I'll make this one pretty quick. Dracula Untold is an origin story to Vlad prior to him becoming a vampire. While it dawns the rating of PG 13 (Boooo...) there's plenty to take home from the film itself.
This movie actually does an okay job of dealing with the mythos of Vlad. By that I mean it doesn't just piss itself and turn into a fanatically stupid film right off the bat. There's a central conflict where Vlad needs the powers of a recently found vampire to save his people.
The great news about all this is that the film spends very little time worrying about the politics of it all and jumps right into the vampire doing cool vampire things and Vlad being pushed into making an unholy contract with him. Yes...there's some sort of back story to how bad ass Vlad was at some point, but essentially he need Vamp powers or else his land is going to get fucked up and he'll lose his son.
Alright. So vampire fight, don't eat people...vampire fight...don't eat people. Vampire fight. You get the point. The gimmick is that if Vlad feeds he'll remain a cursed member of the undead forever and release his master vampire from his cave like prison. Last 3 days without feeding you're back to human. No harm no foul.
Needless to say some shit goes down and it leads to possibly the dumbest final fight in a movie I've seen in a long long time. I was really enjoying what they were doing with this film until the last fight. Spoilers baby! Oh the spoilers!
Vlad fights a man who is using pieces of silver coin and flinging them at Vlad to harm him. You know, vampires hate silver and fuck those coins! He can't take it! It's a span of 10 minutes that I wish I could have back. I won't get it back though. It's okay, its for you love of the reader.
Alright, this film isn't bad for the first two thirds of it. The recycling of vampire fighting is a little dumb, but all in all it's a decent enough walk on the wild side of Vlad. you get a lot of good character interactions and they get right to the point about how bad ass the vampires are.
That last part with the fight and the coins is terrible. This all leads to a final scene where Vlad meets Mina and a Van Helsing kinda fella says some stupid catch phrase "Let the games begin" as he begins walking towards Vlad as he walks away with Mina. This essentially can mean that this series of movies will continue but I would prefer they don't.
Okay, let's be clear on why this movie isn't complete garbage. They took some careful writing and a lot of time to make Vlad's plight very human. In fact, its probably one of the more human takes on the Dracula mythos. No one really asked for the film, but it's kind of an HBO goodie for a bit. If you can get past the political drama and the fight with the sultan its not bad. In fact, honestly, the vampire fighting is pretty cool to start with, but by the third time you're over it.
All in all, you could watch this, its okay to do so while you're working on something maybe, but don't expect this to be a great addition to your friendly fanged collection.
4827 flying bats erupting from a cave out of 82750 pieces of silver that the sultan randomly had around to shoot at Vlad.
Monday, May 30, 2016
Friday, May 27, 2016
Movie Review: Ava's Possessions
Recently we've focused on A Headful of Ghosts and I thought it would be a great idea to bring it back to a dark comedy. Today's we will talk about Ava's Possessions.
Ava's Possessions starts at the point that an exorcism is already taken place. The fiction of the world we're dropped into gives the viewers the idea that possession is almost an everyday occurrence. The people of that world aren't too keen on interacting with the possessed during or after the possession, but there are support groups, therapy and in our case Ava is even able to get her job back.
Ava begins the process of trying to figure out what she did while she was possessed, who she did while she was possessed and putting her life back together while having moments of demonic influence. People who are possessed are much likelier to be possessed again.
Ava's Possessions starts at the point that an exorcism is already taken place. The fiction of the world we're dropped into gives the viewers the idea that possession is almost an everyday occurrence. The people of that world aren't too keen on interacting with the possessed during or after the possession, but there are support groups, therapy and in our case Ava is even able to get her job back.
Ava begins the process of trying to figure out what she did while she was possessed, who she did while she was possessed and putting her life back together while having moments of demonic influence. People who are possessed are much likelier to be possessed again.
While we're treated to some pretty funny moments, there are also some creepier things taking place when it comes to the interaction with the demon and Ava. Nothing too horrific, we're still casing this as a dark comedy but definitely some mind fucking taking place. Oh the little surprises this demon did while it controlled Ava is pretty wonderful too.
Eventually, Ava joins a support group to work through the post possession trauma and the movie takes off on its own away from following predetermined possession and horror tropes. You have interactions with people who were possessed that are really genuine and also funny.
This is where I think we get this very intentional mirror of true therapy in life. The people who go to therapy make friends, build a support system and go through their own post-demon 12 step. Its pretty cool honestly. They are forced to make amends with the people that they hurt while possessed. They are constantly doing exercises to work on the inner person so they can avoid future possession. They also intentionally reallow the demon into them to try and control it.
As time goes on there are people who want to be repossessed from teh freedom and power that they felt when they were possessed. From there we work our way to realities, revelations and at the end of the film we're given kind of a fake twist. Its really not all that interesting, and I'm not going to take much away from the score of the film because of the end. Its an ending that's required to continue the story or the franchise and honestly I'd like to see more stories from the world that is setup.
The acting is done well, we have some cool cameos from known actors, and some horror tropes with the demon and the possession are done pretty well. I appreciate how they crafted the world in the movie. They give you a chance to see how little it mattered to people about being possessed, but they still had a healthy guard up around people who came at them while possessed.
This is a fun movie, definitely worth the watch. I'd give it 3.5 martinis of blood out of the 0 that get drank in the movie.
Wednesday, May 25, 2016
Video Game Review: Doom
In 1993 we were given a first person view into a demonic invasion. We were asked how bad do we want to be hurt and then put into a platformer/FPS that is still loved, played and talked about today. With pistols in hand we moved through the environment picking up power ups, weapons, health and armor. We watched as the animation of a marine's face would change as we looked around, took damage and increasingly blood would show up on our portrait. This was Doom. A simple idea that led to a franchise that enjoyed a reboot several days ago.
Doom (2016) is a return to the nightmare that took our gaming hearts by storm. The graphics, the platforming, the power up collections, the collectible in hard to reach places and the enemies, my gosh the enemies are all here to give us this love letter to the original Doom. Let's talk about it, shall we?
I'll get into the review with minor spoilers below. If you already are loving the idea of a love letter to those who were all about the original Doom, support the blog by buying your copy here:
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Graphics: Doom brings some major gore in some major ways. The graphics are amazing with their blood effects, the splatter patterns and the pure unadulterated violence that this game franchise is known for. There's some serious time put into the animations that your character goes through with each weapon he picks up. There's also a grand array of ways to slicing your foes in half with the chain saw which is just marvelous. Fucking marvelous!
Doom (2016) is a return to the nightmare that took our gaming hearts by storm. The graphics, the platforming, the power up collections, the collectible in hard to reach places and the enemies, my gosh the enemies are all here to give us this love letter to the original Doom. Let's talk about it, shall we?
I'll get into the review with minor spoilers below. If you already are loving the idea of a love letter to those who were all about the original Doom, support the blog by buying your copy here:
PS 4: http://amzn.to/1TkVdFU
XB 1: http://amzn.to/1V7wMNA
PC: http://amzn.to/1OBpd05
Graphics: Doom brings some major gore in some major ways. The graphics are amazing with their blood effects, the splatter patterns and the pure unadulterated violence that this game franchise is known for. There's some serious time put into the animations that your character goes through with each weapon he picks up. There's also a grand array of ways to slicing your foes in half with the chain saw which is just marvelous. Fucking marvelous!
The game takes the environments of Mars and breathes a little bit of life into it. While we don't get set pieces like Uncharted, we do enjoy a pretty intricate facility and some time on the surface of the planet as well. We are on Mars so the color tones are a little one sided. Lots of browns, reds and a mix of yellows and greens to form the path that the players take.
The enemies (which its Doom, this is kind of important) are extrordinarily well done. The animations they take are both threatening and creepy. They can inflict a large amount of damage in a short amount of time meaning even the earliest baddies can pack a punch if you're not careful. The designs and AI of the enemies are pretty good all in all. We're playing Doom, so we aren't going to take cover and we're not going to get flushed out. This game is about aggression. The enemies show it too.
There's also some great death scenes, a call out to Terminator 2, some really cute collectibles and when you start going in for kills that are up close and personal you really appreciate the time that the developer put into the animation. Graphics are pretty big here since this is the next gen, this is a reboot of Doom and in order to keep an audience engaged you need to offer them something to look at.
Like that, right above. I want my fucking arm back you son of a bitch!
Sound: Doom has a pretty great handle on ambient noises happening around you. You almost have some sort of humming, zapping, walking, growling and the facility is rarely quiet. The voice acting is done well enough. There's some life done in it, but there's nothing to write home about that. One of the things I do want to give Doom credit for is how they work in a sound track during the fights. Its a subtle change from the mechanical and demonic noises that happen around you and then gives you a foundation of generic rock to listen to while you're dealing out some major damage.
While the sound won't make this game a block buster, if it were missing you'd definitely notice.
Story: The story is an attempted reboot of Doom. So, we're getting this mix of Doom 3 with the general idea of what Doom was always eclipsing on. There's a technology that uses Hell for something. Then a lady decides fuck all I'm going to help demons invade this place and then she'd be a killer awesome demon. Just look at this lady (Yes its from a German game screen capture, best I could do on a quick search at the moment.)
She's going all sorts of demonic in that.
Look, its Doom, there's a little bit of a story that's basically pieced together to get you from one fight to another. That's that.
MultiPlayer/Replay Value: It exists but I'm not sure how long any gamer will spend playing Doom multiplayer. The world if vast and with so much to do, so much to play and the fact that Halo, Gears and CoD/BF all exist its hard to make an argument as to why people should stick around and play Doom multiplayer. One of the modes do let you play as demons, but there's not a lot of substance there. This is kind of a one and done game but the ability to hang out with your friends, jump into the game, pass off the controller and enjoy the moments of death is there. That's kind of hard to find now a days. Its weak in this area.
Related to Horror: So, you're here reading a horror blog, lets get to it Roy. Is it scary? Is it terribly frightening? Am I going to wet myself in fear? Well, no. Not really. Doom 3 was terrifying. Mostly because they used the elements of darkness and then setup a never ending jump scare. The blood is massive, the facility is a fun environment to run around and kill demons in but its not really scary. We have a lot of horror titles now a days and while Doom fringes into our territory with this addition to the library. It doesn't feel scary and there's no impending sense of I'm going to get fucked up. My score for this is based highly on this, so don't take it the wrong way at the end.
