First Look: VIDEO WATCHDOG #163

Our next issue -- sporting a beautiful piece of original art by the inimitable Charlie Largent -- features Part 1 of my Eddie Constantine/Lemmy Caution retrospective (with input from his son Lemmy Constantine), an in-depth interview with Eddie's daughter and collaborator Tanya Constantine, Stephen R. Bissette's VW return with an appreciative essay about the 1967 horror feature THE FROZEN DEAD, and my DVD Spotlight on Bob Rafelson's Monkees film HEAD (which approaches it as part of a narrative arc begun with two earlier Jack Nicholson films, THE TERROR and THE TRIP).

You can now flip through the entire issue, and read selected pages, by simply visiting our website and clicking on the Coming Soon option!

On sale July 5!

Get Rondo-ized!

"Don't hurt that Rondo, Rondo!" VW publisher Donna Lucas takes a protective stance outside the auditorium where the 6th Annual Rondo Awards were held at WonderFest in 2008.

In an effort to spread awareness of VIDEO WATCHDOG's various nominations for the the 8th Annual Rondo Awards, Donna and I (with the approval of our writers) have decided to make available -- for a limited time -- the complete texts of the four nominees for this year's Best Magazine Article award.

Stephen R. Bissette's "Let the Twilight In", an in-depth study of TWILIGHT and LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, can be read here.

Eric Somer's "Down the Block from Bergman: THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT and Beyond," an examination of the influence of Ingmar Bergman's THE VIRGIN SPRING on Wes Craven's THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, the recent remake, and other horror films, can be read here.

Kim Newman's "DVD Spotlight: MYSTERY AND IMAGINATION, a detailed history of the 1966-70 British TV terror anthology, can be read here.

And Shaun Brady's "Weird Scenes Inside the Fun House: The Making of MALATESTA'S CARNIVAL OF BLOOD," a production history of the 1972 Pittsburgh-made surrealist horror film, can be read here.

And here is a link to a special Rondo link page now added to our website, which also features direct links to a five-part HD video of my Q&A with INFERNO star Irene Miracle and composer Keith Emerson, which has been nominated for Best Fan Event.

Also, please don't forget to consider any of our many hard-working contributors for your vote in the Best Writer and Best DVD Reviewer categories, and remember that both our cover artist Charlie Largent and our art director Donna Lucas (whose layouts make VW's feature articles soar) are eligible in the Best Artist category.

Blogging 'Bout the 'Dog

VIDEO WATCHDOG contributors par excellence Stephen R. Bissette and Sam Umland have devoted space in their blogs today to write about the milestone that is VW's forthcoming 150th issue. I was very touched to read these articles and commend them to your attention, and I am grateful to both of these gentlemen for what they expressed and for what they both continue to bring to VIDEO WATCHDOG itself. Click on their names and you will be taken there.

The Throat Sprockets Cult

Pierre Olivier-Templier's cover art for the French edition of my novel THROAT SPROCKETS.

It has now been more than twenty years since I first published anything bearing the title THROAT SPROCKETS. It first appeared as a 12-page story in the premiere issue of Steve Bissette's horror anthology TABOO, published in the Fall of 1988. The initial tale was conceived as the first chapter of a graphic novel; it was illustrated in remarkable photo-realistic style by Mike Hoffman and garnered a lot of favorable attention. TABOO's debut issue also featured the work of comics royalty like Alan Moore, Steve himself, Eddie Campbell and Charles Burns, but many reviewers singled out "Throat Sprockets" -- my very first published work in comics -- as the collection's best story. I've never forgotten how, while attending an Ohio comics convention with Steve around that time, someone I knew locally (who had never really given me much of the time of day before) came up to the table where we were signing, clasped my hand in both of his, shook it vigorously, and congratulated me with all the earnestness of a priest. His sincere appreciation of the story was my first glimmer of the impact THROAT SPROCKETS would have on certain people.

