☆❀☆

Forgot to mention that I went to see Barbie last weekend.

I haven't been to the movies in ages. So, that was nice. Anyway -

It was fun! Mostly went to it 'cause I was interested in the costuming and set design, and it really delivered on that front. Amazing job there. Think I'll have to read up more on how they did all that, because seriously, the Barbie World look was awesome.

The humour was much better than expected. And the overall vibe was very sharp and witty in certain parts. (And sometimes much more serious than I thought it would be.) Margot Robbie was great. Also, loved Kate McKinnon as Weird!Barbie. She was awesome - wish she'd had a bit more screentime, I'd have happily watched more of her. Loved that punk mohawk-ish look she had toward the end.

My only complaints are:
1. I thought it dragged a little in the back third - maybe could have been condensed a little more?
2. There was too much Ken. I was all right with him at first, but as time went on, I was like, "I've had enough of this guy". Which is possibly part of the point. I did enjoy the rivalry between Gosling!Ken and Liu!Ken, tho'. And the dance number!

Overall thoughts: Fun movie! Not perfect, but better than expected. If you're the kind of person who watches something because you like the costuming/sets in the trailer, SEE IT, you won't regret it. Enjoyed it but didn't love it; I saw it in the morning with a discounted ticket and that was just right for me. Could see myself watching it again when it's available at the library, but I wouldn't do another round in cinema.

So, I finished Thomas Olde Heuvelt's witchy horror novel, HEX. It was good! And then I discovered -

In the author's commentary at the back, it says that the original version of the novel was set in the Netherlands. The English version of the novel is not just a translation, but a rewrite - which sets it in New England USA, and changes the ending.

Dude straight up did a remix AU of his own book! Huh.

So, my first thought was "wat", and my second thought was, "Sooo, I guess I need to learn Dutch so I can read the original, eh?"

Of course, I'm not actually going to go out and do that (though learning Dutch would be neat). But I do find it interesting that he did that.

The English version of the novel was enjoyable, but toward the end it seemed to go a little off the rails, and this makes me even more curious as to how the original ended, and whether I would have found the original ending more effective.

Plus, like - a novel set in the Netherlands about a town cursed by a 17th-century witch sounds really fucking cool, and would have a very different vibe from the US story. New England witches are kinda' cliche. Give me some Dutch witches, please! So, I'm mildly disappointed that the novel that English readers got isn't a direct translation of the original. (Just mildly disappointed, though.)

While I was reading it, I found myself thinking that it would make a good movie. I still think it would make a good movie. And now I find myself wondering about a potential (currently non-existent) movie adaptation, and if this theoretical movie existed, whether it'd be more likely to be a USA or a Dutch project, and whether they'd go with the English or the Dutch setting/ending, or some other option... Best of both worlds would be to have both a Dutch adaptation of the Dutch version, and a US adaptation of the English version, I suppose!

Anyway, final thoughts: HEX was very enjoyable! Worth a read. However, I think I liked Echo more - it was scarier and a bit more tightly-written (possibly due to not being rewritten? Who knows).

I recently watched the 1967 film In the Heat of the Night.

This was my first time seeing it. Excellent film, would recommend! I'd heard good things about Sidney Poitier's acting, and wasn't disappointed - he was great. (This is actually the first film I've seen with him in it, and I'm looking forward to watching more of his filmography.) Hell, everyone's acting in this was good.

If, like me until recently, you've never seen this movie before, the premise is: A Black homicide detective from Philadelphia is passing through a small town in Missisippi, where he's accused of murder. When it becomes clear that he didn't commit the crime, he's told to help solve it.

This is an intense movie - partly because of the plot in general, and largely because of the civil rights tensions of the time, which are front and centre. It's also a solid mystery movie, and very visually appealing, with some great cinematography. Also a really good soundtrack.

I watched all the extras and now I kind of want to watch the whole film again with the audio commentary on. Going to have to make time for that.

Anyway! Yes! Good movie. Would definitely recommend.

Finished watching The Terror: Infamy a few days ago.

As a recap, Infamy was AMC's attempt to make The Terror into an anthology series, so this "season 2" is completely unrelated to the age of sail arctic horror from season 1. I've already given my thoughts on that decision (not a fan), so I won't get into it now. It's hard to talk about the two seasons without comparing them, but I'm going to try, since they're essentially completely unrelated shows and it wouldn't make sense to hold one up to the other.

Infamy is set during WWII, in a Japanese internment camp in the coastal USA, and the monster in this season is a yurei.

George Takei had a consulting role in this series. He's also acting in it, but his part is small and I wouldn't suggest watching it just for him.

