Ironic, Sometimes Funny, & Alltogether Creepy
599143
This is one creepy movie, and yes, I understood&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Dogma-Blu-ray/dp/B0011UF792/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Dogma [Blu-ray</a>]. This is a spoof of the Waco massacre, yet current affairs are intertwined with the Reverend Fred Phelps being used as the archetype for the film's bigotry-fueled, lava spewing preacher. Bible-brand, ritualistic killings of abducted teens instigates big brother to intervene, and the movie spirals into an ironic bloodbath that serves as a spiritual successor of sorts to Dogma. Kevin Smith is not afraid to experiment, and I enjoy his talent more as a serious filmmaker than cult comedian. The Rapture sequence was the cherry on top of the cake.
4780798
Over the years, Abaddons built a reputation for focusing on the different, and publishing stories that are simultaneously weird, wonderful, and offbeat. When you grab an Abaddon book, you never really know what you're going to find inside it, but you know its gonna be good. Maybe a little gross, probably a little creepy, but gross-creepy good.

Invaders from Beyond offers up three novellas generally arranged around an alien invasion theme. Dont let the awesome spaceship cover confuse you, though. Strange things are afoot inside these pages. If you came here looking for the same old Independence Day remake, or big thugs beating up on cute, innocent little ETs, you're barking up the wrong tree, my man.

Colin Sinclairs Midnight in the Garden Center of Good and Evil is a tour de force of WTF, with a crew of bumbling heroes pitted against pod people whove set up shop in a garden center. Of good and evil...

Tim Majors Blighters are, well, gross, honestly and toothily terrifying yet oddly tragic. Majors alien incarnation sparks complex emotionslove, fear, even pityin his characters, reminding us to be wary of judging books by their covers.

Julian Bensons Rags, Bones and Tea Leaves defies explanation. Its a ghost story, a monster story, a murder mystery rife with prognostication and regret.

I loved all three novellas in this collection and the alien invasion theme. Sinclairs quirky humor had me laughing, Majors creeping around looking for monsters made me tuck up under a blanket and keep glancing over my shoulder, and Bensons moody mystery left me slightly sad, but in a good way.

Snap this book up if you want something different. Snap it up even if you don't because you really do, you just don't know it yet.
623012
If John Waters' name appeared in the credits, this film would be hailed as a work of genius.  In its own strange way, it's as campy as a John Waters film, with more laughs and higher production values.  And it's wonderfully WEIRD -- like being on some sort of mildly psychedelic drug that renders everything in a delicious slow motion.  Star Jackie Vernon was famous for his deadpan delivery, but this film goes beyond deadpan into all new territories of surrealism.  The jokes are juvenile and the cannibalism is gross, to be sure, but there's a peculiar wholesomeness underlying everything.  The film isn't mean-spirited or depraved, as bizarre as that is in itself.  Vernon's character isn't a maniac -- all he wanted out of life was a bologna sandwich, and events simply developed from there.  The crude jokes are easy to enumerate, but it's the stranger, more idiosyncratic humor that really makes the film and generates the biggest laughs.  For every easy gag involving ample bosom-shaped holes in a construction site wall, there's subtler humor that's wholly original.  For example, there's a long-running gag about excruciatingly pronounced French words, tying into the tacky frozen cuisine that Vernon's wife is obsessed with, and culminating with a bizarre French street performer in a Big Bird costume.  It doesn't really translate on the written page, but as part of the tapestry of the film, it's hilarious.  Then there's a murder witnessed by a plaster bust of Beethoven.  There's that moment when a hooker asks Vernon whether they should start with French or Greek, and Vernon answers that he's more into Japanese and Yugoslavian.  There's the drowsy psychiatrist who swats flies in his sleep as Vernon confesses his murders, then wakes up to reassure Vernon that "eating a woman" can be a very beautiful act.  And there's the moment when Vernon hefts with difficulty a fresh corpse onto a chopping block and mutters to himself that THIS is why he'd been celibate for 15 years.  The film is often hailed as the worst ever made and an example of schlock, but if only trashy movies were always THIS inspired.
1979956
So David - shut up, he's David - writes more stuff which fits in as Harold-and-Kumar meet Cthulhu, but while the banter, crassness and mindfkery has become familiar, it remains its own thing. We may know it'll be "Robert Anton Wilson is touched in a bad place by Clive Barker", but we've also watched about a hundred movies about good cops pushed to the edge and keep going back for more.
Here, more than I recall from This Book is Full of Spiders..., there's a sense of David and John of being your old...friends...even if they're your friends who make horrible sodomy jokes at your grandma's seance.

