Spooky Season: The 2 versions of Dawn of the Dead

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I had originally planned to watch and comment on Cronos (1992) the first feature film from Guillermo del Toro, and I may still but when I attempted to watch it, I grew quite tired and far too exhausted for a foreign language film. Instead, I will contrast and compare the two versions of Dawn of the Dead the original from 1979 and the remake from 2004.

Both film deal with the world crashing into chaos with the now cliche ‘Zombie Apocalypse.’ The ’79 is a continuation of the plague that began with Night of the Living Dead while the ’04 goes from initial outbreak to societal collapse in the film’s opening minutes.

Laurel Group

Written and Directed by George A. Romero, the ’79 is at its heart a social satire and commentary on consumerism. The four principal characters are all people who have abandoned their greater duties to society for their own self-preservation and when flung by the zombie hordes into the outskirts of suburbia take refuge in an abandoned indoor mall.

 

 

 

 

Universal Pictures

Written by Guardians of the Galaxy fame James Gunn and directed by Zack Snyder the ’04 remake eschews the social commentary and satire for frenetic speed and a tale of pure survival. The characters, a much larger and more diverse collection, are simply the random survivors that have happened to have congregated at the shopping mall without the location providing any addition observation on humanity. The film has a few nods to the original that it drew its inspiration from, visual effects allowed Snyder to bring in the ‘copter that the original character fled with and Ken Foree from the ’70 makes a cameo appearance and restates one of his character’s lines from that groundbreaking film.

 

The ’79 while bleak in it ending presented the audience with at least the possibility that some of the characters may have found a sanctuary thew ’04 with its end-credit sequence eliminates any such ‘happy ending.’

I watched both films on their original release, the ’79 at a local drive-in theater and the ’04 at a mall’s multiplex. Both films grace my physical media collection but without a doubt it is the ’79 that is more often pulled from the shelves in played.

Gunn’s script is perfectly serviceable but lacks not only deeper meaning or theme but also Gunn’s eclectic and entertaining humor. Snyder’s direction is faster and better suited to modern audiences but lack the sly irony that Romero snuck into most of his movies.

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Trump and the Cardinal Virtues

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At a recent event hosted by Univision Kamala Harris was asked if she could list three virtues of her political rival Donald Trum. Like Hillary Clinton before her this question stumped her with Harris only managing to pay some services to Trump by saying she believed that he loved his family, a safe statement that would enrage no one.

The story got me thinking, what if we matched the seven cardinal virtues with Trump? Would we be surprised by any of the answers? Each virtue traditionally has a corresponding vice, so for each I think the test is which better fits the know personality and action of Trump, the virtue or the vice?

Chastity/Lust

Well, this one’s pretty much on the vice side. A man who has been adjudicated in court of sexual assault, criminally convicted for covering up sexual affairs, and who boasts his personal Vietnam was not getting an STI. This virtue cannot be listed as one of his.

Faith/Idolatry

Again, there is no question. He sells bibles but displays them proudly upside down while calling for violence the man has shown no interest in faith and not only idolizes himself but expects others to do so. This virtue too cannot apply.

Good Works/Avarice

There are no good works that can reasonably assigned to Trump and his lust for money may very well exceed his lust for flesh. Even when it came to his own protection detail, he charged the government for freight for his expensive hotels unwilling to lose a single dime. Avarice it is.

Concord/Discord

It is a virtue to have an agreeable nature and a sin to be pointlessly disagreeable. Again, Trump nature makes this an easy call. A man known for his screaming and demanding nature while expecting subservience from everyone else can hardly be called ‘agreeable.’

Patience/Wrath

His anger at even the slightest perception of an insult is well known. Trump routinely calls for violence and harm upon those who he perceives as enemies, without every showing the slightest ability to forgive or even delay his own gratification. Wrath wins.

Humility/Pride

Well, a man who slaps his name is giant letters on everything he can and who has never ever admitted error, and who cannot, in his mind, ever lose only be cheated raised Pride to levels rarely seen.

Six virtues so far and not one can be credibly associated with Trump. Is this going to be a clean sweep?

