back in the saddle

Yes, I have not blogged for awhile. No excuses, just haven't found time. Good thing is I have written a bucket full of poems...which i will add to my Urbis site later this evening. But, I do promise to keep up on more horror posts...especially now that we are in the most Hallowed month of the year. The best one of the all. All things good in my life have happened in October...or around Halloween. If I were Napoleon Dynamite, I'd say "It's pretty much my favorite holiday." If one could pick their death date...I'd like to die around Halloween. (but that's not a request for any crazies that read the blog). Anyways...I will start my horror DVD viewing/reviewing this week with Argentos Mother of Tears and Feast 2. I know Feast 2 might be crap...but I want to find out for myself as I really enjoyed the first one. And Argento is Argento...should be great. I will review these, as well as a gore-load of other classics right here on cuts happening in the coming days and weeks. A horror movie a night. And I aint talking about that crap you find on sci fi.

once more....with feeling

While not a horror icon, Forrest Griffin is an icon to me. I have not blogged for awhile. Horror is still and will always be, my third love. Behind my wife (#1) and poetry (#2). But if there was a life I live- or a life I'd like to live- it would be Forest Griffin's. The real life Brad Pitt from fight Club. The man who can turn a boyish happy face into Swiss-cheese in under fifteen minutes. I have always wanted to be a fighter. The blood dripping into my lungs, in real life- not just on screen.

So, I wrestled in high school. I was never good. But I loved the sport. The brutality. The contact. The blood after practice. The drive. The passion. I was never good, but I tasted the feeling just enough to make it stick. Now I am a high school wrestling coach. This would have to be my fourth love, coaching wrestling. Just this past week I started training and weightlifting again. I want to get into shape before this season begins (Nov 1). The feeling i get after my body has been put through the grinder is on par with the feeling I get after writing a good poem. So here I am, once more....with feeling. Trying to not talk about fight club.

Six Feet Under True Blood

While I will refrain from judgement until I see more episodes...the early reports (from me and my wife) indicate that HBO's new series True Blood will be fantastic. No, I have not read the Charlaine Harris books, but will over this Fall. Like the Dexter series on Showtime, I like how cable networks are making good shows that promote better literature. Will this series still has much to develop, it looks great. Horror= bring it on. the show is by Alan ball who did Six Feet Under...a friggin classic of a show. I used to count the days until another new six feet episode. i hope to get the same from this program. And if it fails...so what, at least the networks are trying. Although the new incarnation of Masters of Horror (Fear Itself) was watched by me and two other people. Kudos to networks, especially HBO and Showtime for giving horror a chance. Let the blood friggin flow!

sleep....continued

"I've been guarding my gate for a long time..bitch!"

-Freddy proclaims to Alice Johnson (Lisa Wilcox) in the final scene of A Nightmare on Elm Street 4.

That line just stuck with me. Here we are, another random Tuesday...and I am restless.

Let me explain. Every night, I fall asleep watching a horror film. I go on kicks. Or series you could call them. Right now, for the hundred and fifth time, I am on an Elm Street kick (no, that's not all I watch, I am not obsessed). I start with one....then watch em' all...all the way up the Freddy v. Jason (which I loved) or...whatever else "they" make my "last" film of the week.

That line....I've been guarding my gate a long time....stuck with me. i have been doing this awhile. even before blogging. Before facebook. Even before Bill Gates. I have been in love with horror. I complain, yet, bring on the lack of sleep. I admit, yet relish in the love of horror. I want to hug and appreciate all those that admit...horror is A O K. No, I am not goth. I am a straight-laced father, teacher and I go to church. But horror is undefinable. Thanks to all that are out there, reading this, loving Halloween, enjoying blood, and seeing the truth that this genre presents us with.

My face...a book...oh the horror.

Clive Barker once said..."every body is a book of blood, when we're opened, we're red."

I hope facebook serves me right. Yes, through the advice of a trusted best friend I have joined facebook. When my friend visited this weekend he asked "are you on facebook?" My reply was....ummm...yes, I've heard of it, no I don't live in a cellar, but no I have no facebook...I'm not sixteen.

