¡QUÉ HORROR! 2019

Candidate #25

MARIANNE Season 1

(September 2019)

“[Marianne is] a witch.

“Deprived of a body, she wanders. She enters your soul, warps your body. She takes you over. She possesses you.

“The only thing Marianne cannot do is lie about her name. She can avoid the question, change the subject. But she cannot lie about her name.

“She is the wife of a demon.”

Opening with a Nathaniel Hawthorne quote* from The Scarlet Letter about “the Black Man,” the 8-episode Marianne sees writer Emma Larsimon (Victoire Du Bois) suddenly end her apparently successful 10 year run of Lizzie Larck books--with titles like Lizzie Larck in Chains and Marianne Bites, Emma herself describes the books as “teen girl literature”--in what an interviewer characterizes as “a rash move”.

That may very well be the case, because supernatural events straight out of her work start to happen around her, as the titular witch, Marianne, comes calling…

“It’s not fair… It’s your nightmare, not mine!”

Now, while I do feel that Marianne is ultimately recommendable, I think I need to point out some aspects of the show where viewers’ mileages may vary…

“Do you want a key? You want to see inside? There’s nothing. Only my cats and my teeth.”

Despite being a relatively brief (for Netflix, at least) 8 episodes, somehow the show still has time to allow some scenes to stretch into uncomfortable tedium whilst presumably aiming for tension.

There are also strange tonal shifts into brief (and sometimes painfully awkward) comedic moments, presumably to offset the largely gloomy, sinister proceedings, but which only serve to rudely remind the viewer that this is a show that’s trying to scare you out of your wits, but also reluctant to lose the broader, not necessarily hardcore horror audience.

There are also numerous nods to past horror classics. Numerous.

In the opening episode alone, there are scenes pointedly reminiscent of The Omen and The Exorcist, not to mention some Exorcist-style subliminal quick cuts (an editing style that recurs throughout the subsequent episodes).

Other horror films are likewise nodded to over the season’s course, the particularly blatant lifts distracting more than anything else.

My point here being, if you’re already doing something original (in that it isn’t an adaptation or a sequel or a prequel or a remake or a reboot or a re-whatever), then you may as well rely on fresh, original scares and not painfully obvious lifts that detract from the proceedings.

In the end, while there are macabre goings-on, sinister atmospherics, and stylistic flourishes aplenty, it’ll be up to each individual viewer whether those are enough to offset some of the show’s more problematic issues.**

“God will not forgive me, I know it. I’ve taken the worst possible path. I’ve walked by the sea. I saw the city. I am cursed.”

And, full disclosure, one particular reason why this show’s stuck with me is because I’ve written a comic that’s meant to be released within the year. (Pages are being inked--and subsequently lettered by yours truly--even as I write this.)

As with Silver Like Dust (available at mervstore.com), it's another Dakila crossover/team-up. Further details will, of course, be found here at the Iguana the closer we get to release date.

Right now, what’s pertinent to this post is that the comic just so happens to feature the same demon who’s first mentioned prominently somewhere before Marianne’s midpoint. The same demon and his 85 legions…

So, yeah, the instant he gets mentioned in the show, I’m like, “Hey!”

I gotta say, guy’s pretty popular, or at least, having some kind of Moment.

He’s also appeared recently in Vertigo’s*** The Dreaming, and even has a Marvel incarnation…

Oh, and the Sharon Van Etten needle drop during the extended flashback section was much appreciated as well…

“They will all be mine. We will lick and eat them all, my husband and I. You get crow, toad and cat.

“And you, little whore, I never leave empty-handed.”

* Each episode opens with a quote. Among the other writers represented: Arthur Machen, Henry James, J.M. Barrie, Edgar Allan Poe, and H.P. Lovecraft.

** Including the kind of main character Emma is, the type of personality that leaves wreckage and ruin in her wake.

Is there a reason for this beyond “Oh, well, that’s just the sort of person she is”?

Yes.

But that doesn’t really make her any more likeable in some instances…

*** Sniff. R.I.P.

Parting Shot:

All 8 episodes of Marianne are directed by Samuel Bodin, and co-written by Bodin and Quoc Dang Tran.

Among the short films Bodin has previously worked on is the odd and highly stylized fan film Batman: Ashes to Ashes, co-directed with Julien Mokrani (mind the NSFW section)…

(Marianne OS courtesy of impawards.com.)

