Monday, March 18, 2024

Use of Tropes: Shake Rattle & Roll Extreme


It is always great to get a new entry into the long running Philippine horror anthology series, Shake Rattle & Roll. This new one from 2023 recently dropped onto UK Netflix. The first segment, Glitch, is a great demonic entry and I was also rather taken by zombie-esque final segment Rage with people turned by space parasites, and the segment carrying the fun conceit that the more violence they commit the more powerful they become.

The segment that has led to this article is Mukbang, directed by Jerrold Tarog, which was interesting because it moves directly into the world of internet influencers. However, whilst the creatures in it are not named as such, I did get a bit of an aswang feel.

Jane Oineza as Ms Vee

We see a motley crew of different influencers arrive at a mansion. We have Adelle (Esnyr Ranollo) and their assistant Beyoncé (Phi Palmos), Ashley B (AC Bonifacio) and her assistant Hannah (Jana Taladro), Ms Vee (Jane Oineza), and Chef Kino Javier (Ninong Ry) and his assistant Issac (Ian Gimena). They are meeting Robin (Paul Salas) and Reye (Elle Villanueva) who have set the whole thing up to hit a million subscribers. The viewer notices that each influencer character is introduced with their followership levels. Late is Lionell (RK Bagatsing), Vee’s boyfriend and influencer in his own right. Also there is caretaker (and, we later discover, butcher) Mr Isko (Francis Mata).

influencers

It is a collaboration, including a Mukbang and Mr Isko will provide the meat. Beyoncé is the first to change. We see them wandering, meeting Robin, something indistinct with glowing eyes appearing behind them and then Beyoncé acting odd in scenes thereafter. The general plot is that there are monsters in the mansion. Now aswang is a term meaning monster (and can be very generic) but aswang are mentioned once later when Adelle puts on makeup and pretends to be one.

what's behind Beyonce

The monsters themselves are referred to as kindred and the plot is one of world domination. A kindred will rip the heart of a victim out and eat it, in doing so they take on their appearance. The rest of the victim is then butchered by Mr Isko who gets Chef Kino to ignorantly cook it for the Mukbang, with the villains amused that the human influencers are tricked into cannibalism. The disguised kindred needing to eat the flesh to consolidate their appearance and regain strength. The idea is to take over the influencers, gain their platform, and then start inviting followers to further events.

one of the Kindred

It is the association with aswang (even in the generic monster sense, and we can note that the kindred are credited as monsters), the eating of the heart to gain a victim’s shape and the cannibalism that leads to this mention. This is the most comedic of the three segments and the influencers are not really drawn as pleasant. Unkind (in cases) to their assistants, cheating, more concerned with content than safety to the point of doing an advert for a sponsor whilst being attacked. The two who come off better are revealed to be villains of the piece (Robin and Reye) and, in some respects, the influencers themselves might be said to be vampires.

The imdb page is here.

Saturday, March 16, 2024

You Shouldn't Have Let Me In – review


Director: Dave Parker

Release date: 2024

Contains spoilers

A Tubi original, I put this on with low expectations but it managed to be more than expected and revealed itself as a neat little vampire film with an unusual vampire type (spider based) and a neat bit of lore that was used really well. Of course, the name is a riff on the John Ajvide Lindqvist novel/filmic spin offs (where the US vehicle uses the alternative Let Me In rather than Let the Right One In) and seems to have slowly crept in as a trope, for instance being the baseline for Let the Wrong One In.

Brianna attacked

It starts in a club and a woman, Brianna (Giulia Nunnari), engaged in a passionate kiss with a fella (Andrea Melis). She breaks off the kiss and determines to leave, he appears to follow. Walking across a town square she is clearly drunk and gets a phone call. She denies to Jenny (Anastasiya Bogach) that she is drunk. However, her instincts do click in and she starts to think she is being followed and starts to drunkenly run. Reaching steps, she loses her heels and gets to a gate but it is padlocked. She is approached (we don’t see the person(s) in detail but perspective suggests from left and right) and a clawed hand slashes over her face.

