Author Archives: Bob Evans

Secret Morgue 2023 Pre-View

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Local cinephile organization Film Geeks SD is hosting this Saturday September 23 the annual Secret Morgue a six-movie marathon. The titles of the films are secret with only the theme acknowledged. Previous marathons have had the themes of SF/Aliens, Witches, Animal Attacks, and 70s/80s horror. This year’s theme is zombies and that covers a lot of ground. Each year I have attended I have enjoyed, and I expect 2023 to be no different.

I am going to take some guesses as to which movie might screen. While I know some of the organizers, they have not nor would they ever give me any hints to the titles, so these are all just guesses of varying quality.

Night of the Living Dead: There are two reason I think this is a likely contender. First, it is the ur-text for modern zombie movies. Before Night zombie movies were Caribbean mystical zombies and afterwards that variety became to exception rather than the rule. the second reason is that the movie is in the public domain and therefore there are no rights holders with their palms out demanding cash for a public screening.

 

 

 

 City of the Living Dead I suspect at least one Italian zombie flick is going to make an appearance and it’s either this one or Zombie. I’ll put my money on the lesser-known film with the Lovecraft references.

 

 

 

 

 

One Cut of the Dead: A more recent film that has garnered praise within the horror community but not widely known outside of that social structure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sugar Hill A 70s blaxploitation zombie movie will be almost irresistible to the people of Film Geeks SD. It also has the charm of being a post-Night zombie movie that didn’t just crib from Romero’s cult classic.

 

 

The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue An English/Spanish co-production from the 70s, it clearly has inspiration from Romero’s Night but was produced before the zombie apocalypse became a cultural touchstone.

 

 

 

White Zombie A pre-code Bela Lugosi movie about classic Voodoo zombies, enslavement, and sexual perversion that also is in the public domain.  It is the original Zombie movie and for that fact alone I think there is a strong chance that it screens in the marathon.

 

 

 

 

I shall report from the Morgue and let all of you know how terrible my guesses turned out to be.

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The Appeal of Incompetent Art

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Recently on a bonus episode of the podcast The Evolution of Horror the host asked his guests which film was worse, Exorcist II: The Heretic or the often proclaimed ‘worst film of all time’ Plan 9 from Outer Space. Both on the show and on the Facebook page where the discussion has widened to listeners of the podcast the opinion runs pretty one sided in favor of Plan 9 being the ‘better’ movie.

Plan 9, while universally recognized as a film assembled by people with incompetent craft skills, has following and holds a special place in the hearts of numerous people who, while admitting all of the movie’s flaws, still enjoy watching the cinematic trainwreck. hardly anyone feels that way about Exorcist II a studio commanded sequel that while technically competent is often forgotten when conversation turns to its legendary predecessor.

Plan 9 is far from the only incompetent film to develop some sort of following; the whole concept of the ‘cult’ movie is usually predicated on a film that not only failed at the box office but usually displays the poor craftsmanship of its creatives. And yet these movies find their ways into people’s hearts. Why?

I think it is because while not skilled enough to execute the visions in their hearts, the creatives of the incompetent films loved them, believed in them, and their passion for the projects is sometimes captured on that film and it is that uncynical faith that calls out to others.

Earnestness applied too heavily becomes cynicism which in many cases is repellant but originating from love begats more love. That is the heart of the cult movie and why studio attempts to craft a cult film fail. A studio cannot love only creatives and the people who hear them can.

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This and That

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There were no posts on this blog last week because I took a week off to do nearly nothing. The busy time for my day-job is fast approaching, the team I work with had lost several members since the last Annual Enrollment Period for Medicare Advantage plans that bodes for loads of work & overtime, and I decided on a staycation at home before the flood hits.

I did work on my werewolf novel. The book has now passed 50,000 words and I suspect that there are about 35,000 left before I complete the first draft. It has been an interesting experiment and experience writing a novel without an outline. I did take a moment after a couple of chapters at the start to jot down on a single page the five-act structure and possible major events in each act, but even that thin plan had been altered as the story has progressed and characters appeared and influenced those around them. Because there was not much, or any, planning and plotting prior to prose production I am finding that there are a few elements that will require corrections. For example, my fictional county ‘Wallace Point’ will have to move further north in Idaho and that will alter the reference to the surrounding counties and towns. Still, I am quite happy with the results so far.

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Movie Review: A Haunting in Venice

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A Haunting in Venice is star and director Kenneth Branagh 3rd outing as Agatha Christie’s detective Hercule Poirot. Adapted from Christie’s novel Hallowe’en Party Branagh and

20th Film Studios

screenwriter Michael Green fully commit to the aesthetics of a ghost story for this interpretation with a raging storm outside, which also conveniently removes the authorities from investigating the crimes, an ancient house with countless dark and dreadful chambers, and a tragic history full of the unexpressed anger expected from ghostly vengeance. That said this is a Hercule Poirot mystery and it is no spoiler to reveal that nothing supernatural is at hand and only the living can speak for the dead.

