Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Mechanical Candle's LiveJournal:

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Monday, November 16th, 2009
10:58 pm	"You promised me entertainment, I never expected this." So, we're due another Friday the 13th film before the Thanksgiving holiday, but you know what? It can wait. 'Cause I finally got around to watching Friday 4, and discovered that it's really pretty boring. A definite second-slot movie, and I've got nothing good on hand to fill the first slot. Instead, we're going to celebrate a more important date. This coming Thursday falls on November the 19th, 2009, a much more important date, for precisely 200 years ago, in 1809, the father of modern horror, Edgar Allen Poe, was born. (...uh. At least I thought he was. I thought it was gonna be really cool that we landed smack dab on Poe's birthday, until I actually looked it up and discovered that he was born on JANUARY 19th, not November. Crud.) Still, the year, at least, is correct, and rather than wait on the 201st birthday, I thought y'all would be more appreciative of the 200 year mark than getting the day right. So this week we'll be celebrating America's most famous horror writer of all time; the scribe who first mastered the transfer of terror to the internal realm of the unconscious mind, who focused all the elements of his stories into achieving a "single effect" within the reader. Whose literary mark upon the new American Country remains the most indelible. This week, we celebrate Poe's Unbirthday. Many a Quaint and Curious Volume of Forgotten Lore: The Masque of the Red Death (1964, 89 minutes). Actual adaptations of Poe's work are, perhaps, more scarce than one might expect of a great literary grandmaster who is somehow still required reading in most US high schools. Among those adaptations that do exist, one must stretch credulity to the breaking point to call any of them "faithful." The difficulty lies mostly in the extremely limited nature of Poe's stories; most of his most famous works filling only a dozen pages, filmmakers were forced to take immense liberties in order to pad the stories out to film length. With that in mind, we turn to the most famous of the Poe adaptations, the eight films created by Roger Corman between 1960 and 1964. Corman, known previously for his unbelievably tight production schedule and the ability to fund films with the change you'd find in the couch, worked against type on these films. He had lavish sets arranged and shooting schedules that stretched as long as five weeks! (His usual schedule was as short as 10 days.) Of those films, The Masque of the Red Death is my personal favorite. Richly colored (attempting to replicate the succession of rooms so essential to the story) and teetering forever on the edge of melodrama, the film stars Vincent Price as the sadistic and hubristic Prince Prospero, walled up in his castle as a barricade against the plague ravaging the land. Set in a dark fairy-tale world of Medieval costume-drama, and padded out with material from the story "Hop-Frog," as well as a nasty story of rebuffed seduction, the adaptation drifts furthest from the story when it inserts an explicit Satanist/Christian theme into the center of Poe's story. Expressionistic and nearly psychedelic (especially in the strange dance of the final reveal) the film becomes a little awkward at times, and perhaps looses some of the deeper meaning of the story, but somehow remains essentially true to the original tale. Price is truly the only one who could properly play one of Poe's brooding, menacing villains. The Pallid Bust of Pallas: The Raven (1963, 86 minutes) By contrast we have this, easily the wonkiest of Corman's adaptations. (True, Corman stole a story of HPL's and sold it as another Poe story in "The Haunted Palace," but this is still crazier.) The poem is, of course, a brooding, mournful contemplation of the speaker on the death of his beloved, as he finds manifest his anguish in the form of a dark bird seeking shelter from the storm within his home. In Corman's adaptation of this famous, revered poem, Vincent Price is a 16th century wizard. Boris Karloff is an evil, rival wizard. A young Jack Nicholson is the handsome love interest for Lenore's daughter. And Peter Lorre plays the Raven. Yeah. The entire film is done in high camp (complete with moments of slapstick) with tongue planted firmly in cheek, and plays out more like a cookie-cutter adventure film of the day, only with added wizard battles where Price "eggs" his opponent. Much, much lighter fare, I can't really figure out how this was advertised as a horror film... (Comment on this)
Monday, November 9th, 2009
