Kevin Lucia's Blog, page 8

Text and Subtext 41: Island of the Fishmen

I seem to be on an aquatic horror kick lately. Anyway, this was fun. A bunch of castaways land on a mysterious island that’s right above what’s left of Atlantis. The Antlantean descendents are these bestial fish/men/things. With the exception of their comically bulging eyes, the creature design here was pretty great, and props for making the human experiment hybdrid fish look exactly like the Creature of the Black Lagoon. Nice call out to the OG water monster. Anyway, enjoy it here.

Text and Subtext 40: The Castle of the Creeping Flesh

If you ever wanted to watch a movie that looks like it’s basically a groovy sixties party in a castle spliced in with a reels of what appears to be footage of an actual heart operation, this one is for you. Seriously. There’s good fifteen minute stretch when we just keep cutting to open heart surgery clips. I guess that’s supposed to make it more sensational, but it ended looking like documentary stock footage. Anyway. Here it is.

How A Christian Fell in Love With the Horror Genre #19

So, it’s time to buckle up a bit. Up until now, I’ve had this whole journey pretty well outlined. I have, however, reached the end of that outline, which means the upcoming posts may sound a little scattered. My hope is, however, that I’ll eventually be able to wind my way along something approximating a path, and if we’re lucky, we won’t get lost in the thickets.

So, I’m a Christian. I believe in God. I believe in the afterlife. Why am I drawn to the darkness so much? Why do I like stories about monsters, demons, ghosts and ghoulies, why do I like strange little stories with a lack of resolution and no clear meaning…shouldn’t I, as a Christian, prefer stories with very direct purpose and meaning, stories that aren’t open-ended and open to interpretation?

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Text and Subtext 39: BOG

In some ways, this plays out like an old RKO Pictures monster movie. Same kind of feeling, soundtrack, and plotline, same very earnest characters. The monster effects are homespun to be sure, and amounts to a rubber crab/fish/man suit, but like Croaked: Frog Monster From Hell, the filmmakers were savy enough not to show us much of the monster until the very end. And you gotta like how they finally dispatched of the monster. I honestly didn’t expect it. Anyway, for some lower-budget 70s monster horror, check it out.

How a Christian Fell in Love with The Horror Genre #18

I hit an odd turn in my career after selling my third nonfiction essay to Guideposts.

Yes, you heard me correctly. Guideposts. To go along with my nonfiction essays published by Bethany House, Tyndale, and even Zondervan. Somehow, over the space of a year and a half, I sold six nonfiction Christian “testimonial” essays to some of the biggest Christian publishers in the CBA. I’d forged a connection with an editor who, after buying an essay of mine for a collection called Life Savors, kept contacting me with submission calls for “real life Christian testimonies about faith.”

I wasn’t really overthinking this development, honestly. I was getting paid (very well, I might add) to write honest stories about my life, and how my family’s faith had helped us through some hard times. Despite the fact that, at the time, I did have a toe wriggling in the CBA pool (this was before and during the writing of Hiram Grange, and before my experiences with Realms Fiction), I really wasn’t thinking about laying down a foundation for publishing in the CBA. I was just writing true stuff and getting paid, and that’s all.

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Text and Subtext 38: Croaked: Frog Monster From Hell

Oh, Team Troma. You never disappoint. Apparently the original title of this charming little flick was Rana: The Legend of Shadow Lake. I don’t know about you, but I much prefer Croaked. Anyway - island in the middle of a lake, legends of gold, the requisite crazy old guy warning of doom and that everyone better get off the lake, and an ancient fish/frog/man thing protecting the gold. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday evening, but not to be taken seriously by any means (though the cast plays it straight, which suggests at least the intent of making a serious movie).

I will say this: they had the good sense to mostly hide the monster, because the create feature effects in this one looks like a guy wearing a cheap Creature From the Black Lagoon costume. Anyway, give it a try.

How A Christian Fell In Love With the Horror Genre #17

My first standalone title, Hiram Grange & The Chosen One – Book Four in the series – was published May 2010. It was an exciting time. Not only did I finally have a book of my own which I could take to conventions with me and sell, reviewers and readers alike seemed to enjoy it. That, and it represented a milestone for me. It was the first thing over ten thousand words I was able to finish. It was a book. A novella, yes. But my first book. I’d written, finished, and published my very first book.

And I’d lost myself in the writing process. I’d spent an entire summer in my community college Alma mater library, every day, writing Hiram Grange. It was the very first time I’d been consumed by my work, and the prospect of doing that again excited me.

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How A Christian Fell in Love With the Horror Genre #16

Is there much of a moral in Graveyard Shift, based on the short story by Stephen King? Other than the grim reality that all sorts of people die, both the guilty and the (relatively) innocent, perhaps not. However, like so much of King’s work, Graveyard Shift (both the short story and the movie) offers vivid portrayals of shockingly average people living mundane lives filled with toil and struggle, without much hope of anything better. The characters in this movie and story – as with so much of King’s work – are vividly lower-middle class, a slice of Americana so often ignored by culture’s eye, even still today.

These people work. They live, they breathe, they dream (even if futilely), they love and hate, they anguish and preserve, they live, and then they die. Often too soon, and in ignoble and pedestrian fashion. I’d argue that every Christian would do well to better understand the lives of everyday people, especially those who live so different a life than us.

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Text and Subtext 37: The Boneyard

80s B-horror is the gift that keeps on giving. Just when it seems like I’ve watched all the solid B horror movies the 80s have to offer, I discover another gem like this one. A burned out pyschic. Flesh-eating ghouls. Everyone trapped in a coroner’s office as the ghouls run rampant. Explosions. A backstory curse which sorta gets ignored toward the end, but who cares? And Phyllis Diller. What more could you want? Check out it out now.

How A Christian Fell in Love With the Horror Genre #15

Annecdote

What...the Hell...Did I Just Watch? And in God's Name...Why?

Once again, to clarify – I'm several beers in, writing this piece. As always, I'll clean up the proof-reading gaffes, but the liquid, sprawling thought-process, I'll keep. Such as it is.

I'm just about finished with one of the most bizarre horror movies I've ever watched outside of Antrum (which, believe me, we ARE going to discuss), a movie called Fingers, on Shudder. It's about a fear-stricken female executive scared of lots of things. Short black men. Weird-looking babies. All sorts of things. Anyway, one day, one of her employees shows up missing a pinkie. She experiences a visceral reaction at this. Freaks out. Runs out of the office, so grossed out she is by this employee's missing finger.

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