Horror Bites - Let's Rock

TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME (1992)

Twin Peaks as it was, the original two seasons, has its fans and its detractors. It was a show full of striking images and eccentric characters, along with a lot of strange goings on. Whether they were of the murder mystery, soap opera, or supernatural variety. But one thing is clear, it was over. Studio meddling saw to that regardless of whether it seemed to end with a bizarre cliffhanger or not. Nothing is more apparent here in the subsequent movie which refuses to answer any lingering questions by being a prequel. It even opens with a television set being destroyed. David Lynch was done with that whole idea and now it was time for a new nightmare to begin.

Review Roundup - Lower Depths

PARASITE (2019)

It may come as a surprise to hear that I wasn't really looking forward to this, despite all the accolades it has received. Bong Joon-Ho's work was always entertaining and stylish, but the narratives were always so blunt. Snowpiercer dealt with wealth divides in a very literal way and Okja used the same approach to portray two-faced corporations. So when the synopsis of this story involved a lower class family who actually live in a basement I had some reservations. It was bound to be eclectic and twisted but the overt social themes would probably still be depicted with that same on-the-nose presentation. However I was pleasantly surprised to find that the results are refreshingly nuanced in a tale which goes beyond simple parable and ventures into more interesting territory.

Horror Bites - The Old Glow in the Dark

DIE, MONSTER, DIE! (1965)

Oh boy what a title... but you know what that means. At least in the world of B-movies and horror. The better the film name.... the weaker the actual release. It's not always true of course but it's certainly the case here in what is part H.P. Lovecraft adaptation and part Roger Corman recycling effort. With the latter being the major proportion of the movie as you might have expected. With the release of Richard Stanley's Color Out of Space it's to be expected that other versions of the tale are taken into consideration. But the results here are pretty rickety and all too familiar to anyone who's seen a story from this period about outsiders coming to visit their girlfriend only to find things have gone awry. Especially when they find an unhinged Boris Karloff living in a creepy old house.

Scorecard

MAY

FILM OF THE MONTH: Tekkonkinkreet ☆☆☆☆