Listen to them, the children of the night...
Triptykon, "Aurorae"
Cadaveria, "100.000 Faces"
Paradise Lost, "Darker Thoughts"
Thursday, May 28, 2020
Tuesday, May 26, 2020
The Death of the Rose Princess
 |
| Art by Enamorte |
Our online D&D game set in Ravenloft continues.
The Characters
Tekla Vardagen, half-elf warlock
13 Shattered Mirrors, tabaxi warlock/rogue
Tank Orkerson, half-orc fighter
Gnagar the Bloody, kobold monk
Al', drow cleric
As the sun rose over the grounds of Our Lady in the Mists, the party trudged up the hill to the convent buildings proper. They entered the dormitory, which had been partially scorched by fire, and found austere cells and the moldy remains of nuns' habits. Another building proved to be a shrine that held the mummified remains of martyrs of the Church of Ezra, but the shrine had been defiled; the corpses of preserved saints had been toppled from their niches and lay in ruins on the floor. The tombs behind the convent held a reflecting pool that was now clogged with lumpy green fungus; in the lower level of the tombs, they party discovered a secret door that led to an underground complex that connected the tomb to the convent's main building.The Characters
Tekla Vardagen, half-elf warlock
13 Shattered Mirrors, tabaxi warlock/rogue
Tank Orkerson, half-orc fighter
Gnagar the Bloody, kobold monk
Al', drow cleric
The group quickly came to grips with the system of secret doors in these underground chambers. While exploring they found several stone sarcophagi, a mural depicting the founding of the convent, a mural about the faith of Ezra that had been defaced with "fungal art," a toppled statue of Ezra that had been replaced by a statue of a woman made of fungus, a large plant-like pod that was affixed to a stone coffin, and stairs that led up into the main convent building. In the convent, they found a chapel that was still sanctified--a potentially useful sanctuary that could provide them with a place to rest and recuperate, if needed.
But they had not yet found Emilia Drachen, so they returned to the underground chambers and discovered a secret dungeon in which an unconscious, and very pregnant, woman was found shackled to the wall. They unshackled her, but nothing they tried revived her to consciousness. As they attempted to carry her back to the chapel upstairs, the party was confronted by a beautiful and pale woman with pointed incisors. The woman wore a dark gown decorated with roses and tall leather boots--which Tank recognized as responsible for the footprints he had followed while exploring in the tomb. She was accompanied by three fungus-infested nuns. The strange woman told them that she couldn't possible let them escape with her "treasure." She then flew at them with unnatural speed as her fingernails turned to venomous talons.
The combat was fierce, but brief. Gnargar unleashed a flurry of radiant sun bolts, greatly wounding her. Al' called upon his faith to turn undead; the woman transformed into hundreds of fungus-encrusted spiders and fled, leaving the party to deal with her minions. The fleeing woman was tracked back to the seed pod that was discovered earlier, but now it had split open to reveal a pool of luminescent, mucus-like fluid within it. Determining that the pod was a portal of some kind, they swallowed their pride and climbed inside...and found themselves emerging from a similar pod inside the infected watchtower they had declined to enter in their earlier explorations of the grounds.
In the tower, their battle against the woman resumed! The group were horrified to note that the wounds they had inflicted on her previously had healed. However, the gods were on their side; Al' hit her with a particularly well placed spell that tore her apart from inside with divine power. With her death, the fungal infection in the tower began to shrivel and recede until it was nothing more than motes of black dust blowing in the wind. With Emilia now secured, the party loaded her into Bela's vardo and they set off to find a cure, and perhaps a way home, in the house of Leonora Vos.
Sunday, May 24, 2020
Powers of Darkness: Icelandic Dracula
Bram Stoker's iconic creation Dracula has been translated into numerous languages, but as it turns out, some of these translations are more like adaptations. One such adaptation is Iceland's Powers of Darkness (Makt Myrkranna) by Valdimar Ásmundsson, originally published in serialized format in 1900 - 1901 in an Icelandic newspaper. The story introduces new characters, shifts the emphasis of the plot, and focuses on a satanic Euro-conspiracy plot.
How much of Powers of Darkness incorporates Bram Stoker's early draft ideas for Dracula? What if Dracula had a coven of evil ape men living in his basement? Does this Dracula even drink anybody's blood? All these questions and more will be explored on this episode of Bad Books for Bad People.
Thursday, May 21, 2020
The Shudder Files
I took advantage of Shudder's thirty-day trial during the quarantine. Here's the best of what I watched on the service that I hadn't already talked about in April's "best of" post:
Tigers Are Not Afraid
When orphans created by the violence of the cartels in Mexico find themselves in possession of a cell phone containing incriminating evidence against a local politician/gang captain, they're hunted by human traffickers trying to get it back. But one of them might possess three magic wishes and is visited by the ghost of her mother, adding the otherworldly to what would otherwise be a standard tale of crime and degradation.
