Jim Williams - Possessor

I can feel a viewing of Brandon Cronenberg's Possessor on the horizon. I've become quite entranced by the score, which I'd always enjoyed in the context of the film but hadn't completely warmed to as a stand-alone listen. That ended yesterday, when I played the album - and this track in particular - over several times. 

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NCBD:

It's New Comic Book Day! Here are my picks:

The final issue. I still haven't been able to physically acquire issue three, although Mike Shin has a copy for me at Amazing Fantasy in Frankfort. Since I never subbed Syzmon Kurdanski's Blood Commandment at Rick's, it's a toss-up whether or not I actually bring issue four home today. If not, I'll call Mike. 

Not going to lie; I cannot wait to read this issue just based on the cover alone. Something about the image of Lorna Dane in her father's armor just feels like, yeah, something I've always wanted but never put into words or even coherent thought.

James Tynion IV and Josh Hixon's The Deviant continues to spiral deeper into a psycho-social mystery that, although we already know who (or what) the killer is, carries a 

I still can't believe we're three issues from the end. Damn. Looking around online, I've yet to see any concrete information as far as whether the new Jason Aaron series will continue the continuity built up over 150 glorious issues of this series or if it will just restart everything. Hoping for the former, afraid for the latter. 

The cover says it all. I never thought I'd see Optimus Prime wearing Megatron's Canon arm, but then, between everything we've seen in the pages of Daniel Warren Johnson's Transformers and Joshua Williamson's Cobra Commander, I guess I should now just be prepared for a lot of surprises when it comes to these two long-time properties.

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Watch:

I showed K Destroy All Neighbors yesterday. She loved it. So did I; totally holds up upon second viewing.

 

The vocoder hostage negotiation scene is one of the funniest things I've seen in recent years. Directed by Josh Forbes and written by Charles A. Pieper, along with Jared Logan and Mike Benner, this one really arrived at the right time for me. Horror-comedy is a favorite when it's done right, and this does it exactly right. There are so many '90s Oddball vibes in here. Then, of course, factor in Gabriel Bartalos, and you have a straight-up win all around. The prosthetics on Alex Winter are INSANE, and he does an outstanding job acting through them. In fact, there's a fantastic article in the latest Fangoria about this that really peeled back the curtain on some of the production (though not too much to eclipse the overall film). 

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Playlist:

Jim Williams - Possessor OST

Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta II: A Dialogue with the Stars

Genghis Tron - Dream Weapon

Emma Ruth Rundle & Thou - May Our Chambers Be Full

Dream Division - Beyond the Mirror's Image

Tears for the Dying - Memories

Justin Hamline - The House with Dead Leaves

Psychetect - Extremism

Morphine - The Night

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• 0: The Fool

• Eight of Cups

• XIII: Death

A journey starts and almost immediately fails and ends. Rapid prototyping? I have to think about this one for a bit, as depending on how I choose to interpret it, this may be advice on opting out of a project I was planning on releasing soon. I don't feel like said project 'failed,' although I did think it would be done by now. That said, I took a huge jump forward with it, then relaxed because, honestly, I have really lost the thread with Writing since December. I just didn't get very much done in January while I was in L.A., and it's only yesterday that I began actively carving out a workspace for it. 

New Zeal & Ardor!!!

 

Excited to see that, apparently, Zeal and Ardor are now on Sub Pop Records. With this kind of state-side distribution, it should no longer cost an arm and leg in shipping to order their records! Perhaps it was to celebrate that contract, the band just released a two-song single!

What a great day to wake up to! Last few days, no lie, my stress level has had me hovering at the "punch a hole in the window" stage. But I woke up a little while ago feeling fairly refreshed, and now I'm putting the finishing touches on this post, drinking coffee and listening to the new ††† EP, PERMANENT.RADIANT that dropped, counting the hours until I can hit play on Joe Begos' new flick, Christmas Bloody Christmas, now probably my most anticipated film of the year. I'd wanted to drive to Chicago to see it, but after spending $500 at the dentist over the last week, there's just no feasible way to swing that. My hope, though, is that, like Terrifier 2, it makes enough $$$ at the box office this week to see a bigger roll-out next week. If that happens, it's bound to end up here. 

If you need help figuring if Christmas Bloody Christmas is playing by you, here's the link Begos put on his IG - it literally lists every theatre the film is playing. So crazy that, with all the smaller cities its rolling out to, it didn't come to Clarksville. Our Regal, which is pretty good and had Terrifier 2 for almost a month, had the new Martin McDonough and the George A. Romero Dawn of the Dead 3D, but instead of lining CBC up, they still have Prey for the Devil? WTF?

