In the 70s, if you didnât have the name of the character emblazoned on a cheap vinyl shirt, who could tell who you were?
100% recycled!
Election jitters has even killed my desire to watch Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.
well, over on NextDoor (which i have a complicated relationship with) our neighborhood has been arguing for weeks about whether or not to give out candy, etc. â and i think thereâs only one house on our side of the street on our block who is giving out candy. everyone else is saying âno, i just donât feel itâs safe for my family OR the kids.â â and now today, our state has entered the red zone in covid case numbers, and the city just announced that they want everyone to stay at home. not sure what impact that will have on trick or treaters at this late date, but here we are.
This would be the year to trick or treat in a Trump super-spreader costume. It only seem appropriate.
Soundtrack to The Shiver of the Vampires aka Le frisson des vampires aka Strange Things Happen at Night aka Sex and the Vampire and a few other titles as wellâŠ
Not traditional horror movie music, the groupe Acanthus has obviously listened to a few early Pink Floyd albums. (Oddly and appropriately enough, the music seems to prefigure âBela Lugosiâs Deadâ on occasion, as well.) The master tapes were supposedly lost long ago, so this music was pulled directly from the filmâs audio track with sound effects and occasional dialogue.
And hereâs the trailer:
More dark fantasy than horror, full of female nudity but not nearly as explicit as one can easily find these days, surreal but without much in the way of intellectual pretensions, and without adept actors, I fear many will think it falls between far too many stools, but I love it. (And Iâm not the only one. Someone has put a lot of effort into the directorâs (Jean Rollin) Wikipedia page.) The trailer gives a pretty good feel for the film, albeit without so many long moody strolls around the castle.
Crochetverse did some great costumes this year:
The cost of the yarnâŠwow. But I bet my mom in her prime couldâve made some wild stuff!
Possibly his best costume since the first one (the leg lamp):
Take-out Thai, what promises to be a scary novel and no reason to go out in the morning because I have already dropped off my rent.
AKA, an excellent Halloween, if it goes as planned.
Not sure how many of you know about the Chicago mayor, Lori Lightfoot, and the cityâs ongoing lighthearted teasing about how strict she is being with us regarding the pandemic. People have cardboard cutouts of her looking out their windows, sheâs photoshopped into public places, etc. So, a friend of mine sent a photo of a kid she saw on the street earlier today:
It seems Chicago has a healthier attitude than the state of Michigan.
She has the support of the governor, which really helps. The entire rest of the state is Republican, however, and fighting him constantlyâŠbut in court and by speaking out, not by trying to kidnap him, so at least thereâs that.
Iâm tellinâ ya, the folks causing trouble are moreân likely descendants of white Southerners who came up here for work. Iâve walked among them.
Peter Tscherkassky - Outer Space (1999)
Austrian director Tscherkassky took the 1982 horror flick The Entity, in which Barbara Hershey is assaulted by a poltergeist, and disturbingly manipulated the footage, so that it seems as if the film itself (or reality itself) assaults her. (Or alternately, some of the doubling imagery of the short makes it seem as if she is unknowingly in control, she is assaulting her reality (and herself.))
Very stroby, so not for those who are sensitive to that sort of thing and not at all narrative, but definitely unsettling enough to still fit into the horror genre.
Highly recommended.
Done, with an hour to spare. If youâre into the kind of horror that unsettles, that makes you question your own reality, I do reccomend T. Kingfisher. The Twisted Ones and The Hollow Places are good, solid, turn-all-the-lights-offÂč creepy (as in things creeping in from the liminal spaces), that will make you glad (once you finish) to have someone setting off fireworks for their original purpose of chasing such things away.
ÂčExcept for what is strictly necessary to see the page.