* (rerun/Halloween countdown post #18)
* borrowed from Taddle Creek

 

A is for All Hallows Eve, or Halloween. All Hallows, also known as All Saints’ Day, takes place on November 1st. It is a day when Catholics celebrate those who have been beatified. All Souls’ Day is the day after All Saints’. The church decreed it a day to pray for those poor souls in purgatory—spirits suspended between heaven and hell. In the Middle Ages, the days were known collectively as Hallowtide. On the eve of All Souls’, churches would ring bells to scare away the dead. Some churches rang bells all night long.

B is for Robert Burns, the Scottish poet. Burns wrote “Halloween” in 1785. “Some merry, friendly, countra-folks / Together did convene, / To burn their nits, an’ pou their stocks, / An’ haud their Halloween / Fu’ blythe that night.” The poem refers to the Celtic Halloween custom of fortune-telling with nuts and apple peelings. Emigrating Scots brought the custom to Canada. Other Halloween customs carried here by Scots and Irish: bonfires, begging for food door to door, playing pranks on those who would not furnish food.

C is for Caledonian Society. Founded in Canada, in 1855, by affluent Scottish-Canadians, the Caledonian Society held banquets across Canada on Halloween. “We are not divining the future, or burning nuts, or catching the ‘snap apple,’ but [we are] celebrating Scottishness,” a speaker told Caledonians in Montreal, in 1885. In Toronto, George Brown was active in the Caledonians. Halloween here was a night of feasts: besides the Caledonian Society, different regiments of the military held a Halloween dinner, as did colleges at the University of Toronto. A meat market ran this ad on October 29, 1903: “HALLOWE’EN POULTRY. We are having heavy enquiries already.”

D is for Dennison Manufacturing Company. “You would be surprised,” said a young lady in Bookseller and Stationer magazine, in 1924, “how many people give Hallowe’en parties the last two weeks of October.” The young lady worked at a Toronto store. She supervised the crêpe-paper department. Dennison Manufacturing, of Framingham, Massachusetts, was the country’s main maker of crêpe paper. Dennison had a Toronto office in the early nineteen-hundreds. It was located on Wellington Street West. They were the first to sell yellow, orange, and black crêpe paper. They sold crêpe paper printed with owls, bats, jack-o’-lanterns, black cats with arched backs. They published The Bogie Book, the Bible of Halloween party guides. Place cards, Spanish moss, blindfolds, costumes—The Bogie Book told how to make them all from Dennison crêpe paper. Crêpe paper is combustible. The parties were firetraps.

E is for Eaton’s. “Don’t Miss The Hallowe’en Parade,” read an Eaton’s ad in the Toronto Daily Star, in 1929. The Eaton’s Santa Claus Parade involved several floats and many paraders. The Hallowe’en Parade? “A big pompous general will lead Felix, Bluebeard—A gypsy, a Zulu, and other familiar folk in a march around Toyland.”

F is for Frankenstein. Billy Pratt was a British lad. In 1909, he was flunking out of King’s College London. He was studying Chinese customs and languages; he wanted to act. He travelled to Canada and wound his way to Toronto. The Canada Company office found him work in Hamilton. Pratt became a farmer, but after three months, he drifted westward, working as a ditch digger, a tree cutter. Soon he convinced a stock company in Kamloops, British Columbia, to let him join the troupe. He changed his name to Boris Karloff. Karloff was a surname of some of his relatives; Boris was a name he said he “plucked out of the cold Canadian air.” Karloff toured Alberta and Saskatchewan, then he headed to Hollywood. His role as the monster in Frankenstein made him a star.

 

 

H is for Dr. H. H. Holmes. Holmes built himself a hotel in 1893, in Chicago, that boasted, in the words of the crime writer Connie Fillipelli, “iron-plated rooms, secret passages, hidden chutes that ended in the basement directly above zinc-lined tanks, sealed rooms with gas jets, stairways that led nowhere . . . trapdoors, a dissecting table, surgeons’ tools.” The building was a blueprint for every carnival and amusement park haunted house to come. It’s believed Holmes murdered more than a hundred people there. Then he went on the lam, landing in Toronto. He buried more bodies in the basement of a house near Barrie, Ontario. Pinkerton detectives shadowed him. Again he fled. They nabbed him in Boston, tried him in Philadelphia. In 1896 he was hanged.

I is for Isabel Grace Mackenzie. She died in 1917 and was survived by her son, William Lyon Mackenzie King. Mackenzie King became the prime minister of Canada. He hung a portrait of Isabel in his study, and kept it lit night and day. He spoke to her through a Ouija board and a crystal ball. He contacted her during séances. On October 6, 1935, his dead mother communicated the following to him: “Long ago I dreamt that you would succeed Sir Wilfrid Laurier. Long ago I knew God meant you to be prime minister. Long ago I [more than] knew that God meant that you would serve His holy will. Good night.” King was buried beside his mother in Mount Pleasant Cemetery.

