05.28.09
Anime Series: Jigoku Shoujo
(Yes, yes, I know, another not-quite-horror series. I write about what I actually watch, and I’m in a horror mood lately. Cope.)
An unusual rumor is spreading, among both young and old, from city to countryside: a website, accessible only at midnight, where you can request vengeance against another person. Just type in their name, and the Jigoku Shoujo (Hell Girl) will take them away. Seekers with intense grudges will find this rumor to be true, and the price of revenge greater than they could imagine…
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05.21.09
New tech and old memories
So, my husband and I signed up not too long ago for one of those DVD-rental-by-mail services. (Yes, I realize there probably is only the one, but I’m not putting a brand name in text where search engines can index it.) It’s been quite useful so far, as there are plenty of movies I’d watch once but not want to buy and store, and the library doesn’t have all of them.
An interesting side effect revealed itself when we sat down together to start compiling films to rent: neither of us had seen the other’s favorite childhood movies. So we scattered them through the list, and take turns snickering at one another’s cherished childhood memories as the films arrive. And since I didn’t watch anything else this week, today I’m gonna talk about…
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05.14.09
Anime Series: Red Garden
I have something of a love-hate relationship with horror and suspense in media. For the bad ones this pretty much sums up the reason; for some of the better ones (Silent Hill on film, the book The Ring) it’s the fact that I get freaked out enough to practically stop breathing, yet I’m enjoying the piece so much I have to know how it ends.
There’s a third way with horror though – one that ignores the “rule” that our cute spunky protagonist is given a noble motivation and an arsenal of cleverly homemade weapons, then manages to subdue the Big Terrible Evil Thing while suffering no more than a few scratches. Instead of a hero and a villain, two morally neutral antagonists want one another dead, and even accomplishing that won’t bring any personal satisfaction. Basically, life deals a few people the shittiest hands ever, and they play them as best they can. A story where gruesome supernatural fantasy is cut through with the worst of grim reality.
A story like Red Garden.
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02.29.08
Metropolis
This review refers to both the silent film and the novel. If I get around to the anime film, you’ll be the first to know.
UPDATE! 9/27/08: Missing pieces of the film seem to have been recovered. With any luck they’ll be preserved at released on DVD.
I have this great set of DVDs at home – 50 Classic Horror movies, for which I paid like $20. By “classic” they mean “so old that the rights were hella cheap”, meaning there are some true classics, some bad-hysterical, and some bad-awful films packed onto these discs. They were initially purchased to aid in my quest to watch all of Wicked Magazine’s list of most influential horror films*, but I’ve found myself watching the other discs as well.
I decided on Metropolis one recent afternoon home alone on the basis of two facts: that I kept hearing it referenced by self important film snobs, who never seemed to actually know what it was about, and that it’s a silent film. I’d never really sat down and watched a silent movie before, and my curiosity for a new experience beat out my desire to laugh (or wince, depending on whose opinion you believe) at The Beast of Yucca Flats. Read the rest of this entry »
02.18.08
Welcome to Collingwood
I’m sure most library/bookstore/videostore/etc. employees have one of those items — every time you have to get it from or put it onto a shelf, you think “hmm, that looks interesting. I should try that one some time.” And you never get around to it? Well, I’m starting to think there’s a reason, beyond lack of time and forgetfulness, that this kind of item’s number never seems to come up.
During the purge of VHS to make room for the ever-expanding DVD collection, I got to know our movie collection pretty darned well. You might remember where you were when JFK was shot; I recall just as vividly the day we finally replaced this Jazz with that Jazz, netting nearly one and a half shelf-feet in a single item. (The room was quickly taken up by catering to the public taste for agenda-driven mediocrity, but that’s a story for another day.) Read the rest of this entry »
