Author of sci-fi/fantasy, horror and adventure/thriller fiction

MARIANNE (2019)

by Leave a Comment

MARIANNE, a French horror web TV series now airing on Netflix, is one of the best horror stories I’ve ever seen on a screen, pushing every element of visual storytelling and every advantage of the medium to the max to deliver a superb horror experience that never feels cheap or unearned.

The story introduces us to Emma, a brusque and selfish literary star promoting the final book in her Lizzi Larck series about a girl entangled with an ancient witch. A childhood friend visits her and tells her that her mother is possessed by the very witch she’s been writing about. This leads Emma to return to Elden, her hometown, and a duel with a very real Marianne. Did her writing produce Marianne, or did Marianne influence Emma to write about her?

Along the way, we meet her long-suffering assistant, childhood friends, and estranged parents, along with a quirky police inspector and an irascible priest. Through Emma’s interactions with these people, we learn the source of her past trauma and pain that led to her becoming who and what she is. She gains support from them in her fight with the witch, though they’re weakly matched for what they’re up against, as is she for the most part.

While some lighter moments and mild touches of humor are seeded into the fast-paced narrative, the horror rarely flags, and it’s almost always effective. Not a single punch is pulled. Very clever camera work, effects, and spooky situations provide genuine scares without cheap jump scares and other tricks. The acting, particularly among those influenced by Marianne, is terrific. An enormous care and not a little artistry went into every scene to create just the right effect here, the right transition there, the right pacing, atmosphere, and level of tension.

Overall, I liked it far better than most American horror shows. While the ending suggests a second season is in the offing, I don’t think the show needs it. It’s excellent just as it is, and I ended the first season completely satisfied with the story.

THE TESTAMENTS by Margaret Atwood

by Leave a Comment

Margaret Atwood returns to the bleak dystopian world of THE HANDMAID’S TALE with THE TESTAMENTS. While not iconic nor an instant classic as its predecessor was, it’s a powerful sequel that in its own way is far more hopeful, delivered with Atwood’s trademark literary style.

The novel begins some years after the events of THE HANDMAID’S TALE and follows three women, two living in the Republic of Gilead and one living in Canada. At least two will be recognizable as having a connection with the book and TV series. Their lives will intersect in an act of resistance.

Otherwise, it’s hard to say much about the book’s plot, as little is given in the book’s description. This is a little frustrating in the beginning, as we have three testimonies, each told in third person, and with some time passing before we know their names and can figure out who they are. Once things get rolling, everything starts to congeal toward a collision course.

Readers expecting a novel as iconic as THE HANDMAID’S TALE may be disappointed and wonder why THE TESTAMENTS was necessary. For me, I didn’t want an instant classic as much as a story that simply did justice to its predecessor, which I think it accomplishes. In some ways, it’s superior to THE HANDMAID’S TALE in that the protagonists, while living in a world where women are largely powerless, demonstrate a surprising amount of agency that culminates in an act of resistance. An act so decisive it could change everything.

Another thing I liked about THE TESTAMENTS is that it does not overtly moralize. Instead, it simply shows what it’d be like to live in Gilead. From sexual assault to denial of basic rights and freedoms, women have it pretty bad while being indoctrinated about how good they have it and that whatever they get is God’s will. I enjoyed exploring the oppressive theocratic society of Gilead through multiple characters’ eyes rather than just one who is a Handmaid, whose world is very small.

Overall, THE TESTAMENTS is a deserved sequel that does justice to the classic HANDMAID’S TALE while cleverly complementing both the first book and the TV series.

THE DEAD DON’T DIE (2019)

by Leave a Comment

In Jim Jarmusch’s latest, THE DEAD DON’T DIE (2019), he digs for social commentary with a fresh take on the zombie genre that deadpans rather than bites.

The town of Centerville is dealing with some strange phenomena. Days last longer and night comes suddenly, animals are fleeing into the wilderness, and the climate is changing, with polar fracking believed responsible as it has tilted Earth off its axis. We’re introduced to an ensemble cast led by Bill Murray and Adam Driver as local cops, and including many other greats from Steve Buscemi to Tilda Swinton. While they roll with the big changes, one arrives that truly threatens extinction–the dead are rising with a hunger for flesh.