I felt like I ought to write the review now because a passage about human relationships and depression touched me, and it's also part of David's style to do this as well.

Even if most of it feels like you've been face-down in a gutter having licked acid that was printed on Stephen King epilogues.
4385261
A bit on the goofy side, but in a self effacing way, so it happens to be funny. Worth a look!
2212872
Let me say this up front. Not everyone will like this book. If you are looking for something serious, you probably won't want to get this book. Heck, even if you aren't, there's a chance that you may not like the tone in this book. Either way, you should still probably check it out. It's pretty funny.

The book follows the adventures of Dunkin, an obese vampire hunter who has spent a good portion of his long life alone. He has to eat or the vampire blood inside of him may take over. It isn't until he meets the hairy carpenter Ash & the alcoholic detective Devil that his life begins to change for the better & he finds that there may be life after Twinkies. With wimpy vampire masters, man eating anacondas, vampiric animals & the hottest female vamp this side of Kate Beckinsale, Dunkin may finally have bitten off more than he can chew.

Ok, so now I'm going to attempt to elaborate on the "you may not like this book" bit. This book manages to combine the silliness of a Marx Brothers movie with the fun of an old pulp novel. Part of what makes this book work so well is that Crites manages to pull off some of the funniest one liners I've read in vampire fiction lately. Is this book going to win the high muckity muck award from the high & mighty so & sos? Nah, probably not. Is it entertaining & fun to listen to? Yup, you betcha.

If you are unsure as to whether or not you want to buy this book, there are podcasts of this available on the internet to listen to & I encourage you to hear them. Crites is incredibly fun to listen to. (But you should buy the books as well & read while listening- it'd be like those read along books, only instead of a chime telling you to turn the page there would be a big HAR!)
1590813
This is a rollicking, funny book that gets more bleak as it continues, which is an unusual pattern. But it works, as you are sucked into the stories that the main character, Samuel, uncovers about his family's past.  I'd compare it to Saul Bellow in a sense, though it's not less sex-obsessed the way that Bellow can be.  But it has that same blend of bleak realism and hilarious absurdity, based on the obsessions of the main character.

The word "nix" references Norwegian folklore, as a nix is a spirit, usually an evil or mischievous one. And a nix seems to be clouding over Samuel's family for several generations. Because the nix is taken to have some basis in reality, the story can go off into supernatural realms, or at least into the realms of the implausible, and yet maintain its general reference to real-world events.  In other words, the story uses as its backdrop familiar tropes such as the anti-Vietnam movement and the 1968 Chicago riots at the Democratic National Convention, while going into implausible scenarios about who knows who, and what they did for each other or did to each other decades in the past.

The best and funniest trope is that Samuel is a failed short story writer who has an adjunct teaching gig at a college near Chicago. He teaches freshman English to students who don't want to be in the room, and early in the book he runs afoul of Laura, a marketing major who's about 1/10th as smart as she thinks she is, and about 500% more entitled than she deserves to be. She's like a Trump family member, but on a small scale.  The scenes in which Laura turns her plagiarism into "our problem," meaning that it's Samuel's fault for uncovering it, and then twisting that to create an investigation of Samuel are priceless. And infuriating.

A lot of the book is infuriating because people could do things to fix their problems, but they don't act, or they act in self-destructive ways. And they know it and you know it and Samuel knows it, but it happens anyway. Samuel's mother does this by quitting on her hope of having a career in a big city, by leaving Samuel when he's about 9 years old and by a moment of violence that opens the action in the book. Samuel's father does it by being passive in light of his wife's bad decisions. Samuel's grandfather does it by leaving his Norwegian home and being angry about it for his entire life. Samuel does it by pining after the beautiful Bethany from age 10, but never acting on his love for her or her affection for him. Nor does Samuel effectively help Bethany's brother, who was Samuel's one true friend but had demons of his own to exorcise.

