From Bob Balaban's 1989 surrealistic WTF Horror/Comedy Parents. Badalamenti is not the main composer on this one; that's Jonathan Elias. However, he does contribute two stunning tracks that totally help make the aural signature of the film.
Watch:
Two nights ago I watched Eric Pennycoff's new film The Leech on Arrow Video's streaming service. This immediately jumped into my top ten films of the year. Not in my top ten Horror films, because The Leech isn't really a Horror movie, despite containing definite elements of the genre.
Graham Skipper, Jeremy Gardner and Taylor Zaudtke Gardner all turn in outstanding performances in what I was happy to discover is a completely batshit crazy film about religion and the secrets its practice sometimes hides for people. I loved everything about this one and can't recommend it enough.
Playlist:
Angelo Badalamenti - Dark Water OST
Public Memory - Veil of Counsel
James Luckett - May OST
Lustmord - Dark Matter
White Lung - Premonition
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
In order to attain emotional the fulfillment I seek, I have to put in the work and be prepared to undergo a transformation. This is pretty vague, or at least my reading it. As usual when I garner a head-scratcher, I chalk it up as something to watch for in my interactions throughout the day.
From Booth and the Bad Angel, 1996's collaboration with James lead singer Tim Booth. The entire record is fantastic - this is one I ordered around the time it came out and didn't quite 'get' for a few years. But I was a Badalamenti completist, or at least as a pre-internet kid with limited funds could be at the time. I chose this particular track because, although I've never actually been able to confirm it, I believe it is the only song on the album that Badalamnenti contributes vocals to.
Watch:
Upcoming Horror flick Thorns looks like it's either going to be a fantastic Hellraiser-in-space riff on Event Horizon or a clumsy mess.
Kinda difficult to tell from the trailer, right? I mean, there's plenty that looks cool from a distance, obscured by the quick cuts of the trailer's edit, but will those effects look cheesy in a more sustained experience? Only time will tell. I can say that I'm in need of an Event Horizon viewing. It's been over a decade, largely because the last time I watched the film, I found it to be a bit underwhelming when compared to the revelatory first viewing I had, many moons ago. Some films just live better in our memories.
Read:
After finishing Night of the Demon last week, I dialed it back to a previous intention and began re-reading Irvine Welsh's The Bedroom Secrets of the Master Chefs. I haven't read this since it first came out in 2006, within a few months of my moving to L.A. I remember finishing it the night before getting on a plane to fly back to Chicago for a visit.
A strange novel that has Welsh's unique flourish that makes his take on anything supernatural not only realistic but unique beyond anything I've seen in any other authors' work. Now that I think about it, I suppose the same way Spanish Authors tend to have a certain recognizable tone for works of Magical Realism - informed by location, religion, cultural distinctions and peccadilloes, the same would hold true for Scottish Authors. The idea that Welsh's work tips at times into its own version of Magical Realism actually makes a lot of sense. Either way, this is a weird one, mixing Welsh
Playlist:
SQÜRL and Jozef Van Wissem - Only Lovers Left Alive OST (Detroit Side)
Zeal and Ardor - Eponymous
Public Memory - Veil of Counsel
VAAAL - A Wounded Fawn OST
Angelo Badalamenti - Twin Peaks Season One OST
Angelo Badalamenti and Tim Booth - Booth and the Bad Angel
Deafheaven - Infinite Granite
Godflesh - Messiah
Ifernach - Capitulation of All Life
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
Mixing in some of the dark thoughts I shy away from may help to fully realize an intellectual conundrum that has been causing me great pain. ie the unfinished short story I've been writing and re-writing off and on for going on four years.
For Day Two, I wanted to go with my favorite track from The City of Lost Children OST that Badalamenti did for Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet's hauntingly GORGEOUS film from 1995.
Watch:
A few months back, I read some advance praise for Writer/Director Paul Owens' first feature film, Landlocked. Finally, a trailer has landed:
Owens apparently built this narrative around old home movies, a fantastic idea that, in the wrong hands, would no doubt go horribly wrong. If this trailer and Fango's praise are any indications, here the execution meets the concept.
