Review: Case 39

"They like to cast me for scary roles. I think it's because they want you to be scared, but also to like the little girl,” states Jodelle Ferland, who plays Lilith Sullivan in one of the most anticipated horror movies of the season, Case 39.

            Emily Jenkins (played by Renee Zellweger) is social worker who has just been assigned her 39^th case regarding the 10 year old child, Lilith Sullivan.  After meeting with Lilith’s unresponsive parents, it is obvious that she is undergoing emotional abuse, if not physical abuse as well.  Emily begins to develop a strong connection with the child, stemming from her own dysfunctional relationship with her mother, and ends up giving Lilith her number in case of emergencies.  When Emily receives a call one night, with Lilith whispering that her parents are going to kill her, both Dective Barron (played by Ian McShane) and her quickly arrive at the house, break down the door, and are shocked to see that Lilith’s parents have shoved her into the oven, trying to burn her alive. Now take a moment and put yourself in Emily Jenkins’s position.  You have a scorned child who is suffering from the effects of an abusive childhood, and is in need of an understanding foster family who can appreciate and treat her needs properly.  Who better to take her in than a woman with years of social work experience under her belt?  Emily and Lilith soon begin their own journey as mother and daughter – but will they both make it out alive? 

Directed by Christian Alvart, and written by Ray Wright, Case 39 didn’t disappoint viewers with its uncanny plot and spirals of tension driven scenes. As viewers, we are introduced to a little girl with extraordinarily dangerous powers, and a conflict in which the people that are close to her suddenly end up dying.  With her biological parents in prison, and her new foster mother, Emily, terrified of the child that she has brought home, Lilith decides that it is time to show her true self and bring her powers to the table to convince the people around her exactly what she is capable of.  For instance, take Doug, her child psychiatrist (played by Bradley Cooper). During one of their sessions, he confronted Lilith about why she marked on the standardized evaluation test that she wasn’t afraid of anything. When no answer that she gave satisfied him, she responded with, ‘I’ll tell you what scares me, if you tell me what scares you.’ Unfortunately for Doug, after reliving a childhood nightmare of hornets to her, he was met with a violent infestation upon returning home that night, which ultimately resulted in his death.

Case 39 is a movie that will have your jaw on the ground as you witness Lilith’s seemingly innocent transformation into her demonic self.   With horrifying tricks for amusements, she is determined to keep Emily locked within the grasp of her claws, as both her mother and servant. Battling with her sanity, Emily begins to understand Lilith’s parents’ struggle with their daughter, and is met with one of the hardest decisions that she has ever had to make.  Can she murder a child?  But the main question remaining is, if you kill a demon, where exactly does it go?

Just Watched: ALIEN

Ash is a robo-douche.
(Glad I got that out of my system).

When I started watching Alien, I wasn't really all to thrilled about it.  In fact, I watched the first twenty minutes of so before I called it a night and went to sleep.  But, today...I realized that I misjudged the movie, and it was actually pretty good (and this is coming from someone who isn't a big alien person, although The Fourth Kind ruined my life for a little bit). However, before I started watched the movie, I wrote down what I thought was going to be the gist of the movie: 

1. Crew initially gets along well, although there is one out of the group that is suspicious
2. Operation is going well, until they make some type of contact
3. Try to engage contact, accidentally bringing alien on board the ship
4. Alien starts taking out people one by one
5. Shady character in the beginning gets in the way
6. Alien is supposedly killed, but in the end, comes back for revenge

Now for the most part, I hit it spot on, give or few a little hoops that I didn't jump through, and frankly this kind of pissed me off.  I hate that alien movies in general are so predictable, but the more I thought about it, so is a regular horror plot:

1. Group of people are introduced: the slutty blond, the geeky brunette, the jock, the token black guy, and a few other random people
2. A legend, or ghost story, or murder, or something gory happens to which sets off the plot, and all of the above people, or a least one of them is involved (or the killer) to which puts the rest of the group in danger
3. The 'threat' starts taking them out one by one, always barely getting away
4. After a few people die, they think up an elaborate plan and eventually think that they killed the bastard...but hello?  He/she ALWAYS comes back!

Ok, so that's a VERY generalized understatement for the genre, but you see my drift?  What makes the genres interesting though is naturally all the stuff in between that we don't expect.  For instance, when Cain was bent over looking at that egg, I knew that someone was going to attack him, but I certainly didn't think it was going to look like that, nor did I think that it was going to have that effect on Cain.  For instance, I was surprised that it latched on to his face, and stayed latched on all while giving him an constant air supply while it put him in a coma.  I thought the fact that the creature's blood was acid was a pretty neat touch because that made it all the harder to kill it because it put everyone else in danger.  Another thing that I thought was pretty cool was that this was all happening on the ship while they were soaring through space because I atomically assumed that they were going to be stuck on the planet -- leaving the atmosphere to be an unknown setting, thus making things harder.

