Horror Horizon - May 3

Notable DVD releases for the coming Tuesday. Selections are subject to Blu-Ray release as well.

Being Human: Season 3

"Hot on the heels of the SyFy Channel’s American remake, the original UK Being Human returns to DVD and Blu-ray for a third gripping season. Leaving the memories of their much-loved former house behind, George, Nina, and Mitchell settle into their new home - a kitschy B&B named Honolulu Heights that boasts many benefits for supernatural types...a large basement providing safe haven on a full moon, for starters. Season three boasts an impressive array of guest-stars, including Lacey Turner (EastEnders) as Lia, who Mitchell meets in Purgatory, Robson Green (Wire In The Blood) as primitive werewolf McNair, Michael Socha (This Is England '86) as McNair's son Tom, Paul Kaye (It's All Gone Pete Tong) as twisted vampire Vincent, Craig Roberts (Young Dracula) as teenage vampire Adam; Nicola Walker (MI-5) as social worker Wendy, James Fleet (The Vicar of Dibley) as George's father; and Jason Watkins making an eventful return as vampire leader Herrick."

Ninjas Vs. Vampires

"Ninjas battle Vampires for the fate of the world in this all new Action-Horror-Comedy from the creators of 2010's cult smash, "Ninjas Vs Zombies"! Moments after down-on-his-luck Aaron is rejected by the girl of his dreams, they both are attacked by blood sucking VAMPIRES. Driven to save her, Aaron tracks down the mysterious NINJAS, who wage a nightly war against the forces of darkness. Now, as the Vampire overlord Seth plots to destroy Mankind, Aaron has only one choice - join the ninjas, save the world, and get the girl... or die trying. Sexy, funny, shocking, and fun, NINJAS VS VAMPIRES delivers an action-packed comedic adventure unlike any other!"

Midnight Movie: The Killer Cut

"It was just another rundown movie house in a small suburban town -- what better place for a screening of a true cult classic? But this isn't your typical horror film, because five years earlier, the director and star of the movie made a bloody escape from a psych ward five years earlier and may still be on the loose. When the film starts to roll and the heckling begins, the atmosphere in the theater is loose and fun. When one of their friends is viciously murdered right before their very eyes right on the big screen - Laughter gives way to fear as the horrified audience realizes that it is no prank. When they try to run, they realize that the same psycho they just saw on the silver screen has now trapped them all in the theater. With no hope of escape and their numbers thinning fast, the survivors must figure out a way to turn the tables on the very same killer that they once rooted for in the cult slasher flick. Caught between reality and the screen's flickering shadows, they become the unwilling stars of the very horror movie they were watching."

Sinister

"A horrifying excursion into black magic and white-knuckled terror! A conjure man (Lucien Eisenach) has moved into town with a big bag of tricks and a short temper. Unwittingly, Emily (Donna Hamblin) crosses his path and provokes his wrath. As the nightmare of his curse progresses, Emily enlists the aid of her brother (Donny Versiga) to find out what's happening and try to reverse the hex before it's too late!"

Wendigo: Bound By Blood

"For hundreds of years, Native American culture has believed in the evil cannibalistic spirit known as "the wendigo". For those who had taken part in cannibalism, no matter the reason, it was aid "the wendigo" would take possession of the person's body and soul. Once the wendigo would take possession of the human host,the host would develop and insatiable desire to eat human flesh. In the deep woods of Northern Pennsylvania, a small town Sheriff (Brian Anthony) is investigating a bloody crime scene. On the scene, he meets Angeni Stonechild (Cheyenne King), a traveling physician treating patients in the area. During the investigation, the two stumble upon dead bodies, a slew of relentless hit men, and two mysterious individuals being protected by federal agents. With a trail of mutilated bodies piling up, the sheriff and Angeni must not only confront the dangerous assassins but also find a way to destroy.....The Wendigo!"

Bonnie & Clyde Vs. Dracula

"In the City of Angels there exists an entire world beneath Hollywood -the Gangs. When the Bloods and Salvadorians start encroaching into theirneighborhood, the local gang fights back. But as the violence escalatesinnocent by-standers start to become the victims. One unlucky night ayuppie couple wanders into the wrong neighborhood at the wrong time andpay the ultimate price. Now the victim becomes the hunter as one manjourneys into the violent and unforgiving underbelly of Los Angeles andrips open the wounds where loyalty is decided by the color of your skin,where pain is part of growing up and violence and mayhem rule. Can hesurvive or become another statistic?" 

