The Sweet Hereafter

Year of Release:  1997
Director:  Atom Egoyan
Screenplay:  Atom Egoyan, based on the novel The Sweet Hereafter by Russell Banks
Starring:  Ian Holm, Sarah Polley, Bruce Greenwood, Maury Chaykin, Tom McCamus, Gabrielle Rose, Alberta Watson, Caerthan Banks, Arsinee Khanjian
 Running Time:  112 minutes
Genre:  Drama

In the small rural town of Sam Dent, British Columbia, a school bus crash kills fourteen children.  Lawyer Mitchell Stevens (Holm) arrives in town to persuade the grieving townspeople to hire him to represent them in a class action lawsuit against the town and the bus company.  While some people accept his offer, others are more reluctant and some overtly hostile, as the town's various dark secrets come to the surface.  Meanwhile Stevens is haunted by his troubled relationship with his estranged drug-addict daughter, Zoe (Banks).

This is a deeply powerful and genuinely moving film.  As with many Egoyan films, it uses an unconventional structure, moving back and forth in time, with crucial events and information revealed out of sequence.  Ian Holm gives a devastating performance as the lawyer, who is revealed to be much more than just a sleazy ambulance-chaser.  The heartbreaking scene where he tells a story from his daughter's childhood is possibly the best moment in Holm's distinguished career.  The film has a large ensemble cast all do well, particularly Sarah Polley as troubled fifteen year old Nicole, who survives the crash but is left disabled.  The tone of the film, despite it's subject matter, is more like a dark fairy tale than gritty realism, with repeated references to Robert Browning's retelling of The Pied Piper of Hamlin, and a haunting, medieval-influenced score by Mychael Danna.

      Sarah Polley and Ian Holm face up to The Sweet Hereafter

Ghostbusters

Year of Release:  1984
Director:  Ivan Reitman
Screenplay:  Harold Ramis and Dan Ackroyd
Starring:  Bill Murray, Dan Ackroyd, Sigourney Weaver, Rick Moranis, Harold Ramis, Annie Potts, Ernie Hudson, William Atherton
Running Time:  107 minutes   
Genre:  Comedy, fantasy, horror

Scientists Peter Venkman (Murray), Ray Stantz (Ackroyd) and Egon Spengler (Ramis) are fired from their position at Columbia University, due to their dubious research and conclusions.  The trio decide to go into business for themselves as professional ghost-catchers.  Initially dismissed largely as a joke, the Ghostbusters soon find themselves fighting to save the world.

This hugely successful blend of comedy, fantasy and supernatural horror is one of the most beloved film of the 1980s.  It's funny throughout, with some still enjoyable, albeit dated, special effects.  It's also just scary enough to avoid upsetting children.  Much of the humour depends on the juxtaposing the cynical, workaday realities of 1980s New York, with the supernatural.  Bill Murray dominates the film with his delightfully deadpan performance as the slightly disreputable, cynical, wisecracking Venkman, although he gets sterling support from the rest of the cast, particularly William Atherton as the film's main human antagonist, an oily EPA representative.  The film was followed by a sequel in 1989, several animated TV series (most notably The Real Ghostbusters (1986-1991)), and a remake in 2016.   

Dan Ackroyd, Bill Murray and Harold Ramis in Ghostbusters.

"Growing Things and Other Stories" by Paul Tremblay

Year of Publication:  2019
Number of Pages:  476
Genre:  Horror, short stories

This is a collection of nineteen short horror stories: Two sisters struggle to survive in a world choked by lethal ever-growing plants; a school class have their lives ruined by a shocking video; a meth addict kidnaps her child while her town is seemingly destroyed by a giant monster; an aspiring journalist gets more than he bargains for when he interviews a cult author; a woman is haunted by her childhood ghosts in a Choose Your Own Adventure story; a horror writer soon regrets hiring a dog walking service and more.

As with all anthologies it's a mixed bag, although when it works it is genuinely creepy and unsettling. I have never read anything by Tremblay before, and I do think that I missed out on elements in some stores that tie in to his previous books, although I still enjoyed them.  If you like stories that answer all the questions and tie up all the loose ends, then this book probably isn't for you. Much of the horror is kept very ambiguous, with the more conventional "horror" elements happening in the background or just hinted at.  It is certainly recommended for anyone who wants a good scare.

"The Institute" by Stephen King

Year of Publication:  2019
Number of Pages:  485
Genre:  Science-fiction, thriller, horror

Deep in the Maine woods is a top-secret Government facility known by staff and inmates alike merely as "The Institute".  Children are abducted from all over the Unites States and imprisoned in The Institute where they are subjected to a battery of brutal medical tests, designed to increase and harness their latent powers of telekinesis and telepathy.  After weeks of tests, the children are brought to the sinister "Back Half" of The Institute, and are never seen again.  Twelve year old Luke Ellis is The Institute's latest inmate.  Luke is not just smart, he is an actual genius, but his intelligence is not what The Institute is interested in. 

This is less a horror novel and more of a science-fiction/thriller, with the monsters being all too human, and disturbingly convinced that what they are doing is right.  While it is not one of Stephen King's best, it is still an exciting, page-turning thriller.  The story covers a lot of ground, and has a lot of characters, particularly towards the end when there are about three different plotlines running concurrently, but he manages to balance them them like a maestro.  The book doesn't exactly break new ground, psychic children in particular being a recurrent theme in King, and some of the smaller characters feel a bit interchangeable.  That being said, though, King fans are bound to lap this up, and it should also please anyone looking for an exciting thriller.