Knife+Heart
Knife+Heart was a Tenebrous Kate recommendation. (You can hear her talk about it on this episode of Bad Books for Bad People.) It is very much a self-conscious modern giallo; someone is murdering the cast of a gay porn film, and director must delve into the heart of homophobia to unmask the killer...and maybe consider her own place in the appropriation of an orientation not exactly her own.
Prevenge
A woman's unborn child goads her to kill the people responsible for its father's death one-by-one. Part horror, part black comedy, this one works surprisingly well. I usually have a hard time getting into horror comedies, but Prevenge went dark enough with both the laughs and the murders to keep me invested.
Society
Society lives up to its reputation as being unlike anything else you've ever seen. Tonally, it's a bit like David Lynch started making a movie and David Cronenberg finished it. There are a lot of "the wealthy feed off the underclass" horror movies out there, but this one sticks out because of how absolutely insane it is. The end bit will either freak you out or make you groan audibly. Maybe both.
Horror Noire
Horror Noire is a documentary about black involvement and representation in horror films. Although the documentary covers some films I'm familiar with, such as Night of the Living Dead, Blackula, and Candyman, it also delves into territory that was absolutely new and eye-opening to me. It also showcases the perspectives of a wide range of black writers, actors, directors, etc. Absolutely a must-see.
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and Lady Vengeance
I've seen Oldboy a few times, though the last time I watched it was a number of years ago, so it was nice to finally see the rest of the "Vengeance Trilogy." Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance is the most straightforward of the films--though it does pose some questions about which of the characters is "Mr. Vengeance" and if our sympathies lie with him. Lady Vengeance was fantastic; everything about it worked for me.
Ganja & Hess
Ganja & Hess is a film I had not heard of until I watched Horror Noire. It is a black vampire movie, but instead of exploring blaxploitation territory the way Blackula does, it instead pursues art film aesthetics. Although I found it a bit slow in places, the way it handles vampirism as a metaphor for addiction, race relations, and the problematic role of faith in black communities was really interesting.
Season of the Witch
Season of the Witch has a poor reputation among the films in George A. Romero's ouvre. My gut instinct is that this is because it is a movie that deals with women's experiences and isn't really shot in a way that encourages a male perspective on what unfolds in the movie. This is the "unfulfilled housewife" version of something like Fritz Leiber's Conjure Wife.
Cursed Films
This documentary series on "cursed films" that covers The Exorcist, The Omen, Poltergeist, The Crow, and Twilight Zone: The Movie. I like that it shows the people who are really invested in the idea of "cursed movies" to be kooks. (The "exorcist" guy being named "Vincent Bauhaus" felt a little on the nose.) It was also surprisingly emotionally affecting when they interviewed crew members who had to deal with some of the tragedies that happened on those sets.
One Cut of the Dead
For the first half hour of One Cut of the Dead I thought I was watching an example of how derivative the "found footage zombie" genre can be, but after that the movie takes a hard left turn and became something I definitely didn't see coming. Good job, movie, you got me! One Cut of the Dead turns out to be a surprisingly sweet romp; I'd say more, but I don't want to spoil it for you so you can have the same experience I did with it.
When orphans created by the violence of the cartels in Mexico find themselves in possession of a cell phone containing incriminating evidence against a local politician/gang captain, they're hunted by human traffickers trying to get it back. But one of them might possess three magic wishes and is visited by the ghost of her mother, adding the otherworldly to what would otherwise be a standard tale of crime and degradation.
Knife+Heart was a Tenebrous Kate recommendation. (You can hear her talk about it on this episode of Bad Books for Bad People.) It is very much a self-conscious modern giallo; someone is murdering the cast of a gay porn film, and director must delve into the heart of homophobia to unmask the killer...and maybe consider her own place in the appropriation of an orientation not exactly her own.
A woman's unborn child goads her to kill the people responsible for its father's death one-by-one. Part horror, part black comedy, this one works surprisingly well. I usually have a hard time getting into horror comedies, but Prevenge went dark enough with both the laughs and the murders to keep me invested.
Society lives up to its reputation as being unlike anything else you've ever seen. Tonally, it's a bit like David Lynch started making a movie and David Cronenberg finished it. There are a lot of "the wealthy feed off the underclass" horror movies out there, but this one sticks out because of how absolutely insane it is. The end bit will either freak you out or make you groan audibly. Maybe both.
Horror Noire is a documentary about black involvement and representation in horror films. Although the documentary covers some films I'm familiar with, such as Night of the Living Dead, Blackula, and Candyman, it also delves into territory that was absolutely new and eye-opening to me. It also showcases the perspectives of a wide range of black writers, actors, directors, etc. Absolutely a must-see.
I've seen Oldboy a few times, though the last time I watched it was a number of years ago, so it was nice to finally see the rest of the "Vengeance Trilogy." Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance is the most straightforward of the films--though it does pose some questions about which of the characters is "Mr. Vengeance" and if our sympathies lie with him. Lady Vengeance was fantastic; everything about it worked for me.
