Lydia Peever's Blog, page 58

typicalfilm: 10 Cloverfield Lane

10 Cloverfield Lane (2016)

Surely all the excitement means something. Most people tend to agree on not spoiling this for everyone else. We weren’t treated to months and years of production buzz – and that is the best thing about this film. After going to the theatre, I kind of wished I had known more about the plot and been able to better decide where to spend my time and money. What this sort of release assumes is that I’d go to the theatre to see just any old movie which is not true. While I am happy to have supported a mainstream release of a ‘horror’ film, it’s not something I’d typically hit in theatre. Something I only discovered about half way through.

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typicalfilm – Land Mine Goes Click

Land Mine Goes Click (2015)

I had been intrigued by this title, the art, and even more by the festival reaction. While it did have its moments – almost all in the last twenty minutes – there was a temptation to re-read all the reviews I had before to ensure they were about the same film. Chalk it up to desensitization if you will, but the most moving scenes lacked that certain push of the button for me. What this did succeed in doing is remind me of two films, one of which I should revisit, which is Funny Games.

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typicalfilm: Cannibal: A Love Story

Cannibal: A Love Story (2013)

While not the most exciting cannibal film out there, this is a nice one for a quiet afternoon. Should you want to get introspective on topics such as loneliness and how others expect people to want to have someone else to be close to, this offers an alternative view. Carlos is not concerned with having a mate, and seems to revel in his solitude. Enjoyable, though quiet and slow, it isn’t one of those films that end with him being turned to the light and eternal springtime of marital bliss. Quite the opposite.

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Dead Air Ep 48 – Maniac Cop

Gather under the sluice grate, for the latest Dead Air podcast episode has been mucked off the slab ~ http://ift.tt/21ncgHz

You have the right to remain silent…forever. In episode 48 of The Dead Air Podcast Wes and Lydia wave that right and talk about what many consider to be the last of the great 80’s New York based slashers. On the mean streets of New York city life is cheap and a rash of murders is as common as seeing the Statue of Liberty itself. However, even in the city that never sleeps a killer over six feet tall dressed as a cop tends to grab attention. The citizens of New York are terrified of the wrong arm of the law and it’s up to Jack and Theresa to clear their names and stop this Maniac Cop before he kills again. It’s an all out war in the dirty rotten apple! Also Lydia shares with us the horrors of working in the hotel industry.

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typicalfilm: Candyman 2: Farewell To the Flesh

Candyman 2: Farewell to the Flesh (1995)

Since there is an upcoming Dead Air covering the first one, which I’ve seen a lot more of, I thought I’d get cozy with part 2. Mardi Gras has come and gone so it’s not really timely, but I do have a soft spot for Tony Todd. And bees. My grandmother kept bees so the whole process that is, and the honey as a kid, took all the fear of them away from me. A spectral killer conjured by love and bad juju however, is quite creepy. This installment is not as atmospheric as the first, but keeps my interest with enough spatter, excitement and history.

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typicalfilm: Excess Flesh

Excess Flesh (2015)

Not since the documentary “Thin” have I watched something as unsettling with regard to eating disorders. Not only because the psychosis involved can be quite unsettling, and I myself have an odd relationship with food, but this is a fucking horror movie. It takes a topic that is already kind of horrifying and takes that to the next and sadly very realistic level. Well, realistic if you are as deeply unsettled as the lead femme. Amazing film really, and I’ll be rewatching it soon than later. The gore and insanity isn’t what got to me. Those in the know already know it was all the closeups of yukky food in ikky mouths. Now, that’s horror. Mouth sounds and spittle. I’d rather watch someone puke, and luckily we do.

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typicalfilm: The Corpse of Anna Fritz

The Corpse of Anna Fritz (2015)

I’ve been looking forward to this for a year or more and damn, was it worth the wait. Highly recommended, and I refuse to play into trigger warnings and not safe for this or that because there is plenty of news on this one. It has corpse in the title and the summary found in numerous places will tell you all you need to know. Majestically shot, minimalist in score and concept, I loved every minute.

Oddly, there was an author claiming this ripped off his work. I discovered this (and that he follows me on twitter) moments after watching. So, after debating I did indeed read his short story (that he kept calling his book) and let him know there were no similarities beyond having a corpse to start. Totally different tales. Turns out he watched the trailer and it sent him into a tizzy. The lesson here I suppose is to do your research, and don’t be a dick.

