Circle of life

Sean took this photo the other day in our backyard. This cool speckled spider (sorry, I'm not so up on my bug and arachnid nomenclature) appeared to be having an intense, intimate tete a tete with a tiny bee; since the bee's head looked like it was in the spider's mouth, however, I suspect there may have been some bloodsucking involved.

Speaking of blood, I saw a couple of real gorefests this weekend. Saturday night, Sean, Curtis, Howard and I caught The Descent at the local multiplex. "Hot chicks in caves!" promised the MovieFone website, which wasn't quite true; it was more "attractive and competent young women in caves," which turned out to be more interesting. Gallons and gallons of blood were used in the making of this film, but the most effective parts were the straightforward spelunking sequences. I don't remember the last time I felt so claustrophobic and squirmy while watching a film. Once the carnage began I was able to relax and enjoy myself. I heard the ending was made "more upbeat" for the American market, but this flick hardly ends on a high note; I wonder what was changed?

Yesterday Howard and I watched the recent remake of The Hills Have Eyes as part of the 2006 Cavalcade of Filmic Horrors. Five or six years ago I started my own private horror film series that runs August through October, ostensibly to get myself in the mood for Halloween -- though truth be told, I am always in the mood for Halloween -- and this is the third year that Howard has joined me and helped with the programming. Here is our tentative schedule:

Day of the Dead
Carrie
The Hills Have Eyes (remake)
at least one David Cronenberg film (early)
a Japanese horror film
Pulse
Vampire Lovers
The Body Snatcher
Straitjacket
Eraserhead
"Masters of Horror" series
Don't Look Now
The Hidden
Black Christmas
a British horror film - 50s or 60s
a haunted house film - like Burnt Offerings
Re-Animator

Howard came up with some additional suggestions that sound excellent, including I Was a Teenage Werewolf, Burn, Witch, Burn! and a double feature of White Zombie and I Walked with a Zombie. Clearly, our tastes are all over the place and we have no standards. So far we've knocked out Carrie and The Hills Have Eyes, and we're planning to see Pulse on Friday, so the Cavalcade is well under way.