I was super excited when I came across a copy of the 1997 Christopher Pike novel, Execution of Innocence, in my collection of used paperbacks. Along with R.L. Stine, Christopher Pike was one of the kings of YA horror and suspense literature in the 1990s. In fact, his books were often a bit more macabre than even Stine’s. If Stine killed off four people in a book, Pike would probably kill off 8. I was looking forward to reading Execution of Innocence. Just the title alone promised all sorts of morbid drama! Unfortunately, the book itself doesn’t really live up to the promise of that title.
The book opens with Mary, a teenage girl, sitting in a police department. It turns out that one of her classmates, the wealthy Dick (and that does turn out to be an appropriate name) is dead. The cops thinks that Mary’s boyfriend, Charlie, murdered Dick because he got jealous over Mary and Dick going to the school dance. Charlie, it turns out, is a mechanic from the bad side of town. Mary’s a good girl and Charlie’s a bad boy, and Dick’s dead. And now, Charlie has mysteriously disappeared.
The problem is that Mary swears that she doesn’t remember what happened the night that Dick died. The cops are skeptical, especially when another witness comes forward and declares that Mary threatened to kill Dick herself! Now, Mary has to work with her friend Hannah and prove that she didn’t murder Dick. But what Mary doesn’t realize is that Hannah has secrets of her own….
This is one of those books where describing makes it sound more than it actually is. The mystery of who murdered Dick has the potential to be intriguing but Pike, instead, continually has his characters act in the most illogical and improbable of ways. The reader spends a good deal of the book trying to understand everyone’s possible motives just to discover that the actual motives either don’t make sense in the first place or, in the case of one major character, they feel a bit homophobic. It also doesn’t help that the book attempts to present Charlie and Mary as being some sort of ideal couple when they’re relationship is actually about as toxic as they come. You really can’t help but feel that all of Mary’s friends (and the cops) had a point when they warned her away from the guy.
Execution of Innocence is definitely not first-rate Pike. Try re-reading Monster instead. That’ll give you nightmares!
As I sit here, preparing to write a few words about Danny Trejo’s autobiography, I find myself tempted to refer to him as being a “horror star.”
That’s just because it’s October and I’m in a horror mood. The truth of the matter is that Danny Trejo has appeared in all sorts of films. He’s done comedy. He’s done action. He’s done drama. Not surprisingly, given his background, he’s appeared in a ton of crime films. He guest-starred on two episodes of Baywatch. On King of the Hill, he lent his voice to the character of Enrique. He starred as Machete in two movies. And yes, he’s done his share of horror. He was killed by a giant snake in Anaconda. He was killed by Michael Myers (or “Mikey” as Danny’s character called him) in Rob Zombie’s Halloween. He battled both a multi-headed shark and a murderous ghost for SyFy. Danny Trejo has appeared in all sorts of films, to the extent that you never really know where or when he’s going to show up.
That’s something Trejo addresses in his autobiography, which is itself simply called Trejo. He writes about getting asked whether or not he minds appearing in so many B-movie and his reply is that even a B-movie will give people jobs, put food on the table, and perhaps provide some joy to someone who watches it. In another passage, he points out that one bad day on a movie set is still better than the best day in prison. He makes a good point. A lot of movie snobs could learn a lot from Danny Trejo’s attitude.
As for the book, it’s as straight-forward as the actor himself. Trejo talks about his early life of crime, the time he spent in prison, his struggle to get off drugs, his career as a no-nonsense drug counselor, and finally, his current status as a pop cultural icon. Trejo doesn’t hold much back, discussing not only the crimes that he committed when he was young and incarcerated (A lot of the people who love Danny Trejo the character actor would have been terrified of Danny Treo the violent criminal, including myself) but also his subsequent struggles to be a good and responsible father. Maturing is a theme that run through the entire book and Trejo admits that, even as he closes in on his 80th birthday, he’s still learning and growing. What makes the book truly effective is that Trejo never avoids responsibility for his mistakes nor does he attempt to deflect blame. He’s as honest about his sins as he is about his subsequent redemption and it’s that honesty that makes his story so inspiring.
If you’re hoping for a lot of Hollywood gossip, this book might disappoint you. With a few notable exceptions involving Edward James Olmos’s attempts to make a movie about the Mexican Mafia, Trejo focuses on the positive when he discusses his film career. One gets the feeling that he loves his life and he loves his unique place in the entertainment universe. There’s nothing wrong with that. Trejo takes a great deal of joy out of the fact that he’s survived and it’s hard not to share that joy. It’s also hard not to be touched by Trejo’s efforts to keep others from making the same mistakes that he made.
Trejo is a good and inspiring read. Check it out and give thanks for Danny Trejo. He’s a survivor and the world is better for it.
Short Night of Glass Dolls, an Italian thriller from 1971, opens with the discovery of a body in Prague. American journalist Gregory Moore (Jean Sorel) is found lying in a plaza, his blank eyes staring up at the sky. When he is examined by a doctor, we can hear a heartbeat pounding faintly on the soundtrack but Gregory is still declared dead. At the hospital, he is taken down to morgue and left on a slab until a coroner can get around to opening him up….
