[Freya-dæg] Shocktober Pt.4: The unconventional arc of The Convent

{The Convent‘s movie poster, found on IMDb.}

Introduction
Plot Summary
The Good
The Bad
Judgment
Closing

Introduction

In today’s entry, we take a look at the Mike Mendez’ horror flick, The Convent. With its low budget effects and costumes, it’s a great film for the end of October (and Part 4 of Shocktober) since the best Halloween costumes are often made on a budget.

So, let’s see if the same is true of B-Horror movies, as we settle into weighing the good and the bad of this flick,

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Plot Summary

In the middle of the 20th century, a convent of nuns ran a school – until one of the students went mad and slaughtered them all before setting the place aflame.

Come 2006, it’s tradition for the local universities’ sororities and fraternities to try to paint their letters on the old convent’s bell tower. Clarissa’s troop of newly minted preppy friends is new exception, and everything is going great for her until an old friend from a past she’d rather forget asks to go with them to the old, burned out convent.

In the end, Clarissa’s old friend Mo (Megahn Perry) comes with them, and they all wander through the convent. However, instead of finding the bell-tower, they find Satanists who are trying to bring forth the devil himself. Instead, chaos is brought into the old hilltop religious building – unleashing a demonic deluge that surely no-one will survive.

Clarissa and her friends are about to find out that no matter how hard you pray, you’re damned when you enter The Convent!

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The Good

This movie wastes no time whatsoever setting things up or putting things in motion.

The opening scene gives us one perspective of the urban myth about the titular convent, and from there we’re immediately introduced to Clarissa’s trying to gel with a new set of friends. This quick and dirty introduction is appreciated, because it gives the movie a great deal of room to expand things – maybe introduce competing perspectives on what happened in the convent, or really get into why Clarissa is looking for new friends when the old ones still seem to be around. But more on that later.

After this quick introduction things move along at a steady clip. The spooky convent and the woman responsible for the shooting at it are visited, and a great deal of tension is built up around the old burned out building. There’s also quite a bit of humour and self awareness involved in these first tens of minutes. Some examples are:

{A black cop who delivers the mad analogy: “I’m gonna lock yo ass up so tight, they gon’ have to have a combination to visit yo’ nuts…white boy.”}

{The group’s blonde complaining about how a criminal record isn’t: going to look good on my application to fashion school.”}

And, without pictures, an exchange between the group’s men that ends with the conclusion that they need to go back for the druggie’s stash; plus a brief and direct Scooby Doo reference.

All of this humour and self-awareness make the movie feel like it’s getting to something, like it’s really on its way to telliing a horrific story that plays with the audience’s expectations.

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The Bad

However, The Convent never gets that far.

After the movie’s introductory moments are gone, they’re never revisited. Instead, we’re left with two thirds that could double as a Benny Hill sketch with just a little bit of redubbing.

Now, this shift to true b-movie stuff wouldn’t be so bad if the start of the movie hadn’t been so promising.

If the movie opened with cheesy lines and demons trying to convert the living, then that’s being the focus of the last two thirds wouldn’t be an issue. What’s worse though, is that once the movie’s big bad demons appear it becomes terribly uneven.

One minute, we’re skulking about the convent with one of the gang, trying to find the others, the next we see the demons traipsing about and doing whatever it is that demons do in this movie (their workings/weaknesses being explained not being one of these things).

By the time the final scenes of the movie show us some genuine b-movie badassery, things have been too incoherent for anyone other than the most diehard of horror fans to have lost interest and dismissed this movie as nothing more than a disappointment.

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Judgment

The Convent is simply a letdown. It’s a movie that clocks in at just slightly over an hour, and opens with such snap and self-confident ease. But that confidence erodes by the time the demons appear.

However, the erosion of a movie’s confidence and atmosphere is one thing, frustrating an audience’s expectations only to later follow some of the laziest horror tropes is the mark of nothing more than a bad movie.

There’s really no other way to say it. If it had gone all out on its tropes or been as original as possible within the limits of its story, then it could have been a great bit of entertainment like Leprechaun in the Hood, or a neatly layered horror tale as was Silent House.

So, Freya, there’s no need to skim the stinking Field of Fallen Films for the sake of The Convent. Let it be where it lay, and may its name be reluctantly whispered even among midnight cauldron stirrers.

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Closing

Check back here tomorrow for Annotated Links #23, a collection of five links that share some common thread and that are also pretty cool!

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[Freya-dæg] Shocktober Pt.3:Making some Noise about Silent House

{Silent House‘s movie poster, found on Wikipedia.}

Introduction
Plot Summary
The Good
The Bad
Judgment
Closing

Introduction

Based on Gustavo Hernández’s independent horror film, Casa de Muda, this week’s movie is a chilling one.

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Plot Summary

Sarah (Elizabeth Olsen), her father (Adam Trese), and her uncle Peter (Eric Sheffer Stevens) have returned to their old vacation house to prepare it for sale. But, if working in a big, old house isn’t bad enough, there are stories of people who have been squatting in this vacation home while Sarah and her family have been away.

