American Horror Story: Asylum   Season 2

While watching I realized this was the season I quit on. Even though this ended up being a very good season. Once you get past the rather ridiculous attempts at Boston accents there are some great themes. There are a plethora of references to dig into; Alien abduction Betty and Barney Hill of NH., they did not use names and set them in MA. but the idea is there and although the abduction opening scene is not the focus it is used in the season with great effect. They also reference asylums in Massachusetts and we had some shit happen in those. I have worked in a couple different former location here in MA when I had a decade long career in mental health. They are often reclaimed properties we used to start new innovative mental health programs. The semi-abandoned grounds of former hospitals are still scattered across the state although they are rotting away in many cases. So seeing urban explorers in relics on the show is common here.  AHS showed us the perils and lack of agency of both woman straight and lesbian and the use of mental health to attempt to pacify them (I won't say cure). Hell this season even gave us a Nazi doctor who made his way to America but never gave up his Aryan dream of a super race. The reference to the role of the Catholic Church in turning a blind eye to the Nazis is also clear to see. It has a lot in it and really more than described. The collage of characters approach was really well acted with Sarah Paulson and Jessica Lange killing in this season. My main problem is that they don't necessarily provide catharsis in most of the story lines. There are resolutions but the effects are blunted by usually by characters being so flawed harsh and cruel that you don't care about the character by the time the writers try to redeem them. Sister Judy "Jude" Martin played by Lange is a good example. She is so awful to everyone around her that her back story of a drunken singer who joins a nunnery after hitting a little girl in the road and leaving her. Did she make the choice to have a story arc that can be redeemed by serving other, there is no way you can accept this because her behavior seems more like she was just looking for a place to hide. When we her get her comeuppance by ending up in the same asylum, you might think "Good, got what she deserved" but no by the end of the season there is this whole saving her as a character thing that just does not fit with what we had seen.  Saved by the one character you could probably get behind Kit Walker (Evan Peters) who was abducted by aliens, experimented on by a Nazi doctor and mistreated as a supposed murderer, and mental health patient. He at least had a heart and an innocents almost no other character had. What was his fate after being the good guy who took care of others including those who mistreated him?  He lost all thse he loved, go cancer and was re-abducted by aliens. The story line is left open, did the Aliens help him or did they jut want to study cancer in humans? We don't know in the end. Sister Mary Eunice McKee (Lily Rabe) is a good character but is possessed by the devil in the second episode and is just a pawn for Satan until her death. Before that happens she commit horrible crimes so never gets redeemed. Finally we have reporter Lana Winters (Sarah Paulson) who although not innocent is a character who wants to expose the crimes of the broken asylum system. She ends up having her lover murdered by and herself raped by a serial killer, Dr. Oliver Thredson [The Bloodyface Killer] and delivers a baby she did not want and ends the season by having to kill him. At the end she is shown as a person who ambition is her main driver. 

  I still don't understand the mean spiritedness of this show. Good storytelling will give us more than just bad people having consequences for their behavior. Maybe I am missing the point, maybe the writers are saying that there are no good people in the world and we all are going to live lives of mistreatment  abuse and death without redemption? Well from here on out if I choose to keep watching everything is new to me. I know the next season is called "Coven" so there is a possibility that it means women in charge. It will be interesting but I am not optimistic that it will portray women with power in a positive light. We shall see.

American Horror Story: Season 1 (Rewatch)

 

Season one of American Horror Story came out in 2011 and was a very big hit. It continues to be that maybe not on the same scale but it has a large and loyal fan base. I watch the first and part of the second seasons but at the time did not really like it. I found the characters immensely unlikable. Even the main characters, the Harmons, Ben (Dylan McDermott) and Vivian (Connie Britton) and daughter Violet (Taissa Farmiga) are very flawed individuals. Ben is an adulterer, who gets caught with a back story Vivian's horrendous miscarriage pulling the couple apart. They move from Boston to Los Angeles using the age old geographic cure to try to save their relationship. Vivian and her daughter Violet are probably who we are supposed to pull for but the structure of the show does not really allow for a bond to be made.

  What the show does really well is create a complex web of at of tragic stories of the deaths of the dozen or so ghosts continuing to reside in the house. These are not appear and disappear types of ghosts but instead they interact and effect the living through relational manipulation. These are hungry ghosts who want nothing more than to add to their numbers. The rules of these ghosts are really loose. The classic motif is ghosts have a very hard time interacting with the material world having to be emotionally charged to have the smallest impact. This is not the case in this series, ghost can murder as well as manipulate. There are other living characters that come and go from the Murder House to build a complex set of stories but in the end it is a story about the Harmons and how they came to join the undead for eternity. 

I like this more than I did 15 years ago, each ghost has a very unique story and the show balances the reveals of them in a way that allows a bit of mystery all the way to the end of the season. I think the show is blunt and cruel at times and really I was only pulling for Violet. Which makes the second half of the show less appealing since her reveal was never intended to be hidden fully. The show tries to shock with socially challenging topics for normal American society such as bondage fetishism, horrific murders including the famous Blue Dahlia case that really happened in LA, child harm etc.  This season was interesting but it misses the heart of story and instead give us a collage of images and ideas that do not fully satisfy.  I am in the minority with these opinions. Murder House is loved and averages near 8 of 10 stars in IMDB reviews so take my thoughts as my own.

 

The Sentinel (1977)  REVISITED! It's a strange thing how there are some movies that despite all the negative reviews and comments that they are still your favorites. This film was panned when it came out, too slow, too derivative, religiously offensive or obscure in its allegories. It may be that those things but I think it also is creepy and well written. It could be in that sweet spot where  I remember it as a teenager so it is nostalgic. The novel by Jeffrey Konvitz was adapted to a screenplay by he and Director Michael Winner about a portal from hell in Brooklyn that is guarded by a priest/nun to keep the evil where it belongs. Of course it is a bit more complex that that. The guardian must be a condemned soul who has then chosen God. So the Church, when a new guardian is needed, funnels a person who has attempted suicide to the building, they are the condemned for the attempt but can be redeemed if they become the new guardian. Demons in Hell knowing that a chance to break through haunt the apartment building attempting to make the chosen one choose death over God. This is where our story begins. The old priest Father Halliran (John Carradine) must pass on his duties. The Church through realtor Miss Logan (Ava Gardner) find a young model Alison Parker (Christina Raines) to the building making the amazing apartment too good to be true for $400 a month.  A dream come true for the price, that neighborhood in Brooklyn a similar apartment is now running $3400 a month. She is a conflicted girl having attempted suicide twice. Traumatized by a horrid wealthy Father (Fred Stuthman), deceased but still haunting her with memories his sexual antics and events that precipitated her first suicide attempt. The seventies, and 80s for that matter seemed fixated on the idea of mental illness being caused by seeing your parents in sexual situations. So many slasher killers had this hang up and here it is again where finding your dad in bed with a couple naked ladies having a good time can make a teen try to take her own life.

  It certainly informs the character Alison. She is noncommittal to her boyfriend Michael (Chris Sarandon) suggestion to live together or possibly marry. It comes directly from her living with her lecherous father and that his unfaithful marriage informs her sensibilities. She does not want to be like her Mother who when asked why she stayed in the relationship said that she had no place to go. Maybe also she senses something in Michael that may be like her father, for he is not all smiles and love. We learn his secrets before the end of the film and they are not small. Hell he is an awful person callus and hurtful. So instead of moving in with him she takes the bottom floor of the apartment building where Father Halliran lives on the fifth.

