The Blob

I hadn't seen this movie before. The monster was pretty bad-ass. I wasn't sure how effective it would be, since it was just this big blob of goo. I figured it would be easy to outrun, and would have to rely on victim stupidity to kill. I was wrong about that. Initially, it did need a little help, which the old homeless guy provided. But once we got  into the movie, it held its own pretty well. I liked how it clung to the ceiling and how it would form appendages and lash out. And once it touched someone, it was pretty much over for that person. I was wondering if they blew it up, if it would just blow up into pieces scattered all over, each attacking victims on its own. That would have been pretty cool to see. I thought fire would hurt it, but it seems that cold was its only weakness. I can live with that. Fire gets overused anyways.

As for the rest of the movie, there were definitely issues. The characters were pretty flat. I did like how the good guy football player was killed pretty early on. I figured he'd make it to the end, so his early death surprised me. Loved that the other football player got it good. Seeing the sheriff suddenly dead inside the blob was a good twist too. But overall, the characters were one dimensional, and to me, that meant they were all fodder for the blob. I might have preferred an "Alexis ending" where they all got it in the end, because I really didn't like any of the characters.

I'm not a fan of the "no one believes my story" cliche, but that was used against Meg. And when they had Flagg down at police HQ, it made little sense that they suspected him of doing anything, when half the old man's body was eaten away as if by acid. Speaking of Flagg, with his motorcycle (that he only needed a set of sockets to fix???), how did he manage to cover all the ground he did by walking? And then, of course, this movie has the scenes were people just happen to show up right when they're needed (Flagg came in when Meg needed him and Meg picked up Flagg right when he needed it). I've heard it said that in writing, coincidences can be an author's best friend. I hate them. I find them abused, and this movie had it in spades.

Another cliche that I'm not a fan of is the "evil government agency" crap that never makes sense. Perhaps its because I work with these kinds of agencies in the real world, but I scratch my head at how ridiculous they get.

Lastly, I've never seen a snow-maker in the form of a truck. In PA, we have snow-makers all over the place. just about every ski resort has them. But they are not mobile. Why would you even have one like that in the first place. And then, even if you did, I'm pretty sure blowing it up wouldn't make it snow. Ridiculous.

So, overall, it was a let down of a movie. The monster itself was its only saving grace.

Lovecraft Short Stories

The Outsider - I am going on the idea that the arc to this story is pretty simple: a creature who thought he was human realizes he isn’t when he sees himself in the mirror for the first time. That’s pretty much the story. And this story provided a little bit of a learning experience for me. I tend to think of simple ideas like that as not being enough to center a story on. And in some ways, I think I’m right. I saw the ending coming half-way through, and kept hoping there would be something more to it by the end, and was a bit let down when there wasn’t. My initial response was, “that’s it?” But, as I thought about the story more, it was still a bit of an entertaining ride. There was a lot of setting and mood in this piece. And even though I realized the main character was a monster, and that he didn’t know it, pretty early on, it was still the hints I got in the story that showed it to me. The way the tallest tower was described, with no stairs, and how the main character climbed up, I knew he couldn’t be human. It was interesting to see how that dangerous climb was described. The creature was afraid of falling, but didn’t realize that in telling us about the climb--that he not only attempted it but succeeded at it--he was telling us he wasn’t human, even though he himself didn’t realize he wasn’t human while he told it. There were a few things I didn’t understand from a logic standpoint. It sounded like there was a ground level where he lived, but then after climbing that tallest tower, that there was another ground level up at that elevation too. Also, given how ghastly the creature must have appeared to have provoked such strong reactions from the humans above, I find it hard to believe the creature thought he was human, despite not having a mirror to see himself in. You can see most of your body directly, without the use of a mirror. I imagined this creature as a true beast. To be able to climb the way it did, and to get those strong, immediate reactions, I just felt like there would be more than just his face that would look inhuman, and he would have at least noticed that while growing up. But overall, this was a powerful piece in regards to mood setting.

