{"id":3735,"date":"2011-10-30T13:29:14","date_gmt":"2011-10-30T17:29:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mondomark.com\/wordpress\/?p=2524"},"modified":"2011-10-30T13:29:14","modified_gmt":"2011-10-30T17:29:14","slug":"happy-mittel-halloween","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=3735","title":{"rendered":"Happy Mittel-Halloween"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

She may not be frothing, but I still wouldn't advise approaching…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

It\u2019s the middle of the Halloween weekend, and with Monday being the official day of Free Candy, horror films are naturally saturating the airwaves, theatre screens, and general consciousness of the populace, unless you happen to attend two Calgary schools where kids will attend \u201ccaring assemblies<\/a>\u201d the morn of the 31st because the school bigwigs believe the overall nature of Hallow\u2019s Eve has gotten out of hand.<\/p>\n

Yes, an under-10 year old dressed as a knife-wielding zombie out for blood is kind of startling, but how were you <\/em>absorbing horror as a child? In my grammar school, the kids who lived too far to go home for lunch would trek with two \u2018grade mothers\u2019 to the local library, where we had tables & chairs and free milk to eat the lunches packed by our parents, after which there was time to read books and mags in the library before a return to grade school drudgery.<\/p>\n

I knew looking at coffee table books of eyeless werewolves, staked vampires, and other assorted gore stills from U.S. and British shockers would and did provide nightmares, but I still did it, and the need to peek over the pillow and see what monster is making that ongoing bone-crunching sound hasn\u2019t really left (hence the continuous writing and reviewing of horror films, TV material, and of course horror music).<\/p>\n

The moral: you can\u2019t quell a child\u2019s interest in the morbid; they’ll either grow out of it, temper it, balance it with other interests, or develop a healthy sense of humour. They don\u2019t grow up to be Jeffrey Dahmers, nor go around micturating on crosses and sacred consecrated graves at midnight.<\/p>\n

One of these days I\u2019ll be able to catch a Bava film on the big screen \u2013 they always happen when I\u2019m working, and it\u2019s always a doozy. Last year it was Planet of the Vampires<\/strong> (1965) and Black Sunday<\/a><\/strong> (1960), and this past Friday it was Black Sabbath<\/strong> (1963) at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. If you love Bava, missing a chance to see his work on the big screen really, really hurts. Black Sabbath<\/strong> is one of the few Bavas I haven\u2019t seen, so I snapped up Vol. 1 of Anchor Bay\u2019s Bava Box (which is apparently going, or already is our of print) and I\u2019m saving the viewing for this week.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, at the Film Society at New York City\u2019s Lincoln Center there\u2019s a very cool roster of films and appearances<\/a> which started screening on the 27th and end the 31st. Among the gems are prints of Roger Corman\u2019s House of Usher<\/strong> (1960), Tobe Hooper\u2019s Poltergeist<\/a><\/strong> [M<\/a>] (1982) which I never caught in theatres, and Stuart Gordon\u2019s Re-Animator<\/a> <\/strong>(1985). One can only hope some programmer in Toronto is aware of these, and is planning a Tobe Hooper retrospective, a Corman retrospective, and a Gordon retrospective, now that he \/ she knows prints are in circulation. AHEM.<\/p>\n

Also playing in NYC in December is Andrzej Zulawski\u2019s Possession<\/strong> (1981) at the Film Forum, as reported earlier by Fangoria<\/a>. It\u2019s an uncut 35mmm print of one of the strangest films ever made, starring Sam Neill and Isabelle Adjani. If you\u2019ve never seen a Zulawski film, I don\u2019t if that\u2019s good or bad. It\u2019s more fascinating to watch the performances than comprehend the stories because the actors are often pitching their emotions at levels which are a hair-trigger away from total unrestrained psychosis. There\u2019s a singular shot of Neill rocking back and forth in a chair that\u2019s indicative of the director\u2019s weird view of human behaviour, and I\u2019d love to hear Neill discuss the experience of being directed by Zulawski.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, tonight at the U of T\u2019s Innis Hall (8pm), under the umbrella of the Toronto Jewish Film Festival we have Israel\u2019s first horror film, Rabies<\/strong> \/ Kalevet<\/strong> (2010). More info is here<\/a>, plus a link to an interview with the directors<\/a>. Tickets are $10 smackaroonies. The film\u2019s not on DVD in Region 1 land, but is distributed by Mongrel, so its home video release (I would presume) is inevitable in Canada.<\/p>\n

Yesterday I caught Susan Ray\u2019s documentary Don\u2019t Expect Too Much<\/a><\/strong> (2010) about the making of Nicholas Ray\u2019s experimental film We Can\u2019t Go Home Again<\/a><\/strong> (1972-1979), the latter of which screens today (4pm) at the TBL, and is preceded by an intro from Ray\u2019s widow. I\u2019ll have reviews of the two films up by Monday morning, plus reviews of Julian Roffman\u2019s The Mask<\/strong> (1961) and The Bloody Brood<\/strong> (1959).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Did you know Rockets<\/a> are the World’s Most Perfect Tart Sugar Candy? You did? Good!<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mark R. Hasan<\/strong>, Editor
\nKQEK.com <\/strong>( Main Site<\/a> \/ Mobile Site<\/a> )<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Idle Sunday news bits about “caring sessions” in two Calgary grade schools in place of Halloween, Mario Bava, spooky movies at NYC’s Lincoln Center\tand Film Forum, Nicholas Ray at the Lightbox, and a screening of Israel’s first horror film Rabies \/ Kalevet (2010) at Innis Hall tonight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[843,814,844,845,658,846],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-Yf","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3735"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3735\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}