Sunday, October 17, 2021

October Horror Movie Challenge: Coven (2019)

Coven (2019)
Someone, really, REALLY, loved The Craft and thought "if four witches are good, then five MUST be better!"  That someone is writer and star Lizze Gordon. 

Coven (2019)

Our coven is made up of nice, but insecure Beth, crazy leader Ronnie, her psycho girlfriend Jax, and hippie wanna-be Taylor.   They need a fifth when Ronnie kills Christy.  That fifth turns out to be Sophie (Lizze Gordon).  Though, unlike the Craft, all these witches already have power, and seemingly quite a bit of it

The Coven wants to summon Ashura, the spirit of a witch to give them all even more power; all they need is Sophie. Though known only to Ronnie and Jax, they are planning to summon Ashura's spirit into Ronnie and not sharing in the power.

So Ronnie is the updated Nancy.  Sophie is the updated Sarah.  Beth is...well kinda like Bonnie. Jax is just crazy.  I do like the brand they all have on their backs; I did something similar with one of my witches.  

And again, like the Craft, the witches let the magic go to their heads. 

The night of the 22nd of September they summon Ashura, who is pretty obviously not good, starts out by killing Taylor.  Beth and Sophie runs off, but Jax and Ronnie, now possessed by Ashura plan to go after them.

I was about to talk about Beth and Sophie running around in just their underwear, but Sophie casts a spell that dresses them before they head back to the occult bookstore (yeah, just like store in The Craft).  Sophie, with the help of Beth and Emily (the bookstore owner played by Sofya Skya) powers up from her dead mother's magic.  They decide to go after Ashura. 

They find the spell to stop her, but needs a sacrifice.  Sophie's professor ends up sacrificing herself to defeat Ashura and Ronnie.

Ok. Let's be upfront. This is not a great movie, but it is a fun one.  Lizze Gordon looks like she is having the time of her life here really. I enjoyed the bit about the witches having their own ancient language, something we saw in Emerald City (Inha) and Motherland: Fort Salem (Méníshè) as well.  So it is a good idea. 

2021 October Horror Movie Challenge

October 2021
Viewed: 32
First Time Views: 19

Saturday, October 16, 2021

October Horror Movie Challenge: Curse of the Mayans (2017)

Curse of the Mayans (2017)
Another one with my wife tonight.  She was in the mood for something Egyptian or similar, but I remembered I had this one on my list.  It is horror, it is sci-fi, and I have been wanting to find something more about Mayan myths, even if it was in the form of a cheesy movie.  Actually for what I have planned a cheesy movie is perfect.

Curse of the Mayans (2017)

This movie was also known as Xibalbá.  An American professor, Dr. Alan Green (played by Steve Wilcox) hires a professional cave diver Danielle Noble, played by Carla Ortiz, to uncover what he believes is the lost library of the Mayas.

There is a bit in the start about an alien race of reptile aliens from the Pleiades. And a Mayan retelling of the Nibiru tale, Va Sheck.

The movie starts slow, but about 1:05 in it really begins to kick in.  The divers find what they think is the library, but it looks like alien technology.  One of the divers tries to grab a gold jaguar head, but instead, they let something out.  The demons/aliens begin to kill the divers.

The professor tells us the alien/demons are "Tlaloc."  While the name is Aztec, there is a Mayan god that is similar.  They can possess humans, but their eyes look like snakes.  Cool, but how does the professor know all of this?

The movie ends just as it is getting interesting.  

So some scares, but not enough and too little too late.

I had hoped for more really. 

2021 October Horror Movie Challenge

October 2021
Viewed: 31
First Time Views: 18


October Horror Movie Challenge: Werewolf Night

I love horror movies.  My wife doesn't.  BUT she does enjoy a good werewolf movie.  Over the month we have tried a few with varying degrees of success. I thought I'd switch it up tonight with a few werewolf movies.

The Wolf of Snow Hollow (2020)

This one was out first one and I liked how it looked and started.  I was written, directed, and starred Jim Cummings. Normally I avoid movies where one guy wears all the hats, the notable exception is Spike Lee.  But this one did not feel like an ego trip (looking at you M. Night Shyamalan).  It also featured Riki Lindholm, which is always a plus in my book.

