Beasts (1976) DVD box art.
This Static Age’s spotlight goes to Beasts (1976), the fascinating 6-episode British horror series from acclaimed writer Nigel Kneale that was made by ATV for the ITV Network. Each standalone episode tackles a bestial themed horror subject. ‘Special Offer’ is about a paranormal revenge. ‘During Barty’s Party’ is about rat infestation. ‘Buddyboy’ is about a haunting from a dolphin. ‘Baby’ is about ancient witchcraft getting in the way of a pregnancy. ‘What Big Eyes’ is about a man who is keenly interested in becoming a wolf and my comment is that it takes all kinds. ‘The Dummy’ is the best and goriest episode, and it is about a horror movie star burned-out from playing monsters.
And now, let’s
switch our focus towards some recent series…
 |
| Locke & Key - Season 3 |
The 3rd (and final) season of Netflix’s Locke & Key (2020 – 2022) finds its protagonists with more trouble at the Keyhouse, but who’s holding the key to solve the mystery in the series finale? Fairy-tale like and owning a big portion of its inspirations to Stephen King, this is well-made but ultimately forgettable.
The narcotics
trafficking action goes to Mexico in the 1st season of the aptly
named Narcos: Mexico (2018 – 2021) –
available on Netflix – and is about the rise of the Guadalajara cartel and the
war that the newly-formed DEA had to perform in order to sedate the drug
distribution and countless killings. Well-made and with thorough research of
its subject matter as well as the historical backdrop, this is gangster
television at its best.
Black Mirror - Season 6
Upsetting and
more relevant than ever, the 6th season of Netflix’s Black Mirror (2011 – present) is set to
scare the shit out of technophobes the world over, with its brilliant five
episodes that include ‘Joan is Awful’ in which a start up company’s well-paid
employee (Annie Murphy) is seeing her life getting hijacked by a streaming
platform that uses it as the template for a series starring Salma Hayek; ‘Loch
Henry’ which is about a young couple (Samuel Blenkin and Myha’la Herrold) who
study filmmaking and abandons its weak-sounding project about an egg man, in
favor of a true crime story that seems to have more bread to it; the
feature-length ‘Beyond the Sea’ that is a demented love story and the weakest
entry in this season, but at least it is perfectly tuned with the entire
‘identity theft’ thematic concept; ‘Mazey Day’ in which the titular movie star
is suffering from an undisclosed condition and seeks isolation, but the
obstacle of the Hollywood paparazzi appears to be hard to overcome; the
feature-length ‘Demon 79’ takes us to late 1970s England but only merely
touches the cinematic aesthetics of the era and tells the story of a woman with
brief violent visions who gets approached by genie that gives her motive to
perform a series of murders.
Carnival Row - Season 2
Set in
Victorian-era England, the 2nd season of Amazon Studios’ Carnival Row (2019 – 2023) employs the
fantasy world of fairies in order to raise questions about racism and
constitutional power abuse. This final season is much more violent and gritty
than the first (a welcome twist) and also benefits from great performances (Orlando
Bloom and Cara Delevingne star) and stunning set & costume design. It is
not without its faults though, as the main CGI monster is horribly laughable
and the final episode’s queer twist came out of nowhere.
The 2nd
season of Netflix’s Russian Doll (2019
– present) has the attractive chain-smoking stereotypical New Yorker Nadia
Vulvokov (Natasha Lyonne) in another time-travelling adventure that takes her
back to 1982, and the show with some of the most adorable dialogues in recent
TV history, as well as a lovely rock and new wave soundtrack is an absolute
winner.
The 2nd
season of Marvel Studios’ I Am Groot
(2022 – present) is offering five more short stories of the titular tree kid
getting involved in hilarious and cute adventures, all featuring stunning
animation work.
The Haunting of Hill House - Season 1
The sole season
of Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House
(2018), created and directed by Mike Flanagan (who also wrote many of its
episodes, based on Shirley Jackson’s classic horror novel) is about the titular
residence that spooks a family’s past and present. Well-made, genuinely scary,
and engaging throughout its mere 10 episodes, this is modern horror television
at its best – a masterful event for the small screen that its eeriness will be
cherished for years to come.
The Mandalorian
Set in the Star
Wars universe, Disney’s 2nd season of The Mandalorian (2019 – present) is offering further adventures of
the titular bounty hunter (Pedro Pascal) as he protects an overwhelmingly cute
baby Yoda and gets mixed-up in all sorts of action-packed situations, but the
real riches of the series lie in its gorgeous and spot-on spaghetti western
aesthetics.
