Archie Horror: Post Eight: Chillinng Adventures of Sabrina

At the end of a month of reading through Archie Horror, I ended with the new (almost a week old as of this post) Netflix series, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina created by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and starring Kiernan Shipka.

The series, following in the footsteps of the CW's Riverdale, continues to expand the Archie Universe, and although I've only seen the first four episodes (sorry - I was finishing reading Vampironica and I'm not a great TV show-binger!), it has been a pretty fun watch so far...

First of all, for the fans of the original comic book series (also created by Aguirre-Sacasa), the television series ditches the sixties setting (although it keeps much of the look), and hasn't (so far) gotten quite as dark as the comic series either.

In many ways I'm really enjoying the balance the show is doing, working to appeal to fans of Riverdale while at the same time acknowledging that for a lot of people, Sabrina Spellman is either the character from the comics or the character from the 90s TV series.  Is it edgier than I expected?  Absolutely!

For the record, my favourite characters to date are Sabrina's aunts Hilda and Zelda (but that may just be they are closer in age to me than the leads) and the freakiest moment to date was in episode four when the human world storyline got incredibly dark (probably darker than they intended), although I don't want to spoil it for those who haven't seen it yet.

A fun, well acted and intriguing look at how we balance our home lives and personal lives, the show (although definitely not for children), is well worth the watch.

So there you have it, a month seeing what Archie Comics could do with the Horror genre, and you know what? They've done a pretty great job!

Bookmonkey visits Hemlock Grove: Post Nine

The Sins of the Fathers.

Much of episode seven works in flashback, describing the backstory of Peter's mother and Uncle, how have been having an affair since the pilot.

Past that Roman (pictured left) and Peter go their own ways, and each make some pretty horrible, and horrific, mistakes.

Part of the appeal of a multigenerational horror story is watching history repeat itself in different ways, and just as Olivia (Roman's mother) makes what may be a disastrous connection, Roman goes one step further, and takes part in what may be the most horrific event in the series so far.

Roman has the ability to force his will on others - simply stated, if he can look someone in the eye, he can effectively control their actions and or memories.

At first this seems like a pretty amazing ability, but think about it for a minute.

With an ability like that, all the check on your own behaviour would have to come from your own willpower, as anyone else could be controlled into going along with you.

Actually, that sounds pretty awful.

Bookmonkey visits Hemlock Grove: Post Seven

Okay, so there's actually both a Frankenstein (the scientist) and a Frankenstein monster in Hemlock Grove.

After four episodes filled with Vampire (sorry, Upir) and Werewolf stuff, the idea of a mad scientist creating a monster was a heck of a lot of fun for me.

Actually episode four does a nice job of both moving the murder mystery forward and fleshing out a one of the supporting characters through flashback; specifically Dr. Clementine Chasseur (played by Kandyse McClure, pictured left).  Initially in the series, she's introduced as an officer of U.S. Fish and Wildlife, but things begin to move pretty quickly to show she's covering for something.

Part of what I'm enjoying at this point is the fact that the show seems to be working to have traditional monster archetypes (vampire, witch, werewolf, etc.), but then attempts to deconstruct them; the witch has magic, but doesn't use it as it causes more trouble than it's worth, the werewolf hides his nature for fear of scientists, like the mysterious Dr. Chausseur and her interest in Peter.

So far, as an adaption, I'm definitely preferring it to the original book, which moved, chapter by chapter, through different narrative techniques, often feeling more style over substance, but the different transitions seem to work much better in a televised format.

Bookmonkey visits Hemlock Grove: Post Six

After watching a third of the first season, I think I'm finally starting to get what Hemlock Grove is putting down.

Currently, the show has about five different storylines going on, ranging from the friendship between to Peter and Roman, to the overall murder mystery and the bizarre focus on the Ouroboros imagery throughout.

What finally hit me this episode was how the show is actually laying each storyline out and moving them forward that their own pace - there really is no guarantee that a plot point (like Shelley's (pictured right) strange disfigurement or, even stranger, random glowing) will  lead to anything in a specific episode.

The stories move at different paces and although each episode touches on them, the series works a little like a soap opera, in that it always has something going on, but never seems to give a conclusion for anything.

As I'm definitely sticking with the series through the first season, I'm interested to see how it will all end up, and I'm hoping that my understanding of the pacing will play out.

Bookmonkey visits Hemlock Grove: Post Three

So then the book became a television series...

On April 19th, 2013, the entire series became available for download on Netlfix.

