First Man, Review By Case Wright

Posted on October 13, 2018 by casewright

Happy Horrothon……wait a minute…this isn’t a horror movie!!! Nope, but it is going to win Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Director.

First Man is a biopic of Neil Armstrong from his test pilot days, Gemini missions, Apollo Mission and return home. I was moved. Ryan Gosling inhabited that man’s very soul. I have not seen acting that good in years and years. At every point in the film, you are more on the edge of your seat than you have been in decades. I knew he would land the LEM on the moon, but it was so close to disaster that you felt for him.

The picture opens with Neil doing test piloting. He’s already getting tapped to be in the Gemini missions, but he almost passes. He has a daughter that stricken with cancer and we share in his grief throughout the film’s entirety. I won’t spoil it, but there’s a moment when Neil is on the moon with his late daughter’s bracelet and …. oh man. Once his daughter passes, his wife pushes him to take the Gemini mission and we rapidly see that she is his ROCK! We see it when his daughter passes and when the stress of the burden of achievement weighs upon this Great Man.

The weight of greatness and death is looked dead in the eye in this picture. Brave men are facing and dealing with mortality in nearly every scene. We see that the cost of putting the first man on the moon is paid in blood. So many great men die in this heroic quest that it begins to feel like a Homeric adventure or great tale of an ancient Samurai told through a modern lens. All the while they are struggling to make this great achievement, we hear the familiar whining of lesser men moaning in the background like white noise.

Once it is clear that Neil will be Commander to go to the Man, his wife demands that he explain the risks to his two remaining children. He tells them and we feel his paternal pain twisting in him like a blade because his destiny is set. We get closer to the other two members of his team – one I can’t remember and the other is Buzz Aldrin who is portrayed as complete asshole. I mean…wow…what a dick!

When Neil approaches the moon, the LEM is heading for disaster and fate tempts Neil to abort, but it’s obvious that Neil will succeed or he will die trying. There was no going back empty handed for him. There’s a lesson here: the greatest achievements require sacrifice up to and including your life.

The film allows us to see this amazing quest through the eyes of our greatest American Representative. It is also clear that the Space Race, Humankind’s greatest achievement, was a road that led to victory and was paved with blood.

Book Review: Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday the 13th by Peter M. Bracke

Posted on October 13, 2018 by Lisa Marie Bowman

A few years ago, when I reviewed the entire Friday the 13th film franchise for this site, one of the main resources that I used in my research was the 2006 book, Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday the 13th.

As you can probably guess from the title, the book is a nearly complete history of the Friday the 13th franchise. (I say nearly complete because the book was published to coincide with the release of Freddy vs. Jason so there’s no information about the later reboot. That’s okay, though, because the reboot sucks and deserves to be forgotten.) What sets this book apart is that it’s an oral history so you’re learning about the history of the Friday the 13th films from the people who were actually involved.

It makes for compelling and interesting reading, providing a portrait not just of the franchise but also of what it was like to be involved in the world of low-budget, genre film making. Friday the 13th may have started out as an independent American giallo just to then become a studio slasher franchise but the one thing that remained consistent was that, no matter how much money the films made, they weren’t ever given much respect. One of the recurring themes in the book is that the actors who were cast in the films were often happy for the work but it was rare that getting killed in a Friday the 13th film ever led to stardom. (Kevin Bacon, of course, is the exception to that rule. Though Bacon isn’t interviewed in the book, everyone who worked on the first film seems to agree that he was fun to work with.) Some of the actors interviewed are just happy to have been a part of an iconic franchise. Some of them display a commendable sense of humor while other seem rather annoyed to know that they’ll be forever associated with Friday the 13th. Some, like New Beginning‘s Jerry Pavlon, worry about the franchise’s subtext while actress Barbara Howard jokes that she calls her annual Final Chapter residual check her “blood money.”

