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JACQUELINE PEARCE! Cover by jack elfick
Welcome to the cabin For the love of horror Welcome back to the cabin horror lovers!
We have had another fantastic month, we’ve been talking to some amazing people for this issue and there is no doubt our staff writers are very much at the top of their game yet again! We certainly feel like we are home. So we thank you all for that. So what have we got going on in this issue? We take a look at the upcoming film Thornton Heath. We also take a look at short horror and have a chat with Andrea Dean Van Scoyoc. Stan is back for SAW 3. He’s done so well to get this far. Me and Stan go head to head with Kirsty Vs Angela and Jack has been spending time with Mr Poe. Plus, reviews, interview and more! Thank you all for your ongoing support. We truly hope you like what we are doing. You can reach us via social media or drop us an email at: info@thecabinonthe.net
Enjoy! Cassandra Regan
MEXICO AFTER MIDNIGHT By Christopher Zisi
Ariadna Welter is a stunning Mexican actress, and in 1958's "The Vampire's Coffin," she turns in one of the finest scream-queen performances you will ever see. Directed by Fernando Mendez, this is one of the best international versions of Dracula, tweaked to accommodate Mexican cinema. Complete with foggy graveyards, long dark and shadowy hallways, abandoned and ominous city streets, plus a dramatic and heavy spooky score, this film is a sleeper of vampire classics. In this film, as a nurse, Ms. Welter is an angel in white in much peril from our toothy fiend. As she returns to her career in the theatre, she will finish the movie clad as a jungle goddess who may be doomed to be a vampire bride. Many years ago, Count Lavud unsuccessfully tried to make Marta (Welter) his bride. For his unsuccessful efforts, our suave vampire got a stake in the heart. Some bad decisions lead to Doctor Mendoza (Guillermo Oreo) stealing the coffin from an old cemetery. The grave robber (Yerye Beirute) removes the stake from the fiend, and now Count Lavud has another opportunity to make Marta his betrothed. Doctor Enrique Saldivar (Abel Salazar, who also produced this work) saved Marta the first time, and now he must protect his pretty nurse from the current danger. Dr. Mendoza brought
the vampire back to the hospital to experiment on it, but these types of experiments rarely work out well. Now Count Lavud is determined to have Marta....but it will have to be over Dr. Saldivar's dead (...or drained body). As the body count rises, and Marta is put under the Count's spell, Saldivar can't convince anyone a vampire is loose in his hospital. Valiently Saldivar thwarts the vampire's best efforts, but Lavud is getting stronger and more clever. As Marta reports to the theatre for her return as an actress/dancer, the Count begins to feed on actresses on his way to Marta's jugular. As our damsel debuts as a jungle princess, manhandled by natives on stage, Lavud plots her abduction and his evil marriage ceremony to her. The heroic Saldivar must put his life on the line, not only from Lavud, but from Lavud's evil servant in order to save Marta. The last 15 minutes is a wild ride and will remind you of the action and music in those old Saturday matinee serials. Lots of cliff-hanger type stunts concerning fangs, guillotines, torture devices, death defying fights, spears, and iron maidens are all packed into those last few minutes. As saving Marta from an eternity of vampire wife-dom seems remote, Dr. Salvidar will risk everything to see that doesn't happen. Available on Netflix, see "The Vampire's Coffin," and enjoy the scares and thrills.
Christopher Zisi is a horror writer and poet living in Fredericksburg, Virginia. He recently retired from the FBI where he was a Special Agent for 25 years. During his FBI career, Chris worked drugs and organized crime cases and when he was assigned to Quantico he taught foreign police agencies interrogation and interviewing techniques throughout Asia and South America.
Enjoy his horror blog at zisiemporium.blogspot.com and on Twitter and Instagram at @cjzisi
Interview The Thornton Heath Poltergeist With Nick Cheneler
Based on a true story - Set in London 1972 an average family move into a seemingly normal house located in Thornton Heath, Croydon. But they are soon to discover their house is far from normal, in fact their home accommodates an extremely insidious character named Chatterton who is confused, angry and has been long deceased for decades. There is perhaps something a little more unsettling about films based on real life events. What inspired you about this story to want to turn it into something people could watch? I think that more often than not; people are more afraid of what they cannot see more than the things that they can. The story behind this film really drives into this fear; the fact that this film was based on true events really inspired us to create real characters who would react just like me or you in these situation that are incredibly abnormal and I think it's this that will strike fear into the audience - this is what inspired us to tell this story of the Thornton Heath Poltergeist. If it doesn’t give too much away about the film, what can you tell us about ‘The Thornton Health Poltergeist?’ The film is based on a series of true events that happened in Thornton Heath, Croydon. The film is set in London 1972 where an average family move into a seemingly normal house which was handed down to them in a relatives Will. They soon discover before even properly settling in - that their home is far from normal and accommodates an insidious family called 'The Chattertons'. In your opinion, what is It about unseen entity’s that terrify us as humans? Humans often portray a well-known characteristic of being naturally scared of the unknown so with unseen entities us as humans never know what is going to happen next. We are exposed to their presence which can single-handedly be terrifying. Stereotypically when entities haunt families - the mother of the family is first to showcase her worry not just for herself but for the well-being of her family around her. The Thornton Heath Poltergeist plays on these stereotypes to not only create a realistic effect but to make an audience think before moving into a new home!
Tell us a little bit more about yourselves? There's 3 main guys, working together to produce this content for you! Firstly, I'll start with myself (Nick Cheneler); I am the Executive Director of NC Photography and the main Director and Producer of the film. I have recently finished studying at a Digital Arts Academy based in Birmingham in which I achieved the highest grade. This is the first full length feature film I have made. Secondly we have Sam Andrews. Like me, he has also recently completed his extended diploma at the Digital Arts Academy and is now continuing his study there for another couple of years. Sam is the more creative thinker, he is head of the Script Writing and also assisting in the Directing too. Sam will play a huge part in the Post-Production as he will complete most of the editing. Last but not least we have Zack Phillips - he is the enquiries manager at NC Photography, but also my Personal Assistant. Zack has helped us out with pretty much everything from Script Writing to Researching. Zack's main role in our film so far has been the casting. He has sourced the local talent and guided them through the auditions - leading up to our final cast list. A real asset to our team. You are currently crowdfunding, once the campaign has come to an end, what’s next? It was a friend that suggested we set up a crowdfunding page when I was complaining about not having enough funding to make our film. Reality is, films don't get made with no money. We need equipment, props, costumes, make-up, catering and so much more! Crowdfunding could really open all of our doors and make our film even more effective. Once we have successfully raised money - we will spend as wisely and carefully as possible so that if we have any money left over - we can treat the cast (whom are all volunteering) and then even start a pot ready for our next film. Our Crowdfunder link is: www.crowdfunder.co.uk/thornton-heathpoltergeist I’ve never made a film myself so how long does the whole process take? Forever! To put it simply! We have provisionally set the release date to be 1st January 2017; however, I feel like that would mean we end up rushing so we may postpone the release date. Before you can get stuck in and start producing content, hours and hours of research has to be done on the time era, the location, the characters, clothing, props - not to mention sourcing filming locations. Then you have licencing, legal forms, risk assessments etc. Once all of this is completed, you can create the story, this tends to take a good week or so. One of the most daunting phases is the Script Writing. This takes months! Once some of the script is written, you can start taking applications and casting for the characters. The whole casting process took us about a month. The trick when it comes to the filming is to film and edit straight after as it saves so much time but still can take many months especially with re-filming scenes. The whole process usually tends to take a year or more but we are planning on taking just 7-8 months’ maximum.