Visually, it was pretty good. I mean in terms of costuming, visuals, effects - this show is really easy on the eyes. (And, okay, there are some very pretty people in it, which also helps. ;p) And the effects in the horror-specific parts were good, not cheesy or ineffective.

The supernatural/horror elements are more thoroughly incorporated here than they are in the original-flavour The Terror; the yurei is an important part of the story and doesn't feel pasted on, unlike season 1's Tuunbaq. In some cases the humans and the overall situation are scarier than the monster, but I think that's to be expected with a story like this. It did have a few super effective scary monster scenes, though!

Overall, it has a hopeful ending, though not everybody makes it through in one piece.

Infamy was pretty all right; not an amazing must-rec, but I thought it was worth the time to watch it. Started out doing one episode every few days, but after a bit I was watching it two at a time because I wanted to know what happened next. So, there is that. I did go into it with low expectations, because a lot of reviews I'd seen said that it was underwhelming, so this is something to take into consideration. I did find the writing uneven, and I broadly agree with the people who say that the execution doesn't live up to the concept, but it was still a lot better than I expected it to be.

I would recommend giving it a look if any of these factors appeal to you:
+ WWII US setting from the perspective of Japanese-American characters
+ Japanese monsters/ghosts/bakemono/etc
+ Pretty people in '40s clothing (and also kimono in some cases)
+ "Historical setting + horror" concept in general

I would not recommend it if these factors are important to you:
- If you need an active fandom in order to be interested in watching something (Infamy has none to speak of)
- If you want M/M or F/F canon relationships or slashy shipping potential
- If you liked original-flavour The Terror and want more of the same

So, I had assumed that the adaptation of Stephen King's The Outsider was a movie, but it's actually a 9-episode HBO series. Whoops! That was a surprise when I went to pick up my library holds. Anyway, I've been watching it on and off over the past couple of weeks; if I weren't so short on time, I would have gone through it much more quickly.

I will say, I'm rather glad that it's actually a series - a lot of stuff happens in this novel, and I don't know if it would work as well if it were broken down to a movie-length story.

Like the novel, this isn't one to pick up if you don't enjoy procedurals. The police/mystery/investigative angle is already there in the premise, and it doesn't go away here.

There are a lot of changes, but in general I found the adaptation choices interesting rather than annoying. Partly this is because I'm not overly attached to the narrative/characters in the novel, but also because the lack of straight-up retread kept it fresh.

Holly Gibney was my favourite character in the novel, and I really liked her here too. She's played by Cynthia Erivo, who I haven't seen in anything before - guess I might need to seek out some of her other work. TV!Holly is quite different from book!Holly, especially in terms of vibe - TV!Holly comes across as more grounded and confident, to me. Still a very unusual person, but more sure of herself than book!Holly.

There was one thing that I feel kind of mixed about - ( Continued, spoilery )

After looking up information about this series, I see that a second season was scripted, though the series was not renewed. I find it surprising that a second season was planned. There isn't anywhere to go after this; the book is done. (Unless King wrote/planned a sequel that I don't know about - always possible.) I suppose there could always be something with Ralph and Holly teaming up to investigate another crime that turns out to be something weird, but I don't know if that works for me.

Overall impression: I enjoyed both the novel and the series; the series isn't a strict retread, and that kept things interesting. Holly was great. Both book and tv adaptation are enjoyable on their own merits.

One thing that the novel does better than the series, though, is that the horror is much scarier in the book! A lot of the scenes that I found pretty creepy or viscerally unpleasant weren't as effective in visual form. Possibly this is because a lot of it was relying on kind of existential, figurative stuff that's hard to get across in a visual format.

Recently watched Underwater, the 2020 science fiction/horror film with Kristen Stewart. I'd heard a little bit of discussion about it before it came out, but not really anything since.

I've seen this film described as "like Alien, but under the sea", and I think that's not a bad way to put it. The deep-sea underwater oil rig setting kind of has space station vibes to it. And while the monsters are quite different from what we see in Alien, there's still that very... horrible otherworldliness that I found pretty effective.

Don't think I've watched anything with Kristen Stewart in it before, but I really liked her in this. She's the central character, and really owns the role. There are a few scenes where her character is distressed, freaking out, and then manages to take control of the situation and walk through getting the hell out even while terrified, and I think she pulled off all that stuff really effectively. I just really liked watching her.

Overall, I found it a solid film that held my attention the entire time. If you liked Alien, you might like this. If you like horror that deals with isolation, survival, underwater settings, and/or sea monsters, this might be one to watch. It isn't a top favourite, but I'd happily watch it again.

I found out that The Killers released a new album last week: Imploding the Mirage. Sweet!

