Gregory Lamberson's Blog, page 18
January 24, 2013
Scares That Care: The Perfect Cause
I'm not surprised to see that the filmmaker who called my wife and daughter "disgusting" is now railing against Joe Ripple's wonderful Scares That Care! charity, which benefits sick children and women suffering from breast cancer. Sometimes you can only shake your head in dismay at such behavior, but in this case horror fans can actually accomplish some good by donating to the charity:
http://www.scaresthatcare.org/
I'm making a donation right now - won't you do the same? You can also help by sharing the links I've posted at the end of this blog.
Scares That Care! selects three individuals or families in financial need due to medical hardships and labors to raise $10,000 for them. No one involved with the charity draws a salary, and the volunteers attend horror conventions and film festivals and hold online auctions to fight the good fight.
From the Scares That Care website:
"Scares That Care is an IRS approved 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides money, toys and other items to help sick children. We have two other programs consisting of “Scares For Pairs,” where we help women fighting breast cancer; We also have partnered with horror icon Kane Hodder, and we created the “I Helped Kane” program, where we provide assistance to those children who have suffered serious burn injuries."
Here's a You Tube clip of Joe handing a check for $10,000 to Breast Cancer Fighter Madelyn Belt last month:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrOlgoKjr2Q&feature=youtu.be
And presenting another check for $10,000 to Draven, a young boy with Hypo-Plastic Left Heart Sydrome:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOlItqFvIYU
You can follow Scares That Care! and its many auctions on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Scares-That-Care/195299815529?ref=ts&fref=ts
And on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/ScaresThatCare
http://www.scaresthatcare.org/
I'm making a donation right now - won't you do the same? You can also help by sharing the links I've posted at the end of this blog.
Scares That Care! selects three individuals or families in financial need due to medical hardships and labors to raise $10,000 for them. No one involved with the charity draws a salary, and the volunteers attend horror conventions and film festivals and hold online auctions to fight the good fight.
From the Scares That Care website:
"Scares That Care is an IRS approved 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides money, toys and other items to help sick children. We have two other programs consisting of “Scares For Pairs,” where we help women fighting breast cancer; We also have partnered with horror icon Kane Hodder, and we created the “I Helped Kane” program, where we provide assistance to those children who have suffered serious burn injuries."
Here's a You Tube clip of Joe handing a check for $10,000 to Breast Cancer Fighter Madelyn Belt last month:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrOlgoKjr2Q&feature=youtu.be
And presenting another check for $10,000 to Draven, a young boy with Hypo-Plastic Left Heart Sydrome:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOlItqFvIYU
You can follow Scares That Care! and its many auctions on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Scares-That-Care/195299815529?ref=ts&fref=ts
And on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/ScaresThatCare
January 21, 2013
Martini Time
I'm currently writing Storm Demon, Book Five of The Jake Helman Files, and as soon as I'm done with that novel I'm going straight into The Frenzy Wolves, Book Three of The Frenzy Cycle. After that, I'd like to write four more Jake Helman books... and a crime drama... and another horror novella... and a really scary horror novel. I also have another filmmaking book that I'd like to write - or three shorter ones. Did I mention my magician trilogy? One of the frustrations of being a writer is that ideas and obsessions come faster that we can or should write them down, and since I don't write short stories I'm at a disadvantage.
Which is one reason why I've decided that Dry Bones will be my last micro-budget feature film. Features are time consuming and can be frustrating, and leave little time for anything else like family, other work, or writing books. Being a writer/director/producer can suck the life out of you. I just don't have time to beat my head against a wall dealing with some of the aspects of production that drive me crazy. So this one's it, and I'm determined to have fun with it: we're shooting mostly in my house, just like we did the original Slime City back in the day; my wife is working behind the scenes, my daughter is acting, we've got some great people involved.
I plan to continue writing screenplays for independent films, and anyone who's smart enough to hire me will be better off for it. I may still freelance as a producer for hire, but I doubt I'll ever work as an assistant director again. A couple of people have spoken to me about directing for them, and if they want to write or produce, bring it on - but even that will be difficult since my wife is working again; I'm the family chauffeur, and someone has to be here when Kaelin gets home from school. And I'm still one of the directors of Buffalo Screams Horror Film Festival, which is about to undergo a name change as we jettison some dead weight.
I'm blessed to have two creative passions, and the ability to realize both of them, but simple math shows that I can write three books for every film I make, and I almost never get stressed out writing a book or dealing with people in the publishing world. Things are going very well for Dry Bones: we've almost raised half our fundraising goal on IndieGoGo, with 39 days to go; please consider donating to our cause: http://igg.me/p/291738
The martini is up!
Which is one reason why I've decided that Dry Bones will be my last micro-budget feature film. Features are time consuming and can be frustrating, and leave little time for anything else like family, other work, or writing books. Being a writer/director/producer can suck the life out of you. I just don't have time to beat my head against a wall dealing with some of the aspects of production that drive me crazy. So this one's it, and I'm determined to have fun with it: we're shooting mostly in my house, just like we did the original Slime City back in the day; my wife is working behind the scenes, my daughter is acting, we've got some great people involved.
