Sezin Devi Koehler's Blog, page 4
November 18, 2023
Halloweenathon 2023: Reading HBO’s The Gilded Age as a Ghost Story
On the twenty-ninth day of Halloween: THE GILDED AGE (2022-)
Settle in, dearies. To explain why HBO’s The Gilded Age, premiering on October 29, 2023 would be part of my Halloweenathon requires telling my own real-life ghost story.
In July 2022 I was in St Augustine, the USA’s oldest city, on a family trip. One of our outings was to visit the Lightner Museum, the site of Henry Flagler’s Gilded Age Alcazar Hotel that’s now the home of Otto Lightner’s hobby collection. The Alcazar was also the first ever indoor pool in North America and an entire casino wing was built around the marvelous structure.
It’s the Alcazar’s pool where my ghost story properly begins. The space has been converted into a cafe, and that’s where we were to eat lunch that Wednesday. The moment I set just one foot into the old casino wing something happened to me. A zap from the past. Covered in chills, it was like I could hear voices from history. I wasn’t scared. I felt oddly at home as I wandered around the epic structure, listening and absorbing. I began wondering about all the people who used to work there. And the people who built the massive building. It seemed someone wanted their story told. And I was well prepared to oblige.
That night I dreamed of the old Alcazar Hotel. And I would dream of it every single night for months. Every time I closed my eyes I was back there. And people were introducing themselves to me in my dreams. A maid who used to sneak down to the pool for midnight swims. A Black elder who worked in the horrendous steam laundry. Sex workers who visited the hotel from nearby brothels. And the silent film actress Theda Bara, a lifelong favorite of mine who I discovered used to live at the Alcazar for months at a time while filming in St Augustine.
The nightly returns to the Alcazar spurred an obsession. I went to the library and checked out every single book that mentioned the Alcazar. I began reading about Flagler. I began reaching out to local historians and scholars about the people who used to work at the Alcazar and other Flagler hotels. My idea was to write a working class history of the spaces, something that’s never been done. I even applied for NPR’s Code Switch fellowship to develop my research further.
And imagine my surprise as I was learning about the Reconstruction and Gilded Age — a massive gap in my own knowledge base — to find HBO had released their own The Gilded Age show, one with numerous plot points that intersected with my own findings about Florida during these times.
When I got my Much Ado About Keanu book deal, I even went back to St Augustine to celebrate. But also to investigate further. I went on the most amazing tour of the Alcazar with the museum director and events director, that included the servants quarters now closed to the public. It was one of the best tours I’ve ever been on. And gave me so much insight into what life was like back then for the workers who kept that enormous machine running.
Unfortunately NPR cancelled all their fellowships, so I didn’t have the funding to continue my research. And wow, I was uncovering so much disturbing history that’s been wholly whitewashed not just from Florida’s historical record. Like, Flagler used convict labor and debt peonage to build his hotels and properties. A shocking revelation indeed. I even made some historical connections that have never been made before. But without financial resources to back my work, I was at an impasse.
At the same time, my hand injuries worsened and all I could manage was working on Much Ado About Keanu. The Alcazar ghosts quieted down, but not before thanking me for all my efforts. I knew I’d return to the work when I was able.
Tonight, the second season of HBO’s The Gilded Age returns, and with it a fresh blast from the past bringing my Alcazar research back to the surface. As I’ve been meditating on all my Alcazar ghost visits, it occurred to me that all of these historic dramas are in essence ghost stories. They are often about real people (or fictionalized versions of them) who are long dead, brought back to life on screen often to reflect something important about our present. And with the various Black history bans that Florida’s governor has enacted in the meantime, The Gilded Age being back on TV makes my Alcazar research newly relevant. All the ghosts who visited me will be happy to hear it. They still wait for the justice of recognition for their hard work, even if it was over 100 years ago. Maybe especially because. They’ve waited long enough for people to hear their stories.
Aunt Ada/5 stars. Highly recommend reading up about the Reconstruction era of American history.
