Matthew Surridge
@bookofdays.bsky.social
Writer of short stories at the Book of Days project: https://www.patreon.com/BookOfDays
Writer of other things at other places, too, sometimes. He/him.
Writer of other things at other places, too, sometimes. He/him.
Dark Shadows is a far cry from Twin Peaks in every other way, from writing to production values to general ambition. But, again just at the 90 episode mark, it sorta feels like something that might have fed into the later work. Something I'll be thinking about as I go forward.
April 16, 2025 at 8:45 PM
Dark Shadows is a far cry from Twin Peaks in every other way, from writing to production values to general ambition. But, again just at the 90 episode mark, it sorta feels like something that might have fed into the later work. Something I'll be thinking about as I go forward.
Consider: strange supernatural things start to happen in a small isolated coastal town in the northern United States, where a big house with many rooms sits on top of a hill, and the townsfolk drink lots of black coffee at the local diner.
April 16, 2025 at 8:44 PM
Consider: strange supernatural things start to happen in a small isolated coastal town in the northern United States, where a big house with many rooms sits on top of a hill, and the townsfolk drink lots of black coffee at the local diner.
The show ends up about the supernatural descending on a New England town. Reminiscent of Lovecraft — and I gather Lovecraftian plot points do appear late in the show's run — but also very Stephen King. Specifically, 'vampire comes to small New England town' is very Salem's Lot.
April 16, 2025 at 8:42 PM
The show ends up about the supernatural descending on a New England town. Reminiscent of Lovecraft — and I gather Lovecraftian plot points do appear late in the show's run — but also very Stephen King. Specifically, 'vampire comes to small New England town' is very Salem's Lot.
I'll expand here on something: the show was a genre program when millions of people watched even low-rated TV; was it an influence on later genre work? (One plot I haven't got to yet has a woman who's the incarnation of a phoenix, which sounds a *little* familiar.)
April 16, 2025 at 8:42 PM
I'll expand here on something: the show was a genre program when millions of people watched even low-rated TV; was it an influence on later genre work? (One plot I haven't got to yet has a woman who's the incarnation of a phoenix, which sounds a *little* familiar.)
I'm 90 episodes in, and it's not what I expected — much more meandering. I've read it gets better after the vampire shows up. But that's still well over 100 episodes away. But I'm still watching, and this article is me trying to figure out why.
April 16, 2025 at 8:41 PM
I'm 90 episodes in, and it's not what I expected — much more meandering. I've read it gets better after the vampire shows up. But that's still well over 100 episodes away. But I'm still watching, and this article is me trying to figure out why.
The basic idea's great: a kid gets a folkloric creature for a present, then breaks the folkloric rules around the creature one by one until an army of monsters is trashing his town. The town’s built up with its characters and relationships and subplots, which all go to hell.
December 22, 2024 at 7:01 AM
The basic idea's great: a kid gets a folkloric creature for a present, then breaks the folkloric rules around the creature one by one until an army of monsters is trashing his town. The town’s built up with its characters and relationships and subplots, which all go to hell.
Written by Joe Dante and directed by Chris Columbus, 1984's Gremlins is a classic for a reason. Dante’s direction and comic timing is perfect, getting performances from his cast at just the right register of cartooniness, mixing comedy and violence. People die, also it’s funny.
December 22, 2024 at 7:00 AM
Written by Joe Dante and directed by Chris Columbus, 1984's Gremlins is a classic for a reason. Dante’s direction and comic timing is perfect, getting performances from his cast at just the right register of cartooniness, mixing comedy and violence. People die, also it’s funny.
Movie 20 and last teaches us not to expose a Scottish post-rock band to bright light; don’t get them wet; and whatever you do, don’t feed them after midnight. — No, wait, that’s another Mogwai.
December 22, 2024 at 7:00 AM
Movie 20 and last teaches us not to expose a Scottish post-rock band to bright light; don’t get them wet; and whatever you do, don’t feed them after midnight. — No, wait, that’s another Mogwai.
Movie 19: Santo contra el cerebro del mal, the first movie to star the superheroic luchador. In this case he’s up against a mad scientist and mind control!
