John Otteni

I made a mockumentary about hunting vampires

Shocktober Day 1: The Island of Lost Souls

The Island of Lost Souls (1932)

120 years ago, some nerd wrote a book about a guy trapped on an island of furries. In the ‘70s they made a movie about it with a bunch of hippies. In the ‘90s, they made another movie starring a fat guy with an ice bucket on his head. Before both of those they made the terrifying, disturbing, and bone-rattling—I can keep going—film that is The Island of Lost Souls. Directed by Erle C. Kenton and adapted for the screen by Waldemar Young and noted pulp sci-fi author Phillip Wylie, Island of the Souls is a disturbing exploration of what it means to be human both physically and mentally.

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Welcome to Shocktober: Creepy Criterion Edition

By a route obscure and lonely,
Haunted by ill angels only.
Where an Eidolon, named Night,
On a black throne reigns upright,
I have wandered home but newly
From this ultimate dim Thule.
Behold it but through darkened glass, it’s…. SHOCKTOBER!

Yes, we’re gettin’ classical with this year’s edition of Shocktober with 31 days of Criterion Collection Horror movies.

I love Criterion’s horror catalog. Not because they are the best films of the genre or even close to the scariest. I love them because most of them are films you’d otherwise be hard pressed to find. Lost and forgotten films, eclectic, bizarre, and always intriguing.

Along with my fellow Mildly Pleased contributors, Sean Lemme and Colin Wessman, we’ll dive into classics from Cronenberg, De Palma, explore Japanese ghost stories, Czechoslovakian surrealism and pay a little visit to our good friend the Blob with lots of other surprises in store.

So enjoy, and remember, all that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream. Shout out to the OG spook master Mr. Edgar Allan Poe.

Freaky Fridays: Flatliners

Flatliners (1990)

The other day I watched a short video by IMDB on the film Flatliners. The theme of the video was “So ’90s It Hurts”. The video proceeded by showing all the ways Flatliners fell into ‘90s tropes. Now that I’ve seen the film, I call bullshit. Though the film was released in the summer of 1990, more than anything Flatliners feels like the last great movie of the ‘80s.

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C.A.T.: Tago Mago

Can – Tago Mago (1971)

A few weeks ago we lost legendary Krautrock bassist Holger Czukay. That’s the second member of Can we’ve lost this year. Drummer Jaki Liebezeit died last January. Guitarist Michael Karoli died in 2001 which leaves founder/keyboardist Irmin Schmidt and vocalist Damo Suzuki as the only surviving members of Can’s most fruitful period between 1970-1973. Before we talk about Can, and more specifically their best album, let’s talk Czukay.

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Everybody Loathes a Clown

It

In only two weeks, It has become one of the most successful horror movies of all time. The film has already broken the record for a September opening and is currently the third highest grossing horror movie in history (223 million) after The Exorcist (232 million) and The Sixth Sense (293 million). But why? What is it about this movie at this time that has made it a huge hit?

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C.A.T.: Dirt

Alice in Chains – Dirt (1992)

Today marks the 50th birthday of grunge icon Layne Staley. A mighty presence in the 90s Seattle grunge scene, Staley tragically died from a heroine/cocaine speedball in his University District Seattle apartment on April 5, 2002 and yet the man and his music live on.

I’ve never been a big fan of grunge outside of Nirvana, but over the years (particularly this year) I’ve found a greater admiration. Chris Cornell’s death was a big part of that revelation. To see another Seattle icon befall such a tragic fate well before his time helped put everything in perspective. It was people like Staley and Cornell that gave the city I live in and love an identity, a pulse. Before grunge, Seattle was a sleepy fishing town. After grunge, people finally saw Seattle for what it was, a rainy, over-caffeinated hub of angst and alienation. A place of beauty and introspection but also pain. And we had the best spokesmen; Cobain, Cornell, Staley, all taken too soon.

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