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Exclusive: Shannon Larkin Reviews BD Selects ‘Atrocious’

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Godsmack drummer Shannon Larkin has written up another awesome movie review. This time, he tackles Bloody-Disgusting Selects Atrocious, which will be in theaters August 17th – 26th. The Spanish found footage horror film details the last five days of Cristian Quintanilla and his siblings and the unnatural circumstances they encountered.

Godsmack just finished co-headlining the Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival and has several more tour dates lined up for the rest of summer and the beginning of fall. 

shannonlarkin

Atrocious
Hell-O Horrorhounds!
I want to write a small pre-face for this weeks review. Upon getting the opportunity to review films here, with my undying love of horror and all aspects of the genre, and being in the entertainment biz for so long, I really didn’t want to write any kind of negative reviews because I realize just how hard it is to make a film of any size or budget, and how much heart and soul goes into the process. With that said, I promised you all that I would give my honest opinion as a horror fan and lay it out exactly as I see it. You know what they say about opinions…so if I have to be the asshole, I will tread as gently as possible and give props where they are do.
   I’ll start the review with a little positivity: If you are a fan of the first Blair Witch Project, you will love Atrocious. Personally, I was bored to tears with BWP until the last ten minutes or so (much to the dismay of a lot of my friends who liked the film). The plot of Atrocious is very similar, with a group of people investigating an Urban Legend. This time, the group is the Quintanilla family, who travel to an old house in Spain where it is said the spirit of a girl named Melinda inhabits the woods. Opinions are varied in whether Melinda is a good or evil spirit, as we’re told there are many different variations on the legend. For instance, if you get lost in the labyrinthine woods at night, Melinda with show you the way out; but don’t turn your back on her or you might be sorry. 
   The film is shot in first person through the lens of two of the kid’s cameras. Oldest brother Cristian (Cristian Valencia) and his younger sister July (July Valencia) consider themselves budding paranormal investigators. They both do a decent job acting, but the dialogue is bland an unexciting, making character development a bore. Coupled with that, and the fact that it takes a good 45 minutes until the first kill, I was trying to keep interested in the story and fighting the instinct to fast forward. Then finally, blood is found and the cameras follow the trail to a creepy well (sound familiar?) where the first body is seen dead at the bottom. I won’t spoil it, but I even thought the first “victim” was a lame choice, and by this point was irritated with the pace and camera work. I understand building tension and have seen it done brilliantly (Paranormal Activity for one of a million examples) but really felt no pressing sense of dread at this point.
   When the family realizes there is serious trouble, another member goes missing, so everyone hightails it into the maze of woods (at night!) to search, and everyone promptly gets separated. Then it really goes all “Blair Witch” and does that “shaky cam with night vision running through the woods scared at night” shit that I must admit I hate, and furthermore, after a few cold ones I actually felt nauseous.  
   This goes on for way too long.
   For a little positive vibes, I will say the location was fantastic, with the labyrinth in the woods being genuinely menacing and scary.
   The survivors make it back to the house and we get the OMG twist, which I admit I wasn’t expecting, but alas, too little too late, and certainly not enough to save sitting through the whole film for me.
   Again, I felt the same way about BWP, and in fact, if you change the names and location, this would basically be my review of that film too. 
Atrocious: 2 stars out of five. I won’t be adding this one to my collection☹
Until next time, Apocalypse!
Shannon
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‘Lost Themes IV: Noir’ – John Carpenter Announces New Album & Releases New Music Video!

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Lost Themes IV
(l-r) Cody Carpenter, John Carpenter, Daniel Davies - Photo Credit: Sophie Gransard

John Carpenter has been teasing big news for a couple weeks now and all has been revealed this morning. Carpenter is back with Lost Themes IV: Noir from Sacred Bones Records!

Lost Themes IV: Noir is the latest installment in a series that sees Carpenter releasing new music for John Carpenter movies that don’t actually exist. The first Lost Themes was released in 2015, followed by Lost Themes II in 2016 and Lost Themes III: Alive After Death in 2021.

John Carpenter called the first Lost Themes album “a soundtrack for the movies in your mind.”

From John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies, Lost Themes IV: Noir is set for release on May 3 via Sacred Bones Records. The album pays tribute to Noir cinema!