GOTHAM KNIGHT
(Review)

So, despite my initial less-than-ecstatic reaction to Gotham Knight, further exacerbated by my full-on amazement with The Dark Knight (see review in Archive), I decided to give the anime anthology film tie-in a second look, and here’s what I discovered.
It really doesn’t get any better the second time around.


Gotham Knight is a straight-to-DVD tie-in to The Dark Knight, which takes a page from The Animatrix and assembles six animated vignettes that have some connective tissue between each other, as well as with The Dark Knight.
Naturally, Batman appears, but we also get glimpses of supporting characters like Alfred, Lt. Gordon, and Lucius Fox, as well as appearances from MCU copper Anna Ramirez and gangster Salvatore Maroni (played by Monique Curnen and Eric Roberts in The Dark Knight).
Given the ostensible continuity amongst the vignettes (running approximately 12 minutes each), all six stories are by Christopher Nolan collaborator Jordan Goldberg, their screenplays written by a handful of comic book scribes and Hollywood screenwriters. (Goldberg wrote the screenplay for one vignette, “Field Test.”)


Sadly, it’s perhaps because all half dozen stories were conceptualized by one individual, that Gotham Knight doesn’t have the same level of blazing imagination so evident in The Animatrix.
While that DVD tie-in put the Matrix sequels to shame with its unbridled and multi-faceted exploration of the Wachowskis’ construct, Gotham Knight comes nowhere near the complex, brooding majesty of The Dark Knight.
It’s also a curious thing that Gotham Knight doesn’t sport the voice talents of The Dark Knight cast. Instead, we have the long-time voice of the animated Batman, Kevin Conroy, and NCIS’ David McCallum as Alfred, among others.
And though Conroy’s vocal interpretation of the Batman arguably displays a much more pleasing aesthetic than Christian Bale’s guttural growl, I’d have still preferred to hear the film’s cast in this particular case.
It is a tie-in, isn’t it?

Thankfully, I can at least say I was impressed by the fifth and sixth vignettes, Toshiyuki Kubooka’s “Working Through Pain” (which gives us a poignant glimpse of the pain that is at the core of Bruce Wayne) and Madhouse’s “Deadshot” (which pits the Bat against crack assassin, Floyd Lawton, a.k.a. Deadshot).
Aside from this pair of exceptional entries though, the rest of Gotham Knight is a disappointing mish-mash. Admittedly, there is some good animation in there, and the varied character interpretations are interesting, but the majority of Gotham Knight just doesn’t fully engage.
Particularly aggravating is Yasuhiro Aoki’s “In Darkness Dwells,” which is, visually, one of the strongest pieces, though it’s hampered by a negligible story involving the Scarecrow and Killer Croc.

Now, as much as I found 66% of Gotham Knight a frustrating disappointment, you could opt to pick up the 2-disc edition, which includes, amidst a load of extras, four episodes from Batman: The Animated Series.
With a longer total running time than Gotham Knight, these episodes include the excellent “Legends of the Dark Knight,” which uses a similar structure to Gotham Knight’s “Have I Got a Story for You,” to much better and more entertaining effect.
(Wonder Woman fans will also want to check out the 10-minute plus peek at the upcoming animated Wonder Woman, where Keri Russell, Virginia Madsen, and Rosario Dawson all get to do the Amazon thing, with Nathan Fillion and Alfred Molina along for the ride.)


Parting shot: The Gotham Knight vignettes are as follows:

“Have I Got a Story for You”: directed by Shojiro Nishimi, story by Jordan Goldberg, screenplay by Josh Olson

“Crossfire”: directed by Futoshi Higashide, story by Jordan Goldberg, screenplay by Greg Rucka

“Field Test”: directed by Hiroshi Morioka Tsubasa, story and screenplay by Jordan Goldberg

“In Darkness Dwells”: directed by Yasuhiro Aoki, story by Jordan Goldberg, screenplay by David Goyer

“Working Through Pain”: directed by Toshiyuki Kubooka, story by Jordan Goldberg, screenplay by Brian Azzarello

“Deadshot”: animation produced by Madhouse, story by Jordan Goldberg, screenplay by Alan Burnett

(Gotham Knight 2-disc edition DVD cover art courtesy of aintitcool.com; images courtesy of aintitcool.com, twitchfilm.net, and batmangothamknight.com.)

