13 Nights of Hallowe'en 2010: Night #12 The Shining (1980)

The night before Hallowe'en, Devil's Night. Can you feel the excitement? Are you ready? Well if not then you should be aftertonight's movie. In a list of movies with infamously haunted places there is one name that towers over the others. It is called The Overlook Hotel, and it is not real, but most people will know the name nonetheless, even if they don't recall from where. The Overlook is based for the most part on a real hotel called The Stanley Hotel and is the creation of Stephen King in his novel The Shining. This is the first movie adaptation of that novel. The mastermind behind it is none other than Stanley Kubrick. Mind you some people aren't so sure on the mastermind part. This movie deviates from the novel on several levels. To me this makes for the more interesting of the two kind of novel to movie adaptations.

Kubrick had his own vision for the story. It is both familiar and divergent. Starting off we have the cast. The movie stars Jack Nicholson,Shelley Duvall, and young Danny Lloyd as a family maintaining The Overlook Hotel during the long and harsh winter. This is the same as King's story. It's not a spoiler, but the only thing I'll say here about the differences is that in Kubrick's movie the hotel has a hedge maze, and the novel--and remake mini-series--has hedge animals that come to life. As one might expect from a Kubrick movie there is a great attention to detail from sets to locations to the acting, and of course the direction. As for the haunting, the Shining has it in spades. Also, if you don't know, the shining is actually psychic ability, exemplified by Danny Lloyd's character and the cook played by Scatman Crothers.

Mood: stoked.

Music: Halloween by Helloween. MP3s

13 Nights of Hallowe'en 2010: Night #6 1408

Tonight's movie is one from the mind of Stephen King about one of the most haunted hotels, Manhattan's Dolphin Hotel. Everyone whostays in a particular room gets the full on haunting treatment. That room is 1408. John Cusack plays a paranormal debunker writing a book about haunted hotels and the Dolphin should prove to be crowning chapter. Cusack always seemed to skate just along the periphery of horror or other genre movie roles until recently, but he certainly stepped into it with 1408. This movie is something of an oddball and I almost didn't include it in the thirteen nights. There is so much more than a regular haunting going on in this movie. You'll just have to watch it to find out, if you haven't already seen it. I have only seen the theatrical version so far and cannot comment on the director's cut, which was included in the set that I bought.

There are also some other familiar faces in this movie, such as Samuel L. Jackson as the hotel manger. He certainly gets aroundHollywood movies across all genres. Horror newcomer Mary McCormack plays Cusack's ex-wife. She doesn't have a lot of screen time, but it was probably a good gig in between TV shows. Tony Shalhoub has a spot too as Cusack's literary agent. I just have to point out that Shalhoub was also in the heavily haunted movie Thir13en Ghosts, though here he doesn't get in on any of the action. That movie's ghosts put me in mind of the ones 1408 a little bit. The 1408 ghosts aren't so over top or gruesome, but they are stylized, and honestly I was a little disappointed in that quality of the effects. I'd even compare them to back when The Lawnmower Man came out, but this is maybe all too much information. Don't let this dissuade you from watching 1408.

Mood: contemplative.

Music: House Of 1000 Corpses by Rob Zombie. MP3s

13 Nights of Hallowe'en 2010: Night #1 The Legend of Hell House

Hello and welcome to the first of the 13 Nights of Hallowe'en in 2010. Our first movie is The Legend of Hell House (1973). This is a hard one to pindown because there are other very similar movies, but this is the one based on the Richard Matheson novel of the same name and Matheson wrote the screenplay as well. A scientist--descriptions call him a physicist but essentially a parapsychologist--takes people to a supposedly haunted house to determine if there is life beyond death. A very popular plotline. So why this movie? Well for starters it's Matheson who brought us a lot of great novels and screenplays. Without spoiling anything this is a nicely atmospheric haunting movie. What I particularly like about it is the equipment Mr. Barrett uses in his investigation. The inclusion of Mrs. Barrett and what that adds is interesting as well.

