A Horrible Way to Die is a peculiar horror film, a rarity that focuses on story and character and saves the gory stuff for later. It’s a film that plunges into the human soul, examining how far someone will go to face their fears, regardless of which side of the blade they’re on. It’s moody without being tense; vicious without being threatening. It’s cold and unapologetic, yet a beautiful entity to behold. It may not frighten you right away, but you’ll feel its prickly claws in you long after it’s over.

So, this was pretty awesome. I’ve been on the lookout for these two films for a few years, hoping they’d pop up at Movie Trading Company due to my much-too-high-pride to simply order them from Amazon.

Go figure: days after seeing Cyrus, the latest offering from the Duplass Brothers (who wrote and directed The Puffy Chair) and listening to a rather inspiring podcast containing their divulgence of their writing process and dissection of the “mumblecore” movement they sparked with Joe Swanberg (co-writer/co-director of Nights and Weekends), I happen to stumble into a used CD store on a whim and find, not one, but BOTH movies just perched on the shelf.

I think it’s a sign that I’m supposed to make movies. I’m gonna go make a movie now :)