Renfield

The Nicolas Cage/Nicholas Hoult flick, Renfield is finally on Prime. It’s ridiculous in all the best ways. Definitely playing to Cage’s strengths. In a lot of ways, it’s the role he was born to play. The last vampire movie Cage did, 1988’s Vampire’s Kiss, was also ridiculous but in a much sillier way – still a fun watch if only for the most melodramatic reading of the ABC’s ever. He was made to play Dracula in exactly this sort of way.

I do love Hoult’s work – Warm Bodies was super fun, Mad Max: Fury Road was amazing, he even made a really decent Beast. Nox is probably always going to be my favorite of his roles but he shines as Renfield.

I don’t want to spoil this one at all – if you haven’t seen it and you enjoy things like Shaun of the Dead or Evil Dead, this is a really fun and worthwhile watch.

I realize I’m a super forgiving movie watcher – I’m not exactly picky. I am exactly the kind of person these movies were made for. It’s fun, has a couple of half decent special effects, plays around with vampire lore in a non-sparkly non-reverent sort of way, and has some excellent casting. Also, best use of WiccanTmblr ever.

When it comes to movies, I don’t have the kind of expectations that I have of books. If it’s fun, I don’t expect it to be super logical or make sense. I do want it to make sense within the universe it creates and I do want the actors to be good at what they do. And I want special effects that work within the parameters – it isn’t about the technology as I love Harryhausen’s work and have a very special place in my movie lover’s heart for practical effects and makeup but it needs to work in the universe.

Interestingly, it’s very rare for my logic switch to make a film unrewatchable like it did with No One Will Save You. I can watch The Meg – zero logical sense – multiple times and enjoy it each time without my switch having a fit. At some point, I bet I’ll thoroughly enjoy The Meg 2 also. I don’t expect big messaging from funny flicks or a lot of social commentary for that matter. I just want fun to watch and this was that for me.

No One Will Save You

In a series of strange events, I ended up doing some work or a site that I was definitely the wrong kind of writer for but it did bring me to a place where I really am wanting to get back to writing the sorts of things I used to write for The Geek Girl Project. And this movie is a little brain worm that just won’t quite leave me alone.

No One Will Save You is a new release on Hulu and, in my opinion, worth a watch. From here on out, there will be spoilers. If you don’t want spoiled, come back after you’ve watched the movie – I’d love to know how you feel about it.

From here – Spoilers!

Aliens aren’t new subject matter by any stretch and it can be difficult to surprise an audience but this movie manages – at least in the initial viewing – to do so. My scary meter is well and truly broken. You can catch me with jump scares but it is very difficult to scare me with a horror movie. I found this movie more tense than scary but it definitely got me more than once with the jump scare.

The story follows a young woman who lives alone in her childhood home, who seems to be a social outcast. This leads to the movie’s odd eccentricity. There isn’t any dialogue. It isn’t a silent movie. There is music, there is noise, there are all the sounds of life, for someone who lives alone and has no one to say any words to. When the aliens show up, they have dialogue but the audience and the characters don’t comprehend the vocalizations in any real way beyond that the alien is making a trilling, whirring sort of noise.

Creature design is top notch but skews a bit to the illogical in some places. There are a lot of similarities in the main design to the design used by SyFy’s Resident Alien. The shifting in size was illogical for me but unnoticed during the watch, it wasn’t until after the movie was over that my logic switch got flipped and I’ll come back to this point.

It seemed like the point of the invasion was the proliferation of the species through a symbiotic type creature. Which begs the question if the aliens the viewers see are the species or if they are hosts as humanity is to become.

It was a nice fun watch. Once. It’s after it’s over and you’re out of that zone where disbelief is suspended and you can ignore all the missing things that the problems arise. And there were so many problems.

This young woman whose name they probably showed but doesn’t matter has built her life around her guilt for a thing that happened when she was a preteen where she killed her best friend. She lives in this place of arrested development with no one, not even a pet. The viewers are expected to believe somehow that she’s the only one who managed to fight back, to kill one before it could give her the symbiote creature. My subconscious must have noted a few other things as it spun in my brain for a few days before spitting it all out.

