No Guts, No Glory

In honor of Halloween, my first post is about a movie that not well-known, but is definitely worth a viewing and a book that kind of came out of nowhere, both of which are in the horror/thriller genre.

I can take no credit whatsoever for coming across this movie...I found it at www.filmschoolrejects.com, which is a fantastic site for learning about movies that went under the radar or for reminding you about that great film that you've been meaning to see. Anyway, the movie is Ravenous, starring Guy Pearce and Robert Carlyle (who always seems to play a crazy motherf*er and does it well--i.e.: Trainspotting, 28 Weeks Later). It looks at that most romantic of topics, cannibalism. It takes place in the mid-1800s in what was still the mostly untamed West of the US. Pearce is an Army captain stationed at a fort in the middle of nowhere during winter. The creep factor of this film is a 10 and it definitely provides some gruesome stuff. But it also has a good dose of black humor and that's how I like it. I won't give away too much but it's pretty awesome and Robert Carlyle's performance alone makes it worth it (plus it has Neal McDonough as a gung-ho soldier, David Arquette as his goofy, campy self, and Lost's Daniel Faraday). So grab some red meat and enjoy.

If you're looking for a more intellectual pastime this Halloween, try an amazing book by British author David Moody. Moody initially self-published the book online and it wasn't until later that it was released by a publisher. It's called Hater and it will screw with your head. The best way I can describe it is as a mix between The Happening (if it were actually good) and a typical zombie story. Without saying too much, the storyline revolves around a British family living through some kind of massive societal disaster where, one by one, people turn on those closest to them and brutally kill them. So, yeah, it's pretty violent. It's also one of the more psychological pieces in the "zombie" genre I've seen or read and it raises some pretty interesting questions. Moody has also recently come out with a sequel called Dog Blood which is also good, but doesn't have as much of the shock factor. And last I heard, Guillermo del Toro bought the rights to make Hater into a film, but we'll see when that happens.

Anyway, I hope this gets you in the Halloween spirit. And as a final nod to Robert Carlyle, here's a link to his awesome Johnnie Walker ad. Enjoy.