When real things happen to imaginary people

They filmed a test scene!

My Summer as a Goth - Test Makeover Scene from My Summer As A Goth on Vimeo.

I, of course, think it's adorable. It's a gothy makeover AND it features my two favorite characters.

The big Gothic Charm School post about the Kickstarter for My Summer As A Goth!

My beta readers and sanity check people went above and beyond for this one, as it was written under a somewhat compressed deadline. I love you people, thank you!

Now, I always ask if you charming folks would help spread the word about new GCS posts. It's especially important for this one, because the more people who know about the Kickstarter campaign for the movie, the better the chances that the project will be funded.

Thank you!

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Ahahaha. I love the horror genre; you people know that, right? Some of the movies that I find comforting in times of emotional distress include things like 30 Days of Night, Jennifer's Body and Zombieland. But. I am kind of a big wimp about suspenseful horror. Gore, monsters? Great, bring it on! Creepy suspense? I will cower behind clovisdvlbunny while watching, and not sleep because of being freaked out.

So, I have two answers for this question.

Scariest horror movie #1: Poltergeist. I have not seen this movie since ... the late 80s. This movie terrified me so much when I first saw it that I didn't sleep for three days. (Of course, that may have had something to do with when, on the way home after seeing it, Dad asked me what I thought the scariest part was. I answered "The clown doll,", because even then I Did. Not. Like. Clowns. My Mom replied, "But you used to have a doll just like that! I think it's in the attic ..." Thanks, Mom. No sleep for me!) I also had an unreasoning fear of TVs tuned to static for a very long time, but I'm (mostly) over that now.

There is a part of me that wonders if the scares of Poltergeist still hold up. But I'm not willing to watch it again to find out.

Scariest horror movie #2: The Blair Witch Project. Yes, really. No, I never believed it was a "true story". But the movie was a very clever play on the types of ghost stories I constantly read when I was a child, and the mounting tension of weird things happening and no one knowing what was happening? Yeah, that hit all the right (wrong?) terror buttons in my hindbrain. Plus the final scenes in the movie included a bit of imagery that was, I kid you not, straight out of a recurring nightmare I have had for decades. (The bloody handprints on the walls of the house. When the camera first panned across them, I think I tried to whimper and curl into a fetal position. I don't really remember.)

We saw The Blair Witch Project right after we had moved into the house, and about a week before the Stroppy One went out of town to go to Gen-Con. So there's me, in a heightened state of freak out, by myself in a newish house, not yet used to the creaks it made. One day, when I was about to go into the mostly-finished basement to feed the cats, I called my parents and made them talk to me, in the hopes that I would be less creeped out.

But I still love horror movies. Oooh, maybe I'll watch 30 Days of Night again tonight.

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I think people who are regular readers of my burblings know my answers.

Firstly, I would love to see a remake of Dracula. A remake that is more faithful to the novel. No tacked on love story (even tho' I must shamefully admit that I do like that in the Langella and Coppola versions), no changing characters around, and make Dracula menacing, thanks. Make the scene where he forces Mina to drink his blood to be chilling, because that's how it should be.

The other movie I would LOVE to see remade? Mary Poppins. Remember a few years ago when the "re-imagined" trailer for Scary Mary went around? Mary Poppins treated as very strange and creepy? YES, I WANT THAT. I want something closer to the books, where Mary Poppins is a force for ... something. Not necessarily for good or happy families, but for chaos. Weird things keep happening around her, and when Jane and Michael ask questions, Mary Poppins shuts them down. "How dare you suggest I would take part in such things? What are you talking about?" Mary Poppins isn't a shiny happy nice nanny, and I want a movie that reflects that.

- Went to the chiropractor, where he made my neck make horrible crunching noises. And lo! My headache went away! My wonderful chiropractor also showed me some exercises I need to start doing to strengthen my neck and shoulder muscles, so that maybe I won't get these headaches quite as often. Here's hoping.

- Altered my Beetlejuice fitted tee that arrived in the mail yesterday. It now has a scooped neckline with lace trim and B&W striped piping. Whee!

- Finished watching the DVD of Brazil that the StuntHusband loaned me. I had never seen it. Ever. Yes, I know, how the hell did I manage that? Let's just say there are some astonishing gaps in my my movie-watching habits, and leave it at that. Anyway, Brazil. Whoo. I wouldn't say fun, necessarily, but surreal and fascinating.

- Watched the DVD of the Frank Langella version of Dracula (which I had finally gotten around to ordering). I haven't seen it in ages, and had forgotten how swoony and pretty it is. Plus, Frank Langella keeps referring to it as a "gothic romance" in the bonus feature interview. Be still my bombast-craving heart!

- Decided my everyday top hat needed to be refurbished, so I rummaged around and found a length of wide antique black lace and a lot of black ostrich and coque feathers. I'll try to take a photo tomorrow.

- Redid my blood spatter manicure. Now with black smudges, inspired by snowcoma's version. Again, maybe pictures tomorrow.

Also tomorrow: writing, writing, writing. WRITING.