His reply..."well it's a great way to stay connected to old friends." and given that I am not the best for staying in touch with people. I talk to the friends I have here in Cincinnati, but not other friends, the few I have, that live in far away cities. I don't call them. i don't write to them. i don't send Christmas cards.

But per the conviction of my friend, I have joined facebook. To meet old friends. So if your on there, I'm on there. Maybe, like Clive says...i will be a face book of blood. Back to more horror blogging after the fireworks are over here in the nati.

Stephen King's N.

Nightmares

Well, the first week of school is over. And I am exhausted. Not due to school. But rather, what I think are self-induced nightmares. While getting back to school and asking for back to school horror films to watch...I found what I forgot is one of my favorites. I appreciate the suggestions, Christine and Ginger Snaps- both wonderful films. But I forgot A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge.

While A Nightmare on Elm Street may be a franchise riddled with comical cheese...nightmare 2 was the one that got me. When I was in the seventh grade and my family lived in a small, two-bedroom apartment...my brother had a friend over. My brother and his friend were four years older than me and my parents were out of town. He was supposed to be watching me. But he and his friend watched A Nightmare on Elm Street 2. And they let me watch.

I was spooked. I was scared to death. But kept watching. And here I am twenty years later blogging about it. So, when I brainstormed back to school horror movies, I remembered Elm Street 2. The bus scene.

This week I watched Elm Street, over two or three nights, in bed....as I always do to fall asleep with a horror movie. Normally I watch a movie, about twenty minutes worth, then drift into sleep. for some reason, the stars aligned this week and when I watched Elm Street 2...i never fell asleep much afterwards. I have probably only slept max, about three hours a night this week. Granted, it may be due to stress...back to school...whatever. But I think it is the film. Nightmare 2 is one sequel that i think....and I know I'm on a limb here...is better than the original. That buss scene creeps me out. The pool scene...where Freddy proclaims "you are all my children now..." are classic.

I didn't have nightmares this week. I just couldn't sleep. I am tired. But like it. Horror films can scare us, spook us, make us think, or just make us restless. that is why they are so powerful. The good ones affect people. A Nightmare on Elm Street 2 is a good one.

Real horror: back to school

Yes, it's that time of year: back to school. While daddy day care all Summer is fun, nothing beats teaching and going back to school. the students hate it- but teachers love the sounds of squeaky new shoes, scrawny-scared-freshman, and that feel of Autumn in the air.

So, while I may not be able to blog as much in the next few weeks: I did brainstorm what would be a great back to school horror movie to watch. I realized, there aren't many that I can think of (please, send suggestions in if you have some).

One I did think of was Lucky McKee's THE WOODS. This is a fantastic film, set in an all girls academy with spookiness going on in (you guessed it) the woods. There is great acting in this one, particularly from Ash himself, Bruce Campbell... playing a fairly straight-laced father. Luckey McKee is best known for his film May- starring Angela Bettis. Bettis in turn directed McKee in Roman. May and Roman are both great films. The Woods came after Roman and is a film I feel got too little attention. Maybe its not too scary....or too bloody....or came out at the wrong time (during the Hostel fueled torture horror times). But give the Woods a chance. And...please send me any ideas for "back to school horror."

The best school movie I could thin of was Summer School. With those guys that love Leatherface and the teacher leading the summer school class of misfits. But that's not really horror. Happy Haunting to all this Fall!

Monster Slayer Saturday

While there may be debates over vampires and werewolves, zombies and the infected; but when it comes to 80's horror make-ups, nothing was better than the GHOUL. The monster, one-eyed-man, drooling lunatic. The 80's didn't just bring hair metal and Reaganomics- they also gave us some of the best ghouls and monster hunters around.

One great monster movies of the decade is Blood Beach. Hearkens back to the days when an old weathered VHS box could provide real artistic scenes and tag lines. "Just when you thought it was safe to..."
Now, a list of great 80's horror film could take up pages. Some of my favorites were the anthologies, the Creepshows, Tales From the Darkside and Body Bags. But recently, some horror directors that also grew up on this feast of flesh have gone retro. They've gone back with the make-up, the prosthetics, the blood and slime. This is much appreciated by fans who long for the reality spook that non-CGI materials make. The stuff you could SEE falling off the actors faces and living and ghouling with them. I look forward to the nostalgia and campiness of the up coming film Jack Brook's Monster Slayer. While it may not retain the same coziness of the 80's films, it certainly waves a bloody paw at the masters of the genre. Long live make-ups! RIP Stan Winston- an original ghoul maker of the field.

