All I can say about this scene is that I guarantee every guy who watches this will want to cross their legs tight. They may just scream as well just as a reflex action to what happens in the end.
Yet, as one watches this torture scene of the main lead in the film the audience never really sees anything. Everything’s implied and we see signs of what’s about to happen throughout the segment.
The Serpent and The Rainbow continues to be one of my favorite horror films and one of my favorite Wes Craven offerings.
“Be the butcher or you’re the cattle.” — Terminus Mary
[spoilers]
If people were asked five years ago that a show about the zombie apocalypse was going to be one of the biggest shows on TV then most people would be straight out snickering. Zombies, even just five years ago, was already being seen as overdone. Everything was zombie this and zombie that. Yet, on the basic cable network AMC, we see The Walking Dead coming into it’s fifth season stronger than ever and doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon.
It’s worth repeating that there’s a set of critics and viewers out there who remain dumbfounded as to why The Walking Dead remains such a popular hour of television despite the inconsistencies in writing, character growth (if any) and direction. This is the show that fired it’s creator and first showrunner halfway through season 2. His replacement would also get the axe once season three ended.
The Walking Dead has been called the soap opera with zombies and to an extent it is just that. It’s a show that lives and dies on the melodrama. At times this has been to the show’s benefit, but when it doesn’t work then certain episodes and story arcs just fall flat. Yet, we’re now starting season 5 and it’s a season premiere that doesn’t take it’s time (as some have complained) and pretty much hits the ground running from it’s cold opening right up to the final scene.
“No Sanctuary” begins with a jump back in time as we see the Terminus crew as prisoners in their own compound. We hear screaming in the background and those in with Gareth bemoaning the fact that they let the very people holding them hostages in. It’s a time when the Terminus people were just like Rick and his group. They tried to do the right thing, but this time around their trust and good nature backfired. Now the Terminus people are in charge and keeping Rick and his people prisoner and four new faces since captured since the end of the last season.
Throughout the episode we see the change come to Rick (already seen at the end of season 4) that he must be brutal if he’s to keep his people safe. It’s something that he has tried to avoid since the pilot episode. Even when up against the Governor and his lackeys there was always a sense that Rick was trying to find a peaceful solution to a crisis. Rick has always been one to try and stick to his own personal sense of justice and order throughout the season, but tonight’s episode saw more and more of it chipped away as the banality of evil as shown by Gareth and his Terminus survivors.
To say that tonight’s season premiere was action-heavy would be an understatement. With Greg Nicotero doing directing duties, the episode had the sort of epic scope in terms of action, violence, gore and character moments that fans of zombie fiction crave. Nicotero is still at his best when coming up with ways to rip people to pieces and the many ways zombies look and get destroyed, but with each episode under his belt as director he has improved. And for a show where it’s writing has been criticized nonstop tonight’s episode by showrunner Scott M. Gimple kept things moving. Every piece of dialogue was meant to bring some insight into the mindset of the character (Gareth who has taken pragmatism as a way to justify his turn to the dark side) or a way to move the scene forward.
If there was fear going into season 5 it was that the writers might linger and stretch the Terminus storyline (at least keep Rick and his group as prisoners longer than needed) the way things lingered in the Greene farm, will the Governor attack or won’t he and then the half a season spent getting the different survivors heading towards Terminus in season 4. We didn’t get that with “No Sanctuary” and while it’s a sure bet that not all Terminus people died at least the show will continue to be on the move instead of remaining static for no reason.
There are still many questions left unanswered after tonight’s episode. One major question being where the hell is Beth and who is holding her prisoner (if she is a prisoner). There’s also the question of this cure that Eugene is suppose to know that can reset the zombie apocalypse back to zero. At least we learned that one can come back from the exile the way Carol did as the episode ended. Despite being glad to see that it Carol was alive and she was instrumental in freeing him and the rest of his people, will Rick just forget what she did and take her back in unconditionally. Maybe Rick finally understood what Carol told him during their supply run back in season 4. When things have be to be done they have to be done right then and there for the good of the group.
As a final great moment that should be a major tease for fans of the show….we see the return of fan favorite in the form of Morgan Jones who looks to have left his sanctuary back in Rick’s old hometown and now trying to find his way back to other survivors (or tracking Rick if that’s the case).