As a bit of a slow starter - I of course, found my current copy in DVD form at a used bookstore back in July.

So here's what I've got to say about episode one - Directed by horror filmmaker Eli Roth (famous for Cabin Fever, the Hostel franchise, and a movie called Clown one of my coworkers says I have to check out), the pilot for the series, titled "Jellyfish in the Sky" starts very similarly to the book - the narrator is missing, but the opening death sequence surrounding the first victim is incredibly intense, brutal, and pretty darn horrifying.

As with the book, the pilot is swimming in potential leads, in addition to both Peter and Roman, their mothers, siblings, aunts, uncles, and cousins all make appearances and also fight for screen time, leaving me unsure of which storyline to follow - in general I prefer a show like Lost or Skins when featuring an ensemble cast, focus on one character per episode and give me some time to get to know everyone.

The series looks pretty great however, the colours are lush, the town, which appears to be both a small town, and a previously thriving factory town, looks like a great setting for a horror story, and I quite enjoyed how the pilot acknowledges some of the similarities to Twilight and points out that this is nothing like that.

In the end the pilot had me interested in watching more - so far no werewolves, but a lot of mystery.

Bookmonkey visits Hemlock Grove: Post Two

Generally if a film or television show has been adapted from a book, I'm likely to try and read the source material first, possibly because I love reading, or because I want to know where the story originally came from, or maybe I just like to feel like I'm more "in the know" than my friends and loved ones.

So, when I decided to spend the month looking at the Netflix series Hemlock Grove, you'd better believe I picked up the original novel and got reading.

The original novel is ok. I've read a lot of werewolf and other monster fiction over my life, so I can easily compare it to all sorts of things, considering it a slightly twisted version of Twilight, or even a little bit like the film The Lost Boys, in that the story goes to a lot of lengths to show how monstrous the creatures appear to humans, but that the monsters themselves are never really viewed as tragic, just scary.

The novel largely follows two young men, Roman Godfrey and Peter Rumancek, one of whom is a werewolf and the other is likely a vampire (although he doesn't seem to be aware of it). Much of the drama focuses on a string of brutal murders in the city/town of Hemlock Grove, and of the search for the killer.

For me the issue was a massive amount of pretty unnecessary side characters, and a number of side-plots that seemed to go nowhere and not amount to much. The story begins with a fairly clever writing device, in that the actual (and unnamed) killer is also our narrator, but once their identity is discovered, the book seems to drop the concept. Both leads go through a number of harrowing events and some of them are quite effective and disturbing, but in the end, if I were looking for a great werewolf novel* - this wouldn't be it.

Now onto the show!


*My favourite three would be Endore's Werewolf of Paris (1933), Brandner's The Howling (1986) and McCammon's The Wolf's Hour(1989)

Bookmonkey visits Hemlock Grove: Post One

Welcome to the first of my October posts on the Netflix series Hemlock Grove, which, after viewing one episode, looks a little familiar...

So you've got this werewolf see, and then a vampire-ish sort of fellow, and they both attend the same high school, and then there's this girl...

But, unlike the way I spent 2010, this series has some pretty diehard (as opposed to twi-hard) fans, and it was based on a book first, and the soundtrack is supposed to be pretty fantastic...

Okay, you know what - Hemlock Grove!

Let's see where this takes us!

Setting Goals after Grad School

So here I am, a few weeks after finishing up my degree, and I've decided to set myself a couple of goals.

First of all I tried to think of a couple things I would like to do with all the free time I've suddenly got with school behind me; so I've decided to go for both something good and something good for me.

First the good for me - since starting Grad School back in 2011 I've put on 25 pounds (which put me up to just over 250), so I've been spending the last month increasing my general activity and nutrition (basically I'm taking more walks and keeping track of what I eat using a website called MyFitnessPal), and so far so good - I'm down 7.5 pounds from when I started, which isn't a massive amount (for me), but is still a pretty nice start considering I haven't made any major changes so far.

Next up is my fun goal - I'd like to give Netflix a try, and think a good way earn it (besides paying for it), is to finally get around to watching the stack of movies and TV shows I've been meaning to get around to for the last few years (the stack is currently about 2 1/2 feet tall, so it'll be a while), and once I'm through all of those, I can check out this fancy new thing everyone else has been using for the last couple of years.

So far that's my entire list of personal goals - just a couple, and I'm working on them in a slow and steady fashion, but hey - that's how I finished both my Bachelors and my Masters Degrees, so I know it works for me.