Final Score: Doom's reboot is like having a snack but still being hungry. Sure I can have a lot of gore but there's not a lot of fear involved in the game. Yes, we're dealing with hell. Yes the demons are all awful and terrible looking and want to gut us as fast as they can, but horror wise there's things that are missing. Its not from a lack of trying, there's plenty of moments that can be a bit of jump scaring, but it's just not fulfilling for my dark heart. With that said, its Doom, its fun, my gosh is it fun. There's tons of weapons, tons of enemies, the bosses are fucking killer, the environments are great to play in, the horror isn't there. 3 severed limbs out of a human.
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Yea, I'm going to rip your fucking head off mate.
Monday, May 23, 2016
Monthly Feature: A Head Full of Ghosts
Paul Tremblay wrote a masterful tale about a family that goes through an impossible situation when the eldest daughter seems to be possessed by a demon. This idea alone doesn't bring any new ideas to the table until you find out that the story is being told through three separate mediums and all of them give you a different angle, idea or suspicion to what's really happening.
If you don't want spoilers then you shouldn't read further. Instead, support the blog and buy your copy here: http://amzn.to/1Xuofot Trust me, this is going to be a powerful read for you. Need more of a hint of how great this book is. This happened last night (last night being the night before I wrote this, not necessarily the posting or when you read this)
If you don't want spoilers then you shouldn't read further. Instead, support the blog and buy your copy here: http://amzn.to/1Xuofot Trust me, this is going to be a powerful read for you. Need more of a hint of how great this book is. This happened last night (last night being the night before I wrote this, not necessarily the posting or when you read this)
On with the blog! These monthly features are pieces of media that inspire horror fans. They deserve some recognition for the things they accomplish (which I'll outline) and you won't go wrong picking it up for yourself.
Paul Tremblay is no stranger to writing a piece that reflects on society's short comings, the comedically odd nature of reality and he's done so before this book. He wrote Swallowing a Donkey's Eye which is the modern day Animal Farm. This book features a reality TV show in the midst of a break down of an entire family. A demon exorcism and family shattering all for the entertainment of America.
Character wise there's four primary entities. Merry, who is our main character, tells the story from both the eyes of her young self and a twenty something woman breaking into writing. Marjorie is a girl who is believed to be possessed or might have a mental illness. The parents (John and Sara) are foils to each other. John becomes religious and wants the exorcism while Sara becomes a drunk and loses her ability to protect her daughters.
Other characters fill in over time. Father Wanderly, a priest who is going to perform the exorcism. Barry and Ken who are TV producers and writers respectively, and some of their crew. Another major character is an author who is writing a book about Merry's story. Her name is Rachel and she acts more like a representative for us. She asks some questions we're wondering and her reactions are similar to the ones I was having when I went through this book.
We start off with a true love letter to the exorcism. Marjorie begins to display symptoms of demonic possession. She's making up odd stories, talking with strange and scary voices, she's almost harming her sister, and we have an amazingly disgusting vomit scene. I seriously had to stop my audio book and give silent props to Tremblay on his descriptions. John takes Marjorie to the church (against her mother's wishes) and then begins the road towards exorcism.
The book is divided into several parts. You get a pretty clear indication of when a new part is starting because you read through a blogger's post about the TV series (The Possession) that shows the events with a camera's eye. Its a really fun way to split up the story, to alter the pacing and we get a very indepth look at what's happening on the TV show. The blogger's name is Karen, but she's actually Merry. We now have 3 different point of views through one character. How fun is that!
When the TV crews arrive the family starts going through some really dark times. Mom is drinking a lot of the time. Dad is blaming anyone but himself for what's happening to his daughter and the book states that both mom and dad have done a lot to get Marjorie the help she needs. There's a lot of indication that Marjorie might be going to a psychologist but she's certainly finding ways to avoid taking her medicine. While Merry believes Marjorie is faking, the reader is left to make that decision. Marjorie's actions become stranger and her personality changes several times and then reverts back.
This is still a Tremblay novel. There's some back door indications that there's a lot of money involved and the church stands to make a lot of money off the TV show just as the generic TV corporation will be making their money too. Marjorie makes some statements about this during her "possessed" moments which are brilliant and sword sharp.
The relationship between the sisters is an over all reflection of the state of the family. The beginning of the book has them nearly inseparable. They make up stories together and write them down together. They play together. Merry's best friend is Marjorie. The progression of love and trust to hate and distance is done in slow and nauseating moments. The love and trust of a very young girl is being broken by her older sister. We're not sure if its a demon or her mental illness that's doing this.
You're told through out the book that Merry was a young girl when it all took place. You're left to wonder what's made up, what's real and what was things that they were doing on the TV show to increase the scare factor. Merry makes several statements that no one story is accurate so you're left to fill in some gaps which is fine. You're individual imagination can come up with what it's like to live with a possessed pre-teen. Fucking hell I assume.
Eventually, the exorcism takes place and we have a dissection of what Merry saw when she was a young child, what happened on the TV show and the fall out after the exorcism. Everything is quick in the moments of the exorcism. It's not how you think it would go though. You have everything that's on par with the Exorcist but then its all very surreal and human. We're left with a "what the fuck were you doing." moment. All the people that came to help the family, the priests, the TV people and the groupies of both leave them all there.
Mom with her drinking, dad with his broken idea of religion, Marjorie with her illness and Merry is just left there by herself. The aftermath is a truly sad moment. A moment where you wonder if dad is losing his mind about to do something terrible to his family or is Marjorie manipulating Merry.
During the story we get another thermometer that reflects the state of the family. There's protestors and as the book continues they move from just a couple of people with signs to a full compliment of hate church protestors with signs of "God hates Marjorie". As the protesting becomes worse you can directly reflect that to the state of the marriage, family and Marjorie.
Now here's the big one. The question that poses itself several times is, is Marjorie possessed or is she faking it? A young Merry believes she's faking it and the older believes that Marjorie is sick. The only people who fully commit to the idea that she's possessed in John and the priest. Both of these characters have antagonistic roles within the story, but they are attempting to help Marjorie in the way that they know how.
The final interaction with Merry and Marjorie is one of the most shocking works in recent memory. Marjorie tells Merry about her father's fall into madness. He's built a shrine in the basement to the failed show and to his falling family. He's been talking to a hate church about what to do now (ironically the same hate church that protested his house and he got into a fist fight with) and now he's planning on poisoning them all.
In order to stop this, Marjorie convinces Merry to use a small amount of the poison to make their parents go to sleep so they can go to the police and save themselves. In the ensuing moments, Marjorie arrives to eat dinner and happily and almost manically eats the poison with her family. There is no shrine in the basement and Merry has killed her family. The little 8 year old girl has been manipulated into murdering her family. They find her sucking on the finger of her 3 day dead mom. Holy fucking fuck fuck! Paul Tremblay you are amazing!
The book ends shortly after this with a scene that's reflecting the moments of the exorcism when Merry was younger. We're left with the knowledge that people can see their breath in the final scene the same way people could see it during the exorcism. Could it be the demon? Could it be something more? Could it be because Boston is fucking cold as hell?
You can draw your own conclusion with all the evidence that is shown, but the things that take place in the background are probably the most heart breaking. Merry and Marjorie's break down is some of the hardest stuff I've encountered this year. The foreshadowing that's used outside of the 8 year old Merry's story just gives you the sense of the impending heart break.
I again have to give a nod to Tremblay being able to put his standard social issues into the book. They aren't really at the forefront of the story at any point in time, but you get the family in economic crisis and closed door deals and the craziness of it all.
This isn't a story that you read and think "This could happen to anyone." but it is a story that you read and you realize that the things that John does to try and help his family is some of the most terrible, wrong direction stuff you've ever seen. By the end you can realize that John is sick and so is Marjorie. You could also make a compelling argument that there was a demon and after the attempted exorcism it manipulated Merry into killing her family. Maybe we are the demons. Oooh...
Either way, this book is still tragic and its a modern twist on your typical possession. A Head Full of Ghosts is entirely worth of the awards that it has won and I can't wait to see where Tremblay goes next. Must read, keep it on your shelf and give it to someone who needs a good read.
Support the blog and buy it here: http://amzn.to/1Xuofot
Friday, May 20, 2016
Movie Review: The Blair Witch Project
This is an oldie but it has an important piece of horror history that needs to be discussed and acknowledged. The Blair Witch has a lot of gaping holes in its writing and dialog but they went mostly unnoticed at the time it was in theatres. In fact, while this movie was on the big screen the discussions around the water cooler was asking if people knew about the movie and how people wondered what happened to the characters. How could people just "disappear".
The two male actors in this movie were actually the Directors, writers and had a big vested interest in the movies. They'd both go on to work on more projects including one of them working on a great little film called Midnight Son. There was one big problem in the plan. The actress that gave us the iconic image of:
My critique now a days as that without the idea of this being real, its lost its interesting moment in the sun. When this movie came out people were reading the police reports that were made on the website, and people were genuinely becoming invested in the story. After all, who hasn't had a moment of bravery and wanted to go hunt some fucking witches, right? Right.
What we do have is a film with a lot of shakey footage. A LOT of SHAKE. The interviews become unauthentic and uninteresting, the tension that is suppose to build loses its bite and the final moments of the film do not cause that unease or uncertainty that you felt when this first came out.
You're just left like a coke that has been left out all night long. There's still some sugar there, but the fizz is all gone. That's really sad to say too. The film actually does a really good job with the last 20 minutes or so. You have a scene where you're not sure what's happening to one of the characters. The very last scene is just a great stress creator. Just look at it.
So, the bad. Shakey cam. The film spends a lot of time contradicting itself. For example, you're told that the towns people don't want to talk about the witch then the next parts of the movie are all about the townspeople not shutting up about the witch. There's a lot of undeveloped tension. You're suppose to be filming a movie about this witch and you have nights where you listen to foot steps in the woods or other noises like cackling. Yet, the characters don't try to get this on film.
