The final song on this year's Passion Depression, released back in March. I'm really just getting around to this one now. For whatever reason, none of Cold Cave's albums live up to the promise set by the first one I really heard, 2011's Cherish the Light Years, but this album's pretty great, and this final track is my favorite on it. You can head over to CC's Bandcamp HERE and take your pick.
31 Days of Halloween:
1) The Killing of a Sacred Deer
2) The Houses October Built (2011)/Texas Chainsaw Massacre (50th-anniversary theatrical screening)
3) Loop Track
4) It's What's Inside/LONGLEGS
5) The Babysitter/Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
6) The Hitcher/Lost Highway
7) GDT's Cabinet of Curiosities: Graveyard Rats
8) V/H/S Beyond
9) Killer Klowns from Outer Space
10) Terrifier 3
11) Summer of '84
12) Rosemary's Baby/Suspiria ('77)
13) Daddy's Head
14) Undead
15) Moloch/Tea Cup (episode 1)/ Evil Dead 2
16) Smile
17) Laura Hasn't Slept/Smile 2
18) Terrifier
Watch:
Okay. Bloody Disgusting posted the trailer for Beyond the Chamber of Terror a few days ago, and it looks like it will either be a gloriously goofy good time or unwatchable.
I guess the proof, as always, will be in the pudding.
Ritual Howl's album Turkish Leather was released ten years ago on September 30th! Holy smokes. If you're not familiar, check out their discography on Bandcamp. Easily one of my favorite discoveries from the last ten years, for sure.
31 Days of Halloween:
Last night K and I hit the Regal for Parker Finn's Smile 2. I'm not going to post a trailer because last week, before Terrifier 3, I noticed there was a HUGE spoiler image sandwiched in the quick succession of scenes they splice together, and that pissed me off.
That's not Finn's fault. I rewatched the first Smile Wednesday night, and I have to say, third viewing - first at home - Smile not only held up, but I now think it's one of the scariest flicks in recent memory. Sosie Bacon's physical acting - her posture, inflections and facial tics totally sell her anxiety as she spirals, a descent made all the worse by the fact that the movie begins with her patient demonstrating the exact blueprint for what she's about to go through.
Chills!
So how does the sequel hold up? Well, our theatrical experience ranks as the worst I've had in years, but that's definitely not the film's fault. Blame instead the groups of high school students who walked in and out of the theatre on almost constant rotations. I used to be the guy who would stand up and tell people to shut the fuck up when they were talking during a movie, but nearly coming to blows during James Bond: Skyfall (2012?) delivered the epiphany that I had become part of the disturbance. The theatre is my church, and I've learned to grin and bear it. It's not nearly as hard now that I rarely smoke before a theatrical screening. I have a much easier time letting periphery noise go when I'm not hyper-focused. Also, these kids weren't talking so much as just walking in and out of the theatre, so what do you say, anyway?
Back to the actual movie. Smile 2 is fantastic; it's not as good as the original, but that's just my opinion. My Horror Vision co-host Missi felt this one matched the first film. One thing's for sure - Parker Finn is a Director I will follow from here out. He used the considerably bigger budget for this sequel to really expand his idea in a way that transcends the genre completely and sets up the next movie with a scale that makes me extremely excited.
In a nutshell, it might not make my top ten of the year - a hard thing to do in 2024 from the sheer volume of awesome films released so far this year - but it's fantastic, moves the series forward in a brilliant and exciting way, and should definitely be seen in a theatre. Just try to get a screening where the brats are sure to still be in school.
1) The Killing of a Sacred Deer
2) The Houses October Built (2011)/Texas Chainsaw Massacre (50th-anniversary theatrical screening)
3) Loop Track
4) It's What's Inside/LONGLEGS
5) The Babysitter/Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
6) The Hitcher/Lost Highway
7) GDT's Cabinet of Curiosities: Graveyard Rats
8) V/H/S Beyond
9) Killer Klowns from Outer Space
10) Terrifier 3
11) Summer of '84
12) Rosemary's Baby/Suspiria ('77)
13) Daddy's Head
14) Undead
15) Moloch/Evil Dead 2
16) Smile
17) Laura Hasn't Slept/Smile 2
Read:
I finished my third re-read of China Miéville's Perdido Street Station yesterday. Totally blown away again!
