Manga Monday!

It's Monday, and I've spent a significant portion of my paycheque on buying Manga.  Damn you, Dave's, for being so accommodating to browsers!  (For those of you not from neck of the woods I currently inhabit - Dave's is my magnificent local comic book shop, and the first place to benefit from my hard-earned after the 23rd of the month.)

There's a lot of damned  good horror Manga out there, and for a couple of months I've had my eye on a series called Parasyte.  It had me at "You...are...food..."     

It's a proper gorefest - within the first few pages you have a guy whose head splits clean open to reveal an unholy cross between The Thing, the Predator and one of those messed-up things from Pan's Labrinth, which proceeds to bite his wife's head off and eat it.

However, despite the gore and high body-count of this series so far, it also manages to be a strangely touching story.  The protagonist is a high-school student called Shin, who was infected by an alien parasite but managed to prevent it from invading past his arm.  In consequence, he has a sentient alien being in place of his right hand, who takes the name of Migi.

Just a normal guy, and his alien-parasite hand

Once Shin realises that he's stuck with Migi, a strangely touching relationship unfolds.  Migi (translation of Japanese for "right") knows instantly that he's failed to occupy the brain  - the goal of the invading species.   Being a parasite, he relies on Shin for his food, and Shin begins to rely on Migi to defend him...

So sweet... just like that thing from Flight of the Navigator. (Apart from the hand-eating...)

   

Devil Week: "Devil"

This week, I have been mostly watching films about the Devil. I'd been meaning to watch "Devil" (the one set in a lift) for a while, and after seeing said film decided to make a theme of it, thereby dedicating my movie-viewing hours to the Satanic stuff. As there are roughly a trillion films based around Lucifer and his shenanigans, I decided to narrow the field a bit with some rules. All the movies would be: a) centred on Satanic or demonic themes; b) ones that I hadn't seen before; and c) made in the last ten years. All this narrowed it down to only four films that I could think of, making the whole escapade a Devil (Four-Day) Week. A bit like the Three-Day Week of the 70s, thus harking back to the golden era of "The Exorcist" and "The Omen". Theme-tastic!

DEVIL

A confession of sorts - I still like M. Night Shyamalan. I know I shouldn't, but I even like "The Happening" (I'm from a big city, so rustling trees and wide open spaces freak me out at the best of times.) So, being a Shyamalan fan I was rather looking forward to his* latest, a nice classic locked-room-with-the-devil-in-it caper.

It starts off splendid. I loved the opening credits with the flipped aerial shots over the city, for several reasons. 1) The sequence itself does have quite a disorientating effect, which is all good news for the start of a horror flick. 2) The flying-over-the-city establishing shot is so commonplace it is almost a cliche; inverting the footage makes the familiar unfamiliar, subverting the viewer's expectations and creating an unsettling atmosphere. 3) It plays on the inversion theme often present in devil-related films, through devices such as upside-down crosses and mirror-writing.

Unfortunately, the opening credits turned out to be my favourite part of the movie. I quite liked the premise, but the execution left something to be desired. If you're going to do a locked-room mystery, I'm of the opinion that a large portion of the action should happen in the locked room. The bits actually in the lift were good - for example, the police being able to see into an inaccessible murder scene made for a particularly tense atmosphere. The rest of the film seems a bit all over the place. There's a race-against-time element with the firemen trying to get into the lift, some rushed back-stories for the unfortunate occupants, and a slightly ridiculous Final Destination-style sequence involving an engineer and a raccoon. All this made for a film which should have been simple and clear-cut, but ended up a mishmash of horror subgenres, with a liberal sprinkling of cliche. Ah yes, cliches galore. Troubled cop! Creepy stuff captured on film! Superstitious type who has exactly pinpointed the paranormal issue at hand, though no-one believes them! At least they didn't try to drag a priest into it.

On a positive note, I didn't have any problem with the central conceit of the film, which many people have criticised - their argument being that the Devil is mighty powerful, and wouldn't need to faff about trapping folks in lifts just to harvest a few measly souls. Fair point in a way - the whole set-up is a touch convoluted. However, the concept of the Devil is near-universal, and the sheer volume of stories about him/her/it means that "devil" is impossible to define absolutely. If you want to make a movie where Satan has to trap people in a lift, or in a cave, or at a bus stop - fine. As long as the story adheres to its internal logic, then it's okay by me. Satan does seem to get bored from time to time (must be the immortality) and does actually have some form when it comes to playing these kind of pranks on the living. See Dr. Faustus or Bedazzled (depending on the height of your brow.)





In Summary:

Promising idea, but felt like a low-budget idea which had been given lots of money and felt the need to spend it on totally unnecessary crowd scenes and plummeting elevators. And raccoon wranglers.

*Well, "from the mind of..." - i.e. story idea and production. Basically, top billing on the poster because no-one's heard of John Erick Dowdle.

