Did the forums have some kind of freeze today, cause I could swear I made a June thread earlier in the day.

Anyhoo...
Finished with Sesqua Valley and Other Haunts by Wilum H Pugmire. As you may be aware Pugmire is a deliberate adapter of the horror work by HP Lovecraft. After going through this book I feel that he is influenced by a specific aspect of HPL's writing, the kind found in Dunwich Horror or The Festival and such like tales. This book for instance shows no influence of the SF-tinged horror style stuff Lovecraft did (like in Color out of Space or more importantly, At The Mountains of Madness). Pugmire is skilled no doubt as seen from the good tales in this collection, some of which attempt to interconnect to give a consistent recognizable set of characters in the Dunwich-tainted locale of Sesqua Valley.
My main problem on reading through the whole set in a continuous way is that several stories, especially in the latter half of the book, appear to have a VERY similar plot: Outsider comes to Sesqua Valley and is by one means or other persuaded to assimilate into the close-bred pagan worship magick-loving community. To my mind the stories are not different enough from each other in content and characters to justify the sameness of narrative. This is not the "variations on a theme" often practiced by Lovecraft, returning to a story idea and building on it as he acquired more maturity and assuredness in his writing.
But that criticism aside, I still like a fair number of the stories in this book and will be on the lookout for other stuff that Wilum puts out.

And oh yeah, watched Taxi Driver yesterday after more than a decade. Damn good movie with a brilliant performance from De Niro, evocative night-time photography and an evocative score with some lovely sax. A gem from the time Scorsese could make tight movies under the 2 hour mark.

And then tonight I saw this 2008 Finnish horror movie called Sauna. I think this one comes from a set of rips taken from the GK.
Boy, this was a very intriguing movie. In the aftermath of a medieval Finland-Russia war, representatives from both the countries are marking a border. On the Finnish side are two brothers, one of whom is an aging brutal soldier and the other his academic brother. On the way they are involved with the murder of a Russian sympathizer farmer (and perhaps his daughter too) and each of the brothers is burdened with his own context of guilt. Along with their Russian counterparts they come to this mysterious village with the titular sauna. The movie is weird really, it has a kind of Tarkovski meets Guillermo Del Toro vibe. Sometimes it gets a little too enigmatic for me and I'm not sure everything comes together in the end but it's still interesting and gorgeously shot, and might be more rewarding on repeat watch. Recommended for those who like the idea of an atmospheric, leisurely paced mostly psychological horror.

Watched MST3K's Puma-Man. It's a really shitty B movie from the '80s. It has terrible acting, terrible special effects, bad dialogue, you name it. The movie follows some kinda scientist guy who finds out that he's the chosen one: the Aztec superhero, Puma-Man. The first half of the movie is spent watching this pussy get to grips with that fact that he's Puma-Man. Some huge creepy Hispanic dude (looks like Lurch with a tan) stalks him and tries to convice him that he's Puma-Man. Puma-Man can fly (like a puma), and has vice-like grip with his fingers (like a puma does with its... paws). Basically shares nothing in common with a puma. Anyway, hilarity ensues from the get-go, and the MST3K boys do it justice.

Also watched MST3K's Space Mutiny. Another shitty B movie fromt he '80s. A science fiction space movie. It's low budget generally speaking, but for how shitty it is, it's pretty high budget. It's my favourite MST3K yet. It's about some random douchebags who try to mutiny against the folks in charge of the spaceship. The people in charge of the ship are peace loving space hippies and total pussies. The girl in the lead looks hella old and the dude in the lead is hilarious muscle head. Makes Stallone look like a freaking rocket surgeon. The MST3K boys come up with all kinds a hilarious meathead names for him: , Slab Bulkhead, Fridge Largemeat, Flint Ironstag, Bolt van der Huge, Thick McRunfast, Stump Beefknob, Crud Bonemeal, Crunch Buttsteak, Blast Hardcheese, Dirk Hardpeck, Slate Slabrock, Gristle McThornbody, Lump Beefbroth, Big McLargeHuge, Buff Drinklots, Smoke Manmuscle, Punch Rockgroin, and Roll Fizzlebeef. Definitely rewatching this one.

Also, watched Stallone's Cobra. *sigh* what a terrible movie. It's not HAHA terrible, it's not even good for lolz.This reviewer put it best.

www.film.com/movies/cobra/story/erics-ba...-cobra-1986/29557439

"Sylvester Stallone IS Cobra. He wrote the screenplay, too -- which, if he writes anything like he talks, means he banged his fists on a typewriter for a couple hours, then ran it through a Meathead-to-English translator. Cobra is a Los Angeles cop who doesn't play by the rules and who only gets called in after all the regular police methods have failed. That's what we're told, anyway. In truth, Cobra's methods are quite reasonable, and he's only needed because the regular cops are incompetent. "

LOL... someone give this guys a medal.

