Evil Dead: The Musical

Evil Dead: The Musical

Above is a link to an article I wrote recently about the whole Evil Dead Musical experience. Enjoy!

Combat Shock

To me, one of the most exciting things about DVD since it's very inception has been the ability to access films that only a select handful of folks have been able to find (and up till recently only on shoddy bootlegged VHS - take Jodorowsky's catalog, for instance, which has been recently updated to beautiful DVD status...even though Santa Sangre is still in limbo. Humph.). And, not only is this available to the masses via internet outlets and download sites, the films have also been given some much-needed TLC, with picture quality and sound upgrades that are often remarkable, considering the originals the companies have to work with. Screw the blockbusters and the Blu-Ray they rode in on, give me a re-vamped underground cult gem over them anyday.

Case in point, I picked up a copy of Combat Shock on a recommendation from a couple friends who know my exceedingly warped taste in film. And, well, it certainly didn't disappoint. Let me preface this by asserting that I am not exactly the biggest of Troma fans, but given the fact that it was merely a presentation by the company, I wandered into it with high expectations. This DVD marks a re-release of the film, including the theatrical and uncut version (originally known as American Nightmares) and a bevy of extras.

The film revolves around the nightmare life of a Vietnam vet as he adjusts (or absolutely does not adjust) to life back in the real world. He has a wife and deformed child to support, while slowly around him the world unravels and he quietly and quickly loses his marbles. The repurcussions of his flashbacks and nightmares reach a fever pitch when he hits absolute rock bottom. Let's just say the finale is as violent, bloody and downright nihilistic as any I have seen.

I won't get too in depth with a review or anything, other than saying Combat Shock is a definite diamond in the rough. Rarely have I seen a film with this budget meet and surpass it's lofty vision and deliver a unique and thoroughly shocking experience. Of course, you probably know already if this movie is for you, and if so, go out and find it right this second. Anyone else with a passive interest in cult films may find it a bit...outrageous, but it's highly recommended from me. What a great find.

Anatomy of the Living Dead

I was bound to address it sometime, so here goes. What in the hell is it with people and zombies, man? For real! What was once a laughed-at sub-genre of obscure films is now as mainstream as apple pie. Each year there are numerous movies released and each year this number seems to grow. Mainstream books are being written (World War Z, Pride & Prejudice & Zombies...and next up, Abraham Lincoln: Zombie Hunter), video games are sprouting up everywhere (Resident Evil, Left 4 Dead), there are even annual 'zombie walks' where folks raise money for a good cause by...dressing up as zombies and...walking? And at the Fringe Theatre Festival here this season there are two plays centred on the eaters of flesh. Heck, it seems that every freshman filmmaker has to make a low-budg, indie zombie shocker at some point in their career.

Okay, so I admit to being a bit of a snob here. I've been watching and loving zombie movies since i was a kid. I was a zombie more times for Halloween before 15 than most are in their lives. It's admittedly heart-warming to see those flesh-eaters getting so much acclaim as of late, but...why? See, I get the allure of other undead folks, like Vampires. They seem pretty fun and glamorous and stuff. And angsty, too, i guess. And they always seem to have such good skin. But zombies are the exact opposite, save the whole being dead thing.

Experts postulate some theories. Zombies may be a 'mascot' for the global recession and a world threatened by terrorism. In film (and recently in book form), the living dead have always been utilized to lampoon society - the most popular example, Romero's Living Dead Trilogy, is at it's very heart an exercise in social commentary. So it makes some sense that we would understand a zombie outbreak in terms of our own society going to shit. Or, well...I can at least understand that idea. I don't really know if I myself equate the undead with sky-rocketing unemployment and the tanking of the auto industry, but i digress...

For me, I suppose, there is just something inherently zany and plain fun with zombies. There are infinite types and shapes of zombies, and their mindless need for flesh makes for some amazing leaps in special effects make-up and prosthetics. Plus, they represent that quintessential underlying threat of being cornered. Housed in. Every zombie scenario inevitably involves humans holing up somewhere, with undead hands tearing and ripping at their fortifications.

So deep down we're all frightened of dying alone? Is this an indictment of our essential need for freedom? I am not sure, but if this growing genre of pop culture means George Romero will keep making Living Dead films, then count me among the flesh-eating, mindless hordes.


