And it’s brought to you you courtesy of the Rappahannock Choral Society. All 75 voices are ready to “get in you in the mood for a wonderful holiday season!”
The details are below.
All posts by Eric Robert Nolan
A quick review of “The Godsend” (1980)
A picnicking English family encounters a mysterious, pregnant young woman in a meadow. Her behavior is strange, and the little she says is puzzling. They take her home, and are then surprised when she suddenly gives birth to an infant girl there. Then she inexplicably vanishes.
The couple, who already have five children, adopt the baby as their sixth. But their unusually large family begins to be depleted, after their biological children die, one by one, under mysterious circumstances.
That’s the premise of “The Godsend” (1980). You’ve got to admit, that is chilling, and it held my attention throughout the length of this passably entertaining movie. It has an interesting story setup, and there is at least one truly frightening sequence at the story’s end. In addition, the spooky young mother is effectively played, however briefly, by Angela Pleasence, daughter of Donald Pleasence.
But I doubt this will wind up on many top ten lists. It’s thinly scripted, slowly paced, and features two parents who seem minimally affected by the deaths of their children. It’s also too derivative of its obvious inspiration, “The Omen” (1976).
I’d give it a 6 out of 10.
“They let their fears drive them. And that turns them into weapons.”
“The thing Trump’s really good at is getting otherwise rational people to clamp down harder on their fears and prejudices. These people aren’t monsters. They’re completely normal. But for whatever reason, they let their fears drive them. And that turns them into weapons.”
— “Sam,” an anonymous protester ejected from a rally for Donald Trump, shown in the below video.
[Update: I just want to be conscientious about attribution here — this video appeared (and presumably was produced) by the INSIDER Facebook page.]
“Mrs. Teodor Fedaj feeding turkeys at Picture Butte.” (Photo)
Photo credit: “Mrs. Teodor Fedaj feeding turkeys at Picture Butte (22047610312)” by Provincial Archives of Alberta – Mrs. Teodor Fedaj feeding turkeys at Picture Butte. Licensed under No restrictions via Wikimedia Commons.
Bangksgiving!
I enjoyed some delicious turkey with all the trimmings tonight, thanks to some wonderful hosts here in the Commonwealth.
One of the things I love about Virginia is that fireworks are usually employed to celebrate just about ANY holiday — this is a patriotic state. Tonight was no exception, when some neighbors treated us all to an impromptu display.
I snapped about 20 pictures. And, when I say “I snapped about 20 pictures,” of course I mean that I snapped one picture and then accidentally hit the “menu” button on my camera 19 times.
Enjoy the pics! (Pic.)
“I am grateful for what I have. My Thanksgiving is perpetual.”
— Henry David Thoreau
Happy Thanksgiving to all who are reading this, both near and far!
Photo credit: “Men, women and children eating lunch at harvest time, Little Smoky, Alberta,” by Provincial Archives of Alberta – Men, women and children eating lunch at harvest time, Little Smoky, Alberta. Licensed under No restrictions via Wikimedia Commons.
Check out a terrific review of Clive Barker’s “The Scarlet Gospels.”
Dennis Villelmi has published a great review of “The Scarlet Gospels,” by Clive Barker.
Trust me – I’ve known Dennis for a while, and he’s an expert on Clive Barker.
Click the link to see the review over at Gruemonkey.com:
“All This Useless Beauty,” by Porter Girl
Check out the most recent blog post by Porter Girl. Her powers of description are just beautiful.
Source: All This Useless Beauty
I have never felt so old until this very moment.
Fellow science fiction fans, all of us recognize the distinguished lady at left — Sigourney Weaver, better known as Ellen Ripley. For most of us, our best loved outing with her was watching her rally against “Aliens” in 1986.
She’s aged over the years, just as we have. But we can accept that, as we ourselves have grown older along with her.
But the lady at right?
THAT’S NEWT.
Yes, tiny Newt. Actress Carrie Henn.
Excuse me while I go find my dentures.
[Update: Sorry about the typos in this post earlier! Yeesh!]
My review of “Blood Glacier” (2013), with general spoilers
[The following review contains general spoilers.]
I want to love “Blutgletscher” (“Blood Glacier”), an earnestly made independent German science fiction-horror film from 2013. I just can’t ignore its flaws, however, and I’ve got to settle on a giving it a 6 out of 10.
It has so much going for it. There’s a freezing, arctic-like location. (This time out, we’re in the mountains of Austria.) There’s a nifty, nasty sci-fi plot device. There’s a variety of gooey monsters. It’s creepy and atmospheric — a group of protagonists huddle in an isolated location while the wind howls outside on a cold night. There’s a cunning everyman antihero. All of these are rendered by a reasonably intelligent script that lets “Blood Glacier” rise above the level of a horror-comedy.
But its flaws make me hesitate to recommend it. It’s poorly paced, for example, and it’s sometimes confusingly plotted. One person assailed by the creepy-crawlies emerges as kind of villain, but the character’s motivations are never clear. Also, why is another character consistently a idiot? Is he just a really dumb scientist? And the ending shows otherwise intelligent people doing something incredibly ill advised.
And I was puzzled by the special effects. At times, they were actually damn good! But at many points in the movie (as so many other reviews will point out) they were downright poor. I kept thinking that they looked like papier mache props in a high school play.
Additionally, (and this can’t be the fault of the filmmakers) the version of “Blood Glacier” that I watched had incredibly poor English-language dubbing. The actors on screen (especially Gerhard Liebmann and Briggite Kren) did a fine job, but their corresponding voice actors had … no talent or enthusiasm at all.
Look, I don’t think it’s much of a spoiler if I tell you that this movie strongly parallels John Carpenter’s “The Thing” (1982). Any horror fan worth his or her salt should suspect as much if they read the preceding paragraphs. Our MacReady-like antihero drinks heavily and … he even looks like MacReady! And a dog and a helicopter are actually minor plot devices.
But I liked this movie’s thoughtful story device too much to call this film “a rip-off;” I rather think of it as a fairly skilled homage.
Honestly? If you’re fan of “The Thing,” you might enjoy this as an interesting companion film. As another online reviewer bluntly forgave it, “It isn’t TOTAL crap.”
If you hunt it down, its alternate title is “The Station.”
Eric Robert Nolan, Author 