Playlist:
Type O Negative - Life Is Killing Me
Colors of the Dark Podcast Episode 49
Zeal and Ardor - Firewake (single)
Carpenter Brut - Leather Terror
The Mysterines - Reeling
H6LLB6ND6R - Side A
Beach House - Once Twice Melody
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
Hot take on all these Cups? Don't let my emotions get the better of me.
Well, it goes without saying that I'm doing a "Seven Days of Angelo Badalamenti" in honor of his passing. Let's start here, a video my good friend Jacob sent me yesterday to mark the man's exit through the big, red curtains.
NCBD:
What an irregularly slow NCBD. If I hadn't picked up some new titles, I'd be spending almost no $$$ this week. Can't have that, apparently...
I was hesitant going into Dark Web, but this Zeb Wells Event is so dripping with original Inferno vibes that I can't help but love it.
Yeah, like I said above. I love it so much, double-dosing this week.
And, speaking of Events (fuck!), all this pre-emptive conjecture for the upcoming Sins of Sinister has me so fascinated with the idea that there are numerous Sinister clones running around the Marvel Universe that I'm now fascinated by this Mother Righteous characters and reading Legion of X. Damn again!
Ah! I can't love this horror show more.
Watch:
Speaking of Twin Peaks, Butcher from the Horror Vision has mentioned Steven C. Miller's The Aggression Scale several times, but this past weekend, as we recorded The Horror Vision episode on Joe Begos' Christmas Bloody Christmas, I finally cued the film up and when I saw the cast not only included three Twin Peaks Alumni - Ray Wise, Dana Ashbrook, and Derek Mears, but Jacob "Solomon" Reynolds from Harmony Korine's Gummo, well, there was no way I wasn't watching it right away.
I was not disappointed.
This movie is brutal in the most enjoyable way because it's the bad guys that get f*cked up the most, and it's fun watching it.
Playlist:
Zeal & Ardor - Eponymous
Knorkator - Widerstand ist zwecklos
Ifernach - Capitulation of All Life
Lustmord - Dark Matter
Deth Crux - Bloody Christmas
Greg Puciato - Mirrorcell
The Notorious B.I.G. - Ten Crack Commandments (single)
††† - PERMANENT.RADIANT EP
SQÜRL and Jozef Van Wissem - Only Lovers Left Alive OST
Pop Will Eat Itself - Cure for Sanity
Neurosis - Given to the Rising
Isis - Panopticon
Made Out of Babies - The Ruiner
Rein - Reincarnated
Battle Tapes - Sweatshop Boys EP
Battle Tapes - In Too Deep EP
Battle Tapes - Polygon
Final Light - Eponymous
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
Collaboration has been coming up a lot, so I need to re-focus on something I've been struggling to maintain. A big writing project that I make headway in and then have to set aside to tool around with short stories I am submitting to various publication markets. The trick here is to make more time and use it wisely, something I'm not always good at doing.
Really digging this new ††† PERMANENT.RADIANT EP, especially of late, opening track Sensation. The chorus has an epic slamming that kind of marries a slow, sensual plod ala When the Levee Breaks (not quite, but ballpark) to what sounds like the fanfare of some futuristic stadium rock. Add onto that all the swirling keys, guitars, and some cool vox FX on Chino, and you get a fantastic album-opener and lead-in to that brilliant first single, Vivien.
Watch:
Since it was only in the theatres for about a week, we missed David O. Russell's Amsterdam on the big screen but finally caught it on HBO Max last night.
This is the film that failed so hard at the box office - undeservedly so, in my opinion - that I've heard titterings about it being the death knell for anything that could be called an "adult drama" rolling out big and wide at theatres. If that's true, it sucks. I'll be sure to be more diligent about getting out to see those films on their first weekend because that might be all we get while Marvel and their clones - some of which I also am a fan of - further strengthen their stranglehold on every big screen in the major movie houses.
