Album Review: Orson Welles's 1938 War of the Worlds Broadcast

Rating: 5/5

Its October! Here's something to get that Halloween mood going.

In 1938 Orson Welles and the Mercury Theater did a live radio broadcast of their radio adaptation of H.G. Wells's The War of the Worlds. With only two station identifications throughout the 60+ minute broadcast, listeners tuning into the middle of the adaptation became convinced that what they were hearing was actually happening. Panic ensued as many individuals were convinced that Earth was being invaded by Martians and destroying the planet.

Granted, no one really knows exactly how widespread this panic was and numbers vary, but this broadcast and the panic it caused reached newspapers across the world and did much for Welles's fame and notoriety. This broadcast is cleverly put together not simply as an adaptation that exists merely for entertainment, but they put in news broadcasts, music, and other things to make the adaptation sound genuinely like a radio program that is interrupted by news of a martian invasion. It's not surprising that it caused a panic; listening to the broadcast gives the listener a sense of dread as innocuous reports of gas jets from mars turn into broadcasts from army soldiers that go silent as they are killed from martian heat rays.

The fall season and cooler nights are approaching and this is a nice broadcast to listen to with a cool drink and a nice autumnal breeze blowing.


Orson Welles 1938 Broadcast: Part 1 , Part 2 , Part 3 , Part 4 , Part 5 , Part 6 , Part 7

Film Friday: The Mist (2007) Movie Review

Title: The Mist
Genre: Horror
Directed by: Frank Darabont
Written by: Frank Darabont
Starring:
Thomas Jane
Marcia Gay Harden
Laurie Holden
Andre Braugher
Release Date: November 21st, 2007
Rating: 2.5/5

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Since I wrote a review of The Mist on Monday, I want to primarily talk about the differences between the book and movie.

My main problem with the movie is its need to be...well...cinematic. By that I mean that elements of the novel are translated into film language, to its detriment I think. One thing is the need to A. have the 'jump at you' scares and B. show off the creatures. To address the first complaint, earlier on before you see the creatures, it is more terrifying than when you do because you mind fills in the blanks and creates something far worse than the designers can create. (this is in no way to harp on Berni Wrightson's designs which are, as with all his work, awesome.) But they resort instead to have them jump out of the fog at the audience for cheap thrills rather than creating an atmospheric horror movie like The Thing.

This goes into the next part: showing off the monsters. Part of the terror is not seeing The Thing or the alien in Alien, but knowing it could appear at any moment, to keep you on the edge of your seat. In The Mist  they are all over the place and, as such, when they do attack it is less terrifying and has less of an impact on the audience. In most horror movies, less is more is often a plus, and I feel they could have had less of the monsters with more of an impact.

The ending. I don't want to ruin either the book or movie, but lets just say the movie was extremely maudlin and heavy handed with its ending. I prefer the book's ending myself.

However, what is most important is the characters and their interactions and I think the movie is fairly successful in this regard. Much like the book, the film is very visceral with its characters and you either like the characters or hate them (you only have to look at youtube comments on the trailer to see this). Despite this, I can't get past the ending. I am in the middle of the road on this movie, I like parts, don't like others. So, if you are intrigued by the book, or the trailer, watching the movie adaptation certainly won't hurt.

Book Review: The Mist

The Mist by Stephen King
Release Date: 1980;1985;2007
Publisher: Signet
Audience: Everyone
Pages: 240
Buy the Book: Amazon
Book Rating: 4/5









Stephen King week! Why? Because I can!!! :)

Admittedly, I turned to this novel after watching the movie adaptation and the fact that my friend mentioned that the book ended differently than the movie. In short, The Mist follows David and his son as they becomed trapped in a grocery story with a number of other patrons. They soon find they cannot leave the store as strange creatues abound in the mist, killing those who venture forth from the store. Soon, the patrons, a la The Lord of the Flies or The Drive-In, begin to socially break down. Most end up following a prophet who emerges from the group, a prophet who believes a child sacrafice is needed to save them all: David's son. David, to save his son, must brave the mists.