  She starts to meet the neighbors, Mr Chazen (Burgess Meredith) alight with energy and a bit nosy like the Castevets in Rosemary's Baby. Gerde Engstrom (Sylvia Miles) and her lover Sandra (Beverly D' Angelo), the Clotkins and the Stinnets as well as Mrs. Clark. You don't really get to know these characters mainly just Chazen who interacts the most with Alison. SPOILERS: They are manifestations from hell sent to drive Alison to suicide, each a murderer condemned to hell for eternity. There is though a scene with Engstrom and Sandra that was most talked about at the time but fits with Alison's uncomfortable relationship with sexuality. She is visiting them and Engstrom leaves the room to get the coffee. Sandra then masturbates in front of  Alison never saying a word to her. When she cums she smells her hands which I thought was a strange choice by the actress and/or Director. We get to see the shear uncomfortable reaction and the quick departure from the apartment, but more it is a trigger to Alison's teen years with her suicide attempt. The ghost from hell are not going to go easy on her.

  Strange dreams, fainting spells, and noises upstairs are having an effect on Alison. In an attempt to ease her anxiety she asked the realtor about her neighbors and is told that she and Father Halliran are the only residents in the building. But she went to the other's apartments so she knows it is not possible. Miss Logan shows her the other apartments, not furnished as Alison remembers them and with cobwebs and different furniture. Her hold on reality starts to slip at this point. Michael tries to help her but he has his own secondary story involving the death of his wife, a private dick who works for him and some cops that don't want to leave her death a cold case suicide. Still he moves the plot along after Alison starts seeing only a latin phrase in a book in one of the abandoned apartments. "Tibi sortu cursus Tuum vigilia que severa munus"  which in Google translate is "The function of which is strict, the course of your watch, and you get lots of" but that could just be a poor translation, what the film gives us is

"To thee thy course, Thy lot is given charge and strict watch, To this happy place no evil thing approach or enter."  which is similar to the Milton from Paradise Lost, “Gabriel, to thee thy course by lot hath given Charge and strict watch that to this happy place No evil thing approach or enter in."

All of this to point the audience to the fact that there is a doorway to hell in the building and that Alison is chosen to be the next to defend it.

  What is a slow burn for most of the film really ramps up in the third act. Alison could go either way and on the day she is to decide the neighbors are back and with friends to try to drive her mad. The final scenes where she is being pursued through the apartment building filled with circus freaks, her father, her dead neighbors is just great. While most people probably don't dig this film I really do and think everyone should watch it. Alison is put in the position of either choosing death or receiving the mantle from Father Halliran and it is just great. I love the idea of this story, that there could be a gate to hell somewhere and that whatever church has to have a guardian to keep the world safe. I could totally get behind a remake of this film, like the idea in The Nun where perpetual prayer is needed to keep the demon in the convent. That could be the new version for a remake of this film. Where are you James Wan?!

The House by the Cemetery (1981)

I love The House by the Cemetery and it seem silly to try to explain why. This is a film that make just enough sense to pass as a plotted story, a haunted house film but not in the traditional sense. It is an artistic rambling through a field of ideas, never quite picking a path. Certainly there are things you can point to the cinematography by Sergio Salvati is really epic for a film primary filmed in a house interior and the score by Walter Rizzati carries a lot of the water for mood in this film. In fact when the film came out critics seized upon the score as a weakness saying the story should have done more of the work. What ever others think though is not going to influence me. This is a fine film in my collection, I have three different versions the one I watched today is the special presentation by Blue Underground which captures really well prints and extras as well as the soundtrack on CD.

  The House by the Cemetery is a wonderful piece of art that has some wonderfully executed scenes and kills. The story is loose to say the least but it the filming and music still elevate it beyond what it is. I will probably revisit it many more times.

 Hey here is something you could do in 1981 that you can't do anymore? Leave you child unattended in a car. (As seen in the early scenes of this film.)

Mama (2013)

 Diabolique Magazine Jan/Feb 2013 #14 is an capsule in time like most magazine issues. In this one we start off with an article by Colin McCracken talking about the "From Final Girl to Final Cut". The article which uses the Final Girl as seen through modern horror as a means to talk about the increasing role of women in horror both on and off the screen. Seeing horror as a flexible format that allows for growth it is presented as a format that allows diverse roles for women that they may not get in other genres.

The second article is about the film Mama (2013) which includes interview information from Guillermo Del Toro as the executive producer about how he tried to be as hands off as possible while new director Andy Muschietti and writer wife Barbara Muschietti worked on bring their story to life.

It reads both as a support for the younger film makers who need their agency in turning their short into a feature but also as a way to write it off if it does not turn out well. I am going to assume their were only good intentions in this setup.

The article continues with an in depth look at finding the right actor to play the ghost of Mama and the inspiration for the monster design. The paintings of Italian painter Amedeo Modigliani were one such inspiration and they then filled the role to play the ghost with Javier Botet, known for his lanky six foot nine inch body. He had recently done the creature you see in the closing scenes [REC]. Capable of the odd angle disjointed movement they were looking for the actor fit right in as the Titular Mama.

The story itself where a Father of two small girls kills a couple coworkers and then their Mother and then takes them away eventually crashing his car and ending up in a cabin in the woods. The early scene works to get you to understand how two children survived in cabin without adults for quite a while before being discovered. It also introduces a supernatural dynamic essential to the overall story. It is a good start.

There is this thing I am hoping for when I see a film it has to do with the feel of the script. Every script has information that needs to be shown or told through exposition. I am looking for how smoothly this happens in the film. It can be clunky where the scenes in the sequence don't smoothly flow from one to the other showing us what we need to know but in a disjointed storytelling. It can be smooth where you don't notice the story development while it is happening, instead you are seeing the characters and the they are pulling you along in the story. It is not forced as the character traits come through until the second act starts we have learned the nature of the story organically. In Mama there is a decent job of this mostly but to put pressure on the young couple adopting the girls in the story they need to inset this courtroom custody angle that felt out of place. Still it is not horrible and maybe they did not need this angle at all but it is there. It continues being a bit clunky with the development of Anabelle's character (Christine Chastain) as a punk rocker married to the brother, Lucas of the girls father who the children are placed with. She never wanted this and it gets us to the second act but plays out like , this happened, and this happened. It might be the lack of developing Lucas's character that causes this juxtaposition. I realize that this is more Anabelle's story arc we are exploring. A young woman who may not want to be a Mother must learn what it means to save the girls from a vengeful protective spirit. It is just that is not organically driven enough for me. 

The second act is the act of discovery in the film. More information about the girls time in the woods and the history of the cabin come to light to add depth to the story. The explanation of the ghost who latches onto the children and really kept them alive in the cabin for the years that they were there is welcomed in the second act. The film assumes ghosts are real from the start which is necessary for this story. It's a bit slow going in this film and again a bit clunky feeling like the director wanted to tell the story but also had to fit in a growing sense of disease and several jump scares. Increasing the violence of the ghost Mama as the kids more away from her and start trusting Anabelle.  Again like the structure of the film was more important than the storytelling. It does however get us to the third act where the character transformations happen. The girls, the creature and the Anabelle's transformation from unengaged punk rocker to protective Mom play out in a really grand finale.

Do I like this film? Just like the first time I reviewed this in June of 2013 yes. It is a bit flawed in fitting the pieces together but it tells a cool story, explores how motherhood is not always by choice or smooth for those participating but ends with the assurance that love and commitment can change the outcome for those in the relationships. So even in rewatch overall I have a decent but not great appreciation for this film. Watch it and decide for yourself.

