Yesterday site anime and manga contributor pantsukudasai56 posted his anime horror post for the month be recommending to everyone to watch the anime horror series Another. Using that as inspiration I’ve chosen the latest “AMV of the Day” by picking an AMV that uses that very series as the foundation for the video.
I’ve still have to find time to watch the series, but I know that Another is a horror anime that seems to have reached cult-status and beyond since it’s release earlier this year. Unlike pantsu here I do enjoy lots of anime horror but I will agree that they’re not in the same realm as mahou shoujo and slice-of-life series in terms of consistent quality. The last horror anime that I thought to be very good was Gakuen Mokushiroku (better known as Highschool of the Dead) but even that series earns much of it’s popularity due to it’s excessive (I thank Zoidberg Jesus for it everyday) use of fanservice shots.
With this AMV we get one from a high-quality horror anime and also paired up with one of the music industry’s preeminent producers of musical scores from Two Steps From Hell. This time around AMV producer AnimeFanOtaku123 uses that groups song, “Am I Not Human?”, to be the score for the chosen scenes from Another to complete the video. In fact, AnimeFanOtaku123 does such a great job with this AMV that one could easily say that it works perfectly well as a trailer for the series if one didn’t think it was an AMV to begin with.
I’ll probably have one or two more horror-related AMV’s before the end of the month, but this is a good choice for this month..
It’s been a year since the cliffhanger which ended Season 2 of AMC’s widely popular The Walking Dead. We found Rick and his group escaping from the herd of zombies which swarmed into and over Hershel’s farm. The group lost two more to the walkers in the form of hapless Jimmy and Patricia. Andrea has gotten separated from the main group with most of the guns. It’s only through the timely intervention of a hooded stranger dragging along two incapacitated walkers that Andrea even gets to make it to this new season. It’s this hooded stranger and the last image we see of a darkened prison complex in the distance that has brought a new sense of optimism for the show which had been up and down through most of it’s sophomore season.
The second season had been rife with struggles not just for the characters in the show but also behind-the-scenes as original showrunner and executive producer Frank Darabont was unceremoniously fired from the very show he helped bring off the ground. Fans of the show and of Darabont saw this as a bad decision, but as the season unfolded there seemed to be a major consensus that Darabont might have been the problem to why the first half of the second season moved along even slower than the walkers. The second half saw new showrunner Glen Mazzara taking over and even though some of the same problems in terms of characterization and dialogue still remained the show in the second half seemed to move with a better sense of urgency which culminated in two of the series’ best episodes to date to close off the season.
Season 3 now begins with the episode titled “Seed” (directed by veteran series director Ernest Dickerson) and we get a major timeskip from the end of last season to tonight’s premiere. Rick and his group look to still be on the move with no safe haven in sight. In what looks like a hint of good things to come in terms of pacing and dialogue the show starts off gangbusters as Rick and his group raid a country home, dispatching the walkers within with ruthless efficiency and searching the place for supplies and other useful things real fast. There wasn’t any time for standing around or even going off into long expositional scenes to try and convey what had happened between the end of last season to tonight’s start.
Glen Mazzara, the show’s new showrunner had promised that the show would be taking on a new direction when he took over halfway through season 2, but we’re finally able to see his experience as a TV show producer and writer bear strong fruit with tonight’s premiere. We get to see Rick and his crew acting with more of a sense of urgency in just the first twnety minutes of the show than they had in the first two seasons. We’re finally seeing everyone realizing that they’re now stuck in a world with new rules that doesn’t make room for personal quirks and emotional issues (though we still get hints that they’re still but set aside for the greater good of the group) that just saps the energy from everyone. This group looks more like the sort of team that Shane would’ve thrived in and it looks like Rick has taken on the role of leader much more forcefully. It hasn’t mended the rift between him and Lori for what had transpired over two seasons of interpersonal conflicts that got more than just his best friend killed but others as well.
Tonight’s episode does a great job of explaining through their actions and behavior just how much time has passed between the seasons and how that intervening time has tested the groups mettle and made them harder and more capable in holding their own against the walkers. Even useless characters like Beth, Carol and Carl have become more adept in protecting themselves. It’s surprising to see Carl actually becoming the character he was in the comic book. I’m sure some parent groups will not be approving of Carl actually handling his gun with expertise but this is that kind of show and just because one is a kind doesn’t mean they have to be helpless.
