Quasar Sniffer

Oh, make no mistake, I am THERE for shirtless volleyball. All day every day. It's the blatant, yet somehow unspoken, homoeroticism that makes the mortal terror so potent!

Sorry for the late reply here, but this is in response to the comments about not being able to relate to Zula and Wiktor and individuals; more like they were ciphers or ideas of people. I dunno, I found them instantly compelling and I connected with them very deeply. Maybe I'm just sort of attracted to that archetype of a Doomed Romance, one you recognize straight from the beginning. They burn so bright and so hot, they are destined to run out of fire. But the fact they keep orbiting each other, keep coming back to each other, is something I find fascinating as well. Also, I tend to take certain historical periods pretty personally, I guess. For me, the Cold War itself is one of those (not the only one, but it's the one we are talking about here). Obviously, I did not participate in anything resembling the events of the film, but my predilections for taking history personally might be why I am so easily absorbed into, say, Bond films or stories of being trapped behind the Iron Curtain. Anyway, my dad was a P-3 Orion pilot for much of the 80s and 90s, so it was the later stages of the Cold War, but the operational mission of the Orion was to find Russian subs. Sure, the plane did other reconnaissance and whatnot, but it was designed to hunt (and maybe blow up) submarines. Soooo... when I would watch Top Gun, for example, those faceless Russian pilots were the dudes who might literally KILL MY DAD, so I found myself rather invested in Cold War narratives from the age of, you know, 5. I realize this movie has NOTHING to do with any of that, but the inclusion of other things I am fascinated by, like the bridging of musical cultures, folk music (the centuries-old kind), Eastern European art, political propaganda, etc. create a heat seeking missile straight to my soul. This movie gets at me.

If anyone is interested, Jason appeared on the latest episode/podcast of Off Camera with Sam Jones. It's a really great interview, as both men speak openly and intelligently about art and performing. https://offcamera.com/

I'm still into it! Let us watch movies. TOGETHER. Maybe even ones with an "I Want" song in the first 10-20 minutes!

OoOoOo, the work of Pawel Pawlikowski (this and to amaaaaazing IDA) break even my cold, cold heart. I look forward to pretending not to cry as I type wet, sad words with you Fine Internet People!

THUNDERBALL is definitely my least favorite Connery Bond. Even as someone who loves the excess fat that is inherent to Bond films, that thing is at least 20 minutes too long, and most of that is underwater sequences. Ugh. Anyhoo, being the weirdo metalhead that I am, I love the pagan folk tradition that is celebrated in THE WICKER MAN, as a lot of metal bands incorporate that sound into their music. I know aurally there might not be that much correlation between what most people think of metal and this kind of folk music, but the connection to a pagan tradition is something very metal, so bands really champion this movie and the sound. I mentioned the Neurosis cover in the pick thread, but I thought I would share some of the musical analogs here. Well I'm not in love with this band, I think this is a perfect example of the kind of sound I'm talking about. Hexvessel is composed of purely the folk aspect that metal bands incorporate into their sound, and here are a couple songs of there's that I love from the most recent album.

Oh, don't get me started on THE WITCH. I love, love, love that movie. And Folk Horror is a genre I really enjoy, one often unexplored. For more Folk Horror Goodness (though certainly not as good as THE WICKER MAN) featuring Christopher Lee, check out.... And as much as I adore Christopher Lee, Britt Eckland, Roger Moore, and Hervé Villechaize, THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN is my least favorite Bond film. It could have been so much better. Anyway, I definitely consider THE WICKER MAN a horror film, especially because I have a rather inclusive definition of the genre.

This movie also served as inspiration for the cover for classic album Souls at Zero by avant-garde metal legends Neurosis. Incidentally, when designing this particular cover, the band discovered it would actually be cheaper to build their own Wicker Man rather than pay the copyright fees they would incur by using an image from the film. So that's what they did. They built their own pagan idol!

This is one of my all-time favorite horror films, and an all-out legend in cult and British Cinema. Love this movie! And while not a traditional musical, music does play a pivotal role in... not the plot, per se, but in the overall sensory experience of the film. It's a movie about the endurance of dark, long-forgotten (or so we thought) traditions colliding with the modern world. A fantastic pick!

Soft remake of The Rose? I wouldn't immediately make the connection, but the content AND the title similarities made me think there might be some shared DNA...

It is, but it's also totally unnecessary. Brad Douriff has such respect among cult movie/horror fans, I don't know what this is gaining the franchise. I love both Hamill and Douriff, so I want them to do more stuff. But I've never been a Child's Play fan anyway, so maybe this will give Douriff the chance to be extra weird in another franchise.

Totally endorse this. HOUSE OF PENANCE is not only a great, disturbing horror story, but it is also weird as FUCK and an example of incredibly original visual design.

I was just thinking about how much I love Frederic March and think, in 2019, he's an extremely underrated actor, BUT I will never say or think a harsh word about Bradley Cooper. I found his performance as Jackson Maine immediately sympathetic and incredibly compelling.

