Category Archives: October

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

Posted on 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 by casewright

bg4.jpg

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!!!!

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

Posted on by casewright

mu11.jpg

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 by casewright

cw1.jpg

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.

Creeped Out, S1E1, Marti, Review by Case Wright

Posted on by casewright

co3

Creeped Out is a Netflix release that really isn’t.  I have noticed that Netflix will call something an original series even though they just bought the rights.  This show was originally produced by CBBC, explaining why the second episode has very hard to understand British accents.  I checked Bruce McDonald’s IMDB and yes…he’s english and wrote for the Eastenders.  Eastenders or EastEnders (sp?) is show that I believe is about poor people in London or something…I’m not investigating anymore than that.

I watched the first episode Marti with my girls (7,9).  They were quite scared by the opening and one other scene that I will get to later.  The show is a lot like the 90s show The Outer Limits.  It has a lot of spooky and technology themes that teach a morality or cautionary tale.  I was primed to like this show because I loved the Outer Limits and one of the writers is really nice: Melinda Snodgrass (follow her on twitter).

The story opens with Kim.  Kim is a pretty girl in high school who none of the boys pay attention to because that actually happens in real life.  She has nerdy friend that also is a pariah for no particular reason.  Kim is forced to hang out with her loser friend and pine for a boy who looks like Justin Bieber.  She gets a new phone and pays for it somehow.  This phone is indestructible and self-aware.

The phone’s AI calls himself Marti.  Marti is really really creepy.  He works autonomously to make Kim popular and succeeds.  Kim gets the attention of the cool kids, including Bieber.  Just when Bieber is about to go out with her, in true Lifetime MOW fashion, Marti reveals himself to be a jealous psycho boyfriend.  He threatens to destroy Kim’s new found popularity unless she agrees to be only his.  YIKES.  When Kim gets fed up, she tries to destroy the phone, it doesn’t work.  Kim tries to call customer service and a woman answer who slowly takes Marti’s side.  Then, the voice switched to Marti’s voice and my daughters both screamed.  They didn’t understand why fully it was so scary, but I finished the show alone.

Marti blackmails Kim to take him to the prom and she agrees.  It’s really creepy.  She eventually defeats Marti, but he destroys her popularity.  She entombs Marti in cement, but then considers releasing him six months later because she really liked being popular.

The show had a real Outer Limits vibe and played upon human weakness and need to be loved.  There’s always been the morality tale of giving up your soul for fame, but this is more basic.  Kim wants to be loved and our technology has never made us more isolated from real love.  Marti’s popularity is twitter popularity: fake.  Marti gave her multiple friendships that were ended as quickly as they began like muting or blocking someone.  On the other hand, Kim’s nerdy friend took the good with the bad and continued to love Kim.  It spoke to dependence and isolation because of technology and our total dependence upon instant love.

 

Star Trek: The Next Generation, Mirror Broken- Review By Case Wright

Posted on by casewright

eu1

Happy Horrorthon!!! This review is going to be a deep dive into eeeeeeevil nerdism.  I understand that not everyone reads this site is a techie nerd, BUUUUUUT I think we have a healthy plurality. Nothing is better than to merge an evil universe with my love of Star Trek.

I’m going to give brief recap of the Star Trek Mirror Universe.  There’s a parallel universe in Star Trek that basically capitalist/imperialist.  In that timeline, humans are aggressive and conquered the Vulcans.  You can tell they are evil because they are avaricious and have beards- Think if Seattle/Portland went less drum circle and went more Roman.  It’s common to kill your superior to advance in the chain of command, it’s totally capitalist, and more fun in some ways because it’s a lot less model UN and much more Model Viking.

The evil universe never appeared in the Next Generation, but it did appear in Star Trek: The Original Series and then the second tier properties of Enterprise, Deep Space Nine and Voyager.  In those second tier properties, they set up a timeline that when the “Good Kirk” encouraged Spock to be reformist, it worked.  Too bad for Earth because the Empire got attacked by the other Alien Races we conquered and now Humans are pushed back to their solar system and will likely to be conquered.