Poem of the Friday

In protest of the fact that every Friday is not Friday the 13th...I propose Poems for Fridays. Poems for the day. Horror films for the night. Man-made bliss.

Here is one of my idols from college: Robert Creeley (1926-2005)

Billy Bob Kruger???

Not that believing Internet rumors is good...but IMDB and now Fangoria are reporting that Billy Bob Thorton is going to play Freddy in the the new Nightmare on Elm Street re make.

Being that I derive my tittle "cuts happening" from the nightmare films...I am flabbergasted. Do they need to remake it? No. Does Michael Bay need to give it up? Yes. Has Billy Bob made a good film other than Sling Blade? No.

Granted...he's got a good Robert Englund-esque look for the role...but SO DOES ROBERT ENGLUND. And last I checked Robert is still making good horror films (up soon in Jack Ketchum's Red and Jack brooks Monster Slayer).

THIS GUY IS A CLOWN!

Happiness is Halloween!

http://oh-the-horror.blogspot.com/A quick video clip from Halloween III inspired by a blog post http://oh-the-horror.blogspot.com/

Ga Ga for Aja !

Yes this entry may be a little bit on the "fan boy" side of the aisle. But I cannot express my appreciation for Alex Aja's work. In the words of Tom Cruse, he had me at High Tension. This 2005 film was a ground breaker. Literally HIGH friggin tension throughout. A tense talent he brought into The Hills Have Eyes remake. For those who have seen Hills...content wise-of stealing a baby...it cannot be denied that the "burning father, baby stealing scene" was not one of the most tense twenty minutes of any recent film. That scene quite frankly made the remake good and so good that every other horror film that can be remade is being remade.

But Aja remakes it right. He honors the original, but injects his own....tension. His latest jaw-dropper is Mirrors...out Friday. Another remake. But another one that looks separate enough from the original to release the tension. There is something to be said about how bad a remake is...but there is also something to be said about a director that gets a remake right. For as much as horror fans (myself included) don't want to see our heroes Freddy and Jason and Leatherface and Ash remade. There is just as much appreciation when it comes to Aja's work. The best thing about him is that his remakes a good, better than the originals...AND his original work is so solid no one would ever touch remaking them.

Can't wait to Remember

Can't wait till my copy of the new Fiery Furnaces three record, fifty song vinyl comes in the mail! I added some furnaces videos to the video bar to the right. Fall in love and order you live Fiery Furnaces album from Thrill Jockey records www.thrilljockey.com

Get in, the water's nice

I would rarely recommend a horror film based on a crocodile. Aquatic horror (as we'll call it) tends to teeter on the verge of campiness by its very nature. I mean, really- other than Jaws, what aquatic horror film really scared ya? Lake Placid? No. Open Water? Hell no. Most tend to showcase an absurdly large animal, typically genetically altered by scientists- hunting pot smoking skinny dippers. All this despite the warnings from the local townspeople to not go in the waters.

HOWEVER...for the first time in awhile, I really enjoyed an aquatic horror film. ROGUE...the follow up to up and coming horror director Greg McClean's WOLF CREEK. I rented Rogue because Wolf Creek was so darned good. So, if you have not seen Wolf Creek- go rent it. Or, borrow it from me. But you can find Rogue right now at most video stores. The bad thing is that the film has horrible cover art...looks like a campy crap fest. But it's not. Rogue delivers real terror and is more about the plot than the croc. But the croc is scary. I was spooked a few times. Which means you may be spooked countless times. I really recommend this one and McClean's other film Wolf Creek. Great horror by a great new director.

OH, YEAAHH!

At the store today, the girls both requested kool-aid. Now, I was raised by a mother who was a dental hygienist. In turn, we had no kool-aid, no sugar cereals and no sugar gum. Yet even without all this sugar, my brother and I still ended up a couple of fat asses. (sorry, I'm a bit genetically bitter today, as my Wii Fit informed me I had gained two pounds over-friggin-night). So there is still a part of me that says...no, no to sugar.

