BLACK STATIC #41 (19 page)

I cannot honestly say that
I, Frankenstein
is essential viewing, even for the most dedicated followers of cinematic fashion, but with its displays of overly commercialised awfulness this is a bizarre treat to behold, and I laughed like a drain at its charismatic authority figures, and its audacious monomythic depiction of Adam as Campbellian hero (not with a thousand faces, but one obviously stitched together from umpteen others). Watch it and chortle with delight, or sigh in disappointment. The choice might well appear to be yours…but I suspect it probably isn’t.

RE-ANIMATOR
(limited edition steel-book Blu-ray, 2 June) offers a luxury for all aficionados of comedy horror classics. Now re-mastered in glorious hi-def quality, this two-disc release includes the unrated/uncut/director’s cut (86:30 minutes), and a somewhat padded ‘integral’ (104:32 minutes) version assembled from the US ‘R’ rated cut and other edited footage. It’s one of the greatest cult horrors of the 1980s, with a career-defining and iconic performance by Jeffrey Combs as the modern mad scientist Herbert West. The bright palette of Mac Ahlberg’s vivid cinematography shifts to a gloomy and shadowy worldview as this inevitably tragic story progresses to an insanely violent conclusion, while the richer tones of Richard Band’s jaunty theme music help to elevate Stuart Gordon’s directorial debut from low-budget production values to garish pop-art heights. As this cheerfully macabre Frankensteinian farce switches, via nightmarish breakthrough of zombie mayhem, to a surrealistic delirium in its grotesque finale (“Who’s going to believe a talking head?”), viewers are carried along by the sheer momentum of its crazy invention.

The package boasts a batch of cast and crew interviews, a pair of commentary tracks, and Perry Martin’s excellent retrospective documentary feature
Re-Animator Resurrectus
(69 minutes, 2007), plus deleted scenes and trailer/adverts. For the uninitiated, I also recommend enjoyable Miskatonic sequel
Bride of Re-Animator
(aka
Re-Animator 2
, 1989), as directed by
Re-Animator
producer Brian Yuzna, and his belated trilogy-closer
Beyond Re-Animator
(
Interzone
#234), made in 2003.

“I wanna see if you bin foolin’ around before you shame all of us.”
THE PIT
(aka
Jug Face
, DVD, 9 June) is rural horror by Chad Crawford Kinkle. It is about trashy redneck families that eke life from death, eating road-kill and selling moonshine. As this backwoods congregation prep for their arranged marriage of Ada (Lauren Ashley Carter, who previously appeared in Lucky McKee’s
The Woman
), the impending nuptials rouse a dark spirit from that ceremonial pit in the woods. Butchered remains found scattered about are hardly a worse sight than obnoxiously false piety of the poor girl’s mother. The indie production’s cast are led by Sean Young (recently seen in
Attack of the 50ft Cheerleader
) and Larry Fessenden. The disturbing delusions of sundry hillbilly characters are linked to the supernaturally guided hands of a local potter, maker of jug faces, in a valiant attempt to evoke a fairytale trope.

However, the scenario never quite convinces from the start, and it all becomes increasingly preposterous, especially when better-directed acting is clearly required for believable developments of this bizarre drama. A full moon rises on a tragedy of incest and the assorted yokels gather for their daylight sacrifice, with subsequent punishments when that doesn’t work in anyone’s favour.

Although noisily stuttering psychic visions punctuate the storyline, the writing fails at the basic grammar of genre-screen traditions (
Wicker Man
,
Deadly Blessing
, etc), and the concerns of archaic survivals in conflict with modern ethics and progressive morality are bludgeoned at us without care or any degree of subtlety. Pregnant Ada’s showdown with her shocked throwback parents is (unintentionally?) very funny though.

Current “HBO sensation” Nic Pizzolatto’s
TRUE DETECTIVE
(DVD/Blu-ray, 9 June) is a crime drama series with some first-rate writing and acting for superb character studies of cops hunting a serial killer in Louisiana, and it has a welcome whiff of southern gothic. It is a great TV show but, despite the best efforts by stars Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson, this narrative has minimal horror content so it’s simply not in the same league as Werner Herzog’s dazzlingly bizarre
Bad Lieutenant
remake (
Black Static
#19) or Nancy Miller’s cross-genre series
Saving Grace
(2007–10), which featured Holly Hunter as a haunted homicide cop on a road to redemption.