Ganja & Hess is a film I had not heard of until I watched Horror Noire. It is a black vampire movie, but instead of exploring blaxploitation territory the way Blackula does, it instead pursues art film aesthetics. Although I found it a bit slow in places, the way it handles vampirism as a metaphor for addiction, race relations, and the problematic role of faith in black communities was really interesting.
Season of the Witch has a poor reputation among the films in George A. Romero's ouvre. My gut instinct is that this is because it is a movie that deals with women's experiences and isn't really shot in a way that encourages a male perspective on what unfolds in the movie. This is the "unfulfilled housewife" version of something like Fritz Leiber's Conjure Wife.
This documentary series on "cursed films" that covers The Exorcist, The Omen, Poltergeist, The Crow, and Twilight Zone: The Movie. I like that it shows the people who are really invested in the idea of "cursed movies" to be kooks. (The "exorcist" guy being named "Vincent Bauhaus" felt a little on the nose.) It was also surprisingly emotionally affecting when they interviewed crew members who had to deal with some of the tragedies that happened on those sets.
For the first half hour of One Cut of the Dead I thought I was watching an example of how derivative the "found footage zombie" genre can be, but after that the movie takes a hard left turn and became something I definitely didn't see coming. Good job, movie, you got me! One Cut of the Dead turns out to be a surprisingly sweet romp; I'd say more, but I don't want to spoil it for you so you can have the same experience I did with it.
Thursday, May 14, 2020
Understanding Haunted Houses, Sweltering Southern Gothic, Theory of the New Weird
- Adam O'Fallon Price, Electric Lit
- Emily Hughes, Tor
- Elvia Wilks, Lithub
Monday, May 11, 2020
The Convent of Our Lady in the Mists
Our online D&D game set in Ravenloft continues.
The Characters
Tekla Vardagen, half-elf warlock
13 Shattered Mirrors, tabaxi warlock/rogue
Tank Orkerson, half-orc fighter
Gnagar the Bloody, kobold monk
Al', drow cleric
Events
When we last left our heroes, they were disturbed that there was a group portrait painted by the hand of Donna Pietra Sangino that depicted a party that resembled there own. Afraid that the portrait could be used against them, they endeavored to steal it from the Watersilk Gallery. Unfortunately, almost everything went wrong during their attempted heist. Caught red-handed, they were surrounded and thrown into one of East Riding's many dungeons. Even though Nikolai and Agniezka testified on their behalf at the trial, the group could feel a thumb tipping the scales of justice--Marquis Stezen D'Polarno made a point of attending the trial, and it was likely that he pushed for a guilty verdict behind the scenes. The punishment: death by hanging. On the gallows, nooses were fitted around the necks of our heroes; then, the sudden drop with a short stop. The darkness closed in.
But in Ravenloft, death is not always the end. The party found themselves in a long corridor of black stone; light shown from a door, opened just a crack, at the end of the hallway. The door opened upon a chamber, in which a pale woman with a crown of twisted iron and a cloak of raven feathers awaited them. The group recognized her from the idol they had restored to the Old Bone Church: they had an audience with the Raven Queen.
She explained that they were currently hovering in the liminal space between the Shadowfell and the afterlives that awaited them on the outer planes. She said that their deaths could, for the moment, be avoided by agreeing to become her agents in the world. She was in need of champions to find a prophesied woman who is destined to either give birth to an apocalyptic monster or a savior for the haunted land of Ravenloft. The bargain was sealed; each member of the group drank something suspiciously coppery tasting from a chalice. They awoke, oddly pale and still bearing the marks of the hangman's noose, on a dusty road with a vardo wagon approaching.
As it turned out, the wagon was being driven by their old friend Bela Drachen. Bela had received information about his runaway sister Emilia's whereabouts: she had been taken by an unknown party to a convent. Sensing that Emilia may be the pregnant woman the Raven Queen had sent them to seek, they joined Bela and traveled to the Convent of Out Lady in the Mists, a nunnery perched atop a seaside cliff in Mordent. When they arrived, they discovered that the convent buildings were surrounded by an encircling stone wall in the front and a sheer cliff face behind.
The wall's only gate was guarded by four figures clad in knightly armor, their faces obscured by steel casques. Strange fungal patches also appeared to be growing on their armor. One of the knights told them, in a rasping voice, they would not be admitted inside. They entered via alternate means, scaling the wall out of sight of the knights stationed at the gate. Exploration of the grounds commenced. A tower was found to be empty, save for a coffin filled filled with dark soil and a strange mixture of black, red, and pink roses. The ruins of a building that was once a nursery was investigated; amid the broken cribs and rubble, a silver grail was uncovered. The rim of the grail was decorated by a motif of shields and swords.