Then watched The Changeling (1980). Does a lot of the usual haunted house shit. Didn't do it for me as far creeping me out, but it had a fairly decent plot and it's well done. In general, a good movie.

Also watched The Innocents (1961) after Ravi's reco. It was pretty good. I thought the plot was kinda dumb, but the boy in the movie is definitely a creepy bastid. Also liked the little melody/song the girl sings. That's evil. If I'd seen it on a different day, it might have creeped me out, but not this time.

Will be watching Dario Argento's Deep Red next.

Finished with season 1 of the 2005 re start of Doctor Who with Christopher Eccleston playing the doctor. His doctor is a bit more serious and almost on the edge of madness. The series by itself also takes on a slightly more serious tone than what was to follow. Overall, total timepass and some excellent episodes. Also started on season 2 with the new doctor played by David Tennant. This one has a slightly more comedic bent and overall seems better than season 1 so far.

Meh at that Cobra review. I found this film totally entertaining start to finish. It was violent, knuckleheaded and unrealistic, all very admirable qualities for a film to have. This guy's expectations of realism from a Stallone movie in the 80s show him to be a churl who couldn't get over being picked on by the jocks. Aptly demonstrated by his fellating review for the horribly overrated and dull No Country For Old Men a psycho thriller paced slowly and ponderously enough for snobs to not feel embarrassed at the fact that they were straying away from the Wong Kar Wai/random Iranian director fetish. (not that there's anything wrong with WKW but like Tool, his fans are superlatively douchey as a rule)

Kraken plods on. The best way to enjoy this book is if you have not read Neil Gaiman .

saw Ek Doctor ki Maut which was quite excellent for most parts of it with an outstanding performance by Pankaj Kapur. He plays the role of a scientist insanely obsessed with his research work on finding a vaccine for leprosy. The film follows his struggle against the bureaucracy to publish his work. Available online in an excellent print at jaman.com

Finally, finally done with The Casebook of Carnacki The Ghost Finder by WH Hodgson (Wordsworth edition). The main caveat is of course that the structure of nearly all the stories is the same. Carnacki gets a case which may or may not have supernatural elements (they generally do), sets up his "electric circle" paraphernalia which has resonances to interact with the supernatural element, often very nearly gets his ass handed back to him with his head stuffed inside, and finally overcomes/solves the phenomenon.
In its good parts, Hodgson's writing can whip up palpable tension, and Carnacki is refreshing in not being a know-it-all wisecracking ghost-finder. But those who consider say a Lovecraft guilty of overwriting should get a load of this guy. In the name of building a constant sense of dread and ritual preparation, here is repetition taken to its most tedious extremes. Sometimes very promising scenarios (like the last story, The Hog) are tragically weighed down by the sheer wall of boredom that develops in the wake of all the endless repetitions about Carnacki moving between the violet and purple circles of his electric apparatus. It reminds me of the time I had to give up on the Night Land inspite of its very intriguing premise because it just got bogged down in repeated mundane detail.

I rewatched Shutter Island and surprisingly enough it was a lot better the second time around. First off, the movie looks fucking great on the big screen. Also, the first time I saw it I 'cracked' the film in the first 20 minutes and spent the rest of the time resenting how easy it had been to guess what was up and cursing DiCaprio for telegraphing the conclusion so early on. This time I was able to relax and get into some of the very effectively set up disquieting scenes. I still feel the explanation is a little bogus, but then most explanations tend to be that way. A very good movie overall.

I watched Shutter Island too, on a, well, adequately sized screen and it was pretty decent. It's really an A-budget B-movie, Scorsese doing homage to Shock Corridor and Val Lewton and perhaps a little Hitchcock too. But he appears to miss the point sometimes. In those films you had a character in shadowy light doing a monologue of some scenario, and it'd be a pithy character moment and a great way to avoid actually shooting the damn scene. But Mr. Scorsese here wants to have it both ways, so we spend significant amounts of time hearing DiCaprio wax on about a Dachau massacre...and then we're shown the whole scene in explicit visual.
I read words like terrifying and disquieting used by fellow kvlters in describing this movie. I somehow never felt particular gripped in that manner by any specific scene and the sequences with the dead wife were boring as compared to, say any of the surreal stuff in Johhnie To's Mad Detective. Technically it's classy, but Marty can probably do that in his sleep.

^^ Damn, that was one boring movie.