10:45 pm	"Men will look back and say I gave birth to the twentieth century." IMPORTANT NOTE: I'm stuck taking an ethics course Thursday of this week that runs from 4:00-7:00. PLEASE SHOW UP AT THE USUAL TIME. I may arrive a few minutes late, but I'll try to minimize the disruption to everyone's schedules. Jingoro is in charge this week, so hopefully he can get things started in my absence. For this week, I'm stepping down from the carriage and handing the reins over to another host who intends to take us through time to a particularly infamous era... Victorian England in the year of 1888, when a mysterious gent terrorized the back streets of Whitecastle with a surgical precision. So, for this week, Jingoro intends to introduce us to Jack. The Fifth Victim: Time After Time (1979, 112 minutes) We've brought Sci-Fi into our lineup previously, but perhaps not as explicitly as with this little gem, adapted from a book by Karl Alexander. A largely forgotten classic in an era that prefers alien invasions, teenage romance, and spectacular lightshows in its "science fiction," this rather quiet, un-flashy tale of time travel and pursuit may lean dangerously towards fanboyism with the inclusion of H.G.Wells as the protagonist and volumnous Sherlock Holmes in-jokes, but retains enough of a reputation as an honestly great film that even I recall its accolades, despite never having seen the film. (Oddly, the title inspired the Cindi Lauper song of the same name.) It even stars Malcom McDowell, and will hopefully put an end to my prior observation that he's a great actor, but hasn't been in a good film since Clockwork Orange. Jingoro says: "This is one of my favorite moves of all time. A delightful look at H. G. Wells, the author, time travel, San Francisco of the late 1970s. Not very scary anymore. I think it felt scarier back when I first watched it, but time has mellowed it a bit." The Fourth Victim: From Hell (2001, 122 minutes) In 1991 the comic book guru Alan Moore began publishing a fictionalized comic-book account of the Ripper murders in the independent serial "Taboo." An exhaustive, but rough, unfriendly treatment illustrated by Eddie Campbell, the story incorporated practically every historical fact ever collected about the killings and wove an elaborate story of arcane mysticism and secret societies, public outcry and sensational press, conspiracy and contemporary celebrity within the framework of these facts, all told (partially) from the perspective of the killer (who was revealed in the first chapter). (This was done entirely from a "wouldn't it be interesting" perspective, not as an honest attempt to determine who Jack was.) The title, for example, is taken from the return address written on perhaps the only legitimate letter recieved from the killer (validated by his inclusion of one of the victim's kidneys). Then Hollywood got a hold of it. In the film's defense, it's a beautiful, if hyperbolic color-saturated extravaganza stuffed with action and melodrama. The story became a "whodunnit," detective Abberline (played by a miscast Johnny Depp) became an absinthe-drinking opium fiend who conducted investigations based on his hallucinations, and a happy ending more absurd than the edited version of "Brazil" was added. There's even a frantic chase and carriage crash in the film. This is, perhaps, understandable, as the original would be unfilmable in anything less than a 6 or 8 part serial. Still, the gross story structure is retained, and the film is enjoyable enough taken on its own merits. Merely a far-end treatment of the Ripper killings. WARNING: Math tells us that we have two nearly 2-hour films this week. We're gonna try to start on time so everyone isn't stuck ridiculously late. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009
9:05 pm	"Hello? I'm opening the door, if you want to stop what you're doing and put your clothes on!" So the schedule has gotten a bit difficult to juggle; First, we're planning on a guest-host night on the 12th of November. Those of you paying attention will realize that that week is also a Friday the 13th (the 4th in 13 months), demanding yet another night of Jason Voorhees-associated massacres in the month of November. However that'll be nudged to the 19th, since two slasher films in a row would be interminable. We got Michael Meyers last week, so we can't do Jason this week. Additionally, it appears I may (knock on wood) have reason to celebrate this week, but my initial plan for an "IRB nightmare" theme of mad science kinda fell through for lack of an interesting pairing. Luckily, the Halloween party I attended screened a couple marvelous movies, and inspired a pairing of two GOOD (or at least "good") movies for this week. Thus, another holiday-inspired (if belated) movie pairing in celebration of that most infamous unofficial night of mischief... I give you: Devil's Night. The Razor-Bladed Apple: Demoni 2: L'incubo ritorna aka Demons 2 (1986, 91 minutes) First, despite being told otherwise a few days ago, this is NOT a Dario Argento-directed film. He was a writer on the script and produced the film, but the director was Lamberto Bava, the son of the great influential Italian horror director Mario Bava. The mistake is easily made, however, since Lamberto was just as influenced by Dario as Dario was by Mario, combining much of the suspense techniques of Dario with the outrageous color of Mario. But anyway: the film. Demons 2 is most easily understood as the "Evil Dead 2" of Italy. Having created a ludicrously gory, outrageous combination between zombie, possession, metatextual, and body horror phenomena with the first "Demons" film, the same group came back a year later with more money and made a "sequel" which was really just a complete do-over of the first film. The elevated skill in film structuring and especially special effects (all credit due to Rosario Prestopino) is surprising when you consider the lack of any sort of forward-moving plot or direction to the film. A simple "AHHHH! MONSTERS!" sums both movies up nicely. The only thing it's lacking is a Bruce Campbell "Ash" role for the Evil Dead comparison to be complete. The actor Bobby Rhodes appears in both films, but as completely different characters; a pimp in the first and a gym trainer in the second. While never as self-consciously campy as