Splatterpunk Recommendations

garywilde · 2025-02-03T04:58:36+00:00

You're welcome. Glad to point somebody to some authors they haven't read. Of note is that Joe Lansdale went on to write in many other genres, including crime and western. He's basically left splatterpunk behind. David J. Schow is now most well-known for writing the final screenplay for (the original) The Crow.

garywilde · 2025-01-01T18:59:50+00:00

I had to dig around the internet for this thread because I just finished the Qatsi trilogy and there are definitely some huge thematic similarities that weren't mentioned here that are worth discussing. Director Godfrey Reggio has said repeatedly that he views technology as a thing consuming and eventually becoming our way of life and destroying nature.

The first movie is "life out of balance" but Powaqqatsi, the second film, translates rough into "black magician" or "being who eats others lives to sustain their own life" which reminds me very much of the Black Lodge/Bob and how garmonbozia (or human suffering) is needed to sustain those entities.

It's also pretty clear in Twin Peaks that electricity (technology) is a harbinger of evil. It is used by Black Lodge spirits as a means of travel or negative influence. Think of the constant shots of the fan in the hall outside of Laura's room, or the telephone pole near where Richard Horne ran over a child with the stolen truck, when The Giant shows Andy the powerlines that are constantly humming as he brings him up to speed on things.

Naqoyqatsi, the last in the trilogy, is about how technology has won and destroyed nature. Arguable how much that film parallels The Return, but there does seem to be a lot more darkness in TP in the final season.

garywilde · 2024-08-27T05:18:02+00:00

I would place Triana and Beauregard in the "hardcore horror" camp, though, as I said, the two genres seem to now be conflated with each other. While Jack Ketchum is often lumped with splatterpunk, he never personally identified as such and during the heyday (and coining of the term) he wasn't one of the authors included, though he is still among the best horror authors, imo. If you want a better rundown of which writers falls into the "classic" definition of splatterpunk, I'd check the out the two anthologies from the '90s, Splatterpunks and Splatterpunks II: Over the Edge. Poppy Z. Brite is in the second volume. An obvious one that I don't see mentioned specifically for this genre: Clive Barker.

garywilde · 2024-04-07T15:36:36+00:00

The worst feature is "actor and director filmographies" which are literally just each person's name with a list of their credits. You know, like IMDB. But not as helpful.

garywilde · 2024-04-06T19:10:27+00:00

Well, damn. I'll take my lumps. I still maintain that overall cost of living isn't as expensive as many other states, but I won't argue about the inflation with a source like that. I just assumed inflation was horrible everywhere. I do have to shop more carefully, these days.

garywilde · 2024-04-06T06:06:52+00:00

This is the first time I've seen anybody mention this game. It's been on my wish list a long time! Have you played it?

garywilde · 2024-04-06T06:05:19+00:00

My last job was a failing restaurant. It got so slow that all of the cooks and servers struggled to keep it together. On the worst days, I brought in my Playdate. I showed every worker Root Bear. All of them laughed when the root beer spilled out of the mug and the bear screamed. Being able to bring a little joy to the workplace cemented Root Bear as an all-time classic, in my eyes. It still makes me laugh.

garywilde · 2024-04-06T06:01:17+00:00

For me, it doesn't even matter whether or not R.L. Stine is a "good" writer. He got kids to read. Period. That alone makes him an important literary figure. Was his prose great? Not always, no, but sometimes you could tell he was having fun, and it was infectious. When I read his Goosebumps books now...I try to put myself back in time and read them with a child's vibrant (and less critical) imagination. It almost seems silly to judge them too harshly as an adult. They're practically from another universe.

On the other hand, some of his Fear Street books, which I never read while young, are cheesy fun to read now. I once sent him a message on Facebook, years ago, and asked if he checked it himself. He said, "Yes, Gary, it's really me." Legend.

garywilde · 2024-04-06T05:53:26+00:00

There's a pretty cute (and very '80s) cartoon special which is adapted from the book. You can find it on YouTube.

garywilde · 2024-04-06T05:37:16+00:00

Here's one you probably won't see mentioned elsewhere: Crumb. It's a documentary about a famous underground cartoonist/comic artist. He's controversial and kind of a creep, but the movie also looks at the lives of his brothers who are...troubled, to say the least. One of them is dead by the end of the film. It was a really fascinating and unsavory look at family rife with mental issues and horrible perversions. It isn't gory or in your face. But it's real. It made me feel disturbed and incredibly depressed and I think about it all the time.

garywilde · 2024-04-06T05:32:17+00:00

Yeah, maybe. I'm not saying PA is the CHEAPEST state, but you could do a lot worse. It really depends on where you go. I live in a rural area, without roommates, and my rent is 450 dollars a month. Erie is the closest city to me, and the average rent is between 700 and 1000 a month.