Pickman’s Model – This story was a little all over the place. It started with the names. I believed he used the name Eliot to refer directly to the reader, and expected the reader to know who Oliver’s grandfather was. He talked about Boston in a way that seemed to expect that I knew the layout of Boston. That kind of thing. It also took me a bit to realize that Thurber was the narrator, too. Once I got acclimated to how Lovecraft was telling this story, it got a bit easier to follow. When they went down into the studio, I started having Poe flashbacks of the Cask of Amontillado, and was trying to convince myself that the narrator was going to meet with some sort of demise, while the logical part of my brain was telling me that was impossible, because the narrator was telling me the story right now like we were chatting together face-to-face. The logic side ultimately won out, because nothing bad happened to the narrator (except for psychologically scarring him for life), but boy, this gave me the feel of the Poe story for some reason. I guessed at the ending, but only just before it was revealed, so I think Lovecraft did a great job there. I knew the photo was going to be of the monster and not a background before he told me, but I think it was more a hunch, once I realized that nothing physically bad was going to happen to the narrator. Lovecraft did a lot of leaving the imagery to the imagination of the reader, which is great, but because the narrator was telling us just how amazing Pickman’s painting skill was, it got to be a little annoying that he copped out with the “words can’t describe it so I won’t try” attitude. I loved the part about the circle of nameless dog monsters with a stolen baby, and the changeling they left with its family, so the times he did describe I felt were rewarded. I did find a little trouble with the prose in general, and I had to re-read sections frequently just to understand what was being said, but then again, this story was written in 1926, so I’ll chalk that up to the effects of time.

The Call of Cthulhu – I was looking forward to reading this story (I had always thought it was a novel!) and it didn’t disappoint. I had seen images of Cthulhu many, many times, and knew a little bit about it from its entry in the first edition Dungeons and Dragons Deities and Demigods book, so I was happy to read this. Lovecraft does a good job of building up suspense the way he tells this story, starting with the narrator being the executor of his great uncle’s will, up until he reads Johansen’s memoir document. It is just about as much a mystery story as it is a horror story, which is an excellent combination. Most of the sleuthing was done by his great uncle, but the narrator picks up where Angell left off and adds the information from the “Madness from the Sea” section, to include connecting the dots that match dates to events that happened in other places in the world.

The setting descriptions were a real strength to this story, from the swamps in Louisiana to the magical island that was Cthulhu’s prison R'lyeh. I had enough information to really visualize where I was. I enjoyed the description of Cthulhu as well:

“when It lumbered slobberingly into sight and gropingly squeezed Its gelatinous green immensity

through the black doorway into the tainted outside air of that poison city of madness.”

Physically, Cthulhu was imposing--a monster of titanic proportions. Yet this creature could affect the minds of people located anywhere on Earth, while he submerged in a prison at the bottom of the sea. It is a compelling major monster--like a mix of the Kraken and Freddie Kruger (Freddie worked through dreams if I recall). The difficulty in comprehending the architecture of R'lyeh was interesting as well, and spoke of an intellect far greater than man had.

“and twisted menace and suspense lurked leeringly in those crazily elusive angles of carven rock where a second glance shewed concavity after the first shewed convexity”

But my favorite line of all was this one:

“There are vocal qualities peculiar to men, and vocal qualities peculiar to beasts; and it is terrible to hear the one when the source should yield the other.”

This line is so well crafted, and at its heart, it truly is a chilling thought. I pondered which would be worse… to hear the animal and see the man, or hear the man and see the animal. I could not make up my mind.

I’d have to say that I enjoyed my introduction to Lovecraft. Some of his writing takes some effort to understand, but he really does a good job with crazy, and he does a good job at helping the reader to visualize the crazy.

Godzilla

I came away from this movie unimpressed. I guess, with it being done in 2014 and all, maybe I was too hopeful. The things they can do with CGI and special effects these days is just so much better than they could do with the movies I watched as a kid. And don't get me wrong, the special effects were good in this movie. But the increase in technology was offset by the movie kinda being Godzilla-less. I mean, Godzilla didn't show up until the movie was about half way done.

