The short is an amazingly challenging artform. Often, writers will abuse the short by turning it into a pitch for a longer film or worse they have no resolution at all. Sometimes it’s just plain boring. Jezebel was boring. I was checking the runtime 3 minutes into it. I think it’s a nine-minute runtime. I was bored for…. nine of them. Leave it to a pretentious writer to make sex boring. I didn’t know that was a thing, but here we are.
Jezebel is about a Victorian era stilted talking depressive vampire who REALLY like to philosophize between “Johns”/Snacks. She eats her customers, even a clingy one who she seemed to love after knowing him for only 2 minutes. I understand that a short needs to be compact, but it shouldn’t be terrible. Jezebel appears to have won a number of awards, which I’m assuming were given out of gratitude that it ended.
If you want to re-create the verbiage of your thirteen year old goth friend, this short is for you!
4 (or more) Shots From 4 (or more) Films is just what it says it is, 4 (or more) shots from 4 (or more) of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 (or more) Shots From 4 (or more) Films lets the visuals do the talking.
This October, we’re using this feature to highlight some of our favorite actors and directors, all of whom have made invaluable contributions to the horror genre! Today, we both pay tribute to and wish a happy birthday to the Italian director, Claudio Fragasso, with….
4 Shots From 4 Claudio Fragasso Films
Monster Dog (1984, dir by Claudio Fragasso, DP: José García Galisteo)
Zombi 4: After Death (1989, dir by Claudio Fragasso, DP: Luigi Ciccarese)
Beyond Darkness (1990, dir by Claudio Fragasso, DP: Larry J. Fraser)
Troll 2 (1990, dir by Claudio Fragasso, DP: Giancarlo Ferrando)
If you had told me, ten years ago, that John Krasinski was destined to go from starring in The Office to being an action star, I would have thought you were crazy.
“John Krasinsi’s going to grow a beard and base his acting career around playing soldiers and CIA analysts? No way! He will always be Jim Halpert,” I would have said, “He smirks at the camera and has an adorable relationship with Pam!”
Of course, I was wrong. After The Office ended, John Krasinki went on to play Jack Ryan for Prime and to star in movies like 13 Hours. And yet, as unexpected as that development may have been, what was even more unexpected was that Krasinski would also direct one of the best horror films of the past five years, 2018’s A Quiet Place. Telling the story of a family trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world in which the Earth has been invaded by aliens who hunt by sound, A Quiet Place was intense, atmospheric, frightening, and actually rather touching. Though the plot itself may have been a bit familiar (because, seriously, how many movies have there been recently about insect-like aliens destroying civilization?) but Krasinski showed true skill as a director, getting heart-breaking performances out of a cast that included himself and his wife, Emily Blunt.
A Quiet Place was such a success that it was was inevitable that it would be followed by a sequel. Though its original release was delayed by the pandemic, A Quiet Place Part II was finally released in May of this year and it became one of the first successful films of 2021. John Krasinki even taped a special greeting for those who saw the film when it was first released, welcoming them back to the theaters. That really is the most John Krasinski thing imaginable.
As for A Quiet Place Part II, it’s actually two films in one. The first part of the film serves as a prequel, showing us the initial attack and following Lee (John Krasinski) and his family as they flee for safety while the aliens decimate their hometown. It’s an exciting sequence, even if one gets the feeling that it was largely included so that Krasinski could make an appearance despite his character having been killed off during the first film. After the flashback, A Quiet Place Part II picks up where the first film ended. Lee is dead and his widow, Evelyn (Emily Blunt), does everything she can to protect her surviving children, Regan (Millicent Simmonds), Marcus (Noah Jupe), and her newborn baby. Though Regan has figured out that the aliens are themselves vulnerable to sound (specifically, a high-pitched tone), that doesn’t make the aliens themselves any less dangerous. After eventually meeting up with Emmett (Cillian Murphy), an embittered friend from the old days, Evelyn and her family search for other survivors.
A Quiet Place Part II is a simple but efficient thriller, one that recaptures all of the first film’s strengths without making the mistake of adding any new weaknesses. Much like the first film, it’s dominated by suspenseful scenes of survivors trying to make their way through the wilderness without so much as stepping on a twig. As anyone who has ever tried to sneak into their house after being out later than they were supposed to can tell you, walking without making a sound is not as easy as it seems. One of the film’s most harrowing scenes features a character getting his foot caught in a bear trap and his family struggling to free him while also trying to keep him from screaming out in pain.
