Author: halfassedhorrorcastblog

Kia’s Delayed Review of “The Mummy”

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The Mummy

Director: Alex Kurtzman
Starring: Tom Cruise, Sofia Boutella, Annabelle Wallis, Russell Crowe, Jake Johnson
Universal Pictures

 

I’ll start by saying that I’ve never seen the original Boris Karloff film from 1932, so I can’t compare the two.  However, I feel pretty safe in saying that the Tom Cruise version has more in common with the 1999 film of the same name starring Brendan Fraser, at least in terms of style.  Prior to the release of the Cruise film, a behind-the-scenes feature was shown before the trailers at the movie theater.  In the feature, the director said, “We owe the audience a monster movie,” and Cruise specifically mentions the original 1932 film and how it made him feel to see it for the first time.  Although I haven’t seen the original, I’ve seen stills and I know that Karloff is in it, so I guess I was expecting something a little more serious and dramatic.  But Cruise’s The Mummy is just a straight-up, Hollywood action movie.  Now I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing, but I just expected and hoped for more.  This is the first film in the Dark Universe, a reboot of the classic Universal monster movies.  As with any standard-issue Hollywood action film, there were throw-away characters that added nothing to the film or the plot and one-liners that more often than not got no response from the theater audience.  Also, and most glaringly, Cruise played a roguish soldier who was more into stealing things than obeying orders from his commanding officer and who has a quickie one-night stand with a character who turns out to be the archaeologist who investigates the mummy tomb.  I would buy that with another actor, but Cruise is fifty-four years old, and the role just does not fit well on him at all.  And the fact that he’s a roguish thief who has one-night stands has absolutely nothing to do with the plot.  So it all felt very unnecessary and like the brains behind the film just fell back on the typical Hollywood action schematic instead of delivering the audience a monster movie as promised.  I also have a problem with how the movie ended.  I don’t know how to say anymore here without giving it away, so for now I’ll just say that Hollywood’s issues with taking on ancient Egypt persist.  See below for spoilers!

 

Now as for “the monster,” the mummy, whose name in the movie is Ahmanet, was the best part of the movie for me.  I’m a fan of the actress (Sofia Boutella), and I think she did great job embodying a creepy and terrifying but also alluring character.  Another scene-stealer is Russell Crowe who plays Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  Crowe initially starts out as Dr. Jekyll, but one of my favorite scenes is when he transforms into his alter ego and goes crazy on Cruise’s character.

 

Overall, would I recommend “The Mummy?”  I think I would – not with a resounding “Oh my God, yes!” but with a “Yeah it had some cool moments.”  And it was fun to see on IMAX in 3D.  I probably would also give it higher than the 16% it has on Rotten Tomatoes.  But just know that it’s far from perfect and definitely has its issues that I’m hoping will get ironed out before the other Dark Universe movies get released.  The Universal monster movies are the original shared universe and are so iconic you know them even if you’ve never seen them.  Hopefully, Hollywood will do more than remake them as just as good but ultimately unremarkable action movies.

 

AND NOW – SPOILERS!

 

So, I’m only going to spoil the ending – go big or go home, right?  So, the premise of this movie is that Ahmanet, before being mummified, sold her soul to the Egyptian god Set who in turn gave her a dagger that would allow her to transfer his soul into a human body.  Upon awakening, she immediately sets her sights on Cruise’s character to be the vessel.  At the end of the movie, Cruise ends up with the dagger and stabs himself, essentially becoming the vessel for the Egyptian god.  The mummy gets captured and gets locked up in a vault.  So, yeah, Cruise’s character is basically an Egyptian god.  Because this worked so well for Gods of Egypt.  This is just another example of Hollywood living up to its already low expectations and continuing that age-old practice of whitewashing.  I’m sure people are getting tired of hearing that word, but I assure you we’re getting tired of talking about it.

 

And another thing – by being the vessel for the god Set, Cruise is able to resurrect the dead.  Craig made a good point that this essentially makes the stakes very low in the Dark Universe because there is now a character who can just bring the dead back to life.  So, when a character dies, I imagine the impact on the other characters (as well as the audience) will be very low because they can just call in Cruise’s character to bring them back.  I mean, can you imagine if Rick Grimes on The Walking Dead could just restore life – all the deaths on that show would be meaningless and the show would be way less powerful.  Glenn would be alive so YAY!!!!  But the attachment the audience forms to the characters would be significantly weakened.

