p e n g u i n d e v i l

Yes, the week of all hallows eve has come and gone. While It didn’t seem that my movie watching was related to that, the movies themselves did seem to be. I guess that made up for having not one single trick-or-treater. I watched Amityville Horror. It was alright. Not particularly scary. It just made me want to watch Poltergeist.
I also watched Altered States for, yes, the first time. It bored me like crazy the first half, but then it really picked up and I actually liked it alright. I thought that the role of the skeptic was overdone; he was so skeptical that it started to seem a bit ridiculous. And I don’t really like William Hurt, so there’s that. But all in all it was pretty entertaining and, if you can get past the dated effects, it had some interesting ideas going on.

I also watched This Night I’ll Possess Your Corpse, finally… Since it’d been probably two years since I sat down to At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul. Anyway, I really like these films. Something about a fellow who is some kind of arch-villain but lives in some little town of a hundred folks I find fun. I also really like the aesthetic of the top hat and long nails. These movies are very down home good and the hell scene is a sight to behold.

Paul and I went out to the Clinton St to see The Hills Have Eyes, another film which I hadn’t seen before. It looked as though they had saved an original element for me. All the tried and true scratches and blurs of a cheap film, 30 years down the line. Regardless, I liked it though.
Why? Something different. Not just a group of young men and women with 1 woman left over at the end as is all too common. I liked the extended family as victims and the little baby added a whole new angle. Of course, due to its era, it was an over the top “I can’t believe they just did that”. Back before that was all ironic and all…

In other viewings? I rented Marnie and Love in the Afternoon. Both of which were fine. I didn’t really click with Marnie though it was fine and had some good scenes. The AH cameo was way too obvious. Love in the Afternoon seemed fine. Though I do like Maurice Chevalier alright, I don’t like either one of the lead actors. And Gary Cooper also just seemed a bit off in this role. It was a bit disconcerting. The movie was good though.

And Saturday, nursing my way through a lame hangover, I started to watch the Star Wars series. I started with Episode 2 and I only slept through maybe 20 minutes of it, so that’s good. Anyway, not much needs to be said. It still seems better than Episode 1 and sometimes I feel like it can be easier to watch than the scenes in the real Star Wars where ol’ George polluted it with hacked up scenes and his little cgi pets floating around… Sigh…