Black Sabbath - a movie review

Black Sabbath - Classical Italian horror film from Mario Bava is a perfect Halloween movie.

My second Halloween horror movie recommendation for this year is a classic film from 1963. Directed by the late, great Mario Bava and known as “The Three Faces of Fear” in it's native Italy, this movie is an anthology of three short stories guaranteed to raise the hair on the back of your neck. As a bonus, the film features Boris Karloff as both the narrator between segments and as the terrifying vampire Gorcha in the Wurdalak story.

The American version changes the order of the three stories, moving the most frightening of them from third to first, reedits another story changing the plot significantly and replaces Roberto Nicolosi's original score with a lounge tinged soundtrack by Les Baxter. Both versions have their merits but I recommend the Italian version if you can find it. Conversely the American version is streaming on Netflix if you don't want to go to all that trouble. I'm going to assume that you watch the American version and briefly describe the three stories in that order.

In “The Drop of Water” a nurse steals a ring from a dead, old gypsy and quickly regrets it as the corpse seemingly follows her home and haunts her for her theft. This segment is absolutely terrifying as the dead lady in question is quite grotesque especially considering the movie's age. When I saw this movie as a kid, I had nightmares for weeks. Its short, simple and utterly effective in conveying a sense of dread and horror. This was the final short in the Italian version and no doubt sent viewers out of the theater still shivering. The American version remarkably begins the movie with this segment, which is a great way to start but makes the other two shorts seem tame in comparison.

I mean Jesus Christ, wouldn't this scare the SHIT out of you?

The second film is called “The Telephone” and really had the scissors taken to it by American International Pictures for the U.S. Release. As written and directed by Bava, “The Telephone” is a tale of revenge and murder involving a mobster harassing a woman who was instrumental in getting him sent to prison. This segment was particularly progressive in that its female lead is a lesbian. I guess lesbians weren’t “cool” in the U.S. In 1963 so that element of the story is removed completely and the film was reedited and dubbed to be a ghost story. Both versions are effective but either way this is weakest link in the Black Sabbath chain and is most likely why it was first in the Italian version.

Finally we have “The Wurdalak” staring Boris Karloff as an father who went off to do battle with a vampire and returns home infected with the curse himself. This is a dark and brilliant spin on the classic vampire story. Karloff's Gorcha is a dirty, shaggy haired ancient looking creature and has quite a presence on the screen. Events spiral out of control as one by one, each family member joins Gorcha as one of the walking dead and the remaining humans can't bring themselves to destroy their loved ones. This segment was sandwiched between the other two in the original version of the movie but in the American version its last. It works either way but being in the middle probably helped it as the longest story of the three.

All three films are things of beauty to look upon. Seriously, they just don't make them like this anymore. Bava's use of color, camera angles and wonderfully designed sets give the proceedings a gothic and surreal overtone. You may be familiar with his directorial debut, Black Sunday (known as The Mask of Satan in Italy) a wonderful black and white horror movie staring Barbara Steele. If you enjoyed that then you'll love Black Sabbath as it is equally lush from a visual standpoint only this time in color.

There's no gore to speak of although you might be surprised by some of what happens in "The Wurdalak" segment.  But there's certainly nothing here to compare with modern movies, so this might even be a good choice for family viewing (with older kids.) In any case, pop a big bowl of pop corn and get ready for a classic horror movie.

View the Black Sabbath Trailer

Mastodon - The Hunter - an album review

Well, this is it. This is the album everyone is going to accuse Mastodon of selling out on. Admittedly, they’ve never been more accessible than they are here. Their blend of metal, 70’s prog rock and 90’s stoner sludge has been honed to a sharp, focused point. Gone are the epic ten minute tracks, in favor of shorter, more concise songs that still feel epic. Sure the longest song is five minutes and thirty seconds long but everything that made 2009’s Crack the Skye the best rock album of ‘00s is still there. Just in bite sized chunks.

