THE PERFECT HOST

This movie came out just recently and I think its a really underrated sort of wacky thriller.  David Hyde Pierce, who has really carved out an excellent niche character actor role for himself as a stuffy, WASP-Y rich gentleman with eccentricities.  Not only is he underutilized but like I said this movie really was one of the better ones I have seen of this genre this year.

A career criminal who is fleeing the police ends up in an upscale neighborhood with a wounded foot.  He knocks on doors until he manages to scam his way into DHP's abode.  But he really picked the wrong house.  It turns out, Pierce is severely mentally ill and disturbed, and involves the intruder in his extensive hallucinations and delusions (which range from amazingly disturbing to downright funny), which although very severe, he is able to keep the veneer of sanity to his neighbors and any outsiders through careful administration of medication.  Things take a surprise turn at the end where DHP's occupation and ulterior motives are revealed.  But some things are left for you to decide.  I thought this movie did an excellent job of mindfucking you and also giving you some stuff to chew on, and always entertaining.  DHP goes from debonair host and entertainer to psychotic deviant doing everything from showing the intruder films of him mutilating himself to him full on fucking a woman he believes to be there but isn't.  Why this got horrible ratings on Rotten Tomatoes I will never know.

CONTAGIUM "ARCHAIC" LP

Pretty nice record here.  Looking at the cover, I figured it'd be pretty straight up crust but there is way more than meets the eye.  Lots of elements of stenchcore as well as black and death metal.  The vocals definitely show some BM influence with a kind of classic echoey sound to the vocals almost Beheritish.  Also some hints of Amebix in there.  Very nice.

Nocturnal Blood

NOCTURNAL BLOOD "DEVASTATED GRAVES" LP

This LP is fucking amazing. Somewhere in the black/death continuum lies this band and I have to say it gave me hope that is still creativity in this realm that can combine rawness, atmosphere, and depth without being pretentious or high concept. HHR again really knocks it out of the park.

Wow

OK I just remembered I have this blog and I have been wanting to do more with it. I am going to be doing a mixture of stuff relating to music-- primarily about music (metal/punk).

Today I visited 1-2-3-4-GO! Records in Oakland and I was lucky enough to score a copy of the GISM "Detestation" LP of course this is probably the umpteenth re-release (bootleg) of this classic record but I always find myself getting suckered into it for the packaging. A previous fan club release I had unfortunately had a really muddy production value. But this is a good, clean sounding release with good quality art. Apparently there were only 550 made of this.

I also got the Bayonet 7", which is some pretty good early 80s Finnish punk. I have to say though it kind of burns my ass to pay 10 bucks for a 7" its pretty clear someone spent about a buck fifty making. But thats the "fan club" biz I guess.

A few things I am curious about is why there hasn't been a re-release of The Swankys or some kind of discography. That band is seriously underrated.

OK well on the surface this Japanese medical horror film seemed kind of interesting to me and as I work in the medical field I am a bit skeptical of most horror films which incorporate medical "stuff" because 99 percent of the time its so laughable it ruins it for me. This movie is a bizarre mix of supernatural and ghost oriented stuff, medical malpractice, and gore. So people start turning green and dissolving and injuring themselves, weird stuff is afoot. Genuinely creepy atmosphere in an old decrepit hospital, crazy patients, creepy kids. Yep. But the movie becomes less coherent as it goes on which is usually the opposite of movies trying to make a metaphysical or philosophical statement, which I kind of think this movie was trying to make (??). A frustrating experience for sure.

OUTPOST

I had been waiting for a while to watch OUTPOST, a supposed Nazi Zombie movie, a genre which tends to be hit and miss. Judging by the trailers and posters I thought this one looked quite a bit different and a little more stylish than the rest! I had no idea how right I was. This movie can hardly really be called a zombie movie at all, I think it would be more along the lines of supernatural, and the fiends are more of a ghostly origin than anything else. They don't eat people, just stab and beat them, and they cannot be killed even with a headshot, so we are on a different set of rules here! The cinematography is awesome, very grim and moody, and is full of some genuine chills. The basic premise is some mercenaries are hired to secure a bunker in eastern Europe which is in the middle of a warzone. They soon discover it is an SS bunker where bizarre physics experiments took place which resulted in some kind of Unified Field disturbance (physics students explain this please!). Upshot: murderous nazi ghosts. They discover a man still "alive" in the bunker who won't talk and is incredibly creepy. This movie definitely delivers in atmosphere and chills. This is a low budget movie of course but there is no schlock here, very classy, slick, with good acting and sets. One of the best new horror movies of it's type I have seen in a long time!
Apparently also out there is HORRORS OF WAR which is a Nazi oriented zombie film, which I will have to check out. But I gotta say its going to take a lot to top OUTPOST.

Here goes nothing

I guess I have joined the rank of the elite group known as bloggers. Actually in all honesty I started this more because A. I wanted to have a website and B. I have a hostile relationship with technology and find it daunting to actually create a website on my own. This format seems pretty cool and I am nothing if not simplistic in my demands in terms of layout, so hey. Some folks may tread on this by way of my columns in MRR or Profane Existence, or by my involvement in Mangelslakt zine. This will be similar in some ways to those things but will also cover a lot of other stuff, including my label info and whatever other shit I am enthusiastic enough to write about! Take it eazy!