December 22, 2024 at 4:52 AM
Movie 19: Santo contra el cerebro del mal, the first movie to star the superheroic luchador. In this case he’s up against a mad scientist and mind control!
Lots of fun, not at all Christmassy; 0 out of 10 on the Christmas scale, but excellent street-level gun-toting super-hero action.
December 22, 2024 at 3:30 AM
Lots of fun, not at all Christmassy; 0 out of 10 on the Christmas scale, but excellent street-level gun-toting super-hero action.
Interesting to compare it to super-hero movies in 1993, the year it came out. How many were clearly better? Burton’s Batman movies, Superman II … it's probably about to par with 1941's Captain Marvel. I mean, there weren’t as many back then (The Crow was 94), but still.
December 22, 2024 at 3:29 AM
Interesting to compare it to super-hero movies in 1993, the year it came out. How many were clearly better? Burton’s Batman movies, Superman II … it's probably about to par with 1941's Captain Marvel. I mean, there weren’t as many back then (The Crow was 94), but still.
An evil grandmaster is kidnapping babies as part of a plan to foist a new Emperor on China, leading to fight scenes involving women with three different power sets and backstories. The tone swings wildly, as happens, and I personally could do with less melodrama, but the fights are top-notch.
December 22, 2024 at 3:29 AM
An evil grandmaster is kidnapping babies as part of a plan to foist a new Emperor on China, leading to fight scenes involving women with three different power sets and backstories. The tone swings wildly, as happens, and I personally could do with less melodrama, but the fights are top-notch.
Movie 18: The Heroic Trio! Maggie Cheung is Thief Catcher, Michelle Yeoh is Invisible Girl, and Anita Mui is Wonder Woman (or, in the dub, Shadow Fox) in a kung-fu super-hero gun-fighting extravaganza.
December 22, 2024 at 3:29 AM
Movie 18: The Heroic Trio! Maggie Cheung is Thief Catcher, Michelle Yeoh is Invisible Girl, and Anita Mui is Wonder Woman (or, in the dub, Shadow Fox) in a kung-fu super-hero gun-fighting extravaganza.
The movie’s not often laugh-out-loud funny, but it is constantly pleasantly absurdist. You can’t help but root for these guys, as they stumble across America refining their sound.
December 22, 2024 at 1:33 AM
The movie’s not often laugh-out-loud funny, but it is constantly pleasantly absurdist. You can’t help but root for these guys, as they stumble across America refining their sound.
The Cowboys are an inherently funny visual, each with a ludicrous quiff of hair, suit, pointy shoes, and often sunglasses, usually straight-faced, always being bossed around by their manager. They travel the states, along with the body of a dead former member and an uninvited village idiot.
December 22, 2024 at 1:32 AM
The Cowboys are an inherently funny visual, each with a ludicrous quiff of hair, suit, pointy shoes, and often sunglasses, usually straight-faced, always being bossed around by their manager. They travel the states, along with the body of a dead former member and an uninvited village idiot.
Movie 17: Leningrad Cowboys Go America, Aki Kaurismäki’s 1989 answer to This Is Spinal Tap. An eight-man Russian folk band from the Siberian tundra relocate to America and go rock’n’roll.
December 22, 2024 at 1:32 AM
Movie 17: Leningrad Cowboys Go America, Aki Kaurismäki’s 1989 answer to This Is Spinal Tap. An eight-man Russian folk band from the Siberian tundra relocate to America and go rock’n’roll.
How much of a Christmas movie is it? It is a movie about smart (ahem, wise) people on a long voyage. And a key subplot does involve the birth of a child. So my Christmas rating for this one is a 6 out of 10. 10 out of 10 as a science fiction movie, though.
December 21, 2024 at 10:33 PM
How much of a Christmas movie is it? It is a movie about smart (ahem, wise) people on a long voyage. And a key subplot does involve the birth of a child. So my Christmas rating for this one is a 6 out of 10. 10 out of 10 as a science fiction movie, though.
In fact it felt to me more like original Star Trek than pretty much anything that isn’t original Star Trek, including many of the movies. Based on a Stanislaw Lem novel, scripted by the director and Pavel Jurácek, it has a great old-fashioned SF feel.