Evil Dead 2 (more on a level with Evil Dead 1) or similar over-the-top gorefests, the film piles so many ridiculous disasters upon one another that you can't help but laugh. Also keep an eye out for 11-year old Asia Argento in her first film appearance. The Drain-Cleaner Brownie: John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness (1987, 102 minutes) A bit of a forgotten gem buried in Carpenter's filmography between "They Live" and "Big Trouble in Little China," this is one of those movies you've probably seen bits and pieces of on late night television but never remember very clearly. This is probably due to a couple narrative tricks of the film that make it difficult to piece together after the fact, complicating your memory of a surprisingly un-boring religious-themed horror story. Apocalyptically-themed, with flash-forwards and unreliable narrators, the story cycles around a group of graduate students in an ancient church investigating a recently-uncovered artifact, when the world outside seems to suddenly devolve into chaos. When things inside take a turn for the worse as well, the characters find themselves uncertain which way to jump. It's difficult to know what is and isn't spoiler material for this film, but I'll at least say that the pea soup from "The Exorcist" makes repeated cameos... Amusingly, in a nice bridge from last week, Donald Pleasance returns for this film as yet another character named "Loomis." Keep an eye on the crowds as well for a cameo by theatrical musician Alice Cooper. WARNING: I speak of being unable to piece this one together in one's head because I have that same problem with this film. I'm having a tough time remembering exactly what happened in this one. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, October 27th, 2009
11:32 pm	"Happy-happy Halloweeen.... Silver Shamrock!" Ah! Forgot to post the halloween movie night invite here after posting to the mailing list! Crud. Here it is a day or so late. Darkness falls across the land.... The midnight hour is close at hand... Creatures crawl in search of blood... To terrorize y'all's neighborhood... Yes, the autumnal season has fallen upon us again, and we must once more offer up fealty to the darkling forces of death and decay. As symbolized by 4-year olds dressing as fairy princesses and Spider-Man in order to over-sugar themselves into hyperactivity. But never mind that, we're here to gather 'round the campfire for scary stories! The Night of Michael Meyers: Halloween II (1981, 92 minutes) After the immense success the independently produced first Halloween film experienced, it was inevitable that the big studios (in this case, Universal) would jump at the chance to produce a sequel. Surprisingly, despite the involvement of a big studio and despite John Carpenter turning down the directorial role (though sticking around to write), this sequel managed to retain much of the atmosphere and classic silent menace of the original film, while still moving the story forward. Acting more like a second-act continuation than a stand-alone story, the sequel picks up three minutes before the end of the previous film, as Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasance in his most iconic role) and the police continue their desperate search for the missing Michael Meyers. New plot points walk the tightrope of giving Michael a purpose, while letting him remaining as inexplicable in his motivation as ever. Gorier and faster-moving, lacking only the more iconic moments of the original, this flick stands as one of the most artistically successful slasher sequels I've seen. Where the Hell is Michael Meyers: Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982, 98 minutes) In retrospect, one of the most inexplicable film sequels of all time. Carpenter, when conceiving the sequels, intend to make them be a variety of stories centered around Halloween, not focused on any particular story. What's inexplicable is that he thought this would work after having the first two films center on the Meyer's story. The preconceived notions attached to the title proved to be too much momentum, and consequently soured the reception of the third film, the only one unconcerned with that pale-faced killer. While it was given a wide release initially, word of mouth about Meyer's absence and critical reviews destroyed the film's box office take and it was pulled from theaters after only three weeks. This is a pity, as, taken on its own, the film isn't particularly bad. Essentially a Halloween-centered corporate conspiracy flick with trappings of magic and vaguely-defined paganism, it has a nice set of genuinely gruesome set pieces, startling reveals, and a sequence that legitimately creeps me out. A laughably absurd new-age ending vies with the most irritating advertising jingle ever composed to be the film's low point, but even those have a kitschy charm. Weirdly, the film gives me an amateurish Cronenburg vibe... something like a cross between Scanners and Videodrome. WARNING: Seriously, that commercial jingle is maddening. And you hear it a lot. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, October 19th, 2009
