Horror Report

Tag: nostalgia

  • THE BOMBING OF BLAIR WITCH. SOME PROCLAIM THE END OF ‘FOUND FOOTAGE’ HORROR.. I SAY IT’S JUST YOUR USUAL GENERATIONAL SHIFT

    THE BOMBING OF BLAIR WITCH. SOME PROCLAIM THE END OF ‘FOUND FOOTAGE’ HORROR.. I SAY IT’S JUST YOUR USUAL GENERATIONAL SHIFT

    IT’S OVER! Sorta…
    The found horror movie crave is behind us.. So says Variety.. In an article celebrating the box office bomb that is the new BLAIR WITCH, the author, Owen Gleibermein, seems to celebrate the upcoming demise of the found horror movie. He also correctly points out that the demise may be far from happening–but the big profits of found movies may be over..

    Horror is cyclical..
    There may be some who have actually read postings of mine over the past many years. Thank you if you did. If you didn’t, this concept may be lost on you, so you let me explain my theory. A theory based off of observation and age..

    I think horror movies and professional wrestling are allegories for the time that they originate.. the theme of any wrestling storyline or subject matter or popularity of a horror movie concept directly showcase the feelings, attitudes, and experiences of the generation that those said wrestling stories or horror movies come from.


    The 1980s.. campy.. Ronald Reagan … The rise of the Christian right. The allegories abounded–Jason Vorhees from FRIDAY THE 13TH was as much a serial killer with a hockey mask as he was a Godlike figure who killed the sinners like a storyline from the Old Testament. Freddy Kreuger was a murderer in sleep, just as in the 80s what hurt us was behind covers. Wrestling? Hulkamania with the American flag and vitamins galore … Wrestling took on the campy feel and actually felt good. When Hulk Hogan beat the Iron Sheik, that fiction felt real .. as he dropped the leg on the Sheik and became champion, America had a feeling that reality just took place.


    The 90s mocked the 80s. SCREAM made fun of the whole concept of 80s slashers… WES CRAVEN’S NEW NIGHTMARE attempted to kill off Freddy. Wish it would have. Stone Cold Steve Austin also chugged beer after body slamming authority on Monday Night RAW. The 80s kids grew up and moved into a new era…

    In the 2000s, after 9/11 and torture policies, the SAW films became emblematic of torture porn… we accepted more blood and guts. Gore and torture.. Horror films showcased who we were—warfare and death on live TV, streaming online and on Facebook mobile. We see it all. Nothing more can be seen.. nothing more can be shocking.. We have become something from a horror movie itself…

    So the death of found footage? Found footage is just a vehicle to deliver a theme. The theme of horror films..

    And found footage is cheap. I don’t think it is going away, but certainly waning in popularity..

    The good news: It seems like, as we move from torture into a new generation of desiring peace, we want storylines again. We want themes again that matter–big themes about life and death. Concepts that are move than just a few scares.  The films IT FOLLOWS and BABADOOK are prime examples.. they portray women as victim and heroine, the ‘monsters’ are figureative and thematic.. and we get scared because the darkness of our minds is much more frightening than someone sawing their leg off to escape a demented killer.

    We are maturing.. we are changing. And with it, so will wrestling and horror movies.


    I end with a cautionary note… There is a chance that if Donald Trump wins, a remeregence of nationalism will come .. flags will wave.. and yes, the 1980s will be back in spirit. Expect a new Hulk Hogan. And slasher films.

    Because just as much as horror and wrestling are thematic of the times we live in, life itself is cyclical.

  • Rainbow over nostalgia street

    Rainbow over nostalgia street

    Yesterday, May 15 2016, was a peculiar day of weather in Northeastern Pennsylvania.Cold, rain.. heavy rain.. sun.. SLEET, SNOW! And hail. All of that in the span of about 12 hours.

    I said snow. Strange for May. Of course in the 1800s we had a season with no summer, hope that won’t happen in ’16 but it sure felt it yesterday.

    But one image I wanted to share. In the aftermath of the rain and snow and storm clouds, rainbows were popping up everywhere. Some dramatic photos showed up on my news feed on Facebook and Instagram. I stole one photo from my sister in law that shows a beautiful rainbow. The picture is unfiltered, nothing added … and the rainbow appears to be directly where St. Mauritius Church stood until only a few months back.


