Today, Wes Craven has died. My condolences to his family and friends. They lost someone very dear and close to them. For the rest of us, we've lost a master of horror and slasher films.
I remember watching A Serpent and A Rainbow as a young boy. The fact that it featured predominantly a Haitian Culture, its mythos and history of brutality at the hand of tonton macoutes made it a must-watch for my family, who are Haitian immigrants. There is a scene where affluent WASPs are celebrating a success with a dinner party that gets rudely interrupted when one of them becomes possessed by a villain overseas. A scorpion materializes out of the mouth of another victim, and our main protagonists gets buried alive. These images helped shaped my love of thrillers and horrors. It was until much later into my adulthood that I learned that this film was directed by Mr. Wes Craven.
In so many ways, Wes has shaped and scared alot of us in this babybooming, generation-X populace. Whether it was me having to peak through my fingers to watch Freddy Krueger slash at his preys or cringing as the unsuspecting blonde walks into a dark garage in Scream, Wes left his stamp on the world. He defined horror on film.
Red Eye (2005), one of his films that didn't achieve the accolades of his previous films, was another adventure into suspense. I remember watching it in theaters on the edge of my seat. In any one else's hands, a film that took place largely in a plane with two characters sitting side by side would've devolved into parody and hokiness.
His filmography is intensive and spans decades: Last House of the Left, The Hills have Eyes, Cursed, They, Dracula 2000, and many more. I personally own the movie They, because its concept was fascinating. It was an interesting story about the demons of our past "marking" us and how they come to collect us. The social worker part of me saw this as PTSD.
So it's with sadness we say goodbye to this genius, but his legacy will continue to give us chills.
Monday, August 31, 2015
Monday, August 24, 2015
Who's Watching Scream: The TV Series?
So recently I was at Six Flags New England with my family. Come closing time, I was exhausted with fun but still ready for one more ride. On my trek back to the car, I overheard a tween boy negotiating with his Mother about getting a SnapChat. My curiosity piqued at this kind of suburbia Americana I couldn't help but listen in. The conversation went something like:
Son begged, "Please. Everyone has one."
Mother replied sympathetically, "I know that. The internet is filled with lots of things."
"I won't talk to strangers mom," Son said intuitively, sounding mature in the process. He probably figured his mom's angle and went to cut her off. "I won't talk to strangers mom. I'm not a teenager like on Scream. You know that show Scream, mom?"
I was strangling back my laugh. So many ironic things to choose from. The fact that the tween somehow thought himself above a teenager. Or that Mother was probably already well versed in the numerous social media networks in our world and the horrors of their dark underbellies. That this tween was somehow allowed to watch Scream: The TV series, a revival of sorts of the classic slasher film of the 90s. This revival attempts to deal with our selfie-obsessed, tech-wired generation and its consequences.
I admit I was intrigued when talk about this series. Just look at the successes Bates Motel and Hannibal. Each of these horror/thriller series are creative explorations into the mythos of their predecessors. Unlike some, I rather enjoyed Scream 4. It relied on tricks and tropes of the past, but edged the slasher genre forward a bit with interesting characters and twists I didn't see coming. Maybe MTV's Scream would do the same.
You can see from my face that I was not amused. My chance eavesdrop into a tween's conversation about Scream reminded me that I had stopped watching the series after episode 3.
Episode one/the pilot showed promise. It started rather familiar with a not-so-innocent blonde and her boyfriend getting the old 'scary movie' treatment. It was a echo back to the original's opening sequence. The pilot established a killer mystery and that MTV didn't mind shedding some blood. It also established that some of the characters were going to be terribly one dimensional, and easily palatable for this pop generation.
All the boxes were checked in this series: queer teen, smart girl, mean girl, jock type, new kid in town, and the goody female protagonist. Not much attention is paid to the adults, because honestly, that isn't the wanted demographic. There are some competent actors in this series: Willa Fitzgerald plays Emma, our female heroine, adequately. Carlson Young plays Emma's bestfriend, who is the popular mean girl with the stereotypical cattiness, but some vulnerabilities. John Karna of Chronicle fame leads a hand for comedic relief and some empathetic notes as Lakewoods movie, game and electronic enthusiast nerd. Even though, we aren't talking about the older adult actors, Emma's mother played by Tracy Middendorf reminded me of what the Sidney Presccott of Woodsboro would be like as a mom. It was enough to keep my interest.
It was at episode two I realized that I was deluding myself. The characters were hollow, and the writing was just as empty. There was too much use of the coincidental and heavy handed freshman tactics of story telling. I stuck around for as long as I did and wondered if anything new was going to emerge for this genre.
Sadly, it went in the way of most horror films to date. They believes adding technology and new CGIs makes it modern.
I can forgive not picking up from where the Scream Series left off, but the whole mythology of the Woodsboro murders doesn't exist in this series. However the Ghostface mask does, because serial killers share masks. In my view, if they wanted an authentic formula to attract and scare viewers, they should've revisited the original film trilogy. Not for the same jumps and scares, but for genius of the writing and complete understanding of the genre. The character tropes then felt fresh and alive. The characters used in the tv series have already existed. Where is the new narrative?