The guitar riffs have that same combination of chunkiness and grooviness. The Drumming is just as bombastic as ever. The frantic fretwork in the solos shreds with the same intensity. And the vocal work is as ethereal and urgent as anything else they’ve done. Thanks to a high level of production every instrument and nuance comes through crystal clear, unlike the unfortunate wall of muck that seriously marred Leviathan’s greatness.

Mastodon has always seemed like a band constantly in the process of refining its sound even as it maintains a singular vision. The Hunter feels like a smaller step than the leaps the previous three albums seemed to take; sticking closely to the formula that worked for Crack the Skye while throwing in a few new elements. But if this is Mastodon on auto pilot, it’s better than most bands really trying.

That’s not to say that this is the album where they’ve gone soft. This is still pretty intense stuff and in some cases, quite brutal. Even with the shorter format I don’t think you’ll be hearing any of these songs on your local commercial rock station any time soon and it probably won’t bring any new listeners into the fold. Yes, their music loses some of its power outside of the context of a concept album. But this is a solid record that fans will enjoy.

Check out the 70's rock sound of Curl of The Burl below.

What's Wrong With Google?

Apparently Google engineer Steve Yegge thinks a lot is wrong with Google and the way they are implementing their applications without a focused platform or API.  He sent out a scathing memo meant for his private Google+ circle but accidentally made it public.  His post was picked up and spread across the internet pretty quickly with everyone calling him a hero for being so honest.  You can read the whole thing here.


His post was makes for fascinating reading but I’m not really sure why he’s having such a meltdown, especially all his talk about Google needing a platform. Products vs. platforms is a pretty abstract concept with no clear definition between the two.  A product can become a platform (as he plainly admits) and every platform worth its salt is also product.


I don’t think Google needs a dedicated platform as long as other companies are willing to make devices to put their products on. Google+ could become their platform but he’s right about the API thing. Right now the only way you can interact with a website through Google+ is to +1 something. You can’t comment on it, it doesn’t show up in your stream, Its useless.  Until they provide an architecture for everything to communicate with Google+ in lots of cool ways, they aren’t going to dethrone Facebook.


Even though dethroning Facebook should be pretty easy right now since they pretty much suck. In a few short years they went from a social networking site for regular people to a corporate marketing tool used for delivering targeted messages to the people who were using it to share photos and stay in touch with families. I see one post by a friend for every 10 posts by a product, service or interest group.


Google+ is better in every conceivable way from the aesthetics of the site to the user controls for communicating with your circles. The pieces are there for it to be something great. They just need to provide the tools.

The House of The Devil - a movie review

The House of The Devil - A Horror Movie in the Classic Tradition

Back in 2009, Ti West directed a modest, little horror movie that you probably didn’t see during its limited theatrical release. A movie that was not only set in the 1980’s but also used the cinematic style and techniques of the time to craft a film more suspenseful, and frightening than most contemporary horror movies. It not only works as a testament to film making from a bygone era, but is made all the better for it.

The plot centers on a college student named Samantha. Samantha is trying to save up the money to put down on an apartment because her dorm roommate is an insufferable slob. When Samantha learns of a house sitting job that could put her over the top financially, she decides to go against her own judgment and the warnings of her friend Megan to net the cash for one night’s worth of her time. Soon Samantha is pulled into a web of terror as she finds herself the vessel for a ritual performed by a cultist family.

A simple (and quite clichéd) premise, but the film succeeds on many levels. West makes several conscious choices to deliver an effective thriller based on a somewhat tired concept.

First, he doesn’t rush into things. The first half of the movie establishes the character of Samantha and sets up her dilemma. After all, you’d have to have a pretty good reason to go through with the job after all the red flags that are thrown up during the interview process. West also makes great use of the venerable actor, Tom Noonan as Mr. Ulman, the owner of the house in question. A creepy presence, everything about him screams, “run away!’ yet he manages to convince Samantha that the job will be quite easy and wins her over with an eerie reassurance.

The other thing that makes the film stand out is that it is an exercise in 80s film making. Filming on 16mm, the title sequence over freeze frames and the use of zoom for close ups give the film a retro feel, but also works well for the material. The clothes, hair styles and vehicles all help to create a movie that seems less like a modern film set in the 80's and more like an actual film from the 80's.