Another recurring theme in Crystal Lake Memories is that of the bitter screenwriter. For the most part, the people assigned to write the scripts for these films come across as being a uniformly bitter lot. It’s actually understandable, as the majority of them attempted to add a new twist to the franchise just to be told that the studio just wanted more scenes of Jason killing camp counselors. That gets at a larger frustration shared by almost everyone interviewed. How do you add your own personal touch to a set of films that are specifically designed to be as impersonal as possible? That’s the question that everyone involved with the franchise had to answer for themselves and it makes for an interesting and relatable read.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the book deals with the lengthy development of the Freddy vs. Jason film. We’re told that one of the executives involved with the film believed that, if she added an environmental subtext to the story, Freddy vs. Jason would be the first slasher film to win an Academy Award. As for the films themselves, it sounds like Friday The 13th: A New Beginning had the most out-of-control set while Friday the 13th Part 2 was the fun set. The set I would have wanted to avoid would have been Friday the 13th 3D, where everyone was apparently too stressed out over the special effects to actually have any fun.

This book is a must not just for Friday the 13th fans but for movie lovers in general.

The Haunting of Hill House, S1E1, Steven Sees a Ghost, Review By Case Wright

Posted on October 12, 2018 by casewright

HH1

Happy Horrorthon! Hill House came early this year. Here we go!

Hill House has been remade many different ways. This time it’s done by Mike Flanagan of Gerald’s Game (Netflix). The show splits its time between then and now. It opens “Then” with Timothy Hutton in a very big and creepy house with a bunch of kids. We learn through A LOT of exposition that Steven has grown up to be paranormal writer. The cuts between then and now aren’t too bad, but it does diffuse the tension.

The kids handled the trauma of growing up in a haunted house with varied acceptance. Steven is a paranormal investigator. The oldest sister works at funeral home. Luke grew up to be an alcoholic. Nellie grew up to be disturbed. There’s another sister who’s a sex addict. I’m halfway into the episode and I am kinda bored. They try to sell the show as the next Stranger Things, but I’m not sure if this show is even the next Whitney. This show is a lot of things, but it is not worthy at this point of being in the same sentence as Season 1 Stranger Things.

This show has 20 minutes left to get good and my hopes are low.

Nellie is one of the many family members who has grown up all messed up. She is drawn back to Hill House I suppose because she wants to do some lawn maintenance.

The story, once again, shifts to the past and Steven and the dad need to escape the house because they are being pursued by a ghost. Apparently, their mom was possessed by a ghost and they have to flee and leave mom behind (awkward mother’s day coming up). Funny how divorce can just creep up on a couple after 20 years of marriage; you look over and realize that you and your spouse are different people; in that, you are a person and she is possessed by a demon.

Nellie has returned to Hill House literally and starts dancing around. It’s weird. The show jump cuts to Steven to an explaining session that her house is not haunted, but he’ll make it seem haunted in the book and the lady looks at him with contempt because he’s a fraud. We learn that Steven is a failed novelist who cashed in on the family drama by writing the Haunting of Hill House. This caused Steven and his sister to become estranged.

The show flashes back and actually does a good job at showing why Luke is so traumatized. Apparently, one of the Hill House ghosts was harassing him when he was young and that trauma triggered his lifelong addiction.

The show flashes to Steven again as an adult. He catches his brother with the substance abuse problem leaving his apartment with all of his electronics. Steven gets the brother to give him his stuff back. When he finally goes inside, he finds Nell at his home and the first scary thing happens in the whole show: Steve’s dad calls and says that Nell went to the hill house and she’s dead. So……the Nell that is in Steve’s house is a GHOOOOOOOST. BOO! Nell does some ghosty stuff that’s kinda spooooky.

I don’t know if there will be second review of this show. I will definitely watch another episode, but I’m not ready to get married to it yet. I think it could have some potential, but Stranger Things had me the first murder in the first 30 seconds. So far, this is more slow exposition than slow burn, but I will give it a fair shot.

Cheers!