Worse documentary people ever.
The best part of the movie is really the last part of it and that's just a final epitaph to a film that couldn't hold up its end of the bargain when it comes to lasting horror. What this did for horror in general was much more impressive. A lot of younger people really believe that this is the first found footage film. I already shouted out what my guess for the first found footage movie is, but as you research more about the people who made the film they were inspired by...found footage films. That's right.
Over a 4+ year time frame this movie went from being an idea to a full creation. If I reviewed this movie when it first came out and the fear of it actually being real was still there, then I think I would say you have to watch this today! Right now! NOW NOW!
That's not the case. We're years and years later. What this film really did was pave the way (and quite literally sometimes) for films like V/H/S, V/H/S 2, Paranormal Activity and so on. While Heather Donahue (The actress of course) would find her way to making several indie films and an episode of its Always Sunny, the other two actors continued their time in horror. V/H/S 2's Director is in fact Eduardo Sanchez. He's also the Director for the TV series of From Dusk Til Dawn as well as Supernatural. He also did the second Blair Witch Project movie, but...lets...not...talk about that....
The point is that Blair Witch paved its way for others to find an expression. I find the found footage films to be really fun to watch and sometimes far more terrifying than traditional filming and I think we'd have a lot less of that if this movie didn't exist. Final Verdict: Take a watch for historical significance but ...you can pass.
Final Thought: This film was the foundation for how horror would gain a new entry into the part's that terrify us. By taking the normal everyday person and empowering them with a camera, you could find new ways to tell stories and create much more compelling threats that bridged from a media form to everyday life.
While the movie doesn't stand up, the sentiment it leaves with it does.
The two male actors in this movie were actually the Directors, writers and had a big vested interest in the movies. They'd both go on to work on more projects including one of them working on a great little film called Midnight Son. There was one big problem in the plan. The actress that gave us the iconic image of:
You know that lady. Well, she went ahead and did some work in a Steak and Shake commercial. The other half of the watercooler conversations became "Well, I'm sure I saw her somewhere else" and it broke the momentary magic that the film had over the audience. In fact, without that magic, this film can be reduced to an okay but not overly great movie.
The film follows three people as they make a documentary about the Blair Witch. They interview towns people and go to try to find the witch. That's super spooky in itself. See, we're talking about a time when filming began to really open up to everyone, not just some people who could afford a huge camera.
Horror in and of itself did not adopt found footage films from the Blair Witch Project, but what did happen was people understanding that they could freely create whatever they wanted with a house hold budget and make statement. (McPherson Tapes, shout out to a shit movie that scared the hell out of people but was probably a more accurate shot at the first "found footage film")
I digress, the three go into the woods hunting the witch. During the time of the film we're told about the trials that took place (Salem Witch Trials to be specific ...well...sorta) We also get back story to some of the terrible things the witch did. So, naturally lets go unarmed as fuck, be without a map or back up system and try to find this woman.
That's when shit gets real. They hear noises at night...noises in the woods spooky. They start finding dead animals and begin finding set pieces...er....sorry...the woods being messed with as they try to find their way out. Such as this:
My critique now a days as that without the idea of this being real, its lost its interesting moment in the sun. When this movie came out people were reading the police reports that were made on the website, and people were genuinely becoming invested in the story. After all, who hasn't had a moment of bravery and wanted to go hunt some fucking witches, right? Right.
What we do have is a film with a lot of shakey footage. A LOT of SHAKE. The interviews become unauthentic and uninteresting, the tension that is suppose to build loses its bite and the final moments of the film do not cause that unease or uncertainty that you felt when this first came out.
You're just left like a coke that has been left out all night long. There's still some sugar there, but the fizz is all gone. That's really sad to say too. The film actually does a really good job with the last 20 minutes or so. You have a scene where you're not sure what's happening to one of the characters. The very last scene is just a great stress creator. Just look at it.
So, the bad. Shakey cam. The film spends a lot of time contradicting itself. For example, you're told that the towns people don't want to talk about the witch then the next parts of the movie are all about the townspeople not shutting up about the witch. There's a lot of undeveloped tension. You're suppose to be filming a movie about this witch and you have nights where you listen to foot steps in the woods or other noises like cackling. Yet, the characters don't try to get this on film.
Worse documentary people ever.
The best part of the movie is really the last part of it and that's just a final epitaph to a film that couldn't hold up its end of the bargain when it comes to lasting horror. What this did for horror in general was much more impressive. A lot of younger people really believe that this is the first found footage film. I already shouted out what my guess for the first found footage movie is, but as you research more about the people who made the film they were inspired by...found footage films. That's right.
Over a 4+ year time frame this movie went from being an idea to a full creation. If I reviewed this movie when it first came out and the fear of it actually being real was still there, then I think I would say you have to watch this today! Right now! NOW NOW!
That's not the case. We're years and years later. What this film really did was pave the way (and quite literally sometimes) for films like V/H/S, V/H/S 2, Paranormal Activity and so on. While Heather Donahue (The actress of course) would find her way to making several indie films and an episode of its Always Sunny, the other two actors continued their time in horror. V/H/S 2's Director is in fact Eduardo Sanchez. He's also the Director for the TV series of From Dusk Til Dawn as well as Supernatural. He also did the second Blair Witch Project movie, but...lets...not...talk about that....
The point is that Blair Witch paved its way for others to find an expression. I find the found footage films to be really fun to watch and sometimes far more terrifying than traditional filming and I think we'd have a lot less of that if this movie didn't exist. Final Verdict: Take a watch for historical significance but ...you can pass.
Final Thought: This film was the foundation for how horror would gain a new entry into the part's that terrify us. By taking the normal everyday person and empowering them with a camera, you could find new ways to tell stories and create much more compelling threats that bridged from a media form to everyday life.
While the movie doesn't stand up, the sentiment it leaves with it does.
Thursday, May 19, 2016
Trailer Analysis: The Purge: Election Year
Let's get right to it! All you violence loving and blood celebrating ghouls out there might enjoy this trailer:
We are back with another entry in The Purge film. The first movie was a great little film. There wasn't a big overly dramatic plot to it, yes we get a bit of substance here and there, but it was mostly a family trying to survive the Purge. Spoilers, some of the people don't. That's the thing that has to be one of the better parts to the original movie. The main characters are in danger and lack immortality. Dying is simply a part of the culture and when our main character dies with the Purge still in play we grieve only a moment before returning to the task of surviving.
The second Purge film was a little bit more loose with its narative. We begin to really see some of the things taking place in the world. The Purge is an event used for the rich and powerful to keep the poor and undermined in check. There's a couple of really fun moments (Sister in law getting her purge on is one of the, I'm looking at you baby! Keep on purging!) but the story is a little here and there. Essentially there's three to four subplots sewed together and while its not an awful movie, it lacks in the same value that the first movie had.
This new trailer seems to point to the entire political community gunning after one person who is about to become president and wants the Purge to be ended. The first part of the trailer feels like an exact reflection to our current political climate and another wild haired senator from Vermont on his path to cleanse the government. I digress, this isn't a political blog. However, I see what they are doing there.
Anyway, we finally get to it. We have a setup. We have a purpose, protect the Senator, and we have a threat. All those rich people who love to keep on purging, don't really want to stop purging. We finally get to it. There's a betrayal! What! No! I sat here watching this trailer for the first time thinking someone is going to betray someone. Of course there is!
People start dying and then we get to it. The Purge constantly has to out do itself with its violence, its adranaline popping moments and by adding more bizarre rituals to the night of the Purge. Whether its Purge Games, or the celebration of people hanging in trees, or the prayers they make to America for such a wonderful moment. This might be what starts to kill this series the most.
The original was a simple "We have to survive" night. There were call outs to the political climage sure, but not too bad. The second movie had to up the first movie which over all wasn't hard to do. We had more action sequences, but over all the villains weren't so scary. Here we're seeing a lot of bizarre things and probably an attempt to be scary in some way again.
I don't really know if its going to work, but something to keep on the radar. Don't forget to check out the Rick and Morty episode about the Purge as well!
via GIPHY
We are back with another entry in The Purge film. The first movie was a great little film. There wasn't a big overly dramatic plot to it, yes we get a bit of substance here and there, but it was mostly a family trying to survive the Purge. Spoilers, some of the people don't. That's the thing that has to be one of the better parts to the original movie. The main characters are in danger and lack immortality. Dying is simply a part of the culture and when our main character dies with the Purge still in play we grieve only a moment before returning to the task of surviving.
The second Purge film was a little bit more loose with its narative. We begin to really see some of the things taking place in the world. The Purge is an event used for the rich and powerful to keep the poor and undermined in check. There's a couple of really fun moments (Sister in law getting her purge on is one of the, I'm looking at you baby! Keep on purging!) but the story is a little here and there. Essentially there's three to four subplots sewed together and while its not an awful movie, it lacks in the same value that the first movie had.
This new trailer seems to point to the entire political community gunning after one person who is about to become president and wants the Purge to be ended. The first part of the trailer feels like an exact reflection to our current political climate and another wild haired senator from Vermont on his path to cleanse the government. I digress, this isn't a political blog. However, I see what they are doing there.
Anyway, we finally get to it. We have a setup. We have a purpose, protect the Senator, and we have a threat. All those rich people who love to keep on purging, don't really want to stop purging. We finally get to it. There's a betrayal! What! No! I sat here watching this trailer for the first time thinking someone is going to betray someone. Of course there is!
People start dying and then we get to it. The Purge constantly has to out do itself with its violence, its adranaline popping moments and by adding more bizarre rituals to the night of the Purge. Whether its Purge Games, or the celebration of people hanging in trees, or the prayers they make to America for such a wonderful moment. This might be what starts to kill this series the most.
The original was a simple "We have to survive" night. There were call outs to the political climage sure, but not too bad. The second movie had to up the first movie which over all wasn't hard to do. We had more action sequences, but over all the villains weren't so scary. Here we're seeing a lot of bizarre things and probably an attempt to be scary in some way again.
