The Greatest Movie Never Made

For almost two years I've written about arts and entertainment on this blog. I never write about myself, though I have strong opinions about everything. This post is an exception.

Concurrently with my daily job as a journalist I've created something that fits into both categories of arts and entertainment. I've written a screenplay for an American film called 'Kill Sweet Melody'.

It's a thriller about a young sect member talked into killing a girl said to be the devil.


Will Evans lives in a small and poorly furnished apartment in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He is a member of the Principles of the Father church, which is run by Janet Bellman.

Janet tells Will about a 6-year-old girl who apparently possesses evil powers. She strongly believes that the girl is the devil, and the devil must be stopped at all costs.

She talks Will into murdering the child in order to prevent her from gaining powers and ultimately taking control over the town.

He tricks the girl's mother to let him into their apartment, but just as Will is about to cut the girl's throat, he's knocked out with a frying pan. The mother and daughter escapes.

Will sets after them, only to find himself struggling with his faith in God and the fact that he's sent out to kill a sweet little girl named Melody.

'Kill Sweet Melody' is still unproduced so don't expect to see it in a theatre soon.

However, the synopsis for the film is online, and if you want to see it produced, please join the page on Facebook. This way I can tell Hollywood that my film is the greatest movie yet to be produced.

Thank you for your support. I appreciate it.

Got a Valium too Many?

I'm sitting in the dark theater. On the big screen a young lady stands quietly in the kitchen of a fairly large summer home. She's calm, a little nervous, but calm, but not the girl in the seat next to me.

She screams. LOUD!

I realize that a blurry figure with a bag over his head has appeared in the background.

The lady on the screen is actress Liv Tyler as Kristen McKay, and she doesn't know she's being watched. The movie is called 'The Strangers'.


I've seen quite many slasher movies over the time. All the classics, 'Friday the 13th', 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre', 'Saw'. Also a considerable amount of horror movies, 'The Omen', 'The Exorsist', 'The Ring', and so on. None of these films are as scary and suspenseful as the slasher film 'The Strangers'.

The story is simple and almost a cliché: A young couple, Kristen McKay and James Hoyt, return from a wedding to a remote summer home, and unexpectedly it knocks on the door. The outline of a young woman asks if Tamara is home. Wrong house, sorry. Then the nightmare begins.

James leaves the house to get cigarettes, and it knocks on the door again... and again... then on the windows and the roof.

Kristen tries to call for help, but the cell disappears and the land line ends mysteriously up in the burning fireplace. Someone is in the house, and Kristen doesn't know it.

The ending has been extensively critized by many, but it actually sums up the beginning and beautifully closes the drama about Kristen not wanting to marry James.

I've never heard so many screaming moviegoers before. Not because of the gore - there is hardly any blood in the movie - but because of director Bryan Bertino's perfectly orchestrated suspense.

The three masked intruders aren't much on the screen either. What scares the audience is that we don't know what's gonna happen, nor when something happens. Also the extreme close-ups and hand-held cameras add to the effect.

However, it is a low-budget movie, and it shows from time to time. The antagonists are human, but they silently and almost ghostly move around in the house and unlock doors from the outside.

The film has cost only $9m, and it features as few as eight actors with the dazzling Liv Tyler as the main character.

Nonetheless, 'The Strangers' may one day be recognized with some of the genre's best films along with 'Psycho', 'Halloween' and 'The Shining'.

If you have a Valium too many and like to challenge a few nights of sleep, don't miss 'The Strangers'.

Fit for Ear Consumption

'Not Fit for Human Consumption' is the new album from Ant Neely. You may never have heard of him, he was all new to me too.

His music, however, may have crossed your ear. As part of his band, Subthunk, he's been heard on TV series such as 'Boston Legal', 'Samantha Who' and 'Six Feet Under'. 'Not Fit for Human Consumption' is the first album released under his own name, and it's a marvelous piece.

Listening to the album you get a sense of Neely's history in making music for film and TV. The twelve tracks could easily make up the soundtrack of a film.

The album itself is retrospective with straight lines back to Bingoboys from the early nineties, the Drum & Bass genre from the mid-nineties and Moby from the late nineties.

What's most significant about Neely is his use of groovy beats. Whether it's the electro pop song 'Lucky', the jazzy 'What's This Country Needs' or the fast title song 'Not Fit for Human Consumption', the groove is the foundation of which the rest of the tune is build on.

Not two tracks on the album are similar. A real vocal on one, a sample of a weather report on another, and a distorted guitar on a third.

Though a major part of the instruments and vocals are sampled, you can hear that Neely is an experienced instrumentalist, and this is exactly what makes this album stand out.

It's even better that you can download it for free from Neely's website. The album is released under a Creative Commons and if you like it, you can pay whatever you find reasonable. If not, just trash it.

Enjoy!

'Shake that Pig Right Out of Me'

As with anyone else, I happen to stumble upon new and unheard music. This happened today when I listened to All Songs Considered on NPR.

Antony and the Johnsons was featured on the show, and though the band has been around for several years now, it was all new to me.

One song in particular caught my attention.

'Shake That Devil' is a strange melodic song with an avant-garde instrumental arrangement. Lead vocalist Antony Hegarty sings with his mellow, almost female voice a poetic and somewhat naive text, which consistently reminds me of an old girlfriend.

That pig took everything i had
That pig made me feel so bad
Shake that pig out of the bush, now lets give that pig a push

The song starts off slowly with Antony's vocal and a monotone guitar, which becomes more and more distorted as the song progresses. Halfway a simple but effectful drum beat comes in, and the lyrics repeats from the top. Finally, a saxophone bursts out and pokes to my hate against my ex-girlfriend.

It's fabulous!

To me, Antony and the Johnsons is the most innovative music act for a long time, and I can't wait to hear more. I've even tried to pigeonhole it as pop, jazz and avant-garde, but I can't fit it into either of those genres.

The piece 'Shake That Devil' is a track on the 'Another World' EP, and you might want to have a listen yourself. The song is featured on NPR.org, just scroll down a little and you'll find a link to the song introduced by host Bob Boilen.

Enjoy!