Crimson Peak Review

Over my Fall Break I was able to see Crimson Peak. I have to be honest, I was super hyped for this movie when it first got announced on IMDB. Maybe it was because a big time director like Guillermo Del Toro was attached to it or there were familiar actors like Tom Hiddleston (Loki from the Marvel Cinematic Universe) and Mia Wasikowska (Alice from Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland). But I think it was because it was advertised as a haunted house based plot taking place in the 1800s and early 1900s. I'm a sucker for ghost stories in the older ages, in fact, my favorite horror film from the millennia is The Woman in Black. Movies like these go back to films like Dracula or Frankenstein in a Gothic Victorian era setting. It kind of reminds me of Amnesia The Dark Descent at times. I won't try to spoil it, but I have to go into it a bit to do it justice. So, I guess, sort of spoiler alert.
When the trailers came out, it was no mystery that this was going to be a horror movie. After all it was marketed as such, highlighting the house itself and jump cuts of the ghosts (whose designs scream Del Toro's name). It seemed like just a mundane horror movie that would meet too much expectations and only horror junkies like myself where drawn to it. After seeing the movie, I can now say that I went in and got something completely different.
The movie centers around a girl named Edith Cushing (Wasikowska), a daughter of a businessman in early 1900s America. She's also a rising writer it seems, since its only mentioned as a side note and doesn't play a huge role (so you'd think). An English Baronet, Thomas Sharpe (Hiddleston) arrives in America with his sister (Jessica Chastain) seeking an investment from Edith's father to assist him in his clay mining projects. He and his sister live in a mansion outside of their native town and is located just above a mine of particular red clay.
Edith spends time with Thomas during his visit, despite her father rejecting him and even bribing him to leave and they fall in love. When Edith's father is murdered by an unseen killer, she marries Sharpe and moves in with him.
That's all back story and at this point you might be wondering, well where are the ghosts? Isn't this a ghost story? There may or not be a debate on this, is Crimson Peak a horror movie? Wikipedia has it listed as a gothic romance film. I will never in a million years pay money to see a romance movie and it certainly didn't feel like one. However, the movie appears to be aware of this. Edith is said to be in the process of writing a book, we never get to see what its about but everyone who looks at it calls it a ghost story. To which Edith replies that its not and the ghosts are merely metaphors of the past.
She just described the movie, this blew my mind. Edith first began seeing ghosts as a young girl, in fact, it was that of her own mother warning her of Crimson Peak. So, she isn't surprised in anyway that ghosts are real and there's no tedious build up to there appearance.
So what's the point of the movie? If its not about the ghosts, then what is it about? I think its a mystery, like Amnesia The Dark Descent its someone trying to figure out what the deal is with the house they find themselves in.
We associate ghosts with death and haunting, meaning that they were once living people who passed away and now haunt the house of Crimson Peak. There's quite a few ghosts in that house, all of which are young women and there's even one of a baby. How did they die? Why is Thomas and his sister always acting so weird?
So, gothic romance or horror, Crimson Peak is one of the smartest movies in the genre I've seen in a while. And yes, I believe it falls into the horror category. For all I know, Dracula was a gothic romance and that went on to become an horror icon. As for a Guillermo Del Toro movie, it definitely feels like one with its creature designs and some actors who appeared in his earlier Pacific Rim also pop in and out. If you liked Pan's Labyrinth, then you'll like Crimson Peak.