If there were complaints about Darabont’s handling of the show during his short tenure it was that he was too much into creating a very slow burn that culminated into a huge climactic finish. It was fine for a truncated first season, but it showed just how ill-conceiveda narrative style it was for a tv series over a full season. I don’t sense that same feeling with tonight’s episode. One could tell that Mazzara was now fully in charge and not working on whatever Darabont had come up with for season 2. It’s a great start to the new season which has a good chance in reversing some of the ill-will last season’s very slow burns and wheel-spinning had created with a segment of the fan-base.
It also helps that we didn’t have to wait too long to see the official appearance of Danai Gurari in the role of fan-favorite Michonne with her zombie pets and katana. It wasn’t an episode spent directly introducing us to her but enough time was spent away from the group in the prison. Michonne as a character could become too much a caricature of the badass comic book female character, but for tonight it was just refreshing to see a female character on this show as capable and clear-headed as her. There’s even a hint of the sort of friendship that seemed to have grown between Michonne and Andrea since the end of season 2. Shane may have been a bad influence (though helpful in getting Andrea out of her suicidal rut) in season 2, but here’s to hoping that Michonne will be the sort of influence that Andrea will be needing to get her to become the badass characteron the show that her character is in the comic book.
One thing that tonight’s episode also did great that we only saw hints of with the first two seasons was the action such a series could have when given a chance. This is a series about the zombie apocalypse and those trying to survive in it. While I don’t expect each episode to be as action-packed as tonight’s premiere it was an encouraging start to what looks to be the real beginning of the Glen Mazzara era of The Walking Dead.
Now onto episode 2. With tonight’s cliffhanger ending (one that really got me by surprise) it’s going to be interesting to see how Rick and the new group in the end will get along or will they. Just as long as it doesn’t take the show all of the first half of the season to do it then I am all for intergroup conflict until the walkers become a more pressing problem.
NOTES
I’m quite surprised how quickly the show got the group to the prison. So, unlike season 2 which would’ve have the group wandering around in circles for 2-3 more episodes before finding their way to the complex.
It looks like Rick has gotten tired of what must’ve been Lori’s incessant harping during the months the show timeskipped between season 2 and the premiere of season 3 tonight.
Carl still hasn’t found a way to get himself lost thus get someone else killed which could be a nice change of pace for the character.
On a good note, Carl looks to be growing up and taking a handle on becoming a useful member of the group. He even does his share of some coldblooded killing of walkers in the episode’s intro.
In fact Carol becomes quite useful as well with Rick even commenting out of hand how much she grown to become a good shot with the AK-47 she was wielding.
All the talk of ‘shipping Daryl and Carol will get even louder as the two spent a brief moment flirting with each other after the group had taken over the prison courtyard.
Lori…Lori…Lori still looks to be the emotional weak point of the group and show, but this time around everyone in the group is either tuning her out or just trying to keep her focus and attention on keeping her unborn child safe. Even Hershel makes a point to remind her that this wasn’t about her anymore and that she should stop her complaining. It’s all about the baby and that’s all he and she should care about.
Beth and Carl…too cute.
Way to cockblock our boy Carl, Hershel…
Armored zombies, ’nuff said.
Some great work by Greg Nicotero and his team over at KNB EFX. A special note would be on the gas mask walker who got it’s face unceremoniously ripped off when Rick pulled off the gas mask. As a hardcore gorehound even I had to wince at that scene. It was great!
In what could be a way to reconcile the character of Dale in the comics who lasted longer than in the show the writers may be substituting Hershel in that role. The next couple episodes will tell if that’s the case.
I think whoever is the prop guy for this show has read Max Brook’s zombie novel World War Z if the makeshift “Lobo” Glenn was wielding is any indication.
Zombie Kill Count for tonight’s episode: I stopped counting after 30.
What is there to say about Telltale Games’ work on the adventure game The Walking Deadother than they seem to have gotten exactly what has made the comic book series so popular with both readers and critics. The show has slowly gotten to the same level, but not until Telltale Games has a spin-off of Robert Kirkman’s title gotten it all right. The first two episodes has been a great exercise in showing the panic, strain and utter despair that falls on the remaining living survivors of a zombie apocalypse that has descended on the world.
