film: hansel & gretel
beer: elysian hansel & gretel
loyal eat!drink!snack! followers! in normal years (like ANY other year but this one) pumpktoberfest ends PROMPTLY after october 31st. NOT THIS YEAR, FOOL! you see, this year i was SUPER LAZY & at the end of the month, when i was planning on dropping my final four pumpktoberfest gems on yo ass, a stupid mutha fuckin' hurricane came rolling through. call me "crazy" but during & especially right after that shizz, i wasn't exactly in the mood for blogging. i've decided to get back on the horse today though...so pumpktoberfest ends on november 10th this year! decades from now, when historians write about my blog, this'll be one of those sweet ass barry bonds-type asterisk years.
SO! next up on the pumpktoberfest docket is a wacked-out retelling of a classic german fairy tale, the 2007 korean horror film hansel & gretel. if you're not familiar with the classic hansel & gretel story, you're probably an ALF & the fringe team is being sent to your door post haste, but i'll fill you in while you await their arrival. as the tale goes, a brother & sister head out into the woods & come across a cabin inhabited by a cannabilistic witch. since they're kids & she's just a crazy witch living alone in a cottage in the woods & noshing on children, they're EASILY able to outsmart her & burn her in the oven. so yeah...it's TOTALLY a kids story.
in the korean film version, there's this dude driving alone down a country street. like an idiot, he's not paying attention & when something runs out into the street, he crashes his car off in the woods. a girl finds him & brings him back to a cabin deep in the woods, where she lives with her older brother, tiny younger sister & what appear to be their parents. the dude hangs out for a bit but once he recovers & tries to leave, he discovers that he can't find his way out of the forest. pfft. bitch should've left himself a breadcrumb trail. he stays another night & in the morn when he wakes, the parents are gone & this dude, since he can't find his way out, has to stay & care for the kids.
unfortunately for him, all three of the kids are CREEPY ASS EVIL & no matter how much he tries to leave, it just ain't happening. eventually, a couple gets lost in the woods & trapped there along with the dude. by the time the end of the film rolls around, we've seen a plot unfold that revolves around such horror awesomeness as cannibalism, creepy kid magic, stuff in the attic & santa claus. while the story's quite a derivation from the classic hansel & gretel story, it's pretty damn awesome...& you can watch the whole thing ON THE YOUTUBE! DO IT DO IT DO IT!
the absolute perfect beer for a creepy kid-filled retelling of hansel & gretel is our second beer this pumpktoberfest from seattle's elysian brewing--the elysian hansel & gretel. as i mentioned a few weeks back, this year is a special year for elysian & i as, after years of longing, this was the first year i've had access to more than one of their pumpkin beers here on the east coast. all told, i got to try three new ones this season--this one, the dark o' the moon & the great pumpkin--so i'd say it was a pretty successful pumpktoberfest on that front.
as far as pumpkin beers go, it's one of the most unique i've tried. the closest thing i've tried is sixpoint's 2011 edition of the autumnation, with its peppery flavor. this one's a light yellow czech-style pilsner brewed with pumpkin & a heavy dose of ginger. when i took my first sip of it, just based on the ginger character, i could've sworn i was sipping on a soda variety ginger beer. the hops are light & nice but unfortunately, the pumpkin doesn't really find its way into the overall flavor. i like it though. at 4.7% ABV, it's an easy drinking brew, another unique take on the pumpkin beer from elysian. good luck finding it though. i saw it once, grabbed a bottle & never saw it again. i guess there's always next year. well...that is unless, in the interim, some creepy kids lure you into their forest abode & trap you there without any beer to drink.