11:22 pm	"Your guy's got a camera. Mine's got a flamethrower." We've dabbled around in the famed and classy for too long. It's time we get back to the nastier, gritter roots of the genre with some cheap, schlocky crap entertainment. Plus, I was given a challenge of sorts. So this week I introduce you to one of the odder corners of crap cinema... homelessploitation! The Body in the Sewer: C.H.U.D. (1984, 88 minutes) Oh, the infamy. Perhaps the ultimate in mid-80's schlock cinema, this movie's title has become a watchword for silly rubber-monster Saturday-night matinee fare. Which makes it all the more surprising that it's a pretty enjoyable flick. It's essentially a creature feature with a healthy dose of social commentary speaking on the plight of the NY homeless & mentally disturbed shortly after the closing of the private mental health facilities. Add in the filthy, run-down setting of the no-go areas of 80's New York, some labyrinthine sewer tunnels, and the requisite astonishingly evil authority figure. Despite the cliches, the film is well paced, has a couple good set-pieces, the characters are well developed, and it keeps the monster reveals to an effective minimum. this is also an early outing for veteran actors John Heard and Daniel Stern (the latter best known as the narrator for "the Wonder Years"). Inspired a single sequel "C.H.U.D. 2: Bud the Chud" which was probably a comedy-zombie flick that got lost and mislabeled. The Mind in the Gutter: Street Trash (1987, 91 minutes) Wow. A poverty-row picture expanded from a short made by NY film school students and shot mostly at the Director's Uncle's salvage yard, this flick does it's level best to be as filthy, depraved, insulting, and offensive as possible with practically no money, slipshod directing, and terrible actors. While it follows the exploits of a crew of homless ruled over by a shell-shocked Vietnam vet, the weirdly structured (the infamously best scene, the poster-featured full-body-melt on a toilet, happens in the first ten minutes) flick breaks up any semblance of a plot with racist, sexist, gory, disgusting, or downright insulting detours, making it rather infamous even in cult cinema circles. (The film's most famous invention, though, is the bright-blue or green or yellow tempera-paint character "melts"... so don't worry too much about the gore level.) Perhaps it's best summed up by the director commentary, when he said "we were so proud to get R.L. Ryan, the famous Troma alumni, to be in our film." WARNING: I seriously suspect the only reason I'm even considering the latter flick is because I haven't seen it in a year or two. It's a juvenile film trying to offend everyone. Be warned. Oh, and remember Black Sheep and Feast? Yep, again. (Comment on this)
Monday, October 12th, 2009
6:22 pm	"He's dead, honey, because Mommy killed him." Decisions, decisions. With Halloween coming up, It's especially important that I get y'all properly in the mood for the spookiest of holidays... but I'm having some trouble putting together a nicely balanced double feature. Pairings are either too awful or using up our best titles all at once. Fortunately, we've still got one of the "big names" left to introduce... one of the most evocative names in the whole modern genre. And coincidentally coinciding with yet another Hollywood remake. So, without further ado; Sweet Dreams. The Night Terrors: A Nightmare on Elm Street (original, 1984, 91 minutes) I've introduced y'all to Leatherface, Michael, and Jason. There's only Freddy left to round out the classic four horsemen. An amazingly fecund property initially, a total of five sequels followed the original over the next decade (the 6th sequel and "vs." film came after a considerable break), and Freddy Krueger's infamous bladed glove, hat, and striped sweater became just as much a part of horror iconography as the Voorhees hockey mask. While perhaps tamer than the cheap, viciously sadistic and sociopathic films Wes Craven had established himself with (Last House on the Left and The Hills Have Eyes), don't underestimate the nasty impact this film had on the teen audience of the 80's. The unique concept and shadowy, creepy presentation more than made up for a weak third act, ensuring a long life to it's infamous killer. Most people today remember Freddy as the chatty, punning carnival-barker like figure he became in the later sequels; like a slightly more vicious "Beetlejuice." Be warned, this does not hold true for the original film. In his debut he was downright terrifying and, ironically, gave out more than his fair share of nightmares to the actual audience members, crediting the film with rejuvenating the horror genre during a time when the other properties were wallowing in redundancy. The Fugue Fantasy: Nightmare Detective (aka. Akumu Tantei, 2006, 106 minutes) Warning: NOT A BAD MOVIE, but a very chronologically and emotionally confusing one. An odd bird on a couple of levels, we see several of the traits we're so used to finding in Japanese horror films. No long-haired creepy little girls this time out, but we do find subversive, untrustworthy technology (cell phones), an obsession with loneliness and isolation in the increasingly crowded Japanese culture, the ever present "psychics," and, most disturbingly, a cultural obsession with suicide. Framed initially as a cop-drama investigating a series of surprisingly enthusiastic suicides, it moves into a more personal drama framed around the investigating detective and her motley colleagues. Employing sequences of bewildering scene transitions that can frequently loose the audience (perhaps slight cultural disconnects keep an American audience from keeping up), it nevertheless kept my interest to the degree that, by the three-quarters mark, I was still uncertain where the story was going. (That practically never happens anymore.) Unfortunately, a deeply contemplative philosophical discussion (in the midst of a bloody knife fight) at the end and intentionally esoteric symbology cements the film's overwhelmingly "emo" attitude and cheapens some of the movie's strong points down to adolescent whining. Nonetheless, an interesting culture lense to view the story concept through. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 7th, 2009