After leaving the nursery, the party saw a group of fungus-encrusted women wearing the habits of nuns gathered around the tower. They attempted to sneak past them, but Tank and Al's armor was just too noisy. 13 Shattered Mirrors suggested kiting the monstrous sisters--a strategy that worked well until the party found themselves sandwiched between more nuns and the knights from the gate. The party dealt with the nuns just in time; they were able to duck behind a hastily erected barricade inside the ruins of the knight's keep. The barricade made it difficult for the knights to get at them, but wounds were delivered on both sides. Noting that the situation had evolved into a stalemate, the fungal knights retreated. The group used this opportunity to quickly explore the remains of the keep and then slip out an unobstructed back door.
Now that the knights were nowhere in sight, the party entered what appeared to be the cottage of the man who maintained the convent's gardens. They found a historical account of the convent. The convent was dedicated to Ezra, a goddess of protection in the Land of the Mists. It was founded as a home for fallen women and women who become pregnant out of wedlock, which explained the nursery. The nuns were guarded by the Knights of Benefaction--many of whom were originally children given birth to on convent grounds. Clearly, though, something had gone horribly wrong.
The party decided to rest inside in the cottage and then resume their search for Bela's missing sister after catching their breath.
Friday, May 8, 2020
Cavern of Death, Human :||: Nature, Forever Will Be Gone, Salem Branch
Things that brought me delight in April, 2020:
The Cavern of Death
The Cavern of Death is an anonymously written Gothic novel from the height of the Gothic's popularity in the 1790s. Its tale involves a knight who returns to the Black Forest region and discovers that both a man he once called friend and his friend's father have basely set their desires on the Lady Constance--the knight's one true love! Things spiral out of control in this lovetriangle square: the knight's friend asks him to act as an assassin and murder his father, the father sends killers to dispatch the knight, the knight's squire betrays him, Lady Constance's maid betrays her, and the ominous Cavern of Death discloses its morbid secrets. All this in less than a hundred pages.
Nightwish,
Human :||: Nature
Never ones to shy away from either bombast or aspiration, Nightwish return with a new album that frantically gestures toward the big questions--particularly humanity's connection (or disconnection) to the natural world. Although not every song on the album is a success, for example, "Harvest" is not a track I want to hear every day, you've got to give them credit for striving to say something ambitious; few bands could even attempt an orchestral second disc without the powerful vocals of their main draw, and fewer still could make that (mostly) work.
Mortal Love,
Forever Will Be Gone
I have room in my heart to love even the Gothic metal bands that didn't really claw their way into ubiquity. Mortal Love really should have made a bigger impact; unlike many bands working in the "beautiful woman with a beautiful voice plus crunchy guitars" genre, their is quite a bit of variety to their sound on Forever Will Be Gone. The album also has some surprisingly heavy moments, particularly when compared against bands whose sonic assault mellowed over time. I suspect they were victims of a turn against the "beauty and the beast style" to some extend, but that's an aesthetic that never grows old for me.
Lara Parker,
Dark Shadows: The Salem Branch
I'm not sure how or when this came into my life or even who gave it to me, but it was suddenly time to give this a read. It turns out that vampire nonsense is my comfort food; should have known. It also turns out that The Salem Branch is a worthy extension of Dark Shadows, although it does contain some ideas that never would have made it onto the small screen. Barnabas, now cured of his vampirism, unwittingly eats a pot brownie; David goes skinny dipping with a hippie chick; there is a very accurate depiction of the Salem Witch Museum.
Darling
Darling very much feels like a low budget just-out-of-film-school project, and while I have no idea if that's accurate, it does feel like a very successful example of that genre. The story is fairly simple on the surface: a young woman is hired to act as the caretaker of an old house in the city, and the influence of the house either drives her insane or exacerbates previous trauma to drive her insane. Though it's true there isn't a ton happening on screen and what we get is mostly stylistic touches, there are enough interesting "gaps" to let the viewer conjecture about the story behind the story, which I generally appreciate.
A Pale Horse Named Death,
And Hell Will Follow Me and Lay My Soul to Waste
A Pale Horse Named Death are often positioned as the continuation of Type O Negative, but that doesn't quite do anyone justice. For one, on And Hell Will Follow Me, APHND is essentially a two-man band; only one of the members was in Type O and then only for the early albums as a drummer. For another, while APHND is Gothic and doomy in a similar way to Type O--tongue-in-cheek while also delving into real-life depressive topics such as drug abuse and misanthropy--the humor doesn't really encapsulate that "Brooklyn goombas" vibe. Also, I think the comparison sells things short; APHND has a grunge-influence, think Alice in Chains or the heavier Stone Temple Pilots tracks, that gives the project its own identity. That identity does slip away at points, particularly on the absolute Type O worship that is "Die Alone." Lay My Soul to Waste has more of its own distinct sonic aesthetic; the whole album feels more cohesive overall, which gives me higher hopes for their third album. Although, oddly, a Marilyn Manson vibe creeps into the second offering.
