Bear

Was really disappointed by this album when it was release, but it's really grown on me. I am fucking loving this. Over the top and cheesy power metal with lots of catchy choruses. It's not something I'll listen to every single week, but every now and then I go on a cheesy power metal ride and I just play a lot of Gloryhammer, Rhapsody, Luca Turilli and so on. This has been one of those weeks.

Day 22: I am stretching the term horror a bit here, but it's OK. Death Note - A complete fucking shitfest of a film. Doesn't matter if you're familiar with the source material or not, this was cheap, boring and fucking shit. I've been a huge fan of Adam Wingard up until now, but he just seems to have lost it all with Blair Witch and now this. What a fucking shame. There was however a few superb special effects moments. But that's about it. 3/10 Day 23: 1922 - A horror-drama that's really slow and isn't about scares, gore, atmosphere or nothing. It's about our main character Wilfred James and his suffering and slow rot from the inside and out. It's a Stephen King adaption and a good one. I wasn't too happy about it, but that's my own fault. I felt that it was a bit too long, but in the end I just don't think I was in the right mindset for the film. If I had watched it today I would've probably scored it a point or two higher, because this is not a bad film in any way. It's actually a real strong one. Thomas Jane is real good. Delivers a proper performance, and probably his best ever. 6/10

I was gone for about a week and didn't get to update, but that doesn't mean I didn't watch any films. But because I only had Netflix available I didn't have a lot to pick between as the horror section is piss fucking weak in Norway. Day 20: Race with the Devil - Occult horror from 1975, much in the same vein as The Ninth Gate, John Carpenter's Cigarette Burns, In the Mouth of Madness, The Sentinel, Rosemary's Baby and so on. It's not quite as slow-burning as these and it's more action-oriented, but it's got a lot of the same occult vibe to it. I think this is a great and underrated film. Peter Fonda is superb! 8/10 Day 21: Witch Hunt - The 1994 film with Dennis Hopper in the lead as H. P. Lovecraft. This one is often considered a sequel to Cast a Deadly Spell, but it's more a remake/reboot//reinterpretation/whatever. Almost the same film, just set to a different time period. The 50's instead of the 40's. It's a TV-film and it looks like one, but it's got plenty of charm, loads of camp and lots of nice atmosphere. I think this is the superior film of the two, and it is highly underrated. Totally recommended! 8/10

I honestly felt empty as fuck after the season was over. So I started and finished Beyond Stranger Things in a go as well. 7 episodes that ranges from 15 to 25 minutes that takes a look behind the scenes, talks with the cast and so on. I really enjoyed how the characters grew this season, I must say that this TV-series is just filled with superb supporting characters. It's a TV-series where I enjoy and find as much interest in the supporting characters as I do with the main characters. Hopper, Bob, Nancy, Steve, Murray, all MVP's in my eyes. Some incredible strong performances from the likes of David Harbour, Sean Astin, Paul Reiser and Brett Gelman too.

Oh hell yeah! That last one is amazing.

I know there's been plenty complaint about Stranger Thing season 2, but I don't get it. A bit weaker than the first season, and I miss some of the atmosphere. But fuck it, most enjoyable TV-series I've ever seen, and I have seen a pretty fucking huge amount of TV-series. But this just puts everything I love in films and TV-series into one big fucking TV-series, and it gives me these wonderful feelings I rarely get from films and TV-series anymore. You know, the type of feelings I got when I watched films like Big Trouble in Little China, The Goonies, Back to the Future, Gremlins, Raiders of the Lost Ark and so on for the first time as a little brat in the mid-to-late 90's. By the way, I recommend the TV-series Eerie, Indiana to anyone who likes Stranger Things. Eerie, Indiana is a bit like a semi-campy Stranger Things for teens/young adults, with a lot of The Twilight Zone in it as well. Highly recommended!

New Watain track. By far their best song since Casus Luciferi. Still over-produced, but at least it's enjoyable, unlike the last three albums. Decent black/thrash assault. https://acid-witch-detroit.bandcamp.com/album/evil-sound-screamers Entire album can be streamed here.

I thought it was more in the line of "What do you mean [insert vk indie band] has already disbanded?? They only released 4 promo pictures and announced they were formed, who does that??"

