Horror shorts are a wonderful thing. No, I’m not talking about those awesome under-roos with Freddy Krueger’s face on the crotch (although using the front hole to give him a weird “tongue” is massive fun); I’m talking about the often beautiful and terrifying short films that are floating around in our beloved genre. What makes these films so special is that a filmmaker is hard pressed to fit in the logic, emotional depth, and (most importantly) chill inducing terror known so well from feature length films into a tiny package of around twenty minutes or less. The time limit alone can either make or break the entire effectiveness of a horror short, which is why they’re so delightful when they manage their time well and so disappointing when they don’t. Making a horror short is by no means an easy task and by far a very unforgiving one if the effect isn’t delivered properly.

Writer/director Randal Plunkett’s (Lord Dunsany) latest short film, Out There, comes in at only 15 minutes and 22 seconds. The film’s story weaves an intricate web of confusion and discovery surrounding its protagonist, Robert (Conor Marren). Robert wakes up in a lonely forest with a flowing wound on his forehead and no recollection of how he got there. To make matters worse, the village he eventually wanders into seems to be completely deserted and left in shambles...I think you know where this is headed. It’s a premise we all know and love from many full length films; but with the duration of little more than a commercial break, does it manage to deliver?

There’s a lot to like about this horror short. Plunkett has crafted a script that fleshes out just enough to provide heapings of intrigue, dashes of clarity, and a wonderfully horrifying ending. There are many horror tropes present in the film that may come across as somewhat cliché initially, but actually serve the film well. When you have a limited time to inject fear and mystery into your audience it’s best to stick with familiar tropes and get those red flags waving. And wave, they do. The moment Robert enters the dilapidated Irish village with seemingly no signs of activity other than an increasingly loud power generator, tiny warning bells will be going off in the viewer’s head. We’ve seen this before and it didn’t end well…certainly it won’t now either. The film is full of these moments. However, some are more effective than others. For instance, the previously mentioned generator left a nice bitter taste in my mouth. I immediately expected doom to show up around every corner for as long as that sound kept ransacking the scene. It was a really nice touch to open the madness with. Unfortunately, there’s a similar moment that in general is fairly creepy but ultimately left me more bewildered than tense. Somewhere nearing the midpoint of the film, Robert happens upon a small cottage of sorts. The rooms are scrawled with bloody messages and what appears to be some Satanic imagery. Spooky stuff to be sure (at least Robert thinks so), but in the context of the rest of the 15 minute film this bit is left rather unexplained and comes across more as a creepy device than a terrifying accent to the rest of the piece. That moment aside, the rest of the playful visual cues and tropes used throughout the film had me smiling and waiting for the next bit in anticipation.

As I said before, in order to deliver a really good horror story in a short amount of time, you have to jam pack it a bit. Which is exactly what Plunkett did with Out There. This is by no means a complaint, either. Somehow Plunkett drafted a script that manages to not only lead you with Robert’s shambling confusion throughout the small Irish town, but also toss you clues about how he got there and what he was doing. How did he do this? With another beloved trope, the ever useful flashback. It’s through these well timed flashbacks that we get a glimpse into the events prior to Robert waking up in the empty forest. These segments are where we get to know Robert’s troubled girlfriend, Jane, who is played by rising Irish starlet, Emma Eliza Regan. Without spoiling the details of these flashbacks, I will say that I found myself a slight bit confused regarding Jane. It seemed to me that Regan’s performance was on the subdued side and it was unclear if this was strictly due to her performance or if the character of Jane was meant to be that way. Both interpretations are plausible, but neither is clearly the answer (without asking, of course). On the one hand Regan’s performance possessed a sort of haunting quality to it as if the character of Jane was deeply troubled by something she did not wish to speak of. On the other hand, there isn’t much mentioned or shown in the film to explain this personality. There’s no mention of depression, secrets, etc. Perhaps this is due to the time limitation, or perhaps it’s due to something else. In any case, I didn’t find myself dwelling too much on the issue and could still enjoy the flashback segments for the purpose they served. The segments provided a clear outline of the events leading up to Robert waking in the forest, and when you have all the pieces to the puzzle you are left with an appropriately disturbing image.

All in all I rather enjoyed Out There. You can sense the filmmaker’s passion for the genre throughout and the film’s narrative has a rather sympathetic protagonist to keep things going. This is always refreshing in the current sea of unsympathetic leading roles in the horror genre. Having a confused and sympathetic guy leading you through a maze of confusion and terror helps you put yourself in the poor guy’s shoes…which eventually becomes a nightmarish thought. However, due to some of the issues mentioned (unexplained bloody symbols, unexplained depression in Jane) perhaps giving this film the full length treatment would be a good thing. It seems as if Plunkett’s ideas somewhat transcend the time limit allotted. The main plot of the film serves well for such a short, but the tiny details could benefit from some further explanation. That said, Plunkett still managed to fill up a relatively short amount of time with a fairly rich story that didn’t feel rushed or heavy-handed. Likewise, the familiar tropes sprinkled with an Irish twinge made for a surprisingly fresh experience in an otherwise known tale.