Hagazussa
Hagazussa is an exquisitely shot Gothic folk horror film about a young woman living near the Alps in the fifteenth century. Like her mother, she is a pariah. Abused, befriended, then abused even more. This is a quiet film, until it isn't, that ruminates on abjection and the kinds of revenge we take on others when taught that we do not belong and the kind of revenge we take on ourselves when we grow to see ourselves as hated and unclean. This film reminded me of Julia Gfrorer's comic Laid Waste; consider pairing them for your feels bad double feature.
Andrzej Sapkowski,
Sword of Destiny
The stories collected in Sword of Destiny cover a wide range of fantasy storytelling. We've got madcap fantasy adventure! And a story that centers on the fluctuating price of trade goods! And one about relationship problems! And one story about life and loss that, I kid you not, actually made me a bit emotional. A witcher story made me emotional! Can you even imagine? You can listen to me regale my cohost with a recap of "Bounds of Reason" here on Bad Books for Bad People; keep your ears peeled for another recap from Sword of Destiny as well.
Dark Waters
Dark Waters is like a three-way collision between Matthew Lewis's The Monk, H. P. Lovecraft's "The Shadow over Innsmouth," and Alice in Wonderland. When a young heiress travels to a convent on a remote island to reconnect with her mysterious family legacy--and to decide whether she will continue to use the family fortune to fund the nunnery--she learns more about her past than she bargained for. Also, I wonder if the scene with all the dead fish on the beach was an inspiration for the fishing hamlet in Bloodborne.
UnSun,
Clinic for Dolls
As with Mortal Love above, my reappraisal of UnSun is part of a foray into the bands on the periphery. UnSun tend toward the poppy, while still maintaining a pleasantly hardened edge. However, what really sets UnSun apart is just how punchy their songs on Clinic for Dolls are; they're short, sharp, and incisive. No fat, no allowance to wallow to make grandiose gestures. (Although the keyboard textures do skew generic.) And this will sound crazy, but: I detect a slight Bjork influence at work here.
All the Colors of the Dark
Basically anything with Edwige Fenech in it is worth watching, but this psychosexual Gothic giallo is probably one of her best. Fenech plays a woman plagued by memories of her mother's murders who fears that the killer is after her. A black mass promises the end of her fear--or is it the culmination of her terrors made manifest? All the Colors of the Dark also exposes the age-old battle between psychiatrists and Satanists. I would caution the potential viewer that All the Colors of the Dark doesn't exactly deliver a brainfuck "kaleidoscope of psychedelic horror," but you definitely shouldn't hold that against it.
Hideyuki Kikuchi (illustrated by Yoshitaki Amano),
Vampire Hunter D: The Rose Princess
This is a very strange volume in the Vampire Hunter D series--and that's saying something. In The Rose Princess, D is described as being as gorgeous and mysterious as ever, but he's also positioned to be more the villain of the piece than the hero. This volume is all about the tragedy and romance of chivalric tales, but D is the character who ends all such pretenses with a swipe of his blade. (When it doesn't break; it does so frequently throughout this volume.) (Also, the Black Knight in this has got to be patterned after Monty Python's Holy Grail. Kikuchi doesn't mention it in his afterword, but come on, that guy loses both arms and still stands around talking for a while.)
The Awakening
I liked The Awakening the first time I watched it back in 2016, but I think a second viewing actually improves the experience. It's a pity that few viewers have likely given this one multiple viewings; knowing how the trick is done helps in this instance. The Awakening is about a woman who busts fraudulent spiritualists in post-WWI Britain. She's hired by a school that is supposedly haunted...but her connection to the place goes deeper than she suspects. The Awakening is very much a Gothic thriller; the ending is a bit convoluted and the pieces that fall into place are very convenient, but that's part and parcel of the genre. The atmosphere alone is worth excuses those "faults."
Type O Negative,
Dead Again
After getting turned on to A Pale Horse Named Death, I decided it was time to revisit Type O Negative, which I plan on doing in reverse order starting with their last album, Dead Again. Dead Again feels like a complete synthesis of Type O's sometimes ill-fitting musical preoccupations; you can point to specific moments and rightly proclaim "there are the doomy Sabbath bits," or "there are the galloping punk fits," and "there are the emulation of Beatles' hits."
The Beyond
I watched all three movies in Lucio Fulci's Gates of Hell trilogy--which also includes City of the Dead and The House by the Cemetery--but this is the one I'd recommend. The Beyond centers on a young woman who inherits a hotel in Louisiana, which she intends on re-opening. What she doesn't know is that the hotel was once the home of an artist whose murder opened a gate to hell--and the house still serves as the focal point that connects our world with the netherworld. (I say "our world" in a loose sense here; many things do not operate in Fulci's world as they do in ours!) Unlike the other films in the trilogy, The Beyond manages some decent atmosphere, and it concludes with a surreal downbeat ending that pleased me.
