Sixteen Continued Screams For Halloween: Day 13 (Night Of The Demon)

 Here we are, gang, with the final week before Halloween! Four of these posts remain, and it's less that they're the movies I put off and more that, well, something had to be the penultimate posts. Of what remains, one is obvious and two are followups to things I've done before. That leaves this, a one-off suggestion in the comments of the blog that I've kind of sort of heard of before. The way I've heard of it is incredibly on-brand: a line read of it is sampled as the opening to the title track of Kate Bush's landmark album Hounds Of Love. I was like, 80% sure that this was the movie they got it from, and totally did a mental Leo point when I finally heard IT'S IN THE TREES, IT'S COMING!. Well, beyond that, there's a whole 96 minutes of movie. The comment specifically requested the 96-minute cut of the film. I don't know why or what was cut out or added in any hypothetical other version of the film, but I watched 96 minutes of movie and now get to talk about it.

Sixteen Continued Screams For Halloween: Day 12 (Obsession)

(TW: sexual assault)

Sorry this one is a little late, that happens when a sudden windstorm knocks out your power for 6 hours right before you usually write these things. In this case, I guess it's a blessing that it put off me having to think about this movie for a bit. Or let it simmer in my brain for cohering the thoughts. I went into this with the mindset that it was a long time coming, a big horror movie darling that I'm getting to late on the marathon due to wanting to do the Internet horror trilogy and then my trip 2 weeks ago necessitating some shorter posts, and finally the shows and fiction and stuff. In retrospect, that merely is 24 blessed days where this film didn't haunt me. Obsession is one of the most disturbing, distressing, anguish-inducing bad vibes of a movie I've ever seen. I have not been this absolutely harrowed by a two hour cinematic portrait of a woman in agony since watching Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. Everything that happens to Nikki Freeman in this film is just as upsetting as anything that poor Laura Palmer experienced. Maybe worse in some ways. There is not a single fucking second this movie lets up in making you feel uncomfortable. At times it has you nervously laughing at it, a deep uneasy reflexive chuckle to try and ease the tension. It won't work. The other shoe always drops and plummets you straight into hell.

Sixteen Continued Screams For Halloween: Day 11 (A Snapping Sound)

Art credit from Instagram

Today on the blog, something that's been a long time coming. Every year, I select a bunch of horror things that I'd like to talk about, but I also open the floor for suggestions from pals to broaden my horizons. There's one in particular that my pal Sean has been asking me to do for the past few years now, and I initially resisted. A Snapping Sound, you see, is a lengthy piece of fanfiction written by a user called Represent, and focused on the 2000s Nickelodeon cartoon Danny Phantom. I was reticent to cover this not due to any sort of dismissal of fanfic as a legitimate art form, but rather the simple facts of this not being my scene. The fact of the matter is, I'm middle-aged. I was well into college life when this children's ghost fighting cartoon premiered. I simply am too old to have enough nostalgia for this cartoon to have any meaningful investment in a gritty gothic reimagining of it. Still, Sean asked me quite a lot, and I had the space this year, so what the hell. I read 150,000 words of fic about a cartoon I never watched. 

Sixteen Continued Screams For Halloween: Day 10 (Below)

So I'm pretty sure that I'm obligated by heritage to cover this one. I mean, Netflix's big suspenseful miniseries for the spooky season is set in and was filmed on my fucking island. This is a big deal, and it's been all the buzz out here for quite some time. It's finally dropped, and I really took my time with it. The binge model of Netflix has its issues, but I didn't go crazy with it. Maybe binging would help smooth out some of the funny wrinkles on this, but that doesn't mean I hated it. Just that it's not a perfect 10/10 banger of a show. It's good, though, and I enjoyed it. Let's talk a a bit about it. Actually, hang on, let me get into character here as a proper Newfoundlander. HOW YA GETTIN' ON, BY'S? I WANTS TO TALK ABOUT DAT DERE BELOW SHOW FROM NETFLIX, WITH BUDDY FROM TRAP IN IT, LARD JEEZ YOU SEE THE SIZE OF THAT SQUID OL' MAN? Okay let's not conduct the entire post like that, huh? That was actually quite a terrible idea.

Sixteen Continued Screams For Halloween: Day 9 (Castlevania: Belmont's Curse)

I believe we're setting a record for recency here with this entry. I've done movies the year they've come out on here. I'm even currently 2/3rds of the way through a Netflix show that dropped just last week, and it'll be the subject for next time. This, however, is a game that came out three days ago as of writing. It may be premature to talk about it right now, given that I only have 5 hours on the clock, but fuck it. It's my blog, my marathon, and if I want to make one of these more of a first impressions post then I can. These are quick snacks to write, after all, so let's bite down like a vampire and talk about the newest Castlevania game. Oooh, did you like that transition? It's cheesy but I kinda like it.

Sixteen Continued Screams For Halloween: Day 8 (Phantom Of The Paradise)

And so the wild week of weird snacks and light posts comes to an end. I am fully settled back into my routine, and no longer need to dabble with distractionary fare due to being in a basement or just recovering from being in a basement. I'm at home, I have all day here, and so I could sit down and watch some goddamn cinema again. What a piece of cinema chosen. My immediate remark, and one I'll repeat here: If I had a nickel for every mid-70's queer-coded rock opera musical distributed by 20th Century Fox, I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice. I swear there was something in the water 50 years ago, because on vibes this really made me think of Rocky Horror. Mostly because of the singing and queer stuff. If you really want some grim synchronicity between the films, consider that we lost each of the actors who played queer-coded performers in them: Tim Curry in Rocky Horror and Gerrit Graham in this. Christ, that's morbid and a little eerie. Let's talk about something more fun.

Sixteen Continued Screams For Halloween: Day 7 (The Amazing Digital Circus)

Good news! I have returned home! Bad news! I have been on the road for several hours and now have the unenviable task of firing off something about nine episodes of Internet television! Oh! Oh no! Oh fucking no! Whatever way you slice it, The Amazing Digital Circus is a bizarre and mystifying artifact that has generated a lot of buzz. I actually wanted to do it a year or two ago, but didn't realize that it was an ongoing thing. It wrapped earlier this year, so now the whole thing's out there. Honestly, it could deserve reams of analysis on its own. I don't have the energy or wherewithal for that right now, so it's just going to get some impressionistic paragraphs and then we're calling it a day. It does deserve those accolades, however. This was neat!