Pathetically Late Halloween Illustration

Halloween is my favourite holiday. Monsters are at loose, and there is magic in the air. Everyone on the street is giddy happy and everyone dresses interestingly. And I fit right in without a costume. So please understand that I missed my Halloween posting. I was busy out and about. And with all the excitement surrounding our fellow Americans' (yup, a week before, I would've never said 'our fellow Americans', but now, things have changed. You boys and girls are A-alright!) new president.

This horribly late Halloween illustration was going to be a promo, but that's not going to happen anymore. So just look at it late, and think back to this year's yet-another awesome Halloween.
If you saw the movie 'Ringu', you'd totally recognize this image (or American or Korean re-make of it). Ahhh.... the Ringu.... Brings me back some old memories. 10 years ago, I saw this Korean movie called 'Ring Virus'. I thought it was weirdly well made for a Korean movie. I know, nowadays, Korean movies are innovative and awesome. But back then... they still sucked. Then I got to read the novel 'Ringu', which 'Ring Virus' was based on. It was one of the scariest books I've ever read. And I found out that there is a Japanese version of the movie. God, I hunted. Hunted hard for that movie. Finally, I got this battered up copy of a VIDEO TAPE. Um, Ringu is about a ghost that kills people through old video tape. So you can imagine my terror as I popped that baby into VCR.
...Remember, by this time, I saw the Korean version of the movie and also read the book. But this Japanese 'Ringu' movie was a different beast all together. Subtle, subdued, scratched quality... with haunting sound effects... Story-wise, it was better than the book. The awkward hermaphrodite story was cut and Cthulhu mythos was thrown in... By the end of the movie, I was uneasy thinking, I'd get a phone call from the ghost like the other characters in the movie.
Anyways... this movie started all those trends that still exist in horror movies now: the creepy little girl, industrial sounds, numbing silence, creepily moving ghosts... If you watch Ringu now, you might not find it remarkable because you are so used to above over-used homage to Ringu. But back then.... Eeeeeek, scary!!! There simply were no other movies like that before. Ah... I have such a soft spot for Ringu.
Speaking of horror movies... Every once in a while, you stumble upon a luck of catching a brilliant film on a big screen. To celebrate Halloween, I went to see 'Let the Right One In' at Scotiabank Theatre. Yeah, I consider myself lucky seeing this film. Go watch it!What a beautiful piece of ice cake! It looked like a Sigur Ros music videos. Desolate and bleak sceneries, but also heart breaking beauty everywhere... This movie has everything. Love, death, vampires (!!!), spontaneous combustion, gore, acid burn, comedy (although.. I was the only one laughing in the theatre... Me no Engrish), heart breaking sadness... but does it all with such style and control. Um, yeah, like other vampire movies... this one also makes rules about what kills vampires (going into someone's house uninvited, in this case). But you can easily forget about that. And if you are not a vampire buff, you don't really care.
Hm, I should talk about the plot a little but I don't want to spoil it for you. Oskar, a bullied loner boy (who's really smart, so has harder time fitting in) falls in love with a strange girl next door, who lives with an old man. Yup, the girl is a vampire. That's all I'm going to tell you. There is a talk that it's going to be remade in Hollywood. So go watch it before it gets butchered!