Case 39 – review

   If you are lucky, very, very lucky, you will not have this film ruined for you. I was lucky enough to go into the film pretty ignorant of what was to come and wow, what a fun surprise. I will say this – if you thought you knew what sort of films Renee Zellweger was known for, forget all that, because this is something totally different for her. I guess though it’s easy to forget she did a lesser Chainsaw Massacre and Love & a 45. Take it from me though, this ain’t what you are used to from her.

   When an overworked social worker begins work on a new case she finds herself immediately drawn to the young girl who seems to be in desperate peril because of her parents. As becomes more invested in the case she starts to lose sense of perspective and crosses lines that her profession are never to cross. As she becomes more invested in the girl and her life though, the depth of the horror she is dealing with becomes all to real, and she may not be able to get free before it starts to effect her life as well.

   A very well made horror/thriller, this one really took me by surprise. I was SO happy that a lot of the cop outs I was expected from the film never happened and that the movie pushes through to the end in the same vein that it began. For me, the movie totally didn’t cop out. You can sorta guess what is going on mid-way through, or sooner, but the depth of what is going on will surprise you. Zellweger does a nice job in the film, as does the rest of the cast, the stand out being the little girl, who is fantastic. I really liked the heck out of this movie and really hope it gets out to more people so they can see it. Very scary, and wonderfully surprising.

8 out of 10

New Interview Online!

My interview with Horror Addicts in anticipation of the upcoming podcast is up. Pretty great interview on the part of the interviewer – never had someone do some genuine research about me before.

Check it out -

http://horroraddicts.wordpress.com/2010/02/07/13-questions-with-chris-ringler/

The podcast goes up on 2.11 @ Horroraddicts.net

Pontypool – movie review

The sad fact of this film is that, as much as I will refrain from giving away any big plot details, I fear that you will learn far too much from any other sources you are going to seek out. Well, such as it is, I am sorry, as this is a film better left explored on your own. Sort of the less you know the better thing here. But also, out of context, the film’s story isn’t nearly as powerful.

Pontypool is set in a small town in Ontario where a once mighty shock DJ has been exiled by being too abrasive in the industry. That, and he has a little problem with drinking. Small town AM radio is far from what he would have wanted for his life but he is determined to make the best of it, which means, unfortunately, toning down his attitude. While he is working the morning shift things in the small town begin to go wrong and quickly spiral out of control and all he and the two people he is working with can do is to report on what is happening to the best of their ability in the hopes it may help the people who may still be listening. But as things get worse outside, the people begin to wonder, are they helping, or only making things worse?

The film is a very engaging, very creepy thriller that is presented in many ways as a radio drama of the early radio days. You see far less than you hear about, so the things that are happening become far more products of your imagination. The horrors of the film are real, but they are subdued and not as obvious and in your face as so many movies are. The acting is good and very effective, and the story is good as well. The trouble comes in at the end, where things get dicey. The story, which is so big, has an explanation that many will find (and have found) a bit far fetched. If you can get into the film up to that point, the answers you find will  make enough sense to enjoy things all the way through. The big issue that I and many have had with the film is that there is a scene after the movie that appears to be in no way connected to what you just watched, nor to anything else but which stands alone, and apart like a sore thumb. There is talk of more films to come so perhaps this is a hint of what lies ahead but, in all honesty, it almost undoes the whole of the film that came before it, and that’s a shame.

Pontypool is thoroughly enjoyable and is worth a watch as there are few films that are more about suspense than outright scares but you have to go in with an open mind because the answers, while there, are not always easy to swallow.

6 out of 10

Upcoming Podcastery!

On February 11th I have the honor of being featured on Emerian Rich’s Horror Addicts podcast with a story I wrote just for that show called Pyramids and Butterscotch, which is a mummy tale. I am pretty stoked to be on the show and am really happy with the story that she will be featuring. I think you are gonna dig it. www.horroraddicts.net

Look for an interview with me posting on Horror Addicts around the date of the podcast.

The Prowler – a review

For horror fans the 1970s and ‘80s serve as a sort of wonderland of classic movies, a golden age if you will. A large reason why is that special effects really came into their own in this era and the MPAA had not clamped down yet on the gratuitous sex and violence. The movies thus were not so much better than their modern counterparts as they were nastier. Which isn’t really true but, so be it.

The Prowler is one of the forgotten slasher films of the ‘80s that has enough spirit to deserve a place on the second shelf of hack and slash classics but which is all looks and no brains.

A small town is celebrating the end of World War II when a young girl and her beau are brutally murdered by a man wearing military gear and hidden beneath a mask. The killing goes unsolved but is enough to shake the town out of having their graduation celebrations anymore. Flash ahead to the 1980s and the town has decided to celebrate the graduation of their young people and another party is planned, but for someone, this is the key that unlocks their madness and begins the murders all over again.

The film has the same over-lit yellow look of most slasher films of the ‘80s and the soft focus creates a sort of dream reality where things never feel safe. The movie itself is fun and has a lot to offer horror nerds such as great make up effects from Tom Savini but really, you are not coming for the story. The story, such as it is, has so many plot holes and dangling characters that you’d think this was meant as a pilot episode for a television show. Thankfully we don’t usually come for the story so much as the gore and scares, and on that end the movie delivers. It is disappointing that so much of the story is left open because there is some good character writing here and some decent logic therein.

While it is firmly entrenched in the second string of slasher films this is a fun film and well worth a viewing.

