As of 12/17/10, this blog will no longer be updated. Thanks for reading! 


As of 6/28/11, I've turned my attention to cleaning out my Netflix queue. You can follow along with that fun at The Taming of the Queue!

Horror-at-Sea

While Shark Week seems to have become a media institution, there is more to horror-at-sea than fish with big teeth. Maritime folklore is filled with ghost ships and superstitions that are less wildlife related. These two smaller films take advantage of the situation of isolation that the ocean provides.

Below (2002)


Directed by David Twohy (Pitch Black) and co-written by Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream), Below is a ghost story in the classical sense. Set on a WWII submarine, the story is less about a ghost antagonist that needs to bested and more about the mystery surrounding the death of the sub's captain. The supernatural events occur in order to right a wrong, rather than kill everyone in sight. Twohy takes the opportunity to add some creepy visuals here and there, but resists making the climax effects-laden. The performances and writing are perhaps a little too modern, but the claustrophobic nature of submarine life is fairly well portrayed. 

Triangle (2009)
(This trailer is spoilery.)


Triangle is a UK/Australian production (with no accents) that only had a DVD release in the US. Without giving away much more than the above, the plot of this movie involves a time loop (much like another semi-obscure movie, Timecrimes (2007)). Such a conceit requires very careful plotting and performances, and Triangle doesn't quite succeed in this. It cheats in an obvious way on re-watch. Given one watch though, Triangle presents some jarring moments and an ending that was truly surprising to me. Melissa George (30 Day of Night and quite a bit of television) gives a very good performance though the way the movie cheats undermines it somewhat.

Both movies are available on DVD and on Netflix instant view. Triangle is also available on Blu-ray.

Short Movie: Heartless (Whitestone Motion Pictures)

Every week or two, my husband and I have a conversation about the publishing industry in relation to electronic texts and ebook readers. Every other conversation leads to Eric making the following point: movies are continually becoming easier to make and distribute. Historically, television and the movies haven't "killed" the written word, but what if instead of writing the story you want to tell, you could make the movie instead?

Tor and SF Signal have been showcasing a plethora of well-made independent short films. I'm not saying that movie-making isn't hard work or as cheap as writing, but I'm happy that services like YouTube and Vimeo are allowing film makers to distribute their work. A particular standout is Whitestone Motion Pictures' Heartless: The Story of the Tin Man, posted at Tor in early May.



This is film well done. The look is great, the performances are pretty good, and it's worth twenty minutes of your time when you're looking for a steampunky fairy-tale escape. All of Whitestone's projects have this lightly magical (and musical) sensibility to them. I'll definitely be keeping an eye on them.

Personally, I never worry about whether one method of storytelling will supercede another. As long as tales continue to be told, I'm happy.

Movie: Trick 'r Treat

This is the second of two posts about movies that were not given a theatrical release, but are still managing to find an audience.

With smaller, experimental movies (like last week's Ink), it's not hard to understand why a film was not picked up for distribution. The movie business is a *business* after all and investment is weighed against risk. A film by a new director, featuring unknown actors, and questionable plot accessibility is quite a risk.

Horror films are regarded as easy money. Their budgets are reasonable, as are their returns. Fear, it would seem, is the ultimate in accessible. When a horror film like Trick 'r Treat with a known director (Michael Dougherty, X2, Superman Returns) and name actors (Anna Paquin (the X-Men movies, True Blood) and Brian Cox (Deadwood, the first two Bourne movies)), is shelved, it's curious.



Trick 'r Treat is a homage to horror comics, and the horror anthology movies (Creepshow) and TV shows (Tales from the Crypt, Fear Itself) they spawned. The film is a collection of four stories mildly interwoven and containing a loose wrap-around. As horror movies go, it's mildly gory, fairly suspenseful, and full of "fun" scares. So, why wasn't it released theatrically?

Trick 'r Treat's R rating might have been some of the problem. While the target demographic for horror films is teenagers and films such the Saw franchise and Rob Zombie's recent movies haven't suffered from the rating, Trick 'r Treat doesn't look like R-rated horror. It's not torture porn and there are no grungy psycho-killers. Instead, Trick 'r Treat filled with wicked little stories with twist endings. Again, it's scary, somewhat gory, fun. It just happened to be in the R category according to the MPAA and may not have been available to what was perceived to be its target audience.