Episode 3, “Long Road Ahead”, continues where the previous episode left off with Lee, Clementine and the rest of the group back at their walled off motel compound outside of Macon, Georgia. It’s only been a couple weeks or so since the events at the dairy farm and we see the added strain of dwindling supplies has brought on. We also see the decisions made by certain characters at the farm affecting the group and creating even bigger divisions between Lily and Kenny. Stuck in between these two strong personalities is Lee (the player) and this episode does an even greater job of making his decisions that much harder to pick when situations (usually stressful ones) come up.
This episode has been seen by fans of the games as the turning point which has cemented this title as one of the best games of 2012. The writing continued to improve under the pen of Gary Whitta who seem to be channeling his inner Kirkman as some heartwrenching moments and deaths occur throughout Episode 3. One such death has become one of the biggest WTF moments in gaming for 2012 that I would be surprised if it doesn’t make many top 10 lists for the year when it comes to gaming’s biggest moments. I know that the sequence surprised me which led to lots of stunned silence, followed up by screaming at my TV then admiration for actually pulling off something that could turn off many players, but instead hooked those still on the fence about whether they should continue playing this episodic title.
The other deaths in this episode were more of a slow burn where we already know the fate of one of the characters and the reaction of another to this situation was unbearably sad, but understandable considering the situation which led up to it. All througout these situations the player as Lee was forefront in how things developed and the choices one gets to choose from doesn’t telegraph how things would unfold. It didn’t help that the timer on making each decision still added a level of stress that most games never fully grasp despite higher budgets and better graphics.
If there was one thing that kept this episode from becoming truly great it’s the controls when something interactive actually occurs where players have to do more than choose what to say. It’s still clunky and awkward on both the Xbox 360 and the PS3, but not as much on the PC which tells me that Telltale Games have been porting the title from a PC base rather than the other way around. For some gamers this keeps the game from becoming immersive despite the great writing, but for me it was a minor inconvenience that never took away from the narrative and the visuals.
The episode ends with a bit of hope as Lee and his group picks up three new faces, but also ends in an ominous cliffhanger as we find out that Clementine may have been keeping things from Lee that could endanger (this being the world of The Walking Deadits a good bet it’ll be dangerous) not just her, but the rest of the group. The fourth episode has now been released for all systems and with the new season of the tv show set to premiere it looks like now is a good time to get back to the Walking Deadstate-of-mind.
With this being horror-theme month here at Through the Shattered Lens I thought it was time for another “Hottie of the Day” entry and one who has some experience atbeing a scream queen in horror films these past couple years.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead is better known for the role (perfectly cast and played) of Ramona Flowers in Edgar Wright’s wright’s film adaptation of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, but she has done quite a bit of work in the horror genre. One of her earliest films was as the lead in Final Destination 3. Then she has followed that up with roles in Quentin Tarantino’s half of Grindhouse as a naive young actress being stalked by Kurt Russell’s psychotic stuntman in Death Proof. Her last couple films have also been in the field of horror as she had major roles in both The Thing prequel and the fantasy horror mash-up this past summer with Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.
Ms. Winstead has become a favorite of genre fans and not just for her All-American girl-next-door look, but for the fact that she has talent as an actress and makes the most of every role she plays even in films that critically fails. Of late her work has gotten her noticed as a contender for the end of the year awards for best performance in a film with her performance as Kate Hannah in the comedy-drama Smashed.
Whether she wins awards later this year or not, here’s to hoping that she doesn’t stop doing genre projects while moving on towards more serious work.
Gregory Solis’ Rise & Walkis the kind of zombie tale many fans of the genre think of writing day in and day out, but never get a chance either through lack of talent or just lack of motivation. Gregory Solis got to write his and on the surface it’s a decent first novel, albeit with some flaws that keeps it from being good. He has also written a very action-packed zombie story which steps on the gas from the prologue and doesn’t let up until the very end.
The story is a very simple one which many zombie genre fans have played, imagined and replayed it over and over in their minds. Instead of beginning the zombie story during the aftermath of the devastation an outbreak will cause, Solis instead goes right for the beginning. Call it the Z-Hour of the zombie genre. He writes about how it all begins and how quickly the contagion and its reanimated victims quickly multiply at a geometric rate to engulf a small, Northern California community. Unlike George Romero’s films which never fully explained the cause and origin of the zombie pandemic, Rise & Walk uses space debris from a meteor storm and the contents within as the cause of the zombification and the need of its victims to attack and devour the living.
