I saw Tin Cup three times in the theater.

Good riddance. Blockbuster did for indie video stores what Borders did for indie book stores: they killed them. The top three rows of the main shelves were filled with copies of the same damned movie: wall-to-wall Armageddon, or whatever. Zero variety.

Hate when that happens….

Chome auto-corrects 'scientology' to 'Scientology.'

Have any exposes been written by people for whom being a narcissistic nutjob wasn't, basically, a preexisting condition?

I've always loved Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio's look of wonder in The Abyss. What really sells these effects are the actors selling the effects.

Good. TV needs more chain-smoking neurosurgeons.

Franchise? Why'd it have to be franchise?

That was over on Maple St.

"Ronnie Lane's Slim Chance" (1975)

Intrigued by the reviews, I bought Scott Walker's CD "The Drift", put on headphones and turned off the lights. Ten minutes later I ripped them off, seriously creeped and slightly dizzy. An wildly disturbing listening experience that I still haven't revisited.

No, you're absolutely correct.

Why you don't think it's found footage? The kid's an aspiring filmmaker shooting with a Canon DSLR, which gives "his" film it a more cinematic look…kind of a sly trick by Shyamalan to up the production values.
Or was it something else?

Think of it as an origin story for your hatred. (Actually, it's different enough that you might like it. Feels very much like a student film, but it's far more efficient than the feature, which I didn't entirely appreciate. A little of that kid goes a long way.)

"The Babadook" is the expanded version of a short film by the same director, and is still available on Vimeo. Worth a 10-minute look, if only to compare and contrast.

Hiddleston seems to be going for a Peter Cushing vibe, so that's encouraging.

See comment below.

I've been underwhelmed by Guillermo del Toro's later output…a little too Comic-Con for my taste.

I think "weird horror" needs its own sub-genre, much like "weird fiction" is used to describe the likes of HPL, Robert Aickman, etc.

It's not a bad movie; I'm just amazed it shot to the top of so many lists. Ti West…another one with a retro-bent…went on to make The Sacrament, which I thought was a lot more interesting than his earlier stuff. So I'm looking forward to whatever's next from Mitchell.