The Mist is one of those books that, upon completion, you kind of get that 'I hate humans' feeling. In this book, Stephen writes a number of visceral characters that naturally rub against the reader and do a good job of making you hate them. Further, I enjoy the ambiguous nature of the novel, you are never sure exactly what is happening or where these mists came from. Further, you are not exactly sure what will happen next as the grocery store, as time passes, becomes a pressure cooker on the people living inside of it and anything becomes possible.

While the book suffers a little from what I call King-itis (the need for dozens of tertiary characters) it was a decent book with memorable characters. Further (a plus in my experience with Stephen King novels), it is fairly short. This seems to be a nod by King to a number of authors, including Golding, Lovecraft, and others like them. If you are looking for book with some atmosphere or a decent dystopian / horror I recommend checking this book out.

Book Review: The War of the Worlds

The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
Release Date: 1898
Publisher: William Heinemann
Audience: Everyone
Pages 303
Read the Book: Project Gutenberg
Buy the Book: Amazon ; (Compilation) Amazon
Book Rating: 5/5








I was introduced to many books by the Moby Illustrated Classics, small books with truncated versions of classic novels with comic book frames on each page illustrating the novel as it progressed. These books often made an impression on me as a child and I have returned to many of them as an adult to read the original books to reread the books but also see how they differed (often a great deal) from the Moby books. Tangent aside, The War of the Worlds was one of the books I had from the series and, since then, have read the actual book a fair amount of times.

Spare some change?

For those who are not familiar with the plot, the unnamed narrator (as Wells was wont to do) is at the center of an invasion from Mars as the martians land on Earth, hungry for our resources...including MAN! The narrator gets separated from his wife and the story focuses part on his quest to find his wife and part on the invasion and the narrators attempts to come to terms with both.

Like many of Wells novels, a great deal of the novel is given over to the narrators introspection to what is happening around them but it does not affect the pace of the novel (as often occurs with heavy handed authors in the 19th century) Not quite a epistolary narrative (such as Dracula or Frankenstein) the book is nevertheless a journal by the narrator narrating the events as they happen to him.

The book, regardless of its science fiction trappings, still stays within the science of the times to a reasonable degree. H.G. Wells, an advocate of Darwinism, saw the usurpation of mankind's place on Earth as inevitable, be it by other races, species, or aliens. Much like my recommendation in regards to The Time Machine modern science fiction and its offshoots owe much to H.G. Wells, and The War of the Worlds should be on everyone's list of must read sci-fi.

Film Friday: Skyline Review

Title: Skyline
Genre: Horror/Sci-fi
Directed by: Greg and Colin Strause

• Written by: Joshua Cordes & Liam O'Donnell
• Starring: 

• Eric Balfour
• Scottie Thompson
• Brittany Daniel
• Donald Faison
• Release Date: November 12th, 2010
• Rating: 1/5

What a piece of crap. There. Review is done.

...fine


You know those horror movies where the main characters are shallow, selfish a-holes and, so you could A. care less about the characters and B. don't care when they die and actually are cheering for the opposing side a little? Imagine that, but instead of a slasher flick it is an alien invasion.

The movie follows a group of partiers in LA (what is it about LA and aliens?) who, after a night of revelry, soon find themselves and city under siege from an unknown alien race abducting humanity and killing all who oppose them. The group tries to escape the huge condo building they are in through a variety of ways but end up trying to wait out the attack and pray the military arrives in time.

While I suppose the movie does take up the notion that not everyone is the alien fighting hero and looks at what would happen when a group of (arguably) everyday people are faced with an alien invasion. However, as I said, they are all people I could care less about and the fact that the movie tries hard to make me empathize with them and feel sorry about character deaths is insulting given the fact they previously made it clear these people are selfish a-holes.

Like a slasher flick, there is little plot and even less character development and, just when the movie starts to get interesting (the last 3 minutes of the movie) the credits start to roll, giving the viewer, had they stuck with the movie so long, the finger one last time. The only thing operating in this film's favor is the fact that it is strongly suggested that humanity loses, that we are conquered and the aliens take over the planet and harvest the resource they came here for: human brains. That, and its fun to see Turk from Scrubs get eaten.

I suggest avoiding this movie and, if you want to watch a movie where alien invaders attack and destroy LA, watch Battle: LA or, better yet, ID4.

Don't let the trailer fool you, this movie is horrible.