Now, onto Laird Barron's Not A Speck of Light, which I received from Bad Hand Books a week or so ago and have been chomping at the bit to read. I'm four stories in and it's just so wonderful to have new stories by one of your favorite authors. Barron's prose wraps around my brain like a massive alien wyrm slowly strangling the light from the sky.
The plan is to read a couple of short stories in this new collection and then start Ivy Tholen's latest, Mother Dear, which I am also dying to tear into!
Playlist:
Oranssi Pazuzu - Muuntautuja
Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch - Censor OST
Ritual Howls - Turkish Leather
Ritual Howls - Rendered Armor
Bauhaus - In the Flat Field
Ritual Howls - Virtue Falters
Sandrider - Godhead
Jim Williams - Possessor OST
Beastmilk - Climax
Skinny Puppy - Remission
My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult - Confessions of a Knife
Horrendous - Ontological Mysterium
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry - Talk About the Weather
Type O Negative - Origin of the Feces
Card:
Today's Card is IV: The Emperor.
"The Rules that Govern All Life."
That's how my entry in the Grimoire begins. Also, it should be mentioned that this is obviously a very Martial card; Crowly writes about this tying into the card as the representation of the physical embodiment of authority. He also drops this little gem:
"... Aires means Ram. At his (the Emperor's) feet, couchant, is the Lamb and Flag, to confirm this attribution on the lower pane; for the ram, by nature, is a wild and courageous animal, lonely in lonely places, whereas when tamed and made to lie down in green pasture, nothing is left but the docile, cowardly, gregarious and succulent beast. This is the theory of government."
No wonder my friends and I tend to regard this card suspiciously! One of the interpretations I lean toward with The Emperor is "It will be decided for you," which sounds a bit chilling now, when juxtaposed with the above passage from The Book of Thoth. Anyway you cut it, the fourth Atu is not a great card to see in many respects, unless of course, you need a third party to get something done for you.
New music from Chelsea Wolfe, and it reminds me that I sort of forgot about She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She, released a few months ago. This woman is such a prolific artist; very inspiring. You can pre-order the new E.P. HERE.
31 Days of Halloween:
Woke up super early yesterday and caught Nico van den Brink's 2022 film Moloch from the beginning on Shudder TV. Solid modern Folk Horror flick from XYZ Films. Here's a trailer that's not too revealing:
1) The Killing of a Sacred Deer
2) The Houses October Built (2011)/Texas Chainsaw Massacre (50th-anniversary theatrical screening)
3) Loop Track
4) It's What's Inside/LONGLEGS
5) The Babysitter/Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
6) The Hitcher/Lost Highway
7) GDT's Cabinet of Curiosities: Graveyard Rats
8) V/H/S Beyond
9) Killer Klowns from Outer Space
10) Terrifier 3
11) Summer of '84
12) Rosemary's Baby/Suspiria ('77, DVD)
13) Daddy's Head
14) Undead
15) Moloch/Tea Cup (episode 1)/ Evil Dead 2
NCBD:
Short list this week, and two of these books may be delayed. Let's take a look:
How many times have issues of The Last Ronin II: Re-Evolution been delayed? Hell, I'm not even sure anymore. I love this world and this book, so I'll take it when they give it, and honestly, a production on this level is worth the wait.
Opting for the "B" cover on this final issue of Destro. The Energon Universe party is kind of over; I mean, it's still great, but as Mike Shinabargar and I have discussed on Drinking with Comics quite a bit the last few months, that initial excitement of introducing G.I. Joe into the mix crested with the Cobra Commander and Duke mini-series. Destro has been great, but with everything winding down toward one monthly book, well, something feels flattened.
There's really no way to even begin to discuss this book in any small way. Department of Truth is so much more effective a series read in trade; however, after catching up on the series with the first four volumes, there's just no way I can wait for it to be collected.
Or can I?