So if you are interested in having the Issue #14 that includes the article on Mama get in touch. My Letterboxd.com handle is @Hovey1127, when I am done with the Issue of the magazine I will offer it up and we can work out the details of me getting it to you. I am not really looking for money just someone who also would love to read it. If no one wants it well it will probably end up on a magazine rack at the library or something.

Chatting with me is difficult, I have stopped my social media account years ago because time… it’s ticking at my age and I would rather spend it doing other things like this for example. Or chatting with my friends at the Zombiegrrlz.com podcasts on their discord. I am a fan of the podcasts they publish The More Deadly Podcast and the Zombiegrrlz podcast and as a Patron for very little $ I get access to the discord. So if you want to good horror content and a great horror community check them out. You can also find me on the Here's Johnny Podcast and  Faculty of Horror Podcast discords. Look them up join my online friends for some good conversations.

American Mary (2012)

 

Diabolique Magazine Jan/Feb 2013 #14 is an capsule in time like most magazine issues. In this one we start off with an article by Colin McCracken talking about the "From Final Girl to Final Cut". The article which uses the Final Girl as seen through modern horror as a means to talk about the increasing role of women in horror both on and off the screen. Seeing horror as a flexible format that allows for growth it is presented as a format that allows diverse roles for women that they may not get in other genres. Highlighting actresses and female film makers as a way to show the changing roles for women in horror. Kristen Klebe, Daniel Harris, Scout Taylor-Compton, Pollyanna McIntosh are interviewed for the article as on screen women making the genre their home. He also talks to the Soska Sisters, Jenn and Sylvia about their recently released film American Mary. Then also talked about Jennifer Lynch and her films Boxing Helena and Chained. 

  This time period about when the first Women in Horror months were coming together to highlight and educate people of the impact women make in the genre. Max Weinstein then writes about American Mary  and interviews the Soska Sisters for the magazine. They both praise their lead actress Katherine Isabelle for her professionalism and willingness to go for it in her film performance. Jenn and Sylvia Soska talks about Hollywood of the time where some producers have no problem asking a young woman director to suck his dick with the promise of getting further in the industry. Note this interview is pre MeToo and the awareness in the general public  of abusive executives. 

American Mary is about Mary Mason a driven medical student who is having difficulty paying her bills, in an analogy of the real life Hollywood  the surgeons who are the teachers of young women in medical school. Have parties where they invite young students over to prostitute themselves for money and grades. Mary unaware of the reason for the party arrives to find herself drugged and raped by the Professor who makes her school life hell. What that doctor does not know is that on the side Mary has a business doing body modification underground and illegally. Those talents she puts to use to get her revenge.

  The relationships of the film are interesting and Isabelle kills it in a role where the character shuts down emotion to deal with trauma she suffered. She is calm and cool in the ingenious ways she empowers herself  through surgery. American Mary is a pretty great film with something to say so if you get the chance check it out.

My Letterboxd.com handle is @Hovey1127, when I am done with the Issue of the magazine I will offer it up and we can work out the details of me getting it to you. I am not really looking for money just someone who also would love to read it. If no one wants it well it will probably end up on a magazine rack at the library or something.

Chatting with me is difficult, I have stopped my social media account years ago because time… it’s ticking at my age and I would rather spend it doing other things like this for example. Or chatting with my friends at the Zombiegrrlz.com podcasts on their discord. I am a fan of the podcasts they publish The More Deadly Podcast and the Zombiegrrlz podcast and as a Patron for very little $ I get access to the discord. So if you want to good horror content and a great horror community check them out. You can also find me on the Here's Johnny Podcast and  Faculty of Horror Podcast discords. Look them up join my online friends for some good conversations.

Rammbock: Berlin Undead (2010)

 

I personally see Rammbock: Berlin Undead as a gem in the zombie craze that has since came and went. Michi and his girlfriend Gabi are breaking up and she wants him to move out. When he comes over to talk to her about it he arrives just as a zombie outbreak is occurring. We don't have to wait long before we have the situation defined. Stuck in an apartment in a housing block in Berlin. Michi can see the chaos of the infection spreading in the courtyard below. Bites spreading the disease and converting normal people to infected fast zombies within seconds, like in "28 Days Later". Michi and a young guy are trapped in an apartment and we learn of the citywide spread of the infection via news reports. When the barricaded apartment becomes  unsafe steps must be taken to survive and find a way out of the city.

  I like that early in the film it plays with how people react when a crisis takes place. We have these people in the various apartments who can see each other through the windows facing the interior courtyard. They can communicate so we see how when things go wrong we tend to isolate ourselves. Working together might be more effective but people don't want to take risks and that risk assessment is shown through the inaction of many early in the film.

  Noise is the thing that attracts the infected they seem not quite blind but a bit limited in sight so doing anything where they can get you if you make noise. So as things deteriorate decisions have to be made, chances taken with the hope of survival. 

  Harper's story arc is about his obsession with his missing girlfriend trapped in her apartment without her early on she is foremost in his mind. She was breaking up with him but not because that is what he wanted. The crisis seems at first just a distraction for him as he obsesses about her. Things in the most uncomfortable way get resolved or at least the dynamics change,  when he eventually ends up in the attic of the building and Gabi and her new boyfriend are there. There is a real arc which is paralleled with a storyline of harper also trying to find his girlfriend and get out alive. 

  Michi is sort of a sad sack and the revelations are hard on him. Will there be a way out of this claustrophobic apartment building?  You will see if you watch the film which I recommend.

Alone in the Dark 2 (2008)

 

These sequel to the Uwe Boll disaster of an original this film matches the incoherent plot of the first. Written and Directed by Michael Roesch and Peter Scheerer this wildly scattered mess uses appearances by well known genre actors to make up for a purely dumb script. Michael Pare, Lance Henriksen, Bill Moseley, Danny Trejo and P.J.Soles all play their parts but to no avail as the incompressible plot strangles this film.

The film centers around a family who I don't really know fights an evil witch. The witch for her part wants a dagger that I think can do he in. This plot has nothing to do with the original film and that at least tracks because the sequel to the original release of the game doesn't include many of the themes of the original.

Hard to get into the film is so blah.

Alone in the Dark (2005)

 

A film that starts with an Opening scroll, then a scene in the past to reenforce it and then a main character voice over seems to be saying there is way too much information needed to understand what is to follow. Followed by a car chase and fist fight to establish our main character Edward Carnby as a bad-ass. He is a Indiana Jones for the supernatural objects  and there are people who want what be has obtained. There is this plot where an ancient Indian tribe, as read in the scroll, once opened a gate to an evil dimension and then closed it when something got through. Now in modern day there are people hoping to get the object necessary to open that gate again.

  Where the flashback scene was about one kid escaping an institute that was doing experiments on them we can probably guess that 22 years later we can assume all the adults we meet of a certain age might be the children from that scene. When the evil is released, they are all activated, but we don't know for what purpose. The two object found by Carnby and the one Professor Hudgens look like they go together, so pretty much we know what is going on. The continued voice over explaining the film as it progresses is just lazy film making and we are only 15 minutes into the film.

 Tara Reid costars in the film as Aline the assistant to Dr. Hudgens who turns out to be quite the evil fuck, and Reid is also the love interest of the lead. She is not my favorite actress coming across a bit canned in her delivery at times but she is game for the action that spews all through this film. She is stuck in a video game film that has a shitload to explain.