I'd like to say "people" in general, rather than "certain people," because that would mean the initial positive reaction went on to become more widespread. Alas, while TABOO went on to introduce other developing graphic novels (like Alan Moore & Eddie Campbell's FROM HELL and Moore & Melinda Gebbie's LOST GIRLS), the graphic version of THROAT SPROCKETS was stillborn, never completed. This was partly due to the fact that Mike's photo-realistic style required so much time to execute, and also because my comics scripts -- possibly as a result from the Alan Moore SWAMP THING scripts that Steve used to school me in the technique -- were becoming not only more detailed and more complex, but untenably long. The second chapter, "Transylvania mon amour" in TABOO #3 (1989) ran a full 30 pages. In retrospect, it seems obvious that the graphic-novel-in-progress was crying out to become the traditional novel I eventually wrote. It was Steve who encouraged me to do this, and it took some doing because I had already written, and failed to sell, numerous other literary novels. But I knew I couldn't continue with the way things were going: my working relationship with Mike Hoffman worsened after we met, and my only contact with his successor David Lloyd (V FOR VENDETTA) -- who ultimately did a splendid job of illustrating the third story, "The Disaster Area" for TABOO #8 (June 1995) -- was a belligerent note he fired off to me on an Edward G. Robinson postcard, when I suggested adding a single panel to a page I had scripted. The three issues of TABOO in which the THROAT SPROCKETS arc appear -- numbers 1, 3 and 8, respectively -- are long out-of-print, but Steve makes a dwindling number of personal stash copies available at SR Bissette's Online Emporium. If you're at all interested, order now because the supply is just about gone.

I would never have proceeded with the novel without the support of a literary agent. My first agent, an enthusiastic young woman named Cathy Mahar, took on the project -- then, in a preview of things to come, decided to quit agenting just as things started happening. Cathy did give me the lead that got me accepted as a client by agent Lori Perkins, and Cathy and I kept in sporadic touch until I received the tragic news of her death, from a brain aneurysm, just weeks after she had sent me a congratulatory letter on the book's acceptance by editor Jeanne Cavelos at Dell. THROAT SPROCKETS was originally acquired by Jeanne to be part of her Abyss horror series, but because the manuscript was considered to be literary noir than traditional horror, it was held back from release a full year and finally issued in September 1994 as the first original novel under the new Cutting Edge imprint. It was preceded by the first softcover edition of Patrick McCabe's THE BUTCHER BOY (which featured an ad for THROAT SPROCKETS on its closing page), which had already appeared in hardcover from another company.

Despite a front cover endorsement by Bret Easton Ellis, a sexed-up subtitle I had nothing to do with ("A novel of erotic obsession"), and unanimous rave reviews, Dell's lack of promotional support (made worse by Jeanne's departure from the company and her replacement by a chilly editorial contact who, I was told, found my book offensive) killed it in its crib. Though Ellen Datlow called it the year's best first novel, THROAT SPROCKETS went unnominated in any of the fiction categories for literary horror awards. It was subsequently published in Great Britain by 4th Estate, who gave it lovely hardcover and softcover editions, and it fared somewhat better overseas than here. It was later translated into French by Simon Lhopiteau as SALLES OBSCURES ("Darkened Theatres") for Pocket Books' Terreur line in Paris. The cover of the French edition (pictured above, a painting by Pierre Olivier-Templier) is my personal favorite, one of the most extraordinary covers I've seen on any book. I so wish I owned the original.

THROAT SPROCKETS, the novel, has been named as one of the best horror novels by at least two reference books compiling such lists, and RUE MORGUE recently included it in a list of essential progressive horror fiction. Despite this continuing interest and support, the book has now been out of print for thirteen years, and there is no sign of it being reprinted and given a chance for broader recognition. With internet booksellers offering used copies at a lower price than it costs to mail it, I can easily understand, especially in this economy, why publishing companies might not see the wisdom of throwing new money in its direction. Though I make no profit from these used copies, they are like seedlings, continuing to bring me new readers brave enough to read fiction by someone principally known for writing non-fiction.

In the very first sentence of the first review of my book I ever read, a wonderful write-up in FANGORIA, Linda Marotta called THROAT SPROCKETS "the kind of novel around which cults are formed." The enthusiasm of her review braced me for imminent fame and fortune, which didn't come, but she was prophetic in that she foresaw a cult for the book.

