True Blood Season 3: Nothing Like a Good Cup of Joe

The ad campaign for the third season of True Blood has kicked off in gloriously gruesome fashion. Poster No.1 out of 12 overall is now available for your viewing pleasure, as well as to inform you that the vampire series will be hitting the HBO screens (and the torrent world) on Sunday, June 13. 'Till then, we expect many more goodies to come our way.

Bohren & Der Club of Gore - Black Earth (2002)

Let's get a few facts cleared out: Bohren & Der Club of Gore is a German band that expands on the after-midnight horror jazz originally proposed by Angelo Badalamenti in his work for David Lynch's Twin Peaks. You like getting lost in the woods at night? Well, this is a record to drive home that feeling of evil hiding behind the trees and bushes. With that in mind, Bohren... are not a band to listen to during your spring break, and certainly not in any kind of sunshine. Put Black Earth on at 3 a.m., though, and boy do you have a surprise in store for you. There are few records out there that are truly unsettling and this is definitely one of them. The slow vibe that trudges somewhere between Miles Davis and Black Sabbath, the screaming instruments that break through the walls of silence like H.P. Lovecraft creatures, the sense of a serial killing being committed, they're all there waiting to flush out all hope and happiness you might be holding in your heart. And yet, this is gorgeous music, the soundtrack to all terrible beauty you have ever encountered in the long night walks to your home, the kind you leave on repeat 'till the waking hours of a new day. So, sit down in that comfy chair you have with a large cup of coffee in your hands, take out all the lights and drown yourself in Black Earth: trust me when I say this >>> there are few better things you could do today.

>>> Bohren & Der Club of Gore download

Note: If you get a chance to see the band live, do it by all means. The guys are incredible at transferring the mood of their recorded music to any surrounding they are given.

Dracula Dog Forever!

I'm not proud of this post, but damn it: it's perfection come to life... or should I say death?

Naked Lunch (1991)

There is a very good reason why William S. Burroughs' Naked Lunch was considered unfilmable for such a long time. As David Cronenberg puts it, a film that strictly follows the book would "cost 100 million dollars and be banned in every country in the world." After all, there is a lot of weirdo drug usage on top of ultra-long scenes of the most freakish orgies and death scenes one could imagine spliced over these 150-or-so pages. If Naked Lunch wasn't so funny, it would have been one of the scariest pieces of art in the 20th century, particularly with its capacity to turn virtually every ordinary object or corner into something sinister and rotten.

But yeah, a film was made eventually and by none other than Cronenberg himself! The trick, however, is that the film does not follow the book at all, opting instead to borrow its atmosphere and combine it with the-making-of-Naked-Lunch plot that for some reason works. Maybe it's Peter Weller channeling Burroughs to the T or maybe it's the buggy typewriter that does the job but who knows, and at the end of the day, who cares: as long as it's grimy and full of mugwumps! In any case, here's the trailer for the thing - enjoy it if you can!

Zombie Identification Field Manual

It's only a promotional tool for George A. Romero's Survival of the Dead but this "Zombie Identification Field Manual" is quite fun. So, just in case you were wondering how to separate zombies from your neighbors now you can read this little .pdf here and prepare yourself for the next zombie apocalypse.

The Walking Dead

For some reason or other, I haven't written about Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead yet. Maybe I've been way too consumed reading this comic book series to think about writing my opinions/feelings down - and you know, at times, it's certainly been an emotional roller coaster! The thing is, there is no other piece of serialized horror literature at the moment that tops The Walking Dead for existential drama and sheer adrenaline-pumping action. A television series covering the comic was announced to be in production on August 11, 2009, and for once it felt like a completely natural move compared to the tone and composition of the source work.

I know what some of you may be thinking: "The zombie survival plot has been way overdone, so this comic cannot be that good." Well, yeah, initially the plot does feel rather trite, but the story moves so fast that you will get hooked by the 22nd page and you well not notice the point at which The Walking Dead obliterates your expectations, be they high or low. The story simply grows and grows, getting progressively more thought-provoking and interesting with each new issue, reaching smaller arch-climaxes over every 6 issues or so and big ones somewhere around the 24 issue mark.


The story follows former police officer Rick Grimes in his valiant search for his wife and child. Along the way, he meets up with survivors and together they must stay sharp, savvy, and hard as roaming packs of undead look to feast on them. This being a zombie comic, it has plenty of gore thrown in every direction but more importantly, it hits every heavy note in just the right way, making you feel for the characters at all times. The chief villain known as the Governor is particularly effective here what with his disdain for the living and love for his undead daughter: there is no way on earth he will leave you cold!

Now I usually give out links for downloads at the bottom of the post but this time I will make an exception: buy the damn thing, not only are all of the full volumes released so far well worth the price, they are also the only way for the comic to survive in the years to come given that it's fully independent. 'Nuff said!

Mothra VS. Godzilla (1964)

Here's a real classic for you! After a fierce typhoon, a mysterious gigantic egg washes ashore. The twin fairies of Infant Island plea for the egg's return to Mothra, its rightful owner, but it's too late -- greedy promoters have turned it into an amusement park attraction. Meanwhile Godzilla reawakens and tramples across Japan, heading straight for the big egg. Can Mothra save her offspring from Godzilla? Will Japan survive this epic monster battle? Directed by Ishiro Honda, Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964) is widely considered the best of all Godzilla sequels, with an all-star Toho cast and exciting special effects.

The Crazies!

I was going to ignore the remake of George A. Romero's The Crazies for inappropriately using Gary Jules' "Mad World" in the trailer but the film is doing much better than initially expected so I have to acknowledge it. Hell, if it is as good as people say it is, I might even watch it! Still, though, just how far will we go with all of this remake bullshit? Should we go all out and cover all of Hitchcock's territory as well? Just look at my last few postings for American movies: bloody remakes is all they are. This week I'm going in a different direction by watching sequels, and I think I'll start with all the sequels to the original Godzilla (1954). That ought to wash away the bitter aftertaste left by the lack of balls in Hollywood when it comes to original scripts. In any case, enjoy the trailer if you can!