  The other supporting actor is Stephen Dourff who plays the angry controlling leader of the secret government agency 713. He is he actually improves the lines he has at first coming across as just another angry idiot competing with the lead as a tough guy. Later we see though he can use an expression to get a subtilty into the role. 

  There is so much video game violence in this film that the stakes of it are lost. Lots of xenomorph dog like creatures and there screamer like sand worm entities leave a lot to be desired. Relentless they a turn of the century relic of a developing CGI that had not yet hit it's prime. The film made in 2005 for an estimated 20 million dollars only made 12 million worldwide and was seen as a failure. Still it did get a sequel in 2008. This is an objectively confusing and bad film. Directed by Uwe Boll who has a reputation for directing duds the film seems to have a hard time being coherent. I am not even sure with all the voice over and exposition that I know what the plot was. Evil Dr Hudgen's wants to bring evil creatures into the world and is stopped by the kid who got away? Something like that with a downer ending that leaves us setup for the sequel.

Loop Track (2023)

 Loop Track is a surprising film, and what that surprise is can not be stated without ruining it so that will not happen here. It plays as a psychological thriller about Ian a timid man weary of the world and needing to get away from society. He decides to take to the backpacking trails of the New Zealand bush. Ill prepared and inexperienced at backpacking his adventure proves difficult but his design for solitude pushes him forward. He is obviously suffering anxiety and at least while alone he can escape the part of it involving other people. Unfortunately he finds avoiding people on the trail just as hard as in life at home and is forced to take strange maneuvers and paths to avoid interactions with other hikers. Anyone who has spent time in the woods like I have understands how hard this can become. Besides casual interaction when different walking paces initiate introductions and at least pleasant good days. There are people who seem to adopt other hikers because there are only so many shelters on the trails and people often come together at them by the end of the day.

In the early part of the film we see this in an exaggerated way first with Ian avoiding people and when he can no longer do that get glommed onto by a fellow hiker , Nicky who is super unaware of his impact on Ian and can not shut his trap. Two other people Austin and Monica are at the shelter when they arrive and the four people fall into travelling together as that can happen. Ian's anxiety increases during interactions even though relationships form.

The film plays out leaving us to wonder about Ian's state of mind, is he hallucinating shapes in the forest? When the foursome find gear left at there next hut he start's to wonder if something nefarious has taken place, or is he just a bit paranoid. The writing does a nice job at pulling the viewer back and forth in Ian's struggle with his thoughts. While still leaving the idea that something more dangerous could be looming in the story.

When the turn in the story takes place it really is sort of cool, at this point Ian's character is properly setup to not be believed. The trail mates that adopted him start trying to think of strategies to deal with a very scared and paranoid fellow hiker. The movie then becomes something else as everyone learns the truth about what is going on.

I found this film rather enjoyable and think you should give it a chance and of course wait for the turn.

Black Sheep (2006)

 

 Diabolique Magazine #17 Aug/Sept 3013 we have an issue on The Evolution of Horror Comedy so the films are a lot of fun the third article "Side Splitting: The Evolution of the Horror Comedy" by Ken Hanley is a nice look at the evolution of the subgenre. I am going to review a few of the films he mentions in the article starting with this one.

We establish a cruel older brother Angus (Peter Feeney) creating the terror in his younger brother that causes him to have a fear of sheep. It's a pretty gruesome trick involving a slaughtered sheep and a dark barn but it establishes not only the relationship between the brothers but give the younger brother Henry (Nathan Meister) the starts of a story arc. After returning to the farm years later, even with his phobia he has to confront his older brother about plans to sell the land. Its been in the family for 100 years and Henry would like to save that bit of family history. In the same early scenes a couple animal rights vigilanties named Experience (Danielle Mason) and Grant (Oliver Driver) steal a genetically modified lamb, while fleeing with the creature one of the animal rights activists is bitten by it and it escapes. This sets off a spead of a mutating virus that infects the flock making the sheep extremely aggressive. Grant who was bitten begins a transformation that has to be seen to believed. Of course his goatee forshadows this and it is very amusing.

An unlikely trio of Experience, Henry and farm hand Winston (Louis Sutherland) have to make their way across the sheep paddocks back to the house to warn evil brother Angus that there is something wrong with the sheep. At the same time Grant is still wandering about slowly transforming and lots of shots to establish anyone bitten strts to transform. Oh and did I mention that that more and more sheep are infected and out looking to hunt humans?  Yep so we have a survival film with comedy set around these circumstances, some making fun of animal rights groups, and Experience's woo woo ways, and naturally a showdown between brothers.

 The escalating crisiscomes to a head when Angus hold a ceremony for investers in his new science based sheep farm  It gets wild and you are going to love it so enough explaining here. You gotta love a good fight for survival film and in this one you have it.  Writer, Director Johnathan King is currently in post production for this New Zealand gem entitles Black Sheeps the film will pickup in the future when a man comes to investigate what happened on the farm.This film is a lot of fun and you should watch it and get your kicks.

So if you are interested in a magazine with this content, read updates here soresportmovies.blogspot.com, or on Letterboxd.com to learn how my magazine giveaway is going but follow me on Letterboxd if you want to read my movie reviews and comment on the films. I still have a mail connected to my blog movies@edhovey.com where you can write me or comment on blog entries.

My Letterboxd.com handle is @Hovey1127, when I am done with the Issue of the magazine I will offer it up and we can work out the details of me getting it to you. I am not really looking for money just someone who also would love to read it. If no one wants it well it will probably end up on a magazine rack at the library or something.

Chatting with me is difficult, I have stopped my social media account years ago because time… it’s ticking at my age and I would rather spend it doing other things like this for example. Or chatting with my friends at the Zombiegrrlz.com podcasts on their discord. I am a fan of the podcasts they publish The More Deadly Podcast and the Zombiegrrlz podcast and as a Patron for very little $ I get access to the discord. So if you want to good horror content and a great horror community check them out.You can also find me on the Here's Johnny Podcast and  Faculty of Horror Podcast discords. Look them up join my online friends for some good conversations.

Bikini Blood Bath (2006)

 Here is an example of how NOT to do a good Horror Comedy. As described in IMDB "It's the last day of school and Jenny, the most popular girl in school, decides to have a sleepover to celebrate with her friends. Meanwhile a disturbed "French" chef from the popular Sausage Party Restaurant decides to go on a little killing spree. Hilarity ensues." I can attest that hilarity does not ensue.

This film is excessively homophobic in its humor, juvenile to the extreme and the horror is not horrific at all. That said it provides booby shot galore so if that is your groove it will at least have it to fall back on.

Written by Johnathan Gorman and Thomas Edward Seymore when they were each about thirty years old, its hard to tell if they were purposely making a blatantly offensive film and thought it was so clever or just were not mature enough at the time to make something good. Either way this one is a stinker.

I personally have a softspot for really bad films and said so with my original review of this in 2011. Today I am thinking I might have to reevaluate that part of myself .

Here is the original review.

https://soresportmovies.blogspot.com/2011/11/bikini-bloodbath-2006-horror-slasher.html

Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)

 Diabolique Magazine #17 Aug/Sept 3013 we have an issue on The Evolution of Horror Comedy so the films are a lot of fun the third article "Side Splitting: The Evolution of the Horror Comedy" by Ken Hanley is a nice look at the evolution of the subgenre. I am going to review a few of the films he mentions in the article starting with this one.

Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)

  The Abbot and Costello schtick is well established by 1948, Bud Abbott the over bearing straight man to the silly slapstick of Lou Costello. This act has been duplicated time and again through movie history but just when their popularity was waning someone at Universal Studios got the idea to refresh then by pairing them up with another popular genre, the Universal Monsters and boy does it work.

Bud Abbott plays Chick Young supervising a mail depot and bossing around Lou Costello's Wilber Gray. The bit are sharp and witty and we quickly get into the comedy with Wilber retreiving a woman suitcase from a cart of delivered boxes, and as expected bring the pile down on his head. The physical humor is great but the conversation between Wilber's georgous girlfriend Sandra (Lenore Aubert) and Chick is snappy and smart.

The bits are funny here and not only do we get Bela Lugosi as Dracula and Lon Chaney Jr as the wolfman as well as the titled Frankenstein this time played by Glenn Strange. We get a plot where Dracula wants to revive Frankenstein with a new more simple minded brain so he is not dangerous. When the boxes Dracula and Frankenstein disappear the insurance company send the lovely Joan (Jane Randolph) arrives to find them. She and Sandra are showing interest in Wilber because he appears to be a simpleton and honestly his character is. So much goes on in this film and not laugh out loud funny but super amusing. The convoluted plaot plays out through some wonderful comedy bits.  I am not going to give away the plot to this 70 year old movie because watching it is so enjoyable and I think you should all do it.

So if you are interested in a magazine with this content, read updates here soresportmovies.blogspot.com, or on Letterboxd.com to learn how my magazine giveaway is going but follow me on Letterboxd if you want to read my movie reviews and comment on the films. I still have a mail connected to my blog movies@edhovey.com where you can write me or comment on blog entries.

My Letterboxd.com handle is @Hovey1127, when I am done with the Issue of the magazine I will offer it up and we can work out the details of me getting it to you. I am not really looking for money just someone who also would love to read it. If no one wants it well it will probably end up on a magazine rack at the library or something.

Chatting with me is difficult, I have stopped my social media account years ago because time… it’s ticking at my age and I would rather spend it doing other things like this for example. Or chatting with my friends at the Zombiegrrlz.com podcasts on their discord. I am a fan of the podcasts they publish The More Deadly Podcast and the Zombiegrrlz podcast and as a Patron for very little $ I get access to the discord. So if you want to good horror content and a great horror community check them out.You can also find me on the Here's Johnny Podcast and  Faculty of Horror Podcast discords. Look them up join my online friends for some good conversations.

Sightseers (2013)

Moving on to Diabolique Magazine #17 Aug/Sept 3013 we have an issue on The Evolution of Horror Comedy so hopefully the films I cover will be a lot of fun. I love a good horror comedy, hell I like a lot of bad ones. So if you share this love you can have this magazine when I am done, saving it from the recycle bin.  

The first article is "Grue Romance" about Ben Wheatley's film Sightseers by Colin McCracken. Wheatley who many horror fans know for his 2010 film Kill List tries his hand at a horror comedy. Since so much time has gone past since I got this magazine and this reread is a look back in history alot has happened for the people involved in the film. Wheatley was just making a name for huimself and these early entries in what is now a sturdy career moved him in the right direction.  Not necessarily a horror Director he plays on the edges of off beat action, all out action mystery and science fiction. He has seemed to put work forward though and his IMDB ratings are decent with many of his works rated above 6 in the scale of 10. The two leads Alice Lowe and Steve Oram were both experience actors coming into this project and have been steadily working after this feature. The article for this film speaks to these awkward characters and even though they are killers they become sympathetic to the viewer. Lowe's character Tina has found a man she is interested in and leaves her clinging Mother for a week of travel with her new man Chris (Oram) for intimacy and adventures. Thing is Chris is not the normal likable guy he first appears, seems he has an anger problem and exercises unique behavior when he gets a hair across his ass. From the first incident where a man litters and gives Chris the finger when confronted to the drummers at a campground or another camping couple who seem like competition his over sized responses to his internal hangups drive the film forward. Tina more unsure of herself  but really wants the relationship to work even as she starts to suspect Chris as not on his "best" behavior.  The violence builds slowly so we get to watch this somewhat odd couple getting along on the road while the body count starts to increase. Tina is no prize either with a moral fuzziness of her own is perfectly willing to steal a dog and think it is okay because she thought the owners were mean.  The sociopathic nature of the couple is always present but also growing as they learn more about each other.

  This is a fun by being weird movie and I have mixed feelings about it. From the interesting arc where Tina comes to accept Chris and his homocidal tendencies, is a real transformation for her character. We think this is a film about how much a squirrely woman will accept for love. When the turn comes in the second act and a third character Martin (Richard Glover) becomes friends with Chris, Tina feels excluded and we get the crisis that will determine the third act. This is when we realize that Tina has been in a shell and her relationship with Chris is cracking the surface of that shell. It's really something because we learn it really is Tina's story the film is telling and what a story it is.  A small film but certainly a potent one.

So if you are interested in a magazine with this content, read updates here soresportmovies.blogspot.com, or on Letterboxd.com to learn how my magazine giveaway is going but follow me on Letterboxd if you want to read my movie reviews and comment on the films. I still have a mail connected to my blog movies@edhovey.com where you can write me or comment on blog entries.

My Letterboxd.com handle is @Hovey1127, when I am done with the Issue of the magazine I will offer it up and we can work out the details of me getting it to you. I am not really looking for money just someone who also would love to read it. If no one wants it well it will probably end up on a magazine rack at the library or something.

Chatting with me is difficult, I have stopped my social media account years ago because time… it’s ticking at my age and I would rather spend it doing other things like this for example. Or chatting with my friends at the Zombiegrrlz.com podcasts on their discord. I am a fan of the podcasts they publish The More Deadly Podcast and the Zombiegrrlz podcast and as a Patron for very little $ I get access to the discord. So if you want to good horror content and a great horror community check them out.You can also find me on the Here's Johnny Podcast and  Faculty of Horror Podcast discords. Look them up join my online friends for some good conversations.

Escape From Tomorrow (2013)

 The project of reviewing old magazine before giving them away continues with Diabolique Magazine Issue #18 Nov/Dec 2013 The Holiday Issue. Always packed with great writing this issue focuses on Apocalyptic Cinema and Literature, so if this is a subject you are interested in and want to receive this issue when I finish with it, let me know and it could be yours. I will only be doing a couple more films featured in this issue, this being the second from  Ken Hanley's "2013 is the new 2012" he looks at post apocalyptic visions Hollywood and television are putting into the world analysing how that media reflects and deflects from the ever present inequality of the world.  and the final from the Colin McCracken called "Flesh for Thought" where he talks about Dominic Brunt and Joanne Mitchell's film Before Dawn.

What that means is I am skipping over a couple features that are not movie oriented, the first is about FX artist Remy Couture who at the time was in legal battle because of his skill in depicting extreme violence. The article and interview get Couture's opinions on the saga he was going through. Charged with various indecency crime because officials saw his shorts Inner Depravity I and II and thought they acts in them were real and not FX. You can see Remy's IMBD here he also has a website here It's a well written article and interview by Lacey Paige but I have no movie review to attach it to.

I am also skipping Max Weinstein's piece on Rob Guillory's comic series Chew, and another Weinstein article on Artist Arthur Suydam these were both very interesting pieces but not the movie review material that I am looking to cover. If thay interest you though I will be happy to give this issue of Diabolique Magazine to you.

