2014 Year End Entertainment Extravaganza

Movies

I'm certain you've read my annual Top 10 list on Downright Creepy; however, I find that I must ssupplement it with additional information not allowed within that format.  Mainly, I feel the need to explain why a list of ten movies on a horror website has only two horror movies on it.  It's quite simple really.  2014 was a terrible year for horror!

If you look at the major studio releases for the year, not that I'm recommending you do, you'll find justification for my declaration.  Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones, The Quiet Ones, Oculus, Annabelle and Dracula Untold all failed to thrill me.  I was surprised that I enjoyed Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones and Dracula Untold as much as I did, but that's hardly strong enough criteria for a Top 10 movie.  The only studio movie I enjoyed enough to include was Godzilla and, to be honest, I may still have been on a high from meeting the cast and director at Comic-Con last year.

Yep, The Babadook is scary!

Independent horror fared better and was the source for my favorite horror movie of the year, The Babadook.  I watched more movies at home this year than in theaters.  However, none of them, including Odd Thomas, Patrick: Evil Awakens, The Sacrament, The Guest, Tusk, Horns, Mercy, VHS: Viral and Late Phases are Top 10 material.  (About The Babadook, though…  fantastic!  Horror rises from a very real, very personal family situation, which made the scares very real and very personal, as well.  Terrific performances contribute to another favorite movie from Australia, following The Loved Ones, from 2009.)

I should also note that while they were on my list to watch, I never got around to seeing The Town That Dreaded Sundown, [REC] Apocalypse, Cabin Fever: Patient Zero, Stage Fright, Only Lovers Left Alive, Devil's Due, As Above So Below, Deliver Us from Evil, Starry Eyes, Dead Snow: Red vs. Dead, Exists, Willow Creek and A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night.  It's conceivable that one or two of those could have made the Top 10, and I'll certainly alert you if they do.

This is how you'll feel if you don't watch The Signal.

If good horror was not a trend in 2014, good science fiction certainly was.  In fact, my favorite movie of the year (of any genre) was the mind blowing sci-fi thriller, The Signal.  More than half the movies on my Downright Creepy top ten list were science fiction.  (70% of them are sci-fi if you count Godzilla.)  I enjoyed immensely Guardians of the Galaxy, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Interstellar, Edge of Tomorrow and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.  The biggest surprise among these was Edge of Tomorrow.  It's a crime that movie didn't get a bigger audience. Forget Tom Cruise, it's Emily Blunt's movie and it's an incredible amount of fun.

That leaves only one Oscar-bait movie on the list, Birdman at number ten.  It doesn't really fit into the horror-thriller-science fiction genres; however, it counts because the character Michael Keaton plays was made famous by portraying a Batman-like superhero character in a series of blockbuster movies.  Also, Birdman contains one scene of sci-fi brilliance as the character that haunts him comes to life in an epic battle on the streets of New York.  Since the movie is largely about what happen inside Keaton's head and his fantasies merging with reality, I'll maintain the argument that it belongs on the list.

If I didn't get to see as many genre movies as I wanted to this year, I barely scratched the surface of seeing any "regular" movies.  The one drama that made my list (because it's also a thriller) was Nightcrawler.  Nothing else I saw would replace any of the genre movies on my list.  But neither have I been particularly motivated to see many of the non-genre movies that were released in 2014.  The only one that's even on my radar as a must-see before the end of the year is Boyhood.  It may be safe to say that 2014 was not only terrible for horror, but also for movies in general, at least in terms of what I wanted to see.

Tilda Swinton in Snowpiercer.

Let's talk a moment about my favorite performances this year.  These will undoubtedly be different from any Oscar nominees since my favorite performances don't usually equate with the "best" performances.  The one that stands out was from a movie not on my Top 10 list, but one that would make a Top 20 list, if there were one.  That is Tilda Swinton's in Snowpiercer.  In a way, her character of Mason is similar to that of Effie (Elizabeth Banks) in The Hunger Games movies; however, the difference in acting is like that between night and day, between scary and cartoonish. Swinton is amazing, once again completely committing herself to her craft.

Jake Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler.