I plan to continue writing screenplays for independent films, and anyone who's smart enough to hire me will be better off for it. I may still freelance as a producer for hire, but I doubt I'll ever work as an assistant director again. A couple of people have spoken to me about directing for them, and if they want to write or produce, bring it on - but even that will be difficult since my wife is working again; I'm the family chauffeur, and someone has to be here when Kaelin gets home from school. And I'm still one of the directors of Buffalo Screams Horror Film Festival, which is about to undergo a name change as we jettison some dead weight.
I'm blessed to have two creative passions, and the ability to realize both of them, but simple math shows that I can write three books for every film I make, and I almost never get stressed out writing a book or dealing with people in the publishing world. Things are going very well for Dry Bones: we've almost raised half our fundraising goal on IndieGoGo, with 39 days to go; please consider donating to our cause: http://igg.me/p/291738
The martini is up!
January 13, 2013
BASKET CASE Star Kevin Van Hentenryck to Appear in DRY BONES
Kevin Van Hentenryck, who starred as Duane Bradley in all three of Frank Henenlotter's Basket Case films, will appear in Dry Bones, the film I'm producing this spring. I wrote the script, Michael O'Hear is directing and starring, and Melantha Blackthorne is co-starring and co-producing.
I met Kevin briefly in 1987, when I was working as Frank's assistant director on Brain Damage. Fans of the film will recall that Kevin had a memorable cameo as Duane Bradley - complete with basket - in a scene aboard a subway train. A funny aside about that scene (which we shot aboard an actual train used for movies, and during which I got to shoot a 35mm movie camera for my first and only time): Kevin arrived to shoot his scene minus his trademark hair because he had joined the armed forces, so panic set in until we located a wig...
Years later - more than two decades later! - we were reunited at the Horror Realm convention in Pittsburgh, where Kevin appeared with Frank and Beverly Bonner, and Debbie Rochon and I were pushing Slime City Massacre. So the convention circuit and Facebook brought us back together.
We're thrilled and lucky to have Kevin in Dry Bones. He plays the father of the main character, who appears in flashbacks that establish the creature. I'm confident Basket Case fans will approve.
Donate to our IndieGoGo fund right here: http://igg.me/p/291738
I met Kevin briefly in 1987, when I was working as Frank's assistant director on Brain Damage. Fans of the film will recall that Kevin had a memorable cameo as Duane Bradley - complete with basket - in a scene aboard a subway train. A funny aside about that scene (which we shot aboard an actual train used for movies, and during which I got to shoot a 35mm movie camera for my first and only time): Kevin arrived to shoot his scene minus his trademark hair because he had joined the armed forces, so panic set in until we located a wig...
Years later - more than two decades later! - we were reunited at the Horror Realm convention in Pittsburgh, where Kevin appeared with Frank and Beverly Bonner, and Debbie Rochon and I were pushing Slime City Massacre. So the convention circuit and Facebook brought us back together.
We're thrilled and lucky to have Kevin in Dry Bones. He plays the father of the main character, who appears in flashbacks that establish the creature. I'm confident Basket Case fans will approve.
Donate to our IndieGoGo fund right here: http://igg.me/p/291738
January 5, 2013
Great Publishing and Filmmaking News (and Chili Too)
I hope you had a great holiday season and wish you a wonderful New Year. But enough about you! Yesterday I received excellent news on the publishing and filmmaking fronts.
First, I signed a contract with Medallion Press to write The Frenzy Wolves, Book Three of my werewolf series The Frenzy Cycle. When I wrote a screenplay called The Greenwich Village Monster back in 1986 - the same year I directed Slime City and wrote a screenplay called The Forever Man, which morphed into Personal Demons, Book One of The Jake Helman Files - I had no idea the story would become big enough to form a series. I spent years researching worldwide werewolf mythology, police procedures, and the Spanish Inquisition for The Frenzy Way, and I was so pleased with the expansion of the original script that I decided to do a sequel, further exploring The Brotherhood of Torquemada, the antagonists of my generally peaceful Wolves. Halfway through writing that book - 445 printed pages - I realized that I needed two books to tell the story I had developed for the sequel, and while plotting the third book it became clear that my brain wanted to write a fourth book, and possibly a fifth.
I didn't set out to write a werewolf series, there are plenty of other authors doing that, and I already have one series that I'm passionate about, The Jake Helman Files. I'm worried that if I keep developing the world of Captain Anthony Mace and the werewolf siblings Angela, Gabriel and Raphael Domini I'll never have time to write anything else. But this is what happens when characters come too life in an author's imagination. So here is my plan for The Frenzy Wolves: I'm going to write this novel as if it's the concluding chapter of a trilogy, with as much action as the other two books combined, confrontation after confrontation. This excites me because I've never written the climax of a series before: there is a third Slime City film to be made some day, and I'm still four and a half books away from where I's like The Jake Helman Files to end. I suspect the Wolves in my head won't let me go, and I'll probably revisit those characters after I've tackled some other projects. Look for The Frenzy Wolves in 2014. I'm also pleased with the terms of my contract, which is always nice.
