October 26th

American Horror Story 2.12: "Continuum" (2013) directed by Craig Zisk
After killing off nearly all of their bad guys, this episode abandons the 1965 story and skips into the future.  We find Jude continues to resides at Briarcliff and is truly bonkers, Kit briefly lives happily with two wives and two kids, Alma also goes bonkers and kills Grace, and Lana releases a slightly inaccurate but successful book about her experiences with Thredson.  The asylum is sold to the county and becomes increasingly chaotic and filthy.  This type of thing seems to be the show's M.O.  In season one, they also completely changed directions for the last few episodes.  It didn't work out so well then...

For a scene or two, we see Jude and Pepper as friends in the asylum, playing games and looking out for each other.  It's by far the most Pepper has been given to do on the show since we learned the aliens had given her the power of speech and the mandate to protect Grace.  And, just like the alien storyline, she ends up being largely unnecessary and likely only added to the show to up the "WTF" factor.  We find that Jude has lost track of time and Pepper died some years back.  Like the aliens, we never see her again.


American Horror Story 2.13: "Madness Ends" (2013) directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon
Gotta love how we're unnecessarily shown Johnny breaking into Briarcliff and chopping that guy's arm off, as seen in the first episode.  We already know he did this.  Why are we wasting time in the final episode showing this stuff from Johnny's perspective when there are a zillion storylines to finish?

An interview with Lana in the present day is used to finish these storylines.  As she speaks to a reporter, we flash back and back and back again, touching on Lana's exposés of Briarcliff and Cardinal Timothy, and her conversation with Kit about Jude's fate.  It's rushed and largely unsatisfying.  The final scene, in which Lana again uses her wiles to talk herself out of being killed by a Bloody Face, is easy to see coming.

I liked how much stuff the showrunners shoved into the first episodes of this season -- aliens, an insane asylum, a serial killer, a mad scientist, an ambitious priest, a cruel nun, wrongfully imprisoned inmates, a demon -- but it's just too much for them to handle.  They just don't know how to tie all of this stuff up properly and tons of ideas are simply thrown away without being used to their potential.  The alien story is shrugged aside: Kit's kids became a professor and a surgeon.  Hardly world-changing.  Cardinal Timothy's story is shrugged aside: we hear -- but don't see -- that Lana did a report on him and got him fired.  The mad Nazi scientist's story was finished episodes ago when he cremated himself.  The demon's story was abandoned episodes ago when its host was killed.  Briarcliff's story is completed when it turns into a Willowbrook and then gets shutdown... but we already knew that from episode 1 when we saw it abandoned.

The only thing I felt they got right was Jude's story.  A kind man she once abused rescues her and she finds a small amount of redemption.  This is nicely contrasted with Lana's tale of a woman consumed by ambition who abandons her connection to humanity.  Cut the aliens, cut the demon, cut the mad scientist... just focus on these three characters (plus Bloody Face and the priest to spur Lana and Jude's character growth).  Had they done this, the ending of the show would've been much more satisfying.  As it is, I'm too annoyed at the dangling threads to be happy.

October 24th

American Horror Story 2.08: "Unholy Night" (2012) directed by Michael Lehmann
Ian McShane as a crazy killer Santa Claus.  Awesome as hell.  This also means he'll potentially return as another character in season three.  Yeah, I'll accept this an apology for the prior year's "Super-Happy Ghost Family Christmas" finale.


American Horror Story 2.09: "The Coat Hanger" (2012) directed by Jeremy Podeswa
Season 1's Dylan McDermott is "Son of Bloody Face."  Sure, fine.  I'm a little disappointed there isn't a supernatural explanation that has Thredson killing people in 2012, but, eh, this might be interesting.  I'm having a little trouble buying McDermott as a tattooed, mulleted psychopath, for some reason.  He looks like he's dressed for Halloween.


American Horror Story 2.10: "The Name Game" (2013) directed by Michael Lehmann
Damn, man, they killed off two of the main characters in one episode: Arden and the possessed nun.  I was vaguely hoping the demon would maybe possess the Angle of Death when she arrived, but I suppose that doesn't make any sense.  And, the angel's statement that she's taking "both of you" seems to indicate that the demon has departed for good.  Too bad.  I found the character to be fairly scary: a nearly all-knowing, all-malevolent entity walking around and ruining lives.