Sobriety/Indulgence

Here’s one we can actually give to Trump. He is sober. The loss of his older brother to alcoholism apparently affected him deeply and he is known to be a non-drinker and non-intoxicating drug used.

1 out of 7, clearly a failing grade.

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Spooky Season: Werewolves Within

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This spooky Season I think I will attempt to alternate between media I have already seen and enjoyed with pieces that are new to me and one I had not seen before is 2021’s Werewolves Within, a horror/comedy.

IFC Films

Finn Wheeler (Sam Richardson) a U.S. Forest Ranger recently reassigned to the tiny Vermont town of Beaverfield. A man with a deficit confidence Finn possesses a surplus of charm and congeniality. Befriended fellow newcomer postal worker Cecily More (Milana Vayntrub – you’ll recognize her from her spokesperson work for AT&T) Finn in introduced to the eclectic and farcical characters of the town. A snowstorm blocks all access into and out of the community just has a series of grisly attacks and murders begin and it is not long before the residents of the idyllic mountain village turn accusing each other of being the monster that stalks them in the cold winter dark.

 

It was not until the movie’s closing credits that I learned this was adapted from a video game of the same title, where the player is in a medieval village trying to uncover the secret of who is the werewolf. If they had approached this property as a serious film intent on being scary, I believe it would have failed utterly. I slotted this in the sub-genre of horror/comedy but more accurately it is a comedic horror. Each scene chooses comedy over shock or horror and the characters are drawn broadly with a decidedly farcical bend to their nature. If the choice was between playing it big for laughs or ‘realistically’ the consistent choice here was ‘go big.’

The cast, particularly Richardson and Vayntrub are charming and likable though What we do in the Shadows Harvey Guillen was given too little to do given his own comedic talent. Director Josh Ruben keeps the pace fast, never slowing down to let the audience question the choices either the characters or his own. Matthew Wise’s cinematography works witho9ut being flashy but lacks any deep style that might have elevated the movie.

Overall, it was an enjoyable but ultimately empty film that passed its 97-minute runtime without giving offense or earning great praise.

Werewolves Within is streaming on Shudder.

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Well, This Took an Interesting Turn

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I will return to Spooky Season posting soon, thought this is at least related.

My currently novel in progress, an attempt at an American folk horror with elements of cosmic horror has been quite a journey so far.

First, it’s being written sans outline. My original plan had been to outline each act, out of five acts, just before I started writing those parts. And I did sort of draft one for the first act, but when I reached act 2 rather than lose momentum I barreled on. Now, I am reaching the end of the 3rd act and have abandoned the pretense of outlining.

I do believe that years and years of outlining has sort of drilled into me an intuitive sense of plotting and structure that allows me to flow freely and yet maintain the form I am most comfortable with.

Second, this is the only novel sized project I have started where I did not have a clear ending in mind.

I am one of those who believe that endings are vitally important. So many great stories and films have been lost to a crappy or poorly executed ending. It is the place where theme, character, and plot all come together.

With this book I had a sense of the tone I wanted to end on but not the mechanics or the specifics that would build my ending.

Until last night.

As I lay in bed, groggy and about to slip off into sleep the ending came to me. Particulars with the characters and a visual of what the final scene would look like. It resonated perfectly with what I had wanted and what has been so far and what was yet to come.

Best of all — I remember it this morning.

I still have high hopes of a first draft finished before Dec 31st but unlike most of my other works there will be serious retooling in at least one follow-up draft.

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Spooky Season: Planet of the Vampires

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Released in 1965 and first seen by me sometime in the early 70’s on the late-night horror movie show Creature Feature the Italian SF/horror movie Planet of the Vampires has zero vampires but a clear influence on the film Alien. (Though it must be said that Ridley Scott reports that he has never seen this movie.)

The twin starships Argos and Valiant arrive at an unknown planet investigating mysterious signals. While attempting to land, they lose control of their craft and lose consciousness. Upon awakening the crew launch into murderous attacks on each other, save for the manly heroic captain, who manages to snap everyone out of their violent delirium. Now with their ship damaged and repairs expected to be long and difficult the crews must unravel the mystery at the heart of the planet if they are to survive.

