Spook du jour

The Merits of Sin…The Book

Spook du Jour alum and oddball cinema connoisseur Brennan Dortch has published his first book, which is a mighty doozy mind you, and so I figured it would behoove me to say a few words:

There’s a shit ton of heart and a severe lack of narrative control which is the perfect formula for bizarro goodness.

Okay, I may have stolen that entire line from Brennan Dortch’s review of ROAD MEAT, found on page *seven thousand and eighty-three of this very book, but the sentiment stands! Mr. Dortch is a bottle rocket with the stick ripped off who has seen every movie you haven’t and is here to tell you all about it!

In this ominous omnibus you will learn about such wild and inexplicable films as L.A. AIDS JABBER, DEMON COP, and VAMPIRE TIME TRAVELERS! You’ll scratch your head in wonder over GHOST OF GUTS EATER, ZUMA, MURHAPUKKI, and SAURIANS! Your idols will change from the Coen Brothers to the Polonia Brothers as you read through over 1000 reviews ranging from the Universal Monster films of yore, to South Asian strangeness, to regional horror from Ohio that you didn’t realize your uncle Pat was in.

The reviews in The Merits of Sin are written in such a way that the reader feels transported to a liminal space. If you don’t know what I mean, imagine walking into a empty laundromat at night. The author sets the stage with his words and lays it all out there very matter-of-factly, his wit blending seamlessly with the actual meat of the review, rather than distracting from it. And perhaps this is just my personal experience, but it feels like some dark magic is at play if I’m being completely honest. Nevertheless I’m still here and my life is wonderful so I’d say the book is mostly harmless.

One last thing though, and perhaps it a precautionary word of warning, I don’t know. This book took me out to dinner (Applebee’s), and even paid! Needless to say I put out. But the book never called back.

Get your copy right here if you hate Hitler.

-Elliot (ReelRat)

*according to amazon it’s actually only a whopping 477 pages long but I don’t believe it. This book is chunky.