So this sleepy little town in Utah, which barely sees any sort of crime, is suddenly beset upon by a bunch of grisly murders that are soon blamed on a werewolf.    Only the Sheriff (Cummings) doesn't believe.  We see many of the victims get torn apart from the point of view of the werewolf and even see bits of the creature.

The movie is a bit slow, but the cast is likable.  In particular, Robert Forster plays the older Sheriff Hadley and Cummings father in this.  It would be his last role before he died.  In fact we would later comment that some of the other sheriffs we see later on, seemed to be modeled on the whole Robert Forster vibe. 

In the end it is not a werewolf, but a serial killer dressed up in a wolf pelt with homemade claws.

Lycan (2017)
Lycan (2017)

This is one of those horror movies where the director and writer know that horror fans are watching, so they set up some deliberate tropes to knock them down.  In this one six highschool or college (never really clear) are given the assignment to re-write some local history.  

It was set in 1986, which I can only assume they wanted to avoid things like the Internet or cell phones to tell their story.  A cell phone would have come in handy and a quick internet search would have likely saved some lives.  But I digress. 

The six students, three boys, three girls, very convenient, head out to the woods to get more details on the legend of Emily Burt, the Talbot County werewolf.  In the process they manage to get themselves lost and killed in no time. 

In some trope defying moves, there is no sex and no nudity from our main cast members. There is also no werewolf or ghost werewolf.  The killer is again (or before) just someone with a weird wolf claw-thing.  The killer though is Isabella, one of the girls on the camping trip.  Turns out she is crazy and so is her caretaker.  Isabella is the daughter of Emily Burt.

Everyone dies, EXCEPT for the jock.  So a change there. 

Into the Dark: Blood Moon (2021)
Into the Dark: Blood Moon (2021)

Finally! A real werewolf.  It also answers the question "is lycanthropy sexually transmitted?"  No, but it can be inherited. 

We did not realize this was part of an anthology but it does work as a stand-alone movie.   

Esme and Luna move to a new town where Esme pays for everything in cash and keeps Luna close to home. Especially on the full moon.  Luna is a 10-year-old werewolf.  We get the idea from flashbacks that Luna's father and Esem were together for a bit, even to the point where they got married.  But something happened to Luna's dad and the impression is he got out and Esme had to kill him.

Esme moves from town to town and avoids any personal contact when she can.  It doesn't help that local sheriff, NOT played by Robert Forster though he tries, takes a quick dislike to Esme.  

Through some events Sam the local bartender takes a liking to Esme and shows up at her place one day.  He comes into the house and smells the meat she leaves out for Luca when he is a werewolf.  Sam freaks out, she freaks out and accidentally knocks him down the stairs and kills him.  She locks Luna in his cage and goes to get rid of Sam's truck.  Not soon after the sheriff shows up looking for Sam, finds his dead body in a cage with Luna and the full moon is rising.  

Well, you can figure the rest out from here. 

Not a bad flick, but really didn't scratch that werewolf itch we have. Still, better than rapey aliens and rapey fishmen.


2021 October Horror Movie Challenge

October 2021
Viewed: 30
First Time Views: 17

Friday, October 15, 2021

Kickstart Your Weekend: Magical Artifact and Lazy DMs

A couple of Kickstarters came my way this week.  One is perfect for Halloween (and this blog really) and a collection of DM's tips.

Dice, Runes, and Magical Artifacts for RPG's and Witchcraft

Dice, Runes, and Magical Artifacts for RPG's and Witchcraft

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ravenstead/dice-runes-and-magical-artifacts-for-rpgs-and-witchcraft?ref=theotherside

This one is kind of fun.  A bunch of dice, rune stones, a wand, and more that can be used for an RPG or for ritual work in WitchCraft.   I already see a lot of use for these in my "War of the Witch Queens" campaign and the metal wand is rather cool. I think the pendulum is the coolest, however.  

You can find the creator, and his work, on Twitter or his Instagram page.

Up next is a well-known name.

The Lazy DM's Companion

The Lazy DM's Companion

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/slyflourish/the-lazy-dms-companion/description?ref=theotherside

Mike Shea, aka Sly Flourish, is back with The Lazy DM's Companion.  

