Recently, I was telling some of my college students about a shift in mass entertainment culture. A few years ago, I told them, I began to feel as if “my time,” and also that of my generation — namely, Generation X — had finally arrived. Somewhere around the turn of millennium, the appearance of things…
Tag: movies
Guillermo del Toro on art, religion, and the primal power of darkness
With the recent round of interviews he’s given in support of the newly released horror film (August 26) Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, which he co-wrote and produced, Guillermo del Toro has reinforced my already-established impression that of all the “major” horror and fantasy filmmakers working today, he’s easily the most reflective and vocally…
In praise of horror movie music, from Bernard Hermann to Goblin to Ennio Morricone to John Carpenter
A recent engaging article from the Guardian pings on a number of my most cherished horror film themes and composers by examining the contributions of, among others, Bernard Hermann, Howard Shore, John Carpenter, Goblin, and Ennio Morricone, and by invoking the cinematic legacy of such directors as Dario Argento, Umberto Lenzi, Tobe Hooper, John Carpenter, and William Friedkin.
Ray Bradbury and Mike Medavoy (producer of BLACK SWAN and SHUTTER ISLAND) adapting ‘Dandelion Wine’ for the screen
This is rather exhilarating news to accompany Ray Bradbury’s imminent birthday (August 22). It also coincides nicely with the the fact that I’ve been listening to a truly outstanding two-hour audio dramatization of his Something Wicked This Comes over the past couple of days (and have been finding that it sharply intensifies my already intense…
Is truly great cinematic science fiction really rare?
In a column at the Guardian today (“Why Hollywood can’t get the hang of science fiction“), Damien Walter, always an astute observer of trends in the speculative genres, claims there are only two truly great SF films, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Blade Runner, because these are the only ones that avoid the Hollywoodistic reduction…
The value of good books and films to human souls and societies
I want to versify the following words, set them to music, and print them in hymnals to be sung in churches. Either that, or have them accompany the national anthem at school assemblies and baseball games. [W]here does one go, exactly, to cultivate âthe capacity of imaginationâ and âthe exercise of imaginationâ? Where, in other…
Can Hollywood help us envision a post-apocalyptic world that’s not so bad?
Everything indeed appears to be lining up in favor of producing a post-petroleum, and therefore post-how-we-live-now, world of the near future. You and I will see and experience the transition within our own lifetimes, if we live what’s now considered a normal span. So here’s hoping. As in, hoping not for Star Trek, and definitely not for Mad Max, but for Mayberry.
The Reanimation — and Rehabilitation — of Walt Disney
Like so many of my fellow Gen-X-ers, I led a childhood that was significantly Disneyfied. The first movie I ever saw, as relayed to me by my parents (since it occurred at an age far too young for me to remember), was Disney’s Cinderella. Beginning at the age of four, I took several trips with…
Sleep Paralysis: The ultimate horror
I’m just going to share these YouTube movie previews with minimal comment, since I have already talked here in the past about my experiences with sleep paralysis. If you’ve never experienced it, be advised that sleep paralysis really is as thoroughly and deeply shattering as the people in these videos make it out to be….
Thomas Ligotti’s horror aesthetic mirrored by — Rob Zombie?
My readers know it’s no secret that I’m compulsively fascinated by the work of literary horror master Thomas Ligotti. As I’ve explained here in the past, I’m also compulsively fascinated by horrorific musical icon and now horror cinema auteur Rob Zombie, for reasons that are more obscure to me. The two fascinations would seem to…