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.