31 Days of Halloween

Yes, this is a videogame rather than a movie, I did one last year so this isn’t unprecedented and the thread is called “31 Days of Halloween” rather than “31 Days of horror movies” so I think its fine.

Anyway, for those who don’t know Telltale’s The Walking Dead is an episodically released videogame that started last year and has now released two five episode seasons (each episode is roughly two to three hours of gameplay). The game is actually not based on the AMC TV series and is actually a separate adaptation of the original comic book series that the show was based on. Also, it should not under any circumstances be mistaken for The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct, a first person shooter based on the TV show that is by all accounts terrible. The game is heavily story driven and does not really have what would conventionally be called gameplay. It’s almost more like a choose your own adventure story where you’re choosing responses in conversations and occasionally doing quicktime events. Your decisions effect the story and if you screw up there are dire consequences. If your character dies you’re allowed to continue, but if you get some of the people around you killed they stay dead permanently and that can be stressful.



Season 1 of The Walking Dead was something of a sensation without Videogame circles. It was considered a Game of the Year contender and many viewed it as a breakthrough in narrative in gaming. I liked it a lot but I also thought it was maybe a little overhyped. Firstly, I kind of got the feeling at times that your choices didn’t have as much impact as the game was claiming they did. For instance, there’s a point in the first episode where you have to choose to save one of two characters. Seems like a big deal, but whoever you save, they’re going to end up disappearing from the story in episode three in more or less the same way even though they’re supposedly two separate characters. Also, the story is very good… but only really by video game standards. At its center is a friendship/surrogate parent relationship between your character (Lee) and a pre-adolescent girl named Clementine as they and a crew of other survivors make their way through a zombie infested Georgia. This central relationship is paramount to that first season because it forces you to make decisions not just for yourself but also to teach this child how to survive and maintain their humanity in this crazy universe. That all sounds pretty heavy, but on the surface this story probably wouldn’t be wildly impressive in many other medium and a similar story would be told better a year later in the game The Last of Us.



Enter season 2. You’d think this second season would have been super anticipated based on how popular season 1 was, but the response to season 2 has been oddly muted in the video game community. Not overly negative, but muted. Why is that? Well, I think part of it might just be a matter of the novelty having worn off a little. The Walking Dead video game experience is more or less a known quantity at this point and more of the same just isn’t going to elicit the same reaction.  



Beyond that I do think that this was better made than the first game, if more flawed in a number of ways. The series’ trademark tough decisions seemed tougher for me here, I felt that I’d more or less played through season 1 the “correct” way and didn’t regret many of my choices, but that definitely wasn’t the case in season 2. There are some brutal choices you have to make and I don’t think there’s any way to be truly satisfied with whatever you go with. On the downside, things seemed less focused this time around. One of the reasons I feel like the TV show has problems is that the zombie genre is kind of nihilistic and aimless. There are no real goals in the lives of the characters in zombie stories aside from survival. In a two hour movie that’s fine, but if you’re going to stay with characters for season after season you kind of need things to be going somewhere. I’ll also say that my experience differed from season 1 to season 2 in that I played through the first four episodes of season 1 over the course of a week and only needed to wait for episode 5. Here I had to wait a long damn time for each and every episode and the momentum of all your decisions tended to get lost in the wait. If there’s a season 3 I’m thinking I’ll just wait until every installment is available before I get started.

So, what can I say? If season 1 was a little overrated, season 2 is a little underrated. It’s an interesting play either way and is a good example of what “interactive drama” can be like.
***1/2 out of Four

Looks amazing.

PG COOPER WILL BE DISAPPOINTED...




Enough slacking off. Let's get this ball rolling. Halloween is next week.


THE VAMPIRE LOVERS (1970)



If you thought Dracula should be a lesbian, then this is the movie for you. It's about a young woman who's dying after being bitten by a lesbian vampire too many times and her father seeks the help of an expert to help save her life. So, I wasn't joking. It's literally the lesbian version of Dracula. But before you start pumping your fists in the air and cursing out this film in rage, it should be noted that it's based on a novella titled Carmilla that predates Dracula by 26 years. That's right. Bram Stoker was a rip-off artist. But... it's too late to get upset about that and The Vampire Lovers suffers because of it. Although it's not the first movie to be based on Carmilla, it's the only high-profile version that's faithful to the novella, and it results in a very tiresome story. The saving grace is that it depicts violence and sexuality without diving too deep into exploitation. Plus, aesthetically, it's very much a classic Hammer horror film. So, fans of the genre will get some joy out of it while everyone else will probably be bored by it.