American Horror Story 2.11: "Spilt Milk" (2013) directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon
One thing I'll give the showrunners: they're horror geeks.  Not only do they reference / rip-off scenes from tons and tons of movies (from The Exorcist to Beetlejuice), they love to re-purpose the music from classic horror movies as well.  This ep was nearly wall-to-wall Philip Glass music from Candyman, which is a score I love.

Now I'm very curious as to how Lana raises Son of Bloody Face.  Obvious, the guy has the same sort of mommy issues as his dad.  I'm guessing he's the antagonist at the end of the show for Kit and Grace's alien-engineered baby, who's exactly the same age.  Why this starchild sat on his hands for 30 years and let Son of Bloody Face go around killing cats and people, I don't know.

With the death of Thredson, every evil character in the show has died with two more episodes to go.  Well, Son of Bloody Face exists in the present day, but the only antagonist in 1965 is the priest, who's not that terribly evil.  What are the 1960s sections going to do with themselves for two episodes?  I miss the possessed nun already.

October 21st

Cannibal Ferox (1981) directed by Umberto Lenzi

Better than Lenzi's forgettable Eaten Alive, and at least it contains all new footage.  Still, I'm not a fan of the whole white guilt spin that started with Cannibal Holocaust and continues here.  It gets even worse in this one.  Now the natives aren't even really cannibals at all and learn all of their violent ways by watching the sadistic Mike.  In the superior Last Cannibal World, falling prey to the cannibals is simply a matter of "wrong place, wrong time."  Naively wandering into a part of the world you know little about is dangerous, be it the jungle or rural Texas.  Would Texas Chain Saw Massacre be improved if Franklin had first tortured Leatherface's brother to death?

Also, I'm getting real tired of seeing real animals slaughtered in these things.  Do Italians really hate turtles and crocodiles that much?

Watched: DVD from Grindhouse Releasing.

American Horror Story 2.05: "Asylum: I Am Anne Frank, Part 2" (2012) directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon
Legless, mutated Shelley, at the bottom of an elementary school stairwell, scaring the ever-loving shit out of children.  For this alone, I'm glad I'm watching this season.  Plus, another alien abduction.  Plus, weird segments shot with a '60s TV camera.  Plus, Thredson -- not really surprisingly -- turns out to be serial killer Bloody Face and chains Lana up Saw-like in his torture basement.  Bundle all of this up into the show's consistently beautiful shooting and lighting and I find myself thoroughly entertained.


The Walking Dead 3.10: "Home" (2013) directed by Seith Mann
Well, that didn't take long for Daryl to wander back to the prison.  Just in time to help save the day, too.  Ugh.  Lotta lazy writing in the show this year.  Gotta love how everyone is a dead-eye, crack shot when it comes to putting bullets directly in the middle of zombie foreheads, but turn into Stormtroopers when real humans attack.  There had better be a bigger battle between the prison and Woodbury at the end of the season.  Maybe with that National Guard stuff the Gov stole?  If this was it, I'm pissed.

October 4th

American Horror Story 1.09: "Spooky Little Girl" (2011) directed by John Scott
Hey, the Black Dahlia was killed in Murder House!  Meh, I don't care.  She seems to be there to illustrate how the fame-seekers who flock to Hollywood are so screwed up, they'd be happy if they are only famous for dying a grisly death.  It has no affect on the story of the Harmons at all and, I bet, is probably only here due to interest in the case from the writer.  More interesting, the psychic lady suggests that a baby born from a ghost and human will become the Antichrist.  Neat, I guess.  That gives the show a big, super-evil event to look forward to at the end.  There were lots of Omen and Rosemary's Baby references so far, so that makes sense.


American Horror Story 1.10: "Smoldering Children" (2011) directed by Michael Lehmann
I can't say I was too surprised to find out that Violet was already a ghost.  Her friend/enemy with the scratched face was abandoned from the show, as we never saw Violet outside of house after Violet's last hangout with her.  I'll admit, the appearance of the bloated flies emerging from the cracks in the floorboards, then Tate killing the exterminator after he freaks out over seeing something under the house, then Tate showing Violent her fly-eaten, bloated corpse was an effective horror sequence.