I’m a sucker for a good horror short, and I honestly thought that Out There was exactly that: a good horror short. There could still be a bit of refinement here and there concerning particular plot elements and performance delivery, but the film’s story is A-grade. I’d also like to quickly point out the rather pleasant camera work in this film. For a short film this one had some rather impressive camera angles and lighting choices. With the feel of a feature-length indie film, Out There serves its purpose well and is certainly a little film for horror fans out there to really sink their teeth into.

 

 

Tags: Blood , British horror, Drama , gore , haunting horror films, Horror , horror genre, independent films, indie horror, short horror films, zombie films, zombie movies, 15mins, Chandler Bullock, Conor Marren, Emma Eliza Regan, Horror shorts, Horror-Fix Review, Irish Horror, Lord Dunsany, Randal Plunkett

I’m writing about an English TV show AGAIN. I’m sorry. I did establish in my last post that I’m an anglophile. So what can I say? I bleedin’ love ‘em Brits! My topic, however, differs dramatically from my previous ones; instead of writing about something that really scared or disturbed me, I’m writing about a quality horror spoof that really made me laugh. It captures all the clichés, tropes and atmosphere of eighties television and horror B-movies succinctly. It’s called Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace.

The show is supposedly an unaired horror TV show called Darkplace that was filmed in the eighties and has now been requested for airing by a television network. Darkplace was written by a horror author called Garth Marenghi, and the episodes are interrupted from time to time by comments from Mr Marenghi, his co-stars and his publisher/producer, Dean Learner. Marenghi and Learner are fictional characters wonderfully portrayed by Matthew Hollness and Richard Ayoade, respectively (these two also wrote the real series, and Richard directed). The show is set in a hospital (Darkplace), where the characters experience a series of supernatural events. In Darkplace the gates of Hell are opened, vengeful Scotsmen arrive in a mist, and Skipper the Eyechild is born.

Now, where to begin? This show parodies the eighties pseudo-dramatic B-movies and TV shows wonderfully. The overall visual style of the eighties shows very prominently as well; the opening credits immediately reminded me of MacGyver on the very first viewing. Bad acting, badly timed action, defective camera-angles, horrible dialogue, shoddy voice editing and nostalgic synth music are all mocked, in my opinion, rather tastefully in this melange of everything that was done badly a couple of decades ago. I just have to give you a taste of the dialogue that serves in itself as spoof:

Dr. Liz Asher: Hi, I've come to apply for the doctor's job. I can assure you my credentials are top-notch, I've just graduated from Harvard College Yale. I aced every semester, and I got an 'A'.

Receptionist: Well that sounds excellent. Our last doctor only just recently died in horrific circumstances. Can you start immediately?

Dr. Liz Asher: Sure, do I have time to go to the toilet?

Receptionist: Not really, I've just paged Dr. Sanchez to come and pick you up.

Dr. Lucien Sanchez: I'm Dr. Sanchez! You're a woman.

Dr. Liz Asher: Yes, I hope that's not a problem.

Dr. Lucien Sanchez: Not at all. There's plenty of skirt on the ward, this is the 20th century after all though some don't like to admit it. Welcome to Darkplace, Liz.

This excerpt is from the first episode. What an ingenious mixture of inaccurate storyline, occupational gender stereotyping, and overall unimaginative lines.

I’m a big fan of parody through exaggerated use of tropes and clichés, and leaving it at that. I’ve been very frustrated with a string of parodies that have emerged from Hollywood in the noughties, especially Scary Movie and its endless successors. The problem with the likes of Scary Movie is that the decent exaggerative gags are demeaned by idiotic jokes about bodily waste and sex, as if to make sure the audience has something to laugh at if they don’t get the actual parody gag. Give the audience a break, have some respect for the viewer. Geez. Therefore watching spoofs that rely on the audience getting the joke is something I cherish lovingly in this world of sub-par spoofs. Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace is exactly that and nothing more; all the humour is derived from magnifying the silliness of television drama and B-movies in the eighties, not adding anything unnecessary to it.