So...We're Getting a Friday the 13th Videogame

I couldn't believe it myself when I first heard it. Gaming sites all around at least have some small mention of a Friday the 13th game in development for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. As you would it expect, it is based on the slasher series of the same name. It's hard to imagine that it would be possible to make a game of such. The last time they tired it was back in the 80s for the oldest of game consoles when cartridges were still a thing. The same happened to A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and even Halloween (all of which didn't work out too well since they were just advertising the films that were recently released. The Friday the 13th game, released in 1989 was infamous for being a horrible game.
This time, the people who were involved in the movie seem to be supporting the release of this game. Tom Savini (the special effects director) and Kane Hodder (the actor who played Jason in parts 7-10) are reported to have some involvement.
However, the main hype about this game comes from the fact that Jason will actually be a playable character. In the 1989 game, you played the role of a camp employee rescuing campers while at the same time, avoiding and fighting Jason. It's also announced to be multiplayer with some players taking the role of counselors while one plays as Jason and must kill them all off, just like in the movies.The premise kind of remind me of Evolve released just last year, in which four players take the role of monster hunters while one is the monster. The game ends with the monster killing all the hunters or vice versa. The monster, being against four other people, is given more powerful abilities and more to work with. Jason, being the hard-to-kill machete wielding maniac we all know and love, might take some effort to defeat. When it comes to the methods of killing, we can expect a lot. Since Tom Savini, the master of gore himself will be designing them.
There's not a whole lot to tell about the game since it hasn't been released yet. What we do know is that it is being funded by Kickstarter and is being developed by Gun Media. A final release date has yet to be announced.

The Haunting of Hill House (1959) by Shirely Jackson Review

I'm starting to get a bit lazy with these posts. Instead of reviewing something I've seen or read recently, I'm covering something I read sometime in January. Now, the only other time I've heard of Shirely Jackson was in 7th grade when we read her short story, The Lottery. It came as a bit of shock to me, seeing how she decided to write a horror story sometime in her career. However, who am I to judge a book that is considered to be one of the best ghost stories of the 20th century and a finalist for the National Book Reward?
The Haunting of Hill House is known for incorporating terror rather then horror to ensure a unique reading experience. It's really your classic haunted house story, taking four outsiders and placing them into this house. We have Dr. Montague (paranormal investigator), Eleanor (the main focused character with mommy issues), Luke (the heir to the house), and Theodora (an artist). There are also Mr. and Mrs. Dudley (the caretakers of the house who always leave at nightfall) and later on they are joined my Mrs. Montague and Arthur (a headmaster of some school). All the characters are unique in their personalities and all seemed to be developed well. They're all staying in the house by the request of Dr. Montague to see if the rumors of Hill House really being haunted are true.
Throughout the book, they all encounter something paranormal but Eleanor is the only one who experiences it more with the others not knowing a whole lot. These events are your classic haunted house scenarios; shadowy figures roaming the halls, writing on the walls which no one claims to have done, and things moving on their own. Of course, the house's history is explored. Hill House had a past of deaths and suicides since the time of its construction in the late 1800s. Death related events within a facility usually point to reasons why it is haunted in most instances. Crimson Peak, coming out soon this month and I plan it to see, seems to have drawn a bit of influence from this book it seems.
For me, I don't think my reading experience of this book wasn't what it should've been. I felt that it moved at a slow pace, mostly lingering on the interactions between the characters rather then the hauntings at hand. In fact, I really can't recall a whole lot happening within the first one hundred twenty pages, and the book is only two hundred forty six. What really is the most elaborated on is Eleanor and Theodora's relationship, even more so then supernatural forces inhabiting the house. The book really amps up the terror factor by the end. It's not one of my favorite books, but I'm well aware of the place it holds in the history of horror. I may not have enough evidence to back this up, but could this be the book that started the trend of a group of people venturing into a haunted house? I'm not sure since some of the Vincent Price movies from the fifties explored the same territory. He was in a movie called "House on Haunted Hill" in 1959, the same year Shirely Jackson published The Haunting of Hill House, is there a connection? Probably not.
As for more media adaptions, two movie forms of The Haunting of Hill House were made. There was the 1963, which is the proclaimed "good one", being faithful to the book, and the 1999 one which was met with negative reception despite having big time actors like Liam Neeson, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Owen Wilson.
So, The Haunting of Hill House, is it worth a read? Yes, but don't expect it cutting right to the chase. It's best to give it a little bit of time to let it wind up.