Right from the get-go the action comes in fast and comes in furious. Solis doesn’t skimp on the gore and bloodletting. He describes every zombie attack on a living human with a near-pornographic detail. This splatterpunk style of writing my not be for everyone, but if one was a zombie fan then this should suit them just fine. The chaos caused by the geometrically increasing and advancing horde of zombies was one of the things Solis’ does quite well and something fans of the genre would recognize. People make dumb mistakes as they try to figure out what in the world is going on. Some make the right decisions and live while others do not and become zombies themselves or are just complete devoured.
Where Solis got the action and atmosphere down perfect for a zombie story, the main characters and their development could’ve been done much better. The main leads of Rise & Walk panic just like the rest of the humans, but they seem to recover from the shock of the situation rather too quickly and at times matter-of-factly. As the story progresses there’s really no tension or fear that the four leads (two male and two female) would come to any serious harm. Only those in the periphery of the leads seem fair game for a gruesome end (kids are not given a free pass in this book). The diminished sense of mortal danger in regards to the main leads keeps this book from rising from just being decent.
In the end, despite the flaws in how the main characters are written I will say that Rise & Walk by Gregory Solis is one good first novel from a first-time writer. It shows the writer has a modicum of talent for storytelling and he sure tells a fast-paced and mean zombie story. Fans of the genre should enjoy this book for what it is and hope that it won’t be the last from Gregory Solis.
Here we are again ghouls and ghoulettes. Time for another one of my favorite horror scenes. Some might say that the film I chose my latest favorite scene from is not truly a horror film but more a thriller are so definitely wrong. Both in it’s original novel form and in Carpenter’s film adaptation, Christine is definitely a horror film that eschews overt scenes of gore and violence and goes about it’s scares in a more round-a-bout way. It’s a horror film of a Boy-meets-Girl gone wrong. My own review of the film over a year ago show’s my positive take on this 80’s classic.
One of my favorite scenes from Christine happens midway through the film that also serves as the final clue that something may just be a tad different with Archie’s car named Christine. While the scene itself is not one of horror it does show the supernatural side of this film’s plot (a bit more simplified than the original novel’s but still keeping the theme of possessed inanimate objects giving life to itself). The combination of Christine showing Archie just what she’s capable of and Carpenter’s electronic film score as it segues into a seductive tune adds to the awesomeness of this scene.
Once this scene is over the audience now knows that Archie is fully gone over to Christine’s side and that the story will end not in a very happy note, but until that happens we see just how much this particular Boy seem to have finally met his ideal Girl.
The last couple days have seen the release of a number of upcoming films that should be jockeying for all those fancy-pants end of season awards. One such film is the latest film from Quentin Tarantino. Django Unchained is his latest trip into the grindhouse world with this film being his take on the spaghetti westerns made popular by Italian maestros like Sergio Leone, Sergio Corbucci and Enzo G. Castellari.
It’s an ensemble cast that’s headlined by Jamie Foxx in the title role with Christoph Waltz, Samuel L. Jackson and Leonardo DiCaprio (playing against the grain as the main villain of the piece). To pay respect to the very genre that this film owes not just it’s title, but theme and tone, Tarantino has even cast the original Django in Franco Nero in the role of Amerigo Vassepi.
Django Unchainedis set for a Christmas Day 2012 release date (hopefully the world didn’t end just four days earlier).
This film has already been making the film festival circuit so for genre fans it’s nothing new, but for the general public are probably still not aware that it even exists.
V/H/S is another one of those “found footage” films that everyone either hates or loves. I’m sort of straddling the fence between the two. I can dig well made ones, but some have been awful. From what I’ve been hearing about this horror anthology the reactions seem to run the gamut of it being good to almost great. I keep hearing and reading that despite flaws and unevenness in the way the five stories were told (each with it’s own filmmaker directing the segment) the film overall should satisfy genre fans everywhere. Like having so many different segments with a different filmmaker and storytelling style should give at least someone watching one good thing to like if not more.
The one thing about this film that has me interested in making it one of my must-see for this October is the fact that one of the filmmakers doing a segment in the film is none other than Ti West. His horror work has been sparse but eah one he’s released has become favorite of mine. Here’s to hoping his segment in V/H/S is not one of the flawed ones.
