Being Human: Chasers

After watching Being Human UK on Hulu I was so sad to see it end. I liked this show so much, even after the entire cast changed, although I definitely preferred the original cast. It was so exciting to find the book series based on the original cast, so I've been ordering them each one at a time to make the experience last as long as possible. I don't order the next book in the series until I'm finished with the previous book. Not only does it make the experience last longer, but it gives me something to look forward to as I await the arrival of the next book. 

Mark Michalowski does a great job in keeping the characters true to their TV images. Chasers centers mostly on George, but Annie and Mitchell's reactions and support figure largely in the story as well. Mitchell and Annie had some situations to work out in the story also and it was great to be reading about the paranormaly unique flatmates once again as they helped each other avoid making life decisions that they might have regretted.

It's bittersweet that I am now finished reading Chasers and am well into the third and final book in the series, Bad Blood.

Fear the Walking Dead: Season One

This show started out slower than The Walking Dead because there wasn't that sense of urgency, confusion and terror that Rick's experience after waking up from his coma caused. When Fear the Walking Dead begins, we viewers are already seasoned pros and watch with confident knowledge of the what the future has in store for these people as the cast sits by cluelessly waiting for the government to solve this temporary inconvenience. By the season's end, the cast has been kicked in the face with the horrific reality that they're on their own in a cruel, bloodthirsty world.

At first, I didn't care for any of the characters in this show. They're either annoying and selfish or bossy know-it-alls. But a couple of them have grown on me in their ability to except and adapt to their drastically changed lives. As our marketing and advertising corporations are always drilling into us, the world is made for the young. Fear the Walking Dead also favors youth as the younger generation seems to be handling this upturned world much better and more logically than the adults. 

I'm thinking after all the adults are killed off Chris and Alicia repopulate the world in a new spin off of this spin off.

Penny Dreadful: Season One

I like the mysterious darkness of this show, especially set in the Victorian era. I'm still three episodes shy of seeing all of Season One of Penny Dreadful. However, after seeing most of Season One, I can tell that eventually every main character on the show must have sex with every other main character on the show. The only downside of this show is all the time wasted on sex scenes that have little or nothing to do with the story. Sometimes it seems like whenever two characters are alone in a room, they are bound to have sex. 

Vanessa's poor mother dropped dead on the spot when she walked into Vanessa's room while she was having sex with an invisible (to her anyway) demon. Now, that sex scene actually contributed to the story. Obviously, Dorian has sex with most everyone he meets, but why is Ethan having sex with Dorian? Why is that even in the story? Must be because they were the only ones who happened to be in the room. 

Frankenstein, his monster and Sembene are the only ones who haven't had sex on screen yet. That must occur during the final three episodes of the season.

Penny Dreadful: The Seance

Taking advantage of the free Showtime weekend on Hulu, I watched the first two episodes of Penny Dreadful. In the second episode, Vanessa (Eva Green) does some channeling during a parlor seance at a party. The medium who was hired to conduct the seance is even shocked at the anger and malevolence that flows forth from the beautiful, reserved Vanessa and when Vanessa climbs up onto the table and the evil spirit contorts her body into unnatural positions, the party fun is over.

Eva Green is such a great performer, it was a thrill to behold the frightening scene. I've blogged about her in the past, but here's a nice excuse to talk about her some more! I'm going to have to buy the DVD's because I'm not adding Showtime to my Hulu account even though it is only $8.99 a month. It is a good deal considering all of the good movies and original series that Showtime has to offer. But there are already too many tempting movies and TV shows on Hulu that would take me three lifetimes to watch! Why add more?

I am looking forward to catching up with the rest of Penny Dreadful. It's a hauntingly creepy show with beautiful costumes, great scenery and Eva Green.

Highlander II: The Quickening (1991)

Other than the fact that Christopher Lambert (Connor MacLeod) and Sean Connery (Ramirez) returned in their roles as immortals and the story continued the prophecy that "there can be only one," Highlander II really had nothing to do with the original Highlander movie. 

