Within This Garden Weeping

Within This Garden Weeping reads like a book of the Old Testament by way of Ray Bradbury and Twin Peaks.

Part of Lee Thompson’s Division Mythos, the novella picks up two years after the conclusion of Before Leonora Wakes. Red Piccirilli fears that something strange is about to begin again after he and his mother are visited by the mysterious Ash. Soon he is taken into a world where nothing is as it seems, time has little meaning, and he learns he possesses frightening powers. On his quest he meets a variety of bizarre characters and battles the evil Wind with a Thousand Eyes.

Within This Garden Weeping is filled with cosmic violence, but never stops being beautiful. The language is poetic and evocative, prose you can feel as you read and not a word is wasted. Thompson’s craft is best on display when he explores his lead character’s inner workings. Red is in that awkward stage between childhood and adulthood. He wants people around him to take him seriously and treat him as a grown-up, but the adults in his life rarely do. It’s only in this alternate world where his powers are recognized.

Where Before Leonora Wakes was a coming of age story, this tale recognizes that growing up is too large a feat to take place over the course of one event, no matter how dramatic that event may be. Continuing Red’s journey in Within This Garden Weeping allowed for opportunities to further explore his transition from a child to someone with great power. An overwhelming sadness lingers over each set-piece and makes Red’s struggles much larger, likely to resonate long after the story’s end.

Thompson’s mythology is nearly biblical, his characters achingly real, and the story never stops moving. I’d recommend this book to fans of horror or dark fantasy who also like to be challenged by a story’s themes.

Hidden Horror Gems: Santa Sangre

 

Those familiar with Alejandro Jodorowsky’s work know that it’s pretty much impossible to categorize. His work is filled with imagery that is haunting, surreal, beautiful, and funny (often at the same time). The closest thing to a horror film he ever did was this gruesome gem about a boy and his mother and the murder of jealous women.

Sound familiar? Broken down to its simplest materials, Santa Sangre has much in common with Psycho. But anyone who’s seen The Holy Mountain or El Topo (the favorite film of no less notable personalities than John Lennon, David Lynch and Marilyn Manson) know that with Jodorowsky, nothing is ever simple.

Read the rest at Biff Bam Pop.

5 Days of Goblin: Day 2, Suspiria

For director Dario Argento, Suspiria was the film that changed the way the world would perceive him. His early work had established him as a European counterpart to Hitchcock and a strong voice in the giallo subgenre. With Suspiria, he created something else entirely and firmly cemented his status as a master of horror.

Read the rest at Cinedelphia.

Insidious Chapter 2 Review

 

Insidious Chapter 2 picks up where the first film left off with the Lambert family under attack by paranormal forces. Instead of the child Dalton, the spirit is focused this time on using Josh, the father, as a vessel to murder his family. With this being the second James Wan film to come out this year, and the fact that both films deal with the otherworldly, a family’s struggle against these spirits, and ghost hunters, comparisons are inevitable. As a reviewer, it’s difficult not to see these films as fundamentally connected, perhaps part of the same universe (Waniverse?), or be tempted to assert that Wan may have written both films simultaneously.

Read the rest at Cinedelphia.

Review of You’re Next

 

I was fortunate enough to attend Geekadelphia’s advance screening of Adam Wingard’s latest horror effort, You’re Next. The film follows the Davison family as they celebrate the wedding anniversary of the parents. When a group of killers show up to terrorize the family, it’s up to one of the guests to save the day with her sharpened survivalist skills, and secrets about family members are soon revealed.

Read the rest of it over at Cinedelphia.