    You may recall that I wrote about the structure as it was being torn down last year.. 

    And now, a reminder of a building that was once there on a cold day in May.

  • Retail hell and the murder of malls

    Retail hell and the murder of malls

    So often, it seems that I am posting “end times” stories on this website. End times for schools in my area.. for churches.. for stores.. End times for the fabric of the once strong and proud coal region of Pennsylvania.. End times for so many things.

    Believe it or not, I am mostly a positive person with some negative traits. While admiring those who can see the glass half full all of the time, I strive for that. But lately, things in this area could not be more depressed..

    This past weekend, after 20 years of existence, another store in my local mall shuddered and fell by the wayside. Black Diamond antiques in the Schuylkill Mall, Frackville PA.. it was a strange little place, filled with coveted items of yesterday, trinkets that had no specific meaning but most likely meant a lot to someone who passed away within the last 100 years, and old relics like typewriters, newspapers, and He-Man toys. As a matter of fact, I was able to mostly recreate my entire stock of He-Man toys that were tossed into the garbage late 20th century. My son Ayden gets the collection now. He was upset this weekend to learn that Black Diamond’s He-Man selection will vanish.

    The problem with malls is that it is not 1989 anymore. Music stores? No need.. fast food? Less interest.. Specialty shops? Amazon!

    Just as malls killed main street, Walmart killed malls. Walmart is being slowly impaled on the information superhighway, along with the remaining malls that still survive to today. People have no need for brick and mortar when they can click and order. It’s just the way of the world..

    Will these same Amazon shoppers miss malls? Maybe not. A friend of mine complicit in the death of retail shopping holds no guilt. He is fine with the choices he made, completely lavishes in the speed of his goods being shipped and can’t wait for the day when drones can do it.

    But those jobs!? (minimum wage, of course.. but summer employment for students and year round employment for seniors… all gone.)

     

    I have been long enamored with the fate of malls. I always sensed it would happen. I am sure you did, too. Nothing after all lasts forever.

    I have fond memories of teenage years, scavenging the mall for things to do but finding little. These days, teenagers in the mall would actually be a welcome site—back in the 90s they were always kicked out. Now they doors would be left wide open for ANYONE to come in.

    I don’t give my own local mall too much longer.


    The Schuylkill Mall even ended up on Deadmalls.com in 2006. No updates since that …

    About a year and a half ago, I decided to call the mall management and give them some ideas. I actually penned them and typed them up, making a concise list of practical things I think they could do to replenish shoppers or even have new ideas that don’t involve shopping. One idea was to quit playing 80s music—that generation is gone and there’s no getting it back. Other ideas was an commerce center, indoor farm and market, and lots of free rent for a few months to spawn independent restaurants.

    However this was before I completely read the graffiti on the bathroom stall like the holy scripture of the shopping mall: things aren’t coming back. Maybe there will be a few places.. but not many. Malls are gone. Main street USA is boarded up and not reopening. Jobs are vanquished. Drugs dominate. Towns that once celebrated sundown now fear it. The dead eyes of night stare at empty store fronts and peer into windows of dilapidated structures.

    With all that said, I am positive for the future. Somehow.

    But things indeed are changing.

    The future will be drone delivered.

    Perhaps what I will miss most? The photos of people trampling each other on Black Friday.

  • The 33-year-old photo, signed sealed and delivered

    The 33-year-old photo, signed sealed and delivered

    In May of 2015, I posted a photograph of my son Ayden in a store that was closing in my mall. In the article, I mentioned how similar the photo looked to one taken of me, when I was three years old, in Centralia Pennsylvania.  I have the photograph of myself.  I did not publish it due to copyright issues. It was from a book called SLOW BURN, a 1980s photodocumentary with pictures taken by Renée Jacobs.

    For those who don’t know much about Centralia, an underground mine fire started decades ago. A series of bad missteps from officials and twists and turns of neighborly breakdowns occurred, and the town went from 2000 people to … just about zero. The town has also become a tourist attraction, it’s home to the famed graffiti highway, and the movie SILENT HILL was based on it. An upcoming project promises a television series based on the town.

     

    THIRTY YEARS LATER.

