The Quinta’s Ghost is an animated horror short that dramatizes the twilight years of Francisco Goya, as he paints his Black Paintings in his house, the Quinta del Sordo (House of the Deaf Man). In a novel twist, the story is narrated from the point of view of the Quinta itself, responding to what Goya paints on its walls. The short, done in computer animation, brings the demons and other nightmarish imagery of Goya’s work to life, incorporating state-of-the-art techniques such as VR painting. It’s a hellish depiction of an artist suffering through grief, madness, and issues of identity.

Chile has had some top-notch adult animation, especially in the horror genre, but Petra and the Sun is better filed under morbid humor, and it was an especially effective example of it too. In the Andes, 71-year-old Petra lives a lonely life until hotter-than-usual weather reveals the frozen body of a century-old mountaineer. Petra takes the body home, thaws it, and spends some uncomfortably in-depth quality time with his preserved corpse…the disappearance of which the police are aware of. Despite its premise, this was one of the funniest films they showed, though it’s definitely not for the squeamish. I felt that the ending could’ve been handled better, but overall, this one I really enjoyed. This short also won a Special Jury Mention.

How is River is Born was definitely one of the more mature shorts in the set. A woman has a sensual experience with what appears to be a nature goddess, but ultimately ends up being something less yet significantly more. This one’s pretty simple in terms of story, and is mostly carried by the beautiful animation.

Ovary-Acting is a comedy short about a 34-year-old woman who is pressured by her family and motherly friends to have children. As the stress gets to her, she unexpectedly gives birth her talking ovaries, leading to a musical argument about the pros and cons of motherhood. The animation style, which uses knit puppets with 2D-animated mouths, brings to mind something out of an R-rated version of KaBlam! This was definitely a fun one to watch, and it has a great sense of humor and heart to it.

Still Moving follows a divorced mother having a stressful car ride with her daughter as they head to their new home. The strength of this short is in the animation, which is probably one of the best depictions of anxiety I’ve seen in recent memory. It’s really experimental, though it definitely seems to be the main focus of the short over the story.

A Night at the Rest Area is an anime short in which a group of anthropomorphic animals on a bus stop at a rest area. There’s really not much to say about this one in terms of story. However, what it lacks in plot it makes up for with gentle yet effective comedy about everyday life. There’s a real appreciation of the mundane, where even the jingle playing as the nearby vending machine heats up your meal is given focus. Obviously, the use of animals adds to a lot of the humor, and the sketchy character designs are great. One of my favorite jokes in this involves a convenience store employee who is anything but convenient, and the punchline being obvious doesn’t make it any less funny (or relatable). This one doesn’t have much but in a way it also has a lot.

The Piano is a hand-drawn short in which a young girl discovers her father playing the piano late at night, creating a bond that lasts into adulthood. The animation is amazing, the music is beautiful, and the ending will warm your heart, if not open the tear ducts. It’s another short with a simple idea done extremely well.

As mentioned before, Best Animated Short went to Playing God, which I definitely feel could’ve fit into either of the shorts programs. This also qualifies it for the Oscars, and I guess I’ll find out if it gets nominated (though the short that won Sundance might be tough competition). Hopefully I’ll get to see it at some point, but overall, the 14 shorts I saw (if we’re only counting the competition) were for the most part highly enjoyable and I loved a lot of the styles used.

There was a time when Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) was the toast of Hollywood, but now she’s 50 and her fame has long since faded. After she learns her sleazeball boss Harvey plans to drop her due to her age, an opportunity suddenly presents itself to her: a black-market drug called The Substance, which promises to give you a new, younger version of yourself. Initially hesitant, she soon gives in and agrees to try it. All she has to do is follow the instructions, and she’ll be back in the spotlight in no time, right? If you think you’ve heard this story before, that still won’t prepare you for what you’ll see in The Substance.

When a horror movie wins Best Screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival, you know you’re in for something special. Sure enough, The Substance is one of the year’s best films. It’s also one of the year’s hardest watches. Part social commentary, part body horror film, and part scream of rage, it takes the media’s unrealistic beauty standards to task before hacking them with a machete. It’s a nearly-two-and-a-half hour descent into cinematic hell….but, you know, the good kind.

The Substance is the sort of movie best experienced, so I’ll go light on any more plot details. Also, what an experience it is. The filmmaking is absolutely top-notch, with the editing, sound, and cinematography perfectly calibrated to induce as much anxiety in viewers as humanly possible. Demi Moore gives an absolutely tour-de-force performance in this, while special mention has to be given to Dennis Quaid as Harvey. Whenever he’s onscreen, the camera angles and edits become as grotesque and over-the-top as humanly possible to enhance his slimy performance. This is an absolutely masterful work of cinematic craft.