From the Kickstarter:

This Kickstarter launches the third book in this series: The Lazy DM's Companion. The Lazy DM's Companion includes guidelines to help streamline your 5e D&D games, and inspirational generators to help you build your own D&D adventures and campaigns. Each set of guidelines makes it easier to focus your game on the fantastic stories shared with your friends, while the generators help you break out of creative ruts and build unique adventures and campaigns.

I have a few of these books on PDF.  They are good guides. I still prefer my trusty AD&D DMs Guide, but these are also quite great.

Obviously, there is a need or a want for these, he is sitting at over $260,000 right now and was fully funded in 20 minutes.   Maybe I should do a review of the ones I have.

October Horror Movie Challenge: Horror Planet aka Inseminoid (1981)

Horrorplanet aka Inseminoid (1981)
Man, I am in some kind of rut.  Ok in my defense this movie has been on my list for years, but even I thought it was too cheesy to consider.   Also there are not a lot of choices when your search terms are "Horror," "Sci-fi," "Alien," and "Archeologist." 

So if you read my post earlier today you know I have an idea, or the start of one, for my alien reoccurring Big Bad.  

So this film is taking place on an alien planet.  Writing is discovered on the walls while the research operations are going on this frozen planet.  There appear to be a lot of couples here, convenient really.  One of the researchers is hurt in an explosion and his buddy starts to go crazy.

I am not sure what the future is like, but according to this movie, they must be outlawed by then. 

While out (even though the commander ordered everyone to stay on the base) Sandy and Mitch get out of communication range.  Mitch is killed by some sort of monster and ripped apart.  Sandy is captured and taken to some room where she is stripped naked and impregnated (via a long clear tube full of green slime) by some weird-looking alien creature. 

Sandy starts acting strange.  Not in the "I am traumatized" way, but in the "I have an alien baby growing inside me and I need to kill and eat people now" way.   Sandy is played by Judy Geeson, who has had a really great career over the last 7 decades. This movie wasn't even the start of her career, she had already been working for 20 years at this point.  

Each plan to stop Sandy ends up getting more people killed, often from complete stupidity.  By the end I was rooting for Sandy since pretty much everyone was the cause of their own deaths.

I am not sure what was the biggest scientific screw-up.  When Mark was able to go outside and see Sandy when everyone else died outside.  Or that Sandy was able to get her pants off to give birth and back on again without ever taking off her shoes.

There are some minimally interesting ideas here, but not enough to sit through an hour and a half of this.  At least I have some ideas of things not to do. In the end, it is just a fairly weak Alien rip-off with a side helping of misogyny.   

Directed by Norman J. Warren who also gave us Satan's Slave and another potential one for tonight, Prey.  Let me say right now I am not really that impressed. 

I need to make some better choices in my movies.


2021 October Horror Movie Challenge

October 2021
Viewed: 27
First Time Views: 14

Thursday, October 14, 2021

BlackStar: Horror in Space. Children of Earth, Cardassians, and Aliens

Plain, simple Garak
Plain and simple Garak

In many RPGs, the enemies are easy to figure out.  In *most* horror RPGs the bad guys are the supernatural creatures.  If you are playing Buffy for example then you are going to be hunting vampires.  Now it is also fun to "flip the script" so in the various World of Darkness Vampire games you are the vampire.  You are still the monster, but you have some more control over that evil.  In "Ordinary World" in NIGHT SHIFT you can play a supernatural creature, but you are not the bad person, you are "just a person" trying to get by in a world full of mortgages, jobs, oh and neighbors that might want to kill you.

In many fantasy games there are plenty of other monsters that want to kill you. We might be getting away from orcs (thank goodness) and goblins (have not used them as "bad guys" in over a decade or two) but there are still plenty of evil dragons, beholders, and of course demons and devils. 

Sci-Fi games tend to fall into the same sort of tropes.  Only this time it is whatever aliens are the focus.

I want to talk about three different sorts of aliens, all considered to be enemy species, but handled in different ways.

