Monday, February 21, 2005
On a more upbeat note. Today is also my wife, Laura Cooney's, birthday. It's not nice to mention a lady's age, so I won't.
I'm not the type of guy to get all sentimental. But Happy Birthday, Baby!
END OF AN ERA - HUNTER THOMPSON DEAD
Hunter S. Thompson died last night of a self-inflicted bullet wound to the head. He was 67. It's extremely sad news, but in a weird way it's probably the only way Thompson could have left us. He was always a big gun enthusiast, and I can't imagine him getting old and fragile and wasting away. The saddest part was that he was a voice of reason in an increasingly insane country. As censorship gets out of control and "family values" politics and the religious right's agenda of enforced stupidity turn America into a third world country in a lot of ways, Thompson was sorely needed to keep free speech alive and kicking. He'll be missed.
Personally, he was a major hero of mine. The first book of his I read was HELL'S ANGELS, which is a perfect example of his brand of "gonzo journalism" - putting himself at the center of his stories. The guy was bigger than life and in HELL'S ANGELS he not only wrote about and interviewed members of the Angels, he joined up and ended up getting the shit kicked out of him at the end. He was always willing to go that extra yard for a story.
They made two movies of his life. One was WHERE THE BUFFALO ROAM, where Bill Murray (early in his career) did a spot-on imitation of Thompson. It's a quirky, funny film that never really got its due. The second one was the much more successful FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS (based on Thompson's book) featuring Johnny Depp as Thompson in an amazing performance. He lived with Thompson for awhile and studied the man. It shows. The movie is pretty much perfect in a lot of ways.
Most recently, Thompson wrote a regular column for ESPN.com. Their archive of his columns is here.
Thompson was a pit bull for the left. He'd defend the liberal point of view while stocking up on guns and drugs and booze. He did everything to extreme. But despite the perpetual haze he seemed to live in, Thompson was one of the most clear-minded and intelligent guys you could ever read or listen to. He wasn't afraid to speak his mind - ever -and he used his own personal freedom of speech to the fullest. Back in the 60's he didn't hesitate to call Nixon "evil swine" and he had a similar take on George W. Bush. We need more people like him. But Thompson was one of a kind.
I never got to see Hunter S. read live. Never spoke to him. But I feel that he touched my life, however fucking corny that sounds. I remember him on an old David Letterman show, shooting silly things apart like watermelons, with automatic rifles and handguns. He seemed to be having fun. That's how I like to remember him. Hunter loved his guns. If you read his words and knew about his life, the way he died seems almost poetic. Just like Hemingway.
But man....he left us way too soon.
G'Bye, Hunter.
Not much going on lately, unfortunately. The new Cinema Knife Fight (a review of BOOGEYMAN) came out on Hellnotes this week. And I've got a nice three-day weekend for a change. On Saturday, Laura and I got together with a bunch of fellow New England Horror writers at a hotel near the science fiction convention BOSKONE, where some of our buddies were on panels. Otherwise, I haven't seen many movies in awhile and not much new worth talking about. Sometimes life is just boring.
But you knew that already.
In the meantime, if you want to read some (very) short stories with a nice little punch to them, check out the following two links to new stories by my buddy John Dixon. You'll dig 'em.
One's called "Bobo's Big Surprise" and it's on the webzine GRAVEYARD SHIFT UK.
The other one's called "Personal Savior" and it's on the webzine NOCTURAL OOZE.
Check 'em out. They're short, sweet....and creepy.
Friday, February 11, 2005
THIS GHOST HOLDS A GRUDGE!
Finally saw JU-ON, the Japanese film that THE GRUDGE was based on. And my reaction was that - well - it wasn't much of an improvement. The weaknesses I felt about THE GRUDGE were pretty much evident in JU-ON, too, mainly because the two movies are almost identical. Sure, there are minor differences, like the fact that there are different actors (in JU-ON everyone is Japanese as opposed to the American characters at the heart of THE GRUDGE) and of course different languages. There are also different uses of time - where things were evidently flashbacks in THE GRUDGE, JU-ON takes more liberties, offering us a series of vignettes about different characters which we eventually piece together take place at different times in the same house. Kind of like what Tarantino did with time in PULP FICTION, although not as clever. Of course, since both JU-ON and THE GRUDGE are both directed by the same guy, Takashi Shimizu, the similarities aren't a surprise at all.
As for the plot, well, it's old hat by now. A nurse enters a house to take care of an old woman and finds that the place is haunted. A woman and kid who were killed in the house have a grudge against anyone who is alive. Whoever enters the house is doomed to die. And that's pretty much it. The idea that you can't escape your doom is kind of cool, but neither movie is particularly scary. The same "ghost kid" actor is in both films and both movies feature a woman ghost with long (and lethal) hair, which was done better in RINGU (which was remade here as THE RING). See a pattern starting to develop?
People were telling me that JU-ON was better than THE GRUDGE, but that's just horseshit. They're pretty much interchangable. THE GRUDGE might have a slight advantage though, since it's in English and explains what the fuck is going on a little better. But since it's the same director, the movies pretty much have the same strengths and weaknesses. And frankly, I wouldn't mind if I never saw either film again.
Also saw another Japanese horror flick recently called LIVING HELL. At least this one wasn't boring. An old woman and her young helper come to stay with relatives. While the husband and wife are off at work, they're alone with the twenty-something son, who's in a wheelchair. The old lady and her helper proceed to torture him when the rest of the family is away. This runs the gamut from shocking his balls with a taser to making him eat worms to using him as a human dart board. It's all like an extreme episode of FEAR FACTOR. The old lady is particularly creepy and the movie has some effective scenes. And when the parents come home, there are some really weird revelations and twists to come. All in all a big improvement over JU-ON and its remake. I doubt American studios will be so quick to remake LIVING HELL. Just like I doubt we'll be seeing an AUDITION remake anytime soon. The only big flaw with LIVING HELL is its ending. The movie suffers from the need to over-explain everything. Instead of ending with a harrowing scene, where it should have, we're transported to a mental hospital where everything is explained to death, ending everything on a lame note instead of a disturbing one. Oh well. A lot of movies these days seem to have trouble with endings for some reason.
On a sad note, I heard that Arthur Miller died today. The author of such revered plays as DEATH OF A SALESMAN and THE CRUCIBLE, Miller also got to fuck Marilyn Monroe on a regular basis. At least the guy didn't live an unfulfilled life. We should all be so lucky and have such a major spot in literary history. Good-bye, Mr. Miller!