The hardcore horror competition, especially in October, probably also contributed to Trick 'r Treat's shelving. The film was originally slated for release in October of 2007. This release date would have put it against Saw IV and Rob Zombie's Halloween remake, as well as 30 Days of Night. Tough competition for the over age-17 dollar. A 2008 release would have had a similar problem: a Saw film and an R-rated remake (Quarantine). Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures finally released the film on DVD in October of 2009. It is available through all major retailers and rental services. And I don't think you need to wait until October to give it a look.

Movie: Ink

This is the first of two posts about movies that did not receive theatrical release, but are still managing to find audiences.

The first movie is Ink.



Ink is a very nice example of a modern fairly tale. This is not an old tale re-envisioned, but instead it has its own mythos, or at least relies on fairly obscure folklore. It is unafraid to mix some vaguely technological elements (like the creepy TV screened incubi) with more traditional fairy tale tropes (the child stealing ogre and the blind fool). It presents its concept of how the world works with little initial exposition. I could present a succinct and non-end-spoiling plot summary, but I think that would do the film injustice. Ink is at its most charming when its not working too hard to tell an exact story.

Unfortunately, the most prevalent problem with fairly tales is that, they're pretty simple. The title character of Ink goes on his journey and, as he is accompanied and pursued, he learns about himself as a character along with the audience. While the movie is not preachy, it does end in an inevitable moral lesson.

The film-making is very good if taken within a certain context. Ink has several very distinct looks for its different worlds. The effects are cheaply done, but not necessarily cheap looking. I would not wish for this movie to have better effects, but I also can't see that it could have ever been a "big screen" movie. I'm not sure if it comes down to lack of polish exactly, but for me, Ink is a very fine TV movie. Not more than that.

Still, Ink has a certain Terry Gilliam aspects to it, and is a better use of an hour and forty-five minutes than the likes of Gilliam's Brothers Grimm.

Ink was not picked up for theatrical distribution. Instead Double Edge Films went truly independent, releasing the film on DVD and Blu-Ray and marketing for sale directly from their website and for rent from various retailers. They've also embraced the "give-it-away" strategy. The video is currently available on Hulu, and Double Edge's website urges free viewer (whether through Hulu or other means) to contribute.

Music: Ramona Falls

A brief OMM, due to the lazy writer being lazy:

Brought to my attention by the excellent web comic Wondermark is the band Ramona Falls.



Hailing from Portland, OR, Ramona Falls has a sound that reminds me very much of Michael Penn (of "No Myth" fame¹). The vocals are similar though Ramona Falls augments lush acoustics with a little bit of electronic flare. I'll definitely be paying attention to this collaboration as well as Brent Knopf's more prominent project, Menomena. Ramona Falls 2009 album Intuit can be purchased through Amazon and more tracks are available for listening at their Facebook page.

¹ While "No Myth" is Penn's only top 20 hit in the US, his albums are generally solid, especially 1989's March, which is available in extended form through Amazon.

TV: The Unusuals

Dramedy is a word that makes me cringe. It reeks of desperation. I imagine it to be the word a pitch man uses when trying to convince a studio executive that dramas can be comedic or that a comedy can be dramatic. "You know... a damedy!" With a TV history that includes shows like M*A*S*H and Scrubs, it would seem that such a desperate word would be unneeded. Drama is often better with the lightening aspects of comedy, and comedy can be kept from being frivolous by the weight of drama. Unfortunately, "dramedy" is used and The Unusuals was stuck with the label.



Set in NYC, The Unusals presents a homicide division filled with ecentric characters that specializes in not-straight-forward cases. At the center is Detective Casey Shraeger (Amber Tamblyn, Joan of Arcadia), who is trying to shed her socialite past, and Detective Jason Walsh (Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker), a former baseball player and current diner owner. Other characters include a very Frank Burns-like "top" detective, a man who believes he will die before he turns 43, and other that has a brain tumor and may die in the near future.

The Unusuals premiered in April of 2009. ABC touted the show as the next M*A*S*H and had hopes of it being the next big crime drama. The first episode, like many pilots, is somewhat rough around the edges. It perhaps tries too hard to be funny given absurd situations. The performances are impressive though, especially Renner's. By the third episode, the show settles down. Audiences didn't give the show that long and it was quickly canceled.

All ten episodes of The Unusuals are currently available (as of 1/25/10) online at Hulu and Crackle.