What’s more, Sarah hears things as she works her way through sorting old possessions. Her father and her uncle say it’s just an old house, but Sarah’s ears aren’t the only thing deceiving her when she begins to see people who, on second glance, appear not to be there at all.

When faced with strange stories, noises only you seem to hear, and things that only you can see what could be worse than a Silent House?

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The Good

The overlooked indie horror movie of 2012, Silent House, has quite a bit to offer.

Much like The Screaming Skull it shows its mastery of atmosphere early on, but rather than pumping up the tension to the point where our patience bursts and we wind up with something comedic rather than horrific, Silent House knows how to moderate its tension. In that regard, this movie is to The Screaming Skull as Edison‘s DC electrical system is to Tesla‘s AC system.

Helping to maintain this atmosphere is ace camera work by Igor Martinovic. His handling of angles and long shots is not only effective but convincing when it comes to showing us what perspective we’re seeing everything through. Much of the movie is shot so that Sarah is the focus, and paired with the single camera approach, this is a dynamite movie for cinematography. In fact, it should definitely be looked at as a reference for communicating perspective through film.

{Throughout most of the movie the camera focuses on Sarah; putting Peter in front of her fantastically expresses his protective role.}

Of course, the bread and butter of any horror movie couldn’t be moderated by cinematography alone. The movie’s script and direction are also great at stringing out just enough frights throughout the movie to release excess tension and to make way for more.

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The Bad

However. Silent House‘s strengths are met by its major flaws.

As an experiment in what I’d consider first person film, we aren’t given the same information that we’d get if we had different character perspectives or even a script that allowed for omniscient (or near omniscient) story telling/filmography. Because we lack the sort of information that could only be delivered explicitly if we were privy to another character’s perspective, we’re given an ending that is a shock, but not in an expected way.

At the risk of spoiling the ending – here I go – rather than a final moment that sends shivers up and down your spine (as Paranormal Activity did for me), we get something softer, more akin to the ending of Shutter Island, or Inception even.

It’s not a bad ending in and of itself, but it’s not what’s expected from a horror movie, especially one that tries so hard to combine jump scares with more psychological frights. Ultimately, however, the movie’s attempt to balance these two makes it much more lopsided.

It also doesn’t help that one of the actors simply has a presence that suggests his/her involvement in some unsavoury activities.

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Judgment

Silent House is a sleek, and considerable horror/thriller.

It makes effective use of camera work to tell its story and to create atmosphere.

It withholds a little too much information, and its ending suggests that the next scene could be more interesting than everything that came before it.

This movie’s a strange beast because it’s really quite a strange movie when considered. Much like Shutter Island it plays with perspectives, and there are twists throughout, but the thing is that despite its admirable attempt to be a story told mostly in the first person, what’s lost as a result leaves us to piece far too much together.

This challenge that Silent House presents is a welcome one, and can make for an engaging movie experience, but it’s not engaging if you’re not willing to do some speculating throughout your watching of it.

Nonetheless, it still offers some chilling scares and an ending that, as far as soft, conversation-generating endings go, is better than Inception‘s. And for that, as well as Igor Martinovic’s masterful work behind the movie’s single camera, this is one to save, I say, Freya.

So swoop low and lift this one from the muck and mire – it’s a movie to be seen and to be talked about for what it does right as much as what it loses in trying to do too much.

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Closing

Check back here tomorrow for Annotated Links #22!

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[Moon-dæg] From A Ship’s Crow’s Nest

Context
Blue Bricks
Closing

{A replica of a medieval ship. Image found on the Seasalt Cornwall blog.}

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Context

Today’s story is one of the many shorts that offers some insight into the backstory of the fantasy series that I’m currently working on. In fact, it’s a kind of world building story, in the sense that it (once it’s as finished as it can be) will offer a glimpse into a major aspect or two of my created world.

To date the process of writing this series has been drafting it book by book (as a “discovery” writer) to figure out how the world works. However, after taking a fair bit of time off from writing this series during my MA, I’ve gotten to the point where the discoveries made by writing the larger books need to be refined through shorter stories. These shorter stories will also, ideally help me to see how these aspects of the world I’m creating can feed back into the five books of the series.

This story was written based on a prompt at the local writing group, and just evolved from it. The prompt was to write a story in which each paragraph starts with a colour. It’s still a draft of sorts, but much of what the story is is already here.

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Blue Bricks

Blue bricks are a rare sight but still seen. The walls around the island city of Shev have them near their bottom, though other sailors said they were just turned that colour by the sea.

Ermina believed instead what some of the Shevites themselves told her. That the blue bricks around the bottom of their city’s wall were made of the purest stone found in all the caves that wended through the cliffs over which the city sat. Caves where the more superstitious among them said they would never dare to tread. But even from her place at the top of every ship she ever sailed in, Ermina had never seen anything beneath the city’s walls but breaking waves. Part of her wondered about the stories she had heard in the city’s inns where the crews she had been with stayed. She believed what she would about the bricks, despite the evidence of her eyes, but the stories were always such a deep red.

She knew that red stories were not necessarily better than any other, but she loved them the most. They almost never moved at a slug’s pace. Since she was a child the red stories always moved faster than gulls diving for fish, and their heroes and villains always came up from the plunge with their prey.