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November 15, 2023
MicroReview: Knock Knock’s Home Invasion Horror Hits Hard With Keanu Reeves as the Victim
Evan Webber (Keanu Reeves) is the perfect husband and father. He puts his family first in all things. That is, until he’s home alone on Father’s Day and two bedraggled young women knock knock on his door in the middle of the night, storm stranded in the suburbs. This is not a treat, it’s a trick in Knock Knock (2015).
At first Bel (Ana de Armas) and Genesis (Lorenza Izzo) seem like perfectly straightforward temptresses, who work their wiles on Evan into a wild night of drugs and debauchery. But the next morning, when they refuse to leave, the women begin systematically dismantling not just Evan’d life and home. But also everything he believed about himself to be true.
Directed by Eli Roth, this harrowing character study puts Evan through a ringer that would stun even John Wick. For Keanu fans this is a hard watch. Evan is categorically not Mr Wick and his torture is prolonged and intense. My eyes water so much watching Evan’s descent.
What’s funny is that if Keanu wasn’t in the victim role, this might be one of my favorite movies. I love me a good female rage explosion, especially when it reveals a perfect family man on the surface is anything but. However when it’s beloved Keanu on the receiving end of the extreme violence, the entire narrative structure lands in a different way. Anyone else playing this character I would have zero empathy to offer. Act like a piece of shit and you get what you deserve. But with Keanu’s Evan, I can’t revel in the girls’ violent lesson teaching. Director Eli Roth really challenged this kind of narrative with this important casting choice.
This one requires a strong stomach. Not as much as required for The Neon Demon. But gird your loins, regardless. It gets really uncomfortable up in here.
Monkey/5 stars. Highly recommend not cheating on your wife with two strangers.
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November 3, 2023
MicroReview: Shark Survival Horrors ’47 Meters Down’ and ‘The Shallows’ Explore Family Dynamics in Unique Ways
Since I have a marked lack of creature survival horror in my Halloweenathon, how about a shark attack double feature?
While 47 Meters Down and The Shallows are both intense examples of survival horror, they have one key difference that makes the scary land completely differently. The Shallows is about honoring family and accidentally ending up in shark danger. And 47 Meters Down is about putting your family in harm’s way because you have an addiction to danger, and have escalated terribly.
In The Shallows, Mrs Deadpool, I mean Blake Lively, plays Nancy, a grieving medical student who decides to find the hidden Mexican beach her mother had spoken so fondly of before her untimely death. The Shallows takes its time developing Nancy’s character, so much that even when you know a shark’s on the way you’re already hoping for the best for her. The fact that she’s a champion surfer as well as a doctor-in-training adds levels of survival realism that many other films in this genre lack. It also has fantastic found-footage aspects that make this fabulous hybrid horror.
47 Meters Down follows Lisa (Mandy Moore) and Kate (Claire Holt) also on vacation in Mexico as adrenaline junkie Kate wants to free dive with sharks off the tourist track. Lisa isn’t here for it at all, AND has no scuba training. But Kate pressures her into it, the first signs that all is not well with their relationship. After their cage wore snaps and drops them 47 meters, the sisters and the audience lose track of what’s real.
Both films are terrifying in separate ways. And both are equally impressive in that the actors all did the majority of their own stunts, above and underwater.
Steven Seagull/5 stars. Highly recommend staying out of the damn ocean.
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November 2, 2023
MicroReview: ‘Pearl’ and the Horror of Social Isolation
Set in 1918, just six years after the sinking of the Titanic, Pearl (2022) is the surprise prequel to Ti West’s fantastic slasher X, this time following the serial killer Pearl (Mia Goth) deep into the events that began her 60-year rampage.
With a backdrop of the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic intersecting with the COVID pandemic in real life, Pearl delves into the horror of extreme social isolation and the resulting psychological fractures that can snap a psyche into violence because of it. Humans are creatures of community, and Pearl’s forced isolation at the hands of her overbearing mother ends with a surprisingly high body count for a film that only has five main characters. Unless you include the dead animal count, which hikes the number up further.
