Seth Harris

Movie Review – The Devils

The Devils (1971)
Written and directed by Ken Russell

They don’t make movies like this anymore, but I wish they did. The Devils was a Warner Brothers production based on the stage play of the same name, which in turn was based on the Aldous Huxley novel The Devils of Loudon. 1971 was a very fruitful year for director Ken Russell. This was released alongside The Music Lovers, a Tchaikovsky biopic, and The Boy Friend, a 1920s period musical starring Twiggy. These weren’t his first films, but they did come after his picture Women In Love garnered Russell Golden Globes and Oscars nods. In classic Ken Russell fashion, The Devils is not adhering closely to the tropes associated with the genre – in this instance, historical drama. It is a wild experience, visceral and hallucinatory, aided by the production design of the great Derek Jarman.

PopCult Podcast – Halloween Spooktacular 2024

Frankencows, J-Horror, Little Wednesday, and the Sanderson Sisters are all here to make this Halloween a scare of a good time.

Comic Book Review – Green Lantern: Brightest Day and War of the Green Lanterns

Green Lantern: Brightest Day (2011)
Reprints Green Lantern #53-62
Written by Geoff Johns
Art by Doug Mahnke and Shawn Davis

Green Lantern: War of the Green Lanterns (2011)
Reprints Green Lantern #63-67, Green Lantern Corps #58-60, and Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #8-10
Written by Geoff Johns, Tony Bedard, and Peter J. Tomasi
Art by Doug Mahnke, Tyler Kirkham, Fernando Pasarin, Ed Benes, and Ardian Syaf

Blackest Night was a big success for DC Comics. It did something that few DC Comics event crossovers had done in recent history: put the spotlight on someone other than Superman or Batman. In this instance, it was Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps (and their multi-colored kin) that were made the focus. Bruce Wayne was dead (for the moment), and Superman was in the backseat for the story. The success of Blackest Night and Geoff Johns’ prominence was likely why Green Lantern’s continuity was left fairly untouched with the radical New 52 reboot. Brightest Day was a weekly series that followed BN, and the first collection we’re reviewing here are the Green Lantern issues that tied into that. In particular, they are part of an arc known as “The New Guardians.”

Solo Tabletop RPG Actual Play – Solo Liminal Horror Part Four

You can purchase Liminal Horror here
You can purchase Jeansen’s Machines here
You can download the Liminal Horror Solo Starter here

Read the previous chapter here

Scene #9 – (Resolution 1/4)
Modified proposal: Cristian quickly leafs through the old book, looking for a solution – Cause confusion, doubt, and questions.
The GM asks you to: Describe the current location, what the character sees
Oracle: Wooden Love

The cabin has suddenly gone quiet. The rain is still coming down, but a little lighter. The scratching sounds under the floor have stopped. Albert asks Cristian what he thinks that thing is doing. His cousin is distracted by the book. Albert makes a passing mention of “grandad’s old hunting rifle” and that he’s going to see if it’s still in the cabinet in the living room. Cristian doesn’t even notice; the book has taken him in.

PopCult Podcast – Strange Darling/VHS Beyond

The story of a serial killer told out of sequence plays with our expectations. A collection of short science fiction-horror films presents a plethora of frights.

Movie Review – The Face of Another

The Face of Another (1966)
Written by Kōbō Abe
Directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara

Hiroshi Teshigahara found his cinematic muse in the writing of Kōbō Abe. He directed an adaptation of Abe’s novel Woman in the Dunes two years prior. He returned to the author’s work for his next film, The Face of Another. Teshigahara’s relationship with filmmaking was very tempestuous, though, making a film in 1972 and abandoning the medium for nearly a decade. He pursued other interests like calligraphy, ceramics, and ikebana (the art of flower arranging, of which his father was seen as the master). While he returned to film, Teshigahara never recaptured the height of this period when he and the work were perfect. Western critics dismissed his work at the time of release, but a new appreciation has grown in the following decades.

Movie Review – The Wailing

The Wailing (2016)
Written and directed by Na Hong-jin

I can’t say I fully understand the lore behind this film. I was also amazed by the tone, the tightrope between possession horror & Edgar Wright’s self-aware humor. It ends with a much heavier conclusion than a Wright film ever would, though. Scatterbrained is a good word to use when discussing this film, not as a pejorative but as an accurate descriptor. Filmmaker Na Hong-jin clearly has a lot to say about several topics, which is why the film clocks in at two and a half hours. Again, I can’t say I fully digested every piece of commentary, much of it because it’s clearly linked to Korean culture, and I do not have the background I should have on that.

Patron Pick – Saw 3

This special reward is available to Patreon patrons who pledge at the $10 or $20 monthly levels. Each month, those patrons will pick a film for me to review. If they choose, they also get to include some of their thoughts about the movie. This Pick comes from Matt Harris.

Saw 3 (2006)
Written by Leigh Whannell and James Wan
Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman

I have never seen a single film in the Saw franchise before this one. That made my viewing experience quite an incoherent one. If you asked me what I knew about this franchise, it would have been that Tobin Bell played the bad guy Jigsaw, and he made elaborate death traps. Asked about characters or plot beyond that I would simply have to shrug both before and after watching Saw 3. I have no idea. It became very clear within moments of the film starting that I was supposed to recognize several of these characters. The weird thing is that no new characters were introduced, so I understood them to be new. Thus, I kept wondering who the ongoing series characters were and who were the ones just being introduced to die.

Solo Tabletop RPG Actual Play – Supersworn: The Victory Academy Part Seven

Read the previous chapter here

[Begin a Session: Flashback reveals an aspect of another character, place, or faction]
Plot Thread: Coup at the Academy
Oracle: Evade Superstition

One year ago.

Aiden Bell enjoys the quiet of the Academy around midnight. The new students are settled in at the dorms. Days earlier, they had attended a speech from one of the Victory Vanguard founders, Master Destiny. Bell had chatted briefly with the seemingly immortal man, elderly during World War II and looking unchanged in 2024. Master Destiny mentioned how the Book of Destiny became lost inside the Academy during The Whisper’s siege of the grounds in the late 1970s. Master D had also mentioned rumors of a secret arcane library that had grown organically but is said to only be visible to those it wishes to find it.

Movie Review – Killer Klowns From Outer Space

Killer Klowns From Outer Space (1988)
Written and directed by the Chiodo Brothers

The Chiodo Brothers (Stephen, Charles, and Edward) had been absorbed by making movie special effects since they were kids. They had worked in the industry for a few years, selling their skills to productions like Critters, Faerie Tale Theater, and UHF. One of their most well-known works was the Large Marge effect in Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure. Puppets, stop motion, make-up, they loved it all. Ironically, in their first feature film, most of the special effects work was done by other artists they had befriended over the years. The Chiodos spent most of their time directing, producing, and playing some Killer Klowns. The result is that the film is less interested in the plot and more about the spectacle of the movies.