31 Scary Movie Mini Reviews 2024 – Part 2

Posted by sean

Every October I watch and write mini reviews for 31 scary movies. It’s the last day of October 2024, so here are my final 16 reviews.

Scary Movie Mini Review #16: House of Usher (1960) Directed by Roger Corman

Another Poe story from schlock master Roger Corman, who used his schlock money to make these artful Poe adaptations. The fiancé of a wealthy woman visits her family’s brooding gothic home. He finds both her and her brother in a sickly and fragile state, claiming to be cursed and unable to leave. The house is literally crumbling around them. If you’ve read the Poe short story, you know how it ends, though Corman never stuck that faithfully to the text, and deviates pretty wildly on some major plot points here.

House of Usher has atmosphere for days, a striking technicolor palette and grand, melodramatic acting and music. The concrete soundstage floor in some scenes is a bit distracting, but the otherwise elaborate house sets make up for it, as does the sound design and simple yet effective visual effects. There are even some crane shots and camera moves that feel strikingly modern, as well as a gorgeous color-tinted nightmare sequence. I particularly liked the creepy paintings of past Usher family members and the house itself, done in a wild neon abstract style that’s as creepy as it is anachronistic. Corman always got the maximum bang for his buck, and House of Usher has plenty of bang.

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31 Scary Movie Mini Reviews 2024 – Part 1

Posted by sean

Every October I watch and write a mini review for 31 scary movies. Since we’re half way through October, here are the first 15 reviews:

Scary Movie Mini Review #1: Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024) Directed by Tim Burton

Tim Burton’s 1988 film Beetlejuice is not a great movie, but its weird story and inventive visuals have captured viewers imaginations for decades, and I’ll admit that I enjoy it myself, though it’s always felt a bit shallow. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is just as shallow, but also feels like multiple sequels crammed into one. There are at least three subplots in this movie that could have easily been their own more clearly defined stories. I suspect this script started out as a TV series that was then condensed into a feature.

Tim Burton is at peak Tim Burton here and clearly having a non-Disney blast. The visuals are striking and it’s nice to see so many practical makeup effects and sets. It’s also fun to have talents like Catherine O’Hara, Winona Ryder and Jenna Ortega riffing off each other, though it’s sometimes difficult to understand their motivations. The rich artistic yuppie vs mortality-obsessed goth dynamic from the first movie has become confusingly blurred with these characters as they’ve aged. Keaton’s Beetlejuice performance has actually gotten better with time. He’s great.

I was ready to give up on Beetlejuice Beetlejuice as just another nostalgic cash grab crammed with too much plot, but then the third act happened. Burton goes so bonkers here that I had to admit he was doing something special, something more than just another fan pandering sequel. I only wish he could have paired this ultra-silly, anything goes cinematic energy with more disciplined storytelling.

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Trying out the new Blackmagic Cinema Camera 6K

Posted by sean

I’ve been a huge fan of Blackmagic Design cameras since I purchased the original Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera over a decade ago. They’re a company that knows how to make an incredibly powerful and versatile cinema camera at an affordable price for an indie filmmaker like myself, and using their cameras to make my short films look more filmic by adapting vintage lenses to them and using all sorts of color grading methods has been a real pleasure. Recently I was able to demo Blackmagic’s first full frame camera for Fotodiox, showing off some of Fotodiox’s L-mount adapters in the process. Here’s my full demo video:

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I was really impressed by the quality of the BMCC6K’s image, and I loved the full frame open gate look. It felt a bit like shooting in IMAX. Like all cinema cameras, there are some limitations. It’s not the easiest camera to hand hold without a stabilized lens, and it works much better on a tripod, but I’ve been meaning to shoot in a more locked down style anyway :)

Here’s a demo video I shot with the Cinema 6K and a 14mm Rokinon lens.

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As much as I love this camera, I’m still pretty happy with my Pocket 4k and Sony A7S II, although I may consider using one in the future. It was a great experience shooting with it for a week!

Sean’s Top Nine for 2023

Posted by sean

Here are my top nine most liked photos on Instagram for 2023. They’re fairly representative of my year, from shooting lots of photos with my various Holga cameras to experimenting with Polaroid film and some new point and shoots to collecting rare cameras and celebrating our first wedding anniversary! It’s interesting that some of my most low-contrast, funky color film photos got the most love. I get it guys, you like that retro film look :) Thanks for all the support this year! – Sean

Check out my Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/seanandersonmedia/

31 Scary Movie Mini Reviews 2023 – Part 2

Posted by sean

Every year in October I try to watch and write about a scary movie for each day of the month. Here are my last 16 Scary Movie Mini Reviews for October 2023. Enjoy!

