12 Bottle Bar

The Godfather of Gore, Herschell Gordon Lewis picks "The Mad Ghoul," and we pair it with the Corpse Reviver Shot.

Gary Gerani, author of "The Top 100 Horror Movies", tells us his top pick, and we put a stake through the Bleeding Heart Martini.

As our luck would have it, there is nothing either tragic or brutal about the spectral White Lady cocktail. In an era when so many drinks cobble together every liquor ...

By Lesley Jacobs Solmonson

Fear is a universal archetype — no matter who we are or where we are from, when things go bump in the night, we all jump.  For me, my own childhood fears are deeply rooted in the foreign horror film thanks to a chance viewing of the 1922 German film Nosferatu when I was six.  Directed by F. W. Murnau and adapted (without permission) from Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Nosferatu is beyond tame by any modern standard.  Yet, its iconography – Count Orlok’s hulking shadow on the staircase – was so vivid to me that I slept with a blanket covering my neck until I was almost twenty.

When we talk “genre”, horror is the one that pops up in every filmmaking country the world over.  Be it India or Japan, Italy or France, fear crosses borders.  Take, for instance, the recent Swedish vampire film, Lat den rite von komma en (Let the Right One In).  Languid and almost romantic, the story explores the bleak life of a pre-teen loner who befriends a “young” vampire; it’s one of the most original takes on the blood-sucker mythos that I’ve seen in years.  Likewise, the not-for-the-faint-of-heart Japanese film Odishon (Audition) manages to outdo Hostel in its truly gag-inducing exploration of torture and its disturbing emotional underpinnings.   Whether it’s the language, the unfamiliar locations, or the sheer sense of otherness, these films hold a distinct appeal for me because they are so uniquely un-American.  While there are exceptions, foreign fright films – the modern ones specifically – tend to be far more subtle and more rooted in psychological terror, especially when compared to the typical American dependence on monsters or gruesome special effects.  Read More…

Since we’re talking horror films, I think it’s only appropriate that we talk Scooby-Doo.  Like most adults my age, the misadventures of the Mystery Machine were my first exposure to ghosts, ghouls, and things that go bump in the night (at abandoned amusement parks).  It’s safe to say that, as a kid, Scooby-Doo was by far my favorite cartoon (until that punk Scrappy came along, that is), but when the live action movies arrived, I was at a loss.  Despite a nostalgia-fueled desire to want to want to see the Scooby-Doo Movie, I had an even greater urge to avoid it.  At the time, Lars summarized this succinctly by observing that the film “wasn’t made for me” – that I simply wasn’t its target audience.  I had grown up; Scooby hadn’t.  Point conceded. Read More…

By Lars Theriot

“What’s that sound?”
“It’s dead people… SCREAMIN’!!!!”

I was probably 16 when I heard that line for the first time, and I think I surprised myself by laughing out loud.  I wouldn’t have thought it was possible to laugh like that when you were already scared out of your mind.

There are a lot of theories about why we love zombie movies… I believe we love them for the same reason we love Westerns.  Here at the beginning of the 21st century we are a pampered and sheltered people.  Like caged lions desperate to roam and hunt free of fences and zookeepers, we are at odds with the endless layers of protection that exist between us and our problems (or our prey).  Got a fire? Call the fire dept.  Someone breaking into your house?  Call the cops.  Someone bullying you at school?  Talk to the Principal.  Next door neighbor building a fence over the property line?  Call a lawyer.  In zombie movies, as in Westerns, all those layers of “officials” whom we call to deal with our issues have been stripped away.  We stand naked – just us and our wits against a deadly existential threat.  As a fantasy, it’s both exhilarating and terrifying. Read More…

As you may have noticed, things have been a bit… dead around here lately.   Perhaps you were scared that we had passed on.  Rest assured, we are very much alive and kicking, and despite our recent vanishing act, we have returned to resurrect 13BB just in time for our favorite holiday.

Puns aside, we have been pulled away for far too long.  Side projects — Lesley’s follow up to her Gin book and some other very exciting things — are taking up more of our time then before.  They’re all good things — the fruits of the labor put into this site over the past three years, if you will — but they have mandated that we fall back on “reruns” this year ’round.   Try as we might — and we had very cool ideas for this year’s Halloween program — we are going to re-post some of the top drinks from the past two Halloweens.  Sure, it’s a cheap trick — rehashing lukewarm leftovers — but it worked for The Hangover Part II.  Right? (Oh, the horror).

So, if you’ve been here before around this time, you’ll be getting things you’ve seen before, but we promise that the drinks are just as tasty as ever.  If you’re new, have a seat, and we’ll show you what you missed.

Lesley’s taking her show on the road! If you’re Southern California based (or inclined to be so for the night), please join her on Monday, July 23rd at 7pm for an evening of talking gin and drinking gin hosted by our good friends at 320 Main in Seal Beach.

Sponsored by Beefeater and Plymouth gins, the event includes not only a copy and signing of “Gin: A Global History” but also light appetizers and gin cocktails from Jason Schiffer and his crack 320 Main team.

We hope you’ll join us!

Where: 320 Main, 320 Main St, Seal Beach, CA

When: July 23rd at 7pm
Admission: $20 includes purchase of the book
Sponsored by Beefeater and Plymouth Gin

RSVP: reserve@320mainsealbeach.com
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