B


FASCINATION (1979)



Jean Rollin is the French master of lesbian horror movies and here's one of his more celebrated works. It's about a thief in 1905 who's running away from some people he upset and ends up hiding in a chateau where a group of women gather at midnight to drink the blood of unsuspecting young men. It starts off very awkwardly put-together and then turns into softcore pornography - excuse me - eroticism. Most people will dislike these early portions. I can almost guarantee it. But for those of you who decide to stick with it, you'll be rewarded. Once it becomes a horror film, it gets very entertaining. So if you're patient, I think you'll end up having a good time.

C


PASSION (2012)



Love Crime is a 2010 French movie about two competitive businesswomen whose relationship turns deadly. It has an interesting concept but the execution is too conservative and not engaging enough. If you agree with me, you might prefer Brian De Palma's remake. It tells the same exact story, but the execution is a lot more stylized and surrealistic. What I admire the most is that it starts off very normal and then transitions into pure De Palma when the characters descend into madness. The ending, in particular, is orgasmic. If you're a fan of De Palma, you're gonna love every second of it. It's a shame the whole movie wasn't that way. If there's one big flaw it's that De Palma remained too loyal to the original film. He should have ignored it and made the remake 100% his own. Other than that, it's an exceptionally well-made movie.

A-

That's understandable. Compared to De Palma's most famous works, it's very low-budget and European. But it's definitely a standout of his more recent output. 

William Castle was ahead of his time. His movies don't work at home because they weren't intended for television. He was all about finding new gimmicks for keep people in the cinema. We could sure use him in 2014. But yeah... you're totally right about the movie. It's so dated and ridiculous that you can't help but laugh. 

23. The Legend of Hell House



After 1408 and House on Haunted Hill, I seem to be having an unofficial haunted house marathon. This time the film is The Legend of Hell House, a film which follows a group of paranormal experts investigating the titular house. It's not long after they arrive that they begin to have paranormal experiences. The visuals here are probably the highlight. The film makes great use of colour and the camera angles are carried and interesting. Even the opening scene where the protagonist is hired for a job is really interesting and slightly unnerving due to the cinematography. The film also has some really creepy imagery, a strong atmosphere, and a handful of memorable scenes. Unfortunately, everything else about the film is lacking. Despite some decent actors, these characters are very bland and most of the time they seem bored. Because of this, the film isn't really involving. Even when supernatural things occur, everyone reacts so dryly that it's hard to care. Occasionally a set-piece might build some momentum, but as soon as the characters start talking it all slips away. The film also features a really lame ending. There's enough good stuff here I suppose, but the end result is pretty mediocre.

C+

Part 2 fixes that. And if you want a meatier story, Parts 4 and 5 are the ones for you.

24. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)



Believe it or not, there was a time when horror movie remakes weren't looked at with disdain. Sometimes they had the potential to be pretty good, and the 1978 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers is indeed, pretty good. Like the original, the film depicts an alien invasion where the creatures create duplicate bodies to insidiously overtake the planet. There are some major changes though notably that this film is set in the 70s rather than the 50s. Because of this, the film taps more into post-Watergate conspiracies than Cold War paranoia. It's an interesting choice, but not really as effective a subtext as the original. Where the remake does improve is by moving the setting from a rural setting to an urban one. This allows the film to give a better sense of how this invasion would play out on a global scale. On that note, the film does a great job gradually building from minor suspicion to full on insanity, with a small group of humans fleeing from alien duplicates. The film also has a strong cast and there's some cool effects involving the alien pods. Overall, while this film doesn't carry the same sense of importance as the original, it is a very entertaining movie and probably the more well-made of the two.

B+

I think The Exorcist is just a really well-made movie above all. It's not scary. You're right; it's chiefly the atmosphere that makes it an engaging experience. There are several interesting characters who carry the film well, too. 

Good review, chief.

The Devil's Advocate... the movie about how providing a legal defence for the accused, thus upholding a basic tenent of the justice system and preserving a basic human right, makes you evil. Yeah, not a fan either.