Countdown to Halloween Day 30 -- Remake Done Right: A Review of "Fright Night (2011)"

Since the original 1985 version of Fright Night has been one of my favorite horror movies since I was in elementary school, I was nervous about the 2011 remake, despite a solid cast (Anton Yelchin, Colin Farrell, David Tennant, Toni Collette) and a script from former Buffy scribe Marti Noxon. But as I mentioned in my list of horror remakes that justified their own existence, it managed to be just as enjoyable as the original.

The 2011 shares the same general plot as the original:  high schooler Charley Brewster discovers that his neighbor Jerry is a vampire.  Charley tries to enlist help from entertainer/occult expert Peter Vincent, but Vincent turns out to have feet of clay.  Vampire Jerry turns Charley's friend "Evil" Ed and sends him after Charley, and then abducts Charley's girlfriend in order to turn her into his bride, forcing Charley to confront Jerry in his own lair. 

But within this plot, the filmmakers made numerous tweaks to keep it from feeling like a rehash.  Perhaps the most significant was the reimagining of Peter Vincent from an over the hill horror show host who doesn't really believe in what he's selling into a David Blaine-esque Las Vegas stage magician with a massive collection of occult items; in the remake, Vincent isn't so much a charlatan as he is a coward, albeit with good reason.  The remake also propels the plot forward more quickly than the original did, having "Evil" and Charley be more proactive in their hunt, and Jerry much less patient in maintaining his charade. All of these changes help bring them film into the 21st Century; it feels very much like a modern film, and not an 80s throwback.  Throw in some witty dialogue and some well constructed action scenes, and you have a remake that pays homage to the original but still manages to blaze its own trail.  I loved the 2011 Fright Night both times I've watched it, and would recommend it readily to anyone with a taste for a fun and funny vampire action flick.

Countdown to Halloween day 29 -- A Review of SyFY's "Face-Off"

I've mentioned before that I have a great love of Reality TV competitions based on artistic skills. One of my favorites is the SyFy Network's special-effects based show, Face-Off. It often embodies the best parts of the genre without the more troubling and annoying aspects.

The contestants on Face-Off are all professionals in the movie make-up business, mostly specializing in Horror and Science-Fiction effects. Each week the contestants are given a theme that they must build an original make-up around, ranging from straightforward (vampires) to the unusual (zombified Alice in Wonderland characters).  While there is a strong horror bias to the show's set-up, there are frequently challenges that veer off into less terrifying areas, such as super-heroes; however, if given the opportunity, the contestants tend to bring everything back to horror if they can.

The show has a large number of positive attributes. First of all, the sheer creativity evidenced by the contestants each week is pretty amazing, and provides lots of intriguing visuals. Secondly, the judging doesn't seem to be swayed as much by personal aesthetics as other competitions; in cooking shows judges might have different palettes, and on fashion shows judges might have different ideas of what is or isn't in style, but on the special-effects show most can agree if the look is sloppy or shoddy. And finally, one of the best aspects of the show is the the contestants actually help one another out. And this isn't the "oh, I will help someone out at the beginning of the show but at the end its every man for himself" spirit that might happen on other such programs, but instead is more a sense of professional courtesy that has pervaded every season so far. Yes, there are occasionally contestants with big egos, but on the whole there's very seldom been any big "villains" to cheer against on the series. And while conventional wisdom might hold that having a good villain is key to having a good reality show, my enjoyment of Face-Off tends to put that idea to the test.

The latest season of Face-Off is about to end this week, with one episode airing Tuesday night and the finale airing on Wednesday. This year they're switching things up for the finale: they're allowing the public to vote on who the winner is, a la American Idol. I'm not 100% sure I like that idea, as often the judges can see things up close that don't translate as well on TV; on the other hand, since the make-ups are usually designed to be seen on film, audiences judging by what we're able to perceive on screen does make sense. I just hope that voters are voting more on skill than on personality.  Of course, the lack of a "villain" makes fair voting more likely.

I would encourage anyone who's a fan of reality TV competition shows or who just has an interest in special-effects in general to give the last two episodes a try.

Countdown to Halloween Day 28 -- Not Your Parents' Munsters: A Review of "Mockingbird Lane"

When I first heard about , Bryan Fuller's re-imagining of The Munsters, named Mockinbird Lane after their street address, I was not exactly enamored of the idea, never having been a big Munsters fan. However, I have loved most everything Bryan Fuller has been involved with (Dead Like Me, Pushing Daisies, the all-to-short-lived Wonderfalls), so I was willing to give it a chance.  As more information about the project was released, the more excited I got, until I was actually depressed when it was announced that NBC was not picking the pilot up.  The subsequent news that they would at least be airing the pilot prior to Halloween lifted my spirits, since now I would at least be able to see the full show, and there was a slim chance that its ratings might be big enough to justify a series order after all.

The plot of the Mockingbird Lane pilot follows the Muster clan as they relocate to a new home in a new city after young Eddie has his first werewolf outbreak while camping with his old scout group.  While Eddie is aware that his parents and grandfather are all out of the ordinary, he believes that he is perfectly normal like his cousin Marilyn, and most of the episode is spend with Herman and Lilly debating on whether to fill in the gaps in Eddie's memory from his lycanthropic episode, since he doesn't remember a thing. Meanwhile, Grandpa Munster is determined to stop tip-toeing around the topic and help Eddie embrace his supernatural heritage; Grandpa is also tired of "not drinking," and keeps pushing against the constraints his daughter and son-in-law are trying to place on him.  When Herman's heart -- his last original organ -- begins to fail, Grandpa sees an opportunity to use that need to convince Herman to let him feed on a viable candidate.