  Escape From Tomorrow is known for its making, as cited here from wikipedia: "The film drew attention, because Moore had shot most of it on location at both Walt Disney World Resort and Disneyland Park without permission from the Walt Disney Company, owner and operator of both properties. Due to Disney's reputation of being protective of its intellectual property, the cast and crew used guerrilla filmmaking techniques to avoid attracting attention, such as keeping their scripts on their phones and shooting on handheld video cameras similar to those used by park visitors. After principal photography was complete, Moore was so determined to keep the film a secret from Disney that he edited it in South Korea."

    The film itself is a strange little story of a man setup to give his son to a mysterious corporation that operates under the Disney amusement park. Framed as one family's final day at Disney where the cracks in the family structure are fully explored. The perfect appearance of the park is the surface much like the happy family in the park is the surface, but like the family tensions that ensue we also see the cracks in the parks façade. Jim and his family are in the final day at the park, but Jim learns he is fired over the phone in conversation with his boss. This sets Jim off on a very disorienting day including marital trouble, whiny kids, disappointing outcomes at rides, drunkeness, and the creepiest adult stalking teenage girls behavior you will see in a public space. I am not sure how this film fits into the apocalyptic theme of the issue but it certainly speaks to false fronts in our society where pretending everything is fine and perfect becomes an art form. Like the fascists running a distorted throwback society in underground Topeka KS in "A Boy and his Dog" Disney creates the image of perfection so generations of families can funnel money into their corporate pockets. They are the world's largest amusement parks but instead of shady outfits trying to hustle money out of passers by they are institutionalized. Watching the family on the rides, particularly designed for children reinforces the shallowness of the experience, drifting through tunnels in a boat watching animatronic characters sing disney songs is just that, a recording and simple robotics. Jim on his journey of discovery in the film disassociates a couple time during these activities building for the audience a sense of dread for the family.The mounting pressure of holding the secret of his firing with obvious marital issues betweenhe and his wife Em, to the misbhaving son and daughter Elliot and Sarah, we see the building crisis Jim is heading for. Add in a couple oddball characters, a nurse who knows a secret about the park but can't bring herself to reveal it. Another woman who obsconds peoples children to fulfill a princess fantasy see obsesses about after her own tragic turn at the park and you have the makings of a horror movie in "The Happiest Place on Earth"  The secret plot in the film I won't give away here since this film although less complex than I wished is solid in it's strange little mystery. Lets say all of Jim's behaviors are designed instead of side affect of the pressure from losing his job.  I feel like this plot could have been a bit more but was satisfied with where the film ended.  Give it a watch.

  Before Dawn (2013) After watching this today I decided not to give it its own review, simple put this film did not hit with me and frankly was a downer to watch. The film is an couple who are obviously breaking up trying to reconnect over a weekend away without the kids. Primarily about the Husband Alex (Dominic Brunt) an unemployed lay about who wants to keep an already failed marraige going but is so indecicive in everything he does you totally understand how it got to this point. His wife Meg (Joanne Mitchell) is driven and self assured but obviously done with Alex, there is this moment and in this slow burn zombie movie there are lots of interpersonal moments between the two. Meg is silent when he says they have shared a life together pleadingly. Then he asks "Is this all we are" shared memories what else do we have?  She just answers the kids where he was not even entertaining that when she asked.When the zombie part start we learn even how Meg and Alex differ she in loooking for support after being assaulted by a zombie he is hoping that she won't leave him because of it, his lack of insite into her psyche is notably missing for someone who wants her in his life. His decision making in this film is so warped and the ending is soooooooo unsatisfying. It just made me think who is really the monster.

So if you are interested in a magazine with this content, read updates here soresportmovies.blogspot.com, or on Letterboxd.com to learn how my magazine giveaway is going but follow me on Letterboxd if you want to read my movie reviews and comment on the films. I still have a mail connected to my blog movies@edhovey.com where you can write me or comment on blog entries.

My Letterboxd.com handle is @Hovey1127, when I am done with the Issue of the magazine I will offer it up and we can work out the details of me getting it to you. I am not really looking for money just someone who also would love to read it. If no one wants it well it will probably end up on a magazine rack at the library or something.

Chatting with me is difficult, I have stopped my social media account years ago because time… it’s ticking at my age and I would rather spend it doing other things like this for example. Or chatting with my friends at the Zombiegrrlz.com podcasts on their discord. I am a fan of the podcasts they publish The More Deadly Podcast and the Zombiegrrlz podcast and as a Patron for very little $ I get access to the discord. So if you want to good horror content and a great horror community check them out.You can also find me on the Here's Johnny Podcast and  Faculty of Horror Podcast discords. Look them up join my online friends for some good conversations.

Elysium (2013)

  The project of reviewing old magazine before giving them away continues with Diabolique Magazine Issue #18 Nov/Dec 2013 The Holiday Issue. Always packed with great writing this issue focuses on Apocalyptic Cinema and Literature, so if this is a subject you are interested in and want to receive this issue when I finish with it, let me know and it could be yours. I am going to skip a couple pieces not because they are not great but because I am not feelin, wanting to rewatch the films Colin McCracken has an article on L. Q. Jones adaptation of Harlan Ellison's  "A Boy and His Dog"  a very interesting older film that still stands up in the pantheon of post apocyliptic films. I liked it so much that I pushed with my patron choice to have it reviewed by the Here's Johnny Podcast a few years back. You can probably find a way to listen to us discuss it like here: https://www.patreon.com/heresjohnnypodcast/posts/boy-and-his-dog-86202290  where I make an appearance as a guest. Then Chris Hallock writes about author David Moody who "creates wholly frightening visions that explore the darknessof the human condition. Living in Moody's post apocalyptic world isn't exhilarating like raiding the shopping mall in Night of the Comet. It's utterly dehumanizing and horrifying." As part of this project I am listening to Moody's later book Shadowlocked on audible, so far I am enjoying it. Reading the descriptions of his books I was not impressed as the plots read like every zombie book ever written but the actual stories seem pretty decent.

  The article I want to explore in this post is Ken Hanley's "2013 is the new 2012" he looks at post apocalyptic visions Hollywood and television are putting into the world analysing how that media reflects and deflects from the ever present inequality of the world. Citing the movies of the time, World War Z (2013), Oblivion (2013), Elysium (2013), This is the End (2013), The Worlds End (2013), The Walking Dead (2010-2022), The Hunger Games (2012), The Purge (2013), Escape from Tomorrow (2013) and Jug Face (2013) Hanley looks at how each reflects the society at the time either accurately or with flaws, representing the anxieties we shared at that time. In hindsight from 2026 the patterns in media reflecting the fears of society still holds and probably will until our world finally does collapse into chaos and death. Hanley is optimistic finishing "So don't fret:whether we can prevent it or not, the eventuality is that although the end could be considered nigh, the end has always been nigh, as each generation has proven again and again."  He is implaying that that societal changes are are going to happen and at the time they seem like thay will end the world, but they don't. Instead they change it into a new world for good or ill and when the next catastophy hits we will gain spew a collection of media that reflect the new fears and this cycle will continue. So I want to revisit 2013 with his article and the films in it but which to choose?  I am sure to skip World War Z which I have seen ad nausium, the trip with the luckiest man in the world at the ends of time with a Pepsi ad literally in the blockbuster movie will stir up feelings for me. Oblivion although interesting leans too much on the science fiction side. Elysium is where I think I will start, under whelmed by it when I saw it back then I have not rewatched it since, then of the rest of these, Escape from Tomorrow since I have not seen it and it using the largest cororate entity in the world Disney, a company so ingrained in society that its twisting will be a pleasure to watch.