    I constantly peruse through historical documents, not only of life itself but of my own personal existence. I can be nostalgic when unneeded.. but I also believe a bit of self recollection helps maturity.

    In that regard, I reached out to photographer Renée Jacobs. It’s funny. I was pictured in the book on page 13 standing next to a borehole in my back yard, and my parents were both quoted. I actually recall it .. Vaguely at best. But I recall the moment! I remember the exact time it was taken.  It was warm.. I recall the smells..  The picture is in black and white, but I have it in my mind in vivid color.. That is probably how most of your lives are too, you can think back and pinpoint a single action during your early toddler or childhood years. Just a brief moment in time, one captured with a feeling. My feeling at the time the picture was taken: Confusion and sadness. Friends were vanishing. Houses were too.. I loved watching demolition teams come in and destroy entire blocks of row homes.. it wasn’t until I grew up more that I realized they were destroying my hometown from top to bottom.

    After my contact to Ms. Jacobs, I received something in the mail, and I could not be more ecstatic.

     

    THANK YOU!

    Renée Jacobs sent my an autographed print of page 13, featuring the young me with wide eyes and a future to come, along with a note.

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    The work on Jacobs’ website is stunning and beautiful. It may not be for the WORK atmosphere. A link to her page,  http://www.reneejacobs.com/,  comes perhaps with a bit of caution..

    Renée Jacobs’ black and white fine art nude photography gives the viewer a luxurious peek into the ultra-sensual world of the feminine. Beyond sexy, her photographs are dreamy and secretive, daring and alluring. Her subjects give Renée their trust and the result is a collaborative journey which fulfills fantasies.

    Jacobs’ work has been exhibited and celebrated around the world. She also received the prestigious International Photography Award for Fine Art Nude.  Her 2009 & 2010 photo calendars went to #1 on Amazon. She had work as a photojournalist. Just recently, an announcement came from Duke University: 

    The Archive of Documentary Arts, a part of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Duke University, is pleased to announce its recent acquisition of Renée Jacobs’ archive of her project Slow Burn: A Photodocument of Centralia, Pennslyvania. Slow Burn, first published in 1986 by University of Pennsylvania Press, chronicles Centralia’s demise from an underground coal mine fire and depicts a singular epic event in Pennsylvania history, representing the confluence of environmental, scientific, bureaucratic, and emotional tragedies

     

    I love this part of her bio: “Her first book, Slow Burn: A Photodocument of Centralia, Pennsylvania was originally published in 1986 and re-issued in 2010 to favorable reviews in The New York Times Review of Books and photo-eye.  After a 15 year detour as a civil rights lawyer, Renée returned to photography. ”

    A detour in life! One that takes you away from your passion and zeal..your Zest for life and creative spirit.

    I am sure she was a fine attorney.
    Looking at her photos, I am glad she returned back from the detour.

     

    And Renée, I couldn’t be more appreciate and ecstatic over the personal note and photo.

    Thank you.

  • Malls once meant something to people. Now they have become empty shells of history

    Malls once meant something to people. Now they have become empty shells of history

    Though I mocked the entire process of Black Friday, I did venture out for a bit yesterday just to peruse a few local shopping centers. These locations are in trouble. They have been for some time. Not even Black Friday could save them. They were desolate and empty, Christmas music was blaring loudly and echoing through almost empty corridors. And even though other malls may have been busier places, the nationwide verdict is in: People didn’t go out in big numbers for Black Friday, or Thanksgiving night just as well. It was a bust..

    I went to lunch with a friend and actually purchase most of my gifts waiting for my sandwich by shopping online. I didn’t hit complete order yet, but the cart is awaiting my approval. In a few days I’ll get my gifts in the mail. The gifts I want, the name brands I want. I think the days of malls are over.. perhaps even the days of Walmart would theoretically be coming as well.

    What are we losing in that process though?
    Malls were the plaza of pop culture, the place where families went for an entire evening out. I recall fond memories myself, with my sister getting ‘lost’ in the mall with friends while my mother and father allowed me to check the racks of the toy store for the newest He-Man action figure.

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    We have moved on from the mall scene. It’s over. Those remaining are desperate.. a few may survive. Some may even somehow thrive. But by the time this year is over, I think lots of malls are going to figure out that it was their last Christmas. Perhaps even mine.

