Unfortunately, I was unable to find a full length Kenyan horror film. My research pointed me to In the Shadow of Kilimajaro; but it feels more like a British production than Kenyan.
However, I did find on YouTube two terrific horror shorts directed by Sandra Nekh. Her biography is here on Smashwords, and she’s talented indeed. Above all, the shorts below show she’s got quite an eye for composing shots and scenes and creating subtle, creepy atmosphere.
The Devil’s Nightmare (1971) is credited as an Italian/Belgian production. Italy has a legendary horror movie tradition so I’ll give this one to Belgium.
Now, I don’t know what if anything The Devil’s Nightmare had to say about the Belgian national character in 1971 (definitely some post-war Nazi anxiety there), but it was an absolute delight. At times I could have sworn I was watching a precursor to the Rocky Horror Picture Show, what with tourists trapped in a spooky castle and creepy pale skulkers a la Richard O’Brien’s Riff Raff (Daniel Emilfork as the devil himself.)
Source: Wikipedia
There is military horror, there are witch movies, and in this film, the genres shall meet. Thanks to HBO for broadcasting El Páramo, which I found fairly meaningful, in light of the awful conflicts that continue to ravage some Andean nations.
Source: Press Kit
For New Zealand, I chose Do No Harm, a 12 minute short written and directed by Roseanne Liang, which made a strong impression on me at The Sundance Film Festival in 2017. I’m venturing outside of strict horror and into the realm of action/martial arts thrillers, but that subset of horror fans known as “gore hounds” could find some satisfaction in this terrific story. Continue reading
Attribution: By Source (WP:NFCC#4), Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=54352759
Like many of the movies I’ll be discussing, Can Evrenol’s 2015 Baskin kept peering at me in a sea of selections on Netflix that looked good, but that caused decision freeze on the question of whether I needed to invest time in this story. It’s a rare thing for me to see a Turkish horror movie; the only time I had seen one previously was Seytan, the unintentionally comic remake of The Exorcist.
A jaded horror fan rarely experiences fear anymore, but they can experience profound distress. I was left so disturbed and revolted that I question whether or not I needed this in my life.
In other words: a job well done!
Welcome to Chillerpop’s Around the World in 31 Days blog project. See what I did here? October 1 on October 1.
One thing I was very excited to do with this project was to watch and reflect on horror films from lands and countries far removed from me. I did a lot of research on what horror films from African countries are available and worth watching. Nigeria came up a lot, as there is a ‘Nollywood’ industry. There is a zombie movie named Ojuju that looks quite good and has received acclaim. Alas, not available to any of my streaming means, but, October 1 is available on Amazon Prime.
A little lesson in comic book nerdery (comic book nerds, feel free to skip over what you know.)
These are the D’Bari.
They are a race of cute, peaceful ‘asparagus people’ from the D’Bari solar system. They are a part of the Shi’Ar Empire, an intergalactic star spanning imperium familiar to readers of X-Men, most notably because the wheelchair bound telepath who founded the X-Men, Charles Xavier, was the lover of the empire’s queen, Lilandra
Why do I start this blog post with this fact? Because about the only thing that made 2019’s X-Men: Dark Phoenix worth watching was the fact that SPOILER:
Bear with me as I misremember and possibly misattribute a quote.
“At the rate our technology and understanding of genetics is progressing, some day, the first superhuman will rise forth from a tank. What are we going to put in this being’s hands to read? The New York Times? Atlas Shrugged? Or an issue of Superman?”
The quote, not at all verbatim, possibly was from the beautiful Chaos magician and comic book legend Grant Morrison (unless it was from Mark Millar?), a man who has made an exceptional career from superheroes, and who has positioned Superman as a Sun God and as our highest, noblest ideal. I recommend his work very strongly, particularly All-Star Superman, and also his book “Supergods: What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human.”
Morrison makes the credible argument that a superhero comic is the very best thing we could give someone that has a lot of power to read.
And now, Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn has given us a vision of a Superman who could well have read … Twitter. Or 4Chan. Or whatever putrid corner of the Internet amplifies the worst thoughts and impulses of America’s boys. Continue reading
[NOTE: This post was originally published on my version of this blog at the now-defunct Open Salon, on October 8th, 2011, one day after Diane Cilento’s passing. I’m including the original comments to my blog post, because why not?]
This is a short and disjointed stream-of-consciousness note on Avengers: Endgame, with SPOILERS. Continue reading
Chillerpop 