On the filmmaking front, Snow Shark: Ancient Snow Beast, which I produced, will be available on DVD February 19th from Alternative Cinema/POP Cinema, my longtime distributor of every one of my films except Slime City Massacre (which they actually carry for the distributor, Media Blasters - thank God). You can pre-order the film from Amazon now for a mere thirteen bucks (http://www.amazon.com/Shark-Michael-OHear-Jackey-Qualiana/dp/B009H3LP64/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1357395120&sr=8-1&keywords=snow+shark). Yesterday, as me and my family were watching The Karate Kid so I could return some DVD rentals to Family Video, I received word from Paige Davis, my good friend at Alternative Cinema, that Family Video will carry Snow Shark for rent across the country. This is fantastic news for us! To my knowledge, none of my films were carried for rent at a major chain except for Undying Love (released as New York Vampire), and that was a Rent Track revenue sharing deal. There are 765 Family Video locations in 19 states across the country, and every one of them will have this film for rent. There's one in Lockport, where we made the film, and one in Amherst, where I rent. Hell, there's even one in Dunkirk/Fredonia, where I grew up (remember Red Hill in Johnny Gruesome?). In addition, although Walmart USA declined to carry the film for sale because it's "too indie," Walmart Canada will stock it. That's called a win-win.
This bit of good news is remarkable for several reasons. The home video market is a tough one to crack for indie horror films, and Snow Shark cost only $7,000 to make. When I offered to produce this film for Sam Qualiana, the writer-director-star, I knew I could raise more money than he was looking for on IndieGoGo, which I did, and I hoped I could get the film a decent DVD release, which I did. And while I give most of the credit to Paige's wonderful salesmanship, credit also has to be given to the fun little creature feature that Sam made; I've never seen any POP Cinema releases in Family Video before. There's the possibility that these developments could help land the Holy Grail for indie filmmakers, a Netflix deal.
So micro-budget films can find real distribution if you approach these projects with the proper frame of mind, which I've been saying for about two and a half years now, ever since shooting Slime City Massacre (and since then I worked on Model Hunger and Ward's Island in addition to Snow Shark).
Which brings me to Dry Bones, the film I'm producing right now, which I wrote and Michael O'Hear will be directing and Melantha Blackthorne will be starring in. We're in development now, which means raising the money; we begin pre-production in February, and we plan to start shooting at the end of March. Because they've always seen a return on their investment, many of my regular investors will be back: John Maclay is executive producing, Marc Makowski is co-producing, and a few other folks have expressed interest. In addition, Melantha and fellow actress Debra Lamb have signed on as co-producers. The budget for this one is about $15,000, double what Snow Shark cost, and we need to raise an additional $3,000 through an IndieGoGo campaign, which you can visit right here if you wish to learn more about the project and make a small donation :http://igg.me/p/291738
And finally, about that chili: right now all of Buffalo is alive with the odors of chili peppers and onion for tonight's First Annual Crestwood Estates Chili Cook-Off, which is being held at an undisclosed location. I'm not cookng, I'm just eating, and may the best cook please my gullet! Tomorrow's Dry Bones meeting should be quite interesting...
First, I signed a contract with Medallion Press to write The Frenzy Wolves, Book Three of my werewolf series The Frenzy Cycle. When I wrote a screenplay called The Greenwich Village Monster back in 1986 - the same year I directed Slime City and wrote a screenplay called The Forever Man, which morphed into Personal Demons, Book One of The Jake Helman Files - I had no idea the story would become big enough to form a series. I spent years researching worldwide werewolf mythology, police procedures, and the Spanish Inquisition for The Frenzy Way, and I was so pleased with the expansion of the original script that I decided to do a sequel, further exploring The Brotherhood of Torquemada, the antagonists of my generally peaceful Wolves. Halfway through writing that book - 445 printed pages - I realized that I needed two books to tell the story I had developed for the sequel, and while plotting the third book it became clear that my brain wanted to write a fourth book, and possibly a fifth.
I didn't set out to write a werewolf series, there are plenty of other authors doing that, and I already have one series that I'm passionate about, The Jake Helman Files. I'm worried that if I keep developing the world of Captain Anthony Mace and the werewolf siblings Angela, Gabriel and Raphael Domini I'll never have time to write anything else. But this is what happens when characters come too life in an author's imagination. So here is my plan for The Frenzy Wolves: I'm going to write this novel as if it's the concluding chapter of a trilogy, with as much action as the other two books combined, confrontation after confrontation. This excites me because I've never written the climax of a series before: there is a third Slime City film to be made some day, and I'm still four and a half books away from where I's like The Jake Helman Files to end. I suspect the Wolves in my head won't let me go, and I'll probably revisit those characters after I've tackled some other projects. Look for The Frenzy Wolves in 2014. I'm also pleased with the terms of my contract, which is always nice.