Blake and Kelsey

A train going through Italian countryside and onboard Kelsey (Diana Gardner) is on her phone and Blake (Nathaniel Ansbach) is bored. He suggests she stops doing work as they’re on vacation – pointing out that the world won’t end if the assistant to the assistant goes offline. They are there for the hen night and then wedding of mutual friend Rochelle (Isabella Egizi). It becomes apparent that Kelsey has a hangup as groom-to-be Richard (Davide Nurra) is Kelsey’s ex, who cheated on her and then got together with Rochelle. Blake suggests she concentrates on Italian hunks, that’s what he’ll be doing.

friends at the beach

They have to go straight to meet Rochelle and Jenny at the beach. Rochelle is an influencer and Jenny is stage managing her wedding as an event. It is interesting that this used the influencer phenomena and I watched it just a few weeks after doing my chapter for a forthcoming book, my piece touching partly on influencers in the vampire genre (more on that when the book comes out eventually), as this uses that trend well as a plot device and key element. Things aren’t going quite to plan, Brianna has not turned up and simply texted an excuse and Kelsey is not in the choreographed beachwear expected. It is organiser Jenny who seems more Bridezilla than the bride, Rochelle just suggests not posting pictures of Kelsey whilst off-brand (she has sponsors, she’s sure her friend will understand).

in the book

Kelsey takes the opportunity to look around the town and, as she does, comes across Brianna’s shoes (not knowing they are hers, of course) and then a rose at the gate where the woman was subsequently attacked. Picking it up, she pricks her finger and when she puts it back down there is blood on the white petals. She is accosted by a woman (Laura Mura) with a photo. She works out that the woman is looking for a missing person (presumably her daughter) and she notices a red centred broach the woman wears. She then gets to a shop and, inside, sees a pendant with the same red centre. The shop owner Dario (Riccardo Angelini) explains that the centre is blood of a martyr and the legend of a hypnotic spider who used to prey on the village, which the blood is said to protect from. He gives her the necklace. Blake arrives and, after Dario is told that Blake and Kelsey are not boyfriend/girlfriend, flirting occurs with Blake, who gets Dario’s number. Dario has said Kelsey looks familiar and there is a book he has with a sepia photo that looks just like her.

Victor and Kelsey

They get to the villa they are staying in, which has been donated for their use by Victor (Fabián Castro). There is an aside of seeing Brianna’s room festooned with cobwebs but nothing else is done with that. Kelsey wears the expected outfit but also the new pendent, which Jenny makes her remove as it doesn’t go with the look. A text from Brianna summons them to a club recommended by Victor, who is (of course) the vampire and is waiting for them. 

hypnotic eyes

It isn’t a spoiler really to tell you that he is after Kelsey (who closely resembles his lost love) but this vampire is not depicted romantically or misunderstood, rather he manipulates, enforces his will hypnotically (and through blood, which can also cause controlled hallucinations) to force consent, is a predator and drawn evil – all of which is great. Towards the end we hear that he drew them to him, offering the free accommodation, having seen the pictures of Kelsey posted by Rochelle and that makes this spider’s web the internet as well as having physical webbing (there is also a moment where rose petals are laid out in the form of a spiderweb).

Blake and Dario

Dario is the last of a line of vampire hunting knights and is searching for a vial of martyr’s blood that will damage Victor (much like holy water). The martyr blood aspect was the neat bit of lore and was used really well. Other rules are standard – lack of reflection, stake through the heart and the need for invitation. This extends to his own house as the guests have signed a rental agreement and Jenny (the signatory) is the one who must invite him. He has a couple of minions and there is a fabulous moment with one of them that I won’t spoil.

