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A Bloody Great Time

October 25, 2023 /

Why You Should Watch: Netflix’s Castlevania

Who else remembers Castlevania? The horror-adventure platformer as old as gaming itself that reincarnated seemingly every time a new console came out. Maybe you played the original NES version back in the 80’s or tried it on one of the dozens of other iterations since? Well that game was made into a show by Netflix and it is without doubt one of their best offerings in recent memory. Deputing in 2017, Castlevania managed something often attempted but rarely managed; a good video game adaptation. The show accomplished this minor miracle by striving to maintain the essence of the games while also ensuring its story was well fleshed out and satisfying in its own right. 

As a game, Castlevania was all about the ambiance. The gothic horror setting was front and center, all dark castles and foreboding dungeons with characters dressed in Victorian era outfits speaking in dramatic soliloquies. This combined with the stark violence and gore to make a unique experience which was unlike anything else, especially during its earliest days. The creators of the Castlevania television series made the wise decision to steer into the skid on this, laying on the pedal until it melds with the floorboards. Everything about the series bleeds style. The anime style is a perfect medium to portray the kinetic and brutal action that is so integral to the series, yet also allows for beautiful rendering of the horrifying monsters and eerie locations. Even for non-anime fans, it is worth a look just to see the artistry they have been able to accomplish with this series. Whoever made the call to use Powerhouse Animation Studios deserves to win all the awards forever. 

But the show is so much more than a flashy showcase. The writing is absolutely to die for. Throughout its history, the games weaved a wonderfully dramatic history with a complex internal lore which evolved and changed over decades. The series managed to cut a streamlined story out of that wealth of source material, focusing on the return of Dracula and his conflict with the series’ three major protagonists, one of whom is his own half-human son. This plays no small part in the series success as Dracula, expertly voiced by veteran actor Graham McTarvish, is a showstopping standout villain, up there with some of the greats. But make no mistake, these characters are, without exception, fantastic. The heroes are witty without being grating, endearing without slipping into trite character beats, playing off villains that are genuinely menacing and present a tangible sense of competence. Every major character is blessed with a remarkable amount of personality, drive and agency, creating a narrative that feels untethered by plot contrivances or weighed down by uninspired archetypes.

The main series ended after four seasons in 2021. Thankfully, unlike so many other recent shows, the creators of Castelvania had the foresight and self-control to end the story once it had run its natural course. The result is a series which never loses its way or tries to be something it’s not. It maintains course, delivering its gruesome plot and maintaining its fantastic characterisation without compromise all the way through to the end. Fortunately for fans, due to the success of the series, a spinoff was released this year following the descendents of the main characters. Castelvania Nocturne tells its own story, yet maintains the same dark yet engaging style, fantastic character work and beautiful animation as its predecessor. Having spawned two successful Castlevania series, Netflix has done something noteworthy by injecting life into a dying genre. For that, I applaud them. 

Vampires used to be terrifying. Once upon a time, vampires were one of the premier fantasy antagonists, terrorizing the pages of gothic horror novels and the silver screen. Unfortunately, due to overexposure and severe watering down in modern media, they have mostly been reduced to playing love interests or generic movie monsters. Most audiences have tired of the vampire trope and have relegated them to the bargain bin alongside other overplayed icons of the genre like zombies and kaiju. But Castlevania proves that even though vampires might never reach their rightful place as the apex predators of the horror food chain again, they still have some fight left in them. If vampires can’t be terrifying, at least they can be awesome. 

Reliving Childhood Trauma

October 12, 2023 /

Why You Should Read: Alvin Schwartz

What’s the scariest thing you’ve ever read? Stephen King? Dean Koontz? Does Poe keep you up at night? Amateurs, one and all. There is one man standing head and shoulders above the rest. An author so twisted and utterly without regard for his readers mental wellbeing he should have warning labels plastered across all his books. I propose that without doubt the most terrifying author of all time is Mr. Alvin Schwartz. Who the hell is Alvin Schwartz you might ask? The man whose dark mind spawned the most horrifying collection of stories ever aimed at children, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. 

For anyone who managed to make it through your school’s scholastic book fair without falling prey to this man’s unhinged machinations, rest assured you spared your young minds a lifetime of trauma. Schwartz’s claim to fame involved taking urban legends, short stories and dark folklore and combining them with some of the most truly haunting artwork ever put to page to give birth to the aforementioned series of kids novels. Having read these books in my highly impressionable preteen years, I can confidently say I doubt there is any other author who has pumped more nightmare fuel into the overactive imaginations of children. Some highlights include a housewife embracing cannibalism, an unfortunate bride being locked in a trunk and spiders exploding out of a woman’s face. 

