We Don't Go Back #47: Eye of the Devil (1966)

Some films and TV shows are subject to a strange external force; a tragic event or a person related to these media carries an influence that subtly warps the thing itself, so it's actually impossible to watch it in the way you might have done when it was first released. And Eye of the Devil, adapted from Philip Loraine's novel Day of the Arrow and directed by J. Lee (The Guns of Navarone) Thompson, is a classic example. It is hard to find on DVD in the UK; you have to get a Region 1 import.

We Don't Go Back #46: Detectorists (2014-15)

Acknowledgement: I found Detectorists thanks to the Folk Horror Revival group on Facebook (and if you are coming from there, sincere thanks). Detectorists has been seen two seasons on BBC4, and a Christmas special, amounting to 13 episodes. There's going to be a third season soon, but for the time being you can find all the current episodes on Netflix. It's also available on DVD.

Beneath golden sunshine, two men walk across a field, holding metal detectors. One of the devices beeps, and the shorter man crouches, and with a trowel carefully uncovers his find. It's a ring pull.

Inner Worlds: Love, Politics and Role-Playing Games

I've now published Inner Worlds: Love, Politics and Role-Playing Games, a short monograph compiling the essays I published last autumn on the imaginative spaces of role-playing games, in which I wax lyrical on politics, social mechanics, sex, magic and imagination, and ask the question: "is it really OK?"

(Spoilers: yes.)

It's not yet available in print form (and while somehow I can't imagine there being much call for the print version I'm going to have a bundle of printed copies at May's Swansea Comics and Games Convention). You can buy Inner Worlds here.

We Don't Go Back #45: Viy (1967)

I'm not terribly up on Russian literature, but the one partial exception to that regrettable blindspot is Nikolai Gogol, of whom over the years I've read a handful of things: Dead Souls, The Government Inspector, and a short story called “Viy”.

Cult Cinema #6: The Master (2012)

I could do a whole series on its own where I look at documentaries about Scientology.

But the truth is, I feel that unless it's a pretty interesting work of art in its own right, a documentary film speaks largely for itself, and most reviews of documentaries end up tackling style and underlying agendas. Since the vast majority of documentaries about Scientology start with the base assumption that Scientology is awful and then try to give you evidence to back that up, my critical MO has little to add. Louis Theroux bringing his schtick to a film about Scientology, for example, isn't without value, but I don't have a whole lot to add to that.

We Don't Go Back #44a: Get Out (2017)

This is the first post I wrote about Get Out. In this post, I give a quick review of it, spoiler free. For the (spoilertastic) analysis, go here. 

To crowdfund or not to crowdfund

So I decided to just go ahead and release this is not a picture. You can buy it here.

This is, if you've missed it, a collection of short supernatural fiction, and I didn't Kickstarter it this time. Why was that?