It's easy to see what other movies the Hell House storyline has influenced. I won't go into most of them for the sake of those seeing this for the first time. It's not a direct comparison since he is not the psychic so I can tell you that I see Roddy McDowall's Benjamin Fischer as an influence on Matthew Lillard's Dennis Rafkin in Thir13en Ghosts. At the same time it's hard to deny the influence of Hell House on Stephen King's Rose Red. The film is considered a British horror movie despite Matheson's script. Most of it happens within the house so that doesn't really tie its location either. What is more telling about this production is that technology I mentioned before. While its purpose and inner makings might be timeless the outer design certainly wasn't. It was purely by happenstance that this first movie of the festivities is the oldest. Enjoy!

Mood: excited.

Music: Welcome To My Nightmare by Alice Cooper. MP3s

13 Nights of Hallowe'en 2009: Night #10 Carrie

The movie for tonight is the classic, Carrie. It is based on the book by Stephen King. It is a story very close to me since I consider it the first adult horror novel I read. Sure there were those creepy book series but they were young adult, as good as they were, which was quite good. I even wrote a paper in English class on Carrie--as the only person in the class allowed to use King because I got around and found reference material on him and his work. For a short novel there is a wealth of material for discourse. There is great depth to it and not much of it lost in translation to the movie even with the differences. Brian DePalma was a good choice of director. The composer who wrote the score is Pino Donaggio who also scored The Howling.

Carrie has immensely talented main cast with Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie who are both just incredible. The fact that Nancy Allen stands out as great too really says something in the shadow of the other two. The movie also boasts John Travolta in a really early role, and let's not forget P.J. Soles who later showed up in Halloween. Who doesn't remember P.J. in Carrie with that hat on her head even while wearing her prom dress? That's commitment to a hat. Speaking of incongruous, what about the tuxedo rental scene where De Palma speeds up the film and sound to leaven an already light scene? The climax of the movie is a double one and it's only too bad they couldn't have pulled it off the way that they intended special effects-wise.

Mood: slack.

Music: Bucket of Blood by Pino Donaggio off of Carrie (soundtrack).

Initial Stages of a Yearning for More

Let's talk about e-books and what can be done with them that can't with dead tree books.  Let's start with that first, it's been quite some time that I have been referring to them as dead trees, not just out of deferment to the sacrifice of trees to make them--I have certainly proliferated the slaughter of trees for my fairly large book collection, especially on the RPG front, of which I have more, and they are also bigger requiring more paper to make them--but also due to the unchanging nature of them.  You put the works on the paper and there they lie, immortal and static, a testament to whatever went into them for as long as the paper and ink shall live.  This is a fine thing, a far nobler deed than--well, not nobler than living in a forest sucking up carbon dioxide and spitting out oxygen.

Still, this is not about the environmental impact.  Nor is it about the immutability of unchanging words on a page.  We are not at the stage that a book can easily be altered, not even e-books.  They can't be upgraded, only a newer version downloaded.  Narratives, stories, are best left alone, not updated anyway.  To carry on, to expand the narrative is what sequels and series are for.  While not new, one advantage e-books can have is that annotations can be kept with the page they belong to, hidden until necessary, and if done correctly viewed along with text they accompany.  Certainly people can annotate their books with a pen, or the author can include footnotes or endnotes--though endnotes pull the reader to another page and induce flipping back and forth.

The amount of information in the annotations is also limited in size, endnotes aside.  This all so far is indicative of the old school thought about not only books but also information in general and how to organise it.  Further, it is about limiting it as well.  Take for instance Stephen King's The Stand, or any film with deleted scenes available in the extras for the movie.  What if a book could have extras?  What if a novel could have deleted scenes?  With an e-book they can.  Ever heard of the book House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski? Among other components, some of which are not recommended for just any book, it has footnoted footnotes, and references to different information sources.  It is a step in the direction of what can be done, but just a step in one direction.

Mood: inspired.

Music: Original Sin by Meat Loaf and I Surrender by Stratovarius.