8:31 pm	Holy crow. I just discovered that the entire 152-episode series of "Fist of the North Star" is up on Hulu. ...this will seriously endanger my ability to keep up with the Thursday night movie crowd. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009
9:12 pm	Hokay everyone, moving forward on the "Plan 9 from Outer Space" Rifftrax plan: I've recieved definite "yes"s from the following: Me Jandi Ray Leslie Casey Hil Still plenty of time for more of y'all to join in, just let me know before Thursday noon so Jandi knows how many of those paper credit cards to print out. The time does appear to be fixed at 7:30, as it's a single screening, and every venue has the 7:30 as the only showtime. According to their little search thing, the closest theaters to my place are (in order) Hollywood 24 @ I-85 (the purple monstrosity) Perimiter Point 10 (2 exits down 400 outside of 285) North Point 8 (a further 2 exits down 400) AMC Barret commons 24 (down 75 past the 575 split) I'm guessing one of those first two is the best choice, since they get exponentially distant with the third and fourth options. What say everyone? I'm defaulting to the purple monstrosity unless people say the other is better. (Incidentally, here's the list of participating theaters: http://www.ncm.com/FathomContent/PDF/Participating%20Theatres%20RiffTrax%20ENC.pdf) The flick should let out by 9:30, at which point people are welcome to further gather at my place. Maybe we'll just round out the night with a screening of "Manos: The Hands of Fate." Or maybe I'm not that cruel... Oh! And here's the movie summary for Plan 9 that I wrote up way the hell back on Movie Night #7: The Horrible: Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959, 80 minutes, b&w). OK, look, I don't own Manos. But instead of that, let me offer up what may be the most famous bad movie of all time. "Plan 9" was... it was Ed Wood. His "greatest" achievement. This movie is so bad, they made movies about how bad it was. The script is literally laughable, the story incomprehensible, the actors can't act... it's like the real Garth Merenghi's Dark Places. I literally just finished watching the thing for the first time. It hurts. In the opening scene I had a psychotic break and thought one of the characters was getting a shovel to club the scriptwriter with. It's so bad that I may defer to a different flick if we don't get enough people to ridicule the thing and soften the blow. (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, October 5th, 2009
10:09 pm	Two questions... Considering the news... 1) Is it tasteless for me to want to do a double feature of "Rosemary's Baby" and "Hard Candy?" 2) Do I care? (1 Comment |Comment on this)
9:40 pm	Movie Night Field Trip? Believe it or not, we may be going on another field trip. Turns out Jandi and Raymond have another twenty free movie tickets to get through by the end of October, and they'd like our help in spending them. Further, the prospective flick is a one-night-only show: the Rifftrax presentation of Ed Wood's defining film: "Plan 9 from Outer Space" which is being re-broadcast this Thursday from their live show a couple weeks ago. For those of you unfamiliar with Rifftrax, they're a company that makes comedy alternate audio tracks. You purchase the audiotrack from their website, and then play it simultaneously with your copy of the movie, so it can provide satirical commentary on the film. You may be familiar with their crew: about half of the writers and cast from the cult bad-movie show, Mystery Science Theater 3000! This is apparently a promotional stunt to promote their site, but it must be one of their better commentaries if they're gonna broadcast it across the country. The film, the infamous "Plan 9" is one of the most celebrated bad films in all of cinema, so Mike and the bots will have more than enough material to work from. So I'm taking another headcount: how many of y'all would be interested? The only catch is that it doesn't appear to be playing at the Parkway Pointe where we met up last time. The participating theaters are the North Point 8, The Perimiter Pointe, the Hollywood 24 (@I-85), Barrett Commons 24, Discover Mills 18, and the Savannah Stadium 10. Being a one shot show, there's also only one option for time: 7:30. (At least at the one theater I checked.... I'll check the others tomorrow.) I know that might be too early for a lot of y'all, so let me know if you can't make it. On the other hand, that might give us enough time to screen a second film at my place after it lets out. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, September 30th, 2009
