Horror Films Of The 1970s, By John Kenneth Muir

By Less Lee Moore

As a film fan, I’m an unabashed lover of the 1970s. In the introduction to Horror Films of the 1970s, film and television critic John Kenneth Muir describes why in two words: “savage cinema.” There truly was something different about films of that decade, and horror films of the ’70s are no exception. In fact, sometimes lines between horror and non-horror were blurred so successfully that it’s difficult to define the exact genres of films like Deliverance or Straw Dogs, both of which are discussed in Muir’s book.

Part of what makes the “savage cinema” so unique and thrilling, claims Muir, is that it presented viewers with a universe in which there were no answers. Yet, he quotes documentary filmmaker Adam Simon, who says that horror can be “open to the traumas of the world” in a way which will “naturally convey truths.” This nexus between no answers and universal truths is precisely why horror films of the 1970s are so unique and so thrilling.

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Livide, A Film by Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo

By Less Lee Moore

It’s young Lucie’s first day as a trainee in-house caregiver. She visits Mrs Jessel, an old woman who lies in cerebral coma, by herself, in her large desolate house. Learning by accident that Mrs. Jessel, a former dance teacher of repute, supposedly possesses a treasure somewhere in the house, Lucie and friends William and Ben decide to search the house in the hope of finding it. At night, they get into the house, which reveals itself to be increasingly peculiar. Their hunt for Mrs. Jessel’s treasure leads them into a horrifying supernatural series of events that will change Lucy forever . . .

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Kevin Devine, Between the Concrete and Clouds

By Kai Shuart

Kevin Devine‘s first album on the Razor & Tie label, Between the Concrete and Clouds, is a good album to toast the waning days of summer. It’s full of reverbed electric guitars and jaunty melodies that seem very at home when played in the background of a barbecue, yet with enough melancholy to let listeners know that the bite of autumn air isn’t far off.
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Expo, 40 Sleeps

By Paul Casey

Full disclosure: John Lane and Christian Lipski are friends of mine. They have both written for this website. This is going to be a fair and biased review.

40 Sleeps is Expo‘s third album and follows the summertime joy of 2010’s She Sells Seashells with a mood far more in keeping with their debut, Playtime. “Dreaming of Bears” and its sleepy textures would have been particularly at home on that earlier album. Although things are on the downbeat, 40 Sleeps is not bleak or self-indulgent. The singer may be sad, but like Elvis Costello, is trying his darnedest to Get Happy!!!

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Beirut, The Rip Tide

By Chelsea Spear

Zach Condon, the jet-setting mayor of indie pop band Beirut, knows how to set a mood. Before listeners hear so much as a note of his latest album, The Rip Tide, the song titles suggest a travelogue instead of a mere collection of tunes. They are named for locations both exotic and quotidian; the ones that aren’t suggest a skyline broader than that of his Santa Fe home. Which journeys does Condon invite his listeners on with this album?
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