6 out of 10

Finishing Touches

Finishing something you have been working on for a while is a lot harder than you expect. It isn’t necessarily laziness that stops you from getting it done so much as life butting in on it. I have been working on the stories that will compromise the next book for some five years now, but then, like the novel, it wasn’t meant to be a book, necessarily. Not in the traditional sense. The first story – Messy and the Meep Sheep – was done and produced as a chapbook as I never really thought about doing more with it. Ok, that isn’t true, I never thought about ADDING to it. I always thought about getting it out as a book, though as a Kid’s Book. I wanted to find an artist to work on the art for it and wanted to sell it that way. Well, no one bit when I shopped it around briefly so I focused on it as a chapbook. Slowly but surely though I kept adding to that work, story by story until I had what could and will become a book.

I began the last story in this cycle a year and change ago, though I never really got going on it. I knew that it needed one last story, a story that took all the myriad characters somewhere and let them come to a fate of some sort, but I wasn’t sure where I wanted to take them. Over the course of the year I put together the story in my head but never really took the time to put it down. I kept getting distracted – be it other stories, other art, or the release of This Beautiful Darkness I just never took the time to make it work. Finally though a day came when I had to. When I had to sit down and focus on getting this last story done. It hasn’t been easy because the last story is so big, and must capture so much, and must sum up so much that it is hard to know what to say, what to leave unsaid, and how far to take things. As it is coming together though I know I am on the right path. The path gets rocky, for me and the characters, but it is the right path. It just took a while to find it.

Finishing the story is just the first part of the process of putting this book together but getting it done will really let me move on it. Will really let me push forward and I cannot wait. Just as I cannot wait to see where all these wonderful characters will wind up when everything is done.

c

PS, here is a pic of another awesome soul who purchased a painting from me at a Baar Bazaar I was at in December in Detroit.

Big Things Brewing and Bloo Moos – Mooing!

In July of 2009 I released my second book – This Beautiful Darkness( https://www.createspace.com/3386414) – and was thrilled by how well the book turned out and have been excited by the response the book has gotten. I consider that book the perfect representation of where I am at as a writer but, as with all things, it does not fully show all of the things I have been up to over the years. Over the past few years, inspired by my own weirdness, and by the people in my life, I started writing stories that were far from the dark realms most people are used to me creating. These stories were of a place called the Kingdom of Man and were about a Queen, a singer, and a reporter and the adventures they have. The stories were also about the animals in this land, some of which you have seen images of or seen mention of in passing. Since the publication of This Beautiful Darkness I have had a plan in mind and that plan is coming to fruition now.

In May of 2010 I plan to release my next book, the as yet untitled collection of these ‘other’ stories. There is darkness in this place too, but more than that, there is hope, happiness, and the wonder of discovering the magic within us all. These stories are, for lack of a better term, fairy tales, and they are some of the best things I have written. I am deeply in love with these stories and hope you will feel the same when you see them. So, I have a lot of work to do in order to get the book done and out by May but believe me, it will be worth it.

Keep watching…’cause the good is getting better by the day.

Thanks

c

Something Special…

So I got inspired a couple days ago to do something fun and today shall bring said fun thing.

AH, but what IS it?

Hmm, and hmm indeed.

Watch through today and you shall find out, traveler.

I will post something here today that has an expiration date, and when it is up, what I posted will be gone.

So…keep your peepers peeled, friends, and see what happens.

c

Hullo There

Hadn’t gotten a chance to draw anything in a while so here you have it – Hullo There – a cute little fella that is just happy to see you. Drawn by hand and then colored in Photoshop.

PS – A banner for my book, just because.

interested?

https://www.createspace.com/3386414

The Hills Run Red – movie review

As a movie nerd myself, I can appreciate the particular bit of madness that strikes people with a deep love and appreciation for movies. We are an odd breed, and we get weirder when we are horror nerds. I mean, you don’t really read or hear about comedy fans freaking out over a lost or forgotten classic the same way you get that with horror nerds. I think because with other genres America has had the lead in most cases but with horror there is always something weirder, darker, more obscure out there. Hell, when I was younger and VHS and Laserdisc were both still relevant I remember chasing foreign obscurities and uncut versions of films at comic and horror conventions. And many times the chase was better than the find. The courtship better than the romance. Such is the case with The Hills Run Red, a horror film that asks whether it is better to seek out a lost obscurity than it is to find it.

A budding young filmmaker develops an obsession for a lost horror film entitled The Hills Run Red which was so extreme and over the top that it was pulled from all theaters and all prints disappeared. To deepen the mystery there are no people that can give any information about the movie. Deciding he wants to find the truth behind the film the man gathers his best friend and girlfriend and go on a quest for the truth and the film itself. Using the director’s surviving daughter as their guide, the troupe sets off into the deep woods to find what they hope are answers but which may not be the ones they were hoping to find.

A fun, spirited romp, the biggest limitation here is its own self-referential nature. The fact that John Carpenter tackled this notion (and in a far creepier way) for Masters of Horror doesn’t help but the fact there are so many references to the situation they are in gets old. It is a creepy, and engaging premise for a film, and generally it works. The characters are sorta  hit and miss, with some really obvious writing choices and some clichéd scenarios but the film is always true to itself, which says something. Hills knows what it is and never denies it, and that is a hardcore horror film. Definitely worth a look and worthy of a place on your shelf. It says something when a movie can create a compelling and creepy new icon, and with Babyface, they have.

7 out of 10