Mr. Hallenbeck

the Magnolia-esque interconnecting non-linear approach would have worked better if the story explored more of the interiority of the characters

but instead it mostly got used as a tool to withhold information and push away the overt horror elements as long as possible

watched Weapons as my first catch-up horror watch of the season

mixed feelings on this one, mostly regarding story structure

wish it could've brought more of the energy of its last 20 minutes to the rest

"this group of attractive actors from several different European countries dubbed into the same language either needs to start fucking more or dying more!"

the dark secret that horror fans that have actually watched giallo know:

they're mostly just kinda mid murder mysteries with atrocious dubbing, but occasionally you get a scene that's lit and shot really cool

Spider Man stopped isekais once and for all

love it when the bloodshed is heroic

The Killer (1989)

John Woo: "what if the assassin from Le Samourai was played by Chow Yun-fat and he was literally the coolest guy ever and he was extremely good at guns and also the lead detective chasing him down wanted to become his best friend"

me: "hell yeah, brother, fuck yeah"

Now Reading: Blindsight by Peter Watts

I've only started this one, and we already have vampires being a real, predatory subspecies of humans that were accidentally brought back through genetic experimentation

and this is just a background detail in a sci-fi story about alien contact

yeah, I do the same, because I get these sudden feelings of heaviness and dread, like my body is preparing to be attacked again

but there's nothing there, and I need to tell myself that until it passes

reminding myself "this is an injury," and getting the parasympathetic nervous system to chill the fuck out are super crucial. it's not a panacea but there are some attacks it's very helpful for. Just reminding the body "you are not in danger right now" helps

one thing that helps me through the trauma is to tell myself "this is not happening right now, my mind is attempting to protect me by keeping me vigilant, but I am not presently in danger" and similar

had a "rough mental seas" kind of night the other day, with this voice echoing in the back of my head

and it took me a moment to realize whose words it was guiding me into the storm, and that I had to pull away from it to get into the clear waters

my abuser repeatedly told me I'd never be anything without her because she made sure everyone thought it was all her doing.

one of the most difficult things to do after you've gotten away from an abuser, is convincing yourself that you are not the person they told you that you are

it's the last remnant of the power and control they tried to exert over you, to prevent you from giving yourself the kindness you deserve

Rouge (1987)

a tragedy in the form of ghost story, serving as a warning about romanticizing the past

Anita Mui is heartbreaking in her role as a ghost returning to Hong Kong 50 years after her death, looking for her lost lover that didn't cross over with her

so many sequences that linger in your brain afterward, including one of the most haunting final shots I've ever seen (especially after you learn more about the source material and its author)

YESSSSSSS, I remember recommending this one to you and Phil years ago

still need to watch the new restoration

make sure to go to social media and post your GPS coordinates every 30 minutes, to uhhh, inspire future generations

usually my reaction to a lot of newer horror has been "I wish this was weirder" or "it could've been trashier"

I have such a specific sweet spot when it comes to the genre

"I am the one who frots"

yeah, it's utterly misanthropic, which is on the polar opposite end from Tarkovsky

Kurosawa's story about drinking with Tarkovsky and hearing him sing the Seven Samurai theme is one of my favorite film anecdotes ever

oh yeah, there's also The Element of Crime, which von Trier said was heavily inspired by Tarkovsky

which is funny because reportedly Tarkovsky watched it and hated it

YouTube video by Arbelos TWILIGHT - Official Trailer (4K Restoration)

the closest to that I can think of would be Twilight (1990), but that's way more Bela Tarr than Tarkovsky (it was directed by one of Tarr's usual collaborators)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjtS...

"it's like David Lynch went on a sake-fueled bender and shot a pinku movie in Tokyo!"

"it's like if Andrei Tarkovsky directed Zodiac!"

your bedroom door bursts open and a wizard repeatedly punches you in the crotch

entering into a blood pact with a powerful wizard to prevent letterboxd users from ever making inane and wildly inaccurate movie comparisons ever again

Only the River Flows (2023)

gotta love a police procedural that takes a left turn at "detective slowly loses his mind over an unsolvable case and the film itself unravels with him"

also, bonus points for being shot on 16mm and emulating the look of a 90s film to match the time period/setting

Grant Morrison stop handwaving the exploitation of creatives with whimsical-sounding bullshit for once (challenge level: impossible)

thoughts brought to you from listening to Random Access Memories again

the wrong machines died that day