Trailer Tuesdays: Deathtrap

With Gerald's Game still on my brain, I was looking for horrors that took place in largely one location for this week's trailer tie-in and came across Ira Levin's Deathtrap from 1982.

You know, based on my childhood exposures of the coverbox, I always assumed this movie was a lot less comedic in tone. And when you consider Levin's other big contributions to horror, it seems downright odd.

Deadly Games.

Soon after the film adaptation of Stephen King's infamous novel Gerald's Game dropped on Netflix, I eagerly queued it up.

A romantic getaway turns deadly when Jessie (Carlo Gugino) is left handcuffed to her bed when her husband dies (Bruce Greenwood) during some kinky role play.

I was pleasantly surprised by how well Gerald's Game turned out. Director Mike Flanagan's interpretation was excellent and I would go so far as to say that it's one of the purest King adaptations out there. It's been donkey's years since I've read the book, but from what I recall everything was left intact, yet nicely condensed to fit a one-hundred minute running time. He even kept in the references to King's other works like Dolores Claiborne and the pervasive Dark Tower in addition to some throwaway lines about Cujo and Bag of Bones that made me chuckle. Though with all these connections, I was puzzled why they relocated the story from Maine to Louisiana.

Most impressive was how effortlessly Flanagan put this onscreen when you take into account that this book was long considered unfilmable. How can film a movie where the main character is nude throughout the whole thing? And more challenging, how can you film a movie where she spends most of it in her own head? Well, the solutions to both were actually pretty simple, it just took a talented problem solver like Flanagan to figure them out. First, don't have her be naked and second, externalize her inner voices into physical form. I thought this worked really well and felt much more organic than the device used in last year's 11/22/63. In that one, the filmmakers expanded a bit player for the protagonist to play off, but by doing so increasingly veered from the subject matter. In Gerald's Game, these tangible manifestations fully visualized the core of the piece.

Carla Gugino as Jessie in Gerald's Game.

Additionally, I really appreciated that there were no important compromises made. Jessie's revelation halfway through the movie was just as uncomfortable to watch as it was to read and though the epilogue may have been creepier on the page, it still needed to be there. I was also taken aback by the cringe-worthy gore at the climax. It really went from zero to sixty in a matter of seconds.

Flanagan aside, I really have to commend Carlo Gugino. I praised the perfect casting when I heard she was attached, but she really delivered here. Both her & Bruce Greenwood were fantastic and brought the characters to life. It had been a while since I'd seen Henry Thomas too – and to be honest I wish it was under less sleazy circumstances. Gerald's Game was really top notch from A to Z.

I think Flanagan has cemented himself as the premiere genre director working today. He has a string of strong indies and has now proved that he can kill it with other people's material. Shit, I might even have to check out his next Netflix project, a miniseries based on The Haunting of Hill House, also starring Gugino (Theodora?!) How can I not at this point?

DKTM 354

Hello all. I hope you are enjoying your Thanksgiving Day weekend (for those us in Canada anyway). This weekend represents the calm before the storm, as my October gets into high gear next week. In the meantime, here are some trailers for things I am very much looking forward to in the coming weeks/months.

The Return of the Creep.

Recently, the trailer for Mark Duplass' follow-up to his found footage gem Creep has come online.

I'm all over this. I loved the understated tension created in the first film. It affected me so much that I actually dressed as Peach Fuzz for Halloween a few years ago. Creep 2 releases on VOD October 24th.

Oh I Like It!

It was a good day when Severin announced they were released (for the first time on DVD) the whacked-out Canuxploitation opus Beyond The Seventh Door. I mean, look at this bonkers trailer.

The amount of time it took me to pre-order this movie after seeing that was infinitesimal and just another reason to look forward to October 31st. You too can order it here.

Netflix Dark.

Coming in December to the Big N is Dark, a German produced sci-fi mystery series.

Described as a cross between Stranger Things and Les Revenants, I was unable to attend the sneak they had at TIFF last month so I am elated that this is getting released here so soon. Dark releases globally on December 1st.

Paperback Memories.

As an addendum to yesterday's post about Grady Hendrix's fabulous new book Paperbacks From Hell, I wanted to go into more detail about why this subject struck such a wonderfully nostalgic cord with me. While it is true I grew up during the head of the VHS boom, I was exposed to covers like the ones in Paperbacks From Hell before I ever stepped foot into a video store. Perhaps they conditioned me for what was to come.

In one of my first Archives posts, I spoke of George Fox's novel Amok and how it stared at me from my father's bookshelf and later the crawlspace of my family home. But there were others. The bizarre cover of John Coyne's The Legacy may be the most resonant image of my early childhood.

While travelling through the cramped aisles of said crawlspace I was always greeted by two other grizzly titles, Michael McDowell's Gilded Needles & Peter Tonkin's Killer.

I do not how this copy of Frank De Felitta's The Entity came into my possession, I can only recall that I had seen the movie version before I knew it was originally a novel.

I didn't start reading actual long-form books until I was in my early teens and the first one was the original release of Stephen King's The Stand. I know right? Go big or go home I suppose. I remember that was after I had already my appetite whet by Night Shift which was given to me at the beginning of an eighteen-hour road trip to Myrtle Beach.

Soon after King came James Herbert. His books were macabre, full of carnage and always, always delivered.

I spent a year working in a book store and passed a good chunk of my shifts reading YA stories from the likes of R.L Stine & Christopher Pike. My favourites were Chain Letter

and The Stepsister. I always wondered why no one ever made a PG-13 horror out of that one.

