Showing posts with label Re-Animator. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Re-Animator. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 25, 2020

RIP Stuart Gordon



To quote Tod Ashley, they're droppin' like flies right now. This one hits hard. I love Stuart Gordon's movies. I loved that I was able to see him in person - briefly - at the Steve Allen Theatre back in 2011, when he directed the Re-Animator: The Musical there. I love Re-Animator and Bride of Re-Animator (the latter admittedly had Brian Yuzna at the helm, but it was still Gordon's movie). I love From Beyond. I love King of the Ants. I love Dagon. I love his Dreams in the Witch House. This sucks. Rest in Peace, Mr. Gordon. Hopefully Herbert won't be stealing your remains and attempting to bring you back to life as some ghoulish creature of the night. But then again, if he does, it'd make a good movie!

Tuesday, January 8, 2019

2019: January 8th - New Sharon Van Etten!



From her forthcoming album Remind Me Tomorrow, which Jagjaguwar drops on the 18th, same day as the new Thirsty Crows record. Pre-order HERE.

I've fallen back on Gang of Four's Return the Gift pretty hard. I know most folks do not agree with me on this, but I will take the 2012, re-recorded versions of all these classic Gang of Four songs over their originals any day. Part of this is probably because I discovered Gang of Four waaaaay after the fact - early 00s - and only ever knew the album That's Entertainment as one of their albums, i.e. a collection of songs fit together as an overall work, and never knew it that well to begin with. I don't want to belabor the point, but here's an A and B of my favorite song on an album that is pretty much full of "favorite songs."

1982:



And the 2012 version:



I didn't live and love with this original version - from the album Songs of the Free - so I don't have a horse in that race. I just think the up-tempo, almost Pop approach and the slamming recording of the '12 version is a much better representation of what the band seemed to be going for with the song.


The Arrow Video release of Stuart Gordon's Re-Animator contains a feature-length, making-of documentary titled Re-Animator Resurrectus. I can't recommend this supplemental feature enough! I've always loved Re-Animator as one of the stalwart classics of the Horror genre, and more specifically the 80s era of the Horror genre, but this doc has really given me an even deeper appreciation for the film. Somehow I never realized that Re-Animator was Gordon's Hollywood film. The doc talks to everyone: Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton, Bruce Abbot, David Gale... everyone! And of course there's plenty of screen time with Gordon and Brian Yuzna, and a lot of frank discussion about how to adequately adapt  H.P. Lovecraft to film and make it work.

There's a bunch of other great interview extras on the disc (I have the one-disc version), and all of it really opened the film up for me. Can't wait to watch it again.

Playlist from 1/07:

Ben Frost - By the Throat
Nick Lowe - Jesus of Cool
Arctic Monkeys - No. 1 Party Anthem
Gang of Four - I Love a Man in Uniform (2012)
Foster the People - Life on the Nickel
Self - What a Fool Believes
Arctic Monkeys - Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino
Barry Adamson - Oedipus Schmoedipus
U2 - War
Ben Frost - Aurora

Card of the day:


This, I believe, is a direct reference to the final pages of my book, which despite a somewhat frustrating session yesterday brought on by sheer exhaustion from a very physical day at work, is still coming along swimmingly.

Sunday, October 7, 2018

2018: October 7th: Good Omens Trailer



Looks like they dropped the, "The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Anges Nutter, Witch" part of the title, but this looks awesome! I've been waiting for this one for what feels like forever. I remember back in the late 90s when, if I remember correctly, Mr. Brown and I were excited at the rumors of Depp and Robin Williams playing the angel and demon. We didn't get that, but this casting looks great. I mean, David Tennant is becoming one of my favorite actors of late. Actually makes me want to re-watch the Fright Night remake, just to see his character.

31 Days of Horror continued last night with Stuart Gordon's Re-Animator! It'd been years since I last saw this one, and in the interim my experience seeing the musical version - also directed by Stuart Gordon and starring Chris McKenna, who I knew previously from Gordon's King of the Ants - kinda overtook the film as the ultimate version of the story beyond the original source material by Lovecraft, which is very different. Apparently enough time had passed though, because I dug the flick a lot, and there's a ton of extras on the Arrow Blu Ray I recently picked up, so I'll have a good time going through those.

10/01) Summer of 84
10/02) Rope
10/03) Dreams in the Witch House
10/04) Crash
10/05) The Fly
10/06 Re-Animator

Playlist from yesterday:

Windhand - Eternal Return
Type O Negative - Life is Killing Me
The Final Cut - Consumed
Sisters of Mercy - Floodland
Marilyn Manson - Antichrist Superstar

Card of the day:


The Airy aspect of Water - combining intellect and emotion in a functional way. This is exactly where I'm at writing, as I'm killing my darlings from a previous version of the novel and streamlining it into a much tighter version of the story. My goal is to have a literate, young adult novel that contains aspects of the adventure genre, as well as the horror and suburban fantasy genres (that second one there is, to my knowledge, a term I coined). And it's coming along nicely as I round the corner on wrapping the middle of three sections, I feel confident and strong on this one in a way I never did before.