A Little More About Mind Eater

Hello all.

Me again.

I just finished another chapter on Mind Eater, which leaves me with one more chapter to go before I send it off to the editor. This is awesome. I am so excited to release this one. I've got a feeling of fear and restlessness regarding this one, considering it is so different from the rest of my work. We'll see how it goes, however. Mind Eater is going to be a sci-fi/mystery novel, rather than primarily a horror novel. Don't fret, faithful reader, it will contain elements of psychological horror. In fact, the psychological horror will play a vital role in the story.

Now, I have stepped out of the horror boundaries earlier this year in the form of my poetry collection 'Of Maggots and Horses' but 'Mind Eater' one is going to be fiction, rather than a collection of various poems.

Anyway, I realized something as I almost uploaded a video.... writers are narcissists. We have to be. I guess the same could be said for any creative individual looking to make a living off of their work, but it became really apparent for me personally today.

I hate talking about myself, I really do, but I have to in order to sell books and keep my readers updated. My awkward personality really shows in my videos as well, especially when I start talking about myself. I'm just not an interesting guy, which is bad to say because, in order to sell books, you have to sell yourself in some ways. I mean, that sort of thing works for me when deciding what author I want to try out next, then their work is what keeps me around. People always say that the work is different from the creator, but I disagree. The work usually reflects the creator and if I don't like the creator, how am I going to like the work? Personal opinions are a strange thing indeed.

So my reason for stepping away from horror fiction with 'Mind Eater' is because I enjoy other things, rather than just strictly horror. In fact, sci-fi goes hand and hand with horror because both involve the unknown in some way. However, not only do I want to try something new but I also want to branch out to other readers. Of course, I'll still be bringing some of the elements from my previous work into 'Mind Eater' but, again, it isn't going to be the centerpiece to the story. I'm genuinely enjoying myself writing this story and I hope it resonates with, not only new readers but with you guys as well.

Now some of you may be wondering as to why I haven't released it sooner, considering I've been working on it for a year and a half, and that's because I keep getting sidetracked with other projects of mine; more recently, Heresy was the biggest distraction for me and, even now, I get distracted by updating my social media, blog and writing articles and reviews for websites. You mix that in with maintaining relationships and a full-time job and you get a very small timeframe to work with. This is true because, during the time when I got most work done on Mind Eater, I was lucky to get one status update or tweet out, which in turn made me lose some of my readers and followers. All in all, it's been tough. My ability to balance hasn't been very good.

Oh, before I end this post, I want to mention NaNoWriMo. Yes, I will be involved in that and yes it will still be free and exclusive to my website. I figured that would replace the short-story collection I've talked about, pushing the collection back a few months. I'll talk more about NaNoWriMo more when it gets closer to that time. For now, I'm going to be focusing on Mind Eater and hopefully have it released by the middle of October or, preferrably, earlier.

Anyway, that's all guys.

Stay rotten, everybody.

My Grim New Teaser!

I am happy to announce my upcoming release The Brook Horse. While this project is worked around and as we grow closer to its release, I will be releasing more teasers.

It took four hours to shoot this extremely short teaser and, man, was it messy. I spent at least two of those hours just cleaning up after myself. Luckily, fake blood is easy to clean up.

Anyway, give it a watch guys! I'll have more info on this as we get closer to its release, just know that I am cooking up something special for you guys.

I Ordered a Salad

I had ordered a salad.

Pretty basic thing.

The waitress was kind and genuine, and a real looker to boot. I ordered a diet Pepsi with my salad too, can't stand the taste of water or coffee. So she came back and gave me my diet Pepsi and I drank it down fast, I was thirsty and the damn drink just tasted so good.

The waitress came back with another diet Pepsi and my salad, gave me a quick smile and returned to her work.

I got about halfway through the salad when the waitress came back and asked me if everything was good and I, of course, said yes. She smiled again. She gave me her number after that and said I was cute or something... I don't know. Just as she finished writing down that number, the bell signaling the arrival of another customer dinged.

"I'll call you later," I said, giving her a quick glare.

CRACK!

She went down like a sack of potatoes, leaving a bit of warm, sticky residue on my face.

I stood up and held my father's pistol at the young couple behind me and fired off three more shots. One into the back of his girlfriend's head, and the other two in his chest.

Five more shots and five more people who attempted to flee, fell to the floor. Damn, I'm glad I took those classes! Perfect headshots!

The others didn't even try to escape, probably thinking I was going to spare their lives.

I killed most of them.

Only two remained and I could not find them anywhere, an old man and his grand daughter probably got away today.

The cops pulled up and I continued pulling off a few more shots, taking down one of them. His partner got the upper hand, however, and now here I am lying on my back staring up at a ceiling fan waiting to die.

And who said you can't start a good story with "I ordered a salad?"

An Analysis of Cult Films: Begotten

An Artistic and Unsettling Cult Film

In 1991, director Elias Merhige released his movie Begotten, a new view point on the book of Genesis (yes, the bible). This film serves as a unique reminder that not all movies need to be cut from the same cloth, in fact, this one spun its own and forged itself from the frayed knots.

A daring motion picture, birthed by an inspired artist might chew up tradition and flunk expectations. 

A bizarre, incredibly gory piece about life and death. Begotten expresses itself entirely in grainy black-and-white and told without dialogue.

A Truly Possessed Film?

