The Thing From Another World

My last post prompted reader Steven to ask about some of the Thing From Another World books, published by Dark Horse Comics back in the early '90s. They released a few mini-series', this short two-parter being the first (and probably best) of the bunch. The first issue's lurid cover art appears to be based on the demonic visage of the Norris monster from the movie.

This pseudo-sequel to Carpenter's film picks up immediately after the movie's conclusion: Mac and Childs suspiciously eyeing each other off amongst the burning ruins of Outpost 31, resigned to the inevitability of their fates - hypothermia or assimilation. The action in this story plays out entirely in Antarctica, a locale that the comic's writers would unwisely leave behind for future miniseries'... discouraging me from bothering to read any further. I'm not interested in seeing this ancient extraterrestrial depart the frozen wastes that it has haunted down the lonely aeons - entombed in primordial ice, patiently sleeping alongside it's literary brethren, the Elder Things. Hit the link to get weird and pissed off.

ASSIMILATION COMPLETE

"THE DEAD WALK!"

I've never really been into TV as an artistic medium beyond its obvious functions as entertainment (debatable), and as a mindless daydream inducer. In fact, my basic view of the popular media in general can be summed up in the lyrics to the Victim's Family song "Who Needs It":

Who needs free press? Objectivity doesn't exist.

Because the newspapers gotta pay the bills too man.

There's just no sense in rocking the boat.

You've got to learn to love all the garbage they feed you.

But who cares what your fed when it's forced down your throat.

Despite my dim view of the media, the last decade has seen a few TV shows - such as the thought-provoking prison drama Oz - that have made me revise my opinions on the potential of TV to be something more than just audio/visual smack.

So, to Frank Darabont's recently much-raved-about adaptation of The Walking Dead comic series. It's only been in production for a brief time but we've already been treated to some images of Greg Nicotero and team's best zombie FX... ever? The makeup/animatronic FX in these two stills is amazing. If you've only seen low-res versions of these, click on them to check out the level of gory detail.

The other aspect of this production that has me psyched is that Darabont's The Mist was the grimmest, most hardcore American horror film of the last decade. He shares George Romero's pessimistic world view, and rather poor opinion of human nature. I liked Land Of The Dead a lot. I enjoyed Diary for it's terrific gags, and I think Survival was a bold and entertaining experiment. However, I'm no blind apologist, and I'm the first to admit that all three films fell well short of the original trilogy.

It could just be that this TV series brings us the serious Romero-esque Dead epic that we've been waiting for. No self-aware, post-modern, zom-com bullshit (the brilliant Shaun excluded). Serious social commentary, scary zombies, realistic dystopia and gore.

The one stumbling block: the comic's dialogue. At its best, it's clunky; at its worst it's flat-out cliched and cringe-inducingly bad. I think it's more than likely that the shows writers - under Darabont's direction - will iron out those kinks and make it all flow better, so I'm not too worried about it.

On a side note, my seemingly ineffective treatments of the last few years (slash, poison 'n' burn baby!) have been stepped up to a more aggressive chemo regime recently, and it's kind of fucking with me pretty hard. I'm starting to actually feel a bit like those ghouls above, so my posting may suffer a bit in the near future, both in terms of quality and frequency. I really don't know. What I do know is, just like those pesky, tenacious rotting corpses, if I do vanish for a while... I will return.

ギニーピッグ

Is there a moratorium on mentioning the Guinea Pig films, and if so, has it been lifted?

Eight or nine years ago the Japan Shock double feature of Mermaid in a Manhole/Android of Notre Dame and the lovingly produced Devil Pictures boxset were two of the most talked about and sought after horror DVD's around. I was on board that particular gore-hype express, and can remember the day that my Mermaid/Android DVD arrived in the mail. My excitement at finally seeing it was tinged with a delicious trepidation that I might be about to watch The Goriest Thing I Had Ever Seen (Mermaid delivered, Android did not). Cut to 2005, and by the time the series had it's US disc debut on Unearthed Films, I was already pretty sick of hearing about Za ginipiggu. My curiosity satisfied and my blood lust sated, I sold my German boxset (for a tidy profit, but I wish I'd kept that t-shirt!) and moved on to other, as yet unseen gorefests.

"You're next Charlie!"