But let me tell you, when that little creature jumped out of Cain's chest, I almost peed my pants from laughter.  Not because I thought the scene itself was funny, but rather because it reminded me of a spoof that they did on Star Wars, called Space Balls: check it out, you won't regret it

Needless to say, I was also pretty surprised when Ash ended up being a robot, because I wanted him to just be the classic know it all on the ship, so for me, that aspect didn't really work, however the graphics that they used to do it (the white slime down his face, how his head snapped back, and then how they put him back together on that table)....now that redeemed it for me.  But I'll be honest with you guys, I thought for SURE that something was up with that cat, haha.  I don't know why, but I just assumed that it was infected and when the girl ended up on the shuttle at the end, I thought the cat was going to carry the trait and turn into the alien -- I didn't really expect that huge creature to end up on the shuttle pod with her... I mean I did see it coming, but I wanted to be wrong. 

Now, from a feminist perspective, I was really excited to see a strong, female character take the ropes in this movie.  More often than not, it's normally taken over by a man, but this chick had some balls.  She wasn't afraid to express her opinions and flat out tell ash that she didn't trust him...and unlike the other girl in the movie, she didn't cry and automatically want to abandon ship....she was ready to go kill the alien.  Plus, she ended up being the only survivor which is pretty impressive...even though she  mainly stayed in the control room throughout the entire movie, until the end (but hey, give her some credit...she WAS running the operation!).  My only gripe with the portrayal of the female character was that she just HAD to take off her clothes in the very ending of the movie.  Now, somebody please explain to me why she had to fight the alien in her bra and underwear... ya ya ya I know sex sells, but she couldn't find that big, gooey, had while she still had her battle clothes on?  I mean I guess you argue that it puts her in an even more vulnerable position, but come on.  In this case, I'm not buying the nudity.

The other question that I wanted to explore was: who was the real monster?  Naturally the unknown, alien that goes on a killing spree seems like the logical answer, but when you think about it... it was the humans that landed on its land, disturbed its birth, and then willingly brought it on board knowing nothing about it, breaking protocol in the process.  Is it really the creatures fault for going along with its feeding habits?  I mean technically, it's not doing anything wrong, and if the crew hadn't brought it on board, none of this would have ever happened. So I'm going to back up the alien on this one, and say that it was the crew that was the monsters, and not it.

I am still curious about the creatures living conditions though.  Was it hiding out in the cooling ducts because it couldn't survive a hot and humid temperature?  Is that why it was curled into that little compartment at the end of the movie, and when it reached its hand out it immediately recoiled and cried out? Hmmm... if so, I wonder why know one thought to just turn up the heat on the ship, haha!

Just Read: World War Z

Now while I don’t want to admit this, I actually haven’t read the Zombie Survival Guide (ducks from punches from classmates and evil overlord).  I also wasn’t really ever that into zombies, other than watching the oldest version of Night of the Living Dead. But recently this semester, I have been trying to explore and develop more of a monster history and decided to pick up some zombie movies to learn more: Resident Evil Trilogy, The Land of the Dead, 28 Days Later, 28 Weeks Later, etc.  The more that I started exploring these creatures… the more I realized how creepy they really are: they never stop, run in a pack, don’t have any fear, and simply respond only to the primal instinct of hunger. Also, I have to admit that the gross out feature with zombies is repulsively wonderful, and I found myself gagging every time they would spew the black liquid, or start throwing up blood.  Ewe.

World War Z took me some time to get into thought (ducks once again out of fear).  I loved the structure of it, and thought it was really interesting how I could listen to various accounts of people’s survival plans.  The only thing that gave me some trouble was the technological aspect of the book, but I both know and appreciate why It’s there….just had to re-read stuff a couple of times to understand stuff properly.

Now, whether this is the pain medicines talking or the fact that they might have implanted something weird in me while I was knocked out… the part that sticks out the most to me after reading everything was the chapter where all the rich people were boarded up in that massive mansion, with film crews taping them and showing how they were doing all over the world.  When I read this, I actually laughed out loud because these people were so stupid and they couldn’t even realize it.  Why in God’s name were they just hanging out, thinking that everything was going to be ok just because they had money?  I mean how many of them actually have ever shot a gun before?  Wouldn’t their time have been better spent if they had target practice areas, watchmen, etc.?  At least they would have seen the attack coming then! Oh, and at that point, when we found out that the zombies could run….I literally got chills.  A full fledge running zombie is quite terrifying…at least in my book.

