Halloween time and so my top 5 horror television of the 21st century.
The Walking Dead (2010 -, currently in 5th season)
The Walking Dead has recently started its fifth season and is attracting groundbreaking viewing figures for cable television. The new series is already living up to the consistent high quality expected, especially with the strong lead performance of Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes, now weary, grey-bearded, greasy and blood-splattered but ever determined to keep his band of survivors, comrades and family, safe.
Carl: Dad, you can’t keep me from it.
Rick: From what?
Carl: From what always happens.
Rick: Yeah. Maybe. But I think it’s my job to try.
But the most satisfying aspect of The Walking Dead is how it uses one of the most well trod genres in horror: zombies.
Essentially, zombies (from here on known as walkers) haven’t changed a great deal since Hammer’s The Plague of the Zombies (1966), but now the advantage of a long running series such as The Walking Dead allows time for them to mature in the walker equivalent of a fine cheese and horribly waste away in front of us. Season 5 has noticeably ramped up the gore with walkers visibly decomposing as they lurch towards their victims. The best scene to illustrate this came in the second episode, with walkers trapped in a flooded basement where Rick and co find themselves fighting off rotting and waterlogged horrors.
Penny Dreadful (2014 -, 2nd season planned)
Watching Hammer’s 1958 Dracula recently, I sadly realised how unsatisfying the film is. It reworks Bram Stoker’s novel for the screen admirably enough but adds little – critically I think it fails to reinvent the Dracula story in an interesting way other than offer a dash of colour and cut-glass English accents. Although Dracula is now regarded as a film classic (being notched up to five stars by the Radio Times for its last terrestrial viewing), I think that Hammer became more inventive when they started to play around a bit more adventurously with the well known stories – Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde (1971), or find new things to do with tired genres, Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter (1974). Of course it didn’t always work so well – see Dracula AD 1972 (1972).
Forty years on, Penny Dreadful still manages to be creative with the same limited source material, mixing together both Dracula and Frankenstein with a dash of Dorian Gray and the Wolfman and a background setting of the Grand Guignol. What works so well is how Penny Dreadful both respects the originals and alters them to introduce unexpected surprises. The scene where Frankenstein’s Creature (Rory Kinnear) murders Van Helsing (David Warner) is one such audacious twist. Like the original 19th century penny dreadfuls, the series honours only the essence of the originals.
Most terrifying though is the presence of Eva Green as the possessed Vanessa Ives:
Hannibal (2013 – , 3rd season planned)
Hannibal recasts a more recent familiar character from horror, Hannibal Lecter, and upends the familiar image of him incarcerated in a dark, gothic dungeon ( The Silence of the Lambs (1991)). This time it is Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) who is usually the prisoner, with Hannibal (Mads Mikkelsen) free to follow his monstrous pursuits. In another alteration, journalist Freddie Lounds, first played by Stephen Lang in Manhunter (1986), is now a woman (Lara Jean Chorostecki).
Hannibal is a slow burner and at times very ponderous and overly talky:
Hannibal: I gave you a rare gift, and you didn’t want it. You would deny me my life.
Will: Not your life.
Hannibal: My freedom then, you would take that from me. Confine me to a prison cell. Did you believe you could change me the way I’ve changed you?
Will: I already did.
But Hannibal is also very, very frightening, particularly with the events that are not directly connected to Lecter, such as the activities of the insane acupuncturist played by Amanda Plummer. He isn’t the only monster on the loose.
The success of Hannibal has started a trend of remaking famous horror films as a tv franchise, for example the story of the young Norman Bates in Bates Motel (2013 – , 3rd season planned), which throws away the Psycho (1960) rulebook to introduce a modern day setting instead of the more logical 50s one. Although I’m not sure if this is down to design or just laziness.
American Horror Story (2011 – , currently in 4th season)
The genius of American Horror Story is how it reboots for each season, with a new theme and cast of characters played by the same repertory company of actors, notably Jessica Lange. The four seasons to date cover a modern day haunted house, a 60s mental asylum, a coven of witches bouncing between 1840 and the present day and a 50s freak show. The first series used music from classic cinema films, notably Bernard Herrmann’s score from Twisted Nerve (1968) and the second started a theme of using recognisable characters from films such as Pinhead from Freaks (1932). More subtly, Stevie Nicks features heavily as things progress.Of all my choices, American Horror Story makes best use of the 13 episode season structure, peppering it with surprises and red herrings.