Viewer Vomit #3: Blood and Black Lace

Welcome to the third edition of Viewer Vomit, a film club which compiles reader reviews along with my own review of a horror movie that I chose. This month, I picked Blood and Black Lace as the film selection - hopefully, others will join in with links to reviews and I won't be the only one making a fool of myself. Oh wait, it's the Internet...

Anyway, I hope you enjoy my take on the film, and I encourage you to join in by sending me a link to your own review of Blood and Black Lace.

Blood and Black Lace

Mario Bava is often considered one of the masters of Italian horror, alongside Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci. Blood and Black Lace, though not Bava's first film and certainly not the last in a line of beautiful gialli, is one of Bava's finer flicks, a film that is easily identifiable with the tropes of the genre but which also enthusiastically revels in the surprises that it brings to horror. Blood and Black Lace might first appear to be akin to a television mystery, incorporating detective-work, numerous suspects, and a conveniently-complicated murder plot. But as is often the case with good gialli, Bava transcends the commonalities for a vastly superior thriller.

Blood and Black Lace is set at a fashion modeling business, effectively ensuring that the majority of the victims of the film will be women. But the setting provides a lot of characters to meet and suspect, and it allows for Bava to explore the intricacies of the building and the Gothic architecture that is so visually arresting. But it's not the only place for the stylistic decor of the giallo; rich and complex apartments are frequented by characters, providing ample red and blue lighting and the mystery of hidden rooms or concealed killers.

It also allows Bava to experiment with framing. Often the camera acts as a suspicious lens. Characters are framed in shots that appear as a pointing finger, as if the intent viewer can unravel the mystery by the focus put on certain characters. It becomes clear, however, that Bava is tricking us, and instead, the frames are another way of deceiving the viewer by placing emphasis on that which needs none. Indeed, if you look closely, you'll note that Bava does this in a few distinct places: a pocketbook's straps frame a young woman who always appears suspicious; a suit of armor in a dark room gets undue attention from the camera as it plays little role in the scares; and even the nervous twitches of a character are outlined, only to be dropped as epilepsy later on.

The film does run rather slow, at least for the beginning portion of it, and it requires some patience from the viewer. There is a killing right away to set the plot rolling, but the gaps between killings are lengthy; it is, however, a way to develop some of the characters who receive less attention. However, Blood and Black Lace is less dependent on characterization, and it is difficult to develop a connection to the characters because the focus is always shifting to the next victim.

The film also lacks stylistic killings, and instead resorts to fairly rudimentary stranglings or burns. There are a few beautiful slayings, including a bathtub scene as bloody water blooms below the victims face, or a spiked gauntlet to the face, but for the most part Bava rarely strays from conventional murders. This is, though, a realistic portrayal of the murderer, who is not a sadistic monster or professional killer but instead a man looking to protect his reputation. The murders snowball, and they are not planned after the first murder; instead, the fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants routine takes effect and establishes a convincing explanation of why the killer doesn't go out of his way to bring the pain.

It is also satisfying to note that the betrayals in the movie come to a conclusion with a final act of necessity from the killer's partner. If Blood and Black Lace at first seems misogynistic in its portrayal of female victims and weak women, it is the final chilling scene which leaves the viewer with a different perspective. Ultimately, the betrayed, broken (literally) woman gets revenge on her love, and the placement of the woman's body on top of the man's implies, if not explicitly, the power of women over the killer - the act of murder being, in itself, a displacement of power directly related foreknowledge of the event. We are left with a strong theme of the final girl - perhaps moreso than slashers because of the natural human intent behind Blood and Black Lace's slayings.

Slash to the Point: Though it's not the best giallo out there, Blood and Black Lace is certainly one of the most important to the genre, an early relic of the iconic Italian horror films. Full of technicolor and aggressive violence, Blood and Black Lace withstands the test of time as a chilling thriller that works because of its consistent ability to remain mysterious. And it effectively documents the recesses of the human mind: betrayal, malice, and perhaps, a bit of vengeance as a lacy lining to the cloth of human existence.

Blood and Black Lace on Rotten Tomatoes

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Now add your two cents! Comment with a link to your review and I'll place it at the end of this review.

Viewer Vomits

• L-G-B-Terror provides analysis of gay and gender roles at play
• Ghidorah tackles the film (with great screenshots!)