This girl who keeps accidentally killing people is allowed to remain human rather than be assimilated for a reason we are not clearly given and then catered to in a way that the real people would never have done. Her happy ending feels so hollow after a few days of reflection. She can only be happy, be part of the world again, when there aren’t any humans left. There are no animals in the whole movie, no military response to ships in the sky that by the end of the movie we know are visible. It doesn’t pass the sniff test in a lot of ways.

That doesn’t make it a bad movie – it was fun, creative, different, and the bit with the lack of dialogue was really interesting. The fact that the girl reacted appropriately when she was injured and didn’t just get up and keep running as so many injured final girls do was appreciated. The very logical response of the character to very illogical goings on felt real, in the moment.

While I don’t think I could watch it again because I don’t think my brain would let me past my problems with it now, it was definitely a fun first watch before said brain ruined it. No One Will Save You is a great watch. Once.

But that’s just this one girl’s opinion. I’m usually pretty forgiving for movies as far as logic and realism goes. I excel at suspending my disbelief but some movies only get that one watch before reason makes them just about unwatchable.

The Tireds

It took me until this morning to finish that In Death book, for the second time around. I did remember reading it about halfway through but I finished it anyway, just not in any rush. The problem I’m having now is being clobbered all the time by the tireds.

Every time I turn around, I’m desperately needing a nap. I’m hoping it won’t be too terribly much longer before we get my iron and hemoglobin levels where they should be and I can do the things I want to do without needing a whole day to recover.

In the last few weeks, I’ve made a couple of perfume sprays (with inspirational help from my younger sibling). I really love the one blend – it’s light, sweet, and yet darkens up really nicely by the end of the day. I like them all but that one is my new daily wear for a while. I really considered maybe not putting it up in my little shop but I did because that’s literally why I made it.

As far as the book – Shadows In Death it was – it was a solid entry in the series, if you like the series, you’ll like the book. It’s definitely not the one to pick up if you haven’t read any of the others. At this point in the series, even though introductions are always sort of made, it’s likely much better when you already know the mechanics of the relationships. There’s really only been one book that made me roll my eyes (and that had more to do with the fact that the title alone spoiled everything) even if there are moments in every book and things about the main character that annoy me. I’ll still keep reading them. Hell, I’m 35+ books along for the ride, I gotta know how this ends. If it does.

Now I’ll get back to The Only Good Indians though it’s dragging a LOT more than I expected from the reviews I read. I’m really hoping this doesn’t become a Twenty Days of Turin which was hugely dragging despite being worlds ahead of it’s time. I love a good scary book but apparently, I’m a lot more picky than I used to be on what makes a scary book good.

I also finally watched Doctor Sleep last night. I loved both books and the shining movie and this is a wickedly good entry – serving to tie the books a little closer to the film universe but still staying separate. I do like the book’s ending better but the casting was crazily spot on and I really think Ewan McGregor and Henry Thomas should be in more things that I like to watch.

Movie Review: Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile

I will admit to an interest in serial killers. I was  9, almost 10, when Ted Bundy was executed. At the time I was living in a suburb of Seattle and I remember vividly the news and the songs and the demonstrators. I’ve heard a lot of people complaining about this particular movie – they made Bundy too personable, too pretty, too charming. They didn’t. That was pretty spot on. The scariest part about serial killers and psychopaths and sociopaths is that, 90% of the time, they don’t look like monsters. You could pass them on the street and never know. It’s uncomfortable, but it’s true. Zac Efron did a really amazing job in his portrayal.

I watched the documentary on Netflix a bit ago first. Years ago I read the Riverman: Ted Bundy And I Hunt for the Green River Killer. Bundy is an interesting look at the human condition when everything about it is wrong, a mask, an exceptional actor who hides his truths far too well. I think that’s why it’s important that they didn’t make Bundy look like the monster he was on the inside. Watch the interviews, read the books, he was charming, he was attractive, he was unassuming, and nowhere near as smart as he thought he was.

The movie did a good job of wrapping it all up in a less than pretty bow, staying true to the events pretty closely actually. The press conference shows it so clearly – how Bundy tried to take control of it, how off the rails it went. I imagine he’s why they don’t do those kind of press conferences much any more.