Also worth noting is a scene in which Samantha dances through the house while listening to One Thing Leads to Another by The Fixx on her Sony, cassette Walkman. One Thing Leads to Another is a great song from the era and actress Jocelin Donahue has some nice moves to go along with it. It’s a delightful sequence that works because it sets the viewer at ease, causing them to let their guard down just a little bit. The scene marks the turning point of the movie when the suspense turns to terror and the intensity really starts to ratchet up.

The entire movie is a slow build, choosing a path of uneasy chills over gore and in-your-face shocks. All hell to breaks loose in the final act and all the fears and suspicions you’ve been harboring are proven to be well warranted. When the blood finally starts to flow, you are thoroughly invested in what's happening and the climax is quite satisfying. Apart from some sloppy editing (which I suspect was done by the distributer after its release) the film is a near perfect example of how to make a good horror movie.

If you missed this gem last year on Netflix, well you’re in luck as it’s still streaming there. If you are one of the over-reacting hordes of militant consumers who canceled their Netflix accounts over the recent changes to their pricing structure then good luck finding it in your local Redbox. Its movies like this that make Netflix so awesome. Movies you may not have even heard of but are better than then garbage people stand in line to pay ten bucks to see at the theaters.

Opeth - Heritage - an album review

Heavy metal (including everything from classic metal when the genre was just forming, to 80’s metal, thrash, gore, grindcore and death metal) has long been one of my favorite kinds of music.  One band of particular interest to me the last few years has been Opeth.  They began as a “progressive death metal” band; equal measures death metal, albeit death metal with an unusual focus on melody, and prog rock.  They really broke all the rules of the established Swedish death metal scene to carve out a huge following among metal-heads looking for something different.

Over the years the progressive side of the band has taken more and more of a dominant focus, culminating in the release of Heritage this month.  The new album discards almost all traces of death metal in favor of a 1970’s progressive rock sound that has more in common with Emerson, Lake & Palmer than Miseration or Bloodbath (guitarist, singer, songwriter Mikael Åkerfeldt's other, more traditional death metal band.)

Fans of prog rock will find much to like here, even if they are not fans of (or have even heard of) Opeth.  The music here exhibits a wide range of influences from the above mentioned Emerson, Lake & Palmer, to King Crimson, to some nice flute work reminiscent of Jethro Tull.

Fans of the band might, however be a little underwhelmed.  This is truly a complete and total shift to pure prog rock.  Nary a death growl is heard as Åkerfeldt uses his clean vocal style through the entire album.  While Opeth’s songs usually transition from slow and quiet to fast and blistering, here the songs change from slow and quiet to up-tempo, disjointed jazz passages.  There’s nothing wrong with it.  It’s quite good and retains the Opeth sound (if you are familiar with the band you’d easily recognize it’s them if someone played any of the songs for you without telling you who it was.)  However, without those bits of brutality, it feels like something is missing.

I won't go into a description of each song, I think you get a pretty good idea of what the music here sounds like from the other bands I've mentioned.  I'll just reiterate that this is definitely an Opeth album with their trademark sound and the entire afair is well produced with a crisp, clean sound. You can also listen to the first single from the album "The Devil's Orchard" right here.

My recommendation; give the album a try, especially if death metal isn’t your thing because there is none to be found here.  If you really like this, then it's probably a good indicator that you'd appreciate their older work, and Opeth might become your "gateway band" to the world of truly heavy metal.

Regardless of your past experience with Opeth, this is a very enjoyable album, with some exciting passages (the soaring guitar solo at the end of Folklore particularly stands out.)  Full of long, complex songs this is a record you can sink your teeth into and will challenge even the most seasoned music aficionado.

Bioshock 2 - a game review

How the plot and themes explored in the Bioshock series prove that gamers are getting older (and still playing games.)

WARNING!  The following essay contains major spoilers for both Bioshock and Bioshock 2.

