Stephen McClurg's Blog, page 8

Marginalia #55: Ice, The Vourdalak, Mapambazuko

If you have more sci-fi acumen than I do, you may have heard of this before 2024. I came across it after several recommendations. It’s hard to describe and talk about. Anna Kavan has been called “Kafka’s Sister,” which makes sense (this has repeated occurrences, dreamlike sequences, and a bizarre bureaucracy). Still, given the frequent intense and disturbing sequences, I didn’t register any of his humor, which may be my failing on a first read. It feels a little more like Robert Walser or what I remember of Knut Hamsun (but it’s been too long since I read him). 

The main story involves a man and a woman who repeatedly find themselves in domination scenes, with him dominating her. However, there is occasionally another suitor who is frequently of a higher social rank. The world is ending as ice begins crushing the life out of the continents, and there may have been another catastrophic incident as well. At times, specific sequences come out of Romero with groups of mercenaries creating havoc or people looting. There are said to be a few humorous, subtle shots at Vonnegut.

Kavan had a heroin addiction for a good part of her life, and many see this book as a reference to it. That she is continually beaten down by this thing she can’t get rid of (men/ice/societal structures). 

It’s brutal and bleak, and it’s hard to say that I “like” this book. I will seek out her other work and likely return to this one again. I have somehow read a whole string of apocalypse books that I didn’t know were apocalypse/dystopias. My younger self, obsessed with dystopian fiction, would be proud. (In Watermelon Sugar, The Day of the Triffids, The Kraken Wakes–I might have forgotten a couple.)

This might be my favorite horror film from the past year. The titular monster is performed by a marionette, perhaps a dealbreaker for some viewers. A vourdalak is like a vampire that strikes people it loves and has a strange habit of chewing and sucking on its burial shroud. This movie looks like 1970s Euro-exploitation, maybe Jean Rollin’s Fascination (1979), Leptirica (1973), or any other British folk horror pieces of that era. All that atmosphere is used to tell a dark, gothic fairy tale of a movie.

The Bandcamp description for Mapambazuko by Ale Hop and Titi Bakorta is better than anything I could give. Nyege Nyege Tapes consistently releases some of my yearly favorites. This worldly fusion is made by a Peruvian electronics artist and a Congolese guitarist. The main tracks are dense Afro-Latin party music, while the majority of the remixes offer more atmospheric versions.

Musicalia #110: Who Is There?

You can get this week’s poem, playlist, and links at The Drunken Odyssey.

Marginalia #54: Nobody’s Fool, Yor, and Bisk

Bill Griffith, the cartoonist of Zippy the Pinhead fame, wrote and drew this biography of Schlitzie the Pinhead, which also covers the history of the sideshow tradition in America. If Schlitzie didn’t capture your heart and imagination in Tod Browning’s Freaks, he will undoubtedly do so here.

I found this in the Fangoria archive in the Readers’ Poll for worst movies of 1983. This poster is even funnier when you’ve seen the movie. I’ve put the opening credits and title song below, and based on that, I think you’ll know whether or not this one’s for you. The only place I found the movie was on the Internet Archive.

Originally released in 2000, this lands somewhere between the manic repeats of some Plunderphonics tracks and the psychedelic noir of Tipsy while maintaining aspects of a DJ’s performance.

At Horror DNA: Session 9: The Official Novelization

My review is now available at Horror DNA.

Musicalia #109: It’s About the Absurd Mystery of the Strange Forces of Existence

Musicalia #109 celebrates David Lynch’s music and sound worlds. The poem, a tribute to Lynch, can be read at The Drunken Odyssey. The playlist and links are also available there.

Marginalia #53: Off Season, Darkness, Anthology Resource Vol. 1

Based on the Sawney Bean story like The Hills Have Eyes, Off Season is a blast and is considered one of the first extreme horror books. It resembles a mix of Hills, Night of the Living Dead, and Last House on the Left. 

Off Season is gory but well-written. Ketchum writes from multiple perspectives and lulls you into false senses of security. In other words, you sit in one character’s consciousness only to see them torn apart and eaten from another perspective later. No safe spaces! 

This should do the trick if you are in the mood for an exploitation gore film in book form. Stephen King is a fan and probably wanted Bachman to be more like this, though maybe the closest he got was Thinner or The Dark Half.

A micro-budget film from Wichita made by teenagers. Filmed in the ’80s but was not funded for release until the ’90s. Scary Casio and local metal on the soundtrack (which I ordered in a ridiculously gorgeous boutique vinyl package). A group of teens fight zombie vampire things.

A great example of teenagers with little money making a fun movie that doesn’t have to make sense—lots of homemade blood and head explosions. Not for the squeamish, despite it’s lack of budget.

I’m looking forward to checking out an announced remaster of this in 2025. The double-vinyl soundtrack is available at Mystic Vault.

Dean Hurley ran David Lynch’s music studio, worked on his music projects, and built sound design for him. Anthology Resource Vol. I is a collection of sound design from Twin Peaks: The Return.

I don’t know why I doubted this, but I just now got around to listening to it. Eraserhead is one of my favorite soundtracks because so much is done in sound design. This album also contains dark ambient sounds for those who love the rumbly Lynch room tone.

McClurg’s Musicalia #108: The Chalky Hands of Fate

You can get the poem, playlist and links at The Drunken Odyssey.

At Horror DNA: Catherine the Ghost

My review for Kathe Koja’s “Gothic punk remix” of Wuthering Heights is over at Horror DNA.

McClurg’s Musicalia #107: The Street Is a Dull Knife

You can get the poem, playlist, and links at The Drunken Odyssey.

At Horror DNA: Get Away

My review for the folk horror comedy Get Away is now available at Horror DNA.