 

With all this being said, I’m still looking forward to seeing what else the Dark Universe has to offer.  Hopefully, Hollywood will learn from the mistakes of The Mummy and do justice to the original Universal monsters and the original shared universe.

Kia is a cohost of the Half Assed Horror Cast. Her favorite horror novel is Scott Smith’s ‘The Ruins,’ fave slasher is Freddy Krueger, and her favorite TV show of all time is ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer.’ 

Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”

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I started watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer when it first aired back in 1997.  I was 15 years old at the time – the target audience for a show about a teenage vampire slayer that aired on the WB network.  The commercials for the new show drew me in, and I was already a fan of Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy) since her days on Swan’s Crossing and All My Children. So I was ready for a fun ride and a cool new TV show, but I had no idea the show would become as iconic as it has or that I was entering a new fandom and the new worlds of the Buffyverse and, ultimately, the Whedonverse.  I don’t know what it was about this new show that just did it for me – maybe because the characters were in high school just like me.  Maybe I saw myself in these outcast teens that were cool to me but not cool to their peers.  Maybe I just liked the way they talked – if you’re a fan of the show (or Whedon), you’ll understand what I mean.  Whatever it was, I was hooked.

I’ve had to defend my love of BtVS on more than one occasion.  To those who are not familiar with the show, they laugh it off because of the name or they remember the enjoyable but silly movie.  They really have no idea.  I’ve watched A LOT of television shows in my lifetime, but I can honestly say I have never seen a show that goes to the emotional depths as BtVS.  Whedon definitely believes in the age-old adage of “No Mercy.”  A great example of this is the iconic episode “The Body.”  An episode that came out of absolutely nowhere.  An episode that has absolutely no music.  An episode that takes a supernatural show and places it squarely in the realm of reality.  It’s considered to be one of the best (if not the best) episode of the entire series – and it has nothing to do with vampires (or anything supernatural).  So, when people fail to understand how significant, and impactful, and meaningful a show like BtVS is, I just tell myself…they really have no idea.

But to those of us who do, and especially to those of us who literally grew up watching this show, it is everything.  It was 7 years (and that doesn’t include the additional year of its great spin-off Angel) of an emotional rollercoaster – such amazing character growth and great plotlines.  Such extreme highs and gut-wrenching lows.  Such unique episodes that really went outside of the box, such as the musical episode “Once More With Feeling” or the mind-bending episode “Restless.”  And oh yeah – if you’ve ever heard the term “Big Bad,” you have Joss Whedon and BtVS to thank for that.

There’s a reason we’re still talking about BtVS 20 years later and a reason other shows have fallen out of the conversation.  There’s a reason the BtVS fandom covers not only the television series but an ongoing comic book series (putting BtVS in it’s 11th season), numerous novels, Funko collectibles, action figures, T-shirts, artwork, academic texts, etc.  It’s because it’s a show that’s about more than just a blonde, peppy cheerleader who also happens to fight vampires, demons, and the forces of darkness.  I had the honor of meeting James Marsters at a convention – he played Spike on BtVS, my favorite character on the show.  We talked about our mutual love for the show, and he said that for him BtVS was a show about life.  It’s that simple.  As Buffy said, “The hardest thing in this world is to live in it.”  And that’s why I love this show (and all it’s fandom) so much.  The bells and whistles are awesome, but at the end of the day, these are characters I can relate to, find myself in, and live my life with – with all the ups and downs and everything in between.  So, Happy 20th to “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and here’s to all the conversations to come!

Kia is a cohost of the Half Assed Horror Cast. Her favorite horror novel is Scott Smith’s ‘The Ruins,’ fave slasher is Freddy Krueger, and her favorite TV show of all time is ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer.’ 