I don't really know if its going to work, but something to keep on the radar. Don't forget to check out the Rick and Morty episode about the Purge as well!
via GIPHY
Wednesday, May 18, 2016
Movie Review: Silent Hill
What's one great entry about Silent Hill without a lackluster fan hated walk on the foggy side? Silent Hill should be a home run. There's no need to change the formula, there's no need to change the tropes, there's no need to even write in additional characters or dialog. If you took the original game and made it into a movie you'd have a fan following and people gathering in their homes to relive the movie and their thoughts from the game all at once. How could you fuck it up?
Well, let's start with the writer. Roger Avary is best known for his work on Pulp Fiction. His next most successful outing in cinema is Beowulf. The problems that appear to me with this is that...those aren't horror movies!
What do you mean? Beowulf was terrifying? Actually, it's not a bad movie. It is certainly not great, but its not bad. It's still no horror movie. Let's move onto the next problem with Silent Hill. Christopher Gans. Gans directed Brotherhood of the Wold and to be fair this is a film that isn't bad. However, it isn't the same genre as Silent Hill. The writer and director were both chosen with their various outings of success to try and rope as many movie goers as possible into this film. Pulp Fiction, Beowulf, a marginally successful horror flick in 2001. The possibility is there. In fact look at the fuckin monster right up there. How about this set piece:
That looks pretty cool, what about this one:
WHY!
Well, let's start with the writer. Roger Avary is best known for his work on Pulp Fiction. His next most successful outing in cinema is Beowulf. The problems that appear to me with this is that...those aren't horror movies!
What do you mean? Beowulf was terrifying? Actually, it's not a bad movie. It is certainly not great, but its not bad. It's still no horror movie. Let's move onto the next problem with Silent Hill. Christopher Gans. Gans directed Brotherhood of the Wold and to be fair this is a film that isn't bad. However, it isn't the same genre as Silent Hill. The writer and director were both chosen with their various outings of success to try and rope as many movie goers as possible into this film. Pulp Fiction, Beowulf, a marginally successful horror flick in 2001. The possibility is there. In fact look at the fuckin monster right up there. How about this set piece:
That looks pretty cool, what about this one:
Hey awesome, we have blood on the wall. We can't go wrong! No, no we did go wrong. Let me tell you why.
Gans did an excellent job of providing a truly creepy environment that was well adapted from the source material of the video game. The plot is what really goes wrong. You have Sean Bean but he's not used for more than a few scenes of "What's going on here! I don't get it!" We're treated to a mom trying to find her daughter. Now, for those who know the video game (in fact I as a fan of the franchise have good things to say, but critically speaking as a piece of cinema is different) they are treated to a watered down version of a silent hill game. There's no real twists or turns, no big revelations, you watch the mom fight monsters, run through set pieces, and ultimately fight some big bad guys. The plot is so thin that anyone who has never seen a Silent Hill game will have no fucking clue why Silent Hill became a monstrous version of club med when the sirens went off.
The movie tries to explain it. They talk about witch burnings and the two children actually being one person and...you know what...fuck it all. It's a bad plot! Yes, you might find it in a video game version of silent hill, but to introduce an audience of people to the world of Silent Hill, its terrible. The movie is 2 hours long. There's a lot of discussion about the religion of the town and the movie constantly stops in a fashion of video game magic to slow the pace and offer information that isn't memorable and doesn't really affect your viewing experience.
How about a simple story of a town is cursed, bad shit happened, daughter is lost in town, mom is trying to save her, shit there's monsters, oh fuck Sean Bean is in this, oh cool we won. One and a half hours later we're done here.
WELLL NOOOOOOOPPPPPEEEEEEEE
But that actually sounds like a fun movie to watch...
I SAID NOPE MOTHER FUCKER
WHY!
Alright, let's talk about the good and the reason you can watch this film. Its a stunning visual accomplishment. The world of Silent Hill is brought to you in all its rusty and bloody fascination. If you are a fan of the video game, you'll feel like you're watching a traditional Silent Hill plot. This is long though and its information over load. Couldn't I just have a lot more of this:
Hell yea Demon Nurses, you're my jam!
Let's talk about the bad. The plot is thick and full of fat. You feel like you're watching a video game which over two hours does not translate to a good movie. You have all these beautiful sets and all these awesome monsters, but no one to get fucked up by them in the way you want them to get fucked up by them. That plot...oh that plot.
Listen, its a great video game adaptation but that statement sucks. The sequel has to be better...right? ...right??? ...
RIGHT!?
3D?
Nah...I'm Good...
Monday, May 16, 2016
Video Game Analysis: PT (PS4)
PT was a startling experience that blew up the internet (Not literal) with people talking about this twenty minute experience that pushed horror gaming in a brand new direction. Unfortunately, PT would be taken down from the Playstation Store, but the foot prints of those who played it are still available on Youtube. Let's talk about!
First, let's make sure you have a chance to experience this game. It's not the same as playing it, you'll be in a well lit room and won't be controlling the character, but you'll get the point.
Oh what a great image for this game! The pale skin, the horrific dentist nightmare of teeth, the slime like substance pouring from her mouth. PT was a technological wonder to those who loved horror video gaming. That's mostly because the library hasn't really expanded that much in comparison to the past console generations. Sure, we got Alien Isolation and The Evil Within (Which deserves several posts but its not here.) What we didn't have is a large amount of developers pumping our veins full of adrenaline and exploring a lot of different themes in horror. At least not yet and if you're a PC gamer the indie scene exploded taking attention away from consoles.
So, how do you bring it all back around?
Silent Hills. That's actually what PT was pointing us to, but that's not the ending that everyone got. PT put you in the shoes of an unnamed person who explores several corridors of what appears to be an old house over and over again. The sound, the controls and the unavoidable feeling of helplessness settles in quickly. There are no weapons, no health bar and you are quickly a pawn to the environment. Exploring the concept of the environment changing in small ways and then in dramatically huge ways changes your trip through the house each time.
Sometimes you might have a voice crying in the bathroom, sometimes you might explore the bathroom, other times the radio personality might tell you that the gap in the door leads to another reality. Silent Hill has been known to explore these concepts. When in Silent Hill and inside of its horrific fog you become an unwilling participant in an alternate place. Sometimes the meaning was that the things you killed were actually people. Objects created by the mind of your broken protagonist. Always there were direct psychological connections between the broken worlds and the real world. Pyramid Head, don't get pissed off, this blog isn't about you but I'm thinking of you as I write that statement.
As the unnamed character exploring this environment you're almost always pushed to go into further exploration of things you don't really want to see. You're always feeling uneasy about your next step forward and you're never sure of what's going to happen to you. That's why I've chosen this play through to post on this blog. With the players constantly narrating their reaction, I can't help but smile from my own thoughts of the game running parallel with theirs. "Fuck that hallway."
The radio announcer is a very important piece of the puzzle of breaking out from one ending to another in PT. The first thing you hear is a scripted news story that leads to the talk about a murder. In this murder you could be any one of the people being talked about or no one at all. Fun fact, the news story that's played is also played in Metal Gear Solid V, another Kojima production. The radio does offer some other pieces of dialog. You're told to not touch that dial and then a sequence of numbers are mechanically spoken about and finally you're told to look behind you. I SAID LOOK BEHIND YOU!
Fuck that! I'm running! The sequence of numbers likely relates to the first story that's played on the radio. The news story states that the man who murdered his family would chant numbers like a prayer.
The next things that you notice in the environments are the photo frames. They are almost always changing. In fact, I didn't realize it until looking up information to write about the game, but the fragments are all different languages. Sure you get some English, but you just think its a scary sentence and then its time to move along. The languages all tell a small story within a story. There's no specific links but it's all linked together. That's just how psychological fear works.
There are other statements that appear with each traverse through this small terrible universe. Some of them state there's a demon inside me, others ask for forgiveness, and all of them are fucking creepy.
The radio continues its none stop narration and sometimes add some other things to the script. This includes a statement about the father who committed the murders hanging himself with a garden hose (Umbilical cord!!) Remember, the radio states earlier that mom is pregnant in this story, so this fucker went and killed her and then hung himself with the umbilical cord. How amazingly cool is that! Well done, demon bro.
The radio man continues on as you continue traversing the different hallways...er...realities? The story goes something like this. The guy lost his job and started hitting the alcy a little too hard. Meanwhile, the girl, mom, the wife you know the lady with the umbilical cord (or formally had the cord) got a job at the grocery store. The store where the manager liked how she looked in a skirt. That was 10 months ago...
Larger environmental changes take place. Sometimes a swinging bulk of mass in the large part of the hallway starts crying and spilling blood all over the place. Sometimes the time on the clock changes. Sometimes furniture appears and disappears. Sometimes, a woman...monster...thing jumps you and after a few chewing noises you start back in the original room with a talking brown paper bag and the flashlight you picked up from the roach infested bathroom.
In order to actually earn the trailer of a game that will never come out, you have to make it through the loop around 15 times. I've been checking guides and videos and this seems to be what it takes to get to the true ending. You actually have to make a fetus laugh 3 times to get a phone to ring before you're brought to the trailer for Silent Hills. Unfortunately, Silent Hills was canceled and PT removed from the Playstation store in April of 2015. So, Roy, why write about this today?
This was a brilliant piece of interactive horror. This was accessible to so many people. Unlike VR. VR itself is expensive and the access is going to be weak and I don't predict a fan favorite there. Not by a long shot. What we had here was some really well done horror tropes. Bloody fetuses, bug infested bathrooms, hanging bleeding appliances from teh ceiling, a radio show that makes your skin crawl and if you did it right you could see a trailer for a game that was going to use all this wonderful tech to scare our pants off.
With the ending of Silent Hills, I wonder what will happen with horror on the console. Again, if you're a PC gamer, you have no worries! Console gamers are confined to a much smaller circus. With that said, there are alternatives that I'll write about. One in particular I mentioned The Evil Within which is a great title to enjoy a few jump scares. Until Dawn is a wonderful title that has a lot of tropes to explore in the span of one game. You can also argue that some games have several genres within it. Last of Us has some horror elements. Bloodborne and Outlast all put together some great horror elements within what I think is a less creepy outing then what can be a full loving helping of horror.
First, let's make sure you have a chance to experience this game. It's not the same as playing it, you'll be in a well lit room and won't be controlling the character, but you'll get the point.
