Bear

January 5th!

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them - I really liked all of David Yates' Harry Potter films, so I was naturally really looking forward to this. Did it live up to my expectations? Yeah, I'd say it did. It's not a masterpiece, but it's just a real fun, light-hearted fantasy film that draws enough from Harry Potter's universe and mythology, but without relying much on the Harry Potter films. There's just enough references to Harry Potter to give you a familiar feeling but without going to deep into those. It's a film that stands firmly on its own two feets, and it does what it does really well. On the negative side there's a bit too CGI-heavy to my taste. The problem with the CGI is that it's so obvious it makes the things that are real really stand out, and that is never a good thing. As soon as the villain steps into the screen you also know who the villain of the film is. Why do it like that in a film like this? Also, I am not sure what I think about Eddie Redmayne. I can't decide if I liked him or if I just want to punch his weird-ass face. There was just no energy in his performance, but at the same time I felt that it kind of suited the role he played. I'm not sure. Also, because it's a small spoiler:

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales - Dead Men Tell No Tales is the shortest film of the series, but still feels like it's an hour longer than any of the previous films. Pirates of the Caribbean started off with a proper bang and The Curse of the Black Pearl is a modern action-adventure classic as far as I am concerned, but the series has gotten weaker with every film. But to my big surprise, I've actually found great/good pleasure in watching every single installment of the series...until this. It's so polished, it's so fake and it's so fucking safe and boring. Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg are simply the most overrated directors in Norway, and two of the most overrated directors in the whole god damned world. It was the same with Max Manus and Kon-Tiki. It's so safe. No risks taken. They just do whatever 68765716514561 directors did before them because they know it'll please the masses. Fuck 'em, and fuck everyone who enjoys their garbage films.

Discovered an australian band named Runespell the other day. Been spinning the demo a few times and happen to be really impressed. This statement sounds so weird, but I feel there's a lot of truth in it: Runespell sounds like a darker, more medieval and grimmer Macabre Omen. It got the majestic feeling to it, but without being quite as epic. There's something so fucking triumphal about the entire demo which is top notch! War-Wolf Virtue is one of the songs of the year. Holy fuck! https://ironboneheadproductions.bandcamp.com/album/runespell-aeons-of-ancient-blood Will play the debut album later tonight.

Haven't enjoyed a single Taake release since Hordalands doedskvad, but that cover art is fantastic. So simple and so little - but so much at the same time. Atmospheric! Looks like a Paysage d'Hiver cover tbh. Love it!

Tickets bought. May 29th cannot come fast enough.

Kill the Poker Player! - A low-budget giallo dressed as a spaghetti western? Hellz yeah! Colorful characters, interesting plot with a great mystery that threw me around. Took me a long time to understand who was the proper bad guy. Nice atmosphere and direction and everything. A hidden gem for sure! Tenement - Low-budget b-film about urban warfare in a time where a lot of these films were made. Super gritty, dark and fun. Imagine Assault on Precinct 13 set in a tenement with poor direction and even worse acting and effects. But to be honest that just sets the mood. It's exploitation of the cheesy and super trashy kind. I love this kind of filth.

This shit is going on a world tour. Will be ordering tickets for Sweden today. That is gonna be immense and a concert to remember for sure.

Just scream out if you're not too familiar with the films that's available there. I can easily pick out must-sees from the list as I've seen it all anyway.

So Bron suddenly got really active. Formed in 2014 and released an excellent demo, then the next demo was released in 2016 (also excellent) and an album in 2016. Then in 2017 he's released two EPs and two full lenghts. Зарђала Круна is a mix of ambient and black metal. White City, Black Circle is more of an ambient release. Urban ambient maybe? Very different from his other releases. Completely different atmosphere. Ruins is more of a folkish ambient release. Not as cold and wintery sounding as the black metal stuff, but it's got that nature atmosphere to it. Where the Leaden Dawn Meets Iron Shores is a return to the atmospheric, ambient black metal of the past. Really good album! It's a bit fun tho as the main guy said that Зарђала Круна would be his last album with black metal elements for quite some time, but it took less than a year before he released a black metal album again. Well, I don't complain. Sounds a lot like Evilfeast and Forest Silence, and I like it a lot. Perfect war walks in the snowy forests.

