The terror-ific trio from Phoenix, Calabrese, is back with a new album titled Lust for Sacrilege. Check out the lyric video for the title track below.
I got my copy on Saturday. Yeah, I said copy! I still get physical CDs from certain bands, plus if you pre-ordered, you were entered to win some cool stuff from the band. I did not win any of said stuff but I got my CD!
I haven't given it more than a couple of listen throughs yet so I don't have any kind of hard hitting analysis to offer but if you've liked their previous stuff, you'll like this album!
You can check out samples and get it on Amazon.
Releasing today is a new 6 track EP from the dread master of drumstep, Figure. Now this type of music would probably not be something I'd listen to normally but it's got plenty of drops from horror movies mixed in to make a madcap Halloween dance party.
The EP features remixes of songs from Figure's Monsters of Drumstep discography. I grabbed it on iTunes this morning and I'm actually not sure I like all the tracks. Some of them have a little too much "electronic disturbance" for my taste but that's the style of the music. I'm sure I'll add this to my Halloween rotation but some of it won't make the year-round playlist. I will, however, recommend any of his previous Monsters of Drumstep albums to feast your ears on, they're a little less audio aggro.
Found this in my digital stash of ads taken from comic books. I wanted to bring back Mail Order Monday today but I didn't find anything in the there that caught my eye.
The Instamatic 44 was sold between 1969 and 1973 (the ad is from 1972). It retailed for $9.95 which is around $55 today! There's a few retro features this model has that I really dig.
Most obvious is that it uses a flash cube.
For you really young readers, that means you could take four pictures with flash for every cube you had with you. Back in the day, flash cubes were just as essential as film.
Next is the manual knob to advance the film, not one of those fancy levers that you could easily operate with your thumb. Forget quick snapshots! It might have been easy to move with just the thumb but nowhere near as easy as a lever. Hopefully it could tell when to stop. I remember one of the cameras I had as a kid where I had to manually advance the film and stop it so the picture number lined up just right in the indicator window.
And of course, the viewfinder. I find it a little ironic that nowadays, only the more expensive/professional type cameras even have a traditional viewfinder anymore.
Older cameras also looked a lot more rugged despite the internals not being as sensitive as modern models. Just look at that textured, thick black plastic casing. I'd bet it would more likely survive an accidental drop than your phone.
The gentleman that took this image of the Instamatic 44 has a bunch of albums on Flickr showcasing various relics of photography that are very cool.
Not much movie watching again this past month, but I did get in 100 new movies. Also thanks to Now Playing podcast, I did catch a pair of movies I probably wouldn't have watched on my own.
Maniac (1980)
Not posting the trailer for this one because it ruins some of the best moments. It's a great example of a good time grindhouse horror flick. It can be a little hard to watch because the killer is the main character, so the only people you can root for are the victims, and you know most of them aren't going to make it. Despite that, it is a fun one to watch.
Cool: Has some fantastic kills courtesy of Tom Savini's effects work; The ending! Lame: The story could have used a little more work to make us understand the killer's motives/psychosis better Rating: 6.5/10
Maniac (2013)
As much as I enjoyed the first one, this one blows it out of the water! Elijah Wood probably wouldn't even make your top 10 list of actors to play a serial killer but he is awesome in this. Which is weird to say because almost all of the movie is shot from his point of view, so you hardly ever see him. It borrows a lot from the original, whether directly copying it or throwing in subtle call backs.
Cool: The kills are more brutal, if you don't wince at least once, I applaud you. They fill in more of the killer's history so you have an idea what made him this way. Lame: First person vomit-cam Rating: 8/10, probably the best horror movie I saw this year
Aquanoids (2003)
From the best horror movie I saw to one of the worst! Imagine the production value and acting ability of a low budget pornstudio trying to make a Jaws knock-off. But instead of a giant shark, it's something that resulted from the Creature from the Black Lagoon mating with a Sleestak.
This is why you can't judge a movie by its poster. I mean, this at least makes it look like a fun bad movie, right? I've seen SyFy originals that were easier to watch! Seriously, who gave
this 5 stars? The producer? Side note: there's not even a lot of "naked
babes" in it.
Rating: 2/10
Maleficent (2014)
You probably don't need a trailer for this one but I wasn't about to go right into it after Aquanoids! I ended up liking this one more than I thought I would. But then, I'm a sucker for alternate takes and "what if?" stories. But, I might have liked it more if it was somehow an original story. You can't just take a villain people have loved for decades and make them the good guy because "you heard the story wrong." That's like saying Darth Vader was once a whiny 9 year old.
Cool: The movie is gorgeous; Liked the way they twisted the story around Lame: Looks a little too Avatar at times; the three fairies are creepy looking with their big heads Rating: 7/10