Of course, this is still a horror film, and not the kind that relies on cheap jump scares, either. This isn’t a film for the weak of stomach in the slightest. The makeup is extremely well-done, and hopefully the Academy will actually give this movie the time of day when the Oscars come around, because it absolutely deserves a nomination for it (not to mention several others). Yet it’s also not the kind of movie that relies on shocks for entertainment, either. The story is well-paced, even for a film this long. It’s a smart script that’s blistering in its satire (in more ways than one). A lot of times, I thought I knew where this movie was going, and ended up pleasantly surprised. Everything is also as garish and exaggerated as possible, which adds to the overall theme of the movie.

It all builds up to a finale that doesn’t so much go off the rails as it does blow up the train. It’s among the year’s most unhinged movie moments, and while I did think it went on a bit too long, I nevertheless loved every minute of it. If recent horror movies have left you cold, go see The Substance immediately. It’s not only the best horror film of the year, it’s one of the best films of the year, period.

Since 1974, more independent film distributors have gone out of business than I could probably fit into this paragraph. Yet against all odds, one scrappy artist-driven studio is still around to celebrate its 50th year in business. I am of course talking about production company, distributor, and B-movie stalwart Troma Entertainment. Last weekend at the Lucky 13 Saloon in Brooklyn, Troma brought the festivities as part of their 24th annual TromaDance Film Festival. Initially created by Troma founder Lloyd Kaufman with inspiration from South Park’s Trey Parker and Matt Stone as an alternative to Sundance (after their film Cannibal! The Musical was rejected), TromaDance serves as a showcase for DIY filmmakers and some of the most out-there shorts and features available. Not only is there no entry fee, but the festival had free admission (though there was a suggested donation box), and while many of the movies featured have the kind of shock-and-shlock attitude Troma is known for, really, anything goes. (My G-rated high school film project made it into TromaDance 2014.)

Described by festival organizer Sabrina Mendoza as “a culmination of everything Tromaesque”, the festival consisted of a number of short film blocks and two feature films, Sweet Meats (as a work-in-progress focus group screening), and Murdaritaville. Unlike most of the times I’ve attended, the shorts were grouped by subject matter, with themes such as “Animation Nation”, “Shrooms ‘n’ Shit”, “Komedy Korner”, “Spooky Scary” and “Monster Madness”. Animation Nation was a particular highlight for me, not just for the obvious reason that I love animation, but because I was impressed with the quality of the techniques used. Considering the amount of effort animation takes, it was surprising how much the filmmakers were able to pull off with limited resources, including a number of shorts done with well-done cutout puppetry. The standout was easily Orchid, a short mixing stop-motion with chalk-like drawn animation that tells a story of drug addiction, murder, and monsters in a world populated by skeletons.

As mentioned, while a lot of the shorts did fit into the standard “Tromatic” aesthetic (I.e. sex, gore, and a lot of stuff that isn’t for the squeamish), there’s usually quite a lot of diversity on display, and this year was no exception. Last Day for Videos, for instance, was a melancholy documentary that focused on the closing of a Family Video in Kalamazoo, as the employees talk about what is lost from the communal video store experience in an age of streaming. The Triangular Door from experimental filmmaker Dylan Mars Greenberg was an anarchic, psychedelic work shot on Super-8 in which “the last survivors of an obliterated culture search for spiritual bondage in a reality show from hell”, narrated by noted Canadian art filmmaker Guy Maddin (which unintentionally created a link between TromaDance and the New York Film Festival, where Maddin’s new film Rumours is showing). Komedy Korner especially had a great deal of highlights, such as police procedural spoof Tornado County and Clownie Verses The Internet, an unhinged DIY short in which a clown gets his “revenge” on social media. Mendoza also had a short of her own in the festival, Coast to Coast AM, a re-enactment of an infamous phone call during Art Bell’s radio show.

Night 1 ended with a performance by Detroit-based band Fishfly, while Night 2 brought the arrival of Troma co-founder and head honcho Lloyd Kaufman, who took pics with fans. Meanwhile, Mendoza raffled off props from Kaufman’s upcoming movie The Power of Positive Murder, fresh off the shoot in upstate New York. The third day also had a Troma “Power Hour” showcasing the best and bloodiest moments from Troma’s 50 year history. Yet it wasn’t all fun and games, and Michigan video stores sadly weren’t the only thing being mourned that weekend. Earlier this year, Doug Sakmann, a longtime mainstay of the Troma crew and their events, died unexpectedly, making this the first TromaDance without him. He was memorialized in a heartfelt montage played during both nights, and as someone who knew Doug, his absence was definitely felt.

Mendoza told me that what separates TromaDance from other festivals is “the feeling of just wanting to be part of a greater community that is Tromaville” with “a bunch of people that have just shot things on iPhones [and] professional cameras…all here together to celebrate the power of filmmaking and disrupting media for 50 years.” Overall, TromaDance was a lot of fun, and if you’re in the New York City area (and have a strong stomach), I’d definitely encourage you to check it out next year. I’d also recommend that if you have a film to submit, do so. I mean, it’s free, and who knows? You might even make it in.

Ready Or Not: 4.5/5 Stars

In this episode, Russ and Zach talk about Empathy, Inc and Ready or Not, a pair of smart and creative genre films that deserve more attention. SPOILERS ON for Empathy, Inc, as it’s hard to talk about the film without talking about the film.

