* Halloween countdown post #18
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p.s. Hey. ** David Ehrenstein, True, in a way, but fortunately or unfortunately there’s months left to go. ‘LJL’ does seem to have been the single film in his oeuvre where he cared and tried. ** GlennKeaton, Glenn?! Really, the Petit Palais? There’s a reason to go the Petit Palais? ‘Halloween’ the movie is completely mediocre and meh, vaguely fun-ish every rare once in a while, but really just a lazy retro workout. I’m amazed people seem to be actually liking it so much. Have you noticed that when you start watching a porn, and the bottom is wearing a jockstrap with the word ‘addicted’ printed on the back, you know it’s going to be good? *some kind of emoji that doesn’t exist goes here* Paris co-trick-or-treating someday: it’s a lock. I’ll give Zac your wishes, pal. ** Steve Erickson, Hi. Yeah I really don’t get the feeling that DeCoteau has either the talent or the shits to give re: trying harder. Double whammy! Everyone, Mr. Erickson has a couple of gives for you today. There’s his review of the reissue of Bronski Beat’s THE AGE OF CONSENT, and there’s his review of Antonio Mendez Esparza’s film LIFE AND NOTHING MORE. Hit both, why don’t you? ** Jamie, Nice reception of my blogging, Jamie. Yes, it’s quite, quite hard to imagine actually watching an entire one of his films whatever the circumstance may be, although I shouldn’t underestimate the unlikely pleasure generative abilities of 420, I suppose. Thanks for appreciating my Halloweening, and the ‘hits’ keep coming. I told Keaton up above, but, yeah, I thought ‘Halloween’ was very blah. Barely fun here and there but not much. It just goes through the motions predictably, felt tired, the acting and writing and directing very phoned in. Don’t be excited in advance is my opinion. Usually ‘cool but confusing’ is my idea of a good time, but maybe not in your/this case. Your body is so mysterious. Oh, wow, cool that some guy read my poem. I’ll go listen, thanks a lot. My script grinding did not hit the gas, but today I’m going to chug-a-lug caffeine like it’s my own saliva and make that happen by hook or crook. May your Friday make a cow somewhere in the world talk. Hellraiser has its charms, yes, but, should you agree, I wouldn’t rush hopefully towards its many sequels love, Dennis. ** Bill, With very good reason, Bill. Most of his films are like bad, prick-teasing, rip-off escorts. Oh, I can’t say much else right now, but ‘PGL’ will have a showing in SF in early February. Was the bookstore Quimby’s? I don’t think I’ve ever done the spotlight thing on Ursule Molinaro’s work. How weird. I’ll get on that straight away. I hope Friday cures all your circumstantial ills. ** Right. Today the blog’s ongoing Halloween’s celebration takes the form you already know if you’ve scrolled down this far. See you tomorrow.
Now available in North America 
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There ought to be Trump mask.
I can’t think of anyone or anything scarier.
Today I went along to the Hepworth art gallery in Wakefield for a look at the first day of their Hepworth Prize for Sculpture. Cerith Wyn Evans was the artist whose work I was most looking forward to seeing, and his Composition for 37 Flutes emitted a drone that carried thoughout the other galleries. I was very impressed by the looks and the sound of this.
Halloween all over my face!!! Lovely stuff, Dennis, and I’d been thinking about asking for last year’s Frankenstein masks posts to be restored, but this’ll do nicely, ta. I think my fave image is the person with their hands crossed on their chest – brrr/lovely. The way it cuts is creepy. There’s a couple of other askew, blurry gifs in there that do something weird and unnameable to my mind too. Inspiring in some way though I don’t quite know what…
Two Halloweeny things I observed today in the world:
1) A very square corporate looking office festooned with Halloween decorations – plastic pumpkins, cobwebs, even a giant silhouette of a chainsaw wielding madman. It looked bizarre with all the workers sat at their desks in midst of it all, seeming very serious/depressed.
2) The Addams Family TV show theme playing over the soundsystem in my local shop. Whilst I admired their Halloween intentions, there seemed something odd about playing a TV theme in a shop.
I’m feeling like there’s more Halloween in the air this year than usual. Maybe it’s just me noticing. Maybe it says something about the world atm. Who knows? I like it.
You know, I think I’ll not bother going to see the new Halloween movie. Your review was just what I’ve been anticipating, so why don’t I go and see something potentially good in the cinema instead.
How are you? Did you get on any better with the script?
Weekend plans? Hannah’s in Glasgow for the weekend, so I’m going to bake some bread for her arrival then I think we’re going to go see a bunch of films at the Tramway. Sounds nice, right?
May your weekend be so good that if your best ever friend asked to borrow it, even just for a few seconds, you’d lie and say you’d misplaced it, just in case anything happened to it.
