Review: Frankenstein's Army

One final horror movie review for the month. Frankenstein's Army (2013) is an exciting if gruesome film that sets Soviet soldiers against Dr. Frankenstein's grandson and a horror show of recycled Nazi soldiers (and anyone else who falls under the doctor’s knife).

Warning: Spoilers!!

Frankenstein's Army

The movie follows a reconnaissance team of Soviet soldiers in German territory. The film uses the found footage style, ostensibly filmed by a propagandist travelling with the unit. After some initial character building scenes, the team follows a suspicious distress call from another unit. There they find an abandoned compound filled with dismembered nuns and strange scattered wreckage. Eventually they realize they are not alone. Strange steam punk reanimated corpses infest the area. One by one, the monsters whittled down the team until only the core four remain: the propagandist, the steady headed Polish soldier, the ruthless hotheaded killer, and Sasha, the seemingly incompetent kid.

The propagandist is revealed to be leading the team on a secret mission to capture Frankenstein. Ultimately his comrades abandon him and he is captured by the doctor. Forced to film the madman’s work, he eventually sees the rest of his comrades trickle in to become future weapons. Just when all seems lost and Russian artillery is moving in to demolish the compound, the final twist occurs. In a nod to a potential sequel, the doctor claims all the secrets to creating these monsters are in his head. A surviving (and assumed dead) team member then shoots him and lops off his head to return to Moscow. One wonders if they don’t intend to attach it to a new body to continue the work like Vladimir Demikhov's work on dogs.

Overall the film is great. The monsters mostly use practical effects which makes them seem a bit cheap but at least real. The film uses a lot of gore with many dismembered bodies decorating the later scenes. The acting for most of the cast is good which helps a lot. I think one could make a good one shot roleplaying game out of the premise, including the secret traitor(s) and conflicting agendas of the characters.

The film could have used more extras in the early combat scenes to sell that this is a war film. I don’t think you need a mass battle but signs that the cast is larger than a dozen men would really help.

I think the film is worth watching by any horror fan and particularly if you are looking to mine some ideas for a quasi-military horror game like Night’s Black Agents or Delta Green.

Review: Ash Vs.

Continuing my Halloween viewing and Evil Dead marathoning, this week I’m reviewing the more recent elements of the series: Army of Darkness and the TV show Ash vs. Evil Dead. One of these doesn’t really work for me anymore. The other contains the best bits of the entire series.

Army of Darkness

This movie picks up where Evil Dead 2 ended. Ash and his car have fallen through a hole in time and arrived in the year 1300. Ash quickly finds himself captured by knights led by a Lord Arthur who believe he is allied with Duke Henry, the ruler of a neighboring people. Both sides blame the other for the Deadite threat.

Ash escapes the death trap the locals have planned for him, shows off his high-tech toys (the shotgun and chainsaw arm) and reluctantly takes on the role of the chosen one. Ash rides off to find the Necronomicon so the evil can be purged from the land and he can get back home.

He blows it.

Ash avoids the formless Kandarian demon and kills the evil twin it helps spawn. But after failing to say the right magic words when picking up the book, he releases an army of the dead who then march on the kingdom. Ash eventually gets his act together, mobilizes a defense using some steampunk devices and gunpowder and saves the day.

So let’s start with the negatives. The dialogue is terrible and horribly cheesy. The practical effects and stop motion have not aged well which makes Army of Darkness look cheap.

Additionally whereas the first two films aimed for horror first and comedy second, Army of Darkness moves well into camp. My tolerance for this kind of action has diminished over time. I used to love this movie but now seeing it next to the other films and the TV series, it feels like the weak link.

The film also leaves me with a lot of unanswered questions and confusion. Is one of the three books Ash encounters in the graveyard the book from the earlier films (i.e. a future Necronomicon)? How did a Sumerian book arrive in Medieval England? Why does killing Ash’s evil twin (again) end the Deadite threat? Whatever happened to the skeletons fleeing the battle at the end? Did Ash alter the timeline?

Ash vs. Evil Dead

So this series is the whole reason I decided to rewatch the movies. Two seasons are out now on Starz with a third premiering in February. It continues the Evil Dead series into the modern-day with better effects, better plots, and exciting new areas to explore.

