Flavours of the Month: September/October 2025...

Expensive slop, gore-soaked punch-ups, and cool-but-frustrating indie vibes are just some of what's been setting the tone of my September/October 2025...

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Flavours of the Month: September & October 2024...

Psycho docs, X-Ray nut shots, and the end of an era is just some of what's been setting the tone of my September and October of 2024...

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Flavours of the Month: September/October 2023...

Gothic tragedy, dystopian revolution, and some nice Chianti is just some of what's been setting the tone of my September/October 2023...

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Flavours of the Month: October & November 2022...

Flooring it in Mexico, the (sort of) end of an undead era, and the calamitous closure of a horror franchise is just some of what has been setting the tone of my October & November 2022...

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Flavours of the Month: October/November 2021...

Escapades into action adventure, a tonal tightrope act, and a shedload of synth is just some of what's been setting the tone of my October/November 2021...

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Flavours of the Month: October & November 2020...

Struggles continue to be endured, but we're still standing and putting one foot in front of the other. Anyway, spooky doings, a Russian snail, and an exceedingly colourful 1947 are just some of what's been setting the tone of my October & November 2020...

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Flavours of the Month: October 2019...

Comic book creepiness, Netflix goodness, and a neon-tinted apocalypse are just some of what's been setting the tone of my October 2019...

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FWOAN at Top Indie Film Awards...

For Want of a Nail has done rather well at the Top Indie Film Awards for October 2018.

In addition to a win for Best Director, FWOAN also received seven nominations including Best Short, Best Original Idea, and Best Writing!

Check out their website HERE for the full list of nominations and wins in all categories.

Our other nominations came in the Cinematography, Editing, Music, and Sound categories.

Click "READ MORE" below for the rest of the laurels...

FWOAN Wins at DMOFF...

Groovy news from the Direct Monthly Online Film Festival - I won the award for Best Screenwriter!

You can check out the full list of winners HERE.

Flavours of the Month: October 2018...

Bold-faced comedy, a return to the grind, and intellectual horrors are just some of what's been setting the tone of my October 2018...

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REEL Recovery Film Festival - FWOAN Hits Santa Monica Blvd...

The REEL Recovery Film Festival will be taking place in Los Angeles between the 24th and 30th of October and "For Want Of A Nail" will be screening there at the Laemmle Royal Theater (11523 Santa Monica Blvd).

SCREENING INFO FOR OUR L.A. PREMIERE:
Thursday October 25th at 2pm
FREE ADMISSION
The Laemmle Royal Theater. Schedule info HERE.

Writers In Treatment is proud to present The REEL Recovery Film Festival. This multi-day event is  a celebration of film, the arts, writing and creativity. We showcase filmmakers who make honest films about addiction, alcoholism, behavioral disorders, treatment and recovery. Slated for screening is an eclectic lineup of contemporary and classic films, documentaries and shorts from American and international, first-time filmmakers and industry veterans.

This will be the 10th year anniversary for the festival.

FWOAN at Berlin Flash FF...

So not one, but two festival announcements today! "For Want Of A Nail" has been selected to appear at the October 2018 monthly screenings for the Berlin Flash Film Festival!

Berlin Flash Film Festival's monthly screenings are held at the Apollo Theater in the SI Centrum.  On the last day of each month, a select group of guest judges and industry professionals gather for a late night screening to view our monthly category winners. Each monthly category winner is judged based on several factors spanning from story to sound. Surrounded with endless amounts of flavored popcorn, beanbags, blankets, chairs, pillows, score cards, and miniature pencils, our monthly screenings create three elements: a welcoming environment, a sense of community, and a cheeky indie flavor. These three elements best reflect our mission and annual festival.  Our monthly screening events mark an important step for our winners to progress as semi-finalists to our annual festival, Berlin Flash Film Festival.

Check out the website HERE.

Flavours of the Month: October 2016...

Sci-fi chuckles, murky grey areas, gruesome goings on, and jet black humour - just some of the things that have been setting the tone of my October 2016.

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Flavours of the Month: October 2015...

Ghastly goings on, time travel shenanigans, and dark tales are just some of the things that have been setting the tone for my October 2015...

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Flavours of the Month: October 2014...

Gangsters, jokesters, rockers, zombies, and celebrities ... just some of the flavours of my October 2014.

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Flavours of the Month: October 2013...

LOOKS:

South Park Season 17 - recent seasons have seen a dip in quality, or perhaps expectations got in the way. Now though, after a slightly extended hiatus, we've had five good ones in a row - perhaps the apparent tweaks to how the show is written have paid off. Hopefully this upswing is set to continue.