All this unravels in the space of a few months as Samuel is forced to delve into his past, uncover the secrets, and shake up his pathetic life as an indifferent teacher and obsessive participant in a multi-gamer online world that has substituted for any real life.  (And those descriptions of the online game and the other players with whom Samuel interacts also are hilariously spot-on, but also vicious and even disgusting at times.)

Here's what will stick with me from the book.  Laura's insane monologues that twist her blame into everyone else's problems and the ridiculous enabling responses of her school's administration. The viciousness of the violence inflicted by cops in the Chicago protests.  The pining that Samuel has for both Bethany and her brother.  And the life led by former radical student Alice, who ultimately brings to light the issues that Samuel's mother faced.  These are deeply moving elements in the book, and they overshadow parts that are run-of-the-mill stuff about a guy who is living in the past and who is smarter than but an outsider in the mundane world in which he lives.
4755543
If Ghostbusters and Ferris Bueller's Day Off ever had a love child, it'd be Odd Thomas, an endearing, witty romantic dramedy-slash-supernatural-thriller about a small desert town in California beset by demonic apparitions and a satanic cabal of deranged would-be mass murderers.

Adapted from the Dean Koontz novel and directed by Hollywood middleweight Stephen Sommers (The Mummy, G.I. Joe: Retaliation), the $27 million pic stars the always-brilliant Anton Yelchin as oddball short-order cook and ghost wrangler Odd Thomas. (His mom tells him a typo in the birth certificate reduced him from Todd to Odd, while his dad insists Odd was his proper given name.)

When Odd, who narrates the story Ferris Bueller-style, isn't flipping pancakes at the diner on Main Street or nuzzling with his devoted, diminutive sexpot of a girlfriend, Stormy Llewellyn (Addison Timlin), he helps murdered souls find justice.

"I may see dead people," he tells the camera, "but then, by God, I do something about it."

Odd is svelte, almost lanky, and all thumbs, and he's more likely to be seen on a cherry-red scooter than in an Aston Martin, but the self-described "undercover detective for dead people" knows his martial arts, and he's an old hand at tracking down evildoers and delivering them to the town police chief, Wyatt Porter (Willem Dafoe).

Odd Thomas shifts into thriller mode when Odd notices that one of the town's creepiest dudes is always accompanied by a posse of wraithlike creatures called bodachs. See, these demonic types live off fear and pain, and show up when a violent event is about to occur.

While Odd Thomas is nicely outfitted with diverting set pieces, comic situations, and a seriously smoldering romance, it errs on the cloying. Yelchin, solid for the most part, relies on the teen cuteness that served him so well in Charlie Bartlett.

The special effects seem out of date, silly. The bodachs, especially, look like the discards from a computer animation seminar.

The biggest problem with Odd Thomas isn't the film itself, but the bad rep it has accrued. Slated for a 2011 release, it was stuck for nearly three years in a litigious limbo, finally to be released quietly, on the sly. In the meantime, cast, director, and producers alike seem to have moved on, leaving the film bereft of the PR campaign that could have helped it become at least a sleeper hit, if not a blockbuster.

It's a shame: Yelchin deserves the exposure, the chance finally to become an A-list heavyweight.
4057173
Of course this is becoming a relic in the archives of rock and roll writing, but it will have its place. With so few reader reviews a latecomer won't get too many gripes, and I'll try to avoid repeating what other reviews say. Contextually, this is an exercise in wordplay and anecdote from someone with unique experience and evidently a hankering to put it down as an alternate expression of creativity. It is so... odd! Oddness abounds I always say, in abundance. Not a word about the bass guitar, except the occasional "I had to go retrieve my guitar" or something close. No advice on playing a scale or about flat wounds or anything like that. No information (hardly) about the forming of the Attractions. Actually precious little about "the singer", Elvis. Mostly a lot of dreary (in tone) philosophy about the road. But amazingly turned!