True
Detective
’s leisurely unfolding complexities have only a difference of tone to season-arc plots in
CSI
and
Bones
(two of my favourites), both of which have tackled serial killers in equally chilling cases. Whether the cops are pursuing a Leatherface or a Lecter type, crime drama on TV has rarely been half as good as Chris Carter’s
Millennium
(1996–9), which saw Lance Henriksen redefine dark-world detective work as the iconic Frank Black. In an obvious focus on mainstream TV drama instead of horror themes,
True Detective
is overly talky, with too much telling-it-like-it-is and not enough show-time. In ten episodes of its storyline, that spans two decades, this is a successful mystery offering plenty of moody atmosphere and ambiguous voodoo, but its subtle terrors are only as effective as wicked rumours, and its tragedy often relies upon suggestion instead of a more confrontational style of modern horror. The supposedly fearsome ‘Yellow King’ haunts the past, and only appears in the flesh for the series’ fairly predictable climax. Perhaps the biggest flaw of
True Detective
is a seemingly tacked-on epilogue (outside the hospital), wrapping everything up with a sentimental happy ending that feels terribly disappointing and is quite at odds with the rest of this rather interestingly downbeat tale.

For something that delivers more than genre-fringe material, HBO’s ongoing
TRUE BLOOD
(Season Six, Blu-ray/DVD, 2 June) explores richer if not philosophically deeper affectations of the eerie-bayou style via some increasingly whimsical takes on vampire romance, embracing its attendant folklore assortment of creature-cousins, like the popular
Buffy
and
Twilight
franchises. Like butter and cheese, horror is now available in a spreadable form. Oh dear dairy diary, what have they done now?

Bill appears reborn as Lillith incarnate, and his ‘Billith’ has newfound powers upsetting the delicate balance of this mixed-up mystery scenario’s vampire clans, werewolf pack, and fairy realm with a Louisiana soap opera in tandem. Sheriff Andy is father to fast-growing alien girls. As she’s wary of the killed-Bill’s identity crisis, psychic heroine Sookie prefers to side (for now) with ex-Viking Eric. The governor supports a policing crackdown on vampire trade in the state. A fresh batch of genre in-jokes is spearheaded by guest star Rutger Hauer, who drives around picking up hitchhikers, yet he turns out to be King Niall, a Merlinesque granddad to the Stackhouses.

True Blood
maintains its cocktail party of a support-cast mixed from American stereotype ingredients. Rival TV series
Lost Girl
and
Grimm
have better quality sidekicks or Scooby gangs but whatever
True Blood
lacks (if compared to them) in wit, charm and twisty originality, it strives to make up for with emotional intensity and obviously adult, though still not really mature, appeal. Tribal mentalities confront harsh political reality as fang-bangers, ’shifter-groupies and wranglers of outsider weirdness assemble on the treacherous borderlands of supernatural domains. But can personal problems, social unrest or disordered authority ever be solved by following quaintly simplistic homilies delivered with the grinding noise of chug rock?

Top baddie Warlow proves an elusive threat at first. Appearing, with a distinctly feral aspect, from a phantom/negative zone portal, his ancient intentions are masked by a nice-guy subterfuge that doesn’t survive a first date with Sookie. Mongrels and hybrids is a continuing theme and there is a ‘Stackhome syndrome’ which surrounds Billith’s perceived divinity. When scientists are coerced to make hepatitis V, for poisoning vampires drinking bottled Tru Blood products, story developments accrue and accelerate as both villains and innocents die because of indecision, misplaced hope, betrayal, resistance, or vamp glamouring. The avoidable death of Nora (British Lucy Griffiths) has graphic and considerably poignant impact. Top god-botherer Sarah (Anna Camp) makes characteristic fashion statements – all smarty-pants and bossy-boots – and revels in her shining moment with, probably, the greatest ever black-comedy use of the line “Thank you, Jesus!”

Salem’s Lot
is again citable as the key influence as Bon Temps town and community are threatened with destruction to satiate the salty tastes. The season’s penultimate episode has many vampires dancing in sunlight, but even invincibility proves a fatal weakness as “forever is a rare thing in this world”. And so, despite the cheerful twists of togetherness that result from pragmatic solutions to supernatural problems, a happy ending for all concerned is unlikely, because humanity might never trust parasites living among them. Well, that’s life after death with orgiastic sex for you. Just not fair.