Hunchback of the Morgue (1973); dir. Javier Aguirre

Director: Javier Aguirre

Country: Spain

Year of Release: 1973

Runtime: 82 mins.

Other Titles: El Jorobado de la Morgue, The Hunchback of the Rue Morgue, Rue Morgue Massacres

This has been a week of firsts.  My first Blind Dead sequel.  My first Jess Franco movie.  And now my first Paul Naschy movie, too.  And boy it is a brilliant cornucopia of weirdness.  Some consider it his best film.  But ultimately it's a movie I can't offer unqualified love.

Drag Me To Hell (2009); dir. Sam Raimi

Director: Sam Raimi

Country: United States

Year of Release: 2009

Runtime: 99 mins.

I will always respect when mainstream releases take any sort of risk.  But I still can't help finding Drag Me To Hell a disappointment.  As am I certain to frequently profess -- there is no greater artistic crime than mediocrity.  With horror especially.  It demands the weird, the outre, the mysterious, the atmospheric.  With any reaching, many faults can be forgiven.  But Raimi's indulgences here are in all the wrong places.

The Huge Ever Growing Electric Wizard Movie List That Rules From the Center of the Ultraworld

I have seen the many faces of Gods, and I call them all rock n' roll. -- Julian Cope 

The Electric Wizard maintaineth the cult of the riff!

The Rites of Frankenstein (1972); dir. Jesus Franco

Director: Jesus Franco

Country: Spain

Year of Release: 1972

Runtime: ~80 mins.

Other Titles: La Maldicion de Frankenstein, The Erotic Rites of Frankenstein, The Curse of Frankenstein

Jess Franco's dreams are dreams of another order.  I swear they have an actual psychic potency.  I watched this twice last night.  In a row.  The first time I felt like acid had bored a hole through my brain.  The second time I became its willing slave.  Life imitates art?

What the Heck I Think I'm Doing

Part the First -- A Movie A Day
I've had a love of film for a long time.  But with school and a million other things, it has been almost impossible for me to do anything about it consistently.  Now that I have become more comfortable thieving time from the things I should actually be doing, I want to watch a lot of movies.  I'm making my own film school for myself, using the Lovecraft Method.  Which is a method I just invented, consisting primarily of just watching anything and absolutely everything I can get my hands on.

El Ataque de los Muertos Sin Ojos (1973); dir. Amando de Ossorio

Director: Amando de Ossorio
Country: Spain

Year of Release: 1973

Runtime: 93 mins.
Other Titles: The Return of the Evil Dead, The Return of the Blind Dead 

I would say that I have an abiding love of Spanish horror movies, but I really haven't seen that many.  So, I suppose it would be more accurate to say I think I will have an abiding love of Spanish horror movies if things keep going the way they're going.  Ours is a burgeoning romance.  We're even thinking of going steady.  Forgive me if I gush a little.  I'm kind of in love with these things.

The Apotheosis of the Psychotronic: A Start in the Crypt and the Night of the Comet (1984)

Well, one must start somewhere.  Sitting so often and so long in lonely, dust-clogged crypts, it is a surprisingly simple feat to go a month without moving at all.  But once you realize this -- cough some of the dust out of your lungs and look around you -- "I'll be damned," you intone to the oppressive dampness.