For me, the most outlandish and amazing part is that he got a woman to fall in love with him, marry him, and have his kid, during the trial. She honestly believed in him. Personally, not a thing I understand. How do you overlook all of the evidence? He was brilliantly manipulative.

As for the movie, the casting was straight brilliant. I didn’t know about Efron, how he would do, but he was so good. The woman playing Carol Anne Boone however was even better. The further into the story we got, the better the casting got. Malkovich did a brilliant job in a complicated role with speeches taken directly from transcripts (seriously, judge really did say Bundy would have made an excellent lawyer). Jim Parsons was good but it might be a bit before he gets out of Sheldon’s shadow for me.

The importance of showing Bundy as the clever, bright, charming man cannot be understated. Monsters are out there, everywhere, and the fact is, they don’t look like monsters. There are no fangs, no fur, no spooky theme music. The real monsters look just like anyone else on the surface. I enjoyed the clips of actual moments from that time, so people see that these things were real, that it isn’t some flight of fancy from some writer’s mind. No, the real horror of it is that monsters look like everyone else.

Anyway, if you like true crime and serial killers, it’s a good movie.

It’s my oldest child’s last day of high school today so I’m binging all the things I don’t watch when the kids are home. Oldest child doesn’t like watching movies where people are shockingly evil so, I don’t watch them when he’s home. I was disappointed and had to turn off Death House. Perhaps a haunted house movie.

Fifty Years

Today is the anniversary of the first episode of Star Trek. I have never been more emotional about a show, no, a universe, than I am Trek. Doctor Who comes very close but Trek has the lead by a Vulcan.

Trek has been a part of my life as long as Who – since before I have memory – but Spock was the first person I ever told my mom I was going to marry. Spock was my first real loss (even if it was temporary). My grandfather was a funeral director – I’ve been surrounded by death and loss my whole life – I’d lost people I cared about, animals I’d cared about, but somehow, it wasn’t as keenly felt as this fictional character who didn’t really exist. My mom was a little cruel, knowing what she knew about me. She did not let me watch Wrath of Khan until it and Search for Spock were both available at the movie rental place. She did not tell me about Search for Spock until I’d wept – full on ugly cry – until I literally had no more tears (took a few hours). She thought it was funny and Wrath of Khan still makes me ugly cry. In reality, it was easier for me to mourn a fictional character and later the actor who played him, than it was for me to mourn my mom. I’m honestly not done with any of those things and I probably never will be.

I don’t have the greatest volume of trivia knowledge of the Trek universe. I cannot speak Klingon. I don’t have ears, brow ridges, or a uniform. I do have a great love for this universe that Roddenberry created. I still have hope that we, as a people, can reach the stars and be better than we are now. I still believe we can live up to our potential.

Today, there is a video floating around with memorable moments and bits of dialogue and I get chills. Three minutes of disjointed snippets, a through-the-glass Vulcan salute, and seeing that beautiful ship (more than one version of her) and I’m all kinds of emotional and have goose bumps.

So, happy anniversary (or birthday really) to Star Trek and all the amazing people involved in it. Live Long and Prosper.

Being Safely Scared

The horror genre is on my mind lately. In part, I’m on a serious re-watching binge (the inspiration being meeting Tony Todd and writing about Candyman for The Geek Girl Project) and in part probably because we’re reaching the part of the year where I can’t watch scary things for three months because the children will be home with me. The youngest isn’t old enough and the oldest is never sure what to make of actually scary things. Being scared is something of an acquired taste and I think being safely scared is a rush without the crash, like eating cake and not wanting to take a nap afterward (yep – I’m officially old now) is one of my favorite things.

I do enjoy being scared as long as it’s the right kind of scared. I don’t like being afraid. Bone deep, marrow chilled, how do we survive kind of fear is terrible and I don’t know anyone who likes that kind of fear. Millions live that life every day and no one should envy that fear. I’ve been that kind of afraid and I would not recommend it. I do think that knowing that kind of fear makes being safely scared even better. There’s that moment where it feels similar (never the same), the adrenaline is rushing through the blood, the heart is pounding so loud it’s like a drum in your head, and every hair is standing at attention. And then you remember that you are safe in a movie theater or living room and the fear abates without leaving it’s print on you. I think that’s why so many people like me enjoy these sorts of things – being scared without actually being in danger is an awesome thing.

