Evil Toons is another film that isn’t soul-like, though there have been moments in the soul series that I’ve felt are spooky, and the “spooky” line delivered by Madison Stone (who plays Roxanne) was my favorite bit.
Clip and review below.
Evil Toons (1992) – 1/4 – Though the second half of its name is ‘Toons’, due to budget restraints, there are only about 90 seconds of so-called cartoonery in the movie. It does star thee – “Who appears in the film slightly longer than the amount of animation in it” – Dick Miller and pays homage to him along with a nod to Bucket of Blood (1959), directed by Roger Corman1. Bonuses: David Carradine has a killer entrance at the end, and the cast-credit sequence is aspirational.
According to Fred Olen Ray, Corman himself passed on backing the film as he felt it was too risky of a premise. ↩
Demons (1985) and Demons 2 (1986) are not Souls-like, but there was a moment in Demons 2, where a group of bodybuilders is trying to escape a demon horde and they go down a spiral staircase.
If you played any of the Souls series, the phrase “a spiral staircase moment” most likely conjures an image of something, such as Havel the trashcan. I was going to try to make a GIF of the effect, but it didn’t work; however, in the process of trying to capture the staircase moment, I inadvertently got this photo, and it struck an even deeper chord with my experience of playing the game(s) with friends.
Reviews of Demons and Demons 2 beneath the meme12.
Run away.
Reviews
Demons (1985) – 2/4 – A horror movie that turns into reality and attacks the audience. There is a WWF-style demon-zombie vs. moviegoer brawl, a motorcycle & katana head-chopping scene outdone moments later by a helicopter head-chopping scene, and an apocalyptic ending where the preppers survive. Don’t say Nostradamus didn’t tell you so.
Demons 2 (1986) – 2/4 – Best watched hot off the heels of Demons (1985).
The Church (1989) – 1/4 – Demons Souls deep cut. Damn you, Latria! And double damn you Prisoner Horde…↩
The Church (1989) – 1/4 – …or, Elden Ring. Look at my dumb ass mask. Check it, now I’m in another minor↩
Last night, I watched C.H.U.D. (1984). As kids, my brother and I saw it or C.H.U.D. II (1989), the latter featuring the ignominious Bud the C.H.U.D., and we identified something noteworthy enough in the films to continue referencing them in various ways over the years. Before revisiting it, I couldn’t recall anything from either film besides their names and basic premises. The first installment is entertaining in that so bad it goes back to good way, and it also has a strong cast, which helps. At turns, its plot – when not wholly laugh-out-loud falling down – wouldn’t have been out of place reworked into an X-files episode.
I don’t think there is any real connection, but at a couple of points in the film, I was put in the headspace of a Souls game and made this GIF. The resolution is lousy because to make it, I used images of the T.V. I shot with an iPad, but the same lack of fidelity could also be fittingly Souls-like; i.e., now its time to adjust your T.V.’s brightness/darkness until you barely see whatever it is you are to witness.
Me at corners in Dark Souls
Review
C.H.U.D. (1984) – 2/4 – The best part of this movie is that the reveal is with the acronym that has stood for one thing most of the story, but conspiratorially indicates something else, and my resultant uncertainty if this new information changes my understanding or experience of the events that transpire in the film as a whole.
The following video resulted from a workshop and deep listening exercise held on 3.10.23 on South Puget Sound Community College’s campus as part of the Digital Humanities Lab. The workshop was led by Jessie Lenderman, an instructor at the college who is a filmmaker and documentarian who uses inter-disciplinarian practices to inform her work.
In the first part of the exercise, participants were given an object and asked to write a short piece only describing it. Next, participants developed a second short written piece detailing personal associations with their chosen item. In the last part of the exercise, participants filmed the object, using the two former pieces of writing to help guide the audio-visualization of it.
Videos were shot on our phones. To edit the video, we used an open-source software program called OpenShot. Open-source software is distributed with its source code, making it available for use, modification, and distribution by anyone who uses it. Unlike software developed by many corporate entities for profit, open-source software is guided by an ethical component that fosters community, exchange, and learning.
In my video, I incorporated a recording of frogs I’d made on campus the evening before, around 8 PM. I was leaving the building when I heard them in a chorus.
