David Dubrow's Blog, page 45
August 31, 2015
Vester Lee Flanagan: Lessons Learned
Vester Lee Flanagan stalked and murdered two of his former colleagues: Alison Parker, 24 years old, and Adam Ward, 27. He walked up and shot them both to death on a self-shot video, posted the video on social media, and committed suicide not long after. This entire crime is an unmitigated horror.
But, as I always say, it would be worse if we didn't learn anything from it.
I've written about personal defense several times before, but there's one element of it that I haven't touched upon, mostly because it's not typically relevant to the average person: if someone really wants to kill you, he eventually will. You can be aware, avoidant, trained, alert, and strong, but if you've made the kind of enemy that really does just want to kill you and carries out a plan to do so, you're most likely going to die unless you're very fortunate during critical moments of his assault.
"Situational awareness" is a buzzword we throw around that describes being aware of your surroundings, especially in a public space. The "situational" modifier is unnecessary, as anything can be described as a situation, but to sound more tactical we like to add those sorts of adjectives. Situational awareness includes the act of looking around to see if someone with obvious malicious intent is nearby. Muggers don't teleport in to attack you. If you've ever been attacked by surprise, it's probably because you weren't aware of your surroundings. Muggers rely on the fact that most people don't pay attention to what's around them. They profile potential victims by seeing if they're alert and looking around or not.
Would being situationally aware have saved Parker and Ward? I doubt it. From the video he shot, it's clear that they weren't paying any attention to him during his approach. His dark clothing and the way he crept up reminded me of the video of an assassination attempt on Imelda Marcos. It's not bloody or visceral, so take a look at it here. Note that everyone else in the crowd going up to talk to Marcos wore white, seemed to be smiling. And then the assassin walks up: dressed in black, scowling, reaching into his sleeve. Nobody noticed this guy until he started trying to hack her up, including her bodyguards. Why not? Because they weren't practicing situational awareness.
Parker and Ward were not in any position to defend themselves: both were deeply engrossed in a task, both were entirely unaware that a deeply disturbed man had fixated on them. It's also likely that nothing in their lives had ever prepared them for this attack. They were nice people like you and me. Who expects to be shot to death doing a 7:00 AM interview in Moneta, Virginia?
I don't think anything could have saved those people from Vester Lee Flanagan. He stalked them, chose a moment that was least advantageous for them, and struck. You can practice awareness, avoidance, de-escalation techniques, and physical combat all day every day, but if someone's going to go through the same trouble that Flanagan did to stalk and kill you, you're screwed.
Don't leave the house mad. Tell your loved ones that you love them.
And be aware, just in case.
But, as I always say, it would be worse if we didn't learn anything from it.
I've written about personal defense several times before, but there's one element of it that I haven't touched upon, mostly because it's not typically relevant to the average person: if someone really wants to kill you, he eventually will. You can be aware, avoidant, trained, alert, and strong, but if you've made the kind of enemy that really does just want to kill you and carries out a plan to do so, you're most likely going to die unless you're very fortunate during critical moments of his assault.
"Situational awareness" is a buzzword we throw around that describes being aware of your surroundings, especially in a public space. The "situational" modifier is unnecessary, as anything can be described as a situation, but to sound more tactical we like to add those sorts of adjectives. Situational awareness includes the act of looking around to see if someone with obvious malicious intent is nearby. Muggers don't teleport in to attack you. If you've ever been attacked by surprise, it's probably because you weren't aware of your surroundings. Muggers rely on the fact that most people don't pay attention to what's around them. They profile potential victims by seeing if they're alert and looking around or not. Would being situationally aware have saved Parker and Ward? I doubt it. From the video he shot, it's clear that they weren't paying any attention to him during his approach. His dark clothing and the way he crept up reminded me of the video of an assassination attempt on Imelda Marcos. It's not bloody or visceral, so take a look at it here. Note that everyone else in the crowd going up to talk to Marcos wore white, seemed to be smiling. And then the assassin walks up: dressed in black, scowling, reaching into his sleeve. Nobody noticed this guy until he started trying to hack her up, including her bodyguards. Why not? Because they weren't practicing situational awareness.
Parker and Ward were not in any position to defend themselves: both were deeply engrossed in a task, both were entirely unaware that a deeply disturbed man had fixated on them. It's also likely that nothing in their lives had ever prepared them for this attack. They were nice people like you and me. Who expects to be shot to death doing a 7:00 AM interview in Moneta, Virginia?
I don't think anything could have saved those people from Vester Lee Flanagan. He stalked them, chose a moment that was least advantageous for them, and struck. You can practice awareness, avoidance, de-escalation techniques, and physical combat all day every day, but if someone's going to go through the same trouble that Flanagan did to stalk and kill you, you're screwed.
Don't leave the house mad. Tell your loved ones that you love them.
And be aware, just in case.
August 28, 2015
Friday Links: Lycans, Teenage Zombies, and Conan at a Desk (Plus Bonus Social Commentary)
It's been a brutal week and there are a few issues I'd like to discuss relating to the terrible murders of two journalists on Wednesday, so this will be a shorter Friday Links post. If current events don't interest you, feel free to skip the bottom paragraphs.