  Lets start with Elysium (2013) - When I reviewed this on my blog when it came out I saw it as a superficial summer film that tries to get a message out but garbles it along the way. Now 13 years later I don't necessarily see that as untrue. This was and remains a summer blockbuster type action film with a message. I think it is how we look at those messages that may be different. August of 2013 was during the Obama administration in the US where after years of incompetetent leadership it seemed thing were moving in the right direction. After years of squabble and watering down the Affordable Care Act was just about to start covering millions of people in the country giving many health care for the first time in there lives. The disappointment many of us felt that we didn't just change the system to make helth care free to all was still a bad taste in our mouths. You can see where some of the ideas in this film came from, In the future of 2159 we have all the rich people relocate off planet to a orbiting paraidise called Elysium. Unsurprisingly the film depicts the wealthy as majority white and shallow and selfish to the core. Taking their ball and leaving the game instead of trying to improve thing. The last decade has shown us that seems to be the atitude of the wealthy currently. Of course we get to live through them wanting to fully exploit us and the planet, probably before they leave. Heck we have a current administration that is trying to create Elysium in the US by removing all the black and brown people. In the film they take with them the magical medical technology that care scan and cure any ailment. This is a dig at the rich and their selfish approach to the world. They have this technology they refuse to share even though it could save millions of lives. Also the fact that they can up and leave the planet leaving the problems of climate change, over population and management of society to robot police who heavy handedly administer control over an out of control population. In retrospect I don't think I would buy into this fantasy that we will destroy the world with over population. As we see climate change accelerating right now there will probably be major die-offs of the population in the years to come. Places that will become uninhabitable, if you follow the international news you may have read that France with the five unprecidented heat waves this year says 7300 deaths can be attributed to them. So we might not have over population because of how we are killing the life function of the planet. Instead we will have shrinking populations and more chaos as people have to immigrate from climate damaged zones. The  current crop of oligarchs think technology and money will make them ammuned to the impact and in the US are moving climate change solutions backwards. There is a real fight for absolute control going on in this country where the wealthy are trying to convince the masses that dictatorship is better than democracy so they can have their Elysium.

  Our film follows Max (Matt Damon) an ex-con who for a short time is trying to stay clean, but the corporate work he engages with him exploits him for his labor and the heavy handed robot police keep a heel on his neck. When a work accident leaves him dying of radiation poisoning Max reverts to his crime ways in an effort to save his own life. Working with a band of fellow criminals Max allows his body to be integrated with mechanical enhancements to run a  grab and snatch of data from the same CEO who is letting him die. When that data ends up being a solution to the global health care problem Max must make a decision to sacrifice for the greater good. Well at least someone is willing to. The film though does not sit comfortable in that framing, instead morphing into a action thriller with lots of fight sequences  and narrow escapes. The story a bit convoluted  but we know where this is going. Bad guys against good flawed goodguys, bad guys against other bad guys, rogue agents (played delisciously by Sharlto Coply) trying to get their own piece of the pie. A personal revenge angle plays out in the least needed set of sequences as we get to the climax of the film. You know just really and action thriller. It is not a great movie I think because Writer / Director Neil Blomkamp (District 9) makes Max only motivated by his own doom. There isn't enough heart in him early so when he transforms later the change seems hollow. Still in the apocalyptic world visions we are reviewing here there is something to this film that in our current climate is worth seeing. You will not be blown away but you may still get an idea or two from it.

So if you are interested in a magazine with this content, read updates here soresportmovies.blogspot.com, or on Letterboxd.com to learn how my magazine giveaway is going but follow me on Letterboxd if you want to read my movie reviews and comment on the films. I still have a mail connected to my blog movies@edhovey.com where you can write me or comment on blog entries.

My Letterboxd.com handle is @Hovey1127, when I am done with the Issue of the magazine I will offer it up and we can work out the details of me getting it to you. I am not really looking for money just someone who also would love to read it. If no one wants it well it will probably end up on a magazine rack at the library or something.

Chatting with me is difficult, I have stopped my social media account years ago because time… it’s ticking at my age and I would rather spend it doing other things like this for example. Or chatting with my friends at the Zombiegrrlz.com podcasts on their discord. I am a fan of the podcasts they publish The More Deadly Podcast and the Zombiegrrlz podcast and as a Patron for very little $ I get access to the discord. So if you want to good horror content and a great horror community check them out.You can also find me on the Here's Johnny Podcast and  Faculty of Horror Podcast discords. Look them up join my online friends for some good conversations.

28 Days Later (2002)

 

The project of reviewing old magazine before giving them away continues with Diabolique Magazine Issue #18 Nov/Dec 2013 The Holiday Issue. Always packed with great writing this issue focuses on Apocalyptic Cinema and Literature, so if this is a subject you are interested in and want to receive this issue when I finish with it, let me know and it could be yours. The second article in this issue under the heading "The Devil Made Watch It: Movies that shook the public and changed genre cinema" was written by Alexandra West who you can listen to on the podcast The Faculty of Horror where she teams up with the Editor and Cheif of Rue Morgue Magazine Andrea Subisatti to cover horror and genre film with a depth you don't get on many other podcasts. I am a patron of this particular podcast and recommend it to you with enthusiasm. In the article the subject is the film 28 Days Later by Danny Boyle. She looks at the film through the lense of the fears stemming from the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and how it retextualized the zombie genre. Today I suppose you could look at it in a very different way because of the 2020 global pandemic. It would be very interesting to hear Alenadra take on it in light of that latest human catastrophy, or what new film again retextualizes the new fears that came form the pandemic.

 

28 Days later begins in chaos as news reels show us the breakdown of society violence and disorder which is part of an experiment on a chimpanzee who is forced to watch the violence. A foreshadowing of what is to come. What is happening around him is a group of animal rights activist are coming to the lab to free the animals who are being tortured in various ways. It's a great scene where even though a scientist begs the activists to not release the infected Chimps they choose to do it anyway with the most dire of consequences. Then it is 28 days later and Jim (Cillian Murphy) wakes in a hospital bed alone in an empty hospital, everywhere London looks abandoned, Jim walks the streets not seeing another person until he does and the rage virus is displayed in it's terrifying glory. Much like the Omega Man from my last post with the deserted shots of Los Angeles, director Danny Boyle gives us an empty London, a hopeless place for a man alone. Unlike the Omega Man where Charlton Heston plays God and even dies as the great sacrifice so humanity can live on, this film does the opposite. As Alexandra West points out in her writing comparing 28 Days to other zombie films where religion plays a part this film has a severe lack of framing religion as a hope. Omega man also uses science but wraps it in the hubris of the main character. That hubris in 28 Days Later is void as West points out.

Jim meets Selena (Naomie Harris) and Mark (Noah Huntley) during his first encounter with the infected and is quickly brought up to speed on the sudden and violent end to society. I remember those first weeks of the 2020 pandemic and how strange and eerie it was to be on streets with literally no activity on them. Watching the survivors in this film now fits that framework the comparisons to the 1971 The Omega Man could go on and on within the pandemic frame.  It's biological warfare angle and the experiments being performed on the chimps that release the rage virus are on the same street if not in the same house. The desperate survival mode of non infected in both films drives home how fragile our grasp on civility really is. The hope of a cure not only drive the two films but also drove our own society while we waited for a Covid vaccine. I always critiqued the world response to Covid and how we almost lost our civility as our failed goverment joined conspiracy theorist in their delusions and was willing to to let over a million people die through its mismanagement of the crisis. Imagine if the Covid virus was just 10% more effective at killing those who contracted it? What would have been our fate then. Many like my family and I were lucky to live in a smaller town, 20k and have ample ability to not only live but outdoor space and work that was remote.

