Graphic Novel Review: PINOCCHIO, VAMPIRE SLAYER

Whoever thought that Carlo Collodi’s original story of PINOCCHIO could be so much fun? Collodi’s original story is much darker than Walt Disney’s watered down version hence why Van Jensen & Dusty Higgins’ original graphic novel PINOCCHIO, VAMPIRE SLAYER. Unlike the Disney version the events in this story take place directly after the events in Collodi’s story.

Pinocchio does not become a real boy at the end of the Collodi story and in Higgin’s (who created the story) and Jensen’s story soon after returning to Nasolungo where his father Geppeto is killed by a race of vampires who have arisen in the town. Now, Pinocchio declares it his duty to rid the town of the plague of undead. To aid him are his two companions Master Cherry, a carpenter, and the Blue Fairy and his wooden nose which he uses to dispatch each of the vampires he comes into contact with (when he lies his nose grows and then he breaks it off and uses it as a stake to kill the vampires).

Jensen & Higgins craft a compelling story that’s both funny and romantic (since Pinocchio falls in love) and suspenseful and terrifying. No one is safe in this world and Higgins’ artwork proves this. His dark black & white artwork uses rich blacks in which the vampires hide before striking from the darkness to kill their next victim. Pinocchio is seen in such the same darkness as he is a character who is surrounded by death and is on a mission of vengeance to avenge his father’s death.

Although the story rings of influences from Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, this story is darker because as Pinocchio continues on his journey he also is slowly learning about his true origins and purpose in the world. He did, in fact, come from a piece of magical talking wood. This adds another dimension to the story that by graphic novel’s end will have you wondering when the next adventure will begin. This is a great graphic novel not for just fans of vampires but fans of Collodi’s original vision as it is a great to see where the character has grown.

Graphic Novel Review: WHITEOUT (Vol. 2) – MELT

With the theatrical adaptation of the original WHITEOUT graphic novel comes renewed interest in creators Greg Rucka & Steve Lieber’s (writer and illustrator, respectfully) work and the second adventure of U.S. Marshall Carrie Stetko in the cold death of Antarctica. It this second series Carrie is enjoying a little R&R when she is called back into service to investigate a tragedy at a Russian research facility. Antarctica is a cold place and it is up to Carrie to use her experience to discover what happened before an International incident occurs.

It doesn’t take long before Carrie discovers that the Russian research facility is really an underground depot that houses illegal weapons and nuclear warheads which have been stolen by a group of professional assassins. Now Carrie has to form an unwilling alliance with a Russian official in order to stop the assassins from escaping the Antarctic and sailing the nukes on the black market. Carrie is racing against time and the harsh weather that the Antarctic brings with it and either the assassins or the weather may be the death of her.

Rucka & Lieber craft another compelling story of one of the most interesting U.S. Marshall’s in comic book history. Like the first story, Rucka crafts a story in which Antarctica is the true character and all the other people in the story are just animals finding a way a way to survive in one of the harshest places on the planet. Another great aspect of the story is all the history that Rucka puts in the story that creates not only the place in which the story takes place but the mood and atmosphere which helps ground the story in reality. Lieber’s artwork accentuates this and together the two craft a story that’s just as compelling as the original graphic novel.

Even though the film WHITEOUT was a sparse version of the original graphic novel it allowed these stories to find a wider audience and that’s a great thing.

The Miracle of REMAKES

I for one am not the first to declare his dislike of most of the remakes assaulting our screen now and in the past few years but there is some legitimacy to remaking beloved films of the past for a new generation.

This year has seen the release of a multitude of remakes both big and small from FRIDAY THE 13th, SORORITY ROW, MY BLOODY VALENTINE 3D, IT’S ALIVE, CHILDREN OF THE CORN, THE UNINVITED, and HALLOWEEN II, among many others. Next year will see the release of A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, NIGHT OF THE DEMONS, PIRANHA 3D, THE WOLFMAN, THE CRAZIES, MOTHER’S DAY, and STRAW DOGS, among others. Remakes are here to stay but that doesn’t mean that they will all be bad.

There have been many excellent examples of great remakes that are treasured by horror film enthusiasts such as John Carpenter’s THE THING, David Cronenberg’s THE FLY, Alexandra Aja’s THE HILLS HAVE EYES, and Zack Snider’s DAWN OF THE DEAD, among others, and then there are those remakes which are a travesty to the genre (i.e. PSYCHO, PROM NIGHT, DAY OF THE DEAD, THE HAUNTING, THE INVASION).