Here's my self-indulgent, personal 'essentials' zombie movie list, in case you wanted to really explore the genre:

• Romero's Dead Trilogy (Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead)
• Zombie (aka Zombi 2)
• Cemetery Man (aka Dellamorte Dellamore)
  
• Re-Animator
• Dead Alive
• The Return of the Living Dead
• Let Sleeping Corpses Lie
• Shaun of the Dead
• Burial Ground: The Nights of Terror
• White Zombie
  
• I Walked With a Zombie
• The Serpent & the Rainbow
• Night of the Creeps
• Tombs of the Blind Dead
  

Upcoming Flicks

Hisss (2009)

Trailer

It is the year 2008, an American man, named George, packing high tech gear, and evil intentions, makes the arduous journey into the heart of the forbidden forest. He captures a male cobra the size of a large python when he's at his weakest, while mating. Little does he realize when they embark on testing this mysterious creature in their high-tech lab, what horror and destruction awaits him....

From the daughter of David Lynch. Looks pretty crazy man. And awesome.

You Knew It Was Coming...

So it's my birthday today, and i suppose I should write a little something in honor of that. Not sure I really care in the grand scheme of things - I don't feel any different than I did yesterday, and with the exception of an impending hangover, tomorrow won't be any different than the usual.

The last couple of years have been a strange experience for me, emotionally and mentally. I feel I've matured more in the last little while than a large portion of my twenties. I stand back more often and observe...reflect...take stock of things. 30 was not a fantastic year for me, but I pushed through hoping that 31 would fair better.

I still feel lost out there though, man. Blank. On a lifeboat with no land in sight. I thought perhaps I'd have a direction or future set-up by now, but it seems that my lack of motivation has been impeding that progression. Actually, no - not lack of motivation, that's not accurate. I am not a lazy person at all. It's more lack of specific want in my life. What I mean is that I have the where-with-all and gusto, but I am totally and utterly lost as to what it is that i should pursue. It's kind of pathetic, but true. And here I sit, single, with a job that has no real future, living in a basement suite.

But strangely, I am not unhappy. Sure, i get as moderately depressed as the next guy, but I have adjusted - things could always be worse, that's for damn sure. But that cold hard acceptance has got to stop somewhere. I feel the foundation cracking. I don't know if there are such things as birthday resolutions, but I'm going to work at it this next year, chipping away at that foundation. I can't be a f*cking House Manager the rest of my life, regardless of how much I love the people around me and often, the job itself.

Anyway, cheers to those lost and humble thirty-somethings out there. Keep pluggin' away and bit by bit things will become clear. I hope so, for my own sake too.

Love, Control, and a Whole Load of BS...

I have a short and thoroughly unprofound philosophy on love and relationships. Maybe this is why I struggle with the physical emotions involved with this whole complicated concept, which are not just 'love' but run the whole gamut from lust to jealousy, envy, hatred and beyond. It's like trying to jam a square peg into a round hole - my philosophy being the peg, real life being the hole. Here, you'll see why:

My deal is this:

You can't control who you fall in love with. Period.

And in turn, you can't just presume someone will fall in love with you. What did Jack say? "Lord knows that this world is cruel, and I ain't the lord, no I'm just a fool, learning lovin' somebody dont make them love you." That's the crux of it, no? There's no rhyme or reason, no master plan to make the ladies or guys drop at your knees. That's what heartbreak is all about. And yes, of course I've fallen for girls who don't reciprocate, and yes it is a bitch, and often the opposite is just as bad. But I am who i am, and unless I do something profoundly stupid, I at least get it. It's me, but it's nothing really specific about me. Kind of understand what I am saying? I don't have the power to change her mind, before or after shit hits the fan.

To a certain extent this lack of control often scares the shit out of me. What if i fall in love with the totally wrong person and get screwed? What if the wrong person falls in love with me? There are so many 'what ifs' that it worries at my head like an itch sometimes.

So then, why do I feel most of the time that finding that 'someone' is just something that happens to all of us? Realistically it is an irrational and nearly impossible concept, given my outline above, but I don't think I'll ever stop obsessively pondering it. And I bet everyone reading this does too - even those already in love have their own set of worries. Love is rarely infinite and unconditional, although we are all hoping for that deep down, aren't we? Hoping for the control to make it so. Frankly, that would be too f*cking easy, and life just doesn't work that way. In fact, when you fall out of love, or conversely, when love f*cking smacks you down in the worst way, you sow that into your soil and you use it to grow stronger roots. Make you more aware. Beef up your arsenal for the next battle. That part you can control, or it will eat you alive.


Optimism hasn't been my strong point throughout my life. But I am learning. Love can screw you over, but you are often not at fault. Love may simply disappear into a puff of smoke after a short time, but it's usually out of your power. Of course, it's all more complicated than my 'philosophy' dictates so heavy-handedly, but it creates a nice fuzzy lens with which to view those events that happen in relationships and heck, at the very least it puts things into perspective at the worst of times.