How do you plan to distribute the film? We plan to publish the film on YouTube and possibly even Vimeo, the film will be available for anyone to watch free of charge. We also plan to make a few DVD versions of the film which will be purchasable by mainly the cast and friends/family but can be purchased by anyone! We will then share the link on our social media links. You’ve got a short trailer on your Go funding page and it’s so intriguing and beautifully shot. Can we expect this sort of style from the film? No. That is just a slight taster of our capabilities. What you can see from that trailer is nothing compared to the final film. Firstly, because the trailer was filmed on a DSLR and the film is being captured on a Black Magic Cinema camera - but mainly because we want our audience to be surprised by the content we aim to produce. We won't settle for producing a mediocre film - it will be the best we can possibly produce! Are we going to be scared? :D We have a lot of tricks up our sleeves when it comes to this film. From hidden story lines to the editing and music we use. We aim to have our audience baffled by the quality and content we are going to produce - scaring you all is just a bonus to us! As long as you enjoy the film, we consider that our goal :) And as always, what is your favourite horror film? The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It is so realistic and intimate that at times it doesn't even seem like a movie. More like a homemade video. And sometimes the scariest stuff isn't what you see necessarily but how or when you see it. This movie knows exactly how and when to show you what it wants to - which make it as terrifying as possible. The ending is beautiful. People might not describe it that way often but to me the ending is like a human car chase from hell. So picturesque. What are your social media links so we can check you out, keep up to date and more importantly interact if we have any questions? Facebook: www.facebook.com/nickcheneler (NC Photography) Facebook: www.facebook.com/thorntonheathfilm (The Film) Twitter: www.twitter.com/thorntonfilm Instagram: www.instagram.com/thorntonheathfilm Snapchat: ThorntonHeath Crowdfunder: http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/thornton-heath-poltergeist-1 If this sounds like your bag, then keep up with the film via social media. As always we’ll try to keep you guys posted on how the film is coming along. Honestly we can’t wait to see it.
We’ve got
our eye on
The Thornton Health Poltergeist Set in London 1972 an average family move into a seemingly normal house located in Thornton Heath, Croydon. But they are soon to discover their house is far from normal, in fact their home accommodates an extremely insidious character named Chatterton who is confused, angry and has been long deceased for decades.
The Plague Doctor Set in Venice, with dark atmospheres, that will be inspired by stories and legends tied in with the historical figure of the Plague Doctor, a mysterious Venetian Mask, and with Poveglia, an ancient island of the Venetian Lagoon, well known for its gruesome events.
Hunters Lodge A war veteran discovers treachery, murder and ghosts from his past at a remote island lodge funeral.
Poe – Jack’s Way By Jack Elfick
We all know, (especially if you read what I write in these magazines), that Hammer Productions took over the mantle of being the flagship gothic horror supplier from Universal in the late 1950’s. But perhaps, as I venture into my third piece, I should turn away from the anglo-centric horror approach I so often take. So to what, or indeed to whom should I turn to now? While there were plenty of alternatives for gothic cinema appearing all over Europe and the rest of the world, especially in Italy I might add, there was a strong trinity forming over the pond in the U.S, a triple threat of three extraordinary creatives that would make their mark on the world of horror as American international pictures were commissioning a new cycle of gothic pictures. The world had seen just what gothic horror could inspire culturally and financially, and the movie makers of the United States were looking for a way to springboard off the success of Hammer Productions mammoth timeline of successful and low budget box office smashes. The issue initially was source material, the classics that the world knew like Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein weren’t accessible at this time, their screen rights tied up between the estates of the aforementioned writers, Universal Pictures and Hammer Productions. So filmmakers were having to look for new stimuli to fuel a potentially successful series. Luckily, America was blessed with a rich history of gothic literature, the figure head of this would be the basis for this cycle of films and the first member of this idea of a trinity I have in my mind, the incomparable Edgar Allan Poe. The literature of Edgar Allan Poe was a perfect starting point for an American cycle of gothic cinema, being even more so poetic that Poe himself was an American and so the whole series feels personal, and close to its roots. Poe had been very significant in his time, with a collection of inspiring gothic poems, most notably The Raven. His poems were said to be so significant that The Raven was the only poem that Abraham Lincoln had learned off by heart, and apparently would recite it at social occasions. He also penned several iconic short stories that would be the basis of the feature length pictures that were made (The Raven of course being the exception.) So what is it about these films that is so successfully unsettling, that gets under your skin and leaves a lasting imprint on your memory? One motif present in these films that I feel is important is the dream sequence, something director Roger Corman grew fond of as he progressed through the cycle, starting with “The Fall of House of Usher” after audiences reacted so well to it. He described it as dispensing with story and just using the film medium to describe what he wanted to. One of the most significant of these is in one of the best films the cycle, “The Masque of the Red Death.” (1964), based on the Poe story of the same name. It was one of the more genuinely unsettling sequences that saw Hazel Court confined to lying submissively on a sort of sacrificial stone bed, as a tribal man dances around her in a ritualistic manner, approaching her to begin her torture. Roger Corman very deliberately installed distinctly sexual imagery into this sequence, describing it as “Freudian” and containing “phallic images”. Roger Corman said himself of this particular dream. “It had a totally phallic sequence of symbols with the daggers and the knives slashing at her and her screaming as they approached.” It was clear from sequences like this and the meaning placed within them that Corman was less concerned with Hammer’s visceral gore and instead was constructing his own surreal world that held some deeper meaning.
This begins to tie back into the actual production design of the pictures. When you watch them you can’t help but notice a sort of surreal artificialness to them. One may just assume that, given the time these films were made that perhaps it was a sign of the times, and the film fell victim to the double threat of low budget and limited technology of the age. While this is in part true, what Corman did with these limitations along with what he wanted to convey in the first place is very admirable. He deliberately shot everything indoors, to give a contained, claustrophobic and deliberately man made feel, the characters seeming as though they are somehow placed in fabricated dream world. I’m personally not entirely sure if this is because of the budget coming first, which was around thirty to forty thousand dollars, or indeed if this was Corman’s vision beforehand, and it just so happens that this lined up with the finances he was allowed to make the picture. Either way the style is incredibly effective. Many of Poe’s stories revolve around, in one way or another, a sense of overt claustrophobia. Whether it be within a coffin, an old house with a madman, in a sitting room with a raven or indeed in one’s own mind, the sense of entrapment and being closed in is a running vein that runs throughout and being used in the way Corman uses them sometimes can make these films quite hard to watch on a visceral level. While these effective rules that Corman set for himself worked, he grew weary of the resulting pleonasm of drilling home that one theme and broke his own rules, allowing his cast and crew to get out into the countryside in “The Tomb of Ligiea” (1964) to shoot a fox hunting scene. So all this talk of a triple threat and we have only mentioned two, albeit extraordinary men. What is left to add to this creative marriage? We have Poe’s base layer of classic gothic literature, Corman’s shooting style and signature dream sequences and the marriage of the two to create that famous sense of enclosed terror. What is the proverbial icing on the cake? The answer lies, of course, in the incomparable Vincent Price. The final piece in the puzzle, Price brought lashings of his signature style and grace to the pictures, starring in all but one of the films in the cycle. He adds to these pictures in a similar way to how Peter Cushing would add to the Hammer Pictures across the pond, a dash of charm and elegance that grounds hem and allows you to take them seriously, and even as a villainous has enough warmth to hold your attention and keep you watching. So, with all this is mind and armed with all of this information, which of the Poe/Corman films should one watch? The idea of watching al eight can seem like an arduous task, but in total they’re very easy to watch, and their roots in old gothic literature doesn’t somehow mean they’re
obscured by obtuse language. To organise them effectively I will give a brief and hopefully informative summary of each film, to advise you as you venture forth into a viewing marathon: “The Fall of the House of Usher” (1960) – The first in the line, this film really sets the precedent for things to come. Vincent Price of course stars as the main man Roderick Usher, a man with a hypersensitivity illness that means he is confined to dull lights, bland tastes, gentle touches, quiet sounds etc., which is driving him to madness. When he accidentally buries his sister alive his madness reaches a fever pitch and things get spooky in the House of Usher! This film really lends itself to Corman’s idea of things looking artificial. Even the exterior shots of the house are set on a sound stage and you can tell, but rather than being camp or ridiculous it fits in perfectly with the world of the film. This is of course the first time one of the dream sequences is seen, with its nauseating camera trickery and royal blue haze over the lens making it very unsettling and genuinely dream like. This one is not to be missed. “The Pit and the Pendulum (1961) – This film at its base has a remarkably similar premise, a brother going to visit Vincent Price’s character in a large house to enquire as to the mysterious fate of his sister. What’s different here is a switch of location from depressing, gothic middle-America to Spain in the 16th Century. This film is stooped in classic Edgar Allan Poe iconography, and some moments that really were significant in horror cinema. The amazing Barbara Steele appears in these film, truly one of my favourite horror actresses from that period. She had beforehand appeared in the Italian horror classic Black Sunday and this film almost feels like Corman is emulating Mario Bava’s films. When the corpse of Barbara Steele character is given a creepy, shock reveal it haunted audiences. Corman had set out to do something properly frightening here and certainly achieved it. Stephen King has since said of this moment that its “one of the pivotal moments in horror.” That alongside its gruesome torture device, this film is definitely one of my favourites.