spider form

The film is fairly standard plot wise, with the spider element and the martyr’s blood adding its own twist to a familiar story, but it is well done. The cinematography works and nothing looks too cheap, despite it being a budget production. The characters seemed natural, the queer elements are not forced but rather they fit organically, and the pace bobbed along without dragging. I liked the influencer (and related abuse of the influencer by the vampire) themes. Is it the greatest film – of course not. But it is certainly worth a watch. 6 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Thursday, March 14, 2024

Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger: Papa wa Kyûketsuki!? – review


Director: Katsuya Watanabe

First aired: 1992

Contains spoilers

Power Rangers may have been a popular franchise in the US and UK, but they were based on a Japanese series called Super Sentai, with new live action footage, including actors, cultural references and plot. This episode of the Super Sentai series Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger (Dinosaur Squad) saw aspects cut into a couple of the Mighty Morphin’ episodes and the vampire aspect, which had Japanese actors, was lost in that. The episode title translates to Papa's a Vampire!?

hiding in foliage

A young girl is walking in a park when, within the foliage, we see a monster emerge named Totpat (voiced by Shinoda Kaoru). He bemoans that he has vampire blood but has never drunk human blood and goes after the girl. When he springs out on her she cries ‘Monster’ and this is heard by a young girl called Michi (Fujita Miki) who runs up, baseball bat in hand, and the monster flees.

prone to exaggeration

Dan (Fujiwara Hideki), who is one of the Zyurangers, is walking along when he sees Michi chasing a policeman (Iba Takashi) with her bat, shouting that there was a monster as the policeman denies any such report. Dan asks the girl if she really has seen a monster but the policeman intervenes and says that he is Michi’s father and she is a good girl but prone to exaggeration. Dan, however, goes off with Michi believing her story.

Papa's a Vampire!?

Meanwhile, Bandora (Soga Machiko), the evil witch who is the enemy of the Zyurangers is presented with her new monster, Dora Argus (Tokumaru Kan). She sends him to Earth to harm children and to help Totpat to be able to suck as much blood as he wants. Dora Argus is made up of eyes and he lures Michi away with a floating eyeball until she is alone and isolated and confronted by a giant eye (the monster’s primary one). He pulls her into a world of hallucination. Within this world she sees a vampire sucking blood from a victim. He looks up and it is her dad.

Zyurangers

She emerges back into the real world and walks, trance like, with Totpat ready to strike until she is nearly knocked over by Zyurangers Boi (Hashimoto Takumi) and Mei (Chiba Reiko). Michi cries that her father is a vampire. Most of the Zyurangers are sceptical, bar Dan who believes her tears. He and Michi are left as the others investigate and they are confronted by the eye, this time both of them being pulled into the other world and Dan seeing the vampire for himself. Will they get out and will Michi trust her (innocent) father again?

convenient cross

There isn’t a lot of vampire lore in this, but we do get a smidge. The vampire’s cloak acts of its own volition, fighting with Dan and knocking a cross (that Michi conveniently carries) out of the young girl’s hand when she tries to ward 'her father' with it. Of course it would be a case of belief in vampires, if not for Totpat who is a vampire (though perpetually incompetent at sucking blood, it seems). The episode itself is primarily geared towards the fight between the Zyurangers and Dora Argus, and the subsequent fight between the latter in kaiju form and the mecha of the Zyurangers. The Michi story is interesting but throwaway. That said it does work, albeit that it vacillates between simplistic and overly convoluted (as a plan to suck blood). 4 out of 10 for the episode as a standalone.

The episode's imdb page is here.

The complete series on DVD @ Amazon US

The complete series on DVD @ Amazon UK

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Short Film: Dracula a Silhouette Animation


Animated and directed by John S. Carolan this is a short film version of Dracula that crams the story into just 6-minutes. Whilst the writing credits look both to Carolan and Bram Stoker (or Stocker as the title page suggests!), the broad chops of the story owe something to Deane and Balderston respectively.

attacking Lucy

The animation is very basic, using silhouettes and intertitles as opposed to voice actors – this decision fits well with a silhouette of Dracula who owes much to the Orlock incarnation. The intertitles are very simplistically written as befits the curtailed and sparse narrative. What probably makes this for me was the use of Camille Saint-Saëns’ Danse Macabre, which moves the film along nicely. The imdb page is here.

