Haiku Hump Day = WAYS TO DIE

Forgive me for the half assedness of today's topic but it was after all a surprise victory. I figured I should go with something morbid to kick off Horrorthon 2009. How would you prefer to die? What would be the absolute worst way to die? Death, blood, carnage, suffering, torture, etc!



BZZZZZZZ!!



Peaceful way to go or utterly terrifying?



Wheeeeee!



Burning to death can't possibly be fun.



Old age?

Octopunk's Best of Horrorthon 2008

I wasn't going to do this during the day because I didn't want to drop a post over Haiku Hump Day, but Whirlygirl's sudden entrapment in a Brown University basement leaves me a window. I love doing Best Ofs at the point at which I've finished all my reviews, and of course I didn't do that until last night, so... here goes.

1. Favorite: Ravenous. This movie possesses all-around greatness. Robert Carlyle as a cannibal makes perfect sense.

2. Hidden gem award: Let the Right One In. Everything you want out of a horror movie, sent as a snow-covered sneak attack from Sweden.

3. Most disturbing: It's Alive III: Island of the Alive. Not disturbing in the usual horror movie sense, but disturbing in the way the actors were allowed to hold the movie's hand and lead it wherever they felt like, replicating the feeling of a fever dream for the viewer.

4. Scream Queen: Autumn Beeser in Lost Boys II: The Tribe. Cute as hell, even when covered in blood. Admittedly she had little competition last year. If not for Autumn I would've had to go with Julia Stiles in Omen 666 -- who I think is cute, but she wasn't really working "babe" in that movie.

5. Worst: Legend of the Chupacabra for being cheap without charm. The Masters of Horror entry Dreams in the Witch House also had a generous helping of suck.

6. So Bad It's Good award: The first It's Alive: vintage 70's paranoia and dread set among vintage '70's wallpaper and dread.

7. Goriest: Shallow Ground. Looking back, I didn't watch too much super gore last year, so I'm giving it to the bloody naked boy. There was a decent amount of spatter in Lost Boys II as well.

8. Most memorable death: The poor dude in Pan's Labyrinth who has his face unexpectedly caved in by this guy. Ouch.

9. Best looking monster: Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, baby! Classic Ray Harryhausen sculpture.

10. Scariest: War of the Worlds, for its grand scale depiction of the systematic extermination of the human race.

There. I now declare my own personal 2008 officially over. Love ya!

Haiku Hump Day upset, Whirlygirl unable to fulfill duties!

Greetings gang, Whirlygirl wanted me to express her deep regret that she will be unable to fulfill her Haiku Hump Day duties today due to a number of events coalescing to create the perfect storm. Unfortunately she suddenly finds herself without internet access and she will be spending the day in the bowels of a Brown University library where she will be cataloguing a large body of writings and correspondence. We discussed this at length and she felt that JSP’s football posts made her laugh the most last week and she is therefore passing the haiku duties to our favorite crabby Thonner. Come to think of it, I think there's a precedent for this. I seem to recall 50p also passing the duties to JSP a while back. Go Johnny, go!



Congrats JSP! Might I recommend that you don’t reveal the winner until November 1st?

"Family Guy" Enters the World of Disney

From worstpreviews, Now that Disney is working on finalizing the deal to acquire Marvel, fans are wondering if this will change the look and tone of the famous superhero movies. While it will take some time before we see Disney's influence on "Spider-Man," you can now see what "Family Guy" would look like if it was developed by the studio.

During the premiere of the show on Sunday, "Family Guy" imagined what it would be like if the characters were all transported into the wonderful world of Disney. Everyone became much happier and there was enough pie for everyone, but is this the perfect world for Brian and Stewie? Watch the video below to find out.

In other "Family Guy" news, Venezuelan authorities plan to impose fines on cable television companies that refuse to stop airing the show, mostly because the government believes that it promotes the use of marijuana. President Hugo Chaves is instead preparing to force cable providers to air his frequent speeches and propaganda.

Stan Lee Wants Cameos in DC Comics' Films

From worstpreviews, Stan Lee, the co-creator of such Marvel heroes as The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, Daredevil, Spider-Man and the X-Men, has appeared in just about every Marvel film. In fact, directors have been coming up with fun ways to work in Lee's cameo into their films.

