And So Ends The Sale…

Thanks to all of you that checked my art and books out. Even if you haven’t ever bought anything from me I appreciate your interest in my work and what I am doing. More reviews and weirdness to continue this week.

Oh, and there are definitely stuffs in the works for next year so stay tuned.

As always, the books are up and for sale and the art will still be up so if you didn’t pick anything up yet, you can still give the gift of art and books. Fairy tales aren’t just for kids, and neither is The Meep Sheep. Or if you prefer your books and art creepy then brother, I have plenty of stuff for you there, too. Check the links and see if you find something you fall in love with.

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving and didn’t get smooshed in the shopping crush.

c

Ohhh, A Black Friday Sale, Oh My!

Ok, in honor of Thanksgiving and because I think you guys are pretty boss I am doing a Thanksgiving Black Friday sale.

SO…

If you go to the Create Space stores for

The Meep Sheep

or

This Beautiful Darkness
Do that and you get $3 off each book.

OR you can order the book package from me this weekend – All three books (Back From Nothing, This Beautiful Darkness, and The Meep Sheep) - for $20 but you also get lots of fun extras like buttons, some art, and other stuff. WHEE! I will run this stuff all weekend. If you are interested email me – grimringler@gmail.com – and mention the deal and we’ll get it rolling. I take Pay Pal, or money order, and with four bucks shipping it’s all yours.

And if you want some art, then head to my Etsy store and input the code – Gobble – and get 10% off of your purchase. Zoinks!

Happy Thanksgiving, kids.

Thanks for caring about me, my art, and my books.

WOOO!

Fairy Tales and Growing Up

    We adults are a funny lot, ya know? As kids all we want is to grow up to be able to do whatever the heck it is that we want to do, dreaming of that distant day when we can be our own bosses yet, as soon as we are grown up, we act more childish then ever. As soon as we are adult we suddenly feel like we have some weird standards to live up to, some rules of adulthood we have to adhere to. And it’s no wonder we feel that way because we are told by our parents and teachers and our friends and the media that darn it, we need to act our ages. As if age signifies maturity. We have to get a job, settle down, pair up, get married, have kids, get old, and die. Wow, yeah, there’s a lot of fun in there, right? No. Which is not to say that marriage and kids and jobs and all that are not fun but that when you are told you have to do something, that you are expected to do something then it loses its luster. And when you feel like you have to let go of the things you love, the things you are passionate about then you feel you are losing a part of yourself you will never get back.

And for what?

    What is so important about being an adult that we let go of the things that give us joy? Sure, we have to take things more seriously, have to understand that our actions have consequences, and we have to live not just for the moment but for the future as well. We have to learn to be less self involved and more a part of the world around us. We have to see the bigger picture. As such though, who on earth ever said we had to let go of the things that make us happy? Why on earth do we call so much that we love ‘childish things’? Is it jealousy of those people that have things they are passionate about when we don’t feel the same passions? I wonder.

    One of those things people feel that they have to leave behind are fairy tales, those stories from our youth that show so much of the world and the things lurking in the dark. For some reason fairy tales are always associated with children despite how dark many of them are, and despite that fairy tales are some of the oldest cultural stories we have as a race. Fairy tales are important to us because they don’t just tell us morals, but tie us together as peoples. It is through our fairy tales that we learn about each other and that our fears, our hopes, our dreams, our loves are the things that unite us deeply and permanently. Fairy tales are for adults and kids can get something out of them, that’s the way it is. We have watered them down for kids, dumbed them down if you will, but in the end the good ones are for everyone. The great ones are forever.

    As adults we need to start taking a stand for the things we love and hold dear. There is too little passion and love in the world and if we are ever to raise good, wise children and are ever to start healing some of the many ills of the world then we need to start embracing who we are, what we are, and what we love. And we need to stop acting as if things like fairy tales are for children. I know mine isn’t. The Meep Sheep is for everyone. It doesn’t have ‘adult’ language or violence but is meant to be enjoyed by any and all ages. I did my part. You do yours and go read a good fairy tale and remind yourself of a time when there were still monsters that roamed the darkness.

c

Hey, A New Guest Post…

Hey kids, I did a guest blog for Horror Addicts and it is up and pretty boss. Emerian, who runs HA is pretty super awesome. Check out my little bloggy and comment away.

Me, on the Horror Addicts blog.

Ticked Off Trannies With Knives – review

Ticked Off Trannies With Knives

If you have read any of my recent reviews, or have seen any genre films lately (why comedies are not trying this I cannot say) then you know there has been a terribly nostalgic run of films coming out. I think it is the Grindhouse effect, the desire to embrace a bygone era that so many filmmakers feel passionately about but the trouble is that most of the time the filmmakers miss the point completely. In emulating the past the filmmakers miss that that era was about truth, about pushing the boundaries, and in the case of the grindhouse film, about nasty fun. Too often the modern movies switch truth for fabrication and boundary pushing for raunchiness. Ah, but with Tick Off Trannies With Knives we find a rare film that really ‘gets’ it. This is modern grindhouse friends done in a retro style, and man is it good.