Oh, and how about the fact that some people started acting like zombies?  Now, I don’t know about you, but when I was little, I always thought that the best defense against monsters was trying to act like them so that they couldn’t tell you were different, and therefore spare you when it came to their killing spree. Apparently, that doesn’t work so well.  Poor saps, they were mulled by the same creatures that they were trying to be like.

*Sorry for the short entry… I wanted to at least post something asap…I’ll write more in a little because the pain meds are starting to knock me out, haha.  Hopefully it's not that Phalanx crap.  I would be pissed if they slipped me some weak placebo! Ha

Continued...

·         The past couple days, I have been thinking a lot about the concept of they in horror novels.  We first witnessed it with the Breeding Ground when the characters talked about when they were going to come, and what they were.  Here, we are going through the same thing again.  Who are they and when are they going to step in and eliminate the problem? I kind of liked in the very beginning when the author was talking about how we have this theory that the CIA is involved in everything and how they have this tendency to always fix anything –when in reality, how can that possibly be true?

·         Also, in my pain medicine induced dream state today, I ended up having a dream about zombies (since I apparently can’t get enough of them when I’m conscious) and I was with the group that headed up North to get away from the Great Panic.  When we had the survival prompt, I didn’t really think of heading north, because for some reason I just assumed that the cold wouldn’t have any effect on them, but I have to admit that the book did a good job of describing this escape plan.  However, it was when I was reading this part that I started to notice they effect that the panic was having on the human population in general: they went from battling the zombies, to killing each other for supplies.  Ouch.  It sucks that even when the world is at battle with the undead, that the living STILL can’t get along.  But how about how the zombies were moving even when they were half frozen! That’s pretty cool….I have to admit. 

 

Under Construction

Temporarily out of service due to the fact that Repomen have harvested my organs and am in recovery...Literally, just got out of surgery.

How I would deal with the Undead.

Scenario 1:
Ok, so I’m sitting at home and a loud siren (Silent hill style, at least in my imagination) goes off signaling the zombie apocalypse…what do I do? I’m hoping I wouldn’t take the pansy way out and kill myself, but if the situation got back enough, I think I would rather take myself out than have my brains eaten my zombies…just saying.
But, since I’m going to choose survival this would be my plan of action. I would grab my loved ones and zombie-proof the house as best as possible (board up windows, push furniture in front of doors, etc.). I’m assuming my bad ass of a father would have collected all of his hunting supplies (knifes, guns, crossbows, etc.) by now, and that my little mischievous of a brother would have taken to turning anything possible in the house into a weapon. My mom would be in charge of sheets, clothes, food  and other provisions…and I would be focused on getting matches, lighters, and pretty much anything flammable (but have our fire extinguisher just in case). I’m thinking that we would probably choose to migrate and live upstairs…but it’s totally important to DESTROY the stairs, and since zombies don’t really have a thought process, just a driving hunger, that should keep us safe for a while, until we can figure out something clever to do.

Unfortunately, if my family decided to go on a suicide mission and try to save us, or if one of them got bitten, I honestly believe that I would have to abide to the kill asap rule. I couldn’t chance a member infecting the rest of the group, and at that point, they aren’t your family anymore anyways. Would I stay with them until they turned? Def. not! You saw what happened in the first Resident Evil – that’s just a problem waiting to happen. Frankly, I think that in the event that this happened, that I would just turn into a terrible person, and protect my family at all costs. No one goes out and no one comes in. At least I say that hypothetically… because let’s say an event happens and a family member ends up outside…naturally I’m going to want to let them back in at all costs….so I’d probably die…

Truth be told, I don’t think I’d live long, haha.

Scenario 2:

 If I didn’t find out through a mass attack on my house and had some time to make an intelligent decision… I’m thinking the best situation would be to pile as much crap into our Blazer/perhaps our Jeep as well, and road trip it out to an extremely remote and isolated location…because let’s face it. If you’re in the city…you’re going to die. Providing that goes well…and taking some of the tactics from above…we would all sleep in shifts and Zombie hunt! My entire family was brought up hunting, so we all have a pretty decent shot and frankly I think some serious adrenaline rush mixed with fear of dying would employ me to be decent with a knife and anything flammable as well. If we had time and a good location… there is no sense in waiting around for a mass attack. Go out in the day in numbers, and kill as many as possible. Plus, everything can be turned into a weapon somehow, so if worse comes to worse, think creatively!

Just Read: The Yattering and Jack by Clive Barker

"I did write, or rather I adapted, one story of mine - the Yattering and Jack - which is a kind of comedic short story, which came out very so-so as far as I was concerned; I was not happy with it... The problem with network television, the thing you're faced with all the time - [with] horror on network TV - is that it has to be so mild and my horror fiction is not mild, so we're always dealing with the problem of, again, censorship, I'm afraid." – Clive Barker, The Larry King Show

Oh, how I adored The Yattering and Jack! In fact, I read both the short story, and the graphic novel version, and I just kept falling in love with the characters (especially when I saw how awkwardly cute the Yattering was!) haha.

