book review: 20th century ghosts

My review of Joe Hill's short story anthology, 20th Century Ghosts, has posted at Morbid Outlook. I'm almost tempted to seek out Heart-Shaped Box...but I think I'm happy to stick with the short stories. The ol' book stack is piled high enough as it is.

You should also check out some of those tasty drink recipes; the link is on the home page.

Mmmm. Alcohol.

capsule review: severance

Severance is a 2007 British horror-comedy in the vein of Shaun of the Dead. Black, often gruesome comedy coexists with slasher-style survival horror in a surprisingly effective way, all the while taking the opportunity to satirize clichéd genre tactics like getting girls naked and firing guns.

It’s a slasher film, all right, although much of the really gory violence is kept off-screen. When a female protagonist fights off a rapist, her revenge consists of knocking him out and dropping a very heavy stone on his head. Can we say watermelon? We sure can, but a wet, squishy, vaguely crunchy sound effect is all director Christopher Smith gives us. Other kills are a bit more graphic, but it’s refreshing to watch a film that doesn’t feel compelled to linger lovingly on the anatomical details…which isn’t to say that the deaths aren’t horrific. They are, proving that implication can be even more effective and insinuating when not blotted out by nausea.

The film’s pretense of pitting the employees of a weapons manufacturer out on a team-building exercise against war criminals somehow associated with the misuse of the manufacture’s weapons is, of course, one-note irony. Oh look! Minions of Evil, Inc. are harvesting the bitter fruit their own company sowed. Beyond the moral of the story, never go looking for lodges or hostels in the creepy corners of Eastern Europe, the aspiration to delivering a profound allegory is more an excuse to bring together a bunch of characters and kill them off rather than a serious essay on war corporatism. But Smith and Loman’s script, hand-in-hand with a cracking good cast, actually succeeds in creating characters with more dimension. Severance is by no means a character study, but there are some good character moments, some noble deaths, some good gags, that pump enough blood to the film’s heart. Is it Shaun of the Dead? No. It’s not Office Space either. But it is a sharp little dagger with an ending that doesn’t cop out, and that’s enough for a good time.

column: questioning that old ultra-violence

The release of Grand Theft Auto IV and the accompanying controversy over its violence led me to thinking about how violence entertains us. While I don't think there's a correlation between watching violent movies or playing violent video games, and committing acts of violence, I can't help but wonder what it means to be entertained by violence. That's the topic of this week's column over at The Front Page Online:

Questioning That Old Ultra-Violence

Iron Man review

My review of Iron Man, or "Irony Man" as I've come to think of it given the film's strange propagandistic context and its undeniable cool-factor, has posted:

Iron Man: Cool, Exciting...and Ironic (The Front Page Online)

or

www.inkandashes.net

new column: a solution to high gas prices

I couldn't quite use the precise turn of phrase I wanted in proposing my solution to oil companies making obscene profits while us working stiffs pay through the nose (and other orifices) at the pump. The Front Page Online is an all-ages paper after all, and I completely respect that. But here in my blog, I'm under no limitations. Hence, my three-word solution to oil company exploitation: tax the motherfuckers. Read the full rant, include a detour into that bitter wasteland we call the primaries, here:

Gas Price Salvation, Or How to Play in the Little Leagues.