 

 

K is for kisses. “Ducking for apples is rather out of late,” said the Everywoman’s Column of the Toronto Daily Star, in 1913. The topic: suggestions for Halloween parties. What did the column recommend? A taffy pull. “For the taffy pull, pull the taffy from buttered plates and save mother’s busy hands next day.” A taffy pull fulfilled two functions: it provided entertainment, and it provided eats. For hosts who didn’t have time to cook candy, stores sold it. At Halloween, a confectioner called Hunt’s sold a “Taffy Sucker, Face on Stand” for a nickel. In 1925, Eaton’s advertised a variety of taffies for Halloween: “peanut crisp, cocoanut and peanut, peanut and butterscotch.” During the Depression, the molasses kiss grew in popularity. No one seems to know why. Maybe molasses was cheaper than the ingredients for taffy? “Just In Time For Hallowe’en Parties,” read an ad from Loblaw’s, in 1933, “HALLOWEEN KISSES.” Fifteen cents bought a one-pound bag.

 

 

M is for David Manners, who played the handsome John Harker in Dracula. Manners was born in Halifax. His real name: Rauff de Ryther Daun Acklom. He studied forestry at the University of Toronto, and acted at Hart House Theatre. He hightailed it to Hollywood, where James Whale spotted him at a party. Whale cast him in his directorial debut, Journey’s End. Manners went on to work with directors Frank Capra and George Cukor. Tod Browning cast him in Dracula. In The Mummy, Manners played opposite Boris Karloff. In The Black Cat he starred with both Bela Lugosi and Karloff. He eventually abandoned the movies. Some suggest he quit, in part, because his studio suggested he marry a woman (Manners was gay). Retiring from acting, he retreated to the California desert. He wrote novels, and died in 1998. Horror movies, he once said, were his “only claim to movie fame.”

N is for noise. Making noise was at the heart of Halloween in its early days. Revellers tossed rocks and mud at windows and doors. They crafted noisemakers from tin cans, wooden spools, roofing tiles. A mid-century Halloween package produced for Canadian schoolteachers included instructions for making a Halloween megaphone. As early as 1900, Halloween noisemakers were being produced in Germany and exported to the United States. Styles for sale included horns, rattles, cranks, snappers, and clappers. “Weird Spirits a-gamboling,” said a 1913 ad for Mason and Risch Limited, of Toronto. “Witch Caps—Pumpkin Heads—Dominoes—Flowing Robes—Holed-Out Eyes. Strange phantasies they are! Yet, who and WHAT are they? Listen, then, they are the phantom witcheries of Hallowe’en!” The ad was peddling the Victor Victrola. “To sit snugly around the open fire, revelling in all the mystic rhythms of this bewitching fairyland of Hallowe’en, conjured up so wonderfully by the little Victrola, will make the evening’s frolics complete!” Which mystic rhythms did the store recommend? “The Dance o’ the Fairies,” “Peer Gynt,” and “Will-of-the-Wisp.”

P is for Philip Morris. In the nineteen-fifties he toured across Canada performing in a ghost show—a magic show with supernatural and horrific effects. His stage name: Dr. Evil. To garner publicity, he’d arrive early in a town and pull stunts. Drive a car blindfolded. Raffle off a “dead body.” The dead body was a frozen chicken. The R.C.M.P. once arrested him for dressing as a gorilla in public. Years later he invented an artificial spiderweb made of cloth. He made a killing.

Q is for Kew Beach. In 1945, Halloween hooligans burnt bonfires on Queen Street East. To feed the fire, they tore down fences and gates. Police were called. When they rode up on horses, they were pelted with stones and bricks. Hooligans blocked fire trucks with piles of concrete blocks. Thirteen troublemakers were taken in. A mob of seven thousand marched on the Main Street police station, hell-bent on springing the hooligans. Police cruisers rushed to the scene with tear gas. Water cannons dispersed the rioters. Five firemen were injured, as were a couple of cops.

R is for rides. Leon Cassidy needed a “dark ride.” In 1928, Cassidy was the co-owner of a small amusement park in New Jersey. Lots of amusement parks had an “old mill” ride: boats floated riders down canals decorated with scary scenery. Cassidy couldn’t afford to build a boat ride. So he put dodgem cars on a twisted track in a darkened pavilion. The Pretzel, he called it. It was a sensation. He started the Pretzel Amusement Ride Company to provide Pretzel rides to amusement parks across the continent. In 1930, he came to Canada. He put down a floor base at the Canadian National Exhibition. He laid tracks on the base, then covered them in a black tent, covered by another tent. It was probably the first cartable dark ride on a midway anywhere.