I usually don't mind product placement at all. While it most often doesn't improve on a film, it doesn't take anything away from it either. I can't imagine having problems with Wayne's World, E.T., I, Robot, Superman II, Casino Royale and Skyfall (and the rest of the James Bond franchise I guess), Toy Story, Risky Business, The Wizard, Back To The Future II and so on just because of product placement, and all of these have really blatant product placement. Some films, like Wayne's World and I, Robot are even strengthened by it. Especially I, Robot as it says a lot about our main guy and who he is, and it just adds a lot of credibility to him. But it's some of the more blatant product placement I can think of in a good film. But to each their own of course. Liked the KFC scene a lot meself.

Being better than the first season is no easy task. Stranger Things season 1 is up there with the very best TV-series/seasons ever made. Watched the first episode yesterday and can't really decide if I want to binge or watch it over 4-5 days. First episode was so good I wanted to cry.

Never got the Assassins Creed hype. Hated the first, hated the second and hated the third. I cannot name a single game with a more boring gameplay. I do actually like the multiplayer game a lot, tho. Shame most people are too fucking dumb and immature to play it properly. Potential wasted.

I always used Winamp and whenever I listen to music outside of Spotify, youtube nd bandcamp Ivuse Winamp. It's always worked wonders and it still does.

https://summoning.bandcamp.com/album/with-doom-we-come That track is amazing.

Day 19: Frightmare - There's at least two films known by this title, but this is the Norman Thaddeus Vane flick. A goofy, supernatural slasher that's actually a bit original due to the supernatural elements. Ferdy Mayne stars as Conrad Radzoff, a horror movie icon of the past. He's like a mix of Vincent Price, Christopher Lee and Bela Lugosi, and the character is so much fun. Ferdy Mayne does a really good job, and among the cast you also get a young Jeffrey Combs in his debut. This isn't great film art or anything like that, but it's damn fine entertainment. Take a look at all the horror props in the film. Masks, posters and such, and it features some clips of a very young Christopher Lee. Awesome stuff! 8/10

New track from the upcoming Acid Witch album. Pure horror! Those creeped out "horror film-esque vocals" are truly great. This band is the perfect soundtrack for October and Halloween.

Day 18: Splatter University - Splatter University is the first film by Richard W. Haines, a man best known for the cult film Class of Nuke 'Em High. Splatter University is in many ways a very early slasher film. First directed in 81, but it was just over an hour long so they decided to add something like 10-15 minutes of scenes with different students and shit and not released before 84. Splatter University is a Troma Entertainment film, and if you like cult films you should know what Troma is all about. Low-budget horror films that's often drenched in campy concepts, splatter, blood and gore, parody and farce, even though they got things that got nothing to do with horror to their name as well. They got cult classics like The Toxic Avenger, Class of Nuke 'Em High, Surf Nazis Must Die, Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D. and Redneck Zombies to their name. Complete trash, even though The Toxic Avenger are one of my all-time favourite superhero films. And this film is no different. Poorly written, sloppily shot, awfully acted and very much over the top. But it's a real fun film for what it is. A trashy, sleazy slasher film that kows exactly what it is and doesn't try to hide it. If you are heavily into slashers and like both cheese, trash and sleaze, I totally recommend this. But I know something like 250 slashers I'd recommend before this. 7/10

Also finished The Expanse, season 2. It was really nice, just like the first season. But it was way different. Was a much bigger focus on drama and politics, and they kinda seemed to have gotten plenty inspirations from Game of Thrones. Superb series!

Finished Castlevania, season 1, and what a fucking series. It stays so true to the video games and everything about just feels like classic Castlevania. Not superbly written, but it's good enough with great atmosphere, a fantastic amount of violence and a superb cast. This is probably the first time a western animation film/series has given me a real 80-90's anime vibe. Makes me think of Ninja Scroll, Vampire Hunter D/Vampire HUnter D: BLoodlust and so on. Loved it!

Day 17: The Last Man on Earth - The first, most faithful and by far best adaption of Richard Matheson's novel I Am Legend. The Last Man on Earth stars Vincent Price who is as over the top and theatrical as ever, and he deliver a performance worthy a proper horror legend. The atmosphere is dark and grim, and captures a true feeling of solitude and loneliness and unlike later adaptions, is more about our main man battling feeling within himself than the vampires. Slow-burning and drenched in atmosphere, and like I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House this is more a mood piece than anything else, as it actually fails on a narrative level. But this is 60's cult horror, and it's cult for a reason. It's a tour the force Vincent Price who spends much of the film alone, narrating with his fantastic voice and just being awesome. Really cool monsters too. While the monsters in this film are considered vampires, they are also considered the blueprint for Romero's traditional zombies in Night of the Living Dead, as they are much closer to those than e.g any other vampires made. 8/10 Like I said, the best adaption of I Am Legend. The next one, The Omega Man, is also fantastic. But it's a totally different film. It's technical superior to this, but is more a straight up sci-fi actioner with lots of cheese and amazing one-liners. Cult, but in a different way. I Am Legend with Will Smith starts of really cool. Dark, grim and atmospheric, before it turns into a sub-par zombie film for the second half. Could've been so good, but it simply isn't because of the second half of the film.

