a record of consumption, part nine (being a new film journal) the horror continues

9.5.2022
Rob Reiner Misery 1990
(rewatch)
4K Essential rewatch via Kino Lorber. This film reminds me of all the nut jobs that got so upset with the last season of GOT. I remember saying to a group of them I thought the last season was pretty good and had to run to escape being tarred and feather, was quite shocking..

Down the Road: The Making of Drive My Car 2022
Criterion Collection.

Bryan Forbes Seance on a Wet Afternoon 1964

Shocking Shocking business. Richard Attenborough and Kim Stanley in this visually arresting film shot by Gerry Turpin (camera operator on Peeping Tom) with memorable score by John Barry. Hard to not think of Attenborough as the serial killer from the crazy 10 Rillington Place film, he gives such an eerie performance here, as does Kim Stanley whom makes you want to wash the grime off when the film ends. Great stuff.

9.6.2022
Robert Eggers The Northman 2022
(rewatch)
Better the second time. Good looking film.

9.7.2022
Wayne Wang Chan Is Missing 1982
(rewatch)

Second time in the last 6 months watching this. Beautiful mix of hommage, comedy, grit, novelistic story telling, and low key ambiance. Just comes close enough to having a non-plot to be totally intellectual engaging and exciting in a way few films are. Abstractions with light and off beat moments give it an experimental quality that fits well with the story and the San Francisco charm. Great film.

9.8.2022
Martin Scorsese Raging Bull 1980
(rewatch)
4K Criterion Collection disc. 50th time rewatch? Endlessly have watched this film over the last 30 years. Grain jumping off the screen like water spraying from a waterfall, more beautiful than the Mona Lisa. If one wants to have the most visceral experience from a film, just tune into the editing by Thelma Schoonmaker, probably the best editing in any film that I can think of.

9.9.2022
Richard Benjamin Mermaids 1990
Bob Hoskins!

9.10.2022
Alex Garland Men 2022
Great performance by Rory Kinnear as numerous f*cked up characters in this bizarre film.

9.11.2022
Jim Sheridan In the Name of the Father 1993
(rewatch)

From the Imprint Films Jim Sheridan boxset. Some really awe inspiring film-making here, like when we see John Lynch and Daniel Day-Lewis hammered dancing in a bar to Dylan's Like a Rolling Stone with an hard cut to driving into London with "I arrived in London on the 26th of June" Daniel Day-Lewis voice over. Beautiful film.

Jim Sheridan The Boxer 1997
(rewatch)
From the Imprint Films Jim Sheridan boxset. Classic with Daniel Day-Lewis and Emily Watson.

Albert Hughes, Allen Hughes Menace II Society 1993
(rewatch)

Second time watching the Criterion Collection 4K disc. Beautiful nihilistic film. Larenz Tate's performance here as nihilist O-Dog in contrast with his Darius Lovehall in Theodore Witcher's Love Jones so striking.

9.17.2022
Woody Allen Vicky Cristina Barcelona 2008

9.18.2022
Al Reinert For All Mankind 1989
(rewatch)
Via Criterion Collection, essential 4K rewatch. Brian and Roger Eno, and Daniel Lanois soundtrack.

Woody Allen Manhattan Murder Mystery 1993
(rewatch)

9.20.2022
George A. Romero Dawn of the Dead 1978
(rewatch)

Theatrical cut from the 4K Second Sight boxset. Had some friends in town who felt like having cocktails and watching horror films so our October of Horror films starts early. Nothing much better than this 1978 classic Dystopian film by Romero. Destruction of Mall Life = Dystopian.

David Cronenberg Shivers 1975
(rewatch)

The Horror continues. Arrow Blu ray. Favorite Cronenberg film, with Scanners second. Beautifully unsettling end of the world film, at times subtle, and at times not. Great humor, erotic horrors and many challenges to morals.

9.21.2022
Ari Aster Hereditary 2018
(rewatch)
The Horror continues. Maybe 5th time watching Aster's classic. Great film.

9.23.2022
Ari Aster Midsommar 2019
(rewatch)

The Horror continues. Second time watching the 4k extended cut version via A24. Much prefer this one with its complete virtuosic film-making. Don't care for the actors as much as Hereditary, but such a beautifully shot and constructed film, aurally and visually.