S is for slogans. “Trick or treat!” It’s what children scream on Halloween. But “trick or treat” didn’t become the customary catchphrase in Toronto until sometime around the Second World War. Before then, kids yelled, “Shell out!” “HALLOWE’EN” said an ad for a grocery store chain, in 1929, “with its joyous merriment. . . . SHELLIN’ OUT to the district cut-ups, guessing who the strange figure is who knocks on your door.” From a Loblaw’s ad during the Depression: “When You Hear the Ultimatum! SHELL OUT. Be Ready with LOBLAW’S HALLOWE’EN KISSES.”

T is for Bill Tracy, a sculptor and engineer from New Jersey. In the nineteen-fifties, he revolutionized carnival dark rides by adding supernatural back-glows, glow-in-the dark stunts, trompe l’oeil to the decor. He created themed rides like the western ghost town and the haunted pirate ship. Sadly, he never invented safety features, like fire escapes. Wiring was makeshift. His rides tended to go up in flames. Very few still stand. The dark ride at Toronto’s Centreville Amusement Park—the Haunted Barrel Works—is decorated in a distinctly Tracy mode. And it is safe.

U is for University of Toronto. According to the historian Keith Walden, spontaneous Halloween celebrations erupted on campus in 1884. Students marched into the downtown core, singing, shattering lampposts, egging Eaton’s. Police dispersed them. Torontonians complained. The parade became an annual event. In 1899 students barged into the peanut gallery at Massey Hall, disrupting the evening’s performance. Veterinary students dangled dead horse parts over the balcony. Medical students banged human arm and leg bones. Some students slit open a political effigy, showering the audience below with chaff, hay, and excelsior. Hector Charlesworth, the future editor of Saturday Night, was sitting in the pit. His suit was ruined.

 

 

W is for whoopee cushion. In the early twentieth century, an American named S. S. Adams invented a plethora of classic pranks: dribble glasses, joy buzzers, sneezing powder. In 1930, a Canadian “rubber concern” approached him with a new novelty—a bladder that made a farting sound when someone sat on it. The rubber concern? The Jem Rubber Company, headquartered in Toronto, on Dundas Street West. It produced parts for printing companies. Adams turned down the fart cushion, so Jem manufactured it on its own. It was green, with a wooden nozzle. Stamped on the face was a picture of a Scottish lad. He sported spurs and a sporran, and carried a rifle. Wouldn’t bagpipes have been the obvious visual pun? The whoopee cushion was a sensation, even during the Depression. Adams ended up coming out with a copy of the Canadian cushion—the razzberry cushion, he called it.

X is for XEPN, a Mexican border-blaster radio station near the Rio Grande. In the late nineteen-twenties and early thirties, Bob Nelson and his brother Larry hosted an astrology show on the station. Listeners sent in a dollar and, in return, the Nelsons sent them a mimeographed horoscope. The Nelsons also operated Nelson Enterprises, of Columbus, Ohio, which supplied mediums and mentalists with fake fortune-telling equipment—mind-reading codes, mechanical crystal balls, two-way radios that could be concealed under capes or in turbans. “Be it distinctly understood,” said their 1931 mail-order catalogue, “that all effects described in this catalogue are accomplished by normal means, and are entirely divorced from any supernatural or supernormal powers.”

Y is for yellow. “Green and red have come [to] be the Christmas colors,” said a newspaper article from 1925, “just as black and yellow tell us of Hallowe’en.” An article in Bookseller and Stationer, from 1925, advised those celebrating Halloween to obtain “yellow and black crêpe paper for decorative purposes.” In 1927, an ad for crêpe paper in that same magazine recommended “Orange and Black for Hallowe’en.” In coming years, orange and black would come to be considered the Halloween palette par excellence. What changed? Why did yellow fade out and orange fill in?

 

 