If you type the words "throat sprockets" into the search engine at Amazon.com, you will be taken to a page that not only shows the various editions of my novel, but lists other works of fiction that, uncannily, pay it tribute. A story by VW's Kim Newman -- called "Castle in the Desert" in THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF BEST NEW HORROR 12 and "The Other Side of Midnight" in VAMPIRE SEXTETTE -- namechecks the imaginary film in my novel as a real one, and a vivid character I mentioned only in passing, porn director Debbie W. Griffith, is discussed as though a real person. For all I know, today she may well be... it would sit well beside the fact that a 1996 horror novel, ESCARDY GAP by Peter Crowder and James Lovegrove, features a Nurse Sprocket (possibly a nod to my novel's "Once Upon a Time in the West" chapter, set in a hospital) and refers on page 252 to the "throat sprockets" of an old projector in a movie theater. Last year, Rayo Casablanca's novel 6 SICK HIPSTERS placed a copy of THROAT SPROCKETS in a character's apartment as a sign of their good taste. To my even greater surprise, two different books about music make reference to THROAT SPROCKETS, citing its depiction of cinemania as reflective of the masculine record collecting impulse.

Which brings us to this curious turn of events. As of last week, when you type "throat sprockets" into the Amazon.com search engine, my book is no longer the first thing you see. The newest THROAT SPROCKETS on the block is the debut CD (pictured) of an inventive and energetic band from Glendale, California, who call themselves, with my blessing, Throat Sprockets. The 14-track album on Cat Sandwich Records is available from both Amazon and CDBaby.com. CDBaby.com also makes it available as an mp3 download.

The lead singer of the group, who goes by the name Miss Lonelyhearts, sent me a copy of the disc for my thoughts. It's one of the most intimidating review duties I've ever had to face, because I feel a paternal connection to these fans of my book who wanted to carry its banner, so to speak. (Miss Lonelyhearts told me "It's the best band name since Led Zeppelin!") But what if I didn't care for what they produced under the auspices of my title? Would I want to withdraw my permission? Could I?

Fortunately, I need no longer fret over such questions because, having listened to THROAT SPROCKETS a few times, I do like it. It's noisy, quirky, clever and unpredictable. Like most debut independent releases, it finds the band still in the process of discovering their group identity, their group sound, but the search itself takes them through a series of interesting mutations. It's a map of their musical interests and ranges rather than a focused statement, and its presentation is so cryptic -- no personnel listing, no explanation for the front or back cover illustrations, and the album's opening and closing guitar notes are in Morse code -- that it conveys the feel of a message launched in a bottle, sent out in search of the right ears eager to listen.

"The Bruiser" is probably the most commercial and fully realized track of the bunch, but I find myself most attracted to the more lyrical "Small Potatoes" (really lovely) and "Violent Kisses," which I think feature the best singing on the album. Several songs have a strong melodic sense and, at the same time, a quirky experimental edge; the sound of Throat Sprockets is a slippery, busy, noodly sound, at different times whimsically juvenile, brashly teenage and emotionally armored young adult, veering somewhere between instrumental virtuosity and André Gide's admonition "Do not understand me too quickly." Sometimes the music and lyric are willfully contradictory. For example, "Each and Every Day" might have been the standout, but the bluesy gravitas of the lyric seems to belong to a different song, the accompaniment so contrary as to deny the emotions the words express. Miss Lonelyhearts, whose voice I file mentally between Joan Jett and Belinda Carlisle, alternates vocals with an unnamed male bandmember, but his tracks don't particularly grab me. I suspect the more melodic inclinations of the band will guide them to a unique group sound before their thrash numbers will, but it's the band's call, of course -- and everything depends on what they add to these building blocks. I'm told they have already moved on creatively from here, and will start recording their second album shortly.

Bottom line: Though I found the THROAT SPROCKETS album too scattershot to pin down as a whole, it held my interest throughout with its constant edge of invention, and it kept my foot tapping. It is engaging, and I'm proud to be reached by this latest ripple from the book I cast on the waters all those years ago.

I've Been Dardosed

Pierre Fournier, the mastermind behind the wonderfully obsessive Frankensteinia blog, kindly wrote the other day to inform me that I'd been chosen as one of his five tag-ees for the Dardos blogging Award. I'm not sure where the Dardos Award originated because I'm pretty far down the line of recipients, as far as I can tell, but here's the legend behind it:

"The Dardos Award is given for recognition of cultural, ethical, literary, and personal values transmitted in the form of creative and original writing. These stamps were created with the intention of promoting fraternization between bloggers, a way of showing affection and gratitude for work that adds value to the Web.

"The rules are: 1) Accept the award by posting it on your blog along with the name of the person that has granted the award and a link to his/her blog. 2) Pass the award to another 5 blogs that are worthy of this acknowledgement, remembering to contact each of them to let them know they have been selected for this award."

