It's Not What They Think, Josh

If you didn’t know already I’ve been gearing up to unleash a fiction blog. Not just any fiction blog, but one tied to a work in progress role-playing game. There are several issues involved in creating this blog on many levels. The issue I am interested in discussing now has to do with going against expectation. I can't help but spoiler some things. Sorry. Let me start with the basic premise behind the role-playing game. The game is called "This Mental Eventide" and revolves around the emergence of a large number of psychics. A man named Joshua Gavin Rhoads is the author of the blog. He initially hints that he has a secret that he wants to tell everyone but has to build up to it. The secret is the haunting. From there he begins to detail the various happenings. Here's the catch--and the worst spoiler of all. Josh is not haunted. Rather he is being plagued by his own burgeoning psychic abilities.

One of the elements to this setting is that there are no ghosts or earthbound spirits. There are hauntings sure enough, but they are residual hauntings--those are the echoes or events repeating on a loop--or the work of psychics. All in all this makes for a protracted scenario in which nothing is what it seems. There is the possibility that an abrupt turn of face would be off-putting to some. The haunting has to fall within the extent of Josh's psychic abilities. Since he is the cause of all of the phenomena it has to have some meaning to him or otherwise be in character for him. The incidents must be something he subconsciously wants or they happen in reaction to what he feels toward different people and events. Some will be very obvious, but others may seem particularly inexplicable, or at least unfathomable at first blush.

At this stage only one power is evident. Josh must have telekinesis. It covers a myriad of ghostly phenomena that are poltergeist-like in nature. I have an inkling of one of his other powers, but I won't mention it. The development of the game is incomplete so I do not know how many psychic abilities he should manifest, when they will do so, and what if any progression there is between them. Likewise Josh is a bit of a blank canvas. I have certain traits squarely in mind and the rest is open. I do not even know what his profession is yet. One of the keys to a setting like this, and especially these kinds of scenarios involving adults, is that these people have real lives first before the emergence of the fantastical or the horrific. These unanswered questions play into the next topic I want to write about with regard to this project.

Mood: secretive.
Music: Can't Stop Rockin' by ZZ Top and Black Dragon by Luca Turilli.

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Once Old, Now New Again

Remakes. Yes, the most contested movies in all of moviedom. A lot of people online just love to hate them. They whine, moan, complain, harass people who are excited for them, and frankly can't resist speaking up every single time one or even the thought of one is mentioned. Except for the fanatic insistences and blind hatred I say good on them for sticking to their guns. As we looked at last time out people complain if a movie is similar to a previous one and isn't a remake so there's really no winning. Except... there is one remake that almost no one complains about. That would be John Carpenter's The Thing (1982). Whether you like it--and its distasteful subject matter--or not Wes Craven's acclaimed first outing The Last House on the Left (1972) is pretty much a remake of The Virgin Spring (1960)--apparently the Virgin Spring's scriptwriter based it off of a ballad of all things. Craven himself cites the Virgin Spring, though some debate if that truly makes a remake.

Within remakes there is another subdivision called the reboot. All reboots are remakes, but not all remakes are reboots. To start, a reboot denotes a franchise, meaning a movie with sequels. While there are close remakes and loose remakes--The Thing and Last House on the Left are varying degrees of loose--reboots tend to change something within the story. Again the significance of the change varies. A prime example of a reboot is the remake of Friday the 13th (2009). Its first significant change is that it revolves around Jason, whereas the original first Friday the 13th movie did not. Other than Jason there are next to no other characters from the original film. There aren't even camp councillors. In contrast the remake of Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) while different in several aspects does not feel like a reboot despite the different additional characters. It added elements to the original, but not in a way that changed anything.

The adding of elements and expanding upon the ideas in the original is what makes for a great remake. A perfect example is the remake of The Hills Have Eyes (2006). It takes most of the original and then adds to it immensely, and in a way that feels natural. It also modernises the story without actually changing the timeframe (at least as far as I noticed). What it did was make more sense in the story's end, and as a good remake does it removed traits from the film that didn't age well and would make it dated. On the other hand it seemed like some of the addition was very close to a different unrelated horror movie, which itself borrowed from something else altogether. Another great remake that adds to the original is the remake of The Amityville Horror (2005). What it added to the film was in some parts new and in others elements present in the original novel that did not make it into the first film. I think this Amityville is the best remake of the new millennium yet.