Wisely, the film resists the temptation to tell us too much about the aliens. All we really know about them is that they hunt by sound and they kill anything they pounce on. And really, that’s all we need to know. At a time when far too many film franchises end up drowning in their own overly complicated mythology, the Quiet Place films keep it simple. The aliens hunt and they kill and they’re frightening specifically because there is no way to understand their motivations. They’re pure chaos, a reminder that our lives are not ruled by rhyme and reason. The aliens, like all existential threats, don’t care that the Earth is inhabited by families or people who have tried to create a safe life for themselves. They exist only to destroy.
It can be argued that A Quiet Place Part II tells essentially the same story as A Quiet Place, with Cillian Murphy’s Emmett replacing Lee. That’s a legitimate point but then again, it could also be argued that a part of the film’s strength is that it doesn’t attempt to complicate things. The aliens are going to remain just as frightening the second time Evelyn and her family flees from them as the first time. Clocking in at a brisk 97 minutes, there’s not a wasted moment or a trace of filler to be found in A Quiet Place Part II. Featuring an excellent turn from the awesome Emily Blunt and good performances from Simmonds and Murphy, A Quiet Place Part II is a sequel that’s worthy of the film that came before it.
For today’s horror on the lens, we’ve got the 1982 made-for-TV movie, Mazes and Monsters!
Mazes and Monsters! Sounds pretty scary, doesn’t it? Well, have no fear. Mazes and Monsters is just a role-playing game, one that definitely should not be mistaken for Dungeons and Dragons despite the fact that it’s exactly the same as Dungeons and Dragons. Except, of course, for the fact that one game takes place in a dungeon and the other takes place in a maze.
A group of rich kids love playing Mazes and Monsters but, when they take it a step too far, it leads to the newest member of their group having a nervous breakdown, fleeing to New York City, and fighting demons that only he can see. Our delusional hero is played by an actor named Tom Hanks. Hey, whatever happened to him?
Anyway, Mazes and Monsters is kind of silly. You’re going to get sick of Chris Makepeace’s hats pretty quickly. It imagines a world where the most popular and attractive kids on campus just can’t wait to pretend to be clerics and magic users. And yet, in its own melodramatic way, the film works. If you’ve ever wanted to see Tom Hanks stab a green demon, this is the film to watch! This was one of Tom Hanks’s first roles and he already looks a little bit too old to play a college student but his trademark likability is already evident. When Tom has a moment of clarity and desperately announces that “THERE’S BLOOD ON MY KNIFE!,” it’s impossible for your heart not to ache for him a little. Finally, as over-the-top as the moral panic about the possibility of LARPers going crazy in New York may be, the ending actually is surprisingly effective.
This poster art is for a film that was released in 1971. I don’t know much about the movie but I know that snakes are scary, especially the big ones that slither on you while you’re relaxing in a coffin. Unfortunately, I do not know the name of the artist responsible for this memorable poster.
On August 1st, 1981, MTV premiered. Over the course of 24 hours, 166 unique music videos were played on MTV. Yes, there was a time when the M actually did stand for music.
How’s this bad for bad luck? In 1981, The Selecter was an up-and-coming British ska band, led by Pauline Black on vocals. In February, they released their second album, Celebrate The Bullet. A month later, towards the end of March, they released the album’s title track as a single. That same week, a mentally disturbed man named John Hinckley, Jr. attempted to impress Jodie Foster by shooting President Ronald Reagan. Though Reagan survived the assassination attempt, there wasn’t a radio station in America that was going to play a song called Celebrate The Bullet. As a result, both the single and the album flopped and The Selecter struggled on for just a few more years before they (temporarily) broke up.
Not even a music video that aired on MTV could save the single. This despite the fact that it was a good video that showed the direction that music videos would follow in the 80s, mixing shots of the band performing with cryptic images of Pauline Black walking through what appears to be a catacomb.
Celebrate The Bullet was the 68th music video to air on MTV.
Through the Shattered Lens 