The first thing to keep in mind when watching the pilot of Mockingbird Lane is that it takes a sort of Battlestar Gallactica approach to its source material, keeping names and the bare minimum premise, but revamping it into something that is barely recognizable.  For some this could be a detriment; for others, a move in the right direction, depending on your attachment to the original series and how receptive you might be to the new show's distinctive tone.  For me, the show's dark and twisty sensibility, which featured some nicely gruesome moments, made me a fan.  While I know some critics decried its shifting tone, I felt that it actually had a pretty singular vision, and that while it walked the line between comedy and horror, it never veered so far one was or the other that I felt pulled out of the story.  I don't know if there's any chance for Mockingbird Lane to go to series now, but I for one would be ecstatic if it did.

Countdown to Halloween Day 27 -- Of Drinking Games and Blood Splatter:A Review of OhLook Theater's Production of "Evil Dead: The Musical"

On Friday night, Li'l Brother and I went to Grapevine, TX to see the Ohlook Performing Arts Center production of Evil Dead the Musical. While I don't know if I can say it's a great show, it was definitely quite an experience.

The play itself is a mixture of elements from all three Evil Dead films. Like the first film it begins with a group of five college friends going off to a cabin in the woods and accidentally unleashing evil spirits that begin to assault and possess them one by one. Later, it brings in characters from the second movie and its plot point of a spell to defeat the evil, and then ends with the S-Mart sequence from Army of Darkness. Some of the play's comedy is from meta-humor about the films, but the majority stems from shock value and crude comments, with some intentionally bad puns thrown in for good measure. I enjoyed myself at the play, but would be hard-pressed to say how much of that was due to the quality of the script itself, and how much was due to the overall experience.

When Li'l Brother and I got to the theater, there was a line of people outside all holding six packs and coolers and other forms of liquor in all shapes and sizes. Not exactly what we were expecting to see when going to a play. Once inside, we were surprised at just how small the venue was; I knew from purchasing the tickets that it would be a tiny theater, but the online seating chart didn't do it justice. Instead of regular theater seating, it was a series of four risers with regular meeting room chairs set up; plus, they sold "floor seats" which were exactly that: people sitting on the floor.  The "stage" was just the part of the room that wasn't taken up by the risers, which meant that the actors were treading all over the "floor seats" from time to time. As the play started, they announced that they like to do a special drinking game at the productions of Evil Dead: The Musical and instructed us to take a drink every time a character dropped an F-bomb, assuring everyone that if they followed this practice in Act I, they wouldn't remember Act II.

Once again, not like any theater production I've been to before.

One important aspect of the Evil Dead: The Musical experience is the "Splatter Zone"; people seated in the Splatter Zone are pretty much guaranteed to be drenched in fake blood by the time the show is over; people in the non-Splatter Zone aren't 100% safe, but are much less likely to get hit. The first bout of blood splatter doesn't happen till towards the end of the first act, but the second act had liberal doses of fake blood being sprayed into the audience from cast and crew wielding super soakers and plastic bottles filled with fake blood. As I learned from fellow theatergoers during the intermission, this show is an annual tradition at Ohlook, and the bulk of the people sitting in the Splatter Zone were repeat viewers, many of whom were dressed in white so that the blood splatter would show up better on them. Although Li'l Brother and I had purchased seats in the non-Splatter Zone, we both wound up getting small dribbles of fake blood on our clothing, which was better than the floor seats and first row audience, most of whom were dripping with the stuff by the end. The combination of a floor slippery with fake blood and theatergoers tipsy with inebriation led to several close calls and one flat-out pratfall from a girl trying to head the bathroom in the middle of the second act, causing the only actress on stage to pause and give the klutz some applause.

The cast was very solid on the whole, although I often had trouble telling if my inability to hear lyrics was due to the music being cranked too loud or to many of the performers not projecting out loudly enough. But while most of the cast did solid jobs, two of them did exceptional jobs which helped carry the rest of the show.  First, there was the hillbilly character Jake who, for reasons I'm not quite sure of, was portrayed by a butched-up female. And while her macho performance was part of her appeal, really it was just her flat-out comedic chops and frankly stellar singing voice that made her stand out in my mind. The other standout was the actor portraying our main hero, Ash, who also had a surprisingly good singing voice and a talent for physical comedy. He also managed to do a good job of ad libbing when things would go off track, from a malfunctioning curtain rod to people coming in late to taking his own tumble on the fake blood.  For both of them, I found myself wishing I could see other productions they were involved in, and that's not something I often find myself saying when seeing community theater.

Evil Dead: The Musical is not for the easily offended or squeamish, or even those with a low tolerance for self aware campy humor; but if none of that bothers you, and you're open to an unusual theater-going experience, it has potential.