Oh what a great image for this game! The pale skin, the horrific dentist nightmare of teeth, the slime like substance pouring from her mouth. PT was a technological wonder to those who loved horror video gaming. That's mostly because the library hasn't really expanded that much in comparison to the past console generations. Sure, we got Alien Isolation and The Evil Within (Which deserves several posts but its not here.) What we didn't have is a large amount of developers pumping our veins full of adrenaline and exploring a lot of different themes in horror. At least not yet and if you're a PC gamer the indie scene exploded taking attention away from consoles.
So, how do you bring it all back around?
Silent Hills. That's actually what PT was pointing us to, but that's not the ending that everyone got. PT put you in the shoes of an unnamed person who explores several corridors of what appears to be an old house over and over again. The sound, the controls and the unavoidable feeling of helplessness settles in quickly. There are no weapons, no health bar and you are quickly a pawn to the environment. Exploring the concept of the environment changing in small ways and then in dramatically huge ways changes your trip through the house each time.
Sometimes you might have a voice crying in the bathroom, sometimes you might explore the bathroom, other times the radio personality might tell you that the gap in the door leads to another reality. Silent Hill has been known to explore these concepts. When in Silent Hill and inside of its horrific fog you become an unwilling participant in an alternate place. Sometimes the meaning was that the things you killed were actually people. Objects created by the mind of your broken protagonist. Always there were direct psychological connections between the broken worlds and the real world. Pyramid Head, don't get pissed off, this blog isn't about you but I'm thinking of you as I write that statement.
As the unnamed character exploring this environment you're almost always pushed to go into further exploration of things you don't really want to see. You're always feeling uneasy about your next step forward and you're never sure of what's going to happen to you. That's why I've chosen this play through to post on this blog. With the players constantly narrating their reaction, I can't help but smile from my own thoughts of the game running parallel with theirs. "Fuck that hallway."
The radio announcer is a very important piece of the puzzle of breaking out from one ending to another in PT. The first thing you hear is a scripted news story that leads to the talk about a murder. In this murder you could be any one of the people being talked about or no one at all. Fun fact, the news story that's played is also played in Metal Gear Solid V, another Kojima production. The radio does offer some other pieces of dialog. You're told to not touch that dial and then a sequence of numbers are mechanically spoken about and finally you're told to look behind you. I SAID LOOK BEHIND YOU!
Fuck that! I'm running! The sequence of numbers likely relates to the first story that's played on the radio. The news story states that the man who murdered his family would chant numbers like a prayer.
The next things that you notice in the environments are the photo frames. They are almost always changing. In fact, I didn't realize it until looking up information to write about the game, but the fragments are all different languages. Sure you get some English, but you just think its a scary sentence and then its time to move along. The languages all tell a small story within a story. There's no specific links but it's all linked together. That's just how psychological fear works.
There are other statements that appear with each traverse through this small terrible universe. Some of them state there's a demon inside me, others ask for forgiveness, and all of them are fucking creepy.
The radio continues its none stop narration and sometimes add some other things to the script. This includes a statement about the father who committed the murders hanging himself with a garden hose (Umbilical cord!!) Remember, the radio states earlier that mom is pregnant in this story, so this fucker went and killed her and then hung himself with the umbilical cord. How amazingly cool is that! Well done, demon bro.
The radio man continues on as you continue traversing the different hallways...er...realities? The story goes something like this. The guy lost his job and started hitting the alcy a little too hard. Meanwhile, the girl, mom, the wife you know the lady with the umbilical cord (or formally had the cord) got a job at the grocery store. The store where the manager liked how she looked in a skirt. That was 10 months ago...
Larger environmental changes take place. Sometimes a swinging bulk of mass in the large part of the hallway starts crying and spilling blood all over the place. Sometimes the time on the clock changes. Sometimes furniture appears and disappears. Sometimes, a woman...monster...thing jumps you and after a few chewing noises you start back in the original room with a talking brown paper bag and the flashlight you picked up from the roach infested bathroom.
In order to actually earn the trailer of a game that will never come out, you have to make it through the loop around 15 times. I've been checking guides and videos and this seems to be what it takes to get to the true ending. You actually have to make a fetus laugh 3 times to get a phone to ring before you're brought to the trailer for Silent Hills. Unfortunately, Silent Hills was canceled and PT removed from the Playstation store in April of 2015. So, Roy, why write about this today?
This was a brilliant piece of interactive horror. This was accessible to so many people. Unlike VR. VR itself is expensive and the access is going to be weak and I don't predict a fan favorite there. Not by a long shot. What we had here was some really well done horror tropes. Bloody fetuses, bug infested bathrooms, hanging bleeding appliances from teh ceiling, a radio show that makes your skin crawl and if you did it right you could see a trailer for a game that was going to use all this wonderful tech to scare our pants off.
With the ending of Silent Hills, I wonder what will happen with horror on the console. Again, if you're a PC gamer, you have no worries! Console gamers are confined to a much smaller circus. With that said, there are alternatives that I'll write about. One in particular I mentioned The Evil Within which is a great title to enjoy a few jump scares. Until Dawn is a wonderful title that has a lot of tropes to explore in the span of one game. You can also argue that some games have several genres within it. Last of Us has some horror elements. Bloodborne and Outlast all put together some great horror elements within what I think is a less creepy outing then what can be a full loving helping of horror.
Sunday, May 15, 2016
Teaser May Feature: A Head Full of Ghosts
Each month there's a piece of media that demands to stand above the rest. Its not that this exact piece will stand out for the remainder of time or that its the best thing since Jason sliced bread. What these pieces do is find a way to compellingly tell a story, be truly freaky, and open an avenue that will allow some great conversation.
This month I'm going with A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay. I listened to the audio book of this story and I fell in love with it instantly. I found myself wishing I had the CD's with me and I'm sure I'll be the owner of a physical copy at some point.
This story is genuinely terrifying, but not without its feet grounding into the world of possible. This book is definitely inspired by The Exorcist, but what's great is that there's some characters in the book pointing this out in a completely funny and witty ...drum roll please...blog...yep.
This is a really great story, we're going to do a full review for the May Feature. What I will tell you now is that nothing is ever as it seems in this story. It's not that its complicated (The Passage...you deserve a feature but you're so complicated and so long I need a lot of time to put that together!) its that everything that happens in the story feels so natural in the progression of something that could happen to any person.
Each character has their own motivations while mostly sticking to a group goal. Each person stays true o those motivations and while we'll do a full argument of who is the bad guy, who is the good guy kind of thing, this book allows each character to take their turns making decisions that fit into both spectrums. Can't wait to put this all together for you. Probably towards the end of May.
Read this book today!
This month I'm going with A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay. I listened to the audio book of this story and I fell in love with it instantly. I found myself wishing I had the CD's with me and I'm sure I'll be the owner of a physical copy at some point.
This story is genuinely terrifying, but not without its feet grounding into the world of possible. This book is definitely inspired by The Exorcist, but what's great is that there's some characters in the book pointing this out in a completely funny and witty ...drum roll please...blog...yep.
This is a really great story, we're going to do a full review for the May Feature. What I will tell you now is that nothing is ever as it seems in this story. It's not that its complicated (The Passage...you deserve a feature but you're so complicated and so long I need a lot of time to put that together!) its that everything that happens in the story feels so natural in the progression of something that could happen to any person.
Each character has their own motivations while mostly sticking to a group goal. Each person stays true o those motivations and while we'll do a full argument of who is the bad guy, who is the good guy kind of thing, this book allows each character to take their turns making decisions that fit into both spectrums. Can't wait to put this all together for you. Probably towards the end of May.
Read this book today!
Book Review: Salem's Lot
Stephen King has taken on monsters, demons and the creepy crawlies of horror his entire career. Reading one of his novels is almost a guarantee that you're going to get a slightly different idea of the horror tropes that he sometimes helped invent. In fact, for those who are working on their own works of horror you think "How did he do this so successfully so many times?" I think the answer is passion. Reading a book by Stephen King is like reading a love letter (...maybe love isn't the correct word) that he composed to the reader.
I picked up Salem's Lot a little while back and read it for the second time in my literary time on this planet. I got a lot different themes and tones then when I first read the book. When I first read Salem's Lot, I was much younger. I was excited about how truly marvelous the vampire was. This dude did not give a shit. He was there for the purpose of drinking some blood and how Barlow turns Susan to a vampire destroying the protagonist spirit in the process was pure joy to my young heart.
I read it now as an adult and the grand scheme of King's world finally clicked. The small town that slowly became "over taken" by Barlow. I use the idea of "over taken" because eventually there's no leader to the vampires in Salem's Lot so they are kind of left to fend for themselves as blood sucking idiots go.
Some notable things about King's version of vampires that I think are important. These are your sparkle and shine kind of vampires. They are cunning and they don't play with their food. There's never a thought of keeping Susan as a bargaining chip against the protagonist. She's turned and he's forced to kill her. How people turn are some what traditional with a bite, but Father Callahan drinks from Barlow's neck and doesn't turn, but instead is kind of damned. There's some very spooky shit going on underneath the surface of it all.
Salem's Lot is basically over run with vampires at the end of the book and a year later when the remaining protagonist remains. Ben and Mark. The place is still over ran, there's no human life and they decide that its just too easy for vampires to hide so they start a fire to burn this mother down!
This book is an exceptional look at the time when small town's were leading economic prosperity. The people of the town were all connected and they all held these very tangible values that you can feel as you read. The dad who shares beers with the guy dating his daughter. The man whose schedule never changes. The guy who is smarter than anyone else in the town. There are people with terrible and dark secrets (early on a lady beats on her baby...yea...that's fucked up isn't it.). Salem's Lot has a photograph of all these arch types of people and fits them into a time period where things feel simpler.
The antagonist of this book, as mentioned briefly above, are completely diabolical and cunning and you find yourself with an unclear picture of who is good or who is bad until the point that everyone has fangs. Barlow is a great antagonist and there's a couple of great movies out there that are fun to watch (I'm not feeling the 2004 one as much as the original...) and I'll write about them later.