In conjunction with the announcement, they’ve shared a music video for the album’s first single, “My Name Is Death”, a miniature noir film directed by Ambar Navarro, starring Natalie Mering (Weyes Blood), Staz Lindes (The Paranoyds) and Misha Lindes (SadGirl). “Noir is a uniquely American genre born in post-war cinema,” states Carpenter. “ We grew up loving Noir and were influenced by it for this new album. The video celebrates this style and our new song, My Name is Death.”

Sacred Bones previews, “The scene-setting new single marks new territory for Carpenter and his cohorts, propelled by a driving post-punk bassline that is embellished by washes of atmospheric synth, pulsing drum machine, and, at the song’s climax, a smoldering guitar solo.”

“Sandy [King, John’s wife and producer] had given John a book for Christmas, of pictures from noir films, all stills from that era,” Davies says of the lightbulb moment for Lost Themes IV. “I was looking through it, and I thought, ‘I like that imagery, and what those titles make me think of. What if we loosely based it around that? What if the titles were of some of John’s favorite noir films?’ Some of the music is heavy guitar riffs, which is not in old noir films. But somehow, it’s connected in an emotional way.”

Sacred Bones notes, “Like the film genre they were influenced by, what makes the songs on Lost Themes IV ‘noirish’ is sometimes slippery and hard to define, and not merely reducible to a collection of tropes. The scores for the great American noir pictures were largely orchestral, while the Carpenters and Davies work off a sturdy synth-and-guitar backbone. The noir quality, then, is something you understand instinctively when you hear it.”

“It’s been a decade since John Carpenter recorded the material that became the initial Lost Themes, his debut album of non-film music and the opening salvo in one of Hollywood’s great second acts,” the label explains. “Those vibrant, synth-driven songs, made in collaboration with his son Cody Carpenter and godson Daniel Davies, kickstarted a musical renaissance for the pioneering composer and director. In the years since, Carpenter, Carpenter, and Davies have released close to a dozen musical projects, including a growing library of studio albums and the scores for David Gordon Green’s trilogy of Halloween reboots. It helped that they grew up in a musical environment. Daniel’s dad is The Kinks’ Dave Davies, and he would pop by the L.A. studio – the same one the Lost Themes records are made in today – to jam, or to perform at wrap parties for John’s films. That innate free-flowing chemistry helps Lost Themes IV: Noir run like a well-oiled machine—the 1951 Jaguar XK120 Roadster from Kiss Me Deadly, perhaps, or the 1958 Plymouth Fury from John’s own Christine. It’s a chemistry that’s helped power one of the most productive stretches of John’s creative life, and Noir proves that it’s nowhere near done yielding brilliant results.”

Here’s the full Lost Themes IV: Noir track list:

1. My Name is Death
2. Machine Fear
3. Last Rites
4. The Burning Door
5. He Walks By Night
6. Beyond The Gallows
7. Kiss The Blood Off My Fingers
8. Guillotine
9. The Demon’s Shadow
10. Shadows Have A Thousand Eyes

The following physical variants will be available:

  • Sacred Bones Exclusive Red on Clear Splatter vinyl w/ Screen Printed 7” bonus track “Black Cathedral”, a Silver Foil Stamped Jacket and poster.
  • Sacred Bones Society Exclusive on Black and White Splatter on Clear w/ Screen Printed 7” bonus track “Black Cathedral”, a Silver Foil Stamped Jacket and poster.
  • All retail Transparent Red, with a Gold Foil Stamped Jacket and poster.
  • Indie Exclusive Tan and Black Marble, w/ Screen Printed 7” bonus track “Black Cathedral”, a Gold Foil Stamped Jacket and poster.
  • Rough Trade Exclusive Oxblood Red and Black Splatter, w/ Screen Printed 7” bonus track “Black Cathedral”, a Gold Foil Stamped Jacket and poster.
  • Shout Exclusive Black and Clear cloudy, w/ Screen Printed 7” bonus track “Black Cathedral”, a Gold Foil Stamped Jacket and poster.
  • Black LP, with a Gold Foil Stamped Jacket and poster.
  • CD
  • Tape

You can pre-save Lost Themes IV: Noir right now!

Lost Themes IV Noir

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