Plague of Strength

For those of you who are unaware, The Devil’s Rejects has been one of my favorite movies since it dropped.  From the “I am the Devil, and I’m here to do the Devil’s work” line to Sheri Moon Zombie looking ridiculously hot in ripped up jeans to Bill Mosely’s insanely brutal portrayal of a cop driven to the brink of insanity by a foe more evil than he could conceive, The Devil’s Rejects has it all.  If you’ve not seen it, it’s basically Natural Born Killers with far more brutality, less weirdness, and a much, much hotter lead actress.  Given my predisposition to liking movies of that ilk, I decided to make a list of films, books, and bands that would be appreciated by people who share my appreciation for that film- in other words, for people who want it filthy, sexual, and violent.  With that, here’s a list of movies, books, and albums that have fit that bill in recent months.

Movies

Avenged– This is probably one of the coolest movies I’ve ever seen, and was life-affirming in the same way The Woman was- it pointed out the hypocrisy of “civilized” people and illustrated the nobility of “savages”.  Basically a mashup of The Crow and Last House on the Left, it’s about a deaf woman who is raped and killed while traveling cross country to live with her fiancée and is then resurrected by an Indian shaman and has to kill everyone before she rots to bits.  It’s so brutal maggots actually fly off her as she beats the brakes off of a pack of white trash hell bent on killing Indians for no good reason.  Yeah, it’s that awesome.  In the meantime, her fiancée is trying to murder rednecks and while he fails miserably, murders abound.

Rites of Passage– Christian Slater and Stephen Dorff in a movie in which everyone is whacked out of their head on Indian drugs or meth, Christian Slater has a sock puppet friend who talks to him, and titties abound.  Something of a whodoneit, it’s a bit of a slasher flick, a bit of a stoner flick, and a bit of a mystery.  Plus, with Christian Slater as a meth-addicted greenhouse keeper hellbent on revenge against a college-girl drunk driver as the side story, you really can’t go wrong.  Not the greatest movie in history, but certainly an awesome way to spend a slightly drunken evening watching A minus to B grade horror films.

ABCs of Death 2– If you enjoyed any of the V/H/S movies or if you’re a fan of short story books like Steven King’s amazing Night Shift and Skeleton Crew, you will love this film.  Comprised of 26 short films, each film is associated with a letter and conveys a different message.  The best of the bunch are certainly D is for Deloused (a truly disturbing stop-motion short film that has inspired me to get a tattoo of the line “You pay for life” somewhere on me this year), X is for Xylophone (starring the awesome Beatrice Dalle from Inside and featuring some awesome gore effects), and then the best part of the entire film, Z is for Zygote, which is perhaps one of the most fucked up things I’ve seen in the last year.  Even if you watch nothing else in this movie, check out Deloused and Zygote.  You can skip P is for P-P-P-P SCARY!, which is utter dogshit (if not still a bit disturbing), and cartoonist Bill Plympton’s utter work of trash, H is for Head Games.  Beyond those two, though, everything else ranges from entertaining to fucking awesome.

Inside– Without question, the most brutal movie I’ve seen in the last few years.  Inside’s plot is essentially this- a woman who is scheduled to give birth on Christmas Day, whose husband died in a horrific car accident, is stalked and attacked repeatedly by a female assailant in her home.  The gore is off the charts and none of it is CGI- it’s good, old fashioned gore effects.  I won’t give away the ending, but you literally cannot conceive of the brutality of this movie, and the opening credits wherein it’s nothing but oozing, pooling blood pretty much sums up the movie.  I honestly cannot recommend this movie enough if you like gore and psychological horror.

Wyrmwood– If there was ever a unique zombie film, this is it.  Not only do the protagonists in the movie have the sense to armor up, which in and of itself makes the movie worth watching, but there are a number of unique twists in this movie that make it worth a watch.  Telepathy, zombie-breath-run vehicles, and armor-clad Kiwis make this movie fucking amazing.

Nasty– Shokka.  I’ve loved Nasty for years, and they keep getting better.  German beatdown hardcore with a groove.  What more can you ask for?  And if you don’t know of Nasty- check out their last album as well- “Love”.  The tracks “My Brain Went Terribly Wrong” and “Look at Me, and Fuck You” are amazing.  Shokka picks up where that album left off, and Nasty just keeps getting harder and … nastier.

Rise of the North Star is an awesome throwback to the mid 90s rapcore scene, with a bunch of weird Japanophile nonsense thrown on top for good measure.  Surprisingly, they’re a Parisian band, making them the hardest thing to come out of France since Clovis and the Franks won the battle of Tours.  Even if you don’t like rapcore, think of a harder version of E-Town Concrete but more fun.

Books

Monster Hunter Nemesis– Larry Correia  I’ve mentioned this series on numerous occasions, and with the exception of one installment, it has never failed to entertain.  This one, however, is even harder than the rest.  More blood, more gore, more fighting, and weirder monsters.  Well worth the $8.  Seriously, pick this up.

Muscle, Smoke and Mirrors Part I– Randy Roach  This is the single greatest resource on the history of strength training and bodybuilding I’ve ever found.  Combined with the Super-Athletes, you literally don’t need another book on the subject of physical culture if you want information on any facet of it- from training methods to diet to overall culture, this has it all.  Additionally, it chronicles the feuds within bodybuilding, the feud between bodybuilding and Olympic weightlifting, and the rise of powerlifting.  Expensive, but well worth the price.

Better Nutrition– Bob Hoffman Although it’s about as archaic as the Gutenberg printing press it’s old enough to have been printed upon, it’s an important look into the history of bodybuilding and strength training nutrition.  Written by the godfather of American Olympic weightlifting, this was a pioneering work in nutrition at the time it was written.  Hoffman was the first lifter to really espouse a high protein diet, though he also suggested that lifters should eat soy in large amounts, and he really seemed to be prescient about where bodybuilding and strength training nutrition would go in the future.

So, there you go- a little something to keep you entertained while I figure out how to write again.  If you’re curious, the things I’m reading now are The Rise of Superman by Kotler, which is about managing flow to become a better athlete, Machine Man, which is a book on transhumanism that I’m rereading for that series, and the Crossed graphic novel, which is an ultra-violent and sexual comic about an apocalypse in which people contract a disease that puts a crucifix on their face, then makes them feral, hypersexual killing machines.  All three are awesome, if you’ve interest in things other than what I listed above.