The Woman in Black, (James Watkins, 2012)

I just finished watching Hammer Films' The Woman in Black with Harry Potter Daniel Radcliff, Ciaran Hinds and some of the most frightening CGI I have ever seen.

This film was pants-wettingly-scary, plenty of jump out of-your-skin moments.

True story:  In 1984, my girlfriend and I went to see  a Friday the 13th movie on a rainy, Easter Sunday before her  parents took us back to Miami University.  I remember thinking it was odd that there were so many small children in the same theater.

The movie was laughably bad, which is not always a bad thing with me.  As I was explaining to my girlfriend that Jason was surely about to grab his next victim from under the stairs I paused long enough to jump out of my seat and somehow leap completely over her, landing on her lap and screaming the rest of my snarky comments about how predictable a movie it was into her ear, all because Jason Voorhees grabbed his next victim from under the stairs.

Better than drugs.

Funny Stuff

To make something funny, add:

an obese person

bigots (although it seems the only PC stereotypes left are Canadians and left-handed people.  This is not a bad thing)

S. William Hinzman (1936 - 2012)

Bill Hinzman, No. 1 Zombie from the cemetery in the original Night of the Living Dead, the  ghoul that was "Coming to get you, Barbara." is dead.  John T. at his superlative blog, Shocks to the System has written a very loving tribute to the man, his character and career.

I have written about my life long nightmares of gaunt, hollow eyed men pursuing me, but I never realized until tonight that Bill Hinzman was the zombie that haunted me.

I doubt I will sleep better tonight knowing he is dead.  In fact, I hope comes to chase me one more time.

Monday Morning Halftime Quarterbacking

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Our visit with Mercedes

The Sanducky Mall and my dreams of monsters

I returned to the center of the universe last week-The Sandusky Mall.  Large malls were a novel phenomena in the heartland of the 1970s. These local edifices were both brothels, where the sins of lust and conspicuous consumption were fanned to fever pitch, and cathedrals that provided expiation and atonement.  This was an irresistible, sensual experience a dissatisfied, alienated teenager.  I devoted countless hours to searching behind the mall's garish facades, prowling its promenades, perusing the emporiums and boutique,s and spending my quarters in  the meretricious arcade, hoping to find that one thing that would bring gratification.

Hardcore, Paul Schrader (1979)

Paul Schrader's Hardcore, 1979, is a dark, postlapsarian fable showing America's  rapid and irresistible decline into debauchery and decadence. As the family of staunchly religious busnessman Jake VanDorn unravels, the forces of darkness  move in to entice his teen-age daughter into their subterranean culture.

Happy New Year-ish

WIWLN is going on hiatus.  Writing this blog i one of m y favorite things to do, but I have a couple of time crunches that are interfering with my watching movies and writing times.  It is sad that this is happening now because there are lots of cool things that I want to see and write, especially  now that so many of my favorite blogs are putting up their end of the year lists.

We are stuck between housing right now; we have one house that we can't move into and one house that we have to vacate very soon. This little apartment is already crammed full of moving boxes, but no definite date when the bank will let us move into the new place.  The present delay has to do with Bank of America LOSING some of the paperwork.   I won't bore you with the details, most of which I don't understand myself.

And also, my grand daughter is visiting us now.  She is a riot, but exhausting too.  Here is a video of the little angel, asleep in the car on the way home from the beach we went to on New Years Day.

Anyway, I hope I can get back to the blog soon.  

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (Guy Ritchie, 2011)

When I was in college, back in the eighties, a friend of mine had a cartoon on his door that showed two men outside a movie theater.  One guy is telling the other that he didn't know if the movie he was good or not, but "it was worth the price of admission just to experience the illusion of motion created by a rapidly projected series of still images on a screen."

That pretty much describes my reaction to Guy Ritchie's latest film, the sequel to 2009's Sherlock Holmes.  Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law are re-united as Holmes and Watson, Aurther Conan Doyle's Victorian crime stopping odd-couple.

Neat Neat Neat

The Damned, Dave Vanian, Captain
Sensible, bass player, Rat Scabies

Growing up in Stultified, Ohio, I lived for the unusual.  Living in a town with a library that removed offense articles from magazines and record store that featured only family friendly music, stimulation was hard to come by.