The only problem is that, as the heartbeat indicated, Gregory Moore is not dead! Instead, he’s paralyzed. He can’t move or speak but he is alive and he can think. As he waits to be dissected, Moore tries to figure out how he came to be in the situation. He searches through his mind and we search with him. He remembers his lover, Mira (Barbara Bach), who begged him to help her defect. He remembers how she mysteriously vanished and how he worked with Jessica (Ingrid Thulin) and Jacques (Mario Adorf) to investigate her disappearance. Moore’s mind is full of disturbing and surreal images but, as he remembers, it slowly starts to make sense. And yet, even if Moore does eventually figure out what happened to Mira and how he came to be paralyzed, the coroner is still making his way over to Moore’s body….
Because it’s an Italian thriller from the 70s, Short Night of Glass Dolls is often mistakenly referred to as being a giallo. Actually, it’s not. Though the film does have the type of convoluted plot and the stylish imagery that is typically associated with the giallo genre, the film also lacks a black-gloved killer and really, it can’t be a giallo unless you have the unknown killer wearing black gloves. Instead, Short Night of Glass Dolls is a deliberately paced paranoia thriller, one in which Moore uncovers not just a single crazed killer but instead a shadowy conspiracy. It’s also an effective horror film, one that makes good use of Prague’s gothic atmosphere and which is full of haunting imagery. Whether it’s the leering gargoyles that seem to be present on every building or the mysterious chandelier that continually shows up randomly in Moore’s mind, Short Night of Glass Dolls plays out like a cinematic dream. Moore finds himself trapped, both physically and mentally. His body is trapped in the morgue while his mind is trapped in the past.
Director Aldo Lado was always one of the more political of the Italian thriller directors and, not surprisingly, there’s a heavy political subtext to Short Night of Glass Dolls. It’s probably not a coincidence that the journalist, who starts out as being cocky just to eventually discover that he doesn’t understand the world as much as he thinks he does, is an American. It’s also not a coincidence that the film takes place in Prague, which was, at that time, a Communist-ruled city. Prague is portrayed as being a city that is controlled by secret police and secret societies, where no one is allowed to fly free. In the end, Short Night of Glass Dolls is full of secrets.
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.
No One Gets Out Alive is a film set in the worst place on Earth. I’m talking, of course, about Cleveland, Ohio.
Still haunted by the death of her mother, Ambar (Cristina Rodlo) has arrived in Cleveland and is looking for a fresh beginning. She hasn’t gotten off to a great start as she’s stuck in a go-nowhere job at a sweatshop. Fortunately, her cousin, Beto (David Barrera), is willing to help Ambar get a better paying job, even though he barely knows her. Unfortunately, Ambar needs a legal ID to get that new job and, as an undocumented immigrant, she doesn’t have one. A co-worker offers to hook her up with a fake ID but it’s going to cost far more money than Ambar has.
As serious as that is, Ambar has an even bigger problem to deal with. She’s recently moved into an apartment. It’s a big apartment in an old building and the only other tenants are two mysterious women from Romania. However, her landlords — Red (Marc Menchaca) and his brother, Becker (David Figiloil) — both seem kind of weird. As Red explains it, Becker is a “little off” but Becker has apparently taken care of Red for his entire life. Personally, I wouldn’t ever rent an apartment from either Red or Becker as they both give off that “sneaking into your apartment and stealing your underwear” vibe but desperate times, I guess.
Even if one could overlook the creepiness of Red and Becker, there’s also the fact that the apartment itself is obviously haunted. Ambar is constantly hearing strange noises and seemingly disembodied conversations. She occasionally sees figures in the shadows. When she takes a shower, a mysterious woman appears on the other side of the shower curtain but promptly vanishes as soon as the curtain is opened. That’s pretty messed up.
But what can Ambar do? She’s in the country illegally so she’s not going to risk calling the police. Beto turns out to be pretty ineffectual. (As a Texan, I appreciated the fact that the movie featured a well-intentioned but thoroughly useless character named Beto.) Maybe in another city, she could find some place better to live but Ambar’s in Cleveland. Haunted pervy death house is as good as anyone can hope for in Cleveland! Ambar is trapped in a place where no one gets out alive.
No One Gets Out Alive is one of those horror films where no one ever seems to turn on the lights. Every single scene in the film is dark and overcast. When Ambar goes outside, the sky is always cloudy. When Ambar returns to her apartment, the lighting is always dim. It creates a properly ominous atmosphere but, at the same time, it also makes it difficult to actually see what’s happening in a few scenes. After a while, the film’s washed-out color scheme and shadowy cinematography goes from being ominous to actually being kind of annoying.
But, if you can overlook or, at least, tolerate the film’s overly drab visual style, No One Gets Out Alive has its effective moments. The apartment building is a nicely creepy location and, even if some of the scares are a bit generic, they still often work. Cristina Rodlo is sympathetic in the role of Ambar and the character’s status as an undocumented immigrant adds an interesting subtext to her being at the mercy of the building’s inhabitants. Without any legal status, there’s nothing she can do once it becomes apparent that Red and Becker have an agenda of their own. Her pursuit of the American dream becomes a nightmare once she realizes that, living in Cleveland without any legal ID, she might as well not exist.
