A little Shakespeare, but mostly horror and cult films galore!
Once again, I set my yearly reading goal to 100 books, but I’m already quite a few books behind schedule. I’m sure I won’t hit 100 this year – I didn’t in 2019, only reaching 70 – but I’d like to try. My movie goals include completing the cult film challenge. Last year I participated in the challenge for the first time, watching 84 movies across 52 different themes. I also decided to join the monthly horror hunts (although I won’t be participating in February) and I’m doing a birth year challenge.
The month kicked off with God Speed You! Black Emperor, a documentary about a young Japanese biker gang, and one that I’d been meaning to see for a long time. With the first week in the cult film challenge was watching a biker movie, I had a good excuse to seek this one out. Luckily I found this available on YouTube. God Speed explores a slice of a subculture in a certain time period that we wouldn’t get to see. I really liked its cinema verite style and black and white photography. My favorite band got their name from the film! | Letterboxd
The films I gave the lowest ratings to were Birdemic: Shock and Terror, Loon Lake, and Wicked City. Birdemic received half a star from me as it was absolutely atrocious and well-deserving of its “worst movies ever made” claim to fame. it did make me laugh at times, but mostly I sat there stunned at the horrible production quality, bad acting, and nonsensical story. Loon Lake had so much potential to be a good folk horror but the story collapsed under poor characterization. I’m always on the lookout for new folk horror, so I was really disappointed that Loon Lake didn’t deliver. Wicked City was an interesting pick for Anime Week in the cult film challenge, but I wasn’t too keen on the fairly explicit creature sex. | Letterboxd
A solid three stars were given to The Dead Hate the Living! and Haxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages (1968 version). I gave Haxan three stars because I think the original film is superior. I wil say that actually seeing Haxan, even if it was the re-edit, in a theater was a pretty incredible experience, made even more fantastic because Lucien Greaves of The Satanic Temple was there before the screening to give a presentation on psuedoscience and satanic panic. But I really couldn’t stand the jazz score in this version, which I felt made the imagery more comical than intended. There is also about 30 minutes edited out. I watched The Dead Hate the Living! because one of the January horror hunt tasks was to watch a film with an exclamation point in the title. Actually not an easy task but this film was available for streaming, and its poster art has intrigued me for a while. I think it’s fairly decent comedy horror, clearly made by people who love the genre, and there’s not much else to say about it.
What Did Jack Do? and The Initiation got three and a half stars. It was nice to see something new from David Lynch; only he could make a short film about interrogating a monkey accused of murder and have it be actually good. The Initiation was part of my birth year challenge, and pleasantly surprised me. The main actress carried the film well and the slasher went in directions that I wasn’t expecting.
Lucio Fulci’s The Black Cat, The Stuff, and The Exorcist III were my four-star watches. I’d seen The Exorcist III before, but not since I was a child. I barely remembered the movie except for an early scene in which a priest is killed in the confession booth. I was still active in my church when I watched that scene as a child, and it was why I never went inside those booths. The film has one of the most famous jump scares in the genre, and I think The Exorcist III is one of the best horror sequels of all time. The Stuff is a really fun critique of consumerism and I definitely recommend it. The Black Cat was fun too, but maybe wouldn’t have broad appeal. I’m biased because I love cats and Mimsy Farmer, who stars in the film.
My 4 and a half star films were quite a diverse bunch: Hereditary (rewatch), 1917, Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, and City of the Living Dead (rewatch). I randomly saw 1917 at a theater because my friend had to kill time, and we both loved it. Much has been written about the film and the technique of it appearing to be a single long-take so I won’t bore anyone with that here. I hadn’t seen City of the Living Dead in probably 20 years or so, seriously. The gore in the film is fantastic, as well as the atmospheric dread. Everything was heightened by its pulsating score. Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! was thankfully on YouTube and I watched it for Russ Meyer week in the cult film challenge. I loved it more than I expected – the style, the fierceness, the women. Hereditary holds up for me – I was still shocked by *that* scene – and it was good to watch alongside my sister, who had never seen it.
Lastly, my most favorite films of the month, and the ones I gave five stars. One of them, Midsommar, I’d seen before. It was my third time watching it (actually watched it twice in January). I didn’t intend to do multiple viewings, but my sister wanted to see it while she was visiting, so I couldn’t say no. And finally, my most favorite watch of them all: Don’t Torture a Duckling by Lucio Fulci. I watched a total of three Fulci movies in January because he was the theme for week 4 of the Cult Film Challenge. Duckling is such an engrossing and beautifully dark (thematically) film. Definitely my favorite Fulci and in my top films of all time.| Letterboxd
As for books, I didn’t get much done. I seem to be drifting towards comics/graphic novels. I only got through 4 books, but I’m in progress on quite a few more. I re-listened and read along to Macbeth because I love it so much. I’m on a bit of a Shakespeare kick, so I checked out Look Hamlet, a picture book done in under 100 words that tells the story of Hamlet. It was funny and the artwork was cute as hell. It’s meant for children, but I think adults who like Hamlet would appreciate it as well.
I really enjoyed Harrow County, Volume 1: Countless Haints. It had pretty watercolor art that looked its best in the horror scenes. Beasts of Burden: Wise Dogs and Eldritch Men was my favorite read of the month by far though. I loved the characters (it’s almost all new characters from the previous Beasts of Burden volume) and the story was much darker. Still plenty of adventure, though. Highly recommend that series!
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