Open Grave

There is an old school plot device that occasionally works well: protagonist wakes up in the aftermath of a serious crime with no memory of how they arrived there ... and (sometimes) cannot recall their very identity. This sets up an interesting premise: is the newly awakened person a victim of the crime or its perpetrator? Will they recall their identity in a blaze of revelation or will recollection take place over the course of the story? 

Such is the case in the opening frames of Open Grave: a brutal and harrowing scene involving District 9’s Shartlo Copley awakening in a wilderness pit chock full of dead bodies in various stages of decomposistion. Above, a storm is raging – and our main man does not recall who he is or how he arrived. After escaping the ossuary, our John Doe comes into even more mystery: a mansion full of five other occupants (a mute girl, a German, and three other Americans) – all of whom are just as ignorant. Though each individual discovers an identification card, trust levels are frayed to nonexistent and the group will duel in a desperate game to piece together the enigma. 

And the mystery? In addition to the charnel pit, the entire backwoods property is surrounded by human beings in the throes of Rigor Mortis – some of them stapled to trees with barbed-wire; others perishing by additional agonies. And during it all, our strangers are slowly recalling in flashback snippets what came before: a viral outbreak of some kind? Were medical experiments performed on the compound? Were each of them friend or foe? This is the second act, and it is here the traits of all involved begin to shine: superb direction, masterful editing, and a chilling, appropriate score. Though Shartlo Copley’s South African accent at times tries to bleed in, he still manages to hold his ground for the most part and give a performance where it’s hard to envisage anybody else taking the lead.   

Despite a somewhat slow build up to the finale, we have here a refreshingly original set-up. It’s bleak (the tone gaudy and liquorice stained), and it’s suspenseful. Most of all the film is leagues ahead of director Gonzalo López-Gallego’s previous Hollywood effort Apollo 18. With Gonzalo now setting up impressive fiefdom in the science fiction and horror genre, the only downside here was Open Grave receiving little to no theatrical attention.   

Banshee Chapter

During the cold war, an intelligence branch of the United States government known as the CIA became heavily engaged in programs dedicated to mind and thought control – the largest of which is now universally known as MKUltra. In this secret project, the US government used normal citizens – habitually without the individuals consent – to test a wide range of psychotropic drugs ... in particular LSD. Though the authoritarian experiments here were frightening enough in and of themselves, even more alarming is the never documented human cost: the men and woman who vanished into the ether suffering psychosis, delusions, insanity, and everything in between. Just what stories will the general public never know? What waking visions and nightmares were some of these people privy to?  

With such a rich store of historical data here up for grabs, it was only a matter of time before somebody tried to mine it fictitiously on screen. Not only has first time director Blair Erikson done just that, he has taken the above elements and fused them with a score of other motif’s including HP Lovecraft (in particular his story The Beyond); experimental radio broadcasting, and real life characters fictionalized for the purpose of storytelling. On paper this seems like a heady mix – one that could ultimately implode. But Banshee Chapter comes equipped with just enough unique sophistication and snatches of brilliance that at times you'll will be left reeling.

Make no mistake; this is a ‘footage’ film. But ‘found footage’ has, thankfully, been left off the menu. What we have instead is a kind of a hybrid excursion inter-spliced with genuinely creepy stock recordings of real and fictionalized MKULtra experiments.

Present day, and James Hirsch has decided to take an old school MKULtra concoction himself ... and film proceedings. With his friend at the camera’s helm, it isn’t long before a sinister radio-broadcast takes up a chorus – along with an all pervading malaise that something altogether alien is just outside the door and homing in on James’s thoughts. After James’s mysterious disappearance, it then falls to his old college friend Anne to pick up the pieces. A present day reporter, Anne remains at the crux of the narrative – guided by a desire not only to find James but to unravel some of the evidence acquired.

And it’s this evidence that leads her to counter culture writer Thomas Blackburn – a fictitious rendering of author Hunter S Thompson. Though at first Blackburn’s character feels somewhat unnecessary – if only because of the real life writers ardent worship – a viewer will slowly acclimatize: Hunter S Thompson, for all his eccentricity, was a man deeply rooted in the milieu on offer: CIA investigations, hippy subculture, and a deep seeded paranoia of authority. After ingesting the drug herself, Thomas and Anne are led on a pursuit for answers ... a chase where monsters from another realm are always peeking just around the corner.