But my girls eat sugar cereal (sorry mom). They seem fine. No hyperactivity, no third eye, no teeth falling out. So I let them get the kool-aid at the store today. Pink lemonade. Yes, it called for one cup of sugar. And yes, I couldn't help but skimp a bit on the sugar.

But my mind on sugar stuff has been somewhat re-shaped. As after taking her first sip, Arlene exclaimed (insert cute Arlene voice) "Daddy...this is refreshing, and delicious!" I mean it sounded like a damn commercial. She was so stinkin cute, she got a second glass.

So when my kids suffer the life altering displacement that sugar creates, blame me. I'm taking the life attitude of "OH YEAAHH!"

Band of the Summer

is....TOKYO POLICE CLUB!

http://tokyopoliceclub.com/

check out some of their videos right there

to your right

right there

um....stewardess, I speak jive.

A Productive Cough

The girls and I have coughs. This may sound plain- and for the matriarch of our family, the coughing is getting quite annoying- but we are going to make our coughs productive ones. The next two days in the Naty are supposed to be steamy hot. The girls and I typically fill up our days. Going to the library, the grocery store, the pool, ect. We do stuff. But the next two days, we will be sloths.

I have made the executive decision that we are staying inside. I will work on some lesson plans for the school year (and obviously, some bloggin). The girls have been coloring and playing their various self-made games that only they know what they are. Games like "tent" where you layer blankets over bar stools and make yo-self a tent. Games like "dollie-liberation" where you liberate, or TAKE OUT all of your dollies and make them watch your own personal dance show. fun stuff.

wilful suspension of disbelief

Sometimes I wish I could apply this feeling to other aspects of my life. You know the feeling: you find yourself on a KICK...a kick featuring a long lost favourite band. Doesn't matter the band. For me, in the last week or two, it has been modest mouse http://www.myspace.com/modestmouse

Recently, they have gotten big and are one of those bands you can find in a catchy car commercial. But back in the day...they were an intimate, angry, car trip kind of band that we discovered in Bowling Green. Modest Mouse played in BG when The Lonesome Crowded West was released. May I just say that that album remains one of the greatest indie rock gems of the decade.

Recently i went on the mouse KICK. Rocked out to Lonesome while hanging with my brother in law and some friends at a fish fry. Wrote some poems to Interstate 8 and This Is a Long Drive For Someone with Nothing to Think About (still the best tittle of any album, period) and even got the girls listening to The Moon and Antarctica.

I'm curious to see if others go on these KICKS? If you comment, tell me the most recent kick you went on, what the music was, and if you think we can bottle the magical feeling of falling in love with a band over and over again.

There will be blood...at some point...

Call us behind the times, but Wendy and I finally got around to watching There Will Be Blood. Could not pass up all the critical acclaim, let alone one of the best tittles in awhile. I agree that Daniel Day Lewis' acting was top notch. He really worked the role well. This said, I thought the film was incredibly long and without purpose. The music was cool at times, but at other times, the music seemed to be trying to hard. You know when a film score is too over the top...that they are trying to make the film sound more dramatic than it is. Come on, the films about oil. Four to five hours of oil. I think I fell asleep for a few hours, woke up, watched a few hours and they were still in the same scene they were when I fell asleep. I was disappointed for the shear fact that I was waiting for the film to end. I was not engaged. i was not tricked by the clever music and scenery. After admiring Daniel's acting, I felt like I had nothing else to do the rest of the nine gazillion hours of film. I will wait with baited breath for the sequel....The Blood Will Scab Over...uncut directors edition. Oh boy.

On an Island in the Sun

Sorry for anyone out there that reads diligently- I have obviously been out for awhile. Literally on an island in the sun. I spent some time on Island 10 in Northern Ontario, fishing, writing, relaxing with my brother and father. I am home now and promise to get back to blogging. I will be uploading some poems this evening to Urbis...check them out. i will also perhaps watch a horror film or two (after the girls go to bed) and review. Only a few more weeks till school returns and I'm back to slangin the poetic knowledge to high school brains. I'm out like Freddy and Jason... until the sequel.

Retro Wednesday!

