Tidbits of the Dead — 30 Days Without an Accident

I’ve decided to take on a shorter, character based form with my The Walking Dead reviews, seeing as that I am blogging in-depth about American Horror Story this season.  Now, it must be said that I am a huge fan of the show, and zombies are my favorite creatures of the horror genre. But, honestly, I almost feel a bit of fatigue from these hungry former humans. It seems that just about every low budget B-movie that comes out chooses flesheaters as their go to villain. They are easy, aim to be queasy, but sometimes come off as cheesy. Thus far The Walking Dead has refrained from that last aspect, but I am afraid of getting tired of these tireless ghouls since they have become the de facto mainstream monster.

Well, on with the specifics. AND SPOILERS!

• Carol — The opening title hasn’t much changed, but I did notice the addition of Melissa McBride to the maincast. As Carol, she has flown under the radar through the entire series, despite being a character with the most growth during the zombie apocalypse. She has transformed from a meek, abused wife, to a grieving mother, to hardened survivor, and now she has taken on the teacher role for the youngins of the prison flock. And a kick-ass knife-wielding teacher at that! I just hope that McBride’s being part of the maincast doesn’t spell the character’s doom.

• Rick — Despite being safe behind prison fences, I doubt I’d ever be comfortable enough to do farm work while wearing headphones. Sure, it drowns out that annoying and incessant moaning, but it also deprives you of one of your main senses in the face of surrounding danger. It was more stupid when that skater boy did it in Land of the Dead, but it doesn’t seem like Rick to let his guard down here. Later the show proves that this isn’t the Ricktator of old. He has changed (yet again) into some sort of pacifistic type. What imbecile would willingly go outside the fences without packing heat? And is the opening scene implying that Rick was the one who buried the pistol? Is his halfhearted change of heart against firearms for the sake of Carl and Judith? Rick might not want to be the leader anymore, but he can’t be a pansy either.

• Carl — Finally a season has come that doesn’t see a noticeable change in the appearance of Chandler Riggs.  This episode shows the viewers a Carl who is less jaded by the evils that he has endured (and committed). Rick wants him to still be a kid, and it seems that Carl is steered back onto the path towards innocence. He still wants to do more, but his dad would rather have him safely inside the prison fences rather than wandering around the wilderness with him. Carl even seems to have found some children near his own age, and although one can tell that these tweens & teens have been through some hell themselves, none of them seem to be on the path of budding (Shane-like) psychopath that Carl was on at the end of last season.

• Darryl — The MVP of the end of the world led the troops into a big box warehouse store and that unfortunately brought about the demise of a newbie redshirt Zack. Darryl had some flirtatious moments with Carol, but the show has yet to depict anything concrete about their relationship (or lack thereof). Darryl remains one of the most likeable characters because he can remain caring while shooting arrows through skulls. Like Carol, Darryl’s character has progressed a great deal since this start of The Walking Dead, but instead of becoming harder (a rather easy to do given all that he’s been through — particularly Merle’s abandonment & later his death, Sophia’s death & his wasted energy in searching for her, and being shot by Andrea) Darryl has softened up. He is still the take no shit badass of the group, but he also seems to be one of the most trusting and most well-adjusted psychologically.

• Glen & Maggie — I have mixed feelings about having a baby in the situation that these people are in. Lori paid the ultimate price of trying to repopulate the Earth. Rick is proving that being a father and being a valuable and productive fighter for the group may be a mutually exclusive ideal. Hell, if Glen weren’t wearing the prison riot gear out on his run, he wouldn’t have even learned whether or not Maggie was pregnant. If I were in this situation, I’d want to sit tight. Get a year or two in the prison, and a few harvests in, before trying for a family.

• Beth — cold as ice. Unlike Darryl, I think that Beth is a character whose pysche has been profoundly warped by living in a zombie world. She no longer seems capable of grieving like a normal person. I was originally a little jealous for Carl to see Beth smooching Zack, but if anything now I am weary for Carl should they hook up. Beth doesn’t have a strong attachment to the group, or to anything really. All she does is count the days since tragedies (I wonder what happened 30 days prior).

• Hershel — There wasn’t much from the old farmer and the show’s moral compass in this episode. He is walking around pretty well on a new prosthetic leg, but I’m glad the director also decided to show the viewers his stump. Hershel still remains one of the most valuable members of the group (with his knowledge of animal husbandry and crops), but the addition of Bob the combat medic means that Hershel no longer the go-to doctor of the prison. Given the limp, I’d say he is on the chopping block for this season.