Instead of a sword and sorcery legend of a reluctant hero like the original movie, Highlander II was more science fiction with way more fiction than science. In fact, the story seemed like it was devised by someone who never paid attention in science class and written by someone who never learned the fundamentals of composition. I know I watched this movie once in the early 90s when it was released on VHS, but I barely remember any of it except the first two immortals sent to Earth to do away with MacLeod and General Katana (Michael Ironside) as the villain.

The story didn't make much sense and the plot kept going off in weird directions that kept making me wonder if I'd dozed off and missed something important that tied one scene to another. 

One good thing about this movie is that it was still, in my opinion, an 80s movie with 80s costumes, hair and make-up and clicking computer keyboards. It had the atmosphere and qualities of an 80s B movie where the aliens fell to Earth speaking in English pop cultural quips and everyone was Christian, even the aliens. Katana tells MacLeod that he'd fight him, but they are in a place of worship and a rule of the immortals is no fighting on sacred ground.  Virginia Madsen (Louise Marcus) was the head of a scientific corporation but every scene she was in portrayed her as a sex object who used her good looks, not her intellect, to get her way. 

I don't think I'd bother watching this movie again since there are much better Highlander movies to see instead.

Highlander (1986)

The concept of the immortals in the movie Highlander is a unique one. The ideas of The Gathering, that there can be only one and the Prize are pretty cool. Having an immortal subculture mysteriously among us for hundreds, if not thousands, of years is a cool fantasy as well. Of course, the swordsmanship and the flashbacks to medieval Scotland add to the romance and mystical fantasy that sets a tone of wonder accompanying the competitive male physical power and fearlessness that inevitably leads to the grand finale when there truly remains only one. 

In addition to being a great swordsman and an honest and moral man, Connor Macleod (Christoper Lambert) suffers inwardly as he sacrifices his desire for love, family and companionship while he keeps his secret of being immortal and patiently waits for The Gathering where he'll be forced to fight the other immortals. 

There's some pretty cool animation, not to mention costumes, during the fight scene between Connor's 2,000 year old mentor, Ramirez (Sean Connery) and his arch enemy The Kurgan (Clancy Brown) . Sections of rock wall fall away with blows from Kurgan's sword until the two are left atop a high steep stairway of stone. There are also some drawn graphic images flashing in succession as Connor endures The Quickening and all ancient knowledge of mankind is funneled into his head. 

Apparently, wisdom, love, honor and being able to die a natural death surrounded by family is the ultimate prize. My question is whether the remake is ever going to be made?

Being Human: The Road

I just finished reading The Road by Simon Geurrier and was very happy with the story and the way Geurrier was able to portray the characters on paper pretty close to their TV characters. I liked the show so much as a late discoverer of the series on Hulu earlier this year. I was disappointed as the actors left the show one by one until the entire cast was eventually replaced. I did like the new cast of characters, but still missed the originals. Rarely is anything ever as good as the original!

The novel covered a few days in the lives of Annie, George and Mitchell as they worked together to unravel the mystery and solve the problem of Gemma the ghost who took up residence in the flat for no apparent reason. Reading the book was sort of like reading a lost episode. It definitely would have made a good episode within the TV series. I'm now patiently waiting the arrival of the second book in the series, Chasers by Mark Michalowski, and hope to enjoy it at least as well as The Road.

Candyman (1992)

I hadn't seen Candyman since it first came out on video in the 90s and I had found it disturbingly scary back then. I've had it in my queue on Hulu for quite a while, so when I got the email alert that it would expire on the January 1, it was time to watch it before I lost it. I was hoping that over the years it would have become old and stupid. It got old all right, but it really stands the test of time as a horror movie.

The ending was laugh out loud funny and a few other minor scenes were ridiculous, but mostly it was just plain scary. The scares were not cheap ones and were timed perfectly with the sound effects. Too many recent movies are more sound than scare. The massive booming of the surround sound scares me more than the story. And the booming happens too often, like every time a character turns their head or touches a doorknob. The movies would probably be better with the volume off. 

I can definitely understand why Candyman remains a classic as it winds urban legend and fear into a boogeyman-type myth. It somehow makes the real world less scary to invent a legendary creature more terrifying to overcome than daily survival. The music was beautiful for a horror movie as well. And didn't old Trevor get what was coming to him?

