Friday, October 2, 2015

Friday Links: The Green Inferno, Rocktober Blood, and Total Recall

Halloween starts in a little less than a month.  As you count the days to what is arguably my favorite holiday, take a look back at what happened in the world of the strange, the bizarre the horrific this week:
  • Dr, Lynne Campbell was interviewed about her book A Course in Demonology for Paranormal Investigators: "Exorcism of the home that is infested and/or of the person(s) who has been invaded is the only way to banish the demonic once they've found a "point of entry". Exorcism is a multi-faith practice. Every culture around the globe has exorcism rituals."
  • Dawn Cano reviewed William Holloway's The Immortal Body for Ginger Nuts of Horror: "The Immortal Body has everything I want to see in a horror novel: likeable characters, great dialogue, plenty of gore, and unrelenting tension. There’s even a few bits of humour thrown in for good measure. This is a classic good versus evil story with one hell of a supernatural twist."
  • Full Moon Reviews reviewed Eli Roth's The Green Inferno, and amazingly wasn't offended by the skin color and political philosophy of the victims: "Roth's basis for the story, besides the cannibal aspect, is his social commentary on current "slacktivists" on world social issues. Roth felt that people who claim to want to help the environment, do ice bucket challenges for ALS, or express anything about Kony 2012 at the time are hashtagging and sharing posts on these topics as a way to trend within social media, rather than doing something to help financially or physically."
  • Zombos reviewed the film Kids vs Monsters at Zombos' Closet of Horror: "It's ho-hum from start to finish in spite of having talents like Lance Henriksen, Malcolm McDowell, Richard Moll, and Armand Assante. With the dialog they're given, I'm surprised they didn't roll their eyes more often when delivering each line."
  • Nev Murray showed off Widowmakers at his Confessions of a Reviewer!!
  • Tremendo Time took on the 1984 slasher film Rocktober Blood: "So after a late-night recording session, Billy suddenly goes ape shit and starts offing members of the band and members of the creative force that spawned it.  Like these guys."
  • At the unmissable R'lyeh Tribune, Sean Eaton wrapped up his extraordinary interview of author, professor, and occultist John L. Steadman: "In the near future, also, I think that the great black magickal systems that I have focused on in the latter portion of my book will continue to flourish.  The Vodou religion has become a bona-fide religion and yet, unlike most of the Christian sects (excepting the Catholics, of course), Vodou has managed to preserve its magickal roots and its mysteries."
  • Breakfast in the Ruins got out of its rut and reviewed the 1984 martial arts film Furious: "Basically, those anticipating a non-stop cavalcade of high velocity, laugh-out-loud zaniness will be left with only a fairly thin serving of WTF yuks spread across a modest 74 min run-time. Viewers willing to put such concerns aside though and simply take the film as it comes will find themselves experiencing a more genuinely inexplicable piece of work than they could possibly have anticipated."
  • It's Mars week at John Kenneth Muir's site, and he tackled the greatest film on Mars ever made: Total Recall: "I suppose it’s tempting to witness all the blunt-faced, brutal, over-the-top violence of Total Recall and dismiss the movie outright. Yet even the film’s violence fits into Total Recall’s either/or dichotomy, representing a future of over-militarized police, or, contrarily, a world of the imagination where the death of innocent bystanders (as human shields) matters not…because they are just avatars in a fantasy, not real flesh and blood life forms."
  • Here, I pointed you to a review I wrote of the movie I Saw the Devil and discussed the pitfalls of being the boss.
Illustration by Gustaf Bjorksten for Stormbringer's Sorcerers of Pan Tang supplement.

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