I have had a movie cause panic attacks but never the scary ones, which are the ones you would think would do it. I’ve had certain thriller type movies make me uncomfortable (Maniac for instance), or completely grossed out (like the Saw movies), or disgusted (Devil’s Rejects etc), but not panicky which is nice for me. Honestly, I’m more likely to have a panic attack during Harry Potter of all things – I do not know why the Mad Eye Moody/Barty Crouch thing bothers me so much.

It doesn’t take much to startle me or make me feel uncomfortable but to actually scare me, at least as an adult, that takes some doing. I really love it. I hear Candyman’s voice in my head, the Hell Priest still lurks in the shadows of my laundry room when the light hits the one corner just so. I have a weird and overactive imagination and that doesn’t help. I tend to scare myself more than anything. One night a few years ago I stepped outside and the smell of freshly turned earth hit me and all I could think of were zombies. The fact that we’d been working outside that day planting and such completely vanished from my brain, logic took a backseat and my brain was absolutely certain it was zombies. And this is why I write – if I didn’t, I could probably convince myself that zombies are real but if I put all my weird on paper, it’s easier not to do that.

Anticipation

As long as the weather, my oncoming sinus issue (I can feel it settling in), and the kids cooperate, I’ll be getting to see Deadpool this weekend. I can’t tell you how excited I am. I’ve been waiting on this one since they screwed him up so so very badly in the X-Men. I’ve been excited since the “leaked” test footage I shared a few years ago (as did everyone else). I would say it’s been years since I’ve been this excited for a movie but that’s not true. I love movies and get pretty excited for them, especially if there are spectacularly choreographed fight scenes and beautiful explosions and big surly antiheroes. I’m not a big fan of the movies I’m supposed to like, being a female in her mid-30’s with children, go figure.

My oldest child is very mad at me because I won’t take him with me. If, after we see it, we decide that Mr. Teenager is ready for the movie, then that’s one thing but he’s 15 and I need to see these things first for myself. I know he’s mature enough for most things. He’s taking a film studies class right now and they’ve watched a bevy of movies that probably push him maturity limits but that’s a whole different blog post I may get to at some point soon. In part, I want to see it for myself to make sure and give the proper approval. But if I’m honest, I really just don’t want to take my teenager on my husband’s and my Valentine date even if it probably will be a matinee.

I know there are parents planning to take their kids (so far 12 is the lowest age I’ve heard first hand) and I truly hope if ANY of them complain, the studio, the theaters, and everyone involved do nothing but laugh at them. They were warned. This is not the Avengers. Deadpool is not a character for children. They should be made to sign a paper prior to buying tickets for these kids that they wave the right to complain about inappropriate content. People planning to take their kids haven’t read much of the comics. My oldest has read some of them but the series we are reading through at the moment is a bit less dark and super funny and I think that’s what he’s expecting. Yes, there will be the kind of humor the boy and I get a kick out of but I have a feeling from the story line that it’s going to be a bit darker than the Dead Presidents line was.

Things I am expecting: Some mention of keeping his mouth shut or a visual reference to the mistreatment of Deadpool. Superb breakage of the 4th wall. Stunning visual feast of a fight scene. The best Stan Lee cameo to date.

If you’ve seen it, I don’t want to hear about it until Sunday. I want to find out for myself.

Easy To Please

At least when the medium is some variation of film I am. With books, I’m incredibly critical. I can enjoy a story and dislike the writing of it or vice versa but I absolutely admit to being hugely picky about what I read. TV and movies, apparently I don’t hold them to the same standard. Did it make me laugh, make me feel, make me gasp in surprise? I think it is because of what I want from each medium. I want to feel and be a part of the world when I’m reading. When I’m watching, I just want to be entertained. One is a release and one is an obsession. Sometimes both can be either.

