Scariest Who ever?

About a week ago the BBC aired the first of the last episodes of its popular flagship sci-fi show Doctor Who to star David Tennant before his announced departure, entitled The Waters of Mars and featuring an H2O based villain possesing the crew of a Mars base 50 years from now, yes I know it's a show aimed primarily at a younger or family audience and not our genre as such but I wanted to focus on horror elements ok? Put down the pitchforks (fitting though they might be). Hey, my blog, my rules, allow me the indulgence.
Ignoring the excellent s-f elements except to say that the climax was excellently written and unbelievably well played what got me thinking about horror is specifically when people came up to discuss the show with me post airing (I am kind of a well known and renowned geek and, as such, sort of a spokesman for these things at work and among friends). When describing the episode many people said their younger child viewers, the target audience remember, commented on how scary the villains seemed. I had heard this in pre-publicity but it comes up a lot, being a show about strange monsters so I thought nothing of it. Likewise when watching the episode initially under the gaze of this hardened extreme horror viewer I found it beyond tame. It did get me thinking though, would this be a lot of kids' first experience of horror tropes and conventions? Maybe even an early memory of being switched on to the genre? Surely that can only be a good thing right?
Watching back I saw the point, if you didn't know, for example, zombie movie conventions then here they are. A bunch of protagonists in a combined space fall prey to an infection, it changes them into the same people but looking different, almost decomposed somehow. The aim is merely to infect others whilst shambling slowly and speaking as little as possible, if at all. It was quite effective as an early, tame version of this. So kudos for that in an already great episode.
The final point of interest comes back again to my idea of horror potentially also coming from good storytelling and horrific ideas, sometimes emotional (see the previous piece on horror as heart breaker). I doubt anyone, child or adult, was prepared for the moment at the climax of the story where the main female character (the stereotypical survivor of this show's set rules and arguably the equivalent of the "final girl") realises that she should have died, our hero was wrong to save her and the consequences could be vast. Shockingly she uses her blaster gun to end her own life in an exceptionally dark and shocking moment, which will no doubt echo and cement the horror nature of this in most younger memories, and the piece will doubtless be remembered and labelled as dark due to this and the ominous portents of the central characters death and frightening defiance during his change of character. I cannot recommend this enough but I am somewhat biased, if you're interested in a score from this uber geek though...

**** (4/5)

MM

An Exorcist Mini Series?

Oh god, I hope so. Bloody Disgusting has the news...

Harry Brown - Representative Of Real Life Horror?

I'm going to see Harry Brown tonight, a film that I'm hugely looking forward to. In my younger, formative days I wasn't very impressed with Michael Caine but as I've got older I've enjoyed his acting more and more. Some have said this is his magnum opus, his Gran Torino. I do see where the comparisons are coming from, but it's a different take for reasons I'll go into in the review after I've seen the film.

So, what's this commentary of a British thriller doing on a horror blog? It's more simple than you think. Whilst ghosts, the supernatural, insane masked killers etc are frequent tropes of the genre, Harry Brown confronts a more apparent and readily accessible true-life horror - the breakdown of society. The hoodies, the druggies, the low-lives, the chavs, those with disregard for the law and others - this is where true horror is for some and also where the phrase 'Lawless Britain' was spawned.

If you've ever walked down the street feeling nervous about who you might bump into, if your phone has ever been half inched, if you've ever been threatened or attacked then you've probably felt more real fear than 100 horror movies provide. This is Harry Brown explores and the reasons behind the will of one man to fight back.

Dead Snow - Quick Thoughts

I'd been looking forward to Dead Snow for a while - I'd heard that it was a fun film with lots of in-genre references, some (very) black humour and playing out a cliched but cool story. I wasn't disappointed I can assure you of that. Much intestinal tearing viewing later, and I'm glad to say it was worth the anticipation. Look out for the full review in the next few days.

Why Great horror is heartbreaking.

One of my fondest genre memories is of going to a local art-house cinema with Mr B to watch the original Dark Water. After being initially underwhelmed I was terrified and heartbroken by the end revelations, finding myself deeply affected by the past history of this ghost, and abuse suffered of a young child, far scarier than any unexplained supernatural force or o.t.t demon etc in my opinion.

Why do I bring this up? Well I'd ask you all to check out this article at IO9 on the subject of why heartbreaking horror is great. An interesting piece which plays to my fan strengths so be warned there is a heavy emphasis on the work of Joss Whedon (though not exclusively).

Big hello to everyone who has been coming to mention the blog and any new viewers. Hope to catch you all soon.

MM

Real Life Horror/Ghost Stories

Unfortunately, due to a variety of conspiring circumstances I haven't had a chance to write up some of my most recent horror watching. However, as every day is like Halloween to some degree (i.e. I'm probably reading about some sort of horror) I'd like to continue the scary angle and provide a link to a bunch of apparently true ghost stories.

You can read them here on The Apron Stage blog. Perhaps best of all is the fact that they take place in am asylum! Surely one of the scariest places ever!

Halloween round up

So how did everyone enjoy their night? Sadly a combination of illness, tiredness and indeciseveness prevented it from being such an event as I would like, and has previously been the ritual. I did still watch a couple of television specials (as is my tradition) and part of a movie. Here's the brief blow by blow.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Season 6 Episode 5 "All The Way"

Included mainly because of the atmosphere of the day evoked. I usually watch the series 4 special (Fear, Itself) but opted for this one for a change. As a stand-alone it's a bit too bogged down in continuity, which is to be expected for an ongoing show. Did have a brilliant cliche reversal though as an old man is set up as crazy and even given a horror film style back story, lures in children and is then killed by them as they are revealed as vampires, the show's twisting of such established formula being displayed in a microcosm. The seasonal touches were nice and give a great feel, particularly of the U.S love for Halloween, there is one hilarious joke moment but the whole thing is let down by a plot which, now, is culturally overdone and detestable, the whole "Twilight/Vampire Diaries" teen girl pining for a monster schtick which I have no tolerance for. Still a great show though with good acting, believable characters and a sense of fun.

*** (3/5)

The Simpsons
Treehouse of Horror 14

Sadly the opposite of that last sentence. Nowhere near as good as some of this show's specials, relies now on doing crazy things which the show proper couldn't do, and homaging films quite poorly, some great (The Dead Zone), others not even horror (Fantastic Voyage? seriously?). Crucially not very funny or imaginative, a real shame.

* (1/5)

Halloween

O.k, honesty time, I fell asleep about half an hour in. I will do a proper review, with scoring, at a time when I can watch the whole thing properly. What I did notice is the bold and unsettling nature of where Carpenter places the camera, adding to the disturbing feel. Point of view shots in the place of the killer, or even nobody in particular mesh with glimpses of the bogeyman far scarier than the excesses of modern horror, including the remake. Struck me as just a good film, outside of it's generic and historical background. I genuinely look forward to seeing it again properly on the DVD I bought over a year ago, and still haven't watched (though I have seen the film before, I like my opinions to be fresh though).

Hope the weather isn't getting people too down where you are, hope to catch up again soon...

MM