ericortiz.bsky.social

“I don't think that people accept the fact that life doesn't make sense. I think it makes people terribly uncomfortable.” David Lynch

The news about Erica Bauza is shocking and devastating. He was an artists' artist who truly cared about his craft and his peers. This is a tremendous loss to all those two whom he brought joy. My heart goes out to his family!

This REALLY wasn’t the news I wanted to see upon waking up today.

One cool thing about the Dead Meat Awards and Fangoria awards is that, even if I don’t agree with whatever wins, I wouldn’t argue against it either. I would personally pick Reflection In A Dead Diamond over Exit 8 and V/H/S/HALLOWEEN, but I’m not necessarily complaining that those won.

Personally, I would’ve went with Aunt Gladys from Weapons, but this is also a damn good kill. This particular category had some competition.

Happy Fangoria Chainsaw Awards to all who celebrate

I could imagine this could frighten some small children. Imagine being 5 years old and in the supermarket, looking for your favorite cereal, and you get faced with GIANT EYEBALL.

I think if you're a content creator who gets off on other content creators getting outed as being scumbags, you might have some skeletons in your closet, and thus are secretly happy it's not YOU that's been outed.

I actually voted for Tchotchke, but it was a tough decision between it and Closing Hour. More than happy to see the latter win. Hopefully Tim Smink and Co get more work from now on.

Listening to a podcast from 2016 and someone confidently said that they sold all of their DVDs because "it's all gonna be streaming somewhere forever." God we were so naive.

There’s no theater near me showing The Devils, so I won’t get to see what all the hype is for the time being. I don’t really know much about it. The most I know is that it’s directed by Ken Russell, the plot involves someone accused of partaking in satanism, and it’s NC-17.

New ranking out. letterboxd.com/eortizthe2nd...

Not sure if James left the two shorts with Richard Kind out of Fresh Meat because he felt it would be distracting to have such a notable name along other shorts with unknowns. Then again, the wraparound DID have Rich Sommer of Mad Men fame.

Such a fun time, that livestream. Will rank all the shorts later.

The Last Cheap House: Solid, if standard found footage. I think the leads have charming chemistry, which makes it hit harder when you know they won’t make it.

MY NAME IS JOHN: I did not expect THAT aspect of the titular John. I guess it does foreshadow the shapeshifting creature. Great performances from both actors as the mimic and the people.

His Date: Love this one. Great performances all around, and how nightmarish it gets as it reveals more of Thomas’ past misdeeds.

NOISE: Quite effective in the subtle scares department. That voice is pretty freaky, with it just mindlessly repeating lines. Chilling there.

H.A.G.S: Some funny lines and a couple kills, and I really like the twist. A bit too comedic for my taste, though. Could see others enjoying this more than me.

Blister: A pretty disturbing ending and some haunting visuals. Those faces on the wall will stick with me.

Hillcrest: Quite long in the tooth, but there are some really good effects, and I like how nightmarish it is. Could see why James left it out, though, as it has some similarities to Tchotchke.

Curiosity: Didn’t feel this short, until it turned into a PSA on internet privacy. That twist got me there.

Lights Camera Carnage: Not all the humor works (Somebody literally says “Well that just happened“ at one point) and that last death kinda came out of nowhere, but this was pretty fun. Some gnarly gore. Would make for a really fun feature.

Next one is Lights Camera Carnage, which is a short I was bummed to see left out of the film, as it looked like such fun. Happy to see it now.

Apartment 2L: Don’t really like this one. It feels underdeveloped. Has she been doing this before? If so, how has she not been caught?

Indian In A Box: Quite tense, with a bit of black humor in the otherwise very bleak ending.

Missoula: Love the atmosphere in this one. Can’t go wrong with a fog machine. Really like to see this expanded to a feature.

I Spy: Got pretty tense before the end. The cheap visuals there ruined it for me.

And after a hiccup, we have official started!

This is gonna be a liveblog of the Fresh Meat livestream from now on. If you’re interested in that, hang tight.

Has there ever been anyone as seated for something as I am right now? Probably. But I don‘t care.

i think if you take the internet seriously you will make yourself both miserable and delusional at the same time. some of you weirdos have such a crazy skewed view of Real Problems

Haven’t fully caught up with The Creep Tapes as of yet, but that episode with Greg disturbed me more than any prior episode. Just the idea of a murderous psychopath residing completely unnoticed in your living space for only he knows how long. Makes you want to keep a knife around.

My Letterboxd ranking of all the Fresh Meat segments. letterboxd.com/eortizthe2nd...

Virtue signaling is good*, actually, because it signals an endorsement of virtues. Given the tremendous right-wing effort to signal and perform vice (televised executions, racist politicized raids, denigration of empathy, etc.) turns out we cannot actually take "lip service to virtue" for granted.

SPOILERS FOR JINX (FRESH MEAT) Having just seen the segment in particular, I'd say it even ends sorta like that sketch. Wonder if Ian and Anthony would consider suing.

Going home from Fresh Meat. Not all the shorts worked for me, but overall, it was a quality bunch. I'd say my favorite is Tchotke, with Closing Hour being a close second. Really, it's neck-and-neck there.