• Tyreese & Sasha — These two pull their weight and have integrated into the inner counsel of the prison group. Tyreese still hasn’t found a good fit for what to do in the prison though, as he doesn’t enjoy going on runs, and he also has a disdain for killing walkers at the gates. However, he does seem to have found love in a new blood-spattered cutie. Sasha on the other hand still seems underdeveloped. I hope she gets some characterization beyond being a better shot than and the teasing boss of Tyreese.

• Michonne — She is a woman on a warpath. The best fighter of the group, although visibly distracted by her consuming desire to find the Governor. Michonne is still an enigma and as tight-lipped as ever, but the writers managed a bit of levity with her braining the Frankenstein Monster cutout in the store. I’m sure there will be a Michonne heavy episode this season, possibly finding the Governor, but we will have to wait for that.

• The Rest — Here is my problem with the show: the background extras always rotate too much. There were some characters that popped up in the Atlanta camp and in Woodbury that were never seen again. I have the feeling that some of these people are in a similarly precarious situation, much to this viewer’s chagrin. If they are casting extras, I say keep and reuse the same ones. Where were the old people seen in season 3’s finale? Where were the other young children?

  Bob the alcoholic combat medic is the only newbie that I see lasting long term. One reason is that he is being portrayed by awesome The Wire veteran Larry Gilliard Jr. The second reason is that the show will balance out the quick turn around of purging black characters from the cast. Finally, he is an alcoholic combat medic. Imagine the hilarity that would ensure if a drunk guy tries treating zombie bites!

  In addition to Bob, there are Tyreese’s hottie girlfriend, Zack who already got eaten, a bald bearded guy, and some unnamed youngins, including a Harry Potter clone whose next episode will (probably) be his last. Obviously these are cannon fodder for the show, but I did like that both Zack and Carl’s new best friend got a good amount of screen time.

  Also, there was the crazy Irish woman wandering around the woods. She was Rick’s sidestory for the episode, and I was underwhelmed. I thought it a bit unbelievable that someone like that would survive for that long. If her husband is zombified, and she is already suicidal, then there should be no reason for her to go on a stroll through the Georgia countryside. She was in the story for Rick to be reminded of his responsibilities to the group, not to show an accurate portrayal of a foreign tourist gone made in the United States of Zombieland.

• The Governor — Conspicuous by his absence. Perhaps he is in Macon, or perhaps he is bidding his time to strike the prison again . . .

• The Zombies — It’s raining dead, hallelujah it’s raining dead! The bit with the helicopter and the walkers falling through the ceiling was awesome. That dude dangling from his intestines was a sight to see, but I think that my zombie of the week is bloody eyes at the prison gates.

  

Well, that actually turned out to be not quite so short afterall. I just couldn’t help myself. That familiar scent of rot and decay along with a seasonal chill in the October air, proves that it’s a good time to be a horror fan.

American Horror Story: Coven — Bitchcraft

The Beat-by-Beat

American Horror Story is back with an all new season — Coven. And if you couldn’t guess from the subtitle, this story is all about witches. ‘Bitchcraft’ (the episode name tells me these ladies be sassy!) opens in New Orleans in 1834. Kathy Bates is Madam Delphine LaLaurie, the sadistic mistress of a large mansion who hosts opulent parties in the front rooms, while up in the attic hides away tortured slaves shackled to the walls or stuck in cages too small for human bodies. And those are the lucky ones who haven’t been flayed alive. LaLaurie has three daughters, one of which is openly defiant and brazen in her sexuality. The madam takes her kin in stride though, as she is all too concerned with keeping her girlish looks by painting on a red concoction of blood and pancreatic secretions (all in the name of beauty). When LaLaurie’s youngest is caught cavorting with a black freedman, she has the man taken up to the attic of horrors and mounted with the head head of a bull!

Cut to present day. Young Zoe Benson, played by Taissa Farmiga (missing from last season’s Asylum series, but present in AHS’s first, Murder House), is having her very first sexual tryst with a boyfriend. This first lesson of carnal knowledge also comes with the revelation that she is not a regular teenage girl. Things do not end well for her partner, as Zoe discovers that she has the power to suck the life out of men.

Zoe, obviously distraught over this turn of events, is informed by her mother that she is indeed a witch, despite the genetic trait having skipped a generation or two. Consequently, she is sent away to a boarding school (a regular Hogwarts) in New Orleans. Miss Robichaux’s Academy for Exceptional Young Ladies is run by Cordelia Foxx (AHS alum Sarah Paulson) and hosts a coven of three other witches in training: Madison Montgomery (Emma Roberts), a Lindsey Lohan-esque party-girl actress with the power of telekinesis; Queenie (Gabourey Sidibe) a human voodoo doll who can inflict pain on others by physically harming herself; and Nan (Jamie Brewer, another AHS season 1 returnee), a clairvoyant.

