General Catch Up

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We have hit the busiest portion of our annual work at the day-job and last month I worked more overtime days and non-overtime days. However, this week I am scaling back for health reasons.

For the last three days running I have had on each day some level of migraine headache with Saturday evening and Sunday morning being the most intense pain days. Sadly, that forced me to cancel my role-playing game on Saturday night and my zoo trip on Sunday morning.

That said, I have been able to get to work and contribute to the massive backlog created by people who waited to the very last minute to submit their enrollments.

I have also been able to continue work on my folk/cosmic horror novel and have now passed 75,000 words with perhaps 10 or 12 thousand left to completing the 1st draft. Then the revisions begin, and this will take a lot more than any other novel I have written. While life is easier with an outline, I am glad I have written this one by the seat of my pants if for no other reason than to experience that process.

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Movie Review The Return

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Sunday Dec 8th turned out to be a three-movie day as I watched Heretic at a late screening, Heavier Trip, the sequel the charming Heavy Trip by way of Video on Demand and at a matinee screening The Return.

Bleecker Street Productions

A retelling of the final chapters or books of the Greek Classic The Odyssey the film details the return after twenty years of the hero/king Odysseus (Ralph Fiennes) to his home the island of Ithaca. In the absences the kingdom has gone to ruin. The best men had sailed with the king to the war on Troy and none have returned. The king’s father is dying and unscrupulous suitors pressure Queen Penelope (Juliette Binoche) to select one of them to be the new king. Disguised as a beggar and veteran of the war Odysseus is reluctant to reveal himself, carrying the heavy emotional scars of both the war and the men he led to their doom.

The Return is a modern telling of the story with modern sensibilities to the emotional trauma inflected by the horror of war while retaining the period setting of the classic tale. Fiennes is excellent, as usual, in the role, his aged and deeply lined face wearing the heavy weight of guilt and memory quite well. Binoche also turns in a riveting performance while the rest of the cast can only be described as adequate. It is not perhaps the fault of the performers as the script is tightly focused on Odysseus and Penelope. It is their story and his more than hers, with the remaining characters only serving to reflect themes and motivations back to the principles.

The direction by Uberto Pasolini and the cinematography is serviceable and does nothing to draw attention to themselves but also do nothing that elevates the final product above that perfectly useable art.

The Return is currently in theaters but with a very limited promotional campaign, a proper trailer was only available about a month prior to release, it is destined for a fast trip to online streaming and Video on Demand.

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Movie Review: Heretic

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Heretic: a person who differs in opinion from established religious dogma. (Merriam-Webster)

Released by A24 Heretic is a horror film that falls more broadly in the genre of psychological horror than traditional horror thought elements at the films conclusion can be interpreted to move the movie into a supernatural realm.

A24 studios

As depicted in the films trailer, two Mormon missionaries, Sister Paxton (Chloe East) and Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) have come to the home of Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant) because he has expressed an interest in learning more about the Mormon church. Deceiving the pair into believing his wife is at home he traps them in the house and begins a cruel psychological cat-and-mouse game with the young women.

First off let me state just how much I am loving Hugh Grant in is villain era of acting. From a corrupt English politician in A Very English Scandal, thru his campy and quite enjoyable rogue in Dungeons & Dragon: Honor Among Thieves to this controlled and chilling performance I have enjoyed Grant so much more than in his good looking rom-com days.

Written and Directed by Scott Beck & Bryan Woods, Heretic is a thoughtful film that doesn’t treat any of its characters as cheap and as strawmen. It poses interesting and challenging questions about the nature of faith, belief, and organized religion without presenting any particular answer as ‘truth’ but only as truth seen through flawed human perception.

The three central performers are all operating at what looks like the top of their games, giving detail and subtle performances that illuminate character without broad exposition. Reed’s worldview is internally consistent but like any not without fault or logical fallacy. The Sisters are presented neither as caricatures of their faith nor as unblemished adherents.

Cinematographer Chung Chung-hoon makes use of unsettling and unconventional close-ups that allow the audience of share in Paxton and Barnes growing terror as their situation becomes frightening clear.

Heretic at time reminded me of Barbarian but without that movies disbelief shattering descent into superhuman silliness. Save for a single event near the films climax Heretic keeps itself firmly grounded in conventional reality and even the event in question is open to various interpretations.

I thoroughly enjoyed this film, and I am thrilled that I managed to make time to see it in the theater before it run closed.

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Return to Twin Peaks, not Twin Peaks: The Return

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During spooky season I posted that my sweetie-wife and I were doing a rewatch of the 90’s television series Twin Peaks.

I had some exposure to the uniqueness of David Lynch prior to the series. As part of a double feature at a rep theater I had seen Eraserhead, and it never made sense to me. Then I saw his adaptation of Dune, a flawed but visually stunning film that to me is the least David Lynch he ever made. However, I fell in love with Blue Velvet a surreal neo-noir that was both crime melodrama and an exploration of the twisted darkness that hides in all of us.