Stitches (2012)

Bad clowns are all over the place in movies, but I don't remember seeing such horrid prepubescent children in a clown movie. Rude, swearing and disrespectful, they should have been slashed then and there before leaving Tommy's 10th birthday party. But, traditional slasher movies require teenage victims, so the children grew to be rude, swearing and disrespectful teenagers before being gruesomely and hilariously murdered by Stitches, the evil ghost clown. 

Graveyards are all over the place in horror movies as well, but the graveyard in Stitches was a really cool one; very old, but pretty well maintained with a Gothic stone tower toward the back. What would be housed in a Gothic stone tower protected by an iron gate secured with a padlock that looks like a clown's face? The ritual place of the clown coven or cult and the raw eggs which hold the essence of each clown's soul, of course. 

As the recently risen from the grave Stitches makes his way around the house during Tommy's 16th birthday party sniffing out his victims with the help of his animated red clown nose, he gruesomely twists each killing to mirror the child's despicable behavior at the original party. Very creative, darkly vengeful and plenty of spraying blood and dismemberment. The umbrella as a weapon killing and the "balloon" animal slow kill are over the top gruesome yet funny and really took a lot of creative thinking to pull off.

Typical of teenage slasher movies, we know from the beginning who the hero is and who will probably survive, which allows for the super funny tricycle chase. As humans, there are times when we really want to see our enemies suffer a slow painful death, preferably by the means they used to wrong us in the past. In fact, Stitches' payback killings reminded me of fantasies I've had in the past of seeking revenge on those who have wronged me, or in my adolescent PMS days, simply pissed me off. Of course, common sense and compassion always won out and fantasies are meant to be fleeting, but demonic clowns, risen from hell or the grave or wherever demonic clowns go after death, thrive on chaos and destruction, kill with glee and utter a hilarious remark to cap it off.

A Cadaver Christmas (2011)

If you like low budget horror movies, you might like this one. I love low budget horror movies, but A Cadaver Christmas was so cheesily low budget that I'm guessing the director used the situation to create comedy by amplifying the low-budgetness. The acting at the beginning was so bad; it was like the director grabbed two random guys off the street, handed them a script, told them where to stand and asked them to start reading. I almost turned it off, but let it play to give it a chance.

 The scene that motivated me to watch the whole movie was when The Janitor enters the bar covered in blood from head to toe, goes into the mens room and washes all the blood off his face. He reappears in the bar and his face is once again covered in blood like he never washed it! That cracked me up, so I sat back and relaxed.

Then the cop, Sam Sheriff, entered the bar after being called by the bartender who alerted him to the strange janitor. He was hilarious himself with his exaggerated manner and facial expressions. He looked like a comic book character. 

The drunk guy Tom was so funny with his bottomless flask and sharp observations popping out of  his usual dumb drunkenness. 

Watch out for university labs since they seem to breed zombies as the zombies in this movie also were created much the same way as in the movie Re-Animator. A scientist experimenting on dead human tissue by injecting a serum into their necks, only for different reasons. Fortunately, the team of misfits led by The Janitor were able to halt the spread of the zombies. Or were they?

If you see this movie, make sure you keep watching as the credits roll.

Scream Queens (2015): Mommie Dearest

Jamie Lee Curtis kicks the asses of the serial killers when they attempt to make her the next victim, sending them fleeing the scene, was so great! Using the Psycho-like shower scene as a prelude to the attack was a hoot too, since her mother (Janet Leigh) was in the original Psycho movie. Dean Munsch (Jamie Lee Curtis) is kind of nutty, but she was pure confidence and badassness when she found herself confronted with three masked attackers and said, "Bring it on," before methodically overpowering all of them.

Usually, I find Emma Roberts (Chanel Oberlin) has all the great scenes in Scream Queens, but Jamie Lee Curtis definitely owned Mommie Dearest.

Being Human UK: The Final Broadcast Revisited

I think when a TV series is in its final season and the writers know in advance that the series will be ending, it should be universally understood that faithful viewers deserve some closure.

After seeing an additional scene of The Final Broadcast on Blastr, it becomes apparent that the trio are trapped in a dream-life created by the devil. At the end of the scene they resolve to find a way out to save the world for real as though the show will continue with a new season.