Shen Hart talked about Lycans in her Urban Fantasy universe: "They’re a meritocratic society of forms, meaning that whoever fights their way to the top takes control. The one at the top also has breeding rights. It can be very dangerous if a female becomes pregnant and either she’s pushed out of control, or the male who was in control loses said control. That means that someone who’s no longer in control will be passing on their genes. That puts them at risk of the alpha of the time killing them or their offspring. It’s not a common occurrence, but some packs are more prone to it than others."At the invaluable, incredible R'lyeh Tribune , Sean Eaton discussed the difficulties of being the king when you're Conan the Barbarian: "The opening pages of The Phoenix on the Sword finds King Conan uncomfortably enthroned as the king of Aquilonia, having overthrown its brutal despot several years before. Howard contrasts the barbarian’s simple dress and gruff manner with the overly ornate decorations of the palace; the scene opens with Conan sitting morosely at a desk, reminiscing about the battlefields he longs to return to."
Nev Murray began his Kit Power feature with an interview at his Confessions of a Reviewer!!: "So after that comes writing. Just keep pounding the keyboard, let the story come. Don't overthink it – try not to think at all, really. Which sounds ridiculous, but... it's like watching a movie on the inside of my head, only I can be in the film, smelling and tasting. And when I'm writing that first draft, it's reporting – what do I see? What do I smell? I write as fast as I can, and I try and write every day, keeping it alive and fresh."At Jim Mcleod's Ginger Nuts of Horror, Alex Davis actually liked one of the Guinea Pig films: "As we reach the third installment of the Guinea Pigs, I have to say this is that one that I have enjoyed the most. It's the sort of movie that would rate as a guilty pleasure – lashings of blood and gore, some genuinely strange moments of comedy (the two feet talking to each other still makes me chuckle now) and a finale that reaches heights of of bizarreness before plunging into a final scene with a fitting sense of bathos."
John Kenneth Muir
shone new light on M. Night Shyamalan: "I have rarely felt disappointed by Shyamalan’s silver screen work, in part, because it so relentlessly personal, so individual in visualization and story-telling. Indeed, I find it highly ironic that this cinematic artist is criticized so regularly (and so angrily) for boasting a consistent, distinctive approach to filmmaking while dozens of generic, cookie-cutter superhero movies get made every year and are lauded breathlessly as being something special and unique."You've got to take a look at what came out of Zombo's Closet: The Incredible Petrified World and Teenage Zombies.Here, I pointed you to a review I wrote of Paolo Di Orazio's My Early Crimes and discussed the 2015 Hugo Award.On August 26, a disturbed man named Vester Lee Flanagan shot three people, killing two of them. The two murdered were journalists and former colleagues of his. The details are appalling, from the racist motives (Flanagan was black, his victims white) to the video Flanagan shot of the crime to the youth of the victims. Many of the reactions to this horror on the gigantic, overflowing, unflushed toilet that is social media were disagreeable, so I'll address them here. "We need more gun control!" I disagree that the best reaction to crime is to disarm every law-abiding person on the planet. "Men who own guns are compensating for being wimps!" I disagree that the definition of bravery or masculinity includes leaving the defense of oneself, one's wife, and one's children in the hands of other people."Only in America!" I disagree that the United States of America is the only country on the planet where people are murdered with firearms.Illustration by Tom Sullivan for Call of Cthulhu's
The Great Old Ones
supplement.
Shen Hart talked about Lycans in her Urban Fantasy universe: "They’re a meritocratic society of forms, meaning that whoever fights their way to the top takes control. The one at the top also has breeding rights. It can be very dangerous if a female becomes pregnant and either she’s pushed out of control, or the male who was in control loses said control. That means that someone who’s no longer in control will be passing on their genes. That puts them at risk of the alpha of the time killing them or their offspring. It’s not a common occurrence, but some packs are more prone to it than others."At the invaluable, incredible R'lyeh Tribune , Sean Eaton discussed the difficulties of being the king when you're Conan the Barbarian: "The opening pages of The Phoenix on the Sword finds King Conan uncomfortably enthroned as the king of Aquilonia, having overthrown its brutal despot several years before. Howard contrasts the barbarian’s simple dress and gruff manner with the overly ornate decorations of the palace; the scene opens with Conan sitting morosely at a desk, reminiscing about the battlefields he longs to return to."
Nev Murray began his Kit Power feature with an interview at his Confessions of a Reviewer!!: "So after that comes writing. Just keep pounding the keyboard, let the story come. Don't overthink it – try not to think at all, really. Which sounds ridiculous, but... it's like watching a movie on the inside of my head, only I can be in the film, smelling and tasting. And when I'm writing that first draft, it's reporting – what do I see? What do I smell? I write as fast as I can, and I try and write every day, keeping it alive and fresh."At Jim Mcleod's Ginger Nuts of Horror, Alex Davis actually liked one of the Guinea Pig films: "As we reach the third installment of the Guinea Pigs, I have to say this is that one that I have enjoyed the most. It's the sort of movie that would rate as a guilty pleasure – lashings of blood and gore, some genuinely strange moments of comedy (the two feet talking to each other still makes me chuckle now) and a finale that reaches heights of of bizarreness before plunging into a final scene with a fitting sense of bathos."