Five lovely ladies are out on the town after a night of performing at the club they all work at and while out, two of them meet guys that look ready to party. The ladies split up and a third joins the cats on the prowl so they can score as their two new friends have another guy waiting. The only thing that awaits the ladies though is trouble as the man that is waiting for them is an abusive acquaintance of one of the women who didn’t like what he found between her legs when they had hooked up previously. The man and his friends decide to take out their frustration and rage out on the ladies and in the end two are left dead and the other barely escapes with her life but not without some serious injuries. The violence isn’t over though, and when vengeance comes, it will come at the end of a stiletto heel, as these flowers have thorns.

Sweet mercy, this is so much fun. It is vulgar, it is gory, it is hilarious, and it knows exactly what it is. This is a perfect ‘go-girl’ sort of film where front to back you root for the ladies and ‘trannies’ or no, what matters is that you care for them, and you want to see them get their revenge. The characters are amazing and while the movie is very ‘written’ feeling, you don’t care because this is great dialogue. The weakest part here is the heart of the story with the villainous guys but man, they are simply fodder for the ladies to take revenge on. What you want, more than anything, is a sequel that is bigger so you can really see them cut loose.

You cannot in any way go into this film thinking you are getting a serious movie because if you do you will be very, very disappointed. This is a fun, ridiculous film and is one of the most fun movies I have seen in a while. It is wonderfully acted (by the ladies, at least), shot, written, and they nailed the ‘worn film’ look perfectly and in the end, this is what you want in a throwback film. If you feel the need, dear filmmakers, to emulate a forgone era then make sure you are going into it with the right mindset and right sense of heart. Ticked Off Trannies does that all the way through, and it is highly recommended.

8 out of 10

Catfish – review

Catfish

There is one thing with film that other mediums don’t quite have and that is the intimacy of certain films, especially documentaries. Until the past few years we accepted that a documentary was reality and while we may also accept that some of the moments in the film may be accentuated through editing or sound design, essentially you are supposed to be watching a work of non-fiction. Things have changed though with films like The Blair Witch Project and the films of Michael Moore and reality has become very loose and documentaries have become very exaggerated. Oh, the truth is still in there but it can change with the filmmaker and their views and with films like Blair Witch the form of the documentary has become another way to convey a fictitious tale. Such is the tale of Catfish a movie set out and meant to be a documentary but which seems so sensationalistic that it stretches its credibility.

Catfish is the story of a New York photographer who starts up a long distant friendship with a young girl who recreated a photo of his in a painting. He is so charmed by her paintings and her spirit that she becomes a regular part of his life via her letters and art. The friendship deepens when the girl’s mother and sister add him as friends on the website Facebook and he starts to get close to all of them. Capturing all of this on film is Nev’s brother and friend, who are so fascinated by this story of unsusual friendship that they decide to make a documentary about it. The family lives in Michigan so things never progress past calls, emails, and the occasional package but the photographer starts to get close to the little girl’s older sister, a beautiful young woman who models, dances, and is a musician. As crazy as it seems, he is falling in love with her despite the miles between them. Nev, the photographer, begins to get suspicious though when he realizes the music the older sister is sending him and taking credit for is all music from little known recording artists. Suddenly angry that he as been lied to, he and his brother and friend decide it is time to really discover how real his friendships are and how much is sheer fabrication. And it is the quest for the truth and the answers that lie at the heart of this friendship that make up the mystery of this film, and is something that should be seen to be believed.

And believabilty is definitely the biggest issue with this film. Taken as a movie, it is fascinating. It is the truth of the film that stretches your patience. If you accept it as a fiction it is fascinating, and while the twists are not as scary as I may have hoped (seriously, the hype here was a bit out of control) the movie is good. It is just that, really, who can honestly take this as fact. It is too convenient that the camera is always present to capture things, and that Nev is always willing to allow himself to be manipulated into continuing on with things. There are just too many questions, too much asked of the audience that to take it as fact is asking too much. As a fiction though it is compelling, chilling, and to varying degrees heartbreaking. But the audience will be divided between those that love and those that hate the film. And then there are the oddballs like me.

I like the movie, to be sure. I think it is fascinating, is scary at times, and is utterly watchable, but where the movie is heading and where you end up isn’t exactly what I hoped for. I had built the film up so much over the course of hearing about it that I really, really wanted it to be more than it is. And that isn’t fair of me to punish it for not being what I wanted it to be but the facts is the facts, and the fact is that it plays better as fiction than fact, and if it is fiction, it needed more fiction to be compelling. It is very well made, has a gripping story to tell, is ably filmed, and you will be hard pressed to not want to know how it ends. It has its issues, to be sure, but it is a conversation starter and another film worth the analysis.