The story opens with Poirot retired in Venice with a dour bodyguard to chase away anyone attempting to engaged Poirot’s services when an American mystery author, an old acquaintance of the detective’s, Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey) lures him out of his seclusion. Ariadne house found a medium Mrs. Reynolds (Michelle Yeoh) whom Ariadne cannot prove as a fraud. She needs Poirot to either reveal the tricky or confirm the fantastic nature of the woman’s metaphysical talents. Mrs. Reynold is scheduled to perform a seance at a reputedly cursed and haunted home. Once there the cast of diverse and suspicious characters is revealed and Poirot, despite his intention to retire is drawn inexorably into a murderous mystery.

 A Haunting in Venice is a terribly lovely film with pitch perfect cinematography by Hans Zambarloukos and a unique musical score by Icelandic composer Hildur Gudnadottir. Branagh is exception at crafting sequences that hold the fear and suspense suspended in the air like a fog slowly drifting to the ground. It would be quite something to see him tackle a proper ghost/horror film and not one merely reproducing the style of one.

The cast is uniformly talented, and it is so very nice to see Michelle Yeoh cast in a part that is in no way a typical ‘Michelle Yeoh’ role with even her ethnicity unrelated to the role.

The mystery unfolds in a manner expected of a Christie plot. That is to say that there are elements and backstory details not presented to the audience before the third act’s required detective’s exposition but as this is to be expected from Christie it should not be held against the film.

A Haunting in Venice is currently playing in theaters nationwide.

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Happy Star Trek Day

Paramount Studios/CBS Home Video

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September 8th, 1966, Star Trek aired its first episode Mantrap, and the world has never been the same.

I was born in 1961 and as I mentioned in my post My Tangled History with Star Trek this series has always been a part of my life, re-runs of the original cast in the 70s and 80s, the one season of Star Trek: The Animate Series, and to limited amounts the various takes on the Universe and its characters since the show’s inception.

Beyond fandom Star Trek has left its imprint on the world and its events. In 2020 when a deadly pandemic swept the globe and the United States launched as massive drive to find a vaccine, and find it fast, the effort was named Operation: Warp Speed and no one had to have that moniker explained to them. Therapists speak of the need for people to ‘lower their shields’ and they are not referring to metaphorical iron and steel but force-walls of defensiveness. Perhaps the cultural impact that will live the longest beyond this beloved series is the concept that your evil twin sports a Spock style goatee.

Star Trek can be brilliant, such as combining the themes of Moby Dick and the madness of Mutually Assure Destruction in the unforgettable episode The Doomsday Machine. It could be profoundly silly with comedic episodes such as The Trouble with Tribbles, question the nature of identity with episodes like What are Little Girls Made Of, or The Serene Squall (Star Trek: Strange New Worlds), proving the versatility of the premise and science-fiction in general.

Of the show could be stupid too, taking swing that should never been attempted, Spock’s Brain, Turnabout Intruder, or Patterns of Force where I contend Spock uttered his most idiotic line in any film or episode when he named Nazi Germany as a model of efficient government. (Hell, man, The Fascists of Italy ruled longer than the ones of Germany. I have always envisioned someone off camera forcing Leonard Nimoy to speak such drivel.)

Star Trek has seen many series, movies, and even timelines. Fans can argue endlessly and to great amusement and entertainment which series or captain was best, which episodes were best or worst, which run had the best writing, which timeline which show is in, but what cannot be argued and must simply be accepted is that Star Trek made reality its own ‘strange new world.’

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Movie Review Exorcist: II The Heretic

Warner Brothers Studio

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Four years following the harrowing events of The Exorcist Regan McNeil (Linda Blair) is a 16-year-old girl studying at an arts and performance school in New York City and apparently still unable to recall her possession and exorcism.

The Catholic Church dispatches Father Lamont (Richard Burton) to investigate the death of Father Merrin (Max Von Sydow) during Regan’s exorcism. Lamont, himself a survivor of a botched exorcism, inserts himself into Regan psychiatric treatment by Dr. Tuskin (Louise Fletcher) discovering through hypnosis and a psychic link with Regan that Merrin did not die of his well-displayed heart condition but rather from the demon psychically manipulating Merrin’s heart. Lamont pushes forward his investigation to discover why Regan was targeted for possession and to validate Father Merrin’s heretical theories about humanity.

Oh god, this movie is bad.