Some of the old jokes are good to hear in the retelling, some new ones are hilarious even with an elaborate setup, and there are a few stories which are great fun. As a book it might have worked better in installments. As road-trip prose it's inventive and annoying at the same time. In that way it stands up, surprisingly. This book won't be what you expect (it's not what anyone expected), and it may not satisfy satisfactorily, you might not feel complimented if you live in Texas or the midwest U.S., and it might give you a case of the bleaks. But it also might help you realize what's important in life, how family and love matter, and how creativity matters - it really does. Things that have to come from your own perspective, after contemplating the words in this book.

There are a thousand reasons why a band breaks up. It's a miracle Jake & company found three guys as good and able to survive together into the '80's. Bruce has said that Elvis went from being IN a band to HAVING a band, but let's face it, there was never a project without Elvis Costello. The Attractions are the world's greatest band according to Elvis Costello at the induction ceremony. That case can be reasonably argued, in my opinion. However this book does not relate to much of that. I recommend it to the E.C. & The Attractions fan, but don't keep turning pages looking for the part that pissed off Elvis and got Bruce "fired from the band, twice!" It is not to be found. In fact, that appears to have been a fabrication largely from Bruce (by his own introspective admission) to sell, perhaps, more books.
1089714
Very strange - in a creepy but good way.  Describes a lot of "empty" people whose persona is completely derived from others.  Not so much "under" the skin as just plain Johansson skin...
1702253
Warning: not to be read in a single night, weekend, or even over a week. Even though the bites can be easily swallowed, don't be tempted. Make it last.

Most likely, I'm not the first to comment this: Ben Loory's stories remind me a wee of Russell Edson's poetry. Dare I say this? The matter-of-fact entries in present tense, ("The octopus is spooning sugar into his tea when there is a knock on the door."  the outlandish assertions, (Abruptly, the boy realizes he can fly.") and the objects or animals given voice, ("Well, says the moose, I'm not saying that I'm afraid of them, understand. But they're always out in the woods looking at me.) are techniques these two authors share.

However, despite some familiarities in style, the world needs more curious-surreal-slipstream-magical-realism-original-clever-paranormal-odd-strange-funny-peculiar-weird-left-field-irregular-atypical-distinctive prose, therefore the planet is better for the arrival of Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day.

These are short pieces to appreciate--each has a zany tang and should be mulled-over. After reading, humankind will look different, a little more secretive, a little more singular. The animals, too.
4870865
This is an interesting, rather shrill, and sometimes very funny book.  It alternates between comic essays and celebrity-stuffed autobiographical passages.  The author seems preoccupied with genitals as a source of humor as well as metaphor.  Example:  describing someone's mouth as a horizontal vagina. That was bit weird, I thought.
3961111
I recently dug this book out on a whim, after having not so much as looked at it for perhaps five years or more, and was genuinely surprised and delighted.  The stories are a lot more mature than I would have expected for a book marketed to children.  I say this not because they are in any way inappropriate, but because they deal with somewhat darker themes than most believe children can handle--love, death, loss, choice, sacrifice, abuse, and so forth.  None of the writers "talk down" to the target audience, which is unfortunately a trend that has always manifested in cinematic family events.  It's too bad these tales are considered "mere" children's fare; adults are apparently missing out on a number of fulfilling works.

The stories range from creepy to sad to humorous to simply bizarre, and are usually anywhere from five to thirty pages, with illustrations (the shortest story I've ever seen in one of these collections was less than a hundred words).  I can't say that any of them gave me nightmares, but some of them actually came close, which is an accomplishment, given that it's very hard for me to reach a state of fear through books or even most movies.

The most notable entries, from my perspective, include the strange and darkly humorous "Letters from Camp," told from the perspective of a juvenile delinquent writing letters to his parents in which he expresses rather justified misgivings about his summer vacation establishment; a creepy and somewhat surreal entry called "Vampire for Hire," about a boy who orders a vampire through the mail thinking it will help cure his bully problems; "One Chance," a touching number about two misfit friends who find a way out of the cruel world that maltreats them; "Jenny Nettles," a nautical tale about a cursed figurehead that effectively conveys a sense of darkness and witchery on the high seas; "The Sight of the Basilisk," which tells of the meeting between an orphan and the dreaded creature that guards ancient tombs from graverobbers, a creature the sight of which means death; "The Teacher Who Could Hear"--by far the creepiest story in the book--about a teacher who can hear things most people can't--like death; "Life with a Slob", which relates a weird (and touching, in its own odd way) story about a boy and his relationship to the living, breathing Mess that accumulates on his bedroom floor; the short but rather frightening "Campfire", in which a sad outcast tells a rather unusual story in the deep, dark woods; and "Past Sunset," about a beautiful, hypnotic female ghost that wanders the streets of an Italian (I think) village after dark.  This latter has something of a predictable ending, but the author builds a satisfying atmosphere of dread, wonder, and a strange sort of beauty.