Yes, it's nice to know the team is alive and well and committed to a higher purpose, but I still think the series finale would have been better if the three died as heroes, saving the world and sent to heaven like the original flatmates.

Being Human UK: The Last Broadcast

I loved this show! It was so well done and the story is so unique and addicting. I was sad when the original cast members left, but the new cast grew on me too. It's too bad the show had to end, but I really enjoyed how it all wrapped up. The story line never got old and I never saw what was coming. I truly thought Alex, Hal and Tom would die as heroes that saved the world. Now we know why Alex's door never presented itself!

Being Human UK: Season 4 - Annie Saves the World

What a great way to end Annie's story line! I'm so sad that the last original flat mate is gone, but Annie's happy ending provided, at least, some compensation. The implication that she is now free to join her beloved friends who she deeply misses, delivering baby Eve to her parents perhaps, was a sweet finale, as though her brave sacrifice to save humanity from evil vampire domination wasn't enough.

Even though the original flat mates are no longer on the show, the story, character development and the writing is so great that I'm sure Season 5 will continue to satisfy my addiction to Being Human UK.

Being Human UK: Season 4

I realize this show has been off the air for years, but I just started watching it on Hulu this year. Everything about this show is so well done that it's addicting. Even with three fourths of the cast changed, I'm still addicted to the show. It's like a great book where you can't wait to finish it to find out how it ends, but at the same time, you want to read it slowly to make it last as long as possible. I consciously avoid reading anything online that might spoil the ending for me.

Even though I really like Tom and Hal, I'm still missing George, Nina and Mitchell. They were such great characters and all were so attached to Annie and she to them, which was a characteristic of the show that I was really drawn to. It's kind of sad waiting and hoping that Tom and Hal can develop the same relationship with Annie that George and Mitchell had with her. 

I was disappointed that Nina ended Season 3 pregnant, but Season 4 began with the baby in the crib and Nina dead and gone. Although I'm glad I was spared witnessing Nina's death by vampires, it was a sudden loss to the show. There were great opportunities for stories surrounding the birth of the baby; is it human or is it wolf? 

As in real life, there's nothing to do but move on.

Being Human UK: Season 3, Episode 5

I don't think I can express how much I LOVE this show. It just keeps getting better, which raises it above so many other shows that are only as good as the first season and it's downhill from there. This episode achieved a perfect balance of comedy and chilling horror, as George is terrified at a knock at the door after he and Nina abduct a resurrected and apparently amnesia plagued Herrick from the psych ward at Barry, bring him home and barely prevent Mitchell from staking him.

"It's the Jehovahs!" George fears as though no one worse could be at his door. However, Wendy the hilarious social worker has come to interview Nina about taking in her confused "Uncle Billy" who she's identified as such to the hospital attendant who catches her and George sneaking Herrick out of the hospital. No simply slamming the door in the face of Wendy as though she were only an annoying Jehovah! Comedy ensues as Nina squirms her way through lie after lie to convince Wendy that Herrick is truly her sweet Uncle Billy.

Following traditional gothic treatment of madmen and women, Nina, against Mitchell's stern opposition, stashes Herrick in the attic. When there isn't a tower available to lock up your crazies, an attic will do. Unfortunately, the attic at the former bed and breakfast where the happy foursome attempt to "be normal" as George likes to say, already has an evil secret in residence. Mitchell's documented evidence of terrifying violence and killing sprees, yet also his guilty pleasures become one more of Herrick's toys in the attic as he finds it and reveals it to Nina.

As Mitchell's scarred and broken soul reaches out to Annie's pure and loving heart for comfort he spews out a typical line of many abusive and violent partners professing that his love for her is eternal and he can't live without her. Always a precursor to pain and doom.

Being Human UK: Season 3, Episode 1

I'm so happy George and Nina are together! When Nina left George and became involved with crazy Kemp, I was afraid she would die in the chamber like the other werewolves. Thank goodness she didn't!

