1545 – Yummy (2019)

spacetime coordinates: 2010’s shady Eastern European hospital for plastic surgery

Yummy is a 2019 Belgian comedy/horror/zombie film directed by Lars Damoiseaux and starring Maaike Neuville, Bart Hollanders, Benjamin Ramon, Clara Cleymans, and Joshua Rubin.

The Eastern Europe language ‘Balkanese’ spoken by the hospital workers is a fictional language created by Lars Damoiseaux’s wife, Lana Macanovic.

1373 – Nox (2000 video game)

Nox is an action role-playing game developed by Westwood Pacific and published by Electronic Arts in 2000 for Microsoft Windows. It details the story of Jack, a young man from Earth who is pulled into a high fantasy parallel universe and has to defeat the evil sorceress Hecubah and her army of Necromancers to return home. Depending on the player’s choice of character class at the beginning of the game (warriorconjurer, or wizard), the game follows three largely different linear storylines, each leading to its unique ending. In the multiplayer, players can compete against each other in various game modes such as deathmatch and capture the flag, while the freely downloadable expansion pack NoxQuest added a cooperative multiplayer mode. (wiki)


Super Retro Review #9 – Nox



gog.com/game/nox

1370 – Phantasm (1979)

timespace coordinates: 70’s Oregon – Morningside Cemetery

Phantasm is a 1979 American science fantasy horror film directed, written, photographed, and edited by Don Coscarelli.  “a truly bizarre mix of outlandish horror, cheapo gore, and psychological mindgames that purposefully blur the line between waking and dreaming.” Marc Savlov

The first film in the Phantasm franchise, it introduces the Tall Man (Angus Scrimm), a supernatural and malevolent undertaker who turns the dead of Earth into dwarf zombies to be sent to his planet and used as slaves. He is opposed by a young boy, Mike (Michael Baldwin), who tries to convince his older brother Jody (Bill Thornbury) and family friend Reggie (Reggie Bannister) of the threat.

Phantasm was a locally financed independent film; the cast and crew were mostly amateurs and aspiring professionals. Though initial reviews were mixed in regards to the dream-like, surreal narrative and imagery, later reception was more positive and the film became a cult classic. (wiki)

Analysis   /   imdb

1275 – The Dead Don’t Die (2019)

timespace coordinates: 2010’s small rural town Centerville

The Dead Don’t Die is a 2019 American horror comedy film / cautionary tale written and directed by Jim Jarmusch. It features an ensemble cast including Adam DriverBill MurrayChloë SevignySteve BuscemiAustin ButlerRZATilda SwintonTom WaitsDanny GloverCaleb Landry JonesRosie PerezCarol Kane and Selena Gomez and follows a small town’s police force as they combat a sudden zombie invasion. (wiki)

imdb

1270 – Zombieland (2009)

timespace coordinates: 2000’s Texas > Arizona > California

zombieland_ver7_xlgZombieland is a 2009 American post-apocalyptic horror zombie comedy film directed by Ruben Fleischer in his theatrical debut. The film stars Woody HarrelsonJesse EisenbergEmma Stone, and Abigail Breslin as survivors of a zombie apocalypse.

910yYiBni1L._SL1500_The film follows a geeky college kid making his way through the zombie apocalypse, meeting three strangers along the way and together taking an extended road trip across the Southwestern United States in an attempt to find a sanctuary free from zombies. (wiki)

imdb   /  television series   /   sequel

1216 – Sanatorium pod Klepsydra / The Hourglass Sanatorium  (1973)

Among all the tales there is one, / which you haven’t heard / and which the night reclaimed long ago. / Have you enough patience to listen to it?

The Hourglass Sanatorium (Polish: Sanatorium pod klepsydrą) is a 1973 Polish film directed by Wojciech Jerzy Has, starring Jan Nowicki, Tadeusz Kondrat, Mieczysław Voit, Halina Kowalska and Gustaw Holoubek. The story follows a young Jewish man who visits his father in a mystical sanatorium where time does not behave normally. The film is an adaptation of Bruno Schulz‘s story collection Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass. It won the Jury Prize at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival. (Release)

MV5BMjIxMzBlNDgtMTM0Zi00MmEyLWIxMTAtYTFlNGE4OTMyZWVjL2ltYWdlXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNTAyODkwOQ@@._V1_timespace coordinates: The time period of the film is a mixture of elements from the turn-of-the-century Galicia where Schulz grew up, and Has‘ own pre-World War II memories of the same region

Joseph (Jan Nowicki) travels through a dream-like world, taking a dilapidated train to visit his dying father, Jacob, in a sanatorium. When he arrives at the hospital, he finds the entire facility is going to ruin and no one seems to be in charge or even caring for the patients. Time appears to behave in unpredictable ways, reanimating the past in an elaborate artificial caprice.

Though Joseph is always shown as an adult, his behavior and the people around often depict him as a child. He befriends Rudolf, a young boy who owns a postage stamp album. The names of the stamps trigger a wealth of association and adventure in Joseph. Among the many occurrences in this visually potent phantasmagoria include Joseph re-entering childhood episodes with his wildly eccentric father (who lives with birds in an attic), being arrested by a mysterious unit of soldiers for having a dream that was severely criticized in high places, reflecting on a girl he fantasized about in his boyhood and commandeering a group of historic wax mannequins. Throughout his strange journey, an ominous blind train conductor reappears like a death figure.

Has also adds a series of reflections on the Holocaust that were not present in the original texts, reading Schulz’s prose through the prism of the author’s death during World War II and the demise of the world he described. (wiki)

imdb


“There are things than cannot ever occur with any precision. They are too big and too magnificent to be contained in mere facts. They are merely trying to occur, they are checking whether the ground of reality can carry them. And they quickly withdraw, fearing to loose their integrity in the frailty of realization. ”  (Bruno Schulz)