10:34 pm	"What's the deal with the Addams Family mansion?" Hokay, kinda in the midst of a lot of stuff (it's like moving in all over again), but I've gotta take a few minutes off to give y'all the movies for this week. This week, another object lesson in good scary cinema, vs. what hollywood makes today. In this case, upon the canvas of the classic ghost story. The Ghastly Pallor: The Legend of Hell House (1973, 95 minutes) Another contribution by the grandmaster of horror, Richard Matheson (author of the original "I am Legend"), this magnificent take on the classic haunted house story has been toned down quite a bit from the original novel. Which will really mean something to you once you've seen the film. Transplanted from the novel's location in Maine (in order to accomodate the British cast), the conversion is accomplished well enough that you'd never have thought it could take place anywhere but that ancient and foggy isle. The final film of veteran British horror film director James H. Nicholson (most famous for The Abomnible Dr. Phibes), and starring no lesser lights than Peter Bowles and Rodd McDowall, the film not only explores the standard set of creepy cliches that abound within ancient homes, but quickly moves beyond such tropes into more direct menace... startlingly violent scenes and transgressive themes threaten the lives and sanity of the small group of investigators, building to an odd, almost nonsensical anti-climax that somehow still works, for all of it's out-of-left-field nature. Warning: While not directly misogynistic in the way of the more extreme offerings from the 70's, the film is one of the most condescendingly chauvanistic that I've ever seen. The Pale Imitation: The Haunting (remake, 1999, 113 minutes) Reasonable individuals may disagree, but when I saw this particular film in the theaters, it struck me as perhaps the pinnacle of the produced-by-committee, drowned in CGI, un-scary triumph of pabulm over quality. It's easy to trot out anecdotal notes about the film's problems, picking on this or that detail, but that doesn't really present the argument properly. Essentially, this was a remake of one of the most classic haunted house films ever made: a master's course in one movie about how to build and sustain suspense, and how the unseen is always more terrifying than the seen. Hollywood, in remaking this classic, didn't have any idea how to replicate these basic storytelling skills, and, in typical fashion, just turned everything up to 11 with CGI attacking beds and ridiculous set-pieces where everything is bigger, and therefore better than the original. Actual callbacks to the original are simply hilarious in their inept aping. Starring Catherine Zeta-Jones and Liam Neeson in their most forgettable roles ever, the film actually features two main characters who flee the film before it gets underway. (Comment on this)
Thursday, September 24th, 2009
9:21 pm	Movie night announcement Well, the flooding came back a bit worse and I ended up having to disconnect my computer. That plus site blockage at work means few posts are likely here for a while (using my friend's computer upstairs). For those who didn't see, there was a significant change in movie night plans this week. Since my place is full of all the crap that was in my storage room, we're going on another field trip: we're gonna catch "Surrogates" at 9:30 at the AMC Parkway Pointe tomorrow. Folks are welcome to join (meeting at the nearby Borders beforehand) but gimmie a call first: we're trying to arrange something nifty and need an accurate headcount for it. (Comment on this)
Monday, September 21st, 2009
12:37 pm	Movie night This is where I'd normally give y'all the go-ahead on movie night for the week, but life has interferred a bit. I came back from the convention prepared to collapse into bed when I discovered that the carpet in my entryway and storage room was mysteriously filling up with water. Thus I thought it would be fun to spend the night pulling up carpet and moving all my crap around the apartment, seeking the high ground. (All credit to Jeff & Christy for knowing what to do and much of the heavy lifting.) Short version; looks like we had some seepage as a result of the absurd amount of rain Georgia's been getting, and we had to tear up most of the carpet in the front entry and computer room before it got worse. Amazingly, it waited until 2-3 hours after I got home from being away for four days to actually reach the point of leaking, and was slow enough that I've lost nothing to the damp. The problem's been located and (thankfully) may have a relatively inexpensive solution (knock on wood), but the apartment has been thrown into massive disarray. However, all the crap I had sitting in boxes in the computer room, plus a full shelving unit of books, are all sitting in the middle of my living room. Plus the little porch-like entryway is going to be torn up and tossed. Movie night, as you might guess, is in danger of being cancelled for the week. If I do go ahead with it, y'all be cautious in entering, and don't take your shoes off (carpet nails everywhere). I'll try and keep everyone updated. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, September 14th, 2009
8:49 pm	NO MOVIE NIGHT THIS WEEK. For the obvious reasons (convention), there will be no movie night this coming Thursday. After the convention is over, however, I look forward to getting back onto a regular schedule of screenings... (Comment on this)
Tuesday, September 8th, 2009
10:09 pm	Unrelated and Brief Too little time, too much to do for actual post. (Motivation behind posting encompassed in first note.) Thus; a view inside my brain..... ( brain squeezings ) (This is how my brain is ALL THE TIME.) (2 Comments |Comment on this)