Countdown to Halloween Day 26 -- A Review of Scott Snyder and Scott Tuft's "Severed"

Set in 1916, Scott Snyder and Scott Tuft's mini-series Severed from Image Comics is the story of a 12 year old boy named Jack Garron who, after finding out he was adopted, sets out on the road to find his real dad.  After being taken under the wing of another young drifter named Sam, Jack and his new friend's journey takes a turn for the dangerous after they cross paths with a salty traveling salesman whose outward kindness and offer of help give not hint to the razor sharp teeth hidden behind his dentures, or his taste for the flesh of young, hope-filled children. 

Much like his runs on American Vampire and Swamp Thing, Snyder's biggest strength in Shattered creating engaging characters, whether it be the rebellious Jack, the streetwise Sam, or the mysterious razor-toothed salesman.  In terms of horror, the series is a slow burn; although the first issue of the series shows precisely what happens to the salesman's victims, much of the series hinges on slowly building tension around the salesman's ultimate plan for Jack.  While the narrative structure of having the story told by a much older, one-armed Jack might lessen the tension somewhat, the question of Sam's fate, and who else might become a casualty of the salesman's hunger, helps propel the story. In terms of gore, the series is fairly under-stated, with only a couple of panels featuring anything even remotely disturbing, which definitely helps the book be more accessible to the more squeamish reader.

While Severed didn't connect with me to the same degree that Snyder's other horror comics have, I did find it to be a solid story, and would be interested in learning more about the salesman's past if Snyder ever decides to tell the tale.

Countdown to Halloween day 25 – A Review of Scott Snyder's "Swamp Thing v.1: Raise Them Bones"

As I mentioned yesterday, I was a big fan of Alan Moore's run on Saga of the Swamp Thing, and a mild-to-medium fan of many of the interpretations that came after his departure... a feeling that was apparently shared by many, as up until recently it had been several years since there's been a an on-going Swamp Thing comic book. As part of DC Comics' New 52 initiative,  a new Swamp Thing series was penned by Scott Snyder of American Vampire fame was launched last year, and the first six issues have been collected in Swamp Thing v.1: Raise Them Bones.

This new series is notable for two reasons. First of all, it marks the return of Swamp thing from the silo of DC's Vertigo imprint to the mainstream DC universe, where he can now interact with superheroes once again. Secondly, much like Moore did, Snyder vastly redefines what you know about the origin and purpose of the Swamp Thing.

The first big change for this series is the fact that Alec Holland is back from the dead, something that is never fully explained in the book.  The resurrected Holland's last real memory is of his death, but he does experience flashes from the Swamp Thing's existence. He is visited by an emissary from The Parliament of Trees, the ancient order of former Swamp Things, who explains that the Swamp Thing we know and love was actually a huge mistake; it was supposed to have bonded with Holland during his accident, but due to his dying before the process was complete, it was never able to achieve its full potential.  Now Holland is being called on to accept the power offered the Parliament and become the Swamp Thing he was always meant to be so that he can face the new danger facing The Green, a force known as The Rot.  Holland resists at first, but is soon drawn into the battle when he encounters Swamp Thing's widow, Abigail Arcane, who is potentially The Rot's human host.

While I wasn't sure what to expect going in to Raise Them Bones, I have to say I was very pleased.  The "everything you know is wrong" twist manages to keep the past continuity in play (apparently; it's a little hard to tell with the New 52 books) but still take the story in new directions.  The relationship between Alec and Abby is an interesting one, since she he has vague memories of her from a life he never led, and he's a constant reminder to her of the love that she lost.  There are a lot of balls in the air, here, and Snyder manages to juggle them well for the most part.

My only real quibble is that it's not exactly new reader friendly, which is a bit of a problem since the whole point of the New 52 was to provide a great jumping on point for new readers.  And normally I wouldn't mind the fact that the book is referencing things that happened in other books -- after all, growing up half the fun of reading comics was tracking those reference down -- but by sticking to the horrible modern comic practice of no footnotes, a new reader has no idea where to track down where any of the story leading up to this point happened.  Not a deal breaker, but something that's symptomatic of the problems comic books have with gaining new readers.  It may have jumped out at me more because I am familiar with enough of Swamp Thing's history to know that Alec Holland was dead, but hadn't been following the series where he was resurrected --which, for the record, was apparently Brightest Day. I think; the Internet has been relatively unhelpful in giving me specifics.

All that being said, if you're a fan of The Swamp Thing or just well written horror tinged comics in general, you should probably give this first volume a try.

Countdown to Halloween Day 24 -- A Review of Alan Moore's "Saga of theSwamp Thing"

For many people, to mention Swamp Thing is to conjure up images of a cheesy movie, its even cheesier sequel, or the live action and cartoon TV series those films inspired.   But for comic book fans, Swamp Thing conjures up images of mature tales of horror that would help redefine what a mainstream comic book was capable of.   For years, Swamp Thing was one of the flagship titles of DC's Vertigo imprint, and that can all be traced back to the reinvention of the character that took place during Alan Moore's run on Saga of the Swamp Thing.