Sunday, March 10, 2024

The Undying – review


Author: Mudrooroo

First Published: 1998

Contains spoilers

The Blurb:A daring and thrilling journey into a fantastical world of shamans and vampires where aboriginal Dreaming and Gothic horror are woven together to create a powerful and seamless narrative.

I'm the stranger with strange habits which make me avoid the full light of day, enter into the warm circle of your fire and will exchange my yarn for your company...

The stranger, George, tells a story of wonder and horror. Jangamuttuk, his father and Master of the Ghost Dreaming, is a shaman with ceremonies to send the white ghosts back to their own world. But the ghosts keep coming, settling on the land and destroying the local people. Initiated into the Dreaming, George learns the secret of transforming into his animal companion, Dingo, and discovers the thrill of the hunt. But he is not alone in his lust for blood. Amelia, the white woman, shares his appetite, feeding on humans and animals to maintain her terrible power.


The Review: When I came across this in the chapter Australia and New Zealand Vampires of Palgrave’s Handbook of the Vampires I knew I wanted to read a book that drew vampires into Indigenous Australian belief and was written by an Indigenous writer. What I was not expecting, until I read the book and then researched for this review, was the controversy around Mudrooroo’s status as an Indigenous writer. Born Colin Johnson, he changed his name in 1988 but his claim to Indigenous heritage was questioned in 1996 and his sister, Betty Polglaze, had done some (incomplete from what I can tell) genealogy that traced their ancestry mainly back to European settlers, with some African American heritage. Whether his ancestry did contain Indigenous heritage, was a literary hoax or was a misplaced but sincere belief, I cannot begin to posit. He was, of course, Australian and his work deserved to be covered in the chapter I discovered it in, though mention of the controversy was something that should have been included. I will say that, as I read it, my first reaction was that its style owed much to the Beats – and, within the research I did, I have picked up that his first novel was “heavily influenced by the poetry of Ginsberg and the prose of Kerouac”.

For the book itself, however, it must be stated that this is the second of the Master of the Ghost Dreaming series. I read it without the benefit of that first book but was not lost in doing so. The first book was about a group of Indigenous people in Tasmania who were ruled over by a “ghost” called Fada – ghost being terminology for the white settlers, thought to be spirits or returned dead and Fada being a thinly veiled version of the historical George Augustus Robinson. Jangamuttuk finds a song that allows them to escape Fada and this volume starts with the survivors on a stolen schooner, helmed by African Wadawaka (later identified as a freed man, through Britain’s abolitionist movement, whose imposed name – John Summer – likely conflated two historic identities. Jonathan Strong and Somerset, 2014). The story is told by George, Jangamuttuk’s son and details them finding the mainland, George’s first hunt in which he tastes (wallaby) blood and gains a fever that awakens his spirit animal – the blood drinking dingo. They then, in the dreamtime, encounter a bat creature who, in a melee, manages to drink of his blood and he accidentally drinks of its. That bat is the animal form of Amelia, a blonde-haired white woman from London who happens to be a vampire.

This vampirism is Euro-centric, with her needing to sleep on native earth, avoid sunlight and able to hypnotise victims. Sharing of blood allows her to create a servant – though George, who she later terms “her dog”, had a vampiric tendency anyway. She is, however, recognised by both George’s mother and Wadawaka (separately) as a vampire. The former calls her a blood sucker and the latter calls her a subagu (I couldn’t find an origin for the term). This euro-centric aspect is further underlined by her making a (bogus) shaman her servant and calling him Renfield (though this is devolved to Renfiel as it is the closest that he can pronounce). The book also has a werebear (of the polar variety) who is one of the colonisers.

