Author of adventure/thriller and horror fiction

BLACK SUMMER, Season 2

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BLACK SUMMER (Netflix) is a terrific zombie series, brushing aside its low budget with constant tension, culling terror from even a single relentless zombie, interesting characters and set pieces, and a full range of genuine human reactions. Season 2 delivers the same winning formula as the first season, while amping up the conflict to be more human versus human and finding an almost Old West pathos to its grim story. At the same time, it sacrifices an important human element in its bleak depiction of survival, which was unfortunate.

Rose reunited with her daughter at the end of the first season, which saw the major characters either scattered, dead, or having made it to the stadium. Season 2 seemed to promise a story of how this tribe struggles and survives in a zombie-infested world similar to other shows like TWD and Z NATION, but this isn’t them. In this world, food becomes scarce, there’s a massive die off, our tribe is separated into virtually every man or woman for themselves, and various bands of people struggle in the northern wilderness, where the cold freezes many of the zombies.

An interesting antagonist is introduced, a cop who now leads a hardened band of survivalist-type warriors. He’s an intriguing character, a ruthless badass and a fitting antagonist for Rose, though the show doesn’t set up any real antagonism other than their paths cross searching for the same goal, which is unfortunate. If the show had them have a real run in, setting up personal stakes, their antagonism would have meant far more, and it would have been a better, less fragmented story. The camera often lingers on faces and landscapes, giving the whole thing an Old West feel not unlike THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY, though again wasting its chance at pathos by not tying the primary characters together more strongly.

Mostly, the story centers around various groups and individuals converging on a house that is a point of communication with a supply plane and supposed sanctuary, and then a race for the plane itself. In the midst of this, Rose will do anything to ensure her daughter survives, though her daughter, so accustomed to danger, may not be able to function in any place that seems safe. Unfortunately, Rose is often so ruthless, sometimes for no practical purpose, it makes you wonder who the villain is. It’s the same with most of the show–there’s so little trust, so natural an inclination to hurt and kill, that it seems to go beyond survival into a commentary about the natural brutality of humanity, brutality for its own sake. Which is unnecessarily bleak, as one of the things I liked about the first season was how people will form tribes and try to work together in the face of adversity.

Overall, despite its flaws and missed opportunities, I liked it a lot. Kinda loved it, actually. I hope it gets a third season.

KATLA (2021)

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KATLA (2021, Netflix) is an Icelandic sci-fi drama about a small town depopulated and devastated by the previous year’s eruption of the Katla volcano. The eight-part series is about loss, second chances, and redemption. I quite liked it, mainly for its likeable characters and its brooding, almost apocalyptic atmosphere.

Vik was once a thriving seaside town near the volcana Katla, but its eruption the previous year, which is still active, resulted in most of it being evacuated and off limits to visitors. On the glacier, a scientific team studies the eruption. In the town, a skeleton crew of people watch over the place and provide emergency services. When a woman appears on the glacier covered in ash, they take her to a clinic, where she appears to be a woman who once lived in the town 15 years ago… Soon, more people come from the volcano’s ash.

Are they real? Do they have a purpose? And what created them? These are the mysteries explored by KATLA.

This show was enjoyable for me, largely because I connected with the people in it, but honestly mostly because life in the town in the shadow of an active volcano is so engaging. The volcano looms over the beautiful if haunting landscape. Everything is iced over, ash covers the town, you can simply take abandoned cars, and the buildings are largely abandoned and empty of people. It’s fairly apocalyptic, giving the setting an almost ghost town vibe, a story you could easily imagine in the Old West as much as modern Iceland.

The characters are for the large part engaging, though one or two are pretty frustrating, and they react to what’s happening to them with a terrific mix of realism and drama. It’s a show that takes its sci-fi premise very seriously, an approach that pays off. Those who like all the answers laid out for them may be a little frustrated by the end, though I thought it was handled well, particularly one plot line conclusion that was actually fairly shocking.

Check it out if you dig foreign sci-fi, particularly if you’re looking for something a little philosophical and strange.

SAINT MAUD (2019)

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SAINT MAUD (2019) is a powerful film that dares to ask the question, “Could God’s presence be more terrifying than his absence?” (If you know my work, you know this theme fascinates me.) The result is a story about the comfort and dangers of deep belief, a work of psychological horror that sometimes steps into cosmic horror.

Maud became a devout Christian after a mishap at the hospital where she worked as a nurse. Now she’s a hospice nurse with a private agency responsible for caring for a dancer dying of cancer. Feeling chosen by God for some great purpose, Maud often feels a direct connection with the divine, which at times takes on a powerful sexual pleasure, other times a body-contorting source of pain. Frustrated in her mission, she begs God, who takes pity and tells her what to do next…

This is a surprisingly effective work of horror, as we see everything through Maud’s point of view, and she’s obviously crumbling, using her relationship with God to hold together her psyche after a horrific incident in her past. Along the way, we question whether her visions are from God, from her cracked psyche, or perhaps from some malevolent spirit intent on using her. Fascinatingly, all three are equally horror, and all three lead to a questioning of the slippery slope where belief becomes a dangerous delusion.