AFTERTHOUGHTS (98)
EMPIRE’S! 50! GREATEST! COMIC! BOOK! CHARACTERS! [4 of 5]
THE BATMAN EDITION


With Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight just around the corner, we see the Bat take the #2 spot, and his archnemesis, the Clown Prince of Crime, take #8…


8 Joker (aka Jack Napier)
The greatest comic book villain ever, and as versatile a character as his nemesis, the Batman.
The Joker has been a merry prankster of crime (poisoning all the fish in Gotham Bay so they sport his literally trademarked grin, then suing fishmongers for copyright infringement) and a gleefully sadistic bastard (responsible for permanently crippling Batgirl and temporarily killing at least one Robin), and always done his best to get under the ultra-grim Batman’s skin by taunting him with sick jokes.


There’s a sense that Joker is the only one of the rogues’ gallery Bruce Wayne really hates—many comics (eg: Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, Alan Moore and Brian Bolland’s The Killing Joke, Grant Morrison and Dave McKean’s Arkham Asylum, Michael Green and Denys Cowan’s Lovers & Madmen) revolve around Batman and the Joker as opposites or mirror images.
The original look of the character was based on Conrad Veidt’s fixed grin in the silent picture The Man Who Laughs.
FIRST APPEARED IN BATMAN # 1 (1940)
CREATED BY BILL FINGER AND JERRY ROBINSON


2 Batman (aka: Bruce Wayne, The Dark Knight, The Caped Crusader)
It’s a fair bet that when Bob Kane came up with the idea for a billionaire playboy who, by night, dressed up like a bat and fought crime, he had no idea where it would lead.
Almost seventy years later, and we’re jumping up and down—with good reason—about another Batman film, while The Caped Crusader (or Dark Knight, whichever you prefer) remains one of the most famous and iconic comic book characters of them all.
What is the appeal of the Batman? Well, he’s undeniably cool, for one thing. Visually striking, for another.
There’s a wish fulfillment thing going on there, too—unlike most heroes, Batman has no powers and relies only on his wits, cunning, and hard work to hone his body and fitness.
He’s got a great rogues’ gallery.

And he’s been exposed more on TV and in film than any other hero, which helps keep him in the public eye.
And, of course, the character has been through so many iterations over the years, from camp crusader to Frank Miller’s very, very dark knight, that there’s a Batman for everyone.
FIRST APPEARED IN DETECTIVE COMICS #27 (1939)
CREATED BY BOB KANE AND BILL FINGER

The above write-ups are from Empire’s list.
For more on the above characters, just click on their names; the entire list will be accessible from there.

Wrapping up in Part 5—Afterthoughts (99)—we note some characters from DC’s Superman franchise.

Parting shot: A review of Nolan’s Batman Begins (as well as a review of The Prestige) can be found in the Archive.

(Images courtesy of cinematical.com [Christian Bale and Heath Ledger as Batman and the Joker]; about.com [the Joker]; dccomics.com [Batman, art by Matt Wagner]; and impawards.com [The Dark Knight OS’s, designs by Intralink Film Graphic Design].)

reVIEW (39)
THE PRESTIGE

When I first got wind of the film adaptation of The Prestige, it got me fired up and looking forward to it like nobody’s business. What can I say? It just sounded like one of those totally geeky films.
Consider: brought to us by Christopher Nolan (the man who’d not only given us Memento, he’d also just successfully re-launched the Batman franchise), it was a film based on a World Fantasy Award-winning novel about feuding magicians that was going to bring together Wolverine, Batman, Gollum, and the Goblin King, all on one screen. Oh, and Alfred too. And Scarlett Johannson.
Geekapalooza, here we come.

Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) is “The Great Danton,” and Alfred Borden (Christian Bale), “The Professor,” two magicians caught in a bitter rivalry sparked by an on-stage tragedy early on in their careers. From that point on, misery is writ large in their lives, as their obsessions gradually consume their very humanity.
Based on the critically-acclaimed novel by Christopher Priest, The Prestige is a smart and imaginative period piece that cleverly intersects with real life by featuring Nikola Tesla (David Bowie) as a pivotal character in the proceedings. But the two magicians and the wizard aren’t the only ones warping the audience’s perception.
Like The Great Danton and The Professor, Nolan himself pulls a couple of tricks from his directorial hat. The beauty of The Prestige though, is that everything’s in plain sight, and still, that ending packs a wallop.
And it isn’t even like a Sixth Sense smack-you-on-the-upside-of-your-head plot flip. No, The Prestige’s climax is arguably a subtler construct.

