Five-Legged Iguana

¡Qué horror! 2013

The Wrap-Up (Addendum)

And, on the tail end, a couple of titles that I got to see past the ¡Qué horror! cutoff date of September 30, 2013… 

I’ve been with Whitechapel since Series 1 (to use Brit TVspeak), and while they’ve managed to Scooby-Doo any possibly supernatural goings-on in the past, Series 4 sees the show apparently going whole hog supernatural, with the sinister “Louise Iver” (Falling Angel/Angel Heart’s Louis Cyphre not enough for you, eh?) suggested as the Big Bad, who’s (supposedly) been orchestrating all the show’s murderous shenanigans since the get-go.

I have no idea if this has been the Game Plan from the very start, and for all I know, they could attempt to convolutedly Scooby-Doo all this away in Series 5 anyway… As Steve Pemberton’s Ed Buchan says, despite mounting evidence to the contrary: “She’s not immortal! She’s not the Devil! She’s just a very nasty old lady.”

Still, whatever the possibility of a fifth series may hold (and whatever you may think of this narrative development), the tone and atmosphere of the six episodes of Series 4 is commendable and a lot more effective than any number of recent lackluster horror titles. (Plus, Pemberton wrote a pair of them, so “Hurrah!”)

As for another non-horror title (it truly bugs me that Variety describes it as a “dramedy”; ugh, I hate that word), I present Matt Johnson’s The Dirties, about a pair of aspiring filmmakers incessantly bullied in high school, and what they do in reaction.

Kevin Smith (who’s helped its release through his Kevin Smith Movie Club) has gone on the record by saying it’s “The most important movie you will see all year.”

Now, whatever your personal opinion on Smith is, The Dirties is undeniably a powerful look at the dangers of bullying and how personalities can be warped by simply soaking up media content without understanding what it all actually means.

It’s a fascinating tale presented as a faux doc, with a killer last shot, and a killer end credits sequence (by Josh Schonblum), which also took home the Grand Jury Award for Feature Narrative and the Spirit of Slamdance Award from this year’s Slamdance Film Festival.

And if it hasn’t become fairly obvious from the onesheets, this one takes on school violence head on… Fair warning.

With that, we’re all wrapped up on the 2013 edition of ¡Qué horror!

Once again, have a Happy Halloween!

(Whitechapel Series 4 DVD cover art courtesy of amazon.co.uk; The Dirties OS’ courtesy of impawards.com.)