Video

• Horror Express
  Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee being their reliably silly selves in an unexpected hybrid of zombie giallo and Hammer film. Makes effective use of what must have been a blown budget by shooting on what looks like a borrowed Orient Express set and limiting the monster’s appearance to a head gag and one piece of arm makeup. The best special effect is Telly Savalas’ scene-chewing Cossack in the last twenty minutes.
• Body Bags
  John Carpenter does a creditable job as a Cryptkeeper in a light horror anthology that serves mostly to get some cameos of his and Tobe Hooper’s friends. Doesn’t stint on the blood, thankfully.
• Timetrap
  Bleh. Video wallpaper at best. At least the premise stretches a bit.
• Creepshow, S1E2: Bad Wolf Down/The Finger
  Not even Jeffrey Combs could save “Bad Wolf Down,” but “The Finger” was funny and better paced. DJ Qualls is becoming quite the respectable genre actor.
• The Taking of Deborah Logan
  Oh look, another metaphor… this time, of the decay and horror of Alzheimer’s as reflected in progress of the title character’s possession by a dead evil occultist. Complete with climactic neo-shamanic voyage to the underworld with nothing but a stuttering camera. The lead actress does a brave, impressive job.
• I Walked With a Zombie and The Ghost Ship (1943)
  Two entries in the Val Lewton catalog of morality plays cast as suspense thrillers. Shared themes of obsession, sin, and the unreliability of witness.
• John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum
  Does what it says on the tin, and quite well. Colorful and hilarious.

Music

• Country Joe and the Fish, Electric Music for the Mind and Body
  Best known for the song “Section 43,” featured in the film Monterey Pop. I’d forgotten just how good some of the B side is. Acid rock at its rarest.
• Wednesday 13, Necrophaze
  Strip-mining the Marilyn Manson/Rob Zombie territories. Decent production, chuggy riffs.
• The BusBoys, Money Don’t Make No Man
  One of the grooviest of 80s grooves, this is on regular rotation for me, with a periodicity of a couple of months.

Text

• The Fisherman, John Langan [finished]
  Beautifully written new Lovecraftiana, literally right down to the last sentence.