The Walking Dead Season 3 (Blu-Ray) - TWD in HD, yes please. It's a shame there weren't more extras (and why they didn't include the making of featurettes AMC put on YouTube is anyone's guess), although I am yet to listen to the commentaries. There are some issues with the third season, mostly confined to the back half of the season - most specifically episodes 3x11, 3x13 and most especially 3x14, whereby pacing became incredibly mixed (both inside each episode, and across the overall arc of the season). I wrote on Homepage of the Dead about how some of these problems could have been tweaked. Not enough to sink the season by any stretch of the imagination, but they were unfortunate mis-steps in an otherwise satisfying season.

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Flavours of the Month: October 2012...

LOOKS:

The Walking Dead: Cold Storage - the month got off to an undead start with a rather good webisode series directed by KNB effects master Greg Nicotero. Surprisingly dark in places, it provided a nice little side-bar teaser to the forthcoming main event later in the month.

Fangoria's Blood & Guts with Scott Ian - the Nerdist channel on YouTube has introduced a great new show that targets horror nerds in its sights. The Anthrax guitarist visits various effects houses (starting, naturally, with KNB Effects) and explores the world of special make-up effects - often involving gallons of glorious fake blood.

Cinemassacre's Monster Madness 2012 "80s-a-thon" - every year James Rolfe gets into the Halloween spirit and reviews various horror flicks throughout the month of October. This month was dedicated to the frightful sights of the 1980s.

Click "READ MORE" for more looks, sounds, vibes & flavours of October 2012...

Flavours of the Month: October 2011...

LOOKS:

Boardwalk Empire Season 2 - the return of HBO's critically and commercially successful period drama is most welcome.

An Idiot Abroad 2 - Karl Pilkington's jetting off around the world again, this time moaning his way through a bucket list. At times cringe-inducing, at others utterly hilarious.

Family Guy and American Dad on BBC Three - repeats galore, but I've often found myself switching over after eleven to catch back-to-back double bills.

The Big Bang Theory on E4 - now that Friends has moved to Comedy Central, E4 have been pushing new shows, as well as existing ones on their roster. It seems that The Big Bang Theory is their new big name, and I've found myself routinely catching the re-run double bills after midnight. I've been watching the show for a few years now, but this is the first time I'm going back over old episodes of this excellent sitcom.

The Walking Dead Season 2 - months of waiting, filled with fanboy speculation and fevered forum banter, have all led up to this point; the return of AMC's superior undead drama. Friday nights on FXUK - it's all about Rick Grimes leading his not-so-merry band of survivors through the undead apocalypse. Recently renewed for a third season, I'm very glad indeed to have this masterful show back on their air (despite a few behind-the-scenes troubles along the way).

SOUNDS:

Phoenix "Love Like A Sunset Part 1 & 2" - as heard on the soundtrack for Sophia Coppola's sparse film Somewhere.

Rob Zombie - numerous albums and remixes.

Tool - Ænima, Lateralus, and 10,000 Days.

STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl Soundtrack - ideal atmospheric moods for finishing off my latest script.

M83 "Hurry Up, We're Dreaming" - the highly anticipated return of the 1980s-inspired nostalgia and love-tinged moods of the French shoegazer.

David Lynch - "Ghost of Love", "Polish Poem" & "Real Love" (with Chrysta Bell), and "Dark Night of the Soul" (with Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse)

Wye Oak "Civilian" - as heard during the trailer for season two of The Walking Dead.

VIBES & FLAVOURS:

Unusually warm weather - the month got off to a somewhat curious start which found me washing my car in bright sunshine and shorts. We're back on track though - the winter socks, long-sleeved shirts, and winter duvet have come out of hiding.

"Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday the 13th" by Peter M. Bracke - I finished off this excellent book. If you're a fan of the Friday the 13th franchise, then I highly recommend you treat yourself to this.

Allen Bridge - this month saw me complete my drama/mystery script (as detailed in numerous blog posts over the months), which I'm currently submitting to some companies for consideration. Hopefully this challenging and rewarding creative venture bears fruit.

Flavours of the Month: October 2010...

LOOKS:

Back to the Future trilogy - had a blast watching the first movie on the big screen for the 25th anniversary, and so I simply had to re-watch the second and third movies on my existing DVD boxset to compliment it. One of these days I'll get the Blu-Ray, but only when it's come down in price.

The Book of Eli (BR) - I plugged my Samsung BD-C5300 Blu-Ray player into the big telly this month and got to see 1080p in full swing, and with Eli's already incredible visuals, it was a visual treat - but as I've said many times before, it's what's in the frame that really matters. A crisp Blu-Ray image is nice, but you could film a turd in HD and it'd still be a turd, you know?

