A Short Sharp Shock Review - Another Earth

This is NOT a Marijuana Movie Night film, so don't get all baked and watch it and then complain you are depressed or bummed out. I warned you. However, it out does M. Night Shyamalan's M. Night Shyamalan endings. Or you could watch The Happening and want to kick your television in at the end. It's your home. Do what you want in it.

Retro Movie Moments - Suspiria

While there are lots of shots in this art house horror film which aren't scary with it's delicious cherry sauce flowing blood, there is a soundtrack which will haunt your eardrums and most likely your dreams, scaring the crap out of your subconscious many days later. Visually, you may never see a more fantastically lit film. Never mind the shoddy character development or barely there plot, the lighting is a star all it's own in this fright feature. So bust out your best trippy weed the budtender suggested (or dealer for you folks not in weed friendly parts of the world) and together let us enter the world of Dario Argento.

And is it just me that thinks that Dino Velvet was somehow based on Argento or have I just seen one too many Nick Cage films?

Side note: Visual artist Stan Douglas was so inspired by this film he created a video/art installation as an homage, but more so as a attempt to "enlarge in both a sensual and intellectual way the experience of the cinematic and museum space." If anyone can find video of this, I want to see it. Sounds like heavy shit.

Retro Movie Moments - Night of the Creeps

"Thrill me."

Geeks, jocks, alien slugs (or are they bugs), and killer dead people all inhabit this plot. Not as convoluted as some films, but pretty close. Get your high on early. It will help the plot along.

Monstrously Medicated, Man!

James Mason is diagnosed with a rare ailments which will require him to take the wonder drug cortisone to keep him alive. He starts taking the drug, feels great, better then he has ever before. So he takes more and then a little bit more and the batshit craziness starts to fly. I think that both Bradley Cooper and Eddie Murphy took inspiration from this for their own turn as medicated assholes.

Mason gives a manic speech about his fears that the next generation will be a bunch of uneducated idiots running the world because of the decaying educational system (sounds familiar). He does this while smoking a butt like it was his last before the firing squad put him out of his misery.

Nicholas Ray directed this movie which is (more or less) about over-medicating yourself. So get your favorite poison, pop this on and lets get this crazy train rolling.

How Did This Get Made? Podcast = Might Be the Best Thing Ever

Paul Sceer, Jason Mantzoukas & June Diane Raphael's podcast focuses on the mysteries, frustrations, and sublime bliss of some of the worst film out there. So when you need a break from glowing screens up in your grill, step away and go have a listen. There are lots of special guests and some amazing back stories of the best bad movies.

Many a Marijuana Movie Night is represented on there and then some. Why was I not listening to this long ago and therefore cutting out doing any research of my own? My own copious marijuana intake often undermines any sober technical savvy I possess and has caused me to forget how podcasts work (and sometimes add to the occasional syntax and spelling foibles...thank you new MMN copy editor Seth Combs). But enough about me. Go find your own weed and listen to it.

Retro Movie Moments - Logan's Run

There is a rumor that this is going to be remade by Nicolas Winding Refn, starring Ryan Gosling & Rose Byrne. The film could go either way, but we will have to wait, pondering what good or bad decisions might be made to do this. It is currently in the development phase according to IMDB.

A Short Sharp Shock Revew - Martha Marcy May Marlene

There has been a lot of film festival buzz for this and it's all deserved. Elizabeth Olsen turns in a nuanced performance of a young girl drawn into a cult, trying to find her way back into "normal" life. John Hawkes is great and creepy yet again like his scary turn in Winter's Bone. Not a date film or a weed smoking film (unless you are super creepy), but see it anyway.

Zombie Downgrade

Ever since George Romero gave us Night of the Living Dead, zombies have been upgrading to faster, smarter and more dexterous brain eating fiends. Hamilton Morris' article made me long for the old school zombies of vodou where you could make one at home and they would weed your garden or do your taxes. It's been a long time since I've thought of Bill Pullman or being buried alive (with the exception of this great scene in Kill Bill II). There is also the wonderful I Walked With a Zombie which should be part of every good horror lover's canon.

Zombie films continue to rise from the dead. Brad Pitt adaptation of the novel World War Z is currently in post production and slated to come out some time this year. There is also The Walking Dead which will be going into its third season on AMC. So right now, we are pretty lousy with zombies. I am really looking forward to being able to vote for a zombie in the presidential elections one day, but they will likely be running on the Republican ticket so never mind. Brrraaaaiiiinnnnnnss!