protean depravity

  The summer was turbulent so far, in terms of both the weather and all the fun things you can do with lots of amazing films, concerts, events, readings all around... And it doesn't look like that's going to change in the near future, so let's keep on looking at some of the stuff a horror fan can do in and around Berlin this summer.

The first batch of 2025 movies behind us, now comes the fun part of raising hopes for upcoming horror movies that are in line for this year. There's even a concrete reason I'm posting this right now, because this Saturday is Sneak Preview time at the Creepy Crypt and since I have to stick around in Kreuzberg for hours after work until the Creepy Crypt showings begin, I choose my movies carefully. Well, Sneak Preview means that I have no idea what will be shown, only that it's an upcoming movie, so I took a look at movies that I think might be on this Saturday and I'm going to pitch their trailers here (the titles are linked to the teasers or trailers). So this post will be something like an exciting guesswork for the next Sneak Preview. Edit throughout time: They ended up showing the horror comedy Y2K , which really wasn't mine, so I left after the first 15 minutes. But it wasn't all lost, in order to pass the time between Hammett and Creepy Crypt I watched an...

  For those who aren't very interested in football, here are some cinema/book ideas and plans for the upcoming summer in Berlin!  It's time for open air cinema again! Because that went really well last year... I'm going to try it again, though, there's no giving up and maybe the weather will play along this year. Doesn't look like it yet, but there's always hope. Although some theaters don't even have a summer program yet, some have announced the movies they will be showing, and let's take a look at the attractive ones, old and new.

With not one but two nunsploitation movies about to be released soon, I have taken the cue that it's time for a blog post of collected nun and religion horror movies that are worth something for all I know. Because there are a lot useless ones, looking at you The Unholy and The Nun .

AAAAAAAAAh! The program for the Halloween Special of Final Girls Berlin* has been published, and I will definitely sell my Blixa tickets, sorry, because not only do the shorts start at 7pm, the feature film is American Psycho at 9pm and I don't want to miss any of it. I might as well take the next day off while I'm at it, hah. So here's the shorts selection for Tuesday October 31, 7pm/19.00h - texts taken from the FGBFF newsletter:

So far, my year is a lot busier than the last couple of years, but luckily there was no need to worry about the Fantasy Film Fest being cancelled due to pandemic this time. Another thing was different too - the movie theater! The FFF took place in the Zoo Palast which, with super comfortable chairs and lots of space between the rows is one of the luxurious movie theaters in Berlin. Apparently the organizers decided to offer their audience that luxury this year as well as numbered seating (To be honest I kind of like the "no numbered seats" tradition in festivals with everybody lining up in front of the door like marathon runners waiting for the start signal and as soon as the doors open running in to catch a good spot. It's so fun to contemplate, especially for me, I like to sit on the sidelines.). In the first three days that I missed, I missed a few films I really wanted to see, mainly Slotherhouse , about a sloth gone murderous, which, I heard, is supposed to be fantas...

First off - I am profusely sorry if I have motivated anyone to go to open air cinemas in Berlin in my last text on films, in which I claim it an exhilarating pastime and the way the summer goes this year, let's face it, it's just not great at all, it is awful... I apologize. This summer sucks, to be brutally honest. During every single movie I went to see open air it rained in various degrees, from mild pattering to Earth-has-decided-to-end-by-flood level and I am now tired sitting on cold benches with chattering teeth and wet feet, and before developing severe frostbite in August I decided I will finish my film plan either at home with my hot water bottle or in indoors cinemas. Still, it wasn't all for nothing, because I saw a lot of good films and documentaries so far. The day before yesterday, for instance, I finally got the chance to see a movie I was really craving for and it was amazing for me. I am, clearly, talking about Mad Heidi.

Apart from festival time, I sit down about twice a year to take stock of all the new movies I want to watch in the upcoming season - which doesn't mean they're all the movies I'll ever watch in the coming months, there will surely be many I'll still go see, but it's nice to have a plan and a goal before you. So I have scanned my favorite horror sites, the fantasy film fest website and the websites of various movie theatres in Berlin that I'm fond of, open air and closed room, and I came up with a mini summer program that goes until fall. I will be traveling end of August and the first half of September but decided to return early to Berlin in order not to miss the Fantasy Film Festival, I hope it will be worth it, lol.

Although I'm usually trying to keep my private somewhat out of my reviews, I'll make an exception here as Ari Aster's work touches me on a deep level especially at this point in my life. The review is also highly spoilered for his two works Hereditary and Beau is Afraid and presupposes the reader watched both.