Book Review - The Mermaids Singing by Val McDermid

The Mermaids Singing

Perhaps you have seen the BBC television series Wire in the Blood. If you have, you might be surprised to find that the main characters Tony Hill and Carol Jordan first appeared as a fiction series by Val McDermid (or perhaps you're not surprised; I don't know you that well). The Mermaids Singing is the first in this franchise, and it features Hill and Jordan prominently, two detectives working to track down a serial killer who begins murdering straight men and dumping them in gay communities. Throughout, there's a social commentary of the gay community, the role of women in the police force, and the idea behind the psychological methods of the clinical psychologist, all of which leads the reader through a gory and torturous plot.

Hill has a few ticks of his own. He's got erectile dysfunction, and it dominates most of his life when he's not working on the serial killer case. It's good characterization, and one that features a prominent role in the revelation of the serial killer. His struggle seems real and different, and it gives him an extra attraction that readers will enjoy, even if it does highlight a sense of schadenfreude in all of us. Jordan is also characterized, but to a lesser extent. Most of her problems derive from being a woman on the police force, where men take her lightly and seem to frown upon her superiority in the force.

The serial killer plot is complicated by certain motives of the murderer, and Hill's profiling of the serial killer plays a prominent role in catching the person before he or she kills again. This brings Hill into danger from the killer, although it seems a bit farfatched that Hill would be able to draw up a complex profile of the killer only to fall victim to the killer later on in the story with a boneheaded mistake.

The book is also filled with diary entries from the serial killer, which gives us most of the grotesque killings in detail. Though these parts play their role in giving the killer development, they also become pretty melodramatic, almost whiny and romanticized in their efforts to depict an edgy killer. It wasn't as convincing as some of McDermid's other writing in the novel, like the research of the torture devices or Hill's profiling.

There's also a painful romantic interest between Jordan and Hill, a sense of aimless flirting where each likes each other in that teenage pubescent way but refuses to act upon it. The sexual tension most likely drives the other novels in the series, but it's cheesy and certainly not something that would have me coming back for more reading, especially since it has that sort of convenient misunderstanding element that romantic comedies love to utilize. Rather, McDermid could have stood to tone back Jordan's romantic musings for slower, growing interest in Hill, and the same for Tony as well.

Slash to the Point: McDermid's writing is solid, though she does manage to fit some prosaic exaggeration in at times. The plot is well-structured and fast-paced, but the serial killer vignettes and love meanderings tend to add a bit of melodrama to the mix that's hard to ignore and even more difficult to enjoy. A violent, but somewhat standard, serial killer novel with a bit of profiling going on, although Hill's ED is engaging and feels somewhat relatable.

You've got three days till Viewer Vomit #3

Blood and Black Lace due April 29. Send your review links to moi, in a comment. I'll link back on judgment day. It'll be fun. If you're not sure if you want to participate, do it anyway. We've got two reviews so far... are you in?

Doom Metal Destitution #5: The UNEARTHLY TRANCE Edition

Perhaps I'm mixing genres here. But it's really just because I want to get Unearthly Trance in here somewhere. Led by Ryan Lipynski, Unearthly Trance plays some seriously heavy doom and sludge metal, with tortured vocals and an adherence to the noisier, dronier side of the genre. They recently released an excellent album in 2010, and they've got a bunch of splits with some highly influential bands, two of which have come out after their latest full-length. Let's peruse some of Unearthly Trance's greatest covers.

Season of Séance, Season of Silence (2003, Music Cartel)

In the Red (2004, Rise Above Records)

The Trident (2006, Relapse Records)

The Axis is Shifting (2007, Banana Hammock)

Eleven Are the Voices (2007, Land O' Smiles Records)

Electrocution (2008, Relapse Records)

Psychological Operations (2008, Speakerphone Recordings)

Unearthly Trance / Ramesses Split (2009, Future Noise)

Unearthly Trance / Minsk Split (2009, Parasitic)

Unearthly Trance / Aldebaran Split (2009, Parasitic)

Unearthly Trance / Volition Split (2010, Wolfsbane)

Unearthly Trance / The Endless Blockade Split (2010, Chrome Peeler)

V (2010, Relapse Records)

Collaboration (2010, Throne Records)

Manson (2010, Chrome Peeler)

The Evil Ad #30

The big 3-0! Today, I think I'll "roll" out with something a little different - Hot Wheels Halloween-style cars. Though the cars themselves don't have a lot to do with the holiday, the packaging and theme of the sets have to do with fright (Fright Cars) or monsterized vehicles. There are certainly a lot more; these are just some of the many styles Hot Wheels has created over the years.

The Noose #9: Relevant Horror News

New trailer for Magnet Releasing's Trollhunter



Trollhunter follows in the footsteps of The Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield, acting as a real documentary with Norwegian filmmakers on the search for trolls. The trailer looks full of action and stylistically similar to those SyFy Saturday Original Movies.