Nightmares and Dreamscapes: From the stories of Stephen King, Battleground, Review by Case Wright

Posted on October 12, 2018 by casewright

Happy Horrorthon!!! I decided to do a bit of a hybrid review of one of my favorite stories: “Battleground” by Stephen King. This book is part of a short story anthology in Night Shift. Battleground was written in 1972 by King. This was back in the days when he wasn’t just hungry, he was starving. He was working in laundries, substitute teaching, maybe even a paper route. This particular work was published in Cavalier, which was a low-rent Playboy. In those days, he would sell stories to Swank – a low-rent Penthouse as well. Many of these stories were real gems or at least gems in the rough. For example, Night Surf (Cavalier and Night Shift) evolved into his opus The Stand about a decade later. Battleground was made into a 52 minute long episode of the above short-lived series (watch them on youtube before they are taken down!!!).

This episode starred William Hurt and like the short-story there is ZERO dialogue, giving the episode a silent movie feel that is very compelling. Throughout the episode, you only hear ambient noise or grunts or yells, but no spoken dialogue. In fact, even when a newscaster is announcing that a murder has taken place, it’s done with subtitles. This is as close to genius television as it gets. I was truly saddened that it was not renewed.

The episode depicts William Hurt as a nameless hitman who is taskered to kill a toymaker. He does. When Hurt goes back home to his San Francisco condo, he receives a package. Inside the package is compilation of army men and “additional surprises”. These aren’t your grandpa’s plastic army men; however, they are alive and they have cruel intentions for Mr. Hurt!

Within moments of opening the package, the army men attack William Hurt in very Army like fashion. They take a covered position under Hurt’s couch and open fire, forcing William to flee to the bathroom. This solace is short-lived because they have mini-howitzers. Yes, I was primed to like this one. There are even mini-helicopters that attack Hurt and they send nasty notes to one another demanding and refusing surrender.

The battle to avenge the toy maker’s death continues even out to the ledge of the building, which is likely an Easter Egg to another King story “The Ledge”. Hurt prevails against the army men, but there are two more “Additional Surprises” 1) a commando who very resourceful and 2) a mini thermonuclear device. The mini thermonuclear device is the only dumb part of the story because there is no such thing as a tiny Thermonuclear reaction – these are atoms we’re fusing or splitting afterall. If detonated (regardless of its “mini” nature) , it would’ve destroyed all of San Francisco, but let’s give King- a liberal arts major- a break on that one because it’s still a fun story.

I will review a few more of these stories that were in Night Shift or episodes from this show.

Happy Halloween!!!!

Book Review: ‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King

Posted on October 11, 2018 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The town of Jerusalem’s Lot, Maine has two new arrivals.

One is Ben Mears, a successful writer who, we’re told, even has his own FBI file. (Apparently, it only consists of a report that he once attended an anti-war rally.) Ben spent part of his childhood is Jerusalem’s Lot and, upon returning, he discovers a small but friendly town. Sure, there’s some drama going on behind closed doors. There’s the sleazy real estate agent, for instance. And then there’s the Catholic priest who, naturally, has lost his faith. And then there’s the unhappy teenage mother and, of course, there’s the usual collection of alcoholics, adulterers, and cranky bus drivers. Maybe Jerusalem’s Lot isn’t that friendly after all….

The other new arrival is Kurt Barlow. Barlow’s from Austria and he’s moved into the old Marsten House. (The Marsten House, like most old houses that you come across in Stephen King novels, used to belong to a notorious gangster.) Barlow’s going to be opening up an antique store. Interestingly enough, hardly anyone ever seems to see Barlow. His business partner, Richard Straker, claims that Barlow is often away on buying trips.

Anyway, the townspeople have a lot more to worry about than what’s going on with Kurt Barlow. For instance, a lot of people are disappearing. And even those who aren’t vanishing are growing ill and having a bad reaction to sunlight. Hmmm …. what could possibly be going on?