Voice from the Stone
Voice from the Stone came up as a recommendation after I re-watched The Awakening. I can see why--they both deal in Gothic senses of dread rather than jump scares or gore--but they really couldn't be more different as films. Voice from the Stone is a direct route; whereas The Awakening concerns itself with plot, Voice from the Stone is almost entirely about setting and character: a young therapist travels to Italy to help find a "cure" for a boy who has been rendered mute by the death of his beloved mother. If anything, I think this film would have benefited from a longer runtime as in the end the story does feel quite linear.
The Cavern of Death is an anonymously written Gothic novel from the height of the Gothic's popularity in the 1790s. Its tale involves a knight who returns to the Black Forest region and discovers that both a man he once called friend and his friend's father have basely set their desires on the Lady Constance--the knight's one true love! Things spiral out of control in this love
Human :||: Nature
Never ones to shy away from either bombast or aspiration, Nightwish return with a new album that frantically gestures toward the big questions--particularly humanity's connection (or disconnection) to the natural world. Although not every song on the album is a success, for example, "Harvest" is not a track I want to hear every day, you've got to give them credit for striving to say something ambitious; few bands could even attempt an orchestral second disc without the powerful vocals of their main draw, and fewer still could make that (mostly) work.
Forever Will Be Gone
I have room in my heart to love even the Gothic metal bands that didn't really claw their way into ubiquity. Mortal Love really should have made a bigger impact; unlike many bands working in the "beautiful woman with a beautiful voice plus crunchy guitars" genre, their is quite a bit of variety to their sound on Forever Will Be Gone. The album also has some surprisingly heavy moments, particularly when compared against bands whose sonic assault mellowed over time. I suspect they were victims of a turn against the "beauty and the beast style" to some extend, but that's an aesthetic that never grows old for me.
Dark Shadows: The Salem Branch
I'm not sure how or when this came into my life or even who gave it to me, but it was suddenly time to give this a read. It turns out that vampire nonsense is my comfort food; should have known. It also turns out that The Salem Branch is a worthy extension of Dark Shadows, although it does contain some ideas that never would have made it onto the small screen. Barnabas, now cured of his vampirism, unwittingly eats a pot brownie; David goes skinny dipping with a hippie chick; there is a very accurate depiction of the Salem Witch Museum.
Darling very much feels like a low budget just-out-of-film-school project, and while I have no idea if that's accurate, it does feel like a very successful example of that genre. The story is fairly simple on the surface: a young woman is hired to act as the caretaker of an old house in the city, and the influence of the house either drives her insane or exacerbates previous trauma to drive her insane. Though it's true there isn't a ton happening on screen and what we get is mostly stylistic touches, there are enough interesting "gaps" to let the viewer conjecture about the story behind the story, which I generally appreciate.
And Hell Will Follow Me and Lay My Soul to Waste
A Pale Horse Named Death are often positioned as the continuation of Type O Negative, but that doesn't quite do anyone justice. For one, on And Hell Will Follow Me, APHND is essentially a two-man band; only one of the members was in Type O and then only for the early albums as a drummer. For another, while APHND is Gothic and doomy in a similar way to Type O--tongue-in-cheek while also delving into real-life depressive topics such as drug abuse and misanthropy--the humor doesn't really encapsulate that "Brooklyn goombas" vibe. Also, I think the comparison sells things short; APHND has a grunge-influence, think Alice in Chains or the heavier Stone Temple Pilots tracks, that gives the project its own identity. That identity does slip away at points, particularly on the absolute Type O worship that is "Die Alone." Lay My Soul to Waste has more of its own distinct sonic aesthetic; the whole album feels more cohesive overall, which gives me higher hopes for their third album. Although, oddly, a Marilyn Manson vibe creeps into the second offering.
Hagazussa is an exquisitely shot Gothic folk horror film about a young woman living near the Alps in the fifteenth century. Like her mother, she is a pariah. Abused, befriended, then abused even more. This is a quiet film, until it isn't, that ruminates on abjection and the kinds of revenge we take on others when taught that we do not belong and the kind of revenge we take on ourselves when we grow to see ourselves as hated and unclean. This film reminded me of Julia Gfrorer's comic Laid Waste; consider pairing them for your feels bad double feature.
Sword of Destiny
The stories collected in Sword of Destiny cover a wide range of fantasy storytelling. We've got madcap fantasy adventure! And a story that centers on the fluctuating price of trade goods! And one about relationship problems! And one story about life and loss that, I kid you not, actually made me a bit emotional. A witcher story made me emotional! Can you even imagine? You can listen to me regale my cohost with a recap of "Bounds of Reason" here on Bad Books for Bad People; keep your ears peeled for another recap from Sword of Destiny as well.
Dark Waters is like a three-way collision between Matthew Lewis's The Monk, H. P. Lovecraft's "The Shadow over Innsmouth," and Alice in Wonderland. When a young heiress travels to a convent on a remote island to reconnect with her mysterious family legacy--and to decide whether she will continue to use the family fortune to fund the nunnery--she learns more about her past than she bargained for. Also, I wonder if the scene with all the dead fish on the beach was an inspiration for the fishing hamlet in Bloodborne.