Direct with style and flair by Mario Bava Planet of the Vampires though hampered by a quite small budget is a visual treat. Bava’s use of color is fantastic, and he was a filmmaker who understood the camera and how to wrest every bit of production value from every last lira.

Little can be said for the performances in this movie. The international cast each performed their lines in their own native language regardless if any other in the cast understood with the final product dubbed for whatever market it sold to. This gives you the double handicap of actor not being able to effectively play off each other and the usual limitation of the budget voice actors often used in genre imports.

Still, despite its many failings the movie works, the eerie set for the planet’s landscape, the giant skeletons of long dead space travelers, and the twilight zone ending all combine for a cheap but entertaining bit of cinema.

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Spooky Season: Twin Peaks

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A few months ago, the host of the podcast The Evolution of Horror launched a new one The Detective and the Log Lady where he, a Twin Peaks super fan and a woman who had never seen the series watch and discuss each episode of the strange and influential program. My sweetie-wife and I have been rewatching the series as I listen to the podcast.

ABC Television

There’s no doubt that Twin Peaks has serious horror vibes with the nighttime soap format. Amid the financial crimes, drug dealing highschoolers, and the unfaithful marriage there is also a story of extradimensional beings & possession reveling in cruelty for its own sake. A story of deep dark woods and the terrors hidden in the impenetrable shadows. A secret known only to the owls who are not what they seem. A story of barriers between worlds stretched thin and permeable.

In short Twin Peaks is horror, at least some of the time. Perhaps the more mundane stories of unwanted pregnancies, small town scheming for local petty businesses and the trials and tribulation of teenage love enhance the horror by contrasting it with such prosaic troubles. Amid the strange and quirky nature of the town and its residents is an existential horror that rivals that of Lovecraft elder gods and the vast uncaring universe is the greatest horror of all.

 

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Spooky Season Review: Azrael

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This weekend I treated myself to a pair of horror films, one that was older, and I had seen before, Planet of the Vampires, and a new one in theaters, Azrael.

IFC Films

Azrael, filmed in Estonia, is a Christian themed horror film set an unspecified number of years after the ‘Rapture’ has removed the faithful from the Earth. The character Azrael (Samara Weaving) and her boyfriend have fled their isolated religious community trying to avoid becoming the zealots next human sacrifice to the violent monsters stalking the forest.

The community at some time in the past reached the strange conclusion that speaking was a sin and have made all their member’s mute. Azrael’s struggles to escape, survive, and extract revenge are all carried out without a word of dialog from the principal characters. A secondary character not from the community does appear in the second act but he speaks no English, leaving the film with zero English dialog.

Azrael presented several scenes of graphic violence and gore. The forest monsters, looking like charred and burnt corpses, act much like modern zombies with modern graphic make-up effects. The film has zero nudity, sexuality, or sexual violence, presenting the situation as a fairly straightforward struggles to survive. Most of the action, violence, and injury are presented in a believable fashion that doesn’t shatter suspension of disbelief. The films Christian mythological underpinnings play a vital part in the films resolution and mark the film in the same category along with movies such as Rosemary’s Baby & The Omen, but without the deep theological questioning of a film such as The Exorcist.

Written by Simon Barret and directed by E.L. Katz, this film is a challenging and bold experimentation. Denied dialog for exposition it’s a project that requires audience engagement as the viewer is constantly interpreting the events on screen. It is not a move that can be enjoyed with only half of one’s attention. Composer Toti Gudnason ably carries a great of the film with the score while cinematographer Mart Taniel captures the eerie nature of the Estonia wood as he did with 2017’s November.

I am left with questions about the world building and how this world works. IMDB lists all the character with their name, but in a community without spoken or even signed language how do names even work? That said, letting go of such questions is easy enough in the moment as the story unfolds.

Azrael is currently playing in limited release and should be making its streaming debut on Shudder soon. It is not a film for those who insist on frequent kills and witty banter, but it is one I am quite glad I watched in a theatrical setting.

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Retro Review: The Lieutenant “To Set it Right”

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Before Gene Roddenberry transformed his life and our world with the series Star Trek he produced and ran a series about a green Marine second lieutenant commanding a platoon at Camp Pendleton California called The Lieutenant.