Down the Road by Bowie Ibarra is part of the renaissance of the zombie tale. While not a great novel, Ibarra’s first foray into novel length (though I would categorize this tale more as an extended novella than a full-blown novel) storytelling hits more than it misses.
Ibarra uses the the so-called “Romero Rules” in regards to the topic of the flesh-eating zombies in Down the Road. There are none of the Olympic-level sprinters of the recent trend in modern zombie films (Dawn of the Dead remake) and Ibarra’s zombies remain slow, shambling creatures with the barest of motor functions and instinct (unlike the demon-possessed undead of Brian Keene’s great, albeit nihilisitic The Rising and City of the Dead). The story’s told through the point of view of the main character, George Zaragoza, a high school teacher in an Austin school. The story starts off in quick form with George quickly going through preparing to leave the city to head for his boyhood home. There’s not of the so-called “origin” chapters that usually used to explain how the crisis first began and where. Instead the reader gradually learns from George’s interaction with people he meets during his roadtrip home about what exactly has been happening the past couple of weeks.
To say that George’s travels once he leaves Austin was eventful would be an understatement. He doesn’t just have to deal with the growing numbers of undead roaming the roads, by-ways and towns in his path, but also the danger of looters and criminals. Ibarra gives FEMA and Homeland Security top-billing as the living danger to bookend the growing undead. I may not agree with all his characterization of those two government agencies, but he does describe vividly just how quickly such organizations can go from protecting its citizens to posing a bigger danger in the end.
But his travels was not just about one dangerous crisis after the other. George meets up with other survivors who show and make him feel alive and give him some hope that not everyone has devolved to their most basest instinct. It’s in some of these encounters that Ibarra has injected a bit more sex in a zombie tale that other authors have not ventured deeply into. Who said a zombie tale meant character’s libido has to be suppressed or be non-existent. How Ibarra came about in creating the situations for the sex scenes might seem incredulous at first, but who said such things couldn’t occur in high stress situations especially when people find themselves trying to survive day0by-day or even hour-by-hour.
Overall, Ibarra’s first work looks to be a work of love by a fan of all things zombie and who knows exactly what other fans just like him want from their zombie tales. He doesn’t overdo in layering his story with layers upon layers of themes and social commentary. While the theme of how far an individual will go to survive in a crisis is there, Ibarra still sticks to keeping the story moving quickly from one end to the other. I actually thought the novel as too short. He had so much ideas introduced in the first couple chapters that I think he could’ve added another 150 pages and not lose the reader’s interest. But I’m assuming that’s where the sequel novel comes in.
Down the Road: A Zombie Horror Story by Bowie Ibarra is a very good first try by a new writer in keeping the tradition of the zombie tale alive during this second Golden Age for the subgenre. While there’s flaws in this first novel, the story itself moved at such a fast pace that I barely noticed the flaws until after I was done and by then I was already hooked by the world he had put on paper. I hope that with all the feedback he’s received from fans and fellow writers both, Ibarra’s sequel to this novel will be less of a jewel in the rough and more of the polished gem that I feel he has in him to write. I highly recommend this first novel to all fans of the zombie genre. They won’t be disappointed.
What is it about stories of angels and demons that makes people gravitate towards them. One doesn’t even have to be religious to feel a sense of curiosity towards such stories. Is it because deep down we put some sort of faith that we’re being watched over by the One who created us. I’m not religious, but I always found stories about angels and their rebellion against God quite interesting. It’s the age-old tale of love, betrayal and redemption on a cosmic and divine scale. It’s from one such story that I find the latest “Scenes I Love”.
The film The Prophecy was one I had already reviewed a while back and whenever I come across it on cable I tend to drop whatever I’m doing and watch it. I go into much more detail why I enjoy this film very much in my review of it. This time I like to share one scene from the film that hints at just how much more epic this film could’ve been if it was a full-blown novel. It helps that the performance by Viggo Mortensen as Lucifer shows that even in 1995 he was already a great actor who hasn’t been discovered yet. While it’s deserving to say that Christopher Walken owned this film with his work in it I’d say Mortensen’s portrayal of The First Angel, The Morningstar and God’s Most Favored was something I wish a film could be made around.
Through the Shattered Lens 