As a stand-alone movie, it wasn't bad. The plot was a little predictable, but the characters had depth and it isn't as if the movie didn't have story. As a monster movie, it was pretty good. The MUTOs were very cool, and they probably did the most work out of carrying the movie. But as a Godzilla movie, I don't know. Godzilla seemed to be a secondary character, and that shouldn't happen in a Godzilla movie. I wanted more. I did think it was way better than the 1998 Mathew Broderick movie (Bueller? Bueller?). I was extremely disappointed with that one, where Godzilla was supposedly a mutant iguana and laid eggs asexually. Talk about ruining Godzilla. So, yeah, it was better than that one. But you'd think with what they are capable of nowadays, they'd be able to make the kick-ass Godzilla movie of your dreams. It just hasn't happened. I remember seeing the old movies as a kid. I was always so excited to see them, and I guess as a kid, you do tend to overlook a lot of problems. But I liked them all, save for the one where Godzilla fought King Kong and lost (What? Godzilla can't lose!). That was also the only one I can remember where he wasn't kind of a hero-like monster that worked with the humans, even if it was more of a things just worked out kind of thing (and ignoring the financial burden the humans would have to pay in rebuilding cities!).

In this movie, he did save the day, and was kinda with the humans, but also, in a things just kind of worked out as an enemy of my enemy is a friend sort of way. And that's probably staying true to the character of Godzilla. In the old movies, he wasn't really a friend of the humans, but ended up saving them kind of as aftermath. One thing to note, and not sure how relevant it is to true Godzilla fans, but in the old cartoon in the late 70's and early 80's, Godzilla was absolutely a friend of the humans, and was actually called by them to fight dangers.

I think in my perfect Godzilla movie, he'd be more like that cartoon version. Not as campy, but actually working with the humans in some sort of cooperative way, but then maybe going rogue when he had to... when human error or betrayal (from "bad guys") caused him to. In a way where he figures out what the humans can't, and goes on his own to accomplish what must be accomplished. He's Godzilla for a reason.

This movie did have Godzilla as a bit of a hero, and in that I was happy. But this movie had far too little of Godzilla in it to really appease a Godzilla appetite.

Snow (Ronald Malfi)

For me, this was the best book we've read so far.

The monster was fantastic. Or at least initially. I loved the idea of something like snow having to be something that is feared. When a bit of snow fluttered in through a pipe, you knew it was a monster coming. That kind of thing. The descriptions of the small snow tornados as they formed was great too. The materialization of scythe hands that stabbed people through the backs was very cool. They said it took a lot of the creatures energy to materialize like that, so I guess its a weakness, but not one that they were really able to take advantage of. If one started to materialize, you simply knew trouble was coming. The pulsing sliver lines reminded me of jellyfish or something, and it was just a really well-described monster. Taking over humans as skinsuits added to the whole brilliance of the monster, because once one settled into a body, other characters had to worry if a person was still human or not. It gave us a bit of what we liked in the movie "The Thing" but with more understanding of how it did it. Everybody had to worry if others had their back sliced or not. The oddity of how it affected kids was interesting, but I'd like to have seen a little more purpose for it--why there faces were the way they were, etc. Did they have a role in trying to achieve the creatures' overall objectives?

I liked the overhead cloud thing too. I'm still not 100% what it was, and I don't think I was supposed to be. But the idea of all the skinsuits standing like manikins in communication with it was great. It gave an extra creepy feel to what was going on. Again, like The Thing, the skinsuits seemed to have a shared collective consciousness going on, which the characters were able to take advantage of with diversion tactics. Diversions worked really well against them because the creatures would all run to the spot. Not good if you're actually alone and in trouble, but great if you're going for a diversion. Malfi was able to use the idea effectively both ways. The cloud moving to hover over different places was a very effective way to bring more intrigue and tension to the story.

Where the monster lost me a little was with the giant snow creations and the worms. It started feeling like new stuff was just being thrown at us to amp up the tension and wonder. But I didn't think it was necessary. The skinsuits and floating snow tornados, not to mention the overhead cloud, were plenty enough for me. I never felt like anything about the giant snow creature, the Bugs Bunny burrowing things, or the black worm thing in the sully every really resolved or made sense with the initial monsters. Not sure why they were added.

The characters were well done. I was sad to see Shawna die, especially in the manner she did (climbing the stairs in safety only to lose it all by opening the basement door), and was disappointed that Molly wasn't killed (I couldn't wait until she was made into a skinsuit... guess I'll have to hope for a sequel). I definitely found myself rooting for Todd and Kate, and was happy they made it out like they did. I expected Todd to be reunited with Justin at the end because there were so many times Justin was brought up. But I liked that. Not everything has to be a surprise.

