A Zuzu’s Petals exclusive interview: A long chat with three filmmakers who are in the process of crowdfunding two horror films and a documentary.
Category Archives: Movies
His Name Was Jason
My love affair with the FRIDAY THE 13TH series encapsulated in a guest post over at Anything Horror.
The Healing Power of Horror
From MARTYRS to AMERICAN MONSTERS to psychological methods of trauma healing to Toni Morrison’s Beloved to Cold Case while discussing the healing powers of horror stories. (But no Lady Gaga this time 
On Dreams, Suffering and the French Film MARTYRS
I was reminded of a strange dream I had a few years ago after recently watching the brilliant French film MARTYRS, and of course also manage to tie this back to Lady Gaga. 
On homosociality, American masculinties, and violence against women in DEADGIRL
Delving back into my much-loved world of cultural anthropology via the horror film “Deadgirl” and its social significance.
The Assasination Of Marilyn Monroe
My review of the tragic “Assassination Of Marilyn Monroe”.
Wild Things Make My Heart Sing
Reflections on the magical and terrifying film “Where The Wild Things Are”.
Inglourious Revenge
My impassioned review of Quentin Tarantino’s magnificent “Inglourious Basterds”.
Misogyny Lives
I am stunned beyond belief at all the support being offered Roman Polanski, convicted child raper and jail dodger, after his long overdue arrest in Zurich last week. What kind of world do we live in that just because a person is a celebrity and a holocaust survivor he is somehow seen as being exempt…
A Love Letter to The Stand
Written on a postcard with a biohazard stamp, encased in plastic: The wheel of ka never stops turning, And I roll with it. Where a stamp could go but there’s nobody to read it: Mother Abagail’s farm June 14, 2009 The apocalypse is nigh, All I can do is smile.
A Love Letter to Focus Features
Written on a postcard of your fuzzy dots and lights logo as it comes into clarity: You never failto evoke, provokeand change the wayI see worlds. Where a stamp that looks like a film reel could go:Tucson, ArizonaJune 7, 2009Watching the brilliant Hamlet 2 and being crazy impressed that a film actually has managed to…
Sezin’s Screamfest: Top Ten Horror Movies of the Last Ten Years
I *heart* horror films. It’s probably not a healthy thing to *heart* but I can’t help it. I love horror movies so much that I even found a way to incorporate theories of horror in my university dissertation and hopefully soon-to-be-published first book. Oh yeah I so did. Since I am of the recently unemployed,…
Your reactions to Heath Ledger’s death
I always felt a strange and strong connection with Heath Ledger. It became even stranger and stronger when I found out that he has almost exactly the same birthday as me. Same day, month, year and almost the same time even. I felt it was some sort of sign. When I found out about five…
Hannibal Rising, A Novel by Thomas Harris, 2007
From the bestselling author of The Silence of the Lambs and Red Dragon comes an utter peice of drivel. It is so very rare that a movie is better than the book and in this case, I would say don’t even bother with the book. Harris seems to have grown complacent with his Hannibal Lector…
Little Children, Directed by Todd Field, 2006
Very few movies captivate us to the core of our humanity and evoke who we really are on screen. Our desires, our sadnesses, our lost dreams. Hardly any movies ever accomplish this, and rarely do we actually want the movies we watch to remind us of the most painful aspects of our lives. It seems…
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, a film by Tom Tykwer, 2006
I am not particularly crazy about stories of murderers, but this one compelled me to watch it mainly because its director made the incomparable Run, Lola, Run and I also wondered what perfume has to do with murder. From the first scene I was captivated. The film opens in a filthy Parisian fishmarket where Jean-Baptiste…
Capote, a film by Bennett Miller, 2005
Granted, I haven’t actually read In Cold Blood or Breakfast at Tiffany’s yet, but for some reason I always imagined Truman Capote as a sort of gangster-esque character. A real burly manly man in a trench coat and spats. Imagine my surprise to discover that he was gay! A New Yorker who had to be…
The Black Dahlia, a film by Brian De Palma, 2006
One of the things I love almost as much as old movies themselves are modern movies made in the old movie style. The gritty film, the glamour, the manner of speech. I love to see whether modern actors are able to capture something of that Hollywood heyday, the real days of the Silver Screen, not…
La Comunidad
If ever there were an accurate portrait of Spain, La Comunidad is it. Did you ever see “The ‘Burbs”? Well, this is the Spanish version but far more accurate. Nosy neighbors, nice only to bide the time whilst they wile away your demise to get what they want from your remains. The unveiled hatred of…
Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo, 1958
Any fan of old movies is a fan of Alfred Hitchcock, and it seems each viewing brings new levels to the description “creepy.” I recently caught Vertigo on TV a few weeks back, and while this film and its leading man (Jimmy Stewart) remain by far my favorites, I was somehow struck by this story…