“The Premature Burial” (1962) – I have slightly less to say of this chapter in the cycle, and perhaps that is because it lacks Vincent Price. This is the entry in which he does not appear and I actually think the difference it makes is very. This film is an example of Corman branching out, and perhaps an early onset example of him being already frustrated by the guidelines he set for himself. Although he had found success in the last two with American international Pictures, this film goes through Pathe in Paris, and seen as Price was an AIP contacted actor, he could not appear. A redeeming this film features Hazel Court in a more wicked a villainous role than we have seen her before and she carries it marvellously. “Tales of Terror” (1962) – This next feature really is a smorgasbord for Poe AND Vincent Price fans. Corman makes yet another innovation with this film, and decides to move on from pictures centred on one story to what is known as portmanteau, a collection of shorter ones. The delightful thing about this is that we are treated to three different Vincent Price roles in one story, along with the arrival of other excellent cast members,
notably the legendary Peter Lorre and Basil Rathbone. It’s very telling here just what the function of this film is. Cynically it could be read as Corman seeing just what he can do with extending and adding on to shorter source materials, and establishing relationships with Vincent Price and Peter Lorre who act wonderfully alongside each other in this film. So Price and Lorre together and a look at a shorter source material, perhaps a poem instead of a short story next… “The Raven” (1963) – Of course it’s The Raven that would come next, a feature adaptation of one of the great American gothic poems, perhaps the greatest. This film elaborates on the “mythology” of The Raven story, setting out to explain the mysterious events of the poem and the mysterious background of The Raven himself. If you’re looking for a great cast, then one should look no further than this film. This film brings together Vincent Price and Peter Lorre after establishing their excellent working relationship in Tales of Terror, it also features the incredibly significant Boris Karloff who of course brought Frankenstein’s monster to life in the original black and white Universal cycle. Finally it introduces a very young, but nonetheless very talented Jack Nicolson, future multiple Academy Award winner and horror icon himself in “The Shining” in 1980. A veritable who’s who in great actors and an exercise in having a very iconic and rich stimulus and expanding it into something unique. “The Haunted Palace” (1963) – Interestingly as one watches this film, you may find yourself thinking that it doesn’t feel like an Edgar Allan Poe film at all, and in that instinct you would be entirely right. While given a Poe title, this film is in fact not a Poe adaptation at all, instead a film of a story called The Case of Charles Dexter Ward by H.P Lovecraft, rather the OTHER American gothic master. It fits in to the cycle but barely, and the film was retroactively fitted with lines from Poe stories later on so as to make it fit into the series better. The result is a strange Frankenstein’s monster concoction of classic American gothic literature. Another departure this film make sis that it takes itself more seriously. Price was very romanticised by the idea of playing a properly evil villain, and The Haunted Palace allows him to do just that at the almost eponymous Charles Dexter Ward. Full of smoke, blacks, greys and general dour filter on the whole affair, this film is not colourful, but dark and serious in comparison to its predecessors. “The Masque of the Red Death” (1964) – This next film is quite the opposite to this exploration of blacks and greys, one of the very thematic elements being that of colours. Vincent Price plays one of his most villainous roles here as a Prince in Europe that worships Satan and tortures the people of the realm he holds power over, all while running a satanic and bizarre castle away from the peasants. But can he escape the red death, a lethal disease making its way through out the town? This film is very concerned with the occult, showing Tarot cards, rituals, inverted crucifixes, the lot. While there was no outward attempt for it to be the darkest, for me it is, and I find myself genuinely unsettled by some of the imagery. Price’s character has rooms of various colours in his grand house, each used for torture and ritualistic experiment and this concept seemed to grasp me and I find it very creepy. Price is a truly evil character in this film that gets his comeuppance and it may be my favourite of the whole cycle. It seems much grander and high budget that the others when you look at its set, but amusingly Corman simply got lucky here, and used a castle set that was left over from a much more expensive film that was being shot just before it.
“The Tomb of Ligeia” (1964) – This is now the final film in the series and things are very different here. This film FINALLY shows the audiences some proper exterior sequences, with Corman saying he wanted to get the crew out to shoot something real. Perhaps in his artificial, enclosed world that he created had himself become tortured like his characters and thought that it was about time everyone got some fresh air. The atmosphere with this film, I’m led to believe, was quite different to some of the others on the set. The reason for this was that out of all the original crew and talent that had gone before, Price and Corman were the only original two standing, and they were both surrounded by an entirely new team. With classic Poe story elements set on an old and very real ruin of a castle, this film is an interesting and serviceable entry, and a good way to round off the stories.
With Halloween coming up, I really do recommend delving into this iconic and stylish series. It really is a magnificent creative and directorial achievement on Corman’s part. A worthwhile watch and perhaps a nice break from the bombardment of simultaneous Hammer Productions entries.