Trollhunter will be released for On Demand May 6th, but it will also be in select theaters June 10th. A more in-depth summary from the press release:

"TROLLHUNTER is the story of a group of Norwegian film students that set out to capture real-life trolls on camera after learning their existence has been covered up for years by a government conspiracy. A thrilling and wildly entertaining film, TROLLHUNTER delivers truly fantastic images of giant trolls wreaking havoc on the countryside, with darkly funny adherence to the original Norwegian folklore."

Seven days 'til Viewer Vomit #3

Get working on your Blood and Black Lace review and send me your link to it! Due April 29!

Horror Horizon - April 26

Notable DVD releases for the coming Tuesday. Selections are subject to Blu-Ray release as well.

Dinoshark

"It was frozen in glacial ice over 150 million years ago. Global warming has just hatched it in the Arctic. And now, it has traveled to Puerto Vallarta for a massive Mexican buffet of sailors, swimmers, lifeguards, jet skiers, horny tourists, bikini babes and more. It thrives in warm water. Bullets will not pierce its prehistoric armor. And it can leap out of the ocean to devour helicopters and parasailers. Can a rogue fishing boat captain and a sexy science teacher stop this ravenous pliosaur before it takes a monster bite out of the local fiesta and all-girl water polo tournament? Eric Balfour (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. 24) and Iva Hasperger star – along with award-winning B-movie producer Roger Corman himself – in the top-rated Syfy sensation about the blood-crazed primeval mutation called Dinoshark!"

Mongolian Death Worm

"When an American oil company sets up an experimental drilling plant out in the vast deserts of Mongolia, they are completely oblivious to what actually lies beneath them. Pumping hot water deep into the ground, the company is hoping to expose untapped oil, but what they end up uncovering is something no one ever expected. As the superheated water plummets its way into the earth, it strikes a nest of deadly creatures that have been dormant for centuries. Thought to be purely mythological, these monsters are in fact real…and now they have been awakened! They are angry and they are bloodthirsty. They are known as the Mongolian Death Worms." 

Payton Collins: Serial Rapist (No IMDB)

"Payton Collins is a nightmare in sheep's clothing. Evil as they come, we follow his life from his young years, college and into a series of killings that left Chicago a ghost town during his reign of terror.Cursed with a insatiable sex drive and a sadistic self loathing soul Payton has a thirst for the innocent and unsuspecting, girls boys, men we learn to know them and grieve with them when they expire and root for the cops when they finally catch him."

Game Over

"Tina, a young actress who left the States for Germany-she fell in love, so she left for a man. Two good friends of hers come over to visit Tina for her birthday-but the next 24 hours will be very brutal, as the three are kidnapped by an sadistic maniac. He plays brutal and primitive games with them, and every attempt they make to escape leads them deeper into hell!"

Chawz (No IMDB)

"A young police officer is transferred from Seoul to a small village in the countryside for duty when he jokingly checked the box to be deployed "anywhere." Arriving at the village, he encounters a bumbling police force who is working with a special detective to resolve some recent murders. As the bodies add up, it becomes clear that the gruesome deaths are attributed to a beast of an animal with a voracious appetite for human flesh. A famous hunter and his team are called in to track and destroy the man-eater. During their tracking expedition, they are confronted by a boar of massive size and strength, which they discover may be a result of experimentation during wartimes. Unprepared and unarmed for taking down the mutant creature, the group must disband as the hunters become the hunted."

Not too many releases this week, although Miramax continues to re-release old horror films, sometimes with new artwork.

The Noose #8: relevant horror news

Fiction authors incensed over BBC's World Book Night coverage


The BBC's recent broadcast of their coverage of the World Book Night - an event celebrating the act of reading, writing, and those who enjoy the art - has angered some genre fiction authors. A group of 85 authors have banded together to protest the coverage, claiming that BBC gave little recognition to genre fiction compared to their coverage of literature fiction. The list of protesters includes science fiction, fantasy, and horror authors who disliked the condescending tone BBC used towards commercial fiction. Stephen Hunt, fantasy writer and organizer of the protest, said:

"The weight that was given to the single sub-genre of literary fiction in the remaining programmes was unbalanced and unrepresentative of all but a small fraction of the country s reading tastes."