Recommendations and Reviews of Recent Readings

I tend to always have a book on the go, the consequence of an inability to fall sleep without reading something and a low boredom threshold when waiting for public transport. My reading material over the past few months has been mostly horror-related, so I thought I'd post up some brief reviews before forgetfulness takes over. Here goes! (List ordered roughly by date of reading.)


TITLE: 101 HORROR MOVIES YOU MUST SEE BEFORE YOU DIE

AUTHOR: Steven Jay Schneider (General Editor)

REASON FOR BUYING: Wanted some ideas for good horror films to watch. Nice glossy pictures. Could double as doorstop.

LOOK OF THE BOOK: Compact and shiny; well-designed.

ANY GOOD? Yep - does what it says on the tin. The films are listed in chronological order, which makes it easy to identify cycles of horror films, and to see which directors may have influenced others' works. Each movie is given equal space - two pictures (poster and a still), a short two-page description and analysis and some details of cast and crew. The overviews are written by contributors of a high calibre, mainly academics and film critics. Despite the fact that there is an abundance of lists of this kind on the web, I still feel that this was ten quid well spent. And you can't use the internet as a doorstop.


TITLE: Strangers on a Train

AUTHOR: Patricia Highsmith

REASON FOR BUYING: Liked the film; didn't have to pay for this book - nicked it from my dad.

LOOK OF THE BOOK: Pleasant, modern monochrome design.

ANY GOOD? A resounding yes. Highsmith is a fantastic suspense writer - I've read other novels of hers in which nothing much actually happens, yet by which I've sill been utterly gripped. Strangers on a Train is the story of a man striving desperately to extricate himself from a situation, but getting drawn in further despite his exertions. Some of the details of the plot will be familiar to those who have seen Hitchcock's film, but happily that adaptation differs from the book enough that there are still surprises in store for readers who have already seen the movie. A superb read and highly recommended!


TITLE: Velocity

AUTHOR: Dean Koontz

REASON FOR BUYING: Needed a book to read whilst working at a festival; it was in a charity shop and therefore cheap.

LOOK OF THE BOOK: Intriguing ransom-note cover; deceptively chunky.

ANY GOOD? So far from good, it's possible that Darth Vader could use it a rebel-torturing technique, should his choking powers have an off day. The characters are paper-thin, the dialogue between them risible, and the decision to develop the plot almost solely through the experiences of the main character results in the whole exercise feeling like a mildly gruesome "What I Did On My Holidays" school essay. The only reason I managed to finish it is that it's so bloody short. Through the employment of large type, enormous margins and more chapters than you can shake a stick at, this jumped-up short story has been stretched out to cover a mind-boggling 500 pages. There's an actual risk of repetitive strain injury because of the frequency of page-turning. Avoid.


TITLE: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

AUTHOR: Mark Haddon

REASON FOR BUYING: Many accolades received by book; in a charity shop and therefore cheap (I am thrifty)

LOOK OF THE BOOK: Lively blue cover, strangely endearing illustration of dog impaled by garden fork.

ANY GOOD? Yes - it's an engaging, funny and touching book. (Not a horror, mind, although a dog does get murdered.) Christopher - a 15-year-old who has Asperger's - finds the body of his neighbour's dog and, inspired by his hero Sherlock Holmes, decides to solve the mystery of its death. However, his investigation uncovers a great deal more than he expected. Has chapters headed with prime numbers, which is quite cool and also instructive.


TITLE: Under the Dome

AUTHOR: Stephen King

REASON FOR BUYING: Try to read most King books; nifty choice of covers.

LOOK OF THE BOOK: Old bloke looking pensive in a rather nice shirt.

ANY GOOD? Hmmm... it's a tricky one. Pros: interesting premise; good pace; fairly gripping. Cons: some ridiculous dialogue; plot inconsistencies; rather flat ending. For such a long book it feels somewhat shallow - there is very little in the way of backstory, unlike some of King's earlier works (for example, the town histories in The Tommyknockers and IT.) There are quite a few similarities between this novel and The Stand (isolated communities, taking of good / evil sides and the Trashcan Man-esque character of The Chef.) Under the Dome definitely suffers by comparison, and unfortunately comes across as something of a Stand-lite. Not nearly as bad as Cell though, so there's that.


TITLE: The Mind Beyond

AUTHOR: Irene Shubik (Editor)

REASON FOR BUYING: Short stories by well-known authors; portable volume.

LOOK OF THE BOOK: Nice old orange-spined Penguin; proper creepy cover.

ANY GOOD? The Mind Beyond is a collection of short stories from the '70s TV series of the same name, of which I'd never heard. The theme is general freakiness of the brain - telepathy, precognition, telekinesis and the like. It's a pleasantly eerie collection; I especially enjoyed the Daphne du Maurier story "The Breakthrough." Science gone crazy! The TV show can be seen here:
"The Mind Beyond" on the YouTube



TITLE: The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service vol. 11

AUTHOR: Eiji Otsuka (story) Housui Yamazaki (art)

REASON FOR BUYING: Am a long-time follower of the series.