December 21, 2024 at 10:33 PM
In fact it felt to me more like original Star Trek than pretty much anything that isn’t original Star Trek, including many of the movies. Based on a Stanislaw Lem novel, scripted by the director and Pavel Jurácek, it has a great old-fashioned SF feel.
In less than 90 minutes, the personalities and relationships of the crew are established, and a series of threats and wonders introduced. And it looks sharp — supposedly it influenced 2001, though I didn’t pick up on that much.
December 21, 2024 at 10:32 PM
In less than 90 minutes, the personalities and relationships of the crew are established, and a series of threats and wonders introduced. And it looks sharp — supposedly it influenced 2001, though I didn’t pick up on that much.
Movie 16 for me was Ikarie XB 1, a 1963 Czechoslovakian film by Jindrich Polák (AKA Voyage to the End of the Universe). In the 22nd century, a crew of scientists set out by spaceship to explore a strange new world, seek out new life, and boldly go etcetera. It’s really good!
December 21, 2024 at 10:30 PM
Movie 16 for me was Ikarie XB 1, a 1963 Czechoslovakian film by Jindrich Polák (AKA Voyage to the End of the Universe). In the 22nd century, a crew of scientists set out by spaceship to explore a strange new world, seek out new life, and boldly go etcetera. It’s really good!
Their aim was to bring the USA into WWII, and they succeeded so well the States got into the war 3 months before the movie came out. So it was timely; it cleaned up at the box office, won an Oscar for Best Story, and was nominated for Best Picture and Best Screenplay.
December 21, 2024 at 5:54 PM
Their aim was to bring the USA into WWII, and they succeeded so well the States got into the war 3 months before the movie came out. So it was timely; it cleaned up at the box office, won an Oscar for Best Story, and was nominated for Best Picture and Best Screenplay.
Movie 15 for me was 49th Parallel (AKA The Invaders), which … in 1940 the British government asked Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger to make a propaganda film, suggesting a doc about minesweepers. Powell and Pressburger decided to make an epic about Nazis escaping Canada.
December 21, 2024 at 5:54 PM
Movie 15 for me was 49th Parallel (AKA The Invaders), which … in 1940 the British government asked Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger to make a propaganda film, suggesting a doc about minesweepers. Powell and Pressburger decided to make an epic about Nazis escaping Canada.
Movie 14 in my solstice marathon: Isao Takahata’s Grave of the Fireflies, scripted by Takahata from a short story by Akiyuki Nosaka. After an American bombing run in WWII devastates their home, a boy struggles to keep himself and his 4-year-old sister alive. Things don’t go well.
December 21, 2024 at 3:30 PM
Movie 14 in my solstice marathon: Isao Takahata’s Grave of the Fireflies, scripted by Takahata from a short story by Akiyuki Nosaka. After an American bombing run in WWII devastates their home, a boy struggles to keep himself and his 4-year-old sister alive. Things don’t go well.
Movie 13 in my solstice marathon was Sambizanga, Sarah Maldoror’s 1972 movie set in Angola in 1961. Written by Maldoror, Mário Pinto de Andrade, and Maurice Pons, it’s based on José Luandino Vieira’s 1961 novella The Real Life of Domingos Xavier, and it’s quite good.
December 21, 2024 at 1:47 PM
Movie 13 in my solstice marathon was Sambizanga, Sarah Maldoror’s 1972 movie set in Angola in 1961. Written by Maldoror, Mário Pinto de Andrade, and Maurice Pons, it’s based on José Luandino Vieira’s 1961 novella The Real Life of Domingos Xavier, and it’s quite good.
Movie 12 tonight was Lars von Trier’s 2009 art-horror film Antichrist. Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg are a never-named married couple whose toddler son dies in the prologue, after which they go off to a cabin in the woods to work through the mother’s depression …
December 21, 2024 at 11:35 AM
Movie 12 tonight was Lars von Trier’s 2009 art-horror film Antichrist. Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg are a never-named married couple whose toddler son dies in the prologue, after which they go off to a cabin in the woods to work through the mother’s depression …