The other day, for the first time in years, I revisited the only two entries in the series that ever really made an impression on me - Mermaid and Flowers of Flesh and Blood, both directed by the venerable Hideshi Hino. Much to my surprise I found that I was enjoying them more than ever. There's something about the deliberate pacing and gloomy atmosphere of both films (but particularly Mermaid), that I find mesmerising. They play more like televised theatre than films, and although that's obviously a by-product of budgetary constraints, it really works in the films favour. It turns them into intimate little chamber pieces that draw the viewer into their claustrophobic confines, and once there, pummels them mercilessly with some of the most shockingly transgressive images ever filmed.

With their combination of poetic surrealism and hardcore gore, I think these two little films represent an unusual nexus of art and horror. Other art/gore films, like Karim Hussain's Subconscious Cruelty, that try too hard to be arty, invariably come off as being pretentious. It feels to me as if Hussain is trying to legitimise his love of blood and guts by attempting to "elevate" it to the status of art. In the case of Flowers and Mermaid I think the opposite is true - Hideshi Hino (a genuinely eccentric artist) set out to make simple gore flicks with the sole intention of shattering taboos, but couldn't help infusing them with his bizarre artfulness. The result is a sort of unintentional performance art/kabuki/splatterfest.


I've never been tempted to delve into the dauntingly vast world of printed manga, but when I was recently introduced to the incredible work of Maruo Suehiro (and Guro art in general) at the suffer for a world of silence blog, my interest was piqued. I started seeking out horror manga (an excellent blog for this is Flying Teapot), and in so doing stumbled on the printed works of Hideshi Hino (which in turn led me to revisit his two Guinea Pig entries). I was delighted to find in his manga all the obsessive imagery that is present in Mermaid in a Manhole. Sewers depicted as a fantasy underworld, discarded foetuses, living putrefaction, disease, creepy crawlies, pus oozing and spurting everywhere and above all, a gloomy feeling of social alienation and lonely despair.

Kicked!

Just an update to this post to say that the Popcorn Taxi screening of Kick-Ass was a lot of fun last night. The capacity crowd was probably the geekiest I've seen since going to Kraftwerk a few years ago, and the excitement in the lobby was palpable. It couldn't even be dampened by the overzealous security measures that saw everyone's phones confiscated at the door for the duration of the screening. Was that really necessary?

The movie mostly lived up to my expectations and the crowd ate it up, cheering raucously at the lethal bad-assery of Hit Girl and Big Daddy. Chloe Moretz really does steal the show, but Nic Cage is seriously back in "Sailor Ripley" form here and has by far the funniest moments in an already hilarious movie. It's good to have him back after 15 years of non-stop dreck, and I can't wait to see him devour scenery in Herzog's Bad Lieutenant. My one minor gripe was that it wasn't as gory as I'd anticipated, nowhere near the giddy heights of splatter seen in the comic. The film is very bloody but not overly visceral.

The Q&A afterwards was lively and Matthew Vaughn was affable and funny. He's excited about the prospect of a sequel, but hesitant to talk it up lest Kick-Ass gets it's ass kicked at the box office (It was almost completely independently financed - including mortgaging Vaughn's house - so there's a lot riding on its success). He did talk a little about the follow up comic series, and said that Millar and Romita are thinking of introducing a new (not so)superhero character named either Motherfucker or The Cunt. LOL.

He also talked enthusiastically about his use of almost entirely practical action in the movie, citing his hatred of modern action techniques such as shaky-cam, ADHD editing and an over-abundance of CG. Amusingly, they did switch to CG blood after just one day of shooting, because it was taking too long to clean the set and re-costume the actors after each take. I barely noticed it though, it's an effect that they are finally getting right (I'm looking at you Land Of The Dead!).

Having just screened The Wolfman and Daybreakers, Popcorn Taxi is being very friendly to genre fans so far this year. Next stop for the Taxi in April is Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call New Orleans with Werner Herzog Q&A. Bring on the iguanas!

Kick To Kill

11-year-old girls aren't allowed to call grown men cunts. Nor are they allowed to eviscerate, dismember or decapitate them, but that's exactly what cute little Mindy Macready does in her guise as the supremely lethal Hit-Girl.

I'm seeing an early screening of Matthew Vaughn's Kick-Ass at the ever-awesome Popcorn Taxi next week, followed by a Q&A with the 39-year-old English director. Having whetted my appetite for gory mayhem with Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.'s ultra-violent comic, I'm hoping that my bloodlust will be thoroughly slaked by the movie. To prepare yourself for the impending bloodbath head on over to Marvel and grab this supremely fun comic for yourself. Don't fuck with Hit-Girl.