protean depravity

Cory was in Berlin this week and presented his latest two books at the Otherland Bookshop - not once but TWICE! While I'm not one hundred percent sure what he talked about on his first event on Sunday (I guess it was The Lost Cause ?), tonight he read from his latest, the second Martin Hench book The Bezzle. The series which started with Red Team Blues , Hench's last adventure, goes back in time, so each newly released book goes in reverse chronological order - it's because following the success of Red Team Blues the publishers wanted more of the main character, not really taking into account that the book is about his last case, so Cory told, he just started to write the cases that come before, lol, and as a positive side effect doesn't have to worry about continuity. So he read to us a good chunk out of The Bezzle which starts off with the US prison system, and I guess there's a lot to say about that.

I have been a little too anxiously waiting for Film February and have been watching a lot of movies, so I have the feeling that I didn't read as much as I want to. Still, here are some short reviews, I hope you enjoy!

  While the Fantasy Filmfest White Nights are still on at this very moment I am writing this blog post, and I would actually really like to be there and watch the last two films in the program, I feel like with three movies in two days I am all set and done with the White Nights for this year, but up and ready for the upcoming film festivals.

It has totally slipped my mind that the Fantasy Filmfest takes place twice a year (kind of - the second part called White Nights is much shorter than the main festival and a mere weekend long) and the second part, or depending from where you look the first part, takes place this weekend, January 27 and 28. I can't say I'm excited about the whole program, and since I was negligent some shows are unfortunately already sold out. But I'll se what I can do to still grab some tickets.

This post has lots of spoilers in it and assumes that you've already watched John Carpenter's The Thing at some point in your life. I re-watched John Carpenter's The Thing (1982) this weekend and have been dreaming of dogs in my sleep ever since, hah. So, I thought, if a work has affected me on such an unconscious level it deserves to be discussed here, and the fact that it is based on a little novella written by John W. Campbell provides a perfect frame to pack this under Based on Books.

Here they are, the first short reviews of 2024, for you to enjoy!

Running through the cinema listings, horror film festivals and specials which are taking place in Berlin the next couple of months, I feel a little drunk and dizzy by the sheer abundance of films I want to see, events I want to attend... Too much, almost. Let's take a look!

The appeal of a Barkerian monster is something next to impossible to explain, but as real and palpable as can be. This is my prime takeaway having for the first time fully completed the first three volumes of his iconic Books of Blood . It is safe to say that Pinhead is the first real, full-blown villain I rooted for in a movie. As I said above, the appeal is next to impossible to explain, considering I was a child under the age of ten when I first saw Hellraiser. In Bravo's 100 Scariest Moments list ( Hellraiser makes the 19th place ) Barker himself states that the character, even though he never does anything nice or decent in the complete series, still gets fan mail from women who want to bear his children. I wouldn't go as far as that, but I see a certain elegance, an honesty in the priest from hell. I am intrigued and as a consequence Pinhead has been a figure whose dark aesthetic and humor has left a mark on me. Hell supposedly is a place of unspeakable torment and pain, ...

Sometimes life takes you places you never would have guessed.