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Have more news? Contact me at rb9589@mcla.edu 

Death Metal Debauchery #20: The IMMOLATION Edition

Immolation started in 1988 with a few demos, but they didn't really get started until 1991 with their first full-length. Full of religious vehemence and a knack for odd time-signature hooks, Immolation were around for the beginnings of death metal and have continued to embrace its expansion since their first days. They recently released a new album in 2010 titled Majesty and Decay, which has some great poly-rhythms worth checking out. Here's a look at their discography in art form.

Demo II (1989, Self-released)

Dawn of Possession (1991, Roadrunner Records)

Stepping on Angels... Before Dawn (1995, Repulse Records)

Here in After (1996, Metal Blade Records)

Failures for Gods (1999, Metal Blade Records)

Close to a World Below (2000, Metal Blade Records)

Unholy Cult (2002, Olympic Records)

Harnessing Ruin (2005, Listenable Records)

Hope and Horror (2007, Listenable Records)

Shadows in the Light (2007, Listenable Records)

Majesty and Decay (2010, Nuclear Blast Records)

Design overhauls

To clear up some room and make the blog look less cluttered, I've implemented a linkbar at the top of the blog which will take you to all of the important places on the blog, such as columns, links, and an information page for Viewer Vomit. Let me know what you think!

Movie Review - The Fourth Kind

The Fourth Kind

The Fourth Kind does the same for aliens as Paranormal Activity did for ghosts. Establishing a narrative that is supposedly based on a true story, with "real" documentary footage and archival video, the film acts as a dramatization of a case of alien abductions that led to a few suicides in a small town in Alaska. Sometimes splicing the "real" footage with the reenactment, the viewer is subjected to a vision of what could have been an alien invasion, and then they're forced to think for themselves whether what they've seen can possibly be real.

But like most docu-drama films, The Fourth Kind is a hoax, and one that rarely reaches further than one of those A&E paranormal ghost shows that uses prettier people and elaborate effects to dramatize the less-spectacular stories of others. In The Fourth Kind's case, (SPOILER)  the original story isn't even true (END SPOILER) - instead, it stems from real cases of disappearances within Nome, Alaska, but how factual that is could even be questioned. No alien footage has been found in the Alaskan town, no woman named "Abigail Tyler" - the psychologist who uncovers the case - is real, and ultimately, none of the supposed footage in the film is evidential.

The film starts out on strong footing, with warnings from actress Milla Jovovich that what we'll be seeing is real and it might disturb us (is this some sort of facetious nod to director Olatunde Osunsanmi?). Immediately, we're thrown into the story with interview footage of a haggard and alien-like figure of the real Abigail Tyler. And then, just as quickly, the dramatization kicks in with Jovovich as Abigail Tyler. At first, this jump in characters is confusing, especially when Osunsanmi decides to splice the footage together via splitscreen video. Voices overlap, the viewer is drawn to two different sides of the screen, and it's somewhat awkward watching.

But quickly the story picks up with a suicide, which we get "real" footage of with a grainy cop camera. It's visceral because at this point, it's difficult to tell if what we're seeing is actually documented or faked by Osunsanmi. This happens in other scenes as well, including two scenes of alien possession which briefly show levitation until the camera cuts out. The use of the archival footage enhances the realism of the events, as the video does look homemade.

Yet for those convincing portrayals of the hoax, there's a lot that completely detract from the experience. Osunsanmi suffers from trying to show too much of the original footage; stacking video side by side, shifting between the original and the dramatized, or even giving us four different screens spliced together as one shot, there's a sensory overload that, rather than intensify the fright, distracts the viewer and loses the suspense that the use of the "real" footage might have generated. There's also the interviews with Abigail Tyler that interrupt the movie at periodic points; while these scenes are good for establishing the source material as true, they're also not very convincing as a real interview. Goading from the interviewer, fairly obvious scripted material, and a lack of emotion from Tyler had me questioning early on if the film was telling us the truth.

Slash to the Point: Even with all of its flaws, The Fourth Kind does somehow draw the viewer's attention throughout. Perhaps it's the viewer's belief in the supernatural that keeps him or her going, as if they can somehow set aside their gut reactions and view the film without a bias. It's difficult to do, especially later in the film when the "real" footage is always conveniently scrambled and the filmmakers tell you exactly what the alien's garbled language is saying; but if you can do it, you'll find an eerie alien film that might make you wonder. But it could also make you angry, with its coy leanings towards truth and its undying love of side-by-side video, and unfortunately, The Fourth Kind sides more with the latter than the former. It's not the aliens that are scary, but the ways that viewers can be duped by filmmakers looking to create a hoax.

The Fourth Kind on Rotten Tomatoes