Ermina watched such gulls now. They looped and glided, all immaculate white tipped with grey, yellow and orange. Not the kind found around lakes but the sort that would give dull old hawks fair competition – the sort found by the sea, flying between white sails, white masts. She wondered why the place where she stood, her arms on its railing, was even called a “crow’s nest.” She’d never seen any crows flying out at sea, or even heard stories of such things.

The gulls’s cries drowned the waves’ crashing against the ship’s side. The ship’s sides that were still the colour of the meadow honey they made on the Kael Isles, despite recent layers of pitch. While the familiar sound of someone climbing rung over rung snuck in beneath that of the gulls she imagined herself back on those Isles.

“We’ve only just reached the green water and already this one is off beyond the Crumbs.”

Ermina stirred. “Oh, Cyril. There’s not as much to see out there as you and yours’d like to.” She didn’t bother to turn or straighten from her place at the nest’s edge. “What’s got you up here?”

Cyril looked back down the way he had come. Beneath him the ship’s sides rose and fell. “Just to remind myself that even green has its limits.”

“Your maps’d tell you that just as easy.” She turned back to the water. “What’s the real reason?”

“We are bound for Shev. I thought you should know.”

Ermina hunched her shoulders. “I already know. I’ll get another look at those blue bricks, and hear some more stories about the creatures or gods or demons that gave them.”

“And?” Cyril fingered a loose thread in his sleeve.

Ermina said nothing. Why does he press me on this? “And I’ll be sure to shout down real loud when I see it all.”

Ermina heard Cyril’s leather jerkin creak before she heard any of his footsteps back to the ladder. She refused to look back, though she knew that he would linger before heading down. When she finally straightened and turned, she could hear him back down on the deck, giving commands and sending orders. She tried to think of the best red story from past voyages to Shev, but could only fear that with Cyril along the only one to be told would include them both.

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Closing

Check back here on Friday for Part Three of Shocktober, a peek into the perils of Silent House. For mid-week stuff, check out Tongues in Jars on Tuesday (Latin) and Thursday (Old English).

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[Sæternes-dæg] Annotated Links #21: Simple Solutions

1. “Scholars finish dictionary of ancient Egyptian language.” ScienceBlog 19 September 2012. Web. 13 October 2012.

The Chicago Demotic Dictionary, developed at the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute, has finally been completed. The article details how the Ancient Egyptian common language has contributed to Modern English, as well as how it sheds light on how the common people of Ancient Egypt lived. It is written in a fairly conversational style.

Language news is always fascinating news, and so this one had to be included.

2. Knight, Chris. “From Doctor Who to Looper to Robot & Frank: The best sci-fi is made on a shoestring.” National Post 7 October 2012. Web. 13 October 2012.

Knight uses Doctor Who (the Daleks, specifically), Looper, and Robot & Frank as examples of effective science fiction that’s financially successful because of its small budget. These are contrasted with blockbuster movies of the past summer, and the take away is that good science fiction needs to be more substantial and referential to our own present to be successful.

This article is included because it shows that substance is more often appreciated than flash.

3. McGinn, Dave. “The $55K, 2,900-square foot, eco-friendly home – with no electricity bills.” The Globe and Mail 10 October 2012. Web. 13 October 2012.

This article explains just what an “earthship” home is (one built from recycled materials, and that uses natural heating and water) and how they’re more economically and environmentally feasible than your standard home. Its focus on a couple from Tilsonburg, Ontario lends this story a human interest element, and it’s written in a simple style that makes broad use of quotations.

Wild designs and neat aesthetics combine with practicality in this subject, and so it’s something I’ve got to share.

4. Baumann, Chris, and Shu Setogawa. “Korean teachers preferred.” The Korea Herald 10 October 2012. Web. 13 October 2012.

This one is a report on a study of teacher preferences among Koreans. It shows that Koreans do prefer Korean teachers, even when it comes to English language instruction, because they are believed to be the most apt to demonstrate the proper etiquette and cultural values. Baumann and Setogawa’s report is written in a formal, academic style and includes a handful of charts.

Although this report addresses the issue of ESL teachers, I included this one to help spread these findings and because it very quickly details how the Korean approach to ESL teaching is changing.

5. Everett-Green, Robert. “1K Wave: Can a great film be made for $1,000? Ingrid Veninger thinks so.” The Globe and Mail 10 October 2012. Web. 13 October 2012.

Ingrid Veninger, Toronto filmmaker, believes that local filming and at-home editing mean that anyone who wants to make a movie can – and for only $1000 up front. Veninger has already run the 1K Wave contest, and five films were created as a direct result. This article is written in a conversational style with quotes from a variety of local filmmakers.

Creative contests that stand out like this one deserve to get attention. So, since this one also works with this Annotated Links’ theme, it had to be included.

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Closing

Next week check the blog for a new polished draft of fiction (Monday), a look for the lurking in Silent House (Friday), and the next Annotated Links (Saturday).

And to keep your reading going throughout the week, check out Tongues in Jars for translations and commentary of the Latin poem “Dum Diane vitrea” and the Old English Beowulf.

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