American Horror Story has zombies too, in the season 3 Halloween episodes, and season 3 also delivers its own take on Frankenstein with Evan Peters as the frustrated creature. The best thing about American Horror Story is that it is at times totally, totally mad. See the Name Game Song from season 2:
If Penny Dreadful resembles the periodicals from the 19th century that it takes its name from, then American Horror Story is the modern day equivalent of the Victorian melodrama.
Game of Thrones (2011 – , 5th season planned)
Despite the White Walkers, dragons, giants and the like which give the appearance of an adult fantasy series, the real moments of horror in Game and Thrones stem from what the very real human characters do to each other. The beheading of Ned Stark (Sean Bean) starts this whole horrible sequence of events, leading to the multiple killings at the red wedding the poisoning of King Joffrey (Jack Gleeson) and the shocking death of Prince Oberyn (Pedro Pascal). And this only touches the surface. It’s not just the grisly murders. The fate of Theon Greyjoy, anyone?
If we’re talking horror in its purest sense, the The Walking Dead is probably the best of the bunch. For camp lunacy and inventiveness, American Horror Story wins hands down and is my choice for Halloween viewing this year. But ultimately Game of Thrones comes out tops for acting and overall quality. What’s interesting (although fingers crossed for Penny Dreadful) is that all of the above are long term series – television certainly has a thirst for horror.
Fragment of Fear is a psychological thriller starring David Hemmings. Made in 1970 and directed by Richard C. Sarafian (see also Vanishing Point) the film had all but disappeared from memory until recently resurfacing for online rental. What at first looks to be a quaint period piece with an endearing supporting cast (Arthur Lowe, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Daniel Massey and Patricia Hayes) surprisingly turns out be be a very effective and tense ride.
David Hemmings was always one for getting himself into a psychological pickle in the early 1970s. He followed Fragment of Fear with Unman, Wittering and Zigo (1971) and Voices (1973). The films tend to share a common thread, with an individual tormented by unseen menaces (a teacher troubled seemingly by his pupils in Unman, Wittering and Zigo) and slowly losing a grip on reality which generally leads to a shocking ending (Voices has an added supernatural element). Both are worth checking out, as is Hemmings’ lead in Dario Argento’s Deep Red (1975).
Tim Brett (Hemmings) is a writer and recovering drug addict who takes it upon himself to solve the murder of his aunt Lucy (Flora Robson). Although it happens in Italy he’s soon dashing back to London – obviously keen to interact with Lowe, Hyde-White et al. What follows is an intriguing flow of events where Brett slowly sinks into paranoia. He meets a woman on a train who hands him a letter, which is later revealed as a threatening warning mysteriously typed up in his own flat which he is later unable to clearly articulate. He’s subsequently plagued by menacing phone calls. Of course, nobody believes him. Policemen and officials all appear as ambiguous in identity, including Arthur Lowe and Daniel Massey giving excellent and effortless turns. Yootha Joyce and Kenneth Cranham (miles from their respective early 80s George and Mildred and Shine on Harvey Moon comedy roles) also turn up to hang around on the fringes of Brett’s increasing madness. It’s all quite magnificent and Hemmings in particular is very good, breaking out into a visibly uncomfortable sweat as things begin to fall apart for him.
By the way, the Aunt Lucy plot isn’t particularly interesting, and she is revealed as a do-gooder of ex-offenders turned blackmailer. It might be difficult to imagine Flora Robson capable of this. The ex-offenders form the background of the mysterious group called the “Stepping Stones” who cause havoc for Hemmings. What’s more interesting is the dark ending of the film, which leaves Brett in a very bad place and also leaves it open as to whether his girlfriend Juliet (Gayle Hunnicutt) has anything to do with it all.