*

p.s. Hey. It has become an annual tradition here that Halloween on the blog isn’t itself without the reposting of Derek McCormack’s beautiful ‘Halloween ABCs’, maybe like when broadcast television was the big show and yearly Xmas showings of ‘The Wizard of Oz’ were de rigeur. So this year the blog is seeing out the holiday’s build up in that most appropriate manner. Absorb all the timely pleasure it provides, please, and my recurring and eternal thanks to Mr. McCormack. ** Shane Christmass, Hi, Shane. Nah, ‘Rubber’ is a solitary weirdo, I think. I too think Gysin had very interesting ideas and was an interesting fella, but he wasn’t a good writer. Excellent painter, though. Happy almost Halloween, man. ** Quinn R, Hi, Quinn. Oh, yeah, anxiety and me are begrudging pals, for sure. For instance right now with the confinement kicking in. I think the Gysin review must be in ‘Smothered in Hugs’, but I’m not totally sure. I hope you and your guy find a treasure or two in the post. Afloat I am. Keep bobbing on the surface of your worldly mess too. xo. ** David Ehrenstein, Hi. The horror genre seems virtually bottomless. ** Golnoosh, Hi, Golnoosh! Lovely to see you! Thanks about the confinement. It is not easy, but it will be survived by necessity. Keep forging safely through the UK’s own chaotic attempt to thwart. Oh, I just got Julia’s book in the post yesterday. Thanks a lot for sending it. I really look forward to reading it. My grim Halloween will be spent locked in my apartment, but I’ll try to make do with some horror movies, I guess. I hope yours will be more externalised and festive. Sending love right back to you. ** Bill, Hi. Yes, props to TheNeanderthalSkull. Savvy human. I already look back fondly on the curfew. Now I’m a prisoner allowed a single 1-hour-long daily furlough within a strict 1 kilometer distance from my cell. But what can one do. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi. Well, I handled it for two months starting in March, so it’ll get handled, I guess. What do I know, but I think as long as pubs, etc. remain open, you guys are not going to rid yourselves of this. Hope I’m wrong. ** Steve Erickson, Hi. Well, to try to be objective and logical, COVID is spreading here much faster and more violently than it was when we were confined in March. There is a case, even maybe a solid case, to be made that the right approach is to just go all the way and try to kill it once and for all. The piecemeal approach of semi-closing up is nothing but a compromise, and, as you guys in the US can certainly attest, it doesn’t work in the end. So maybe this is the way to go. We’ll see. It’s just really hard to deal with, although I and everyone will adjust because humans naturally do. My big dread is that they say it’s only for a month, but it’s obvious it won’t be. If COVID is worse now than in March when we were confined for two months, it’s pretty naive to think it’ll die off more quickly now. God, I hate media generalisations. France has a real Islamophobia problem. So does every country in Europe. Ours is newsworthy at this moment because of the Charlie Hebdo caricatures-related beheading of the other week and now the Nice killings and Macron’s heavy-handed, insensitive response which has only exacerbated things. It’s a real problem that needs to be addressed in a fundamental, dedicated way by the government. But France is not ‘tearing itself apart’. That’s a simplistic, overheated spin of the type that the US media seems to always employ when addressing problems in other countries. Well, and in the US too, obviously. I haven’t heard the new Oneohtrixpointnever album, no. I want to. I hope the fun and weirdness and off base strengths of his earlier work is still present. ** Marcus, Hi, Marcus! I love your avatar, btw. Glad you’ll get to be transformative for Halloween. Thanks about the confinement. I just read that Melbourne finally lifted its lockdown after it being there forever, and I really shouldn’t complain comparatively. Happy that Diarmuid’s book is proving useful. Yeah, what are you working on right now or recently? Will there be evidence for us overseas types? Take care, man. ** Brian O’Connell, Hey, Brian. I haven’t seen ‘Ganja & Hess’, but ‘Rubber’ and ‘Tetsuo’ are both blasts. Yeah, cases have severely spiked here. It’s worse than it was earlier in the year. Like I said to Steve, there is logic in just going whole hog and attempting to kill the thing rather than trying to trip it up in little ways to keep people happy. So I get the reasoning, but it’s hard on the soul or whatever. Thanks for the thoughts. I can’t imagine the US will go this far because people would riot in the streets, but, just in case, enjoy the freedoms you have du jour. And have a lovely day in any case. ** Right. You are in the capable imagination of Derek McCormack today, and act accordingly, and thank you. See you tomorrow.

* (Halloween countdown post #17)

______________
Quentin Dupieux Rubber (2010)

‘Rubber tells the simple and often humorously demented tale of an ordinary car tire that magically comes to life in a junkyard, only to roll its way into a nearby populated desert town and kill various people who confront it through what seems to be a kind of telekinetic power.

‘This very simple yet fascinating and funny concept is played out in a fairly realistic, deadpan way but with a heightened sense of theatricality for its most violent moments. The tire kills several policeman in a similar way that Rutger Hauer’s nameless character in The Hitcher manages to rampage through the landscape with no remorse.