John Kenneth Muir
shone new light on M. Night Shyamalan: "I have rarely felt disappointed by Shyamalan’s silver screen work, in part, because it so relentlessly personal, so individual in visualization and story-telling. Indeed, I find it highly ironic that this cinematic artist is criticized so regularly (and so angrily) for boasting a consistent, distinctive approach to filmmaking while dozens of generic, cookie-cutter superhero movies get made every year and are lauded breathlessly as being something special and unique."You've got to take a look at what came out of Zombo's Closet: The Incredible Petrified World and Teenage Zombies.Here, I pointed you to a review I wrote of Paolo Di Orazio's My Early Crimes and discussed the 2015 Hugo Award.On August 26, a disturbed man named Vester Lee Flanagan shot three people, killing two of them. The two murdered were journalists and former colleagues of his. The details are appalling, from the racist motives (Flanagan was black, his victims white) to the video Flanagan shot of the crime to the youth of the victims. Many of the reactions to this horror on the gigantic, overflowing, unflushed toilet that is social media were disagreeable, so I'll address them here. "We need more gun control!" I disagree that the best reaction to crime is to disarm every law-abiding person on the planet. "Men who own guns are compensating for being wimps!" I disagree that the definition of bravery or masculinity includes leaving the defense of oneself, one's wife, and one's children in the hands of other people."Only in America!" I disagree that the United States of America is the only country on the planet where people are murdered with firearms.Illustration by Tom Sullivan for Call of Cthulhu's
The Great Old Ones
supplement.
August 26, 2015
2015 Hugo Award
Interested parties can read my previous article on politicizing the 2015 Hugo Award here.
The winners of the 2015 Hugo Award were announced recently, but the most noteworthy thing about it from a news perspective is who didn't get an award. Five categories were issued "No Award," which means nobody won for Best Novella, Best Short Story, Best Related Work, Best Editor Short Form, and Best Editor Long Form.
Those paying attention to the controversy surrounding this year's Hugo will note the polarization of media coverage. Leftists claim that the Puppies' efforts to stack the ballots is an attempt by white men to eliminate diversity in science fiction. Conservatives say that their intent is to reclaim the award to represent quality of story over politics. The Puppies are fighting to keep from being discriminated against for political views that have nothing to do with the fiction they write. The lack of overlap between leftist and conservative claims is noteworthy.
It's ludicrous to have to point this out, but the Puppies' slate of 2015 ballots included not just white men, but women and people of color. Unfortunately, identity politics has poisoned our common culture to the extent that we have to count things like this to debunk a claim of "lack of diversity". Note also that when 2015 Puppies leader Brad Torgersen's family photo was posted online, a journalist covering the Hugos called Mrs. Torgersen, who happens to be black, a "shield"; that is, implying that Brad Torgersen married her because she was black, and hence would shield him from accusations of racism. Disgusting, yes. And par for the course. Now that we get to paint everyone with an extremist brush by claiming that Vox Day speaks for all Puppies, it's reasonable to say that Arthur Chu speaks for everyone on the anti-Puppy side. It's an ugly game, but as long as it goes, I'll play by the rules.
Next year's Hugo Award promises similar controversy, though the Puppies' leader will be Kate Paulk. I am reasonably certain that Kate Paulk is a woman (and will likely be called a shield of some kind, also).
Considering the slate of Puppy authors, the claim that the Puppies are sexist racists out to reclaim science fiction for old white men has been proven false. Why, then, does it still get traction? Either its adherents haven't bothered to educate themselves on the facts, or they have educated themselves and decided that the facts need to be sacrificed on the altar of politics (a frequent occurrence). It's not as though the books on the Puppies' slate promulgated conservative political views: it's that some of the Puppy authors happened to be conservatives.
This needs to be emphasized, because it goes to the heart of the problem: the Hugos no longer represent the quality of science fiction, but the perceived quality of certain science fiction authors. The Hugo Award is now a political litmus test, and if you're a conservative (or liked by conservatives or associated with a conservative) you don't rate.
How can you game a system that has already been gamed? How can you cheat if the rules are already stacked against you?
Leftists are claiming victory now because they've kept the conservative Puppy riff-raff out through No Awarding their slate. This means, for example, that the extremely talented editor Toni Weisskopf didn't receive a deserved award because angry influential leftists don't like her, not because her work was shoddy. It wasn't. It isn't. It never is. (In the interest of full disclosure, I will say that I met Ms. Weisskopf a couple of times when I worked on video projects with her late husband, the great Hank Reinhardt.)
Conservatives are claiming victory because they've proven that the Hugos are driven by politics over quality. The No Awards prove it. The disgusting celebration of so many No Awards this year slams the point home.
What's next?
Now that we know beyond any shadow of doubt that the Hugo Award is a political litmus test, it must no longer be seen as a measure of quality. It's a marketing tool for protected authors. It's a dot whack on a cover that will help the right people sell books. It's a leftist victory stamp. It should be ignored.