As the film begins, a God-like being kills itself, giving birth to "Mother-Earth" from his entrails, who, shortly after, brings the corpse to arousal and manages to absorb its seed. After a strange, and brief period of time, "Mother-Earth" gives birth to a human-seeming son named the "Son of Earth", who, including his mother, is then dragged away and abused in every possible way by strange natives from a nearby community. The “Son of Earth” creates life and food for them in a kind of enforced fertility, and the villagers then proceed to kill Mother Earth (after raping her for some time) and her son. Life springs anew from their grave, and the cycle of life and death repeats itself.

At a cost of $33,000.00, Begotten never explains its narrative, and fails even to comment on its setting. It is the medium of film reduced to building blocks: virtually silent, with images of light and darkness that we must interpret for ourselves. An opening card gives us a sole clue: “Language bearers, Photographers, and Diary makers you with your memory are dead, frozen lost in a present that never stops passing. Here lives the incantation of matter. A language forever.”

The imagery is grainy, dirty, obscuring, and the result is that the movie, as it commences, instills a deep sense of dread and discomfort. Because we have never seen anything like this before, anything seems possible. And in those possibilities, that unpredictability, horror blooms like a rotting orchid (or Son of Earth, if that fits well?).

What one does successfully register within, throughout the duration of Begotten,seems wholly concerned with suffering and brutality. The film thus resembles a nightmare of Earth herself.

The director, Merhige, even spoke about the film in an interview as a sort of "shamanistic" ritual during its filming.

So, could the film itself be possessed as the director so strongly infers?

The Central Debate About Begotten Remains This: is Merhige's 1991 Film a Poetic Work of Art, or a Work of an Enormous Ego?

The answer is complicated. The film is unarguably fascinating in presentation, and I’m surprised, as well as relieved, more aspiring filmmakers have not adopted this dynamic visual approach, utilizing black-and-white, frame-by-frame re-photography (a lengthy process which took ten hours for each minute of running time).

Yet beyond the one-of-a-kind appearance of Begotten -- there is one problem that is rather massive for some. Scenes go on and on, lingering past the initial point of the film and grows rather repetitive quickly, and the overall effects of the camera angles tends to generate a strong sense of distance. What interests us and frightens us at first, seems to push us away by the film's midpoint. The film hammers us with so much information, so hard, we take cover inside of ourselves multiple times during the film.

If Merhige's brain baby wanted to challenge film conventions (as a medium of expression) and exploit audience comforts such as dialogue, clarity, sound, plus a regular narrative and characterization, then there is no reason for his movie to last as long as it did. Begotten could be the same film at a half-hour length. Merhige removes so many comforts of traditional narratives in Begotten, yet keeps one convention... a full feature length film. I don’t know if this flaw is a choice I just haven't understood yet, or just a misinformed director trying too hard to make something so incredibly different from the status quo.

However, considering this film is experimental, I can look past the running times and take this film for what it is. A work of art. So, as a moving work of art, an experience, Begotten is certainly revolutionary, unsettling, and interesting in its entirety. As a film, its running time and sense of confusion it left us with, fell a little flat; but the chills and discomfort was in fact very strong and left an impression on us for sure.

Sheer, Vivid, Morbid, Beauty Presented in Black and White

Begotten appears as though it has been remastered from the dawn of time itself, or at least the 1920's (Again, released in 1991). Of course, cinematography is an art form established long after the fruition of man, but if cinematography was around during the dawn of time, Begotten is exactly what we would see. The images are powerful, painful and poetic, yet simple in the most beautiful way. 

Lacking narrative and visual certainties, Begotten leaves much to the imagination and pounds the questions from the unknown of our origins into its viewers minds.

Begotten seems very painful. Watching this vision of suffering, our minds jump to the idea of man painfully re-shaping Earth to suit our needs; to bring life and greed from unforgiving torment of our planet. 

After some interval of suffering, water falls upon on the tortured ground in the form of rain (and we hear water bubbling on the soundtrack, which otherwise mostly consists of crickets and inhuman moaning).

Conclusion

Begotten is a one-of-a-kind cinematic experience, even if it outstays its welcome more often than not. The characters, the settings, even the film quality are symbols, and they suffer -- God how they suffer (such is the bitter reality of life)-- yet we still wish to understand more. Within the usual agenda of film we seek comfort, familiarity and yes, innovation, and that's why this movie is so fantastic, because it breaks that mold and pushes the boundaries and uses our imagination against us while also being innovative. Hats off to you, Merhige, for making a film of such a remarkable visual approach and symbolism, even while finding the overall film a bit too long for some to really embrace. I was impressed with Begotten, and a strange part of me really enjoyed it and its disturbing imagery.

Begotten is totally original, totally intriguing. I recommend it for the visuals seeking something new in the horror scene, considering this is more of an experience than an actual movie. As a general movie goer, this certainly wouldn't be your cup of tea (my wife hated it, while I loved it. I'm a bit of a prissy movie watcher, analyzing every fine detail I can find, where she is more oriented on dialogue, obvious plot devices, and familiar conventions, which isn't a bad thing at all, not everyone needs to over analyze a movie, but instead unwind and just enjoy a good film and there is nothing wrong with that).

Death in the Family

Grandpa died, or so I thought.

Turns out, he just ate some bad puffer fish and suffered its side effects. They buried him and everything, until security on the grounds heard screaming and thrashing from his grave. When they finally got him out, well-- looks like grandpa's dead now.