Horror Icons: Rob Zombie

While backing up my iTunes library, I remembered that I had missed "Living Dead Girl" by Rob Zombie by the time I got to the 'S' section. I knew the 'L' section was missing something. I had first heard the song when I watched Bride of Chucky, the fourth entry in the Child's Play series, a while back. It played throughout the opening credits. It didn't take long for me to explore more into Rob Zombie's career; music wasn't his only contribution to the horror genre.
Back when Fear Net was still on Comcast's On Demand, I would spend nights reaping the free movies they had. There was one night, I think I was in eighth grade when I watched House of 1000 Corpses (2003), Zombie's first directorial debut. I watched it a couple more times over the years. My opinion of it didn't seem to change in the slightest. It wasn't a bad movie; in a nutshell it was really a mediocre torture porn. It primarily focused on a family of serial killers living in the backwoods torture and kill a group of traveling teenagers. The movie cast included Bill Mosely, Sid Haig, and Sheri Moon Zombie (Rob Zombie's wife) all of whom would later go on to be regulars in his films. For the young age when I first saw it, I was a bit shocked more then scared because of all the sadistic torture scenes. Now, I look back at it with somewhat more of a positive outlook. At least it didn't go to overboard and it was something original. Think about it, not too many horror films in the millennium are original, its usually remakes and sequels.
Speaking of which, a sequel was released two years later; The Devil's Rejects (2005). This one received much more praise then the original, in fact it was far better. It follows three members of the Firefly family as they run from the law. After all they're wanted for over 1000 counts of murder. It falls into more of the crime genre, but I still managed to enjoy it. Bill Mosely and Sid Haig's performances placed them among the famed actors in the horror genre, like Kane Hodder who played Jason Voorhees. There was even a petition to have Mosely nominated for an Oscar because of his performance. It was an instance where the sequel was better then the original.
Rob Zombie would go under my radar until 2007, where he directed a remake of John Carpenter's Halloween, one of the prime slasher films in horror history. Now, I didn't see it until it was out on DVD. The movie itself was really more of a tribute to the original; the Halloween theme plays (far too much if you ask me), scenes from Carpenter's version are remade verbatim, and not a whole lot is changed. The way I saw it, it was really Zombie waving a flag around while yelling, "Hey! Hey! I just got the rights to Halloween!" It did offer more of an exploration of Michael Myer's (the killer) origin through a lengthy opening. John Carpenter's version had Myers more in the role of an entity/demonic presence, that gave the film charm and a theme. Now, Zombie tries to make him more human and relatable, not the best thing to do to the antagonists from a horror film.
Like the original Halloween, Rob Zombie's also got a sequel; Halloween II (2009). I saw this while it was in theaters with my dad since the first one kind of fascinated me. All the other slashers were getting reboots at this time like Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street. Halloween II, I kind of like to ignore it like its the plague. The main focus is again Michael Myer's mission to kill Laurie Strode, but this time it gives much more insight on why. Apparently Myers is acting on his dead mother's will, who he sees throughout the movie, from the afterlife I guess. In the Zombie version, Michael never killed his mother like in the original. Instead she committed suicide while he was in the asylum. Laurie is established as his younger sister (something that actually did happen in the original series) and its sad that the entirety of the Myers family must die. There wasn't a whole lot appeal to this movie, if anything it really wasn't necessary. The original Halloween II was required because the first one ended in a cliff hanger, it was necessary to continue the story. Zombie's is almost the same as the first, its just Michael trying to kill Laurie again. Carpenter's sequel took place in a hospital right after the first one and had a new atmosphere. The newer one never really changed setting. I do remember that not too many people left the theater happy when I went with my dad.
The same year he directed a direct to DVD animated movie for adults, The Haunted World of El Superbeasto. I've only seen bits and pieces, but it is very funny and references horror films throughout. For now, I've kind of jumped off the Rob Zombie bandwagon. I know that in 2013, he directed Lords of Salem (which I haven't seen) and in 2016, a movie called 31 will be released. 31 really does sound interesting. It focuses around the dark carnival theme with demented clowns, that really appeals to me, so I might end up seeing it in theaters when it comes out.

Ten of my Favorite Creepypastas

In my first post I mentioned that we'll be going back to the subject of creepypasta. For those unfamiliar with creepypasta, then its basically horror stories posted on the internet by horror fans alike. The prime hub for it is the creepypasta wiki. The Youtube user, Mr.Creepypasta, does readings of such and posts them for people's listening enjoyment. I have complied a list of ten of my favorite stories. Note that Mr.Creepypasta has made videos of them and they are relatively easy to find.