Believe it our not kiddies...today is retro Wednesday. Our creature feature for today is the 80's scare-fest "The Gate." This film was a nice departure from the slasher fair of the 80's and provided many a nightmare for kids of the same age of the lead character Glen (played by a young Stephen Dorff). The plot is simple enough...three kids accidentally unleash a horde of beasts from a hole in their backyard. Simple enough, but the film creeps you out with this little tiny creatures that come out of nowhere and terrorize the characters. It has a great metal sound track. Levitation. Kids in peril. Parents away. Family dog dies...all wrapped up in nice 80's horror artistry. This has to be my favorite time in horror. Maybe cause its my youth...when I saw the films....but the 80's were great. And....to prove even more that this film is a classic....it is being remade. Yes kids, remade. While some chambers and corners of the current horror world are doing fine coming up with original ideas...Hollywood horror still can't keep its grubby little hands off of 80's classics. Do yourself a favor- rent this tonight...VHS...BETA...or DVD (for sale at Best Buy...only 5 bucks!)...and wait for the little ghouls to bite your ankles! Happy Horroring!

Have Mercy On Us All #2

You're the Quarter, I'm the Well

Have Mercy On Us All 2

I really think I need to get a hold of myself. To tell the truth- there is a mysterious, "Clue"-like factor in finding a hidden doorway in your daughters bedroom. The library with that secret bookshelf to push. That candelabra that when pulled down, opens a passage to a crawlspace. Those eyeballs looking at you from the painting.

But a small door. In a little girls bedroom. This was not what I expected when my wife left for the weekend. The darkness scares me too. I knew my daughters paranoia came straight from her Daddy. For her sake, I will need the courage to investigate this with some sense of calmness.

The crest was straight out of Davey Jones locker. A crimson and gold chest, dressed perfectly, even down to the over-sized padlock on the front. The lock was undone. A flash of dust and soft light yawned from the chest as we opened it. A staircase, winding down into the well. Wet bricks and and dripping sound somewhere ten to twenty feet below. But stairs. Inviting stairs that called us down.

The water was only a few inches deep at the bottom and flowed down a short hallway. Every few feet there was a doorway. Wooden doors, two on the left and two on the right. The first one to our right was already open, revealing the edge of a table. This appeared to be a short, metal veterinarians table extending from the wall.

The doctor looked up at us.

"We mostly treat farm animals. Our specialty is horses. Rare breeds, race horses, prize winners." The doctor put both hands simultaneously in her lab coat pockets. 'Do you like horses little girl?"

Arlene's eyes widened at the question from the doctor. She grabbed my pant leg as I stepped forward to confront the woman at the table.

A good Independent never dies...

The horror genre like the music genre is defined by independent work. When a indie rock bands starts a movement- sooner or later the mainstream catches up and copies. When a good, independent horror film comes out the genre tends to follow in the box office. Carpenter's Halloween, Sean S. Cunnigham's Friday the 13th, George Romero's Night of the Living Dead, at their time, were independent films. They went on to spawn decades worth of Hollywood horror nightmares. Even more recently, many of these groundbreaking films are being re-made; yet another attempt at Hollywood's cinematic plagiary.



So it's safe to say, a good independent horror film never dies. Recently, the Horror Society put on an independent film fest here in Cincinnati. While mostly consisting of shorts, the fest showcased a few feature length indie fright fares. Director Lou Vockel's http://www.onemanfilmindustry.com/The Stalking Hand and Vagrant played to crowd applause and intrigue. Vagrant's cast displayed a Reservoir Dogs like pacing throughout. They played off each other and against each other in a grindhouse style heist film. With a back-drop of a vagrant, homeless killer in the house- this scenrio proved the best of the fest and most likely to transcend the indie film world. Halloween, Friday the 13th or Night of the Living Dead it may not be- but the independent world seems to be alive and screaming in Cincinnati, OH.

Goodbye to a MASTER of the genre

Farwell to Stan Winston, who died of cancer today. Stan has given us so many movie monsters and inspired make-up/ creature effects. Film highlights (for me) include Aliens- Terminator films- Wrong Turn- Pumpkinhead- The Thing- The Entity- Starman- Predator- just to name a few. This is a sad day for horror fans...but check out http://www.stanwinstonstudio.com/home.html

and simply peruse the long list of films Stan Winston leaves us with- and you'll see he will most certainly never be forgotten.