Scary Movie Mini Review #16: One Cut of The Dead (2017) Directed by Shin’ichirō Ueda

Here’s a fun one from Japan: filmmakers making a low budget zombie movie run into real zombies? This movie requires zero spoilers to fully enjoy so I won’t give you any. But if you don’t mind some splattery zombie gore, it’s a fun ride. That’s it. That’s all I can say. Watch it, it’s awesome! (I should watch more zero spoilers movies because writing the reviews for them is so easy.)

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31 Scary Movie Mini Reviews 2023 – Part 1

Posted by sean

Last year I reviewed 31 scary movies, one for each day of October. This October I’m doing it again! Today is halfway through October, so here are the first 15.

Scary Movie Mini Review #1: Kiss of the Vampire (1963) Directed by Don Sharp

This lesser Hammer Horror film has a garish poster that promises “giant devil bats summoned from the caves of hell to destroy the lust of the vampires!” Not surprisingly, the bats are normal sized cheesy rubber puppets on fishing line. Despite that, this movie has a unique tone to it, something surprisingly magical and haunting that’s abandoned in the goofy and rushed climax. 

A newlywed couple are on their way by motor car to their honeymoon. They break down somewhere in the German mountains near a castle, and of course there’s a menacing man watching them from a castle window. They end up at a strangely empty inn and are invited to sup with the wealthy doctor and his children who live in the castle. Unsurprisingly the doctor and his children are vampires, but they’re a different type, more satanic personality cultists than undead blood suckers. The young wife is slowly lured into this cult’s clutches, and the husband and local Van Helsing wannabe must save her. All this is rote cliché, but what stands out as unique is the slow, menacing pace and tone, the texture of long gray rainy days and gloomy moonlit nights. These vampires remind me more of the secret society in Eyes Wide Shut than the Draculas in countless vampire flicks, and their menace is more in the way they corrupt your soul than your blood. It’s a pity that the ridiculous rubber bats flap in at the end and ruin everything.

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31 Scary Movie Mini Reviews – Part 2

Posted by sean

This October, to celebrate Halloween, I’m writing 31 mini reviews of scary movies. Here are the final 16:

Scary Movie Mini Review #16: The Midnight Hour (1985)
Directed by Jack Bender

This 80s made-for-TV movie is a bit of everything: part Stephen King small town horror, part creature feature, part teen comedy, part… musical? Seeing LeVar Burton dance the Get Dead dance has to be seen to be believed. An ancient curse comes back to haunt a small New England town. Our teen heroes accidentally trigger this curse then have to resolve it on Halloween night, all while throwing a wild Halloween house party and dealing with an increasing hoard of zombies, vampires and ghosts. This is all way more fun than scary, think a Halloween version of  the original Jumanji, and the 80s styles and zany makeup and costumes alone make it worth sitting through some of the more boring sections. The gravestones are made of flimsy wood, the wolf man looks more like a thin guy in an ape suit, the filmmakers can’t decide if the movie is set in the 80s or 50s—a good chunk of the movie is just pretending to be American Graffiti—but it’s still a lot of fun to watch and an endearing Halloween treat.

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31 Scary Movie Mini Reviews – Part 1

Posted by sean

This October, to celebrate Halloween, I’m writing 31 mini reviews of scary movies. Here are the first 15:

Scary Movie Mini Review #1: The Munsters (2022)
Directed by Rob Zombie

A surprisingly cute, very silly and fairly faithful prequel to the original Munsters TV show. The stacked-to-the-ceiling art design, crazy colorful neon lighting and off-kilter camera angles are bonkers but mostly fun. My only quibbles: too much background music telegraphing the comedy when it’s already working fine without it, and maybe a bit too drawn out of a running time with a weirdly abrupt ending. If you like the Munsters and want to admire Rob Zombie’s unique filmmaking style without watching an R-rated gore-fest, I think you’ll mostly enjoy this.

Scary Movie Mini Review #2: The Blackcoat’s Daughter (2015)
Directed by Oz Perkins

Tragic drama by way of horror, the Blackcoat’s Daughter is a story about an emotionally isolated young woman who feels so alone that she’s willing to be accepted by anyone who will have her, or in this case, any thing. The film is set in the depths of two frigid, snow-bound Februaries and vividly captures the desolate feelings winter can summon. Some disturbing violence unfolds, but it’s surprisingly overshadowed by empathetic, overwhelming sadness. An effective supernatural chiller that also feels very real.