Jake Gyllenhaal also commits to his craft in Nightcrawler, losing weight for his role as Louis Bloom.  Gyllenhaal is probably my favorite actor these days, but I don't know that his performance stands out any better than Michael Keaton's in Birdman.  Likewise, Ben Affleck is very good in Gone Girl, but I go back and forth wondering if his character of Nick Dunne was really as ambiguous as he appeared, or if that was just Affleck's acting style (which is to say, he doesn't have much of one).  So, none of the male performances really equal the one female performance of Tilda Swinton.

As far as directing, the technical talent demonstrated by making an entire movie seem as though it was filmed in one shot makes me respect and admire the work Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu did for Birdman.  However, the pure energy and enthusiasm James Gunn infused into Guardians of the Galaxy make his resulting movie a more entertaining success.  When I first heard about the production of Guardians of the Galaxy, I was skeptical.  But it must have been Gunn's vision that turned an unknown comic from the dark corners of the Marvel universe into the year's most rollicking adventure.  It's what movie making at its best can be all about.

My new year's resolution for 2015 is to be more positive.  I don't want to focus on the bad side of everything; plenty of other people do that.  As part of this initiative, I want to be more conscientious about recognizing the best parts of the entertainment I experience.  There's something good about everyone and everything.  Pointing out the bad is easy.  It's lazy.  Finding the good is more challenging.  Sometimes, it's more creative.  As a transition to this new me, I'm going to present, not the "worst" movies of the year, but the ones "I enjoyed the least."  This implies I enjoyed, at least a little, every movie I saw.  That isn't necessarily true, but it's… nicer.

Really, there were only two movies "I enjoyed the least."  The first was Transcendence.  You can read all my negative thoughts about this one on Downright Creepy; however, the positive thing I will say is… nothing.  Because, if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all.  The best thing I can say about Tammy is that it had a great trailer.  Not since Norbit (2007) has the trailer for a movie been so funny that I wanted to see the full-length movie.  Then very early in its running time, I realized I had been duped, not in an innocent "oh, well, you win some, you lose some" way, but in an angry "I've been effin' cheated" way.

Television

If the horror genre is struggling on the big screen, it's thriving on the small screen.  I could almost make a Top 10 list of only the horror-fantasy-science fiction shows I regularly watch.  At the top is American Horror Story.  Admittedly, it's flawed; however, it never fails to entertain and I never know what to expect when I watch it.  Hannibal is probably a better show, but I forgot to put it on my list, probably because it's not currently airing; out of sight, out of mind.  I ranked Bates Motel second, but that's not because it's a great show.  It's just that I enjoy watching it and writing about it.  It's the knowledge of what I think is to come that drives my interest.

Twisty the Clown from American Horror Story: Freak Show.

There are at least 20 horror-fantasy-science fiction shows I regularly watch.  To be honest, I stick with some of them just so I feel like I'm not missing anything, but there is only a handful I'd consider "must see TV."  Of the comic book shows, Gotham is my favorite, although I watch Arrow, The Flash, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Constantine.  Of the mystery shows, The Leftovers is my favorite, although I watch(ed) Gracepoint, The Intruders and The Missing.  Of the young adult shows, I can't claim a favorite, but I equally enjoy Supernatural, Teen Wolf and The Vampire Diaries.

What, no Walking Dead?!?  I watch it, I like it.  However, more times than not, it infuriates me.  I'm thrilled that it's finding such success, but in my humble opinion, it's vastly overrated.  There, I said it.  Similarly, I find the continuing success of Under the Dome a complete puzzler.  It has become one of the most ridiculous shows of any genre on TV.  The only thing I can imagine is that the person in charge of summer programming at CBS isn't in the most stable mental state.  How else can you explain the news that there will be a second season of Extant, the Halle Berry miniseries that blasted off to nowhere… fast.

I liked The Strain… at first.  But as the season wore on, it became too similar to The Walking Dead.  Really, why does the way you kill the vampires have to be the exact same way you kill the zombies?  The most promising limited run show was Penny Dreadful on Showtime.  When it was good, it was sublime.  However, it was way too unsteady on its feet.  I love the concept of mixing horrific literary characters into an ongoing continuity, but the focus shifted wildly among episodes.  I'd have been happy with a series revolving entirely around Dorian Gray (the stunningly beautiful Reeve Carney).

Reeve Carney in Penny Dreadful.