Really stoked about Insidious 4: The Last Key. Adam Robitel really impressed me with his debut The Taking of Deborah Logan, so I am really looking forward to seeing what he can do with the universe of Insidious. Hearing great things about the trailer.

https://archive.org/details/SciFi_Horror http://publicdomainmovies.net/science_fiction_and_horror I think they are basically the same, but you'll find plenty classics there. In fact, you'll find a crazy amount of classics from the 70's and earlier. There's also a great amount of cult films and pure cheese as well.

Cradle of Filth's Cryptoriana - The Seductiveness Of Decay isn't quite as good as Hammer of the Witches, but it's very nice. They reuse much of the same elements, but it sounds a bit less black metal again. But the songwriting is really nice and there's a lot of fun going on in each track. Love the gothic atmosphere. And with gothic I don't talk about gothic as in gothic metal, but gothic as in victorian, gothic horror. I love it! Sounds like a solid 8/10.

Just say hi or smile at them and move along. Simplest of things really.

B-side? One of the twon single tracks on Gekisei. Cover songs, but still their best b-side tracks.

https://ir-fog.bandcamp.com/album/n-wa New Inferno Requiem is up on bandcamp. Quality again from these Taiwanese black metallers. Sounds like Judas Iscariot meet old Gorgoroth (demo and debut album) with a slight asian twist on it. Sounds great, even tho the drums sounds a bit fucked. And at times they sound really fucked. But it works. Nice atmosphere throughout.

Concert with Vulture Industries tonight. Started off as more of a Arctururs rip offish band, but later moved towards a less black metal and extreme metal-sound and into a more avant-garde and progressive path, with Devil Doll as a main inspiration. Or, at least I think so, because with every album they've gotten more and more Devil Doll-ish. Which is awesome as Devil Doll are one of my favourite bands. Seen them live before and it was quite special. Really good on-stage, but they did some things which were really awkward in a cool and fun way. Really looking forward to it. Hope they play the two songs I posted. Blood Don't Eliogabalus is their own interpretation of the classic, 25 minute long Devil Doll epic Eliogabalus. Really cool and unique, and it just blends Vulture Industries' own sound with the classic sound of Devil Doll. Love it!

I've posted some stuff about Unleashed in the past, a band it took me along time to get into. Generally considered a 2nd/3rd rate death metal band, but their debut album is top notch and their demos are even better. This release which consists of the bands two first demos are up there with the best of late 80's/early 90's Swedish death metal. It's up there with the Dismember demos Last Blasphemies and Reborn in Blasphemy, Nihilist's three demos Premature Autopsy, Only Shreds Remain and Drowned, the Grave demo and single Sick Disgust Eternal and Tremendous Pain, Nirvana 2002's demo Disembodied Spirits, God Macabre's The Winterlong..., Carnage's demo Infestation of Evil, Tiamiat's single A Winter Shadow, and a few more as the very best of Swedish death metal. Huge fan of Swedish death metal in general, and you amount of great albums and EPs released between the late 80's and until 93-94 in insane. But the majority of the Swedish bands were at their best when they released their demos. The Utter Dark / Revenge... It's obviously raw and heavy and really brutal, much due to the production of both demos which are exceptional. Far from polished, but the rawness of the production just brings forth the brutality and rawness of it all. This is 25 minute of pure death metal. Rotten, putrid and fantastic!

Antibirth - Another film I checked out because of the poster, and another film that provided a good amount of fun. The film is pretty slow and starts off as a great drama based on the white trash characters Lou (Natasha Lyonne) and Sadie (Chloë Sevigny) wich both is as well-written as they are well-acted, before it slowly start moving towards more gruesome territory. More specifically body-horror which is the opposite of mainstream horror that gets shown in the cinemas and on TV over here. It's bizarre and full of weirdness, and It sure did keep me interested for its entire playtime. Not exceptional, but real fun nonetheless. That ending. Holy fucking cow!