While Barker wasn’t too pleased with this piece, I think it completely succeeded as a darkly comic short story.  I found myself laughing at the Yattering’s struggle, and at the same time secretly chuckling to myself about how Jack decided to handle things; while I felt for Jack at the same time, because it was obvious that the Yattering was (slightly) destroying his life, good ol’ jack would just mutter che sera, sera and get on with his day. 

II think my favorite ploy that the Yattering used was when he would mess with Polo’s cats…especially when he got so frustrated that he just blew the one up!   Plus, I loved that Barker described it by stating, “The effect was spectacular.  The results were gross.”  Short, sweet, and very effective to the setting.  Even when he wrote that, “Polo just cleaned up the cat,” it shows us that Barker doesn’t need to go into a whole lot of detail to explain what is going on, yet still manage to have an effect on the reader. 

However, I’ll admit that I was a little confused where he was going to place his notable sexual images at.  But he didn’t disappoint me; he included a scene when the Yattering had the house all to himself that involved him staring out the window at a naked woman across the street.  He talks about how hard it was knowing that he couldn’t leave the house to go to her, no matter how much he wanted it.  Then, there were also several places that he added some crude sexual humor for comedy… such as: “The Yattering, invisible, sat on the window seat and made obscene gestures at the women, tying knots in its genitalia,” and “For its part, the Yattering was enjoying this orgy of destruction.”  I must admit, I didn’t think he was going to pull it off in this piece, but my man didn’t let me down!  Even the part where Amanda finds a work curling up in the middle of one of the Brussels sprouts, could be looked at as a phallic symbol…

----

Oh, and did anyone notice that there is a line in the story that says “Let there be blood?”  Do you think the writers from the SAW series ripped Barker off when they made SAW 2 –its catch line being..Oh yes, there will be blood…hmmmmm…. Ok ok, I know it’s not the exact same, but it’s pretty damn close.

Just Read: Cycle of the Werewolf by Stephen King

“Why don’t you kill yourself? Because I don’t want to, the Rev. Lowe thinks petulantly.  This-whatever it is- is nothing I asked for.  I wasn’t bitten by a world or cursed by a gypsy.  It just …happened.  I picked some flowers for the roses in the church vestry one day last November.  Up by that pretty little cemetery on Sunshine Hill.  I never saw such flowers before…and they were dead before I could get back to town.  They turned black, every one.  Perhaps that was when it started to happen.  No reason to think so, exactly…but I do.  An I won’t kill myself.  They are the animals, not me.” –Stephen King, Cycle of the Werewolf

When I first started the book, I wasn’t sure that I was going to like it, because for the first six or so chapters, it was one repetitious event after the other: We would be introduced to one character, and then they would die by the hands of the werewolf, and so on, and so on.  I did however, like how King meshed romance and horror together in his February chapter while his character, Stella Randolph.  In this case, I thought it worked well because she was up late waiting for her lover, and when the beast came, it was almost like it didn’t matter – plus, I liked the line “Love is like dying.”

I didn’t start getting pulled in until the story hit the month of June, because here we finally got some inkling of a plot unfolding and the dots started to connect.  In this chapter, we find out that a man that normally visits the café is a regular and someone that everyone in town knows, so when it is he that turns into the beast, as a reader, I started going through names that were mentioned, possible witnesses, etc.  Now, I was curious.  And then I’m introduced to little Marty Coslaw.

I though Marty was a great addition/character in this book because it showed how the disadvantaged (not a beast) could take on the advantaged (the werewolf); then King added the fact that Marty was paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair, thus thickening both the plot and the conflict.  I don’t want to do a bunch of plot summary here, but I did like the fact that the fireworks blowing out one of his eyes was the sole reason behind how Marty ended up identifying Rev. Lowe at the end of the book – shame, shame, Rev. Lowe! Werewolves don’t give out candy on Halloween!

Oh, and I really liked how King kept reiterating the werewolf’s green eye.  After his first encounter with Marty, we view the description of the eye in almost each subsequent kill, so I liked that King kind of emphasized it at the end when the wolf fixes his one eye on Marty before getting two silver bullets pumped into his chest.  But realistically folks, I don’t think there is any way that Marty would have been that calm- adrenaline rush or not.  Yeah, yeah, I know he cries after it is all over… but throughout the entire climax scene of the book, it is like the kid is a fully trained warrior who shows no emotion and knows that there is no way that he is going to lose.  Just seems a little unrealistic to me…and if I’m going to believe that there is a werewolf running around, I want the ending to at least be probable.