See:

Last week, scrolling through Netflix options, I happened upon Stonehearst Asylum, a 2014 film inspired by an Edgar Allan Poe story. The original story was The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether.

At the risk of losing both goth points and lit geek cred, I’d never read that story. Clearly I had to look it up. If you’ve ever tried to read Poe’s complete works, you’ll know he actually wrote a fair number of comedic stories, and while Poe’s horror is still chilling today, most of his comedy falls pretty flat. This story isn’t that funny either, but it’s got a nice edge to it. The hapless narrator is visiting an asylum known for its humane “soothing system” of treatment and slowly realizes the inmates have taken over the place. You can read it online for free if you want.

Stonehearst Asylum takes that basic premise and turns it into a lovely gothic thriller and a touching commentary on mental illness then and now. It’s nicely shot and well-acted–how could it not be, with Kate Beckinsale, Ben Kingsley and Michael Caine in it? And while I didn’t find it scary I got quite involved with the characters and the plot had a couple of nice twists to it. It’s a great movie for a cozy winter’s evening.

Hear:

I’m terrible at keeping track of new music. I knew Dead Can Dance was putting out a new album called Dionysus, but without Septicemia’s posting about it, who knows how long I would have taken to look it up?

And that would have been a shame, because Dionysus is amazing! I’ve been a fan for a long time, so I would have enjoyed it no matter what it was, and my expectations weren’t that high going in. When a band that old puts out a new album, usually I give it a listen and think “yup, sounds like them. Ah, the good old days . . .” and then go listen to some of their older stuff.

But this is fast becoming my favorite Dead Can Dance album. It’s got all the pieces I loved in their older work–atmosphere, rhythm, the wide mix of influences, and both the voices I know and love–put together in a more moving and exciting way than ever before.

The album all one long musical piece only lightly divided into segments mostly by sound samples of birds and such. Those little interludes remind me of the nature sounds at the Baltimore Aquarium, which did take me out of the mood a bit–instead of picturing Dionysus and his followers in the woods I was suddenly on the escalator with my parents–but everything else took me on a mysterious and powerful journey from ocean to mountain and on into death.

If you never liked Dead Can Dance this will probably not change your mind, but if you liked them at all I think you’ll love Dionysus.