I have to admit that I was genuinely creeped out a couple of times while watching this show. Dr. Liz’s premonition of patient Renwick’s death in the very beginning of the first episode was one of these, and the actual death another. There’s something about really crappy effects and horrible sound effects that manages to give me a proper fright. I’m speculating that this might have something to do with the fact that I was a very small child in the late eighties and early nineties and these crappy effects actually did scare me genuinely when they were broadcast on television. The shoddy voice editing I mentioned earlier is also something that frightens me. The voice not correlating with the picture has interesting connotations with insanity in my head.

Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace creates its parody by using all the audio-visual media that are available in television, in addition to brilliantly bad writing and skilfully depicted bad acting. By incorporating voice editing and camera angles into the humour it takes spoofing to the next level. At least I had never seen the likes of it before, but I’m sure I’ve missed a whole bunch of wonderful parodies, feel free to correct me here. Nevertheless, Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace is an all-around quality parody that doesn’t include one crude joke about genitalia or excrement. All jokes relate to B-movies, eighties television and over-inflated “artistic” egos, which is exactly how is should be. Plus, episode six contains the best eighties music video I’ve ever seen!

“I’m Garth Marenghi. Author. Dreamweaver. Visionary. Plus Actor. You’re about to enter the world of my imagination. You are entering my Darkplace.” - Garth Marenghi -

Tags: British horror, Garth Marenghi, horror spoof, Matthew Holness, Richard Ayoade

Black Mirror is an intriguing piece of English sci-fi in the form of a miniseries. The horror is psychological, stemming from dystopian images of how technology affects our behaviour and brings out the very worst in us and/or our society as a whole. So there will be no ghost worshipping in my post this week, just some thoughts on what impressed me most about this chilling series that really gets under the skin. I’ll be looking at two out of three episodes of the first series, since they were the ones that really moved me.

The first episode is titled The National Anthem and it’s about the Prime Minister having to do a revolting, gut-wrenching (and gut-emptying, for that matter) decision to save a kidnapped member of the Royal Family. The kidnappers post the ransom demand on YouTube, and despite the efforts made by the government, the video spreads like wildfire and soon the entire world is focusing on England. A decision that rests on the shoulders of the PM and has a huge significance on his personal life is suddenly made by the entire world, since the marvels of modern technology have enabled quick exchange of information and opinions online.

I had completely blocked this episode out of my memory after watching it for the first time, because it is honestly, brutally disturbing. I’m not disturbed easily; I love the SAW movies, I only winced a bit at an infamously awful part of The Antichrist (not spoiling it for you), and while I find full-on slasher movies not very interesting, I don’t mind the actual slashing at all. But The National Anthem really got to me. I just love it when a TV show or a movie really gets to me, it happens so rarely! (Should I be worried by that? Am I becoming a soulless monster? Oh well.) The reason why The National Anthem disturbed me so much is because it’s so relatable. It focuses on the reactions of regular (social)media-following citizens and the impact the proceedings have on the personal life of the PM, and that makes the horrendousness of the situation and the overall vomitous nature of the whole thing feel very real to the audience. The pace and emphasis of the storyline is unforgiving to the viewer, forcing them to grasp every disgusting moment of the PM’s torment. There are two shudder-inducing bits where the PM’s wife tries to reach him on his cell and he rejects the call. Trying to imagine how alone they both feel is utterly depressing.

Episode three, The Entire History of You (TEHY), takes place in a future where people have their memories recorded by a brain implant known as the Grain. This episode really pleased me because of one aspect in particular; an aspect I’ve noticed before as well, when comparing blockbuster sci-fi to more modest English productions. The English like to do their sci-fi low-key, sticking to the basics, not dressing it up too much nor indulging in excessive special effects. They, as you say, “keep it real” (I really hate that phrase, I got shivers of nausea while typing it, but it’s the correct phrase to use here). TEHY shows this magnificently; this wondrous invention is introduced, but there are no multinational corporations fighting over it, there’s no alien invasion coming in that decides to use the memory implants to collect intelligence about the human race, there’s not even one shooting match, not to mention a bomb going off. What TEHY shows is the effect of this device on a normal couple, trying to live their normal, conspiracy-free married life.

I’d like to make a quick comparison to In Time, where an invention of similar nature is introduced: medicine allows people to live forever, so time has become the new currency. The story around this invention escalates into exactly the kind of shooting-match-car-explosion type action show that I’m so relieved to avoid in English sci-fi. A rich guy’s daughter half runs away, half gets kidnapped by Justin Timberlake (of all people!) and on the run they come face to face with all the seedy criminal activities and conspiracies against the poor you can imagine. I only managed to watch half of In Time because of just this; I was so bored with all the action and effects and excitement that I stopped caring about the characters. I know, I said “bored with excitement”, bit of an oxymoron, but that’s how I genuinely felt. It was really refreshing to watch THEY, which examines the dystopia of a boring married couple. And it’s not boring at all; it’s again very relatable, like The National Anthem. Let me tell you just how relatable it is.