To say these books were unsettling is a disservice. They were terrible, disgusting, wretched and completely irresponsible to give to children. They gave me nightmares and haunted my daydreams for years. But maybe that was because I just kept reading them. Something about these books just drew me back again and again, beckoning me with their sirens song. I knew they only led to more misery, yet I couldn’t look away. They touched something inside me, some deep part that liked the fear and the sense of danger. I was hooked.

Apparently, so were lots of kids. The series has collectively sold over seven million copies and appears on numerous children’s bestseller lists. Make no mistake, a quick google search will reveal the many failed attempts by suburbanite parent groups who have campaigned against them over the years. But despite every controversy and criticism, this series of terrifying little books has endured as a cultural phenomenon that is a touchstone for a generation who still remember their traumatic experiences with fondness. It’s almost like a little fear is good for you. Perhaps that’s why the tradition of telling ghost stories around the campfire is still so prevalent. Maybe Schwartz’s devious plot was less to incite fear in the unsuspecting youth and more to capture their attention with something a little outside the typical required reading materials. We may never know unless the man himself returns like one of the horrible characters in his terrible little books. 

RIP Mr Schwartz.

An Ode to The King of Horror

October 4, 2023 /

Why You Should Read: Stephen King

Growing up as the quintessential rebellious kid who railed against anything and everything, from school, to my parents, to the government, of course found nothing but fault in the recommended reading material I was assigned by institutions of higher learning. Every book I was given by my teachers was tainted with the unmistakable scent of self-satisfied institutionalized smugness. These classics, these important pieces of literature, were nothing more than overblown relics of bygone eras, just like my teachers. I wanted to read things that were gritty, cool, unconcerned with appeasing the literary establishment. I found them. Hunter S. Thompson and Jack Keurauc, Palahniuk and Buckowski and others I thought my teachers would not approve of. I devoured these books, carried them around proudly, and, when asked about them, I would discuss the most heinous and controversial parts. I was insufferable, basically. 

But through all of this, one author in particular survived the jump from the literary counterculture of my youth to more mainstream maturity of my 20’s as I eventually settled into something resembling a human being. That was the one and only, Stephen King. I first discovered the King of Horror in middle school, far too early for his subject material. But, at the time, reading his books felt like a taboo, like I was getting away with something. So of course I was hooked. I read classics like It, Tommyknockers and Carrie as a preteen, sneaking them out of my dad’s collection and the library like I was smuggling the most illicit of banned materials. As I got older, I took on some of his more ambitious projects like The Dark Tower and The Stand. I found that no matter how old I got or what stage of life I was in, I never ran out of options to return to the well for a taste of that unique blend of storytelling that only King can produce.

People will recommend King for a whole host of reasons. He is, afterall, a massively popular, bestselling author who needs no introduction from the likes of me. His advocates will bring up his groundbreaking ideas, his masterful use of suspense and his genre defining contributions to horror, praise his immersive worlds and the ambitious scope of his interconnected universe. But over the years, what I’ve come to really love about King is his perpetual place as a cultural touchstone. The massive and pervasive body of work he continues to create has developed a sort of timelessness that few other authors have ever enjoyed during their lifetimes. Hell, the man has lived to see adaptation after adaptation of the majority of his books, to the point that classics like It and Pet Semetary have already been remade during his own lifetime. He has reached a level of cultural omnipresence only approached by the likes of comic book heroes and the Simpsons. 

After I moved on from the wayward literary ways of my youth, I found King crossed all sorts of social boundaries like few authors could. People from every walk of life adore his monstrous creations, they are the darlings of literary connoisseurs, artists and blue collar workers alike. Whether they read the books or watch the movies, almost everyone has found themselves drawn to something that has spawned from the depths of King’s imagination. I’ve made connections that would never have been possible without being a King fan, discussed books with people who hate reading, connected with people half my age and double it, found ways to bridge cultural divides that seemed like gaping chasms, just by being a fan. Turns out that Jack Torrance and Pennywise terrify millennials and baby boomers alike. No matter where you come from, we all cry for John Coffey and we all cheer for Andy Dufresne. I’m not here to tell you everyone will fall in love with King’s writing style. He’s not for everyone and he definitely has his detractors. There will always be those who shun King for their preconceived perceptions, seeing him as only an author of mass-market shlock and airport bookstore bestsellers. His books are weird and shocking, often challenging and frequently off putting. His style is meandering at times and he has a penchant for frustrating endings. But if you’ve never tried before, you might want to try giving the old wordslinger a shot. Read the books, watch the movies, binge the 6 hour 1994 miniseries of The Stand with national treasure Gary Sinise, whatever suits your taste. Maybe you’ll find a lifelong source of entertainment. Maybe you’ll become a fan like me. Maybe you won’t. But as an icon of American Literature, King refuses to be ignored.

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