First published in 1975, ‘Salem’s Lot was Stephen King’s second published novel and it actually holds up better than most of his recent work. It’s interesting to read ‘Salem’s Lot after Carrie, just to see how much King grew as a writer in between the two books. Whereas King often seemed uncomfortable with the plot of his first novel and tended to hold Carrie White at a distance, he dives right into ‘Salem’s Lot. It’s not just that King is obviously more comfortable writing about a male writer than a teenage girl. It’s also that King creates a town that seems so real that we feel as if we could find it on a map. King tells his story with such enthusiasm and confidence that it doesn’t matter that ‘Salem’s Lot is a fairly predictable and traditional vampire story.

Clocking in at a briskly paced 440 pages, ‘Salem’s Lot is quite a bit longer and more detailed than Carrie without, at the same time, getting bogged down in the type of stylistic self-indulgence that has come to typify a lot of King’s recent work. (One gets the feeling that if King wrote ‘Salem’s Lot today, it would be a 1,200 page novel and that Barlow wouldn’t show up until page 900.) King does a good job of offering up little snippets of life in Jerusalem’s Lot, just enough to make sure we have enough knowledge to mourn the eventual death of the town. ‘Salem’s Lot takes Dracula, drops him in the middle of a small town melodrama, and the results are still entertaining to this very day.

Book Review: Baal by Robert R. McCammon

Posted on October 10, 2018 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Baal begins with an act of violence.

In the late 60s, a woman is raped in an alley by a stranger whose touch burns her skin. Nine months later, Jeffrey Harper Raines is born. The woman’s husband fears the baby and tries to drown him, just to be stopped and murdered by Jeffrey’s mother.

Jeffrey is sent to a Catholic orphanage, where he proves himself to be an intelligent and troubled child, the type who can not only mentally control all of the other children but also inspire them to go on a rebellious and destructive rampage.

Years later, a mysterious cult leader named Baal has emerged, first in California and then eventually in Kuwait. His followers come from all walks of life and they include some of the wealthiest men on the planet. A researcher tries to gain access to Baal’s cult and promptly disappears. The researcher’s mentor, an elderly theologian named Dr. Virga, goes to Kuwait in search of his protegé.

What he discovers is that Baal is not only extremely dangerous but that his followers are willing to do anything that he orders them to do. Fortunately, Virga does find one ally out in the desert — a mysterious man named Michael….

(I guess it was Gabriel’s week off.)

Baal was first published way back in 1978 and reading it, it’s obvious that the novel was heavily influenced by films like The Omen and Rosemary’s Baby. In fact, it’s so derivative of those films that it’s impossible not to get kinda annoyed at not only how predictable the story is but also at the fact that it takes the people in the book so much longer to figure out what the reader realizes immediately. You really do have to wonder if a cult leader couldn’t have perhaps come up with a name other than Baal. I mean, that’s kind of like naming yourself Lou C. Ifer or something like that. You’re just giving the game away.

Today, Baal is best known for being the debut novel of Robert R. McCammon. McCammon was only 25 years old when he wrote and published Baal and most of the book’s problems — the lack of focus, the occasionally clumsy plot twists– are problems that many debut novels seem to have in common. For quite some time, McCammon refused to allow Baal to be republished, saying that he felt it was inferior to his later historical and crime novels. For the record, McCammon’s correct about that but Baal still has enough trashy and sordid moments to be occasionally entertaining. I guess my point here is that Baal isn’t great and, at times, it’s barely good but it’s still better than Bob Honey Who Just Do Stuff.

Star Trek: The Next Generation, Through The Mirror, Review by Case Wright

Posted on October 10, 2018 by casewright

Happy Horrorthon!!! We are back in the eeeeeeeeevil Star Trek universe! Why is it evil? Obviously, it’s because they have beards and follow strict capitalist principles with a healthy dose of militarism.

Before I get into the story, I want to write that David and Scott Tipton do a good job of not having the mirror universe characters seeing themselves as villains. This may seem obvious, but it’s actually very common – especially in comics. For example, Stan Lee once had Magneto lead a group of mutants with the moniker of Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. I get that the X-Men thought they were evil, but why would Magneto?