The series, especially Season 1, stresses the horror aspect of the horror comedy which is a good thing as far as I’m concerned. We also get plenty of physical comedy, splattering gore and other classic elements. Really it is the best of all versions of Evil Dead.

Season 1 picks up with Ash 30 years after the events of Evil Dead. He works retail and lives in a mobile home. He still drives a Delta (the same Delta in fact). Basically his life has gone nowhere. Even so he can still swing a chainsaw and easily seduce woman despite being an old somewhat racist asshole. For a lesser actor or with worse writing the character would be insufferable. But Ash is competent in just the right places and get enough flack for his behavior that you find yourself liking him.

During a recent hookup with a woman interested in poetry, he reads from the Necronomicon. The evil returns and Deadites start popping up left and right. He teams up with Pablo, a Honduran illegal immigrant coworker, and Kelly, the new hire, to defeat the evil once and for all.

Through the season they are pursued by Ruby (played by Lucy Lawless) who is after the book for her own dark reasons and a cop named Amanda who also wants to put an end this threat. They face Deadites, the formless evil, some actual demons, and a few helpful if short-lived allies.

At the end of Season 1, Ash makes a deal with Ruby. He gets his paradise (life in Jacksonville, Florida) and she gets the book and control of Hell’s demons.

Season 2 starts with Ruby losing control. She summons Ash and with his help works to put down the evil she summoned. The only problem is that the evil is in Ash’s hometown. Together with Pablo and Kelly, he has to face his past and his father. Ultimately he reconnects with dad, saves the town and the world (again), and is recognized as a hero. But there are terrible costs. In particular Pablo dies.
Distraught Ash returns to the past to undo the events of the original Evil Dead.

It does not go well. But somehow he turns things around and saves the day.

Overall the series is great. Season 1 flows better in my opinion. The second season focuses more on set pieces which tends to break up the story. But those set pieces are amazing: a battle with a possessed car, a bottle episode with a skin wearing demon, the trip to the asylum.

In addition to the body distorting deadites, we also get some actual demons. The demon of secrets is summoned by Ash but briefly possesses Kelly. Later black eyed children turn the tables on Ruby. And finally a lord of hell, Baal, seeks to bring hell on earth when he isn’t stealing people’s skins. With the better budget and some well done CGI, we also get to see the evil chasing ash for once: a face dust storm.

Not everything is great though. The Season 1 romance between Ash and Amanda feels forced in the last couple episodes. I also found the Season 1 ending unsatisfying. Ash takes the easy way out and seems to doom most of the world. Season 2 thankfully ends better even if the final scene creates a very large plot hole.

One thing both Season finales have which I really loved was the cabin. Season 1 sees Ash return to the cabin from Evil Dead 30 years later to end the threat of the Necronomicon. It is beautiful and great see the aftermath of the series revisited. Season 2 has him travel back in time to before the first film. Ash faces Henrietta Knowby again and discovers that Professor Knowby was no mere victim.

Which brings me back to the plot hole. At the end of Season 2, the cabin is destroyed before Ash arrives in Evil Dead. So he and his friends should never had gone there (or at least not stayed and died). So why is the present still the same? Hopefully they’ll address that issue in Season 3 in February 2017.

Either way the series is a great deal of fun.

Review(s): Evil Dead

The Halloween season is upon us and that means I’m watching (more) horror movies again. I decided to start this season by rewatching the Evil Dead trilogy and then seeing how the 2013 remake and the Ash vs. Evil Dead series stacked up. This week I’m reviewing the Evil Dead movies: Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2, and Evil Dead (2013).

My Review Philosophy

Before I get started on my reviews, let me talk about how I review movies. I’ve been accused of liking everything that comes out and that is not a fair assessment (the Transformers movies for instance are trash).

When I watch a movie I try to enjoy it based on what it is trying to be. If I watch an action movie I am not judging its plot but the explosions and set pieces. If I see a spy movie, then I don’t compare it to a Bond flick (James Bond is a terrible spy) but instead look at the convoluted telling of who did what. This process however gets harder with a remake, particularly one based on a property from my childhood. There is a lot of nostalgia to overcome.

So as far as my review is concerned the Evil Dead movies fit into the categories of splatter horror (the remake) and horror comedy (the originals). With that out of the way, let’s get started.

Warning: Spoilers!!