You’d think I’d be over these long sentences as adjectives before the word love but they still make me smile and your one from today made me realise that I think I might have seen a Hellraiser sequel and it had a bad guy who fired CDs from his mouth or did I dream that love,
Jamie
Theres some great art in the end galleries. Really big paintings. Cool sculptures in the stairwells. I saw an exhibit of pastels that are only allowed in the light rarely. LOL here’s this Haha sir, I’ve only seen one porno in life, like seriously. I have that video OCD thing and I dont want it to move, haha. I see the appeal of the new film in the field so to speak. To me there is something really good in the shooting, lighting and stuff. As for the movie, I sense an overly simple plot with some splicing for interest, and characters that are absolutely appealing for a fickle generation that is probably on their phone rather than watching the movie anyway. The Vicky girl looks kind of like Jan Brady. The characters are totally plain Jane. I feel like the Grandma stuff is too much(Activia!), Michael is 500, that doesnt work at all. It did add some creep like he might kill a young one. Magic Mike played the Dad character, he was a Meth-Addict on Reno 911. Without Loomis, the spacerock is boring. And I dont know what it is with the Jefferson Davis references (ie. the South Shall Rise Again, the drag escape, “the boot trick”) maybe I’m reading into to it too much, haha. I liked the kills, the rest, lets bury Mikee boy and Laurie Choad for a while. You are the master, these masks are epic. Oh, watched the movies Ghost Story and Good Samaritan, both totally fun, also watched this movie about the Flavians creating Christianity.
Hi!
Sadly, there isn’t much of a Halloween hype here in Hungary, it’s not really a… thing here so I think I’ll just meet a friend and hope that the night leads us towards a nice nightmare somewhere in the city, haha. Although, if I could, I definitely would celebrate it the way you’re planning to. With TONS of chocolate specialties!
Actually, I’ve never been to Prague either! I’m already planning a January trip so I’ll tell you all about it!
Whose concert did you see on Tuesday?
Oh, yes, thank you! I’ve got my new arch support thingies which are pretty uncomfortable but I think they help. Whatever’s up with my foot is pretty slow in healing but I’m getting there!
How are you? How was your week? What are you reading at the moment? I just started ‘Gravity’s Rainbow’ by Thomas Pynchon.
Have a very fine weekend, Dennis!!
I think social media might have bottomed out today. Given world events, you can probably guess some of the reasons, but also, I could foresee that “name your favorite songs by Muslim musicians to celebrate Sinead O’Connor’s conversion to Islam” thread on a Facebook music discussion group would end with an ugly argument that led to the group moderators to close down comments. But the sheer pettiness of some of the stuff people get mad at is amazing. None of this is news, but I swear I’m going to avoid FB & Twitter for the rest of the day (and probably the weekend beyond “I’m seeing this movie” posts.)
I haven’t seen Luca Guadagnino’s SUSPIRIA yet, but I was impressed by Thom Yorke’s score. There are some fragmentary tracks consisting of liturgical chanting and the like which probably work better accompanied by the film (assuming it’s any good, which I’m not, although I tentatively plan to see it Halloween), but there’s a mixture of psychedelic rock ballads (complete with sitar) with musique concrete and minimalist music. Speaking of horror films, I’ll be seeing THE FOG for the first time tomorrow night.
You might have seen my FB post on the HALLOWEEN remake/sequel . I agree with you about how weak it is. It feels like a painfully fake and calculated mix of cheap thrills and psuedo-feminism, and David Gordon Green’s stepping into the shoes of a great visual stylist he can’t come close to rivaling.
Having finished reviews of Laura Jane Grace’s forthcoming solo album and the new Coen brothers film and edited my interview with Joseph Kahn, I hope I can devote my weekend to working on my script’s 2nd draft. I still don’t have any ideas for a particularly amazing ending, but I hope having the protagonist crush his cell phone instead of simply yelling “Fuck this!” and throw it against the wall makes a stronger impact, even on the page, especially since this draft has a new scene where he smokes weed and has a fit of paranoia about the camera built into his laptop. I’m trying to amplify the thriller elements and move towards something more conventional than usual for my shorts.
Dennis,
Nice mask stack! I see the pumpkin head from Halloween III, Season of the witch. That movie really freaked me out when I was a kid, the snakes crawling out of the eyes, oh god…
Dennis, how are you?!! How’s the screenwriting going? Does it feel odd to be a screenwriter now? You’re like the Faulkner of Paris, man!
Just wanted to let you know I have a short story collection coming out in May of 2019! It’s being published by an indie publisher, Expat Press, out of Miami. There’s a story in it that I dedicated to you, and to this blog! It’s a story about a boy looking through his record collection, bringing back all these memories as he does so. It’s totally DCs material, I think you’ll like it, Dennis!
I’m still working on my novel, too. It’s become a real behemoth, like that loud drunk stripper you bring home to mom who won’t shut up. I’m hoping to have it finished soon.
Just wanted to drop by and say hello. Love you Dennis.
Love,
James
That mask with the eyes is very fine, Dennis.
I’ve actually come across some of the Brotherhood movies, but have not been brave enough to take a chance.
PGL possibility in SF in February! Very exciting; look forward to more details.
I actually had minimal time in Chicago, so it wasn’t Quimby’s. (Oddly enough, I’ve also scored Molinaro books at Quimby’s in the past!) This was the venerable Jane Addams Books in Champaign:
http://www.janeaddamsbooks.com/about
I would love a Molinaro day! For some reason, she doesn’t get a lot of love these days. Most of her books are out of print, and I’m not about to let my copies loose.
Bill
LOVE!