 
 

Prince of Darkness

Year of Release:  1987
Director:  John Carpenter
Screenplay:  John Carpenter (as Martin Quatermass)
Starring:  Donald Pleasence, Lisa Blount, Victor Wong, Dirk Blocker, Jameson Parker, Susan Blanchard
Running Time:  100 minutes
Genre:  Horror

A priest (Pleasence) invites quantum physicist Professor Howard Birack (Wong) and his students to investigate a derelict Los Angeles church, which is the centre of bizarre occurrences.  As the investigation takes increasingly disturbing turns, it becomes apparent that in the basement of the church is a vat of glowing green liquid which is nothing less than the Devil itself.

This film forms the centerpiece of Carpenter's so-called "Apocalypse Trilogy" which began with The Thing (1982) and ended with In the Mouth of Madness (1995).  While this is far from Carpenter's best it has plenty of effective moments.  It's a slow burner, and takes a long time to really kick into gear, and there is a lot of metaphysical exposition to wade through.  However there are some good action scenes, imaginative camera angles, and plenty of intentional humour.  The film is strongly influenced by the work of British writer Nigel Kneale , best known for his groundbreaking Quatermass TV series, to the extent that Carpenter wrote the script under the pseudonym Martin Quatermass, and there is a reference to "Kneale University".  Kneale specialized in stories that blended the supernatural with science-fiction, and he wrote a TV movie called The Stone Tape (1977) about a scientific investigation into an allegedly haunted house, which seems to have strongly influenced Prince of Darkness.  Rock singer Alice Cooper appears as the homicidal leader of a group of demonically possessed homeless people.  This is a film that may not necessarily be good, but it has some striking moments and a ridiculous but fascinating premise.

         
Susan Blanchard and Ann Yen in Prince of Darkness

"The Beautiful and Damned" by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Year of Publication:  1922
Length:  364 pages
Genre:  Fiction

In 1910s New York, socialite Anthony Patch, grandson of a multimillionaire tycoon, meets and becomes instantly infatuated by the beautiful Gloria Gilbert.  The two marry and are soon the toast of Jazz Age New York, spending their lives in a whirlwind of alcohol fueled wild parties and lavish spending.  However, they are living well beyond their means, on the increasingly doubtful promise of a large inheritance from Anthony's grandfather and, coupled with their increasing alcoholism, the couple plummet towards self-destruction.

This was F. Scott Fitzgerald's second novel, following This Side of Paradise (1920) which is namechecked in the book, and is seen as being based on Fitzgerald's own relationship with his wife Zelda.  It's beautifully written with beautiful, poetic turns of phrase and is often strangely funny.  It's also still strangely relevant, even though the book was written nearly a hundred years ago, there are plenty of Anthony and Glorias about today.  I could imagine them today being social media "influencers".  Anthony and Gloria are not a particularly likeable pair.  They are both monumentally selfish.  They are also seemingly incapable of looking to the future:  Anthony is convinced of a multimillion dollar inheritance, which ends up being tied up in the courts in a case which becomes a major subplot in the later section of the book; while Gloria wants to enjoy her youth and beauty to the fullest, even though she knows it will fade someday, it is still a bitter pill when that day arrives.  Throughout the book the characters try various careers without success, while their friends move on to success and come to view them with contempt.    This is a great book, and very readable.  It's main problem is the very end, which feels rushed and unrealistic, and kind of undeserved.

 

Children of the Corn

Year of Release:  1984
Director:  Fritz Kiersch
Screenplay:  George Goldsmith, based on the short story Children of the Corn by Stephen King
Starring:  Peter Horton, Linda Hamilton, R. G. Armstrong, John Franklin, Courtney Gains, Robby Kiger, Anne Marie McEvoy
Running Time:  92 minutes
Genre:  Horror

Young married couple Vicky (Hamilton) and Burt (Horton) travel through rural Nebraska on their way to Seattle.  On the road they run over a young boy, but Burt discovers that he was already dead, having had his throat cut.  Searching for help, they wind up in the small town of Gatlin.  Gatlin appears strangely deserted, but they soon discover that it is not so deserted.  The town is inhabited entirely by children, who are members of a bloodthirsty cult headed by child preacher Isaac (Franklin) and his vicious enforcer Malachi (Gains).  Three years previously, Isaac and Malachi lead the children of the town in the ritual murder of everyone in town over the age of 19.  The cult worships a demonic entity known as "He Who Walks Behind the Rows", who lives in the vast cornfields, and periodically demands human sacrifice.

Based on a 1977 short story by Stephen King, the film has an arresting premise, but ends up as a slightly frustrating mix of very good and very bad.  On the good side, the film starts off very strongly, with an effective opening as the children slaughter their parents and other adults, and some genuinely atmospheric passages early on, depicting the derelict, deserted town, and a sequence where Burt and Vicky try to head to a neighbouring town, but seem to be caught in a kind of loop, unable to escape Gatlin.  A major point in the film's favour is Linda Hamilton who really shines despite not being given nearly enough to do, and R. G. Armstrong is pretty fun as the creepy old mechanic.  On the bad side some of the performances are pretty bad and suffers the film from the limitations of an obviously tiny budget.  The climax is also pretty ludicrous.  While it may not be a "good" movie in the technical sense, it is a lot of fun, and packs in enough gore and creepy moments to appeal to horror fans.  The main problem is that while the film is enjoyable, it's really frustrating that it isn't better than it is, and it feels like a missed opportunity.  It has become something of a cult movie, spawning numerous sequels and a made for TV remake.     

  

Courtney Gains in Children of the Corn