Cincy screams for a new Bruce

If Cincinnati Reds fans want something to cheer about amidst a dismal season...they scream for BRUCE. Jay Bruce that is. And when horror fans have gone for awhile since a new Evil Dead film, they want to scream for a new BRUCE Campbell. Fear not horror hounds...our new Bruce appears to be here in the form of Russell Hurley, star of this weekends Cincinnati Horror Film Fest and center piece of this http://citybeat.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A145355 City Beat article. Hurley is a barber in downtown Cincinnati and our towns largest independent horror philanthropist. I saw Hurley this weekend in a small role in The Stalking Hand. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0475401/
as well as the lead role in Vagrant http://youtube.com/watch?v=kd3EzjhqMyg. Hurley absolutely stole the show in both pictures. If going from being a barber to being a film star seems hard, fear not, as Hurley provides horror with a real shot of comedic intensity. He goes from a humorous, Elvis loving cop in the Stalking hand, to a dead serious thug in Vagrant. Both turns showing that this Cincinnati son is destined to rise as a marauder of the undead. A slayer of the severed limb. A leader of the misfit gang. All while engaging the viewer in Samuel L Jackson-Esq monologues and Bruce Campbell wit. Russel Hurley may enjoy being a barber- but he trades pork chop sideburns for acting chops when it comes to his latest film. Vagrant was the crown jewel of the Horror Film Fest. Hurley, along with the rest of the cast of Vagrant established themselves as innovators of the genre. The film itself relies on a grainy, grindhouse feel. But the film is carried by the acting performances alone. The group of actors in this film gave what may be the rocket launcher to their careers. This may not be Hurley's Evil Dead as Bruce Campbell had. But unfortunately for Bruce, I personally feel that Hurley's acting skills will send him straight into many more diverse roles, he's that good. I look forward to seeing more form him. Better than a rookie coming up from AAA ball and invigorating a stadium of thirty thousand.

Happy Friday the 13th !

What a splendid day it shall be! Friday the 13th!
Things you could do today to celebrate: 1. go see The Happening 2. Watch Friday the 13th movies (probably will be some on AMC or Sci-Fi tonight). 3. Go to the Cincinnati Horror Film Fest in Fairfield tomarrow. 4. Play a trick on someone. 5. Step on a crack. 6. Dress up as a camp counselor and and see what happens when you mix sex drugs and alcohol. 7. Play with a quiji board tonight. 8. Say bloody Mary or Candyman into a mirror. 9. Don't listen to the old crazy guy that warns you of what in them der woods. 10. Or, just sit at home and do whatever your wife tells you.
Whatever you do, enjoy the 13th.... chi chi chi ha ha ha...

It's all in a name

Nancy: [about Freddy] What'd he look like? You get a look at him?
Rod: No.
Nancy: Well then how can you say somebody else was there?
Rod: Because somebody cut her. While I watched.
Nancy: Somebody cut her while you watched and you don't know what he looked like?
Rod: I couldn't see the fucker. You could just see the cuts happening, all at once. I probably could've saved her if I'd moved sooner. But I thought it was just another nightmare, like the one I had the night before. There was this guy who had knives for fingers.

That's right guys and ghouls...you're favorite horror blog received it's name from Nightmare On Elm Street. How can you see somebody when they're not there? you can if there's cuts happening. How can you keep getting the latest in horror film, literature and original stories? Tune in daily to cutshappening.blogspot.com. Or else...I'll pin all of the murders on Rod Lane!

Never Knew

Gary Braunbeck is from Ohio. Newark, OH to be exact. I used to deliver Home City Ice there in high school. Gary is a Bram Stoker Award winning author of several short stories and novels. His latest is Coffin Country. Which I will be reading after I finish the non-horror-mass-market-yet-still engaging as hell Dean Koontz novel The Husband. I will give a full review of the Braunbeck novel in a week or so and I have added a link to his site on the horror authors list. While we're speaking of Koontz...many may cry out "why have you not included the dog lover Dean in your horror list?" I will premise this by saying I enjoy Dean Koontz. Read him almost as much as the King in high school. Almost everything I read by Dean Koontz is great, reels me in and I cannot stop reading (like The Husband a great novel). This said...I have begun to think he is not a horror writer. He is a great writer, but more suspense and crime and kidnapping now. Plus, he puts out like twenty some novels a year...i can't keep up. So, no I don't include Koontz as a horror writer. But he is a good one. For this sites purposes, I'll stick to real creepers and ghouls...like Braunbeck, Ketchum, Keane, Lee, and (even though he's gone soft himself...) the King. Constant readers will always listen.