LOOK OF THE BOOK: Mugshot-style pictures of the main characters; plot-related drawing in the top-left corner.

ANY GOOD? Hell yeah! I love this series, and would recommend it to any fan or horror, comics or both. Kurosagi centres around five university students whose various skills enable them to find and communicate with the dead. Whilst the subject matter is quite morbid, and the imagery often gory, it's never excessive. The plots often touch upon contemporary social issues, or are used to explore the significance of old customs or historic events. It's gruesome, witty, complex and sometimes plain weird. The artwork is also fantastic!


TITLE: The Secret of Crickley Hall

AUTHOR: James Herbert

Ah, Crickley Hall. This one's getting a slightly longer review, so it'll have to wait for another time. Thought I'd best say something about it though, as it is in the picture. Watch this space!

The Walking Dead: TV show episode 1

Being a comic book fan, I'm a little disappointed in myself that I haven't noticed the Walking Dead series. I can only suppose that I've been preoccupied with buying House of Mystery and Sweet Tooth, and moaning about Air being axed. But blessed be! The Walking Dead has now been transmogrified into the significantly cheaper (for me) format of a televisual spectacular.

Spectacular it certainly is. Episode one packs in gunfights, gridlocked highways, fields of corpses, fantastically gruesome zombie hoards and tons of aerial shots of the lovely American countryside. It's visually stunning, especially the SFX used to create a certain semi-zombie who spends her screen-time enjoying a nice crawl in the park.

In terms of plot, it starts off pretty much as 28 Days Later Goes to America. Dude's in hospital, dude wakes up in post-apocalyptic hell-hole, finds a bit of shelter, makes a few friends. That being said, it's as good a way as any to kick-start a zombie drama, so I'm inclined to overlook the slight lack of originality.

Now, casting... to British viewers of a '90s vintage, Andrew Lincoln will always be, in our hearts, Egg from This Life. To see the chap you always envisaged as a Northern, London-dwelling law-graduate slacker show up as a gun-toting U.S. sheriff's deputy is a slight shock to the system. To add to the weirdness, Lennie James (who I most vividly recall as a cockney geezer in Snatch), then appears in similar nationality-bending mode. However, this quickly ceased to bother me, which is a testament to strong performances and (to my ears, at least) convincing accents. The good folks of the U.S.A. will naturally have to be the judge of said accents, but Hugh Laurie and those blokes off of The Wire seem to have gotten away with it, so signs look good.

To sum up briefly... The Walking Dead: 28 Days Later meets Dawn of the Dead meets Preacher. Complete with horse. I'm certainly giving episode two a whirl.

Happy Hallowe'en!

A Happy Hallowe'en to all! Take care out there, beware them creatures of the night...

Happy Friday 13th!

Well, technically it's Saturday 14th for me now, but best spooky wishes to all of those in time zones further west! Hope no-one's suffering from friggatriskaidekaphobia...

Versatile, don't you know?

Big thanks, and word up! to a fine Missouri woman - The Girl Who Loves Horror. (http://thegirlwholoveshorror.blogspot.com/) She's kindly given me this versatile blogger accolade, and I am am dead chuffed. Apparently there are rules.....

1) Thank the person who gave you the award. (Ta!)

2) Tell people seven things about yourself

3) Nominate fifteen other blogs to receive said award, and tell them about it.

Being a bit of a newbie to the blogging thing, I'm not sure if I'm even reading fifteen blogs at the moment, so I'll be rolling out number 3 in dribs and drabs. In the meantime, here's those seven things about myself...

1) As it says in my profile, I like robots. The one in my profile picture is a Dingbot, which my brother had back in the 80s. It came with a small map which it could hold and use to navigate somehow - which was at that time one of the most awesome things I'd ever seen. I also love Asimov's robot short stories, WALL:E and Short Circuit. When the machines finally rise up and enslave us all I shall have no fear; I'll be down the robo-disco dancing to Daft Punk and Kraftwerk.

A couple of my robots. I hope one day to have a robot army.

2) I can name all fifty U.S. states - in alphabetical order - despite never having been out of Europe. (I memorised them as part of a bet a while ago.)

3) I have a large gold filling in one of my back teeth - bling indeed.

4) When I was little I crashed my bike, flew straight over the handlebars but managed somehow to land on my feet. I felt like Superman.

5) I could not survive without newspapers or cheese.

6) Although I have no grey hairs on my head, I have found a couple in my eyebrows. I am therefore slightly concerned that I could end up one day looking like a reverse Alistair Darling.

7) Milk no sugar, please!


To start off my list of fifteen, here's couple of smashing blogs:

This Girl Digs Horror http://thisgirldigshorror.blogspot.com/

Ampersand Comics http://ampersandcomics.blogspot.com/


P.S. Proper post actually about horror coming soon. Honest, guv.