Life is good. If you're having a tough time at any point today, stop and think about the people and the stuff you love. It will HELP!

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Watch:

New Brandon Cronenberg film? Sign me up.

 

I cannot overstate how unbelievably happy I am that we only had to wait about three years for the third film from Brandon Cronenberg. Possessor is still one of my all-time favorites, and with this cast and premise - what little of it may or may not be clear from this trailer - Infinity Pool looks likely to rank pretty high with me as well. Out January 27.

Neon is just a fabulous company, isn't it?

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Playlist:

Fvnerals - Let the Earth be Silent (pre-release singles)

Fvnerals - The Light

Final Light - Eponymous

Greg Puciato - Mirrorcell

Federale - No Justice

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!

The Mysterines - Reeling

H6LLB6ND6R - Side A

Metallica - Hardwired... To Self-Destruct

Metallica - Kill 'em All

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

Ask and ye shall receive your answer: I usually don't specify when I pull, but today I focused on my recent re-engagement with Shadow Play Book 2. The writing comes and goes, mostly rewarding while I'm doing it, then frustrating after. But I keep wondering if this is actually going to work. Well, apparently, if I am strong enough to persevere, I will get my outcome.

The Horror Vision: Quick Spoiler-Free Review of Brandon Cronenberg's Possessor

It's 3:33 AM and I'm exhausted. I've been up since 5:18 AM - woke up late on purpose knowing full well I'd be up well beyond what I am normally capable of on a work night, regardless of the fact that I am off tomorrow. After work, my good friend Ray and I went to the opening night of Beyondfest 2020. Not really opening night, as the rest of the fest doesn't start until 10/02, but still, the crazy MF's that run the fest brought out the big guns for the West Coast Premiere of Brandon Cronenberg's new film Possessor. This was one of if not my most anticipated film this year, and it did not disappoint. This is also only the second time I have hung out in person with a friend since March (last weekend K and I went out to finally see our other Horror Vision host Anthony, his girlfriend, and their new baby), so it was very much a 'win-win.'

Beyondfest is calling this year's festival the "Fuck COVID Edition" and in keeping with that, they obviously were not going to be able to have it at the Egyptian as usual and observe social distancing, so instead, the fest this year is being held at the Mission Tiki Drive-In Theatre. What a great place! Granted, it's 50+ miles from our home, but Ray drove and we made the trip in roughly an hour and twenty (considerably less on the way back), and a fantastic time was had by all. Above is our ten-minute, spoiler-free review on youtube. You can also hear it - and all our other episodes - on any Podcast Platform, including Spotify which, if you look in the upper right-hand corner of this blog, you will see a widget for that will take you directly to the review. 

What we don't discuss on this quick-take episode, but Ray and I both plan to bring up on the next full-length Horror Vision is that tonight's show was a double feature, and the second movie was an old John Frankenheimer film starring Rock Hudson from 1966 called Seconds. This was also fantastic, so here's the trailer:

Okay, I've still got a new Deftones record to try and get through before I go to bed... Nope. I'll save that for tomorrow. 

Isolation: Day 195 - New Zeal and Ardor!

Musick:

Fuck yes! I'm loving these new songs. These plus "Baphomet", whick K and I heard the band premiere live at the Roxy two years ago now, are going to make for a great new set of tunes.

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Watch:

I'll be driving out to Montclair this evening for the Premier of Brandon Cronenberg's new film Possessor, and in celebration of that, last night I rewatched his first film AntiViral.

There is no other film out there like this film. It's a fucking masterpiece, and so much closer to reality than I can believe. However, I remember thinking the same thing when I watched it eight years ago, and since we haven't progressed into this future anymore in that time, I'd have to say Antiviral feels almost like an alternate timeline Earth, albeit one that really brushes up against ours.