The Crazies (BR) - one of the handful of decent remakes out of the dozens of dreadful ones that we've been assaulted with so far this century, but the lenticular slip cover is the worst one I've ever seen. It's, ironically, low resolution and it barely does anything.

Grindhouse (BR) - the very reason I 'went Blu' in the first place was the announcement of this particular disc. I wanted the new extras and now I have them. A couple aren't new to us Brits (Hot Rods of Death Proof, and the 2006 Comic-Con Panel), but all the content related to the trailers is good stuff indeed. Plus it was great to finally properly see the theatrical cut of the flick.

History of Horror with Mark Gatiss, and horror season on BBC4 - Gatiss' three part documentary has been a real treat, and the selection of related movies put up in conjunction have been pretty good.

Cinemassacre's Monster Madness 2010 - another October and another series of movie reviews from James Rolfe (aka the Angry Videogame Nerd). It became my first thing to do online during October as I sat there eating my breakfast yoghurt.

Survival of the Dead - we Brits got it on DVD back in March, but there was three-fifths-of-sod-all on it extras wise. In August however the Americans got a double disc release, and I finally got around to importing it. The extras aren't as plentiful as that of the double disc R2 for Diary of the Dead, but the making-of documentary is the best 'making-of during production' doc related to a GAR film since Document of the Dead.


SOUNDS:

CKY - Afterworld

The Book of Eli OST - Panoramic

Rammstein - "Rosenrot"

Green Day - "Dookie" through "21st Century Breakdown"

The Offspring - "Americana" and "Conspiracy of One"


VIBES AND FLAVOURS:

Dead Rising 2 - the game is so much more fun when you say 'sod it' to the story mode and just run around for 72 hours killing as many zombies as you can, levelling yourself up, gaining new moves and combo cards, and just generally causing havoc.

Crysis - with my Quad Core back from the menders, I decided to give it a bit of a challenge, and so I replayed Crytek's 2007 shooter. It still looks great, although you can now tell it's a couple of years old. It never truly thrilled me when I first played it, and it still fails to really thrill me, but it's still a good bit of fun nonetheless.

Editing - as you will have noticed I've been upping a series of musical montages this month:
Sabrina and the Engineer 2008 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6edixabJgA
North Berwick 2010 (also in HD) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ywk9_XVYrRQ
Edinburgh 2010 (also in HD) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYoQgOQTnCg

The Walking Dead: Vol. 4 - the recently adapted-for-television series of comics continues to hold my attention and it just keeps getting better and better. I can't wait to see the Darabont/Hurd TV show, which finally starts in the UK on November 5th at 10pm on FX.

Flavours of the Month: October 2009...

Another month, another Flavours of the Month blogpost - this time, the haunted and autumnal month of October.

Solitary life...

During October I got the house all to myself for a couple of weeks, and so began a whole new routine and collection of 'vibes', such as microwave meals and the manky scent of those cardboard cooking wrap things that surround your panini or southern fried chicken roll or whatever.

Indeed, the microwave was very much my friend out of pure convenience for this short duration. Naturally I was well acquainted with the oven at university, but as this was a bit of a change of gear here at home I just fancied kicking back with some easy-as-pie meals.

Similarly, I rediscovered how nice a jam sandwich can be, and I even had a one-box-only flirtation for old time's sake with Pop Tarts. If only they weren't so calorific I'd have them more often, but they're full of them, so it was just a one-box-only affair with some rather lush Strawberry Pop Tarts ... another food stuff that I was well acquainted with during my time at university, I must confess.

Having the run of the place also gave me the run of the Sky+ box, and as such I was able to catch up on a few episodes of the American version of Life on Mars, which I have to say, is actually quite enjoyable. It can be quite blunt about certain things, and the CGI Mars Rovers that crop up now and then are just odd, but it's good fun. Inferior to the original - naturally - but good fun all the same.

...

Fallout 3, and new GTA...

Yep, it's back on the list, and it has been my game-of-choice since August for whenever I indulge in a bit of videogaming. With the main game completed, it was time to get into some of the DLC stuff, but only Broken Steel and Point Lookout which constitutes Add-On Pack #2 on disc. Broken Steel has been covered - good story centering around what happens after you clean up the water supply - but the main Brotherhood of Steel quests were pretty generic, and not as good as the side quests which opened up the altered-by-your-character's-actions Wasteland to you for further exploration.

As for Point Lookout though, I'm only part way into it, but it is noticeably better overall than Broken Steel. A fresh setting really picks things up, providing new and interesting quests (both main and side) - however - I've temporarily called time-out on Fallout 3.

