October 2021

From the kitschy way it introduces itself, I fully expected unadulterated camp, but for some reason, Bob Balaban directs Parents with an almost completely straight face, giving center stage to some unwatchable dead-eyed kid who sleepwalks his way through the entire film. (Unsurprisingly, this is that kid’s sole acting credit.) It’s a long 80 minutes.

THIS MOVIE IS FUCKING INSANE

Here’s a beautiful essay from my friend @hotlixx about connecting with his dad through competitive air guitar. Included is a video for a great Hoodoo Gurus cover he recorded, featuring 30+ air guitarists, including yours truly. thebadcopy.com/features/loves…

In addition to what I’ve learned over the years from so many others, ideas and skills these generous folks shared online had a direct impact on this project: @davidwalshblog, @vika_grabowska, @ebensorkin, @jonpinhorn_type, @j98, @trysmudford, @desandro

twitter.com/robweychert/st…

Some notes on what went into this year’s Robtober design, an homage to VHS. Color, SVG, animation, fluid type, 3D transforms, scroll snap, Jekyll data management, and more! v6.robweychert.com/blog/2021/10/r…

Robtober is what I call the horror movie binge I do every October. After I redesigned my site in 2017, I started documenting the event each year with a horrifically custom-designed blog post, getting a little more elaborate each time. This post goes behind the scenes of the 2021 edition.

The data

I generate my site with Jekyll, and a custom-designed post like Robtober gets its own unique layout file. To keep things tidy, all the… See more →

Do yourself a favor and read up on Colonia Dignidad before watching this if you don’t want to feel like you got to class and found out too late that there was a homework assignment.

Love this handy bookmarklet from @jenko that makes it easier for folks in the UK to watch Robtober movies! 🙌🏻📼🙌🏻 twitter.com/jenko/status/1…

Many years ago, my bff @jasonsantamaria spookified his site design every October. It was a revelation, the web design equivalent of a Halloween costume. I’m proud to keep the fun tradition alive. twitter.com/robweychert/st…

Better late than never, my annual horror movie schedule for Robtober is now available! One of my favorite projects I do on my personal site. v6.robweychert.com/blog/2021/10/r…

Every October, I put together a big schedule of horror films to watch, focusing mostly on ones I haven’t seen before. The schedule, a mix of theatrical screenings and home viewings, is published for posterity and for the sake of anyone who might like to join me.

This year’s batch is a little less focused than usual, drawn from new releases, repertory screenings in Philadelphia, recent additions to Time Out’s “100 Best Horror Films,” Criterion… See more →

Tuesday tea

My @letterboxd account turned 10 last week, and it is the only such social media anniversary I can celebrate unreservedly. 🎉

I gather that the first Ghoulies movie didn’t get its name until after it was made. They realized its little Gremlins wannabes are the best thing it has going for it, and I bet they wished they had pushed that button harder. Thankfully Ghoulies II takes full advantage of the opportunity to correct that error, roughly quadrupling their screen time and letting them terrorize a carnival. This movie is not remotely clever and it doesn’t… See more →

Ghoulies always felt like a glaring omission in my personal horror canon because it was one of the most memorable VHS boxes on display in the video store that was my second home in the late ’80s and early ’90s. And somehow I never noticed until now that the little green guy on that box is wearing an adorable half shirt and tiny red suspenders! Unfortunately he doesn’t wear them in the movie, so that’s… See more →

I bought two tickets to this show during June’s post-vax frenzy of we’re-back-baby optimism. I actually thought someone would go to the show with me! I was so young. Not only were there no takers, I ultimately didn’t even want to go myself. I listened to some Idles records today in advance of the show and came to the sad realization that I’m just not that into this band. But couch inertia has cost me… See more →

Love @jesshopp’s concise and dead-on @lowtheband review here. I also really miss this format. twitter.com/rockwritpod/st…

Who wants to help me get shit done? propublica.org/jobs/project-m…

Well, this was a learning experience. My previous experiment in seeing a show in NYC and sleeping in my own bed that same night was pretty successful. This time? Not so much. I got to see Greet Death play exactly one song before I turned into a pumpkin. Luckily it was the song I most wanted to hear, “You’re Gonna Hate What You’ve Done,” whose title was also very appropriate for the moment.

As it… See more →

I wonder if everyone who’s so tickled that James Wan funneled big studio bucks into a kooky grindhouse premise would find similar delight in, like, Nickelback covering a Bad Brains song.

I Just Can’t Stop It on repeat today. 😔 twitter.com/TheBeat/status…

Looks and sounds great, and the lead performance is fantastic, but oof, what a shoddy script. A short film stretched out to feature length with plenty of repetition and a variety of plot threads teased out and then just left to dangle, culminating in a tacked-on shrug of an ending that basically amounts to “the butler did it.”

Chase away the Monday blues with 425 compatible seamless patterns! 💫 twitter.com/robweychert/st…

I took in fewer screenings than usual at this year’s @OIAF_Animation, but I still continued my tradition of reviewing everything in the short film competition. v6.robweychert.com/blog/2021/10/o…

For the second (and hopefully final) year in a row, the Ottawa International Animation Festival was held virtually. This is always the busiest time of year for me, but with the addition of Plus Equals and a couple of other projects, things really piled up this year, which meant I could only make time for the short film competition and two features (one of which, Archipelago, was sadly not available to view outside of Canada).… See more →