Dylan Charles's Blog, page 22

Movie Review: Antichrist (Part 2)

I finished watching Antichrist and, as promised, here’s the second and last part of my review.

After I finished watching it, I needed a hug. It’s an emotionally draining movie; filled with disturbing images and grotesque elements. It depicted vile things and at the end, I wasn’t entirely sure what I had seen. I don’t think I’ll ever watch it again and I doubt I’ll ever be able to recommend it to anyone.

In spite of that and because of that, I’m more than willing to say that this is one of the b...

Movie Review: Antichrist (Part 1)

It is very rare that a movie scares me anymore. I’m not bragging. It just means I’ve seen too many scary movies. I know how it’s going to end. I know which characters are going to die at which points. I know where the monster will appear and what its name is. It’s all about knowing the tropes and the cliches and the very nature of the genre.

And as I’ve stated many times, fear is about not knowing. It’s about being surprised. It’s about not knowing what’s around the corner.

What’s great, truly...

We’ve Built a Race of Robots

I’ve always wanted a robot. Or robots, actually. Just a couple of them, wandering around the house at all times. They don’t even need to do chores. They can just…be there. Being robots.

And I’m not talking about robots that are remote controlled. It has to have some kind of AI.

For me, the idea of robots just wandering around the landscape has been one of those signs that THE FUTURE IS HERE. It’s a sign that humanity has progressed enough that we can create something that can respond to us and...

City Livin’

I like Boston. I like the people (generally). I like the food. I like the museums. I like the atmosphere. I want that to be understood before I continue. I really like this town.

But Jesus Christmas, living in the city is wearing me down.

Part of the reason why my last job wore me down so much was because it was smack in the middle o Back Bay and was rife with tourists, college students, drunks, drunk college students, homeless people begging for change, drug addicts, hippies, Children’s Intern...

Horror on a Budget

I talk a lot about horror as an art form. I rail against poorly made horror movies and I talk endlessly about what horror needs to do as a genre in order to regain its ability to actually frighten people.

All of that doesn’t change the fact that I really like shitty horror movies.

I don’t know why. I’ve tried to think of reasons for it; explanations for my love of truly awful movies.

They’re…comforting, intrinsically. You know what they’re going to do and how they’re going to do it. I know their...

Modifications

I’ve been considering adding features and things to the blog. As it is, it’s not very structured. Once or twice a week, I’ll update with a random entry. People read it, love it and that’s it.

But I’m thinking about adding in regularly scheduled entries: movie reviews, reviews of any kind, thoughts on pop culture, thoughts on horror, some kind ofcolumnthat you know will be up every Friday.

At the very least, I’m looking to have a more structured update schedule. Three times a week, say, Monday,...

A Long Walk

I used to go on long walks; walks with no purpose or destination they were just walks that went on for as long as I could stand it and then I’d turn around and go back home.

For some reason, I haven’t been doing that so much lately, which is a shame seeing as how I’m still not very familiar with the area. Today, I went for a long walk.

I walked down Arlington and down Faneuiland along Washington until I ran into the Mass Pike.

I saw a Pentecostal Church, preacher’s words muffled behind concrete...

Paring It Down

For most people, editing is about excising. You trim out all of those unnecessary words and details and phrases and commas. You said too much. You described too much. You gave him too much to say. Stephen King even comes up with a basic formula for editing your story that goes as follows:

First Draft – Ten Percent= Second Draft

It’s one of the more difficultchallengesfor most writers because you have to determine what’s actually crap and what’s actually good, what actually helps the story and w...

An Exercise

It’s hot and sticky. There’s a storm, all around and the pulse of thunder pushes through the world in regular intervals. The rain adds more heaviness to the air, making for a curtain of thick, viscous humidity as I walk through the apartment.

I have a bottle of wine that’s old and the wine has lost its sweetness. A bitter sour taste has begun to creep around the edges and there’s an acidic bite that wasn’t there a few days ago. But it’s cold and it burns and it does the job that I need it to d...

I Heard the Thunder Clappin’

I’ve never likedmottos. They’re basically a bumper sticker slogan that someone has decided personifies their personal beliefs in a single, snappy sentence. It’s always asinine and cliched and reeks of pseudo-wisdom. Or it’s “ironic” or an old family motto that no longer makes sense in a modern context. Or it is clever, but really, is someone else’s clever catch-phrase how you want to define yourself?

But then I had a brilliant realization. A catch-phrase makes for a terrible motto, but a SONG,...