10. Ben Drowned-One of the most popular creepypastas on the web. Creepypasta works in categories, two of which are lost episodes and videogame (both of which got old really fast and no longer hold the novelty that they used to). Ben Drowned was either one of the first videogame pastas or simply one that was done right. The premise is the blog posts of someone who experienced unnatural evens while playing Majora's Mask (Legend of Zelda) on his Nintendo 64. The posts describe the game functioning in ways it shouldn't, as if it was trying to contact him. However the true culprit is the entity that inhabits the game cartridge. It claims its name is Ben, the very same name of a local kid who had drowned. What makes this story so great is that there are some gameplay videos you would watch as you read through it.

9. The Suicide King-What makes this story so unnerving is the fact that it just might be true. Ever wonder why the king of hearts in a playing card deck seems to be stabbing himself in the head with a dagger? That's because its based off of King Charles VII of France, who was said to have gone insane and took his own life by stabbing himself in the head with a sword.

8. Lack of Empathy- A story told from the point of view of a sociopath. He cares for no one but himself and takes extreme joy in watching people's pitfalls that he caused. When a family moves next door, he sees them as new victims for his amusement. Its interesting to have a narrator who isn't exactly mentally stable. You're able to see the world and other people how he sees them and for the first time, you may or may not be rooting for the bad guy. Which begs the question, is he the protagonist or the antagonist?

7. The Huntsville Camping Trip- The woods is a great setting in the genre of horror. It's a land of isolation, far away from anywhere civilized. Four teens go on an annual camping trip in the woods of Huntsville. All seems like a friendly reunion until one of them comes across a seemingly empty cabin. This pasta exists to unnerve the reader and does an extremely good job of it. There's nothing the reader can do to make sense of what the campers encounter. The ending(I won't spoil it) is up for interpretation.

6. Abandoned by Disney- There's a number of pastas that deal with Disney and its parks. After all, there's so many urban legends and dark secrets that the company holds. Abandoned by Disney details an investigator's venture to Mogli's Palace, a resort that was built in the Bahamas by Disney then left for reasons unknown . As he descents deeper into the ruined hotel property the reasons for its abandonment become clear and more terrifying. There's also a sequel, Room Zero, which achieves the same level of morbid intrigue that the first one does; exploring more of Disneyland's urban legends.

5. The Russian Sleep Experiment-One of the only pastas that isn't told from first person POV. Scientist in Soviet Russia are tasked to keep five political prisoners awake for a month using a gas. For the first five days, all is well. Then things start to go haywire. The test subjects become more ghoul-like, screaming and sprinting around the test chamber. When they aren't heard from for a week or so, the scientists make the decision to open the chamber. What awaits them are truly horrifying results. This is also one of the more well known and popular pastas. It keeps the reader on edge, always wanting to know more and what's going to happen. Its one of those stories which asks the question; could it really happen?

4. Anasi's Goatman Story- Another story with kids in the woods, only now there are at least ten of them. It seems like a fun filled camping trip in the woods in a trailer, but throughout the story there's always this copper/blood smell following them around. This is one of the signs that a being called "the Goatman" is near. It's said to stalk large groups of people and even infiltrate them by disguising itself. Already we have a group of teens in the woods who are full aware that something is stalking them. This gives way for paranoia and an intense feeling of dread. It kind of reminds me of John Carpenter's The Thing; a group of people isolated with an unnatural creature that can hid in plain sight and of course not knowing who to trust.

3. Grad Night at the Haunted Mansion- Yet another Disney-based story. Three high school seniors decide to spend the night in the Haunted Mansion ride in Disneyland during their grad night. Again, there's nothing more scary then the secrets that the Disney company holds. And these three unfortunate graduates end up running to one of the most infamous.

2. 1999- This is a big one, it would take about an hour to read the whole pasta in one sitting. In 1999, the narrator received his own TV for his room as a child. He had access to the channel, Caledon Local 21. This odd channel broadcasted shows of questionable nature, the prime one being "Mr. Bear's Cellar". It was aimed at children and featured a man dressed as bear (like Bear in the Big Blue House) and children (child actors) visiting him in his basement. Overtime, the show became more and more bizarre and frightening. The child actors would always choke up with tears, as if they didn't want to be there at all. While the actor portraying Mr. Bear's intentions became much more sinister. Other shows are also explored on the channel, and they all seem to connect back to "Mr. Bear's Cellar". The police reports of missing children also begin to add up...