Clinic for Dolls
As with Mortal Love above, my reappraisal of UnSun is part of a foray into the bands on the periphery. UnSun tend toward the poppy, while still maintaining a pleasantly hardened edge. However, what really sets UnSun apart is just how punchy their songs on Clinic for Dolls are; they're short, sharp, and incisive. No fat, no allowance to wallow to make grandiose gestures. (Although the keyboard textures do skew generic.) And this will sound crazy, but: I detect a slight Bjork influence at work here.
Basically anything with Edwige Fenech in it is worth watching, but this psychosexual Gothic giallo is probably one of her best. Fenech plays a woman plagued by memories of her mother's murders who fears that the killer is after her. A black mass promises the end of her fear--or is it the culmination of her terrors made manifest? All the Colors of the Dark also exposes the age-old battle between psychiatrists and Satanists. I would caution the potential viewer that All the Colors of the Dark doesn't exactly deliver a brainfuck "kaleidoscope of psychedelic horror," but you definitely shouldn't hold that against it.
Vampire Hunter D: The Rose Princess
This is a very strange volume in the Vampire Hunter D series--and that's saying something. In The Rose Princess, D is described as being as gorgeous and mysterious as ever, but he's also positioned to be more the villain of the piece than the hero. This volume is all about the tragedy and romance of chivalric tales, but D is the character who ends all such pretenses with a swipe of his blade. (When it doesn't break; it does so frequently throughout this volume.) (Also, the Black Knight in this has got to be patterned after Monty Python's Holy Grail. Kikuchi doesn't mention it in his afterword, but come on, that guy loses both arms and still stands around talking for a while.)
I liked The Awakening the first time I watched it back in 2016, but I think a second viewing actually improves the experience. It's a pity that few viewers have likely given this one multiple viewings; knowing how the trick is done helps in this instance. The Awakening is about a woman who busts fraudulent spiritualists in post-WWI Britain. She's hired by a school that is supposedly haunted...but her connection to the place goes deeper than she suspects. The Awakening is very much a Gothic thriller; the ending is a bit convoluted and the pieces that fall into place are very convenient, but that's part and parcel of the genre. The atmosphere alone is worth excuses those "faults."
Dead Again
After getting turned on to A Pale Horse Named Death, I decided it was time to revisit Type O Negative, which I plan on doing in reverse order starting with their last album, Dead Again. Dead Again feels like a complete synthesis of Type O's sometimes ill-fitting musical preoccupations; you can point to specific moments and rightly proclaim "there are the doomy Sabbath bits," or "there are the galloping punk fits," and "there are the emulation of Beatles' hits."
I watched all three movies in Lucio Fulci's Gates of Hell trilogy--which also includes City of the Dead and The House by the Cemetery--but this is the one I'd recommend. The Beyond centers on a young woman who inherits a hotel in Louisiana, which she intends on re-opening. What she doesn't know is that the hotel was once the home of an artist whose murder opened a gate to hell--and the house still serves as the focal point that connects our world with the netherworld. (I say "our world" in a loose sense here; many things do not operate in Fulci's world as they do in ours!) Unlike the other films in the trilogy, The Beyond manages some decent atmosphere, and it concludes with a surreal downbeat ending that pleased me.
Voice from the Stone came up as a recommendation after I re-watched The Awakening. I can see why--they both deal in Gothic senses of dread rather than jump scares or gore--but they really couldn't be more different as films. Voice from the Stone is a direct route; whereas The Awakening concerns itself with plot, Voice from the Stone is almost entirely about setting and character: a young therapist travels to Italy to help find a "cure" for a boy who has been rendered mute by the death of his beloved mother. If anything, I think this film would have benefited from a longer runtime as in the end the story does feel quite linear.
Monday, May 4, 2020
The Case of the Missing Watchman
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| Art by Ryan Phillip |
Our online D&D game set in Ravenloft continues.
The Characters
Tekla Vardagen, half-elf warlock
13 Shattered Mirrors, tabaxi warlock/rogue
Tank Orkerson, half-orc fighter
Gnagar the Bloody, kobold monk
Al', drow cleric
Events
After arriving in the city of East Riding in Ghastria the party decided it was time to turn some of the loot they had accumulated into currency. The jewelry in the possession was sold to Ratcliffe's Emporium, a shabby establishment in the slums that mostly dealt in goods of dubious provenance. Emile Ratcliffe, the halfling proprietor, had no use for the ebony statuette of a woman wearing a cloak of feathers; he suggested they take that to the Old Bone Church.
The Old Bone Church had also seen better days; it was a once magnificent building that had fallen into disrepair. When they entered, they saw that the interior walls were decorated with bleached bones. A choirboy went to fetch Father Raspard for them; while they waited, they overheard an argument: a woman with short blonde hair stormed out of Raspard's office and left the church. Father Raspard explained the outburst by stating that the woman was a member of the parish watch and that unfortunately he was not allowing her to waste time and resources on investigating the disappearance of her partner in the watch, Nikolai.