Think about the following. Even without a Grain it’s very easy to start obsessing about things: how you acted in a situation, what someone else said to you… I know I spend way too much time going over social situations that are somehow unpleasant to remember. Imagine how it would be if you could watch recordings of everything you’ve ever experienced. And that’s exactly where the horror of TEHY emanates from. The horror of obsessing about small gestures and reading too much into them, about something someone said years ago, about things you didn’t really mean shouted during arguments… When you have the option to rewind and watch, even relive everything you or your loved ones have ever said and done, things can get ugly. And in this episode, they really do.

About the second episode, I’d just like to say the following without going into it: it carves an empty hole inside of you, makes you lose all your faith in humanity, and you will be left with the feeling that nothing is ever going to be okay ever again. So effective. So awesome!

Black Mirror has been announced to continue with a second season in 2013. Looking forward to that! It’s always worth it to wait for the gems of English television, since they honestly put quality before quantity. I think I’ve now made it annoyingly clear that I’m a certified Anglophile, so I guess I’ve had my say on Black Mirror.

"This is already a huge national talking point. Isn't this precisely what whoever is behind this is looking for?"

- Black Mirror, episode one -

Tags: British horror, Black Mirror, Charlie Brooker, Dystopia, Science Fiction Horror

So here I am just cruising around the old inter-web watching videos and listening to music. From time to time I like to read forum posts because trolls are the best flametastic entertainment you can get without paying a dime. Up until this point ATB was not on my radar because Sci Fi comes second to horror for me and the British slang/dialog can be hard to follow for the average Yankee. At a pretty popular site which will go unmentioned I took in a war of words that had spilled into nasty arguing and name calling, all over a movie called Attack the Block. It seems some other yanks had a hard time enjoying it due to the British dialog and some UK fans were pretty offended. A twat comment tossed one way and an asshole fired back. So what is the big deal with this damn movie?!?! Off I go full speed to find some trailers and legitimate press in hopes of locating what has caused this all too common virtual war. The trailers did not do much in the way of causing drooling or an obsessive need to seek this movie out. So I decided to add it to Netflix for a viewing whenever the damn service decided to mail out the disc. This flick should have been streaming as well as 90% of the current catalog but that's another fight for another time. So we open with a mugging by a group of teenage thugs who will become the main characters in this film. Overall I found it very hard to empathize with any of these characters and I was a trouble maker as a teen. When your characters come and go so quickly it can be very hard to establish the main character much less any of the others in this gang. Who had the grand idea of waiting till the end to establish the protagonist? I get doing some things to string the viewer along to build the caring and empathy, which is the norm, and did not happen here until almost the credits. If this film had to ride on the merits of character interaction and development, it would have been a sinking ship within the first 15 minutes. Luckily we have some SFX and humor to fill the obvious character void. Ok, so we are mugging this meek mouse of a women and a creature blasts into a car like a missile at 300 miles an hour. We might have something here. Well we might have something, but lets have the kids rob the car before fully investigating the disturbance. Huh? Um ok, lets track said creature down because he scratched the British 50 cent's face. Once we have beat this thing into submission it's time to head to the main drug dealers place and figure out what it is. This whole part kinda bugged me and did nothing more than introduce more characters you will not care about down the road, AKA king dealer and his cronies.At this point you may be thinking man this dude really hated the movie. I beg to differ. The chase scenes were entertaining along with the fight scenes. At more than one point I did feel the camaraderie that movies like Toy Soldiers so happily brought to us back in 1991. The you know we may not be soldiers but we will fight to take back what is ours. In the case of Toy Soldiers it was boarding school and ATB had well ... the block to take back.Nick Frost will always be a very funny man and without him in this film I do feel a lot of humor would have been lost. The whole king drug dealer scene and what not would have seemed stiff and forced just to add the grit to these young boys if not for Mr. Frost and his fat stoner persona. Personally I did not care for the glowing mouth apes that the creatures were portrayed as. I get Sci Fi and enjoy it but really I wish these had been something a little more akin to humans in some form. I am not sure why but I was left saying that more than one time.Overall the movie was worth watching and I did enjoy it for what it was. I wish the world did not assume that the more film festival awards/nominations adorned on the cover the better it will be upon release. Was this a success ,yes. Was it a box office killer up against movies like transformers and the like when it comes to sci fi? No.Did anyone else see this and really like/hate it?Does my review make you want to kick me in the nuts? Regardless of answering yes or no please feel free to leave a comment or death threat. I am a fan of both. originally posted by contributor Christopher Young

Tags: British horror, Attack the Block