Prior to Moore, Swamp Thing was a relatively mild horror comic book about Alec Holland, a scientist whose experiment goes awry and turns him into a plant-based monster. But with Moore, the Swamp Thing was revealed to not be Alec Holland in the body of a monster, but a monster which had been fooled into thinking it was Alec Holland. Stripped of its illusion of humanity, the Swamp Thing searched for new meaning in its existence. Initially fighting against his longtime foe Anton Arcane who'd returned from the dead yet again, Swamp Thing eventually became a pawn in breakout character John Constantine's byzantine schemes to prepare him for a battle against a powerful force of evil. Towards the end of his run, Moore moved to a more Sci-Fi bent, having Swamp Thing untether his elemental consciousness from Earth in order to explore other worlds and times. But for the largest part of his run, Moore had Swamp Thing confront foes if a much more horrific nature: vampires, ghosts, werewolves, demons, and a vast force of anti-creation.

I can remember getting the first trade paperback of Moore's run on Saga of the Swamp Thing for Christmas in 1988 (along with Moore's Watchmen), and having it boldly redefine in my head what a comic book could be. With its mature storytelling, intelligent takes on the characters and beautifully disturbing artwork, Moore's Swamp Thing is a testament to the power of the art form. Unfortunately, along with other seminal works like The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen, many people misunderstood the real lessons to take away from these more mature books, thinking that cursing and graphic violence and partial nudity are all it takes to be a successful "mature" title, ignoring the fact that there has to be something more substantial behind it all in order for the work to really soar.

While I read Swamp Thing off and on during other writers runs following Moore's departure, none of them was ever able to perfectly recapture the magic of his tenure on the title.

Countdown to Halloween Day 23 -- It Just Keeps Shambling On: A Review of "The Walking Dead"

Robert Kirkman's comic book series The Walking Dead has managed to inspire one of the most popular shows on cable TV at the moment, and the book itself doesn't show any signs of stopping, having just passed the 100 issue mark a few months back.

Much like the TV show, the comic book is chiefly the story of Rick Grimes, a police officer who awakes from a gun-shot induced coma to find that his family is gone and his home town has become overrun with zombies.  Rick sets out on a quest to find his wife and son, and along the way becomes the de facto leader of a small group of survivors.  As the series progresses, the burden of leadership and the constant horror he's forced to confront hardens Rick to the point where his only purpose is to safeguard the people he loves, and nothing's going to stand in his way, living or dead.

Like much of Kirkman's work, one of the strengths of The Walking Dead is the sense that anything can happen; at this point I've read up through #96 of the series, and very few of the original characters are still standing, and those that are have not emerged from their traumas unscathed.  Every time it feels like Rick's crew has finally found a place to be, if not happy, at least safe and content, as the reader you are always waiting for the other shoe to drop. At times that sense of foreboding can drag the book down for me, as the constant misery is wearying, but since the most recent home for the group has been in place for over 30 issues, it has given me enough breathing room to be ready for the next big tragedy -- which by all accounts takes place in issue #100.

While not a perfect series -- the decision to have one of the series strongest women characters by repeatedly raped and humiliated by a villain was a definite low point for me -- The Walking Dead still manages to keep me coming back volume after volume.

Countdown to Halloween Day 22 -- A Review of "Locke and Key"

My first exposure to the writing talent of Stephen King's son Joe Hill was not through either of his novels, but instead through his comic book series Locke and Key.  Published as a succession of mini-series, the book follows the Locke family who have moved into the family estate known as Keyhouse following a tragedy.  In the first volume, Welcome to Lovecraft, the three Locke children, shaken by the death of their father at the hands of an unbalanced young man named Sam Lesser, struggle to make the best of their new situation -- a struggle that is complicated by the fact that their new home is host to mysterious forces, including a spirit in the well house which has helped Sam Lesser escape prison.  With their father's killer hunting them, the Locke kids have to figure out how to use the mystical keys hidden in their new home to battle the evil that threatens their family.  In each subsequent volume, the Locke kid slowly uncover more of their home's secrets, until the fifth volume, Clockworks allows them to use a time-travel key to witness the true origin of their mystical talismans. 

I cannot say enough good things about this series.  Hill has created an engaging world with complex characters and an intriguing mythology, and he does a good job of doling out the secrets of Keyhouse slowly enough to maintain interest, but not so slowly that the story drags on forever.  Enhancing Hill's scripts is the artwork of Gabriel Rodriguez, who manages to capture both humor and horror very well. 

I'm saddened to learn that the not-yet-published mini-series, Omega, will bring the story of Locke and Key to an end, but am glad that it has been popular enough to allow Hill and Rodriguez to fully tell the story they wanted to tell.

Countdown to Halloween Day 21 -- Should Have Just Re-watched "Popcorn" : A Review of "Midnight Matinee"

Midnight Matinee is a 1989 slasher flick set in a small town in British Columbia where a horror movie festival two years prior had ended on its first night due to a murder in the theater.  Now, the theater is holding another horror film festival to help promote a new horror film starring a local actor, and the murders are starting up again.

Going in to this film, I was slightly optimistic; a horror movie set in a movie theater showing horror films has a lot of promise (see: Popcorn).  Unfortunately, the handful of times the film manages to take advantage of its setting are not enough to redeem the rest of the film which is guilty of the crime of being boring.  The characters were largely obnoxious, off-putting, or bland, and much of their behavior lack any logical basis.  Now, as this is a slasher film, the latter part isn't necessarily a deal-breaker, but with only a handful of murders spread throughout the film, it needed more engaging connective tissue between them.  Sadly, the only thing this film has going for it is bit parts for Don S. Davis (General Hammon of Stargate: SG-1) and William B. Davis (The Cigarette Smoking Man of The X-Files), and the novelty of watching their younger selves paled pretty quickly.