Father Raspard was interested in the idol they had brought him. He further explained that the Old Bone Church was dedicated to the faith of the Eternal Order, and that a variety of death gods (such as Myrkul, Nerull the Reapers, etc.) were worshiped in the church. The statuette was one of the Raven Queen, one of the deities favored by the Eternal Order. The group offered him the idol without exacting a price; for their generosity, they were rewarded with a vial of holy water and the blessing of the Eternal Order.
They found Agniezka smoking furiously outside the church. The party offered to help her find the missing Nikolai, even though she could only scrounge together a small reward for their efforts. She also gave them a key to Nikolai's flat. Searching Nikolai's flat revealed three interesting clues. One was a list that seemed to pertain to his investigation into the deaths of six drunkards in the parish. Another was a painting of Agniezka with her throat slit. And finally, they found that the clothes in his trunk were a mix of masculine and feminine apparel.
The party took the painting to the Watersilk Gallery in hopes of gaining more information about it. As it turned out, the gallery was showing the works of a single painter, Donna Pietra Sangino, whose signature matched that on the painting of Agniezka. While touring the gallery, they also saw an uncanny painting that disturbed them: a portrait of a drow, a wood elf, an orc, a kobold, and a tabaxi. Although the painted figures were not exact matches of the party themselves, they were started at the fact that it was so close to their group's unusual composition. They also saw a list kept by the gallery that suggested they were trying to locate Donna Pietra Sangino. The next item on the list was a tavern called The Incredible Hook.
The Incredible Hook was revealed to be a down-and-out bar by the wharf that was the domain of the fish-faced Gately Gang. The group partook of the Gately's special green brew; while at the Hook, they noticed a woman with dark curly hair who would poke her head in, look around, and then leave. Assuming she was looking for a drunkard to prey upon in some way, 13 Shattered Mirrors posed an an inebriate; the next time the woman came in, she hired him to deliver a letter to a nobleman. Tekla gained the woman's address by having her dove familiar follow the woman to her home.
The group thought that the curly-haired woman was the artist they felt was responsible for Nikolai's disappearance, but approaching her unveiled that she too was being blackmailed by the artist. Irina Druskaya, as she called herself, was working on behalf of Donna Pietra Sangino, hiring drunks to deliver blackmail letters. Sangino's portraits apparently give her magical control over their subjects; she was extorting the wealthy under threat of using the paintings to cause them social embarrassment. Irina herself was compelled to do the painter's bidding via a magical portrait.
Irina was able to give the party Sangino's address. The group observed that the residence was guarded by members of the Gately Gang, so they attempted to climb up the back of the house, but unfortunately they made too much noise and the gang members rushed up the stairs to meet the party in Sangino's parlor for battle. Two of the gang were armed with harpoons; the other two summoned curved magical blades that attacked independently and cast bolts of radiant fire. The Gately gang was defeated, and the party moved on to the studio on the third floor to confront Donna Pietra Sangino.
When questioned about why she had painted a portrait of people who seemed so close to the group, she replied that she sometimes painted visions that came to her unbidden. Nevertheless, the time for talk was over. Sangino whistled, summoning two giant mosquito like monstrosities that burst through the room's glass skylight. As the monsters engaged the group, Sangino ran to one of her landscape paintings, touched it, and disappeared. The summoned creatures were heavily armored, and the group had difficulty wounding them. They also possessed a variety of venomous and necrotic attacks. However, the party was finally able to gain the upper hand. As each of the creatures died, they transformed into puddles of oil paint.
Searching the rest of the house revealed a bound Nikolai on the first floor. Sangino had used the painting of Agniezka with her throat slit as leverage to get him to come to the painter's house, where he was waylaid by Gately Gang members. His investigation into the deaths of the drunks who couriered blackmail letters attracted Sangino's murderous attention. The party was left wondered what power the portrait that was similar to their own appearance could hold over them. It was resolved that they would try to steal it from the Watersilk Gallery.
Friday, May 1, 2020
Dead Until Dark
Charlaine Harris begins her blockbuster Southern Vampire Mysteries series with Dead Until Dark, a psychic girl meets undead boy romance set against the backdrop of serial sex murders. Weird tonal shifts and wacky plot twists abound, but how will Jack and Kate fare in this urban crowd-pleasing fantasy climate?
Does everyone love Sookie because of her telepathy, or because of her spectacular rack? How does one dress when attending a vampire nightclub? How late is too late to drop a Funny Uncle into a story? Why is a certain kind of straight woman so obsessed with men's buns? All these questions and more will be explored in this episode of Bad Books for Bad People.
One thing you won't find out is how the book compares to HBO's True Blood TV series, because your hosts didn't bother to watch it in preparation for this episode (they're not sorry).
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