This is the one I am most excited about this week, and it's also the one I've heard has been pushed back. DC, please get this one out before Halloween! Maybe it's Shinabargar's influence, but I've been digging some of these one-off Bat-books lately, and at a tight, three-issue duration, this Batman fights a Werewolf looks pretty rad.
Playlist:
Type O Negative - Dead Again
Barry Adamson - Cut to Black
Moon Wizard - Sirens
Deth Crux - Mutant Flesh
Type O Negative - Bloody Kisses (Suspended in Dusk Vinyl)
The initial notes I made for this card, long ago when I began the Grimoire, reads: "Something more (Divine???) that guides life along its course."
The Prime Mover. This does not have to be a religious interpretation—mine certainly isn't—but it can be. In reality, this can be any "higher" power imparting knowledge, even if it's just someone smarter or more versed than you.
Crowley floods the card with extra meaning. The bull, the elephants, Horus. It all boils down to the ultimate template for the Magickal working: United the microcosm with the macrocosm, itself a reference to our study and how it seeks to draw upon the aforementioned Prime Mover.
I LOVE my Anchor Bay DVD copy of Dario Argento's 1977 Suspiria. LOVE it. One of the awesome features is the third disc is the Score by Goblin. Still reeling from rewatching the film this p However, upon rewatching the film for probably the first time in five years (most previous time before was the 4K restoration's premiere on the big screen at the Egyptian Theatre for Beyondfest, complete with Mr. Argento present to discuss the film!), I realized that, like many DVDs, the picture leaves quite a bit to be desired.
So, I'm finally going to upgrade, and after consulting my Horror Vision cohosts, I've decided the only place to go is Synapse Films.
Although no longer available on the Synapse website, this one is currently available for a cool $25 on Amazon. This is the one my compatriots recommended, and it also has high marks on Blu-Ray.com (Blu-Ray picture and sound review HERE)
31 Days of Halloween:
Yesterday evening, I watched Daddy's Head, the new film by Writer/Director/Composer/Editor Ben Barfoot. This hit Shudder last Friday. It's an excellent piece of moody, haunting filmmaking and a strong recommendation, especially for fans of The Lodge,Goodnight Mommy, or Damien McCarthy's work. This is nowhere near as weird as McCarthy's work; however, there's a restrained balance employed in Daddy's Head that really strengthens the film and reminds me a lot of Oddity, in particular.
I'll also add that this film would make the perfect "Yang" to The Babadook's "Ying" in a Grief Haunting double feature. It's kind of the polar opposite of Jennifer Kent's film.
1) The Killing of a Sacred Deer
2) The Houses October Built (2011)/Texas Chainsaw Massacre (50th-anniversary theatrical screening)
3) Loop Track
4) It's What's Inside/LONGLEGS
5) The Babysitter/Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
6) The Hitcher/Lost Highway
7) GDT's Cabinet of Curiosities: Graveyard Rats
8) V/H/S Beyond
9) Killer Klowns from Outer Space
10) Terrifier 3
11) Summer of '84
12) Rosemary's Baby/Suspiria ('77)
13) Daddy's Head/Poltergeist II*
* First time watch. I was right to avoid the Poltergeist sequels all these years. Awful.
Playlist:
Godflesh - Us and Them
Oranssi Pazuzu - Muuntautuja
My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult - Confessions of a Knife
The second single from the upcoming album I Want Blood, out next Friday, October 18th. Pre-order HERE.
31 Days of Halloween:
Last night, K and I watched Anouk Whissell, RKSS, François Simard, and Yoann-Karl Whissell's Summer of 84 for the umpteenth time. This has emerged as one of my favorite films over the last couple years. It hits EVERY TIME. At first, I dismissed this as capitalizing on Stranger Things' popularity; however, it quickly became apparent that this was not the case. In the same way that Twin Peaks adopts the veneer of the TV night-time soap opera to subvert the genre, Summer of 84 does the same to the "kids on bikes" aesthetic popularized by Stranger Things.*
Summer of 84's ending is, in my opinion, one of the greatest in recent memory.