If none of these "enjoyable" shows are the "best", then what is?  Rarely has the answer to a question been so simple: The Good Wife.  The normal trajectory of a show is for it to start waning in the fifth and sixth seasons, but this one bucks the trend and has never been better.  Nearly the same thing can be said for Web Therapy, currently running on Showtime.  It's in its fourth season and has never been funnier.  In fact, this is a fantastic time to be a Lisa Kudrow fan.  After almost ten years, The Comeback returned for a second season.  I don't remember much about the first season, but this one is at least as good, if not better.

With the exception of The Good Wife, it's pay cable that continues to offer the highest quality programming.  Homeland reinvented itself, to a certain extent, and had an outstanding season.  The Newsroom ended its run with six terrific episodes, although for some reason I can't understand, seemed to be loathed by most critics.  The Affair, Ray Donovan and Masters of Sex all started out strong, but I began to lose interest as their seasons advanced.  In particular, The Affair was infuriating to me.  During its last couple of episodes, I came just short of shouting at my TV screen.

Jonny Lee Miller in Elementary.

Basic cable offered two promising shows.  On F/X, it was Tyrant, which began as a compelling surprise, but got a little silly.  On WGN America, it was Manhattan, which I never really loved, but felt drawn to watch.  I think I have several episodes sitting on my DVR.  For reliable entertainment, I can always rely on a show in its third season on a traditional network channel, CBS: Elementary.  It took a while to warm up to the dynamic of Sherlock's (Jonny Lee Miller) new protégé in relationship to Watson (Lucy Liu), but I never watch an episode that I don't enjoy.

Comics, Magazines & Books

In 2014, I continued to decrease purchasing print comics in favor of their digital versions.  This sometimes means waiting a month or two for their price to come down, but it has made a significant impact on my budget (not to mention the cost of supplies for bagging and boarding).  Further, I limited the number of digital comics I bought.  I lost interest in most of DC Comics' New 52 superheroes and regularly read only Batman, Earth 2, Flash, Justice League and Superman, and I read those mostly because of their authors.  I'll read almost anything Scott Snyder (Batman) and Geoff Johns (Justice League, Superman) write.

Where I got burned was starting out with a couple of weekly series.  I should have known this from the past, but it's hard to sustain a single story every week for an entire year.  The quality is inconsistent and the purpose becomes cloudy.  Halfway through its run, Futures End is boring and confusing to me.  Batman Eternal has been a little more solid, but even with it, I can't remember what the overarching plot is.  A glutton for punishment, I've read the first two issues of Earth 2: World's End.  My problem is that once I start reading one of these weekly series, it's hard for me to stop, even if I'm not entirely enjoying them.

Outcast is like "What ever happened to The Exorcist?!?"

Some of my favorite digital comics right now are creator-owned titles from Image.  I've been reading Clone for a couple years, but started Nailbiter, Outcast and Wytches in 2014.  Morning Glories is compelling, like a Lost for comics, but I keep feeling like one day I'm going to have to start all over and read through them at once to get everything I can from it.  Saga has continued to be entertaining and surprising.  But like the TV show, I'm growing a little weary of The Walking Dead comic.  It's definitely past its prime; it's been a while since I couldn't wait to read the next issue.

I added quite a few back issues to my monster magazine collection this year, although higher-priced issues of Famous Monsters of Filmland continue to elude me.  On a regular basis, the only magazine I'll buy no matter what is Horror Hound.  If a magazine can represent a person's interests and taste perfectly, Horror Hound is the one that does it for me.  I still subscribe to Entertainment Weekly, but rarely flip through the physical issue that arrives torn and tattered in the mailbox.  I keep it handy only until I read the digital version on my iPad that comes free with the subscription.

I saw Stephen King and got an autographed copy of Revival!

I'm embarrassed to say I read only a couple of books this year, and most of them were written by Stephen King.  I read Mr. Mercedes in one day on a train trip to Chicago.  It's definitely Stephen King-lite, but it was a page turner.  I just finished Revival last week.  It started out slowly, but about halfway through, I couldn't put it down.  Overall, I think his writing has become more succinct.  His books are certainly shorter than they used to be.  I enjoy reading, but time is always an issue.  I think in 2015 I need to make time for reading.  I'd likely be better off doing it at the expense of some of the television I force myself to watch.

Music

I'm so out of touch with music these days, I couldn't tell you who's who or what's what.  But I started something new this year, listening to music as I fall asleep at night.  There are three soundtracks that are perfect for it:  The Tree of Life and Hannibal, volumes one and two.  I've recently begun listening to the soundtracks from Bates Motel and Stonehearst Asylum, as well.  Michael says they are too "scary," but I'm usually sawing logs a few minutes into them.