Two days later, I’m still not sure what to think of this movie. The sum here is definitely greater than the parts. As for its parts, the deadpan delivery doesn’t achieve real wit or charm, the dialogue often doesn’t go anywhere, there are no character arcs (the great acting talent feels wasted), the characters needed to be lovable for this type of film but aren’t, the political commentary panders to its core audience, and the moments of breaking the fourth wall (Adam Driver referring to the fact they’re in a movie) is more irritating than pithy. The film works better on a thematic level, even if the message is bleak: humans live their own scripts, acting out their roles because they must, with none of it meaning much, and with extinction not really changing anything and perhaps being deserved. “This is going to end badly,” Driver monotones, referring both to the zombie outbreak and life itself, but, “We have to give it our best shot.”

So overall, with its artsy director, stellar cast, and that creative playground that is the zombie genre, THE DEAD DON’T DIE had far more potential than it delivers, resulting in a beautiful swing and a miss for me as a viewer. Still, it has its charm–I didn’t hate it, and I actually kind of liked it.

CHOKEHOLD by David Moody

by Leave a Comment

David Moody brings his HATER series into a spectacular landing with CHOKEHOLD, coming out from St. Martin’s Griffin November 19, 2019.

I first read HATER back when David was self-publishing his zombie fiction in PDFs, and fell in love with it. In this apocalyptic novel, a dormant genetic switch flips in a third of humanity, making them terrified and hateful of the other two-thirds, resulting in a string of homicides that snowballs into an all-out war. The novel has a twist in the last act as powerful as the end of WOOL. After HATER was optioned by Guillermo del Toro, St. Martin’s brought the book to print along with a series that ended up spanning six books.

In the first trilogy, we follow a Hater, while in the second, we follow Matt, one of the Unchanged. CHOKEHOLD follows the fall of nuclear bombs that have turned the UK into a wasteland. In the ruins, the last Unchanged survive in a fortress, while rival armies of Haters head toward them for a final showdown. Matt must navigate all this hate and try to survive on his own until finally making a choice to try to help them all survive.

David gave CHOKEHOLD his best writing in the series, tying all the characters and plots from the previous books together into a satisfying conclusion. Throughout the series, the main characters had their choices made for them by rapidly changing circumstances. In this last episode, they make the own choices, right or wrong, for hate or redemption, and even those who don’t make it expire knowing their death meant something. And for all its bleakness and violence, the series finishes on a small note of hope.

I can’t recommend David’s work enough, whether it’s his groundbreaking HATER series of his powerful AUTUMN series. I’ve stuck with both over a decade, and now I can’t wait to see what David comes up with next.

LORDS OF CHAOS (2019)

by Leave a Comment

Adapted from the 1998 book of the same title, LORDS OF CHAOS (2019) is a dark, fictionalized account of the 1990s Norwegian black metal band Mayhem, told from the perspective of the band’s founder, Euronymous. I found it a mixed bag, mostly flat but with some great scenes and acting, though it does a terrific job with its theme, which is that if you talk the talk enough, somebody’s going to walk the walk, and look for you to do the same.

The film runs through the rise of the black metal scene as Euronymous (Rory Culkin) and Dead (Jack Kilmer) find their voice in black metal and promote themselves by pushing satanism and onstage antics. After Dead kills himself, rumors spread of cannibalism and the band wearing pieces of his skull as pendants. Euronymous ends up running a record store and meets Christian, a fan. Christian walks away humiliated after Euronymous points out he’s a fan of Scorpion, which makes him a poser.

Christian comes back transformed as Varg, making his own music and fully dedicated to black metal. To push the envelope further, he starts burning churches. This sets him in conflict with Euronymous, who preaches doing just that but never did anything about it, as for him it was always about creating the aura of horror to promote the band, never actually creating it. Euronymous recruits Varg into Mayhem and begins taking credit for inspiring Varg’s actions. Eventually, Varg calls him out on being a poser, which brings it all to a head.

The film is pretty good. The suicide and murder scenes are disturbingly graphic, real, and take their time. The deep dive into the black metal music scene is fun and feels right. The theme is terrific: Does talking but not doing make you a poser, or does doing, just to one-up somebody else, make you a poser? On the other side, the film feels flat in a lot of places, the great music bits fall away after the first act, and the American actors and accents make the film feel Midwestern rather than European.

Overall, LORDS OF CHAOS was a fun watch for me. While I didn’t love it, I did like it.