With cinematography in homage to The Wizard of Oz and Singin’ in the Rain, Pearl is the visual opposite of X with its bright colors and oversaturated backgrounds. If you knew nothing about the sequel, you’d think Pearl was a straightforward period piece with some quiet horror undertones.
But knowing where Pearl’s story ends up in the 1978 of X adds enough layers of depth to convert Pearl from a deranged killer to a sad woman whose dreams and hopes were dashed so thoroughly she decides to do the same for others through murder. Watching X after Pearl becomes a much more stomach wrenching experience than a terrifying one, as we see how Pearl’s bitterness and resentment have poisoned everything around her except her pet pond gator Theda.
Mia Goth is astounding in this role. And it definitely holds a candle to her dual performance of older Pearl and Maxine in X. She captures the full spectrum of Pearl’s humanity before she loses herself in rage and frustration. If horror movies got recognition from award shows, Goth would have swept them with her work here. Extraordinary performance, especially from someone relatively young. I would love to see Goth reprise this role at a few other time increments, like 1938 and 1958, to see what bonkers shenanigans Pearl gets up to as the decades roll on and she remains stuck on that damned farm.
The most vital message in Pearl is the importance of community, whether amid a pandemic or not. Regular and meaningful social contact is not just a salve for the soul in being and feeling connected to others. It is also a balm for the psyche that keeps us from hurting ourself. And potentially others.
Ziegfeld Follies/5 stars. Highly recommend getting therapy if you find yourself stewing in resentment.
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November 1, 2023
MicroReview: ‘The Drop’ (2014) and the Horrors of Domestic Violence
Since my previous Halloweenathon installment was one of Noomi Rapace’s many folk horror offerings, let’s add another of her low-key horror thrillers to the list. On the surface, The Drop (2014) is money laundering and mob horror, after an infamous “drop” bar in Boston is robbed for upwards of $5,000. Not a lot in the grand scheme of things, but huge when the money belongs to the leader of a Chechen mafia ring.
But The Drop is also about the horror of domestic violence and how it ripples outward affecting far more than just the woman being targeted. We first meet Nadia (Rapace) after Bob Saginowski (Tom Hardy) uncovers a badly beaten pit bull in her garbage can. We find out later it was her violent, supposed murderer ex-boyfriend Eric Deeds (Matthias Schoenaerts) who hurt the puppy as a warning. And as Nadia and Bob’s entanglement deepens, her past as a victim of domestic violence becomes very public, exposing an even deeper underbelly of community violence.
The hurt puppy is enough to qualify this as a horror movie. But there’s more grisly imagery and brutality that emerges when you’re not expecting it.
I study Tom Hardy in The Drop the way I study Keanu Reeves in his films. Hardy’s Bob is made of layers that Hardy reveals in tiny doses with an incredibly nuanced performance. Is he on the autism spectrum? Is he a sociopath? Or is all of it a ruse? I can’t pin down Bob, which is one of many reasons I’ve seen this film dozens of times and can’t stop rewatching.
Noomi is unlike her usual badass roles as the simpering and wounded Nadia. It’s amazing to see her range here. There’s no hint of Lisbeth Salander or Elizabeth Shaw, or any of her other ass-kicking roles. And James Gandolfini in one of his last roles is poignant on a number of levels.
This is for folks looking for something creepy and unsettling, but not traditional horror fare for Halloweentime. I’ve legit watched it several times this month already. I find it weirdly comforting.
Rocco/5 stars. Highly recommend not stealing from mobsters.
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October 31, 2023
MicroReview: On the 30th Memorial of River Phoenix’s Death, I Finally Watched His Last Film ‘Silent Tongue’ for the First Time
Directed by Sam Shepard, Silent Tongue (1993) is a disturbing horror western that shouldn’t have been River Phoenix’s last officially released film. (River’s actual final film, George Sluizer’s Dark Blood, still never got a proper release after it’s limited run in 2012.)