‘But while Hauer is clearly a human being who acts like a soul-less killing machine, the tire, on the other hand, is obviously not human, yet strangely enough when it uses its telekinetic powers to kill the viewer’s impulse is to somehow project an idea of human emotion onto it. Is it angry? Does it seek revenge for being dumped in a junkyard? No real explanation is given.’ — Michael Okum

Trailer

Opening scene

Watch ‘Rubber’ VOD here

 

________________
James Quinn Flesh of the Void (2017)

‘Flesh of the Void is a terribly disturbing experimental horror film about what it could feel like if the act of dying truly were the most horrible thing one could ever experience, instead of the peaceful fading many think of. It is intended as a trip through the deepest fears of human beings, exploring its subject in a highly grotesque, violent and extreme manner. Shot entirely on 16mm and Super 8, including an entire segment (Act I) that was shot on Kodachrome. Written and directed by James Quinn.’ — Sodom & Chimera Productions

Trailer 1

Trailer 2

Watch ‘Flesh of the Void’ VOD here

 

________________
John Parker Dementia (1955)

‘Dementia is the only film of obscure director John Parker. The shooting ended in 1953 but the premiere did not take place until 1955. In order to skip censorship they made four different versions of the film.

‘For several reasons, this little jewel has become a cult film. There is not need to take present day indie cinema seriouly, Dementia was produced with the director’s mum’s savings and most of the cast were amateur actors or just non-actors, as is the case of protagonist Adrienne Barrett who allegedly was the director’s secretary and did not perform in any further films. The film is fascinating and upsetting with a photography that takes us to Edgar G. Ulmer’s low cost noir cinema, German expressionism and Buñuel and Dali’s surrealism.

‘Bruno VeSota seemed Ordon Welles’s doppelganger and was the most experienced member of the cast. Allegedly, he even had a deep influence in the final result of the film. In 1955 he directed a noir, Female Jungle, with Lawrence Tierney, Jayne Mansfield and John Carradine. Later on, he used to work for Roger Corman and directed The Brain Eaters (1958) and Invasion of the Star Creatures (1962), two essential works for psychotronics film lovers.’ — Molins Film Festival

Trailer

The full film

 

________________
Jon Rafman Mainsqueeze (2014)

‘Honestly, I could not recommend that you watch Mainsqueeze, a short film made out of collaged YouTube-Instagram-et-cetera videos and screenshots by the hip and genuinely talented Jon Rafman. I can say that it remains one of the purest and most visceral expressions of a very modern —standing in for Reddit-savvy — kind of horror that I’ve ever seen. I should admit, too: there are parts of it I’ve never seen, due to the fact that Rafman cuts in clips from online fetish videos for “crush” fans, in which crayfish are unkindly and unethically destroyed by high heels. That you can’t “unsee” is, for a horror fan, an occupational hazard. Faked-up pseudo-violence, I can take; real violence — even on crustaceans fated to be eaten — I refuse to.

‘Otherwise, this is a cruel and clever sewer-slew of web memes, ugly images, and deep web junk. It makes a broken washer-dryer into something out of hell. It adds a drone to passed-out sharpie pranks, and makes the prankees look like casualties of war. A fat man in a frog suit, hogtied in Shibari style, is seen to writhe against a sound-scape of dogs barking, ticking clocks, and car alarms, which would be funny if it were not so unsettling and I-should-not-be-seeing-this surreal. “Do you ever wonder,” asks a dreamy, electronic voice, “if rocks are actually soft, and tense up when we touch them?” This sounds existential — actually, it comes from Tumblr. Maybe both things are not, per this artist, mutually exclusive.’ — Horror Bakers Dozen

The full film

 

________________
Graham Reznick I Can See You (2008)

‘While I Can See You is a challenging experience due to its lack of a clearly defined narrative or any palpable sense of clear motivation for many of the characters’ actions, there is still a healthy measure of mischievous fun and playfulness to what little story it does engage the viewer in.

‘It seems that many indie filmmakers see the vague plot template of “bad things happen in the woods” laid down by so many slasher films from the 80s as a blank canvas for them to unleash their unbridled creativity and I Can See You is no exception. Little explanation is given for the spiral into hallucinatory madness that the viewer is privy to here, but Reznick and his game cast and crew certainly are willing to boldly experiment with the horror genre.

‘Wild psychedelic visuals, creative lighting, sound design and editing choices as well as a generous bit of theft from David Lynch’s bag of strange cinematic tricks set this film apart from your average “no frills” indie horror exercise which makes I Can See You even more of an exceptional viewing experience to be had.’ — Taste of Cinema

Trailer

Excerpt

Watch ‘I Can See You’ VOD here

 

_________________
Peter Tscherkassky Outer Space (1999)

‘Using scenes from Sidney J. Furie’s infamously nasty 1982 film The Entity as a starting off point, Tcherkassky uses film as a screen, re-projecting the fragment over itself in stark overlays. The Entity (based on the factual Doris Bither case that is every bit as disturbing as the film) presents the story of a sexually abusive apparition in a woman’s home in 1980s America in the mode of other slick phantasmagorical thrillers of the time and, perhaps unsurprisingly, plays out like Poltergeist manifested at a back street porn cinema: grimily smutty, arguably exploitative, and genuinely nasty in its presentation of violence (sexual and other) — a point that’s only exaggerated in the polish of its relatively high production values.