Where there’s life, there’s hope.  In this comic, the writers Steven and David Tipton imagine if Jean Luc Picard was an uncompromising badass who is determined to bring the Terran Empire back to its former glory. How does he do this besides being really JACKED? Picard sets out to steal the Galaxy Class Enterprise.  This creates a great heist story, but it’s also super fun because it explores all of the old characters from the Next Generation and I mean ALL! There are character that were all but extras in Next Generation that are featured in the background of the book.  There are so many interesting takes on our old heroes.  Barclay is cunning, Data is experimenting with Borg-technology, and Geordie has his paramour from Next Gen, but she’s an alcoholic.  It’s so fun to go down this rabbit hole.

Back to the story, Picard assembles our familiar crew and seizes the Galaxy Class Enterprise for his own.  He could just take off and be rich, but he doesn’t.  Through some cool maneuvers, Picard decimates the Klingons and Cardassians …..nooooooo not the ones with large posteriors …. the ones with the krinkly heads.  Anyway, they go on war rampage and look like they might actually get to restore the Terran Empire!

TERRANS UNITE!

TEee

EV3

American Vampire – Review by Case Wright

Posted on by casewright

av1

I got my computer back!!!! Happy October Horrorthon!!!

In every sport or endeavor, we can think of our stars: the paragons.  Stephen King is an unquestioned master of horror.  In comics, Scott Snyder looks down from that pyramid as well.  I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Scott Snyder a few times and you would never guess that he was the greatest comic book author in a generation.

I went up to Scott at the Emerald City Comic Con to have him sign my trade paperback.  He was surprised because my trade was not rare at all, but I wanted him to know that I loved his art so much that I wanted it signed, regardless of worth.  Because of that, he took out time to talk to me even though there was a line of autograph hounds.  Stephen King, on the other hand, I have no idea what’s he’s like in real life.  I have a hunch that he’s like most people I have known from Maine: DIY, tough, and fair.

American Vampire was a Supergroup: both King and Snyder wrote this book with the beautiful art of Rafael Albuquerque.  They took the genre of the Vampire and, much like the theme in the story, they made it evolve.  The result was a trio of interconnected revenge stories with wonderfully flawed heroes and anti-heroes.  The artists forced you to root even for Skinner Sweet – a man who thinks he’s not only above the law, but beyond it.  Skinner Sweet typifies the American Id: dangerous, violent, and oddly fair within his code.

The book opens with two struggling starlets in the 1920s Hollywood: Pearl and Hattie.  Pearl is all-in with the art; whereas, Hattie is more of the hack opportunist.  They are staying in a cheap apartment complex where a mysterious stranger hangs around.  Pearl is invited to Hollywood party where it turns out she is the main course for a host of hungry vampires.  Near death, the mysterious stranger finds her dying and he makes her like him: An American Vampire.  A vampire, unlike the relics of europe, he can walk in daylight and has few if any weaknesses.   When Pearl rises to her new undead life, she goes on a rampage of revenge to destroy those who stole her humanity.  Yes, I just got chills too!

The story flashes back to the old west where a lawman, Book, has captured Skinner Sweet, but not for long.  He busted out in an awesome train attack by his gang.  This is where we learn about the haughty European vampires and how they are arrogant, weak, and in our way.  Sweet tells Book that he sent poison to his wife, engendering Book’s revenge story against Sweet.  During the train attack, Sweet is turned into a Vampire and when he eventually rises Sweet and Book are sent on a collision course of revenge against the other.

There’s more revenge in this book than a Sicilian novel.  It must be burned into my Italian DNA to love these revenge stories, but there’s more to it that my accident of birth.  Revenge stories tap into the universal of what makes us human.  We’ve all been wronged and we have all wondered what it would be like to mete out own justice and live by our own law.  Skinner Sweet is not as much evil as he is part of civilization; he’s the American ID of our rugged individualism.  Pearl’s character is part of society, but must seek out her own revenge because as a vampire, she is unable to use society to bring her justice.  As the story unfolds, it’s clear that Pearl and Skinner Sweet are the most honest in their quest for revenge because at times Block uses his badge to hide behind his vendetta.  In all three stories, the vendettas are so satisfying and pure.  This book is rage distilled to its purest form.

Harrow County – Countless Haints, Review by Case Wright

Posted on by casewright

HC

Happy Horrorthon!!! We are in the thick of it folks.  October is happening! We’re all eating things with pumpkin flavor, baseball’s in full swing (pun intended), and we all get into trying something scary.