This volume: Through the Mirror brings our Mirror Universe to the Next Generation universe our youth for supplies and plunder. Bearded Picard is faced with blockades from rival species in his universe and needs materiel and plunder to fuel his war machine in order to bring the Terran Empire back to its former glory before Emperor Spock made them go all drum-circle kumbaya…bleh.

My main complaint with the Volume Two is actually in the first installment. It opens with Worf investigating the theft of precious minerals from a mining colony in the “good universe”. He sees the thief and nearly catches him. This is a recurring issue with volume 2; the story should be only from the perspective of the mirror universe characters. There is simply too much of the “good universe”. They also have the “Good Universe” find an Andorian Ship that has been attacked by Evil Picard after the fact. WHY? Show us the Evil Planning, Show us the Pirate Picard attack, Show us why they believe they are justified. We bought the book; therefore, we are invested in these anti-heroes. The story could be great if we just get to bathe in their villany. Don’t judge them. This is their code. This is their society. They don’t see themselves as evil and neither should we. We can only judge them as evil if they violate their own code of morality not ours. This isn’t our universe. The good universe should be treated like MSG a little is … ok… too much and you vomit.

Back to the story, Pirate Picard lures the good enterprise into a trap, hoping to seize it. They fail, but they failed too much. It should’ve been more of a draw with a push to the evil universe. Scott and David – the evil guys are your heroes. They need to win at least a bit. You can have a close game, but don’t have them get their ass kicked because it makes it too much of a Good Next Gen story. The other knock is that they left Evil Barclay behind, dragging us back unnecessarily into the good universe. You are thwarting them waaaaay too much.

It’s time for Evil Picard to kick some ass, but it in a good way. Is it just for wealth for Pirate Picard? I don’t think so. In this universe, the Terrans see themselves as Superior like the British or Roman Empire. Therefore, when the Klingons and Cardassians took back a lot of the Empire they likely took many Human captives as slaves. This must be disgustingly unacceptable to Pirate Picard or any Terran Empire member. Have them liberate a planet, rescuing Human captives. From their perspective, they are not only NOT EVIL, but good because they are reasserting rightful human dominance to their universe. If you have to, make some propaganda posters with Pirate Picard. Make it personal for Pirate Picard. Maybe Picard’s brother joined the fleet and was captured? Make it personal! Go for it! Have Pirate Picard risk it all: mutiny, the ship, the Terran Empire to liberate and rescue his brother and nephew Robert. It would be epic!!!!! You have an unending depth that you can give Pirate Picard. Give him his version of humanity.

This volume was ok, but they are not fulfilling some great story potential here. This could be a great way to reboot the series. Just remember: They Don’t Consider Themselves Evil.

Cycle of the Werewolf, Book Review by Case Wright

Posted on October 9, 2018 by casewright

Happy Horrorthon!!!! We are already in week 2 and we are makin’ it work!!! Cycle of the Werewolf is very 1980s Stephen King. It clocks in at 100+ pages and moves briskly. In comparison, The Stand was 1000 pages and one chapter was actually from a Golden Retriever’s point of view….really. If you ever watched old movies on Showtime, you’ll remember this story as “Silver bullet” starring Corey Haim. The movie was actually fairly close to the book, except no Gary Busey.

The book takes place over the twelve months of the calendar year and I almost did this post as Twelve Days of Christmas song, but with werewolves….it could’ve worked! The first six months follow the werewolf killing on every full moon in Maine. As usual in Stephen King’s books the people of Maine are total dirt bags of all varietals: blowhard dirt bags, wife-beating dirt bags, racist dirt bags, and drunken dirt bags. In short, the townsfolk could all use some killing.

