Month: October 2025

Another Frankenstein?

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Guillermo del Toro is a horror story aficionado.  He really loves the genre and has been dreaming for decades about filming Frankenstein.  And being a “serious” director, he of course wants his version to be the definitive

one.  Making the picture for Netflix means there will be a lot of cash available for sets, makeup, special effects and all the other expensive aspects of modern moviemaking.  So, this movie will probably be visually stunning.  And since del Toro has been around for a while and made several popular and critically acclaimed films with fantastical themes there is a good chance that his Frankenstein will have many good qualities.

The only question I have is whether anyone wants to see another Frankenstein.  I’ve seen several film versions of the story and many years ago I read Mary Shelley’s novel.  I’m not sure there’s anything left to dig out of that mine.  In a way, the modern version of Frankenstein is Blade Runner.  Man playing God and making men after his own image and then treating them badly is the story of Eldon Tyrell creating the replicants and then one of them; Roy Batty hunting him down and then killing his creator for making him a lesser being.

Do we still want the nineteenth century guess at what genetic engineering would look like?  In the twenty first century we kind of already have the technology to play God.  We could make a Frankenstein’s monster (or more like a Roy Batty).  Do we still need the guy with the bolts sticking out of his neck?

Well, that’s the question I’m asking myself.  I remember when Kenneth Branagh directed himself as Victor Frankenstein in a 1994 version with, of all people, Robert De Niro as the monster.  It was really awful.  And I think that may have quenched any future appetite on my part for this story.

Now maybe I’m completely wrong.  Maybe this will be a stunning production that captures something from Shelley’s story that elevates the movie into a great entertainment.  I’ll be waiting for the movie to premiere on Netflix and I’ll see what the critics have to say.  But I’m deeply skeptical.

I think the future of fantasy and horror will require new stories that speak to us in this age of artificial intelligence and genetic engineering.  But even stories like “The Matrix” and “Blade Runner” seem to be recycling old ideas.  It’s going to take a poet with a PhD in cybernetics or gene splicing to make the next great mythical story.  And who knows, maybe we’re tired of horror stories altogether.  Maybe we’re looking for the next great fairy tale with a hero who lives “happily ever after.”  Maybe in the next story the monster doesn’t hate and destroy his creator but pities and helps him instead.  Now that would be a real curveball and might sell a hundred million tickets.  That would be a story I’d pay to see.  We could all use a feel-good story.  In fact. we’re dying for one.

18OCT2025 – Quote of the Day

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Marines have a cynical approach to war. They believe in three things; liberty, payday and that when two Marines are together in a fight, one is being wasted. Being a minority group militarily, they are proud and sensitive in their dealings with other military organizations. A Marine’s concept of a perfect battle is to have other Marines on the right and left flanks, Marine aircraft overhead and Marine artillery and naval gunfire backing them up.

Ernie Pyle

Diplomacy, Gerrymandering and Ice Cream

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Friday will be a very long day.  Excuse my absence from the site.  I’ll do my best to catch up later.

Well, I’ll have to say I was shocked that Hamas gave up the twenty living hostages.  I am a little suspicious of their claiming to not have all of the remains of the dead hostages.  Maybe they’re still holding onto some of the living that way.  But all in all, it seems like the Arabs are applying the screws to Hamas and that is a good sign.  Trump is getting some credit even from the leftist media and that is also encouraging.

And I hear that the Supreme Court is about to declare some parts of the Voting Rights Act unconstitutional.  Specifically, I think they’ll say that the present maximizing of black representation is a form of anti-white discrimination and that may be an incredible change to the breakdown of seats between the Democrats and Republicans in places like Alabama and Mississippi.  Good.  Gerrymandering makes a 60/40 state like Massachusetts into a 100/0 state in terms of representation.  There are zero Republicans in the US House of Representatives from Massachusetts.  Why should there be any Democratic reps in places like Oklahoma or Utah?  Just draw the district maps so that the Republican suburbs and exurbs out number the urban Democrat strongholds and presto change-o no Democrat reps!  Sounds like a plan.  Thank you, Massachusetts!

Now I hear Trump is going to meet with Zelensky and then give the Ukrainians Tomahawk missiles.  That’s a very powerful weapons system.  And then I hear he’s going to meet with Putin.  Well, he’s really going to have to pull a rabbit out of his hat to end this war.  But let him try.  I just hope we don’t start taking incoming from Russian surrogates.  I was just beginning to hope Trump was serious about making the world more peaceful.  Fingers crossed.

Even though we’ve already had frost on the ground Camera Girl was able to find a live preying mantis in the yard and now it’s taking up residence in our house.  She even bought some crickets at Petco and hopes to keep it alive for the duration.  I warned her this might be a very short reprieve.  I think they’re not programmed to live very long after maturity.  Well, I hope to take some macro shots of our little houseguest before he kicks off.

Unbelievably we’re still getting raspberries from the patch and we had them today with vanilla ice cream.  But we’re down to the nitty-gritty.  I think we’ll be getting a hard freeze in the next week or so.  And I’ve taken a bunch of photos of the wolfbane because by Halloween they’ll be wilted too.  Today the bees and the flies were the only insect life I saw around the yard.

So, a beautiful September and beginning of October is transitioning to more wintery weather but spirits are high and with any luck I’ll survive my three-week ordeal with First Selectman Cthulhu with only superficial damage.

Excelsior!

Guest Contributor – Tregonsee – 16OCT2025 – Something for the Pot

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May I offer up this the 1985 SciFi Enemy Mine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enemy_Mine_(film) )? It is an excellent adaptation of Barry B. Longyear’s novella of the same name, Directed by Wolfgang Petersen (of Das Boot fame). It had a low budget (40 Million) and its special effects are well, dated even for 1985. Excellent acting by Dennis Quaid and Louis Gosset as the principals. Bombed at the box office as it was Neither Star Wars, Dune, nor Wrath of Khan.

I would also like to add in the war film department the 1969 film Battle Of Britain . To say the storyline is weak is an understatement (although it is briefly redeemed by Susannah York prancing about in her knickers). The killer here is the aerial fight scenes. These involve LARGE numbers of actual Spitfires, Me109 and Heinkel 111 aircraft (Me109 and Heinkels being part of the Spanish Air Force). They are well scripted and had input from Douglass Baeder and Air Marshall Dowding. It has a G rating but some scenes are almost too realistic and freaked out the 8-year-old me, who dunned my dad into taking me to the movie.