The closing lines of the first episode delivered by Noah Foster (John Karna) promised something it hasn't delivered on yet. "You can't do slashers as a TV series. Horror movies burn bright and fast." We have to get to know the characters, feel for them, so that when they do die, it makes it relevant.
By episode three, the only seemingly diverse character was offed and I stopped watching.
How is a series like this going to progress if the characters have been pulled from the horror movie stock pile? I wanted a series that was equal parts psychological as well as thriller. I wanted diverse characters. Each episode stuffs another teen melodrama and red herring in the way of the true story. When your life isn't private anymore, who can you trust? There are many diverse ways to tell that story. We don't need the blonde to tell that story anymore.
Despite my criticisms, the series has been renewed for a second season. It clearly tapped into something woefully wanton in this new generation. The kids aren't scared anymore.So when that tween in the parking lot of Six Flags asked his Mother about SnapChat, he already knew what his mother's fear was. He and his mother heard stories about the horrors of social media. It just never happened to them personally. So when that does happen to you...there in lies the horror and that's where Scream the Series should've gone.
Son begged, "Please. Everyone has one."
Mother replied sympathetically, "I know that. The internet is filled with lots of things."
"I won't talk to strangers mom," Son said intuitively, sounding mature in the process. He probably figured his mom's angle and went to cut her off. "I won't talk to strangers mom. I'm not a teenager like on Scream. You know that show Scream, mom?"
I was strangling back my laugh. So many ironic things to choose from. The fact that the tween somehow thought himself above a teenager. Or that Mother was probably already well versed in the numerous social media networks in our world and the horrors of their dark underbellies. That this tween was somehow allowed to watch Scream: The TV series, a revival of sorts of the classic slasher film of the 90s. This revival attempts to deal with our selfie-obsessed, tech-wired generation and its consequences.
I admit I was intrigued when talk about this series. Just look at the successes Bates Motel and Hannibal. Each of these horror/thriller series are creative explorations into the mythos of their predecessors. Unlike some, I rather enjoyed Scream 4. It relied on tricks and tropes of the past, but edged the slasher genre forward a bit with interesting characters and twists I didn't see coming. Maybe MTV's Scream would do the same.
You can see from my face that I was not amused. My chance eavesdrop into a tween's conversation about Scream reminded me that I had stopped watching the series after episode 3.
Episode one/the pilot showed promise. It started rather familiar with a not-so-innocent blonde and her boyfriend getting the old 'scary movie' treatment. It was a echo back to the original's opening sequence. The pilot established a killer mystery and that MTV didn't mind shedding some blood. It also established that some of the characters were going to be terribly one dimensional, and easily palatable for this pop generation.
All the boxes were checked in this series: queer teen, smart girl, mean girl, jock type, new kid in town, and the goody female protagonist. Not much attention is paid to the adults, because honestly, that isn't the wanted demographic. There are some competent actors in this series: Willa Fitzgerald plays Emma, our female heroine, adequately. Carlson Young plays Emma's bestfriend, who is the popular mean girl with the stereotypical cattiness, but some vulnerabilities. John Karna of Chronicle fame leads a hand for comedic relief and some empathetic notes as Lakewoods movie, game and electronic enthusiast nerd. Even though, we aren't talking about the older adult actors, Emma's mother played by Tracy Middendorf reminded me of what the Sidney Presccott of Woodsboro would be like as a mom. It was enough to keep my interest.
It was at episode two I realized that I was deluding myself. The characters were hollow, and the writing was just as empty. There was too much use of the coincidental and heavy handed freshman tactics of story telling. I stuck around for as long as I did and wondered if anything new was going to emerge for this genre.
Sadly, it went in the way of most horror films to date. They believes adding technology and new CGIs makes it modern.
I can forgive not picking up from where the Scream Series left off, but the whole mythology of the Woodsboro murders doesn't exist in this series. However the Ghostface mask does, because serial killers share masks. In my view, if they wanted an authentic formula to attract and scare viewers, they should've revisited the original film trilogy. Not for the same jumps and scares, but for genius of the writing and complete understanding of the genre. The character tropes then felt fresh and alive. The characters used in the tv series have already existed. Where is the new narrative?
The closing lines of the first episode delivered by Noah Foster (John Karna) promised something it hasn't delivered on yet. "You can't do slashers as a TV series. Horror movies burn bright and fast." We have to get to know the characters, feel for them, so that when they do die, it makes it relevant.
By episode three, the only seemingly diverse character was offed and I stopped watching.
How is a series like this going to progress if the characters have been pulled from the horror movie stock pile? I wanted a series that was equal parts psychological as well as thriller. I wanted diverse characters. Each episode stuffs another teen melodrama and red herring in the way of the true story. When your life isn't private anymore, who can you trust? There are many diverse ways to tell that story. We don't need the blonde to tell that story anymore.
Despite my criticisms, the series has been renewed for a second season. It clearly tapped into something woefully wanton in this new generation. The kids aren't scared anymore.So when that tween in the parking lot of Six Flags asked his Mother about SnapChat, he already knew what his mother's fear was. He and his mother heard stories about the horrors of social media. It just never happened to them personally. So when that does happen to you...there in lies the horror and that's where Scream the Series should've gone.
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