On the filmmaking front, Snow Shark: Ancient Snow Beast, which I produced, will be available on DVD February 19th from Alternative Cinema/POP Cinema, my longtime distributor of every one of my films except Slime City Massacre (which they actually carry for the distributor, Media Blasters - thank God). You can pre-order the film from Amazon now for a mere thirteen bucks (http://www.amazon.com/Shark-Michael-OHear-Jackey-Qualiana/dp/B009H3LP64/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1357395120&sr=8-1&keywords=snow+shark). Yesterday, as me and my family were watching The Karate Kid so I could return some DVD rentals to Family Video, I received word from Paige Davis, my good friend at Alternative Cinema, that Family Video will carry Snow Shark for rent across the country. This is fantastic news for us! To my knowledge, none of my films were carried for rent at a major chain except for Undying Love (released as New York Vampire), and that was a Rent Track revenue sharing deal. There are 765 Family Video locations in 19 states across the country, and every one of them will have this film for rent. There's one in Lockport, where we made the film, and one in Amherst, where I rent. Hell, there's even one in Dunkirk/Fredonia, where I grew up (remember Red Hill in Johnny Gruesome?). In addition, although Walmart USA declined to carry the film for sale because it's "too indie," Walmart Canada will stock it. That's called a win-win.
This bit of good news is remarkable for several reasons. The home video market is a tough one to crack for indie horror films, and Snow Shark cost only $7,000 to make. When I offered to produce this film for Sam Qualiana, the writer-director-star, I knew I could raise more money than he was looking for on IndieGoGo, which I did, and I hoped I could get the film a decent DVD release, which I did. And while I give most of the credit to Paige's wonderful salesmanship, credit also has to be given to the fun little creature feature that Sam made; I've never seen any POP Cinema releases in Family Video before. There's the possibility that these developments could help land the Holy Grail for indie filmmakers, a Netflix deal.
So micro-budget films can find real distribution if you approach these projects with the proper frame of mind, which I've been saying for about two and a half years now, ever since shooting Slime City Massacre (and since then I worked on Model Hunger and Ward's Island in addition to Snow Shark).
Which brings me to Dry Bones, the film I'm producing right now, which I wrote and Michael O'Hear will be directing and Melantha Blackthorne will be starring in. We're in development now, which means raising the money; we begin pre-production in February, and we plan to start shooting at the end of March. Because they've always seen a return on their investment, many of my regular investors will be back: John Maclay is executive producing, Marc Makowski is co-producing, and a few other folks have expressed interest. In addition, Melantha and fellow actress Debra Lamb have signed on as co-producers. The budget for this one is about $15,000, double what Snow Shark cost, and we need to raise an additional $3,000 through an IndieGoGo campaign, which you can visit right here if you wish to learn more about the project and make a small donation :http://igg.me/p/291738
And finally, about that chili: right now all of Buffalo is alive with the odors of chili peppers and onion for tonight's First Annual Crestwood Estates Chili Cook-Off, which is being held at an undisclosed location. I'm not cookng, I'm just eating, and may the best cook please my gullet! Tomorrow's Dry Bones meeting should be quite interesting...
January 1, 2013
So Long Slimeguy, Hello Gregory Lamberson
I've now had "an official web presence" for a decade, ever since I moved to Buffalo. Three different web designers kept Slimeguy.com afloat through thick and thin. Back at the end of 2009, after I charged Slime City Massacre expenses to my credit card and found myself in dire financial straits because of it, I could no longer afford even minimal upkeep on the site. I was prepared to let the good ship sink when Nicholas John Morgan Anderson, aka "Mercenary Number Five" in SCM, stepped in to save the day by allowing me to move the site to his web server and made updates as I needed them. Then he had twins. :)
About six months ago, Nick made the generous decision to arrange for web designer Jonathan Kemp to design an all new and much needed site for me. When I started Slimeguy.com, Slime City was by far my best known work (it's fair to say that my other two film titles back then, Undying Love (aka New York Vampire) and Naked Fear were barely known at all). Four feature film projects and nine books later, the name Slimeguy doesn't fit my overall body of work, so my spiffy new site is simply "Gregory Lamberson."
Please check out http://www.gregorylamberson.com - Jon has built an extremely slick, professional, and easy to navigate website, far better than I could have hoped for. the site is also easy for me to update, so I'll be making some tweaks to content as soon as I have time. My Tweets, Facebook posts (for my author/filmmaker page) and Livejournal blogs all import into the social networking page of the site, and are even previewed on the home page. It also has links to My Amazon, Goodreads, and Medallion Press author pages.
In addition to the site's functionality, I love its design: that dark, damp alley screams The Jake Helman Files, and those globules of slime show that I'll never run from my past (as if I could).
If I haven't made myself clear, I love the new site and am grateful to Nick and Jon for making it possible.
In other online news, I've started an author/filmmaker page on Facebook, ie the dreaded "fan page." I'm up to 3,500 or so people on my Facebook page, and I don't like posting photos of my daughter when I don't know who's looking at them, and I'm tired of arguing with people about politics or guns. You may find this hard to believe, but there are actually people who "patrol" the interwebz looking to have arguments... Anyway, if you're on Facebook please "like" my page "Gregory Lamberson Author & Filmmaker" for news on my upcoming projects, or simply follow the social media on gregorylamberson.com.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Gregory-Lamberson-Author-Filmmaker/232650553535136?ref=ts&fref=ts
Happy New Year, I've got a lot in the works.