First are the Cardassians.  Introduced in Star Trek: The Next Generation and really got the focus in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.  The Cardassians are humanoid (this is important later) and come from the world of Cardassia.  They had occupied the nearby Bajor in a very clear analog to fascist Germany occupying France.  The Cardassians are never painted as irredeemably evil. Yes, many of them are in fact evil, but there are some that are not.  They are also depicted as highly intelligent, organized, and utterly brutal.  For most of the seven seasons on DS9, they were the bad guys.  Each step forward (oh look they love their kids) is reversed (oh, but they slaughter Bajoran orphans).  They are richly detailed and complicated, but always a foe to stand up to.  They are not an existential threat though to anyone but the Bajorans.  They are not even "supernatural" threats until the very, very end when Gul Dukat (a Cardassian and our main bag guy since Season 1) is possessed by the Kosst Amojan, the literal Bajoran devil. 

The 456
The other alien race is known only as the 456, for the frequency they contact Earth on in Torchwood: Children of Earth.   The Nazi connections with the Cardassians are intended, and not designed to be subtle.  These aliens are also not subtle; they steal human children and graft them into their own bodies because the chemicals the children create feels good to them.  They are back because they want more kids.  These creatures are never seen clearly, we never learn their name, their language, or even where they are from. Only that they want our children and they have the means to get them.  They are properly scary.  But. Do they make for a good "big bad?"  I don't think so.  They have one trick; stealing children.  While that is good enough for a fairy tale witch, the witch usually gets tossed into the oven at the end.  The 456 get sent back to their planet/ship or are destroyed much in the same manner when Capt. Jack Harkness feeds their communication signal back on them and killing his own grandson in the process.

The last is the Xenomorph from the Aliens franchise.  Alien is a true horror film in space, right down to a monster stalking everyone to a "final girl" in Ellen Ripley.  Aliens is sci-fi adventure.  I have lost track of how many Traveller games I saw in the 80s that were more or less a riff on the Aliens movie.  Again these guys are properly scary.  One on a ship is a true horror. Hundreds on a planet can take out a bunch of Marines.   The trouble with the Xenomorph is there is little to no mystery about them anymore.  In the original movies they were mindless, insectlike killing machines.  In future movies they...well I am still not 100% sure what Alien Covenant was about or Prometheus, though I did enjoy them.  The "Shared universe" of Alien, Blade Runner, and Predator though does give me a lot to game with. 

Use In BlackStar

The issue for me is not just "do these aliens make for a good scary monster?" They do.  The real question is "will they work for me and my particular game?"

I mean this is no different than any other game or setting.  Let's take an odd example.  Orcs in Ravenloft.  I originally did not want to do orcs, a classic D&D/Fantasy monster, in my Ravenloft games.  When it came up that I needed an orc-like monster I went with something more akin to a Grimlock or even a Neanderthal-Troglodyte (in the classical sense of the word) creature.  I made it work AND it also made me want to redo the troglodyte from D&D to make them more "devolved" human. Like the old Homo Sapiens Troglodytes. Maybe even a cross between H.S. and the Pan Troglodytes

But what about BlackStar which happens in a Star Trek universe. Well oddly enough that rules out the Cardassians. We know what they were doing at the time in Universe, they were at war with the Federation.  So I will have that going on, but in the far background.  They are on the far side of the Alpha Quadrant. My action is closer to home and might even take tiny little excursions into the Beta Quadrant.

The Xenomorphs would be fun for an "Episode" (what I am calling a single adventure) but not a "Season" (a campaign).  Same with the 456.

Originally I WAS thinking the 456 would be my focus as the bogeyman alien in the background.  But having a couple of conversations with my oldest he was like "why not just use the Mi-Go?"

He has a point.

There are a lot of great reasons to use them not just for the Lovecraftian origin.  They would have had an outpost on Yuggoth/Pluto that I absolutely LOVE.  It fits in with my ideas when watching the Thing and the various horror movies on Mars

I mean if I am going to do "Cthulhu meets Star Trek" then I kinda need to have appearances by the Mi-Go, Elder Things, Shoggoths, and Yithians.  They were described as "Alien" but I think I want to use them in the "Alien" sense of both Lovecraft AND of Trek.   The Mi-Go could take the place of the Borg in terms of a lifeform that can't be reasoned with and have their own, completely separate, morality. 