In Silent Tongue River plays Talbot, a grieving young widower at the brink of madness because of the death of his wife Awbonnie (Sheila Tousey). Talbot has forsaken Awbonnie’s Kiowa tradition of burning her corpse, and so her spirit begins first haunting him — and next cursing everyone who treated her life as nothing but transactional. It reminds me a bit of The Crow, but a carnivalesque version with the plot flipped in many ways. And throwing some extra Cormac McCarthy darkness in for good measure when Talbot’s father Prescott (Richard Harris) straight up horse-ropes Awbonnie’s sister Velada (Jeri Arredondo) to help Talbot out of his mental anguish.
I’ve had a copy of this film for decades on VHS and DVD, but haven’t been able to watch it. I decided today was finally the day and now have a digital copy too. Imagine my surprise finally experiencing Silent Tongue on the 30th memorial of River’s death to find a kind of parallel plot in his character’s inability to let go of his wife — and the various spiritual repercussions that come with it — to my own longstanding grief over River’s death. I mean, I’ve even written a whole book about his friend Keanu Reeves and dedicated it to River. And how odd that Dermot Mulroney’s character in Silent Tongue is named Reeves. Weird, right?
River’s role in the film is small, but mighty. He plays completely against type, as an abusive settler colonizer who keeps an Indigenous woman prisoner until she dies in childbirth. And then he refuses to let her spirit cross, his final prolonged acts of violence against her. He’s absolutely committed to the hateful role. He well knew he was not the hero of this story. Incredible final performance. What a gift he was to the world. What an eternal tragedy that he’s gone.
But Silent Tongue is much more than a tale of grief. It’s a story about white colonizers and long overdue consequences for their many levels of violence, including sexual violence and trafficking of Indigenous women. The title itself refers to the name of a Kiowa woman (Tantoo Cardinal) whose tongue was cut out by whites so she may never speak of the brutalities she had or would continue to endure. This is a movie ultimately about women’s revenge. It is not an easy watch for too many reasons. I feel heavy with grief, and am still bawling as I write this. For Indigenous women who continue to be treated with extraordinary levels of barbarity in the USA and elsewhere. And for beloved River, who should still be here. My heart will ache for all of them, forever.
I love you, River. Hug Wendy for me, will you?
Funeral pyre/5 stars. Highly recommend if you’d like to know how it feels to have your heart ripped out of your chest for an hour and 45 minutes.
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October 30, 2023
MicroReview: ‘Bodies Bodies Bodies’ Is Horror at Unusual Intersections
This is a lament for Mr Virgo Moon (Lee Pace) in Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022). He fought in a contentious and brutal war in the Middle East, to have his very American arrested development come face to face with the apocalyptic behaviors of teenage girls. Horror is being a veteran. Horror is also being a teenage girl. These two horrors meet in Bodies Bodies Bodies in an atrocious and haunting way.
I have pressing questions about this movie like: Do the kids these days actually talk in this awareness-speak? Or is this the product of an older observer who wrote their intensely understanding dialogue?
It doesn’t end up mattering.
We have a bunch of drug-mixing youngsters with troubled histories in a mansion alone during a hurricane.
The one adult, Mr Virgo Moon, is a 40-something Iraq war veteran who is fucking a 19-year-old. It’s disturbing even before the proper horror begins.
And Pete Davidson is perfectly cast here, leaning into his jackassery persona, but also displaying the soulful side that made The King of Staten Island uniquely poignant.
And this story ends well for absolutely nobody as paranoia intersects with drug abuse and the chaos of a natural disaster. I cry when I rewatch this. It’s just so sad. And rending. And all so avoidable. The ending is absolutely staggering.
But I live in Florida, where versions of this film take place in real life, albeit with a smaller body count. Hurricane parties are totally a thing here, replete with copious drugs and debauchery. Which also makes it an oddly real film from my perspective.
This film pops up often in my thoughts. Let me know if it does the same for yours after you see it.
Arm Dab/5 stars. Highly recommend not playing with real samurai swords.
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October 29, 2023
MicroReview: HBO’s Documentary ‘Savior Complex’ is Real-Life White Devilry
Mike Flanagan’s extraordinary The Fall of the House of Usher got me stewing over the real-life examples of that fictional family. But not just the 1%. It also got me considering examples of real-life horror evident in incidents of white privilege, entitlement, and impunity when it comes to documented crimes of regular folks. Which leads me to HBO’s recent 3-part documentary Savior Complex (2023), about a white missionary named Renee Bach in Uganda who was allegedly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Ugandan children.