Notes
We see the return of Robin Lord Taylor (Gotham) as Sam, the survivor with the basket of fruits in season 4’s “Indifference”, just before he gets a baseball bat to the back of the head and then his throat slit over a steel trough.
We have a new intro sequence that’s a bunch of new images taken from past episodes to start the credits intro. Maybe this is a sign that the show is now turned the corner from the Darabont and Mazzarra era and the show is firmly in the guiding hands of the Gimple.
There was a lot of MacGuyvering in tonight’s episode as the survivors still trapped in the “A” car were down to making makeshift weapons from pocketwatch chains, belt buckles and pieces of splintered wood. Rick and his people really showed that Gareth and the Terminus people were “fucking” with the wrong people.
It took four seasons, but Carol has graduated into biggest badass in a show that already loaded with them. Carol is the biggest BAMF on this show as it stands.
I’m sure the Carol and Daryl ship will be sailing along smoothly now that the two has reunited. Caryl shippers worldwide are breathing a sigh of relief.
Even though people thought Mr. Flashlight and ponytail in the flashback that bookended the episode was going to be big baddie Negan from the comics it looks like he’s the crazy dude Glenn let out of the container who was subsequently eaten by zombies. So, reports of Negan and Lucille were mistaken.
Talking Dead returns with Greg Nicotero (make-up FX wizard and show director), Scott M. Gimple (series showrunner) and Conan O’Brien as guests.
While horror anime is not quite widespread as other genres they do exist and one of the more recent ones is the horror/dark fantasy series which came out this past July.
Tokyo Ghoul is the anime from whence our latest “AMV of the Day” was born from. I’ve only seen highlight clips of the series, but from what I’ve seen it’s definitely right up my alley. It’s not so violent and gory that it goes over into “guro” realm. It looks like it’s series dealing with ghouls hiding within the human population and having their own clans and factions gives the series a nice urban gothic feel to it in addition to the horror.
This particular AMV uses the appropriate song by Starset called “Carnivore” which is one thing the ghouls in this series tend to be as eaters.
Guess what they like for breakfast, lunch and dinner? I heard it tastes like pork. Some very long pork.
I know some people like and even love the vampire film Daybreakers when it arrived in theaters in early 2010. I’m not one of those who love Daybreakers as my review can attest, but I did like some of the ideas brought up by The Spierig Brothers who wrote and directed the film. One could say that I begrudgingly like the film despite its many flaws.
One of the things I did like about this film was how unabashed it was in keeping the whole affair a rated-R affair. Unlike most vampire films which have come out the last decade or so this one doesn’t shy from the grue that others have. Daybreakers was definitely not of the Twilight branch of the vampiric subgenre.
My favorite scene in the film happens pretty much around the end of it. It saved the film from becoming a total dull, boring affair into one worthy of being talked about if just for this one scene. One could come into the film just at this scene alone and forget that they’re watching a vampire film but a zombie one instead. The gore was just so over-the-top and it’s staging so well-done that I couldn’t stop from having a silly grin of enjoyment from escaping.
Horror fans know who Bernie Wrightson is even if not by name, but by the work he has done in the horror field.
Born in October 27, 1948, Bernie Wrightson has made his name creating some of the more recognizable horror illustrations since the 1970’s. Wrightson would have his break out work in conjunction with Len Wein in co-creating the character Swamp Thing for DC Comics in 1971. In time, Wrightson would move on from DC Comics and the character he created for Warren Publishing that were well-known for producing black-and-white horror titles.
Throughout the years, Wrightson would end up producing some classic images for horror stories ranging from Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein right up to several Stephen King novels (The Stand, Cycle of the Werewolf and Wolves of the Calla).
Here’s to hoping that Wrightson has many more years of horror work ready to fire up the imaginations of horror fans everywhere.
Anyone who have gotten to know me throughout the years (decades even) know one indisputable fact and that’s one of my favorite films of all-time is George A. Romero’s classic horror masterpiece, Dawn of the Dead.
