve, but I'll be cutting at that point. This arc with Clea, however, continues to surprise and delight me.


First issue of this new Horror Anthology was pretty great. R.L. Stine was after my time reading books for Young Adults, but I always appreciated the fact that his stuff seemed to serve as gateway horror to so many just a few years younger than me. By the looks of this book, Stine is moving his audience age up to a considerably more mature demographic, and if it maintains the level of the first issue, count me in.


I really dug the first issue of this re-branding of the way old X-Terminators idea, so let's see where this goes.

Playlist:

Dance with the Dead - Into the Abyss
Fields of the Nephilim - The Nephilim
The Final Cut - Consumed
Sisters of Mercy - Floodland
Second Still - Equals EP
Les Descrets - Prédateurs
Perturbator - Nocturne City EP
Perturbator - Dangerous Days
King Woman - Celestial Blues

Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.


Encouraging words to make a decision and pull the trigger on sending out this new story I finally finished but am fussing with.
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