My well-thought out review of Zombieland....

AWESOME!!

Pumpkin Horror...

Book of Blood

Happy October 1st!! "One day closer to Halloween, one day closer to Pumpkin Pie...." So yes, I am supposed to be writing about Lon Chaney but I promised a review of Clive Barker's Book of Blood and damn it... I keep my promises. I didn't promise that the review would be any good however....... so here we go.

I may have been having a fit of hysteria when I originally wrote about this film. Number One: It was on SyFy channel and it didn't totally suck..turning my world and highly cultivated sensibilities upside down. Number Two: I had been having a bit of insomnia which is why I watched this in the first place. Number Three: I worked a 7 day stretch (poor me) and anything over 5 days pretty much renders me useless. Thus, I wrote that I liked this film. Which I did, but I really should not have mentioned it. I watched an obviously "chopped" up version. The "theatrical" release should be out on DVD soon and I bet it will make a whole lot more sense than this thing did.

Mary checks out her Halloween costume.

Clive Barker's Book of Blood is based on the framing stories (Book of Blood and On Jerusalem Street) from the Books of Blood. I had read about this adaptation in Rue Morgue and was sad to see it ended up on the SyFy channel, home to such films as Aztec Rex and SS Doomtrooper. But I gave it a chance and I was impressed when somebody got their face ripped off in the first 5 minutes. I thought "This is a Clive Barker film!!" Jonas Armstrong stars as Simon, a young man with psychic abilities who may be able to speak with the dead. Sophie Ward plays Mary Florescu, a researcher that hires Simon to investigate a haunted house- Ghosthunters style. The fit hits the shan when Simon and Mary get it on. Sex ALWAYS leads to bloodshed or worse in Clive Barker's world.

I love haunted house stories and this is a good one, despite being all chopped up. I will get the DVD, just to see what I missed (sex and gore) and for the special features (Clive Barker speaking please.) Book of Blood is not as good as Midnight Meat Train, so it you are torn between the two choose the later. But it is a damn site better than the other SyFy Channel film I watched this week: Children of the Corn. Awful casting, awful special effects, awful editing........just awful. But, it restored the balance because this is what I expect from SyFy. (note: I do like SyFy's shows. I love Ghosthunters in particular. But the films are god awful. I mean, not even so bad they are good awful. Just awful. It took me 3 days to get through Children of the Corn.)

Halloween Tribute

October 1st is rapidly approaching and it appears that all the cool kids are doing some kind of tribute or offering for this haunted month. Although I don't have the time, resources, or skill to do something really cool (check out "The Kind of Face you Hate" from my Monkey Fighters list) I can do my own tiny part. I already pretty much exclusively watch horror (does Gossip Girl count?) and read horror, so there is nothing special I can do there.  Blood offerings are right out. My husband frowns upon conjuring up the dead...

So, for my October/Halloween tribute, I have decided to focus on one artist from film or literature that I really should know more about.  After much soul searching I came up with the following contenders:

Lon Chaney.

David Cronenberg

Clive Barker

Michael Bay (just kidding!)

The theme is body horror.  Cronenberg and Barker should be obvious.. much of their work concerns body horror.  And Chaney, well, what he did to his body in the name of horror is just astonishing.  And since Cronenberg just depresses me (in a good way!) and I don't know if I could stand a whole month of people being skinned alive... the winner is Lon Chaney!!! 

Here is what my month is going to look like:

Phantom of the Opera

Hunchback of Notre Dame

The Unknown

Ace of Hearts

The Penalty

Outside the Law

Shadows

Oliver Twist

Nomads of the North

The Shock

Victory

The Wicked Darling

Man of a Thousand Faces (about Chaney)

I guess I better haul ass and watch She Beast and Slaughter High.

New Nightmare

I love Jackie Earle Haley! Love him, love him. I don't love Mr. Bay. I really don't love Bay. So I already have mixed feelings about this. Hopefuly I can work this out before April.

SyFy classes it up a notch...

I have actually watched 2 things on the SyFy channel this week: Clive Barker's Book of Blood and Children of the Corn. One of them was actually very good. Hint: It was Book of Blood. Check the preview and return here for insightful thoughts on this adaptation of Mr. Barker's work from yours truly. But now, I must go play the role of brain dead Zombie at work.

Lovecraft and Hollywood..

I am not sure how I feel about this news: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/herocomplex/2009/09/ron-howard-on-his-first-comicbook-film-this-is-new-territory-for-me-.html.  I am not a Ron Howard fan (although I did like Frost/Nixon: watching it made me feel "intellectual"- until it was over and I watched a rerun of "Gossip Girl.")  I love the idea of Lovecraft as an "action hero."  I just hope it doesn't turn out to be some kind of "Young Indiana Jones" shit.

Here is another article from the LA Times about Hollywood's new obsession with Lovecraft: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/herocomplex/2009/06/hp-lovecraft-and-hollywood-an-unholy-alliance-.html
Stay away Rob Zombie!!