Adam J. Whitlatch's Blog, page 4
October 3, 2020
Leprechaun - 3/31 Days of Halloween 2020
Sometimes when you're looking for a good scary flick to watch, you find yourself scraping the bottom of the barrel. For many of these reviews, I like to check out old classics that I missed out on in my youth. Sometimes I'm pleasantly surprised, but others I realize there's no pot of gold at the end of that rainbow.
Today's movie helped launch the career of Jennifer Anniston, who as we all know went on to superstardom with her role on the hit sitcom Friends, and good for her, because... hooo boy. Spawning six sequels and a reboot, it's one of the most recognized franchises in horror, whether that's for good or for ill. Well, friends, pour yourself a tall glass of green beer, because you're probably going to need it as we search for gold in 1993's Leprechaun.
As the movie opens, we see a leprechaun in his lair admiring his crock full of gold coins. We then cut to an old man named Daniel O'Grady who surprises his wife by returning home in a limousine. Shocked by his strange behavior, Mrs. O'Grady is even further amazed when Daniel reveals a sack full of gold coins. Giddily making plans for their new life, Daniel hides the gold where only he can find it. Meanwhile, Lubdan the Leprechaun attacks and kills Mrs. O'Grady. Daniel traps the leprechaun in a crate with a four-leaf clover and then collapses before he can finish it off.
Ten years later, spoiled California girl Tory arrives at the old O'Grady farm, which her father has purchased and hired brothers Nathan and Alex, as well as their simple-minded friend Ozzie, to help him remodel. Fooled by the weakened Lubdan's trickery, Ozzie inadvertently releases the Leprechaun, but nobody believes his fantastic tale. Undeterred by his friends' skepticism, Ozzie follows a mysterious rainbow and finds Daniel O'Grady's stash of stolen gold. Freed from his prison, the leprechaun leaves a bloody path as he searches for his lost gold.
Well, that certainly was... something. I'd always passed this movie up on trips to the video store because the entire concept just seemed to silly to be scary, and... well... I was right. Even at a mere 92 minutes, the movie just drags. Its attempts to make Jennifer Anniston a tough horror survivor girl is funnier than anything she ever did on Friends. And that's part of the trouble. The movie tries way too hard to be funny, and it keeps falling hard on its face.
Warwick Davis, iconic for his portrayals of small-statured characters like Wicket and Willow, plays the leprechaun. While Davis' performance is genuinely creepy in some places, I feel in this character's case that less is more. The makeup effects are quite good, and Davis is able to get some good expressiveness out of it, but it's not enough to carry the scares. Balancing laughs and scares is hard, but it can be done, and unfortunately, Leprechaun tilts the scales too heavily in favor of comedy.
If you're still reading, then my verdict should come as no surprise. I'd recommend passing on this one, unless you're looking for something to help get your Irish up come St. Paddy's Day. If comedic horror is what you're in the mood for, I'd recommend classics like Evil Dead 2, The Return of the Living Dead, or the recent screamer Tucker & Dale vs. Evil. If cheap laughs and even cheaper scares are your cup of tea, however, I won't judge you for it. But like a leprechaun's gold, I have a feeling the other seven movies in the franchise are best left alone.
https://youtu.be/pJ_TYkEyNIc
October 2, 2020
Fright Night (1985) - 2/31 Days of Halloween 2020
If there's anything we've established in these past three years of reviews, it's that I love a good vampire flick. I don't really have a preference about how the vamps are portrayed (so long as they don't sparkle), and fresh takes that turn the genre on its head are always fun, but let's face it... sometimes you just want a good popcorn flick that ticks all the vampire cliché boxes.
Today's movie does just that with some great nods to genre classics. And having a rocking soundtrack complete with a haunting score by Brad Fiedel doesn't hurt, either.
Without further ado, let's raise the coffin lid and sink our fangs into 1985's Fright Night.
As the movie opens, we're introduced to two teens named Charley and Amy who are making out while a horror TV series titled Fright Night, hosted by horror icon Peter Vincent, plays on the television. They argue when Amy doesn't want to make love, but she eventually gives in to Charley's demands. The fight resumes, however, when Charley sees two men carrying a coffin into the vacant house next door and he becomes obsessed. Over the next few days, Charley observes multiple women entering the new neighbor's house, only to see the a man carrying suspicious, body-shaped bags out and see the women on the news. When Charley observes the neighbor with one of the women, the man exposes sharp fangs and is about to bite the woman's neck before he sees Charley spying on them and lowers the shade, blocking Charley's view.