‘Passing through into Tscherkassky’s non-space of obsessive reflection, actress Barbara Hershey re-enters a house that’s been turned into a weapon against her — supposedly a familiar and safe space that is benign in its domesticity — only to find it expand around her, casting off an infinite mirror-world of generational decay. Through his process, Tscherkassy doubles-down on the feelings of everyday isolation and fear, and frees the film from any diegetic sense of meaning, insisting the viewer confronts both its dissolution and ultimately its integral parts with a stunning force, and moving the source material into the purism of the avant-garde.’ — Thogdin Ripley and Philippa Snow

Trailer

The full film

 

_________________
Bill Gunn Ganja & Hess (1973)

‘The opening scenes of most films intended for commercial distribution tend to ease viewers into their fictional worlds, introducing protagonists, defining the context in which these protagonists exist, hinting at experiences they will subsequently undergo. Bill Gunn’s Ganja and Hess (1973) does precisely the opposite. By the time its opening credits finish playing, we will already have read a series of onscreen texts referring in the past tense to events which have not yet occurred, heard a voiceover narration from a minor character (which also evokes future situations retrospectively), listened to a ballad which outlines the film’s supernatural mythology, encountered novelistic chapter headings, seen close-ups of paintings, watched documentary-style footage of a church service, and been subjected to a barrage of disjointed editing techniques which obscure rather than clarify – at least, that is, if we believe the clear exposition of narrative to be a sine qua non for works ostensibly outside the experimental or avant-garde traditions.’ — BFI

Trailer

The full film

 

_________________
Adam Wingard Pop Skull (2007)

‘Pop Skull takes the general shape of a revenge thriller but filters it through the drug-distorted point of view of its main protagonist Daniel. Inevitably we’re given an up close and personal view of Daniel’s descent into madness while he pops all manner of that help to distort his already crumbling reality. Along the way he also seems to be influenced by ghostly visions of prior violence and murder that happened near his home.

‘Pop Skull is a film that again demands a certain amount of open-mindedness from the viewer. But anyone willing to let its dark brooding mood seep in will be rewarded with an experience that really does get under the skin and feel like an authentic downward spiral into insanity. Plus the film boasts some impressive camera work and psychedelic visual distortions while Daniel trips out on drugs. And there’s also some really great music tracks from the experimental noise-punk group “The Liars” filling out the background.’ — Parasite

Trailer

The full film

 

________________
Shin’ya Tsukamoto Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989)

‘Before addressing Shinya Tsukamoto’s fierce cyberpunk horror Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989) in detail, a warning. Despite its family-friendly title, parents should take great care not to confuse this modern Japanese classic with the similarly titled Marvel superhero film. Almost every scene of Tsukamoto’s 67-minute lunacy involves graphic depravity completely unsuitable for children. And more power to it for that.

‘Tsukamoto wastes few seconds of his greyhound-lean runtime before showing us the ‘metal fetishist’ (played by Tsukamoto himself) inserting lengthy iron rods of substantial girth into his body. When maggots congregate around the noxious wounds, he goes insane and sprints from his grim industrial hovel along a desolate road, where he’s run over by the ‘salaryman’ (Tomoro Taguchi) out driving with his girlfriend (Kei Fujiwara). The pair hide the corpse, but the salaryman is soon tormented by demented dreams and, far more seriously, a gradual metamorphosis into a living heap of scrap metal.’ — Lou Thomas

Trailer

The full film

 

_______________
Ronny Carlsson Regissören (2011)

‘Shot mostly as a first person shooter film, we come into the story as the director is trying desperately to get his low budget film made. Actors keep flaking and dropping out, and he gets more angry and frustrated as time goes on. The director so wants to finish what he feels will be his last project.

‘This is Mr. Carlsson’s first feature length film and is described by the director as an experimental film. That it is, to be certain. It’s hard to grasp at first. To be honest, I was halfway through it before I finally realized what I was watching.

‘It took me a while to figure it out, but there are actually three stories going on here. Each vignette relates to something in the previous vignette, creating a connected story. Then of course, there are the in-betweeners following the director’s story in trying to get this thing made. Then there is an overall story being told by both the vignettes and the video diaries together that follows the themes of the prequel short films. It’s really genius, and amazingly clever.

‘I don’t see this as a horror film as much as it might be a phsychological exploration of some sort. Yes, there are horror elements in it. But viewers should be prepared for some really uncomfortable and disturbing scenes. I don’t think this film is for everybody.’ — HNN

The full film

 

_______________
Jordan Harris, Andrew Schrader Fever Night aka Band of Satanic Outsiders (2009)

‘I have not seen Band of Outsiders, the Godard film from which Fever Night obviously derives its subtitle, and thus it would be very difficult for me to compare and contrast the two. And yet what I know of Godard films definitely strikes a chord when I watch Fever Night; there’s the same general plotlessness, the same overacting, the same feeling of discontinuity from scene to scene. And I have to say that I like it better here than I do in Godard, but not much.