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Can Stan survive Saw 3… By Stan Williams
So it’s the third month. Time flies when
you’re having fun. I’ll be honest with you, Saw 3 is my least favourite Saw movie. I’ve watched it least and I don’t think the main plot is all that good. That being said some of the traps are good and the subplot that plays in to the overall story is solid. As I said at the end of my previous piece Saw 3’s plot is a lot of traps that are about helping others rather than getting yourself out of the trap. Also the plot revolves around a guy who lost his son in a car accident and angry at the justice system that allowed the perpetrator a lighter sentence. Due to me not having children I think it will be difficult to place myself in his shoes. Just the magnitude of it means that even beginning to say I know how it feels wouldn’t make sense. Also a few of the traps are literally unbeatable but I’m going to go at them as if they are. Anyway with that rather rambling, barely coherent preface let us go now and tackle the traps (I’ve been working on my alliteration) of Saw 3 and see how I fare. Fairly well I do hope but then again who can say, me… That’s like the whole point of the exercise, I can say. The Classroom Trap: The Game: You awake in a classroom; thick chains are protruding from 11 places on your body. The chains were hooked into his lower jaw, shoulders, arms, hands, oblique’s, legs, and Achilles tendons. You have to pull these chains
out or the nail bomb in front of you will explode. This is unbeatable because the door is welded shut so even if you get out of the chains you will die. Plan of action: Arms, hands, legs and oblique’s – doable. It would hurt to the high heavens but I think I could do it. Shoulders would be difficult because it would be going through a lot of skin but I could make it Lower jaw? Nope, nope, nope. You’d be ripping your face in half. Achilles tendons are also a problem as you wouldn’t be able to walk once you’d ripped them out meaning you couldn’t get out of the door. So plan of action is to stand and cry. Maybe just close your eyes and throw your body forward so they all come out at once. That would almost certainly not work. Chance of survival? 2% because never say never but also I could never survive this. The Angel Trap: The Game: You awake suspended above the floor of an abandoned building, in a contraption which consisted of a leather harness, hung from the ceiling by numerous chains, lining her torso with two sets of needles on either side. They are hooked in to your ribs and in front of you is a jar of acid with a key in it. This key unlocks the trap and frees you. Except it doesn’t, this is another unbeatable one. Plan of action: I don’t know how the key doesn’t dissolve. It must be the metal it’s made of but something that dissolves your hand surely must dissolve a key. Any
way I think I could do this one, you just need to go fast and get the key. Once you’ve got the key you just need to put it in the lock and I do that on a daily basis. You do only have 60 seconds which isn’t long but it’s long enough. Fast is the way to go.
the silo and would eventually drown him. In order to save him, you have to find the key to the judge's neck brace which was located inside of a nearby incinerator, along with all of his son's possessions which he needed to activate to get the key.
Chance of survival? 70% because I might drop the key and then I’m screwed and 60 seconds isn’t long.
Plan of action: Like the needle pit this is one that has always stuck in my mind. It’s just so gross. Rotting pig corpses dropped mushed up and drowning you. Awful. As I said above I can’t quite reach the emotional gravity of my part of the trap. In that case I think I could do it. The main issue for me would be getting in the pit to release the guy. There’s not much to say about it. Let them burn and get that guy out of the disgusting pig pit.
Freezer Room: The Game: Chained by her arms in a walk-in freezer, where she was stripped naked and had her body systematically sprayed with freezing water from twelve hoses, linked along two vertical poles on either side of her. A key hangs behind some freezing pipes and you need to get it to release her. The woman witnessed the son be killed and didn’t testify but I’m not taking that in to account. Just the trap mechanics. Plan of action: I’ve never had my tongue stuck to a pole when it’s cold but I have seen people who have and it looks hilarious but pulling your tongue off must be agony. So pressing your face against the cold bars and getting your skin stuck to it must be painful as well, that’s logic? Any way my first plan of action is to look for anything I can use to possibly hook the key. Failing that I guess just grabbing it would work. Chance of survival? Solid 95% and a less than solid 45% for the person actually in the trap. Pig Vat: The Game: A guy is shackled to the bottom of the silo by a metal brace holding his neck. Rotting pig corpses were dropped into the silo with the saw blades and grounded up, leaving the large amount of thick brown liquid remains to pour down a chute into the silo containing the judge, gradually filling
Chance of survival? 99%, that’s how confident I am. A bloody 99% survival rating for both of us. The Rack: The Game: A guy was strapped to a device resembling a crucifix, his head held in place by a rotating lock, while his arms and legs were held in place by spikes through his hands and feet. Each section began rotating around 180 degrees, one by one, taking his arms, legs, and head along with it and breaking his bones. The only way for you to free the guy was to obtain a key that was attached to the trigger of a shotgun, if the key was taken, the shotgun would have gone off and shot you in the arm. Plan of action? This is easier to sympathise with and has some actual danger for me. The rack is pretty gruesome so once I have seen the bones cracking under the first twist then I think I could put up with a shotgun shot to the shoulder, can’t hurt that much, can it? I think you’d could avoid the shotgun blast, I think this because he does it in the movie making this trap pretty moot.
Chance of survival? Let’s give me a 50% chance, I don’t fancy my manoeuvrability that much. As for the guy in the rack 12% because I think having even one of your arms snapped that badly would cause death by shock. The Shotgun Collar: The Game: A collar equipped with five loaded shotgun shells is put onto your neck. Jigsaw, who at this point, is seen in critical condition, lying on a hospital bed, due to the cancer slowly killing him. The hammers behind each shell are clicked back, and the collar is set to respond to Jigsaw's heart rate monitor. If he flat lined, if you move out of range, or if the collar was removed incorrectly, the shells would detonate, killing you instantly. You must perform brain surgery on Jigsaw to help his brain tumour. Plan of action: So I bet you’re thinking, Stan you said you weren’t a surgeon before! I did say that and I meant it but it’s hardly brain surgery is it… oh wait. My plan of action is to go at it with the best I can and die almost instantly. Just carve up that skull and brain. I would have 0 idea what I was doing even if I were given very basic instructions. Chance of survival? 0% not even going
to give me a small chance for luck. There is Jeff’s trap (not really a trap) and Amanda’s trap (not really a trap either) that I have missed out but they aren’t very fun. So that’s Saw 3, my least favourite as I mentioned above. Not a high survival rate. Next time I’m going to take a break from Saw, 3 is quite a lot. Next time I’m going to do a movie called Would you rather? I’ve only seen it once so it’ll take a rewatch. I’m looking forward to it, I hope you are too!
Jack, out and about Jaqueline Pearce
I had the pleasure recently to attend Showmasters’ Film and Comic Con Glasgow, and to my further delight I spoke briefly at a panel with Hammer Horror alumni Jacqueline Pearce. Aside from her fan favourite role in the cult series “Blakes Seven”, Jacqueline starred in Hammers ‘The Reptile’ () and ‘Plague of the Zombies’ When I spoke to her I asked her just to sum up her feeling towards the Hammer Horror experience and being part of that family for two pictures. Her response was, as I imagined, very positive: “I loved them!” she said, “I loved the Hammer horror films, I always wish I’d done more. I thought the Dracula films were very erotic, and thought Christopher Lee was very erotic.” Her face lit up as she recalled her experience with Mr. Lee, going on to exclaim, “Bitten on the neck by Christopher Lee, hello!” She finished off by saying, “We did them in Bray Studios which were very small, and we used the same set for them all which I’m sure you’re aware of.” Thank you Jacqueline for answering my question, and thanks from all here at The Cabin on the Net, and thank you for your contribution to the Hammer Horror timeline, it wouldn’t have been the same without you!
The Haunting of Hill House – Shirley Jackson "No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone." POW and just like that you are reading ‘The haunting of hill house’ and you are sucked into a haunting tale. A haunting tale of possession or a haunting tale of a young woman who losses her mind. Either one is terrifying and brought to life in a horror tale penned so beautifully by Shirley Jackson.
I think there are few if any descriptive passages in the human language that re finer than this; it is the sort of epiphany every writer hopes for: words that somehow transcend words, words which add up to a total greater than the sum of its parts. – Stephen King on The haunting of hill house.
Dr. Montague hopes to find scientific evidence of the existence of the supernatural. He rents Hill House for a summer and invites as his guests several people whom he has chosen because of their past experience with paranormal events. As a horror fan, it might not have escaped you that this book been brought to life on the screen more than once but let’s push away from that for the time being. Shirley Jackson was a talented writer, her voice haunting and solid but for me it’s this one that got to me. It grabbed about my neck and refused to let go even after I had put the book down. Many people have reviewed the book in high regard and it’s not hard to see why. While we don’t always ‘see’ what the character sees or what they don’t, the story is chilling. Released in 1959, it has lost none of its charm. The madness that Eleanor spirals into unravels before us and all we can do is read on in horror and awe and the story reaches it maddening and ugly end. I don’t want to give too much away in case you haven’t read it. You may
have seen the films, both wonderful in their own ways (come on – Lili Taylor as Eleanor is so on point!) but you really must track down the book. It’s more of a slow burning but even more terrifying. In my opinion of course.
