Horror
American Horror Story
December 13, 2011 | 
Author If you haven’t been watching American Horror Story you’ve been missing out. Although it started slowly, it’s turned into a show that has the right amount of crazy that keeps you watching and guessing about what’s going to happen next. Jessica Lange is one crazy bitch let me tell you! Beneath that Southern Charm lies a shiv waiting to puncture your kidney!
The show has been slowly developing and each new episode reveals a bit more about the power of the house and the people who lived (and died, the dying part is key) there. Some really bizarre and downright creepy stuff has taken place within those walls. If you’ve been playing along, even the infamous Black Dahlia has ties to the house.
I still find the main characters, Ben and Vivian to be two of the most boring characters I’ve seen in a long time. Ben is a downright idiot. He keeps making the same mistakes over and over again and acts like an arrogant ass. Vivian is a hard to deal with, emotionally distraught wife who’s sticking with Ben for reasons I don’t quite understand. But they aren’t the focal point of the show and I think lifelessness is all part of the grand plan. It’s all the other characters that give the story depth and life, which is ironic considering their current circumstance. Their lives and past are far more interesting than watching Ben have yet another "episode". If nothing else, they’re simply pawns in this game, perhaps at the mercy of the past residents or perhaps even the house itself.
I thought it was a bold move to make a serialized horror story, but these guys have nailed it. It’s a dynamic story that intertwines the past and the present, not unlike Lost. Everyday events have their roots in the past and the people we see today may not be who we think they are. I don’t want to give away all the details of the show because there will be a lot of "Holy shit!" moments as you follow along.
This is some seriously good fun in its own morbid little way.
So who’s been watching? What do you think?
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Journal of Bram Stoker surfaces
As is the case with so many of these stories, a journal has surfaced amidst stacks of forgotten papers (how is it that so many people have these lost treasures just sitting around? I mean honestly, if you were given a box of Bram Stoker’s writing wouldn’t you open every book, turn every page and read every word? These lost in the attic stories crack me up). The journal reveals some insight about Dracula, other stories Stoker worked on, his travels and personal details about himself. The new discoveries will be incorporated into a new book called “The Lost Journal”. This sounds like a pretty fascinating discovery.
American Horror Story
Has anyone tuned in for this new series on FX? I just watched the pilot episode and it’s shaping up to be one strange and weird story.
We have a couple on the rebound from a miscarriage and infidelity trying to make a new start and forgive each other. They also have their awkward daughter who doesn’t fit in with the other kids and doesn’t try either. They move across the country to Los Angeles where they get a killer of a deal on an old, spacious house. The deal is too good to be true because the previous owners were killed there in a murder – suicide. Right off the bat we have a bad marriage, troubled teen and a house with a dangerously checkered past. But that’s not all. There’s the nosy neighbor who knows a hell of a lot more than she’s telling. Her daughter who has a habit of breaking into the house and telling people they’re going to die. And the housekeeper that simply shows up to resume her duties. She cleans the house regardless of who lives there. For good measure, there is the other troubled teen that has fantasies about killing his classmates and teachers. He also has a thing for the couple’s daughter.
Things get strange very quickly and nothing is as it appears. It’s Amityville, the Shining and A Haunting all mixed together. It’s a pretty interesting move to make this a series rather than a standalone movie. We should get plenty of character depth, plenty of history and plenty of chances for some good scares. This first episode certainly got the balls rolling; let’s hope the following episodes keep the tension building.
Grave Encounters
Lance Preston and the crew of “Grave Encounters”, a ghost-hunting reality television show, are shooting an episode inside the abandoned Collingwood Psychiatric Hospital, where unexplained phenomena has been reported for years. All in the name of good television, they voluntarily lock themselves inside the building for the night and begin a paranormal investigation, capturing everything on camera. They quickly realize that the building is more than just haunted – it is alive – and it has no intention of ever letting them leave. They find themselves lost in a labyrinth maze of endless hallways and corridors, terrorized by the ghosts of the former patients. They soon begin to question their own sanity, slipping deeper and deeper into the depths of madness, ultimately discovering the truth behind the hospital’s dark past…and taping what turns out to be their final episode.
What grabbed me about this movie was that is sounded exactly like the set up for Ghost Adventures. A small team locks themselves in a psychiatric hospital so they can record evidence of the paranormal. It seemed like a parody to me, but the reviews were surprisingly positive. I’ve never heard of this movie before and the DVD isn’t scheduled to come out until October, but Amazon has a digital rental.
Ok, right off the bat this is a mix of Ghost Adventures, Blair Witch, Kingdom Hospital, The Shining, Paranormal Activity and several other movies all rolled into one. What we’re watching are the "lost diaries" of the team after their final episode has been taped. What ensues is a Ghost Adventures episode gone wrong. There is a lot of humor in the set up where Lance speaks to the camera in his William Shatner like tone, he bribes a gardener to make up stories about seeing apparitions, the maintenance guy is less than thrilled to be on camera and have these "kids" running around the place and he even has a "medium" come in to talk about what he feels. It has all the elements from all the paranormal shows. It also has the night vision cameras, the slightly matrixing walls and hallways where you desperately try to scan the room looking for shadows and plenty of rooms where nothing happens. But then all of a sudden…
Honestly, this movie entertained the hell out of me. Its low budget scares, wildly jerky camera angles, Halloween fun house effects and just as much cussing as you find in Scarface, give you a wild ride through a creepy hospital where the corridors are endless and hallways lead to dead ends. This is the raw footage so nothing gets bleeped. Bottom line, expect plenty of F-Bombs. It all starts rather cynically, as Lance is just doing this to get some scares for the folks at home and to try make some money. The previous episodes have been good, but he needs some evidence to keep the show going. He’s ready just to make stuff up if it keeps the ratings up.
Evidence is what he gets. I won’t give any details as that will spoil the ride, but there was plenty to like. It gets a little silly in a few places, where they go for shock factor or the "gross out" effect, but overall you should be entertained. This will make some for some great late night viewing. As I said, there are plenty of long dark hallways, rooms where you expect something to leap out at you, screaming and chaos off camera and plenty of doors slowly opening and closing. It’s a mixture of low key scares and in your face action. You’re just not sure which one is coming next.
If you’re looking for something to add to your Halloween movie collection, this is definitely a rental to keep in mind.