So I just finished Bioshock 2 (yes, I know, what took so long?) and I have to say it was one of the most satisfying sequels, if not one of the most satisfying games I have ever played.  In many ways it was superior to the first installment.  Both in game play mechanics and in thematic content.  But one thing that struck me the whole time I was playing the game and especially in the final chapter, was how many of the game's elements were geared towards adult gamers - adult gamers with kids in particular.  


In the original game, you played as a complete cypher named Jack.  You had no real background on the character and no motivation to play the game other than to explore the admittedly amazing underwater city of Rapture and solve the mystery of who you were and why you were there.  The eventual, surprising revelation, and the concept of an Ayn Randian, utopian city built to cater to the whims and desires of scientific and capitalist geniuses was all very interesting.  But you had no real emotional involvement in the character or the narrative.


Your main enemies in the game were splicers, inhabitants of Rapture who had spent so much time engaging in gene splicing to enhance themselves that they had become mutated and insane.  The whole process is complicated but the short version is that the stem cells found in a liquid called ADAM, which is secreted from a parasitic sea slug, destroy human stem cells and replace them with new, unstable cells.  ADAM is harvested and processed into special serums called Plasmids which introduce cells that grant specific powers such as telekinesis or the ability to generate and throw bolts of electricity from your fingertips.

Now this is where things get dicey and is part of the game's message about the dangers of a completely free market society.  The slugs themselves did not produce enough ADAM to use in the quantities needed for research and development, let alone mass-marketing as a product to the city.  It was discovered, however, that if the slug was implanted into the stomach of a human host, it produced twenty to thirty times the normal amount of ADAM.


Under the guise of offering a safe home, education and bright futures to the children of the underclass citizens of Rapture, The Little Sisters Orphanage began taking young girls and transforming them into Little Sisters, hosts for the slugs and tools to harvest ADAM (now considered so precious that none should go to waste)  from the corpses of splicers.  To protect the Little Sisters from rabid splicers, Big Daddies were engineered and pair bonded with the Little Sisters.  These lumbering, once human hulks in diving suits roam the halls of Rapture, guarding their Little Sisters at all costs.

Now all of this is very interesting and the original Bioshock was indeed a game that went far beyond the rudimentary plot devices and generic backdrops of most video games.  It had real ideas to chew on. Adult ideas.  I mean, most kids under the age of 18 haven't even heard of Atlas Shrugged, much less know what concepts and ideas the book deals with.  Here is a game which borrows heavily from the characters and themes within that tedious tome.


Bioshock 2 takes both the storytelling and exploration of grown up themes to a new level by placing the player in the shoes of a Big Daddy.


As Jack in the first game, players had to splice up with Plasmids in order to survive.  This meant harvesting ADAM by any means necessary.  Big Daddies, and by extension Little Sisters who openly directed their Big Daddies to kill you, were your enemies.  You were often tasked with fighting and killing a Big Daddy to get to the Little Sister and the ADAM within her.


While the player is given a Plasmid near the beginning of the game that allows for killing the slug without harming the girl, thereby saving the Little Sister, this method returned far less ADAM than simply killing the girl and removing the slug from her.  The Little Sisters were designed to be creepy, almost feral creatures who clawed and snapped at you when you picked them up and the player was given no real reason to be sympathetic towards them.


For most players the choice was clear.


As a Big Daddy, Subject Delta, your entire goal is to rescue and reunite with your pair bonded Little Sister, Eleanor Lamb.  Eleanor, the daughter of Sophia Lamb, has been raised in isolation and conditioned to be the the ultimate symbol of her mother's altruistic ideals of the greater good and Utilitarianism.  Ten years after being betrayed by Sophia and separated from Eleanor, you must now fight your way through crazed Splicers, other Big Daddies and a new enemy, Big Sisters.  Big Sisters were once Little Sisters who are now grown up and outfitted to be faster, more lethal versions of their former guardians.


The player encounters Little Sisters again throughout Bioshock 2 but this time, as a Big Daddy, the experience is completely different.  Once you defeat a Big Daddy and approach the Little Sister, she looks up at you and says, “Are we going to be together again Daddy?”  At this point you can harvest the ADAM from her or adopt her, carrying her on your shoulder and protecting her as she gathers ADAM from the corpses of Splicers throughout the level.