I admire the Puppies' efforts to fight on, to push back against the inevitable politicization of the Hugo Award in 2016, but they have to remember O'Sullivan's First Law: "All organizations that are not actually right-wing will over time become left-wing." O'Sullivan has yet to be proven wrong on this point. Journalism, entertainment media, education: the left owns these things and they will not let them go without a big, bloody fight.
Good luck.
The winners of the 2015 Hugo Award were announced recently, but the most noteworthy thing about it from a news perspective is who didn't get an award. Five categories were issued "No Award," which means nobody won for Best Novella, Best Short Story, Best Related Work, Best Editor Short Form, and Best Editor Long Form.
Those paying attention to the controversy surrounding this year's Hugo will note the polarization of media coverage. Leftists claim that the Puppies' efforts to stack the ballots is an attempt by white men to eliminate diversity in science fiction. Conservatives say that their intent is to reclaim the award to represent quality of story over politics. The Puppies are fighting to keep from being discriminated against for political views that have nothing to do with the fiction they write. The lack of overlap between leftist and conservative claims is noteworthy.
It's ludicrous to have to point this out, but the Puppies' slate of 2015 ballots included not just white men, but women and people of color. Unfortunately, identity politics has poisoned our common culture to the extent that we have to count things like this to debunk a claim of "lack of diversity". Note also that when 2015 Puppies leader Brad Torgersen's family photo was posted online, a journalist covering the Hugos called Mrs. Torgersen, who happens to be black, a "shield"; that is, implying that Brad Torgersen married her because she was black, and hence would shield him from accusations of racism. Disgusting, yes. And par for the course. Now that we get to paint everyone with an extremist brush by claiming that Vox Day speaks for all Puppies, it's reasonable to say that Arthur Chu speaks for everyone on the anti-Puppy side. It's an ugly game, but as long as it goes, I'll play by the rules.Next year's Hugo Award promises similar controversy, though the Puppies' leader will be Kate Paulk. I am reasonably certain that Kate Paulk is a woman (and will likely be called a shield of some kind, also).
Considering the slate of Puppy authors, the claim that the Puppies are sexist racists out to reclaim science fiction for old white men has been proven false. Why, then, does it still get traction? Either its adherents haven't bothered to educate themselves on the facts, or they have educated themselves and decided that the facts need to be sacrificed on the altar of politics (a frequent occurrence). It's not as though the books on the Puppies' slate promulgated conservative political views: it's that some of the Puppy authors happened to be conservatives.
This needs to be emphasized, because it goes to the heart of the problem: the Hugos no longer represent the quality of science fiction, but the perceived quality of certain science fiction authors. The Hugo Award is now a political litmus test, and if you're a conservative (or liked by conservatives or associated with a conservative) you don't rate.
How can you game a system that has already been gamed? How can you cheat if the rules are already stacked against you?
Leftists are claiming victory now because they've kept the conservative Puppy riff-raff out through No Awarding their slate. This means, for example, that the extremely talented editor Toni Weisskopf didn't receive a deserved award because angry influential leftists don't like her, not because her work was shoddy. It wasn't. It isn't. It never is. (In the interest of full disclosure, I will say that I met Ms. Weisskopf a couple of times when I worked on video projects with her late husband, the great Hank Reinhardt.)
Conservatives are claiming victory because they've proven that the Hugos are driven by politics over quality. The No Awards prove it. The disgusting celebration of so many No Awards this year slams the point home.
What's next?
Now that we know beyond any shadow of doubt that the Hugo Award is a political litmus test, it must no longer be seen as a measure of quality. It's a marketing tool for protected authors. It's a dot whack on a cover that will help the right people sell books. It's a leftist victory stamp. It should be ignored.
I admire the Puppies' efforts to fight on, to push back against the inevitable politicization of the Hugo Award in 2016, but they have to remember O'Sullivan's First Law: "All organizations that are not actually right-wing will over time become left-wing." O'Sullivan has yet to be proven wrong on this point. Journalism, entertainment media, education: the left owns these things and they will not let them go without a big, bloody fight.
Good luck.
August 24, 2015
GNoH Review: My Early Crimes
At Jim Mcleod's Ginger Nuts of Horror, I reviewed Paolo Di Orazio's short story collection
My Early Crimes
:
"A disturbing book on many levels, Di Orazio manages to keep its subject matter from becoming exploitive, using various styles and points of view to describe truly terrible acts."
Disturbing, yes. But worth your valuable reading time? Click to find out!
"A disturbing book on many levels, Di Orazio manages to keep its subject matter from becoming exploitive, using various styles and points of view to describe truly terrible acts."
Disturbing, yes. But worth your valuable reading time? Click to find out!