Day 16: Annabelle: Creation - The first Annabelle was nothing short of a disappointed where more or less everything was wrong. So with that in head, I did not exactly expect much of this. Before this, director David F. Sandberg impressed the world with his short film Lights Out, while he later disappointed the world with his first feature film, Lights Out, which was just one huge, standard boring and modern horror cliche after another. But Annabelle: Creation is almost exactly what the first one should've been. Ok, so it's a tad too long, go for a few cheap scares too many and takes the easy way out at the end. But for the vast majority of the film you get some very good atmosphere, beautiful shots and a good cast doing some very nice acting. I don't think this is nearly as good as The Conjuring, and not quite as good as The Conjuring 2, but unlike the first one which was a mess of a cheap fucking horror film, this actually has something in common with these films in form of how the scares are chosen and how the atmosphere is created, despite being much further away from the premise of The Conjuring I & II than the first film. 7/10

Day 15: I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House - I'd say I am above average interested in horror films, and I'd say I've seen a decent amount of horror films. I probably hit a four digit amount over 8-10 years ago. But despite this I am not sure if I've ever seen a horror film as slow as I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House. This will bore 99/100 people who watch it to death, but I thought it was a stunning film. I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House is something as rare as a modern film set to a rather modern time that truly catches the gothic atmosphere of the past. A dream-like, gothic haunted house film unlike anything I've seen. Director Oz Perkins doesn't seem to give a fuck and just plays around with his filmmaking. Perkins choose very unusual way to tell a tale, and doesn't really give us a narrative film. Perkins instead plays around with structure. It's not about plot at all. It's about atmosphere, it's about death and the dead. It's just one of the most gothic film I've seen, but you have to be able to enjoy pure mood pieces to be able to enjoy this. It's mellow, slow and dream-like. 8/10

Day 14: The Babysitter - I had not heard about this film until it popped up on Netflix as I was just browsing through the newly added film. I loved the poster and checked the genre, and as it said horror I just had to check it out. So what I knew about this film was its title, its poster and ultimately genre. The Babysitter...what the fuck? Well, The Babysitter is Netflix's new original film. A very teeny horror-comedy filled with incredibly childish, immature and dumb humor, lots of violence and lots of blood. It's a campy coming-of-age story, while flawed and far from deep or superbly written, offers one hell of a fun ride and I was in tears several times during the film, and I was laughing out loud for real. It was that fucking funny. So, this isn't a film that'll please a lot of people. But it really did wonders for me, and it's only slightly behind I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore as far as Netflix films goes. 9/10

Day 13: Wolf Creek 2 - The Hitcher meets Wolf Creek? That's a fairly accurate description I'd say. While the original Wolf Creek was more of a standard thriller, it worked really well offering nice atmosphere, a badass villain and lovely chemestry between the cast. And there was this sense of claustrophobia and realism that really made the film what it is. For this, John Jarratt returns as Mick Taylor and he is as good as he is over the top. He offers a lot of entertainment throughout the film, and this is more or less based around him. But at the end, through the 100 minutes, we get a bit too much of him as he loses some of his mysticism which is something I really need for bad guys like him. But the film starts really strong and the first half an hour or so is brilliant. Then, after that. it slowly starts to drag a bit. Some fantastic, brutally gory scenes and violence throughout the film and some nice cat and mouse games. But the film is 25 minutes too long for its own good. Enjoyable and lots of fun, but could and should've been a bit better. 7/10

Oh dear God, does this look fucking brilliant. Director S. Craig Zahler debuted with Bone Tomahawk, a film that is among my very favourites within both horror and western. And he doesn't seem to have lost it in the years before. Been told that Vince Vaughn is just fucking terrifying and brutal in the film, and that he makes his best role ever. Can't wait for this!

Day 12: A Night of Horror Volume 1 - Great anthology horror 10 directors, 8 different short films. As usual with films like this there quality is very up and down, but for most part is was very enjoyable. Lots of nice practical special effects and lots of fun. Point of View and Scission was the highlights for me, followed by The Priest and Hum. Some of the other were good fun too, and a couple were on the weaker side of things. Dark Origins and Ravenous were the least enjoyable ones. 8/10