American Horror Story 1.11: "Birth" (2011) directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon
Events lead to Vivian giving birth inside of the house, with Ben's baby stillborn and Tate's baby perfectly fine.  I love the way the birth scene was shot.  The frames were selectively blurred, canted angles were everywhere, and reality seemed fluid.  As much as I may find the writing weak in the show, the technical side of things has always been very strong.


American Horror Story 1.12: "Afterbirth" (2011) directed by Bradley Buecker
Bizarre.  Instead of exploring the problem that is the supposed Antichrist just born in the house, the show decides to end by pretending to be Beetlejuice.  Sure, it's a fun sequence when the Harmons pull a Maitland and scare the crap out of the new homeowners.  But, it feels like the showrunners had no idea how to end this thing.

The last we see of the Harmons -- now all dead and trapped in the house -- they are a super-happy ghost family celebrating Christmas.  Really?  Really?  They are trapped in a hell with no apparent way of escape.  Their children will never grow up.  Their stillborn baby will be screaming in the night for centuries, lacking a living brain to grow and change.  Violet will be a messed-up teenager for eternity.  They're forced to exist with an increasingly large number of other people who die in the house, many of whom are very bad entities.  Why is no one bringing this up?  Violet touched on some of this in a previous episode very briefly -- worried that her laptop will go out of date and Youtube will no longer work -- but that was it.  I would've never have guessed this family and the show would be given such a saccharine ending.

And, at the very end, we find out the 3-year-old Antichrist has killed his babysitter.  Woo.  I fear for the fate of the world.  Sigh, how disappointing this thing turned out to be.  At least next season is an entirely new story.

September 24th

Prince of Darkness (1987) directed by John Carpenter

First off, the transfer on the blu-ray just released by Scream Factory is fantastic.  Sharp and artifact-free, watching this disc was like watching the movie with a new set of eyes.  Beats the holy hell out of the crappy release from Good Times I used to own.

People usually point to In the Mouth of Madness as Carpenter's most lovecraftian film, but there's a very strong streak of H.P. here as well.  In Prince of Darkness, religion is a comforting lie to cover the horrible truth of the Universe: there is no loving deity out there, only an evil anti-god.  The only reason we haven't been destroyed or enslaved by this entity of pure evil is because it is trapped, sleeping, in another dimension.  Replace "dimension" with "under the sea" and this pretty much describes Cthulhu.

Why did green goo Satan wait 2000 years before attempting to escape his prison and rescue his dad?  He was Schrödinger's cat.  I don't think the discussion Walter and Catherine have about this cat at the start of the film is accidental.  For centuries, Satan, trapped in his vial, existed in a quantum superposition.  It was both dead and alive (well, a self-organizing pre-biotic fluid) at the same time.  Once the scientists arrived and began to observe the entity -- taking samples and shooting x-rays through it -- did its superposition collapse into "living entity" and it was able to extend its power outwards.

I love that the film doesn't bother to explain much.  It's a barrage of high concepts, alternate cosmologies, and weirdness.  I sure this is also why the film doesn't click with a lot of people.  As Catherine complains in the beginning of the movie, "I want the clockwork back. I want to put it all in a little box."  Most people are like that, I think.  Not having things make 100% complete sense or not having everything completely explained drives a lot of people nuts.  For me, movies that dare to do this -- challenge the audience to figure things out on their own -- are special.  Prince of Darkness is special.

Watched: blu-ray from Scream Factory.

American Horror Story 1.02: "Home Invasion" directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon
Less crazy than the prior episode, which is not too surprising.  This one deals with teenagers breaking into the Harmon house in order to reenact a double murder that happened there in 1968.  It's more of an episode to advance some plot ideas: Ben's former lover is getting an abortion; the maid, wacky neighbor lady and disturbed psych patient are all in on the house's shenanigans; the ghosts in the house can kill people.  Especially interesting is when the crazy neighbor lady casually refers to Ben as an evil man, implying that she's helping the house to punish him.  That seems a little extreme for a dude who simply cheated on his wife, so I wonder if he's got more skeletons in his closet?

At any rate, I'm still really digging the show.  It's energetic visual style and great use of music (wee, the score from Psycho!) are lots of fun.