The art design this time around lends the Little Sisters a more human quality.  Their skin is still blue and their eyes still glow that eerie yellow, but they seem much more innocent, almost sweet.  When you pick one up she smiles and reaches out to touch your cheek as you gently place her on your shoulder.  As you fight off hordes of splicers while she harvests ADAM from a body, she says, “My Daddy always protects me.”

Finally after collecting ADAM from two corpses, you have the option (just like in the first game) of either killing the Little Sister for more ADAM or saving her for a smaller amount of ADAM and returning her to her original human state.  Any gamer with half a shred of humanity would not be capable of making the first choice.  I simply could not bring myself to harm a single one of the little sisters.  In fact, as a parent, I found the decision to save the Little Sisters at the cost of a small personal sacrifice extremely easy to make.


Eventually you free Eleanor from her isolation cell, she dons a Big Sister suit and gives you a Plasmid that lets you call her to fight by your side, making you the most bad ass father-daughter team in the history of video games.  I couldn't help but think how much more these events resonated with me as an older gamer and specifically as a father.  By making the choice to save all the Little Sisters, I was rewarded with the best out of three possible endings.  Eleanor and Subject Delta escape to the surface with all the Little Sisters I saved.  Then, as Subject Delta takes his dying breath, Eleanor lovingly extracts the ADAM from him and injects it into herself, thereby preserving his memories and experiences within her own person, much like children carry the memories of their parents with them after they are gone.

The writers, designers, artists and programmers have crafted a truly remarkable experience in the Bioshock series.  There are many more details to the unique world created for this story, the characters and lore behind the city of Rapture and the science fiction of the discovery and creation of Plasmids.  I encourage you to read through the Bioshock Wiki if you are a fan of the game or of good science fiction in general.  Bioshock and to a greater degree, Bioshock 2 are proof that video games are indeed growing up, just as the gamers who play them are.

William J Bennett thinks video games and women are destroying the American male...

I read this wonderful opinion piece by William J. Bennett this morning and have been fuming ever since.


http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/04/opinion/bennett-men-in-trouble/index.html


Basically this misogynist ass-clown says that women (who should apparently stay in the kitchen, barefoot and pregnant) have been replacing men as educated members of the workforce, while adult males sit on their butts and play video games all day.

I've got news for this jerk.

A) More women have been going to college and working since the 70's because it takes two incomes to support a family.  Besides, women shouldn't be perceived as a threat, as this guy obviously does.

B)  I bust my ass all day at a job, come home and spend time with my kid, after all that I MAYBE squeeze out a couple hours of games if I don't have something else that I need to do.

And guess what? How I spend my free time is my business. Who gave this moron a keyboard and paid him to write this drivel?


The guy who wrote this is clearly out of touch with modern society.

Not working?  No crap, the unemployment rate is the highest its been in decades. Many men have given up after looking for a job for two years.  Oh and women will work for less money, so they are probably getting hired over equally qualified men right now.

Lazy?  Not hardly.  My brother-in-law and his buddies that I used to game with all started college a year ago and guess what?  I never see them on Xbox anymore because they are all applying themselves in school.  Its a big part of why I joined this group to find some people to game with.

Maybe his article does apply to a very small group of men in America.  There will always be some lazy people who would rather do nothing productive but it's certainly not a huge threat to our society as this guy tries to make it out to be.

And the arrogant way he tries to hoist much of the blame on video games is just annoying.  He's spreading misinformation and that's what ruffles my feathers.  People should get upset about something that's not true, because its not true.


Most troubling is this quote from the final paragraph of his piece.  "The Founding Fathers believed, and the evidence still shows, that industriousness, marriage and religion are a very important basis for male empowerment and achievement."


Wow, really?  Male empowerment?  So we should all get married, have lots of kids and go to church to be good men?


Let's take a look at Mr Bennett shall we?

He looks like Jabba The Hutt.  I'm willing to bet he thinks all women should be dressed like "Slave Girl" Leia and chained to their husbands too.

Screw this clown.