About six months ago, Nick made the generous decision to arrange for web designer Jonathan Kemp to design an all new and much needed site for me. When I started Slimeguy.com, Slime City was by far my best known work (it's fair to say that my other two film titles back then, Undying Love (aka New York Vampire) and Naked Fear were barely known at all). Four feature film projects and nine books later, the name Slimeguy doesn't fit my overall body of work, so my spiffy new site is simply "Gregory Lamberson."
Please check out http://www.gregorylamberson.com - Jon has built an extremely slick, professional, and easy to navigate website, far better than I could have hoped for. the site is also easy for me to update, so I'll be making some tweaks to content as soon as I have time. My Tweets, Facebook posts (for my author/filmmaker page) and Livejournal blogs all import into the social networking page of the site, and are even previewed on the home page. It also has links to My Amazon, Goodreads, and Medallion Press author pages.
In addition to the site's functionality, I love its design: that dark, damp alley screams The Jake Helman Files, and those globules of slime show that I'll never run from my past (as if I could).
If I haven't made myself clear, I love the new site and am grateful to Nick and Jon for making it possible.
In other online news, I've started an author/filmmaker page on Facebook, ie the dreaded "fan page." I'm up to 3,500 or so people on my Facebook page, and I don't like posting photos of my daughter when I don't know who's looking at them, and I'm tired of arguing with people about politics or guns. You may find this hard to believe, but there are actually people who "patrol" the interwebz looking to have arguments... Anyway, if you're on Facebook please "like" my page "Gregory Lamberson Author & Filmmaker" for news on my upcoming projects, or simply follow the social media on gregorylamberson.com.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Gregory-Lamberson-Author-Filmmaker/232650553535136?ref=ts&fref=ts
Happy New Year, I've got a lot in the works.
December 28, 2012
Have You Listened to Any Good Books Lately?
I want to remind everyone that all four books in The Jake Helman Files series are available not only in print and e-book editions, but as audio downloads from Audible.com as well. All of these audio books are available on Amazon:
Personal Demons
http://www.amazon.com/Personal-Demons-Jake-Helman-Files/dp/B004INSSXQ/ref=tmm_aud_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1356702919&sr=8-1
Desperate Souls
http://www.amazon.com/Desperate-Souls-Jake-Helman-Files/dp/B004INR2R4/ref=tmm_aud_title_0
Cosmic Forces
http://www.amazon.com/Cosmic-Forces-Jake-Helman-Files/dp/B005RTV9NQ/ref=tmm_aud_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1356703082&sr=1-2
Tortured Spirits
http://www.amazon.com/Tortured-Spirits-Jake-Helman-Files/dp/B009JY5UW6/ref=sr_1_1_title_2_audd?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1356703187&sr=1-1&keywords=tortured+spirits+lamberson
If you've never listened to an audio book before, Audible.com offers all kinds of specials for first time customers, and you can use your Amazon account to make purchases:
http://www.audible.com/
Personal Demons
http://www.amazon.com/Personal-Demons-Jake-Helman-Files/dp/B004INSSXQ/ref=tmm_aud_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1356702919&sr=8-1
Desperate Souls
http://www.amazon.com/Desperate-Souls-Jake-Helman-Files/dp/B004INR2R4/ref=tmm_aud_title_0
Cosmic Forces
http://www.amazon.com/Cosmic-Forces-Jake-Helman-Files/dp/B005RTV9NQ/ref=tmm_aud_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1356703082&sr=1-2
Tortured Spirits
http://www.amazon.com/Tortured-Spirits-Jake-Helman-Files/dp/B009JY5UW6/ref=sr_1_1_title_2_audd?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1356703187&sr=1-1&keywords=tortured+spirits+lamberson
If you've never listened to an audio book before, Audible.com offers all kinds of specials for first time customers, and you can use your Amazon account to make purchases:
http://www.audible.com/
December 27, 2012
My Year at the Movies
I paid to see so few movies this year (and yet more movies for grownups) than usual, but I also co-run a film festival. I did not see the following critical favorites: Cloud Atlas, Flight, Silver Linings Playbook, About 40 or Les Miserables, so my list is drawn from an incomplete playing field to be sure.
1. Exhumed
I'm proud to say we screened this boldly original film, written by Guy Benoit and directed Richard Marr-Griffin, at Buffalo Screams Horror Film Festival. I've never seen anything like it in my life, and screening it for an appreciative audience justifies why Buffalo Screams is important to my community. Sure, the film will be available on DVD in 2013, which is great, it deserves to be seen by as many people as possible, but that isn't the same as experiencing it on a big screen with co-star Debbie Rochon in attendance. This was the best acted film of the year; it was a horror film, it was a psychological thriller, it was a psycho-drama, it was an art film - it fired on so many cylinders. While watching it the first time, I had no idea where it was taking me, and when it was over I still wasn't sure, but the film stuck with me for days, and continues to do so. This is what independent filmmaking is all about.