Now, Lee has revealed via his Twitter account that he wants more screen time. But it's not bigger roles that he's looking for, it's to appear in more films. He wrote: "Wouldn't it be cool if DC gave me a cameo in their next Batman movie! What are you waiting for? Start a letter-writing campaign!"

Lee is mostly known as the man behind Marvel, but he has done a bit of work with DC Comics as well. Probably not enough to deserve cameo roles, but I guess it doesn't hurt to ask.

'New Moon' Posters: The Most Thorougly Unlikable Collection of Faces

From iwatchstuff, Summit has released some new posters for The Twilight Saga: New Moon, amassing all the main characters in three one-sheets, making it very convenient to decide whose expression deems them most worthy of being slapped in the face over and over and over. Convenient, yes, but definitely not easy. This decision is far from easy. Just when you think the dubious goddammer in the upper-right has it locked, that he's definitely the one to slap and slap and slap, you notice all these guys making a strong case to also be slapped:

See more examples here

Bush Officials Thought Harry Potter Books Promoted Witchcraft

From toplessrobot, I really don't know how we can avoid talking policies here, when the news is that Bush refused to give J.K. Rowling a Presidential Medal of Freedom since several of hsi officials said the books promoted witchcraft. From the new book Speechless: Tales of a White House Survivor by former Bush speechwriter Matt Latimer:

'This was the same sort of narrow thinking that led people in the White House to actually object to giving the author J.K. Rowling a presidential medal because the Harry Potter books encouraged withcraft.'

Apparently this is on page 201, if anyone doesn't believe it. Now, I am well aware that there are idiots out there who believe this, and believe that Dungeons & Dragons also promotes the same. But I will never stop being aghast when I discover that these people are working at the highest levels of the government. It makes me wish that witchcraft actually existed, partially so they wouldn't be such imbeciles, and partially so someone could cast a spell on them so they'd stop being such imbeciles.

Oh, That Wacky Gary the Cylon!

From toplessrobot, In today's installment of everyone's favorite sitcom Gary the Cylon, Gary gets a surprise visit and Starbuck learns a valuable lesson about bravery (namely, don't be a pussy).

Frankly, I don't know how there got to be 15 of these things before I heard about 'em. Having not seen the original BSG, I can only assume this one was cut out of an episode where Starbuck was marooned with a Cylon and made a truce with it, but the rest are taken from the entirety of the series. If you're looking for a way to kill an hour -- like Cylons kill humans -- you could do a helluva lot worse than marathoning the entirety of Gary.

Pan's Labyrinth

(2006) ****

My last review! I don't remember why I ended on this one, probably because I wanted to finish off the 'thon with some quality. But I was actually a teensy bit disappointed seeing this a second time.

Our heroine is Ofelia, who suddenly finds herself in touch with strange, mystical forces that interest her more than the tense situation that is her real life. Her father has died, and to save the family her mother has married a captain in the Facist Spanish military.

This bastard. He's on duty trying to rout a bunch of rebels out of the woods somewhere, and hauls his sickly, pregnant new wife and his stepdaughter out there to hang out with him.

The stakes of 1944 Spain are brutally displayed in an early scene involving the Captain, a wine bottle, and a guy's nose. It's the scene everybody remembers, and it serves as potent counterpoint to the fantastic elements of the story. This guy is a bastard.

Not that fantasyland doesn't have its own share of danger.

I've been a fan of Guillermo del Toro ever since I saw Blade II. (How much I like Blade II is worth its own post, but not right now.) Sometimes his efforts fall short or run too slow, but he's definitely got a shot at his own slice of greatness. And he brings his A-game to Pan's Labyrinth. It's a good story with great characters, it's visually arresting, it has a good ending. But I was surprised to find the actress playing Ofelia to be quite flat and forgettable. It's quite possible that the little girl from The Fall spoiled me for imaginative little girls. Her performance blows the doors off Ofelia's, which seemed to be about looking spaced out all of the time.

I didn't see that coming, because I was anticipating a sour reaction like the one I had to elements of The Orphanage. That is, the fantasy world in Pan's Labyrinth is only accessible to children, so it leaves you the viewer with a choice to believe whether any of it is happening outside of Ofelia's head. As I noted in my review of The Orphanage, sometimes that really honks me off. I prefer the magic to be actually happening, and as such I scanned Pan's Labyrinth for hints that it was. And there are a few: certain magical objects do seem to have a real life effect on Ofelia's mother's health. But against that there's a scene in which an adult is watching Ofelia talk to a magical creature and for him the creature doesn't exist. The movie wasn't making it easy for me.