‘I think there’s a plot, kind of, and I think it goes like this: three Satanists, Elliot (Peter Tullio in his first screen appearance), Warren (Doilie’s Diner’s Philip Marlatt), and Terry (Poker Run’s Melanie Wilson, also debuting), head out into the woods to conduct some sort of ritual. (The director’s synopsis on IMDB says they actually go through with it; if so, it’s a very subtle ritual, because I didn’t even notice.) Then Terry disappears. While Elliot and Warren are trying to figure that out, they see a dim light through the trees and pursue it, hoping to find some help (or Terry, maybe).

‘…and the majority of the movie is Elliot and Warren following this light and arguing with one another. If that’s not Godardian, I don’t know what is. Horrid memories of forcing myself to sit through Pierrot le Fou, but if both of the main actors were male. And not in a car. Wilson is cute, though for obvious reasons she doesn’t get a great deal of screen time, and there are some mildly amusing bits (which is better than I can say for Godard), but overall, this one will confuse you while boring you senseless at the same time.’ — Robert Beveridge

Trailer

Excerpt

Watch ‘Fever Night’ VOD here

 

_________________
Karim Hussain Subconscious Cruelty (2000)

‘A couple of days ago, the censorship did not allow the exhibition of “A Serbian Film” in Rio Fan Festival 2011 in Rio de Janeiro. A friend of mine mentioned that “Subconscious Cruelty” was another polemic film and I decided to watch it.

‘”Subconscious Cruelty” is indeed gruesome, gory, sick and disturbing, and one of the nastiest and pointless films I have ever seen. The film is divided is segments and it seems that the only intention of the director is to shock the audiences with a confused narrative and disconcerting impressive images. Paradoxically, the music score is very tender and beautiful.

‘Ovarian Eyeball – In the first segment, a naked woman is sliced by a sharp blade and an eyeball is removed from her belly. This surrealistic short is absolutely senseless. Human Larvae – in this second segment, a deranged man that hates his sister that is pregnant kills her newborn offspring and she during the delivery. This short is one of the sickliest films I have ever seen. Rebirth – in this third segment, a group of naked people rolls around mud and blood in another pointless segment. Right Brain/Martyrdom – in this last incomprehensible segment, there are the visible intention to offend the Christians with religious symbolism associated with gore and sex.’ — claudio_carvalho

Trailer

The full film

 

_______________
Ivan Zulueta Frank Stein (1972)

‘Zulueta’s peculiar singularity of vision points ultimately toward the digital dream of instant access to all components, as he doubly reconfigures James Whale’s 1931 classic Frankenstein by playing it at speed — reducing the runtime to under 4 minutes — and crossing the boundary between the televised and the filmed. In demolishing both form and narrative in such a well-known film, Zulueta transforms it, transposing the lumbering creature feature into an exploration of time and the authenticity of the camera’s gaze.’ — The Quietus

The full film

 

_______________
Calvin Lee Reeder The Oregonian (2011)

‘This is an unheralded masterpiece that came and went sadly enough and is as anonymous as any other surreal experimental film. But I imagine the director Calvin Reeder not expecting to get rave reviews anytime soon. Sure, like many reviewers point out here on Letterboxd you can make reasonable comparisons between “The Oregonian” and the works of Brakhage and Lynch but Reeder still manages to chisel out a movie that is perhaps better described as a surreal essay with its own artistic merits.

‘”The Oregonian” is decidedly unconventional, impressionistic (I’m using the more apt literary term here) and drenched with unpleasant, buzzing and squeaking sounds and unsettling, hypnotic visuals. In other words: elements that are perhaps not uncommon in art-films but rarely utilized in horror movies. “The Oregonian” doesn’t shy away from being inaccessible and bewildering. I must admit though that the lo-fi soundtrack greatly explains my affection for this weird little movie. I just love the music.