1) The Killing of a Sacred Deer
2) The Houses October Built (2011)/Texas Chainsaw Massacre (50th-anniversary theatrical screening)
3) Loop Track
4) It's What's Inside/LONGLEGS
5) The Babysitter/Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
6) The Hitcher/Lost Highway
7) GDT's Cabinet of Curiosities: Graveyard Rats
8) V/H/S Beyond
9) Killer Klowns from Outer Space
10) Terrifier 3
11) Summer of '84
* Yes, technically Kids on Bikes was invented and popularized in the 80s. By NO means am I suggesting ST invented it. I'm 48 - I grew up during the 80s. However, it didn't become an acknowledged "genre" - for better or worse - until later, and not a checklist-ready template until after ST.
Playlist:
Various - My Halloween Spotify Playlist
Oranssi Pazuzu - Muuntautuja
Bauhaus - The Sky's Gone Out
Count Gorgann - Corpse Eater: Satanic Misery Live for the Dead
Steve Moore - Christmas Bloody Christmas OST
Card:
Taking a break from the single card studies for a pull from Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
What's it say that the first card I lay down has my new friend here on it?
Back in 2022 my good friend and co-host on The Horror Vision Ray turned me on to Dreamkid's eponymous album. I liked it, but this guy doubles down on the '80s stuff a couple years after a lot of other people already resurrected that vibe and ran it into the ground, so while I dug the record to a degree, there remained a distance with it for me. I listened to it off and on for a while, then forgot about it.
I Went to see Terrifier 3 this evening. Sold out show. Every seat taken. As I walked up to the ticket taker, there was a man dressed as Art - no mask - and his daughter dressed as the child demon from part 2 waiting to have their tickets scanned. They looked awesome! I mean, I don't know if I should be watching these, let alone a girl who probably wasn't more than 8 years old, but it is what it is and we like what we like. It's not that much different than the shit we watched at that age.
Except... maybe it is. The practical FX here are out of this world, but the cruel depravity of these flicks gives me a bit of pause, even if I've really enjoyed seeing these last two on the big screen. In the theatre, Terrifier 2 and 3 have been some of the most immersive films I've seen in ages. There's the gore, but there's also some incredible sound design. It's as good as the practical FX, in my opinion. Plus, the colors, locations, clothes, props, and music. Paul Wiley's score is fantastic. Sick and dreamy. It all works together to make a super fun watch - even if it also kind of skeeves me out.
Dreamkid's "Chrissy" is sort of the theme of T3, and it sounded amazing on the big screen. Still not super sold on the overall sound - it's good, just a bit tough to get past the affectations for someone who grew up in that era. But again, we like what we like and I'm psyched he got his stuff in such a huge movie.
31 Days of Halloween:
Well, I pretty much said everything I wanted to about last night's viewing up above, so let's just log the list and move on.
1) The Killing of a Sacred Deer
2) The Houses October Built (2011)/Texas Chainsaw Massacre (50th-anniversary theatrical screening)
3) Loop Track
4) It's What's Inside/LONGLEGS
5) The Babysitter/Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
6) The Hitcher/Lost Highway
7) GDT's Cabinet of Curiosities: Graveyard Rats
8) V/H/S Beyond
9) Killer Klowns from Outer Space
10) Terrifier 3
NCBD:
Man, I've been so hyped on 31 Days of Halloween that I forgot to post my comic pull yesterday. Better late than never.
I forgot to put this one on my pull last month, so I had to have the guys order me a copy. That's fixed now; I Love these books that Lemire writes and illustrates; they have their own style and it's unlike any other.
After the tease at the end of the last issue, I was just here for Cobra Commander (well, I was here because I read the first four issues). I was not disappointed.
Another super solid triptych of Black Suit-era Spider-Man stories. Love it, and the editorial staff really seem to know how to choose artists whose style works super well with the color format.
Netho Diaz, in particular, blew me away.
New arc and it's Starscream's origin? His real name is what now? This was a super cool issue. Lots of early Cybertron stuff AND a HISS tank? Oh man, we're starting to really cross the streams now...
