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Hey all! Recently I went to catch Midsommar in theaters, and let me tell you: that was some wild stuff. I was sold on seeing this movie the moment I saw articles surfacing that Hereditary director Ari Aster had a follow-up planned. I'm still not over Hereditary and I don't know if I will be. It's bold, harsh, and tense, and I love it. Midsommar gives us similar elements, served on a very different plate.
But would a horror or suspense film be complete without one? Mostly, it's Aster's depiction of grief in this film that I am impressed by. The depictions in Hereditary are drawn from similar traumas (which may or may not have been intentional?), but they're drawn out by very different means. No demons haunt us in Midsommar; not literal ones, at least. Dani is doing her best to move past her grief and use this trip to Sweden as a way to enjoy herself and get away from everything that reminds her of what happened. But it slowly becomes harder than she expected.
The music is another thing I loved about this film. Like that in The Witch, this score consisted of ritualistic chants and string-fueled orchestras. I thought that was haunting in itself, instilling dread in the audience early on. And accompanied with the visuals, where we do see folks playing music in the fields and dancing merrily, just the thought that danger lies in plain sight makes it all the more effective. What it might suffer from to some is originality; we've seen films about cults and rituals in far-off villages. We've seen questionable practices amongst off-the-grid groups on-screen (The Wicker Man, Cannibal Holocaust, The Green Inferno, The Ritual, etc.). But Aster's attention to detail and incorporation of lore and excellent, memorable visuals set this film apart from the others. Can you say: Bear in a Cage? I really enjoyed Midsommar. I wouldn't say it's better than Hereditary, but it's strange, it's brutal at times, and it's definitely in-your-face, for reasons I won't disclose due to spoilers. All I'll say is: body diversity! Inclusion! But through its violence and thick tension, it has some strangely uplifting moments that leave you thinking after the credits roll. I'm looking forward to seeing more from Ari Aster. I think he's proving himself to be one of the finest directors of recent years. Did you see Midsommar? What did you think? Let me know in the comments! - Ryan Buy Haunt here. Preview my books here. Find me on social here.
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Hey All! After being away for travel reasons, I'm back! Hope you didn't miss me too much. And I'm sure that in the meantime, you all curled up with your copies of Haunt to hold yourselves over. I finally got my blu-ray copy of Never Hike Alone: A Friday the 13th Fan Film after donating to Womp Stomp Films' campaign to fund their fan packages for the film. I'd heard nothing but great things about their fan film, and while it is available to watch for free on YouTube, I waited until my physical copy came in, because, why would I make things simple for myself? Check out my review of Never Hike Alone below!
all the obvious signs of danger that throw themselves his way. But his background as an experienced hiker lends to his survival skills, as well as his responsiveness to scary situations. I thought that was perfect writing for a character with limited story. That's not to say that there are no cheesy moments; we often see him trip over things, and some of the interactions between him and the looming Jason Voorhees get pretty... campy (I'm so sorry, but that needed to be said).
Now, Never Hike Alone is a simple movie. It's short, sweet, and gets to the point. It isn't a full-length feature film, after all. But everything it packs within its short 54 min runtime is everything one could hope for in a fan film. And it's clear that those behind the scenes are dedicated Friday the 13th fans. I'm glad a film like this has gained the traction that it has, and it only makes me more excited to check out the fan projects that follow in its footsteps. It's certainly better than a number of films from the original franchise! Never Hike Alone is fun, intense, and refreshing. It's certainly worth a watch. Have you seen Never Hike Alone? What did you think? What are some other horror fan films that I should check out? Leave a comment below. Let's discuss! - Ryan Buy Haunt here. Preview my books here. Find me on social here. Hi All, I'm so excited to write about this open stage event now that I have content for the blog. As nervous as I was, the first 'Trail Mix' event of the summer at Norwalk, CT's Troupe429 was a wild ride. So many amazing queer performers took to the stage. Poets, singers, dancers, comedians, and of course, drag. Can't go wrong! I can't stress enough how much I loved being able to go down to that bar for the first time. It's vibrant, welcoming, and inclusive, and I need to find a time to go back. I read two poems from my book, "Occasionally, the Moon," and "We Fear the Worst." I wanted to read some less-spooky pieces, given the atmosphere and energy that a beginning-of-Pride-Month event has. And I included two new poems, so if you were at the event, you got to hear some never-before-heard pieces of mine! It was definitely exciting to reveal those. That got me even more excited for what the future holds for my writing career. I'll include some pictures below, of me reading and attempting to pose with Troupe429's awesome backdrop. Thanks to my friends who provided them! Photo credits and a bonus video can be found at my Instagram page here. Thanks again to my friends Sienna Rose and Robin Fierce from Troupe429 for having me! Hit the links on their names to give them some social media love, and check out Troupe429's website here, for more info and to check out their plethora of upcoming events. Don't miss out!