‘It’s hard to summarize this movie plot-wise but a woman is introduced early on that presumably has been the victim of a horrible car accident. (I’m recounting this from memory) The woman that I suppose is the titular Oregonian staggers out of her demolished car with a large wound on her forehead. She sees two bodies lying on the ground, in front of the wrecked car giving indication that she might be responsible for the accident. Moving further into the isolated landscape she finds herself in she encounters a bizarre old lady, all sorts of menacing individuals and a man dressed in a furry green monster costume. Yes I know, this all sounds ridiculous but it works.’ — Nicolas @ letterboxd

Trailer

Watch ‘The Oregonian’ VOD here

 

 

*

p.s. Hey. Today a silent reader of this blog who chooses to tag himself as TheNeanderthalSkull has put together a super swell and excitingly akilter Halloween movie marathon for you guys. Every selection is either available to watch right here via an embed or can be viewed via a provided link. So don’t feel like you have to settle for the usual Romero/ Carpenter/ Hooper/ etc or giallo suspects, you’ve got a great pile up of far afield Halloween-worthy viewables right here at your fingertips, thanks to our thoughtful guest-host. Enjoy the show, pass wordage along to TheNeanderthalSkull if you don’t mind, and thank you, and thank you, kind curating sir! ** David Ehrenstein, Yes, yesterday’s post was like an XRay of a QAnon nutball’s wet dream. Everyone, Mr. E’s big sale including that framed, signed Scorcese poster, is still yours to raid. Hit him up. ** Misanthrope, Hi, G. Makes sense, not surprised about Kayla’s confusion on the eyes. I’ve never understood that belief or obsession or whatever with earning one’s parents love and respect above all others. The urge is a mystery to me. ‘Different’ by some means or other should always be the by-word, so … cool. I don’t think you can fuck up a zombie look. The only failure would lie in being too discrete and polite. ** Tosh Berman, Hi, Tosh. Yes, I agree, obviously. I do know Rampo’s work. I might have a done a post ages ago, I can’t remember. The vast majority of the guro shown here yesterday was made by Japanese folks. Sad about Diane Di Prima, and I should have figured your parents knew her. I almost had her read at Beyond Baroque during my tenure, but she cancelled for for forgotten reasons. That is a remarkable and extremely intense image: that funeral you attended. Wow. I had no idea that was a practice. Wow. ** Bill, Ha ha, well, I suspect some edibles were consumed before those artists laid those images down. Yes, re: the lockdown, we got the worst possible outcome. Starting at 8 pm tonight, we reenter total confinement like in March until at least the beginning of December. Everything closes excerpt supermarkets and pharmacies, and we need a signed govt. permission slip to leave our apartments. I’m in shock. I never thought we would have to go back to that. People here are very angry. This is by far the most extreme anti-COVID measures in Europe if not worldwide. I think it’s completely excessive and destructive. I feel totally unprepared for this and really psychologically crushed. I think everyone does. It’s truly shocking. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. Ha ha, yes. New Actress, right. I need to get that too. Gotta be good. ** Quinn R, Hi, Quinn. That’s very interesting and cool about your dad’s entrepreneurial necktie venture. Hey, no one thought vinyl records would return to having any currency, so you never know. I read your review. It’s very thoughtful and delving and intelligent and everything it needs to be, I think. Andrew is actually a good pal of mine. I just hung out with him four days ago. So reading the review was emotionally complicated in a very interesting way. I haven’t read ‘Skyland’ yet, and I don’t know what Andrew thinks, but I think any writer should or even would be honoured to have their work so carefully and deeply studied and discussed. I know I would, if my book were that review’s subject. Anyway, try not to sweat what blow back you’ve gotten. I’ve been there with reviews I’ve written. Once I wrote a very negative review of Brion Gysin’s collected writings, and his fan base went nuts, wrote vicious letters to the editor of the venue I wrote it for trashing me and urging them to never let me review for them again, berated me in person, etc. It was unpleasant, but then it passed. One last curious thing: Andrew is actually a huge fan/player of Roller Coaster Tycoon, so that was funny. I liked the latest Yves Tumor a lot. He’s one of the extremely few artists who made really experimental work, which I love, and then began working with more familiar elements at a certain point without disempowering his work thereby at all. Yeah, I like his stuff a lot. Have a terrific day, man. ** Steve Erickson, Hi. Yes, see my comment to Bill. As I said, the measures couldn’t be more restrictive, and everyone is shocked and pissed off, and it’s very depressing. Enjoy what freedoms you have right now as much as you can. Well, throat-wise, I guess that’s the best case scenario, so good. The best guro has whimsy in it, and I’m never exactly sure whether the artists intend that. Well, some obviously do, but … ** Brian O’Connell, Hi, Brian. Happy it interested you. I’m always very interested in how extreme things are portrayed, how artists attempt to circumvent the inherent shock factor, how they choose to render something so volatile, what approach has what effect, etc. Thanks for checking out Gisele’s and my work. ‘Kindertotenlieder’ is my personal favorite among the pieces we’ve made. I hope you’ll get to see something live at some point. I think once the current hell on earth has finally ascended, there will ideally be an occasion. I hope your Thursday is a million times better than mine is destined to be, which won’t be too hard, ha ha. ** Okay. Enjoy the movies. See you tomorrow.