Given that my preferred version of Trek for this is Modiphius' Star Trek Adventures this makes things pretty easy for me.  I can now use ideas and stats from the new Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 system. 

But system and stats are only the start of the conversation, not the end.  I have to make sure these guys are scary.  Mi-Go landing on the hull of The Protector while not wearing EV suits and cutting through (like the Borg did) is scary.  Leaving behind dead crew with their brains surgically removed (not unlike "Spock's Brain", but less...bad) is a little more horrifying.   Finding crew members whose livers have been altered to create a sort of super-acid that eats through their bodies but keeps on working is more horrifying still. The Mi-Go don't communicate. Their chitterings are unable to be translated.  Since they are reported as not being able to be filmed or photographed they are largely invisible to sensors; having natural stealth abilities. 

I could introduce them much in the same way we saw in "At The Mountains of Madness" only this time they are discovered on Pluto/Yuggoth.  This leads to discoveries of bases on Earth, millions of years old, in the Andes, Appalachians, and Himalayas mountain ranges. How to get the crew out into deeper space to encounter them is the bridge I have not built yet.  

Frankly, I am overwhelmed with the potential. 

ETA:  I have found some more data that puts the Mi-Go origin, or at least another base of operations, at 61 Cygni, about 11.4 light-years away.  64 hours at classical Warp 9, but only 19 hours at The Protector's Warp 13.  In Star Trek, this is also the home of the Tellarites.  So obviously the Mi-Go visited them as well.

I will take a completely different approach in my Star Trek: Mercy game.

The Aliens

October Horror Movie Challenge: Humanoids From the Deep (1980)

Humanoids from the Deep (1980)
This would have done well with all my Dagon / Deep Ones movies last week. It certainly fits in with the whole humans becoming sea monsters theme.  I am a little surprised I had never seen it to be honest. It's a fairly notorious Corman flick, know more for him adding more gore and nudity after director Barbara Peeters was done with it.

Humanoids From the Deep (1980)

A small fishing village is dealing with the scarcity of fish and the prospect of a new canning factory moving into town.  While fishing a couple of fishermen catch what appears to be some sort of monster.  His sun falls into the ocean and something kills him.  The boat then explodes. Yes there is a reason, but this is Corman we are talking about. 

Later something is going through the village killing and mutilating all the dogs.  Oh, and there is not so casual and fairly overt racism to the village's Native American character.  Also, why is Dr. Susan Drake referred to as a "great little scientist" especially since actress Ann Turkel stands at 6'0" easily towering over everyone here?  We are a third of the way through the movie and we have had more racism and sexism than we have had of monsters.  Or when Doug McClure's Jim Hill is asking for men to help him and Ann Turkel volunteers? "No, I don't need you." Well, it was the 1980s, but even this one seems a little more than the usual stuff.  

Speaking of explosions. Why does one Molotov cocktail blow up an entire cabin?  Oh and cars. When they hit the sea. 

We learn that Dr. Drake has known about these creatures for a bit.  They are caused by the growth hormones that Canco (did they spend all day coming up with that name?) has been injecting into salmon.  These salmon then infected other fish till they "evolved" to humanoids.  They are driven to kill the men and mate with the women.  Totally makes sense.

There is the local Salmon fest going on that night and as expected the sea monsters attack, killing and raping their way through town.  The gore scenes are fun, some special effects people must have had a blast doing this one.  Kudos to Sally, Miss Salmon, for the wherewithal to bash a rapey fishman in the head with a rock.

In the end the monsters are dead (we think) and Peggy who had been raped before gives birth, well..., a monster cuts its way out of her.

So it dawned on me that there is a whole sub-genre of Fishmen movies that I have never really explored. I mean I have had no reason, but I kinda wish I had before running Isle of Dread to the Shrine of Kuo-Toa. Maybe I should check more of them out. I mean I have not seen any so far that I am like "yeah, that's my new jam" but maybe someone, somewhere did one right.

I could not find the 1996 remake anywhere to watch.


2021 October Horror Movie Challenge

October 2021
Viewed: 26
First Time Views: 13