It isn’t great, but it is a solid movie and whether you believe it or not, it is worth a look. Just go in knowing that things, in the film, and about the film, are not always what they seem.

7 out of 10

Malevolence – review

Ah, the slasher sub-genre, the tried and true favorite of filmmakers young and old. The slasher film is the old war-horse of horror and is a staple that never goes out of style. The films get gorier, get more ridiculous, then dial back to the forebears and play more on creeps than blood but essentially they are the same. These are like the slapstick comedies of old, it’s all about the gags, and no matter how many times the stories are told, there is always a new twist to add in, always a new way to tell teh story of the boogieman. Malevolence is just such a re-telling.

After a bunch of bumbling crooks botch a bank heist the survivors set off separately toward the meeting place – an abandoned old farmhouse out in the middle of nowhere. They’ll meet up and split the money then disappear. What they don’t know is that the farmhouse isn’t as abandoned as they think. It seems there is something dark and deadly stalking those shadowed halls and is all too happy to welcome in new guests. When one of the bank robbers kidnaps a mother and daughter it only increases the danger and as things continue to spiral out of control, the hostages will have to trust their captors if any of them are to have a hope of escaping.

If you have seen Halloween then you will recognize the music (it is a loving homage, not a rip-off, but you can tell where it came from), as well as the set ups and killer. None of this is a bad thing but it doesn’t make for a wholly original thing either. This is your every day average silent killer roaming the darkness and knocking off the victims affair and it sticks pretty close to that template. You have to give it credit though, the sets are creepy, the lighting is good, the film is shot well, and the killer is pretty good (though he reminds one a bit too much of Jason Voorhees circa part 2). The problem isn’t with the structure, it’s with the dressing, or the story, which is pretty horrible. The whole ‘bank robbers botch a job and are on the run’ schtick is older than the slasher film and it feels flimsy here, as do the characters. And phew, the end is utterly predictable. Still, all that aside, the film is watchable and pretty enjoyable. This never turns into a gorefest, the kills are good, and the killer is pretty darn creepy. The problem was just a lack of originality. Oh, well., there is also the good job they did on killing the film’s pace and ending with ten minutes of exposition explaining what we just saw.

If you are a slasher film fan then this is definitely worth a look, and it won’t disappoint. The problem though is that with films like Behind the Mask out there, a movie has to up its game these days to get and keep your attention, and while this is a fun film, it’s certainly not one you’ll be going back to over the years.

6.5 out of 10

Chronicles Of An Exorcism – review

Over the years of watching bad movies you start to get a little gunshy on checking new ones out. Shucks, and can you blame me or anyone else because of that? Hecks no. If it isn’t seeing bad mainstream movies it’s seeing bad indie ones and sometimes the worst are the ones that the world SWEARS are simply genius yet you just hate with every fiber of your being. Once in a while though you take a deep breath, hold it, and dive right back into the movie poop and see what is out there. Thanks to services like Netflix, trying new movies isn’t nearly as daunting as it used to be. Enter Chronicles of an Exorcism, a movie that isn’t great in any manner but is just solid enough to be worth a look.

Small time filmmakers join three priests in the middle of nowhere to videotape and chronicle the exorcism of a young woman. When they arrive they are not sure what to expect but soom realize that they may be in far over their heads. Something is clearly wrong with the young woman but what it is they are not sure, but the longer they stay, the more unsafe they begin to feel. As the exorcism begins there seems to be hope that the girl can be saved but could this be another trick of the thing that may reside within the girl? All the filmmakers can hope is that they can get away from the small farmhouse before it’s too late.

An oft times effective and tense film this is one of those little films that could. With a solid cast and some great sets, this one really plays on the nerves. This is, as with most of the exorcism films that come down the pike, not something new to us but just the same there are some real shocks and the film takes interesting turns. The biggest issues here are some melodrama and a huge miscasting in the part of the possessed girl. It isn’t that she’s bad (though they needed to either play up the possession aspect more or really underplay it, as it is they played the middle and it wasn’t always effective) but she just doesn’t fit the part. She looks too clean, too pretty, and too prom queen to feel like this is a lost lamb of God.

Chronicles is far from a bad film it just isn’t anything to get overly excited about. The movie is effective for what it is and does well with its meager budget. This is definitely the sort of film you watch late when you have nothing else to watch. And seen late, and in the dark, it’s sure to put some creep in your bones, for sure.

6.5 out of 10

Punk Rock Rummage Sale

This is the third time we are doing this event in Flint and it’s gonna be pretty epic. I will have my books as well as some rummage type stuff for sale. These are really fun, really unique events in Flint and you should totally come out.

 

Finally on the Etsy…

Here’s the store addy for my paintings. I will add them all, slowly but surely.

Me on Etsy