The coven is rounded out by Fiona Goode (played by the fabulous Jessica Lange). Fiona is the “Supreme” of this witch generation, meaning that she is the most powerful (and likely also most ambitious) witch walking the Earth. Her powers are tantamount to those of all the other witches combined. She can levitate, do Jedi-mind tricks, toss people aside with a mere flick of the wrist, and steal the life-force away from a man with a single kiss. This last power seems to be waning however, and Fiona is depicted as being on a quest for youth. Following a failed injection of vitality serum, she soulsucks the scientist who developed it, and then decides to drop back in on her estranged daughter Cordelia and the school’s bevy of neophytes.

The night before Fiona’s return is a deadly and eventful one, when Zoe accompanies Madison to a frat house party. There, Zoe meets Kyle (AHS stalwart Evan Peters), the mature fratboy of the group (who doesn’t mind being reduced to a stereotype). While the characters of Peters and Farmiga were fated to love each other for eternity in AHS: Murder House, this pair hardly has a chance to get their relationship started, as a drugged Madison is being raped upstairs by Kyle’s frat brothers. Kyle puts the kibosh on that and tries to talk some reason into his fraternal brethren, but only gets knocked out for his trouble. Zoe and the now conscious Madison follow the fratboys out to their bus, where Madison uses her power to get revenge by toppling over the bus and setting it ablaze.

The next day, in a powerplay that is sure to continue throughout the season, Fiona defies Cordelia’s wishes and takes the students on a tour of historic haunted New Orleans. First stop: the LaLaurie Mansion! It is here that Fiona realizes that her aims coincide Madam LaLaurie’s, who had been poisoned and presumed dead, but whose body was never found. Fortunately Nan is able to locate the body buried near a fountain, and wouldn’t you know it, after Fiona has a few men dig up the chained coffin, out pops a rather befuddled, but altogether alive Madam LaLaurie.

Following the encouragement to embrace their powers by Fiona (rather than Cordelia’s method of self-preservation through hiding) Zoe goes back to the hospital where two of the fratboys had survived the bus crash. She is dismayed to see that Kyle was not one of the survivors, but she is able to extract a bit of vengeance by killing the one who initiated Madison’s gangrape. Sexual promiscuity equalling death is one of the oldest tropes in the horror genre, but never has it been so hamfistingly clear as when it is portrayed by a witch deathfucking a comatose victim.

My Thoughts

This season of American Horror Story has started out in a much more linear fashion than the last season. It is much less schizophrenic, which is a good thing, considering the change of setting. Last season got away with showing a lot of crazy stuff because the main theme was sanity. This season seems like it will stick to a traditionally told (main storyline told chronologically, with some flashbacks to the 1800s).

The initial voiceover with Zoe seemed a bit amateurish at first, but it was much less annoying during the ending of the show. These younger actresses (Taissa Farmiga & Emma Roberts) have quite a bit of work to do to get to the level of a Jessica Lange or Kathy Bates. But being on set and able to perform with such veterans should give them quite the leg up. One of the best aspects of this show (apart from being the best written horror series currently on TV — sorry Walking Dead) is the fantastic acting. Lange can really chew up the set pieces if given the right material, and I thought that Sarah Paulson really shined last season too. The interplay between these two (as well as Bates) should be captivating to see.

I didn’t mention in my beat-by-beat about the short appearances by other American Horror Story alumnae Frances Conroy and Lily Rabe, but they were both good too. Conroy was the one who personally shuttled Zoe to New Orleans, so I assume that she serves as some sort of talent scout for the coven. I’m sure we’ll see her character again in the series, probably in a more limited role like last season. Rabe, unfortunately, played covenless witch Misty Day who was discovered and burned at the stake. Although it looks like she is dead, given that this story is about witchcraft and one of their powers being resurrection, she may return.

Also, Angela Bassett was the witch (voodoo priestess?) who poisoned Bates. Certainly we haven’t seen the last of her!

The fratboys in the deadly bus crash reminded me of the similar scene in Night of the Creeps. I doubt American Horror Story will feature any brain-dwelling alien slugs though (at least not this season anyway). Also the subject of rape and fraternities is all too topical these days given this rapebait email scandal.

Finally, it seems to me that witches are presently having their day in the sun (er, full blood moon night). One of the summer’s biggest horror films was The Conjuring, and this show as well as the surprisingly not terrible Sleepy Hollow TV show prominently feature witches. I’m all for it, and say, let the zombies shamble on into the sunset; this is a witch’s time to shine.

Entering the Void

Hello. I’m Alex.

With trusty axe in hand, I go forth into the void . . .

Join me in my tireless journey of chopping away at the phantasmagorical creatures that haunt the night, be they pulpish and literary, derived of cursed celluloid, or from myriad other realms of grotesque imagination.

What pieces of darkness will we find along the way?