When a remake strives to take the theme and spirit of the film that it is remaking and re-imagine it for a modern audience then the film will become a success as long as it doesn’t bastardize what both new and old audiences want from the film itself. Two films that do this to perfection are the remakes of THE FLY and DAWN OF THE DEAD. Cronenberg and Snider took the themes and ideas of the original film and modernized them and made them more relevant to today’s audiences. Cronenberg made a film that was (in the eyes of the audience) a scientific possibility of teleportation but never took the heart of the film away. It always returned to the relationship between its two main characters which is what due in both horror film fans and regular audiences as well. In the case of Snider’s DAWN OF THE DEAD remake it had a harsher road to travel as trying to remake what is considered the best zombie film ever crafted was not an easy task. Snider’s film kept the spirit and theme of the original film while updating the zombies and making it fiercer and more suspenseful. Many thought that making running and fast zombies would be a bad idea but Snider proved that in many ways it was more terrifying. DAWN OF THE DEAD was the highest grossing zombie film until ZOMBIELAND was released.

Two films that got the remake wrong are Gus Van Sant’s PSYCHO and Jan de Bont’s THE HAUNTING. Van Sant wanted to do a shot-for-shot remake of the original Alfred Hitchcock classic but he soon realized upon his film’s release that what was the point? Audiences didn’t want a shot-for-shot remake if they could just go rent Hitchcock’s original. Van Sant would have been better off returning to the original novel for inspiration (ala Carpenter’s THE THING) or gone in a different direction altogether which would have at least been an inspiration. The opposite can be said of de Bont’s debacle THE HAUNTING which took the basic plot and premise of the original film and completely through away the spirit and theme that has made the original THE HAUNTING one of the best haunted house films ever made. Every film has a plot, but not every film has a spirit and something to say which is why both of these films failed.

Remakes continue to go both ways, those that strive to honor and homage the original film (i.e. THE RING and NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD) and those that go in a completely different direction (i.e. THE STEPFORD WIVES and MIRRORS) and some are successful (i.e. THE GRUDGE and HALLOWEEN) while some are completely ignored (i.e. SORORITY ROW and FUNNY GAMES) and there is no end to the cycle (as the many films that I named earlier will attest).

Remakes are something we love and we love to hate and they will never go away. They may disappear for a few years but they will never be gone. Think for a moment about the accomplishments that the remake sub-genre has had. There are countless remakes of Bram Stoker’s DRACULA not to mention Gaston Lereaux’s THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, and Mary Shelly’s FRANKENSTEIN and they are always being addressed for the current generation both good and bad. Let’s all think about this when watching the next remake that Hollywood assaults us with.

The Indie Filmmaking Scene (REPRINTED)

Note: The following is reprinted from it's original post in its entirety.

Last week I was the Program Director for the Blank Stage Shorts Film Festival whose mandate was to promote local Georgia filmmakers.   The event was free for the public as it not only wanted to promote Georgia filmmakers but the venue that the event was taking place at as well (the Artisan Resource Center of Marietta, Georgia).

Watching the many films that had been submitted by local filmmakers I started to see a pattern.  The pattern was that many of the films were from the horror genre or made by filmmakers who mostly do horror films.  I found this fascinating as that many of the actors that I know personally are looking for more “meaty” roles of which are few and far in between in the horror genre.

Ron McLellen, director of JACK O’LANTERN, was on hand to unveil 3 films from Southlan-Films – THE VAIL, DER SOLDAT, and THE SPIDER & THE FLY, whereas as producer & director Dave R. Watkins (director of THE STRAGGLERS) had four – APPARITION POINT, DEAD JUSTICE, DEAD VENGEANCE, and ZOMBIEWEEN.  Sam Drog (director of ZOMBEAK!) had two films with SIXTY SECONDS and BLOOD SCRUB, and director Gary Lynch had CASTING CALL and the non-horror film I WILL HURT YOU.  There were several others but the point is that between the 23 films screened a huge chunk of them were horror.

I’m amazed at how horror has infected the indie scene (but let’s not forget that all other genres were represented as well).  I’ve worked with and spoken with many of the filmmakers behind some of the festival’s films and many of them had the same thing to say – whether low budget or no budget horror films are some of the most fun to make and can be made quickly.  Another good point to mention is that horror films usually have larger than normal casts (the more people to kill the better) and have more action. (and less dialogue – although I’m adding this one in myself).

