Is it just us, or are things getting a little bit spoopy around here? Welcome, guys and ghouls, to the All Hallows’ Eve Eve edition of The Cut! There’s a few creepy links, as well as our usual witches brew of linkarology. No trick, just treats!
Now is the time. Here is the place. This is The Cut.
Modern special effects techniques can deliver pretty much any vision the film-makers choose to imagine. But the early days of digital SFX were able to provide truly mind-bending moments. Let’s take a closer look at one shot from Robert Zemeckis’ Contact that still has people wondering how it was achieved…
https://filmschoolrejects.com/contact-mirror-scene/
This week saw the 63rd birthday of the Arch Druud, Julian Cope. We’ve been fans of the man, his music and his interests for a long time. We have taken holidays based around his compendium of British henge sites, The Modern Antiquarian. Copey can always be relied upon too give us a good story. What better time, then, to remember his appearance on Top Of The Pops, performing Passionate Friend with a little chemical assistance…
https://bristlingbadger.blogspot.com/2009/03/passionate-friend-on-acid.html?m=1
Yes, we know we bang on about Bruce Springsteen a lot on The Cut. We make no apologies. He’s a long-time favourite and on top form right now. We loved this long chat with The Boss, where he shares some of the thoughts, influences and inspirations behind his remarkable new album Letter To You…
If you read nothing else from The Cut this week, we urge you to check out Kelly Welles’ piece on forgiveness, adaptability and the freedom to change your mind. This is becoming more difficult in a world where opinions are becoming more brutally binary, and the internet keeps all your mistakes out in the open to be prodded at and weaponised…
https://kellywelles.com/2020/10/23/grace-under-fire/
Let’s have a couple of Halloween links. We found a lot to think on after reading this piece on one of the most deadly witch-hunts in British history, which took place in an area you wouldn’t have thought to have such a bloody history…
http://dundeescottishculture.org/history/the-crook-of-devon-witches/
One of the BBC’s scariest moments frightened its audience all the more for cloaking the fictional aspects of the story in a reality-TV disguise. Ghostwatch remains a show which has influenced a lot of found-footage horror ever since. Even now it’s creepy as heck, and the ending willl send you off to bed needing all the lights on…
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/oct/26/how-we-made-bbc-mockumentary-ghostwatch
The adaptation of book to movie is a tricky thing to get right. The two art forms are so different that it’s a wonder there have been any successful film versions of beloved books at all. Sometimes it’s better to veer off and carve a path suggested by the text rather than slavishly stick to the roadmap. The Shining, for example, is very different to the book. Not better, not worse. Just—different. With that in mind, enjoy this Popdose article theorising that some of the best adaptations have nothing to do with a particular book at all…
We would be foolish not to crank up the amp and make some noise about the WROB Halloween show we did a little while back. Here’s the pitch…
For those of us that both love and hate this time of year…Those for whom Halloween is not just a date, or an excuse to wear a spooky costume once a year and hit up strangers for free sweeties…Those of us for whom Halloween is a state of mind, a way of being, a comforting chilly darkness… This one goes out to all of us that are … Too Heavy For Halloween.
https://wrobradio.wordpress.com/2018/11/02/too-heavy-for-halloween/
It would be tempting to throw a bit of metal in for the Exit Music. However, we’ve been listening to a lot of clangular jangularity recently, and this cracking piece of apocalyptic pop (apopcalycto?) from the dBs just seemed too appropriate not to share. A soundtrack for The Situation. Please to enjoy That Time Is Gone.
See you in seven.
EXCUSES AND HALF TRUTHS 