James Dorr's Blog, page 89

At the Movies for 2019 With Hevi Reissu

It was a dreary, rainy Friday to near the end of the new year’s first week, so what better night to go to the movies?  The film in question, HEVI REISSU at the IU Cinema or, by its English title if one hopes to look it up on Amazon, HEAVY TRIP.  In this offbeat comedy from Finland, Turo is stuck in a small village where the best thing in his life is being the lead vocalist for the amateur metal band Impaled Rektum.  The only problem?  He and his bandmates have practiced for 12 years without playing a single gig.  The guys get a surprise visitor from Norway — the promoter for a huge heavy-metal music festival — and they decide it’s now or never.  They steal a van, a corpse, and even a new drummer in order to make their dreams a reality.  In English, Finnish, and Norwegian with English subtitles.  Or, to give it a theme, think Joseph Campbell’s “follow your bliss” or Søren Kierkegaard’s “leap of faith” except, this being a “metal” movie, perhaps here couched in more vulgar terms.  That is, in the words of an older patient at the home where Turo works, “it’s better to s**t yourself than always have constipation.”

So maybe that includes throwing up on the audience due to nerves at one’s first public performance — but remember it’s metal and this is extreme.  Or having let it slip that you’ve applied for that Norwegian gig, and receiving unexpected support, having it all [image error]crash down around you when the call from the festival comes, and they’ve turned you down.

But then Turo’s would-be girlfriend shames him into not giving up and the real fun begins.  The stealing a van, et al., of the blurb.  Of “terrorists” at the Finnish-Norwegian border.  Or, maybe my favorite, an entrance to the festival grounds by sea aboard a replica Viking longship — a glimpse of which may be seen in the trailer by pressing here.

If you go to Amazon and skim the reviews, about the only complaint repeated over and over is that you have to be a real metalhead to get all the jokes.*  (And perhaps a Scandinavian one at that!)  But, although I am okay with metal music, I’d say I was neither and yet still thoroughly enjoyed the film.

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*Or to the point, from Amazon reviewer Discordia, . . . I’m sure anyone could technically enjoy this movie, but to understand a lot of the humor, I think you have to be a metalhead of some sorts.  The movie pokes fun at many of the tropes and stigma concerning metal (obscene band name, pictures in the forest in full makeup, referencing not just current metal bands (Children of Bodom) but a lot of metal roots (Dio, King Diamond), what people who don’t like metal think the vocals sound like, etc.  The shirt the black guy was wearing in the final act was HILARIOUS and one of my favorite scenes was with the whole border patrol scenario.  4/5 from me! 

Blade of Re-Quest: Third “Re-Imagined” Anthology Received

Enter 2019:  Wednesday the first mammoth royalty, then today, Friday, the first new year’s author copy received.  This one is the third in Pole to Pole Publishing’s “Re-Imagined” reprint [image error]anthology series, RE-QUEST:  DARK FANTASY STORIES OF QUESTS & SEARCHES (see December 29, June 1, et al.).  Old gods outwitted by heroes.  Magical weapons that bring good and evil.  Dragons winging over the city or walking upon the earth.  A wizard witnessing endless battles. . . .

My story is next to last in the contents, “The Blade of Gudrin,” a tale of a young woman who resembles the local goddess and who knows how to use a knife if she has to, harking back to 1993 in the Spring SPACE AND TIME.  This is followed by the oldest reprint in the book, “Gods of the North” by Robert E. Howard from FANTASY FAN magazine in 1934.  For these and fourteen more preceding stories one may start one’s own new year’s reading by pressing here.

2019: Another Monster Royalty Recorded

The new year starts with . . . another gigantic royalty payment, and this one actually could buy lunch.  But most likely not dessert with it.  The thing, though, is that it represents people actually buying the book in question and presumably reading it.  If they then like it and tell their friends — or especially write a review for Amazon, Goodreads, blogs, etc., too — they in turn might buy their own copies, and hence more might come to help fatten the money bin.  So the moral is every bit counts or, in this case, it already being after lunchtime when I read the report, I okayed rolling it over into royalties already received, bringing a total that if collected might at this point cover a decent dinner.