I thank Pierre for his thoughtful consideration, as expressed here, which moves me on to Condition #2. I can't guarantee that any of these bloggers haven't already been recognized by Dardos and the spreaders of its happy contagion, but the object of this exercise is to help get the word out about people doing quality blogging. With that in mind, I hearby Dardose...

Stephen R. Bissette's Myrant. Even if there was a tin cup attached to his blog, Steve would give you way, way more than your money's worth. An unpredictable mixture of personal diary, sketchpad, auction house and burning Bush screeds, it also presents some of the most insightful essays on horror and cult cinema found anywhere online. In addition to everything else he does, I blame him for inspiring me to start Video WatchBlog.

Glenn Kenny's Some Came Running. Glenn says His Lovely Wife is a fan of mine, so it's the least I can do. Just kidding. This infectiously readable blog was set up overnight in response to Glenn's sudden firing as PREMIERE's film blogger sometime near the outset of the Great Film Critics Massacre of 2008, and I've been part of his daily audience ever since. I was about to blog in memory of Kathleen Byron the other day, till I saw this and realized I couldn't possibly improve on it. Here he proves himself a master of saying a lot in very few words -- must be that PREMIERE training. Plus he loves import discs and other filmo-fetishistic weirdness. And when Glenn writes about music, I'm always gasterflabbed by how many other interests we have in common. The only non-VW contributor among my choices, though not by conscious design.

Maitland McDonagh's Miss FlickChick. Maitland, the author of MOVIE LUST, FILMMAKING ON THE FRINGE, THE 50 MOST EROTIC FILMS OF ALL TIME and the ever popular BROKEN MIRRORS/BROKEN MINDS: THE DARK DREAMS OF DARIO ARGENTO -- was another casualty of the Massacre, forfeiting her position as TV GUIDE's senior movies editor after 13 years of solid service. Since last October, she's been steadily blogging, mostly about scary movies, always in her uniquely smart, uniquely alluring way. Even her account of a day trip to the Bronx Zoo captured something of her trademark vibe: "Suffice it to say that the highlight of my day was having a hissing cockroach crawl across my hand and hiss in my ear."

Richard Harland Smith of Movie Morlocks. For my money, RHS is, hands-down, one of the most talented and original writers about genre film working today -- and sometimes he actually does this for my money. In a saner world, he'd have a lucrative job as one of the nation's leading opinion-makers. As it is, he's one of a revolving group of bloggers at TCM's Movie Morlocks, and his remarkably candid, personal reading of THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN is a recent advertisement of his uncompromising ability.

Sam Umland's 60x50. I often think I need to stop visiting the film blogs I frequent and start tracking down more music blogs. Sam explains that his 60x50 is "an experiment in invention and discovery, inspired by an observation made by William Stafford in WRITING THE AUSTRALIAN CRAWL. The purpose of this blog is to demonstrate Stafford's insight that a writer 'is someone who has found a process that will bring about new things he would not have thought of if he had not started to say them.'" Prompted randomly by the date on the calendar, Sam not only writes short thematic essays on popular music, but excavates meaning from obtuse rock lyrics, explores commonly misheard lyrics, and is always coming up with something insightful and rewarding.

Just click on the italicized blog titles, and you'll be taken right there.

COTTONMOUTH Debuts Tonight

At the tolling of Midnight...

Tonight...

Go here, Trick or Treaters, for the World Premiere of COTTONMOUTH, a new and terrifying film short by Christopher P. Garetano, based on Stephen R. Bissette's classic horror comic, which originally appeared in the pages of GORESHRIEK and TABOO.

And here's a link to Steve's own intensive account of the project's history.

First VIDEODROME Review

While doing my morning net browsing, I was pleased and surprised to discover the first review of my new book VIDEODROME that I've seen on Steve Bissette's S.R. Bissette.com site. (Pictured on the left is a photo not included in the book, showing me interviewing actor James Woods on the set.) Go ahead and click on the review, then come back after reading it and I'll comment.

As with his earlier review of MARIO BAVA ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK, Steve is wonderfully enthusiastic and commendatory about the book itself ("a brilliant dissection of the collaborative creative process at work, hence of interest to anyone who is either a creator themselves or eager to understand the creative process") and his review is one that any writer would be pleased to receive. He also has some strong opinions on the subject of what he sees as my ratification of "pejorative terminology" -- in this case, my identification of VIDEODROME as a conceptual granddaddy of the subgenre we know today as "torture porn" -- and I'd like to take a moment to respond to this.