The month of July comes and the story shifts to Marty, a handicapped child, who really loves the 4th of July. As in the movie, Marty gets a bunch of fireworks from his Uncle and uses them to make the werewolf purblind. We learn the werewolf is the town Baptist preacher. As the months progress, Marty starts sending the preacher poison pen letters urging him to kill himself and signs his name to provoke a final confrontation. The confrontation is a bit anticlimactic because Stephen never really fleshed out the story and the final battle is no different. There is no close game or near run thing…nope…werewolf comes into the house, leaps at Marty, and Marty kills the werewolf dead. Boom. That’s it. It is fun to read these old Stephen King stories; he’s clearly still flexing his creative muscles and not totally sure of himself.

Have a spooky night.

Book Review: The Children by Charles Robertson

Posted on October 9, 2018 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Wow, look at all of those creepy kids on the cover of this book!

They really do look like an insufferable pack of brats, don’t they? If nothing else, this cover confirms that children can be creepy, especially when they all go to the same private school and they all have the same grim expression on their face.

First published in 1982, The Children opens with a series of mysterious deaths. The richest man in the world dies on an airplane. His lawyer is killed on another airplane. A network anchorman and his one night stand are gunned down in his apartment, by an 11 year-old. A private investigator is pushed off of a subway platform while a bunch of children watch. There’s something weird about those kids.

The covers describes The Children as being “a novel of terror” but, unfortunately, after a strong opening, it gets bogged down with two characters — glamorous anchorwoman Shelley James and hard-boiled columnist Mark Chandler — investigating the murders and rather inevitably falling in love. I think a part of the problem is that we know that the children are evil before Shelley and Chandler and it takes the two of them so long to figure out what we already know that it’s difficult not to get annoyed with them. In fact, after the initial murders, it’s another 200 pages or so before the book actually returns to the involvement of the children and, even then, the payoff is nowhere as exciting as you may have hoped.

Like 666 and The Rapture, The Children is another book that I ended up reading because I came across it in Grady Hendrix’s Paperbacks from Hell. While I can’t really recommend The Children to anyone else, I will definitely recommend that, if you haven’t already read Paperback from Hell, that you order a copy today!

Book Review: The Dead Man’s Kiss by Robert Weinberg

Posted on October 9, 2018 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Way back at the end of August, in anticipation of the TSL’s Horrorthon, I went down to my local Half-Price Books and I explored their collection of old horror paperbacks. Among the books that I pulled off the shelf was The Dead Man’s Kiss by Robert Weinberg.

I randomly opened the book and I found myself reading about a woman named Sarah having sex with a resurrected Egypitan sorcerer. I flipped to another part of the book and suddenly, I was reading about a bunch of Neo-Nazis working with a resurrected Egyptian sorcerer to overthrow the U.S. government. I flipped through the book again and suddenly, I was reading about two wisecracking cops discussing how weird it was that they had gone from chasing Neo-Nazis to chasing a resurrected Egyptian sorcerer.

In short, it sounded like a weird book so I bought it and I read it.

And you know what? It is a strange book. Published in 1992, it tells the story of Jambres, a priest in ancient Egypt who was punished for a crime that he didn’t commit. Somehow, this led to his soul being split in half and, now that he’s convinced a bunch of Neo-Nazis to resurrect him, he’s determined to bring the two halves together and then rule the world. Unfortunately, the only way that Jambres can walk around the modern world is by entering someone’s body through their mouth. This may kill the host but it gives Jambres a body and a set of memories to use. The only problem is that the body starts decaying as soon as Jambres enters it, so he and the white supremacists are constantly having to search for a new body for him to inhabit.

While Jambres and the Nazis are wondering around Chicago, they’re being pursued by two unflappable cops. Also on the case is a former MOSSAD agent, who has been assigned to protect the mild-mannered museum worker that Jambres has targeted for death. It all leads to love, of course. Love and death.

The plot of Dead Man’s Kiss has a make-it-up-as-you-go-along feel to it. It’s ludicrous but likable, complete with bizarre dialogue and improbable plot twists. The book may not make too much sense but it does make for an entertaining 250 pages.