Episode 12: Horror Software, Inc.

There's an army of zombies coming right at you, on your left you see a pack of werewolves, on your right a bunch of politicians, and you only have three bullets in the revolver. What do you do, man, what do you do?

The options:

1. You fight and die like a hero!
2. You run!
3. You take out your Republican party membership card and nobody dares to touch you!
   

On June 3rd, we had a show about scary video games with particular emphasis on the survival horror subgenre, which has made quite a splash since the appearance of the Alone in the Dark series. Most of the video games discussed (modern classics such as Silent Hill, Resident Evil, Dead Space, but also oldies like Doom and Redneck Rampage) are nightmare-inducing in ways that only the best horror films are, and one might even dare say that the games are actually better at throwing people in fits of terror because their monsters never attack famous actors - they attack YOU! Oh, the sweetness of running amok through the endless tunnels of hell, with a terrible monster right behind your back...

Well, this self-defense reflex that permeats horror games is also what is consistently lacking from the respective film adaptations. Some films make it through despite this obvious impediment - the Resident Evil film series is heaps of fun and the Silent Hill adaptation is extremely effective when it takes scenes straight from the games. Most video game adaptations, however, are outright disasters and most of the blame falls at the feet of one Uwe Boll, the man that seems to love being hated. Oh well, what can you do, life was never meant to be perfect.

The music for this episode hits hard with industrial landscapes and beats from artists such as Skinny Puppy, Nine Inch Nails, Throbbing Gristle and Rob Zombie. The ridicilous sounds of that internet meme from a few years back also pop up to remind you that All your base are belong to us! and that horror sometimes is linked purely to stupidity :)

>>> Download the episode!

>>> Stream the episode!

Frankenstein (1910)

Before Boris Karloff, there was Charles Ogle! The first film version of Frankenstein was made in 1910 by Edison Studios. It was shot in just three days with J. Searle Dawley on helm as the writer and producer, Augustus Phillips as Dr. Frankenstein and Mary Fuller as the doctor's fiancee. This short is quite interesting actually for the depiction of the Creature, which is radically different from the one established as classic with the Universal series of films. Definitely worth a watch, just don't be discouraged by the paleness of the copy early on.

Frankenstein Posters

There comes a moment in every man's life when he has to ask himself: just how on earth did Mary Shelley's Thing-Without-A-Name become the distorted blood-thirsty monster we know as Frankenstein? Has nobody ever read the book? Ah, well... I'll be honest: I am not a big fan of Frankenstein, the monster, and I think the original Universal film was pure rubbish saved by Boris Karloff's performance (come on, the whole film is based on the idiotic plot device known as ABNORMAL BRAIN). That said, I love the concept of Frankenstein with everything it involves including the string of trash-to-the-bone films and posters it has inspired. Just look at that Frankenstein vs. Baragon poster at the bottom of this post! Is it genius or what? You will find much more of that in what follows. Enjoy!

From Darkness to Light

This is what makes Web 2.0 tools so special. I'm sure it's 100% illegal but deleting something as magical as this simple combination of two video and audio clips would be a true crime. Even as the lyrics of the song by Tuxedomoon do not match the legendary Frankenstein scene, the mood is perfectly sublime. Cheers to Mary Shelley, cheers to Boris Karloff, cheers to Stamatellos!

Episode 11: The Cassandra Complex

Very often true terror lies in what we cannot change, which is why the passing of time and death never fail to give us grief no matter how hard we try to accept them as facts of life. On the opposite side of the table is the belief that one can influence the outcome of future events and thus create better tomorrow or potentially fix past mistakes. Sometimes, this belief is the only thing that can get a person through a severe bout of crisis. "Tomorrow is a new day," they say when they try to bring back that spark of optimism. But ask Cassandra what she thinks of your tomorrow and you may get an unexpected warning - maybe your future isn't any brighter than your past, maybe it's far, far worse - just be wise and don't ignore her or what she has to say.

The Cassandra complex, also known as the Cassandra effect, is a term applied in situations in which valid warnings, concerns or premonitions "occur" but are dismissed or disbelieved. The term originates in Greek mythology, from Cassandra, the daughter of Priam, who was given the gift of prophecy and then cursed never to be believed. Cassandra was, thus, left with the knowledge of future events, but could neither alter these events nor convince others of the validity of her predictions. The concept has been applied in a variety of contexts such as psychology, environmentalism, politics, science, cinema, and philosophy, and has been in circulation since at least 1949 when French philosopher Gaston Bachelard coined the term 'Cassandra Complex' to refer to a belief that things could be known in advance.

Of course, the true horror of the Cassandra complex is not revealed until the prophecy relates to an event that is tragic or truly apocalyptic in its nature. The mythic Cassandra had seen the fall of Troy before it happened but nobody had paid attention to her warnings. Similarly, Nostradamus may have foretold many events of our pasts but none of his prophecies have ever been prevented from actually happening - then again, Nostradamus may have been a hack and his success is based purely on people reading meaning into his prose where there is none.

Terry Gilliam's SF masterpiece 12 Monkeys (1995) revolves entirely around this concept of the Cassandra complex with convict James Cole who travels back in time acting as the storied Cassandra. One of the strengths of the film is that it acts as a loop, reinforcing the idea that the future is just as "frozen in a certain position" as the past is and it cannot be changed either. Whether you believe in destiny and the cosmic order it implies or you would rather take the absurdist stance and assert that we are all victims of our own freedom, that time such as it is only keeps record of our actions is up to you; but seeing James Cole as a kid see himself die as a grown up man forever and ever is certainly a heartbreaking idea.