In the book's final chapter discussion of VIDEODROME's influence on contemporary horror trends, the phrase I actually use is "so-called 'torture porn'" and I hardly "dismiss these successors" with the "simplistic contempt" Steve mentions. In fact, my space limitations being what they were (I was contracted to deliver a 144-page book and was generously granted an extension to 160 pages), the whole discussion is limited to a single paragraph that is shared with its influence on films such as THE RING.

Steve may be needled by the fact that I've used the phrase without the "so-called" in some of my past VIDEO WATCHDOG writing, but I've always used it as a convenience, without any political bias nor, as best I can recollect, any critical bias. I see the term as analogous to one that I coined back in my 1980s writing for GOREZONE and FANGORIA -- "gornography" -- a humorous pun that, as a matter of fact, I remember Steve enjoying at the time. I suppose this is a particularly appropriate explanation of anything apropos of VIDEODROME, but Steve seems to have an entirely different subjective take on "torture porn" than I do, one that may well be more connected to reality (as most people perceive it) than my own. I've never seen it as anything but a descriptive term, poppy rather than pejorative, referring to films meant to arouse audiences with dramatizations of reductive cruelty. This probably has something to do with me finding the term "porn" more amiable and user-friendly than its more severe-sounding root word "pornography."

For all that, I've had letters on the subject in the past, which is why I took care to predicate the term with "so-called" in VIDEODROME. Even though I don't take the term as nergatively as some, I would hope this gesture shows a dawning sensitivity on my part to how other people perceive it and a resolve to use it with greater care and awareness.

Follow the Bouncing Ball

Steve Bissette writes beautifully, and meaningfully, about Fellini's SPIRITS OF THE DEAD segment "Toby Dammit" today at his S.R. Bissette blog. Check it out here.

Bissette on I AM LEGEND, Matheson, etc.

I recommend you check out Steve Bissette's MYRANT blog, where he has posted some typically well-considered thoughts of typically epic length on the new Will Smith blockbuster I AM LEGEND, bringing into his discussion notes on the source novel by Richard Matheson and its previous film adaptations THE LAST MAN ON EARTH and THE OMEGA MAN.

By serendipity, we caught I AM LEGEND tonight and, like Steve, I thought it was going along pretty darned well... until the bad guys showed up and turned out to be a bunch of Hulk-roaring cartoons. (Makes it easier to adapt to a video game, I suppose.) Nevertheless, Smith puts a lot of heart into his performance and, despite running on a relatively flat tire for too much of its third act, it's got three or four terrific sequences definitely worth seeing.

VW's Favorite DVDs of 2007: Stephen R. Bissette

Here's a surprise mid-day "Baker's Dozen" from VW contributor Stephen R. Bissette, also an award-winning novelist (ALIENS: TRIBES), legendary comics artist and publisher, blogger (see the MYRANT link to the right), and educator at the Center for Cartoon Studies. His new book is BLUR: JUNE 1999-MARCH 2000 (Black Coat Press), a collection of video review columns.

This was damned near impossible to do, given how much has hit the fan(s) this year, but here goes... and yes, I cheated and included boxed sets as single listings. So hurt me.

1. AVANT-GARDE 2: EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA 1928-1954 (Kino)

A fine companion to Kino's AVANT-GARDE 1 collection, at last providing access to "the secret cinema" peppered with so many delightful genre films ignoredby generations; even those who wished to see them rarely could -- until now. Joseph Vogel's HOUSE OF CARDS (1947), Sidney Peterson's astonishing THE CAGE (1947), Paul Leni's REBUS-FILM NO. 1 (1928), a superior transfer of James Watson and Melville Webber's Poe film THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER (1928), plus key works by Marie Menken, Stan Brakhage (including his first film, made at age 19, never before available, and the horrific THE WAY TO SHADOW GARDEN, 1954, previously available on Zeitgeist's documentary disc BRAKHAGE), Willard Maas, James Broughton and others culminate in Jean Isidore Isou's feature TRAITE DE BAVE ET D'ETERNITE/VENOM AND ETERNITY (1951).

2. THE FILMS OF ALEJANDRO JODOROWSKY (FANDO Y LIS, ELTOPO, THE HOLY MOUNTAIN, plus a documentary; Anchor Bay)

This earned mention on the Umlands' "honorary mention" list, but it was the DVD set of the year to my mind --but then again, I was part of the EL TOPO generation, midwife of the entire Midnight Movie phenomenon. A definitive showcase of Jodorowsky's early works, including his 35-minute LA CRAVATE (1957), soundtrack CDs, Alejandro's dizzying commentary tracks, the 90-minute documentary LA CONSTELLATION, and more.

