Musick:
Wake of a Nation EP out October 23rd, pre-order HERE.
31 Days of Halloween:
Last night's viewing was an unexpected one: Darren Lynn Bousman's Repo! The Genetic Opera. It'd been probably six years since I saw this one last - I remember because that was a communal viewing in a cemetery with a shadow Cast! At any rate, I had to dig my DVD out of storage, but it was well worth it. I love this flick so much, especially Anthony Stewart Head's character. Here's one of my favorite scenes:1) Tales of Halloween: Sweet Tooth/The Wolf Man (1941)
2) From Beyond/Monsterland: Port Fourchon, Louisiana/Tales of Halloween: The Night Billy Raised Hell/Tales of Halloween: Trick
3) Mulholland Drive/Creepshow (1982): The Crate
4) Waxwork
5) Synchronic/Bad Hair
6) Dolls
7) Lovecraft Country Ep. 8/Tales of Halloween: The Weak and the Wicken/Tales of Halloween: The Grim Grinning Ghost
8) 976-Evil
9) Repo! The Genetic Opera
Oh! And I did attempt to watch 976-Evil II, but within 30 minutes deemed it unwatchable. I do not believe this is Mr. Wynorski's fault; quite the contrary. Within the film there is an evident barren feeling due to what I would imagine is a limited budget and a complete misuse of the funds they did have. The sets are often barren, as with the hotel room George "Buck" Flower's Turrell finds himself in after being taken into protective custody by the police. I don't know if I'm simply still adjusting to having a 4K television and how it highlights shortcomings in older productions, but the sparse contributions by the Art Department, and the ridiculous explosions (a toilet? Really? You spent production money on an exploding potty?), combined with the limited lighting, made me feel as though I was watching this one through the view screen on a camcorder.
Also, the gratuitous Spike-with-Machine-Gun scene was just lame.
Read:
After I finished re-reading Clive Barker's iconic The Hellbound Heart, I picked up the Kindle edition of The Toll, a novella written by Mark Miller, who works with Mr. Barker at his production company, Seraphim.
From the author: "Hellraiser: The Toll is a novella that bridges the events of The Hellbound Heart and The Scarlet Gospels. We thought it would be fun to see what kinds of hell Pinhead had been raising before we saw him in The Gospels. In Clive's novel, there's mention of a lot of mayhem Pinhead has been getting into in preparation for his hostile takeover of Hell. So there was lots of room to dive into what exactly that mayhem might look like. And in that conversation between Clive and me, it seemed to make sense that he'd visit Kirsty and that he'd also want her to be a witness for him, since their fates are tied together.
"It's a short book, but Kirsty goes through a lot along the way. And we also get to see who she's become since her time with the legendary hell priest. I'd written for the comic, which was an incredible experience. And having worked so closely on Gospels, and also with Clive all these years, when he gave me his blessing to take them into the world of prose, I hit the ground running and never looked back. A lot like Kirsty in the story. But you'll have to read it to find out exactly what that means."
I liked The Toll, but I didn't love it. It's cool to see a literary sequel to the Hellraiser film, as opposed to a sequel to The Hellbound Heart. There are definite differences between the two, primarily that in Hellbound, Kirsty is not the daughter of Julia's husband, and he is not named Larry. Instead, Julia's bough is Rory, and Kirsty is merely a friend. Barker's original novella is, of course, well worthy of its iconic status, however, being that he wrote and directed the film, the book has always seemed to me a first pass at what he eventually perfected on camera.
How often does that happen, eh?
At any rate, I liked catching up with Kirsty, and I loved the story's utilization of the defunct Devil's Island prison as a gateway to The Wastes. That said, the story seemed a bit rushed and under realized, and I could have done with a more fleshed out Pinhead (pun intended), not the mostly perfunctory one we receive instead.
Either way, Barker's The Scarlet Gospels looms on my horizon. First though, I once again find myself in the mood for a Halloween-timed re-read of Bret Easton Ellis' Lunar Park.
Playlist:
We're in full Autumnal musical territory now:
NIN - Pretty Hate Machine
Joy Division - Still
Bauhaus - In the Flat Field
The Final Cut - Consumed
Darkness Brings the Cold - Devil Swank, Vol. 1
Naked Raygun - Raygun... Naked Raygun
Skinny Puppy - Too Dark Park
The watery aspect of fire, or the ability (and experience) to know when to temper intellect with emotion. Also, clear insights and the fresh perspective of adopting the perspective of another and cutting your own head off long enough to truly experience that other perspective.
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