Had it on loop almost constantly for a couple days now. I haven't really kept up with their work much since the release of Sam's Town (2006), but their sound here has a lot in common with what brought me to them in the first place. They're a bit more polished now, but still consistent.

I'd say that all of the tracks on this album are good; there isn't a single one that I consider a dud. Definitely worth taking a look if you're a fan of their previous work.

One of my favourite tracks on it is "Lightning Fields" feat. k. d. lang. The music swells in a way that I really like; there's some neat choral stuff going on there that I associate with Killers songs that I like best, too. And there's some aspects to the musical part of this particular track - the baseline, the hints of piano, and the way it all mixes in with the vocals - that reminds me of some of Chris de Burgh's stuff, which is a plus because I really like his music. The bit where k. d. sings is short, but she sounds really good.

(Though honestly, even though I like Brandon Flowers' vocals a lot, I'd like this track even more as a f/f cover - or like, k. d. + another female singer - but that goes without saying.)

Another one that I really like is "My God" feat. Weyes Blood. Lots of energy, kind of stompy and fun, and has that backing vocals thing going on that I love.

Looks like they have another album coming out next year, too. These guys never stop!

Went to see 1917 with my parents this evening.

I liked it! Can't see myself jumping at a chance to see it again, but I'm glad I took the time to watch it. I do like WWI movies now and then, and this one lends itself well to the big screen.

For a good deal of the film I kept wondering where I'd seen one of the mains... George MacKay, who played Lance-Corporal Schofield. I knew I'd seen him somewhere - turns out it was in Marrowbone, which I'd watched last year. A very odd film, and a very different genre than this one, but worth a look if you liked him in this.

I've heard a lot of buzz about the cinematography, which was my primary interest in seeing it. But I found that the "continuous shot" aspect kind of faded into the background after the initial novelty wore off. Which is fine, because it's a relatively straightforward film. When the cinematography really shines, it's toward the end - don't want to go into too much detail, but those who've seen it will know what I mean. That bit was excellent.

I know 1917 is in the running for a cinematography Oscar, but so is The Lighthouse, and between the two of them I hope The Lighthouse takes it. Can't speak of the others in the list, as I haven't seen them.

I watched The Lighthouse last night.

It has been on my list of potential to-watch for a while, but then I heard that it received an Oscar nomination for Best Cinematography, and that made me bump it to the front of the queue.

As usual, I didn't look up much information beforehand. I had vague impressions that it was a relatively straightforward drama/historical + horror, sort of in the same vein as The Terror except as a film about two lighthouse keepers, and that it would have a mermaid or a kraken or both.

What I did not expect was a highly surreal, homoerotic, black-and-white art film about two guys going bonkers in a lighthouse, with various Greek Mythology references and a touch of eldritch horror.

It gave me a similar feeling as what I got when watching Ingmar Bergman's Persona: highly unsettled, and unsure if I actually liked it or not. It's a deeply weird film.

At any given time, it's unclear whether what's happening on screen is actually happening. There are a lot of questions about what, exactly, happened here. (And what, exactly, happened before the start of the film, too.)

I see that part of the original inspiration for it was one of Edgar Allan Poe's stories, which does explain a few things.

On the subject of cinematography, which brought me here in the first place – I hope it wins that cinematography award, because it's 100% deserved.

This is a beautiful film and it's really clear that a lot of care was taken to shoot it in such a way that the visuals would contribute to the atmosphere. It was shot with heavy use of dark shadow, which gives an incredibly claustrophobic effect. And the use of black and white film was quite a choice, because it behaves much differently than digital b&w or colour-correcting to monochrome – light shows up differently on actual b&w film than the other options, and they used the medium to its full artistic potential. That combined with the aspect ratio they shot in, and the slight graininess of everything, gave it all the look of a film made pre-1950, with the attention to cinematography that good older films had.

I would definitely recommend this to people who enjoy art films and good cinematography. I'm not sure I would generally recommend it to horror fans, though people who enjoy unnerving and surreal horror might consider giving it a try.

Sabaton released The Great War* last month, and man, am I ever in love with it! What an album. It's been a while since I've listened to any metal, and this was exactly what I needed.

Like the title suggests, it's a concept album centred around the First World War. They've done individual songs about this period before, but never a full album about it.

There isn't a single dud on this one; all of the songs are good. It starts off really strong with "The Future of Warfare", and then just keeps going. Some of the tracks that stand out most for me are "Seven Pillars of Wisdom" and "The Attack of the Dead Men". The album's sober, subdued closing note of a choral version of "In Flanders Fields" caps the theme off perfectly.