While some might be turned off by the low budget, we have at our core here a film made with great care. Not only are effective jump scares prevalent, but there is a whole elusive quality to proceedings that was such a pertinent part of Lovecraft’s work. The monsters – though intangible – haunt the narrative through subtle images and a radio broadcast that will occupy your dreams. Throw in the ‘true life factor’ and we have a film that will eventually go on to become a cult classic.

         

DAVEY RIBBON

This is the final artwork for my forthcoming novel from HodgePodge Press, DAVEY RIBBON. Available in both eBook and Paperback formats soon. 

Stuck On You by Jasper Bark

Crystal Lake Publishing is a South African outfit that has (in a very short period of time) established itself at the forefront of quality dark fiction. With a still-building resume including authors such as Gary McMahon and Daniel I Russell, I was more than happy to peruse a small novelette by one Jasper Bark ... a writer to have escaped my attention until now. Initially, I was informed Stuck On You was ‘A twisted erotic horror tale, not for the faint at heart.’ Fair enough. But all too often these kind of descriptions are flaunted in a myriad of genres, so I had no pre-conceived expectations going in. 

What I didn’t expect was the publisher’s description to be almost self-deprecating.

For Stuck On You is one of the most harrowing and entertaining pieces of dark fiction any of you are likely to encounter.

Stuck On You is not the kind of story requiring a blurb. In this instance, going in completely blind added to the overall dark surprise. However, for the purposes of any pre-release appraisal, we'll lay out the bare bones. (Though if surprises are what you seek in the shorter form, I believe you can skip this next part without missing a beat).

Ricardo is over the border in Mexico on a buying trip for his artisan-trader wife. On the return journey, he meets Consuela – a drug mule seductress who requests his help making her own border jaunt. Before setting-up the illicit drop, Ricardo and Consuela decide to consummate their taboo tryst in a forest ... one inhabited by nothing but black bears and an incoming storm.

Without giving away the crux of the narrative, these are the fundamentals. But suffice to say, in a very brief stanza, Jasper gives us intense eroticism, gore, and a medical affliction seldom (if ever) tackled in fiction before. Within each small chapter, horror is piled upon horror ...  so that just when you feel safe Jasper decides to throw on yet another layer to the maelstrom. The writing – brutal and unapologetic – is also competent. And hovering under the surface is a perpetual modicum of droll humor.

Stuck On You will soon be available as a stand-alone eBook novelette in late March. Two months later, Crystal Lake Publishing will present Jasper Bark’s Stuck On You and Other Prime Cuts – an entire collection of similar themed stories available in both paperback and eBook.

Would You Rather

When reviewing dark cinema I’m always trying to find those accomplished gems that may have slipped through the cracks: films with small budgets equipped with a generous helping of sophistication.Without any long winded preamble, Would You Rather hits this sweet spot in almost every regard. Reminiscent, perhaps, of a domestic Hell House (with a smattering of torture porn), the story itself falls more into line with dark fiction. Though we may feel somewhat familiar with the plot, the allure of a ‘deal with the devil’ is status quo simplicity. 

After moving back home to help leukemia stricken brother Raleigh, Iris finds herself in a world of mounting medical bills and debt. Enter a philanthropic snake-oil salesman aristocrat (Shepard Lambrick), who offers her an eccentric deal: participate in a one-night-only game under the guise of a dinner party. Though Iris remains ignorant of the game’s strictures, the offer itself is simply too good to refuse. For the winner, there will be untold wealth at the hands of the Lambrick Foundation. For the loser ... death. 

And so the party begins. Joining Iris at the table on this night is a motley crew of flawed individuals, each with their own desperate need for being present. There’s Conway (John Heard), a recovering alcoholic who already has conspiracy theories regarding the Lambrick Foundation. There’s Linda, the elderly wheelchair bound paraplegic. Travis, an Iraq war veteran; Amy, the mute Goth. And rounding out the cabal are both Cal and Lucas. Finally seated – and ignorant of the ultimate rules – Shepard Lambrick joins the party as master of ceremonies. Dinner is served, and it isn’t long before each character’s fearful idiosyncrasies are revealed: for Iris, it’s being a vegetarian. For Conway, the booze. After noticing their individual predicaments, Shepard offers them cash in exchange for a glimpse of the beast. That is, partake of their abhorred behaviors. And this is where we are reminded of the film's foundations: short stories like Clive Barker’s Dread and the entire SAW franchise. Except in this case there are no epiphanies waiting for the contestants at the end ... only one winner who will earn the promised prize money. 