But I didn't really mind it, because Ofelia's spaciness let the fantasy story drift away from my concern. Instead I was more caught up in the events of the real world, dealing with the Captain's ongoing battle against the rebels while rebel sympathizers live in his very shadow. The sense of constant near-panic was palpable, and events unfold into a story with a taut, cruel edge.

Whether you're after insect fairies and giant toads, or perhaps jackboots and hidden knives, Pan's Labyrinth comes recommended. Not just for horror movie season, either.

There! I finished my reviews! I am officially a silly person, having those seven folders on my desktop for so long. But godammit I finished all my reviews for Horrorthon. I'd love to think my doggedness is inspirational in some way, but... really? Inspirational? It took you a freakin' year!

Daily Spider-Man - Today's Edition: Spider-Man is distracted from crime-fighting because he made a sculpture of a pretty swan

Godzilla 2000

(1999) ****

For some of you, this might top off as a three-and-a-half star movie, but it holds a special place in my heart. I saw it by myself when it was released in the USA in 2000. I didn't bother to invite anyone along because my NYC movie posse had all gone out on opening night for the dreadful American Godzilla two summers earlier; based on that, I doubt anyone would have come anyway. And I was pleasantly surprised by at least one excellent idea: the Godzilla Prediction Network.

The GPN is a collective of various Godzilla nuts who pool their talents to figure out where the big guy's going to surface next, and then gather data. And it's a "collective" in the purest, most guerilla-charming way, because basically it's this guy above and his young but savvy daughter.

Where the caption says "mobile unit," it really means their van, in which they drive around chasing the world's most famous atomic lizard. The GPN headquarters is their house, and only twice do we see other members besides these two: guys working on their computers in their respective houses miles away from where any of this is happening.

Anyone remember Twister? Right, the tornado movie. The heroes in Twister were a lovable, ragtag group of scientists crammed into a caravan of dirty pickups, vans and VW buses. They hurled around the American midwest chasing tornadoes, with a research mission that could help save lives -- but they were really in it for the Science. And the bad guys... (giggle) the bad guys were a coporate-sponsored group of tornado-chasing scientists who followed the good guys around in a strong line of new, black SUVs. They had to follow the good guys because despite the money, the good guys were better scientists, and then they'd try to rush ahead and look at the tornado more than the good guys. This results in Cary Elwes glaring from the front seat of his black SUV with a look of mingled resentment and entitlement to match every evil "establishment" frat boy in every campus comedy you stayed up late to watch on cable.

It's RIDICULOUS! At one point, the good guys' leader Bill Paxton actually says of his rival: "Aww, he's not in it for the tornadoes, he's just in it for the money." It's like that Far Side with a group of scientists with glasses, beards and lab coats throwing beakers at each other like little kids.

But in this movie they do the same thing, and it actually works! The father-daughter scientist duo is just the best idea. They're tooling around in the rain with all this science stuff, they're really good at their jobs and see Godzilla a lot. Their geeky friends are a great touch. In a world where humongous monsters wander out of the ocean and stomp on stuff, it makes perfect sense.

That's not to say the movie doesn't have it's share of silly. There's a girl reporter character who tags along with the GPN (you can see her hand back there), and some low-level comic relief is to be expected. The special effects have a notably wide range in quality, from cheap-but-servicable to downright laughable.

But this is the genre that can dish out some silly and still deliver, maybe. And I think this one rides the razor's edge with a wonderfully naive sincerety.

And the plot is better than Twister; eventually the GPN dad and his old partner who sold out join forces and make some science happen. (Did I mention that there's a big flying saucer thingie slowly busting out of a centuries-old meteorite dredged up from the ocean floor? No? Hmm, I'm pretty sure I did.) They discover the cellular property of Godzilla's that makes him so invincible: a sort of hyper-healing enzyme.

Sellout scientist: You discovered it, you get to name it!

(Octopunk thinks "Aww, he's gonna name it after his daughter, and she'll be immortalized as part of this amazing creature she's destined to study.")

