2019 Year End Review: Part 4 – Best of the Decade, 2010-2019

January 5, 2020 by Jon Kitley in Misc. Ramblings, Year End Reviews and tagged Blacksmith and the Devil, Bone Tomahawk, Coherence, Dream Home, Errementari, Evil Dead, Shrew's Nest, Sleep Tight, The Ritual, The Taking of Deborah Logan, The Void | 4 Comments

Best of the Decade

Since we have completed yet another decade (which I must admit I am surprised we have survived with the current state of affairs) and I have been recently pondering this whole concept of Top Ten lists (thanks Gregg!), I thought it might be interesting challenge to look back over these last ten years and pick my favorite ten horror films… IF… I could narrow it down to just ten film. My initial picks were just under thirty titles. So after some seriously contemplations, I have it narrowed down to a final ten. The funny thing is that the final “ten” has changed twice since I started this process! If this exercise has done anything for me, it has made be bust out a few of these and re-watch them. Not really to remind myself of how much I liked them, but because it had been a while. And going down that journey again gave me almost the same thrills and feelings I had the first time. Continue reading →

Terror in the Desert

May 15, 2018 by Jon Kitley in Book News and tagged Bone Tomahawk, Brad Sykes, Hills Have Eyes, McFarland, Terror in the Desert, The Hitcher, Tremors | Leave a comment

Terror in the Desert Because I am forever waving the flag that print is NOT dead, when I see a book coming out or already released that is something that I would be interested in reading, I want to make sure others know about it as well. And of course, one of those subjects is on horror films.

McFarland has announced a new title called Terror in the Desert: Dark Cinema of the American Southwest, by Brad Sykes. Now offhand, one might not realize the films that take place in the desert. Sure, we immediately think of Hills Have Eyes, but what about titles like The Hitcher, Tremors, or even the more recent Bone Tomahawk?

Sykes looks back at this sub-genre of films to give them a critical and analysis that haven’t been done before. With rare stills, promotional materials, filmographies and more, not only does this sound like an interesting read, I have a feeling its going to make me add quite a few more titles to my “Need to Re-Watch” list!

You can find out more information by heading to McFarland’s website HERE.

Bone Tomahawk Soundtrack Review

November 10, 2015 by Jon Kitley in Reviews: Soundtrack and tagged Bone Tomahawk, Soundtrack Review | Leave a comment

Bone Tomahawk
Released by Lakeshore Records
10 Tracks with a total running time of 20 minutes.
Music by Jeff Herriott and S. Craig Zahler.

This is a strange one. Running only 20 minutes long, this film must not have much music during its running time. But what we do have are long, slow, steady notes, drawn out. Most of the tracks are like this. No real melody or anything, but these single notes played over and over again. Some of the tracks are slightly different from one another, but very close to the same.

According to the composer Herriott, the director “wanted to use instruments that existed during the time period of the narrative, so that meant no electronic sounds.” I have to say that is a cool idea, but it just seems like they didn’t do much with that idea. The last track, a song called Four Doomed Men Ride Out, doesn’t seem to fit the feel of the rest of the soundtrack at all, and really is a head-scratcher.

For only being 20 minutes long, it is a shame that we didn’t get more of a developed audio landscape here.