With the first part of the game concluded, the real round begins – a macabre version of Would You Rather. Overseeing the party game is Bevans, a suited-up Butler from the old school who dispenses electric shocks, whippings, and near-drownings in case the contestants become unruly or do not follow through with their end of the bargain. Perhaps this is the philosophical element of the movie, where human choices are explored under duress: would you rather stab the contestant next to you or suffer the same fate twofold? Would you rather endure a whipping or extol your own? And always in the background is the carrot at the end of the stick: your personal malady cured. Or, as in Iris’s case, medical treatment for a brother if she can just make it through to the next round.  

Taken as a whole Would You Rather falls into an interesting paradigm: on one hand it could have been so much better ... on the other it could have been so much worse. What we have instead is an outing that slides beautifully into the middle. Thankfully, not all the action takes place at our tortuous party, with a single plot strand involving Iris’s doctor (as a would-be savoir), working as a side-dish to the main action. Though it’s a small supporting part, there are just enough layers here to keep a viewer happily moving from each scene to the next. If there was one glaring gripe, however, it’s an almost total lack of character development with Iris’s fellow contestants. While some are quiet, all are equally mysterious and do not give up their secrets easily. To remedy this, it would be conceivable to include flashback scenes to give these individuals one more dimension atop the two already on show. 

Though horror here is abundant, Would You Rather still finds itself more at home in the realm of psychological thriller. With a satisfying conclusion to the darkly humorous game – and an inevitable twist to round off proceedings – this is an endurance game at its most disturbing.              

Film Review - You're Next

From the promotional posters of You’re Next alone, it’s possible to discern what kind of territory we’ll soon entering. Though the ‘home invasion’ motif as a key plot device goes back many decades, it’s outings like the original When A Stranger Calls and 2009’s The Strangers that bring to mind the most accomplished efforts. While there is nothing cerebral about these story-lines, they still (for the most part) manage to do one thing: frighten. Unmotivated murder, for all its lack of mystery, remains terrifying because of its sheer mystique; evil simply for the sport of it, where no amount of plea bargaining or desire for mercy will likely get results. Though a motivation does surface in the latter stages of You’re Next, it’s a revelation that ultimately hurts the viewing experience.

After an old school slasher scene opens proceedings (with an ominous lamb mask doing the duty), we are then privy to the lives of Crispian Davison and his fiancée Erin on their journey to a wealthy family reunion at a secluded vacation house. It’s Crispian’s parents wedding anniversary, and joining them for the fun is the whole Davison entourage: brothers, sister, and all their respective partners. Of course, with all that blood-kin under one roof it isn’t long before tensions arise: sibling jealousies, parental judgments, and attempts at humor that go astray. Though I’d previously heard criticisms You’re Next is ‘slow to get going’ I found the build up an essential part of establishing some sort of emotional connection with the soon-to-be slain. There’s Erin (the wily accented Australian with hardcore survival skills); there’s also Drake ... a yuppie son who leads the tensions. With some of the other players almost mute, the upsurge of dialogue and character growth gives the film a splash of sophistication where it would have been all too easy for the writer's to proceed directly to carnage.

And that’s where things get tricky: the carnage. On one hand we have a memorable dinner scene, complete with errant arrows that take out some of the tribe in interesting ways. On the other we have all surviving family members (in the aftermath) behaving as though they’ve just finished watching 80’s horror: 101 dumb things protags do when confronted by killers. Of course, I'm merely being facetious here ... but there are more than enough cringe worthy decisions put on show a percentage of you will switch off. The rest, no doubt, will be staying for the revelations: mysteries revealed that put a vulnerable and all-too-human face on our cabal of animal-faced killers. One positive thing on show is some slapstick family dynamic. Though almost none of them are overly likeable, there are just enough comedic turns in the second act to keep You’re Next chugging along nicely until the final one.