GPN Dad Scientist: Oh! Okay... how about... Regenerator G1?

(Octopunk slaps forehead, realizing that this scientist character presumably grew up watching the same endless frieze of giant robot anime as everybody else, so of course he'd pick a name like that.)

Later, I named the Lego robot on the left "Superguardian Robot One" to honor this moment of cinematic foolishness.

As a last word on the characters, around '03 and '04 I made a casual foray into the latest Godzilla movies, and I was pretty disappointed. Godzilla Final War, for instance, skimped on monster action because it was trying to be The Matrix, the good guys being a crack team of government mutants with karate powers or something. And another flick heavily featured this airplane that could turn into three airplanes. Not so much, thanks.

So what else does this movie have going for it? Some good Godzilla, that's what. In addition to the traditional shots of foreground panicking people and background Godzilla (separated by a visible matte line, of course), they try to shift up the perspectives some.

Here's the good guys tracking the G-man from across a river.

And the shot turns as the road curves, and we get here. They still remembered to distill Godzilla to his essence: something big and dark that towers above the horizon and is going to do whatever it wants to. But they tweaked it nicely.

Sometimes, if you're lucky, all he wants to do is cross the street behind you. I loved this shot. I might be wrong, but I feel like I haven't seen a shot quite like this in any other giant monster flick.

And I would call no Godzilla movie worth your time* if it didn't feature a knock-down fight between two huge rubbery monsters. The flying saucer turns into this for about five seconds...

*(Except the first one)

And then it turns into this.

And then Godzilla's all like "oh NO you DI-int!"

The ending fight is gloriously long, just on the edge of tedious. Personally I can't see enough little balsa wood buildings crushed by monsters, so you may want to consider that. In the end, one of the characters delivers this hilarious "there's a little Godzilla in all of us" speech, which is only funny because the city is still getting mercilessly trashed as he says it.

If you see one Godzilla movie, see the original Gojira. If you see two, see Godzilla 2000.

Daily Spider-Man - Today's edition, Spider-Man showboats and proves why he's the real "big shot"

Best Comic Dads

A narrow win, but Pa Kent remains the Gold Standard for Comic Dads. Pa Kent represents the notion of nurture-over-nature, as his (and Ma's) warmth and strong values serve as the strongest influence on the worldview of Superman.

There, you geeks. I didn't even know who most of these dads were. Here for the rest.

Breakdowns of 1937

From slashfilm, Almost every DVD features a blooper reel, containing all the outtakes from a particular film. Before DVD. Recently, Tropic Thunder released three full 10-minute mags of outtakes on DVD. But it wasn’t always this way. I remember that in the age of VHS, ABC would host television specials a couple times a year featuring all the Hollywood bloopers. Back in the 1930’s, Warner Bros would release a yearly collection of “Breakdowns,” which would air between double features.

A while ago, Go Into The Story posted a Warner Bros Blooper Reel from 1937. It’s amazing how different bloopers were back in the earlier days of Hollywood. The “Breakdowns of 1936″ features Humphrey Bogart, George Brent, Bette Davis, Glenda Farrell, Errol Flynn, Dick Foran, Kay Francis, Hugh Herbert, Allen Jenkins, Boris Karloff, Barton MacLane, Pat O’Brien, Dick Powell, and Claude Rains.

Shallow Ground

(2004) ***

This one had been lurking in my "to do" pile for years, having been recommended by both Brothers X-Pants back in the early days (and also last year by Catfreeek). My compatriots' reviews mention the original idea and the charm of anything made well for 72 thousand dollars, and Shallow Ground does have that going for it.

The ploot: The tiny sherriff's station in a woodsy town is shutting down, having only been created to police the crew of a dam project that is now complete. A naked teenage boy covered head to toe in blood walks into the station without a word. Apprehending him, they find the blood that coats him comes from at least three different people, all murder victims from years ago. A run of his fingerprints reveal they are a composite of the fingerprints of more murder victims. Miles away, another mysterious bloody guy shows up.

Sigh. Okay, yes, this one gets three stars from me because I think my fellow 'thonners might like it, but... oh, geez, I figured it out right away.