You can find us (and a number of other awesome podcasts) on the ACPN family of shows.

The Emerald City Video Podcast is a periodic podcast hosted by entertainment journalist Russ Burlingame, with a rotating cast of hosts who used to work at the Emerald City Video store in East Syracuse, New York. The store was once awarded by the Video Software Dealers of America as the best small video store in the U.S. Though it closed in 2009, the store’s legacy still touches the daily lives of a lot of the people who used to work there, and the Syracuse community as a whole still has a lot of fondness for its memory.

The idea behind the podcast, which launched in 2016, was to bring the discourse you would get at a video store — talking with real humans about your movies, rather than trusting in an algorithm — back to…well, if not the world, or even Syracuse, at least to the guys who maybe missed that human connection the most: a bunch of pop culture junky loudmouths who used to run a really cool video store. Over the years, the Emerald City Video banner has flown over a number of themes, including specific episodes about TV series like Riverdale and Psych.

If you like what we’re doing here, you can become a patron of the Emerald City Video Podcast, which comes with fun perks. You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook. We also have Instagram and Vero accounts where we share images, photos, memes, and nonsense. You can support us on Patreon, too, and do things like requesting custom episodes and the like.

Be back for more by noon on the fifth day, and please — always remember to rewind your videocassettes.

It’s time to talk about Satanic Panic, a low-budget horror movie that Russ and Zach both LOVED.

You can find us (and a number of other awesome podcasts) on the ACPN family of shows.

The Emerald City Video Podcast is a periodic podcast hosted by entertainment journalist Russ Burlingame, with a rotating cast of hosts who used to work at the Emerald City Video store in East Syracuse, New York. The store was once awarded by the Video Software Dealers of America as the best small video store in the U.S. Though it closed in 2009, the store’s legacy still touches the daily lives of a lot of the people who used to work there, and the Syracuse community as a whole still has a lot of fondness for its memory.

The idea behind the podcast, which launched in 2016, was to bring the discourse you would get at a video store — talking with real humans about your movies, rather than trusting in an algorithm — back to…well, if not the world, or even Syracuse, at least to the guys who maybe missed that human connection the most: a bunch of pop culture junky loudmouths who used to run a really cool video store. Over the years, the Emerald City Video banner has flown over a number of themes, including specific episodes about TV series like Riverdale and Psych.

If you like what we’re doing here, you can become a patron of the Emerald City Video Podcast, which comes with fun perks. You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook. We also have Instagram and Vero accounts where we share images, photos, memes, and nonsense. You can support us on Patreon, too, and do things like requesting custom episodes and the like.

Be back for more by noon on the fifth day, and please — always remember to rewind your videocassettes.

It’s the middle of October which means Halloween-times are in full effect. DJ SpookNasty and MC Tummy Troubles are extra loopy this week as Aaron was late to record, due to an incredible advance screening of “Thor: Ragnarok,” and Jack was already three drinks in.

Aside from discussing the important topics of the week, they bring back their Movie Corner segment and discuss the awesome horror streaming app all genre fans should check out, AMC’s Shudder.

NEWS HIGHLIGHTS THIS WEEK:

• “Game of Thrones” stars Peter Dinklage and Charles Dance will executive produce “Qausimodo,” a new TV series adaptation of Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame. It’s the first drama series to come out of Atrium TV — which is a new association of international streaming and telecommunication platforms that was launched earlier this year. Meaning, the show will air exclusively to a yet-to-be-named OTT overseas.
• Netflix sorta released some ratings numbers, which it never really does. The streamer says that, on average, more than 8 million viewers have watched at least one season of one series in 24 hours or less.
• Wyatt Cenac is getting his own late-night show at HBO. The project will be a comedic docuseries where Cenac goes on a “journey to understand some of the big issues of the moment and investigate real-world solutions.” HBO has given the series a 10-episode order and will premiere in the Spring of 2018.
• ABC Freeform has ordered a new docu-series titled, “Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings” which will go behind the scenes of different lavish weddings that take place at Disney destinations around the world.

AARON & JACK’S HORROR MOVIE CORNER:
WHAT AARON WATCHED THIS WEEK – “Happy Death Day”
WHAT JACK WATCHED THIS WEEK – “Ouija: Origin of Evil”

AARON’S LOSERS: “Dynasty,” “Supernatural” and MTV’s “TRL”
JACK’S LOSERS: “Dynasty”
AARON’S FENCERS: “The Last Man on Earth” and “Lore”
JACK’S FENCERS: “Channel Zero: No End House,” “I Love You, America” and “White Famous”
AARON’S WINNERS: “South Park,” “I Love You, America” and “Mindhunter”
JACK’S WINNERS: “DuckTales,” “The Shannara Chronicles” and the Youtube Channel, ChrisStuckmann

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Find us on Twitter: @PunchDrunk_TV, @flatlinejack and @aaronflux

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Welcome to Episode 72. As always, #ClinktheDrink