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Shooting 110 Film with a Binoculars Camera

Posted by sean

I’ve been a big fan of shooting small gauge film for years. I love the extra grain you get with a smaller negative, and shooting 110 film is a great way to emulate the 16mm motion picture film look for stills. I’ve shot with cheap 110 cameras and high-end 110 cameras, but this binocular camera was something new for me: a 110 camera with a long lens specifically for capturing nature and sports photos.

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Lo-Fi Winter Photos with a Crappy Vintage Camera

Posted by sean

My friend Bohus and I have made a tradition of meeting up at least once a year and going to antique stores to find interesting and unique vintage items. I’m always on the hunt for old cameras, and last winter I found this little crappy beauty for $7: a Meikai EL.

These cheap 35mm film cameras were made in Japan in the 60s. This version has a fixed shutter speed and focus, three exposure settings, and that’s about it. I threw some black and white film in it and took it out for a spin. Turns out it had a major light leak, so I had to edit the resulting photos by cropping out the leak, creating a faux panoramic look.

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Creative Macro Photography with Star Wars Miniatures

Posted by sean

As a kid I loved collecting Star Wars toys, and my favorite toys to collect were always the miniature vehicles and ships. Though I ended up breaking or losing most of these toys before I was old enough to realize I wanted to keep them, I still have a couple that survived, and I’m always on the lookout at thrift stores and antique malls to find a few more.

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Winter Polaroids

Posted by sean
Walking in a cold city

As an avid film shooter I must admit: Polaroid film has the easiest turn-around time for getting from photo to screen than anything else in the medium. I shoot plenty of 35mm and 120 film, but then I either have to process it myself or send it to a lab, then scan all of it, edit all of it and pick my favorite frames to share. But with Polaroid all I have to do is point, shoot, and print, then decide if the photo is worth adding to my portfolio, and if it is, I just scan it, do a bit of exposure tweaking and dust clean up in photoshop, and it’s ready to share. So easy and laid back and relaxing!

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Shooting Video with a 90’s Black and White Toy Video Camera

Posted by sean

A couple years ago I bought a Tyco VideoCam on ebay, a black and white toy video camera made for kids in the 90’s to shoot videos in their living rooms with. At long last I have it up and running and have been shooting some shorts with it. It helps me create maybe the strangest lo-fi look I’ve come across, a weird mixture of bad VHS tape and black and white super 8 film. I hope to use it on some more ambitious projects soon, but in the mean time, here’s a video I made for Fotodiox about how I shoot with it.

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Queen Anne: Shooting a short film entirely on pinhole

Posted by sean

I’ve always been fascinated by stories set in one location. When I was young I was startled by the old time radio dramatization of Sorry, Wrong Number, a twisted tale about an invalid woman stuck in her apartment bedroom who slowly realizes one evening that she’s being stalked by a killer. I also had the idea growing up that if there were ghosts, they stayed in one place, way out in the middle of nowhere in the cold and dark, alone and unmoving. I’d look out the window on starless winter evenings driving home from my grandparents’ farm imagining lost souls in the black tree lines miles from the road, standing motionless in the sharp cold, listening to the trees creaking in the wind.

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Ultra-Wide Point & Shoot Cult Camera – The Vivitar Ultra Wide & Slim and Its Clones

Posted by sean

In college I became obsessed with film photography, and one of the first film cameras I started shooting with was a Superheadz Black Slim Devil, which was a clone of the cult Vivitar Ultra Wide and Slim, a cheap plastic point and shoot camera with a fantastic 22mm wide angle lens.

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Fisheye Lo-Fi

Posted by sean

I’ve always been a big fan of shooting with fisheye lenses. I like how they give my camera a unique view of the world, shrinking almost every element in a scene into a vast landscape even if it’s right next to the lens, and giving an exaggerated largeness to anything close to the lens in the center. With the virus still in full swing this summer, I’ve spent a lot of time alone on bike trails walking through the forest preserves of my county, and this has given me the opportunity to focus on shooting quiet, meditative videos focused on the natural elements around me. I’ve been using my Lomography Experimental Fisheye lens, a lo-fi plastic lens that gives me a warm, soft image that screams cheap plastic home movies camera from the 70’s, and I love the lo-fi looks I’ve been able to get out of it.

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