2012: It's good that it was

so we're closing out the least productive year in the five year existence of this blog.

what can be said about 2012? a year defined by "Call Me, Maybe", Gangam Style (didn't know what this was until i saw some smart-ass middle school kid do it through the back window of the school bus i was stuck behind while in traffic. he looked me in the eyes the whole time while bearing his teeth. in my day, we just flipped people off, but okay), more right vs. left ballyhoo, the not-sure-if-wantness of Prometheus, mass shootings, the party ending for illegal downloading, nerds being moody over the Governor not having a mustache on the Walking Dead TV Series despite a strong nuanced performance from David Morrissey that was filled with desperation and menace, making the character something more than the grindhouse Lord Stingray he was in the comic, nerds being moody over the minute flaws in the otherwise class act that was Dark Knight Rises, nerds being moody about nerds being moody, still no release in sight for Bloodyminded's Within the Walls, a motherfucking hurricane, the Communion releasing A Desired Level of Unease which you should buy, viewing my first genuine snuff film, the concluding year to the decade long shit show that's been my 20s, rediscovering the splendor of Melancholy and the Infinite Sadness, not getting any closer to that threeway, recording my first power electronics album, getting this track there, Lean Cuisine Hot Sandwiches, a fucking awesome DVD presentation of a German Splatter Classic, discovering that _____ fucked ____ and writing almost 40 songs out of the tumult left in the revelation's wake, new porn infatuations found in Skin Diamond and Dani Jensen, family getting the shit knocked out of it and getting back up again, sharing the stage with Eyehategod, the Quay Brothers exhibit @ the MoMa....

so it was good, and it's good that it was.

merry 2013.

UU+EHF

We are the Sprocket Holes vol. 202: Top 10 DVDs of 2012

these are 10 films that i never got around to talking about on this blog. i went through some real shit this year, and just wanted to enjoy what i was watching without thinking about what i was gonna write on this fucking thing. slowly i got back into it, mostly just because it came naturally. anyway, here' the 10:

THE BUNNY GAME:

existing somewhere in the shared dreaming of a Japanese torture film and a Richard Kern art-fuck, Adam Rehiemer’s THE BUNNY GAME is the perfect film for every existential extremist.  

GOD BLESS AMERICA:

Bobcat Goldthwaite completes the joyfully morose triptych that began with bestiality (Sleeping Dogs Lie), continued with teenage suicide (World’s Greatest Dad), and now concludes with a cross-country killing spree in the de-fuck-you-lightful GOD BLESS AMERICA. 

HOUSE OF FLESH MANNEQUINS:

Italian Horror is back for blood with Domiziano Cristopharo neo-giallo; a not-so-fun-but-actually-kind-of-funhouse filled with luscious S&M, graphic murder, and cornea-segmenting cinematography that proves Spaghetti Splatter need not rest on its laurels anymore.

THE THEATRE BIZARRE:

the Grand Guignol inspired cinema-omnibus showcases the very best genre films has to offer all in one celebration. 

-         “the Mother of Toads” by Richard Stanley:  a slimy Lovecraftian walk-of-shame.

-         “I Love You” by Buddy Giovinazzo: an emotional annihilation culminating in a profane gush of murder/suicide.

      -         “Wet Dreams” by Tom Savini: a nightmare-totem of sexual mutilation.

-         “the Accident” by Douglas Buck: the futility of consolation in the face of childhood-eroding expierences.

-         “Visions Stains” by Karim Hussain: grotesquely poetic study of a young woman’s addiction to the fluid in your eyes. 

-         “Sweets” by David Gregory: hilariously detached comedy about food, love, and cannibalism.

WOUND:

a flipbook of unbound ID, David Blythe’s anti-social yarn plays like a full-scale deconstruction of the classic “woman gone mad” archetype.

WHERE THE DEAD GO TO DIE:

Call it A SERBIAN SIMS. A shockingly competent narrative buried beneath unpleasantly cartoonish CGI. Plays like the most fucked up underground comic book you’ve ever read.

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN:

A film that will make you wish you could will your biological make-up into sterility.

 LIFE AND DEATH OF A PORNO GANG:

The “other” controversial roughie from Serbia is every bit as depraved as its more infamous cohort, but also much more nuanced, sexy, and fun.

HUMAN CENTIPEDE 2:FULL SEQUENCE:

Tom Six cements his status as Neo-Torture’s answer to William Castle with this scatological slasher that draws from classic Ero-Guro as well as more atypical sources like Bad Boy Bubby. 

THE TALL MAN:

French extremist Pascal Laugier follows up 2008’s bile-churning chiller Martyrs with this moody thriller that is not at all what you expect. No where near as graphically intense as his previous film, but possessing all the organic twists and turns that made it more than just an exercise in brutal terror. Genuinely surprising, intriguing, and emotional.