ǝoɔsoᴚ ǝʇɐN

A mock-up of a book called A Row of Open Graves (And Nine Other Stories of a Macabre Persuasion), showing the cover: an illustration of a torch illuminating three open graves with bodies inside of them, a spade above the graves. Cover design by Ray Newman.

I wrote this collection of short stories inspired by classic radio horror shows, series like One Step Beyond and The Twilight Zone, British ghost stories, and my general predilection for the macabre. It really seems like the time of year you should be reading it*.

*Other times of year are available

Convince me this isn’t Parker Posey.

You can’t.

Contributor copy arrived! Very proud to have penned and narrated a visual essay for this exquisite Umbrella release of perhaps the most frightening, viscerally enthralling serial killer flick ever made—Gerald Kargl’s ‘Angst’ (1983). Order yours here, if you dare: bit.ly/43Va1Wu

Contributor copy arrived! Very proud to have penned and narrated a visual essay for this exquisite Umbrella release of perhaps the most frightening, viscerally enthralling serial killer flick ever made—Gerald Kargl’s ‘Angst’ (1983). Order yours here, if you dare: bit.ly/43Va1Wu

King!? Moi? Shush! 😆

Allusions to Expressionism are clear, Draper’s fondness for jagged lines & irregular curves never more prevailing than in pic’s closing portion, where the bowels of Myers’ abode assume a bizarre, Gothic-like texture; the cobwebbed, candlelit environment a figurative reflection of a fractured psyche.

Even the most vehement of pic’s critics would struggle to decry the work of DoP Robert Draper, his delicious command of shadow and silhouette—in unison with left-field framing & an intricate palette of glittery pinks, moody blues, and autumnal orangey-browns—intensifying the narrative audaciousness.

‘Halloween’ reshaped as European arthouse, the bold, rebellious ‘Revenge of Michael Myers’ mightn’t be everybody’s cup of pumpkin spice, but, through its deviant disposition, majestic visuals, outré perfs, and chilly air of menace, it concocts a fascinatingly playful postlude to the prosaic part 4.

A product of the halcyon days before the slasher formula became set in stone. You can see the influence of Argento and Carpenter on CURTAINS, but the movie also borrows from 70s psychodramas. The whole affair is scrumptiously loopy, never more so than in a kill involving ice skates and a scythe.

Hooper’s ‘Toolbox Murders’ remains one of the truest evocations of drive-in horror cinema since bell-bottoms were the zenith of style; a fiercely efficient slasher flick built not on pastiche and postmodern snark, but an enticingly peculiar mystery, solid perfs, and a dense air of inescapable dread.

Hooper’s ‘Toolbox Murders’ remains one of the truest evocations of drive-in horror cinema since bell-bottoms were the zenith of style; a fiercely efficient slasher flick built not on pastiche and postmodern snark, but an enticingly peculiar mystery, solid perfs, and a dense air of inescapable dread.

Sorry but the Delia disregard is unforgivable.

You want an out of favour opinion? I got one. I don't think anything from the past should be censored. By all means present a disclaimer or a this is how it was but let everyone see it and stop being so hectoring and censorial. You never know how the future will look upon us in all our imperfection.

My favourite Carpenter!

«When you sleep, your face goes slack... and your mouth is swollen and ugly.
There's a nasty wrinkle on your forehead.
You smell of sleep and tears... and I can see the pulse in your neck.
There's a scar there that you cover with makeup.»

Persona, Ingmar Bergman (1966)

#31DaysofHorror Day 12

LURKERS (1988), Roberta Findlay

Cathy is haunted by her childhood; but also hulking sledgehammer swingers, malformed malignancies & nonoperational phones--all tangential to the true horror of going home when your home is hell's front stoop & your fiancé is a crappy satanist.

From Robert Wiene's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari: a wide shot with Jane's bed (in which Jane lies sleeping) in the foreground; behind the bed, a large pair of theatrical black curtains are partially drawn, revealing the rest of the room; Cesare has broken through the window in the background, and approaches the bed, looking towards the camera. The image is tinted green.

From Charles Laughton's The Night of the Hunter: a wide shot of Willa and Harry's bedroom, with the bed (in which Willa lies on her back) in the foreground; it seems to exist slightly separately from the rest of the room, which floats in a black void; we can see the edges of the walls and ceiling within that void, and the interior is filled with triangular light and shadows; Harry stands beside the bed, his head cocked backwards at an awkward and sinister angle.

From Antonioni's Red Desert: a wide shot of Corrado's hotel room, including the bed in which Giuliana and Corrado lie naked and half-asleep; everything else in the room is coated in pink.

From Alan J. Pakula's The Parallax View: a wide shot of Frady's rented room; to the right, propped up on the bed, is Jack Younger (the Parallax recruiter); to the left, standing looking at him, is Frady.

Four creepy bedrooms: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, The Night of the Hunter, Red Desert, and The Parallax View.

The frames are theatrical, artificial; the characters trapped within a construct, a pathology, dogma, shadowy conspiracies, or (in the case of Red Desert) something more nebulous.

The sea has a laugh
And the cliff a frown;
For the laugh of the sea is wearing him down.
—Herbert Ashley Asquith, “The Frowning Cliff”

‘Messiah of Evil’ (1973) / ‘The Fog’ (1980)
#SideBySide 1/3

#FrancoFriday Soledad Miranda in Vampyros Lesbos (1971)

#Shocktober Slumber Party Massacre II (1987) - bit of a mess but holy shit, when it’s good it’s GREAT. And I mean when the movie is hijacked by the spirit of toxically masculine rock and roll. Atanas Ilitch is an absolute delight and his musical number is a 10/10, a slasher for the ages.

Dementia (1955) is a dialogueless fever dream film about a woman's nightmare experience on a single night in LA. Made a decade too early to be a hit, it's a mix of German expressionism and American noir and closer to 60s films like Carnival of Souls and Polanski's Repulsion. It's worth an hour of

Head Trips & Ruby Slips: ‘The Haunting’ (1963) / ‘Return to Oz’ (1985)

#SideBySide 1/3

Berberian Sound Studio 2025 Subscribers: This is NOT included in your Subscription. If you'd like to purchase it, you will need to login to view your special 50% off SRP pricing. This special limited edition spot gloss slip

I am stoked to announce that I wrote the booklet for @vinsyn.bsky.social 's upcoming release of BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO. I wrote about the way giallo films use experimental music and sound and how director Peter Strickland deconstructs those elements in his film.

vinegarsyndrome.com/products/ber...

I remember having the absolute fucking cheek to call it a “cult classic” on a certain message board circa 2001/02. The amount of sneering vitriol I sustained from know-it-all horror nerds was crazy. I laughed then, and, with the profuse outpouring of love it’s since gotten, I’m laughing now.

I need to see this!

Lotta fun!

I remember having the absolute fucking cheek to call it a “cult classic” on a certain message board circa 2001/02. The amount of sneering vitriol I sustained from know-it-all horror nerds was crazy. I laughed then, and, with the profuse outpouring of love it’s since gotten, I’m laughing now.

INLAND EMPIRE (2006) - Projected Figures David Lynch's INLAND EMPIRE a self-produced, self-distributed epic of oneiric uncanniness, mesmerising in its overlapping Tinseltown stories

"mesmerises the viewer with its overlapping tales of toxic Tinseltown": David Lynch’s self-produced, self-distributed epic of oneiric uncanniness INLAND EMPIRE (2006) is now on MUBI UK & Ireland projectedfigures.com/2023/04/26/i...

RIP Renato Casaro
Master poster artist & designer. 1/3