Author of adventure/thriller and horror fiction

GONJIAM, HAUNTED ASYLUM (2018)

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Another impressive horror film from Korea, GONJIAM, HAUNTED ASYLUM (2018) is a found-footage story about the crew of a horror web series that ventures into a haunted psychiatric hospital, only to find themselves in a terrifying trap. It’s familiar fare, but the movie stakes out its own turf with some top-notch scares.

Ha-Joon runs a little horror web series and dreams of making it big by venturing into a notoriously haunted abandoned psychiatric hospital. This involves his crew of two cameramen and four young people recruited from the site to join the expedition. After setting up base camp, they explore the hospital, planting cameras and carrying others with them. To make his webcast a success, Ha-Joon is not above pushing the team and faking a few scares, but they soon find themselves encountering a very real evil.

If you’ve seen GRAVE ENCOUNTERS (2011), this is all pretty familiar, but GONJIAM makes the idea its own. The establishing scenes do a good job giving the characters individual personalities and showing them being, well, young people about to start an adventure, all pretty likeable. When they go into the hospital, the scenes feel a little crowded, but once they split up, things start to get more ominous and interesting, and when the scares arrive, they pack plenty of punch. The horror element is very well done.

On the downside, almost all the personalities and characters pretty much dissolve in crisis, the spirits are so powerful it eliminates hope, and the lore of the hospital is intriguingly hinted at but never really explored, explained, or paid off. This is a problem for me with many found footage films, where you have a great setup onto which a pretty conventional massacre is attached. A terrific exception is THE LAST EXORCISM, where the jaded reverend has his religious faith restored. In my view, the crisis part of the film is a chance to see what these people are really made of, and when it’s done well, it makes the horror so much more agonizing and engaging.

Overall, I liked it for what it was. The characters are likeable, the setting is spooky, and the horror elements are really well done.

STRANGER THINGS, Season 4

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Full of heart and darker than receding seasons, STRANGER THINGS’ fourth season did not fail to please, expanding the runtime on many episodes and frequently injecting incredible cinematic moments.

In this season, the kids are growing up, and a new dynamic strains the group of Hawkins friends as they are now split on opposite sides of the country. When the Upside Down returns personified in a singular antagonist, this sets up the cast to go on separate but related missions. The mission is the same as always–fight the malevolent intelligence in the Upside Down–but this time we know who that intelligence is, and the stakes are even higher as the end game is revealed, which includes the fate of the entire world.

This season has a strong tonal change. Not only must the characters act in separate groups, but it’s way darker, with a lot less comedy and fewer scenes of the heartfelt feel good variety. We have a new major character, Eddie, perfectly played by Joseph Quinn. The runtime is longer on many episodes, fully fleshing out the storylines, which are frequently punctuated by incredible cinematic set pieces, such as a cop defending several of the kids from a surprise enemy. The villain is great, a psychopathic monster with a back story and relation to El. The climax had me saying, wow, they went there! The long denouement is satisfying and sets up the final confrontation in Season 5.

This season took some criticism, but I don’t agree with pretty much any of them. Yeah, it’s formulaic, but it’s been formulaic all along, and there’s nothing wrong with that. The problem isn’t formula but execution, and the Duffer brothers shred the execution. They provide characters I care about, put them in an underdog role against an overwhelming antagonist with supreme stakes, and they cross most of the Ts and dot the Is. Sure, the villain takes time to have conversations with heroes instead of just killing them, but at least he has something to say rather than the usual floating, telling them their flaws so as to weaken and psychologically destroy them before attempting to physically do so. The show communicates that eighties feel without trading on it. I appreciated all the wow moments and new lore. This is good TV, period.

If I had a criticism, it would be the ongoing reliance on the eighties trope of a psychopathic bully. The bullying in these shows and movies makes me wonder how anybody survived high school without dying, and a lot of times, they seem to be there to check a box on the Eighties Bingo Card rather than add anything. Last season, Billy did add something, though in this season, the bully didn’t do much more than get in the good guys’ way and be annoying, though he had plenty of potential for more.

Overall, I loved this season of STRANGER THINGS and look forward to the big finale.

THERE, THERE by Tommy Orange

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As I get older and probably more jaded, I often find myself drawn to general fiction that shows a different cultural perspective, enjoying the learning and stimulation of a different way of seeing the world. This led me to Tommy Orange’s terrific debut THERE, THERE, which I found a beautiful piece of fiction about the urban Native-American experience.

The novel is a bestseller and won all sorts of awards, but I put all that aside in my expectations and started with page one. Pretty soon, I couldn’t put it down. In THERE, THERE, Orange produces a history, point of view, and slice of life for twelve Native-Americans living in Oakland and all headed to the same pow wow ceremony, all connected in some way whether they realize it or not.

The language is powerful and puts you right in the brain of each character, while providing perspectives that place you directly in the Native-American experience. That’s pretty much the good part of my review, but it’s everything. You enjoy, you learn, you empathize, you root for, you understand someone previously alien to you. That’s great fiction. Thematically, for me, there is a strong tone of reclaiming spirit but screwing it up along the way because of problems far bigger than individuals, a theme that’s universal.

On the downside for some readers, there are a lot of characters, not only the twelve principals but their own networks, so you might find yourself skipping back to Orange’s dramatis personnae at the beginning of the book to keep track. While each character brings something new to the mix, the overall tone is fairly monotone across them all with a simmering despair, a feeling like no matter what you do, you can’t win, no matter what you achieve, something big was already taken from you that you’ll never get back. A hunger for something that can’t be satisfied.