The book itself can take a little bit of effort in its reading. Stephen King pain stakingly is building a town that you have to try to keep up with. We're not talking several characters facing off against each other, we're talking a town of shifting allegiances and morals through several large events.
This really isn't a gripe, not really. You have to understand that if you're 16 years old you're reading a dated piece of literature. The world has moved on from the time that Stephen King writes about and his writing has evolved as time marched forward as well. There's a lot of real estate jargon, there's a lot of small town economic talk and a brief (while simple) time that you read about how everyone is preparing for the effect of the micro economics of their town from malls and changes taking place. The world is different now. It's just not quite the same, but if you are a younger reader and you can kind of appreciate what it was like to be back in that time you won't notice.
With that said, what we want...the horror of it all, is great. You're going to enjoy it. I'll have to rewatch the movies and write about them sometime, but....
FINAL VERDICT: MUST READ
I picked up Salem's Lot a little while back and read it for the second time in my literary time on this planet. I got a lot different themes and tones then when I first read the book. When I first read Salem's Lot, I was much younger. I was excited about how truly marvelous the vampire was. This dude did not give a shit. He was there for the purpose of drinking some blood and how Barlow turns Susan to a vampire destroying the protagonist spirit in the process was pure joy to my young heart.
I read it now as an adult and the grand scheme of King's world finally clicked. The small town that slowly became "over taken" by Barlow. I use the idea of "over taken" because eventually there's no leader to the vampires in Salem's Lot so they are kind of left to fend for themselves as blood sucking idiots go.
Some notable things about King's version of vampires that I think are important. These are your sparkle and shine kind of vampires. They are cunning and they don't play with their food. There's never a thought of keeping Susan as a bargaining chip against the protagonist. She's turned and he's forced to kill her. How people turn are some what traditional with a bite, but Father Callahan drinks from Barlow's neck and doesn't turn, but instead is kind of damned. There's some very spooky shit going on underneath the surface of it all.
Salem's Lot is basically over run with vampires at the end of the book and a year later when the remaining protagonist remains. Ben and Mark. The place is still over ran, there's no human life and they decide that its just too easy for vampires to hide so they start a fire to burn this mother down!
This book is an exceptional look at the time when small town's were leading economic prosperity. The people of the town were all connected and they all held these very tangible values that you can feel as you read. The dad who shares beers with the guy dating his daughter. The man whose schedule never changes. The guy who is smarter than anyone else in the town. There are people with terrible and dark secrets (early on a lady beats on her baby...yea...that's fucked up isn't it.). Salem's Lot has a photograph of all these arch types of people and fits them into a time period where things feel simpler.
The antagonist of this book, as mentioned briefly above, are completely diabolical and cunning and you find yourself with an unclear picture of who is good or who is bad until the point that everyone has fangs. Barlow is a great antagonist and there's a couple of great movies out there that are fun to watch (I'm not feeling the 2004 one as much as the original...) and I'll write about them later.
The book itself can take a little bit of effort in its reading. Stephen King pain stakingly is building a town that you have to try to keep up with. We're not talking several characters facing off against each other, we're talking a town of shifting allegiances and morals through several large events.
This really isn't a gripe, not really. You have to understand that if you're 16 years old you're reading a dated piece of literature. The world has moved on from the time that Stephen King writes about and his writing has evolved as time marched forward as well. There's a lot of real estate jargon, there's a lot of small town economic talk and a brief (while simple) time that you read about how everyone is preparing for the effect of the micro economics of their town from malls and changes taking place. The world is different now. It's just not quite the same, but if you are a younger reader and you can kind of appreciate what it was like to be back in that time you won't notice.
With that said, what we want...the horror of it all, is great. You're going to enjoy it. I'll have to rewatch the movies and write about them sometime, but....
FINAL VERDICT: MUST READ
Friday, May 13, 2016
Trailer Analysis: Lights Out
July 22nd is a pretty big day for all those out there who love science fiction. Star Trek Beyond will be out! That's not what this post is about. I saw a trailer the other day and I had to give some props. I find most trailers to be campy and boring and I don't feel like I really want to see a film because of them. However, Lights Out did a pretty decent job of peeking my interest, at least to begin with. First, as most haunting movies go, I've watched this trailer a dozen times and I'm not being haunted by anything so no worries about that!
Let's start by looking at the trailer. We start with a woman who appears to be working in a textile factory with a bunch of mannequins around. Mannequins in and of themselves are pretty terrifying. The woman is turning off and on the light in the factory watching a shadow appearing in a doorway. The shadow itself could be compared to our beloved ghost from the American version of the Ring. Long dark hair, slender features and the ability to move just with a snap of the light switch.
In fact, that's exactly what this little darling of a demon does. She moves to what I assume will be the end of this light fascinated individual. We're then given an entire synopsis. "Every time I turn off the lights, there's this woman waiting in the shadows." A finer summary could not be written for this.
So, we get some creepy shots of the woman appearing around the dark where the boy is and then some more creepy shots of the woman appearing around the girl that the boy is talking to. Apparently they are being haunted. That sucks for you guys! I don't know how you fight shadow people. But wait! They do! More light! I digress that skips a great part of this trailer.
The little boy goes into his mom's room and she asks "Did We wake you?" Obviously she's the only human there (at least from what we see in the trailer), so this is a great device to possibly suggest a possession or at least a change of perception. Abilities that shadow demons apparently possess.
Alright, time for more back story. This might be the part of this movie where I'll roll my eyes and write to you about how I'm not really all that invested in some sort of bad experiment trying to relate to darkness. If they only spend several minutes talking about it and move onto the police officer being snatched by the demon I'd be fine with that though. Things get pretty decent from here on out. We get the characters looking for more lights, trying to find a way to fight their demon. We do get a pretty clear view of the hand at the end of the trailer and a silly distorted voice talking about leaving the light's out or something at the end.
I'm always a little worried about films like this. They can encroach on some fun and entertaining ways to tantalize the audience. At the same time, if they spend too much time talking about origins to a monster and it takes me out of the adrenaline filled panic of the characters then I might not buy it and not enjoy it as much. I think the important thing to remember is that shadows and darkness are fun and very much important in our line of entertainment. It should be a celebration of all the ways darkness can kick our ass if a demon is hanging out in it.
Hopefully we're going to get a fun ride and a satisfying story without too much examination of the details that can so easily pull me away from everything else they are putting into the film. I'll let you know dear horror fans. July 22nd will be a great day!
Let's start by looking at the trailer. We start with a woman who appears to be working in a textile factory with a bunch of mannequins around. Mannequins in and of themselves are pretty terrifying. The woman is turning off and on the light in the factory watching a shadow appearing in a doorway. The shadow itself could be compared to our beloved ghost from the American version of the Ring. Long dark hair, slender features and the ability to move just with a snap of the light switch.
In fact, that's exactly what this little darling of a demon does. She moves to what I assume will be the end of this light fascinated individual. We're then given an entire synopsis. "Every time I turn off the lights, there's this woman waiting in the shadows." A finer summary could not be written for this.
So, we get some creepy shots of the woman appearing around the dark where the boy is and then some more creepy shots of the woman appearing around the girl that the boy is talking to. Apparently they are being haunted. That sucks for you guys! I don't know how you fight shadow people. But wait! They do! More light! I digress that skips a great part of this trailer.
The little boy goes into his mom's room and she asks "Did We wake you?" Obviously she's the only human there (at least from what we see in the trailer), so this is a great device to possibly suggest a possession or at least a change of perception. Abilities that shadow demons apparently possess.
Alright, time for more back story. This might be the part of this movie where I'll roll my eyes and write to you about how I'm not really all that invested in some sort of bad experiment trying to relate to darkness. If they only spend several minutes talking about it and move onto the police officer being snatched by the demon I'd be fine with that though. Things get pretty decent from here on out. We get the characters looking for more lights, trying to find a way to fight their demon. We do get a pretty clear view of the hand at the end of the trailer and a silly distorted voice talking about leaving the light's out or something at the end.
I'm always a little worried about films like this. They can encroach on some fun and entertaining ways to tantalize the audience. At the same time, if they spend too much time talking about origins to a monster and it takes me out of the adrenaline filled panic of the characters then I might not buy it and not enjoy it as much. I think the important thing to remember is that shadows and darkness are fun and very much important in our line of entertainment. It should be a celebration of all the ways darkness can kick our ass if a demon is hanging out in it.
Hopefully we're going to get a fun ride and a satisfying story without too much examination of the details that can so easily pull me away from everything else they are putting into the film. I'll let you know dear horror fans. July 22nd will be a great day!
Special Moment: Friday The 13th
Happy Friday the 13th all you horror lovers out there. I thought long and hard on how to celebrate this blog's first passing of something of a holiday to horror fanatics, and I've decided to simply make a special moment about the day and the movie that we all know and love. No matter what you want to trace it to, there's not a lot of solid connections to one story on why Friday the 13th is an unlucky day in western superstition/culture. After all, a lot of cultures actually believe that the number 13 is lucky, so what's up with us? Us being the same people who feel the need to get our nooky on while a machete crazed killer in a hockey mask is walking around trying to gut us.
I don't buy the idea that the Last Supper is the reason that Friday the 13th holds anything special to us. For those who don't know, the Last Supper was the meal that Jesus had with his 13 buddies and also the time when he said the bread was his body and the wine was his blood. Blood. That's a connection, right? Right? It's a loose connection.
Understandably we have a lot of horror tropes that spurn from religious context. Crucifix hurting vampires, the exorcism and possession movies, and who can forget Night of the Demons 2 which raps itself up in a cross being kicked in the wall to kill the demon that was actually really entertaining to watch run a muck. It's not a great film, but that's for a different blog post. Friday the 13th holds special places in our heart because its the moment that fans of horror and those who aren't really into it can share moments of unease and experience similar connections, at least in their consumption of art, media and stories. Halloween is similar to this, but Halloween has a lot of historical events that take place to give it more credibility to being a night for all holy hell to break loose. Let's face it, there's no reason for Friday the 13th to be more terrifying then Friday the 14th. I'm sure a biblical scholar can find some sort of way to make all the days of our calendar terrifying, but what would be the point?
