Friday, October 29, 2010

The Horror...The Horror...

"It comes with very little plan or order, and if you are sometimes reminded of a hunting dog with a substandard nose casting back and forth and following any trace of interesting scent it happens to come across, that is fine with me.

But it's not a hunt. It's a dance. And sometimes they turn off the lights in this ballroom.

But we'll dance anyway, you and I. Even in the dark. Especially in the dark.

May I have the pleasure?" - Stephen King

Contemporary horror films (when ORIGINAL horror films actually do come out) have completely missed the target as of late. I understand the concepts of sex and death, but there's a way to marry these two concepts that doesn't turn the film into a collage of soft porn (hard core in some cases). Also, it seems that women have been subjected to nothing more than set pieces...waiting to be mutilated and, well, fucked. It's hard (not really) to judge the "new" horror films because they're either sequels or American remakes of overseas films. Is there not an original horror filmmaker left? I'd like to think there is. I'd settle for some adaptations right about now. Poe and King seem to be favorites of the industry (well, not at the moment, but at one time they were). Maybe the best of the horror film days are behind us. I like to think there's hope though.

I'd recommend Stephen King's "Danse Macabre" to all the horror aficionados out there. It's a great book that details the best the horror genre has to offer from comics and novels to films and radio broadcasts. The master storyteller even includes a few chilling lines of his own in the mix.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danse_Macabre_%28book%29

As an aside, AMC has a new series premiering on Sunday, "Walking Dead." I'm excited. Hopefully there won't be any running zombies. I AM NOT A FAN OF RUNNING ZOMBIES! The fact that something that's been in the ground for several decades, years, days (seconds :) ), can get up and run down living flesh with a 4.4 40 yard dash (yeah, the speed of the undead is incredible) kills it for me every time. I like the slow zombie. Slow and unstoppable. Chilling.

Check out the website (link posted below) and be sure to tune in Sunday night at 10 for the feast of flesh.

http://www.amctv.com/originals/The-Walking-Dead/

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