Category Archives: Horror

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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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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Film Geeks San Diego’s Secret Morgue V

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This past Saturday was the 5th annual Secret Morgue hosted by the local cinephile group Film Geeks San Diego. The six-movie marathon doesn’t release the titles on the film being presented only the theme. For 2024 the theme was creatures & monster movies.

American International Pictures

Movie One: Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957). A celebration and recognition of low-budget master Roger Corman this movie follows a group of scientists, technicians, and sailors left on an atoll following atomic testing. They are there to study the effects of fallout and radiation but instead encounter monstrous telepathic giant crabs.

This is typical low-budget 50s fare with poor science and less then adequate special effects but entertaining in its own right.

Pathe

Movie Two: Dog Soldiers (2002). A squad of soldiers dropped in the wilds of Scotland for a routine training exercise discover another squad of special forces slaughtered, save for one member, by some unknown force. Trapped and out of communication they struggle to survive a pack of werewolves.

This is a fun, fast, and exciting werewolves vs soldiers of a movie and well worth the time.

 

American International Pictures

Movie Three: Scream Blacula Scream (1973). The sequel to Blacula, William Marshal returns as the title character, an African Prince cursed by Dracula with Vampirism. Raise by Voodoo magics as part of a power struggle among the faithful Balcula is unleashed again on the modern world and hopes to find release from unending torment by way of a voodoo priestess, Pam Grier.

Part of the brief but entertaining subgenre of ‘Blaxploitation’ that run during the 70s, this movie is fast, entertaining, and led by amazing actors. Allowanced must be given to the filmmakers lack of money and special effect resources. If you can look past that this is a treasure.

 

Daiei Film

Movie Four: Gamera, Guardian of the Universe (1995). The relaunching of the Kaijufranchise that challenged Godzilla, and still principally using men in suits, Gamera, Guardian of the Universe, is a fun romp and modern take on the classic Kaiju genre. Not scripted or produced with an ironic eye to the camera of tongue in cheek this movie is a straightforward film about giant monsters that threaten and defend humanity.

 

 

 

 

Hollwood Pictures

Movie Five: Deep Rising (1998). When pirates attack a large cruise ship in the South China Sea, they discover the passengers and crew slaughtered and the ship infested with tentacled monsters. Written and directed by Stephen Summers a year before his take on The Mummy, this movie has his typical style of mixing adventure, horror, and comedic effect.

 

 

 

 

The sixth and final film of the marathon was the home-made movie Suburban Sasquatch. I have a minimum level of quality that I require before I devote 80 minutes or more of my time to a film and this did not meet that prerequisite.

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The Shiny New Story Idea

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Before this bizarre American folk horror concept came along and highjacked my writing I had been working on a strange fusion of a ghost story and disaster movie for my next novel.

One subplot in that on-hold ghost story novel has been flashing around in my brain like a hyperactive child just dying to tell you about the cool thing that they just learned.

The sub-plot is insisting that there is nothing sub about it and that it should be a full novel all on its little lonesome.

I don’t think it is wrong.

Of course, I am just reaching the halfway point on my American Folk horror novel and that needs to be completed first.

Here is a truism. When writing a story, it is not uncommon at all as the author hits the middle, where things can become quite challenging to write, for another idea to thrust itself into prominence. It is a fool’s errand to chase the new idea then and there. The most important skill to learn as a writer or artist of any stripe is completing.

A finished manuscript can be edited and reworked. Half a manuscript is useless to everyone including the author.

Even if you put the manuscript away in the trunk and never go back to it, it’s better to finish than abandon.

I am going to make notes for this other ghost story, but it must wait its turn.

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Alien Covenant and the Mainline Franchise

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I saw Prometheus in the theater, found it terribly disappointing and therefore skipped its direct sequel Alien: Covenant when it was released. Following the modestly entertaining Alien: Romulus I decided to watch Covenant since it was one of my streaming services.

20th Century Studios

The first hour of Alien: Covenant was pretty damn good. The science, while far from being ‘hard sf’ was insulting and the neither the script nor the characters mind numbingly stupid as they had been in the previous film.

Then they reached the point where it had to bring in Prometheus and the film died. The action was lackluster with a dropped frame style that made everything too much like a video game and the plot progressed predictably with every ‘reveal’ blindingly obvious.

So, how do I feel about this most inconsistent franchise?

The two best films in the series are easily Alien and Aliens.

Next would be Alien” Romulus, derivative but entertaining.

Next Alien: Resurrection, more action than anything else and populated with what feels like the ‘alpha’ version of the Firefly crew.

Everything else, Alien 3, the Predator crossovers, and the two prequels are the trash dump of the franchise.

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Movie Review: Alien Romulus

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The seventh film in the Alien franchise Alien Romulus is set between the events of Alien and Aliens. The film is directed and co-written by Fede Alvarez and produced by Ridley Scott’s production company ‘Scott Free’ and Walter Hill’s ‘Brandywine.’

20th Century Studios

Romulus returns to the theme of ‘blue-collar’ workers in dire trouble established by the original 1979 feature film. In this story a collection of miners and other assorted low-value labor board a derelict station in hopes of obtained hyper-sleep pods that will allow them to escape their indentured servitude by making the 9-year voyage to the nearest planet not controlled by the corporation. the station however harbors secrets and dangers the characters are wholly unaware of and what started as a quest to escape rapidly become one of survival.

 

 

In my opinion Romulus ranks third in the franchise, directly after the original and Cameron’s direct sequel. Fede Alvarez and production designer Naaman Marshal have done a quite admirable job is creating a film that feels as though it is part of the world established by the original film and its sequel. Graphics recreated from those movies do not draw attention to themselves but create the familiar environment of those production. For the most part story beats and scenes that do call back to earlier movies do not feel as though they were forced into the film as some sort of obligatory ‘fan service.’

For the most part.

There are sadly several bits that do feel forced and contrived. I think in general it is preferrable to reference earlier films in a franchise with production design and props but not dialog. The dialog spoken by previous characters is theirs and it is unquestionably better to find the right words for you characters rather than take them from another.

The weakest section of the film for me is the final ten or fifteen minutes. Not only does it not feel earned and rather forced it extends a film that had reached a natural and satisfying conclusion with references to substandard entries in the franchise and caused the movie to end with more stolen dialog.

I find it ironic that the most enduring thematic element in the franchise is the one that screenwriter Dan O’Bannon objected to the most when it was inserted into his original script for Alien. The entire corporate conspiracy sub-plot, that the ship had been diverted deliberately and that the crew was considered expendable O’Bannon never liked but has become the defining theme of the films. It lives strong and proud in Romulus.

The next element of my review contains a spoiler so here’s a few thoughts before I continue.

Alien Romulus is a decent if somewhat flawed film that earns at least one viewing.

***SPOILER WARNING***

Through extensive and fairly well deployed CGI the filmmakers recreated on the screen Ian Holm, portraying another android in the same series that ‘Ash’ belonged to. There were some minor ‘uncanny valley’ issues, but they were well managed and actually fit the style of the film for an ‘artificial person.’

The fact that the plot revolves around a soulless corporation pushing workers to their death and seeking a way to extract value even beyond their death while the film literally extracts value from a deceased laborer is deeply ironic.

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