When comparing it to their previous album, The Last Stand, I think I have a slight preference for the songs on Last Stand as individual works. "Sparta" and "Blood of Bannockburn" and "Winged Hussars" are amazing all on their own. In The Great War, what I like best is the way that they work as a cohesive whole. As a concept album, it's meant to fit together as one work, and it's effective at that. But that might just be because this album is new, and I haven't sunk my teeth into each song on its own yet.

The Great War is a much better album than Heroes, thankfully. Heroes has some amazing tracks on it, like "Night Witches", which is one of their best songs ever, and "Resist and Bite", which is awesomely catchy. But it also had some songs that don't hit the mark. "The Ballad of Bull" tells a stirring story, but Joakim's voice isn't very suited to such a slow and melancholy song, and he makes it into a dirge that I find really hard to listen to. There aren't any tracks like that on The Great War.

I had hoped that this album would have a song about Canadians, or maybe even an indiviual person from Canada, and I wasn't disappointed. "Ghost in the Trenches", about Ojibwe sniper Francis Pegahmagabow, is an absolute banger! I'm really happy about it for a few reasons. In addition to being an awesome song, it's centred around a figure that I know a little bit about, which makes it extra fun for me; it might inspire fans to find out more about him, and more generally about the First Nations soldiers who contributed to Canada's war effort during WWI; and finally, it's not about Vimy Ridge. I had figured Vimy would be the obvious choice for a song about Canadians, if they were going to do one at all, since it's kind of a cliche about this point. I'm really glad that we were spared that.

Tracklist & Song Themes

01. The Future of Warfare - Use of tanks during the battles of Flers-Courcelette* and Villers-Bretonneux*
02. Seven Pillars of Wisdom - T. E. Lawrence*
03. 82nd All The Way - Alvin York*
04. The Attack of the Dead Men - The pyrrhic Russian victory at Osowiec Fortress, 1915*
05. Devil Dogs - US Marines in the Battle of Belleau Wood*
06. The Red Baron - Manfred von Richthofen*
07. Great War - Battle of Passchendaele*
08. A Ghost in the Trenches - Francis Pegahmagabow*
09. Fields of Verdun - French victory at Battle of Verdun, 1916*
10. The End of the War to End All Wars - WWI casualties*
11. In Flanders Fields - Choral version of John McCrae's poem*

I was a little surprised that they included a song about Passchendaele, considering they tackled that back on The Art of War with "Price of a Mile". But then again, it isn't the first time they've revisited a topic - they do have two songs about the Winter War, after all. And "Great War" is a great song, so I'm not complaining at all.

In short, I'm really, really happy with this album. It was totally worth the wait.

One thing that I will note: there is more than one version of The Great War. There is the regular version, which just has the songs. Then there's the "history edition", which has narration telling the story of the track before each song. Sabaton used a similar motif in their album The Art of War. On that album, the narration is on its own track in most cases, so you can turn the narration off for most of the songs if you're putting the album on an mp3 player. In the history edition of The Great War, the narration is incorporated into the track and can't be separated from its song unless you're using editing software to do so. The idea of the history edition is pretty cool, but I don't recommend adding it to your collection unless you're really into metal that incorporates spoken narrative.

There is also a "soundtrack edition", which has instrumental, non-metal versions of the songs, like a film or video game soundtrack. Now, this is pretty damn cool, and I might add it to my collection at some point. You can check out the Soundtrack Edition on their bandcamp.*

As always, I'm really curious about what direction they're going to go in after this. It probably won't be a concept album like this one. But whatever the theme of their next one is, I hope there will be some songs centred around events from earlier centuries. I loved their Carolus Rex album - it's still one of my favourites - and it would be awesome if they tackled more events from the Northern Wars. ...Okay, I confess, mostly I want a song about Tordenskjold. ;)

Or maybe they could put together something themed around even earlier time periods. "Sparta" on The Last Stand is an awesome song, but it's also a total outlier in Sabaton's works because they don't usually write about ancient history. It would be cool if they did some works themed around the Roman empire; in particular, I'd love a song about Hannibal Barca and Scipio Africanus. Or... you know what, it would be neat if they stepped really far outside of their typical historical and geographic area, and did a song about the Battle of Red Cliff. But I might have a bit of bias there.

Another thing for the wishlist: more songs in Swedish. I was so happy that they put out a Swedish version of Carolus Rex - Joakim's voice sounds ridiculously sexy when he's singing in that language, hot damn - but they haven't done anything similar since then as far as I know.

Regardless of what Sabaton does next, I'm sure it'll be interesting! They've found some great energy with The Great War, and I hope they keep it up.