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.
The Best Laid Plans...
…can go somewhat awry.
February started well but suddenly it’s the 16th and I haven’t posted in nearly 2 weeks. Damn. That wasn’t meant to happen. All sorts of other things (real life!) got in the way for a bit; but there’ll be some good new posts up soon. I’ve promised a WomenInHorrow post on Emily Booth, I NEED to write about Birdemic (the world’s best worst film) and a whole host of other things I’ve watched.
Poster Hunt #7 -James Bond and The Matrix - Ghana style
This month Poster Hunt comes in the form of TWO gorgeously ridiculous hand-painted posters from Ghana. Many of these paintings were made by (incredibly creative) artists who had not seen the film
And if you like these, you should definitely check out Ephemera Assemblyman
Blood and Donuts
For a first real Women in Horror Recognition Month post, I chose to watch Holly Dale’s Blood and Donuts. I’ll be honest; I only chose the film because it has a female director and female-directed feature-length horror is all too rare. I must admit that, going on only the title, I really wasn’t expecting much.
How wrong could I be?
Though I won’t pretend that this is absolutely essential viewing, this is a clever, fun, sensitive vampire film; sharing much more with thoughtful films like Interview With The Vampire and Let the Right One In than with Hammer’s neck-biting romps. At the heart of this film we have the indefinitely old vampire, Boya - a “humanist vampire” as we discover. Much like Brad Pitt/Louis in Interview With The Vampire, this leaves Goya to lead a less than glamorous life, munching on rats and pidgeons as privately as he can and trying not to court too much attention.
Women In Horror Recognition Month
So, whether you knew it or not, February is Women in Horror Recognition Month. Yes if you’re in America it clashes with Black History month, but if you’re in/from the UK, you’ll know that Black History month is in October, right?
Anyway, Chopping Mall’s participation is going to be somewhat laid back, but shall definitely be participating. We’ll have posts about the fantastic Emily Booth coming soon, as well as a couple of reviews of Female-directed Horror films (a disturbingly rare occurrence).
Blowing our own trumpet...
It’s been a nice few days for Chopping Mall.
Firstly we were kindly given the One Lovely Blog award by William Weird from over at the excellent Beard Weirdo Reviews blog. Many thanks for that!
And then Dan Goodswen at Total Film listed Chopping Mall (alongside 599 others) in his list of the 600 Movie Blogs You Might Have Missed.
It’s good to see a whole lot of other LAMB blogs in the list too!
Big Screen Big Tune #1
Having recently written a bit about the film OST, I tohught I might as well start a series of posts dedicated to the best soundtracks and theme-tunes around. So here is the rather fabulous Green Slime.
The youtube video was put up by the Uranium Café, which is a very good blog if you’re interested in these kinds of things…
Open the door you’ll find the secret
To find the answer is to keep it
You’ll believe it when you find
Something screaming ‘cross your mind
Green slimeHammer Horror - Dracula and Brides of Dracula
Part of the aim of writing this blog and of taking more notice of what I watch, is to improve my general film knowledge and to encourage me to fill in some of the gaps - whole genres and famous names that I know little or nothing about.
Sometime of course, fishing about in new genres just isn’t appealing and I’ll settle back into the safety of the Spaghetti Western or a predictably nonsense ‘horror’ film - like Attack of the Killer Shrews. Recent viewing however has seen me beginning to get to grips with classic American Film Noir (about which I’m sure I’ll write something soon) and, for this post, the wonderful world of Hammer Horror.
Super Bad, Super Cool and the Rise and Fall of the OST
I’ve just finished listening to a really rather wonderful BBC Radio 2 programme called Super Bad, Supe Cool about the phenomenon of the Blaxploitation film.
The hour long show was narrated by Pam Grier (star of Coffy, Foxy Brown and many a great film, described by Tarantino as being probably the first female action star). It delved into several aspects of the genre - from the controversial and much disputed title ‘blaxploitation’, it’s impact and significance for black actors and cinema-goers of 70s USA and the importance of the soundtrack in these films. Calling on a whole host of film and music luminaries from Isaac (RIP) Hayes (if you’re young, you probably know him best as South Park’s Chef) to Samuel L Jackson to Tarantino, Pam Griers examined the massive impact of cult-classic Shaft and it’s lasting influence on cinema.
Poster Hunt #6 - Count Yorga, Vampire
After completely missing out December, Poster Hunt makes a glamorous 2010 return with this rather lovely poster for Count Yorga, Vampire.
They just don’t make them like that any more…
Damnation Alley
Looking back over some of my other reviews, it becomes quite clear what sort of things I appreciate in a film; before even troubling myself with something as trivial as the plot, I’ve enthused about Christopher Lee, Ennio Morricone, killer shrews, alien monsters, robots, the undead etc, etc. So, if you were to pitch a film as being a post-apocalyptic adventure with giant scorpions and flesh eating cockroaches, do you really think I could turn it down?
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