How could this potential serial killer be free and clear of legal consequences from these beyond horrifying actions, living her life in Virginia as I write this? White privilege, plain and simple.
Bach begins this terrible story with an account of receiving messages from God telling her to go to Uganda. Instead of getting medical help herself for the voices in her head telling her to do inappropriate things, she packs up and joins her church’s mission to the country.
Once she got there and she started understanding the kind of unfettered power she could enjoy that wouldn’t be available to her in her evangelical community in the USA, she escalates her “mission from God” and begins doing medical procedures that she wasn’t qualified to do, ignoring medical advice. And all around her young children begin dying. In her prime caucasity, she was even blogging about all of this. Telling her thousands and thousands of followers about her daily life and the ways God was directing her hands at her clinic. God was so chatty with her, the entity was even telling her to ignore the experience and diagnoses of actual medical professionals as she and she alone decided how the children in her clinic were treated.
What’s even more horrifying is that in the many years she was “working” in Uganda, her facility was only licensed for medical purposes for one year. As the documentary reveals, the Ugandan government doesn’t even allow these kinds of clinics in the country, and they especially don’t permit them without trained medical professionals! So Bach gets a new call from “God” to partner with the Ugandan government in expanding her work. During none of this time did Bach ever actually get any medical training. She and her family watched the money roll in.
This is called real-life white devilry.
Founder of the NGO No White Saviours Olivia Alaso says about Bach, “Angels like Renee bring death to the continent.” And Alaso’s campaign to hold Bach accountable for her crimes continues, as Bach hides behind evangelical money and her whiteness on a lush estate in Virginia.
One important aspect of Savior Complex is its discussion about how white women take on these kids of roles of power in Africa and Asia because, in the evangelical communities, they can’t have that level of power or control in the USA. Not in their marriage, certainly not in their church, and many aren’t allowed to work. So under the guise of a divine calling, they go to places where they can literally get away with murder. And they excuse the murders because God “chose” to call those babies home with her “help.”
I watched much of this documentary peeking around the corner from the kitchen. It’s worse than any horror movie on my Halloweenathon list. Even The Neon Demon.
Rage/5 stars. Highly recommend missionaries stop. JUST STOP.
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October 28, 2023
Dear Wendy—October 28, 2023
Dear Wendy,
I don’t know how it’s possible, but this is the year you’ve been gone longer than you were here. I’m bad at math already, but 23 years without you makes no fucking sense to me. But here I am, 276 months later, with you only in spirit. Jesus, woman, I miss your hugs so much. The injustice of it. Such bullshit, dude.
This hasn’t been an easy year. But some amazing things happened that would make you so happy. I finally met Keanu Reeves! No, I didn’t smooch him like you would have wanted. But I made him laugh so hard he doubled over. I think that’s way better. AND I finished my book about him! With every obstacle in my path, I did it Wendy-bird! Thank you for visiting me at Dogstar’s show. It was amazing to feel your hand in mine again. Even just for those brief moments. I’ll never forget.
Last year was the first year I reveled in my memories of you alive, instead of being so broken by the night that bitch took you away. And this year was no different. Like, imagine my surprise when I was rewatching Pretty Woman for the first time in years and Vivian drives by the Buffalo Exchange on Melrose where we got the matching velvet curtain coats! It made me so happy to see that storefront. Omg remember us rocking those everywhere we went?! People thought we were in a girlband and we talked about starting one. Maybe I’ll still do that one day for you. For us.
The other thing I’ve been doing this year is imagining you in places you might have been. Like, I’m 100 million zillion percent sure you would have been one of the guest makeover queens on Drag Race. No doubt. I also think you would have been an extra or even a whole damn character on Our Flag Means Death. I can almost see you there already if I look really hard. And I also think you’d somehow be besties with Mike Flanagan and his wife, working on their shows either behind the scenes or on camera. I even think you would have learned puppeteering so you could be one of Chucky’s handlers on the new show.