I enjoy shows and movies for what they are and I don’t care to rip things apart and make things so much less than they were. Yes, Big Bang Theory has become a comedy about a bunch of caricatures rather than actual characters but it makes me laugh. Yes, there are gaping logic flaws in Scorpion (seriously, simple is sometimes better writers!) but it makes me laugh and it makes me feel so I can honestly say I enjoy it. I liked Transformers and Waterworld and a few other movies that apparently everyone else hates. I like the NuWho, New Star Trek, and the new Star Wars. Despite it’s flaws and it’s retconning and inconsistent mythology, I still love Supernatural.

I guess I think sometimes we expect too much of our entertainment. Not everything is deeper than the story whether it’s father rescuing granddaughter from the satanic cult (I liked that movie!) or crazy puzzle box opens up hell. Not everything needs to be. I enjoy the  movies and shows that don’t try so hard to be something bigger. I like the bigger ones too but only the ones that don’t try so hard they’re all in your face with their lessons and their great big MESSAGE.

Personally, there’s as much pleasure to be found in the kitcsh as there is in the blockbuster, the documentary, the period piece, or the vanity films. I’ll take Toxic Avenger or Attack of the Killer Tomatoes over a lot of most people’s must watch movie list.

Case in point. One of the worst movies (or so I thought for EVER) was Vampire’s Kiss (a really crazy Nick Cage movie that I’m totally going to spoil right now). Watching it again as a grownup, introducing my oldest kid to the best angry alphabet recitation in cinematic history, I’m pretty sure I saw a different movie. From a certain point of view, it’s almost brilliant. We watch a self-important man have a killer of a psychotic break. It’s almost sad, watching him prance down the street in the illfitting plastic fangs yelling that he’s a vampire.

I’m not picky with my movies or my television (though I wish my three favorite things were not on at the same time, on the same day!). I come to a theater, to my television, asking to be entertained, to get caught up in someone else’s life for a bit and I gett what I ask for. I might not get some cinematic masterpiece or whatever but at the end of it, if I laughed, if I gasped, if I cried, I’m happy. If things exploded in overly dramatic fashion, that’s even better!

Movie Magic

Just by pure dumb luck, we found the perfect summer camp for my oldest kid – all about the engineering of movies. He loves the magic of movies – his whole damn Christmas list was full of it – green screen, better camera, books about editing and stop motion. He’s seen a number of movies that represent the best examples of current effects magic but his knowledge of practical effects is limited to the original, non-cgi’d up run of Star Wars and Dune.

I’ve been thinking about this all morning and making up a list of movies with the best practical effects. I think he might, maybe, be old enough for Alien now and that’s the best of them in my opinion. We’ve discussed Savini’s work and Lon Chaney’s work. We’ve looked at Spielberg, Lucas, and Henson’s stuff. We’ve talked Face Off type movie makeups and things like that. If we want to look at bad special effects, we’ll see about finding some Mystery Science Theater 3000. Too bad the USA network doesn’t still run their Saturday night awful movie marathons.

What are your favorite movies that use primarily practical effects? What movies do you love for their makeups or effects?

My list so far: Original run Star Wars, Original Dune, Alien, Jaws (holy moly that shark!), American Werewolf in London (he’s definitely NOT ready for this one), Terminator 2 (not sure about this one either). Most of the best ones, I don’t think he’d like. How I gave birth to a kid that doesn’t like scary things, I don’t know. So, I need help finding awesome movies that aren’t scary (even if the best effects are in the scary ones apparently).

 

Scary Movies have the best makeup

I have been watching and reading quite a bit of horror lately. One of my favorite things about scary movies is the makeups. So impressive. From the xenomorph in Alien to the incredibly detailed muscle, bone, and sinew suit Julia wears in Hellraiser 2.

I have a great deal of admiration for the people who create these incredible things. The Alien will probably be my favorite of all the effects makeups ever. The skill required to sculpt and engineer a thing like that, it’s pretty damned impressive. It’s one of the reasons I enjoy Face Off so much, watching the characters go from paper to application. So impressive. I know I keep using that word but there isn’t a better one.

I think my all time favorites are the Alien, the skinless Julia suit, the faun from Pan’s Labyrinth, and the torn up Jack from American Werewolf in London. What are your favorite on screen makeups?