pumpktoberfest #41 - home on deranged.

film: deranged: the confessions of a necrophile
beer: ithaca country pumpkin ale

today's pumpktoberfest pairing is one that was driven by the pumpkin beer, with its (in my mind obvious) play on the words "country bumpkin." with those two words in mind, i set out to find myself a sweet horror film set in the cutesy world of country folk. though i actually own a copy of children of the corn 666: isaac's return (thanks lil bro!), i decided against adding another children of the corn film to my pumpktoberfest resume (for now) & went with a cult horror film made in the year of my birth (1974)--deranged: the confessions of a necrophile. it's the only film ever directed by jeff gillen aka the guy who played santa in a christmas story...so, yeah.

it's a tale loosely based on the story of ed gein, a wisconsin dude who, a few years after the death of his mother in 1945, started digging up shitloads of corpses from the local cemetery & keeping them around the house. until seeing the film, i'd never even heard of the dude but bits of his story apparently made its way into films like psycho, texas chainsaw massacre & silence of the lambs. for deranged, at the beginning there's a note that says the story is "absolutely true," which is kind of cool until the "any relation to people living or dead is coincidental" note pops up at the film's end. wait, what? so the underlining of "true" was for what now? STOP CONFUSING ME, SANTA!

anyway, in the film ed gein is renamed "ezra cobb" & when his mom dies, he digs her up & brings her back to the house. then he digs up the recently-deceased mrs johnson to repair the skin on his mom's face. from there, he starts bringing back more women's bodies so his mom can have some friends to play canasta or some shizz with. throughout the film, ezra continues descending into MADNESS. along the way, the filmmakers insert this reporter dude into the story for the purpose of saying some stupid junk & lending an air of "authenticity" to the film. by the end of the film, he's pretty much an afterthought though.

i can see why it's a cult classic. it's got no name actors, lots of blood & grossness & whatnot, a cornucopia of corniness and a general b-movie style. it even ends with a classic 70's-style freeze frame. while there's a bunch of murdering & corpse action going on, the tone of the film is more hilarious than scary. bonus: at eighty minutes long, you don't have to invest a whole lot of your precious time in its silliness. is it eat!drink!snack! recommended? sure. i guess so. why not? if nothing, you'll get to see what clothing made out of the skin of corpses supposedly looks like. that's worth it in itself.

our fourth pumpkin beer of this fantastical pumpktoberfest season is a pumpkiny brew from an absolutely GORGES part of the country, the ithaca country pumpkin ale. country pumpkin? more like country bumpkin! amirite? fresh on the heels of building a new brewery & increasing production over the past year, it's ithaca beer co's brand new autumn seasonal. since i've enjoyed their beers in the past, i was definitely looking forward to seeing what they'd put together. 

as far as pumpkin beers go, it doesn't really do much for me. it's an orange-amber beer brewed with levels of pumpkin puree & spices (nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger & allspice) that are pretty much par for the course. the pumpkin & spice flavors & scents are both pleasant but ultimately subdued. there's a little flavor from the malt & hops, but there's really not much going on there either. it's not entirely light in the alcohol (6.3% ABV) & that sort of comes through but overall, it's an underwhelming pumpkin beer. you can't go wrong with giving one a try but if you're like me & are familiar with ithaca's beer co's beers, you'll end up expecting more from them.