Charley becomes convinced that his new neighbor, Jerry Dandrige, is a vampire. He consults his friend Evil Ed about how to deal with vampires, and Ed gives him a crucifix, advises him to adorn himself with garlic, and warns Charley never to invite the vampire in. It's too late, however, because Charley's mother invites Dandrige in, giving the vampire free reign of their home. That night, Jerry attacks Charley, but Charley manages to fend him off. Desperate, Charley tries to enlist the aid of Peter Vincent, the host of Fright Night, but the actor shrugs Charley off as a troubled fan. As Charley becomes more and more obsessed, Amy and Evil Ed bargain with Peter Vincent to help them convince Charley that Jerry Dandrige is simply a man. Vincent agrees and performs a fake test with Dandrige's cooperation. Things take an unexpected turn, however, when Peter Vincent accidentally discovers the truth when Dandrige doesn't cast a reflection in his mirror. With his secret out, Dandridge stalks the teens, setting his gaze longingly on Amy.
Who ever heard of a vampire named Jerry, am I right? I'm not going to lie; that's one of the things I love so much about this movie. It gives the illusion of turning the genre on its ear while actually sticking to the cozy clichés we've all come to know and love. While we don't get to see the true effects of holy water or garlic on the undead, we do see that the old reliable cross works, provided the user possesses the faith necessary to harm the undead. Fright Night doesn't try to reinvent the wheel, and I'm a-okay with that.
Let's talk about the effects. Fright Night boasts some incredible practical effects for 1985, and most of them still stand up today, particularly Evil Ed's painful transformation from wolf back into human. My favorite effect, however, has to be the gruesome death of Jerry's familiar Billy. Some of the vampire makeup effects on Jerry and Amy come off as a bit hokey, though, in my opinion, but they don't spoil the fun. The only thing I have an issue with is Amy's magically growing and shrinking hair.
Overall, Fright Night lives up to its name. Roddy McDowall is absolutely delightful as the washed-up actor and vampire hunter. His performance is a great tongue-in-cheek homage to the classic Hammer horror films and the late, great Peter Cushing. A sequel was released in 1988, and I'd love to track down a copy, because I haven't seen it in over twenty years. A remake featuring stellar performances by Colin Ferrel and David Tennant was released in 2011, and I highly recommend it. It's one of those rare remakes that actually does the original justice, in my opinion.
My verdict is surely obvious at this point. If you've never seen it, pop some extra buttery popcorn, maybe add in some garlic salt for good measure, and check out Fright Night, as well as its sequel and remake. Hell, make an entire fright night of it! And whatever you do, don't invite any strangers in!
https://youtu.be/yfuIcuezkUwOctober 1, 2020
A Visual History of War of the Worlds
CBC Television recently published an article about the various adaptations, parodies, and other media inspired by H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds. My official novelization of War of the Worlds: Goliath even gets a mention in the article!
Click here to view the complete timeline.
Child's Play (2019) - 1/31 Days of Halloween 2020
Jesus, what a year, huh? At this point, watching horror movies kind of feels like rubbing salt in the wound, because let's face it... we're living one. Oh well... I guess we could all use a little escape, eh? Something light on story and heavy on gory? Well, let's kick off 31 Days of Halloween 2020!
Today's movie falls into the "But why?" category of remakes. Most remakes are near sacrilegious, but to replace an actor as iconic as Brad Dourif takes some serious balls, but it's surprisingly one thing most horror fans were at least willing to give a chance in this case. Will it be enough to save it? Let's find out. It's time to unwrap our first chiller of 2020, and that's 2019's Child's Play.
The film opens in a Vietnamese toy factory, where a supervisor viciously berates and fires a daydreaming worker. Ordered to complete the Buddi doll he's working on, the worker goes into the doll's code and turns off all of the safety protocols before committing suicide. The hacked Buddi doll is then put on a pallet and shipped to America. We then meet a single mother named Karen who works in a department store. When a customer brings in a defective Buddi doll, she sees her chance to score some points with her son, Andy, and takes the doll home.