    MASHABLE is running a good story called 1989 AMERICA’S MALLS. This was a prime time. I remember that is when I was five.. BATMAN was in theaters… Retail was strong. Bon Ton still wrapped gifts.. and life was good.  The MASHABLE article profiles Michael Galinsky’s photoset of malls that he started taking in 1989. There are no themes to his photos. Instead just moments captured in time in 1989.  They are reminders of the iconic mall’s stance in our collective lives. TIME magazine has the story behind the photoset, one that was revealed a few years ago now.

    Fast forward to now.

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    Seph Lawless, my favorite photographer who risks jail time to get the perfect picture, is offering up a book just in time for Christmas on his website called BLACK FRIDAY SEASON IN THE SIZE OF DAYS. It shows abandoned malls in all four seasons.. Winter spring summer and fall.. it gives us a glimpse of what has occurred in the malls that once housed our romantic love, our fun nights out, and a dinners with families on a Sunday afternoon..

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  • THE FINAL ALMA MATER IN AN ABANDONED SCHOOL

    THE FINAL ALMA MATER IN AN ABANDONED SCHOOL

    I went to an auction this past weekend.. a bit of an emotional roller coaster sort of began and ended at the right time in my life.. at the moment when I understand things better than before.. at a point where I can forgive, forget, and focus nostalgic memories when needed for perspective.

    I went to the great auction of Cardinal Brennan Jr/Sr/ High School in Fountain Springs, PA.. my alma mater.. the place I called home for four short years ending with a graduation as the century turned in 1999.. You may know I already went to this school, I wrote a more in depth posting about my thoughts a few weeks ago..

    To give a quick history.. the school was once for all women. It changed to a Catholic high school later.. it housed my antics… and the diocese of Allentown PA chose to close the school in 2007..

    Years later–this year–North Schuylkill, the district the vacant building resides in, bought it .. some considered it sold for pennies on the dollar. Others felt it was an investment gone wrong.

    Today there was a public auction.. and a Betsy Ross piano was included. I just about walked away bidding on this for $1 … My failure become notable when I got into a bidding war with a fellow piano lover.. I gave up after the price went too high ($120, however.. perhaps not too high for a baby grand) .. Nonetheless, before I left the building, I had one last shot to dish out a song.. And what better one to choose than the Cardinal Brennan high school Alma Mater..

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fj4YkRQAhyE?version=3&rel=1&fs=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&wmode=transparent]

    That’s me.. I quick put my iPhone in a spot where it could record myself..

    I am proudly boasting and will always relish in this fact: I was the final person who had the chance to blast out the school alma mater on a piano in this building. Forever. It will never happen again. The ghosts of the past perhaps had one last chance to sing their praise.. or maybe those ghosts have been gone for a long time anyway.

    We sing our praise to alma mater the school we all love.
    We raise heart and voice in joyous acclaim.
    We cherish you and all you teach us.
    Blue and gold your colors our fame.
    We will be true to the ideals that are strong heritage.
    From on high you reign our true beacon light;
    Now let’s sing out in happy chorus.
    Praise to our dear school,
    Cardinal Brennan High!

    Nonetheless, that is this video.. that is this song..
    That’s the show, folks.
    School is out. Forever.

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  • VHS Vault Invokes Video Nostalgia For Horror Movie Streaming Site

    VHS Vault Invokes Video Nostalgia For Horror Movie Streaming Site

    VHS Vault Invokes Video Nostalgia For Horror Movie Streaming Site:

    I love this statement from the TECHDIRT site:

    The VHS Vault is an ode to ‘80s and ’90s reverie, from the Reagan-era, scare-inciting titles it proffers (Day of the Dead, Adjust Your Tracking, Night of the Demons and more) to the site itself, designed as if it’s straight from 1998, complete with a traffic counter, low pixel GIFs and the quintessential Dancing Baby.

    I had those nights in high school–as VHS became DVDs but still not streamed.. we popped movies in. Had popcorn, or soda, or pizza.. and laughed often times until sunrise. Horror movies all night. Bad horror movies.. complete with MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER style sarcasm from friends and me as well.

    I know there is always a melancholy attempt to bring back nostalgia. But nothing will ever be like those summer nights of horror again. HALLOWEEN 3 and CARNIVAL OF SOULS.. they are two movies I can’t watch again. I want to keep them in the past, on one of those magical nights, and let them sit in memory. In posterity. In nostalgia.