No One Gets Out Alive is one of those films that starts out a bit slow but it improves as it goes. Though I wish someone had turned on the lights, it’s an effective horror film that you can find on Netflix.
Last night, I turned over to the Lifetime Movie Network and I watched Nobody Will Believe You (a.k.a. Pretty Little Victim).
Why Was I Watching It?
This was actually my second time to watch Nobody Will Believe You. I also watched it back in July but, for whatever reason, I didn’t review it despite the fact that I enjoyed the film. I guess I must have been busy or sick in July, who knows? Anyway, when I saw that it was going to be airing on the Lifetime Movie Network on Thursday night, I decided to rewatch it so that I could finally get around to writing this review!
What Was It About?
Melanie (Jenna Rosenow) and her daughter, Hannah (Emily Topper), have moved to a new town and, for Hannah, that means starting at a new school! From the very first day, it’s obvious that Hannah is going to struggle to fit in. Hannah may be nice but her classmates definitely are not. The cheerleaders are bitchy. The jocks are toxic. Her best friend is alienated. There’s a mysterious man who occasionally shows up and menacingly waves around a taser. The only good news is that the friendly guidance counselor (John William Wright) wants to hire her to teach his daughter how to play the piano! What could possibly go wrong?
What Worked?
I enjoyed Nobody Will Believe You because it did what every good Lifetime film does. It shamelessly and openly embraced the melodrama. Seriously, every possible thing that could happen to Hannah did happen to Hannah. No sooner was Hannah getting rejected by the cheerleaders then she was saving the most popular girl in school from a falling printer. No sooner had Hannah’s phone been hacked than someone was trying to frame her for murder. It was such a nonstop collection of incidents that it quickly became clear to me that the film was self-aware when it came to its status as a Lifetime film. It understood why the audience was watching and it was determined to give us exactly what we wanted. At its best, the film worked as both a tribute to and a parody of the typical Lifetime movie.
What Did Not Work?
Obviously, for the film’s plot to work, Hannah had to be extremely naïve and trusting. And, let’s be honest, it is true that some people are easily tricked. Not everyone has the streetwise instincts of a suburbanite who has watched several hundred Lifetime films. However, even with that in mind, it was sometimes hard to accept that Hannah could be as totally naïve as she often was. Watching the movie, you sometimes got the feeling that, even if Hannah survived, she was destined to grow up to be one of those people who ends up sending their life savings to Aruba because someone contacted them on Facebook, claiming to be Garrett Hedlund.
“Oh my God!” Just Like Me Moments
When I was growing up, my family used to move a lot so I definitely could relate to Hannah’s nervousness about having to start all over again at an entirely new school. And, when I was in high school, I got along famously with our guidance counselor. If I hadn’t broken my ankle, maybe he would have asked me to teach his daughter to dance. Of course, if Lifetime films have taught me anything, it’s that being hired to teach anyone anything is automatically going to lead to tragedy.
And of course, that brings us to….
Lessons Learned
Don’t teach. Don’t offer to help anyone. Reject any and all offers of mentorship. It’s just going to lead to trouble.
It’s been a few months since we’ve done an AMV of the Day. With only a few hours left to go in the first day of our annual Horrorthon, now feels like a good time to restart the tradition!
During the month of October, we like to share classic episodes of horror-themed television. That was easier to do when we first started doing our annual October horrorthon here at the Shattered Lens because every single episode of the original, black-and-white Twilight Zone was available on YouTube. Sadly, that’s no longer the case.
However, there is some good news! Twilight Zone may be gone but there are other horror shows on YouTube! For instance, I’ve discovered that every episode of Friday the 13th: The Series is available. Though I had never seen an episode of this show before coming across it on YouTube, I had read about it in Crystal Lake Memories, an excellent oral history about the Friday the 13th franchise, and it just seems like the right show for October!
Friday the 13th: The Series was a syndicated horror show that ran from 1987 to 1990. It followed the adventures of two cousins who inherited an antique shop. Their uncle, it turned out, was in league with the devil and he used the shop to sell cursed antiques. So, the cousins and a mysterious friend of their late uncle worked together to try to track those antiques down. Personally, I love antique shopping and Erin and I inherited about half of our mother’s doll collection. We’ve got over a 1,000 antique dolls here in the house. Some of them may be cursed, who knows?
This show was filmed in Canada and produced by Frank Mancuso. Mancuso also produced the original Friday the 13th films, starting with the second one. Beyond the title, though, the show didn’t have much to do with the films. John D. LeMay, who played one of the cousins, did go on to star in Jason Goes to Hell but that was actually the first Friday the 13th film (other than the first installment) to not be produced by Mancuso so that may have just been a coincidence.
Here’s the first episode of Friday the 13th: The Series, which aired on October 3rd, 1987. The episode was directed by exploitation vet William Fruet and stars Sarah Polley, in one of her first roles, as a child who uses a doll to kill people. Fortunately, I’ve been around dolls my entire life so I don’t have a fear of them. As for the rest of you …. enjoy Friday the 13th!
Through the Shattered Lens 