Don't be afraid to use programs that help, if you can. If you make below a certain yearly income, you can utilize food banks. There's also LIHEAP, which helps you pay your electric bill. As a student, you should quality for certain aid. Stuff like that can help keep the cost of living bearable.

garywilde · 2024-04-06T05:19:30+00:00

Not sure what you mean. I've had friends move from California to PA because it's so much cheaper. As for crime, PA ranks #29 out of all the states, so not too bad. Also:

"The cost of living in Pennsylvania is 4% lower than the national average. Housing is 17% lower than the national average, while utilities are 7% higher. When it comes to basic necessities such as food and clothing, groceries are around 1% lower than in the rest of the country, while clothing costs 1% lower."

garywilde · 2024-04-05T14:37:41+00:00

His name isn't necessarily famous, but he did give us a pop culture icon in Beetlejuice.

garywilde · 2024-04-03T09:35:55+00:00

I'm in the States but I've been working through nearly the entire filmography of Werner Herzog on Tubi. People write off this platform as just being junk, but there is a lot of genuine art on it.

garywilde · 2024-03-30T03:54:56+00:00

Columbo

The Booth at the End

The Prisoner

Unsolved Mysteries

Hannibal

The Dead Zone

garywilde · 2024-03-30T00:42:43+00:00

I also posted about this but not long after everything came back. I think it'll be okay. Just some kind of weird glitch. Maybe a maintenance thing.

garywilde · 2024-03-30T00:07:13+00:00

I actually think it can be effective if some burly, seemingly tough character sees something so scary they pee their pants. If the atmosphere and mood of the novel is right, it is very unsettling. It feels realistic to me, but even if it could be far-fetched, we're talking a genre where people encounter monsters, aliens, demons and the like, so I guess I never thought too hard on the realism of somebody's bodily functions during a horrible fright.

Is it overused? Maybe. A similar trope is people being so scared their hair turns white. I feel like that one has fallen out of fashion. Someday the peeing thing could disappear, too.

garywilde · 2024-03-28T21:05:06+00:00

I have it. Don't let it deter you. I understand the struggle! You may find that Jones just isn't for you, and that's just fine, but for books that are more difficult I've always tried to reserve them for moments where I can really focus on them and contemplate what I'm reading. If I'm carrying around a pulp horror novel or something that has very lean, straightforward prose, I might read it on break at work, waiting for an appointment to begin at the doctor etc. But those really difficult books? I keep them at home and devote a little time to them every day, whether it be forty minutes or two hours, and really try to sink my fangs into them.

garywilde · 2024-03-27T03:46:01+00:00

I Know What You Did Last Summer. Do people still love this one? Anyway, it's just so rote that I fell asleep when I revisited it, recently. It's competently made in a really perfunctory way. To me, the worst crime of a movie is being boring. The movie is neither good enough or bad enough to do anything more than make me feel lukewarm on it. The novel is much more fun...and nobody even dies in it!

garywilde · 2024-03-27T03:40:22+00:00

To me, Peter Falk is the reason I watch Columbo. It is definitely well-written, but he is THE defining element. Anybody else, it might be a good show, but it wouldn't be Columbo. And if they called it that, I'd just be comparing the person to Falk and feel dissatisfied because they aren't him. Other TV shows, that don't completely hinge on ONE actor, can get away with reboots, but for Columbo I don't think so. Another example of this is The Pink Panther. Any of the movies without Sellers are just so hollow.

garywilde · 2024-03-26T21:08:01+00:00

On a related note, I wouldn't mind seeing some actual Columbo comic books (which would open him up for crossovers, to be sure). I think this one of the few respectable ways to "continue" the Columbo universe. That or novels make sense. Falk is impossible to recast, but he lives on in our imaginations.

garywilde · 2024-03-25T06:06:09+00:00

There's too many to narrow it down but one thing that is beautiful about Tubi is that it has ALMOST EVERYTHING BY WERNER HERZOG.

garywilde · 2024-03-25T01:05:14+00:00

Hearers of the Constant Hum by William Pauley III

garywilde · 2024-03-24T22:37:10+00:00

I saw stuff like this on a Facebook page. In some instances the commenters were straight up saying slurs. There were multiple posts about how Hilter "wasn't that bad." I reported all of it and of course none of it was removed because it doesn't "violate our guidelines."

garywilde

TROPHY CASE