3. THE FILMS OF KENNETH ANGER VOLUMES 1 & 2 (Fantoma)

The Umlands also placed this with their honorary mentions but, for me, this was among the key releases of the year, long-awaited and worth that endurance test. Volume 1's inclusion of the exquisite EAUX D'ARTIFICE (1953) and Anger's delirious 'magick' epic INAUGURATION OF THE PLEASURE DOME (1954), featuring a young Curtis Harrington as Cesar the somnambulist, showcases two of the most ravishing underground fantasy films ever made -- what more do you need to make a "best of the year" list?

4. THE FIRST FILMS OF SAMUEL FULLER (Criterion)

Criterion's Eclipse collections are gems, one and all, but this was my personal favorite, supplanting the poor video transfers and dubs on my shelves with top-notch, crisp 1.33:1 screen-and-heart-filling editions of Fuller's pioneer trio (1949-51). For THE STEEL HELMET alone, this is essential viewing, but Vincent Price fans shouldn't miss his turn as one of America's greatest swindlers in THE BARON OF ARIZONA, and I SHOT JESSE JAMES is the ideal companion to this year's theatrical Brad Pitt vehicle on the same subject.

Note: Too bad it wasn't the stellar edition the film deserves, but 2007 also brought Fuller's sadly buried 1982 classic WHITE DOG to DVD, too, via Substance's mediocre transfer -- not among the top of the year in DVD quality but, as a film... whoa, baby!

5. GHIDRAH THE THREE-HEADED MONSTER (Classic Media)

Another accurate David Kalat call (whose commentary track I savored, BTW), and my personal favorite of all the marvelous Classic Media Toho Master Collection to date, just because the movie is so much damned fun. Kudos to Classic, too, for including both the Japanese and American theatrical cuts. Runner up: yes, FRANKENSTEIN CONQUERS THE WORLD (Tokyo Shock/MediaBlasters), but GHIDRAH takes the cake.

6. HORRORS OF MALFORMED MEN (Synapse Films)

It's been a great year for resurrected Japanese gold, but this is one film I thought I'd never, ever see. Teruo Ishii's completely loopy 1969 hodgepodge of Edogawa Rampo motifs and '60s transgressive hysteria was the most fun I had all year watching a DVD.

7. THE LIVES OF OTHERS (Sony Pictures)

I'm with David K: this was the best movie I saw all year, period, and its DVD release was most welcome. Paul Verhoeven's BLACK BOOK was the second-best film I saw in a theater this year, but Sony's Region 1 R-rated DVD kept Verhoeven's reunion with screenwriter Gerard Soeteman from making my best of the year list-- until I'm certain there's not a more complete edition out there, somewhere...

8. LUNACY (Zeitgeist Video)

2007 offered animation fans banquet after banquet --Warner Bros! Tex Avery! Woody Woodpecker! Fleischer Brothers Popeye! Kino's ANIMATED SOVIET PROPAGANDA! --which alone could comprise a top-12 list. This, though, was the one that shook my world. Jan Svankmajer has been well represented on DVD in 2007 (the recently released collection of his short films is damn near ideal), but his newest feature cuts deep and is as dark, dazzling and delirious as any film he's done to date. For my money, the most underrated slice of fantastique of the year, melding Poe, de Sade and the whole of surrealist cinema; this resonated in my dreams for a whole week.

9. THE MARIO BAVA COLLECTION VOLUME 1 and 2 (Anchor Bay)

There's some things you wish you could live long enough to see. The arrival of Bava's near-complete body of work via these two boxed sets is one of those things one lives for. The upside: ERIK THE CONQUEROR's Region 1 release accompanied this, and CALTIKI arrived on DVD in Italy (Xploited Cinema has it). The downside: the AIP versions are in legal limbo still, and the bump of Dark Sky's ravishing definitive release of KILL BABY KILL/OPERAZIONE PAURA from the marketplace.

10. OSKAR FISCHINGER: TEN FILMS (Center for Visual Music)

In a year to be celebrated for unprecedented viewer access to experimental/avant garde/underground film history and amazing animation, this release of abstract animator Oskar Fischinger's body of work --ten films indeed, spanning from 1921-1947 -- stands tall and pure and uncanny.