When Twin Peaks hit the air my very first thought was ‘Oh, this is Blue Velvet for television.’ I had no conception of just how strange, cosmic, and beyond rational the series would delve.

ABC Television

Our rewatch has reached the second of half of season two and it has been quite a ride. At times the series is a less than middling nighttime soap opera, with poorly executed noir styled plots that quickly fizzle out, at other times it’s a bizarre comedy with such questionable material as a middle-aged woman delusionally going to high school and using her inhuman muscular strength to sexually hares teenage boys. And yet it always retains those elements that are pure horror, of worlds beyond our own intruding with sadistic demons and entrapping human souls not only in depravity but with elements of furniture.

As we swing into the final episodes air back in the 90’s and the terrifying nature of the Black Lodge, the possessing demons, and a cliff hanger that went unresolved for 25 years I can’t help, despite all its flaws, to salute the inventions of the series.

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A Murder in Mid-Town

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Yesterday morning in New York City, the Chief Executive Officer of UnitedHealthcare was slain in what seems to be an obviously preplanned assassination. Leaving his hotel, Brian Thompson was shot multiple times from behind by an assailant who took precautions to mask his identity and fled on foot and on electric bicycle and remains uncaptured.

Following the killing a lot of dark, nasty, and cruel comments began appearing on social media, much of which utilized the for-profit Health Care industries verbiage utilized when denying coverage for medication, procedures, or care.

I know nothing of Brian Thompson as a person or as a CEO. He may have been a man who wanted to bring more care to patients under UHC’s coverage. He may have been the sort of CEO who demanded that every department met ‘quotas’ for rejected claims to protect profits. He may have been a kind and empathetic employer, or he may have been the sort that demands you return to work and leave friends and loved ones stranded. Whatever the case for Thompson as a person murder is murder and the assassin needs to be brought to justice.

The hot and fierce feelings of those people making their online comments is utterly understandable. My job previous to my current one was working for a medical access company. Doctors would send over to us proposed treatments for patients and our company dealt with the byzantine bureaucracy of the for-profit insurers to obtain the approval. UHC was one of the worst to deal with. For some treatments it seemed that every single request was denied forcing us to launch an appeal on the patient & providers behalf. In my opinion that denied knowing that some people wouldn’t know to appeal to avoid that expense for the company. When politicians, nearly always Republicans, scream that you don’t want bureaucrats between you and your doctor it infuriates me. They are there already and making it more expensive and complicated than it needs to be.

Perhaps the murder in mid-town was because someone’s healthcare was delayed or denied and for someone this broke them in a violent manner. It has been reported that shell cases at the scene had the words ‘deny, defend, & depose’ written on them and that support this possible motivation but until the killer is captured, we will not know the truth.

I have not made the biting, cynical, cruel comments that others have but man oh man I understand the hurt and the rage that motivates them.

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Intermittent Posting for the Rest of the Year

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The crunch time at my day-job has begun and with it the loads of overtime hours that are extended to the workforce. Luckily this is not retail or some construction type work, I work in an office, listening to podcasts while processing endless reams of paperwork helping people get the non-profit health insurance plans that they seek. So, while it is not physically taxing, but it saps energy and takes time.

This means the early morning time I usually employ for writing this blog will vanish most days and with it the posts. Mondays are different I tend not to work overtime on those days, so I am going to attempt to maintain at least a weekly schedule.

Good news is that lunches remain productive for my novel writing and with 60,000 words down and 30,000 or so to go I still look to complete the 1st draft of my next horror novel before the end of the year.

The election results here in the USA are concerning. If the president elect does as he has threatened, then in all likelihood terrible times are ahead. Perhaps he will be satisfied with merely looting the treasury and a civil war among his staff will limit damage, but it is not an outcome I would wager on. There is naught to do but fight in every legal way possible and preserve strength for the upcoming battles. World War II was not settled when the Allied force fled from Dunkirk, it looked dark, but in the end the fascist were defeated. Last week was a battle, not the war.

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The End of Spooky Season and Final Stretch for 2024

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October has left us and there were some very nice horror films that I visited for this time of the year when summer dies away and darkness creeps in. Though my favorite horror films that were new to me this year I watched outside of spooky season, Longlegs That Satanic serial killer film from Oz Perkins and Immaculate the feminist/religious/body-horror starring Sydney Sweeney. (Reviews for both are on this blog.) Though there is time for Heretic with what looks like a deliciously evil Hugh Grant to win a spot at the top.

My own foray in horror proceeds but a bit slower than I had wanted. My folk/Cosmic horror novel should have been at 60,000 words by the end of October but landed at 55,000. 5K short is not terrible and it remains very likely that the first draft will be completed before year’s end.

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Spooky Season Conclusion: Agatha All Along

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Disney+ released the final two episodes of Agatha All Along Wednesday night completing the series just one day before Halloween.

Agatha All Along continues the story of Agatha Harkness, a witch from colonial times, that attempted to steal the powers of the Scarlet Witch and when best by that former Avenger found herself enchanted to never remember herself and live out her life in the small New Jersey Town of Westview.