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Playlist:

The Veils - Total Depravity

The Thirsty Crows - Hangman's Noose 

Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou - The Valley (pre-release single) 

Zeal and Ardor - Tuskegee (pre-release single)

Ozzy Osbourne - The Blizzard of Ozz

Also, I don't want to sound like I'm kneeling before the algorithm, but this week's Apple Music "Favorites Mix" based on my listening turned out pretty sweet. I spent a good deal of time the last two days with Audible's Sandman adaptation - yes, I'm going through it very slowly to make it last, however, once I hit The Doll's House - my favorite Sandman story and one of my favorite stories ever regardless - I've been unable to get it out of my head. here's that mix:

 

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Card:

A nice inclination for my first night out in the world since this entire 2020 fiasco began. I can't pretend I haven't become a little agoraphobic again, and driving 54 miles out to spend an evening in a drive-in theature, while inherently awesome sounded, fills me with a small modicum of dread. Here's to holding this card's image in my head all day and using it to sooth any 'rough patches.'

Isolation: Day 126 - Brandon Cronenberg's Possessor Gets a Trailer!

I feel as though I've been waiting for this trailer forever. Now that it's here, I really just want the movie. The real shame is, if not for COVID, Brandon Cronenberg's sophomore flick would most likely be premiering at Beyondfest. As it stands, I guess I'll be doing a big VOD event for it when the release is finally announced (please announce soon!)

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Late last week I caught wind of William Lustig's company Blue Underground having released a 3-Disc, 4K Blu Ray edition of Lucio Fulci's House By the Cemetery. I love this flick - while it took me a while to come around on The Beyond and City of the Living Dead (I love both now), House has always been a film that fascinates me. So as soon as I saw this, I ordered it. Pricey, but worth it.

The restoration is, as with all Blue Underground's restorations - gorgeous. If you go to this edition's page on Blu-Ray.com (HERE), you can read about the transfer and see some screen shot comparisons. The second disc is filled with extras, including a lot of interviews with the actors and crew, and the third disc is a CD edition of Walter Rizzati's brilliant score for the film.

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Playlist:

Walter Rizzati - House By the Cemetery OST
Primus - Antipop
M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming
Moderat - II
Perturbator - The Uncanny Valley
Elephant Tree - Habits
Cypress Hill - IV
Flying Lotus - You're Dead!
Nine Inch Nails - The Slip
Agnes Obel - Citizen of Glass
Brainiac - Hissing Prigs in Static Couture
David Lynch and Marek Zebrowski - Polish Night Music

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Card:

Power struggles, internal or external. I'm taking this as a warning that discipline will be needed to fully reintegrate my writing time back into The Secret Life of Murder, now that my belabored short story Fixation on a Coworker is finally finished.

Coworker proved extremely difficult to write; I worked on the thing off and on for a year and three months. I finally brought it in at ~7700 words, then decided I wanted to try submitting it to a publication I recently discovered called Infernal Ink. Some of my stories skew into what I'd call Erotic Horror, and this story especially plays in that arena. There's an overarching theme - or character actually - that runs through these stories, so even though they are stand alone, they're part of a bigger story slowly forming in my head. Anyway, Infernal Ink's submissions cut off at 5K, so I knuckled down and decided to practice one of my favorite parts of writing - editing. I cut the story down to 6K, then down another thousand to 5K.

It felt good! The story as it was is probably perfect at 6K. Chopping it down more wasn't easy, but I eliminated a supporting character arc that originally dovetailed with the protagonist's, eased the throttle back on some of my more descriptive passages, and landed it clean. It was at that point I realized Infernal Ink's submissions are closed, as their upcoming October issue will be the magazine's final issue as they switch gears to focus on book publishing.

Waste of time? Not. At. All. The editing process really bolstered my confidence in a story that otherwise had me running in prosaic circles, and that's never a bad thing. Plus, I found an awesome publisher/magazine in the process (all the issues are on Kindle for under $3).

Brandon Cronenberg's Music Video

I am completely unfamiliar with Animalia's music but this video... wow. The young Cronenberg is definitely keeping his father's 'body horror' alive and well. Antiviral made my best-of films last year. And now this simply made, very effective video. Watching this now I realize that I would very much like a new film by Brandon Cronenberg soon. Please.

Brandon Cronenberg's Antiviral

You know how David Cronenberg's films make you feel really uncomfortable with the concept of your body? The weird mesh of tech and flesh, blood and steel, wire and bone that he manipulates can sometimes be downright horrifying, sometimes freakishly hot and sometimes just WTF. Well, his son Brandon may have outdone him in his first film, Antiviral. I'm embellishing, but not by much. Currently tied with Shane Carruth's Upstream Color as my movie of the year. Antiviral is streaming on Netflix - go check it out (check out the snowcat and the radio while you're at it. Big surprise comin' to you...). But be prepared. It is a bit of a rough watch. Very much worth it though.