It was so cool the way Mitchell passed through the door to purgatory with the poor old man that died in the hospital. Saving Annie was very brave and selfless. Lea tried to make him out as totally selfish and evil. I like how this show portrays people as complicated individuals with good and bad traits and, as Mitchell explained to Lucy in the finale of the second season, all made in God's image, whether good, bad, human or not.

Annie's narration at the end of the episode was joyful and full of hope as the four friends celebrated being together again. She said they were safe together, sheltered from the monsters of the world. Like The Walking Dead, Being Human UK sometimes shows humans at their worst performing way more evil acts than what would typically be expected of the undead.

Being Human UK: Season 2, What a Finale!

Season 2 started out kind of sad with Annie feeling a little lost and lacing in purpose, George and Nina on the outs and Mitchell's inner struggle and secret identity as vampire king causing him stress, but it sure picked up and got exciting! George tries to tranquilize his wolf, but putting the wolf to sleep makes it seep out at random times affecting his personality and causing random outbursts or profanity and violence. That idea didn't work!

Annie met some other ghosts, even a baby! She finally found her inner strength when she was faced with her fear of being tricked to go through the door, but overcame those forces several times over. Mitchell "went dry" and stayed strong convincing the other vampires to join him after Herrick's death by George. 

All of those accomplishments went out the window when Nina was tricked by Lucy and Kemp to persuade George to submit to "being cured" at their facility which actually kills werewolves rather than cure them. Lucy seduces and uses Mitchell to get close to George, while Annie wants Kemp, a former priest, to exorcise her from the flat so she can move on through the door. 

Learning of Lucy's betrayal and her involvement in blowing up the vampire meeting, Mitchell falls off the wagon big time, then helps George and Nina escape the werewolf killing facility, losing Annie, as Kemp has her sent through the door against her will. 

The exciting ending has Lucy and then Kemp track the three supernaturals to their new place in the country, where Kemp totally lost what was left of his mind and kills Lucy (thank goodness, she grated on my nerves) and attempts to kill Nina until she escapes by punching him in the balls and breaking free. Annie saves the day (yes, Annie!) by bursting through the door and dragging Kemp back with her. 

Afterward, she speaks to them through an unplugged TV hilariously explaining that she didn't know where she was but she had to fill out forms. The horror!

Vampire Daisy and the vampire Mitchell mercifully saved from execution in an earlier episode, in the final scene, bleed themselves in the snow in a ritual that resurrects Herrick with a howl of energy and victory. It would seem that the new world order is coming after all!

Scream Queens: Mystery of the Hag

Dolls are creeping up all over the place. First, I posted about the movie Parasite Dolls, then I learned that the worry dolls in the movie are widely known and available, which led to my post on worry dolls.Tonight I watched the latest episode of Scream Queens (Episode 3) in which the college students find an empty house off campus to use as a haunted house, already equipped with a room full of dolls, apparently stolen from around the neighborhood by a mysterious hag. 

What does the hag want with all the stolen dolls? Did she really steal the Kappa baby like Grace thinks? Is she connected to all the murders and why were all the bodies in the house with the dolls? Such a mystery!

Worry Dolls: Goodbye Xanax, Hello Dolly

After my post about the Full Moon movie Parasite Dolls (aka Dangerous Worry Dolls) on Hulu, I wondered if there really is such a thing. Apparently, I've been living in some inner realm of my own, out of touch with the rest of the world, because a basic Google search for worry dolls brought me lots and lots of worry dolls. There's even a band called Worry Dolls!

According to several definitions around the web, worry dolls originated in Mayan Guatemala, made from bits of cloth wrapped around tiny sticks and put into a cloth pouch or tiny box for storage. From the many results from my Google search, the dolls are created in a variety of ways, or any way you'd like them. They can be any gender, any color, any type of clothing or hair length. Traditionally, they were the size of matchsticks, but there are even large worry dolls. Large meaning they're 2 inches tall, so you can still stick them under your pillow and not wake up with a neck cramp.

The University of Minnesota even has a page in their Worry Depository explaining the legend of worry dolls, although the legend can be found on many websites. It's cool that the university has a Worry Depository. 

I could use a set of these dolls. As a matter of fact, many of my relatives could use a set of these dolls and toss out those pharmaceuticals. Christmas is coming and so are the dolls.