To use the magician’s lexicon, the film has two ultimate “prestiges,” one prosaic and realistic, the other improbable and astounding. Both, if you (as they implore throughout the course of the film) “watch closely,” are readily revealed to the audience. Not underlined and explicated, mind you, but revealed.
Thus, neither comes as a real surprise at the end. Somehow though, in my case at least, the subconscious refused to fully consider the ramifications of these truths, because to do so would acknowledge the extreme and terrible lengths both men were willing to go to for the sake of their art.
Thus, they’re there, but not there. Because in spite of the light that Nolan shines on these truths, it’s really what’s going on in their shadows that will ultimately bother and disturb.

It’s a dark and tragic tale Nolan tells, and he tells it with that masterly skill he constantly displays in his films. It helps, of course, to have a great script (co-written with brother Jonathan), and a constant cinematographer like Wally Pfister in your corner (nominated for an Oscar for his work on The Prestige), shooting a cast like this one.*
There is a shadowy allure to The Prestige that makes it difficult to resist this cautionary tale of the steep and horrible price of revenge and jealousy and obsession.
If you haven’t seen this one, please do.
And keep in mind… watch closely…

* Pfister was also nominated for an Oscar for Nolan’s Batman Begins.

Parting shot: A review of Batman Begins can be found in the Archive.

(The Prestige OS courtesy of wildaboutmovies.com; novel cover art courtesy of fantasticfiction.co.uk; DVD cover art courtesy of amazon.com.)

AFTERTHOUGHTS (19)

It appears that the film adaptation of Justice League of America is really moving now. With the confluence of the impending strike and the delay of Bryan Singer’s Superman sequel, Warner Brothers moved faster than a speeding bullet on this one.
Since they needed a tentpole for 2009, and it was quickly becoming apparent that Singer—still busy on Valkyrie and with The Mayor of Castro Street waiting for him—wasn’t going to deliver it, the studio turned to the JLA script written by Kieran and Michele Mulroney.
Even with a script though, a film of the size and scale of Justice League of America (comprised of seven of the DC Universe’s biggest names, including Superman and Batman) is a daunting task, under normal circumstances. Having a pre-strike priority status is far from normal, of course, and could very well be a double-edged sword.
Still, director George Miller (who’s given us everything from Mad Max to Babe to Happy Feet) seems to be right on target.

Miller has reportedly recruited Oscar-winning cinematographer Dean Semler—who kicked a$$ on Russell Mulcahey’s big boar in the Outback thriller Razorback, shot Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto, and collaborated with both Miller and Gibson on the second and third Mad Max films—and is currently in the US for a “marathon casting session” during which time he will see from 35 to 40 actors audition for the seven key roles.
Miller is looking at young actors so they can “grow into their roles over the course of several movies.” If all goes well, this could be a pivotal film that could turn semi-recognizable actors into household names. (Think The Fellowship of the Ring.)
Among those slated for JLA auditions: Michael Angarano (who played Jack’s son, Elliot, on Will & Grace, and already did the superhero thing in Disney’s Sky High); D.J. Cotrona (from the cancelled Windfall); a Friday Night Lights contingent comprised of Adrianne Palicki, Scott Porter, and Minka Kelly; Teresa Palmer from Wolf Creek and The Grudge 2; and Seth Cohen himself, Adam Brody.
The specific role each particular actor is auditioning for is unclear at this point, though I do see possibilities: Porter could be up for Superman, while Cotrona could be auditioning for Batman. And either Angarano or Brody could make for a good Flash (though Angarano seems more physically suited to play the Scarlet Speedster)*. Kelly, Palmer, and Palicki are of course, all tussling it out for the golden lasso and tiara of Wonder Woman.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Miller is supposed to run down his choices for the studio sometime in the middle of this week.

In addition, Peter Jackson’s Weta Workshop is also reportedly on-board for costume design.
Awesome.
Check out the item at hollywoodreporter.com, for some more names mentioned as part of the audition roll call.

* I’m assuming, of course, that the Flash in question is Wally West (just as he is on the Justice League animated series) and not the more straight-laced Barry Allen.

Parting shot: Semler won the Best Cinematography Oscar for Kevin Costner’s Dances With Wolves. He also won a couple of Australian film awards for his work on Razorback, and was likewise recognized for Apocalypto (3 wins and 2 nominations).

