A Thousand Times Good Night

Well, folks. As time goes by and the reviews rack up, my "Movies I've Seen" list grows mightier and mightier. And with my most recent film, I have reached a major milestone. Not counting repeats (Friday the 13th alone would give me triple digits) and give or take a couple movies I saw as a child and forgot ever existed, I can definitively say that I have seen 1,000 movies in my lifetime. At least 200 of those were since I started my blog, so you're welcome guys.

I of course am eager for the chance to expand that list even more (I'm getting the ball rolling on the 1981 phase of Census Bloodbath ASAP), but I'd like to take a minute to reflect on the films that made up my first movie millennium. (For those keeping track at home, out of the 1,000 films I've seen, 304 have been horror. Of those, 140 have been slashers.)

In honor of the occasion, I decided to look back into my catalogues and pull out some of the less well-known movies that I love so I can hopefully share them with a broader audience. If you're from the generations before mine, you may actually have seen some of them, because, you know, they were in theaters at some point. And I apologize, but I tried to frontload those as much as possible in the hopes that I can share something new with everyone.

Ten Great Movies You Probably Haven't Seen

10. Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (Carl Reiner, 1982)

Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid is a black-and-white Steve Martin comedy that splices his Detective Rigby Rearden in with footage from old noir films. The combination of classic crime movies like The Big Sleep or The Postman Always Rings Twice with Martin's zany antics (back when they were still fresh) makes for a consistently delightful and clever film.

9. Sliding Doors (Peter Howitt, 1998)

Sliding Doors is a wonderfully-crafted butterfly effect drama about how one woman - Gwyneth Paltrow - has her entire life effected by one small event, namely whether or not she makes it onto a train. It's visually stunning and tells a unique story about the wonder of life and the power of coincidence.

8. Dead Again (Kenneth Branagh, 1991)

I watched this movie as a kid (on VHS even - pour one out) but its every detail still sticks in my mind. Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson would appear in many movies together throughout their marriage, but nothing could ever top the strange yet electric reincarnation murder drama that is Dead Again. An eclectic mix of different storytelling tropes comes together in an endlessly interesting mystery and one of the best films of the 1990's.

7. Hedwig & The Angry Inch (John Cameron Mitchell, 2001)

Idiosyncratically designed, energetically performed, and transcendently fabulous, Hedwig & The Angry Inch is a rock musical about the travails of a trans woman from East Berlin after a botched operation. Many may know it from Neil Patrick Harris' recent rocking of "Sugar Daddy" at the Tonys, but I urge you to check out this film, directed and performed by the original writer and his magnum opus of performance, direction, and style.

6. Night of the Comet (Thom Eberhardt, 1984)

After a comet disintegrates everyone who isn't in a lead-lined room and creates marauding mutant monsters, two valley girls must find a way to survive in the empty streets of Los Angeles. I think it's safe to say there aren't too many post-apocalyptic high school movies, but even if there were, this one would take the cake for sheer camp value and the tightly-wound intelligence spinning at its core. And those impossibly-achieved shots of the empty city never cease to be eerie.

5. Zerophilia (Martin Curland, 2005)

I wouldn't go so far as to call Zerophilia a well-crafted film, but it's one of the most fascinating romances I've ever seen. When a guy discovers that he switches genders every time he has a sexual experience, he must struggle with his conflicting urges and come to terms with his identity. A great allegory for all types of sexual development (LGBT especially, but there's something for everyone) swathed in a pink and blue color palette, this is one bizarre, but fascinating trip.

4. TiMER (Jac Schaeffer, 2009)

One of the only starring roles for the underratedly fantastic Emma Caulfield (who rocked the genre world as Anya on Buffy the Vampire Slayer), TiMER is a science fiction romance about a company that installs timers on people's wrists counting down to the exact second when they will meet their soul mate. However, when Caulfield's Oona gets one installed, it's resolutely blank.It's a fascinating and heartfelt exploration of taking the mystery out of love and the validity of human emotion.

3. The Wizard of Gore (Jeremy Kasten, 2007)

The original Wizard of Gore was a schlocky Herschell Gordon Lewis mess, but the remake brought much more to the table, far exceeding the original's potential by creating a twisted steampunk nightmare world. Impeccably stylish and featuring a great performance from Crispin Glover, WoG is one of those rare remakes that actually improves upon the original. And vastly so, at that.

You can read my review here.

2. Shock Treatment (Jim Sharman, 1981)

I've been a fan of The Rocky Horror Picture Show for about as long as I've known about the birds and the bees. But its followup, Shock Treatment, although less glitzy and sadly Tim Curry-less, sticks in the mind as an extravagantly strange musical with a river of material pulsating beneath the surface of its decades ahead of its time satire. And don't raise a fuss, but I like the soundtrack even better than Rocky.

You can read my review here.

1. Were the World Mine (Tom Gustafson, 2008)

Speaking of extravagantly strange musicals... Were the World Mine tells the story of a closeted gay teen who stars in a production of Midsummer Night's Dream and discovers a flower that can turn anyone gay. Also, the lyrics to every song are lines from Shakespeare plays. It sounds inaccessibly campy, but it finds a warm, human story sandwiched between impossibly beautiful design & staging and and elegantly evocative soundscape. It's absolutely one of my top ten favorite movies of all time. Check it out!

So, thanks for reading along! Have you seen any of these movies before? Have you seen all of them and think I'm full of crap? Let me know in the comments!
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200th Postaversary!

Hello everybody! Guess what! This is my 200th blog post on Popcorn Culture!