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13 Nights of Hallowe'en: Night #12 Stir of Echoes

Can you smell that? That is the smell of Bacon-y goodness.
The movie is “Stir of Echoes”, a horror with Kevin Bacon. This movie is zero degrees of separation from Bacon, and greatness. Could you expect otherwise with Bacon in a movie based on the 1958 novel by Richard Matheson? Fear not this, the movie does not disappoint. “Stir of Echoes” even takes a solid left-hand--the sinister hand--turn shy of halfway through making for a fresh experience for fans of the novel. “Stir of Echoes” echoes Matheson’s novel, well maintaining the spirit and staying on point, all while changing things up. This balancing act comes from the movie’s writer/director David Koepp. Koepp is also responsible for the Stephen King movie “Secret Window”, and wrote the screenplay for Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man”.

One last note about Koepp, this year’s movies list has included a staggering number of films from writer/directors. “Stir of Echoes” also boasts Jennifer Morrison from “Urban Legends: Final Cut” and TV’s “House” in a scant few memorable scenes. Then there is Kathryn Erbe from TV’s "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" who in an acting sense stands up to Bacon’s performance more than admirably. I would like to make a note about the DVD. The Amazon link should be to the same edition that I bought. If not I don’t know what to say. The DVD that I have has the creepiest menus that I have ever seen. The menu for the special features in particular causes the hair on the back of your neck to rise. Some people wish their movie was this creepy. I give my kudos on the entire movie experience.

Mood: anxious.
Music: Halloween by Helloween off of Keeper of the Seven Keys Part 1.

13 Nights of Hallowe'en: Night #8 The Mangler

For those who think that the movie from last night had
a good pedigree, this one will be mind blowing. The movie is “The Mangler”. Let’s start from the considerable bottom and move up. At the bottom on this impressive horror chain is Ted Levine, instantly recognised at the drop of this line... “It rubs the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again.” Rising higher we come to the director of this movie. It is none other than Tobe Hooper director of “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre”. Hooper also has credit for work on “The Mangler” screenplay. Next up is an actor whose work nearly everyone knows but yet many do not know his face. Even from this movie they won’t know his face. He is of course Robert Englund, famous for he of the burned face and finger-knives, Freddy Krueger!

One might think that this is enough of a collection of horror’s best. How could it get any better? Easy. “The Mangler” is based on one of the short stories of Stephen King. The movie takes the story and adds onto it in nice ways. Some people don’t like that. Numerous people do not like the movie at all. However, when the complaints involve the idea that Englund is terrible in everything, then obviously they are not the right audience for “The Mangler”. It could be said quite insultingly these people don’t know horror, on that count at least. Same situation for complaints essentially about King’s story. “The Mangler” is a blood drenched, body mangling, capering and leering, antacid chewing, masterpiece. Watch it for what it is and you won’t be left flat... or pressed and folded.

Mood: frivolous.
Music: House of 1000 Corpses by Rob Zombie off of Sinister Urge.

The Closet Monster

It would be of great interest to know when the idea first came about that some "thing", some monster, or some other malevolent force took up residence in the closet. First there would have to be closets in use across a number of homes. Or would there have to be? Perhaps the phenomena—the idea as the phenomena not there actually being evil beings in closets—dates further back with the existences of wardrobes and armoires. Either way as horror fan and writer it is a historically important point in time, undefined as it is.

What is a closet if not a modern form of the cave? That something hideous should live in there seems only natural. Ever wonder why it is that the most famous of the creatures attributed to live in the closet is always hideous? There has always been that connection between ugly on the outside, ugly on the inside. That would have to be the reasoning. Of course who has nightmares about beautiful things trying to eat you, or steal your soul, or any of the other tonne of terrible things the inhuman do.

The love affair with the closet monster is a long-standing one in the horror medium, though often, like the beast, it is kept in the closet. It doesn't get a lot of play, sadly. Sometimes in film when it has the results have been pretty spectacular cheese-wise. The king of those that comes to mind is the classic, "The Monster in the Closet". Camp... check. Cheese... check. Clichés out to there... check. Hilarity... check.