How About Some Haunted House Films to Close Out the Old Year?

The haunted house import from Japan centers on a possessed residence that literally gobbles up its doomed visitors.  A group of school girls unwittingly enter a haunted house of horrors.  Demonic possession, reanimated body parts out for blood, and downright bonkers fun house effects ensue.  Fun fact:  studio execs in Japan originally planned to produce a movie like JAWS.  Yet when director and producer Nobuhiko Obayashi discussed the pitch with his young daughter, she revealed her own childhood fears — which were far more [image error]twisted and inventive than a rehashed shark movie.  Thus, HAUSU was born.

Thus quoting from number 3 of “11 Scariest Haunted House Movies to Freak You Out in Your Own Home” by Jessica Ferri, courtesy of THE-LINE-UP.COM, and reason enough to check out the whole list by pressing here.  Yes, there are “the usual suspects,” PARANORMAL ACTIVITY, THE AMITYVILLE HORROR, but other good films are on the list too, like the Spanish film THE ORPHANAGE and THE OTHERS.  One caveat, though, the links under each listing inviting you to WATCH IT NOW aren’t links to the movies or even to trailers, but rather to Amazon’s rental site.  But you can always go from there to their actual movie site and get an idea of what prices are if you want to buy the DVD.

Also, re. HAUSU, I highly recommend it, but do realize it’s a little . . . different.  Or to quote myself (cf. below, October 31 2015 — yes, I posted a review when the IU Cinema screened it for Halloween three years back), [i]t’s an “evil house” movie, but with a big difference.  This one combines the expected tropes with a weird undercurrent of surrealism, including cartoons, a demon cat, telegraphed punches — all clearly intentional — even slapstick humor in a tale of seven schoolgirls’ summer outing at the home of one of the girls’ maiden aunt.  An aunt she hadn’t seen since her grandmother’s funeral years in the past.  And in my opinion, HAUSU alone is an excellent film to ring in the new year, a year perhaps destined to be marked with its own surrealism.

Re-Quest Added to Amazon Author Page

It’s a little ritual when a book is published, to make sure folks like Amazon know that I’m one of the authors.  This one is RE-QUEST (cf. June 1, February 18 1nd 2), the third in [image error]Pole to Pole Publishing’s “Re-Imagined” reprint series, which is now available on Amazon and elsewhere.  More can be found on the publisher’s page by pressing here.  My story in this one is “The Blade of Gudrin,” a saga of knife play and double crosses all in a sword and sorcery setting, originally published in SPACE AND TIME for Spring 1993.

Other Re-Imagined books out thus far are RE-LAUNCH and RE-ENCHANT with my stories “The Game” and “Dust,” for which see October 16, 11, et al. and November 26 et al., respectively, and with one yet to come — RE-TERRIFY — of which more later.

A Small, Extra Present for Christmas

It was a small thing, the kind of thing that might be overlooked amidst the flurry of of year-end activities.  But it does deserve a mention, the “extra” gift I received on Christmas.  The thing is the mail gets delivered late here, at the end of the route, and often these days comes after dark.  No big deal, really — mornings I go out on the front porch for some deep breathing exercises I do, and if there’s mail waiting, I bring it in then along with the newspaper.

So it was Christmas morning (though without a paper) where, with a few other items, there wa[image error]s a smallish package.  A return address identified it as my author’s copy of PLANET SCUMM (see December 14, et al.), and so I dropped it onto the pile of received Christmas loot, and proceeded to have my breakfast, give the Goth Cat Triana her brunch, and do whatever else I had planned for the morning.  And then at last gift opening time came — a few clothing items (including a pair of much needed gloves), a book from my youngest niece, treats for Triana, and . . . PLANET SCUMM with my name even spelled right on the cover (see December 16) and including my story, “Holly Jolly.”  A leisurely read for later that p.m. with carols on the TV in the background, and all in all a pleasant surprise.

And for Post-Christmas Short-Attention-Span Entertainment. . . .

