Month: November 2021

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They're Succeeding

"Please understand, they are safe as long as they are not discovered. That is their primary method of survival. Keep us asleep, keep us selfish, keep us sedated." – THEY LIVE (1988)

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Pumpkinheads

Dead and already rotting; hollow and empty with a hole in your head; a grotesque false grin; completely unnatural; aping and appropriating pagan traditions; forced by someone else to be something you were never intended to be; the light existing independent of you being a pumpkin, and placed inside you actually creates more shadows; irrelevant and unnecessary the overwhelming majority of the time.

When you realize something can be both completely fucking mental and completely fucking accurate at the same time.

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What's Your Opinion of Religion Used in Horror Movies?

Perfect place for it. Makes those movies super-creepy.

Especially considering the fact it's "real" – in the sense that people believe it in the real world, and think it's good, while nobody thinks Michael Myers actually exists.

It's a horror story we're surrounded by, not just something the writers came up with for the film. With menacing symbols, demented rituals, blood-thirsty villains masquerading as benevolent, and a pervasive sense of fear that permeates the world of the faithful.

Not to mention centuries of horrific death, torture and destruction it has already wrought that forms a long, sordid tradition of bloody prequels.

The Dark Lord Yahweh is perhaps the most popular horror story villain of all time. Not very well written, but astonishingly successful nonetheless.

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Apparently the Fans Hated It

I've been an on-and-off fan of American Horror Story since it first debuted back in 2011. In my opinion, some seasons have been great, some meh, and some so resoundingly awful I couldn't get past the first couple episodes (I'm looking at you, 1984.)

Before I get into opining on Double Feature, let me just get my ratings for the previous seasons out of the way:

Good
Season 2: Asylum
Season 5: Hotel

Outstanding
Season 1: Murder House (simply because it was so new and different)
Season 3: Coven (Jessica Lange—and in fact the entire cast—chewed the scenery.)
Season 8: Apocalypse (Ditto from above.)

Meh
Season 4: Freak Show
Season 6: Roanoke (To be honest, I gave up on this one but eventually returned.)

Awful
Season 7: Cult
Season 9: 1984
(In the interest of transparency, I only made it 4 episodes into Season 7, and half that with Season 9; I just couldn't, and in fact 9 almost turned me off of the entire series.)

And that brings us to Season 11: Double Feature.

This year was a different format, cramming separate two stories into a single season. I suffered through the first story, Red Tide, just to get to Death Valley, the long-awaited alien/UFO story that fans have been clamoring for since Asylum.

Red Tide wasn't bad. It became engaging, although I found myself several times wishing they'd just wrap up the story and get to some sort of resolution.

I wouldn't put Area 51—the second half of Double Feature—in the outstanding category, but it was definitely entertaining. Murphy and Falchuck drew upon every bit of UFO legend that's out there, and somehow managed to weave it into a fun little thriller containing Easter eggs at almost every turn. Filming scenes in black and white that happened in the 50s thru the 70s was genius, giving the whole thing a sort of camp It Came From Outer Space vibe. Even the scenes filmed in the present were camp, drawing on even more UFO lore. My biggest complaint, however, was that it came to an abrupt end without any real resolution. Area 51 could've—and should've—been a full-length season in and of itself.

But that's just my opinion, so it probably is worth squat. Apparently everyone else hated the entire season.