Midnight Matinee is neither well-done, nor bad enough to be entertaining; it's just a bland time-suck.

Countdown to Halloween Day 20 -- "Dissidents" is the new "Zed-word" : a Review of "Juan of the Dead"

A Spanish-Cuban collaboration, Juan of the Dead is a zom-com about a gang of low level crooks in Cuba who see their country's zombie infestation as a business opportunity, becoming zombie slayers with the motto "We'll kill your family for you."  They are slightly hampered by the fact that they have no idea what zombies are -- the Cuban government insists that they are "dissidents" being corrupted by America, and an early scene derives its comedy from Juan and company trying to slay a zombified neighbor like a vampire or exorcise it like a demon before hitting on the whole "blow to the head" trick -- but soon they are making a killing, so to speak. Unfortunately, the enterprise begins to take its toll on the crew, and they begin to wonder if staying in a zombie-infested Havana is the best idea.

Despite my general zombie burnout, I was pleasantly entertained by this film. Some of that I ascribe to the setting, which allowed for some political commentary, but largely I think the film works because Juan and his partners are not the typical horror movie characters; they're not fighting for survival, they're fighting for a quick buck, and are not ashamed to fake altruism to do it. The film allows them to maintain their selfish and largely amoral actions for the bulk of the film while still somehow making one character's noble sacrifice at the end feel earned. They are a pretty unlikely looking bunch of action heroes, but that makes the battle scenes even more entertaining.

Only the slightly negative side, the humor is often a little on the crude side, and there are a couple of scenes where the character lose all common sense for no other reason than to further the plot. And when an "American" shows up, his English is so heavily accented that I was wishing that he was subtitled as well. These weren't game breakers, but they were enough of a distraction to keep me from fully investing in the film.

Juan of the Dead isn't going to rank up there with my favorite zom-coms, but it's definitely worth a watch for fans of the genre.

Countdown to Halloween Day 19 -- Horrific, Maybe, but Horror ?: Areview of "Excision"

The blurbs for the recent film Excision paint it as a horror film about a morbid little girl obsessed with dissecting roadkill. And while that description is partly true, I feel that the blurb doesn't really capture the spirit of this odd little film.

The protagonists of the film is the morbid Pauline, a socially awkward girl whose parents not only don't understand her, but are often actively hostile towards her while heaping love upon her younger sister who is suffering from cystic fibrosis. Pauline escapes into sexual fantasies of a morbid (and often necrophiliac) nature. Scorned and rejected by everyone around her except her younger sister, Pauline begins to act out in increasingly disturbing ways.

For the majority of the film, Excision plays more as a dark comedy then as horror. As a matter fact, outside of some brief disturbing fantasy sequences, the only real moment of horror happens in the last 10 minutes of the film. I don't want to quibble about the movie's genre label; there have been many horror films which have not featured any true horror until the last reel. However, there is usually a sense of slowly building tension in such films that is largely absent from Excision; if I hadn't known it was being sold as a horror film, the finale would have been doubly shocking due to its escalation of Pauline's mental issues.

That being said, I enjoyed this film quite a lot, even if it wasn't quite what I was expecting. AnnaLynne McCord did a great job making the character of Pauline both engaging and offputting, and I'm curious to see some of her other roles for comparison's sake.  And, for film I've never heard of before it popped up on my Netflix "new releases" page, it had quite an interesting cast, including Marly Matlin, Traci Lords, Roger Bart, Malcolm McDowell, Ray Wise, John Waters, and Ariel "Alex from Modern Family" Winter as the younger sister. I appreciated the films dark humor, even as I kept waiting for it to blossom into something worse.

Excision is not film I would feel comfortable recommending to too many people due to its offbeat feel and disturbing imagery, but if you have a taste for the dark and twisty, you might give it a try.

Countdown to Halloween Day 18 -- And the Cautiously Optimistic Award for Most (Seemingly) Improved Series Goes To: A Review of the Premiere of "American Horror Story: Asylum"

As explored in yesterday's review,  my feelings towards the first season of American Horror Story were rather mixed, and yet I still remained intrigued about the radical shift in stories for the second season.  And, despite the fact that the cold open of the premiere of American Horror Story: Asylum was so jarringly edited that it made most music videos look like Alfred Hitchcock's Rope and the inclusion of over-the-top sexually suggestive sequences, once the end credits rolled, I had to admit that I had thoroughly enjoyed it.

This seasons storyline is centered not on a haunted house, but on an insane asylum owned by the Catholic church which operates on the idea that all insanity is just people's sin nature running away with them, so there's no need for that psychology nonsense, just some good old fashioned prayer -- mixed in with a bit of punishment.  Once again Jessica Lange steals the show, albeit with a very different character.  Her Sister Jude is a true believer, except she seems to place her faith more in her monsignor (played by Joseph Fiennes) than in the Lord.  In the premiere her iron grip on the asylum is challenged by a creepy non-believing doctor (James Cromwell) who's performing some nasty experiments, and  a nosy reporter (the always excellent Sarah Paulson) who is hoping to get a scoop on the asylum's latest inmate, a suspected serial killer (Evan Peters) who has been assigned the all-too unfortunate sobriquet of "Bloody Face."