As an independent producer and director I love making horror films.  They’re fun and entertaining and there is always a lot of fake blood going everywhere.

Now the most important thing to remember about low and no budget horror films is that audiences are the most forgiving in terms of almost all technical aspects of filmmaking with the exception that the film must be entertaining.  The film can have a bad script and bad acting but as long as someone is getting killed in a unique way every ten minutes then you’re not going to completely fail.  It’s almost “good” to be “bad” with a indie horror film whereas with a comedy or drama most audiences are unforgiving in these aspects (it’s all or nothing at all).

Having been a part of three previous film festivals. I’ve seen a lot of bad films but I have to say that as long as there are indie filmmakers out there trying their best to entertain me than I’ll keep watching them (no matter how bad the script or acting may be).

So if there are a few good (or bad) horror shorts out there that you want me to see and review feel free to send them to me.  I’m all EYES.

Kevin L. Powers

PO Box 2684, Forest Park, GA 30298

Sorry I've been away for awhile...

Sorry, I've not written anything in a while but I was on location filming the faith-based film BETWEEN LOVE & A HARD PLACE which took up over three weeks of my time and before that I was doing the Blank Stage Shorts Film Festival and before that I was in production on the Blank Stage production NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY, which means that I've had a very busy schedule as late.  I also now write a weekly article for the on line site CRYPTSHOW.

My schedule has been pretty hectic which means I've not been able to publish as many reviews or blogs as I would have liked but that is all about to change for 2010 as I am putting myself on a schedule to produce one blog entry a week so be on the lookout for many new things to come!

There will also be more pictures and more reviews (which are also published on Associated Content website) and lots of more original content that can only be found on this blog!

Are Writer's Groups Good?

Over the past several months I've joined the Blank Page Writer's Group based out of Marietta, Georgia (and hosted by The Blank Stage).  It is a bi-monthly group in which screenwriters get together to not only discuss their screenplays but to also discuss the business and craft and screenwriting.  In the last couple months the Blank Stage, through the Blank Page Writer's Group, have started to actually produce some of the short films written by some of the group members.

Although I cannot discuss the specific screenplays being written by the members of the group I do want to address that some of the writter's (through the group) are writing their fisrt screenplay while others are old pros at it.  I took my screenplay THE NOCTURNAL inmto the group to try and help me fix some of the problems I was having with the story.  In this regards, the group has helped me tremendously.

The format of the group's take on reading screenplays is that we will read pages from 2 different screenplays each meeting and then address what problems or potential problems the screenplay might have.  Although I am not partial to this format of reading a screenplay (I prefer reading the whole thing in one sitting and then allow the time for discussion),

Regardless, this is a small price to pay in terms of the tremendous support and atmosphere of the group which has helped the group expand and become a very group atmosphere for writers.

The group has helped me see some of the problems in THE NOCTURNAL which is a good thing considering I needed that feedback in order to help the re-write process and hopefully get the screenplay into a better selling (or perhaps filmable) place.

Now all I have to do is get the re-writers done using the notes generated from the writer's group.

IS ZOMBIELAND GOOD?

IS ZOMBIELAND GOOD?


It dawned on me that after I posted my comment about the film ZOMBIELAND I got a lot of backlash, so, a friend of mine (being both the writers that we are) told me that I should post a note about my opinions on the film (although now that I think about it he probably meant it as a joke).

First off, let me just say that I’m probably a bigger fan of the genre then most people as I have made it abundantly clear that I not only watch zombie films but I study them as well and unlike most audience members and friends of mine, I’ve seen zombie films from countries all over the world from New Zealand (BRAINDEAD), Australia (UNDEAD), Japan (JUNK, ONE-CHANBARA), Norway (DEAD SNO), France (OASIS OF THE ZOMBIES), Ireland (BOY EATS GIRL), UK (28 DAYS LATER, SHAUN OF THE DEAD), Italy (ZOMBIE), and countless others, so, suffice it to say that I’ve been exposed to a lot of different cultures and the way in which zombies have been portrayed over the years.

American zombie films have up until recently been relegated to only two types – those of the traditional slow moving variety and those of the fast moving, and with the exception of Georgia A. Romero (writer/director of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD -1968) the slow moving have all but become extinct. Funny zombie movies have always been around (as it wasn’t until Romero’s influential NOTLD that the genre was even taken seriously) with such notable films as MY BOYFRIEND’S BACK, RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD, DEATH BECOMES HER, NIGHT OF THE COMET, FIDO, AMERICAN ZOMBIE, and countless others.