2. The Dark Knight Rises
It pains me to put a superhero comic book adaptation so high on my list, it really does, because I feel the current obsession with silly superhero concepts is the biggest blow to sophisticated cinema in decades, but when can I do? The Dark Knight Rises was the best Hollywood movie I saw this year (and the fact that so many comic book nerds dislike it shows that Christopher Nolan fired a shot over their heads and hit a home run). Smart, political, ambitous, epic and cinematic - a real, honest to God fucking movie that takes a character from one medium and pushes him as far as he can go in another. Anne Hathaway is going to win an Oscar for Les Miserables, but she deserves it for her performance as Catwoman. Michelle who? And no, you will not find the biggest moneymaker of the year, The Avengers, anywhere on my list.
3. Argo
An intelligent, dramatic and suspenseful look at a 1970s political crisis told by Ben Affleck in the style of a 1970s thriller. It would be a great movie even without John Goodman as John Chambers and some references to a Jack Kirby stand in, but these elements make it so much more. I'll go so far as to say this may be a valentine to science fiction and comic book geeks, many of whom probably won't even see it. It would have been better if Kirby had been named, especially in a year when Marvel Comics raped his corpse and comic book fans didn't give a shit as long as their underoo fantasies were fulfilled, but the reality is that his involvement in the actual plot was incidental.
4. The Life of Pi (in 3D)
It isn't often that we see a film that celebrates cinematic storytelling techniques like Ang Lee's adaptation of this novel, or a film that manages to be entertaining and spiritual at the same time, or that begs to be seen on a big screen and in 3D. The intangible elements that make Life of Pi work so well make describing the experience of seeing it pointless. if you wait to see it on DVD you've denied yourself a rare pleasure. Like last year's Hugo, I have no desire to see this in anything but its intended form.
5. Skyfall
The 50th anniversary James Bond movie hit all the right notes as a celebration of this long running franchise. Sam Mendes did a great job directing, and some of the sequences were among the most thrilling in the entire series. But no movie that I loved upon first viewing has faded as much in my mind during the days that followed as this one has. I agree with those who say 1) we don't need a doubting Bond, especially three films into a "new" series, and 2) the back story provided for 007 was a bit too Batmanesque. This entry is no Casino Royale, but how many Bonds are? My expectations are high for the enxt one.
6. The Five Year Engagement
Where the hell did this comedy come from and why didn't more people see it? A hilarious comedy that doesn't run two and a half hours, which is nice. I caught this on DVD, and you should too.
7. Savages
A "holy shit" movie from Oliver Stone featuring great villains who make up for bland protagonists, a colorful palette, and wonderful twists and turns that proves that movies can be almost as good as TV (see Breaking Bad, Boardwalk Empire, etc.). Another film I caught on DVD.
8. Paranorman
A great kids' movie that was genuinely frightening. DVD...
9. The Hobbit
I don't care how many people say they loved every minute of it, it was not a great movie and it plodded on for most of its first hour and a half, and Peter Jackson and his collaborators completely missed the spirit of the novel. But they rediscovered the magic the moment Gollum came onscreen and the last hour was great, and I'm confident the next two entries will be better. It was the first movie I saw this year that I wanted to see a second time on the big screen, but my daughter doesn't want to see it again, and that's part of its problem.
10. Lincoln
I know it may be politically incorrect to say, but the first hour of this film dragged even more than the first hour of The Hobbit. The dialogue (speeches) grew on me, and I loved the cast (especially Daniel Day Lewis) and all of the many historical touches. I want to see it again.
Most Disappointing Movie of the Year: John Carter
I know it has its fans, and those fans like to tell us that the rest of us are fools for not recognizing the quality of this film, but they're wrong: the screenplay is faithful to the Edgar Rice Burroughs's first novel in the Barsoom series, but the direction could not have been more flat. This film captures none of the sweep or romance of the pulp novel, and that's a crying shame because this adaptation cost and lost so much money that we'll probably never see JC again. And Deeja Thoris was anything but "incomparable."
Worst Movie of the Year: Prometheus
There's no competition for me: this was the most painfully idiotic big budget movie I've ever paid to see, a moronic slap in the face masquerading as "intelligent science fiction." It's one thing to willingly suspend your disbelief, and another to dismiss your entire education in the name of escpaist entertainment. Horrible plotting, enormous gaps in logic, and unbelievable coincidences make this an ideal film for people who simply don't care about good storytelling as long as what's there is wrapped in pretty visuals. Chariots of the Gods was old hat when Battlestar Galactica hit the airwaves in 1978.
Well, there you have it. I hope to see The Hobbit on the big screen again 2013, and it would be nice to see Les Miserables and Django, but I can wait for DVD for those.
1. Exhumed
I'm proud to say we screened this boldly original film, written by Guy Benoit and directed Richard Marr-Griffin, at Buffalo Screams Horror Film Festival. I've never seen anything like it in my life, and screening it for an appreciative audience justifies why Buffalo Screams is important to my community. Sure, the film will be available on DVD in 2013, which is great, it deserves to be seen by as many people as possible, but that isn't the same as experiencing it on a big screen with co-star Debbie Rochon in attendance. This was the best acted film of the year; it was a horror film, it was a psychological thriller, it was a psycho-drama, it was an art film - it fired on so many cylinders. While watching it the first time, I had no idea where it was taking me, and when it was over I still wasn't sure, but the film stuck with me for days, and continues to do so. This is what independent filmmaking is all about.