Film Friday - Battle: Los Angeles Review

Title: Battle: Los Angeles
Genre: Action/Sci-fi/War
Directed by: Jonathan Liebesman
Written by: Chris Bertolini
Starring:
Aaron Eckhart
Michelle Rodriguez
Ramon Rodriguez
Bridget Moynahan
Release Date: March 11th, 2011
Rating: 3.5/5






Battle: LA follows a group of marines during an alien invasion as the battle for the control of LA. Or, more specifically, Battle: LA follows a group of marines as they first attempt to rescue civilians then, later, escape LA and try to find a way to defeat the alien menace.

Battle: LA seems to follow the tropes of the natural disaster genre  and war movies moreso than an alien invasion. You get the main character who is somewhat dissatisfied with their life, you get the inital introduction of the characters to personify them and make the audience care, destruction of urban areas, people running around screaming, explosions, etc etc. except, instead of a volcano or earthquake, you have aliens. As far as the storyline goes, its pretty typical, aliens are invading to get our resources. That's it. The other storyline, the characters, is somewhat succeful in that no, I didn't get attached to any of the characters other than Aaron Eckhart's character but there were times I was wondering if they would ultimately succeed or fail.

The aliens in this are pretty cool and are something I haven't seen before in alien movies, which was a pleasant surprise, although their ships were pretty bland-more connected piles of scrap metal than actual ships. Another surprise is that the aliens and humans are on pretty even terms as far as combat technology and warfare. Yes, they do have superior technology, but it has weaknesses that the marines exploit, which makes the aliens feel more believable. CGI is pretty good too.

One thing I didn't care for was the shaky gureilla handycam style filming. Yes, during the fighting it works, but in stationary shots the camera keeps moving a zooming in and out needlessly and its really distracting.

Battle: LA, for what it is, executes it pretty well and makes a decent movie. That, and twoface is in it. I recommend checking it out.

Book Review: The Drive-In: A “B” Movie with Blood and Popcorn, Made in Texas

The Drive-In: A “B” Movie with Blood and Popcorn, Made in Texas by Joe R. Lansdale
Published: 1988
Publisher: Bantam Books
Audience: Mature
Pages 176
Buy the Book: Amazon
Book Rating: 5/5








Book Synopsis:
Friday night at the Orbit Drive-in: a circus of noise, sex, teenage hormones, B-movie blood, and popcorn. On a cool, crisp summer night, with the Texas stars shining down like rattlesnake eyes, movie-goers for the All-Night Horror Show are trapped in the drive-in by a demonic-looking comet. Then the fun begins. If the movie-goers try to leave, their bodies dissolve into goo. Cowboys are reduced to tears. Lovers quarrel. Bikini-clad women let their stomachs’ sag, having lost the ambition to hold them in. The world outside the six monstrous screens fades to black while the movie-goers spiral into base humanity, resorting to fighting, murdering, crucifying, and cannibalizing to survive.

Review:
If Amazon's summary doesn't have you clicking the 'add to cart' button, I don't know what will. Close to 200 pages, The Drive-In is a quick read and is a lot of fun. My brother tends to come across an eclectic variety of novels and loaned this to me and I read it in one sitting. The book, starting off like a coming of age story, quickly turns for the worse as the main characters, journeying to a huge drive-in, become trapped there with the rest of the patrons. Many theories are suggested but soon become moot as the people trapped in the drive-in slowly go insane. However, mere mortals are the least of the main characters worries as the people in the drive-in begin to worship a being called 'The Popcorn King'. Faced with dangers on all sides, the main characters must not only think of a way to escape the drive-in, but the Popcorn King and it's followers.

This book can appeal to the 'check your brain at the door' readers who want a good rollercoaster ride, but the book at times does explore the depth of human depravity and the quickness with which the thin veneer of society is rubbed away. Violent, funny, mad maxian, with monstrous creatures and possibly some aliens, this book is truly an homage to the 1950s scifi flick, monster movie, and slasher flick....and a coming of age for our main characters.

My brother only had the first novel in the trilogy and for his birthday I noticed on amazon that, to my surprise and pleasure, that the series had been compiled into one treasure replete with concept art for the now defunct movie of the book, and good forewords and introductions. So, I picked it up. Highly recommended. I plan to read the other two books in the trilogy soon.