This film is not just a great horror film, but just a great film. Sure, some have said that it hasn’t aged well, but those detractors only see the era it was filmed in. If one looks part that then they can see that Dawn of the Dead works just as well now as it did when it premiered in 1978.
One of my favorite scenes in the film is actually the beginning of the film. It’s rare that a film can fully capture and explain an overriding theme in the film’s narrative right from the beginning, but Romero did it and did it well.
The scene I’m talking about is the film’s intro that’s set in a chaotic Pittsburgh TV station. It’s a scene of chaos because the zombie apocalypse is already in full swing and people have begun to lose their trust in the fourth estate. In times of crisis the people depend on the news to bring to them answers or, at the very least, the correct information to survive said crisis. In Dawn of the Dead, the fourth estate has failed as in that they’ve become just as unreliable as the rest of the mechanisms which make civilization operate.
Even when the right information was being relayed by the the guest scientist in the scene, the audience reaction (the tv station crew themselves) was one of exasperation and disbelief. This scene would influence future zombie apocalypse stories both in film, tv and print in that the people would lose faith and trust in the very institution who were supposed to be trusted to be objective and informative.
This is just one of several scenes from Dawn of the Dead which I consider a favorite, but then the entire film I would consider a favorite scene as a whole in a story that hasn’t ended.
Latest Horror Song of the Day comes courtesy of one Phillip Glass who was tasked with composing the film score for the film adaptation of Clive Barker’s short story “The Forbidden”. The film would become Candyman.
“It Was Always You, Helen” becomes the film’s overarching theme throughout the film. Unlike other horror themes before it, the one created by Glass for Candyman highlighted the Southern Gothic backstory of the title character and the origins of the Candyman legend. It’s been called a minimalist score, yet it’s selling the film score short, especially this theme. While Glass has become famous for his work within the minimalist music movement he actually created a very symphonic score, albeit one which focused on subtlety over bombastic.
While listened on it’s own doesn’t evoke any sort of shivers up one’s arms and back, this theme will bring about such feeling of supernatural dread when paired with the film. It’s a shame that Phillip Glass doesn’t do more horror film scores because this theme and the score for the film shows that he has a knack for it.
For the first Horror AMV of the Day we go back to good old Another. Those not well-versed in the world of anime this series is literally titled Another.
Another is one of the best horror anime to arrive in years and it combines elements of the supernatural ghost story, mystery and, most important of all, enough gore to satisfy even the most bloodthirsty fan. What better way to advertise some of the highlights of Another than by making a video to the tune of Marilyn Manson’s cover of the classic Eurythmics song “Sweet Dreams”.
Horror anime is quite a tough thing to pull off well. Either one goes full-on gore but sacrificing a coherent narrative or going for characterization and a great story yet lacking in the blood and gore. Another is able to accomplish both and amv creator S&D Productions does a great job of making sure this comes across in the video simply titled “Sweet Dreams”.
Warner Bros. Pictures makes it a triple-bill with the latest in a series of trailers for some of their upcoming films.
The latest to arrive is Clint Eastwood’s latest film. Eastwood adapts the Chris Kyle autobiography, American Sniper, of which Steven Spielberg was originally attached to direct until dropping out in the summer of 2013. Eastwood was announced a week later as taking on directing duties on one of the more sought after properties of the last couple years.
Bradley Cooper will star in as Chris Kyle with Sienna Miller in the role of Chris’ wife, Taya Renae Kyle.
American Sniper is set for a limited release on December 25, 2014 and going wide on January 20, 2015.
Will Interstellar be as much a game changer as Kubrick’s own 2001: A Space Odyssey? Some are already hyping that it may just be on that very level.
Now, let’s not crown Christopher Nolan upcoming film (his first since concluding his Dark Knight trilogy) as an instant classic when we haven’t seen anything outside of the trailers released. Yet, the teases and brief explanation of the film’s plot hints at something that may just turn out to be incredible.
I know at least one person here at Through the Shattered Lens who is bursting at the seams at trying not to overhype the film for himself. It may just be a losing battle if his reactions to this latest Interstellar trailer is any indication.
Interstellar is set for a limited release on November 5, 2014 (70mm and 35mm film formats) then wide on November 7, 2014 on digital format.
Through the Shattered Lens 