(Images courtesy of kidactors.com [Michael Angarano]; allocine.fr [D.J. Cotrona]; yahoo.com, austin360.com, and about.com [Adrianne Palicki, Scott Porter, and Minka Kelly]; yahoo.com [Teresa Palmer]; and webwombat.com.au [Adam Brody].)

THE DIRECTOR’S CHAIR (2)

TIM BURTON in
“THE BEST OF BURTON (In the Shadows of Mainstream Cinema)”

"Tim's kind of an interesting, eccentric sort-- although I don't know him too well as a person. He's the kind of guy you could talk to for three hours and still not know what he's all about. I think Tim is an intrinsically shy person, very closed, and won't open up to a stranger."
-- Bob Kane, creator of Batman (1992)

To a devoted film fanatic, the name "Tim Burton" evokes a very specific mood and atmosphere: the baroque finery of the gothic; the agony and ecstasy of the deviant; the elegance and beauty of the dark and sinister—all distilled through the mind of a Goth Peter Pan who happens to be an ex-Disney animator.
Taking a look at his body of work, it quickly becomes clear that the best of Burton's films display a strong underpinning of absurdist humor, which cohabits well with the often dark surroundings; a quirky sensibility that can be both ghoulishly macabre and hilarious at the same time. And though Burton stumbled with the lamentably horrid Planet of the Apes, he returned to the dark fairy tale whimsy of his earlier work with the moving Big Fish, which helped pave the way for his take on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the stop-motion animated feature, Corpse Bride (co-directed with Mike Johnson), and the upcoming (and long-long-long awaited) film adaptation of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

It is in the light of this latest collaboration with his cinematic alter-ego, Johnny Depp, that this article looks back to view, through a looking-glass darkly, the best of Tim Burton's ouvre.

1) Edward Scissorhands (1990): a loving, moving paean to the life of the outsider, Johnny Depp's unfinished, leather-clad Pinnochio is every single one of us, incomplete and fractured, merely looking for someplace where we can belong

2) Batman/Batman Returns (1989/1992): quite possibly the most subversive of all the superhero movies made thus far; in what is, ostensibly, PG-13 kiddie fare, Burton injects strains of insanity, disfigurement, child abuse and abduction, attempted infanticide, and duality. Aided and abetted by scripts filled to the brim with zingy one-liners and double entendres, Burton targets dead-on, what Batman is all about: sex and psychology

3) Ed Wood (1994): based on the true-to-life story of the man responsible for what is largely considered the worst film ever made (Plan 9 from Outer Space), Ed Wood is another moving tribute, this time, to the misunderstood artist, the low-brow visionary whose self-belief serves as armor against the banal mundanity of life and society; with an Oscar-recognized performance by Martin Landau (as washed-up horror icon Bela Lugosi)

4) Big Fish (2003): the winsome, Technicolor fantasia of this adaptation of the Daniel Wallace novel is a brilliant return to Burton’s brand of moving, magical film making; the often tumultuous relationship of fathers and sons is explored within the context of a tale about stories and storytellers, with the ultimate postmodern turn of the storyteller becoming his own story in the end

Truth to tell, nearly all of Burton's films are worth seeing (the exception being Planet of the Apes), though Sleepy Hollow is pure eye candy with a rather lame and predictable script topped by a Scooby Doo ending.
(And lest anyone go up in arms over my choices, The Nightmare Before Christmas was based on a story by Burton, and produced by him, but directed by Henry Selick, who went on to direct the equally interesting James and the Giant Peach, and the underappreciated Monkeybone, as well as providing stop motion animation for Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, and who is currently wrapping up the film adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline. Since Nightmare wasn't directed by Burton, it was ineligible for the list.)

So, for those of you who prefer walking the darker shadows of mainstream cinema, hearken to the works of Tim Burton, who, at his best, understands the universal truths that lie hidden in childhood bogeymen and fairy tales, and who, with a curious, innocent optimism, invites us to tread the twisted and tangled paths of the haunted forests of our own less-than-perfect existences.
And in so doing, in telling his quirky, fractured tales, he is, perhaps, opening up to millions of strangers worldwide, in the best way he knows how.

(The above article is a revised version of its identically-titled predecessor.)

(Tim Burton image courtesy of façade.com; Edward Scissorhands, Batman Returns, and Big Fish OS’s courtesy of impawards.com; Ed Wood DVD cover art courtesy of amazon.com.)