Evil Dead (The Original)

The basic plot of Evil Dead is that a group of young people (two couples and the sister of one of the men, Ashley “Ash” Williams) head to a cabin in the woods for a weekend getaway. They discover a creepy book (the Sumerian Book of the Dead, a.k.a. the Naturom Demonto) and a tape recording left behind by the person who owns the cabin, a Professor Knowby. In his recording Knowby relates how he uncovered the book which hold rituals for summoning demons and other dark feats. He of course recites them in the recording.

Cue evil being released.

It first grabs, rapes and possesses Ash’s sister, Cheryl, before working its way through the rest of the cast. They become Deadites, zombie like creatures possessed by demons who use their hosts knowledge to torment Ash. The only route out of the woods, an old wooden bridge, is destroyed by the evil. Ash eventually is forced to hack up his friends before finally destroying the book in a fire.

The first in the Evil Dead series, this early example of Sam Raimi’s work shows both his inexperience and his promise. Though not a bad horror film, It is definitely the worst film in the bunch. It probably doesn’t help that this film had the lowest budget or that the film lost most of the cast and crew before being finished. The acting is uneven, the effects cheap and unconvincing, and the ending fight isn’t that great.

The action is gory with buckets of blood being sprayed across the cast.

Even so I found plenty that was interesting in the movie. The cinematography is inspired. The basic plot works well (and much better than the typical horror flick). The basic ideas behind the book of the dead, the demon, and the Deadites are just great.

The choice to never show demon helps. The movie cleverly only shows us its point of view, roaring through the woods, and the expressions of fear in those it pursues. Its physical interactions are limited to animating objects like the trees, breaking down barriers and corrupting the living and dead.

The Deadites appear as possessed people, as in the Exorcist, but tend to be even more distorted physically. The corruption seems hastened by physical wounds though the rate is rather uneven. Cheryl lasts for hours before turning. Ash despite his many wounds remains human. But others turn very quickly. Weirdly when the book is destroyed demonic limbs claw out of the Deadites before crumbling to dust. It's an interesting choice we don't see later in the series.

Evil Dead 2

I know some people think Evil Dead 2 is a remake. What it does is compress and retell the first movie’s plot in the first few minutes of the movie. Ash’s friends and sister are removed. Instead he spends the weekend (and kills) his girlfriend (played by a different actress) and then lops off his hand when the evil gets into it. The book, now the Necronomicon Ex-Mortus, survives this first night and Ash escapes the evil just barely. Also accompanying the book is the Kandarian dagger, a gruesome blade with a hilt of human bone

.

Following on the success of Evil Dead, thanks in part to backing by Stephen King, Evil Dead 2 has a lot more money and thus a lot more (cheesy) special effects. The evil plays with Ash’s mind, animating furniture, spraying him with even more buckets of blood, and then going quiet long enough for the new cast of victims to arrive and blame him for Dr. Knowby and his wife’s death/disappearance.

These visitors include Knowby’s daughter Annie, her useless research partner and a redneck couple who help Annie bypass the broken bridge to the cabin. One by one they are knocked off, until Annie and Ash use the book to manifest the evil spirit and then banish it. The process turns Ash's hair gray and leaves Annie dead from a Kandarian dagger to the back (thanks to Ash’s evil hand).

Ash himself is sucked through the same portal as the evil, arriving in the year 1300 near the same castle Knowby later recovers the Necronomicon from. Just as the Necronomicon showed within its pages earlier in the film.

A much stronger movie, this film has a few nice twists.

I liked the betrayal by the redneck mechanic midway through. He hopes to save his girlfriend from the forest and forces Ash and Annie to help him. He tosses the book in the basement (which necessitates a nasty fight later on) and basically screws everyone over. I’ve got to appreciate a good scared irrational person.

However the addition of the space-time vortex was an odd twist but one that sets up the next film in the series (more on that next week). Time travel seems just a bit odd mixed with demons and the undead (though I’ve had ideas like that as well).

Overall Evil Dead 2 is a good horror comedy and I consider it the core of the Evil Dead series.

Evil Dead (2013)

The Evil Dead reboot draws heavily from the original Evil Dead but with a more serious higher budget take. Again we have a cast consisting of two couples and the sister, Mia, of one of the men (David). But Mia is much more of the focus of the story than Cheryl was.

