September came and went and so much happened that I could barely keep up with it, and once I wrote it all down as a blog post I decided I didn't even want to read about it. So I deleted all, or most, of September's posts. A couple of days ago I even wrote a post about Blonde, the new Marilyn Monroe movie on Netflix that is generating so much hate you'd think the director just illegally "annexed" Ukraine and left a trail of bodies in his wake. I'm tired of the whole Blonde debacle though so I 86 'd the blog entry I'd written about that, too.
What I'm left with is Halloween. The holiday, not the movie. For me, all of October is Halloween. October recalls sharply dropping temperatures, falling leaves, jack o'lanterns, steaming bowls of beans and ham hocks....oy, that sounds either too Hallmarkish or too hillbilly, I'm not sure which. But you get the picture, right? Here in southeast Florida, a picture is about all you can get because, except for the sudden, inescapable omnipresence of pumpkin spice, autumn is mostly something that happens somewhere else. Sure, we usually get a whiff of winter in January and February when temps fall below 70 or, if we're really lucky, below 60, but it's never sustained for more than a couple of days here and there. On the whole I'd rather be curled up with a good book next to a roaring fireplace in Vermont but, like my sister often says, it is what it is.
October is also the month when AMC and a few other channels break out their collections of horror flicks although the selections are sometimes (often) hit-or-miss. I can also choose from my own fairly extensive collection of Blu-ray discs and DVD's to get my seasonal dose of terror and, in fact, have several already lined up for my viewing pleasure.
Last night, AMC premiered their new series based on the late Anne Rice's vampire books. Interview With the Vampire looks to be a promising update on a familiar tale with the gay subtext--virtually ignored in the 1994 film--taking front and center stage in the opening episode when the fiendish vampire Lestat woos and eventually seduces the reluctantly lustful Louis. That seduction scene is, in fact, a highlight of the episode, the payoff of much cat-and-mouse, will-he-or-won't-he foreplay. Turns out, he will. Bums are bared, lips are locked, limbs are entangled, and the two opponents literally achieve liftoff as they are joined together in midair. It's an extremely erotic scene that I didn't expect to see on AMC, but bravo to them for having the cojones to go all the way (at least as all the way as they can go without drifting into NC-17 rated territory). Of course, Lestat can't resist giving Louis a little love nip in the jugular and things get rocky from there. I expect Interview With the Vampire is already causing a meltdown amongst homophobes and racists alike, both because of the m/m sexual hijinks (obviously) and because the character of Louis has been reconfigured for this series as an African-American man successfully (if none too ethically) making his way through life as a pimp in New Orleans circa 1910.
Well played by Jacob Anderson, Louis frequently takes a walk on the wild side, and being a well-educated, monied entrepreneur, he regularly enjoys advantages not afforded to many of the other residents in his community. Louis is also much more complex than the Louis once assayed by Brad Pitt (a plantation owner in the books and original movie). Here, he's less innocent but also--initially--less tormented, more aggravated and aggressive. And then Lestat comes along and changes everything.
Embodied by Australian blonde Sam Reid, the notorious vampire is every bit the rakishly dangerous, insatiably thirsty stud the books meant for him to be (which was not Tom Cruise). With his gorgeous features, faux French accent and devilish--almost coquettish--airs, Lestat gradually leads Louis (who is gullible but thinks he's worldly) into his eternal dance of life and death, and the whole episode ends in a bloodbath.
Yes, it's a gruesome ending to Episode One although I happened to see the last 10 minutes of The Walking Dead while waiting for this to start and good God almighty! The Walking Dead presented a Stormtrooper of some kind (I think. Maybe?) being pulled in one direction by his fellow soldiers while a horde of zombies pulled from the other direction, and you knew things weren't going to end well for the Stormtrooper. So, sure enough, the zombies somehow managed to tear open the guy's gut and started pulling out and munching on his intestines while he's still kicking and screaming, and I wonder aloud how this show has managed to stay on the air this long (11 years for crying out loud!). Full disclosure: I watched Episode One of The Walking Dead when it first aired in 2010. Once the zombies ate the sheriff's horse I realized that my viewing of a second episode was not in the cards.
It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown should also be airing sometime this month although it's probably one of my many favorite seasonal shows that's been hijacked by Disney, HBO Plus or Hulu. Since I already have Netflix, Prime, Peacock, Pluto and God knows what else, there's about as much chance of me adding another streaming service as me whipping up a nice Spinach Souffle for dinner. Which is nil, in case you haven't figured that out by now. Luckily, having anticipated such Grinchly grabbings from the pay-to-watch streamers, I have It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown on DVD, along with all the other Peanuts Gang holiday specials. So there.
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