By Poppy Fear is a place, oh so true. A real old fashioned scary movie, this deliberately slow-paced mystery-horror film is steeped in atmosphere, set in a very creepy insane asylum that closed 15 years previously. The director tries to keep the audience involved by switching between the different characters yet keeping the eerie feeling present in the background. Subtle clues are given frequently as the film unravels. An asbestos clean-up man named Gordon (Peter Mullan) takes the job of fixing up the asylum and rashly promises to do it in a week. He brings his usual crew along: Phil (David Caruso), would-be lawyer Mike (Stephen Gevedon), Hank (Josh Lucas) and Gordon’s nephew (Brendan Sexton III). The five men don protective gear and venture into the eerily vast and vacant spaces and corridors of the hospital. It doesn’t take long before each of the men becomes obsessed with some little thing on the job. Mike begins listening to long forgotten audiotapes of a therapy session, while Hank discovers a hoard of old-time coins and treasures buried in the wall. As for Gordon, he’s having trouble at home, but the details are only gradually revealed to us. The men slowly begin to bicker amongst themselves, discord aggravated by the fact that Hank is now sleeping with Phil’s girlfriend and loves to taunt him about it.
Just like any horror movie worth watching don’t go for the most obvious culprit. Directed by Brad Anderson Cast: David Caruso...Phil
Bob Dylan - Time Out Of Mind by Mott the Dog ***** 5 Star Rating Electric Troubadour? Or Folk Judas? Lucky man in the right place at the right time? Or the most creative genius to ever lend a hand to Rock ‘n’ Roll? This dog certainly leans the way of immortal rock pioneer. The Dylan legend was created in a burst of creativity in the early sixties, which saw the writing of many of his most famous songs, from “Blowin In The Wind”, via “Mr. Tambourine Man”, and “Just Like A Woman”, to “All Along The Watch Tower”. Herein lies the answer to the questions, does he still matter? Can the man still cut it? For what makes Dylan important and unique, and so far above the inanity of Paul McCartney or Mick Jagger’s gaucherie, is that he continues in his efforts to bring meaningful expression from his life, even as time rolls past. This year Dylan reaches sixty; will this be the end of an era or the start of something new? And such ongoing engagement is the sign of a truly great artist. The ability to change and change your audience is certainly the mark of a leader. His last studio album, “Time Out Of Mind” (1997) (He has been out on the road touring incessantly since it’s release, finding himself more at home on tour now than he has ever been) was a huge critical success winning all the categories in which he was nominated, including album of the year at the 1998 Grammy’s. Not bad for an old man, eh “Boyzone”? Artistically Dylan is now at the top of his game, playing with more vim & vigour than has been shown for many a year. Then again it is peculiarly misguided to treat Dylan albums as one-off events. Listening to his work is more like taking the Siberian Express, where the scenery is sometimes startling, sometimes rough, even shabby occasionally, but most importantly always demanding your attention. Most tracks on “Time Out Of Mind” are as good as anything Dylan has done before, and often surpass some of his slightly dodgy work in the eighties. These songs in typical Dylan style are restless, dissenting, wrathful, lonely, but heartfelt in their effort to drag a bit of reality out of feelings created over the last six decades, in his emotional way to add some truth out of long experience.
But the description that definitely still does pertain to Dylan - as it always will - is that of protest singer, the voice of his subjects. Not in the narrow, liberal-baby-boomer-turned-pillar-of-society sense of complaining on behalf of good causes, but as a man who consistently dissents from, disapproves of and inveighs against this vulgar forlorn age in which we live. Bob Dylan is an articulate man whose proclamations on “Time Out Of Mind” are worth hearing. As Dylan sings in “Not Dark Yet” probably one of the most disturbing songs on this collection: “I was born here and I’ll die here against my will Track Listing 1. Love Sick
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Chinnaporn Sangwanlek, assisted by Boonsiri Suansuk. |
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The
novel is about a Bangkok property development company and its architecture
department. The head of the department has been found dead in rather
bizarre circumstances and the two people below him in the company are the
central characters in the drama.
The
horrors in “Session 9” are all internal - there are no ghosts or zombies
or chainsaw-wielding maniacs, just shadows, strange images and half-seen
clues. I’m happy to see that in truly scary films.
Mott’s CD review:
Things
have changed of course over the years, these days on stage he dresses
eccentrically, a cross between a gentleman dandy from Mississippi and a
gun slinging Texan cowboy dressed in black. He is less the young poet and
more like an old testament prophet come down from the mountain to cry out
- in a voice as cracked as the tablets which he throws to the ground - the
soothsayer of human affairs.