There's an item in Octopunk's Book of Story No-Nos that I call "The Second Set of Brainwaves." Once I decided to watch an episode of a Babylon 5 spin-off series called Crusade, that had a ship on a quest and yadda yadda yadda. In one episode they fight a race of aliens that have no form but possess other aliens through physical contact. They discover this dead ship with one baaarely alive alien in it and that's where all the possessor aliens are lurking, in that guy. And the doctor is scanning and says something like "I'm getting a ghost image, like a second set of brainwaves." And I said "THERE. THAT. That little fact right there is the THING that you are going to be dealing with for the next 60 minutes, and it's probably going to endanger your life. You're looking at it right now." And my problem isn't so much that people who have watched years of TV sci-fi are going to spot that like I did, but that people who are plumbing the depths of outer freakin' SPACE should learn to pick up the clues.

Both the blood types and the fingerprints are perfect examples of The Second Set of Brain Waves. Clues that give the whole game away. Am I being unfair to the small town sherriff shack? Probably. They're not seasoned space explorers, after all. But I just wanted to yell to the protagonists "Can't you see? He's a..."

Okay, I won't say it. You'll probably like this better than I did, so I won't spoil it. I only included the details I did because they've been mentioned in other Horrorthon reviews.

I like to imagine that, were I myself in a similarly mysterious situation, I'd spot The Second Set of Brainwaves quickly and deduce the strange answer. But with my luck, I'd be the one character everyone thinks is crazy.

I'll tell you this for free: The main character in Shallow Ground is stupid. He's haunted by something in his past that these current events dig up. His team was stalking a serial killer in the woods, hoping to recover (alive) a friend of theirs who had been taken by the baddie. We see the killer and the still-alive victim, as she endures a non-fatal but agonizing cut down the center of her chest.

Then! Our hero shows up and the killer flees. So he unties the wounded victim, gives her his jacket, and says he'll be right back, leaving her there to be snatched up by the killer again so the job can be finished.

That's what's haunting him. And it should, because that maneuver was unfathomably stupid. So stupid! I have to say that immediately shunted me out of the movie, that I was meant to like this obvious fucktard.

So I had some problems with it, but you may find it charming. It's definitely a scrappy little movie, and it does feature some boobs and a lot of bloody teen boy butt shots. Also the grown up Patty McCormack, who played Little Miss Evil in The Bad Seed.

Horrorthon!

Let the Right One In

(2008) ****1/2

Believe it or not, I'm still gonna try to finish last year's reviews. We'll see how I do.

Lagging so long on this particular review was probably the worst act of sloth in the bunch, because I should've been encouraging everyone to see it while it was still in theaters. AC did when she wrote her review back in January, and now that it's readily available on Netflix I'm hoping Let the Right One In will be to Horrorthon '09 what The Orphanage was to last year's.

So everybody go see it! And by "go," I mean... to your house!

In September 2008 JPX, Mr. Finger-on-the-Pulse, got me all excited when he posted this link to what turned out to be the great trailer among a bunch of stupid ones (as I discovered looking for this on YouTube. Wrong mood, spoilers, all kinds of idiocy.) So I recommend you hit that link for this specific trailer, just like JPX did last year...

Isn't that cute? With the little Shazam and everything?

For me the first great thing about this movie is the setting: some suburb in Sweden in which winter is just a relentless accumulation of snow. No blizzards or anything, but the sides of the roads and walkways are just heaped with what you know are several layers of shoveled-to-the-side snow, none of melting any time soon. There's a shot in the trailer of a body being lifted out of a pond by a crane, and the corpse is embedded in the thick icy crust that was on top of the water. It's freakin' cold. And for those of us who have lived in freakin' cold, the memory of that crisp oppression blends perfectly with the beautiful, mournful style of the film's cinematography.

It's smart, and it brings a great interpretation to the composite vampire myth (especially in the scene that the title refers to *shiver*). It features bullies getting their just desserts, and that's always sweet. And it's wonderfully, desperately human -- particularly with the minor characters that don't always get special treatment.

One pair of deft scenes that stuck with me: Our hero Oskar is visting his father, and he goes to his dad's sweater hanging on the back of the chair. With a wordless look asks his dad if he can wear it, and with the slightest of nods his father says yes. It's such a tender and real moment. On a later visit, Oskar and his father are playing a game (Oskar's wearing the sweater), and a friend of his father's shows up and they get drunk. And there's no big scene, his father doesn't get angry or hit anyone, he's just chatting with his friend -- but it's clear that the evening is just ruined for Oskar in the most devastating way.

