I’ve been teasing our podcast for a while now. This is barely seven days’ notice, but we’re making sure that it’s running on all cylinders.
As I’m so fond of saying, spread the word: There will be a special Valentine’s Day podcast. This will be the world premiere of “Sleepless Days,” one of the stories from our second CD. You’ll find a new RSS feed on the website and here in a blog entry for that joyous day.
Music video channels have stolen this bittersweet holiday and turned it into a twisted, maudlin thing. Afterhell is stealing it back. Well, okay, probably not. It was just fun to say. But seriously, folks….
Our cast and some of our supporters have heard rough mixes, but this will be the first time anyone has heard the final mix. On the downside, the story will be slightly abridged. A few minutes have been snipped here and there. To hear the entire story, you need the new CD. Yeah, I had to stick it to ya. But you’ll want to see the cool art design, won’tcha?
Remember: February 14th, St. Valentine’s Day Afterhell podcast. Tell your friends, family, and other tolerant familiars. Don’t bother telling your cats. They don’t listen anyway.
Lastly, I wanted to put in a final word about Showtime’s Masters of Horror series. It’s wrapped up its first run of 13 episodes, which are coming out on DVD in the weeks and months to come. And it’s been renewed for a second season later in the year, if the voices in my head are anything to go by. I’ve posted comments on it here and my personal blog. I thought I’d finish all that with thoughts on the last few eps. I also thought I’d experiment with the lj-cut function, whimsical person that I am.
This is a goofy, surprisingly mature piece of tongue-in-cheek social commentary, courtesy of director Lucky McKee. A scientist tries to manage the newest acquisition for her collection of living insects and her new stalker girlfriend at the time. Yeah, she has a girlfriend. And it’s done with a remarkable degree of sympathy and maturity. Actresses Angela Bettis and Erin Brown are the heart of the piece. They carry this off-center hybrid of satire, slapstick, and grade-z horror like naturals. Angela Bettis creates a deliberately wonky, courageous and heartfelt character that could’ve turned into a joke. Erin Brown, fomerly soft-porn schlock siren Misty Mundae, holds her own easily, giving us a charming and sympathetic performance. (To think I actually had to research softcore pr0n to get in the loop on this….) It strains credulity here and there, but the skillful juggling of classic horror tropes, cheeky laughs, and modern social issues make this ep special.
“Fair-Haired Child”
Director William Malone, who did the 1999 House on Haunted Hill remake (and which I liked more than I thought I would), offers a stylish, modern-day Gothic tale with blood and psychodrama mixed in. This is a story about innocence and devotion gone horribly wrong. I’ve probably revealed too much of the plot already. Watching the story unfold, peeling its layers back a little at a time, until you get the whole tragic picture is part of the fun. The ending seems a little rushed, but the plot twist and the panache in which it’s delivered makes it worthwhile.
“Pick Me Up”
I’ll put it simply and bluntly. Michael Moriatry’s talents are wasted in this ep. Director Larry Cohen and writer David Schow, two seasoned veterans of the horror genre, should be ashamed. I think they were trying to do an O. Henry kind of serial killer face-off here. And even with the gore and sheer sadism involved, it would’ve worked if they had done it with believable — not even sympathetic, but believable — characters and a less contrived ending. Instead they settle for shrill caricatures of cynical, paranoid urban dwellers and a rip-off ending that would’ve better suited Tales from the Crypt. Michael Moriatry is stuck with this blood-splattered turkey, forced to carry the whole story while playing brilliantly, charmingly against type. But it’s not enough.
“Haeckel’s Tale”
John MacNaughton, the director of Wild Things and Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer. Mick Garris, the creator of the TV series. Clive Barker, one of the true masters of horror, the man who gave us Hellraiser and The Thief of Always. They come together on one project and adapt a story where Clive Barker returns to his erotic horror roots for the first time in many years. It’s creepy, dark, and foreboding…a Gothic, almost Lovecraftian probing into sexual mores. This episode should be reallyreallyreally cool. Right? Dontcha think? Yeah, I thought so too. Then why do I feel so underwhelmed? Was it…because I could see the plot twists from 100 klicks out? Oh yeah, that was it. But Clive Barker doesn’t do boring, predictable stuff. It’s like a good Pauly Shore movie. It can happen, but someone, maybe two someones, maybe the director and the screenwriter, would have go out of their way to turn this story into paint-by-numbers. Until you’re really short on T&A opportunities, skip this ep. Ironically…it’s a horrible way to end a horror series.
Okay, so much for all that. See ya in seven days.