- Ryan Buy Haunt here. Preview my books here. Find me on social here. Hello all! I've kind of messed up my blog posting schedule, but I had something in the works that I was waiting to post, and now I'm able to post about it! I'm excited to announce that I'll be reading some poems at Troupe429 in Norwalk, CT for the open stage at their Trail Mix Thursdays on Thursday, June 6! I'm also excited to be included in this because it's one of the kick-off events for the venue's Pride Month celebrations. There are going to be some other amazing and talented people performing, so don't miss out! And a huge thank you to Troupe429, as well as our hosts for the night, Sienna Rose and Robin Fierce! I'll be reading a few from Haunt (some of the less-spooky ones, of course), as well as some new poems. Whatever I can cram into my time limit! Come celebrate pride with us! Check out some of the other performers--they're tagged in one of my recent Instagram posts, here. And check out some more of Troupe429's events here! Extra info about them below.  Troupe429: LGBTQ Bar & Performance Space
3 Wall Street | Norwalk | CT | 06850 Open every day for Happy Hour at 6PM! Troupe429 is home to the most Smirnoff flavors in the world + N64 Mario Kart races + 29 disco balls! Hope to see you there! -Ryan Buy Haunt here. Preview my books here. Find me on social here. Another late Nothing Peak blog post! What's wrong with me? I had some other poetry-related efforts to attend to, but I'm back, and in anticipation of the IT: Chapter Two trailer dropping this week, I thought I'd share some of the other upcoming horror movies in 2019 that I'm most excited for.
Are you also looking forward to any of these upcoming films? Which ones, and why? Are there any that you're excited for that I didn't mention in this list? Let me know in the comments. I want to hear what you can't wait for! (note: all images in this blog post are from imdb.com)
Until next time! -Ryan Buy Haunt here. Preview my books here. Find me on social here. National Poetry Month is going strong, and I still see posts about it from certain friends/social media outlets. That's so exciting! It gets me excited to see folks out there talking about poetry. So for my next blog post this month, I thought I'd continue my Haunt fun facts, as I've gotten some more topics and questions to address!
So there you have it! More fun facts and discussions around my first book, Haunt. Available on Amazon! I hope you enjoyed reading these as much as I enjoyed writing them. Don't hesitate to ask me more questions for me to answer in future blog posts! Enjoy the rest of National Poetry Month. And also enjoy the rest of Earth Week! Plus, we've got National Park Week starting tomorrow. You'll have to check in on my social media to learn more!
-Ryan Buy Haunt here. Preview my books here. Find me on social here. I hope no one thought I wasn’t going to do something fun for National Poetry Month! For this month’s blog posts, I wanted to share some Haunt-related things, so here are some fun facts relating to my first book of poetry, which you should (shameless yet blunt self-promotion incoming) definitely check out if you haven’t already.
I hope you enjoyed these behind-the-scenes glances at the making of Haunt. And anyone who knows me knows I’ll talk about this book for hours! Do you have any more questions I should answer, or ideas I should discuss in the next Nothing Peak blog post for National Poetry Month? Let me know in the comments! -Ryan Buy Haunt here. Preview my books here. Find me on social here. Hi All, In honor of yesterday being World Poetry Day, I thought I'd share another one of my favorite poems from Haunt! Check it out below, as well as here, with another sample poem from the book. Thanks, as always, for supporting poets and poetry! It's so exciting when the internet is taken over with everyone sharing their love of poetry. Enjoy!   http://monstermania.net/ Hey all! Thanks for being patient with this blog entry--I attended Monster-Mania Con's 42nd show in Cherry Hill, NJ this past Saturday, and I wanted to share my experience with all you horror hounds and readers! Before I start, I'd like to thank everyone who participated in my Haunt anniversary giveaway. I'm so grateful that so many of you entered! Just about all of the winners have been contacted and some have even received their copies of the book. I appreciate all the support, as always, and a huge thanks for making the first year of Haunt such a great one. I've attended Monster-Mania for a few years now; these shows (along with the always awesome Connecticut HorrorFest) allow horror fans (and, sometimes, wrestling fans?) to meet their favorite icons of the genre. I've met Kyra Schon, Ally Sheedy, Tony Todd, Sean Astin, John Carpenter, Robert Englund, and more. So many of these folks have inspired me to do what I do, and getting the chance to meet them puts the icing on the cake! So when I learned that Christina Ricci, one of my favorites growing up, was going to be attending this year, I HAD to go. And so I did, with my Casper blu-ray in tow. The people I met at Monster-Mania 42 were: Danielle Harris, Christina Ricci, James Jude Courtney, Dylan McDermott, and Will Sandin. More guests were in attendance that weekend, including