Although Andy is initially unimpressed by the glitchy doll, which names itself Chucky, the two quickly become close friends. Chucky learns from observing his environment and soon begins exhibiting frightening behaviors after watching a violent horror movie with Andy and his friends. Soon bodies begin to pile up, and nobody will believe Andy when he tells them Chucky did it. Eventually, however, the evidence becomes overwhelming, and Andy and his young friends must team up to stop the murderous doll.
So let's talk about Chucky himself. Unlike the 1988 original (which I reviewed last year), Chucky is not possessed by the soul of a serial killer, but is simply programmed to be bad in a last, spiteful act of a disgruntled employee. Being a smart toy, Chucky is able to control other devices made by Kaslan, the company that made him. This ability is utilized for some really good, gruesome kills, so I'll give the movie points for that. The final act is a little silly, though. If you ever wondered what it would look like if a Teddy Ruxpin went insane, this movie has you covered. Instead of Brad Dourif, Mark Hamill voices Chucky this time, and he does a good enough job, but it's just not the same without Dourif's trademark cackle.
Child's Play just doesn't capture the magic of its namesake. In thirty years, they've managed to make a Chucky doll even uglier and less expressive than the original. I do have to applaud the filmmakers' choice to make Andy deaf. Representation matters. But I think they could have utilized Chucky's ability to hack Andy's hearing aid more than they did. I don't know. I just thought that was a nice touch.
My verdict would be to watch the movie, but don't go into it with expectations of seeing the Chucky we all know and love. This ain't him. The Child's Play remake is a decent cyber, smart-device-era thriller, but as a successor to the horror classic it draws from, it just falls flat on its plastic face. Personally, seeing how Chucky deals with Karen's shitty boyfriend alone was worth the price of admission. Child's Play is streaming on Hulu.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeHNLikDiVw
September 3, 2020
A New Cover for October Ballet
I'll be honest. I've never been truly happy with the original October Ballet cover. The font work was the worst. Plus, as gorgeous as the photograph of falling leaves is, the bright canary yellow was a bit much.
I can admit that now.
The truth is October Ballet was the very first cover I did with no outside help. It was just me and a basic, free version of Lucid Press.
Well, maybe it's the fact that autumn is in the air and the leaves on the maple in my front yard have already started to turn and drop... or maybe quarantine is just getting to me. Either way, I decided it was time for a change, so October Ballet is finally getting a much-deserved facelift with both a new cover and a new, reformatted ebook.
October Ballet has never looked this good.
I've uploaded the new files to all of the online stores, and we should start seeing the new cover popping up in the next two to three days.
If you've never read October Ballet, there's never been a better time. The collection contains a lot of my earlier work, mostly in the horror genre before I made the big jump to science fiction. There's even an earlier version of "The Weller - Land of Plenty," which appears in a different form in The Weller.
So sit down in your favorite chair and dance the October Ballet with me, whether you're revisiting the past or if it's your first time.
August 31, 2020
Fear of the Dark Available on Audible!
At long last, the audiobook edition of The Weller - Fear of the Dark is available NOW on Audible, as well as iTunes and Amazon!
Click here to download it to your favorite listening device!
Stay tuned for more updates on this title, including a live Discord reading by the narrator, Zachary Johnson!
July 24, 2020
Fear of the Dark Audio Preview
We're getting closer to The Weller - Fear of the Dark's Audible debut! I just finished listening to the full audiobook, and I must say that Zachary Johnson's performance is astounding! The narration includes lots of little touches that enhance the listening experience, and it's clear that Zachary had the time of his life narrating this book.
You don't have to take my word for it, however, because Zachary has invited us all into his recording studio to watch and listen as he reads chapter one. I love how animated he gets when he reads the road pirates' dialogue, and it makes me wish I'd written more of it for him.
https://youtu.be/Ga4785gR51E
Once Zachary records the changes I've requested (don't worry, it's not a long list), we'll be ready to submit the audiobook to Audible for sale. Hopefully listeners will be enjoying Fear of the Dark by early to mid-August.
As an added treat, the audiobook will also include a sneak peak of the third installment in the series, The Weller - Viva Las Vegas!