Kia’s Creepy Literary Corner:’The Winter People’ by Jennifer McMahon

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Book Review – “The Winter People” by Jennifer McMahon

Rating – 4.5/5

So, as many books as I’ve read, I can’t recall ever reading one that I would consider to be a true ghost story.  “The Winter People” comes pretty close, mainly in the setting and in the way the author tells her story – going back and forth between characters in the early 1900s and the present-day and weaving the characters’ lives together.  However, “The Winter People” is more sinister than a typical ghost story.  It connects the lives of a woman named Sara Harrison Shea, who was found dead in 1908 shortly after the death of her daughter, to the lives of a teenager named Ruthie and her little sister, both of whom are left to fend for themselves after they wake up one morning and find that their mother has gone missing.  Ruthie and her little sister live in the same remote farmhouse in the woods that Shea lived in during the early 1900s, and when Ruthie and her little sister discover Shea’s diary, they learn that their mother’s disappearance is connected to the life and death of not only Shea but also Shea’s daughter.  This was a book that I always regretted having to put down because the story was so unique and creepy that I wanted to keep reading, and best of all, the twist was impossible for me to figure out – just like a good ghost mystery should be.  I would’ve given this book 5/5, but there are some events that take place with a secondary character that are a little over-the-top.  But other than that, this book was extremely enjoyable to read, so I highly recommend it!  Looking forward to reading more from this author in the future!

Kia’s Creepy Literary Corner: ‘The Last American Vampire’ by Seth Grahame-Smith

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Rating – 5/5

So if you haven’t heard of Seth Grahame-Smith, do yourself a favor and check out some of his work.  He wrote the screenplay for the Tim Burton-directed film Dark Shadows, and he’s authored several great mash-up books that you’ve probably heard of – Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, Unholy Night, and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.  I haven’t read the latter book yet, but it’s on my list, but I highly recommended his other two books.  Unholy Night is his take on the three wise men.  Since little is known about them, he was able to just run with it and use his imagination to come up with a great story.  With Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, he had to blend both his imagination and actual history to come up with a new take on Lincoln’s story, and the results made for some great reading (and a very entertaining movie).  Grahame-Smith does that again in his newest novel, The Last American Vampire, which is a sequel to Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.  But don’t worry – Grahame-Smith does a good job at giving a general rundown of what the first book is about, so you can jump into the sequel even if you haven’t read the original story.  The sequel follows one of the main characters from the first book, vampire Henry Sturges, on a quest to find a new threat to the Union, which is essentially a group of vampires who have sworn to protect humans and to make sure that vampires and humans coexist peacefully.  Along the way, Henry gets involved in all sorts of adventures and meets various historical figures, and it’s these adventures and meetings that really make this a novel worth checking out.

Grahame-Smith does a masterful job at weaving fictional storytelling with historical facts that at times it’s difficult to sort fact from fiction.  This often led me on my own fact-finding missions to learn more about the events and the people involved in his story.  As for the historical figures, Grahame-Smith manages to weave Henry Irving, Bram Stoker, Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla, Mark Twain, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Rasputin, and various American presidents into Henry’s adventures, just to name a few.  Grahame-Smith even reworks history in the telling of Henry’s own past, including an interesting take on the missing Roanoke colony.  This book is also full of footnotes in which Grahame-Smith provides even more details that are either factual, fictional, or his trademark blending of both.  On top of that, Grahame-Smith is great at writing fighting and action scenes – his book Unholy Night is a great example of this as you can really imagine the scenes you’re reading about being played out on the big screen.  The Last American Vampire is full of such scenes, and I often found myself cringing (pleasantly) at some of the descriptions.

In my opinion, this sequel surpasses the original and really establishes Grahame-Smith as a force in his genre.  If you’re into history, historical fiction, action, and some blood and gore, The Last American Vampire is the perfect book for you.

Kia is a cohost of the Half Assed Horror Cast. Her favorite horror novel is Scott Smith’s ‘The Ruins,’ fave slasher is Freddy Krueger, and her favorite TV show of all time is ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer.’ 

The Walking Dead: Before and After

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Warning! MAJOR spoilers for the current season of The Walking Dead lie ahead! 

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I’m a huge fan of The Walking Dead.  I faithfully watch the show as well as Fear the Walking Dead and Talking Dead.  I read both the comic books and the Woodbury novel series, and collect the Funko POP! figures.  I’ve even managed to meet several of the cast mates at conventions over the past few years, including Lauren Cohan (Maggie), Steven Yeun (Glenn), Norman Reedus (Daryl), Michael Rooker (Merle), Scott Wilson (Hershel), Jon Bernthal (Shane), Michael Cudlitz (Abraham), Chad Coleman (Tyreese), and Christian Serratos (Rosita).  So, I consider myself to be a pretty big fan.  I look forward to watching The Walking Dead every Sunday, usually with a glass of wine, and talking about it over the next week.  As you probably know by now, the recent season premiere included the very graphic, violent deaths of two beloved characters, Abraham and Glenn.  Now, as a reader of the comics, I knew Abraham was living on borrowed time and that the introduction of Negan (the new Big Bad) meant the demise of Glenn.  However, I was still extremely shocked and saddened when both of the characters were killed, particularly Glenn.  Glenn had been there from the very beginning, and as a reader of the comics, I knew that Glenn’s death was going to lead to a fracturing of the group, which has been shown in the subsequent episodes this season.  This basically means that our group will never the same.