The 13th is special and has engrained itself into the hearts and minds of the masses. Whether there's a religious connection or not, there's something uneasy about the uncertainty of our morality and holding onto our souls on that day. That leads me to briefly talk about the movie, Friday the 13th. This is not a review, an analysis nor even a discussion on the movie, I just want to point out its importance to us as fans of the creepy crawly things that go bump and slice our half naked friends in half. May 9, 1980 we were introduced to Camp Crystal Lake. Just thinking about the music of that film makes me shiver. I spent the night of the first time I watched that movie trying to shake the creepy feeling that music gave me. You have to understand that the 1970's - 1980's were opening the door to some of our greatest franchises (while some would sink in their later entries, we have to give credit to the love of the sequels. After all if we aren't buying tickets or merchandise they wouldn't make those films).
Friday the 13th started out with two good looking councilors about to do some good looking things before they are unexplainably murdered. Let's look at this historically. 1973 we had the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. A year later Black Christmas. A couple years later Halloween and then Friday the 13th in 1980. What a time to be alive and see some crazy things happening at the box office! By the end of 1980 you had Maniac. Enough about the time line, Roy! Let's just talk about Friday the 13th.
Alright! Alright!
Friday the 13th introduced us to an amazing sound track and without a lot of plot caused an audience to become uncomfortable and watch their backs when they went camping. It wasn't that this was the first slasher or that it used all of the elements of a good killer in the woods scenario perfectly, it was the brilliance of the scenes, the pacing of the film and how the film both said here's a killer but the killer was mostly unseen.
Let's take the scene where Marcie is using the bathroom. She hears sounds in the shower. Scary. What's going to be in there? We all know its not going to be good. She walks there, the tension is building, she looks in and NOTHING! Nothing! what? Wait! Why? Marcie turns around and receives an axe directly into her face. Brilliant!
We also have such an amazing chase scene with Alice and the mother Voorhees. The scene ranges all across the camp that we've learned to fear. Eventually Alice beats Voorhees not once but twice. Once when she knocks her out and the next when she decapitates poor Mrs. Voorhees. Alice then canoes to the middle of the lake, cause why the fuck not and falls asleep. She's attacked in her canoe after she awakes and we're left with one of the best endings to a film that has so many great parts.
"We didn't find any boy."
"Then he's still out there." Alice says.
Oh shit! He is still there! To be fair, all of the Friday the 13th films deserve their own post (foreshadowing!) and not all of them are good. This one and the next film are both incredibly interesting to the times (crazy violence, sexual revolution is strong and how we never get a full idea of how the rest of the world looks at all the killings. Friday the 13th was a smash hit, a classic and it still holds a special place in my heart.
The fact that Alice will later take a screw driver to the head is a brilliant end to the reign of Pamela Voorhees as the killer and Jason taking over. With all that said, watch your back dear fans, there's a lot of movie to watch in this series and a lot more to discuss. Always another Friday the 13th to come.
I don't buy the idea that the Last Supper is the reason that Friday the 13th holds anything special to us. For those who don't know, the Last Supper was the meal that Jesus had with his 13 buddies and also the time when he said the bread was his body and the wine was his blood. Blood. That's a connection, right? Right? It's a loose connection.
Understandably we have a lot of horror tropes that spurn from religious context. Crucifix hurting vampires, the exorcism and possession movies, and who can forget Night of the Demons 2 which raps itself up in a cross being kicked in the wall to kill the demon that was actually really entertaining to watch run a muck. It's not a great film, but that's for a different blog post. Friday the 13th holds special places in our heart because its the moment that fans of horror and those who aren't really into it can share moments of unease and experience similar connections, at least in their consumption of art, media and stories. Halloween is similar to this, but Halloween has a lot of historical events that take place to give it more credibility to being a night for all holy hell to break loose. Let's face it, there's no reason for Friday the 13th to be more terrifying then Friday the 14th. I'm sure a biblical scholar can find some sort of way to make all the days of our calendar terrifying, but what would be the point?
The 13th is special and has engrained itself into the hearts and minds of the masses. Whether there's a religious connection or not, there's something uneasy about the uncertainty of our morality and holding onto our souls on that day. That leads me to briefly talk about the movie, Friday the 13th. This is not a review, an analysis nor even a discussion on the movie, I just want to point out its importance to us as fans of the creepy crawly things that go bump and slice our half naked friends in half. May 9, 1980 we were introduced to Camp Crystal Lake. Just thinking about the music of that film makes me shiver. I spent the night of the first time I watched that movie trying to shake the creepy feeling that music gave me. You have to understand that the 1970's - 1980's were opening the door to some of our greatest franchises (while some would sink in their later entries, we have to give credit to the love of the sequels. After all if we aren't buying tickets or merchandise they wouldn't make those films).
Friday the 13th started out with two good looking councilors about to do some good looking things before they are unexplainably murdered. Let's look at this historically. 1973 we had the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. A year later Black Christmas. A couple years later Halloween and then Friday the 13th in 1980. What a time to be alive and see some crazy things happening at the box office! By the end of 1980 you had Maniac. Enough about the time line, Roy! Let's just talk about Friday the 13th.
Alright! Alright!
Friday the 13th introduced us to an amazing sound track and without a lot of plot caused an audience to become uncomfortable and watch their backs when they went camping. It wasn't that this was the first slasher or that it used all of the elements of a good killer in the woods scenario perfectly, it was the brilliance of the scenes, the pacing of the film and how the film both said here's a killer but the killer was mostly unseen.
Let's take the scene where Marcie is using the bathroom. She hears sounds in the shower. Scary. What's going to be in there? We all know its not going to be good. She walks there, the tension is building, she looks in and NOTHING! Nothing! what? Wait! Why? Marcie turns around and receives an axe directly into her face. Brilliant!
We also have such an amazing chase scene with Alice and the mother Voorhees. The scene ranges all across the camp that we've learned to fear. Eventually Alice beats Voorhees not once but twice. Once when she knocks her out and the next when she decapitates poor Mrs. Voorhees. Alice then canoes to the middle of the lake, cause why the fuck not and falls asleep. She's attacked in her canoe after she awakes and we're left with one of the best endings to a film that has so many great parts.
"We didn't find any boy."
"Then he's still out there." Alice says.
Oh shit! He is still there! To be fair, all of the Friday the 13th films deserve their own post (foreshadowing!) and not all of them are good. This one and the next film are both incredibly interesting to the times (crazy violence, sexual revolution is strong and how we never get a full idea of how the rest of the world looks at all the killings. Friday the 13th was a smash hit, a classic and it still holds a special place in my heart.
The fact that Alice will later take a screw driver to the head is a brilliant end to the reign of Pamela Voorhees as the killer and Jason taking over. With all that said, watch your back dear fans, there's a lot of movie to watch in this series and a lot more to discuss. Always another Friday the 13th to come.
Wednesday, May 11, 2016
Movie Review: #Horror
I'm going to spoil the shit out of this thing, so you better just find another post to read unless you don't care. Spoiler alert, you shouldn't care cause this movie sucks.
Let's get right to it, we, the people of horror do not have a problem with child killers. We've come to embrace some of them and learned to loath others. Hi Sinister, I"m looking at you. With that said, #Horror doesn't know what the hell it wants to be or what its trying to get across. A movie that stalls in trying to tell a message and then can't capitalize on a number of situations that should be off putting if not terrifying should just wrap it up and call itself #NotWorthYourTime or #WeTookAShitAndCalledItFilm.
#Horror follows the misadventures of several young girls who all have various character flaws through an evening of stupidity and posting on social networks. The film is often interrupted with the flashing of selfies and animated emoticons exploding onto screen. #FuckOff. It interrupts the vibe of the movie and when you're dealing with this film all you want is for these people to be mercilessly torn apart in a slasher capable direction. We don't really get a lot of that.
The first several minutes of the film is dedicated to an actually good moment in slasherology. That's right, I made that word up, get over it. A cheating husband gets his throat cut and his mistress gets murdered shortly after. Well done #Horror you have my attention! What a great setup. If I'm sitting down and I say "Hey Jen (My horror loving sister), I really want to see a slasher film." and the film starts off like this I think we're going to be okay.
NOOOOOPPPPEEEE!
Instead of us getting anything the resembles a decent story for a decent slasher to slash away at. We get a bunch of assholes having a fashion show and the continuous posting of photos, emoticons and ridiculous hash tags. The girls are all rich, mean and some have other mental problems. The film seems to try to get the idea that any of them could be our slasher, and I wished they all were so we could end it already.
What would have worked for this film? Maybe if they would have gone more of the Splatter film route. There might be a scene or two that has some gore in it that calls out to some sort of Splatter film roots. Those scenes are far away from each other and in no way do you get an over all feel for the blood and gore.
This film is weak as a slasher and the characters are over exaggerated. The mean girls are all deserving of the slashtacular endings they receive and the big twist (which is no twist at all) is boring and soft balled to you early on.
I should pick out something good about this, right? Why did I spend the entire hour and change watching this if it wasn't very good? How about the attempted redemption trying to follow some proper tropes (at least they were trying) and then even having a great reveal to one of the characters that there is a killer. The girls all lock their phones in a safe (yes that happens, you have to have some way to wipe technology from the equation when dealing with a slasher) and when a girl finds the car from the beginning of the movie, its a really great flow. Kid finds car, kid finds murder, oh the screams! Oh are we getting some action? Could this film redeem itself? Could we have some really great stuff? Oh the slasher is somewhat stalking its prey now! Yay! Finally!
It's not enough though. I wouldn't watch this film again and I wouldn't suggest it. There's too many other great little pieces of work to get your skin crawling and its much easier to find a proper slasher film and a proper splatter film instead of being confused on which way this thing is trying to go.
Final Verdict: Not Worth Your Time!
Let's get right to it, we, the people of horror do not have a problem with child killers. We've come to embrace some of them and learned to loath others. Hi Sinister, I"m looking at you. With that said, #Horror doesn't know what the hell it wants to be or what its trying to get across. A movie that stalls in trying to tell a message and then can't capitalize on a number of situations that should be off putting if not terrifying should just wrap it up and call itself #NotWorthYourTime or #WeTookAShitAndCalledItFilm.
