This is the personal Web site of Robert Wm. Gomez. I am an artist, musician and nerd living in Chicago, Illinois who has been maintaining this site (in one form or another) since 1996. Enjoy your visit!
The first two thirds of this Brazilian no-budget horror movie consist a guy in a leisure suit wandering around a jungle estate, stroking his chin and pondering the how weird it was that his dad was briefly possessed by a demon. Okay, a few more things do happen like when the child discovers a tree filled with snakes and tarantulas, there’s a visit to an old voodoo priestess, and there’s also a second demonic possession. But it’s all so cheap and feels like they decided to make a movie while at a lakefront getaway vacation. Way too much time is spent on the lead actor (who is also the director, of course) and his attempts to seem self-reflective and intellectual.
But then, that third act hits. It opens with gratuitous nudity and Exorcist “inspired” antics. We are then transported to a fever-dream satanic wedding with (more) nudity, sacrifices, and demonic dancing. This goes on for about thirty minutes and, I have to admit, it’s pretty enthralling. The ceremonies are hosted by Coffin Joe. He is the alter ego of our lead actor and is apparently the villain in some dozen or more Brazilian horror movies. Turns out this movie is a meta analysis of horror movies themselves. I don’t know if I can fully recommend watching it but Exorcismo Negro was surprisingly weird and interesting for such a cheap piece of crap.
I didn’t really like this entry into the series. So many of the stories about psychokinesis are so obviously hoaxes. The amount of pages devoted to Uri Geller before finally bringing up his very public debunking by James Randi sets the tone of the rest of the book. There’s a big section on poltergeists in which in every case the flying objects and strange happenings only seem to occur when a specific disgruntled employee or family member is present. Yup, must be spirits. I think they were really padding this topic out because there was a ton of overlap with Spirit Summonings.
Japanese art film action complete with white-faced actors, an inflatable woman, uncomfortable nudity, and much more! This is several stories mashed together and it’s pretty confusing at first. There isn’t so much of a main plot, but apparently it was based on a series of poems. The main character is a boy who wants to go to the big city, there is also a woman with a bastard child, a gang of ghostly elderly women, a surreal circus… then, about halfway through, the forth wall is broken and there’s a modern older version of the boy making this movie. It’s weird and I can’t say I’d recommend it to anyone except for those looking for trippy, drugged-out visuals.
The final film of the trilogy introduces a new main character and brings back some old ones. Again, this doesn’t rise to the levels of the original story wise, but has plenty of monster effects and wild fights.
I think Tsui Hark should stop killing off likable characters in his movies so he doesn’t have to come up with silly narrative tricks to bring them back in the sequels. Part II in this series doesn’t nail the doomed spiritual romance of the first film but makes up for it in over the top battles and effects. It’s light, goofy, and entertaining.
I guess this is borderline chick-lit, right? It’s all about the anxieties and fears facing parents, but more specifically mothers. It’s told as the story of a middle-aged mom who gets caught leaving her infant child alone for a couple of hours and is subsequently ordered by the courts to go to motherhood training for a year. The school is a dystopian institution where the students must care for nearly-human robotic dolls during all sorts of extreme conditions. I was hoping that the sci-fi premise would pay off in a Twilight Zone style twist but it never does. Everyone seems to accept the robot dolls and then move on. The ending is fine and it serves the broader point but I would suggest Chan spend a few weeks at The School for Corny Genre Writers if she wants to stay in my good graces.
Charles Bronson heads down to Central American to assassinate a master of torture known as “The Doctor.” This feels like just about every of Bronson movie from this era I’ve seen but it looks more like a T.V. movie despite the violence and adult themes. At one point he kills a man who he awkwardly lures into him and his wife’s hotel room with the prospect of a gay fling. There are a couple of good scenes, but the film is mostly just boring.
This is yet another 90s throwback shooter that certainly captures the low poly look of Quake. It also has the Demonic/Lovecraftian theming of Doom. But something about it just didn’t work for me. I think it’s a combination of the same-y design from level to level, and the way all the weapons don’t feel like they have any “oompf.” I know that’s not a terribly specific criticism but it all comes down to feel. I think the older shooters that I am nostalgic for were from before Quake or after Half-Life. Dusk occupies that awkward “we’re just starting to figure out 3-D graphics” phase of FPS development that was sandwiched between those two landmark games.
John Woo is no longer at the helm in this the third Better Tomorrow installment and it shows. We still get Chow Yun Fat, but the aura of “cool” is absent. This is a prequel, so perhaps he hadn’t learned how to be cool yet, What we do get is a corny love triangle that develops against the backdrop of the fall of Saigon. It’s not a bad movie per se, but it definitely is not what one would expect from A Better Tomorrow. Woo’s gun-fu was never exactly realistic but its fantastical violence was musical and romanticized. Hark’s action is just plain goofy. Still fun to watch, but goofy and really should have been its own thing.
My final engraving of 2025 had me once again thinking about A.I. and where our idea emerge from. I have given up and attempting to transfer a drawing to my engraving block and decided to go old school and just draw on the block. It worked out pretty well, but I do prefer when I tone the block with black ink rather than red Sharpie™.
Process Video and Images
I made a point to document most of the steps in the creation of this print. Here is the result.
Click the thumbnails to zoom in.
drawing on blockdrawing on blockengraving and catmy work spaceengraving and catlast stages of cuttingInk on the blockfirst prooffinal print