I found the book a strange brew of western ideas, Australian Indigenous lore (though I cannot say how authentic this was) and a brutal commentary on the colonisation of the continent. The language, as I mentioned, was reminiscent of the Beats and that drew me into the world Mudrooroo created. I have no idea if his claimed racial heritage was real or not but I certainly enjoyed this book. 7.5 out of 10.

In Paperback @ Amazon US

In Paperback @ Amazon UK

Friday, March 08, 2024

The Temperature of Darkness


Director: Brett Davis

Release date: 2013

Contains spoilers

This is a film that, as I write, is available to watch on YouTube so this is less a review and more of an awareness raising article. It is based on Dracula and, in doing so, it carries an interesting conceit – which does take some suspension of belief, to be fair. It is also, ostensibly, a found footage style film – this doesn’t hold to scrutiny as there as some deliberate shots out with the in-film cameras, nevertheless it is mostly in that style. It is clearly a budget film and several of the players have only this in their IMDb credits, so that needs taking into account.

It starts with a man, Singh (Rajesh Rajan), talking to camera about the footage we’re about to see and the fact that he has taken efforts to make sure his family are safe. He mentions that they did discover a new way to kill a vampire.

Jonathan and Mona

Someone holding a camera asks a young woman what she is doing, she says looking at the horizon. She is Mona Morelli (Kathleen Mason) and he is Jonathan Harper (Tom Shuggars). She is in a bit of a grump and not really wanting to see the video of Jonathan’s recent business trip nor hang with his friends Quince (Dan Thorp) and Lucy (Sharanya Ravi) – the names, as you can tell are rather similar to those in Stoker. He shows them the trip, which was a flight for his realtor company to England – through London (we get some footage) and then to a village.

mates together

In the village he meets Captain Dragar (Lawrance Binda) bringing the deeds and paperwortk for the beach house they are in. He films as he goes in but the camera is aimed at Dragar’s fingers, not at his upper torso/face. He asks to take a picture – noting here that the camera switches to him holding his camera, breaking the found footage conceit – and later, when he gets the film developed Dragar is not in one picture and fuzzy in another. Dragar, apparently, was so taken with the property that he has allowed Jonathan use of it before he arrives in America and insisted that he brings his friends – especially Mona, who was seen on Jonathan’s phone.

Lawrance Binda as Captain Dragar

It’s interesting that we still have an East to West journey, but rather than to England, this is from England and to the USA. We get a little time dedicated to the friends. Mona, it should be noted, has told her father (Mike McMullin) she is on a girl’s trip and he has insisted that she brings bodyguards, Jack (Brian Polensky) and Gino (Brian Polensky), who wait outside and are cool with the deceit with regarding her companions as she is nice to them. Her father is essentially a mafia boss and also makes her wear a GPS tracker. We also get a moment with a fortune-teller (Rachel Shigley) who essentially tells them all that they have no future. Eventually Dragar arrives, puts supplies in the basement but lets the guys stay on. Lucy sleepwalks and becomes withdrawn, avoiding the sun etc. There is a point made of them inviting him up to where they are staying (and confirmation that an invitation was needed later). This doesn’t sit right as he owns the property.

Rajesh Rajan as Van Singh

Mona is approached by Singh at a gas station and blows him off at first but eventually calls him as odd things are happening. He explains that Bram Stoker was a journalist and his family have killed Dracula, under different names, multiple times – his actual name is Van Singh. Dracula/Dragar is a creature of habit and looks for patterns – hence choosing a group of friends with names close to those in the novel. Noteworthy here is Lucy’s surname is West and Quince is from Texas also. That was the conceit where my suspension of disbelief struggled, though I did like the idea that the vampire repeated his predations in a pattern and I like the fact that he was widely known due to the novel, but the chances of a group of friends fitting the pattern like that seemed far-fetched.