Playlist:
Type O Negative - Bloody Kisses (Suspended in Dusk Edition)
The Final Cut - Consumed
Saigon Blue Rain - Oko
Skinny Puppy - Too Dark Park
Baroness - Stone
The Smashing Pumpkins - Gish
The Cramps - Songs the Lord Taught Us
The Cramps - A Date with Elvis
Orville Peck - Pony
Various - Lost Highway OST
Boy Harsher - Careful
Dreamkid - Chrissy (single)
Dreamkid - Daggers
Dance with the Dead - Neon Cross (single)
Dance with the Dead - The Shape
The Veils - The Ladder (pre-release single)
Card:
Today's card is XIX - The Sun:
This is what I love about Aleister Crowley. From The Book of Thoth:
"This is one of the simplest of the cards; it represents Heru-ra-ha, the Lord of the New Aeon, in his manifestation to the race of men as the Sun spiritual, moral, and physical."
Simplest? Oh, of course! Heru-ra-ha. Yeah. Easy.
This is a card of epiphany. Rejoice! The answers you seek have arrived. Of course, that can also bring with it unwanted knowledge. So the dance we see is one of balance, a theme much more common in the cards than I previously realized.
It's definitely sacrilege to some, but I much prefer the versions of Gang of Four's classic selection of tunes that appear on 2005's Return The Gift LP to the original versions. I have read that members of Gang of Four were never happy with the early recordings, and I, for one, agree. Entertainment! sounds flat AF compared to these updated recordings, and "I Love a Man in Uniform" - easily my favorite song by the band - well, there's just no comparison at all. Same here.
31 Days of Halloween:
1) The Killing of a Sacred Deer
2) The Houses October Built (2011)/Texas Chainsaw Massacre (50th-anniversary theatrical screening)
3) Loop Track
4) It's What's Inside/LONGLEGS
5) The Babysitter/Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
6) The Hitcher/Lost Highway
7) GDT's Cabinet of Curiosities: Graveyard Rats
8) V/H/S Beyond
Watch:
Unrelated to Halloween (perhaps), K and I went with my Father to see Todd Phillips' Joker: Folie à Deux last night. Three stars and a heart on Letterbxd (review HERE); this doesn't deserve the scorn it's getting. That said, I LOVE the first Joker film, and feel giving this one three stars is enough of a statement as to my disappointment. It's not horrible, I don't even know if it's bad, but it's nowhere near what the original was. Also, this just doesn't need to exist. We were at a free screening of the first film in December 2019 at the Aero in L.A. This was part of Beyondfest's year-round programming, and Director Todd Phillips came out after the film for a discussion and a Q&A. It was at this event that Phillips told the crowd that while WB had been trying to entice him to make a sequel, he wasn't going to.
I bring this up because I'm pretty sure everyone involved, Phillips himself, set out to make sure there would not be a third. Again, it's not a bad film, but the prize here is, of course, Joaquin Phoenix and the movie makes no bones about not having much to say aside from presenting a platform for him to blow our minds with his performance. Also, Lady Gaga is fantastic. Hell, everyone is fantastic. It just didn't need to happen.
Playlist:
Various - Lost Highway OST
The Cure - Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me
Oranssi Pazuzu - Muuntautuja (pre-release single)
Walter Rizzatti - The House By The Cemetery OST
Tones on Tail - Everything!
Fields of the Nephilim - Dawn Razor
Gang of Four - Return the Gift
The Trapezoid & Six Ex - Cannibal Children of the West (single)
The Seven that, in my mind at least, lines up perfectly with its associated place on the Tree of Life, the Seventh Sephiroth, Netzach.
Netzach is Victory, and while valour is a different word, the two are linked. The general definition of Valour is "Great Courage in the face of danger, especially in battle," and what is life if not a battle? That might not have been true for the first twenty-five or so years of my life, but it's definitely become increasingly true over the subsequent twenty-three.
So the Seven of Wands is courage to use the Will in the face of battle. Whether that's the battle to change your life on a micro or macro level or perhaps just to get out of bed in the morning, it suggests you can do it. You WILL do it.