12 Monkeys is definitely not the only film that deals with premonitions and how set in stone they are - there is always the David Cronenberg classic The Dead Zone as well as the Final Destination series, not to forget others such as Omen (1976) and The Mothman Prophecies (2002).

Relating to the show itself, our dear friend FlavrSavr was a special guest, and not only introduced us to a very interesting band called Why? but also shared with us his own visions for the future. You can now download the show HERE or stream it by clicking HERE. Enjoy!

Trent Reznor - Quake Soundtrack (1996)

1996 was a great year for Trent Reznor, the mastermind behind the industrial powerhouse known as Nine Inch Nails. He was still riding on the success of The Downward Spiral (1994) and the accompanying EPs, he was making his name as the producer of Antichrist Superstar, the concept album that propelled Marilyn Manson to infamy, he was getting warmed up with the soundtrack for Lost Highway, the upcoming film by virtuoso David Lynch, which also led to additional collaboration with one David Bowie, and finally, he released the soundtrack for the video game of the year, the 3D shooter Quake. This last item is particularly interesting, first because it is usually forgotten in Reznor's rich discography, second, because it includes some masterfully atmospheric instrumental work, the kind that Reznor only hinted at on previous releases, and third because despite its obscurity it is easily on par with NIN's Ghosts (2008). The album contains ten tracks, all of which are recommended listening for the wee hours of the night, when the dark gets darker and the shadows become living beings. Download the album here and enjoy!

Frightfest!

When it comes to film festivals dedicated to the macabre I truly recognize only one: the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival. This may change soon as this year's line up for UK's FrightFest film festival looks extremely promising. What I'm particularly salivating over is the world premiere of the sequel to 2005's superb kick-in-the-gut allegory The Descent (even though it will most likely be just a re-hash of the original).



A few facts about FrightFest. This horror film festival first hit the scene in August 2000 with the World Premiere of Ed Gein and UK premieres of Scary Movie, Pitch Black and Audition. Then based at the London grindhouse cinema The Prince Charles, the annual 4-day festival has grown to become one hell of a festival, in the process helping to launch the careers of directors Christopher Smith (Creep, Severance) and Simon Hunter (Mutant Chronicles) plus hosting many first UK screenings including Shaun of the Dead and Eli Roth’s Hostel.

Other two films I'm looking forward to are Clive Barker's Dread and Dario Argento's Giallo. Enjoy the previews!

Messer Chups

It is impossible to dislike certain bands and Messer Chups, with all the humor-infused horror samples and surf rock they bring to the table, are certainly on top of that list.

Messer Chups were founded some ten years ago in St.Petersburg, Russia, by Oleg Gitarkin who had previously performed with Oleg Kostrow under the name of Messer für Frau Müller. The band was originally a duo of Gitarkin on bass guitar and Annette Schneider on synths but the band's formation has been in constant flux of musicians ever since. No matter the line up, the Messer Chups have kept their sense for relentlessly dark humor and American culture’s trashiest achievements through all their releases, which has led to their recognition as one of Russia’s best-known exports. Playing a fundamentally instrumental style helps, of course, but the band’s celebration of both terror and trash - simultaneously - is what makes them so splendid. Check out the following clip if you're not sure what we're talking about.



With the release of Heretic Channel (2009) in march this year, the band has officially marked ten albums under the belt, most of which have enjoyed republication, not only in Russia, but in the US, Australia and Japan as well. Ironically, the success of Messer Chups has coincided with severe downturn of the music market in Russia; somebody must have sent a really bad curse their way and missed the mark.

Heretic Channel is as fun as Zombie Shopping (2007) or anything else the band has released over the last decade with the automatic plus of reworking a few David Lynch motifs in the proceedings. That the first single off the album is devoted to Vincent Price cannot be a bad thing, either :)

Check out the website Far from Moscow for more band pics as well as a good overview of their more recent history.

Dead Girl Poster

There is some early buzz at Bloody Disgusting over a teen horror film called Dead Girl. The word started spreading two days ago when a leaked trailer appeared on the popular website only to be taken down soon after the fact. The story of the film looks quite intriguing: two teenagers find a beautiful woman tied to a bed in an abandoned asylum, and soon come to realize she is anything but dead. The tagline and the poster hint at Teeth, another popular teen flick from a couple of years ago, which was a weakly disguised allegory about a girl discovering its own sexuality. Will Dead Girl be better or worse, only time will tell. In the meantime, here's Tom with the weather...

Final Destination (2000)

As the release date of The Final Destination gets nearer, one needs to sit back and reflect on how they ever got past the stupidity of the second film in this famed series about premonition-based death-evaders. The idea behind all three flicks we have seen so far is admittedly great, but maybe one was more than enough to get the point across. The only thing actually lacking from the original starring Devon Sawa and William Scott was a proper final face-to-face encounter with Death. Other than that, Final Destination is quite a satisfactory scary flick featuring sympathetic characters, tense scenes and a well-disciplined take on a concept which is likely to be used and re-used as classic horror stock in 10 or so years. Just don't mistake it for the much weaker sequels.