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Mulholland Drivel and Zombie Sheep

Earlier this week, Jumi shared the awesomeness of the insane Carly Fiorina campaign video. Fiorina, as you may know, is the former CEO of HP; after getting fired very publicly from that gig, she decided that politics was the place for her, and is now running for … something in California. Frankly, even after having watched the entire four minutes of that video, I have no idea about anything other than the ZOMBIE LASER-EYED DEMON SHEEP that appears at the 2:26 mark of what had, to that point, been an amateurish but typical hit piece on the current holder of whatever seat is at issue. It’s absolutely terrifying, and comes completely out of nowhere, and colors the entire experience not only of the video, but of the entire slate of California politics. (You can see the demon sheep gif — meant to be, I think, her opponent in a laser-eyed sheep costume attempting to maybe burn holes in the consitituents — here, but be warned that it’s legitimately terrifying.)

And the sudden, horrifying appearance of zombie sheep got me thinking about my favorite movie that I don’t understand at all, Mulholland Drive. As this awesome screenshot recap points out, it had a fairly similar appearance with a fairly similar effect; after moving along in an almost-normal fashion (for a David Lynch movie), there’s the unforgettable appearance of the demon-monster-schizo-holy-whateverthefuck behind the dumpster at fake Denny’s, and in addition to making you (me) jump out of your couch in terror, it’s also the sort of thing that completely changes your experience of the rest of the movie, its presence indicating you’re in some sort of world that’s not quite right, and that even things like two gorgeous ladies making out are strange and sinister.

(Note: this post is not entirely just an excuse to post video of Laura Elena Harring and Naomi Watts making out, but that helped.)

That strange and sinister thing is what I most like about Lynch in general, but that also got me to thinking about movies that have kind of game-changing left turns like that. Not Sixth Sense, twist-ending style, but those that put you in a world and then pull the rug out from under you with something like a dumpster monster. This seems to be Lynch’s specialty, but aside from Donnie Darko (which is arguably totally abnormal from the outset) and, famously, Psycho, I couldn’t think of a whole lot of films that just switched everything. So I need your help, because I’m fond of movies like that, and would like to see more. (For the record, we’ve had Dead Again from Netflix for a very long time; I remember it being kind of similar but I haven’t seen it in a long, long time.) So, y’know, leave your awesome twisty movies in the comments, and I shall get to them. Just so there are no zombie sheep.

Speaking of things zombie-related, by the way, we hit up Donny Dirk’s Zombie Den the other night, and I would encourage all y’all in the 612 and environs to get there ASAP. Now that the initial surge of hipster interest has died down (or un-died down? ZING!) a bit, the fact is that an upscale-ish bar in the old Stand Up Frank’s location is going to struggle a bit to be a destination, and it shouldn’t, because it’s awesome. The cocktails aren’t going to make anyone forget Bradstreet or La Belle Vie, but they’re inventive enough, the Zombies (there’s a theme here) are strong and uniquely-mixed, and they’re now one of two bars I’ve seen in the northland that has Wray & Nephew overproof rum. (And Taylor’s Velvet Falernum!) That, and the atmosphere is pretty fantastic — it’s olde-tyme swank + attacked-by-the-undead chic, and who doesn’t like that?

So, y’know, go there after you tell me about movies, and possibly also after noon. To do otherwise would just be irresponsible.

¡Y ahora, feliz fin de semana!

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