Perfect bedtime music.

This month I've been working on my holiday music collection in iTunes… listening to compilations to rate the songs, creating sub-genres to better group them, etc.  I made two additions:  Idina Menzel and Pentatonix.  I was disappointed in Idina Menzel.  My favorite song is technically not even a Christmas song, "When You Wish Upon a Star."  And I don't know what marketing scheme I blindly followed, but I didn't like Pentatonix at all.

Well, that's my year in entertainment.  It wasn't the best… it wasn't the worst.  Any year can be better than the last, but for some reason, perhaps my pop culture instinct finely tuned in my 51st year, I think it's going to be easier than usual for 2015.

Magic (1978)

"Abracadabra, I sit on his knee. Presto, change-o, and now he's me! Hocus Pocus, we take her to bed. Magic is fun...when you're dead."

I remember repeatedly hearing this poem on television ads spoken by a terrifying ventriloquist dummy that looked and sounded an awful lot like Anthony Hopkins.  I was 15 years old at the time, a couple years shy of being able to attend an R-rated movie by myself, but luckily, my mother enjoyed taking me to see thrillers like this one, Magic.

Released nationwide on November 8, 1978, Magic received mostly positive reviews from critics.  In fact, Gene Siskel ranked it #9 on his list of the 10 best films of 1978.  The movie is "certified fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes at 83%.  As usual, however, a few dissented, claiming it was a bloated rehash of one of the segments from the 1954 British classic, Dead of Night, which also featured a ventriloquist dummy.

During its theatrical run, it earned $23.8 million at the box office.  To put that number in proportion, it was the 23^rd highest-grossing of the year.  (Adjusted for inflation, that is about $87.5 million in 2014.)  The box office champion for 1978 was Grease at nearly $160 million.  This was the year that Halloween set records for an independent film by earning $47 million.  Magic was the 4^th highest-grossing horror movie, following Damien: Omen II at $26.5 million and Invasion of the Body Snatchers at $25 million.

So how well does it hold up nearly 36 years later?  Very!  It is definitely dated by specific content, but not with the overall story, so Magic exists not only as an entertaining movie, but also as a nice time capsule of the mid-to-late 1970s.  When explaining the career plan he has hatched for his client, Ben Greene (Burgess Meredith) states that it's "the same low-key approach we gave Steve Martin last year.  Tom Snyder, Mike Douglas, all leading to Carson.  If he asks you back..."   That's a lot of fun for someone familiar with the personalities mentioned.

Otherwise, it's a timeless tale of split personality or, since it's never actually explained in the movie, possibly demonic possession of an inanimate object.  Magic was billed as "A Terrifying Love Story", apparently wanting to focus on the relationship between Corky Withers (Anthony Hopkins) and Peggy Ann Snow (Ann-Margret).  But for me it has always been about the relationship between Corky and Fats, his creepy doll.  Peggy Ann is just the catalyst for the really good stuff that happens.

Living under the threat of constant disappointment from his dying father, Corky is a sad sack of a magician, barely maintaining the attention of audiences at a seedy New York nightclub.  But a year later, he's a rising star due to the addition to his act of an X-rated ventriloquist named Fats.  When a required medical exam pushes him to his emotional limit, Corky and Fats head to the Catskills where he rekindles his feelings for Peggy Ann.  This unleashes jealously in Corky's alter ego, leading to bloodshed.

Magic was the 13^th theatrical motion picture in Anthony Hopkins's career and he's mostly terrific.  However, I don't think he's at his best yet.  Too often he makes the jump between calm and soft spoken to unhinged and ranting without any transition in between.  There's no doubt, though, that the role was good practice for his most chilling performance as Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs 13 years later.  (In one eerily prescient scene, Corky offers Peggy Ann a glass of hearty burgundy.  "It's very medicinal," he says.  It reminded me of the famous line from Lambs, "I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti.")

The performances of the co-stars are more perfect, particularly that of Burgess Meredith.  Wearing sunglasses indoors and chomping cigars, he's still in Rocky mode.  "That's why they call me the postman - I deliver."  But at times he's quieter than Mickey was in Rocky.  He's part of one of my favorite scenes ever in a horror movie.  Realizing that Corky has some serious psychological problems, he challenges him to go 5 minutes without making Fats talk.  It's a brilliantly staged and acted sequence with nearly unbearable suspense and fatal consequence.