The premise is that the friends and family of Mia have come together at her mother’s cabin to conduct an intervention. Mia is going cold turkey and her friends have decided they won’t let her back out of it this time. So when Mia starts seeing and experiencing things during her withdrawal, the rest of the characters don’t immediately believe her.

I found the rationale refreshing even if the nurse friend Olivia should realize that kicking the habit is going to take longer than three days. The nurse should also realize that hospitals have one thing over her, i.e. protocols for suicide risks. Once signs appear that something (herself or the woods as she claims) is hurting the Mia, Olivia probably should have taken her friend to the professionals. But I figure pride and overconfidence clouded her judgement.

As in the first film, they find the book and someone (Olivia’s boyfriend Eric) reads the scratched out incantations. The backstory is that Mia's mother, now dead, was a witch and had tried to remove the threat as best she could. Mia escapes into the woods and is raped by the evil. She becomes possessed, eventually nearly scalding herself to death. When her friends try to take her to the hospital finally they find the road washed out by the storm.

The book in this movie lacks a discernible face but remains inked in blood and bound in human flesh. It also depicts many horrible acts of self-mutilation, several of which the possess end up performing on themselves. In terms of horror this works well.

This version of the Deadites are disturbing in their puppet like behavior. They spend less time mocking and more time just being scary. It makes less sense in the world (we never discover if the possessed sense what their bodies are doing) but works for us the audience.

Adding to the self-mutilation theme is the loss of not one but two hands. Natalie, David's girlfriend, tries to cut out the evil with an electric knife (it doesn’t work) and Mia loses a hand in the final fight.

Which involves the other surprise.

Mia is saved. David manages to purify Mia by burying her alive. After cleansing the area, he digs her up and revives her. Unfortunately he missed Eric’s corpse and the book manages to complete its ritual.

The movie does have its share of weak points. Natalie is given little characterization. A plot hole is revealed when the characters somehow fail to smell the rotting animal corpses in the basement. David gives Mia a ring of rowan to strengthen will which never goes anywhere.

Worst however is the final monster. It is basically just a human being. Mia might get banged up in the end but it is hard to see how the evil would threaten the larger world.

Still of the three, Evil Dead (2013) is the scariest film and its Deadites are the best of the movie series.

Play By Post, Part III: What Will I Do?

For my last installment on Play by Post gaming, I’m documenting what I intend to do for my Demon: the Descent game.

Play By Post, Part III: What Will I Do?

First off I’m not using forum posting and instead relying on emails and text chats. My reasons go back to why my friend’s Vampire game “failed”. Not everyone in my group is a writer. Some are (ranging from a self published to fan fiction writing) but others not so much. I know from personal experience how writing anxiety can cripple my involvement in a game. So I don’t want differing levels of post quality to dissuade the “weaker” writers from contributing. So I’ll write up the permanent record (like I have been) incorporating player contributions as they fit in.

I also intend to use email threads to break up the story into smaller more personal bits. Is that a good idea? Perhaps not but it does allow those bits of the game to be more focused and hopefully faster.

I intend to periodically (perhaps daily) update the group as to how all of the different threads are advancing. Eventually I will weave them all together into the log. This will be handled via the campaign’s Obsidian Portal forums.

As for the rules, I’ll plan to make all the rolls, mostly to make things faster (for example by avoiding the issue of comparing resistance numbers). The players can declare intent and describe how they intend to complete an action and I’ll work out the details to their advantage.

The post content should be descriptive and ideally proactive. I intend to end my posts on pressing (perhaps leading) questions: how do you investigate the owner of the webcams? What do you do as the investigators close in on you?

Edit: I realized my initial posting plan was too ambitious. I’m doing 5 times the work as my players, probably at a higher standard than any of them.

As for post pacing, everyone should plan to post once every three days (i.e. at least twice a week). We’ll use chat’s for busy scenes like combats or important conversations. These will count as a post (perhaps even 2).The benefit of the chats is that we can run them over the day or evening and they won’t impact my commitments on an average day too much.

If people have prolonged breaks away from the game, they need to let me know if it will be more than 3 days so I can plan around them.

Overall our “sessions” or Chapter will run three weeks long with the occasional week-long break for me to do planning for future sessions. At the end of a Chapter, the characters can refresh Aspirations, Conditions, and earn Chapter beats.