I think this is an example of how this movie would be improved if both Jackman and Beckinsale were shown to be good at their jobs. Like, show them slaying werewolves, vamps, and other classic monstrosities, or better yet, turning them back to normal humans. Because this movie is already bloated enough, maybe we could skip these scenes and give them both a trophy room of vampire fangs and stuffed werewolf heads, showing their slaying prowess. So when neither of them can defeat Dracula and his forces individually, it gives cause to our sexy stars to marshall their forces. It would also sell Dracula as a uniquely powerful and dangerous foe. Instead, you have Van Helsing, with all the resources of the Vatican, and Anna, with generations of skill and experience, feeling at every encounter with the supernatural like they're corseted Keystone Cops.

One thing that makes the choice of having the opening black and white flashback set just ONE YEAR before the main events of the film so damn stupid is that the novel 'Frankenstein' was published in 1818, fully 70 years before 'Van Helsing' takes place! Why not have this flashback take place in 1818, then jump forward to 1887? That way, it's slightly more reasonable for Frankenstein's monster to be buried and forgotten, and gives more credence to the Creature's immortality, which is why Dracula is so interested in him in the first place. Instead, the movie actively changes the setting of this classic novel and the result is something worse. I guess I should not be shocked that the people who made this movie have not read a book.

I wish you the best of health, and in everything else. I look forward to you returning, but most of all, I hope all your health difficulties are resolved post-hate! Best of luck!

In response to Riki Lindhome not being able to sit through 'Shape of Water,' here is me guesting on one of my favorite podcasts getting EXUBERANT about how much I love everything Guillermo del Toro: https://hellbentforhorror.com/2019/03/25/episode-083-we-need-to-talk-about-guillermo/

Just to remind you that the world has some magic in it, this actually happened once: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/nov/11/dick-van-dyke-porpoises-rescue

I kind of saw its consequences when he proposed in the diner. He was so emotionally bare that he was searching for any connection, so when we meet the two women in the bar and he and Nat have their own nights with them, he's desperate to connect in any way. But yes, it is inconsistent for the character since everything else we see from him, he's extremely mercurial and reactive, yet he's also supposed to be harboring this love for this girl he met in high school? Maybe it would have been better if Casey Wilson tried to use him as a way to escape her suburban life by connecting with this wild free spirit from her youth. Just spitballing. Speaking of missed opportunities, I could have used several scenes of Pamela Reed as Dotty actually yelling at bears, maybe even saving Richard in the process.

Maybe he had money the whole time and was just scamming Nat? Maybe he makes it a regular practice of taking vulnerable young men under his wing and using them for a ride and a good time? Yikes... this movie just became problematic. ANYWAY, did anyone else feel that Nat throwing away Richard's knife, and then Richard asking about it, was a set-up to some later confrontation? I thought that was going to be a sort of blow-up between the two and a test of their friendship, and maybe through Nat explaining why Richard with a knife frightened him, Richard would come to realize something about himself. It seemed like we never got resolution to that seed. @tomspanksYes, I did notice that. I laughed at it and maybe thought it would be a runner through the film, like we would find out he was actually 50 or he would continually (and perhaps wildly) lie about his age.

I totally agree. Nat is so young and inexperienced, he's bound to change a lot in school, whether he pursues photography or not, but that is a totally different movie. For Richard, I would have liked a more definitive statement about where he is going, if not exactly where he ends up. It would have been nice to see him more affected by his time spent with Nat at the end.

First of all, thanks to everyone for participating in this diversion from form. I really appreciate it, especially since we weren't able to organize or connect with a Rabb.it screening. Anyway, I think Nat was sort of an undercover loose cannon, or at least someone given to spontaneous behavior. First, he lets Richard into his car and into his life after just seeing him get fired in a very loud confrontation. This man is clearly unbalanced, but Nat is up for letting him join the ride, even as Richard begins to down beers in the car minutes after meeting Nat. Second, it was NAT who encouraged Richard to seek out his high school love, which is a CRAZY idea. Maybe that's more born out of naivete because he's lived a very sheltered life, but it does she potential for him to make spur-of-the-moment, risky, emotional decisions, even if he is not as explosive as Richard. And to @Cameron H.'s initial comment about watching Richard at the counter, I think that speaks to how much I like the characters in this movie. I too watched Mantzoukas just sit there and do nothing because I enjoyed spending time with these people so much, even if the narrative itself was, admittedly, rather weak. It was a character study and it worked, not the way a Hal Ashby movie like The Last Detail does, but I still enjoyed it.

In all seriousness though, I had a conversation with my brother, who is a mental health counselor, about the very topic of suicidally depressed people who are very kind and seem outwardly positive. Within days of Brody taking his own life, I heard a public radio story about a college basketball player who exhibited these tendencies to the letter and ended up committing suicide as well. In the case of the athlete, his peers and his family were totally shocked that he would do such a thing, totally oblivious to his symptoms. A lot of that has to do with the culture of athletics and the community he grew up in, both of whom tend to sweep such problems under the rug. So it behooves all of us to reach out to people who are hurting, to make them feel recognized and appreciated, at least so they know they have some place to go to for help. Thank you all for doing that here.

You are all wonderful humans and even if my own mental health issues make me a swirling gyre of self-doubt, I want you all to know that you are all awesome and appreciated! But if there is one thing I CANNOT tolerate, it is shade throne at Michael Fassbender. I could stare into his dreamy cold-steel eyes forever. He's even who I picture when I think of Macbeth. BUT you are all SO GREAT that I still love coming here even if you are unimpressed by Mr. Fassbender