It's been the only game I've spent my videogame time on since August, and it's time for a change of pace - step forward, GTA Episodes From Liberty City, which rocked up a day early (in spite of the postal strike nonsense the UK began experiencing in October). At the time of writing I'm well through Lost & Damned (not having Xbox Live I've not played that one before) ... the first few missions were, unfortunately, pretty poorly crafted. Simple 'shoot everything' missions that were poorly mapped-out, resulting in some terrible control issues and situations where you get behind the obvious cover you should take only to find people attacking you from behind that safety line.

Not only that, but other early missions that just pile on the police prescence to such a degree that it becomes infuriating - not only that, but the slowness of hi-jacking a bus full of convicts drained almost my entire life bar (and all of my bullet proof vest). Fortunately though, after a number of dull-to-outright-infuriating early missions, it's picked up.

The mission types haven't gotten much more varied, and aren't as compelling as GTA IV's - many of these new ones being alternate-angle retreads of choice cuts of side-plots from GTA IV, which is part-interesting, part-uninspiring - but even still, they're now good fun again. Add in much improved bike handling and physics, a sense of biker gang cameraderie, and the gang wars element and you've got quality GTA fun.

No doubt I'll have thoughts on The Ballad of Gay Tony come the end of November ... not to mention on Modern Warfare 2, and Ghostbusters.

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An American Werewolf In London...

Having never seen it before, in October I finally got my mits on it, and it's been stuck in my head ever since - a sure sign of real quality. The film really is absolutely spiffing, and it just keeps growing on me. Not only that, but it seems like everyone is talking about the film at the moment. Everywhere I turn there's a reference to it, and in addition I've had the damn catchy (and fortunately rather good) Bad Moon Rising by CCR rolling around my head ever since. I think a re-viewing with the commentary engaged is not far off.

...

Doing Our Bit...

October has been an active month for filmmaking - namely, conceiving and piecing together our entry for the 1 Minute To Save The World competition (as blogged about in my last post). The response has been positive, which is always nice, and so we're just keeping our fingers crossed. At the very least, nobody can say we didn't try.

Similarly, and with the introduction of new green recycling wheelie bins in our county, I've been setting aside all kinds of things for going in that green recycling bin. Now that we're allowed to put plastic in, it's amazing to see how much recycling you can do in such a simple way - know what the rules are, then bung it all in a green bin and wheel it out front for the council to pick up.

Just as long as the stuff truly is recycled, then it's a great way to do it. That's how it has to be done - make it simple for the masses, and capable of covering a wide range of items, and you're onto a winner.

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Shouting at the telly...

October has been a bit of a month for British politics on television, and as such I've been shouting angrily seemingly every other day at something or other. Not only that, but getting into wide-ranging politics-based rants with others.

...

David Sardy's "Estasi Dell Anima"...

This song, featured in the soundtrack to the bloody good Zombieland, is played during the big battle towards the end. If you've seen the movie, you'll know what I mean. This song just sends shivers up my spine everytime, and it's a bloody great piece of music.

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Rammstein's "Liebe Ist Fur Alle Da"...

Speaking of music, this month has also seen the release of the new Rammstein album - yes, the one featuring that song which had that video to accompany it - and I've really been enjoying it.

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Halloween partying...

I think the last time I was at a halloween party was when I was a child - bobbing for apples and so on, you know the score. It's a weird thing, is halloween, in the UK. Nationally it's not seen as a big deal, but the shops all try and jump on the bandwagon anyway to make money out of it (even though they're already flogging Christmas stuff).

However, I think Gen X and Gen Y have really driven it further into our culture of late. There's always been kids trick or treating, and it really depends on where you live, but with the rise in a drinking culture in the UK, halloween has become another excuse to drink ... but a really, really good excuse to drink. Hell, it's an excuse most of all to dress up however you like and have a real good time.

As such, I had my first halloween party since I was a child, and naturally it was a very different affair. One massive house party that happened to be happening right next to another massive halloween party. Lots of people, but not overcrowded, lots of great costumes (big-up to Hannibal Smith, the Ninja from next door, and elderly Elvis, of the people who I didn't know but whom were such strong showings they deserve some kudos).

Thanks though go to Matt (Bill Hicks) for having the kick arse bash in the first place and inviting us all, to Emma (Spinal Tap's drummer) for giving us a place to kip (inflatable beds too - very professional, I must say), and to Knox (Patrick Swayze) for driving my arse to and from the event.

Oh yes, and to Ben - who went as Che Guevara - for being an absolute legend.

Everyone else was awesome too though.

...

So there we are - another month, another flavoursome blogpost.