When ZOMBIELAND was announced it was reminiscent to the successful UK film SHAUN OF THE DEAD (which coined the term “zomcom”) even though the filmmakers claimed in numerous interviews (from FANGORIA to RUE MORGUE magazine and beyond) that they were trying not to make a film in which characters throw records at zombies. The trailers for the film are actually a testament to the brilliant marketing plan for the film as it describes a fun and entertaining horror comedy. And the final result is all that and a bag a popcorn…but that’s all that it is.

I applaud the editor and the opening credits team for creating one of the best credit sequences since the one crafted for S7VEN or FIGHT CLUB but the problem is that the trailer was everything in the opening credits. That’s a little disconcerting considering it gives the impression that there will be zombie-madness and mayhem throughout the film. This is not the case.

For the first half of the film the filmmakers do a great job crafting a “road trip” film as we get to meet all the characters. The flashbacks for both the Woody Harrelson and Jessie Eisenberg’s characters do a great job in introducing how they ended up in the place that they are when the film begins but the two female characters’ flashback is nothing more than an incident in which we learn that they are con artists and at which case can take place at any time prior to the US becoming The United States of Zombieland. This is a great disservice to these characters especially when all the other scenes prior already show the audience that these two women are very cunning and smart. What was needed was a scene similar to that given to the other characters which is a flashback in which defines their reaction to the zombie plague.

The second half of the film is where everything falls apart. Most great road movies are all about the journey to the location but in this film when they get there they decide to go to “BM’s” house for rest and relaxation before going to the theme part where zombies have not over run. The concept for the film about of group of people coming together to find a place where zombies have not invaded is a brilliant concept. It’s one explored by Romero himself not only in his DAWN OF THE DEAD and DAY OF THE DEAD films (among others), but neither of those are in the “road trip” style of film (although DAWN starts off that way but spends most of the film at the mall). ZOMBIELAND was born to be a road trip film and while the characters are on the road it is a great film but the emergence of the “BM” characters destroys the momentum of the film to a dead stop (pun intended). The film then becomes a drab character film which doesn’t do much for the main characters other then suggest the fanboy appeal of the filmmakers to “BM.” The scene goes on for far too long and it just drags the movie (which is surprising since the running time is only 80 minutes).

And then for no good reason the two females (who displayed more common sense then the men throughout the rest of the film) go off on their own adventure to find the theme park by themselves in the middle of the night. These two females then persist in turning on every ride and light in the building as if they were ringing a dinner bell for the zombies. This is surprising since this tactic is used not once but twice earlier in the film as a means to “call” the zombies from their hiding place. This all goes contrary to how the females have been envisioned thus far. They go from cunning and smart at the beginning of the film to making every dumb decision a person can make by the end just so that Eisenberg’s character has someone to save at the end of the film and Harrelson has a bunch of zombies to kill.

The ending of the film has many great death scenes but by having his females “de-evolve” by the end of the film it does everyone a great disservice and cheapens the film as a whole by allowing it to become nothing more than a “fun” and “entertaining” film. It’s clear that the filmmakers are fans of the horror and zombie genres with their homage to everything from Romero’s DAWN OF THE DEAD, JACK BROOKS: MONSTER SLAYER (Harrelson makes for a great Jack Brooks), SHAUN OF THE DEAD, and numerous others but what ZOMBIELAND doesn’t have that those films do is a great screenplay with smart characters that are not only fun and entertaining but great films as well. ZOMBIELAND makes no excuses for being simply an entertaining joy ride but let’s face it, it’s neither original nor the best of what the genre has to offer so we shouldn’t look at it like it is.

Many of the people whom I’m talked with about the film do not watch many zombie films nor horror films at all for that matter and many have told me that they wouldn’t have seen it if it wasn’t marketed as a comedy (kudos to the marketing department), so, in their eyes it delivers the goods and let’s face it, the majority of movie goers don’t go to watch “good” movies at the theater, they go to be entertained and if there is one thing ZOMBIELAND does do well it is to entertain despite its many flaws.

Will ZOMBIELAND be a part of my “Best Of” list? – No, it will not as there are plenty of better films out there from all over the world but will I dismiss the film in its entirety? That depends upon how good the next zomcom is which I’m sure is right around the corner (or at least the sequel to this film) and how soon this one evaporates from memory in the meantime.