Dolph Lundgren, Meatloaf, Jibrail Nantambu, Nick Castle, Sandy Johnson, Mickey Yablans, Tommy Flanagan, CJ Graham, Kane, Phil Fondacaro, and Jen and Sylvia Soska. The heavy-hitter? The 4 main leads of The Craft, Neve Campbell, Fairuza Balk, Robin Tunney, and Rachel True, came to this convention for their first time together since 1996! I would definitely have loved to meet all of them, if I'd had more time. But it's great to see that the fanbase of the film is still stronger than ever, even with the amount of Scream fans that I'm sure made up a lot of the crowd for Campbell. Starting from the beginning of the day, we'd checked out Ricci's line before anything else. She wasn't to arrive until 12, so her line wasn't crazy long yet. We decided to go to the main signing room and meet who we could until we headed back up to wait to meet her. Danielle Harris was first; I had her sign my blu-ray edition of Rob Zombie's Halloween, one of my favorites in the franchise. Harris was so sweet, and when she checked to see if she looked good in our picture together, I exclaimed, "Oh, we know you look good. We gotta make sure I do!" We shared a laugh. Next, we headed to Dylan McDermott's table, while the line was temporarily down to one person. Like Harris and Ricci, he seems to never age, and looks even better in person. Plus, he's a Connecticut native, so we chatted with him about that. I'd forgotten my American Horror Story: Murder House DVD, so I had him sign a headshot he had at his table. He was very nice, but I don't think I'd ever really expected him not to be. Christina Ricci's line had certainly increased by the time we went back up to her section. We waited about 2-3 hours for her, though, which was not nearly as bad as I'd anticipated. Robert Englund, who had been stationed in the same place at the convention a few years back, had a line that kept us waiting for nearly 6 hours. Call us crazy. Nope, that's it--no "but..." Just call us crazy, because that was crazy. Anyway, I noticed I was pretty much the only person to bring something Casper-related to have Ricci sign; even the woman at her table agreed. What can I say--I watched that movie a ton of times as a kid, along with the sequel, and maybe even Casper Meets Wendy a good amount of times. I told Ricci I loved her in Wes Craven's Cursed, by which she seemed taken aback. I don't blame her; it's not a great movie by any means. But I found it fun, and it was cool at the time to see her returning to campy horror. She was sweet and thanked me anyway. More after the jump--check out my gallery of photos from the event! We continued on, heading to the Halloween/Dolph Lundgren/Meatloaf room. Yep, you heard that right. Meatloaf's was one of the longest lines at the con, and although I found it questionable, I still would have gotten him to sign something Rocky Horror-related if I had the opportunity. But we were there for our Halloween peeps. James Jude Courtney was having a blast, as it was his first appearance at an event like this on the east coast. He told us what it'd felt like to put the Myers mask on for the first time, which was a great to hear about. I also met Will Sandin, who played Michael Myers at age 6 in the Carpenter classic. He told me a bit about his short time on set and was pleasant to talk to. His signature was added to my Halloween DVD, which you can see in the gallery above. I also list the other signatures on the insert.
Lastly, we hit the vendor tables to check out the cool merch. I bought a book by Brian Coscienski and Chris Pisano titled The Shattered Visage Lies, which looks like a great read. We shared information about our respective books, and they seemed excited about Haunt. I also geeked out at the Grey Matter Art table; I have two of their pieces in my room. Their art is always breathtaking. Next to them was a table with art by Chris Gofalo of Quiltface Studios. The moment I saw his The Witch piece, I knew I had to have it. I look forward to framing and hanging it! Overall, the show was a success for me. The day ran smoothly, and I met everyone I really wanted to meet. I look forward to next time! Thanks again, Monster-Mania, for doing such a great job! Was anyone else at Monster-Mania? Who did you get to meet? Tell me in the comments! - Ryan Buy Haunt here. Preview my books here. Find me on social here.  Hi All! I wanted to dedicate this week's blog post to my social media Haunt giveaway that is currently live! You have until March 1 to enter. Head to my Facebook and Instagram and find the giveaway post (image below). On Facebook, share the post with the hashtag #NothingPeak to enter, and on Instagram, re-post with the same hashtag. Easy! 2 winners from Facebook and 3 from Instagram will be announced on March 2. Thanks for all of your support in making the first year of Haunt a great one! More writing is in the works. Stay tuned. In the meantime, enter the giveaway for a free book! Links to my social media can be found on my Contact page here on the Nothing Peak site. -Ryan Buy Haunt here. Preview my books here. Find me on social here.  Remember--you need to share/re-post the image on my social pages! Uploading it yourself and tagging me won't count. Good luck! |
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