There’s minimal location shooting and the film relies mostly on interiors but this works in its favour, especially the scenes inside Brett’s flat, with the dark corners and creaky furniture. The music by Johnny Harris is very of its time but still apt. Ah, and I’ve forgotten to say very much about Gayle Hunnicutt, Hemmings’ wife who often co-starred with him. To be honest, she’s unmemorable in Fragment of Fear, although watch out for her Nana Mouskouri style glasses. They have an important part to play in the growing paranoia.
Kate Bush - Before The Dawn
It has taken me two weeks to finally come down to earth and write a review for Before the Dawn. And nine months to write another blog post. Of course, that’s nothing like the 35 years it’s taken Kate Bush to return to the Hammersmith Apollo for a new series of live shows. And even though I didn’t need convincing more, Graeme Thomson’s 2012 biography Under the Ivy, with its lengthy and excellent account of 1979’s The Tour of Life, and even longer deliberation on why Kate Bush would never tour again, finally drove the message home that live shows were never going to happen.
Next to David Bowie, Kate Bush is our most enigmatic star, but I find it difficult to write at length about her music. It’s probably because I have an emotional reaction to it. Hounds of Love is probably my favourite album, but I don’t really know what it’s about – especially the second side. Like many Bush fans, I’m guilty of crying at her recent concerts. We don’t know why – only that we have a deep love for her music.
So where to start with Before the Dawn? I’d long resigned myself to the fact that I wouldn’t be attending a show after my failure to buy tickets during the March 2014 fiasco. Add the unreliability and inflated prices of tickets later being offered on Gumtree. But miraculously, I discovered that legitimate tickets were trickling out on the Eventim website and I was successful in buying a hospitality deal for September 2nd (bought on the day, resulting on a subsequent mad dash to London, racing over the Hammersmith flyover and wondering where the hell I was going to park). The Eventim hospitality deal is perhaps a separate story to tell, and I found the pre concert dinner in the church opposite the venue just one step too bizarre to digest.
The set-list of Before the Dawn is common knowledge now, and that it was largely dominated by Hounds of Love and Aerial, with songs from The Red Shoes and 50 Words for Snow. There was nothing dating further back than 1985, and the only noticeable similarity with the 1979 shows was that Bush appeared barefoot. As she has matured immeasurably as an artist since then (and if you don’t believe me, take a fresh look at the at times embarrassing Live at the Hammersmith Odeon DVD), I welcomed the focus on that later work (although, strangely, The Sensual World was ignored). In particular, The Ninth Wave sequence from Hounds of Love has I think always been crying out for a visual element. I’ve said I’ve really only had an emotional reaction to her work, and I’ve loved The Ninth Wave but could articulate little about its content. To a lesser degree as it is more of a sedate piece, A Sky of Honey from Aerial, is also perfect material for the stage.
However, before the expected visual feast Bush walks on to the stage with her seven piece band and five strong chorus (including her son, Bertie, who increasingly plays a major contribution in the show). In this first act there are breathtaking versions of Lily, Hounds of Love, Joanni, Top of the City, Running up that Hill and King of the Mountain. There is a lot to take it – it’s an emotional opening for the packed auditorium – but most noticeable is how relaxed Bush seems, and how incredibly strong her voice sounds.
The second act takes us into The Ninth Wave, which is a relentless and powerful piece of theatre. So much so that concentrated repeated viewings would only do it justice and bring it all together in the mind, the lasers and the helicopter included. Stand outs are And Dream of Sheep performed as a video sequence with Bush floating in a life jacket and the beautiful Hello Earth.
Following the interval the third act is Aerial territory, where the striking scenery includes puppetry and a backdrop of sweeping bird visuals. Bertie takes on the role of the painter (originally narrated, unfortunately, by Rolf Harris), and later he gets to sing a new song, Tawny Moon. It’s uncertain if such a structured show will allow for an encore, but after her goodbyes Bush returns to the piano for Among Angels and then the band return to close with a magnificent Cloudbusting, a moment where the highly appreciative audience stand up and almost begin to lose control.
Twitter rumours involved the other national obsession David Bowie joining Kate on stage. Of course it didn’t happen, and to be honest it would have been more fitting it Peter Gabriel or even Elton John (I’m thinking Snowed in at Wheeler Street) made an appearance. But this was her moment alone. This is possibly the best concert I have ever been to, but might allow time to let what for a long time seemed the impossible sink in.
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