The reveal of the name Bloody Face was my first eye-rolling moment of the show; coming up with an appropriate name for your villain is doubtless a difficult task, but this probably homage to Leatherface just feels awkward every time it's mentioned in the show. However, when we finally get a glimpse of Bloody Face in full bloody-skin mask, I decided I could overlook the poor name when the accompanying visual was so powerfully disturbing. 

The show still has a bit of an overstuffed feeling, but it's not anywhere near the handicap now that it was due to the nature of the season's plots.  In season 1, it was ghost after ghost after ghost revealing themselves, a repetition that eroded interest even as the haunted house got more and more crowded.  But with season 2, each plot-line has a distinct stamp (alien abductions, serial killers, medical experiments gone awry, people wrongly imprisoned, an upcoming exorcism) that may lead to plot-overload-burnout, but probably not to boredom.

Although the show still struggles with restraint -- the violin sting when the doctor says "He died" was my second eye-rolling moment -- I have to admit that for many viewers that's part of it's appeal.  And as long as the show can entertain and disturb me the way this first episode did all season, I'm in for the long haul.

Countdown to Halloween Day 17 -- Yup, That Sure Was a Ryan Murphy Show: A Review of Season 1 of "American Horror Story"

I have a little bit of a love/hate relationship with Ryan Murphy's TV work.  I love the tendency towards hyper-stylized worlds, like Popular and Glee, but hate the inconsistency of character development . . . like Popular and Glee.  Restraint and subtlety have never been Murphy's strong suits, and this was never so obvious as in the first season of American Horror Story.

Even before the series began, it showed promise through some intriguingly creepy promos, but at the same time the inclusion of a rubber suited man set off a few warning bells that the show might venture into the psycho-sexual territory that dragged down Nip/Tuck over time.  If only that had been the show's only issue.

The series centered on a dysfunctional family's move to a house that proves to be haunted by a multitude of ghosts, each of whom died while on the property.  While that concept might sound interesting in theory, in practice it lead to a muddled mess of a show; the overstuffed haunted house held little in the way of real scares or even creepiness, with the reveal of each spirit being a game of diminishing returns.  Add onto that the fact that the majority of the characters had no redeeming qualities, and you have a show that squandered its potential.

And yet, despite some obvious misfires, there was a kernel of a good show buried there.  The idea of Francis Conroy's spirit being viewed differently by different people was an interesting one, and some of the flashbacks to explain how the spirits met their fate were well executed. But in the end, not even some knockout performances from Jessica Lange (who won an Emmy for the role) and Connie Briton could fully redeem the show for me. 

But, in keeping with my complicated relationship with Ryan Murphy's output, I am actually looking forward to tonight's premiere of the second season.  Partly because they have decided to turn the show into a series of mini-series, so that each season is totally divorced from the plot of the one before it, which means that one of the biggest problem with the first season -- the overstuffed house -- has been jettisoned, and partly because they have kept several of the actors from the first season and plugged them into totally new roles.  Looking forward to seeing what Jessica Lange and Sarah Paulson (yay! Sarah Paulson!) get to do.  So, be sure to check back tomorrow to see my thoughts on the first episode of American Horror Story: Asylum.

Countdown to Halloween Day 16 -- From Scary to Slapstick : A Review of "Evil Dead" and "Evil Dead 2"

In preparation for (I hope) seeing Evil Dead: The Musical in a couple of weeks, I decided to re-watch the first two Evil Dead films back to back. 

The original Evil Dead tells the story of a group of 5 college friends whose weekend in a cabin in the woods goes bad when they play a recording they find which contains a summoning ritual.  One by one, the kids are attacked and possessed by evil forces, until only Ash (Bruce Campbell) remains. 

The sequel, Evil Dead 2, is actually more of a reboot than a sequel.  This time around, Ash and his girlfriend Linda  are alone when they travel to the cabin and play the recording; soon the cabin is also visited by the daughter of the man on the recording, her boyfriend, and a couple of hicks who helped them find their way to the cabin. Once again, the forces of evil attack and possess the group one by one.

Although there is a sizable difference between the plot of the two films, the thing that stands out most is the vast change in tone.  Evil Dead is a straight-up horror film with some funny moments, while Evil Dead 2 skews to the comedy side of the spectrum, featuring over-the-top comedy and slapstick.  The move towards slapstick would become even more pronounced with the third film, Army of Darkness.


I was impressed with how well the first Evil Dead holds up, especially considering its low budget.  The scenes with possessed Linda giggling maniacally still manage to creep me out, and the angry molesting trees sequence still disturbs me.  On the whole, I tend to prefer the first film; while I'm a self-professed lover of horror-comedies, I'm also a self-professed loather of slapstick.  Evil Dead 2 is able to walk that fine line between what I'll enjoy and what I won't for the most part, but its swiftly shifting tones and reliance on physical comedy make it harder for me to get into.  At the same time, the scenes with Ash losing his grip on sanity are well executed, and the sequence introducing the chainsaw hand is pure gold.  

