KINDRED SPIRITS: The Onion AV Club
Two similiar type things on the Onion AV Club site this week (and one final thought):
01. HORROR FILMS FOR LEFT WINGERS / HORROR FILMS FOR RIGHT WINGERS is a pretty good read. Some if it seems pretty easy (HOMECOMING, LAND OF THE DEAD, AMERICAN PSYCHO, THEY LIVE) but their inclusion of EYES WITHOUT A FACE is killer, and I've got to hand it to them for nailing that piece of shit, Pat Robertson-ghostwritten EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE. But, a bone (no pun intended) to pick: LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT. Uh, guys? Craven's classic was penned as a reaction to the Viet Nam War and, at its base, is really an indictment of the death penalty, where the punishers become the punished, and when the police burst in at the end of the film and the vengeful dad is swinging around a chainsaw, they can't tell who are the killers and who are the parents of the murdered girl. The point is, violence begat violence, and violence leads to more violence, and what difference does it make when you've got blood on your hands (and on the walls and your mouth and etc.).
02. CROSSTALK: THE STATE OF HORROR CINEMA is pretty good when Scott Tobias is writing, not so much when Noel Murray comes in. This is mostly due to the fact that Murray seems to put himself (or herself, I'm not sure) above the genre at all times and seems actually quite repelled by it. Which is fine. But why not track down another horror-loving writer to provide commentary? Or maybe the reason is to provide balance to the argument? Whatever; I still think that Murray comes across as condescending and not at all a fan of the genre.
03. BOOK REVIEW: WORLD WAR Z: AN ORAL HISTORY OF THE ZOMBIE WAR. I'm only like halfway through the book, but so far, it rules, and Brooks is our literary zombie savior. But does reviewer Keith Phibbs have any sense of zombie history whatsoever? "It's far more affecting than anything involving zombies really has any right to be"? "It feels like the right book for the times, and that's the eeriest detail of all"? Of all monsters to peg as socially irrelevant, zombies are probably the last ones you'd want to choose...
01. HORROR FILMS FOR LEFT WINGERS / HORROR FILMS FOR RIGHT WINGERS is a pretty good read. Some if it seems pretty easy (HOMECOMING, LAND OF THE DEAD, AMERICAN PSYCHO, THEY LIVE) but their inclusion of EYES WITHOUT A FACE is killer, and I've got to hand it to them for nailing that piece of shit, Pat Robertson-ghostwritten EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE. But, a bone (no pun intended) to pick: LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT. Uh, guys? Craven's classic was penned as a reaction to the Viet Nam War and, at its base, is really an indictment of the death penalty, where the punishers become the punished, and when the police burst in at the end of the film and the vengeful dad is swinging around a chainsaw, they can't tell who are the killers and who are the parents of the murdered girl. The point is, violence begat violence, and violence leads to more violence, and what difference does it make when you've got blood on your hands (and on the walls and your mouth and etc.).
02. CROSSTALK: THE STATE OF HORROR CINEMA is pretty good when Scott Tobias is writing, not so much when Noel Murray comes in. This is mostly due to the fact that Murray seems to put himself (or herself, I'm not sure) above the genre at all times and seems actually quite repelled by it. Which is fine. But why not track down another horror-loving writer to provide commentary? Or maybe the reason is to provide balance to the argument? Whatever; I still think that Murray comes across as condescending and not at all a fan of the genre.
03. BOOK REVIEW: WORLD WAR Z: AN ORAL HISTORY OF THE ZOMBIE WAR. I'm only like halfway through the book, but so far, it rules, and Brooks is our literary zombie savior. But does reviewer Keith Phibbs have any sense of zombie history whatsoever? "It's far more affecting than anything involving zombies really has any right to be"? "It feels like the right book for the times, and that's the eeriest detail of all"? Of all monsters to peg as socially irrelevant, zombies are probably the last ones you'd want to choose...
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