{"id":3582,"date":"2024-10-09T14:03:26","date_gmt":"2024-10-09T14:03:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kenandrobintalkaboutstuff.com\/?p=3582"},"modified":"2024-10-09T14:04:00","modified_gmt":"2024-10-09T14:04:00","slug":"ken-and-robin-consume-media-h-p-lovecraft-film-fest-highlights-plus-extreme-taipei-zombies-classic-giallo-and-e-a-poe-investigator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kenandrobintalkaboutstuff.com\/index.php\/ken-and-robin-consume-media-h-p-lovecraft-film-fest-highlights-plus-extreme-taipei-zombies-classic-giallo-and-e-a-poe-investigator\/","title":{"rendered":"Ken and Robin Consume Media: H. P. Lovecraft Film Fest Highlights, Plus Extreme Taipei Zombies, Classic Giallo, and E. A. Poe, Investigator"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon<\/a>. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we\u2019ll talk about in greater depth on a little podcast segment we like to call Tell Me More.<\/i><\/p>\n

Recommended<\/h2>\n

All the Colors of the Dark<\/a> (Film, Italy, Sergio Martini, 1972) When neither pharmaceuticals or psychoanalysis help a glamorous housewife (Edwige Fenech) with visions of a knife-wielding stalker, she allows a lonely new neighbor to induct her into an orgiastic ceremonial magic cult. Reality horror sexploitation giallo that clearly exerted an influence on Eyes Wide Shut. Consider this added to the Reality Horror 101 list from episode 614.\u2014RDL<\/p>\n

Civil War<\/a> (Film, US, Alex Garland, 2024) Veteran war photographer (Kirsten Dunst) reluctantly mentors an eager rookie (Cailee Spaeny) on the harrowing drive from New York to Washington in the closing days of a catastrophic internal conflict. Not an extrapolation of how armed struggle would break out in America, but an alarmingly realized nightmare of what it would feel like, using a quest structure as its backbone.\u2014RDL<\/p>\n

Dream Eater (Film, Canada, Alex Lee Williams, Jay Drakulic, & Mallory Drumm, 2024) Documentarian Mallory (Mallory Drumm) and her douchebag boyfriend Alex (Alex Lee Williams) rent a remote house to celebrate his birthday, but his troubling sleepwalking habits only get worse. Wisely breaking its found-footage conceit when need be, this supernatural possession flick plays all the hits with enough dedication and original spice (such as a weird whistle on the score that slowly becomes diegetic) to stay riveting to the end.\u2014KH<\/p>\n

The Man With a Cloak<\/a> (Film, US, Fletcher Markle, 1951) In 1848 New York, an earnest Parisian (Leslie Caron), who hopes her fianc\u00e9e\u2019s rich grandfather (Louis Calhern) will fund the cause of the Republic, suspects that his household retinue, led by a stern ex-actress (Barbara Stanwyck) is trying to kill him, prompting her new friend, a a skint, bibulous poet who calls himself Dupin (Joseph Cotten) to apply his powers of ratiocination. A top notch cast and literate script make this John Dickson Carr adaptation my new favorite in the \u201cEdgar Allan Poe investigates\u201d sub-sub-genre.\u2014RDL<\/p>\n

The Sadness<\/a> (Film, Taiwan, Rob Jabbaz, 2021) Young couple (Regina Lei, Berant Zhu) tries to find each other as an outbreak of smart, verbal, gleefully sadistic zombies rips through Taipei. Extremely harsh and violent survival horror in the shadow of COVID and Taiwan\u2019s existential security peril. When the horror streaming platform Shudder adds an extra level of content warnings, you\u2019d best believe them. \u2014RDL<\/p>\n

Strange Harvest: Occult Murder in the Inland Empire (Film, US, Stuart Ortiz, 2024) Superbly executed faux-documentary purports to tell the story of two San Bernardino cops (Peter Zizzo and Terri Apple) hunting a ritualistic serial killer. Almost too well-done to be a Netflix true crime doc, Ortiz\u2019 film serves up mutilation horror aplenty while slow-burn cosmicism mounts subtly in the background.\u2014KH<\/p>\n

Good<\/h2>\n

The Complex Forms (Film, Italy, Fabio D\u2019Orta, 2023) A down-and-out cook (David White) accepts 10,000 euro to wait in a mysterious villa to be possessed by alien beings. Black-and-white art-film sententiousness makes the movie\u2019s 74 minutes seem a rather long run for a short slide. Some arresting visuals and what might have been a high concept given different editing choices mean it\u2019s not forgettable even if it\u2019s not Recommended.\u2014KH<\/p>\n

Cynara <\/a>(Film, US, King Vidor, 1932) As he readies for self-exile in South Africa, a staid barrister (Ronald Colman) finally recounts to his wife (Kay Francis) the full details of the affair with a shopgirl (Phyllis Barry) that led to his public disgrace. Domestic drama takes a clear-eyed look at the soon-to-be forbidden subject of adultery, with Colman occasionally faltering when forced out of his understated comfort zone.\u2014RDL<\/p>\n

The Daemon (Film, USA, Matt Devino & David Michael Yohe, 2024) After his father\u2019s suicide, Tom (Tyler Q. Rosen) retreats to his family lake cabin, followed unwisely by his wife and in-laws. Some good monster effects, and believable characters, compensate somewhat for a pretty routine story. You\u2019ll never believe this, but trauma is the real monster.\u2014KH<\/p>\n

Tim Travers and the Time Traveler\u2019s Paradox (Film, US, Stimson Snead, 2024) Self-hating scientist\/smartass Tim Travers (Samuel Dunning) uses a time machine to kill his one-minute-younger self, repeatedly. Expanded from its 2022 short version (which was very funny) with more jokes which sometimes land, and a few big name guest stars driving subplots of varying effectiveness.\u2014KH<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we\u2019ll talk about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3409,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[52],"class_list":["post-3582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-audiofree","tag-ken-and-robin-consume-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenandrobintalkaboutstuff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenandrobintalkaboutstuff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenandrobintalkaboutstuff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenandrobintalkaboutstuff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenandrobintalkaboutstuff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenandrobintalkaboutstuff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenandrobintalkaboutstuff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenandrobintalkaboutstuff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenandrobintalkaboutstuff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenandrobintalkaboutstuff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}