Staring Gary Lockwood, who Gene would employ to play Mitchell in Trek’s second pilot, 2nd Lieutenant William Tiberius Rice is an educated and idealistic young officer learning the rope of command from his superior Captain Rambridge, (Robert Vaughn.)

NBC Publicity Photo

I watched episode 21 of the show’s only season, to Set it Right, dealing with racial conflicts with the platoon. When a new private, Cameron (Don Marshall) arrives at the base he instantly attacks Corporal Devlin (Dennis Hopper) recognizing Devlin as part of a gang that beat him in a racially motivated attack years earlier. Rice requests permission from Rambridge to keep both men in his platoon as Rice wants to learn how to solve this sort of issue.

While keeping an eye on language that would be acceptable to Standards and Practices the episode, written by Lee Erwin, is fairly honest and direct in its approach to racism. Both characters are presented as flawed and twisted by racism, Devlin for it practice and Cameron by the anger flamed through years of injustice. Cameron’s anger rarely lets him have a moment’s peace even poisoning his relationship with his fiancé Norma (Nichelle Nichols.)

To Set it Right ends on a hopeful and optimistic note that, following the intensity of the preceding pages, struck me a forced and unrealistic. The characters of Devlin and Cameron had transformed too much for such a brief time.

The episode also guest starred the classic western actor Woody Strode as a sergeant of the platoon who attempts to calm Cameron’s hostile nature.

This episode has several ties to Roddenberry’s next series Star Trek. In addition to Lockwood and Nichols, Don Marshal would return for an episode as Boma in The Galileo Seven and the episode’s director Vincent McEveety would helm six episodes of Trek including Balance of Terror.

Episodes of The Lieutenant can be found on YouTube.

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Vance’s Idiotic ‘Solution’ to School Shootings

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On the subject of School shootings Senator Vance advocating for ‘hardening’ of the targets as the preferred solution saying, ‘But I unfortunately think that we have to increase security in our schools. We have to make the doors lock better. We have to make the doors stronger. We’ve got to make the windows stronger.’

This is sheer pedantic word play. For one thing the Senator is far too bright to not know that the money simply doesn’t exist to harden every forking school and pre-school in America.

Set that aside, though. Say we could wave a magic wand and instantly fortify every school like a well defended hardpoint on the battle line. Does that actually solve the problem? Does the would be shooter, now denied the school as a target, just lay down his arms and assume the post of a responsible peaceful citizen?

Of course not.

The shooter driven by rage that has been fueled by agony moves to a softer target. Perhaps a park, or a supermarket, or a shopping center, or a sport game. Or even just a forking busy street out in the open. The school isn’t shot up but someplace else is. Then what? Harden that next target, and then the next and the next until all of America is locked-down self-imposed prison calling itself the land of the free?

The truth of the matter is that Vance proposed no solution, and he knew he proposed nothing. He wanted to cast the illusion of someone that cared while maintaining for his base that solid commitment that no amount of a slaughtered children or people would ever justify even the slightest impediment to their hobby.

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Spooky Season Starts

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For as long as I can remember horror movies have played a part in my life. Growing up in the mountains of Western North Carolina, (the devastation visited there by hurricane Helene is heartbreaking) as a child the drive-in was my first exposure to movies. My older brothers would promise my parents that they would be seeing something appropriate for their little brother and invariably break that oath and select a horror film. I have fragmentary memories of Hammer Horror and region drive-in movies that in all likelihood are far less well executed than I remember them.

I also clearly remember during the summers that bats lived nearby and often fluttered just beyond my window, casting shadows into my second story bedroom. A macabre scene that is impressed on my memory.

It is no surprise that horror cinema has always been fascinating and inviting to me. Ghost stories are by far my favorite sub-genre of horror with the slashers born in the wake of 1978’s Halloween my least loved.

I have written and published a few short stories in the genre and currently await the decision from a publisher on my first horror novel. It is no surprise that the ‘spooky season’ is something I enjoy.

This October, in addition to getting more work done on my folk-horror novel, I plan to watch more horror than usual, revisiting some I enjoy and exploring a few new ones.

It should be fun.

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