11. PERFORMANCE (Warner Home Video)

I damned Warner even as I delighted in this DVD -- if only! If only the rough cut footage were included; if only that minor but indelible line of Mick's dialogue were intact; if only... but this is as gorgeous and complete a version as we've had yet in the US since the film's original X-rated release, and Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg's masterpiece is as mind-blowing as ever, so I won't look a gift horse in the -- bullethole.

12. THE SERGIO LEONE ANTHOLOGY (MGM/20th Century Fox)

Another DVD set I'm glad I've lived long enough to see and savor. Sheldon Inkol and John Charles already called it, but there's no getting around this being one of the year's revelations. Now that we've also got THE COLOSSUS OF RHODES as of this year, too (via Warner's 2007 "Cult Camp Classics" sets), these revamped releases of A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS, FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE, the definitive THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY (already released by MGM, but nice inclusion here) are more welcome than ever. But most vital of all is the most complete edition of DUCK, YOU SUCKER yet, its first stateside DVD release done up right. I've yet to compare it to the VHS (the A FISTFUL OF DYNAMITE cut), the laserdisc, the taped-from-television and import versions, but this diehard Leone lover is satisfied... at last.

13. THE VAMPIRE COLLECTION (Casa Negra)

Casa Negra's procession of Mexican horror DVD releases have all been sheer pleasure, but this double-disc double-bill Fernando Mendez feast even beats BRAINIAC as their finest yet. Seeing 1957's THE VAMPIRE and THE VAMPIRE'S COFFIN with such clarity reorients one to the whole of the Mexican genre's permutations to follow, and bonus items in this set sweeten the package (the complete French photo novel of the sequel!) immeasurably.

RUNNER-UPS (beyond those cited): Casa Negra's entire line (including BLACK PIT OF DR. M!), Classic Media's daikaiju eiga Toho Master Collection, BCI's "Welcome to the Grindhouse" series, Cult Camp Classics Vol. 1-4 (Warner Home Video), and the return of MGM's Midnite Movies imprint (via Fox), plus: Criterion's Chris Marker double-bill of LA JETEE and SANS SOLEIL, Quentin Tarantino's DEATH PROOF, Takashi Miike's THE GREAT YOKAI WAR, THE HELLBENDERS, THE HOST, HOSTEL Director's Cut and HOSTEL Part II Unrated, THE HOUSE THAT SCREAMED (yep, the Elvira release on a double-bill with MANEATER OF HYDRA is letterboxed!), ICHI THE KILLER: Collector's Blood Bag Edition, Sony's ICONS OF HORROR COLLECTION: SAM KATZMAN, IF.... (Criterion) and O LUCKY MAN!, PAN'S LABYRINTH (New Line's 2-Disc Platinum Edition), Paramount's TWIN PEAKS DEFINITIVE GOLD BOX SET, Dark Sky's WHO CAN KILL A CHILD?, MGM/Fox's WITCHFINDER GENERAL.

My Wish List of films I'm dying to see on DVD in 2008:

Curtis Harrington's complete avant-garde/underground films; Don Siegel's BABY FACE NELSON (I heard from a Kino rep two years ago they were considering this --from any quarter, please, bring it on!), Ken Russell's THE DEVILS (complete, please, with that amazing BBC doc); Dario Argento's FOUR FLIES ON GREY VELVET, Ishiro Honda's HALF HUMAN (the original version --fat chance, since Toho has consigned it to oblivion seemingly forever) and THE H-MAN, ISLAND OF LOST SOULS, Abel Gance's J'ACCUSE (heck, the whole of Gance's work!), Don Siegel's THE LINEUP, Arthur Penn's MICKEY ONE, Sam Fuller's RUN OF THE ARROW, Alejandro Jodorowsky's SANTA SANGRE, Sam Fuller's WHITE DOG (properly formatted).

On "Sweet Nothings"

A friendly correspondent notified me today of this very interesting blog, The Savage Critics, where today's posting offers a critical overview of Stephen R. Bissette's TABOO #2, published back in 1989.