All told – and when the end credits are rolling - we have a horror film worth your time. The methods of dispatch are compelling (no guns are used at all in our maiming), and some scenes toward the climax are inane and creative enough to be funny. Always underneath the surface – particularly for the score – a subtle eighties homage simmers, both writer and director hamming it up for audiences with gore filled splendor we may have seen before but find difficult to place. Though the masks used will not produce any future icons, they are creepy enough to find a place in some future Halloween ball. Mostly, audiences will get a kick out of seeing our take-no-prisoners Australian heroine.   

Tucker's Grove by Kevin J Anderson

Over the years, much has been written about Kevin J Anderson. Although the name at present doesn't appear under the word ‘Prolific’ in any dictionary, I’m almost positive it does in some alternate universe. Or perhaps ‘workhorse’ is the more apt description we are looking for here. Whereas some writer’s are content to publish a novel a year, Kevin has adopted a more streamlined approach of releasing multiple books over every twelve month cycle - each of them inhabiting different mythologies and platforms over a wide spectrum of genres. Part of this can be attributed to his eccentric yet genius ability to dictate stories while hiking in mountainous terrain (It obviously makes for exceptional productivity). While another facet is sheer hard work ... not simply composing the books, but infiltrating every aspect of the industry: attending conventions, singing books, meeting fans, tutoring the up-and-coming, collaborating, editing anthologies, giving out blurbs, hosting awards, sitting on panels, joining advisory councils ... and this isn’t all of it. To say he deserves success is an understatement. Though he may have a history of inhabiting already established realms (Star Wars and Dune), I can attest the author's own mythologies are every bit as sprawling as those he uses as a playground.

First released in 2012 as an eBook, Tucker’s Grove chronicles a group of interlocking stories centralized around the dark Midwestern town of Tucker’s Grove. Though sometimes the connection is haphazard, there is still enough cohesion overall to give the mythology a sense of continuity.

Bringing the Family

Set in the days before Tucker’s Grove is fully established, Bringing the Family records the journey of Mr. Deakin and Clancy Tucker. After a tornado devastates his land, Mr. Deakin cannot refuse the work offered his way ... helping one Clancy Tucker escort his deceased parents by horse and cart across endless prairies in order to fulfill a promise. The only catch: a ritual of digging up the coffins each night and reburying them on a slow journey to Wisconsin. A bizarre obligation, but one he doesn’t question ... until the night Clancy passes out from whiskey and the sacrament isn’t performed. A tale that lays the ground work, Bringing the Family is a short, somewhat satirical stab giving rise to zombies in a frontier setting.

Church Services

More in line with the dark fiction promised, Church Services gives us the story of Jerome Tucker - a preacher and carnival-tent exorcist in Wisconsin’s still uncharted lands. In possession of an ancient urn or, more specifically, a demon jar capable of imprisoning spirits freshly expelled from human hosts, Jerome never thinks he might be feeding the demons by containing them. Here, we have another tale acting as fertilizer for the foundation of Tucker’s Grove, nourishing the soil with corruption for the generations to come.

Last Stand 

A snapshot of the American Indian War takes center stage in Last Stand. Beleaguered and outnumbered by a tribe of Sioux Indians, a cut-off group of soldiers must resort to a depraved act for survival setting off a chain reaction rooted in magic and myth. What I liked here was the unorthodox approach, interspersing the regular syntax of story with the journals and testimony of dead men.

Scarecrow Season  

And now we come to present day Tucker’s Grove ... and a dying man impaled like a scarecrow on Elspeth’s Sandsbury’s farm. After discovering an alter devoted to dark gods, Elspeth sets about ensuring her crop yield is perpetually bountiful by making the obligatory blood sacrifices. Only her rituals aren’t quite what the Old Ones desire, and it will take a wayward traveler to educate her on the true meaning of what appeases them. More reminiscent of traditional horror in the market today, Church Services takes the familiar, the ordinary – and paints it black.

Though not every story presented in Tucker’s Grove is presented here, there are just enough slices to give one a signpost of what to expect. As someone who grew up in small-town Wisconsin, Mr. Anderson is tapping into a kind of homage ... paying respect to those stories that kept him awake (and sane), during a childhood halfway between Norman Rockwell and Norman Bates. While some of the prose can be simple (and the stories themselves more at home between the pages of bygone pulp), we still get a seldom-seen glimpse of someone honing their skills, chipping away at the bedrock, and mastering a talent which would eventually give rise to one of the most creative authors working today.