My favorite final girls in Berlin* are back with another Brain Binge weekend on the 3rd and 4th of June. The discussions this year are pretty awesome ranging from women's contribution to horror sfx makeup, to the lesbian vampire following the model of Countess Elizabeth Báthory, to motherhood and the reluctant mother as monster in horror cinema and so much more.

While the whole world talks about the Oscars, I'm still lagging behind with my report of the past Berlinale. To close this subject Film February once and for all for this year, I selected my highlights of the Berlinale Film Festival 2023 and will try and give a short introduction with my impressions, here and now. It was a delight to be able to go into movie theatres, stand in line and chat with fellow cinema enthusiasts, listen to directors and contributors talk about their work and lose yourself and forget about the world for a couple of hours. Gosh, I had missed it so during lockdown, even though I tried to do my own festival at home, it is no comparison, really. Here , here and here you can read my lineups for the PD Horror at Home Film Festival and even follow the progress of my sadness and frustration for not being able to go into the movies. Let's hope those times are over and never come back, and concentrate on now and future, on all the great movies we will yet see. H...

I'm so sorry I haven't posted here as often as I should have, but the past February really was a whirlwind month with that outrageous earthquake at home, but also on the positive side with the Final Girls Berlin Film Festival as well as the Berlinale both rocking their post-COVID comeback. Putting the real life horrors of past month aside I'll focus on the Final Girls Berlin Film Festival (FGBFF) which took place February 1 -5 in this first part describing my cinematic experiences. For those of you who don't know - the FGBFF is a festival that showcases movies directed/written/produced by women* in order to strengthen their perspectives in the horror genre. The festival usually spans over four or five days in February and comprises feature films, horror talks, a self-defense workshop and my favorites, the short films. This year the short films were divided into the subcategories Female Pacts, Body Horror, Menacing Presences, Close to Home, Creatures, Bodily Autonomy, Qu...

Something terrible happened! I had already finished this perfectly fine article, with pictures and all, a few weeks ago but during the final touches I accidentally and irreversibly deleted it... After a few hundred moments of looking at the white page in shock and horror I decided to give it a rest for a while. Now I think enough time has passed for me to recover sufficiently to let it go and start anew. Here goes!

*About the Protean Depravity Film Festival At Home: When the pandemic started two years ago and social life shut down in Berlin, I decided to start my own film festival at home due to the lack of cinemas and cinematic activities in general. What I did was to basically create a selection of horror movies and watch these at home after which I choose a winner for that season. The winning movie gets a way too long and exhaustive review, and my gushes (the winners of 2021 were Relic and Sator ). Alas! At the end of the last Protean Depravity Film Festival at Home I realized that all the movies that made the lineup were kind of good and very much worth watching, but none of them truly was “the best” for me... So, I decided will do things differently just for this once and declare another movie my PD-Film Festival winner - a movie that I have seen twice in two different cities in May; a movie I saw both times not at home, but at the movie theater; a movie which is not even a horror movi...

Yay, The Final Girls Berlin Film Festival is due in two weeks and their program looks AMAZING! The festival takes place in City Kino Wedding but the very cautious of you or those who can't come can watch the shorts online! Here's their message:

Photo by Pylz Works on Unsplash With yet another possible lockdown ahead of us, the time has come again for another round of horror film festival at home. A short wrap-up if you don't know what I mean: about this time last year I decided to start my own film festival at home due to the lack of cinemas and cinematic activities in general under hard lockdown in Berlin. So I basically make a selection of horror movies and watch these at home after which I select a winner for that season. The winning movie gets a way too long and exhaustive review, and my gushes (the winners of last year were Relic and Sator ). Although we finally witnessed the opening of the film industry and all the movies that had been put on hold during lockdown times have at last been released, with COVID spiking again in Berlin, my heart breaks but I'm kind of reluctant to go to cinemas. So, after having done some research for upcoming movies that sound exciting to me, I have come up with the following l...

  Talking about movies - I will certainly continue doing my watch-at-home-festival thing BUT we can actually go back watching movies in theatres again! I have opened the post-corona season with Dennis Villeneuve's Dune yesterday and I can't wait to go back for the Fantasy Fimfest in October/November and The Final Girls Berlin Film Festival at the City Kino Wedding around Halloween, I'll keep you posted about the schedules and my selection.