“No one lives any nearer than the town. No one else will come any nearer than that.” “In the night,” Mrs. Dudley said. She smiled. “In the dark,” she said, and closed the door behind her. The above is a taken from a speech that Mrs Dudley gives to Theo and Eleanor, not that either one really pays her much attention, they don’t ask why, so wrapped up in their own little bubble. That was a warning If I ever did hear one! And if my memory serves and it normally does, that speech is in both the 1963 and 1999 films. It’s a chilling speech and so simple. It really does give you a glimpse of the power of Shirley’s writing.
It would be rude to leave you without mentioning Shirley’s short ‘The Lottery’ It created enormous controversy, many readers of the New York Times cancelled their subscriptions. The tale was described as violent. Which really begs the question had she hit on something too close to home for people? Written a few years after World War 2, it could almost be described as a statement. How far people can go. People like you and me, how quickly can we cross that line? Despite the back lash that came with the story and the effect it would have on Shirley, surely this was what good story telling was? Getting people to think, to react. You’ll have to read it yourself to make up your own mind on the matter, for me. It’s a classic and so very unsettling. Let us know your thought on Shirley Jackson. Love or hate her? Get in touch. info@thecabinonthenet.com
Horror Shorts Interview With the success of the film ‘Lights out’ we couldn’t help but turn to the world of
short horror after watching the short video that the film is based on or taken inspiration from. Yeah ok we’re a little behind on the awesomeness of short horror films but we’ve twigged, we’ve taken a look and we love what we have seen! I watched the short for ‘Lights out’ and in its short run time I managed to jump twice. Given it runs just over two minuets’ that quite something. It’s not only about the jumps, we’ve been watching quite a few. Some leave you with the OMG factor, others creep you out and others well…where is the full film? In my opinion what really works for short horror is how accessible it is. You can watch them on your lunch break, on the train or bus. They are so easy to digest, much like short horror fiction. Short doesn’t mean they don’t pack a punch and after watching a few films that seem to drone on you wonder why they need a film to be almost two hours long, two minutes is more than enough for this wonderful shorts. Something else that is special about these shorts film, hell and short shows too while we are on the subject is they are more often than not put together by people like you and me. Who love horror and want to share their vision with others. They are independent people, doing their thing and as a horror fan I love to watch the outcome. On a quick side note, even if it’s bad. I cannot help but admire them for what they are doing and putting themselves out there. That’s their baby! Very much like people I always try to find the good in almost most things. That said there is somethings that I just can’t bare and won’t put myself through it. What about web series? We featured one in our last issue called FEAR and again this is a wonderful thing for horror fans. You get small doses of horror in stages. Like you mum watches Emmerdale you get to watch horror! It’s an amazing age we live in. We reached out to talk to Andrea Dean Van Scoyoc who in her day, she was hailed as one of the most unique and twisted female Horror authors of the generation, and blazed her own, independent path through a genre most often dominated by men. Andrea has now turned her skills for the strange, unusual and avant garde, too silent, black and white film making.
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do? I'm an entrepreneur, I guess you could say. I'm multi-faceted, not one to sit back and wait for things to come to me and I have no problem defying rules and people to get where I want to go. A google search brings up quite an impressive resume for yourself, you truly seem to always be on the go. How do you do it? Ah, yes.my past. I'm a retired, bestselling Horror author, and I did it before the advent of Kindle (I was a Borders best-seller) and I did it as a self-published author; something that, a decade and more ago, was deemed impossible. I retired my pen, (so to speak) six years ago and took a few years off. I taught Yoga and Meditation (I'm a certified Yogini) and threw myself into my environmental, animal rights and homeless aid, endeavours. Then, the bug bit me, again. This time around though...I'm having fun. I'm not interested in the rat race fast track I was on in my heyday. I'm much too old and too lazy now. I'm just interested in, as I said, having fun and a lot of it. Tell us a bit about the short films you make? What led you to them? and why do you make them? For me to have been, “a force of nature,� as I was deemed when writing, in the Horror realm, it shocks most people to find out that my love is
Avant-garde and Noir. While my heart will always be horror, my soul will always be Avant. Horror has been done to death. I haven't seen a truly horrifying movie since, JAWS and Tourist Trap. Everything has to be blood, guts and gore or paranormal. That's great...but none of it scares me. I want to be scared. That's the idea behind Horror... something being horrifying. Avant-garde, the macabre and the chilling Noir are untapped areas of film that make the viewer uneasy and that is what I like. I spent many years working tirelessly with production studios to see my best selling and award winning books on the screen and it never happened. In the meantime, a friend of mine who's been involved in filmmaking forever and a day, once suggested I take some of my short works and turn them into Vignettes. Couldn't rustle up any interest in those from any filmmakers, so I sat on the idea for a few years and then, as I've always done, took matters into my own hands. I downloaded video editing software onto my tablet and I've been making films ever since. I still have one short story that I'd give my eye teeth to see made into a film...but for some reason, none of the film studios who've wanted to shoot it, have managed to get it done. Shame too...because it is a zero budget film. Maybe one day I'll be able to shoot it, if no one else can. We believe short films are a great way of watching on the move, why do you think shorts work? I can only speak for myself, so I'll tell you why they work for me. Other's
opinions vary, I'm sure, but from my standpoint, there's nothing worse than sitting through a poorly developed and/or acted full length film. With short films, the torture (if it is) is not long lasting. Ha ha… We also couldn't help but see that you have one but two magazines against your name! What was that like for you creatively? My labours of love...Twisted Dreams and Worlds Within Worlds Beyond. Both retired, both fun while they lasted, but the work was astronomical and I finally had to retire them. They took off, particularly Twisted Dreams, in ways I couldn't have possibly imagined. I started Twisted Dreams due to the lack of real, cutting edge magazines. There were so many mags, back in the day, that claimed they wanted original material, but when it was submitted, it was rejected because it wasn't acceptable in one way or another. You can't ask for original material and then stack your magazine with the same old crap already saturating the market. Twisted Dreams could have been a full time job. I see you've had some exciting news! Would you mind sharing your news? :) I've just had my three films and two Vignettes, accepted into the Indiewise movie festival. I'm so excited. Thanks for letting me share! If anyone would like to find me, please do, on Twitter. I spend more time there, than anywhere and links to my movies, my Internet Zombie review show,
From Zen to Zombies and my music on SoundCloud can be found permanently pinned to my profile. On Twitter I'm @BohemianCelt Thanks so much, for having me. It's been a blast! We couldn’t thank Andrea enough for answering our question, you really should be following her on Twitter. Short horror films are popping up all the time, a quick search on YouTube brings up quite a few nice gems. So more known than others. One that caught our eye was an Italian story called “Answers” by Maurizio Di Nassau. While it is in Italian, it doesn’t take away from the unrest you feel watching it. Also we googled a few words to help us out. So get out there people, discover and design! If you have a vision, go make it and like Andrea says if it turns out to be rubbish you won’t be subjecting people to a whole length film and if it’s good? Well maybe Hollywood will come knocking.
