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.