The breaking news from San Diego Comic Con: Disney announced that they're doing a reboot of Haunted Mansion, directed by Guillermo del Toro.

I ... I am optimistic, with a side of vague apprehension.

EDITED TO ADD FROM TWITTER:

RT @screenrant: Del Toro: Haunted Mansion will be live-action, 3D, and "the most haunted mansion on Earth." Will not be a comedy.

NOT A COMEDY. A creepy movie! Oh, thank goodness. I was always boggled by how Disney did so well with the Pirates of the Caribbean movie(s), and yet went straight to horribly bland and boring for the 2003 Haunted Mansion movie.

EDITED TO ADD AGAIN! From Entertainment Weekly http://popwatch.ew.com/2010/07/22/comic-con-guillermo-del-toro-announces-haunted-mansion-remake-for-disney/

"Unlike the 2003 movie version of Haunted Mansion, which starred Eddie Murphy, del Toro said the live-action film will not be a comedy (“We are not returning Eddie Murphy’s call,” del Toro said to applause), but instead will be "very scary — if you take the children, they will scream." Del Toro said he has visited the Haunted Mansion ride many times since he was a kid, describing it as “a place where I go when I need to think and to relax."

He will produce and co-write the film and may direct it as well.

I cannot brain today. I'm not tired (thank goodness), but am extremely fuzzy-brained and lacking in attention span. Ah, the hormonal joys of being female.

But! I have a chocolate cupcake sitting on my desk (thanks to a going-away party for one of my co-workers), and the mail today will bring me gailcarriger's new book Changeless, the big art book for Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland, AND the blu-ray of Sherlock Holmes. So there will be plenty of distracting things for me when I get home.^*

Tonight, I must update the GCS Events page with info about my Norwescon schedule, the details for the celadon CD release party, and the reading at the Night Kitchen. I also need to work on the CD reviews for Toy-Box Trio and Faith and the Muse. Can I manage to do those things while watching Sherlock Holmes? Who knows. But I'm certainly going to try.



^*Between Sherlock Holmes and Changeless, I am going to want to add EVEN MORE bustles, boots, and parasols to my wardrobe. I just know it.

Let me start this out by saying that Alice In Wonderland is one of my favorite books. I accumulate/collect copies of it and Through The Looking Glass, and they were some of the first books I downloaded to my iPhone. (Those, Dracula, and Something Wicked This Way Comes. I am nothing if not consistent.) Also, I am a huge fan of Tim Burton's visual aesthetic. It very closely matches my own. Not to mention that Beetlejuice is one of my favorite movies, and always will be.

With those statements out of the way: I ... don't have high hopes for the Tim Burton version of Alice In Wonderland. Oh, it will be full of eye candy. Of that I have NO doubt. But you see, yesterday's post brought my copy of the Visual Companion for the movie (which is a fancy name for a storybook with pictures from the movie), and, well. The story is pretty much what I expected, the usual sort of "save the kingdom/overthrow the wicked queen" thing, but with an overlay of Wonderland and Tim Burton.

(Also, a short digression about editing. RUNNING SPELL CHECK DOES NOT SUBSTITUTE FOR EDITING. Because I doubt that the "grizzly" moat around the Red Queen's castle is full of bears, and I also doubt that the White Rabbit is "always ringing his ears" as if they were bells. I'm fairly sure that the Disney company can afford editors, and my goodness, they really should have. The Visual Companion book is full of such EditingFail.)

Will I go see the movie? Of course! Don't be silly. I will almost certainly end up purchasing it on Blu-Ray, too. But it won't be for the sake of the story the movie is telling.

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In Shallow Fashion Details news, I am wearing a headband with a bow today. I am trying to decide if I like it. (The Stroppy One does not particularly like it.) There probably will be a picture later, and you folks can tell me what you think of it.

The Stroppy One, proving yet again that he is indeed the Best Husband Ever, gave me a get-well soon present. (Another one, I should say, because he gave me a copy of Blueberry Girl by Neil Gaiman earlier in the week.)

This present? The Blu-Ray of A Company Of Wolves, which is one of my favorite movies ever. Yes, even though it's a werewolf movie. Have I mentioned how much I like Angela Carter's writing? I have a battered copy of The Bloody Chamber that sits on my comfort reading shelf; if only someone would make a movie similar to A Company Of Wolves out of "The Lady In The House Of Love"!

1 coffin flask of rose liqueur = not enough alcohol.

I will admit, the movie was dippy fun. I thought I was going to sprain my eyeballs from rolling them so hard, but it was still fun. Robert Pattison is a handsome young man, even if the makeup artist for the movie couldn't be bothered to blend his white foundation past his jaw line.

However, the blink-and-you'll-miss-it dream sequence of him as a REAL vampire? That was well done. Pity the whole movie couldn't have been like that, but then it wouldn't be Twilight, would it? ... I feel like I need to go watch The Lost Boys or Near Dark or 30 Days of Night to cleanse my brain or something.

And now, because it needs to be linked to again: Cleolinda's Twilight in 15 minutes..