2. The Dark Knight Rises
It pains me to put a superhero comic book adaptation so high on my list, it really does, because I feel the current obsession with silly superhero concepts is the biggest blow to sophisticated cinema in decades, but when can I do? The Dark Knight Rises was the best Hollywood movie I saw this year (and the fact that so many comic book nerds dislike it shows that Christopher Nolan fired a shot over their heads and hit a home run). Smart, political, ambitous, epic and cinematic - a real, honest to God fucking movie that takes a character from one medium and pushes him as far as he can go in another. Anne Hathaway is going to win an Oscar for Les Miserables, but she deserves it for her performance as Catwoman. Michelle who? And no, you will not find the biggest moneymaker of the year, The Avengers, anywhere on my list.
3. Argo
An intelligent, dramatic and suspenseful look at a 1970s political crisis told by Ben Affleck in the style of a 1970s thriller. It would be a great movie even without John Goodman as John Chambers and some references to a Jack Kirby stand in, but these elements make it so much more. I'll go so far as to say this may be a valentine to science fiction and comic book geeks, many of whom probably won't even see it. It would have been better if Kirby had been named, especially in a year when Marvel Comics raped his corpse and comic book fans didn't give a shit as long as their underoo fantasies were fulfilled, but the reality is that his involvement in the actual plot was incidental.
4. The Life of Pi (in 3D)
It isn't often that we see a film that celebrates cinematic storytelling techniques like Ang Lee's adaptation of this novel, or a film that manages to be entertaining and spiritual at the same time, or that begs to be seen on a big screen and in 3D. The intangible elements that make Life of Pi work so well make describing the experience of seeing it pointless. if you wait to see it on DVD you've denied yourself a rare pleasure. Like last year's Hugo, I have no desire to see this in anything but its intended form.
5. Skyfall
The 50th anniversary James Bond movie hit all the right notes as a celebration of this long running franchise. Sam Mendes did a great job directing, and some of the sequences were among the most thrilling in the entire series. But no movie that I loved upon first viewing has faded as much in my mind during the days that followed as this one has. I agree with those who say 1) we don't need a doubting Bond, especially three films into a "new" series, and 2) the back story provided for 007 was a bit too Batmanesque. This entry is no Casino Royale, but how many Bonds are? My expectations are high for the enxt one.
6. The Five Year Engagement
Where the hell did this comedy come from and why didn't more people see it? A hilarious comedy that doesn't run two and a half hours, which is nice. I caught this on DVD, and you should too.
7. Savages
A "holy shit" movie from Oliver Stone featuring great villains who make up for bland protagonists, a colorful palette, and wonderful twists and turns that proves that movies can be almost as good as TV (see Breaking Bad, Boardwalk Empire, etc.). Another film I caught on DVD.
8. Paranorman
A great kids' movie that was genuinely frightening. DVD...
9. The Hobbit
I don't care how many people say they loved every minute of it, it was not a great movie and it plodded on for most of its first hour and a half, and Peter Jackson and his collaborators completely missed the spirit of the novel. But they rediscovered the magic the moment Gollum came onscreen and the last hour was great, and I'm confident the next two entries will be better. It was the first movie I saw this year that I wanted to see a second time on the big screen, but my daughter doesn't want to see it again, and that's part of its problem.
10. Lincoln
I know it may be politically incorrect to say, but the first hour of this film dragged even more than the first hour of The Hobbit. The dialogue (speeches) grew on me, and I loved the cast (especially Daniel Day Lewis) and all of the many historical touches. I want to see it again.
Most Disappointing Movie of the Year: John Carter
I know it has its fans, and those fans like to tell us that the rest of us are fools for not recognizing the quality of this film, but they're wrong: the screenplay is faithful to the Edgar Rice Burroughs's first novel in the Barsoom series, but the direction could not have been more flat. This film captures none of the sweep or romance of the pulp novel, and that's a crying shame because this adaptation cost and lost so much money that we'll probably never see JC again. And Deeja Thoris was anything but "incomparable."
Worst Movie of the Year: Prometheus
There's no competition for me: this was the most painfully idiotic big budget movie I've ever paid to see, a moronic slap in the face masquerading as "intelligent science fiction." It's one thing to willingly suspend your disbelief, and another to dismiss your entire education in the name of escpaist entertainment. Horrible plotting, enormous gaps in logic, and unbelievable coincidences make this an ideal film for people who simply don't care about good storytelling as long as what's there is wrapped in pretty visuals. Chariots of the Gods was old hat when Battlestar Galactica hit the airwaves in 1978.
Well, there you have it. I hope to see The Hobbit on the big screen again 2013, and it would be nice to see Les Miserables and Django, but I can wait for DVD for those.