Funny then how two random people so totally out of control can come crashing into each other seemingly out of nowhere, and fall head over heels like it was meant to be, eh? Huh...that damn square peg again.

Upcoming Flicks

A Nightmare On Elm St. (2010)

Official Site

I hate to be the guy...but this is one remake out of the hordes and hordes and HORDES of horror 'revisionings' that might actually benefit from a face-lift. Don't get me wrong, i love the original, but Freddy was never frikkin' mean enough for my warped tastes. His status as an icon was always bigger and better than the films themselves anyway. Don't believe me? Go watch 2-7 and see what i mean. Eesh.

And frankly, Craven's already bent over and taken it for Last House on the Left and The Hills Have Eyes remakes, so what dif does it make now?

(While on the subject,I am going to have a giant shit fit when Suspiria comes out, just to warn everyone...I may have to lock myself up someplace safe with a big bottle of rye to get past the thought of someone soiling Argento's masterpiece).

Documenting My Love Affair With 70's & 80's Trashy Movies

Anyone who knows me can attest to my love for cheesy, sleazy exploitation films from the 70's & 80's. There is just something insane and hilarious about the way filmmakers envisioned things back then, and how they went about putting these things on film. Anyway, I'm starting a list of things that almost always pop up in films from the era that I find either amazing, funny or just plain bizarre....or all of the above. They just do not make movies like those anymore.

1) Rampant Zoom Lens! - It seemed to be a favorite of the Italian schlock horror, usually characterized by a super-fast pull up to an actor's face or a close-up being yanked away to full frame. For what effect, I am still a little unsure, but any horror movie made in Europe pre-1985 inevitably has some amazing zoom shots. And when I say amazing, I mean...well...horrifically bad and awesome.

Check out the trailer for Fulci's House by the Cemetery below. Zoom everywhere! (NSFW, has a few gory moments)



Or this bad boy, Burial Ground (note the subtle spelling error at the beginning...i love this shit!):



And these are just the trailers! Love it.

Ghosts of Ourselves, The Bitch That is Memory

Ever wonder about ghosts? Real, or not? Fact, fiction, somewhere in between?

I don't really give it much credence myself, other than the odd pang of acceptance or a thoroughly unfounded need to believe. Hell, I love horror movies, and I find there is something in me that at some deep level wants to imagine there are ghosts...while my ridiculously rational side rejects it outright. I am a skeptic by nature. There is always an explanation....or rather, my mind automatically flounders for one. It's silly sometimes. Maybe that's part of the reason i love those films in the first place; they provide fodder for my morbid imagination.

But people, man...people are haunted. Worse than any building or graveyard. More than anything else, people are formed and disformed, twisted and righted, bloodied and bludgeoned by what haunts them. Things that other folks do, or events that unfold around you outside of your control are one thing - but humans are most haunted by themselves. By bad decisions. By missed decisions. By wrong choices; even outcomes of seemingly right ones. Strange. As ultimately lonely beings, the one ghost in our lives that is the most tangible is our own person. I get it. I comprehend that. But what the f*ck is that all about?

You gotta wonder where along the way in our humanity this sort of thing became internalized. I hate things about myself. So do you, I'd be willing to bet. It's like the souls of decisions past stay with us, waiting to be resolved like our glowing friends do in the movies. And, of course, they rarely are resolved. Lost loves never found. Friends, lovers, enemies hurt. Important words not said in time. Missed opportunities. You can forgive others, but how often can you forgive yourself?

I don't know where I was really going with this, other than to say it adds up, whether you can count them all or have forgotten most. They define us. Make us who we are...or just as often, who we aren't. So then, are we just a collection of ghosts? Are our personalities and beings simply years of these strange souls stewed together into some sort of bubbling, frothing witch's brew?

I'd like to think getting older means recognizing these ghosts...those spirits that stay with us like bad omens. If not, then where's the room to grow with a head jammed full of this shit? Ya gotta make space somewhere, and cleaning out those old skeletons seems like a good start to me.

I try to think that, but i don't know if believe it. My mind's grasping for a more rational explanation.

Upcoming Flicks

The House of the Devil (2009)

Trailer

College student Samantha Hughes takes on a babysitting job at a remote mansion. The pay is good, but Samantha quickly realizes that she is trapped. As a lunar eclipse darkens the night sky, her employers carry out a horrific ritual with Samantha at the centre.

Reviews from Fantasia have been really good. Sounds pretty generic, but who knows? I'll certainly be in line if and when it comes to theatres...

Plus, I love that fucking poster. All kinds of win.