Frozen, a film by Juliet McKoen, 2006
What starts slow sometimes ends quickly as this haunting story of loss and obsession works its way under the viewer’s skin with quiet determination. Frozen is the story of Kath, whose sister Annie vanishes without a trace in the icy tundras of Morecambe Bay in Northwest England. Did she run away? Did she fall under…
a love letter to M. Night Shyamalan
Dear Mr. Shyamalan, So often I am touched by art created by another and in the immediate afterglow of the experience want to write to tell them how and how much it affected me. I never end up writing the letters and they are beginning to fill a cabinet within my heart. I don’t know…
the illusionist in istanbul
we went to see ‘the illusionist’ today. wow. just, wow. go see it! i love watching movies in their original language. there was just not enough of this in spain and here it is more common than not that films in the theatre are in their original version. blessed be the Cinema Gods. after many…
i am the elephant man lost in translation
when i saw ‘the elephant man’ i felt i was him somehow. someone who never quite seems to fit in with the sea of people around him and someone who is always obvious no matter what he does to hide the fact. today after going to see a wonderful doctor who diagnosed my Middle Ear…
pirates, princesas, and we are not in kansas anymore
after quite a grueling two days in madrid in which my ear infection compounded by a hundred after the freezing cold ride on the granada-madrid bus, we have made it to istanbul. madrid would have been a nice layover if i had not been so wretchedly ill, but we did get to see two very…
finally some real movies and saying goodbye to granada
in previous blogs i have discussed a two types of travellers phenomenon (The Questing Traveler and the Runaway Traveler) along with my discontent at the cowardice demonstrated in films these days in telling the easiest parts of stories and leaving the most interesting and complicated parts alone. because i have been surrounded by Runaway Travelers…
the rose, what next?, and the brenda chenowith syndrome
‘the rose’ and the three people in the world for whom i can sing after years of wanting to see ‘the rose,’ i stayed up till almost the crack of dawn the other night and watched it. what a beautiful film, and bette midler has one of the most powerful voices in the history of…
two types of travelers and how film versions of books can be amazing
two types of travelers there are two types of people who travel. the first group is the Questing Travelers, those who travel because they are in search of something. spiritual awakenings, daily epiphanies, random fated connections with strangers that may only be fleeting but end up lasting a lifetime. they are the type who travel…
‘lost in la mancha’ or goodbye to accursed spain
i think spain exists in a black hole. like los angeles, an accursed place where nothing goes right and madness is sanity. don’t get me wrong, i am all about madness, but more that creative madness that is healthy, not the drug-addled-brain madness that seems to infect the denizens of this sweltering land. case in…
on how much 'hostel' sucked and they don't make scary movies like they used to
since my ear feels like an evil fairy with a blowtorch lives inside and wants to liquify my brain, i am trying to keep a low profile. an earache is just the worst. i have no appetite, no balance, and occasionally what feels like a nail driving through the side of my head. which leads…
randomness, i herald thee of importance
*we have some freaky crazy addam’s family neighbors. gomez and morticia’s ghetto spanish cousins, but these guys are rather frightening. they have about 5 teeth between the two of them, as well as a german shepard who is heard but never seen. they don’t even take him out of the apartment to go for walks…
an american werewolf in london
i don’t like movies with ghosts. or dead people who rise up and start speaking. after wendy’s death and my ongoing relationship with her and other Spirits, i find it extremely disrespectful to frighten people with such images. it is because of these types of movies that when i mention Spirits and Angels, people get…
a love letter to Seerpoon Witherse
written on a postcard with a picture of johnny cash’s guitar on the blank space: you amazed me where a stamp would go it says:thoiry, francemay 2, 2006i didn’t know you could sing like that.you are a new goddess.
a love letter to Xinjoa Phioquen
written on a postcard of fulsom prison taken from the outside on the blank space: you remind me so much of your brother i wanted to feel sad he is no longer with us.but you are just as beautiful, and powerful.i pray that you will take care of yourself.you are so special, so gifted, and…
a love letter to Ash C. Hojnney
written on your first guitar that did not have an open middle like most guitars do just below the open s-shaped carving that makes the guitar look like a violin: you know, i didn’t think about you being a womanizer and a cheater on your wife,but your music moved me from the beginning and so…
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