Another downside for some readers is this is, well, a work of literary fiction. The story is far more about who these people are, where they came from, what they want to be, and where they’re going far more than this or that happens. You either appreciate the form of you don’t. Honestly, there are many times I don’t, but I found the characters and author compelling enough to love it.

The story all comes to a head at the Big Oakland Pow Wow, and while it ties the characters together, there isn’t much of a denouement where they learn or change, which would be my own personal singular criticism. It left me feeling satisfied with the journey but also a little wanting at the destination, though maybe that was the point.

Overall, I really enjoyed this story and look forward to more from Orange.

BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF (2001)

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I recently rediscovered BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF, a 2001 French film about a noble sent by the king in 18th century France to the Gevaudan region to investigate killings by a monstrous wolf. I liked it even more the second time around. It not only holds up over the years, it shines.

The film begins with the knight de Fronsac and his Iroquois companion Mani, traveling to Gevaudan. Almost immediately, during a confrontation on the road, we learn that Mani totally kicks ass in hand to hand combat. At last, they reach their destination, the manor of the local noble, whose son (the wonderful Vincent Cassel) takes an instant disliking to de Fronsac and whose daughter (Émilie Dequenne) becomes the subject of de Fronsac’s amorous interest.

What follows is a terrific mix of monster terror and mystery, excellently choreographed fighting, a political plot, and plenty of intrigue (involving the wonderful and drop-dead stunning Monica Bellucci). With a runtime of two hours and twenty minutes, it almost feels epic. The costumes and sets make the pre-Revolutionary France of the 1700s feel real.

In short, this is a good one, a hidden gem waiting for you.

FOUND FOOTAGE 3D (2016)

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In FOUND FOOTAGE 3D (2016), a small crew of indie filmmakers venture to a derelict farmhouse to shoot a found footage horror movie, only to find themselves in a very real horror story. I really liked this one for its perfect balance of self awareness and playing it straight.

The film follows producer and actor Derek, editor Mark (Derek’s brother, who is also shooting a behind the scenes documentary about the making of the film, and which provides the real found footage movie), Derek’s wife Amy as lead actress, sound technician Carl, director Andrew, and production assistant Lily, a horror fan. Derek has what he thinks is a brilliant idea to bring new life to a tired genre, which is to shoot it in 3D. He’s also a bit of a narcissist, and he’s in the midst of breaking up with Amy, resulting in endless tension and disruption.

The film very cleverly has the characters recognize and debate the conventions of the genre, from establishing in the first act why everything is being recorded and explaining why they are still recording in the third act after the monster appears. From this self awareness of the conventions and overwrought tropes, the film draws quite a bit of comedy and plentiful setups that pay off. Otherwise, we’re given a pretty straightforward found footage film about a haunting, which itself pays off with a genuinely thrilling explosion at the climax.

Overall, I really liked it and recommend it. This is one of those movies I went into not expecting much and ended up delightfully surprised.

THE SADNESS (2022)

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Fresh from Taiwan, THE SADNESS (2022) is a nasty, viscerally disturbing horror film that is somehow fitting for the COVID pandemic era.

Jim and Kat are young lovers who separate in the morning, Kat to take the train to work and Jim to grab coffee and start his own day. In the background, we become aware of a new virus dubbed Alvin, which scientists are saying is dangerously mutating, though the COVID weary public, sick of lock downs and infected in a way themselves with viral disinformation, is having none of it. As usual, the annoying scientists are right; Alvin is mutating, and those infected become compelled to inflict pain.

If you’re thinking this sounds like the graphic novel CROSSED by Garth Ennis, which isn’t so much read as inviting stomach-turning visual assault, you’re right; CROSSED is an inspiration for the film, just as it was for THE RETREAT, my zombie series written with Stephen Knight and Joe McKinney (it was also inspired by THE ANABASIS by Xenophon). And man, does it deliver: blood and gore and hacking and stabbing indulged to the max, spiced with moments of graphic torture and sexual assault held back just short of indulgent.

It’s ugly stuff, brutal and nasty, and man, it sets up one hell of an apocalypse. The grinning sadists who form the “zombies” in this story are pretty darn freaky and frightening. The combination of blood, tension, and cruelty is viscerally upsetting. The filmmakers handled all of it right in my view, punching you in the face without celebrating the punch, if you will. They adeptly set up long scenes of steadily escalating tension as characters react with terror and paralysis until the zombies arrive to play. The fairly cynical story runs right up to the point of nihilism, as our protagonists try to help people only to get burned, average people lash out in ignorance and fear and cowardice, and even the expert we meet is villainous.

It all ends on a note of hope, though it’s vague and also not very emotionally satisfying. The problem is in the lack of character arcs. In TRAIN TO BUSAN, for example, a detached dad learns the value and responsibility of fatherhood during a zombie apocalypse. In THE SADNESS, nothing is really learned or gained, making the story entirely about the world ending in slaughter and perhaps a thematic message that when it comes to public health maybe we should listen to public health experts. As a result, I wasn’t as invested as I would have liked in the protagonists, whose story simply ends, and it would have been interesting to see more of the best of human nature in contrast with the infected’s worst.

Despite this, I like this one quite a bit as something new in zombie land, a serious gut punch.