First off as a sequel it makes no sense. The Church is concerned about Merrin and what happened to him, as though an elderly man with a heart condition having a heart attack and dying is at all more peculiar than a healthy young priest defenestrated to his death. However as far as this movie is concerned Father Karris never existed. The movie always undercuts one of the main mysteries of The Exorcist, why her? Why Regan McNeil? In the longer released version Merrin speculates, correctly, that it is to make us feel that we are animals, unworthy of God’s love. When that scene was cut from the film it damaged to friendship between the writer Blatty and the director Fried kin because Blatty believed it to be so critical to understanding the meaning of what he had created.

This ties to the second reason this movie doesn’t work; it simply isn’t Catholic enough.

Now I am a non-believer. I do not believe in any gods or goddesses. The universe is ruled by physical laws and when we die, we end. That said, if you are crafting a work that hinges on religious theology then you need to stay true to that theology as it is the reality of that world. Blatty was a Catholic and wrote the novel and screenplay for The Exorcist exploring his deeply held faith and what evil means in the world he viewed as fallen. Part of the reason The Exorcist is so compelling and is because it comes from a sincere belief in its truth. Exorcist II: The Heretic abandons all that for uber-psychics with special mental healing powers and their destiny to unify humanity into one grand loving mind. That is pretty damned far from any Christian theology.

Aside from the lackluster script the movie is further damaged by some of the most blank, lifeless line readings I have ever seen on the screen. It is as if director Boorman, in an attempt to live up to his surname, instructed everyone to play their parts in a bad imitation of Star Trek’s Vulcan race. This movie has some real acting talent in it, Max Von Sydow, Richard Burton, Louise Fletcher, and James Earl Jones, but there is not one scene of genuine emotion in the entire movie.

The film’s score by the great Ennio Morricone is discordant to the point of distracting and quite possibly the worst score that man has ever composed.

Exorcist II‘s art direction is equally damaging to any suspension of willing disbelief. The sets look like sets, with studio lighting and backdrops only marginally better than what had been achieved on television a decade earlier.

The Exorcist is a film I revisit often, Exorcist II: The Heretic I last watched 40 years ago and revisiting it was a mistake.

Exorcist II” The Heretic is currently streaming on Max.

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In the 70s Psychic Abilities Were Everywhere

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The other night I began a rewatch of The Exorcist II: The Heretic. It has been 40 years of so since I last watched this sequel to the fantastically successful The Exorcist and most of the film had slipped into the forgotten realms. (Not surprising even 40 years I was unimpressed, and this is often considered the weakest film in the series.) Release in 1977 this movie has many of the hallmarks of cinema of the 70s, particularly genre films and their fascination with psychic powers or it was nearly always referred to then, ESP.

Now Science-Fiction’s love affair with ESP well predates the 70s, Star Trek’s original pilot The Cage fixates on it and it is the foundation for all of the weird and fantastic stuff in Herbert’s Dune. It is in the 70s that this shit exploded across television, film, and books.

ESP and its associated ‘powers’ seemed to erupt in all sorts of fiction even when it was terribly mismatched to the genre. The Devil’s Rain a supernatural horror film about a coven of satanist and the struggle to possess a vital artifact utilizes, in addition to magical powers granted by the lords of hell, ESP in it plot. In the novel The Exorcist Father Karris must exclude by proof that the objects moving about in Regan’s room are not being manipulated by telekinesis. Psychic powers are so assumed to exist as part of the natural world that they have to be eliminated before he can move on to demonic possession. (This bit was wisely dropped from the film’s script.)

ESP showed up in SF films, soap operas, and horror films with amazing regularity. This fascination vanished fairly quickly in the 80s with the study of psychic ability being coded for ‘con man; in Ghostbusters. The 70s were a wild ride.

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I SUPPORT WGA/SAG AFTRA

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I have not made much in the any of public posts, but I want it to be clear that I support the Unions WGA and SAG-AFTRA in their fights for fair wages, fair compensation, and fair treatment particularly when it comes of residuals and abusive artificial intelligence application.

I have been chomping at the bit to see Dune pt. 2 since Part one finished screening the first time I watch it. This is a masterful interpretation and now the second part of the story will be play in theaters until next year.

Is this frustrating to me? Yes. Am I impatient for this move? Yes. Am I going to waver in support of the strikers for my personal entertainment desire? Fuck no.

There has been movement lately but the suits need to understand that while for them these issues are at the margin of how much profit they take back for their companies for the working actor and writer these are questions of career existence. You aren’t going to break them with PR pieces and low-ball offers.

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Why An Armed Society is NOT a Polite Society

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‘An Armed Society is a Polite Society’ is a phrase I first encountered in the 1948 Science-Fiction novel Beyond This Horizon by Robert A. Heinlein. In the novel a futuristic society populated by eugenically bred and genetically manipulated humans one aspect is that people routinely go about armed and that dueling is not only socially acceptable for socially valued. This society is portrayed as prosperous, civil, and peaceful.

