Sunday, October 31, 2021

Census Bloodbath: Sure burned my beans bad on that one


THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE PART 2

The Eighth (oh God) Annual Great October Switcheroo!  Once again, we're crossing over with the wonderful Brennan Klein of Popcorn Culture and sometimes Alternate Ending, and I'm doing some of the 80s slashers he's catalogued as part of his Census Bloodbath project, while he's doing some of the old-timey sci-fi I've been hoarding as part of my own Cardboard Science archive.  This year, he finally gave me three pieces of the slasher genre's major arcana, such as I've been very subtly and surreptitiously hinting that I'd like to do this whole time; in return, I accidentally gave him three pieces of indecent crap.  Oops!  (But, seriously, apologies.)

1986
Directed by Tobe Hooper
Written by L.M. Kit Carson

Spoiler alert: moderate

If it was gay, bright, and beautiful, that's how Ziggy wanted it


ZIEGFELD FOLLIES

1946
Directed by Vincente Minnelli, Charles Walters, George Sidney, Lemuel Ayers, Roy Del Ruth, and Robert Lewis

Spoiler alert: inapplicable (and as I've said before, it's difficult to be brief with musicals or anthologies, and this one's both)

Friday, October 29, 2021

Desert planet


DUNE: PART ONE

2021
Directed by Denis Villeneuve
Written by Jon Spaihts, Eric Roth, and Denis Villeneuve

Spoiler alert: good golly, it's Dune

Tuesday, October 26, 2021

Census Bloodbath: Urban legend


FRIDAY THE 13th PART VIII: JASON TAKES MANHATTAN

The Eighth (oh God) Annual Great October Switcheroo!  Once again, we're crossing over with the wonderful Brennan Klein of Popcorn Culture and sometimes Alternate Ending, and I'm doing some of the 80s slashers he's catalogued as part of his Census Bloodbath project, while he's doing some of the old-timey sci-fi I've been hoarding as part of my own Cardboard Science archive.  This year, he finally gave me three pieces of the slasher genre's major arcana, such as I've been very subtly and surreptitiously hinting that I'd like to do this whole time; in return, I accidentally gave him three pieces of indecent crap.  Oops!  (But, seriously, apologies.)

1989
Written and directed by Rob Hedden

Spoiler alert: moderate

Friday, October 22, 2021

We know the limits of nature. We know—or are we just afraid to test the limits of our certainty?


THE AWAKENING

1980
Directed by Mike Newell
Written by Cliff Bryant, Allan Scott, and Clive Exton (based on the novel The Jewel of the Seven Stars by Bram Stoker)

Spoiler alert: moderate

Wednesday, October 20, 2021

Census Bloodbath: For Christ's sake, spare me the speech! I've listened to it for a decade


The Eighth (oh God) Annual Great October Switcheroo!  Once again, we're crossing over with the wonderful Brennan Klein of Popcorn Culture and sometimes Alternate Ending, and I'm doing some of the 80s slashers he's catalogued as part of his Census Bloodbath project, while he's doing some of the old-timey sci-fi I've been hoarding as part of my own Cardboard Science archive.  This year, he finally gave me three pieces of the slasher genre's major arcana, such as I've been very subtly and surreptitiously hinting that I'd like to do this whole time; in return, I accidentally gave him three pieces of indecent crap.  Oops!  (But, seriously, apologies.)

HALLOWEEN 4: THE RETURN OF MICHAEL MYERS

1988
Directed by Dwight H. Little
Written by Alan B. McElroy, Danny Lipsius, Larry Rattner, and Benhamin Ruffner

Spoiler alert: moderate

Monday, October 18, 2021

The customary protests


THE LAST DUEL

2021
Directed by Ridley Scott
Written by Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and Nicole Holofcener (based on the book The Last Duel: A True Story of Trial By Combat In Medieval France by Eric Jager)

Spoiler alert: pretty much inapplicable, but I don't say who dies!

Wednesday, October 13, 2021

The chrysanthemums are all ready—they deserve to bloom once


THE CURSE OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER


2006
Directed by Zhang Yimou
Written by Zhihong Bian and Zhang Yimou (based, loosely, on the play Thunderstorm by Cao Yu)

Spoiler alert: moderate

Monday, October 11, 2021

Why should I feel sorry? It was Claude Daigle who got drowned, not me


THE BAD SEED

1956
Directed by Mervyn LeRoy
Written by John Lee Mahin (based on the play by Maxwell Anderson based on the novel by William March)

Spoiler alert: moderate

Friday, October 8, 2021

A rare beauty in the north


HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS

2004
Directed by Zhang Yimou
Written by Li Feng, Peter Wu, Wang Bin, and Zhang Yimou

Spoiler alert: moderate verging on high

Monday, October 4, 2021

Sunday, October 3, 2021

All under heaven


HERO

2002 PRC/2004 USA
Directed by Zhang Yimou
Written by Feng Li, Bin Wang, and Zhang Yimou

Spoiler alert: the plot's about an attempted assassination of Qin Shi Huang, so maybe it's not the biggest spoiler to say that no, it doesn't come off; otherwise, moderate