Countdown to Halloween Day 15 -- Separating Themselves: A Review of the Season Premiere of "Walking Dead"

I have enjoyed the first two seasons of The Walking Dead quite a bit, although I was in agreement with most that the 2nd season's stay at the farm made it seem like the show had dragged on for years.  During the break between seasons I read all of the available collections of the comic book that inspired the show, and so was very much looking forward to the new season, which was promising to introduce three key aspects of the books:  Michonne, the prison, and The Governor.The season 2 finale had teased two of those aspects, and the season 3 premiere, "Seed," followed through on those two while leaving the third to whet our appetites in the "This Season on Walking Dead" promos.

The episode jumps forward in time a few months from the last episode, which I appreciated, and not just because it provided a good excuse for Carl's obvious growth spurt. The show really needed to find a way to distance itself from the endless trudge that had been the farm storyline, and the time jump facilitated that perfectly; we go from seeing a group that was battered and defeated, to seeing one that's moving like a well-oiled machine under their new Ricktatorship.*  The scenes of Rick barking orders and everyone following with no question demonstrate the new status quo better than anything else; he's kept them all alive throughout the winter, and they've come to trust his judgement.  Well, everyone but Lori, that is, but what else is new?  

I was less happy with the way the time-jump pushed all of Andrea and Michonne's getting-to-know-you time into the limbo of off-screen, and even less happy that TV Andrea continues to be horribly annoying.  I hope that they tone down her attitude soon, because right now I really don't relish watching any scenes with her.  Which is unfortunate, since the season is shaping up to have Andrea and Michonne's interactions with The Governor be half of the show.

While I wasn't quite sure how I felt about that direction at first, on reflection I think it's a smart way to go.  After all, the biggest complaint the previous season got was that the plot felt interminable at times, so by splitting the main narrative in half, the writers will be able to give us a break from the unrelenting horror of one scenario by letting us witness the unrelenting horror of the other.  Plus, a comparison between the benign dictatorship of Rick, and the not so benign dictatorship of The Governor could fit well into this parallel story structure.  My one hope is that the Governor story line avoids the unpleasant rape storyline from the books; that soured the storyline for me when I was reading it, and would probably be worse for me in live action. 

On the whole, "Seeds" gave me hope that this season was moving in the right direction, and I'm looking forward to see where it goes next.

*I wish I could take credit for that one, but alas, I cribbed it from some other Internet sage

Countdown to Halloween Day 14 -- Skinner's Still Not So Sweet: a review of "American Vampire, v.4"

In the world of writer Scott Snyder and artist Rafael Albuquerque's comic book series American Vampire, there are a myriad of different vampire bloodlines, each with its own strengths and weaknesses.   The series itself focuses on the newest vampire subspecies, Homo Abominum Americana, the titular American vampire sub-species, which can walk in the sun and is vulnerable not to wood or silver, but gold.  As the fourth collected volume (containing issues #19-27 of the monthly series) begins, there are three known examples of American vampire in existence:  former actress Pearl Jones, trying to live in peaceful hiding with her still-human husband Henry; Skinner Sweet, Pearl's sociopathic sire and the first known American vampire; and Calvin Poole, a vampire hunter/taxonomist accidentally turned by Pearl's blood in volume 3. 

Volume 4 contains three separate story arcs.  The first, "The Beast in the Cave," is a story about Skinner's human days as an infantryman in 1871, featuring more insight into his early relationship with Jim Book, and further evidence that it wasn't vampirism that made him act like a monster.  The story also shows that, contrary to popular belief, Skinner wasn't the first new breed of vampire sired on American soil.  The second story, "Death Race," moves the series into the 1950s, and follows an unstable juvenile delinquent of the Rebel Without a Cause mold who actually does have a cause:  hunting down the vampire he holds responsible for the death of his entire family.  The third story, "The Nocturnes," shows Calvin Poole straying from his latest mission for personal reasons, only to stumble across a species of vampire totally unfamiliar to him.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first three volumes of American Vampire, and am glad to say that the 4th volume continues the trend.  Of the three stories, "Death Race" was my favorite, largely because I was intrigued and entertained by the new teenaged vampire slayer.   The weakest story for me was "The Beast in the Cave," if for no other reason than Skinner's sociopathic behavior tends to work better for me (a) after he's been turned and (b) in small doses.  But while the Skinner portions of the story wore me down, the titular beast's story helped hold my interest.

If you've never read any of American Vampire before, then this definitely is not a good jumping-on point; there's not much time devoted to revisiting the events of previous volumes, so the brief appearance of Pearl and Henry or significance of Book's relationship to Skinner would be lost on new readers.  So, if you're intrigued by the premise, please check out the first volume, which was partially scripted by Stephen King along with Snyder; and if you're already a fan of the series, rest assured that volume 4 does the series proud.

Countdown to Halloween Day 13 -- Give the Audience What It Wants, Dagnabit! : a Review of "Jersey Shore Shark Attack"

As someone who enjoys The MST3K Effect of "so bad they're good" movies, I'm always up to watch one of the SyFy Original Movies, a brand that screams crazy plots, sub-par acting, and wildly inconsistent visual effects. Granted, I tend to enjoy their giant-mega-super-mutant-[insert animal here]-asaurus films more than their freaky natural disaster or plague of killer animals pics, but when I saw the title Jersey Shore Shark Attack, I was struck with a morbid curiosity about just how Jersey Shore it would be.  Turns out the answer is:  too much.