August 21, 2015
Friday Links: Rebecca Hall, Growing up With Ghosts, and The Last Bus
It's almost time to get back to school for those of us who do such things or know people who do such things. As you consider such things, take a long look back at the last week to see what you may have missed in the world of the bizarre, horrific, and unusual:Zombos' Closet of Horror burst forth and vomited out Monster Times Issue 19 from February 1973. Sean Eaton brought us Schneider's theory of Hyperconstriction and Hyperexpansion at his amazingly readable R'lyeh Tribune: "The characteristics of the hyperconstricted mode include confinement, claustrophobia, diminishing life force, descent, retreat, and isolation. Hyperconstriction directs one toward the grave—or toward the womb. Taken to an extreme, it leads toward the experience of obliteration."Ginger Nuts of Horror interviewed SFX wizard Rebecca Hall: "I have always loved films ever since I can remember. I have wanted to be involved in making film. I was always arty at school always drawing faces and as I got older I started to appreciate make up and the changes it could make to your appearance so the two kind of fell together for me. I have always enjoyed horror films and thought that they always looked like the most fun to do !! As I was learning make Up I sort of discovered that I was better at the FX so from there really."
Sharon Day talked about her book Growing up With Ghosts at Ghost Hunting Theories: "It all began in 1963 when my family moved into an estate in Fairfax, Virginia. Aspen Grove was built in the mid 1700s as a fort against Indians. In the 1800s, it was taken over by the North to be used as a field hospital and during the war, wrestled back as the same thing for the South. Both sides of the war agonized and died in that home. In fact, the wood floors were still stained with their blood, and the earth littered with bullets, guns, bayonets and the like."Morgan Freeman's step-granddaughter (I've never heard of such a thing until now) was murdered by her boyfriend, who shouted some bizarre things as he committed the brutal crime: "The perpetrator, identified by the New York Post as an ex-boyfriend, screamed "Get out, devils! I cast you out, devils! In the name of Jesus Christ, I cast you out!" as he stabbed E'Dena Hines, 33, whose grandmother was Freeman's first wife."It was all Duncan Bradshaw all the time at Nev Murray's Confessions of a Reviewer!! this week: "Right where do I start with this one? As I said previously I have discovered a new found love of zombie books, if they have something different. After agreeing to review this one I discovered it had a comedy element to it. Straight away my alarm bells go off. I like a certain amount of wit and humour in my books (the darker the better) but a comedy zombie book? Hmmm."John Kenneth Muir deconstructed
2010: The Year We Make Contact
: "If Kubrick’s film took a big step back from the characters and attempted to observe the long arc of man’s development with a sense of cerebral detachment, Hyams’ film instead examines man at this juncture with passionate, colorful, up-close strokes. When considered in such terms,
2010: The Year We Make Contact
might be viewed as a pretty strong and, yes, wholly valid complement to Kubrick’s film. It is both a faithful continuation of the franchise’s overall narrative, and at the same time an apparent commentary on the visionary world envisioned by Kubrick."Here, I reviewed the movie
The Conjuring
and Paul M. Feeney's novella
The Last Bus
. For those inclined to the political, I wrote a piece about conservative writers and Facebook at Liberty Island.Illustration by Frank Brunner for Chaosium's Stormbringer 4th Edition Rulebook.
Sharon Day talked about her book Growing up With Ghosts at Ghost Hunting Theories: "It all began in 1963 when my family moved into an estate in Fairfax, Virginia. Aspen Grove was built in the mid 1700s as a fort against Indians. In the 1800s, it was taken over by the North to be used as a field hospital and during the war, wrestled back as the same thing for the South. Both sides of the war agonized and died in that home. In fact, the wood floors were still stained with their blood, and the earth littered with bullets, guns, bayonets and the like."Morgan Freeman's step-granddaughter (I've never heard of such a thing until now) was murdered by her boyfriend, who shouted some bizarre things as he committed the brutal crime: "The perpetrator, identified by the New York Post as an ex-boyfriend, screamed "Get out, devils! I cast you out, devils! In the name of Jesus Christ, I cast you out!" as he stabbed E'Dena Hines, 33, whose grandmother was Freeman's first wife."It was all Duncan Bradshaw all the time at Nev Murray's Confessions of a Reviewer!! this week: "Right where do I start with this one? As I said previously I have discovered a new found love of zombie books, if they have something different. After agreeing to review this one I discovered it had a comedy element to it. Straight away my alarm bells go off. I like a certain amount of wit and humour in my books (the darker the better) but a comedy zombie book? Hmmm."John Kenneth Muir deconstructed
2010: The Year We Make Contact
: "If Kubrick’s film took a big step back from the characters and attempted to observe the long arc of man’s development with a sense of cerebral detachment, Hyams’ film instead examines man at this juncture with passionate, colorful, up-close strokes. When considered in such terms,
2010: The Year We Make Contact
might be viewed as a pretty strong and, yes, wholly valid complement to Kubrick’s film. It is both a faithful continuation of the franchise’s overall narrative, and at the same time an apparent commentary on the visionary world envisioned by Kubrick."Here, I reviewed the movie
The Conjuring
and Paul M. Feeney's novella
The Last Bus
. For those inclined to the political, I wrote a piece about conservative writers and Facebook at Liberty Island.Illustration by Frank Brunner for Chaosium's Stormbringer 4th Edition Rulebook.