Obviously that leaves only a few tales that I apparently wasn't so fond of.  "Grendel" is entirely redundant for anybody who's read or even knows of Beowolf (and the lead characters explain how redundant the story is by repeating the major plot points, which parallel this quite closely).  "The Thing in Auntie Alma's Pond" is good and haunting, in a way, but also feels somewhat familiar.  And "Those Three Wishes" is pretty much worthless, with an annoying setup, an obnoxious main character, and a silly, predictable end.

Anyhoo, I guess my point is that just because something is designated as "Children's Literature" does not mean it offers nothing of value to adults.  These 13 (imagine that) stories are equal parts good writing, entrancing imagination, fine characters, and well-handled life issues.
4816177
Horror-comedies were like the peanut butter-n-chocolate of the '80s: packaged for easy consumption, the two genres were a good match for a decade more interested generating laughs than genuine scares.  An American Werewolf in London, Night of the Creeps, even the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre was sequelized (quite successfully) as a black comedy rather than a bleak slasher.  Lost in the shuffle was Vamp (1986), produced under Roger Corman's New World banner, which took an almost impossibly puerile set-up - college kids, vampires and strippers - and whipped up something cutesy, colorful and unique.

Prospective fraternity members AJ and Keith (Robert Rusler and Chris Makepeace) head into a sketchy part of downtown L.A. to hire a stripper for an upcoming soiree, catching a ride with wealthy dork (Gedde Watanabe) who hires their friendship for the week.  They quickly identify the club's main attraction, Katrina (Grace Jones), as their first choice.  But Katrina and the rest of the on-stage talent, are actually blood-sucking vampires who feed on the dregs of humanity.  Now our trio of horny college kids is worried not just about getting laid...but getting laid to rest!

Vamp's synopsis is wrapped in the dreck of '80s sex comedies, but in execution it's a much more romantic affair, focusing on a meet-cute relationship between Keith and one of the club's waitressess, Allison (played by a perky Dedee Pfeiffer, Michelle's sister), instead of the expected bumping and grinding.  It's never scary, but there are a number of convincing make-up applications from Greg Cannon alongside some incredibly eye-popping lighting effects from director of photography Elliot Davis.  The film is bathed in green and magenta highlights, inside and out, creating an otherworldly feeling during the club scenes and even on the city streets where our protagonists are pursued by a gang of albino street punks (you just had to be there).

But director Richard Wenk's biggest asset is his cast, including Seinfeld's Sandy Baron as Vic the nighclub manager, whose creatively vulgar stage introductions are delivered with just the right amount of world-weary cynicism, and, of course, Grace Jones who's like a brilliant piece of set design brought to life.  At the heart of it all is Chris Makepeace (Meatballs, My Bodyguard), so comfortable as both the sidekick and a reluctant hero it's shocking he left the profession.

Vamp, like its cast of undead characters, has emerged from the coffin looking better than ever.  Arrow Video's new hi-def transfer does wonders with the color scheme and extras include a comprehensive documentary that gathers all the principal cast and creative members (except for Jones, who we hear was a bit of a diva on set), plus a blooper reel, image gallery, trailers and Richard Wenk's 1979 short Dracula Bites the Big Apple, an amusing musical student spoof that repurposes "Dancing in the Moonlight" for a catchy new supernatural sing-along.
1816854
This was another book from Michael Dirda's list of 100 Best Humorous Books in the English Language, and another one that I enjoyed reading, but not so much for any comedy. I'd chalk it up to a difference of definition of what humor is, except so many of the books on Dirda's list that I had read I totally agreed with in regards to comedic intent and result. If anything, the list has got me trying books and authors that I had never heard of before.