Yeah, it was good. I really like how the dad, the main metalhead, is portrayed in the film. Got long hair, loves metal, got tattoo's and wants to paint something that's not fucking butterflies, but at the end of the day he's just a man who's trying to do what he loves at the same time as he does his best as a father, a very, very loving one as well. Then all these questions comes up. But he's not portrayed as the metalhead stereotype, but rather as how metalheads for most part is. Was very well done.

Baskin - Baskin, what the hell is that, you say? Baskin is the feature-lenght debut of Turkish director Can Evrenol who only had a series of short films to his name, one of them a short called Baskin which this is based upon. I'm not gonna say too much about the film, because it's incredibly hard to do so. It's a very unique film. It's got brilliant surrealistic and dreamy atmosphere, is stylish as fuck and got lovely special effects, and a really wicked story. Well, everything about this film is WICKED. I've seen a lot of people compare this to Nicolas Winding Refn and David Lynch, but the best way to describe this film is by saying it plays along as if it was directed by none other than the godfather of gore himself (the second one, that is) , Lucio Fulci, but on a mad amount on acid, with help from Clive Barker and Dario Argento, also on some acid. This was a wicked, crazy and surreal trip down to hell. Magnificent! I will have to re-watch this sometime during the week. Probably on saturday, after a few beers. Looking forward to it! 9,5/10

Beyond the Gates - With a budget of only 300k, Jackson Stewart is able to create a film that both awakes the 80's nostalgia and gives us something that feels very fresh in 2017. Beyond the Gates plays like a homage to Italian horror of the 80's with great 80's aesthetics, and especially Lucio Fulci's Gates of Hell trilogy (City of the Living Dead, The Beyond, The House by the Cemetery), but without just copying the films. But if I were to truly give you a picture of how the film is, I'd say it's the horror version of 1995's Jumanji, a mix of Jumanji and the Gates of Hell trilogy. Or something along those lines. The whole idea and concept of the film is sweet as fuck, especially for someone who still truly loves VHS films. But with a budget that small, it does have certain flaws. The biggest complaint that I've got is that the game and games isn't developed enough, and isn't given enough time. 10 more minutes divided on the games would've helped made it just so much better. Some really sweet special effects too, guys, and Barbara Crampton (Re-Animator, From Beyond, We Are Still Here) is still fantastic. But I really, really liked it, and ended up with a score of 8,5/10. Btw, I checked this out based on the combination of the title and sweet movie posters:

He is.

The Devil's Candy - Sean Byrne impressed the world with The Loved Ones , six years later he's back with another horror film. This time around he offers a pretty unique and original horror film with surprisingly well-made and thought through characters, an interesting plot and with a very cool soundtrack. The film has a strong 80's vibe to it and is clearly inspired by the satanic panic era of that time, which is something I always found nice. Not only does the soundtrack consist of lots of metal, but both father and her daughter are metal fans, wear lots of metal t-shirts (Slayer, Metallica, Motorhead) and the daughter's bedroom is full of metal and punk posters. And not just the usual and big ones. Melvins, Ghost, Bikini Kill are among the posters. The soundtrack offers lots of standard tracks from bands such as Metallica, Slayer, Pantera og Cavalera Conspiracy, but the highlight is the use of Sunn O))). Which completely caught me off guard. Got mad chills every single time Sunn O))) came on. Massive!

The Void was so good that the first thing I did when the end credits were over was to rewatch it. What a fucking film! As a huge fan of the Astron-6 team my expectations were ridiculously high for the film, but it went way above all of my expectations. It's not original, but it captures a Lovecraftian feeling and atmosphere rarely seen in film these days with brilliant atmosphere throughout, and monster designs and special effects worth dying for. This is perfection as far as Lovecraftian horror goes. The film was 80's through and through, and a really nice mix of The Thing, From Beyond, Hellraiser, The Beyond og Assault on Precinct 13, Lovecraftian horror in general og Silent Hill. I'm left with much of the same feeling I was left with after watching films like The Thing, From Beyond and Hellraiser for the first time. It won't take me many days before I rewatch this masterpiece.