October 2022

Halloween tradition of listening to everything the original Misfits recorded in chronological order is complete. I’d say I’m all whoa’d out, but there is no such thing. 💀

Happy Halloween! Here’s a quick post about how the design came together for Robtober 2022, my annual horror movie binge. v6.robweychert.com/blog/2022/10/r…

Happy Halloween! Here are a few quick notes about this year’s design for Robtober, my annual horror movie marathon.

The ransom letters

The ransom note concept for the title screen came to me in the middle of the night, and I don’t remember if it was inspired by something specific. But in my subsequent research, I read the entire Wikipedia article about the murder of JonBenét Ramsey, so if that’s a knowledge hole your pub… See more →

After having to cancel my plans to attend last month’s Ottawa International Animation Festival at the last minute, I was glad the Philadelphia Film Festival’s animated shorts program gave me a chance to get my fix. This was a pretty solid collection of films, encompassing a variety of styles and narratives. The overall tone was fairly dark, which is always fine with me, but several of the films also made a habit of just stopping… See more →

😞 twitter.com/brooklynvegan/…

The kind of thoroughly bonkers extravaganza that could easily elicit a bewildered “Well, that was certainly… a movie,” but the thing is, that response is actually pretty accurate and appropriately concise. This movie is more movie than almost any other movie, in that it embraces the form with such maximalist abandon as to leave it completely spent in just over an hour.

This was a bucket-lister for me, long overdue and worth the wait. It was also the second incarnation of Weird Al’s Ridiculously Self-Indulgent, Ill-Advised Vanity Tour, in which he plays all original songs rather than the pop parodies he’s famous for. And I realized at the show that I think I generally prefer his originals! Don’t get me wrong; it was super fun to hear the parody medley in the encore, especially the extended “Yoda”… See more →

I made a horror movie list for you to disagree with. letterboxd.com/robweychert/li…

Some Monday grumbling. v6.robweychert.com/blog/2022/10/a…

The level of naivete, if not outright hubris, on display in a recent New York Times article about AI-generated art is gobsmacking:

The resulting image didn’t end up going into an ad, but Mr. Carmel predicts that generative A.I. will become part of every ad agency’s creative process. He doesn’t, however, think that using A.I. will meaningfully speed up the agencies’ work, or replace their art departments. He said many of the images generated by… See more →

You know, after watching Watcher earlier in the day, I was like, “Maybe I’m just not a slow burn kind of guy.” And then Speak No Evil comes along to remind me how it’s done. This thing had its hooks in me from start to finish. It is cold-fucking-blooded. Obligatory warning: Parents of young kids might want to steer clear.

That rare four-band bill where everyone’s great. And as always, it is impossible to overstate how thoroughly @melt_banana rules.

Reading about the Parkland jurors literally crying because they didn’t get to kill someone. This fucking country. nytimes.com/2022/10/15/us/…

Everyone please continue making colorful geometric confections and I will continue admiring them. thisiscolossal.com/2022/10/dinara…

There’s a lot to like here. It’s stylish and warm and conveys an understanding of brutality without feeling the need to bludgeon its audience. It feels very Bacurau by way of From Dusk Til Dawn: a remote community in a poor part of the world, a certain mysticism, a pronounced genre shift in the final act. And its most important characters manage to breathe real humanity into shallow genre archetypes. It’s all just a bit… See more →

Has VR tech or UX meaningfully evolved at all in its long lifetime? Still looks like this to me.

VR has been trying for over 30 years to convince us it’s the future. Seems a lot more like the past by now. twitter.com/seldo/status/1…

As of today I’ve been on Twitter for 15 years. Feeling about the same as I did at 10: v6.robweychert.com/blog/2017/10/t…

I’m all for the post-A24 let’s-get-gnarly thing, but can we please do it with some more imagination?

Hint: Each letter is from a different decade, from the 1930s to the 2000s (but not in chronological order). twitter.com/robweychert/st…

Here’s a fun game for a Friday: Try to identify the eight horror movie posters that the ransom letters on the Robtober 2022 title screen came from. (I’m looking in @iamrumz’s and @NickSherman’s direction, but all are welcome to play.) twitter.com/robweychert/st…

come on

So I was getting this year’s horror movie schedule together, and then I had a run-in with some unsavory characters. 😬 v6.robweychert.com/blog/2022/10/r…

Every October, I broaden my cinematic horizons by putting together a big schedule of horror movies I haven’t seen yet. Alas, this year’s plans have been upended by my abduction, and for some reason, my mysterious captors aren’t interested in money. Instead, their ransom demand is that people watch the movies I’ve scheduled. These dudes seem like they mean business, so if you can help me out, I’d really appreciate it. But if you’re too… See more →

When you’re looking for a good read for the spooky season, and your buddy @_AndreaJanes is kind enough to write a new book for the occasion. 👍🏻 bookshop.org/p/books/a-haun…

y’all blew it

I’ve been waiting a long time for this night, and it did not disappoint!

Yo Philly, I’ve got an extra ticket for tonight’s sold out @otobokebeaver show at @johnnybrendas and I’d hate for it to go to waste. Hit me up.