What I did like about Dawn Powell's The Locusts Have No King was its portrait of literary life in New York City in the middle of last century, with its strange mixture of social and economic classes. The novel centers on the love affair of Frederick Olliver, an academically inclined writer of histories, and Lyle Gaynor, one-half of a married pair of playwrights with some recent success on Broadway. Lyle refuses to leave her husband, an invalid who depends on her partnership, and Frederick is too besmitten to insist on it. When a strange girl called Dodo attaches her social-climbing self on to Frederick just as he is heading to a society party that Lyle has insisted he attend, this delicate cocktail is upset, and the lives of Frederick, Lyle and everyone around them is changed.

This is a character-driven story, as the plot is easily summarized. Powell switches her point-of-view between the two main characters easily, and some of the frisson of this novel is how Lyle or Frederick so easily misunderstand the actions of the other (a staple of many comedies). I felt these situations, however, generated more pathos than bathos, as I felt sorry for these characters rather than bemused by their stubbornness. Maybe that's because I empathized too much with these two social-crossed lovers. Dodo, the "pooh" girl (called so for her tendency to call her beaus sticks-in-the-mud with the cry of "oh, pooh on you"), is almost as annoying as Fran Drescher's Nanny character, as you can almost hear that nasal voice in every piece of dialogue, and as Frederick becomes in turn besotted, obsessed, and disgusted with her, so does the reader.

Overall, an interesting novel, but not enough that I want to immediately check out more of Powell's writing.
4377625
I picked this book up on a whim, then found myself entertained by the crude, but often funny, habits of the novel's main character, who all in all, was just as deranged under the pressure of flesh eating females, as the ghouls themselves. The fiction is odd, offbeat, and often graphic, but has an appeal and an excitement about it, like racing down a mountain road at a hundred miles an hour... you might crash and burn but its a hell of a ride.

This book isn't for everyone, although fans of The Walking Dead might find it an attractive fix during the off season. Entertainment that eats at your brains.
1450102
I don't often read funny books...I don't know why, I probably should, maybe it would jolt me out of the perpetual bad mood I seem to be in these days, but the fact remains, I usually pass up the humor for a good spurge of gore or zombies with anger management issues; so when my husband handed me a book with probably one of the most intriguing titles I have read in a while... I just couldn't say no.

"The Reformed Vampire Support Group" by "Catherine Jinks" was hilarious. Not in a joke-after-joke-pun-after-pun way, but more the this-is-so-awkward-you-can't-help-but-laugh-at-it funny. Think "A Fish Called Wanda" meets "Grumpy Old Men" (come on...picture it...got it? Funny isn't it.)

The plot is written from Nina's perspective...she's a vampire (duh) but not the kind we normally think about. No, Nina and her band of vampire misfits are whiney, sickly, paranoid schizophrenics that spend more time in group therapy and fanging helpless gerbils than that do actually living their lives. That is, of course, until Cassimir (the original vamp) turns up ashes in his coffin and Nina decides she just can't take her pathetic life anymore. Her and friends (Dave the downer vamp, and a Catholic Priest) set out on a mission to track down the slayer and bring things back to order, only... after turning up at the wrong house they get more than could ever bargain for. (Lets just say a very angry puppy shows up.) The entire book is based around the groups fumbling attempts to be better than they are and to stop a slew of crimes that... incidentally they actually caused themselves.

There is an 80 year old granny vamp with bad hips and a crocheting fixation, a prescription sunglasses incident that has Nina a little wobbly, lots of angry bedroom captives, a failed arson attempt, a loopy newbie vamp that hurls while trying to hostage negotiate, creepy basements, and 1 very distressed mail carrier that jumps out of a 2nd story window.

The writing was charming, as if Nina was letting you in on little secret but sparing you the gory details, and the plot was extremely twisty turny but well executed. I laughed out loud several times, and at one point had the most bizarre, in my head, movie playing...but I will whole heartedly admit that I enjoyed it. So much so that I might actually consider reading the brighter side of life more often.

Happy reading my fellow Groupers and remember: if at first you don't succeed, cower in a corner till the bad man goes away.