Jersey Shore Shark Attack isn't just a generic shark attack film set on the Jersey Shore; no, it's a full blown Jersey Shore  parody, with characters sporting names like Nookie and The Complication, that just happens to have a mass of killer sharks thrown in for good measure.  And that was almost the death knell for my enjoyment of the film.  After all, for The MST3K Effect to fully work, there has to be a general lack of self-awarenes apparent in the film; once you realize the filmmakers are fully in on the joke, then you start to judge the film by how well they're exploiting this awareness.  It's a fine line to walk, making a bad film and winking at the audience to let them know that you know it's bad, because, on some level, it makes the audience wonder why if you're smart enough to know it's bad, you keep on doing it. 

Not that I think the creators of Jersey Shore Shark Attack demonstrate all that much self-awareness, mind you; but, the fact that it is a parody featuring caricatures of people who already come of like caricatures means we're suddenly out of the realm of regular B-grade horror films, and into some weird hybrid that can't decide what it wants to be.   And since one of the things that will almost always ruin a movie for me is an inconsistency of tone, I found this a hard one to make it through.

But make it through I did, holding on to one single hope the entire time:  that I would get to see one of the sharks devour one of the main characters.  After all, who among us hasn't yearned for the catharsis of watching the cast of the Jersey Shore mauled by wild animals?   Sadly, the answer is apparently "the filmmakers," as not a single one of the direct Jersey Shore parody characters gets so much as nipped by any of the sharks.  In the end, I think it was that refusal to pay off the implied catharsis of watching Nookie and The Complication torn to bits that sunk the film totally for me.

Countdown to Halloween Day 12 -- Surrealist Screams: A Review of Lucio Fulci's "The Beyond"

Lucio Fulci's 1981 horror film The Beyond is the second of his unofficial "Gates of Hell" trilogy, each of which depicts one of the 7 gates of Hell being opened, allowing evil to walk the earth.  I wasn't a big fan of the first installment, City of the Dead, but since The Beyond is often cited as one of Fulci's best films, I decided to give it a try.

The plot, such as it is, revolves around a dilapidated New Orleans' hotel which sits atop one of the aforementioned hell-gates.  A young woman's attempts to reopen the hotel accidentally reopens the gate, and soon there's a stream of random deaths whose causes range from animal attacks to zombie hoards.  Throw in some spooky blind girls, a disappearing/reappearing book of prophecy, enough creatively gruesome deaths to keep the gore-hounds happy, and one heck of a "Wait, what?" finale, and you have an entertaining, if disjointed, film.

Normally in an overdubbed film I'd write such disjointedness off as bad translation or poor editing, but there's something about the way The Beyond moves from one gruesome set-piece to another that drew me in and made me want to do some research on it.  Sure enough, the surreal, disconnected plot was all part of Fulci's design; in fact, he wanted it to be even more dreamlike and disjointed, but his studio made him rein it in somewhat.

The movie's biggest strength for me was the quality of the death scenes, which boasted some truly impressive prosthetic effects.  The fake animals, however, were a pretty steep drop off in quality, making it harder to stay in the moment during those scenes . . . well, the dog attack scene, anyway.  The spider sequence, which combined real and fake tarantulas, managed to be one of the more disturbing things I've seen, due to both the mechanics of the death and the unbearably long amount of time Fulci lets his cameras dwell on it.  I'm still not sure if the lingering shots of the spiders was a positive or negative for me, but I can guarantee it's a scene that will stick with me.

Countdown to Halloween Day 11 -- Johnny Drama, Alien Hunter: A Review of "The Blob"

If you saw my list of 10 horror movie remakes that justify their own existence, then you know that I only included the 1988 remake of The Blob with the caveat that I hadn't seen it in a couple of decades.  And so, much like with Waxwork, I decided to revisit the film to see how it held up. The answer is it's a bit of a mixed bag.

To start with, the dialogue and plot are often ham-handed; it's bad enough when it's just focused on the local yokels, but once it gets to the eeeeeeeeeeeeeevil government scientist making his eeeeeeeeeeeeeevil speech about the expendability of said yokels it was really hard for me to curtail my eye rolling. On the other hand, the movie shows a great willingness to kill off characters that you might not expect, including a fake-out protagonist and a little kid, which helps to keep the viewer off-balance. 

The true strength of the film is the same thing that has made it stick in my mind for all these years:  the creature effects.  Where the original Blob was just a slowly shambling mound of goo, the 80s version is much more predatory and adaptive, shooting out tendrils, climbing ceilings, crushing evil government men with gross looking pseudopods -- this is a Blob that can't be avoided by a brisk walk away.  And not only is it more active, it's also much creepier, from its organic, veined appearance to the multiple examples of partially digested victims being viewed through the creature's translucent skin.  While the sub-par green screen moments do feel a little Z-grade, the bulk of the practical effects are inventive and well-done.

As a bonus, watching the film nearly 25 years after it was made allows for a lot of "Hey, isn't that . . .?" moments.  There's just something incredibly fun for me about watching 80s-rocker-haired Johnny Drama getting into an argument with mustachioed-and-still-mostly-fully-haired-Deputy "Rocket" Romano, while Sheriff Dale-from-Walking-Dead tries to referee. 

Although The Blob may suffer from clunky dialogue and a "did we really need that?" conspiracy plot, the creepiness and horror of the creature itself validates my initial assessment that the remake justified its own existence.