Vampire Lucy and Quince

So lore-wise we have sunlight being an issue (not from the novel, of course), wooden stakes will kill a vampire, garlic will ward him. For some reason Venus Flytraps are associated with vampires (of course a Nosferatu connection) and become perky when a vampire is around, drooping when not. The new method of killing a vampire was found accidentally – as the flash on Jonathan’s camera is automatically daylight balanced it kills vampires. This is extended to flash/torches on smart phones (though they seem to use the screen). The flash makes them fizzle out in bad cgi (daylight burns). Dragar can control minds, to make you forget he was there and make you not see him (defeated by looking through a smart phone’s video).

There you have it, a Dracula based vampire film whose imdb page is here.

Wednesday, March 06, 2024

Tales to Keep You Awake: The Nightmare – review


Director: Narciso Ibáñez Serrador

First aired: 1967

Contains spoilers

Tales to Keep You Awake (Historias para no dormir) was a thriller/horror anthology (with a touch of sci-fi) series in Spain that has rightly been called the Spanish Twilight Zone. It made episodes both from original ideas and based on classic tales (largely Ray Bradbury and Edgar Allan Poe) and cast a wide net on its ideas. Some episodes were geared towards the macabre – there is an excellent first season version of The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar – but others had a touching sentimentality – The Rocket (El cohete) being a prime and fantastically executed example.

bite marks

This episode was from season 2 and pulls on its full gothic sensibilities. It begins with three older women discussing the dresses and stockings that Rosa should wear. As they start it seems almost frivolous and the viewer thinks that, perhaps, Rosa is to go to a dance – until we realise that they are dressing her corpse. The main woman curses the village doctor, calling him stupid for saying she had succumbed to a peculiar weakness. She brushes Rosa’s hair and the movement reveals the punctures on her neck.

Fernando Guillén as Yolakin

We are in the village Kisilova in the Carpathians in 1880 and the innkeeper strings garlic outside his window. Inside he sends Maria to get more bottles of Sloe Gin – it is to be a busy night. Once retrieved he sends her to bed but the girl hides and watches. The men of the village are there and they know that the vampire is the strange and reclusive stranger Yolakin (Fernando Guillén). His nocturnal habits betray him but, they muse, the doctor doesn’t believe it and if they deal with the vampire they’ll hang, despite 6 girls having died. They’ve invited the doctor to talk. He arrives but is not swayed by their arguments so they say if one more girl is harmed Yolakin will die whatever the subsequent outcome. During all this the word wurdulak is used.

meeting

Catalina (Gemma Cuervo) is being fussed by the housekeeper, who is making her wear a garland of crushed garlic and silver cross. Maria has come to visit and, once the housekeeper is called away, confides in Catalina what she eavesdropped the night before. She suggests that Catalina should warn Yolakin and it is clear that Catalina has feelings for the stranger – and she does agree to visit him. She gets to his house and is intercepted by Luis, Yolakin’s servant who is going to send her away when Yolakin appears and takes her to the library.

Gemma Cuervo as Catalina

It transpires that the doctor and Catalina would, on occasion, dine with Yolakin and she has perceived the looks he bestowed upon her as an indication of his feelings. This is despite her frequently, over 6-months, writing to him and he not replying. She tells him that he should leave the area and take her with him – indeed she demands he go to her that very night. If he fails to do so then… she has taken a keepsake from each of the dead girls and she’ll say she found them buried near his home…

victim

Has she convinced him or simply irritated a vampire? Is he a vampire at all, or the scapegoat for superstitious villagers, as the doctor believes? Will the villagers kill him regardless? The episode does a nice line in playing with the outcome and it is a nicely gothic and competent story (there is, perhaps, some shorthand in the telling due to the episode length but it doesn’t suffer for it). Perhaps it was the vampire-centric story that made this one of my preferred episodes but I think its worth catching. 6.5 out of 10.

The episode's imdb page is here.

On Blu-Ray @ Amazon US

On Blu-Ray @ Amazon UK