7:49 pm	"It will cost you sweat and tears, and perhaps... a little blood. " As y'all might guess, this is a particularly busy couple of weeks for me. Between D*C last weekend and AWA the weekend after next, I'm somewhat short on time and energy. (Hence this very late announcement.) Even worse, I've only just found out that I have a meeting fairly early on Friday morning which kind of excludes the possibility of running flicks late into the night. Therefore, we're going to have to compromise with the presentation this week. (As Calvin says, "a compromise is a solution where no one is happy.") We'll just screen one flick, starting 8:00-8:15, instead of the usual double feature, and let everyone get to bed at a reasonable hour. To make up for it, I'm going to disinter a true cinematic classic that I've been mulling over for quite a while; something of a challenge for this crowd as well, for reasons that should be rather obvious... The Music of the Night: Nosferatu: eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922, 94 minutes) This F.W.Murnau-lensed, silent, black and white pinnacle of early German expressionist film remains one of the most iconic vampire films in history. The creepy, long-fingered rodent-faced Count Orlock (played by the pseudonominous Max Schreck) is second only to the 1931 Bela Lugosi "Dracula" image from Universal pictures. (By some counts, it is in fact the first vampire movie, though this is debatable.) A far cry from the romantic figure of today's "glittery" Vampires or Anne Rice's aristocratic Casanovas, it could be argued that Shreck's hideous visage and creeping mannerisms are the best representation of the xenophobia-inspiring boogieman outlined in Stoker's most famous work. Apparently Stoker's estate thought it was close enough, as the film, being an unlicensed adaptation of "Dracula," was successfully sued by Stoker's widow for copyright infringement shortly after its release. The lawsuit wiped out the Prana film studio, for which Nosferatu had been their first picture. In addition, the court ordered that all copies of the film be destroyed. Fortunately, the film had already been distributed, and a bare few copies survived the culling to be passed down to us today. (Supposedly only one original copy of the film remains.) While recognizable as the Dracula story, it is heavily edited, removing multiple characters, and beginning the tradition of never ever ending in the manner described in the book. While the special effects are easily recognized as primitive camera tricks by today's savvy audiences, there should be enough creepy atmosphere to satisfy a receptive audience. WARNING: Silent film. On the other hand, you have my permission to throw stuff at me if I start shushing anyone. (Just gotten to be a habit at this point.) (Comment on this)
Monday, August 31st, 2009
10:35 pm	MOVIE NIGHT CANCELLED THIS WEEK Hey everyone, Took a look at my schedule for the coming week and don't see how I could manage a movie night this Thursday. D*C starts this weekend, and I'll be doing my typical pilgrimage out there on Thursday evening to purchase an early ticket. No idea how long the lines will be or how long I'll be waiting (depends mostly on how stable their computer systems are this year), so can't plan on being at home for the usual screening. Sorry all! I'll try to make it up to ya on the weekend between D*C and AWA... (Comment on this)
Monday, August 24th, 2009
8:13 pm	"YOU'RE TEARING ME APART, LISA!" (Removed previous entry. Sorry about that, nerves getting to me.) Much as I would have enjoyed looking for something appropriate to movie night #69 (hmmm.... maybe "Teeth"), this week we have something even better planned! It's the long awaited field trip for movie night! Yes, we're making the trek out to the Atlanta Underground Film Festival (Be careful visiting that link, something wonky in its formatting keeps crashing the page for me.) for their infamous "horror shorts" segment. This will require some coordination. First off, I'd thought initially that it was taking place at the "Plaza," which was a mistake. The film fest is actually taking place at the Midtown Art Cinema, which is the place Carl was initially thinking of. Directions are given here. In short, it's the theater on Monroe behind the Trader Joe's. For those who know the area, on Ponce de Leon, take the first right after the Zestos that comes after the shopping area with the Borders and the Home Depo. The theater marquee will be on your right. The showing begins at 8:00, so y'all try and make it to the theater by at least 7:45. Anyone who stops by my place by 7:15, we'll carpool out there (I'll drive) and back to my place afterwards. List price for attendance is $8.00, and I'll happily subsidize $5 of that for each of y'all who make it out there. Gimmie a call if you're lost and I promise I'll hand you to someone who knows how to give directions better than me. The Theater Popcorn: Altar (2008, 18 minutes) Of especial interest is the participation of our own Nightowl Studio's short film "Alter," a surreal, comedic, grotesque contemplation of the human condition and the nature of relationships, starring our own Andrew Jenner and directed by our own Nathan Bezner. Everyone come down and cheer this film on to its inevitable triumph over those other, lesser films. The horror block's showing is scheduled to end by 9:30, after which we'll head back to my place, for... The Chewing Gum Under the Seats: The Room (2003, 99 minutes) No joke, the first "user comment" about this film I saw on imdb was "This film is like getting stabbed in the head." A new-ish, legendarily awful, film, it was apparently used as an April Fool's joke on Adult Swim, demonstrating exactly how much that organization