What if we were in The Omega Man or 28 Days Later and the solution was to find a cure on our own or need to cross a vast city looking for a safe place to try to live as Jim, Selena, Frank (Brendan Gleeson) and Hannah (Megan Burns) attempt. They seek out a call from the country side by a person promising an infection free zone. That trust in a radio signal is worth all four characters risking their lives and they do not even know if  the source of the message is still valid. The closest I came was needing to travel from Boston to Florida during the pandemic, knowing there was no vaccine but needed to visit my dying Mother (cancer not Covid). I remember the fear I had masked on the plane hoping not to contract this desease which as a heavy older man would have a good chance of killing me. In Massachusetts we were being so careful, masking and limiting face to face interactions and the death rate was still high so it was surreal to be on a plane filled with people. I was trusting that people were not travelling sick that we were all doing what was necessary to keep others safe. In 28 Days Later there is a trust that is given to the military group that takes the survivors in. Do they really have a system that protects against the rage virus? People in the film learn that not everyone was sincerely attempting survival with the welfare of all in mind as I did in FL where life amoung most people was going on as normal, people shopping going to restaurants gathering in groups while the rest of the country was putting measures in place to try to slow the spread..

Redefining these films through this new lense is quite an interesting exercise. We are reminded that their is a balance between trust and caution. The zombie genre was again recontextualized except the societal fears of 9/11 were replace with those of the pandemic. Way more on the nose! What movies have come along since 2013 that have done the same thing 28 Days Later or The Omega Man to shift our perspective? Alexandra West does an excellent job in her article but I wonder how she would rewrite it today after experiencing 2020.

So if you are interested in a magazine with this content, read updates here soresportmovies.blogspot.com, or on Letterboxd.com to learn how my magazine giveaway is going but follow me on Letterboxd if you want to read my movie reviews and comment on the films. I still have a mail connected to my blog movies@edhovey.com where you can write me or comment on blog entries.

My Letterboxd.com handle is @Hovey1127, when I am done with the Issue of the magazine I will offer it up and we can work out the details of me getting it to you. I am not really looking for money just someone who also would love to read it. If no one wants it well it will probably end up on a magazine rack at the library or something.

Chatting with me is difficult, I have stopped my social media account years ago because time… it’s ticking at my age and I would rather spend it doing other things like this for example. Or chatting with my friends at the Zombiegrrlz.com podcasts on their discord. I am a fan of the podcasts they publish The More Deadly Podcast and the Zombiegrrlz podcast and as a Patron for very little $ I get access to the discord. So if you want to good horror content and a great horror community check them out.You can also find me on the Here's Johnny Podcast and  Faculty of Horror Podcast discords. Look them up join my online friends for some good conversations.

The Omega Man (1971)

 

The project of reviewing old magazine before giving them away continues with Diabolique Magazine Issue #18 Nov/Dec 2013 The Holiday Issue. Always packed with great writing this issue focuses on Apocalyptic Cinema and Literature, so if this is a subject you are interested in and want to receive this issue when I finish with it, let me know and it could be yours. The first article in this issue is written by James Gacey focusing on the three films made from Richard Matheson's story I Am Legend, and analysis of the original story. I am Legend is the tale of  the last uninfected  man on earth struggling to continue even though beset on all sides by vampires, the infected surviving populous. A story of loneliness and despair but with a streak of determination to hold on it has been adapted three times to film. Matheson had a hand in writing the script for the first film Night Creatures which he was going to make with Hammer Studios but when the British censors read it they said they would not allow it's release, Hammer sold the rights to producer Samual Z. Arkoff who got William F. Leicester to rewrite Matheson's script which he was not pleased with so used a psuedonym, Logan Swanson as his credit. The resulting film The Last Man on Earth (1964) is a really fine film and I recommend anyone reading this to check it out. The loneliness, isolation and the bit of hope the story conveys is sort of written out of the script and it focuses more on the internal emotional struggles af the main character Dr Robert Morgan played wonderfully by Vincent Price. The second adaptation and the one I chose to watch is the 1971 Charlton Heston film The Omega Man. The bleak shots of a deserted Los Angeles are excellent at conveying the end of the world as we know it. Heston a problematic human being in real life plays the alpha male in this survivor film that strays from the original story. There are no vampires here, after biological warfare the "others" in this film are the infected "The Family" lead by a charismatic former news anchor Mattais (Anthony Zerbe). This vealed reference to Charles Manson is of its time, and combined with a scene of Neville watching the movie Woodstock portrays the films position that the counter cultures of on Display at that concert was later corrupted by the likes of Manson. Seeing the way humanity lived and what it wrought civilasation the Family rejects the learning and technology of the past. Albino looking members with a harsh sensitivity to light they are determined to end Heston's Neville life as he represents the clinging onto the old society. The film also has an interracial kiss and an early example of an implied interracial sex scene. Costar Rosalind Cash as Lisa appears to hook up with Neville after they found each other in the city.  

Heston back in those days was a civil rights advocate before his racist gene was activated later in his priveliged white man life. He is an amazing example of how wrong a man can go. He went from an advocate for civil right to saying this in a 1997 speech. (So why should I be ashamed of white guys? Why is "Hispanic Pride" or "Black Pride" a good thing, while "White Pride" conjures shaven heads and white hoods? Why was the Million Man March on Washington celebrated by many as progress, while the Promise Keepers March on Washington was greeted with suspicion and ridicule? I'll tell you why: Cultural warfare!" In an address to students at Harvard Law School entitled "Winning the Cultural War", Heston said, "If Americans believed in political correctness, we'd still be King George's boys—subjects bound to the British crown."-wikipedia) 

Neville thinks he is going to be the savior of the world by developing a serum to cure the desease. A bit of a God complex he works at it using his own blood and the antbodies he has from an experimental innoculation he got early in the film. Then testing the serum on Lisa's brother Richie (Eric Laneuville). Much like the original story things don't go as planned with the Family increasing the severity of their attempts to kill him Neville has to sacrifice himself to get his serum to a group of young adults and children hold up in the California hills. The death scene in this film is so over the top with Hesten's Neville dying in the pose of Jesus on the cross. Ugh! Still this is not a bad film it just carries the weight of it's lead actor as he transformed later in life.

So if you are interested in a magazine with this content, read updates here soresportmovies.blogspot.com, or on Letterboxd.com to learn how my magazine giveaway is going but follow me on Letterboxd if you want to read my movie reviews and comment on the films. I still have a mail connected to my blog movies@edhovey.com where you can write me or comment on blog entries.

My Letterboxd.com handle is @Hovey1127, when I am done with the Issue of the magazine I will offer it up and we can work out the details of me getting it to you. I am not really looking for money just someone who also would love to read it. If no one wants it well it will probably end up on a magazine rack at the library or something.

Chatting with me is difficult, I have stopped my social media account years ago because time… it’s ticking at my age and I would rather spend it doing other things like this for example. Or chatting with my friends at the Zombiegrrlz.com podcasts on their discord. I am a fan of the podcasts they publish The More Deadly Podcast and the Zombiegrrlz podcast and as a Patron for very little $ I get access to the discord. So if you want to good horror content and a great horror community check them out.You can also find me on the Here's Johnny Podcast and  Faculty of Horror Podcast discords. Look them up join my online friends for some good conversations.