    I applaud anyone attempting to bring back the VHS ‘vault.’ But it’s just not going to be the same..

  • Famous last words and midlife turns 

    Famous last words and midlife turns 

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    On a yearly basis I post the song linked with this published HORROR REPORT today, September 2, 2015. My birthday.. I don’t remind readers of this for selfish reasons. As a matter of fact, I purposely ‘hide’ this information on my personal Facebook page simply because I don’t want to navigate the ‘Happy birthday” or “hope you have a…

    View On WordPress

  • Lucy wants XENA

    Lucy wants XENA

    Lucy Lawless is positive about a XENA reboot.. she’d love to see it happen..

    MORE..

    “If there’s anything current going on, we’re not involved — we being me, Rob [Tapert and] Sam [Raimi],” she told EW.com on Friday at the Television Critics Association summer press tour in Beverly Hills. “But [NBC] could be doing it without us; they have the right to, don’t they? … I’d love to see it happen and I know that NBC wants to do it, but they’re just trying to find a way and a time.”
    “I really couldn’t live that life,” she told the site. “I look back, I’ve got all sort of wear and tear from that lifestyle. That’s just what happens to human bodies when they get used a certain way a lot. I actually couldn’t do it. I’m 47, but there’s somebody great out there.”

  • The striking thing about the 9/11 photos

    The striking thing about the 9/11 photos

    150725155957-08-cheney-911-19729053490-8ffafbb2ec-o-jpg-exlarge-169The National Archives released 350 photos in a Friday history dump .. Those pictures presented the never before behind the scenes imagery of what Bush Administration officials were doing during and after 9/11..

    There are scenes of Dick Cheney with his feet on his desk, old style computer and phone cords abounding, watching the World Trade Center burn on in computer.. There is one shot of Cheney and Condi Rice staring at papers.. One image of President Bush shows him with a look of fatigue and almost confusion on his face while speaking to aides:

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    The pictures were released after a FIOA request was filed for old images–the pictures are being used in a Kirk Documentary being produced by Colette Neirouz Hanna.
    You can see all of the images released here on the National Archives FLICKR account: https://www.flickr.com/photos/usnationalarchives/sets/72157656213196901/with/19917058105/

    I had a gut reaction when I saw the images.
    I recalled my own plight and where I was in life during 9/11 immediately.. I recalled being 21 by only 9 days when the attacks occurred.. I remember racing to my computer and updating my website with news of the event.  There are a million more bits of memory I recall from that day, ending with Art Bell signing onto to Coast to Coast with open lines of people mourning the Americans continent’s horrorshow ..  I am sure many who see the photos will recount the entire day again, play it in their head over and over.. What we saw that day, regardless of the whos whats or whys, was tragic and also had an indelible effect on the psyche of those who lived during it and in the aftermath of it..

    The other striking thing about the photos: The lack of the President .. It is quite apparent that the bunker Cheney found himself in was where the action was. The decisions were being made. This is where that choice was rendered to shoot down a plane–though we are told that shootdown did not occur..

    At the time, I presume, many of these photos were taken, Bush was zigzagging across America and being told not to land in D.C.  If you recall reports of that day, we were told that the President wanted to return to Washington but was told it was too dangerous, finally getting back to the White House that night shortly before his 8pm address to the nation from the Oval Office. In the photos released by the Archives, we see a man on a mission and on in charge: Not the President, but Dick Cheney calling the shots.

    In all fairness, the FIOA request is focusing on Cheney in the aftermath of 9/11.. But that is the other amazing part: How Cheney seemingly was in charge after 9/11.

    I think history will explicate a very different story from any narrative presented in the past 14 years (14 years already…Think about that, as well.)
    I can envision a future history book that is able to be presented (probably not on paper) taking into account all of the upcoming revelations about 9/11 that are sure to be seen as secret papers and files, photos and briefings, become releasable after enough years go by.

    I also think that regardless of when they are released–14 years or 40 years from now–the people who are alive who witnessed 9/11 will have the same visceral reaction any time they see the grainy images and antiquated technology presented in photos of officials from that fateful day on a beautiful September morning, 2001.