On the more serious fronts we have "The Boogeyman" from Ghost House Pictures. There are even movies where the closet itself is the centre of terror without anything living in it such as Poltergeist. One short film that shouldn't be missed is the adaptation of Stephen King's short story "The Boogeyman". This short film was paired on VHS with King's "The Woman in the Room". Shamefully sad is that neither of these gems is available on DVD. The short film is pretty spectacular given it couldn't have any budget whatsoever.

Any way you slice it, it doesn't get any more iconic than horrors in the closet. Whether it be on film, or in books—a notable shout out to, once again, Stephen King for the closet scenes in Cujo—it is a fascinating bit of fear.

Mood: energized.
Music: Show Some Emotion by Paul Di'Anno and Hell on High Heels by Motley Crue.

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My Pile-On Exemplar

There was one particular book that gave me the idea “pile on the circumstances”. The idea struck me so fully that I added it to my Windows desktop. This was a custom desktop I had made that had animation on it, and live links to files on my computer. This was back in Win98. The book is one of my favourites; in fact I have it listed at #5 on my list of favourite horror books at Bob’s Reviews. The book is  Cujo by Stephen King.

The book was chockfull of incidences that compounded upon each other to make for a small set of situations that seemed absolutely fated. If a couple of those circumstances had not fallen into place then the outcomes of the story could have been very different. The book itself could have been very different. This convergence, this conflagration built up the tension. It made the book. Not only was it a set of incidences that formed the plot, but it was also a set of lesser plots that formed into a single overarching plot.

This all hails back to the last three, and other previous posts, of this blog. As such it must be said that Cujo is not only a powerful book in its own right, but it is also a huge cornerstone of the “relational series” of Castle Rock books. As a part of that tapestry it drew upon the book before it,  The Dead Zone, and it impacted the future of the series starting with  The Dark Half. It is the familiarity that is brought to the story that gives it more strength than any stand-alone could wish to deliver.

These are the kinds of forces that shape a most enjoyable experience, a fan-base, and a market. It all builds upon itself forming something greater than any of the individual parts on their own. Not only that, but it makes for a phenomena, and who can argue with one of those in their repertoire.

Mood: level.
Music: King for a Day by Green Day and Tragic Kingdom by No Doubt.

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Trilogies and Series

Our friends in the Fantasy community are very used to having their tales done in series of books. From the minimal contact I have with that genre I cannot name a single stand alone Fantasy book except for maybe Piers Anthony’s Killobyte, and with a book like that it is a pretty tenuous connection. Still, in horror we have a few series. Notably there is Stephen King’s Dark Tower, there are the multiple sets of books from Brian Lumley’s Necroscope series of series, and there are the series from Anne Rice.

I for one am a huge fan of book series. I draw this huge mental connection between them and television series. There are things that can be done within the scope of more than one book that are, at the least, much more difficult to do within a single novel. The requirements to write a successful series, of which trilogies are just a constricted scale version, are only extensions of what makes a successful novel. The most important of these are of course the characters. The characters that carry on from book to book have to be that much more compelling and able to carry the reader’s interest for that much longer.

The thing that I really admire about series is the ability that they give the author to be more subtle, and to build more intricate plots and relationships. This can be put to most spectacular use when there is an over-reaching plot to all of the books, an undercurrent that can be separate from each single book’s plot. I am speaking of the difference between the type of series that is like a single novel of immense size broken into separate books, compared to the type of series that is episodic with an overarching plot tying these episodes together.

There is also a third kind of series as well. That would be the kind where the books do not have to have characters in common or a plot that runs through them. These series are tied together by different criteria. An obvious first example comes from Stephen King’s Castle Rock novels. They can be considered a series because of their common setting, the town of Castle Rock. In a slightly different vein there can also be a series of books based solely on a thematic connection. I cannot name such an example from what I have read, but I am writing just such a trilogy. I always practice what I preach.

Mood: harried.
Music: 4000 Rainy Nights by Stratovarius and The Edge by Vince Neil.

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