Mood: stoic.
Music: Big Man With A Gun by Nine Inch Nails and (Ghost) Riders In The Sky by Me First And The Gimme Gimmes.

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Bad Comparison Claims

I wanted to talk a little bit today about movies, in specific the complaints about them revolving around one movie ripping off another. There are some pretty out there comparisons.

For instance someone described Darkness Falls as a rip-off of the Friday the 13th movies. You know that a flying old dead hag wearing a white mask who can't enter the light for fear of bursting into flames is exactly like a movie about a guy who eventually dons a hockey mask, becomes undead, and throughout life, death, undeath kills people for being naughty. Pretty broad comparison there if you ask me.

Someone making one of the documentaries about the original Halloween decided that Evil Dead is a Halloween rip-off because you know, people trapped in the woods fighting demonically possessed people and corpses is exactly like a movie about a guy in a mask killing babysitters. Never mind the fact that Evil Dead is actually to some degree an homage to Night of the Living Dead and not a rip-off of that even.

The other day I saw another ludicrous comparison. The Manitou is a rip-off of the Exorcist because you know that a woman with a tumour on her neck that's actually an embryo of a reincarnated Native American medicine man bent on destroying modern day white people is exactly like the story of a girl suffering from demonic possession. Wow, the similarity is just uncanny. Come on people.

Don't let these baseless accusations slide. No one likes a mean dismissal of their thoughts, so kindly and gently educate if you see something outrageous like this. As smart places on the web say, don't address the poster, don't make it personal, just state the big differences in these movies. Remember, only you can prevent flame wars.

On the other hand don't be afraid of pointing out the really close ones like say (and I cannot recommend anyone actually watch this movie) The Astronaut's Wife, which is very similar to Rosemary's Baby. I'm not even saying that closeness is itself an issue, just that unlike the other examples it's pretty clear. My issue with the movie is what I consider it's lack of quality, which is neither here nor there, and some people may like it.

I hear recent The Roommate is much like Single White Female from years back. So what. I don't have a problem with that. It's just this idea that everything is a rip-off and thus bad and should be, I don't know, blocked, banned, or burned that gets me--of course compounded by blatant mistakes in the similarity. I guess that's all I have to say about this now. Next time, my take on remakes.

Mood: spleeny.
Music: The Ripper by Iced Earth and Let Me Hear You Scream by Ozzy Osbourne.

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Conflict-à-trois

After last week it's time for a conversation about three-ways. It's one thing to say that they are complicated, that they change the nature of the story. The first decision is always who are the three sides. Answering this helps to open up the other questions like which two sides will come together to deal with the third. That is if any of them come together. It happens most of the time, but it is not a requirement. Whether or not two side with each other one will always mess up the plans of at least one of the other two sides, if not both of them. It all comes to down to the other huge question of what are the goals of each side. The goals may be deeply ingrained in the whom of these three characters or groups. Or it may be just of matter of what they are willing, or unwilling to do.

As complicated, or straightforward, as the conflict may be there may always be a fourth matter of complication. The three-way conflict struggles in the directions afforded those possible outcomes without the affect of any outside influence. An outside influence throws the whole dynamic into a spin. Although allegiances may form and break up, or shift based on the actions of one or more of the sides, they do not shift as fast or as easily when there is an external impetus. Each party of the conflict will try to manipulate events to their advantage, but some events are adjustment proof. They can't be planned for. They may not be of help to anyone. They may even be immutable and only worked around. There are different events that can be like this.

Disasters are the first example of an immutable event that cannot be avoided. It may be used to advantage by any of the characters or groups if they can be predicted. Plans are foiled or need serious revision if an unplanned for disaster strikes. Such disasters could be weather related, seismic, or even smaller scale such as a fire. Depending on the setting and pre-planning a disaster might even be a weapon in one side's arsenal. This is especially true of fire, bombings, avalanches, and the like. Of course even false indications of such a disaster can be a tool to use. Fake bombs or threats, false tidal wave warnings, or even pulling a fire alarm throw a wrench into someone's plans. As almost always, the possibilities are endless.

Mood: feisty.
Music: Porno Star by Motley Crue and Slick Black Cadillac by Quiet Riot.

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