All this is woven together with a chilly little horror movie that's got a good nasty bite. I really can't recommend it enough, if you would please ignore the fact that I waited 332 days to say so.

I should point out this post, which mentions some regrettable differences between the original English subtitles and the ones on the American dvd. Countering that is the point that AC made in her review that there's actually not that much dialogue, which is something I'd forgotten for some reason.

The reasons I didn't give this the big fat five stars was 1) it has been almost a year since I've seen it, and I would like to recollect it better before lauding it that much, and 2) the one thing that kind of bugged me about it, which was an overuse of close-ups. Nothing criminal, but it's like Sweden was just discovering what the French realized in the 60's, and watching them do it I felt awkward for them. It was very "foreign film," if you know what I mean.

Anyway, everybody has to watch it or I'm sending the napalm monkeys after you.

Horrorthon!

Little Boy Heroically Shoots, Mutilates Burglar

from the Onion:

New Technology Will Change Cinema - Forever

CGI-brows from Andrew Gaynord on Vimeo.

"There is only one Batman in the world," and it's a place nobody gives a flying fuck about.

From Variety.com

Batman has a new adversary: Batman.

The mayor of an oil-producing city in southeastern Turkey, which has the same name as the Caped Crusader, is suing helmer Christopher Nolan and Warner Bros. for royalties from mega-grosser "The Dark Knight."

Huseyin Kalkan, the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party mayor of Batman, has accused "The Dark Knight" producers of using the city's name without permission.

"There is only one Batman in the world," Kalkan said. "The American producers used the name of our city without informing us."

Read the rest here.

Loves it! Dig Dug: The Movie

The 13 Most Unintentionally Disturbing Children's Toys

From cracked, We like to think we're above pointing out that this thing totally looks like a cock, which by the way, it does. A cock that shoots dangerous projectiles that can put an eye out (chew on that, Freud).

But besides clearly looking like something mom mistakenly bought for herself, the Sixfinger fulfills every child's dream of having a grotesque birth defect. As you can see from the downright nightmarish ad, it might as well be a strap-on clubbed foot that's also a water pistol.



See the full list here

A positive review for Survival of the Dead

From aintitcoolnews, I want to state up front that my expectations going into this movie were pretty low. I hated DIARY OF THE DEAD. And that’s not a word I use lightly. I felt it was a horrible film that made me embarrassed for Romero as a fan of his work. It’s possible that I walked away from his new movie impressed simply because he made a real movie again, but I don’t think so. I think he really stepped up to the plate this time out and delivered a fun movie.

But that’s kind of Romero’s M.O. The dude’s career is a rollercoaster. I’m a big fan of some of his non-Dead work like THE CRAZIES and MARTIN, but he’s had some horrible misfires in his heyday as well.

Read the rest here

A Nightmare on Elm Street remake trailer - good stuff!

Mike Seaver discusses the 'undeniable connection' between Hitler and Darwin

From ew, Former sitcom star Kirk Cameron (Growing Pains) recently posted a YouTube video explaining his plan to distribute a doctored version of Darwin’s The Origin of Species that contains an introduction promoting creationism. Cameron, a vocal Christian advocate, intends to distribute 50,000 copies to college campuses around the country on Nov. 19, two days before the 150th anniversary of the book’s publication.

Daily Spider-Man - Today's Edition, I hope the owners of that building have a good insurance policy

Roman Polanski is Finally Arrested for 1977 Rape

From worstpreviews, On his way to receive an honorary award at the Zurich Film Festival, director Roman Polanski (Chinatown, Rosemary's Baby) was apprehended at the airport by the Swiss police and now faces possible extradition to the US for having sex with a 13 year-old girl in 1977.

After the alleged rape, Polanski fled the US for France in 1978, a year after pleading guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with the underage girl. He has remained there since and watched his career continue to flourish; he received an Oscar for the 2002 "The Pianist."

The director will remain in Zurich until the conclusion of the extradition proceedings. The US now has 60 days to file a formal request for Polanski's transfer.

His victim, Samantha Geimer, who long ago identified herself publicly, has joined in Polanski's bid for dismissal, saying she wants the case to be over. She sued Polanski and reached an undisclosed settlement.

Source: Associated Press