1. The Puppetmaster's Regime- I really do love investigations into dark territory and that's exactly what Puppetmaster's Regime is. I can read/listen to it for hours and never get bored of it. The protagonist is investigating a play from the 30s called "The Puppetmaster's Regime". The production was known for mentally scarring those who had seen it and even ended with all the actors being killed on stage. As more is uncovered, the play's dark origin is also explored. We follow the narrator through his investigation; going through old documents about the original premiere, interview with a survivor, and even going to see a revival of the demented musical. There's twists and turns and sometimes things appear that are even hard to imagine. There's tones of mystery and shock and it even ventures into supernatural territory. Its the perfect blend that can really delight any avid horror reader.  

Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs Revisited

I have a lot of games on Steam. I've converted from console gaming to PC because its just easier that way. Games always are released for PC users and they never have to upgrade like with an Xbox or PlayStation. Another reason why is because the library of PC games is much larger then that of a console. This paves the ways for a whole lot of indie games that are excusive. The Amnesia series from Frictional Games is one such. The first one, Amnesia The Dark Descent, released in 2010, took the PC community by storm. People praised it for its immersion and intriguing game play. The objective of the game was to navigate through a Gothic mansion haunted by dark forces. You couldn't fight back and could only rely on hiding for survival. I've played through it several times, taking advantage of the interaction based endings I could perform. The novelty wore off and eventually I became familiar with the stage layouts and scares. But it still has a place on my list of favorite games.
Then in 2013, after much talk and expectation, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs was released. I played through it that same day and completed it in three hours. I thought to myself "Eh, it was ok." My hype for it died out a while ago. It was recently when I decided to play through it again, just to make sure I still was familiar with it. It soon all came back to me.
A Machine for Pigs is actually a prequel rather then a sequel, taking place a couple years before The Dark Descent. You're given a new character and setting, so playing the first game isn't required to have an idea as to what is going on. The plot revolves around Oswald Mandel, an industrialist and butcher, trying to find his two sons on New Years Eve 1899. Instead of taking place in a single mansion, its expanded to small town in London. Oswald is guided by someone called the "engineer" into a secret lair of sorts underground where it is claimed his children are held by a machine. This machine is capable of turning men into pig-like monsters and will continue to do so until it assimilates the global population, starting with London. The pig monsters can be encountered regularly throughout the game. As Oswald continues down, he slowly regains his memory and figures out he's more closer to the machine then he realizes.
Now there are differences in the second entry, for better or worse. The first is the lantern. In The Dark Descent, you have a lantern to light up dark areas (which is pretty much the entire game). The issue with it is that it runs out of oil and must be refilled. The lantern in A Machine for Pigs never runs out and can be accessed at anytime even when not needed. It makes navigating easier, but it must be hidden when the man pigs are near. While on the subject of the monsters; their designs are...scary to say the least. I've always enjoyed pig-like creatures and they seem to have their place in the horror genre. Appearing in movies like Motel Hell and Saw III and IV. The ones in The Dark Descent are hard to describe, but also deliver the same sense of fright. The game has a detection noise that they make when they find out your location. Trust me, its truly heart dropping when you hear that sound and the visuals only add to it.
So is it a better game then the first one with all these improvements. In my opinion, close but no banana. The reason I say that is because the gameplay. The Dark Descent was very open world like. Sure it had a start point and an end point but it offered many more in game interactions. A Machine for Pigs is very linear, its almost like a visual novel. It tries to keep you moving in a straight line to get from beginning to end while in the first game you can make curves here and there. I do, however, like the premise of the second game better. It's not too cryptic and is very upfront with everything. It's not too memorable though, consider I had to have a second play through to remind myself.
A Machine for Pigs was met with mixed to positive reviews. Most people agree that The Dark Descent is better. I see why, it's longer, requires more thinking, and has a much higher scare factor then the second one. In my opinion, its a good entry into the series. Keeping up with the connecting theme of forgetting something then slowly remembering it through a terrifying journey, but its a tad bit short and too one tracked.