On the one hand it makes me giggle to think about all these places where I feel your presence. On the other, like right now on the memorial of the day you were stolen, it makes your absence even more of a void on the planet. Sigh.
Yet. Somehow, in spite of continuing adversity and my hand problems on top of it all, my career is really starting to take off. I have SIX books in process, Wendy! One is already provisionally accepted. Two of them are novels Im totally going to be able to sell. My next goal is getting an agent and I have the perfect book for that too.
I’ve reclaimed my name this year too, and I know you’d approve of Sezin Devi. Remember when you borrowed my book about the Bandit Queen after I told you about Phoolan Devi? If you were here you’d take my author picture and style me like a multiarmed goddess.
Oh and I almost forgot! Wendy, I WATCHED HORROR MOVIES THIS OCTOBER! It’s the first time since you were taken I’ve been able to do this! I was even writing horror movie microreviews almost every day this month! Today I’m watching Rock and Roll High School and BUFFY the show. Remember how you introduced me to The Ramones through that movie? And how my ending to American Monsters was inspired by the end? And Buffy. All those Buffy nights at your house! You introduced me to that show too. So many great memories with you, babes.
Don’t get me wrong: I’ve healed, but there is still an active lava of rage running through me. Toward that bitch who took you from us. Toward the people who told me “things happen for a reason.” And all the people who took advantage of me when I was still vibrating from the horror of the night you were killed. I have Ryan Gosling kicks stored in my legs for all of them. I always will. But I’m a lot more than just my fury and sadness now, and that’s exactly what you would have wanted.
More than anything, I miss you. I miss your hugs. I miss your silly riverdance. I miss our heart-to-hearts. I even miss our fights. I’d give anything to have an argument with you. It would mean you’re still here. We would work it out like we always did. You taught me to fight for the people I love, even when it might be uncomfortable.
My outfit today is for a funeral in Wakanda. Exactly the kind of funeral look you would love. Hug River for me, will you? And Brenda and Reid. The world might keep turning but it’ll never be as good as it was with y’all in it. Love you forever, Wendy-bird.
Xoxoxo
Sezin
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October 18, 2023
MicroReview: Ana Lily Amirpour’s ‘Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon’ Is a Love Letter to Weirdos
Ana Lily Amirpour took the horror community by storm with her extraordinary A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night, the first ever Iranian-language vampire movie, featuring a hijabi, skateboard-riding bloodsucker who is as enchanting as she is dangerous. And Amirpour’s third feature film Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon is another fabulous example of her unique outsider horror perspective.
The soundtrack and the score are the heartbeat of a weirdo, which is probably why I love it so much and it resonates deeply. The music is as much a character here as the ragtag group of misfits in New Orleans who find themselves connected by a strange woman named Mona (Jun Jong-seo) who appeared to be catatonic until one particular blood moon that wakes up more than just her voice. And powers.
In a post-Katrina landscape of NOLA, beat cop Officer Harold (Craig Robinson) does his best to curb the nonstop white devilry of his hometown. Until he meets Mona and her new ward Bonnie (Kate Hudson), a sex worker who will use any opportunity to get ahead, even if it appears to have supernatural and unpredictable provenance. Add to the mix Bonnie’s precocious son Charlie (Evan Whitten) who understands a lot more about not just his mom’s seedy world, but the broader context beyond that adults don’t give him any credit for. Until he meets Mona and her unlikely beau Fuzz (an unrecognizable Ed Skrein).
Theres so much I love about this film. But my favorite part is how the outsiders recognize their peers, and help them. There are many scenes here you think will go pear-shaped given so much American context — like the young skateboarders who give Mona shoes for her bare and bloody feet, leaving her unmolested — that make this film a strange delight.
And don’t forget that soundtrack and score embodying a weirdo’s heartbeat in adventure territory. If you’re one of us, you’ll feel it right away. It’s not just familiar. It’s home.
M-O-O-N/5 stars. That spells, “Watch this movie.”
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