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And that means that watching The Walking Dead will never be the same.  It is indeed a before and after.  That doesn’t mean that I won’t watch it or that I’ll be a part of the millions of viewers that have apparently checked out (based on current ratings).  I knew what was coming, and I was not turned off by the violence – we’re watching a show about the zombie apocalypse, so things tend to get a little violent.  Plus, I really think the show-runners have excelled in making the viewers feel as distraught and lost as our characters must feel, and I understand that our beloved characters aren’t all going to survive.  As a fan of anything Joss Whedon and a HUGE fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I know not to hold characters too close to the heart.  But that doesn’t stop me from doing it anyway.  I’ll still go to conventions and try to meet the cast mates.  I’ll still read the comics and the novel series (which is on its 7th book).  And I’ll still watch The Walking Dead and any spin-off series it may produce with 100% commitment.  But it definitely won’t be the same.

Kia is a cohost of the Half Assed Horror Cast. Her favorite horror novel is Scott Smith’s ‘The Ruins,’ fave slasher is Freddy Krueger, and her favorite TV show of all time is ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer.’ 

Kia’s Creepy Literary Corner: ‘The Girls’ by Emma Cline

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img_5391Review of ‘The Girls’ by Emma Cline,  by Kia from the Halfassedhorrorcast

Rating – 5/5

This is officially the first post on this website and hopefully the first of more to come!  I love to read and am constantly reading books, comics, or graphic novels.  So it’s fitting that my first post is a book review.  While this book doesn’t fall under the genre of horror, it’s a fitting inclusion as our main character is essentially involved with a murderous cult.  The book is The Girls, the first novel from Emma Cline.  It initially got my attention from the cover because I do judge books by their covers.  It’s a simple cover – a somewhat pixelated red, white, and blue picture of a girl’s face.  It looks like she’s wearing shades, and she has a white heart scribbled on her forehead.  She’s not smiling but just looking straight ahead.  Then the description got my attention – it’s basically a fictionalized telling of the women involved in a 1960’s cult led by a “charismatic leader.”  From this, it’s obvious it’s about Charles Manson’s female followers..  However, all names have been changed to protect the “innocent.”  The novel is specifically the story of one of those girls, fourteen-year-old Evie Boyd, and the dissatisfaction she feels in her home life and how, as a result, she is so easily seduced by the cult girls to be a part of their group.  Manson, who in the novel goes by the name of Russell, is a part of the story, as is the well-known murders, the details of which have also been changed.

However, Russell and the murders are more of an afterthought.  After all, the novel is called “The Girls,” and that truly is the focus of this story as it not only deals with Evie’s transformation into a cult member but also on the ideas and expectations about how girls and women fit into society, particularly in their dealings with boys and men.  For example, Cline writes about Evie’s mom and how she deals with being separated from Evie’s father; about the new (and younger) love interest involved with Evie’s father and the impact she has on Evie; and about an older Evie and her interactions with a young girl that reminds Evie of her younger self.  After reading the novel, I started thinking of that pixelated face on the cover as a representation of females in general rather than just a depiction of a particular character.  Even the white heart shape on the forehead is dismissed in the novel as a simple, girlish scribble.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading this book, and it was a book that I was always eager to return to.  I thought it was well-written, and I enjoyed the pace.  At times, it could be a bit heavy-handed, particularly when dealing with male-female relationships.  For example, present-day Evie spends time with a younger girl who’s involved in a very unhealthy relationship with an older man, and Evie’s mother goes to some extremes after separating from her husband.  However, I think Cline does a great job in giving us insight into Evie’s world, how the various characters respond to and challenge societal norms, and Evie’s own responses and challenges lead her down the path she chooses.

Kia is a cohost of the Half Assed Horror Cast. Her favorite horror novel is Scott Smith’s ‘The Ruins,’ fave slasher is Freddy Krueger, and her favorite TV show of all time is ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer.’