Yes, mini-horror films, to wit “10 Terrifying Short Horror Movies to Watch in the Dark Tonight” by Occult Museum via THE-LINE-UP.COM.  Horror films don’t always need a full two hours of build-up and suspense to pack in the scares.  The following bite-sized shorts will have you screaming and hiding behind the sofa in just a few minutes flat.  The genre, after all, lends itself well to the short film [image error]format, as just the merest flash or suggestion of something unusual is often more effective.  The merest glimpse of terror can leave you unsettled for hours after.  And with the rise of YouTube and creepypasta, the folklore of the digital age, directors have found new and inventive ways to terrorize their audiences.

Press here to enjoy as a late night post-holiday treat, but (as the blurb continues) [r]emember to turn the lights down low as these mini scream fests are best enjoyed in the dark.

Triana’s Christmas Gift: Creepy Victorian Christmas Card Roundup

Brought to my attention by Joan Hawkins, whom we’ve met in conjunction with the Bloomington Writers Guild, along with reader, poet, and artist Marge Simon, “Have a Creepy Little Christmas with These Unsettling Victorian Cards” by Allison Meier — and two of which are in our own local Lilly Library! — via HYPERALLERGIC.COM.  Anthropomorphic cats, murderous frogs, and insects dancing by the moonlight aren’t exactly part of our Christmas card tradition today.  However back in the 19th century, Victorians thought nothing unusual about sending their loved ones a grim image of a dead robin with the words “May yours be a joyful Christmas.”
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Many of these strange Victorian Christmas cards are making the rounds on social media this holiday season (@HorribleSanity has shared some especially disturbing ones, like the scene of a frog-on-frog stabbing, and Saint Nicholas stuffing a kid in a sack).  But where do these visuals come from, and what do they mean?  Some of that significance is now lost to history, yet it’s important to consider that Christmas wasn’t widely celebrated in the early 1800s.  So over the 19th century, the iconography of the pre-Santa Saint Nicholas, the trees, the presents, the snow, evolved gradually.
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And so, some with explanations (a frozen robin might remind us to be generous to the poor, especially the helpless children), some not, and with varying degrees of the bizarre, click here, look, read, and enjoy!
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(Triana especially likes the ones with cats in them.)

Twenty Christmas Tales on the Dark Side, To Read or To Hear for a Pre-Yule Weekend

To celebrate the tradition of Christmas ghost stories, here are 20 ghost and horror stories to sink your teeth into this holiday season.  Some you can read, others you can listen to,[image error] but best of all, they’re available free-of-charge.  So, venture forth, if you dare. . .

So begins “20 Ghost and Horror Stories for Christmas” by Michael David Wilson, via LITREACTOR.COM, a treat that screams to be shared.  But including Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Pit and the Pendulum” (number 9)?  Well, as compiler Wilson explains, the story’s original publication was in THE GIFT:  A CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR’S PRESENT FOR 1843.  Other than that, though, the other offerings have themes or settings more Christmas-like too, and what a selection, again all with links to texts and/or podcasts!  Algernon Blackwood’s “The Kit Bag.”  “Christmas Present” by Ramsey Campbell.  M.R. James, “Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad.”  And sixteen more, contemporary as well as classics, which can be savored by pressing here.

Merry Christmas to all!

More Tombs, Plus Tears on Sale at AbeBooks Through Dec. 28

Yes, AbeBooks is at it again with a quick through-Christmas sale (cf. November 8, et al.).  Save up to 50% on books and collectibles from select sellers. Discover a great selection [image error][image error]of new, used, and collectible books, art and ephemera, all discounted until December 28th, from the horse’s mouth.  And, never mind “only” fifty percent off, there are some copies of TOMBS:  A CHRONICLE OF LATTER-DAY TIMES OF EARTH marked down to less than $7.00, this for new copies with shipping to the US free, which can be found here.

Also, and this is new, there’s even one copy of THE TEARS OF ISIS for $9.02 (usually, for some reason, not on their sale list), shipping again free though this is a used copy in “very good” condition, as well as a new one at $12.95 with shipping again free, for which one may press here.  So give it a try and enjoy, enjoy!