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Dead Air Ep 47 – Condemned

Gather under the sluice grate, for the latest Dead Air podcast episode has been mucked off the slab ~ http://ift.tt/1oWSuqi

Coming hard on episode 47 of Dead Air. In this episode Wes and Lydia discuss the recent movie Condemned. A film strangely absent from horror outlets but all over mainstream media. A rich girl finds her way to her boyfriend’s place in New York after she can no longer take the problems she faces at home. Little does she know that her man is squatting in a condemned building with a strange assortment of other people from the wrong side of the tracks. They become locked in against their will and must fight to escape as each one of their former roommates succumbs to a mysterious and violent infection. For more episodes, check out splatterpictures.net

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Dead Air Ep 38 – Clown

Gather under the sluice grate, for the latest Dead Air podcast episode has been mucked off the slab ~ http://ift.tt/1OSqQzN

In episode 38 Wes and Lydia paint their faces and put on their circus inspired best as they watch the criminally underrated Clown.
An ordinary man finds a clown costume locked in a basement and wears it to his kids birthday party. He should have checked the warning label! Side effects include: Pale skin, vomiting and murderous hunger pangs! The cure? Eat five children and call us in the morning. For more episodes check out splatterpictures.net

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What Scares Me

Originally appeared in the Ottawa Citizen, October 28, 2013 as a Halloween themed op-ed series

xxx

Every day I sit around and think about how to scare you. I think about how to exact that pound of flesh. What would you find more terrifying, pain or suspense? All the monsters we know stand patiently in line and wait their turn. In my head I go over the words that would enhance a theatre of fear, then decide where in the audience you sit. I think about how to scare you, and I think about it a lot.

Writing horror makes for peculiar bedfellows. Like Grey’s Anatomy; the book, not the show. That was a good start when I was writing in high school. Now it has progressed to the Colour Atlas Of Forensic Pathology and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Scary stuff, but not from my textbook point of view. Call it desensitization but from where I sit that’s not a bad thing. Looking at violent or grotesque imagery does not scare me. Sure, there may be a level of discernible distaste, but pages flip over. Books close. Movies fall in that same milieu.

Shocking images can and do scare people. Some don’t like it. It is easy to think about what scares others but to have horror really bleed out across the page, I need to be scared. I need to creep me out. I need to freak out Lydia and that isn’t easy.

Having lived in the countryside near dense forest, I’ve faced a lot of things that do scare people. The Dark. Wild animals.  Isolation. Things I have a healthy respect for but no fear per se. These are real fears that present themselves but so far, I’ve encountered nothing that makes me afraid to venture into these places. Dark trails, abandoned hotels and ghost towns? Yes please!

Not long ago, I was upstairs in my house having conversation with a friend near three in the morning. We heard a noise. Something clattered off the counter downstairs, near the back door. I rushed down three steps ahead of him. My friend was stronger, faster and way taller than I and clearly the obvious choice to send after a bump in the night. Home invasions and burglars are scary things. It was my house after all, and in the moment, I would not say I was scared but very concerned.

Spiders, wasps, snakes and assorted creepy crawlies can be terrifying. I only had to go through handfuls of the thousands of encounters to verify I was certainly not afraid of them. Luckily, when a friend has a bug on her shirt I have no problem rescuing the poor creature before panic takes hold. Sure, I’ve been startled by a spider dangling over my face or a sudden snake slithering across a path. Startled is not the same as scared.

Am I afraid of heights? No. I get vertigo, but I know that already. When hiking, we’ve opted to not cross a busted bridge spanning a craggy crevasse over rushing water on my insistence, but I don’t call that scared. I call that smart.

There is one thing though. One thing that goes beyond being startled. It’s not about being smart or careful. This is something that scares me and I have no control over it. When it happens, my imagination runs wild, my heart leaps into my chest and my blood will run cold.

In the dark of night, I may be up, drifting off, or dead asleep. I’m all alone and the telephone rings. Looking at the display, if the call is coming from my parent’s house the fear sets in. Even worse, the call is coming from my sister, or a close uncle. After midnight, they are all supposed to be asleep. Something terrible must have happened.  Scenarios rush through my mind, and for a moment I can’t move. I don’t want to answer, I don’t want this to be happening. Then, the phone rings a second time.

Adults around me when I was little had the same reaction. After midnight, if the phone rang, everyone would bolt upright and look at one another with this faint look of dread. People asleep would trundle out of bed asking who was on the phone, yawning but anxious to hear the answer. Rarely was it anything alarming. Sometimes someone had passed away, but nothing terribly tragic. Never as horrible as the things my imagination inserts between that first and second ring.

Terrible news can come from any number when you least expect it. Late at night though, it’s different. There is suddenly too much physical distance between that handset and mine. There is nothing I can do no matter what has happened. So, it is either silly and simple, or my most terrifying unknown: a telephone ringing in the dark.

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