This issue included -- among other notable things -- "Sweet Nothings," a deliberately haunting little story by me and illustrated by my sister from another mother, Simonida Perica-Uth. We were venturing out into new realms with this story, certainly in the way it was illustrated (collages of xeroxed photos of Egyptian tombs and monuments), but also in the way the story was told. My literary style has always been... well, stylized, and I wanted to tell this story and others that might have followed in a deliberately spare manner that would seem to resonate down through the ages. Simo and I did a second, even more ambitious story in the same manner, "Clipped Wings," but what with the early demise of TABOO, it was never published. It didn't quite seem to belong anywhere else.

I don't believe I've ever read any printed assessment of the work Simo and I did together before now, but I treasure the memory of Steve telling me, at the time of its publication, that future FROM HELL artist Eddie Campbell, while staying with him, had expressed the feeling that it might be the most adult story he'd ever read up to that time in the comics form.

Copies of this classic issue are still available here at Steve Bissette's Online Emporium.

New Books from Bryan Senn and Steve Bissette

Now available from McFarland and Company is A YEAR OF FEAR: A DAY-BY-DAY GUIDE TO 366 HORROR FILMS by Bryan Senn ($35 softcover, 560 pp), a hefty trade paperback generously illustrated with 218 B&W photos and ad mats. It's formatted around a very clever idea: go through the calendar year, find historical events for each day and then find a horror film relatable to each event.

For example, the movie for May 21 is THE MAZE (1953), because it was on that day in 1977 that the longest leap by a frog (33 feet, 5 ½ inches) was recorded. On November 11, the date of the first fatal train wreck in the US (in 1833) is DR. TERROR'S HOUSE OF HORRORS (1965). September 16's selection is WHITE ZOMBIE (1932), because on that day in 1915 Haiti became a US protectorate. And the movie for November 5, Guy Fawkes Day? No, not V FOR VENDETTA (2006); it's Antonio Margheriti's THE LONG HAIR OF DEATH (1964), which itself features the burning of an effigy. It's a rare movie fan who could resist at least thumbing through this book looking for the movie assigned to their birthday. (Lucky me: I get MARS NEEDS WOMEN for my birthday viewing.)

What would have likely become an instant White Elephant item if produced as an actual calendar (I know -- I've published a horror film calendar!) becomes a compellingly browsable book (and not limited to use over a single year, either). Best-known for his excellent 1930s horror reference GOLDEN HORRORS, Senn's entries for each film are smart, literate and interesting, and often leavened with quotes from various published sources related to the films. In case you have any doubt that Tom Weaver is the most valuable researcher classic horror films have ever had, just flip through this book at random; Tom's name appears on so many pages, crediting the sources for quotes and background information, he probably deserved co-author credit. Not all the data came from Weaver; there are also citations for works by David J. Skal, Mark A. Miller, Richard Bojarski, Robert Tinnell, David Del Valle, Dennis Fischer, Alan Upchurch, Bob Madison, Tom Johnson and Deborah Del Vecchio, as well as other articles from the pages of FANGORIA, FILMFAX and SCARY MONSTERS. (Me, I'm not so fortunate -- a few Mario Bava films are included herein, and the entries for BLACK SUNDAY [December 29, Barbara Steele's birthday] and BLACK SABBATH [March 7, the day the telephone was patented by Alexander Graham Bell] -- tap into my reseach and use at least one quote I obtained from Lamberto Bava, but other scribes are cited as the go-to people for Bava info. Oh, well.)

Senn's YEAR OF FEAR isn't exclusively horror, incidentally. There are several entries for science fiction films (WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE, QUEEN OF OUTER SPACE) and the odd marginal title like RASPUTIN AND THE EMPRESS. I could find only one silent film included: 1923's THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME, an odd inclusion when you realize that NOSFERATU and PHANTOM OF THE OPERA aren't represented and a later version of HUNCHBACK (Charles Laughton's) is. Nevertheless, A YEAR IN FEAR is commendable for providing a welcome structured curriculum for studying a well-considered cross-section of genre fare ranging from the early sound classics (like DRACULA, 1931) to contemporary releases (like DOG SOLDIERS, 2002). And you just might learn some fun things about history in the process.


In other book news, Black Coat Press will soon begin publishing in book form the collected video review columns of VW's own (occasional) Stephen R. Bissette. BLUR is the umbrella title for these volumes, and because our man Steve is nothing if not loquacious, the first volume will cover June 1999 through March 2000. Literate, informative, well worth reading, and well worth having. The very cool front-back cover design, seen above (and incorporating Steve's inimitable graphic stylings), is the work of Jon-Mikel Gates.

Read more about BLUR over on the official SRB blog MYRANT.