August 19, 2015
Book Review: Paul M. Feeney's The Last Bus
The Last Bus
by Paul M. Feeney is a B-movie novella with big budget fun. Feeney takes a typical, prosaic situation and invests it with dread, scares, and pathos the way good horror stories do, and leaves you at the end hoping for more. Told from the point of view of multiple characters, it tells a story of the first few harrowing hours of a hostile alien invasion, with all the death and destruction such an event would entail. Several interludes are interspersed within the narrative, describing the horrible nature of the aliens and what they do to and with innocent victims. I found most of these interludes to be a bit distracting, taking the emphasis from the characters on the eponymous bus to a number of strangers you know won't survive the hour. Nevertheless, they're well-written and help increase the overall feeling of dread.
After reading The Last Bus, you won't go on public transport again without doing a quick assessment of your fellow passengers, determining if they're going to be help or harm during an alien invasion. It's vivid, gory, horrifying, and exciting. Just what you'd want for a few hours of horror entertainment.
August 17, 2015
Two Minute Movie Review: The Conjuring
Overall,
The Conjuring
was an entertaining film with some genuine scares and a good cast. It had some significant weaknesses, however, that took the film from very good to just good.
The title suggested witchcraft, but the problem was that the undead witch didn't actually, you know, conjure anything. So the title was somewhat misleading.
Ed Warren had a calm assurance at the beginning that suggested competence and experience in supernatural occurrences, and the actor did a great job of turning that into genuine alarm when things got dangerous. I don't know why Lorraine Warren had to dress like a Victorian schoolmarm transplanted into 1971. Lili Taylor was inoffensive, even when possessed (that's a problem). Ron Livingston was wasted, though he did as much as he could with a mostly thankless role.
There's such a thing as being based too much on a true story, and that's where the film fell down. We really didn't need all five daughters as characters. They tended to blur together except for the really little one and the really big one. The subplot with the evil doll was an utter waste of time that detracted from the movie's focus. It's great that the Warrens have their own family and all, but we didn't need to see their daughter in danger. It muddled things.
So the antagonist was a witch, right? Or was it a demon? Or a demon possessing the now-dead witch? Or a demon/witch amalgam? If it was just an undead witch, then why would an exorcism with a Catholic priest kick her out? I thought exorcism only worked on demons. What happened to the other ghosts: Rory and the maid? Did they get exorcised, too?
The daughter sliding around the living room floor elicited laughs more than terror.
It was mentioned that crucifixes annoy the demon, but apparently don't stop it. And Ed Warren was able to exorcise the demon himself instead of needing a priest from the Vatican to do it. Does that mean anyone can perform an exorcism? I thought priests had an extra line to God because of their study, their faith, their sacrifices and training. In this film they don't. Why have priests at all, then? The treatment of religion in the film was muddled, though it was an interesting departure to have the Warrens be, at least partially, people of faith.
I liked the movie, but not that much. 3 out of 5 stars.
The title suggested witchcraft, but the problem was that the undead witch didn't actually, you know, conjure anything. So the title was somewhat misleading.
Ed Warren had a calm assurance at the beginning that suggested competence and experience in supernatural occurrences, and the actor did a great job of turning that into genuine alarm when things got dangerous. I don't know why Lorraine Warren had to dress like a Victorian schoolmarm transplanted into 1971. Lili Taylor was inoffensive, even when possessed (that's a problem). Ron Livingston was wasted, though he did as much as he could with a mostly thankless role. There's such a thing as being based too much on a true story, and that's where the film fell down. We really didn't need all five daughters as characters. They tended to blur together except for the really little one and the really big one. The subplot with the evil doll was an utter waste of time that detracted from the movie's focus. It's great that the Warrens have their own family and all, but we didn't need to see their daughter in danger. It muddled things.
So the antagonist was a witch, right? Or was it a demon? Or a demon possessing the now-dead witch? Or a demon/witch amalgam? If it was just an undead witch, then why would an exorcism with a Catholic priest kick her out? I thought exorcism only worked on demons. What happened to the other ghosts: Rory and the maid? Did they get exorcised, too?
The daughter sliding around the living room floor elicited laughs more than terror.
It was mentioned that crucifixes annoy the demon, but apparently don't stop it. And Ed Warren was able to exorcise the demon himself instead of needing a priest from the Vatican to do it. Does that mean anyone can perform an exorcism? I thought priests had an extra line to God because of their study, their faith, their sacrifices and training. In this film they don't. Why have priests at all, then? The treatment of religion in the film was muddled, though it was an interesting departure to have the Warrens be, at least partially, people of faith.
I liked the movie, but not that much. 3 out of 5 stars.
August 14, 2015
Friday Links: Carcosa, Donnie Darko, and The Time of the Hawklords
As the weekend hurtles toward us, let's take a long look back on the days that led up to it:
John Kenneth Muir tackled Donnie Darko in a must-read piece: "In seeing his world end, however, Donnie experiences an epiphany. He comes to finally recognize that 'destruction is a form of creation,' to quote the film. His ending -- his death -- creates a new beginning for his family, his girlfriend, and the whole of the human race. He laughs madly immediately preceding his death, because only at the end does he recognize God’s plan for him."Sean Eaton took us on a brief, disturbing trip to Carcosa in his invaluable, incredible R'lyeh Tribune: "Interestingly, The King in Yellow is not a history book or a procedural manual like its brothers on the shelf. It is a dramatic work, a play. Its creator Robert W. Chambers beguiles his readers with snatches of dialogue and song, but never provides enough of the material to cause insanity or suicide in the reader—only curiosity. His marvelous fictional work of the same name, published in 1895, is a collection of stories linked thematically around the effects of reading The King in Yellow."