Finished Season 2 of Doctor Who and it was a bit strange. Starts off little slowly and by about episode 5, with Rose Tyler's daddy issues coming to the fore I thought it would get tiresome but midway through the season there's a huge leap in the writing and i think it starts with the episode with the werewolf and Queen Victoria, the Shaolin monks of Scotland and the birth of Torchwood and then just keeps going with The Impossible Planet, Satan's Pit, the completely awesome Fear Her about a little girl with an alien trapped inside her which is literally drawing people into her head, and the 2 part conclusion with the Cybermen and the Daleks battling it out on Earth with only the Doctor to save the planet. David Tennant starts to become more and more like a young Jim Carrey with infinite facial contortions and over the top body language and starts to grate a little bit and become obnoxious but they get rid of Rose Tyler at the end of the season and looks like the Doctor's going to get a sexy new assistant in Season 3. Overall, full on fun.

Read The Yellow Snake by Edgar Wallace which is probably one of the most racist books I've ever read. The Yellow Snake refers to the villain who is Chinese and is called a yellow snake by the hero of the book who is an upright Englishman and believes the best way to deal with uppity coolies is to simply hang them. The Yellow Snake wants to become Emperor of China and then the world and our hero is the only one who can stop him. Fun even if very offensive in parts. Also read Mickey Spillane's The Deep about a mysterious and dangerous man who comes to town after 30 years to avenge the death of his best friend. The action is non stop, the dialogue so hard boiled you can break your teeth on it and nothing is what it seems. One of the most fun books I've read in a long while.

The Fall - Fine Spanish (?) movie with some gorgeous Indian locations - mostly in Rajasthan. It's a shame this one went by pretty much unnoticed (I wouldn't have known about it either had Ravenus here not lent it to me). It's about this injured heartbroken guy in the hospital trying to get this innocent chubby little girl there to get him a bottle of pills so that he could commit suicide while weaving a tale for her. The movie shuttles between fantasy (the tale) and reality (the hospital) and the improvisations that are made are akin to you controlling your dreams in a semi-conscious sort of state.

www.imdb.com/title/tt0460791/

saw the old silent film Metropolis on the big screen. A more complete version was found and it had a release for a week here in the US. It was absolutely brilliant and a true cinematic achievement.

Started with Season 3 of Doctor Who and the good doctor's got a super pretty and smart assistant who makes Rose Tyler seem even more ordinary in comparison. Overall, 6 episodes into the season, things are still fun but not as good as the last half of season 2. From what I've seen so far, Christopher Eccleston is my fav doctor and the last 7 episodes of season 2 pretty much untouchable.

Barking Dogs Don't Bite Bong Joon-ho's debut is a bit of a mixed bag with some great moments and others that are strictly okay, kinda like his most recent film Mother. Frustrated by the sound of a dog yapping somewhere in his gargantuan apartment block, an out of work and henpecked man decides to put an end to the nuisance. After successfully murdering one dog, he finds he's got the wrong dog, finds the right one, almost gets caught murdering it and then, much to his frustration, finds his wife has brought home a poodle. The film also makes some darkly funny jokes about the Korean love for dog meat. Definitely worth a watch.

I saw Rajneeti an unapologetic turd of a movie relieved only by unintentional humour in the scenes in which Ranbir Kapoor tries to look tough and menacing and fails miserably. It's kinda like the sequence in Bolt where he tries his super bark only to realise he has no super powers (or would have if Bolt had been made by the guys who animated the hideous deformed monstrosity that was Roadside Romeo.) This is a dull ripoff of Godfather and the Mahabharatha; which reveals the absolute imaginative bankruptcy of Prakash Jha. Apart from everything else, its such an insult to the creativity and venality of Indian politicans and politics! Frankly I think shit like this gets made for people who find the papers and news too surreal and brutal to handle. Our real life politicians have pulled off organised genocides, chopped their wives and shoved them into tandoors, killed inconvenient husbands, consorted with and 'forgiven' terrorist scum filmstars who were buddies with the people who blew up the country's financial capital, shown callous disregard for everyone other than themselves - blithely ignoring massacres whether of civilians or armed forces and got up to all sorts of mayhem. It's a genuine tragedy to see such a fantastic, imaginative and vibrant range of villains reduced to going through the motions of Francis Ford Coppola's mincing Mafiosi poofsters. I'd go so far as to call it a national outrage! Jha is also an absolute asshole when it comes to naming his characters. I wish I get a chance to punch him if for nothing else, for the smugness with which he assigns Naseeruddin Shah (who plays Ajay Devgan's Karnalike character's father) Bhaskar. And calls the Krishna-esque Nana Patekar Brij Gopal. There's a huge difference between a subtle intelligent mythological reference and the hamfisted shit that's being pulled here. Strictly by the, of the and for the retards. I am told this guy is some kinda genius filmmaker but after this film, he's on my shitlist for life.