Marvel Studios

Agatha opens with Agatha believing herself to be Agnes an overworked homicide detective when a chance encounter with an unnamed teenage boy breaks the spell. Together the Teen and Agatha assemble a coven in order to walk the witch’s road a mystical quest that, if the witch survives, grants the witch what is missing most from their lives. However, there are secrets, betrayals, and unimaginable dangers along the road and before the end truths and unspoken identities will change everything and everyone who treads that dangerous trail.

Created and show run by Jac Shaeffer, who was a principal creative behind WandaVision the preceding series in this storyline, Agatha All Along is a creative, inspired, and entertaining journey. Eschewing, for the most part, massive CGI fueled combat, the battles in Agatha are ones of the soul and of character which the series presents in spades.

Harkness remains a selfish and bitter villain with a flair for the sarcastic cutting remark so ably deployed by actor Kathryn Hahn. Joe Locke as the unnamed Teen pulls off a performance that late in the series shows surprising depth as his secrets are revealed. Rounding out the cast of the series is Aubrey Plaza as Rio a former lover and enemy of Agatha’s, Patti Lupone as an ancient witch possessing a unique relationship with time, Ali Ahn as Alice a witch that specializes in protection magics but suffering under a familial curse, Sasheer Zamata as Jen a potions witch who magic has been taken by an unknown enemy, and Debra Jo Rupp reprising her role from WandaVision.

Agatha All Along is a series that revels in its femininity, its queerness, and its celebration of a ‘superhero’ story that isn’t fixated on masculine muscles. It is well worth the watch.

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Spooky Season: The Fault in the Zombie Apocalypse

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Ever since 1978’s Dawn of the Dead the sequel film a decade after the original Night of the Living Dead the vision of the world overrun with shambling corpses has been the standard for projects using the monsters created by Romero.

But the math just doesn’t work.

For 2022 the mortality rate in the United States was about 982 persons dying each year per 100,000 of population. Even that number is a bit high has it includes excess mortality due to the COVID 19 pandemic. Averaging that out over a standard year, 365.25 days, that a daily mortality rate of 2.69 deaths per day per 100K people.

San Diego county where I live has a population of 3.3 million people which yields a daily death rate of 89 deaths per day.

Modern graves are not simply holes dug into the earth but concrete lined underground structures from which the walking dead could not escape so we only need concern ourselves with the unburied dead.

Most Americans are buried with 7 days of death. Multiply the daily death rate by 7 and we end up with 623 unburied dead to be reactivated into zombies on Zed Day.

623 versus a population of 3.3 million. The entire zombie army is about the size of a largish movie theater audience. Hardly the inescapable horde that can besiege countless building and paralyze all law enforcement and military units.

Before you can have the zombie apocalypse you need a massive die off of the human population that creates fields of corpses to be reactivated,

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Spooky Season Spectacular: Quatermass and The Pit

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One of favorite SF horror films and my favorite Hammer production is Quatermass and the Pit (1967), released in the U.S. as Five Million Years to Earth because American audiences were not familiar with screenwriter Nigel Kneale recurring scientist character Bernard Quatermass.

Hammer Films

Quatermass, (Andrew Keir) leader of the British civilian rochet research group is put out when the Ministry of Defense assigns a Colonel Breen (Julian Glover) to his project as they hope top establish ballistic missile bases on the moon. However before to properly lock horn over that the pair become involved with a strange missile-like device found deep underground while a subway extension is being constructed. While Breen believes it to be an unknown ‘V-Weapon’ from the second world war Quatermass recognizes that is not of the earth. Before long secrets of human evolution are uncovered and a new threat to humanity’s existed rises.

As I mentioned this is a favorite of mine and I own an import UK Blu-Ray disc of the feature as for the longest time no such Blu-ray had been released in this country. However, I had never seen the film on the big screen.

Until yesterday.

The New Beverly Cinema, owned by filmmaker and cinephile Quintin Tarantino, exhibited a copy project from a technicolor print and that was not something I was going to miss. So, I drove 3 hours there and 2.5 hours back to watch this beloved film the way it had been intended to be seen.

I was not disappointed.

From a show of hands before the screening I would guess about a third of those attending had never seen the film at all. It was well received. Oh, there were a few giggles when some of the effects showed their age but in general the audience sat rapt, silent, and engrossed in Kneale’s vivid screenplay bursting with fantastic ideas.

One scene displayed Kneale’s gift of prophesy. Quatermass asks an archeologist what he thinks humanity would do if it discovered, perhaps due to some climate catastrophe that the Earth was doomed? Roney answers, “Nothing. We’d just continue squabbling.” Ironic laughter filled the theater after that bit of foresight.

The screening was paired with John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness another film I thoroughly enjoyed, but having seen that on its original run and despairing at the thought of not getting home until past 2 am, I bailed on the second feature.

Quatermass and the Pit remains a wonderful bit of cinema and well worth 5 hours behind the wheel of my car to see in its original technicolor glory.

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