I started this blog in mid-June in 2013 because it was summer and I was searching for something creative to do. It's been massively rewarding for me and although I've been so busy these past couple months with some really intense classes, I make it a priority to keep posting as often as possible. And so far, every movie I've seen since that day in June has made it onto this blog! (Except for, oddly, The Exorcist, which somehow slipped through the cracks. I don't know what happened. I apologize to all of you who avidly watch my "Coming Soon" widget. It can't be helped.)

Since that fateful day, I have reviewed 174 films, 130 of which were horror films! At least I tried paying attention to other genres. Good hustle, Brennan.

Out of those reviews, the most were (obviously) from this decade, but the 2000's and the 1980's come in a close second thanks to my Census Bloodbath and J-Horrorthon features.

And I was prone most often to giving out ratings of 6 or 7 (they tied for first with 37 each), but let the record show that I gave good reviews more often than bad ones, despite what Sergio might think about me.

And in my time at Popcorn Culture, I have written 237,313 words! That's an average of 1,192.5 words per post!

A moment of silence for my tired typing fingers.

But it all goes to show how much thought and devotion I put into everything I do here. I really really love this blog and I'm happy every time anyone so much as looks at one of my posts. I really appreciate people being interested in what I have to say and I work hard to make sure that everything I write is of the highest quality I can provide.

Obviously I'm not gonna be on my game every day out of the year, but I really appreciate every second of time anybody has spent reading this blog. It really means a lot to me and I strive to make that content worthwhile.

If nobody minds, I'd like to take a minute to talk about what film, horror, and this blog mean to me.

It's personal post time. Come at me, bro!

Way back when I was applying for colleges, I was a theatre kid looking for a theatre major but all of a sudden, the summer before senior year, a switch flipped inside me. I had begun to direct short plays in class, and discovered that I had a talent and a passion for creating new worlds.

My plays notably had the most thorough and involved set design of every class. Where other plays would just set up some black IKEA tables and chairs, mine would be full rooms with keepsakes, decorations, colors, and three dimensional interior design. The amount of time and energy I spent on assembling decorations for a room that doesn't even exist got me to thinking.

My quasi-OCD commitment to organization and exact detail made me light up any time I got a chance to dive into a new world full of new people and experiences I had never met and would never have. Combined with my newfound passion for the horror genre, I realized I needed to go into film.
I still love the theatre, but film gives me a lot more license for creation, which is something I discovered I had a drive for.

I'm not gonna fake modesty - what's the point?

I'm a smart guy. So now and then as I'm going through my film classes I have to sit back and think about what this career direction means to me. Why should I be doing this when I can devote myself to some other discipline that can actually make an impact on the world, like medicine or law?

But when I think about it, there's nothing I'd rather be doing. And I realized that art and entertainment are more important than they seem at first glance. Sure, Hollywood can be superficial and wicked, but entertainment is a necessary and vital part of the human experience that can be traced back to the very origins of human society.

Entertainment may be a diversion that is unnecessary for life, but it is vital for a healthy mood and development of the mind. Entertainment at its foundation is a distraction from the drudgery and rigors of day-to-day life. And at its pinnacle, it is a medium through which we can learn different perspectives on the world and begin a conversation about non day-to-day issues that are important for the world and the community.

Film has the power to open our eyes to the truth about the world. It has the power to change a mind. Or, at the very least, it can make us laugh, cry, or feel. Anything. In modern society, we don't have a lot of outlets for emotion and film, television, and music are an essential part of maintaining contact with ourselves.

And yeah. Some of it is just dumb diversion. But who doesn't need that every once in a while?

So yes. Entertainment is important. And by writing about it, engaging with it, and creating it, I can add to the conversation rather than just consuming.

So what of horror, my chosen genre?

I'm still working out with myself exactly what draws me irrevocably to the notorious horror genre, but it is in large part due to the fact that anything can happen. In my mind, horror is a kind of dark fantasy, permitting the nightmare world of our subconscious to come to the forefront.

Good horror tells us something about ourselves, whether it is how we might react in a certain situation or our secret dark, dangerous desires. More often than any other genre, horror depicts the truths of the human condition because it isn't afraid to delve into that dark, terrifying pool of the human psyche.

Even the dumbest B-movies tend to have more psychological impact jammed inside than your average Hollywood flick. Horror is a place where we can explore stories and themes that nobody really wants to talk about and that's wildly important.

It's also a cathartic way to face our fears and, at its most basic level, a wonderful adrenaline rush.

That's where I've gotten so far, but I'm sure I'll have more to say once I have a chance to mull it over ad nauseum.

Whatever the reason, I am very grateful for my rapidly growing little (mostly) horror culture blog. It has provided me with hours of constructive entertainment and a lot of opportunities I might not have had before.

It's a chance to sort out my opinions and a forum to share the things that I love!

Most importantly, it's absolutely lovely to have a channel where I can practice being funny and developing a voice and have people read it! Writing every day has greatly improved my language skills, made 700 word essays a much less daunting task (writing a 700 word essay the day after writing a 2000 word slasher review just doesn't seem as challenging), and has forced me to think out my arguments here and in the real world.

Through this blog I've made new friends (shoutout to Carolann if you're reading this!), seen movies I never thought I'd watch, learned a lot about film as well as myself, and just had an all around good time.

It's a real gift being able to rite about something that you love and I hope everybody has a chance to do something like this at some point in their lives (In fact, it's free! Why not try it out?).

Last but not least, I would just like to give a great big thank you to everybody who's stuck it out with me. Thank you for reading and thank you for your feedback. I really appreciate what you've done for me and, should you start something like this of your own, I would gladly devour each and every word of what you produce.

Happy 200th!
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