9.24.2022
Sam Raimi The Evil Dead 1981
(rewatch)

The Horror continues. 4K version, after several rewatches, I don't enjoy this as much as the second version, but the film has some great moments, and the rawness is quite intoxicating. The shots of the woods are some of the best moments in horror ever.

John Carpenter The Fog 1980
(rewatch)

The Horror continues. Classic Inverness California horror film. Love the relationship between Jamie Lee Curtis and Tom Atkins, similar to Curtis and Stacy Keach in Roadgames from 1981.

9.25.2022
Paul Schrader Hardcore 1979
(rewatch)
Favorite Schrader film, along with Light Sleeper. Last section in San Francisco blows your mind.

John Sayles Lone Star 1996
(rewatch)
Essential.

9.26.2022
Carl Franklin One False Move 1992
(rewatch)
Carl Franklin Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, episode one 2022
The Horror continues. Spending time with the master Carl Franklin.

9.27.2022
Wes Craven A Nightmare on Elm Street 1984
(rewatch)
The Horror continues.

9.28.2022
Andrew Dominik Blonde 2022

Huge fan of Dominik's films (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Killing Them Softly, Mindhunter) but was a bit concerned if this would be a waste of time given I hate biopics and didn't see the point in another Marilyn Monroe film. Was not familiar with the Joyce Carol Oates 2000 biographical fiction novel and walked into this film with no reference, and decided not to read the negative reviews of the film, because really what is the point of that if you haven't seen it? Loved the film, loved the cinematography by Chayse Irvin which is so dark and high contrast at times he makes Weegee seem like a disney photographer. Love the lush soundtrack by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, maybe one of their best, and loved the performances by all. This film is another reminder for myself not to take film critics seriously, or to not read them at all, and form my own opinion on a film instead of letting their own ideas replace ones I have.

9.30.2022
John Patton Ford Emily the Criminal 2022

10.1.2022
Paul Schrader Cat People 1982
(rewatch)
The Horror continues. Serious John Heard performance.

Jack Sholder The Hidden 1987
(rewatch)
The Horror continues. In the late 1980s I would watch this often on (I assume) HBO, along with They Live and some other classics, this film left a big impression. Had not seen since then.

10.2.2022
Amy Holden Jones The Slumber Party Massacre 1982

The Horror continues. From the director of the great film Love Letters (Jamie Lee Curtis and James Keach) and writer of Mystic Pizza, comes a film about a serial killer brutalizing young girls, and finally turning their party into a bloodbath.

Tobe Hooper The Funhouse 1981

Great carny film from the director of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Poltergeist, and Lifeforce. Horrible killer in this film, would keep the devil up at nights. Great atmosphere, and some wonderful aerial shots of the carnival.

Gary Sherman Dead & Buried 1981
(rewatch)
The Horror continues. Mobs of deranged blood thirsty townspeople wreak havoc in Mendocino California.

10.3.2022
Robert Bierman Vampire’s Kiss 1988
The Horror continues.

10.4.2022
Ken Russell The Lair of the White Worm 1988
The Horror continues. Horror film with Hugh Grant. Strange one, not without interest. Ken Russell apparently indulged in some dipsomania during the filming.

10.7.2022
Mike Newell Four Weddings and a Funeral 1994
(rewatch)
Another but totally different Hugh Grant classic.

10.8.2022
Siân Heder CODA 2021
(rewatch)
Solid film.

10.9.2022
John Boorman, Rospo Pallenberg Exorcist II: The Heretic 1977
The Horror continues.

Ti West X 2022
The Horror continues.

10.10.2022
Tobe Hooper The Funhouse 1981
(rewatch)
The Horror continues. Second time this week. Amazing the first time, better the second time.

10.11.2022
John Scheinfeld Chasing Trane 2016
John Coltrane doc.

John Carpenter The Thing 1982
(rewatch)
The Horror continues. 4K version of the masterpiece. Favorite horror film. Love this photo of the crew in Alaska.

10.12.2022
Michael Laughlin Strange Behavior 1981
The Horror continues.

10.13.2022
Tobe Hooper The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 1986

The Horror continues. Bizarre follow-up to the hard to watch classic, strange and funny with essential performance from Dennis Hopper.

10.14.2022

Daniel Roher Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band 2019
A rare thing; a good music documentary.

David Robert Mitchell It Follows 2014
(rewatch)
The Horror continues. Second time around, not doing much for me and the family.

