Interview - Growing Pains: Horror Edition, Part II

Continuing last week's theme, I've turned to a fellow horror buff and asked them a few questions about what work in the genre has stayed with them, for better or worse, and how their feelings toward it has changed over the years or due to events in their life. This time around, my close friend Xander Harrington stepped up to the plate.

Review - "Want to fight?"

Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive was my surprise favourite film of 2011, a vaguely ’80s crime drama that contrasted a smooth, stylish aesthetic with blunt brutality. It was also the first movie to really sell me on Ryan Gosling as an actor, the former London, Ontario resident immersing himself in the quiet and increasingly frightening role of the film’s nameless driver. It also had an amazing soundtrack courtesy of most-underrated-film-composer-ever Cliff Martinez and electronic artists like Kavinsky, College and Desire. So I was as psyched as possible to watch Only God Forgives, the second collaboration between Refn and Gosling, again featuring the music of Martinez.

But as Drive was as unconventional a crime thriller as they come—in spite of its premise, less The Fast and the Furious and more Manhunter with cars—Only God Forgives is as unexpected a follow up to Drive as I could have imagined. I went in expecting Drive, but in Thailand, and ultimately watched what felt like something Stanley Kubrick might have directed… but in Thailand. And that isn’t a bad thing.

Tangent - "Mr. Sandman..."

As I’ve told a few of you, my dreams have been incredibly lengthy and vivid as of late. I’ve curled up for an eight or nine hour sleep and woken up at the end of it after what, to my subconscious mind, has been days and, one time, even a whole week. Every night becomes a surreal adventure, albeit sorely lacking the backwards cadence of Twin Peaks’ Man from Another Place.

But the ones that actually irk me are those I can’t clearly remember as being dreams. One time I imagined a friend and I chatted about cats at length, and once awake had to firm up with her if the conversation actually happened (as we do regularly talk about the abnormally cute kittens we’ve discovered online). It’s gotten to be quite annoying, as these fairly mundane dream fragments can be nearly indistinguishable from the chunks of memory that lie on the outskirts of the conscious mind.

What I’m saying is, I’m starting to think I need a totem.

The following are a mixture of the most bizarre and bizarrely mundane dreams I’ve had to date.

Spotlight - Hallow...watches?

Two weeks ago I jabbered on about which books I like to read leading up to October 31^st. This week, I’m composing a variation for that theme. What follows are the three scariest movies I have ever watched, hands down. I’m not talking sudden scares that make me jump and leave me feeling pissed for the following three seconds. I’m talking about movies that stay with me long after they’re over and, if I may be so candid, might necessitate turning on a few more lights when I head off to sleep.

Rant - Me and Inland Empire

Being a functioning member of society, I'm often asked what I've been up to as of late. Given my sedentary lifestyle, I'll likely respond, "Nothing much. Caught a movie." The other party will then inquire, "Cool. Which?" From then on in, the conversation proceeds in one of two possible directions:

Case the First

Me

[insert name of film]

Other guy

What's that about?

Me

[tentative pause]

or

Case the Second

Me

The Dark Knight. Again.

Other guy

Fucking awesome, is it not?

Me

In-fucking-deed.

Both parties then proceed to bump fists or exchange an intricately detailed handshake whilst quoting lines from the movie.

Nine times out of then it's Case the First (I'm not that sad, folks). The pause noted above is in reference to an ongoing internal debate on my part--that being exactly how to answer the question posed. You'd think this would be easy, but seeing as how I'm a film geek rather than a productive member of society I have a propensity to watch films that make answering this question all the more difficult. Thus, with Case the First, I end up facing another two-pronged dilemma: do I tell them what it's about on a literal level, or do I describe its overarching themes, issues, etc.? Again, an issue that's almost entirely nonexistent for normal people but a likely occurrence for me.