December 26, 2012
Occult Detectve Names Jake Helman Best Occult Detective of 2012
Author and artist Bob Freeman of Occult Detective dot com has posted his annual Occult Detective Awards on his blog, and I'm proud to report that he named Jake Helman "Best Occult Detective of 2012" :
http://authorbobfreeman.wordpress.com/2012/12/20/day-four-of-the-3rd-annual-occult-detective-awards/
QUOTH THE RAVEN:
http://authorbobfreeman.wordpress.com/2012/12/20/day-four-of-the-3rd-annual-occult-detective-awards/
QUOTH THE RAVEN:
Best Occult Detective of 2012
JAKE HELMAN
(The Jake Helman Files, Vol. 4 — Tortured Spirits / October 2012, Medallion Press)
Gregory Lamberson’s Jake Helman series kicks all kinds of ass. There. I said it. Personal Demons. Desperate Souls. Cosmic Forces. Tortured Spirits. And coming next year — Storm Demon. What do you need to know about Jake Helman? He’s a hard-boiled, tough as nails private investigator who so far has battled everything from demons to Lovecraftian beasties and worse. Last year, in my review of Cosmic Forces I said “Greg Lamberson is the most cinematic author writing today and The Jake Helman Files are nothing short of the most awesome movies that have not been filmed yet.” I stand by those words.
Congratulations to all the other artists who made the list, and as always, special thanks to Bob for his support. Follow his blog regularly to keep track of his many projects!
TORTURED SPIRITS Makes Nick Cato's Ten Best of 2012 List
Nick Cato, editor of The Horror Fiction Review, has compiled his Ten Best Books of 2012 list on his Antibacterial Pope blog, drawing from 78 science fiction, bizarro, and horror titles. I'm proud that Tortured Spirits, Book Four of The Jake Helman Files, made the grade:
"Most series run out of steam after the 2nd or 3rd title. But with this 4th installment of Lamberson's Jake Helman Files, the author went totally epic Helman's Fourth one of the Finest."
Congratulations to the other authors whose work made the list, including Tim Waggoner, Nicholas Kaufmann, Daniel G. Keohane, Tom Piccirilli, and Rio Youers.
http://nickcato.blogspot.com/
I see a number of titles on this list I feel compelled to read, although my first leisure reading project of 2013 2ill be Oliver Twist.
"Most series run out of steam after the 2nd or 3rd title. But with this 4th installment of Lamberson's Jake Helman Files, the author went totally epic Helman's Fourth one of the Finest."
Congratulations to the other authors whose work made the list, including Tim Waggoner, Nicholas Kaufmann, Daniel G. Keohane, Tom Piccirilli, and Rio Youers.
http://nickcato.blogspot.com/
I see a number of titles on this list I feel compelled to read, although my first leisure reading project of 2013 2ill be Oliver Twist.
December 25, 2012
X-mas with the Lambersons
Christmas has been over for an hour, and my family had an exceptional holiday. The occasion itself was as low key as ever in our house - just the three of us, gift opening followed by meals and movies in our living room - but the lead in to the holiday was more memorable than usual. My wife has been unemployed for six months, and my daughter is six years old. This means my wife has been home far more than usual, like all the time, and we saw a number of grown up movies in theaters, something we haven't really done since my daughter was born. My daughter is also at a special age where she has begun to suspect there is no Santa Claus (thanks to the usual suspects at school, unavoidable), but wishes to believe in him and is willing to suspend her disbelief; I don't think that will be the case next year, and it was wonderful to experience her innocence to the degree we were able to this year. We got her fewer gifts than usual due to economic circumstances, but she never expressed disappointment and had fun with what we got her - I'm quite proud of her.
Actually, she was disappointed in one gift I got her, which I actually spent months looking for. I'm an atheist and my wife is a Christian, and I sent them off to New York City alone while I worked on MODEL HUNGER in July and my daughter came back converted. We've had a few simple theological discussions, but for the most part I've decided to let her enjoy her concepts of God (ditto Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy...). The gift I hunted for her was on old oversize DC Comics "Treasury Edition," Stories from the Bible, which I owned as a kid and which is gorgeously illustrated. She took one look at it and said, "Weird." Later, I flipped it open two a two page spread depicting Noah's Ark and she said, "Yeah, okay."
Anyway, this is the first Christmas in which I felt sad that the buildup was over, because it was really nice. I hope all of you had as nice a time as we did, and were able to put these gun horrors out of mind for a short time.
Actually, she was disappointed in one gift I got her, which I actually spent months looking for. I'm an atheist and my wife is a Christian, and I sent them off to New York City alone while I worked on MODEL HUNGER in July and my daughter came back converted. We've had a few simple theological discussions, but for the most part I've decided to let her enjoy her concepts of God (ditto Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy...). The gift I hunted for her was on old oversize DC Comics "Treasury Edition," Stories from the Bible, which I owned as a kid and which is gorgeously illustrated. She took one look at it and said, "Weird." Later, I flipped it open two a two page spread depicting Noah's Ark and she said, "Yeah, okay."
Anyway, this is the first Christmas in which I felt sad that the buildup was over, because it was really nice. I hope all of you had as nice a time as we did, and were able to put these gun horrors out of mind for a short time.
