Stream to Scream: Malignant and Such a Pretty Smile

 

This shouldn’t have to be said, but I will state it just in case there are people reading this who still haven’t gotten the message: horror can be about more than just scaring or disgusting the readers. Yes, there are plenty of movies and books that are more like endurance tests than enjoyable fiction, there are people that enjoy them, and I’m not here to pass judgment on them. But horror stories can show a creator’s understanding of storytelling devices, especially themes. The James Wan film Malignant and Kristi DeMeester’s novel Such a Pretty Smile have their shocking moments, but they also have the underpinnings of a very popular theme in fiction: family.

People who haven’t watched Malignant might have heard of it, whether by it being a work by Saw and Conjuring director James Wan or by having its completely bonkers premise spoiled for them. I will do my best to avoid that here. All readers really need to know about the premise is that a woman named Madison who witnesses a series of murders because she is somehow seeing the killer’s memories. Knowing so much about these murders and her connection to the victims naturally have her high on the suspect list even as she, and the audience, tries to discover whether or not she’s going mad. There’s the standard James Wan moments of shadowy corners and faces in the dark, but it goes wonderfully off the rails by the third act. Despite this, Wan does understand what ultimately helps this woman stand up against this ultimate evil. It is the family that she may not have been born into but loves her all the same. Leave it to Wan to hide some sentimentality into his gonzo, out-there horror movie.

Such a Pretty Smile isn’t as out there as Malignant, but it understands how the family dynamic gives its heroines strength. The story stars in 2004 when a serial killer called the Cur, known for the rather doglike way he savages the bodies, starts up yet another murder spree involving young girls in New Orleans. Caroline, a young artist dealing with the deteriorating health of her father, is having bad dreams and may even be sleepwalking. She also hears strange howling in the night. In the present, Caroline’s daughter Lila is trying to cope with typical teen issues like crushes and parents not understanding, but she also hears the howling and she’s also getting strange urges. Such a Pretty Smile doesn’t need to dial up the crazy because DeMeester understands the emotional underpinnings of its dual narratives, which switches back and forth between mother and daughter and sets up the parallel between the two and allows both drawing on the strength and love from the other. Both tales have men who act as villains and do some truly heinous things, but they also feature women who become stronger through coming together and finding other strong women to lean on.

Graphic Content: Stillwater by Chip Zdarsky and Ramón Pérez

 

Immortality can sound tempting for those of us who feel like there’s simply not enough time. Imagine having literally all the time in the world to travel anywhere you wanted to go or fully complete that Great American Novel that’s been eluding you. Any fan of vampire fiction knows that immortality comes with a price (namely, watching everything and everyone you love die) but more original is the idea that immortality itself is the horror. The comic series Stillwater does a lot with this very premise.

The book begins with Daniel, a young man who lets his temper get him into trouble. He suddenly receives a letter telling him of an inheritance that just happens to be in the titular town of Stillwater. Daniel not only discovers the immortality that occurs within its borders; he also discovers the various factions that are vying for control of the town. Daniel is soon drawn into this intrigue and finds out that there are so many things that are worse than dying.

Writer Chip Zdarsky (“Sex Criminals”) gives a very unique take on a town where citizens can walk off gunshots and falls from tall buildings, the aftereffects gloriously depicted by artist Ramón Pérez. Such a concept (people who will heal from literally anything and time literally standing still for its residents) might seem like it would actually kill any dramatic tension, but Zdarsky makes it work by focusing on townspeople who want to determine who deserves to gain the mystical benefits of Stillwater and who deserves to be free of it. Much like modern vampire depictions, the people in Stillwater do not age, and that includes their children. People familiar with Interview with the Vampire and young Claudia will find similar characters among Stillwater’s children, who have been unable to physically become adults, even though many are chronologically old enough to rent cars. The conflict that drives this story is the various factions that are looking to control the town, including a sadistic deputy who kills to keep Stillwater’s secrets and a judge who has also made himself the de facto lawmaker.

The most intriguing parts of this story, though, are the ramifications of a town full of reluctant immortals. How do you police a town whose residents can sit in jail knowing their time will be but a fraction of their lifespan? How readily will citizens resort to violence when that violence’s lasting effects are healed only a short time later? Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 explore these ideas, but what actually makes the town’s residents immortal should be explored in later volumes. Here’s hoping that the creators realize the readers of this series do not necessarily have the patience of someone who cannot die, and keep the story going.

Stream to Scream: Blood Quantum to Zombie Bake-Off

Zombies keep coming after being knocked down, refusing to truly die, and the same could be said of their popularity. From their early beginnings in George A. Romero and Lucio Fulci movies to their cultural dominance in series like The Walking Dead, they’re still growing strong. One big appeal of this kind of undead is the variety of horror stories they fit into, whether it’s blood-gushing free-for-alls where any and all kind of tools and weapons are used to dispatch them or even quieter affairs where the audience watches characters deal with the fact that the dead no longer stay dead. Good stories are able to straddle this line of gory mayhem and emotional moments. Two such examples are the movie Blood Quantum and Stephen Graham Jones’s zombie grudge match novella Zombie Bake-Off.

Blood Quantum, written and directed by Jeff Barnaby, begins in the Red Crow Indian Reservation at the edge of the world’s end. There are many people living, working, and trying to survive here, including Sheriff Traylor (Michael Greyeyes) as well as his two sons Joseph (Forrest Goodluck) and Lysol (Kiowa Gordon). Then the world is overrun with the living dead, and somehow the people of the reservation are immune. This leads to a flipped script, with everyone else in the world now cast as refugees, breaking down the doors to get into the reservation along with the zombies. Prejudices and resentments soon fester, and everything falls apart. This movie is both gratuitous as well as a social experiment of how a few can ruin it for the many.

Zombie Bake-Off doesn’t have quite the deep social commentary of Blood Quantum, but Jones’s tale of zombies, pro wrestlers, and soccer moms, does show people gathering together for survival. There’s a scheduling mishap at the Coliseum in Lubbock, TX, where soccer moms are showing off their greatest recipes and pro wrestlers like Jersey Devil Jill and Tiny Giant are showing off their penchant for violence, but that’s not the worst part. The worst part is a zombie virus infecting the wrestlers. Then again, there’s also the doors to the coliseum being chained up, and infected wrestlers are stalking the living. There are many examples of violence and mayhem (the grudge match foreshadowed in the book eventually happens) but there are also many instances where the survivors find an inner strength they didn’t know they had. And in both Blood Quantum and Zombie Bake-Off show how good horror is made not through tidal waves of viscera but also quiet moments of pathos.