I think back to Autumn/Winter 2007. I'd been in L.A. a little over a year, and the Regal Cinema at the Rolling Hills Terrace on Deep Valley Drive was my perpetual weekend spot, primarily because they had a killer Soundsystem and were not afraid to turn it LOUD. That year, I saw so many great films - none of which were, if I remember correctly - genre. No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood, and Charlie Wilson's War, spring immediately to mind. I can't help wondering if we'll ever see a roll-out of non-franchise films like that again. 2019 was a brief return to form; however, the pandemic may have been the real death knell for non-event films, the kind where two adults go to see a film unattached to properties or characters they are familiar with. And there's nothing wrong with big-budget, superhero blockbusters - I just hope that's not all there is to choose from on the big screen. Because I love seeing quiet, contemplative films like The Banshees of Inisherin at the theatre as much as I do whatever the next Avengers or whatever.
But I totally side-stepped my own set-up with my maudlin reverie. How was Amsterdam? Pretty damn good. I'll specifically say that Christian Bale is fantastic, as are all the performances. The script is a bit overly ambitious and the plot suffers from that, so there were moments where I was a little annoyed at what began to feel unmanageably dense, but those performances really anchored the film for me.
Playlist:
Metallica - Kill 'Em All
Metallica - Hardwired... To Self-Destruct
Zeal and Ardor - Firewake (single)
Zeal and Ardor - Eponymous
Lustmord - Dark Matter
SQÜRL and Jozef Van Wissem - Only Lovers Left Alive OST
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
It will require an effort of Will to make the breakthrough that will move me into the next phase of a project.
Excited to see that, apparently, Zeal and Ardor are now on Sub Pop Records. With this kind of state-side distribution, it should no longer cost an arm and leg in shipping to order their records! Perhaps it was to celebrate that contract, the band just released a two-song single!
What a great day to wake up to! Last few days, no lie, my stress level has had me hovering at the "punch a hole in the window" stage. But I woke up a little while ago feeling fairly refreshed, and now I'm putting the finishing touches on this post, drinking coffee and listening to the new ††† EP, PERMANENT.RADIANT that dropped, counting the hours until I can hit play on Joe Begos' new flick, Christmas Bloody Christmas, now probably my most anticipated film of the year. I'd wanted to drive to Chicago to see it, but after spending $500 at the dentist over the last week, there's just no feasible way to swing that. My hope, though, is that, like Terrifier 2, it makes enough $$$ at the box office this week to see a bigger roll-out next week. If that happens, it's bound to end up here.
If you need help figuring if Christmas Bloody Christmas is playing by you, here's the link Begos put on his IG - it literally lists every theatre the film is playing. So crazy that, with all the smaller cities its rolling out to, it didn't come to Clarksville. Our Regal, which is pretty good and had Terrifier 2 for almost a month, had the new Martin McDonough and the George A. Romero Dawn of the Dead 3D, but instead of lining CBC up, they still have Prey for the Devil? WTF?
Life is good. If you're having a tough time at any point today, stop and think about the people and the stuff you love. It will HELP!
Watch:
New Brandon Cronenberg film? Sign me up.
I cannot overstate how unbelievably happy I am that we only had to wait about three years for the third film from Brandon Cronenberg. Possessor is still one of my all-time favorites, and with this cast and premise - what little of it may or may not be clear from this trailer - Infinity Pool looks likely to rank pretty high with me as well.
Out January 27.
Neon is just a fabulous company, isn't it?
Playlist:
Fvnerals - Let the Earth be Silent (pre-release singles)
Fvnerals - The Light
Final Light - Eponymous
Greg Puciato - Mirrorcell
Federale - No Justice
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!
The Mysterines - Reeling
H6LLB6ND6R - Side A
Metallica - Hardwired... To Self-Destruct
Metallica - Kill 'em All
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
Ask and ye shall receive your answer: I usually don't specify when I pull, but today I focused on my recent re-engagement with Shadow Play Book 2. The writing comes and goes, mostly rewarding while I'm doing it, then frustrating after. But I keep wondering if this is actually going to work. Well, apparently, if I am strong enough to persevere, I will get my outcome.