From there it's downhill for the characters and a downhill ride on the rollercoaster of a movie that is Magic.  It's dark and it's scary and you're not sure what exactly is going to happen in the end.  Supposedly directing it as a way to earn cash to make his pet project, Gandhi, Richard Attenborough works outside his usual genre, but with terrific results.  Written by Hollywood legend William Goldman, based on his novel, I don't particularly like the way it ends.  It's a little bit of a twist, but I'd rather have been left wondering about Peggy Ann's fate.  At the very least, the final freeze-frame shot is unnecessary.

Regardless of my nitpicking, I love Magic.  I could watch it over and over again and continue to enjoy it every time.  I wouldn't recommend every movie from this era, but this is a must-see from any era.  It was one of my favorites from my teenage years and remains one of my favorites today.

Explaihning the Horror Paradox: Theory #4

Explaining the Horror Paradox:  Theory #4

I began my Countdown to Halloween pondering the question of why we love horror movies. I wrote about the "horror paradox", a phenomenon where, although we find the horrific to be repulsive, we pay good money to watch it again and again. This is not a new question; it's as old as Aristotle, who addressed disgust as an emotion. Why do we enjoy ugly things? Why do we enjoy tragedy?

I've explained in previous posts that people watch horror movies as a way of coping with actual fears or violence in the world in which we live. That is a sound theory when you examine various decades in which horror movies were produced. But now I want to take a different approach and attack the question from a more specific psychological angle, independent of time and era.

Sympathizing with the Monster

In the excellent documentary, Nightmares in Red White and Blue, legendary director George A. Romero (Night of the Living Dead) and producer Roger Corman both stated that they sympathized with the monsters in horror films.  I don't believe this means they wanted to be the monsters or actually kill anyone; instead, it means they identified with them because they were characters who were tortured or betrayed.  If you fear that someone would torture or betray you, then you might identify with a monster.

This theory certainly makes sense if you look at creatures like King Kong or Frankenstein's monster.  Kong never asked to be removed from his home and he never went on an intentional killing rampage.  He was alone and scared in a strange place.  Hmmm… has a child ever been alone and scared in a strange place?  Frankenstein's monster never asked to be created.  He woke up suddenly to discover his body was now pieced together with parts of other dead bodies.  Hmmm… as his body changes, has a child ever felt like they don't belong inside it anymore?

 

 

What about creatures like the Mummy or Godzilla?  Do we identify with them?  Not exactly, but we might sympathize with their cause.  Those archeologists were warned not to open the Mummy's tomb, but they did it anyway.  Oh, well, they got what they deserved.  Godzilla doesn't really have a cause, but he's a creation of the atomic bomb.  We opened that door, so we have to live with the consequences, no matter how terrible.  You could say that, in a way, these monsters teach us a life lesson.

 

 

But what about more modern, human monsters like Hannibal Lecter or Jigsaw?  I'd be reluctant to say I identify with either one or have sympathy for them.  But maybe be we admire them because they are so smart.  Although we'd surely channel it in more positive ways, maybe we wish we were as smart as them.  Lecter may be a serial killer, but he's also a brilliant and cultured man.  Jigsaw may design unimaginable devices of torture, but heck, I can't even solve a crossword puzzle.

Vampires are an entirely different story.  Dracula himself is quite suave.  Maybe we wish we had shared the ability he has to control people?  In general, vampires are all about sex.  There's usually something intimate and erotic in the way they attack their victims.  Sometimes there's a centuries-long romance that drives their existence.  It's romantic!  These are definitely themes that have resulted in the success of today's sexy, young and sparkly vampires.

 

I again want to emphasize that experiencing any of these feelings toward monsters does not mean we  want to throw a little girl in the pond, stomp Tokyo into the ground or make a suit out of human skin.  Further, just because we like to watch Leatherface chase a pretty girl with a chainsaw does not necessarily mean we'd get the same pleasure from watching a cow be slaughtered in a meat processing plant.  Horror movies are fantasies.  We watch them so we don't have to watch the real horrors of life.

Or at least that's one theory, anyway.  Please join me during the rest of my Countdown to Halloween to explore a few more…