During my book store tenure, we had a chuckle when it was discovered that one of the lawyers behind the pseudonym of horror writer Michael Slade shared my name.

The first used book (fiction at least) that I ever ordered online was Robert Silverberg's The Book of Skulls. 

I also own several copies of The Silence of the Lambs in paperback, but this one with its die-cut cover is my favourite.

I still may not read as much fiction as I should - comics and books about film tend to dominate my reading material - but that's not to say I don't have a sizable “to read” pile going. It is a stack that is surely set to get a little higher after reading Paperbacks From Hell I can assure you.

Mass Market Nightmares.

Author Grady Hendrix's newest book Paperbacks From Hell hit shelves a few weeks ago. His last two publications Horrorstör and My Best Friend’s Exorcism were terrific and I was eager to see him tackle the world of non-fiction, especially an area as intriguing as this.

When I first heard about this book what struck me immediately was the outstanding concept. It was so simple and not even something I thought I needed until all those crazy-ass covers were paraded in front of me. I suppose it should have been no surprise that Paperbacks From Hell would be of interest to me given the nature of this blog. I may not be the most well read individual, but the similarities between perusing the eighties video store and the seventies fiction bookshelves are not lost on me. But more on that tomorrow.

Right now I’m talking about this tremendous book. Within the first few pages, Hendrix was telling of a novel about Nazi leprechauns (Gestapochauns!) and I was like, this is everything I ever wanted!

Paperbacks From Hell was very well laid out into chapters covering all the genre mainstays, including satanism, haunted houses, creepy kids, killer animals and vampires. Hendrix charts the history of the pulp paperback novel from Ira Levin’s publication of Rosemary's Baby in 1967 through to Thomas Harris’ The Silence of the Lambs – whose subsequent film adaptation came right before the horror market crash of the early nineties. Perhaps most admirable is that it appears that Hendrix actually read the majority of the books in this tome.

There are a list of reasons why I loved this book, but chief among them are two. First, the presentation was wonderful, as I guess it had to be. You can’t have a book about colourful and provocative cover art and not deliver, but Paperbacks From Hell over excels in this department with all manner of the brazen and ridiculous. As Will Errickson points out in the afterword “you may have compiled a lengthy to-read list” and he was absolutely correct. My review notes basically turned into a wish list by the second or third chapter.

Secondly, I really appreciated the recurring mention of British author James Herbert. I’ve prattled on about him here many, many times largely because despite being the most successful horror novelist in the UK, he has never gotten his due across the pond. Within the pages of Paperbacks From Hell, he's treated like the horror giant and pioneer he was.

Considering the amount of absolutely bonkers stories are held within this book, it is amazing to me that more of them weren’t adapted to the screen. Shaun Hutson’s 1982 novel Slugs was adapted by Juan Simón (of Pieces fame), but an even more nutty looking title of his called Spawn was not.

Then again, I suppose I understand. In a film, you are limited to what you can put onscreen whereas imagination has no bounds within the pages of a book. Case in point, take this scenario from J.N. Williamson's Brotherkind;

“Rubin unravels the conspiracy: alien greys have teamed up with the Men in Black, Bigfoot and the Mothman to seed humanity with alien/human babies. P.S., they're not aliens at all, but part of a hidden race that we used to call fairies.”

This is true insanity. And back in the day, readers couldn’t get enough of it.

Paperbacks From Hell was a fantastically brisk read, an even better resource and I fully guarantee that you will have made your own list by the time you reach the last page.

Also of Note.

Now that the Toronto After Dark titles have finally been released, I can also announce that the short film I wrote & produced for my good friend, Darrin Suzuki is also playing this year's fest.

Again, I am ecstatic to have something playing a festival so near and dear to me. I think this will be screening a year almost to the day that we were running around the fields & forests of Clarington, Ontario shooting it. If you happen to be in the GTA on Saturday the 14th at 6pm, come on out to the Scotiabank!

Huffing and Puffing.

This week, Scream Factory released Kevin Greutert's home invasion horror, Jackals on Blu-ray and DVD.

After a family rescues their son Justin (Ben Sullivan) from the clutches of a mysterious cult in order to deprogram him at their summer home, the “Jackals” soon show up and lay siege to the house.

You may be asking yourselves if you need to see another home invasion movie involving antagonists with scary animal masks. The answer is probably not, however I feel like Jackals is a step above the fodder your Netflix algorithms would push on you. The performances were all above board and the production reaped the benefits of having veterans like Deborah Kara Unger, Stephen Dorff and Johnathon Schaech on deck.

Deborah Kara Unger in Jackals

Greutert's execution as a filmmaker was solid, I think it was just that the story did little to elevate it past that. The setup was intriguing, but then a decision was made, likely an attempt to buck expectation, and it made the movie less interesting as a result. There was also a moment later on involving the eldest son Cam (Nick Roux) that held some potential, but then zigged when it should have zagged. I also felt myself wanting to know more about the cult. As Homer once said, “Your ideas are intriguing and I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.” Also, the movie needed more Fox Girl. One hundred per-cent more Fox Girl.

Where do I sign up?

I liked Jackals well enough, but I feel it could have been great if its third had been less unremarkable. The last reel of this movie has been done so many times, I think you really have to bring it if you want to stand out from the crowd. That said, if you're looking for something new to scratch that animal mask home invasion itch, then by all means - join the Jackals.