H.P. Lovecrafts' Dark Heritage

                                        
H.P. Lovecrafts' Dark Heritage

by

Jay Agan

As with the majority of fans of H.P. Lovecraft, I've found most film adaptations of his works to be less than merely lacking. Many were downright pathetic and laughable. Excessively altering and straying too much from the story, new characters and generally everyone putting in their own "touches". This is because most of the authors' works were short stories and thus not really suited for feature length films. Made for crappy cinema at best.

Up until the fan made Call of Cthulhu (Not only the best but 100% faithful and one of four worth watching.), the best you could hope for were The Dunwich Horror and Die, Monster, Die! (And only because Boris Karloff is in that one.) I exclude the ones made by the Band family. Barbara Crampton's fun to watch but I can't see them as Lovecraft. The fourth one (Marketed by Passion Productions.) I stumbled on in a now defunct dollar store in Delaware, Ohio.

 Dark Heritage the Final Deccendant is pretty much a low budget affair. Certainly looks it and yet I've found it more entertaining and interesting than most previous attempts at Lovecraft. Based (uncredited) on his short story The Lurking Fear, it's a not bad little thriller. Yes, it has some extra "stuff" and characters to pad it out and an added surprise ending (Which isn't bad as it's "Lovecraftian" in its own way.). The location was changed from the Catskills of New York to Louisiana. It still sticks to the basic plot of the story however. H. P.s' stories were narrative and research oriented and this film at least gives more than a nod to the research part.

Both film and story are centered around an investigator (In the film, a newspaper reporter.) looking into the history of a presumably extinct family and its' connection to a series of bloody mass killings. Killings that happen when thunderstorms are raging. Turns out the family isn't extinct but has degenerated into an incest perpetuated group of underground dwelling troglodytes. Thunder drives them "up from under" and they go on the prowl.

This seems to be one of those "regional" productions. (1968s' Night of the Living Dead could fall into this category.) Very location bound with several sets of last names in the cast. Lotsa relatives contributed to the making of this film.

Dark Heritage has the lowest production values I've ever seen in a Lovecraft adaptation. This is more than made up for in its' faithfulness to the source material. For that it's more than good enough for me to have as a keeper.

Article copyright © 2-15-2011 Jay Agan

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Breaking a "5th Wall"

A scene from Night of the Living Dead or anime fans at a
convention? YOU decide. Credit: Image 10 Productions

                                          
                                                 Breaking a "5th Wall"

                                                                 by

                                                                    Jay Agan

     Was wandering around the DVD section of Best Buy a few weeks ago & stumbled on what I thought, at first, to be a potentially amazing phenomenon. In the horror section, I found they were selling copies of Night of the Living Dead (Dimension Films/Dimension Extreme Entertainment label.) No big deal to my way of thinking. A lot of companies sell this public domain film, especially around Halloween. I wasn't thinking of buying it, (Already have it.), but took a peek anyway.

     Examining the box I found something interesting on the back:

     "WIDESCREEN VERSION PRESENTED IN A FORMAT PRESERVING THE 1:33:1 ASPECT RATIO OF ITS ORIGINAL THEATRICAL EXHIBITION"

     Really.(!?) Those who see the discrepency here don't need an explanation. As for those who do, click here & here. It would take too much space & time to explain otherwise. As for space & time .....

     "Hmm. This is unique," I thought, & bought it anyway. This promised to be a breakthrough in how man percieves the universe & the very essence of existance itself. And I could see it happening right in my own living room! I took it home & popped the disc into the machine.

     You can only imagine my disgust/disappointment when the set didn't explode &/or vanish into the next dimension.

     By the way. It was fullscreen.


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DISCLAIMER: All images used on this blog are strictly copyrights of their owners. I do not claim credit/ownership for any images used here in my blog unless stated otherwise. If I have offended anyone by posting any images on my blog, please contact me via email and I will remove specified image(s) ASAP.

This article (only) may be copied in whole or in part. Please cite proper credit & backlink.

Not So HOTD



Photo Credit: Madhouse



                                                                Not So HOTD

                                                                            by

                                                                              Jay Agan

     I've come to dislike the zombie genre. Zombies are "easy", making the movies are"easy", & look it. These flicks get a lot of hype & raves but I don't see much in this genre seemingly starving for a gimmick. The only ones I have in my collection are the original '68 Night of the Living Dead & Return of the Living Dead (A funny, yet very disturbing film. And I'm not referring to Linnea Quigley!)

     It was with some trepidation I took a look at High School of the Dead (Gakuen Mokushiroku or Apocalypse Academy. Produced by Madhouse. Directed by Tetsuro Araki.) Was'nt as bad as I thought though not as good as I'd have liked. As this show is an anime, suspension of disbelief is doubly required, which helped a lot.

     Starts off well enough. First three eps cover the unexplained breakout of the plague & its seemingly instantaneous escalation. The protagonists (angsty guy, his spear/staff wielding occasional girlfriend, dark haired kendo chick (my favorite), military nerd, self proclaimed girl genius, &.....Nurse Bubblehead (not my favorite). ), meet up & bust out of the school.