As indicated above, the disc reader on my PS5 broke. Game over, it’s now the big sleep, and the disc reader is in dirt nap mode pushing up daises. I’m upset by this because I’m one of those rare people who was very excited to have the ability to watch BD and 4k discs on it. And the unit is now out of warranty, and I don’t see myself sending it back to Sony for repairs.
I read countless articles on Sony’s site and off; I viewed a playlist’s worth of videos, even one featuring a person who was overly pumped about explaining how to wipe your PS5. (He came across like the process was virtually alchemical, and once you’d followed his instructions, a new PS5 would rise up like a phoenix from its old husk.) I did everything I could to troubleshoot the issue, from clearing various caches to reinstalling the operating system; nothing remedied the problem. Multiple discs, games, and films, flipping things every which way to tomorrow — bottom line, it’s still broken AF.
I will say that the reinstall of the OS was pretty easy. I lost some of my game save information, but with any new game, my save points were all downloaded from the cloud fine. I did, however, lose all the pictures and clips I’d saved from gameplay. This was irritating, as I could have easily kept that information if I had remembered. But, on the flip side, now I have a reason to grab all new tourist-styled pictures of my exploits in Demon Souls. Here’s one of my new ones, right after I found a ring in some hell hole bog of blood, bits, and despair. The purpose of the ring I found? It lets you run quicker in bogs (novel), and now I can speed around in an even grosser bog that might be more accurately described as a dimly lit swamp of turds.
I found the Sodden Ring!
Back to the main point; the PlayStation is only a little over a year old. I’ve gone through some controllers in that time, which I expected, but I did not anticipate the disc reader getting toasted. I have film distributors, like Vinegar Syndrome and Arrow, that I’m a big fan of, especially their meticulous treatments of older media, and it was a lot of fun watching some of their BDs and 4Ks on the system. The last film that graced my PS5 was Righting Wrongs (1986) with Cynthia Rothrock and Yuen Biao. Spoiler Alert: Everybody dies at the end of that film; for a Hong Kong action film, it ends on an uncharacteristic downer note, but maybe that’s also fitting if your disc reader is going to go that way as well.
Dead like Cynthia Rothrock in Righting Wrongs (1986)
Recently I went to an escape room with some friends. I’m not good at these things, primarily because they privilege a particular type of observational ability. Knowing this, I expected to be little help, and besides figuring out a set of magnets was placed on a board, I wasn’t. Thankfully, our group wasn’t made up of people with my learning style/approach to the world. Among our group was my wife, who is very good at these things, and several other people I consider extremely intelligent.
The room we were assigned had a 28% success rate, and as the person at the front desk explained, their most challenging room. Never having done one, I didn’t know what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised that, as a designed experience, some of the puzzles were very innovative, almost closer to a ride or movie. (The props in our room suggested someone was a big fan of _The Fifth Element_.) In one instance, a laser had to be shined in multiple mirrors to trigger something.
The room had a 70-minute or so time limit. Our group got close to figuring it out, but we didn’t. I have to say, I don’t recall being frustrated during my time in the room. I had a nice time looking at the gadgets and do-dads. However, when we were released into a state of patronizing failure, I was seething with rage. Sure, I’ve already stated I was fully aware that I would never be an escape room gold medalist. So why was I so mad? My wife later commented that she touched my arm at the end, and I jerked away, which I don’t recall doing. Despite the haphazard set of steps to figure out the puzzle, what burned me most was that a group of reasonably educated people could not figure it out. I’ve felt frustrated in other walks of life when there are expectations to complete and participate in specific processes. However, there is no explanation or transparency about where that ‘participation’ leads or what it ultimately results in. It’s either that, or I’m just really competitive, and I don’t relish being made to feel like an idiot.
The takeaway? I’m glad I had the experience, and I’ll probably be thinking about my emotional reaction to it for some time. God, it pissed me off and still does.
I shot this on a Jazz DV151, which I got 10+ years ago at a Walmart for $20 dollars. The song was a weird accident, but I liked it whatever was happening.
Loss of Mt. Rainier is a film I made a while back. It is an adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “Loss of Breath”. In addition to being very happy with the way it turned out, I had a great time making the film and got the chance to work with a lot of talented people. I’ve posted a brief description of the film below.
When a social media star slips into a catatonic state, his body is abused on a macabre journey to the top of Mt Rainier.