Today American society, while heavily armed, is far from polite. Armed people often brandish and use their firearms for minor altercations and annoyances, to say nothing of the epidemic of mass murder that shows no sign of abating.

 Why is that? Why doesn’t the knowledge that others around you may be very likely carrying lethal firearms promote more caution and deference in our society.

Heinlein himself provides what I believe is the reason that his ‘armed’ society is not a polite and civil one with the quote ‘Man is not a rational animal; he is a rationalizing animal.’ (Tunnel in the Sky 1955)

I do not know if Heinlein ever reconciled these contradictory sentiments.

The armed society is only polite if it is rational. If the people can calmly, dispassionately recognize that in any incident of violence they are the potential losers. Perhaps only super humans, bred for exceptional intelligence and mental stability, can achieve this armed yet peaceful society.

People are rationalizing. It is rational to wear seatbelts every time to ride on a motor vehicle, but many do not because they have rationalized that they are excellent drivers and will not cause a crash. Vaccines have plenty of evidence for the effectiveness and safety, but people rationalize not getting vaccinated because they will not get sick. It won’t happen to them.

Firearms are subject to the same faulty rationalizations. The viewpoint is not that ‘they’ might use their weapons on me, but I will be safe because I will use my weapons on them. The gun makes me the dominate in the power struggle, it makes me the victor, imposing my will on the dangerous and unpredictable world.

At our hearts humans remain tribal, hierarchal, social creatures for whom social standing is a powerful motivator and the alure of firearms to ‘elevate’ one’s status to a dominate position eradicates most ability to be truly rational.

Of course the irony is that if were coolly rational not only would we not need to be armed to be polite we would no longer even be human.

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My Tangled History With Star Trek

CBS Studios

Credit: Paramount Pictures

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When Star Trek first hit the air in 1966, I was a wee lad of five. I have some memories of watching the series then, being confused as to how the Enterprise blasted-off from Earth, (I was an avid watcher of the American space launches) until the concepts ‘built in space’ and ‘never landing’ was explained to me. It was the 70s that cemented by love for Trek, with the afternoon ‘stripping’ of the series where episodes were shown in random order each weekday afternoon usually alongside other classics such as Gilligan’s Island or Green Acers.

When Star Trek: The Motion Picture hit the silvered screens in 1979 I was there for multiple screens in my local theater. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan remains one of my favorite films. Of course, in 1988 Star Trek: The Next Generation was released into syndication, and I was pleased to have new Trek in my life.

However, I never loved Next Gen the way I loved the original series. I watched it weekly for most of its run, but by season six found that the storylines and writing simply didn’t command my attention. I went to the theater for some of this cast’s feature films but was so repelled by Star Trek: Insurrection that even that stopped being one of my activities.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine came along and it was (shoulder shrug) alright. I watched a few seasons, but not as much as I had Next Gen and dropped out of regular viewership before they progressed to their ‘war’ storyline.

Star Trek: Voyager I managed to choke down three episodes before I fled from it. I found too much of that series either poorly thought out or simply stupid to continue watching save for an episode here and there written by a friend.

Star Trek: Enterprise held promise that enticed me. The idea of going back to a less tech advanced Federation I found fascinating, but I managed only the pilot episode and walked away. It was not for me, and I had absolutely no interest in a ‘temporal cold war.’

Star Trek: Discovery held my attention for several episodes, but I have a clear memory of switching off an episode when they mentioned a ‘space sonar’ and I never returned.

Star Trek: Lower Decks I watched several episodes and generally found I liked it on the same level as The Next Generation but ultimately the characters grated on my nerves. Farce is fine on limited doses, but I have a low tolerance for it as a running series.

Which brings us to Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

I adore this show.

It is difficult to understand why this series is working for me when so many of the others repel me. I do think part of the reason is that it has embraced an episodic format. While not as episodic as television of the 1960s where the episodes were intended to be ‘stripped’ and shown out of order,Strange New Worlds has enough continuing storylines that the order of the shows is vitally important, but it also has the freedom to do episodes with standalone stories much like the original series. Not every episode is a banger and some certainly engage me more than others, but the series overall has grabbed.

This set of characters are far more interesting than the fairly bland set from Next Generationwho were presented as far too perfect for my tastes. Chapel has become one of my personal favorites instead of the one-note cardboard cutout as presented in the original run. After all, did anyone really notice her absence in Wrath of Khan?

For those people who love the various variations that didn’t work for me I am happy for you. What a boring world it would be if we only loved the same things. Strange New Worlds hasn’t worked for everyone and their big swings like the cross-over with Lower Decks and the musical episodes have sparked strong emotions but that is so far better than a bland meh. Take swings in your art, try something outrageous, most of all create what you want to see.

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