It’s a slow burn, and it’s not exactly a positive and uplifting character arc, but overall, I found it very effective at doing what it set out to do, and I was affected, particularly by the ending, which delivers a terrific payoff.

SUPERDEEP (2021)

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At first glance, SUPERDEEP (2021, streaming on Shudder) looks like it’s going to offer a cheesy good time. A late Cold War Soviet underground research station at the bottom of a borehole, a ticking clock, a monster that if released could destroy all life on the planet, and tough Soviet commandos. It is strangely compelling yet a ridiculous mess. I don’t know how they botched this, but they did.

It’s the 1980s, and the Cold War will soon come to an end. Anya is a scientist working on a vaccine to treat Soviet soldiers fighting in Africa. Using highly unethical methods, she succeeds. Suddenly, she gets a call from her mentor, who tasks her with a new mission: accompany a team of soldiers to secure an underground research facility where a strange disease outbreak is occurring. Down the shaft they go, straight into survival horror. Can they get out? And can they get the thing that’s down there from getting out?

Again, this all promises a simple good time. Soviet Union, 1980s, remote research lab, survival horror with a disease/monster element. Count me in. Very quickly, though, it all goes wrong. The dialogue is horrendous, the actors seem to ad-lib plot twists and characterization on the fly, sophisticated precautions against deadly disease are used randomly, a budding romance hinges on a flirty motif, it borrows a little heavily from ALIEN and THE THING, and there are enough plot holes and wackiness that you end up laughing at how nuts it is.

I didn’t give up on it; I couldn’t, as it was all so weird I had to keep going, and besides that, the creature element is pretty cool. While I was watching, I kept picturing what it could have been with a few simple changes. Let the script be in Russian with English subtitles, keep the plot simple with realistic problems, make the characters rational, real people, and bang, it could have been amazing. I thought, what a great idea, I hope somebody makes this movie one day.

I hope none of this sounds mean, because some people obviously poured their hearts into it, and it is weirdly compelling and kinda fun for the monster and the setting. But I recommend going into this one with your willing suspension of disbelief cranked up to 11.

LEAVE NO TRACE (2018)

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Based on the novel MY ABANDONMENT by Peter Rock that in turn fictionalized a true account, LEAVE NO TRACE (2018) was a real gem for me. It’s the most reviewed film to have a 100% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and it earns it by telling a simple, powerful, and affecting story.

The story is about Will, a military veteran father (Ben Foster) with severe PTSD, who lives with his teenage daughter Tom (Thomasin McKenzie) in a heavily forested Portland park. When they’re discovered by a jogger, rangers come to take them out, and the police bring in social services to help.

Social services places them in a home on a Christmas tree farm. Tom likes it, but Will can’t handle it. Soon, they have to leave again, calling into question whether Will can ever live with people again and what Tom considers home.

What a powerful film. Everything about it is understated and natural. The directing is almost perfect, showing real life in a way that is dramatically compelling. The writers take zero shortcuts and don’t force any dramatic twists or plot points, relying on the loving, loyal chemistry between father and daughter and how their separate needs begin to pull them apart. The focus is always on the central conflict of Will versus the world, and Tom increasingly versus Will. As for what we see of the world, there is a beautiful focus on small-town life, plain folks doing their thing and offering help and a society that is actually warm and welcoming but can’t be accepted. It all courses to a conclusion that is inevitable, moving, and satisfying.

I highly recommend this one and hope Hollywood takes note.

HIGH LIFE (2018)

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HIGH LIFE (2018, streaming on Netflix) rolls out like an art-house, haunting, punk response to Kubrick’s 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. It’s weird, slow, and difficult, but it achieves an incredible look and vibe I found hypnotic, and I quite liked it.

Monte (Robert Pattinson, who with a string of great performances has thoroughly outgrown his TWILIGHT baggage) is one of the crew of 07, a spaceship fired out of the solar system to explore a black hole, a mission that may help solve Earth’s energy crisis. The entire crew, we learn, are convicts who volunteered for this world-saving mission to avoid the death penalty. The captain is nominally in charge, but the real leader is Dr. Dibbs (Juliette Binoche), who is conducting in vitro experiments in an attempt to make babies in space despite the radiation killing them off.

Realizing this is likely a one-way trip and is definitely just an extended stay in prison, the crew are sullen, solitary, and seething with repressed desires and hatreds. When they finally explode, Monte must use his self-control to survive and achieve a final redemption and escape.

The film has a great look to it. The spaceship is Brutalist in its design, falling apart after years in space, a perfect backdrop and cage for angry, good-looking people on the verge to show us an experiment in the dark side of humanity. There’s a weird, almost surreal logic to the overall mission and what little communication they still have with Earth. The ending offers a conclusion but not necessarily one that offers a satisfying closure, though I was good with it–honestly, it’s the only ending that makes sense.

Check it out if you’re looking for a very dark, trippy sci-fi movie about the human ape in space, 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY with a dash of punk and LORD OF THE FLIES.