Chopping Mall
Chopping Mall was my first blog, which I started way back in 2009. It was dedicated exlcusively to ridiculous and terrible films, which I watched a lot of back then. (So much time, so little work!)
I’ve resuced the posts from oblivion, to be preserved here for …uh… whatever.
It’s a pretty clunky process getting them out of blogspot (XML export, eww) and into here, so there may be a few formatting issues.
Women In Horror
….yeah. Despite what that banner says, we’re 3/4 of the way through Women in Horror recognition month and I’ve done nothing. Whoops :(
In lieu of me doing anything worthwhile about it, check out:
Official site: http://womeninhorrormonth.com/
Facebook page (updated regularly!)
The brilliant Day of the Woman blog
The ever-wonderful Lightning Bug’s Lair
And the fabulous Horror Digest
And there’s a whole tonne of other treats and goodies out there for you to find if you look around a bit!
CRUNCH CRUNCH BANG
[CC Licenced photo by Katerha]
Now, I love going to the cinema. And I take it pretty seriously. Your behaviour in the cinema should be determined by the kind of film you’re watching.
Tense psycho-drama? Don’t talk, mutter, mumble or make a noise.
Comedy? Laugh.
Splatter horror at a film festival? Laugh along with everyone else at all the inappropriate gory moments that you all love.
Matrices?
Ohhh my. The hot news - a cynic might say rumour at this stage - is Keanu Reeves and the Wachowskis being in talks about a two movie picture deal for sequels to the Matrix trilogy. See The Register, The Guardian, EmpireOnline and the news-breakers Ain’t It Cool.
Cue, of course, all manner of beard stroking and mumbling about Hollywood lack of imagination, about ruining beautiful things with unnecessary extensions but… wait a second, back up there. This is different, isn’t it? Normally when unnecessary sequels get added years after the originals, we’re concerned about protecting the originals. Indiana Jones is a perfect example: three glorious films and a sequel full of aliens some years later.
Short Films: Treevenge
It’s hard to know what to say about a short film as funny, gory, mad and wonderful as Treevenge.
The short, clocking in at about 16 minutes, is a couple of years old and comes recommended by a sackful of film festival awards, including an honourable mention at Sundance and audience-fave short at Torronto After Dark, as well as Best Short from Rue Morgue magazine.
Looking Back: 2010 in VAMPIRES!
First were Zombies, next it’s Vampires! This is the first of my “Looking Back at 2010” posts, in which I plan to have a look at what I watched this year and see what was great (and not so great…). This is based on the list of films I watched in 2010, not necessarily (or at all!) on those released in 2010.
My 2010 count of Vampire flicks clocked in at some 27 different films, although the vast majority were Hammer films. Last year was the first time I really got to grips with Hammer Horror films and I certainly watched a lot of their Vampire outings! I’m a massive fan of Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, so any of the films with them in leading roles were certainly winners. Dracula (1958), Dracula, Prince of Darkness and Taste The Blood of Dracula were particular favourites from the Dracula cycle, with an honorable mention due to Dracula AD 1972 for being so completely mad. Scars of Dracula was a pretty thin addition to the series and The Satanic Rights of Dracula was nice enough but decidedly underwhelming.
Looking Back: 2010 in ZOMBIES
This is the first of my “Looking Back at 2010” posts, in which I plan to have a look at what I watched this year and see what was great (and not so great…). First up: Zombies! This is based on the list of films I watched in 2010, not necessarily those released in 2010.
Last year I sat through a fair number of Zombie films and, much like the genre, I have to say they were a pretty mixed bag. My film list contains 29 that I would describe as either being Zombie films or at least significantly featuring zombies. Of these, there were a handful of true genre classics - several of which I’d seen before - including Umberto Lenzi’s zombies-with-weapons masterpiece Nightmare City (which I reviewed here), Hammer’s brilliant Plague of the Zombies, the creepy Spanish Tombs of the Blind Dead and cult-classic no-budget cheese-fest The Video Dead.
CHOPPING MALL 2011
Well, I don’t think there’s any point denying that the 2nd half of 2010 was pretty disastrous in terms of keeping this blog updated… Five posts in as many months? And one of those was a post saying that I hadn’t been posting enough, a post where I promised all sorts of exciting film reviews that I then never wrote.
Part of the problem, it would appear, is that I watched too many films. Early in the year I set myself the goal of watching 365 different films in the year and, though I did manage that, the goal did rather take over a lot of my free time - time that I would and could (and should?) have spent writing about films here.
Huacho
[as these films were all seen on cinema screens rather than DVD, screenshots are much harder to include. I’ll stick to poster/cover images and trailers where possible]
One of my first films of the festival was the Chilean film-cum-documentary Huacho. I describe it as such because, the film is so very ‘real-life’ as to feel as if we are watching the reality of their existence - an idea only supported by the cast only being credited with a single name.
Some time later...
Ok, ok, it’s been a while. This blog hasn’t been updated in faaaar too long.
Not to worry though. Half of the reason for this is that, in volunteering at the Leeds International Film Festival (the UK’s biggest outside London, apparently), I’ve been way too busy watching films towrite much about them!
So, coming very, very soon will be reviews of every single film I’ve seen as part of the festival. Let’s go! Dr Strangelove, Huacho, A Town Called Panic and many many more to come!
The Idiots
[NEAR THE END THERE ARE A FEW SPOILERS! ]
I’ve not seen a lot of Lars Von Trier’s films (Antichrist, *shudder*) and generally know more about him from interviews and reviews than from his films. What I do know, however, is that clear meanings and easy answers tend not to be big in his films. The Idiots is a perfect case-in-point and, whilst I would never say I want a director to be heavy handed, to spell things out in an overly laboured manner, I do sometimes, just sometimes think that, when you finish a film and think, “uh….. what?”, the director has actually failed slightly.