The pressbook for Nightmare was one of the many interesting things to come out of Zombos' Closet.Nev Murray reviewed Caroline Mitchell's Don't Turn Around at his
Confessions of a Reviewer!!
: "The addition of the paranormal element is a fantastic twist that keeps you glued to the story because you never really know what’s going to happen next. Jennifer doesn’t so why should you? You know the way you can guess things when the main character is still in the dark and you might scream at them to see what you see? Not with this baby you won’t. I knew who the ultimate villain in the story was from very early on. No I didn’t. I thought I did then when it became clear it wasn’t them, I finally had it sussed." (No word on whether Der Kommissar's in town or not.)The Time of the Hawklords was a featured dish at Breakfast in the Ruins: "Given that Michael Moorcock knocked about with Hawkwind quite a bit on the Ladbroke Grove freak-scene of the early ‘70s (contributing spoken word recitations and slightly more nebulous ‘concepts’ to their ‘Space Ritual’ and ‘Warrior At The Edge of Time’ albums, amongst other things), it must have seemed splendidly inevitable that the prolific scribe should choose to immortalise his rock n’ roll mates in fiction at some point. However, the co-billing here of Michael Butterworth (a latter-day New Worlds contributor who went on to co-found the controversial Manchester imprint Savoy Books), together with the book’s absence from most Moorcock bibliographies, tells a slightly different story."At Ginger Nuts of Horror, Alex Davis watched Guinea Pig: The Devil's Experiment so you don't have to: "It was particularly made infamous when, in 1991, the second movie in the series, Flower of Flesh and Blood, was investigated by the FBI as potentially being a genuine snuff film. The sixth film in the series, Devil Woman Doctor, was also found in the collection of serial killer Tsutomu Miyazaki, which only added to the movies' dark reputation."Here, I reviewed the zombie apocalypse film Wyrmwood and pointed you to a trio of brand-new reviews of The Blessed Man and the Witch.Illustration by Tom Sullivan, taken from Call of Cthulhu's
Masks of Nyarlathotep
supplement.
John Kenneth Muir tackled Donnie Darko in a must-read piece: "In seeing his world end, however, Donnie experiences an epiphany. He comes to finally recognize that 'destruction is a form of creation,' to quote the film. His ending -- his death -- creates a new beginning for his family, his girlfriend, and the whole of the human race. He laughs madly immediately preceding his death, because only at the end does he recognize God’s plan for him."Sean Eaton took us on a brief, disturbing trip to Carcosa in his invaluable, incredible R'lyeh Tribune: "Interestingly, The King in Yellow is not a history book or a procedural manual like its brothers on the shelf. It is a dramatic work, a play. Its creator Robert W. Chambers beguiles his readers with snatches of dialogue and song, but never provides enough of the material to cause insanity or suicide in the reader—only curiosity. His marvelous fictional work of the same name, published in 1895, is a collection of stories linked thematically around the effects of reading The King in Yellow."
The pressbook for Nightmare was one of the many interesting things to come out of Zombos' Closet.Nev Murray reviewed Caroline Mitchell's Don't Turn Around at his
Confessions of a Reviewer!!
: "The addition of the paranormal element is a fantastic twist that keeps you glued to the story because you never really know what’s going to happen next. Jennifer doesn’t so why should you? You know the way you can guess things when the main character is still in the dark and you might scream at them to see what you see? Not with this baby you won’t. I knew who the ultimate villain in the story was from very early on. No I didn’t. I thought I did then when it became clear it wasn’t them, I finally had it sussed." (No word on whether Der Kommissar's in town or not.)The Time of the Hawklords was a featured dish at Breakfast in the Ruins: "Given that Michael Moorcock knocked about with Hawkwind quite a bit on the Ladbroke Grove freak-scene of the early ‘70s (contributing spoken word recitations and slightly more nebulous ‘concepts’ to their ‘Space Ritual’ and ‘Warrior At The Edge of Time’ albums, amongst other things), it must have seemed splendidly inevitable that the prolific scribe should choose to immortalise his rock n’ roll mates in fiction at some point. However, the co-billing here of Michael Butterworth (a latter-day New Worlds contributor who went on to co-found the controversial Manchester imprint Savoy Books), together with the book’s absence from most Moorcock bibliographies, tells a slightly different story."At Ginger Nuts of Horror, Alex Davis watched Guinea Pig: The Devil's Experiment so you don't have to: "It was particularly made infamous when, in 1991, the second movie in the series, Flower of Flesh and Blood, was investigated by the FBI as potentially being a genuine snuff film. The sixth film in the series, Devil Woman Doctor, was also found in the collection of serial killer Tsutomu Miyazaki, which only added to the movies' dark reputation."Here, I reviewed the zombie apocalypse film Wyrmwood and pointed you to a trio of brand-new reviews of The Blessed Man and the Witch.Illustration by Tom Sullivan, taken from Call of Cthulhu's
Masks of Nyarlathotep
supplement.