There were a couple of places where the narration went from close third person to omniscient, and I didn't enjoy those parts. They felt like info dumps and I just wanted to get back to the live action. It was something I noted, because I wonder about adding things like that to my writing, and after experiencing it in a novel like this, now I think its something I want to avoid. I imagine Malfi wanted to add backstory and give characters more depth, but I found that I didn't care enough to have the story pause for it. Getting characterization through the action and dialog was plenty good enough for me.

Funny how this book had to have a veterinarian character to help with medical emergencies. Breeding ground had that too. I guess that's a staple in these survival-type horror stories? Can't have a doctor... lets make the character a veterinarian!

Still, it was a good book. I'm wondering how Bone White is. Anyone read it?

The Thing

I'm happy we were assigned this movie, and was looking forward to watching it when I saw it on the syllabus. I remember liking it when it came out, but I hadn't seen it since then, and over the years, my memory of what happened was more than a bit fuzzy.

I noted in my Term Self-Assessment essay that one of the things I really picked up on and improved at (in my opinion) was my appreciation for getting to the story quicker. In a nutshell, in my essay I spoke of how I thought I also enjoyed a slow burn to getting to the story--what's wrong with some world-building and character work first, and then get to the story? Over this last term, I've come to accept what the program emphasizes, and that getting to the story quicker is something to strive for.

This movie gets to the story write from the very start. Guys are trying to shoot and kill a dog from a helicopter flying over the arctic. Right off the bat, you have tension and urgency and mystery. Why would you devote such resources to killing a dog? You find yourself rooting for the dog because you have no idea what's going on, so you side with the underdog (no pun intended). You're already involved in the story and we haven't finished the opening credits yet. Very well done.

And the movie doesn't really let up. By the time you get to know the characters, the helicopters been blown up, the pilot killed, one of the "good guys" shot, and you're really wondering what's up with the dog.

Then its gore and horror, over and over again. With a ton of character mistrust and "who done it?" going on. I loved the special effects, especially given that the movie came out in the 80's. I love how the characters were set against each other. I liked the fact that you basically understood the creature that was the thing, yet didn't know enough to exactly know what it was or how to defeat it. Very realistic. The characters didn't just put together some crazy explanation that proved to be true and then went with it like it was fact and defeat the monster. They suspected things. They tried testing them. It was all plausible. And you were still left wondering a bit about what the creature could actually do.

We talked about humor in horror, and this movie nailed it with the head-spider scene. I mean, that whole seen from when the doc gets his arms bitten off by the chest of his patient until Windows was a charred crisp was top-notch. And in the middle of all that tension, you get the crazy head-spider, which was funny and broke up the rest of the gore and tension in a good way. It was the epitome of how to do humor in horror right.

What didn't I like? Well, I'm mixed about Bailey. When he went all ape-shit destroying stuff, I felt that as an extreme over-reaction. Yeah, maybe destroying everything would have been the right call. But it didn't make sense that he would just snap and do it himself instead of bringing it up to the group and getting their buy in. There has to be some kind of event to set someone off like that, and they didn't show one. He just snapped. But, one possible explanation, and what I'm gonna go with, is that maybe he was already infected by then, and it was the thing's idea to do the sabotaging. Its the only way that him suddenly going crazy like that makes sense.

So what exactly was the nature of the monster? I think its like a shared sentience kind of thing. Like it can have many forms at the same time--human and animal victims--and somehow it can transmit its knowledge, or at least its emotions, to the rest of its disconnected bodies. It reminds me of the Borg from Star Trek thinking about it like that. "You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile." Except it didn't seem to have that level of intellect. But what happens to the victims? Obviously they still know the things they knew before being taken over. But is the victim for all intents and purposes already dead, and the thing just has access to not only the body, but the knowledge of the victim? What an excellent monster.

I loved when Baily at the end put his hand in Nauls face and just like, connected to him after spidering his fingers underneath his skin. Then he walks off dragging Nauls behind him, hand and head connected as if he were born that way. Super cool.

This was a great movie.