Tony Williams Next of Kin 1982
The Horror continues.

10.15.2022
Nicolas Roeg Don’t Look Now 1973
(rewatch)
The Horror continues. Every October, one must spend time with the master and his great work.

10.16.2022
Robert Harmon The Hitcher 1986
(rewatch)
The Horror continues. One of those films I remember seeing on cable as a kid, but no memory of the film. Actually not bad, starring Rutger Hauer, C. Thomas Howell, and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Unrelenting.

10.21.2022
Christian Tafdrup Speak No Evil 2022
The Horror continues. Danish horror film with a With a Friend Like Harry vibe. Pretty heavy throughout, not sure about the ending but overall a solid film with a fantastic atmosphere.

Alice Lowe Prevenge 2016
The Horror continues.

10.22.2022
Michael O’Shea The Transfiguration 2016

The Horror continues. Young man in South Brooklyn talks about how realistic vampires are in all the horror classics to his new girlfriend. Kills people, drinks their blood, and pukes up a little when he is not doing that. Good film.

Don Coscarelli Phantasm 1979
(rewatch)

The Horror continues. Second time watching, the avant'garde qualities really become apparent in this film, an unusual one with a really strange quality to it from the editing and general construction.

10.23.2022

Curtis Harrington The Fall of the House of Usher 1942, Fragment of Seeking 1946, Picnic 1949, On the Edge 1949, The Assignation 1953, The Wormwood Star 1956, The Four Elements 1966, Usher 2000
The Horror continues. Very engaging Curtis Harrington shorts form the Indicator blu ray. Many take the Maya Deren style and give a horror edge.

Rubén Galindo Jr. Grave Robbers 1989
(rewatch)
The Horror continues.

Dennis Donnelly The Toolbox Murders 1978
The Horror continues. Serial killer wreaking havoc in an apartment complex.

Eskil Vogt The Innocents 2021
(rewatch)
The Horror continues. Four kids in an housing estate with telepathic powers.

10.24.2022
Ian Brennan, Ryan Murphy The Watcher 2022
The Horror continues. Uninspiring coastal grandmother aesthetic: bland beige and off-white.

10.25.2022
Paul Lynch Prom Night 1980
The Horror continues. Early Jamie Lee Curtis film.

10.26.2022
Anna Biller The Love Witch 2016
(rewatch)
The Horror continues. De Palmaesque Post-Hitchcock film with witchcraft, nudity and sex.

10.27.2022
Mark Rosman The House on Sorority Row 1982
(rewatch)
The Horror continues. Better than one would think.

10.29.2022
Abel Ferrara The Addiction 1995
(rewatch)

The Horror continues. Initially saw this in the theater, made a big impression. The high contrast black and white with pitch black blood made so beautiful by cinematographer Ken Kelsch. Great film, and the party sequence at the end is just pure cinematic bliss, heightened by the Joe Delia score. Great film.

10.30.2022
José Ramón Larraz Vampyres 1974

The Horror continues. From the director of Symptoms from the same year, this beautifully shot film (the dp was Harry Waxman who also shot The Wicker Man) where blood on a car window looks like it should be in a museum. Two female seductress vampires who lure men to their mansion to seduce and drink from them, has similarities with Claire Denis's Trouble Every Day from 2001 with the mixture of eroticism and cannibalism.

William Friedkin The Exorcist 1973
(rewatch)

The Horror continues. Essential. Shot by Owen Roizman, editing by Norman Gay and Evan A. Lottman. The mother coming out of the subway section with subliminal frames inserted like the one above have quite an effect, even after 20-30 viewings.

• The Power of Christ compels you
• You're Going To Die Up There
• Could you help an old alter boy father
• Your mother sucks codpieces in Hell, Karras, you faithless slime
• Until she rots, and lies stinking in the Earth
• You keep it away... ahh! It burns! It burns!
• Especially important, is the warning to avoid conversations with the demon. We may ask what is relevant, but anything beyond that is dangerous. He is a liar. The demon is a liar. He will lie to confuse us. But he will also mix lies, with the truth to attack us. The attack is psychological, Damien, and powerful. So don't listen to him. Remember that... do not listen.
• Come into me! Goddamn you take me! Take me!

10.31.2022
Mike White White Lotus season 1 ep 1 2022

Andrew Semans Resurrection 2022