seeing sounds

Although I know my wife does not care for the beats and the rap...and I typically don't either....more of a rawk guy....I cannot get enough of the new N.E.R.D. album "seeing sounds." It's terrific! Highly recommend, even for someone who does not like hip hop (like myself). But this is good. So good you can see it. http://www.n-e-r-d.com/

Have Mercy On Us All #1

*This story is inspired by, in tittle only, the Fred Vargas novel Pars Vite et Reviens Tard (Have Mercy On Us All). I have neither read the novel, or seen the recent 2007 film. Although I plan to do both when done with this story.

This story is copyrighted by back words 4.

Have Mercy On Us All

part 1

"I want to tell you something. I want to tell you about the monsters in my room and the bad dreams I'm having. They are behind the door and in the ceiling fan and in the shadows of the night light. Turn that off. Check behind the door. The horse's in my dreams are all unicorns with wings. They walk around like people and there's one behind the door."

-A beaded necklace rattles the wood as the door opens. The hollow ping of the plastic slapping the wood takes too long. Time begins to slow. But behind the door yields no monsters. No goblins. No unicorns with wings walking around. Just the horror of the once area daddies vacuum doesn't get. Dust bunnies. Far worse than Easter bunnies or fuzzy bunnies in the yard. A beaded necklace and a grey streak of dust behind an off white door.

"There's nothing in here. See. Monsters are just pretend. Besides, Mommy and Daddy would never let anything scare our little girl. We're right downstairs and you can come down if one appears."

"But mommy is not here and there are more monsters in the ceiling fan and the closet. The fan turns into a wing and the unicorn walks around up there. He wants to get home but he cannot get to the closet before they hear him. They lock the door on him. That's their hideout. There, behind that tent."

-The yellow fabric feels cool from the constant sway and billow of fan-wind. If it were a tent the campers would have to pray for no rain. The right hand section seemed to open itself with a ghostly swagger. The left hand panel of curtain held shut, blocking the light from the killer of all monster killers, a child's flashlight. Sometimes, the beam alone has been said to have launched ceiling fan monsters right back to Home Depot.

"Shine that light over here. For one little girl, you sure can jam pack a closet like a grown woman. Half of these clothes should be sent out to goodwill or something. The diapers. Those should be tossed, you haven't been in those for a year at least."

-The curtain stayed closed on the left side. There was a quick flash of white behind the plastic over wrap of a bag of diapers. A piece of thin trim from a panel. The trim was only one piece, straight up from the baseboard. The diaper bags, cloths and stuffed animals all toppled over with the slightest touch. With the hallway light illuminating parts of the wall, there was a change in the paint color. What was a clean white wall, seemed grey in part. The part felt different too. Like particleboard. Like it wanted to give a hand a splinter. A door.

-A makeshift, but flush with the existing wall, three by three square door. Big enough to crawl through. Any monster pliable enough to fit through though could not be that terrifying. The door looked like an access door to a fuse box, or a attic entry. Nothing near big enough for a talking winged unicorn.

-But big enough for a little girls imagination.

-The light bulb popped in concert with the switch.

-In the dark, the door in the closet seemed to disappear. Then, the square got darker as the panel fell back into a space behind the wall.

Since the Reds are choking...

I'll write a story. Our ol' Cincinnati red legs are suckin like a vampire on a tampon, Have been for the last three nights (or is it weeks)? Either way, there has to be something better to do with my time. I will of course support the Big Red Tricycle by having it on, on mute, while I listen to some records and write a little bit. Each night I will write. Just a few paragraphs a day. Of a longer, serial story horror story. More of a fable for kids- no Pans Labyrinth or Hansel and Gretel. But closer to a Thief of Always. We'll see how it goes...I see it being kind of a modern age old time radio show late night horror tale. A Tale From the Crypt! So as the Creepier would say "cuddle up kiddies...you're in for a nasty little terror tale I'd like to call... Have Mercy On Us All..."