There are few things that truly scare me as much as clowns do, but I’d rather sit on Bozo’s lap than live one solitary moment in Harrow County.  Harrow County is a comic series by Cullen Bunn and Tyler Crook published by Dark Horse.  Saying this comic is scary is like writing that Charles Lindbergh dabbled in flying planes.  After the first few pages, I was thoroughly creeped out and turned on all the lights in my home.

The story revolves around Emmy, a nearly adult woman, who is discovering that she is not an ordinary farmer’s daughter, but terrifyingly powerful witch.   Years earlier, Emma’s “mother” Hester was an evil witch with the powers of Satan.  The townsfolk weren’t too fond of all of her child sacrifices and dark arts so they decide to shoot, stab, hang, and burn Emma’s “mother”.

*Slight Spoiler*—- Emma learns that she is the born again version of Hester and not an actual daughter.  Emma was born from murder and vengeance and Harrow County is about to reap the whirlwind.

The art of this story is so off-putting and chill-inducing.  Their eyes pull you in as if you are one of the townsfolk being judged and co-opted by good or evil.  The story has a wide streak of ambiguity; it never allows you to fully see the true good or evil of any the characters after the first five pages.  In essence, the characters are real.  They are you neighbor, your brother, your sister: imperfect and conflicted.  This duality is exemplified by Emma’s only a friend a ghost or “Haint” who is actually bifurcated.  One half of the friend acts as Emma’s bodyguard: pure rage that is only muscle akin to the Human Body figures from biology class and the other half of her friend is a kind and scared bag of skin who acts as a guide for Emma.  The bifurcated friend is a great visual example of our rage that hides just under the surface of all people.

This story is scary as Hell.  Go Buy It!

hc skin friend

I Am The Pretty Thing That Lives In The House- Review By Case Wright

Posted on by casewright

IAM IAM

Welcome to the second day of October!!! Woohoo! There are a lot of great horror movies to watch and this is not one of them!  HERE WE GO!  I will only refer to this movie as I AM because the above is too much to write unless I create some shortcut key and I am NOT doing that….EVER!

This film is a sloooooow paced artsy haunted house film directed by Oz Perkins the son of Anthony Perkins of Psycho.  The concept is that people die in homes and if they don’t have any outdoorsy interests, they remain in the domicile for eternity and mope about and not do much.  Therefore, if you’re an introvert like a political activist on twitter who always takes offense, your spirit will NEVER leave your home and your wifi service will be cancelled….BWAHAHAHAHA!

The story revolves around Lily who is a scaredy cat hospice nurse who is assigned to take care of the dying formerly famous author Iris Blum.  Iris calls Lily by the name of Polly throughout the film?  Why?  Because she was a terrible author. All she ever did was listen to this weird murder victim ghost name Polly and type out what she told her.  I couldn’t live with myself if everyone thought I was a great writer, when I was actually just a stenographer.

In any case, Polly was murdered and put in the wall of the house back in the 1800s and ever since she kinda hangs out for no particular reason except to give hack-writers storylines.  Why does Polly do this? I’m guessing because she lacked hobbies.  There’s a lesson here…get outside! If you’re going to haunt something, do the Appalachian Trail or a library at least; otherwise, you have a very boring eternity ahead of you!  Lily continues to take care of this dying author and she just doesn’t want to die.  Iris does chit-chat A LOT and Lily is introvert enough to quietly listen.  Honestly, Lily going into the great hereafter will likely not be a huge transition except for no copays for dental.

I would put this film in the elliptical watching category except it’s so quiet that you might need really good headphones.  It does have Bob Balaban in the film who must’ve believed that he was auditioning to play a lamppost, but with less feeling.  Of course, it’s hard to say if boredom wasn’t intentional! Maybe this was a brave choice on the part of Oz Perkins?  For far too long, we, the viewer, have expected to be entertained or even have our attention captured.  I would find some pharmaceutical or extra coffee to focus you while watching this or you’ll be looking up possible deductions for 2018 and miss some critical scene with an actor wandering around aimlessly.

I hope you are having a wonderful October.  Stay Spooky, My Friends!