Pandorum The hits just keep on coming with Netflix! Those few stars’ reviews and I’m all over it! I can’t help myself. This time I was caught by the not so bright star light of Pandorum, that being said it’s star rating on IMDB isn’t half bad. So what’s it all about Alfie? Well pull up a chair! Let’s begin. A young man awakes from a sleeping chamber, cryogenic sleep tube thing and he’s confused, he’s dazes and alone. He gets dresses as a good solider does and tries to make a brake for it. He is not of course alone. Entre Dennis Quaid. He is the superior officer here and once he comes to terms with where he is and who he is, memories are a little scrambled due to sleep mode. The game is afoot. It doesn’t take long for Corporal Bower to get out of the little room, guided by the radio voice of Lieutenant Payton (Quaid) and hell if he doesn’t fall right into a dead body. Not overly freaked out, Bower carries on looking around and then oh boy! Does shit go down. Trying to work without too many spoilers here because I want you to go and watch it yourselves and make up your own minds about it but I’ll tread carefully. A few points to make. In 2174, the human population has exceeded the carry capacity of Earth, leading humanity to build a huge interstellar ark named Elysium. Its mission is to send 60,000 people on a 123year trip to establish a colony on an Earth-like planet named Tanis. *Wikipedia Pandorum is space cabin fever. The film is dark, broody and suspenseful. The action is well acted and no trippy camera shots; we get to see an awful lot of what goes down. Also if you think Dennis Quaid is going to be bored stuck in a room by himself you’d be wrong, he does have someone to keep him company. Even if the conversations between them are strained and angry most of the time. The problem is while I say I don’t want to give you spoilers the films gives them anyway. From the off I’m speaking out loud to the ever patience man of the house. Giving a running commentary and bugger me (please don’t) if I didn’t get where it was going every single time. For that reason, it had no shock factor for me. Perhaps I just watch enough films to know what to expect but it was all there for the taking really. I wouldn’t say it takes away from the story necessarily but it did get a little frustration waiting for the characters to catch up.
Of course, you know I’ll love it. Space, monsters, dark passages and tense moments. Hell there was even a moment in the film I felt rather devastated for one poor soul. It’s main issue for me and I’ll share it with you but it is a spoiler but no names so you get your chance to watch without knowing. One characters goes to kill a child monster; he needs to survive this is what needs to be done. He is stopped. It’s only a child. Later in the film he comes across another child monster – could be the same to be fair and he pauses. He looks at the child monster and thinks ‘No, it is only a child’ and what the hell do you think happens to him? The fucker dies! Kill or be killed! That is everything the character knew and had been doing up until this point, the point when the script called for minimal survivors just like every other flipping film. Because the character who has been smart enough this whole time is too dumb to know that a monster is a monster. Ah! It was so frustrating. I’m even angry typing this! So yes while I did very much enjoy the film on a whole, it’s not one I’m raving about. I cannot deny the sets, the makeup and the combat was all very much on point and to my liking. The feel of the scenes, the tense moments of bloody run! I watched it all, I enjoyed it but it’s not up there with the others that have gone before it and the man fell asleep whilst watching so it won’t hold everyone’s attention. Not a bad film in the slightest, great concept with some wonderful actors and no doubt a dedicated team on set. Just a few too many clichés for my liking and a dash too much predictability.
Pandorum 2009, Directed by Christian Alvart. Written by Travis Milloy. Starring: Dennis Quaid, Ben Foster, Cam Gigandet, Antje Traue, Cung Le, Eddie Rouse.
Predator When we’ve had a bad day and we need cheering up there is always one film that we turn too. Predator. We can’t help it! Watching people get picked off one by one and the ultimate show down. What is not too love really? Not only does the film boast a wicked story, the acting is full of macho men with amazing quips and one liners and a real feeling of brotherhood. We have two loves In this film, the Predator itself and Mac played by Bill Duke. That is not a slight on any of the other actor at all but it’s Mac that makes it. So in case you’ve been living under a stone since it was released in 1987 what is it about? A group of highly skilled and trained agents must locate an official hostage being held in some remote jungle. An old CIA friend request this of Dutch < that’s Arnie, if you didn’t know. Well of course it all goes to shit when the hunters become the hunted and things are not what they seem with the mission after all. The jungle location, the spot on effects of the Predator along with how it sees are in my opinion are fucking flawless, 1987! That’s mind blowing. The location is very much a character, it’s ever changing, it’s hiding something and it becomes a nightmare and Dutch’s saving force. Location is key here. The film was shot in Mexico. Now not only has this film got a lot going on and going for it, the stories
on set are interesting to read, this was no comfortable film to shoot especially for Kevin Peter Hall who played the Alien predator, all 7ft 3in of him. He couldn’t see out of the costume and had to do a lot of run throughs without the costume first and then remember where he was going. I think that is fucking impressive and so mean that, no one thought let’s make sure the actor inside can see. He did an amazing job, imagine what he would have been like if he could have seen? I either read somewhere once or heard that a body guard was on set to make sure Sonny Landham who plays Billy didn’t hurt anyone. Actually I think it said it was in his contract that he had to have him there. I don’t know who true this is but it sounds flipping awesome if that’s true but in all fairness, take a look at the cast do they look like the need protecting? Back to the film, we’ve wondered off. There is no shying away from the brutal deaths and the effects on this film. Bodies hanging from trees having been skinned. Having your head ripped off, bringing with it your spin. Yikes! The Alien is a cold blooded hunter. He loves his trophies and he is here to collect. Skulls ok, he collects the skulls. He polish’s them very nicely though. Where has he come from? Who knows! Who cares, this film is all about survival, forget your origin story we don’t need it we need to run, we need to survive.
I can’t write about this film without sharing with you some of the best quotes from the film. They film is more than one liners but hell it’s an action/sci-fi/horror 80’s film!!! It’s gonna have them so let’s enjoy for a moment:
Sergeant Mac Eliot: You're ghostin' us, motherfucker. I don't care who you are back in the world, you give away our position one more time, I'll bleed ya, real quiet. Leave ya here. Got that? (This is the best line in the whole film by the way. I will often quote this for no reason. Bill has class)
Poncho: You're bleeding, man. You're hit. Blain: I ain't got time to bleed. Poncho: [Confused] Oh... Okay... Poncho: [Poncho shoots a bunch of grenades up to the top of the cliff] You got time to duck?
Dillon: Look, we've been looking for this place for months. My men were in that chopper when it got hit! Hopper's orders were to go in and get my men and he disappeared.
Dutch: He didn't disappear. He was skinned alive! (Oh man there are so many! I could go on! Just watch the film, it’s for the best.) So I touched on but let’s have a better look at the effects for this survival horror film, join me? This information is taken straight from good old Wiki: ‘The invisibility effect was achieved by having someone wearing a bright red suit (because it was the farthest opposite of the green of the jungle and the blue of the sky) the size of the Predator. The red was removed with chroma key techniques, leaving an empty area. The take was then repeated without the actors using a 30% wider lens on the camera. When the two takes were combined optically, the jungle from the second take filled in the empty area. Because the second take was filmed with a wider lens, a vague outline of the alien could be seen with the background scenery bending around its shape.’
I mean come on! That’s genius! Major props due here.
Now I love all of this film from start to finish but for me the best scene is at the start of the film, when they are flying to the jungle in the chopper. The dark red of the inside of the cab and the music that booms in this scene as they all prepare to land in the jungle is just mega and instantly takes me back to childhood when I first saw the film. You can’t forget the little camo of Kevin Peter Hall as
the pilot either. So cheeky of them but oh so good.
While I assume people might not associate this film with horror as it’s high action, I don’t think it can be denied. The slowness of the hunt, the blood deaths, the show down and the alien itself. The pure isolation of it, to me is horror. Don’t be shy! Tell us what you think. If you’ve got something to say, perhaps you should be writing for us?
