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...

Click "READ MORE" below for this month's Looks, Sounds, Vibes & Flavours...

LOOKS:

Anthropophagous - full review of the recently released DVD by 88 Films HERE.

American Horror Story: Season 2 - thoroughly enjoyable, and not a little bit grotesque, I'm gradually catching up on this show. The characterisation was excellent - especially for Jessica Lange and Sarah Paulson's roles - the setting was chilling, and the constant revelations and twists kept things interesting. The alien subplot felt rather incongruous, however, but the occasional tonal shifts succeeded just as much as they stumbled (look to Sister Jude's musical fantasy as a surprise hit). Two thumbs up also for taking the time to fully resolve the story with no character left dangling or forgotten by the time the curtains closed.

The Walking Dead: Season 6 - the return of the ultimate in zombie entertainment returns, and even in its sixth season they're still finding ways to push the envelope, stir the emotions, and conjure up grandiose zed-head dreams and write them large across the screen.

The Last Man On Earth: Season 2 - a welcome second season of Will Forte's excellent comedy drama about a disparate band of survivors on an otherwise deserted planet Earth. Why on earth UK telly channel Dave opted to shunt it from 9pm to 11pm in favour of a sodding repeat - a repeat - of Q.I. however, is anyone's guess. What a stupid idea! Dave - sort it out!

Back To The Future - you spend your whole life with Back To The Future II's 2015 as "the future" and then all of a sudden you've caught up to the day itself. I can never just watch a single BTTF film - I have to watch the entire trilogy - so three days of time travel fun was my salute to October 21st 2015. It's strange, and even a little bit sad, to think that BTTF2's future segment is now IN THE PAST, but on the positive side we're now living further into the future than Back To The Future II ... which is kind of cool.

Bloodsucking Pharaohs In Pittsburgh - full review of the recently released DVD by 88 Films HERE.

X-Ray - 88 Films' Blu-Ray release of Boaz Davidson's 1981 slasher flick starring Barbi Benton. One of the lesser-known slasher movies (to be fair there was a massive glut of them in the early 80s), but one which is surprisingly good fun. Davidson (producer on The Expendables franchise, among others) had a background in teen comedy flicks, which shows in certain goofy moments and interludes, and the 'pretty much everyone is a creepy weirdo' shtick to attempt to hide the killer's identity wears thin, but Barbi Benton rocks it. She was a Playboy centrefold and more than holds her own as the star of this film, expressing doe-eyed 'whatever-you-say-Doctor' innocence all the way up to full-on 'are-you-all-crazy?' mania with confidence. There's little, if anything, in the way of scares, and there's not an awful lot of gore, but the atmosphere is effective. What was most potent was the fearful idea of arrogant Doctors refusing to listen to their patients, or of medical records being mixed up/falsified; unsurprisingly Davidson (who also has a story credit on the movie) is a hypochondriac. 88 Films' Blu-Ray release features a pleasingly clean visual and aural presentation with two new interviews (with the Director, and the Cinematographer) and a commentary track as bonus material.


SOUNDS:

HIM - a retrospective of all their studio albums.

Nine Inch Nails "Live: And All That Could Have Been", and "The Downward Spiral"

CKY - a retrospective of all their studio albums.

Junkie XL "Brothers In Arms (Extended Version)"

Hans Zimmer "No Time For Caution" and "S.T.A.Y."

Bowling For Soup "Drunk Enough To Dance"

Rob Zombie "Hellbilly Deluxe", "The Sinister Urge"


VIBES & FLAVOURS:

"Sin City: Vol.4 That Yellow Bastard" by Frank Miller

"Sin City: Vol.2 A Dame To Kill For" by Frank Miller

"The Hilliker Curse: My Pursuit of Women" by James Ellroy - an enthralling read as the Demon Dog of Crime Fiction delves into his love life. Sounds too cute for the man behind L.A. Confidential and The Black Dahlia? Fear not, it's as revealing and stunningly introspective as his earlier memoir My Dark Places. It's been years since I've read a book this fast - I was just that caught up in it. To be sure, it's not especially long, but even still - I was hooked!

"Dug Deep" - a re-write, practically from the ground up, morphing a short horror story into a novelette. It has only been a matter of months since I originally wrote this and I've learnt so much more in that time, which I've been able to utilise on this extensive re-write. More info on this project as-and-when.

"Book of the Dead: The Complete History of Zombie Cinema" by Jamie Russell - an epic tome dedicated to all things undead. I opted to read the gargantuan Filmography first, so I've been working my way through that (and it has revealed a few new titles I'll have to track down).