#cinema ^RSS

The story of Blood: The Last Vampire is pretty straightforward. It’s not bad, but it doesn’t bring anything new or unique to the genre. However, there are interesting things happening on the periphery. The most obvious example is that the movie clearly in a conversation with Western horror media. The visuals are striking, the pace is good, and overall, it’s not bad at all.

Is it fair to say that live action adaptation is worse, though? I have to say so. Whether you like the way it expands the story or not, it just add galring flaws, from poor character mativation, to bad monster design. It ramps up the action in a “more is better” way and fails. The pacing suffers as well. It’s not all bad, it could have been worse, but it’s hard to say that it’s worth it.

I wasn’t inspired to explore that franchise further.

The whole autumn was full of things that I either didn’t finish, that don’t fit the themes of this blog, or both. One of those things, I guess.

I can only assume that the creators of Van Helsing thought they would go after something like The Walking Dead. However, I think that it is more or less a classic Sci-Fi (Syfy) channel deal. Those shows figured out two things. First, they realized that they need likeable characters so that, no matter what adventures the writers sent them on, the show would still be entertaining. Second, the storyline shouldn’t be too hard to follow.

I’m not going to point any fingers, but some shows have crawled up so much of their own creativity, that no length of “Previously on…” would help. Even if the first thing – likable protagonists – is still there, it just stops being enjoyable.

In a sense, Van Helsing is a fantasy set in a post-apocalyptic world, rather than a post-apocalyptic world with vampires instead of zombies, as it seemed at first glance. However, it doesn’t delve too deeply into its lore and magic rules, so you can enjoy it more casually. I stopped watching it for months at one point, but managed to pick up where I left off pretty easily. So, yeah, not bad, not bad at all.

Herdling is neat. Okay, it’s not horror at all, so let’s consider it a vacation that many people traditionally take in August. The game isn’t long or complicated, but, as with other games by the same developer (I like them all), it’s pleasant and has a good atmosphere.

Xenowerk is a straightforward, polished, and enjoyable “podcast game.” It’s free to play, but in the least intrusive way possible: you can watch ads for coins, and that’s it. Actually, it’s not even worth it. The game is grindy, hence the “podcast game,” and those coins aren’t going to make a dent.

But enough of that. Here are some short horror – or at least somewhat dark – themed games you can play in your browser for free. Small bites!

• Bonefall is an Arkanoid with skeletons.
• Demon Castle is a Castlevania.
• Dino Sort is a puzzle game about picky dinosaurs. How is it dark? Play a level.
• Juurru is not really dark, more of a trippy puzzler.
• Halloween Horrors. You thought cats were mischievous? They protect you from ghosts!
• The Lost Night is a fetch quest with combat and RPG elements.
• Night Ride is a top-down racing shooter.
• Steps. Turn-based Minit.
• To Take Root Among the Stars is also not dark, maybe a bit melancholic. I liked how much it managed to accomplish in such a limited form.

I suppose I can see why people consider Metroid Prime 2: Echoes to be weaker than the first game. It’s a classic sequel problem: what to improve and leave alone, what to add and remove.

I wouldn’t say that, though. I think it’s not better, but worse? Nah. All my complaints are still there, which some would argue is part of the genre. But whatever the reason, I’ll remember the annoying parts, not the difficult parts. And the annoying parts should be improved.

However, I don’t want it to seem like I’m just complaining. While no part of it is amazing, I think it’s a good game overall. And, in a genre dominated by 2D games, a rare one.

White Zombie is an influential horror film that, as one might guess, is pretty problematic. Sadly, a theme I would be comfortable discussing – zombies as unpaid, tireless laborers, – is barely in the movie. And kinda absent from the modern movies, huh.

I called it problematic, but as I, a white dude, can judge, I don’t think it’s awful. It’s simple but not boring, despite being slow like old movies tend to be, and still interesting, at least from a historic perspective.

Maybe it’s the nature of horror, or maybe it’s just happenstance, but it seems like lately I’ve been playing and watching things that leave me feeling unsure. I’m not complaining, it’s still stimulating or, simply, fun. It’s just hard to come up with enough coherent thoughts for a post.

What can I say about Candyman, both original from 1992 and new one from 2021 (I skipped others)? Considering that they have a strong racial element, not much. The fact that the first one was primarily made by white people, one of whom was Clive Barker, doesn’t help. What I find interesting is that most horrors inevitably start to look inward. The characters in the movies ask questions about their monsters, and through them, the movies ask the same questions about themselves. Michael Myers is different from Daniel Robitaille, but some answers very similar, peculiarly enough. Candyman has an advantage since, from the beginning, it has been about stories and the people interested in them. Is that postmodern? Perhaps. But maybe it’s simply because if you hold a mirror to society – and horror does that often – you will be reflected in it, no matter what visual trickery you use to avoid it.

Whimsy. While I wouldn’t say that it is the defining characteristic of Doctor Who, it surely is one of the things that makes it stand out. Its consistent production of fantastical settings and stories, while other sci-fi shows care too much about so called realism, worth a lot. And it also can be scary, unsettling, horrifying even.

I guess I’m glad I finished The Path. Tale of Tales has always been one of those “WTF are you even doing?” studios, and now I understand that a little better. I have mixed feelings, though. Do I think it’s better when studios like that exist? Of course! Do I mourn this one specifically? Not at all. Is The Path a good game? A bad game?.. Eh…

Apsulov: End of Gods is a pretty good one of those. By that, I mean that it doesn’t really push the boundaries of the action-y horror genre – the fact that it’s also based on Norse mythology doesn’t help – but it’s just well-made. On the other hand, I’m glad that Outliver: Tribulation exists – African cultures are still very underrepresented – but it’s not that good of a game.

There is a reason the original Halloween is a classic. It’s straightforward, and it knows what’s important: giving the audience characters they care about. It’s very well done: beautiful shots, good music (what might have been an unusual choice), natural acting. It can be seen as simple, even at the time, a vanilla ice cream, if you will. But it is as good as vanilla ice cream can be.

I decided not to watch everything, but to go with Blumhouse continuity (1978 → 2018 → Kills → Ends). So I don’t have all the knowledge and feelings and whatnot as someone who’s seen it all, but even I can get how nice 2018’s Halloween works as a bookend. It’s arguably a bit much, it loses that simplicity with what feels like a deliberate aim at sequels, but it works emotionally.

Elephant in the room: Are these movies another in a line of bad mental health portrayals? Having only seen 4 of them, I can say that… they don’t want to deal with it. Which is bad in itself, because they clearly use the imagery. But you could argue that it’s a pretty realistic portrayal of what happens in such a situation: the unexplainable gets shoved under a rug, and in this case that rug is a mental health institute. Still not great, not great at all, but it is what it is.

But then there are two other movies… Halloween Kills kind of lost me. There are some interesting ideas, and I can’t completely dismiss it, but I’m pretty sure those ideas can easily be squished into the second and fourth movies without losing anything important.

Halloween Ends complicates things even more. I think it’s good, I liked it, but it does a bookend thing again! And with another layer of meta-commentary. I won’t say what it is, but the first layer was about the movies themselves: bookend was about the characters and the franchise.

Gruta is a fairly short game that looks like a Game Boy game, plays also like that, and tells a story in still images.