Directed by John McTiernan Written by Jim Thomas and John Thomas Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger as Major Alan "Dutch" Schaefer Carl Weathers as George Dillon Elpidia Carrillo as Anna Gonsalves Bill Duke as Mac Eliot Richard Chaves as Jorge "Poncho" Ramírez Jesse Ventura as Blain Cooper Sonny Landham as Billy Sole Shane Black as Rick Hawkins R. G. Armstrong as Major General Homer Phillips Kevin Peter Hall as The Predator / helicopter pilot
Kirsty Vs Angela Hellraiser / REC
By Stan Williams and Cassandra Regan
So last month we had Jason Voorhees vs Michael Myers, this month following the same trend we have two female leads going up against each other. Kirsty Cotton protagonist of the classic Hellraiser vs Angela Vidal of the [REC] movie. An interesting head to head because one is from a time of the 80’s final girl and the other from a more modern time period.
So who is it that I’m going to be vying for you ask? Kirsty Cotton, who appears in 3 of the Hellraiser movies, of course! You should know me by now! She starts as the protagonist but by Hellraiser: Hellseeker that term becomes somewhat iffy. The reason that I have chosen her is because she is and isn’t your typical 80’s final girl. She’s badass and she outwits the Cenobites 3 times. So let’s give a brief outline of the Hellraiser movies that Kirsty appears in and point out some key attributes and then we can go through why she is a fantastic female lead and not only beats Angela but also beats a lot of other female leads in horror. I’ll try and keep them brief but I am condensing a movie in to a paragraph cut me some slack.
Hellraiser is the first movie in which Kirsty appears, which makes sense as it is the first one. After moving to England with her dad and Step mother, Julia, but in a home of her own she sees her step mother with a strange man outside her dad’s house. Thinking Julia is cheating on her dad, she decides to follow her and see what’s going on. This shows her loyalty and willingness to do what’s right, a strong character trait. What she finds is not quite what she was expecting, Julia attacks the man and then her uncle Frank, who is skinless, feasts on him for nourishment, gross. Kirsty is chased but she has the foresight to grab the puzzle box, that’s good instincts right there, something that fares well with a protagonist. She escapes but collapses. She awakes in hospital and sees the doctor has the puzzle box. She solves the puzzle box and summons the incredibly cool looking Cenobites. She convinces the Cenobites not too kill her by telling them where Frank is, this is clever and shows some strategy. Frank is wearing her dads skin when they return, Julia is killed and then the Cenobites flay Frank with hooks. The Cenobites turn on Kirsty, traitorous monsters who’d have thought, but she solves the puzzle box and sends them packing, again clever.
Hellraiser 2, this one isn’t as creepy as the first but it delves a lot deeper in to the lore of the Cenobites which I enjoy. In this one Kirsty is in a psychiatric hospital after what happened in Hellraiser, understandably. She tells Dr Channard and his assistant Kyle about the puzzle box and all that happened. Unbeknownst to Kirsty, Dr Channard has been searching for the box his whole life. He summons Julia by getting a patient to commit suicide on the mattress Julia died on, as you can tell he isn’t a great doctor. Everyone, including a girl called Tiffany, is transported to the Cenobites realm. Kyle gets eaten by a resurrected Julia, Channard becomes a Cenobite, Kirsty reminds the Cenobites that they’re human, again a clever move. Kirsty tricks Channard Cenobite by dressing in Julia’s skin which shows she’s tactically savvy and willing to get her hands dirty. Channard is killed. Kirsty and Tiffany, who solves the puzzle box, escape back to earth.
Hellraiser: Hellseeker which is the sixth, yes you read that right, sixth instalment of the Hellraiser movies. Kirsty is supposedly dead from a car crash but her body is missing, her husband Trevor survived and has amnesia. After Trevor manages to get his life back together, Pinhead reals what really happened. Trevor cheated multiple times on Kirsty and then planned, with a friend, to use the puzzle box to kill Kirsty. Kirsty found out about this and proposed to give Pinhead 5 souls in place of her 1. Kirsty killed three of Trevor’s mistresses and his friend and then kills Trevor by shooting him in the head whilst they were driving which caused the aforementioned crash, Trevor has been in the Cenobite realm the whole time! Kirsty escapes all conviction as she has framed Trevor. This girl is badass and in having fought these monsters so many times has become a monster herself. She doesn’t take any shit.
So what have we learned from the above except that my movie summarising skills could take a bit of work? Well, Kirsty starts out as a bit of a victim but as she progresses she becomes a huge badass. Not only that but she is resourceful,
tactical, a bit manipulative and she isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty. Granted we have several movies to see her growth with her as opposed to a lot of other horror final girls who only get the one. At the end of the day though she has survived a hell of a lot, get it because the Cenobite realm is similar to hell. Sometimes I’m wasted on you guys, I’m funny dammit! Get it because the Cenobite realm is like being damned. This could go on for days. Get it… just kidding. The typical final girl is almost certainly will be a virgin, remain fully clothed, avoid Death by Sex, and probably won't drink alcohol, smoke tobacco or take drugs, either. Finally, she'll probably turn out to be more intelligent and resourceful than the other victims, occasionally even evolving into a type of Action Girl by the movie's end. This fits Kirsty but it’s difficult to call her a final girl because there aren’t really a group for her to be considered this. Especially by the end she is almost a villain and I don’t think she can really be classed as a Final girl. This adds a bit more intrigue and depth to her. I’ll be honest with you I have only seen [REC] once or twice, I did a bit of research though and I don’t think that Angela manages to live, spoiler, up to the powerful female lead as much as Kirsty does. Kirsty was not only a typical 80’s horror protagonist but also grows over the course of the movies. The fact that she stays on for the sequels really helps her when being someone to root for and it’s for that reason I think she wins. So in conclusion, Kirsty Cotton – has beaten the Cenobites, who are by the way, a group of supernatural sadomasochistic murderers, 3 times. She has outsmarted them, she has gotten revenge on her cheating and conspiracy to kill husband, she has been resourceful, intelligent and brave. She is essentially all you want from a female lead and that is why, in my humble opinion, the best female lead.
Kirsty Vs Angela I won’t lie, I was a little scared when Stan told me he had chosen Kirsty from Hellraiser to be his lead woman Vs lead woman. I adore the Hellraiser films and I love Kirsty just as much, so I had to think. Who could I pit against Kirsty? I had to think outside the box. To be fair I didn’t need to think too hard. Kirsty is in three films so it only seemed right that my lead also was in three films (not something I have thought mattered – until now it’s on!) That’s right Stan, Angela lives for three films. REC. REC 2 and REC 4 Apocalypse. So what’s going in REC. Well, Angela is a reporter and she is on assignment with a local fire crew when they are called to a building to help a trapped resident who has been reported to be screaming. Once inside the building, hell on earth comes. The residents are infected with a virus and they start to kill everyone who isn’t. Angela and her camera man Pablo carry on filming whist trying to survive and knowing they
have been sealed inside the building. Angela fights back, she tries to help and like anyone in that situation gets a tad hysterical when she thinks she has been bitten. Keeping Pablo close, they head to the penthouse where the history of the virus becomes all too clear. What makes her great is her need to record ‘We have to tape everything, Pablo. For fuck's sake’ she may not be getting out alive but she sure hell is going to film what is going on, just in case we can assume anyone finds it or perhaps she’s just that dedicated to her job but I don’t think so.