#Horror follows the misadventures of several young girls who all have various character flaws through an evening of stupidity and posting on social networks. The film is often interrupted with the flashing of selfies and animated emoticons exploding onto screen. #FuckOff. It interrupts the vibe of the movie and when you're dealing with this film all you want is for these people to be mercilessly torn apart in a slasher capable direction. We don't really get a lot of that.
The first several minutes of the film is dedicated to an actually good moment in slasherology. That's right, I made that word up, get over it. A cheating husband gets his throat cut and his mistress gets murdered shortly after. Well done #Horror you have my attention! What a great setup. If I'm sitting down and I say "Hey Jen (My horror loving sister), I really want to see a slasher film." and the film starts off like this I think we're going to be okay.
NOOOOOPPPPEEEE!
Instead of us getting anything the resembles a decent story for a decent slasher to slash away at. We get a bunch of assholes having a fashion show and the continuous posting of photos, emoticons and ridiculous hash tags. The girls are all rich, mean and some have other mental problems. The film seems to try to get the idea that any of them could be our slasher, and I wished they all were so we could end it already.
What would have worked for this film? Maybe if they would have gone more of the Splatter film route. There might be a scene or two that has some gore in it that calls out to some sort of Splatter film roots. Those scenes are far away from each other and in no way do you get an over all feel for the blood and gore.
This film is weak as a slasher and the characters are over exaggerated. The mean girls are all deserving of the slashtacular endings they receive and the big twist (which is no twist at all) is boring and soft balled to you early on.
I should pick out something good about this, right? Why did I spend the entire hour and change watching this if it wasn't very good? How about the attempted redemption trying to follow some proper tropes (at least they were trying) and then even having a great reveal to one of the characters that there is a killer. The girls all lock their phones in a safe (yes that happens, you have to have some way to wipe technology from the equation when dealing with a slasher) and when a girl finds the car from the beginning of the movie, its a really great flow. Kid finds car, kid finds murder, oh the screams! Oh are we getting some action? Could this film redeem itself? Could we have some really great stuff? Oh the slasher is somewhat stalking its prey now! Yay! Finally!
It's not enough though. I wouldn't watch this film again and I wouldn't suggest it. There's too many other great little pieces of work to get your skin crawling and its much easier to find a proper slasher film and a proper splatter film instead of being confused on which way this thing is trying to go.
Final Verdict: Not Worth Your Time!
Monday, May 9, 2016
Book Review: I am not a Serial Killer
What does it take to make me complete a book within a couple days? The first five pages. When you read these reviews, that's some big points to me. If you can make me read for hours then you're going to do well. With that said, don't take the last half of your book and make it feel like I'm going through McDonalds drive through when I started at such a nice steak place. That's what I am not a Serial Killer did to me.
This is Dan Wells debut and what a debut it is! While I have a few gripes about the book overall, the first half kept my eyes glued and I finished the entire book in two days. The book is a little over 200 pages long and I happily applaud Mr. Wells who now is in the midst of watching his book turn into film with Christopher Lloyd being part of the team of actors. Another actress, Laura Fraser, has an extremely long list of credentials as well. Think Kate from Knight's Tale, she was in Flutter a British Indie film for all you dark comedy lovers out there and was also present in other British films such as Cuckoo who enjoyed a 11% on Rotten Tomatoes, but split professional critics. I digress, this isn't about the film or the actors who I am excited to see in the film.
None spoiler territory. This book crafts a wonderful story. I felt like it was rushed in the middle and it had to be rushed. The mystery of the first part of the book combined by a completely different form of horror in the second part of the book didn't leave room to explore either part in depth.
Our protagonist, or more of an anti hero, is a boy named John. John is a diagnosed sociopath and spends the first part of the book discussing serial killers and how he's created a set of rules to keep himself from becoming a serial killer. This is genuinely interesting. In fact its wonderful! As fate would dictate John lives in a funeral home so he gets to see and play with all the dead bodies he wants (for the most part anyway) and when a new serial killer arrives in town it sets off a great "Who will find who?" game that John plays while trying to stick to his rules.
John is morally ambiguous. His actions are often based on the idea of the "Greater Good" and his relationships and interactions with other characters are brilliant and wonderful and wrote in a way that you get a new view of someone who is "sociopathic". The second part of the book changes the rules, not just for John but also for the story being told. Eventually the game is more of a cat and mouse game and you're never quite sure if John or the antagonist is the cat or the mouse. They tend to switch roles sometimes.
The last pages of the book were done extremely well. I won't go into context unless you read further, but this ending is one of the most believable endings I've read in a while. This book gets placed easily on the Must Read list of books. It's short, it won't take that long, while i have some complaints with the pacing in the middle and I believe that the grand twist of it all creates complication, its not a bad story and you have to appreciate how realistic of a sociopath John is.
Conclusion: Must Read
You want spoilers, baby? Well here they are! Stop reading if you don't want Spoilers.
Spoilers! Did I mention that?
John is a sociopath. He has one friend who he loses in the book. He has one love interest who he obsesses over, so much so that my young father's heart wants to have a rifle near me for my daughter's sake and he will do anything to accomplish his goal of killing the killer in teh story.
The killer in the story? Yep its a demon. A full on, I'm going to transform into something awful demon.
Why does any of these disconnected thoughts matter? Because it seperates what I thought was the great story from the mediocre brush against a demon. The best part about his book is that our protagonist is someone who will probably end up on the FBI's most wanted at some point. John meticulously plans how he will deal with the demon, how he handles his friendships, how he connects with people and how he controls the monster inside of him.
All of these things are done so well that I would have loved this story to just skip past the demon and stick with his neighbor being a human serial killer. That would be so much better. We don't get that though, we get this demon. The demon has to exchange parts with a human to keep itself from dying so we're on a quest to kill a demon. Yay. I'm not going to say that it was a terrible story. The book did a fine job of working in parts of John's sociopath nature while still including your normal killing a demon story. The demon dies while very weak and the town never discover's John's dark nature. One neat little package, right?
Not so much. I think the part that has to be spoke about the most is that John's ending isn't a happy one. He's still a sociopath who did terrible things to win. He loses his friend, Max, who is essential to keeping himself anchored. He can't pursue his love interest without it becoming a creepy movement in stalking and possible murdering of other suitors. Most of all, he can't recreate a safe atmosphere to live in. His nature is completely let loose at the end of the book. While he is trying to get to know his mom better, there's an obvious underlying darkness within the last pages that make me happy to recommend the read.
This is Dan Wells debut and what a debut it is! While I have a few gripes about the book overall, the first half kept my eyes glued and I finished the entire book in two days. The book is a little over 200 pages long and I happily applaud Mr. Wells who now is in the midst of watching his book turn into film with Christopher Lloyd being part of the team of actors. Another actress, Laura Fraser, has an extremely long list of credentials as well. Think Kate from Knight's Tale, she was in Flutter a British Indie film for all you dark comedy lovers out there and was also present in other British films such as Cuckoo who enjoyed a 11% on Rotten Tomatoes, but split professional critics. I digress, this isn't about the film or the actors who I am excited to see in the film.
None spoiler territory. This book crafts a wonderful story. I felt like it was rushed in the middle and it had to be rushed. The mystery of the first part of the book combined by a completely different form of horror in the second part of the book didn't leave room to explore either part in depth.
Our protagonist, or more of an anti hero, is a boy named John. John is a diagnosed sociopath and spends the first part of the book discussing serial killers and how he's created a set of rules to keep himself from becoming a serial killer. This is genuinely interesting. In fact its wonderful! As fate would dictate John lives in a funeral home so he gets to see and play with all the dead bodies he wants (for the most part anyway) and when a new serial killer arrives in town it sets off a great "Who will find who?" game that John plays while trying to stick to his rules.
John is morally ambiguous. His actions are often based on the idea of the "Greater Good" and his relationships and interactions with other characters are brilliant and wonderful and wrote in a way that you get a new view of someone who is "sociopathic". The second part of the book changes the rules, not just for John but also for the story being told. Eventually the game is more of a cat and mouse game and you're never quite sure if John or the antagonist is the cat or the mouse. They tend to switch roles sometimes.
The last pages of the book were done extremely well. I won't go into context unless you read further, but this ending is one of the most believable endings I've read in a while. This book gets placed easily on the Must Read list of books. It's short, it won't take that long, while i have some complaints with the pacing in the middle and I believe that the grand twist of it all creates complication, its not a bad story and you have to appreciate how realistic of a sociopath John is.
Conclusion: Must Read
You want spoilers, baby? Well here they are! Stop reading if you don't want Spoilers.
Spoilers! Did I mention that?
John is a sociopath. He has one friend who he loses in the book. He has one love interest who he obsesses over, so much so that my young father's heart wants to have a rifle near me for my daughter's sake and he will do anything to accomplish his goal of killing the killer in teh story.
The killer in the story? Yep its a demon. A full on, I'm going to transform into something awful demon.
Why does any of these disconnected thoughts matter? Because it seperates what I thought was the great story from the mediocre brush against a demon. The best part about his book is that our protagonist is someone who will probably end up on the FBI's most wanted at some point. John meticulously plans how he will deal with the demon, how he handles his friendships, how he connects with people and how he controls the monster inside of him.
All of these things are done so well that I would have loved this story to just skip past the demon and stick with his neighbor being a human serial killer. That would be so much better. We don't get that though, we get this demon. The demon has to exchange parts with a human to keep itself from dying so we're on a quest to kill a demon. Yay. I'm not going to say that it was a terrible story. The book did a fine job of working in parts of John's sociopath nature while still including your normal killing a demon story. The demon dies while very weak and the town never discover's John's dark nature. One neat little package, right?
Not so much. I think the part that has to be spoke about the most is that John's ending isn't a happy one. He's still a sociopath who did terrible things to win. He loses his friend, Max, who is essential to keeping himself anchored. He can't pursue his love interest without it becoming a creepy movement in stalking and possible murdering of other suitors. Most of all, he can't recreate a safe atmosphere to live in. His nature is completely let loose at the end of the book. While he is trying to get to know his mom better, there's an obvious underlying darkness within the last pages that make me happy to recommend the read.
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