U.S. v. Them

One of the recent trends in horror seems to be the U.S. remaking/reduxing/or just plain borrowing from foreign nightmares. This is most prevalent with Japanese horror films. I honestly stopped counting Asian horror remakes shortly after The Ring. But, there is some comment to be made on if/why someone would rather see the U.S. version of The Grudge...rather than seeing Takashi Shimizu's Ju-On. I personally enjoyed both, but for real, dark, horror- Shimizu's original cannot be challenged. It's creepier, darker, more dank. Granted maybe the U.S. version is more accessible because of the language- but often for me at least, subtitles make a film even more spooky. I could spend hours comparing original foreign films to their U.S. remake counterparts- but won't. I appreciate most good horror films, U.S. or otherwise. I especially appreciate when foreign directors make blow your mind apart "U.S." horror movies. I do not care for all the borrowing though. Case in point....which came first? This weekends 'The Strangers," or "Them?" Now, I will be a hypocrite and probably at least rent The Strangers when it rockets to DVD after getting pummeled by the super-hero-Jones onslaught that is in the theaters now. Due in some part because it looks somewhat spooky and I'm a sucker for masks. BUT...the movie does at least appear to borrow somewhat from David Moreau and Xavier Palud's "Them." Now that movie was a horror movie. An absolute creep-fest. "Them" was a quiet, tension building spook of a film that indeed scared me at times (that's what it's all about, right). "The Strangers" may do well. But most likely will get dissolved into the pea soup that is the U.S. taking others ideas and not playing nice.

Links

As advertised...the new and improved cuts happening blog will be more devoted to horror than ever before. This includes links. Not sausage links my dear readers...or Zelda Links my dear gamers...but link links. I have begun to list links to my favorite horror filmmakers and horror writers. You should peruse them there to your right. This is by NO MEANS a comprehensive list. I will add to it at will. I give my cuts happening seal of approval to all of the filmmakers and writers listed. You should not go wrong with any of these masters work. Furthermore, I will not share the taste of every horror fan...so as Brian Keene would say "Don't look for your town here."

Horror Society?

What a revelation! I suppose if I was a little more with it, not so old, or out of touch....I would know of things like the horror society http://www.horrorsociety.com/. Instead, my family, that allows and forgives (as it is an odd hobby) my love of horror films, brings this film festival to my attention http://www.cincinnati.horrorsociety.com/. Over the years i have been isolated in my interest in horror films. Maybe one friend or two that says "yeah...I like horror movies, you seen that new Saw film?" But no one who appreciates in concert with me, the vast array of horror talent that is out right now. I have been a fan since watching the Shining with my mother as a young boy. Since watching Nightmare on Elm Street with my brother, when the parents were away. Since watching Evil Dead with my old college roommate-and to this day, my only ever real horror friend. Since today- where I find myself starting my horror blog back. Sifting through my collection of close to two hundred films- asking myself, "do other people enjoy horror films as much as I do?" the answer is yes! I will be attending this horror fest this weekend. A wonderful thing since I cannot afford the travel costs of attending a fangoria festival- which only comes as close to cincy as Chicago. I will have a blast. Perhaps even meet some others of my kind- then this blog will really get going and my family will see there are others like me out there.

cuts are happening again!

The world's favorite Horror Blog is back. Cuts Happening has fought off the zombie hordes that overtook the company headquarters about a month ago- and have emerged hungry as ever to report on the world of horror films. This renewed interest in discussing horror has come in some part to this weekends "Cincinnati Horror Film Fest" brought to you by www.HorrorSociety.com. My father in law brought it to my attention that this was happening here in Fairfield this weekend. I checked into it- and it is for real. Eleven hours of independent horror films. I cannot wait. I am so happy to see horror films coming to my area. So ecstatic in fact, that I am officially bringing back cuts happening. This time, it will be bloodier, cover more horror and review more film than ever before and I will proclaim the wonder of horror film to anyone special enough to fall upon this blog. So keep checking back. And remember what Rod Lane says "There were just like....cuts happening man."