hates their audience. A... romance? melodrama? comedy? so completely wretched it apparently outdoes "Southland Tales" within the first ten minutes. This is also something of a unique opportunity; Nate's said he'll bring a copy down, but I'm not going to be able to preview it ahead of time. That's right; you get to see ME blindsided by cinematic awfulness like I normally bludgeon y'all with. WARNING: I don't know how to warn y'all, since I haven't seen this film. But the reports are of really spectacular badness. There's been talk of using this thing to start the next Rocky Horror trend... ALSO: Check out the AUFF's page for their other screening blocks. There might be something else there you'd be interested in, and I like to encourage support of independent film in the city. They've got two animation blocks I'm gonna try to make. (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, August 17th, 2009
10:21 pm	(There are really no good out-of-context-quotes from either of these flicks.) Almost forgot to put up the announcement for this week. I'd been saving this pair with the hopes of a BBQ night to go with, but understandable circumstances (selling a house) mean our butcher (from the night we showed Shawn of the Dead) hasn't been able to stoke up the smoker in quite a while. Nevertheless, the movies for this week should whet your appetite well enough on their own. This week we're venturing into realms of darkness and clausterphobia. Where casts are cut off from the outside world. We're going... underground. The Locked Karabiner: The Descent (2005, 99 minutes) Little known fact; I find few things in the world more terrifying than caving. The utter darkness, the thousands of tons of dirt overhead, the slow drip-drip-drip from unknown sources. This may be why I found this film to be so effective in spooking me, but I suspect no shortage of skill on the director's part as well. In what turns into an intense psycological analysis of the main characters as their tightly-knit group begins falling apart under the strain of unreasonable circumstances (with more than a note or two of similarity with The Blair Witch), an "extreme sports" group of women weekenders find themselves in far, far over their heads. An unreliable leader gets them trapped, cock-sure attitudes lead to injuries, and a group of long-time friends simply begin to disintegrate. A tense, exhausting trial of a movie that pulls few punches, with an odd gender-studies dynamic at work beneath the surface. (This was the real breakout film for Niel Marshal, whose only previous work of note was "Dog Soldiers"... a flick we'll get to eventually.) The Loose Belay: The Cave (2005, 97 minutes) Little known fact; the only thing I find more terrifying than caving is cave-diving. Fortunately, this film is dressed up with the obligatory Hollywood hyperbole and silliness, so there's little chance of it freaking me out. Unlike the stark, relatively low-buget work (not to mention the more naturalistic performances) of the previous film, this film is full of CGI, bombastic character stereotypes, and just enough scientific monster silliness to sate fans of the American Godzilla. A perfectly adequate popcorn flick, it really only falls short in comparison with the previous film, cracking jokes and adding predictable kills where the previous film left only silent tension. Again, an unreliable leader leaves our actors trapped... cock-sure attitudes lead to injuries... what a difference a director makes. (5 Comments |Comment on this)
9:39 pm	AWA Expo Judging! In my annual effort to cast as wide and all-inclusive a net as possible in an attempt to gather judges for the AMV contests at AWA, I'm sending this out to most of my major mailing lists. All are welcome, whether you're a seasoned expert of previous years or have never seen an Anime Music Video before in your life. We want a variety of eyes and tastes so we can sort the wheat from the chaff. If you can't make it every day, that's fine. If you can't make it for the whole day, that's fine. Just come for as long as you're able and lend us a hand. Feel free to bring along a couple friends if you think they'd enjoy helping. RSVP is not necessary, but is helpful. Snacks (chips, etc.) are also helpful, and we'll pool cash for pizza in the evening. The time: Saturday August 22nd starting at 4 PM. Sunday September 23 starting at 10 AM The Place: Jingoro's house. (Note: NOT Matt's place. I'll tape a note to my door for anyone who forgets.) Directions to Daric's House Okay, folks... here are detailed driving directions to Daric's house, with maps. Daric lives in Winters Chapel, between Dunwoody and Doraville just north of the Perimiter. On the north side of Interstate 285, exit Peachtree Industrial Blvd., Heading North. Take the first exit, turning left to go under the bridge onto Tilly Mill Rd.. Beware the U-Turn lane, you don't want to take that. The first light on Tilly Mill Rd. is Peeler Rd.. Take a right. Take the second left off of Peeler Rd., which is Happy Hollow Dr. Just past the power lines, shortly after the thinning of the trees caused by the Tornado, you will find Kingsland Ct.. Take a left. Kingsland Dr. begins at a fork in the road. Bear left. It's a little ways around, but eventually you will pass the one and only left turn, and after that, we are the first driveway on the left. 2309 Kingsland Dr. Doraville, GA 30360 Call me (matt) if you get lost. 770-713-2837. (Didn't want to list Jingoro's phone # without permission.) (Comment on this)