And now, please
allow me a word on some recent mainstream film releases…
Writer/director
James Gunn with his wild cinema influences that combine humor (often of the
Meta kind) and PG-13 violence seems ideal at this stage of superhero movie
overkill, and he expectedly delivers the goods in Marvel Studios’ Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3 (2023),
an epic 2 and a half hour spectacle that perfectly gels action with emotion,
showcasing the importance of heroics in a universe that goes bananas, not very
unlike the current state of affairs.
The Flash (2023)
DC’s The Flash (2023), directed by Andy
Muschietti, is about the titular superhero (Ezra Miller) who accidentally
tampers with time and creates a mix-up with parallel universes, resulting in
several versions of friends and enemies (including an aged Michael Keaton return
as Batman) to come up forward with different agendas, while he also takes the
opportunity to try and correct some wrongs from his past. This is not really a
movie but more of a CGI showcase, as there is barely any shots, let alone
scenes that are not enhanced by this technology, and had me wondering if the
filmmakers shot anything else other than a few known actors against green
screen backgrounds. This is a terrible example of cinema (if it even qualifies
as that) that says a lot about the awful state of pop culture.
Indiana Jones and...
Indiana Jones
(Harrison Ford) goes back and forth in time in director James Mangold’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
(2023) thanks to the powers of the Antikythera mechanism and the newfound
de-aging CGI techniques, only to fight Nazis again, this time led by Jurgen
Voller (Mads Mikkelsen). Expectedly bombastic with its outrageous $300 million
budget, this feels like an endless chase sequence, and while it is entertaining
enough (if a bit too long at two and a half hours long), it didn’t really gel
with blockbuster audiences (most people who grew up with Indy’s adventures are
now beyond their forties, me included).
Barely directed
by Steven Caple Jr., Transformers: Rise
of the Beasts (2023) seems mostly like the work of a committee – Michael
Bay is a producer, and Steven Spielberg is an executive producer – and its
barebones scenario takes us back to a long time ago, namely the 1990s when the
Maximals join the Autobots on a fight with the usual high stakes: saving the
world once again! Featuring human-like robots, animal-looking robots (all of
them speaking with a variety of stereotypical accents), that are adequate at transforming
into cars and vice versa, and only a handful of human actors, this lifeless CGI
charade will have you wondering why $400 was spent for its making, and even
more so why enough people went to see it in theaters to gross $439 million.
Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One
Produced by Tom
Cruise (the film’s star) and Christopher McQuarrie (the film’s director) on a
massive $291 million budget, the bombastic Mission:
Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023) is about the hunt for a
two-part key that can give the ultimate power to whoever gets to own it. All of
the franchise’s standard tropes are here including facial recognition-avoiding
masks and self-destructed messages, as well as James Bond-like travelogue
footage of pretty much every tourist location in the world and beyond, but as
per usual where the film really shines is during Cruise’s epic stunts (that he
performs sans the aid of a stunt man) that reveal his obsession on becoming the
western Jackie Chan. Sure, plenty of CGI is involved, but you’ll be in awe to
witness how much of the action was actually shot in real sets. Suspenseful and
entertaining throughout its 2 and a half hour running time, this is current
action cinema at its best, and well-worthy of the $576.5 million it grossed.
Blue Beetle (2023)
Barely
resembling a real movie, let alone anything that you could call remotely ‘good’
or even ‘watchable’, DC’s Blue Beetle
(2023) directed by Angel Manuel Soto is a piece of excrement that was seemingly
made by an algorithm programmed by market metrics, rather than humans, as it is
so predictable you could guess where every plot decision is going from miles
away and the CGI are remarkably video game-like. Oh, yes, and the titular
superhero is of Latin American background (Xolo Mariduena), because you know,
you have to tick those ‘diversity’ boxes. The genre has run its course and
considering this grossed a mere $129.3 million on an outrageous $104 million
budget, the big studios should soon receive the message sane audiences has been
sending them for a couple of years now.
And unlikely for
me, this time I enriched my bookshelf with the following fiction book additions:
Stephen King’s The Dark Tower: The
Gunslinger (1978), Thomas Harris’ Hannibal box-set [Red Dragon (1981), The
Silence of the Lambs (1988), Hannibal
(1999), and Hannibal Rising (2006)],
Patrick McGrath’s Spider (1990),
William Landay’s Defending Jacob
(2012), Don Winslow’s The Cartel
(2015), and Burn (2014) by James
Patterson & Michael Ledwidge.
Get books, comics, graphic novels and more at bunny17media.com. Use the code CHC at checkout for 15% off your purchase!
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