Rec 2 carries on from the first film and granted we don’t see Angela till near the end of film and by this point she’s not herself. We follow the SWAT team as they sweep the building and their guns can’t prepare them for the anger of the virus and most of them are wiped out, hell by the end of the second film there is only one survivor, Angela. You might think in REC 2 Angela loses some of her integrity, that she has turned a bit evil but if you think that you’ve not been paying enough attention. Angela is possessed, so we can’t blame her for killing people. It’s not her trying to escape the building. Another point to make, I think is how kick arse and action Angela truly is. You can see this in all the (slightly less in 2) films, level headed, a fighter, curios, scared and she tries to save if she can. In REC 4, she is action personified! Come on! Why else is she wearing a vest top when the action gets going just like the action hero John McClane in all three films? You don’t mess with the vest. Rec 4 takes place on a boat. Angela awakes on a table and is asked if she remembers anything from before. Yet this is no rescue ship, they are up to some shady things. When an infected monkey is let loose during a black out and it infects the ships cook, again hell breaks loose and the crew are quickly infected. Once again Angela must fight for survival. The poor woman cannot catch a break but she ploughs on with all her might. She’s just like you and me caught up in something she did not ask for but god damn is she’ll survive it and she’ll do it with whatever she can. An axe, a gun, a scalpel. A quickness of mind and foot is needed for her to live and she delivers all that. During the credits of REC 4, Angela and Nick are shown in a cab, having made it home.
Watch Angela. See that fight in her eyes, her need to survive. I say hell to the final virgin girl and welcome in a arse kicking woman who does all she can to survive. She’s survives a virus outbreak; she survives being the host to a demon form. We don’t pity her. We are running alongside her; we too wish to escape. Sure, as Stan points out you can’t really call Kirsty a final girl as there is no one to prepare her too but as a last woman standing I would say Angela is a lot more like Ripley than Kirsty is, because let us be honest the final woman crown has to go to Ripley for Alien. I will not pretend that the Cenobites aren’t bloody terrifying, of course they are, are they real enough to touch us? Not really. A real virus outbreak that turns us all to killers? Doable. Much like Kirsty, Angela starts off the films as an innocent. She is going about her life when things take a shitty turn. Pinhead might have such sights to show but Angela has already seen those sights and she wants nothing more to do with them. She grows with each film. I can only imagine having something use you as an incubator would mess with your mind but Angela doesn’t overly show this, perhaps once she is home she might be able to process what has happened to her but during the films she just gets on with it. Survive now, fall apart later. So for me Angela is the best female lead in this round. A woman plucked from her day job into a world of madness, where what’s on the inside wants her dead, those on the outside will kill her given half a chance. She sees her friend die, children turned into monsters. She can literally see the walls closing in around her and she survives. She uses her wit, her stamina and her courage to get her to the final film. The virus calls for no out smarting, Angela knows when to run and when to fight and that is why I say she is the best female lead.
We want to know what you think! It’s time to pick a side. Kirsty or Angela? Both are worthy of such a title but there can be only one.
Interview J S Strange We as always are super excited to talk to people who make horror their life and J S Strange is no exception. We got to know the mind behind the epic Zombie novel ‘Winter Smith – London’s Burning’ J.S. Strange is an author from South Wales. As a child, he was always creating and adapting stories, regularly writing scripts and short stories. At sixteen, he began to write his first serious novel, but scrapped it. At seventeen, the idea for Winter Smith came to him, and he began to write the zombie apocalypse series. Your book 'Winter Smith: London's burning' has some cracking reviews and one does say 'What an achievement for a 21-year-old to have written and published a book that is over 400 pages! That's no mean feat, what kept you going? I've been writing this book since I was seventeen, and I just kept going with it. I wanted to get it done, and as I was writing it I had a feeling that it was a good book, and I had a feeling that it would be good if I just kept going. I'm quite determined, anyway. I don't really give up on things. So I just kept working away at it. What was the hardest part of writing the book for you? and the most enjoyable? The hardest part was probably writing the first three in the series, and then scrapping them and starting again because it didn't feel right. I think I had to find the right characters, who should be there and why.
It was tough finding a way to fit the right things in, and sacrificing those scenes that just weren't needed. The editing side was quite tough, too, because no matter how much I looked, I kept missing spelling mistakes! Thankfully, that's all fixed now. The most enjoyable was creating new characters, developing characters and creating a story in a new world. Did you draw on any of your own experience for the book? Not really, but some of the characters have some traits of my personality. They're misfits, and have been subjected to bullying in the past, which I experienced, too. Winter is like me in some ways, but then Zach is as shy as I was at that age. I think every author puts a part of themselves in at least one character at some point. It makes that character more relatable. For people who have not read your book - Can you give us an idea of what it is about? Winter Smith is a socialite from London, who absolutely hates the life she has to lead. She's subjected to tabloid rumours about whether or not she has a drinking/drug problem, and she is always being ridiculed in the magazines. When the zombie apocalypse comes, Winter loses everything. She has to escape from her hometown of Watford and get to the Thames, where government evacuation boats are leaving. However, as she travels she learns that not everybody is to be trusted, and not everything is quite as it
seems. It's a zombie novel with a twist, and reviewers have commented that it isn't just like every other zombie novel out there. It's quite different. You are current working on book two, how is the process for you now after writing the first? Would you say easier? I'd say harder. Harder because I've had great reviews for the first books, and in those reviews people point out a few negatives that should be explained, so I have to do that, but also keep up the story. The first book is packed full of action sequences, whereas the second one takes a bit of a back seat, so I keep getting worried it isn't good enough! I've gone through draft after draft with this second one, but I'm finally making progress with it now. I'm aiming for a winter release. Can you see what I did there? When did you realize that there would be a book two? I think as I was writing the first, I started realising halfway through that there was more to this story than just the first, and to really explain everything there had to be a series. So even after the draft changes for London's Burning, I knew there would be a second, and a third, and a fourth...
Going back to the reviews of the book, some people have stated that they are the scariest Zombies that they have read in a while. In your opinion why do you think we love Zombies so much? or why do you? I think zombies will always be scary, and I hope that people don't start turning their noses up to them - some people already have. The problem with zombies right now, is if they keep being done, they're soon going to turn into what vampires turned into. Which is a shame, because vampires are equally as scary. I remember reading once that if you wanted to be a horror writer, or to be taken seriously, don't write a zombie book because it is 'too easy', and that annoyed me. I think writing a zombie novel takes talent. You need suspense, you need to create something scary. The premise may be the same - apocalypse, the dead walk again, but as longs it's not clichĂŠ or a rehash of something already done, I see no problem with it. I've grown up with zombies, watching zombie films, and my mum is terrified of them, so I wanted to write my own zombie story but I wanted to change it. I wanted a twist. I didn't want just a generic zombie novel. One thing I notice when I watch zombie films, or TV series, or read zombie books - the characters are usually very underdeveloped, so you don't
care. Or, the writers seem to forget about the zombies and don't really know what to do with them. Then they're just hanging around. So it's making sure that the zombies still have their edge to them, their fear factor, and making sure they don't feel like extras. What advice would you give a budding author? Keep going, keep writing, and keep drafting. If you're a writer, you won't be able to quit and ignore the urge to write. Somehow you also have the time to run a magazine and a production company, what brought this about for you? I love being creative, and I worked for three years for a TV channel editing programmes. I decided to set up my own production company, so I could make my own videos, short films, that sort of thing and become selfemployed. That way I'd be happier, and I would have more time to focus on making something myself. We have to know! What is your favourite horror film? I think my favourite horror film is definitely Scream! It's a film that is very nostalgic for me, but also it's scary because it could actually happen. You know? You don't have shit CGI demons running around on ceilings, and you don't have mythical creatures coming to suck your blood. You have a man ringing you up, breaking into your house and stabbing you to death!
Buy Winter Smith here: http://www.jsstrange.com/
Next issue we will be reviewing Winter Smith. Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t miss it!