professional science fiction and dark fantasy writer
From what I have been able to glean, Polina Agureyeva is the singer. The song is "My Little One" from the Russian film "A Long Goodbye" by Sergei Ursuliak. This song is beautiful and so moving. It's not classical guitar, but that doesn't take away one iota from the moment. I've been humming this song …
Continue reading "Моя маленькая “My Little One” by Polina Agureyeva"
No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy is a very good novel that, by all rights, should have been great. It tells the story of a drug deal gone bad and how fate impacts different lives, and ends up shattering them. Written in a minimalist style with no quotation marks, commas or apostrophes, this …
Continue reading "No Country for Old Men (book and novel review)"
The Island of Dr. Moreau is one of my favorite novels by H.G. Wells. Published in 1896 it has deep philosophical elements which Wells faces head on. It is arguably one of his least known, but best written, scientific romances. In 1933 the novel was adapted to film by Paramount Pictures. It starred Charles Laughton …
Continue reading "Island of Lost Souls (1933) – Censored Horror with Sex and Atmospheric Bestiality"
I am enjoying Star Wars: The Old Republic quite a lot. I have been looking for an MMO since I quit Eve Online a while back, and bailed on World of Warcraft after the disastrous Cataclysm expansion. I think I have found my MMO at last. I am a casual gamer. Period. I can't and …
Continue reading "SWTOR: Casual fun with glowbats in the classic mythos of Star Wars"
This film examines a fundamentally human question we all wrestle with from time to time. Is the universe a dark and cold place, or do our actions have lasting, and permanent, consequences? Kurosawa doesn't answer the question because it's fundamentally unanswerable. As most human questions are. But his characters speak and react as if they …
I wanted to like this film. And there is a lot to like about it. It is directed by G.W. Pabst, a German director, and it stars American actress Louise Brooks. You may not know who Louise Brooks is, but if you see her picture you will be immediately familiar with her startling for its …
Continue reading "Pandora’s Box (1922): Iconic Flapper Louise Brooks as Man-Eating Vamp"
I mentioned this earlier and want to examine it in more detail. As good as it was, George Romero's Night of the Living Dead has done more to limit the zombie genre than any other movie or book I can think of. Here's why that's not a good thing. Prior to this zombies were never …
Continue reading "Why the Zombie Genre needs to be Re-animated from Splatter-Chomp to Mysticism"
My Dinner With Andre This is one of the best movies about philosophy ever filmed. Even if you don't like philosophy you're going to like this film. It's about two friends in a French restaurant. One is the Everyman and the other is Knowledge and they both learn from each other. Nothing but dialogue here …
Continue reading "Philosophy, Death, and a Virgin Murder: Three Superb Films You Must Watch"
If you haven't seen this phenomenal silent film then by all means do. It's a Swedish film about witchcraft and the frenzied denials and condemnations that surrounded it during the Middle Ages, and up until the present. Well, 1922, anyway, which is when this film was made. The visuals of Haxan are astounding, on a …
Continue reading "Haxan (1922): Superb Horror and Dark Fantasy Painted in Silence"
White Zombie (1932) is a classic Pre-Code film starring Bela Lugosi. Though it was roundly panned at its release it has, over the intervening decades, become a seminal horror film as regards subject matter, direction, and artistic photography. To be sure the acting is a heavy handed and creaky, not to mention the squeaky musical …
Continue reading "White Zombie (1932) – Old Fashioned Love and Death Sprinkled with Haitian Magic"
Horror, more than any other genre, has the ability to manifest its power in many different forms. This stems first and foremost from the fact horror is primarily an emotional and visceral genre, whereas science fiction, say, might have more of a cerebral background. Because this is true for horror we often find stories that …
Continue reading "Monster House: Fun Horror Animation with Kids You Can Believe In"
On this date in 1881, around 3.00 pm, a gunfight occurred which lasted less than thirty seconds. Oh, and for the record, it never happened in the OK Corral but on Fremont Street. Well, that's history for you, always getting in the way with facts and verifiable evidence. I mean, who wants to read about …
Continue reading "Gunfight at the OK Corral – A Retrospective in Three Movies"
October is my favorite month of the year. Not only does it have my second favorite holiday, I also like the raw nip in the night air, the Harvest Moon casting its blue glare over a quiet landscape, the lonely stars glimmering above stubbled corn stalks, the bare limbs of trees hanging like fingers of …
Continue reading "October is my favorite month mostly cuz there are werewolves."
The Devil's Rejects (2005) is the sequel to Rob Zombie's excellent horror film House of 1000 Corpses which I reviewed earlier. Except it's less of a sequel than an entirely different film altogether. All the old gang is reprised: Sid Haig as the clown head of the psychotic Firefly family, Sherri Moon Zombie as his …
I like werewolf movies. No, let me rephrase that. I like good werewolf movies. My favorite is The Wolfman (1941) with Lon Chaney, Jr. And from a writerly perspective it gives me a tickle to know the writer of that film, Curt Siodmak, made most of the werewolf tropes out of whole cloth. But they're …
Continue reading "Ginger Snaps: Not the Cookie, the Werewolf"
Horror is a visceral medium. When it comes to movies, horror can be very visceral indeed. I love the old Universal monsters, mainly for personal reasons. They are my favorite. When it comes to other horror movies I lean towards surrealism like the excellent Suspiria by Dario Argento. But there are other movies that, after …
I love silent film. I'm not a huge fan of movies per se, but I do love film. I have seen one several times which I would like to recommend for you. It is F.W. Murnau's Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans. This is a silent film from 1927 with a great score. It's the …
I suppose if you push me I will admit I prefer silent films to any other format. I mean, if that's the choice you give me. There are a lot of reasons for this. Mostly, I think, because so many silent films were incredibly groundbreaking in so many areas including writing, direction, artistic quality, and …
Continue reading "Metropolis (1927) as SF Atavism and Cautionary Tale – A Review"
The story of Rapunzel is one of my favorite Grimms' fairy tale. The original story and many of its variations are quite dark. In the original story the prince calls for Rapunzel to let down her hair and sees her on the sly. One day she lets slip that her dress is getting too tight …
Continue reading "Tangled – Animated Hair Fetish by Disney (movie review)"
The Vanishing American is a silent film from 1925 that explores the tragic plight of Native Americans trapped by history and fate, and who ultimately become crushed into non-existence by the grinding wheels of racism and modernity. The source material is the novel by the same name written by Zane Grey. The film was good …
Continue reading "The Vanishing American (1925) movie review"
Hoover's Corner 