August 12, 2015
New Reviews of The Blessed Man and the Witch!
The Review Board had mixed reviews of
The Blessed Man and the Witch
, though it garnered a very respectable 8 out of 10 stars combined.
Some review excerpts include:
"Because the point of view jumps around so much, I found it incredibly difficult to connect with any particular person or event. Also, the weighting was evenly spread, which means that no one person stands out as the main character, but rather they are all given equal weight."
"Dubrow delivers a novel that takes three seemingly disparate genres and smashes them all together like some author’s cruel joke on an unsuspecting literary Humpty Dumpty whose pieces were then somehow put back together in such a way as to make him Super Humpty."
"To tell a story of this nature and not seem cheesy and recycled is worth the read. Sure, we all heard and read stories where Armageddon is coming and a New Earth is about to emerge. Somehow, David Dubrow wrote something special here: he fused Old World (The Bible and Magic) with New World (Modern Day goings on, i.e. drugs, turf wars, nightlife, and the like) pretty seamlessly to tell a story that is NOT convoluted."
Some review excerpts include:
"Because the point of view jumps around so much, I found it incredibly difficult to connect with any particular person or event. Also, the weighting was evenly spread, which means that no one person stands out as the main character, but rather they are all given equal weight.""Dubrow delivers a novel that takes three seemingly disparate genres and smashes them all together like some author’s cruel joke on an unsuspecting literary Humpty Dumpty whose pieces were then somehow put back together in such a way as to make him Super Humpty."
"To tell a story of this nature and not seem cheesy and recycled is worth the read. Sure, we all heard and read stories where Armageddon is coming and a New Earth is about to emerge. Somehow, David Dubrow wrote something special here: he fused Old World (The Bible and Magic) with New World (Modern Day goings on, i.e. drugs, turf wars, nightlife, and the like) pretty seamlessly to tell a story that is NOT convoluted."
August 10, 2015
Two Minute Movie Review: Wyrmwood
How many more zombie apocalypse movies do we need?
At least one more. Wyrmwood is it.
Spoilers abound. Read at your own peril.
It's fun, it's loud, it's gory, it's funny, it's violent. The budget might be low, but you wouldn't know it to watch the film. The cast does a great job with what they've been given, and even the more mediocre performances were leavened by great lines.
The movie is not without its flaws, but they're easily overlooked. A big example is the roving experiment truck: if the zombie apocalypse just occurred, how did they get up and running so quickly?
Brooke was a frightening character from beginning to end: physically strong, mentally tough, clever. The filmmakers were smart, however, by not making her a woman who acts like a man to survive.
Barry did fine; if you're looking for a lot of character depth in a zombie apocalypse film, you're likely going to be disappointed. Still, he pulled off his role without flaw.
As is usually the case in films like this, the best, most interesting characters never survive; it's how we are made to feel bad about their exit from the film. Benny was a worthy comedic character, though his delivery at times seemed a little flat. Frank elicited pathos just before his end, which worked.
The two most interesting concepts: zombies as petrol and Brooke's ability to control zombies, were weird but somehow fit, probably because it's Australia and we automatically assume that an Aussie film is going to have its own brand of strangeness.
Compare this movie to The Walking Dead, with its endless, heavy, humorless drumbeat of loss and despair and interpersonal conflict. I'd rather watch a zombie apocalypse show like Wyrmwood that doesn't take itself quite as seriously and includes some fantastical elements.
Four out of five stars.
At least one more. Wyrmwood is it.
Spoilers abound. Read at your own peril.
It's fun, it's loud, it's gory, it's funny, it's violent. The budget might be low, but you wouldn't know it to watch the film. The cast does a great job with what they've been given, and even the more mediocre performances were leavened by great lines.
The movie is not without its flaws, but they're easily overlooked. A big example is the roving experiment truck: if the zombie apocalypse just occurred, how did they get up and running so quickly?
Brooke was a frightening character from beginning to end: physically strong, mentally tough, clever. The filmmakers were smart, however, by not making her a woman who acts like a man to survive.
Barry did fine; if you're looking for a lot of character depth in a zombie apocalypse film, you're likely going to be disappointed. Still, he pulled off his role without flaw.
As is usually the case in films like this, the best, most interesting characters never survive; it's how we are made to feel bad about their exit from the film. Benny was a worthy comedic character, though his delivery at times seemed a little flat. Frank elicited pathos just before his end, which worked.
The two most interesting concepts: zombies as petrol and Brooke's ability to control zombies, were weird but somehow fit, probably because it's Australia and we automatically assume that an Aussie film is going to have its own brand of strangeness.
Compare this movie to The Walking Dead, with its endless, heavy, humorless drumbeat of loss and despair and interpersonal conflict. I'd rather watch a zombie apocalypse show like Wyrmwood that doesn't take itself quite as seriously and includes some fantastical elements.
Four out of five stars.