     Fourth ep is the "budget" chapter. Lotsa rehash & repeat of earlier scenes. Kind of reminiscent of those movie serials from the 40s.

     5th - 7th. It gets dumb. The good guys hole up in Nurse Bubbleheads' apartment (With a full military Humvee parked outside!) & "fortuitous" things happen. Seems the vacant ones' room mate is a special ops type (Who is elsewhere, clearing airport runways as a sniper.) with an easily broken into gunsafe full of goodies. The girls start acting drugged/drunk & compare breast sizes in the bath. Two try coming on to the angsty guy. Kendo chick parades around the kitchen in apron & thong. The excuse being they had to wash their clothes. All that blood.

     As if there weren't enough "fanservice" already. I haven't seen this many bums 'n boobs scince I attended a Three Stooges film fest in the early 90s. It goes back to a "reasonable" (For the series.) level after. This is partially redeemed with the rescue of a little girl & a dog.

     In ep 8, things getting precarious, the band leaves the apartment & fall in with a large group occupying a huge estate, by becoming trapped by a crowd of the undead against a titanium wire fence strung accross a street. Tense moments as the group takes out the the closing horde one by one while seemingly unable to figure out they can easily bend down & step through the fence. In another of those cartoon non-coincidences, their rescuers are led by the group genius' mom.

     Ep 9 & 10. It's not clear how Mr. & Ms. Genius aquired their wealth but it seems "counter cultural" activities & violence may have been involved. Here, the kids rest up & assert their rights to the weapons they "borrowed" earlier when some of the henchmen try to appropriate them (Mr. Genius backs the kids' play.).

     Some of the citizenry squatting on the estate, are in "denial" & want to get back to "democracy" as in right now. Their fantasies are shattered in eps 11& 12: The U.S. president launches nukes, Russia replies in kind. As the worlds militaries are too far gone, few nukes leave their silos thus WWlll is sparse. One does an EMP burst over Japan & communications go dead.

     The zombie horde breaks through the estate gate & the final battle is on. The protagonists make their escape. After the closing credits, our group is last seen crossing a bridge on foot in the hopes of finding family members. T.S. Elliots' quote from The Hollow Men appears: "This is how the world ends. Not with a bang, but a wimper." So does the series.

     I've left quite a bit out of this summary. A vile, manipulative, teacher (Who must have gotten a lot more "face time" in the manga series.). Angsto gets separated from the group twice, with a "girl of his choice". The series also depicts civil unrest/social collapse, breakdown of authority, confrontations with demented survivors, etc. One very brief but disturbing scene in ep 1 has a friend turning on another. Both "get theirs".

     I am less than happy with this series, but it does come accross as "different" from the Romero school. Perhaps it's because the show is an anime that I get that "feel". I doubt I'll buy it but I'd keep it if it was given to me (No. That's not a hint.) If it weren't for all that excessive (& exagerated!) T & A.....

                                                       Article copyright © Jay Agan

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DISCLAIMER: All images used on this blog are strictly copyrights of their owners. I do not claim credit/ownership for any images used here in my blog unless stated otherwise. If I have offended anyone by posting any images on my blog, please contact me via email and I will remove specified image(s) ASAP.

Love Those Special Effects!

                                                 Love Those Special Effects!
            
                                                                     by
             
                                                                       Jay Agan

        Lived in the OSU (Ohio State U.) area back in the 90s. One would think it to be on the wild side but as I was a few blocks east, up against the State Fairgrounds, it was relatively quiet. Yeah, there was some "spillover". Every time the Buckeyes won/lost, a lot of "liberal arts" types would be burning up (Literally!) 12th Ave. a few blocks south.

        "Get away from the car. I don't care if the Bucks won/lost, dont' touch my car. You are not going to overturn/set fire to/dance on my car. Just 'cause the car is blue it does not mean it's from U. of Mich. (thumbs the hammer back). MOVE AWAY FROM THE CAR! NOW!"

        Yes, fun times at OSU. I made it a point to be out of town or "hunkered down" on game day.

        Wasn't just game days. Occasional gunshots would be heard. Screams/yells, firecrackers, & other "party" related noise added variety. Every so often a dumpster would "happen" to catch fire & the Dept. was called. Once I caught three guys trying to break into my car (Ah, kids these days.....). They took off when I hit the kitchen window. A subsequent call to the police revealed they couldn't send an officer to investigate as they were all at the OSU parking garage because a campus officer had been shot. One showed up a couple days later to take my statement.

        One "appropriate" little incident happened while watching George Romeros'  1969 "classic", Night of the Living Dead.

        Late October, 1990, (Halloween time!). Channel 8, a now defunct low power station atop the Levesque-Lincoln tower was broadcasting NOTLD. It was a great little station having all these older films I so much love. I was glad it was around in those (for me) pre-VCR days.

        As during any flick I'd get up every so often for snacks. At the part where Duane Jones rolls the flaming barcalounger off the porch, I get up for a Coke. Reaching in the fridge, I just happen to look out the window.

        Some idiot set a mattress on fire in the alley! Talk about atmosphere! The Dept. was called but as the fire spent itself, not much happened.

        I didn't mention anything to them about flesh eating zombies by the way.

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