"Rants & Ravings About Horror" - Week 21: “The Magic of a Lucky McKee Film”

Week 21: “The Magic of a Lucky McKee Film”

Lucky McKee is a brilliant writer and director of some innovative and personal horror films!  Who is Lucky McKee you might ask?  Well, he’s one of the horror genre’s success stories in terms of crafting some of the best horror films in the last 15 years.  If you’re among the female audience then I’m sure you know his name well as most of his films are anchored by strong female characters with strong performances from some unlikely actors.

McKee hit the ground running with his first feature May (2002) which introduced the world to Angela Bettis, one of the genre’s greatest actors right now.  Bettis plays a recluse of a woman who tries to create the perfect boyfriend of her dreams when the real world just doesn’t live up to her expectations.  She just decides to take the best parts of living people to do so.  It was not only a breakout performance for Bettis but also an atmospheric debut film from a director wanting to tell a personal story in a very psychologically gruesome way.  It’s a slow descent into madness for Bettis’ character that the audience is forced to endure and (hopefully) empathize with by the end.  

It would be four years before McKee would again step into the light but this time it was a one-two-three combo punch starting with his Masters of Horror episode “Sick Girl” which reunited him with his muse Bettis in a monster film that was unlike any other.  This well received episode was a highlight of that season of the series and cemented these two creative minds as a force to be reckoned with.  They would again collaborate in a different way by switching roles with the feature Roman (2006), in which Bettis would direct McKee (who also wrote the screenplay) as the loner recluse whose life would fall into a dark abyss similar to the fate of Bettis’ character in May.  May and Roman are companion films in which these two creative genius’ would experiment with similar themes just from different gender perspectives.

McKee’s next film would veer into more supernatural territory with The Woods (2006).  Despite the realistic nature of his previous films this film would feel more like his first short film All Cheerleaders Die (2001) mixed with a little of Dario Argento’s Suspiria (1977).  This film may not star Bettis (although she does lend her voice in the film) but it is anchored by a powerful performance from Agnes Bruckner.

McKee wouldn’t fare as well with his next film Red (2008) in that he would be replaced as director during filming by Trygve Allistar Diesen.  Despite this set back the film still retains enough of McKee’s style and it is anchored by a powerful performance by Brian Cox.  This is McKee’s first film not anchored by a female star but it does show that he’s just as adept with male actors as he is with the female ones.  The biggest note to make of this production is that it was the start of his collaborations with novelist Jack Ketchum of which the film is based.  The two had such a great working relationship together that The Woman (2011) became their next production.  Ketchum and McKee also co-wrote the novel for the film as well.  This is the sequel to a previous novel but it is completely self-contained.   Bettis returns for this film but in a smaller role and this film is filled with great performances by an ensemble cast.  It should also be noted that McKee also produced the film adaptation of Kechum’s novel The Lost (2006), directed by McKee’s friend Chris Sivertson.  

After the heavy subject matter of these previous films McKee decided to have a little fun by collaborating with his friend Sivertson on the feature version of All Cheerleaders Die (2013) which is one of the most creative modern witchcraft films since The Craft (1996).  It’s unlike any film he has ever done before but McKee manages to continue supporting a large female cast that are better than expected.

McKee is now putting the finishing touches on his part of the anthology film Tales of Halloween which is sure not to disappoint.  His films present audiences with strong female performances, sharp wit and atmosphere.  He doesn’t present easy stories but delves into the darker desires of his characters which can mirror our own.  Even when faced with many challenges (i.e. Red) he’s able to overcome and present a great film which not a lot of directors can claim.  There’s a magic to his films that is undeniable, so, if you’ve never taken a chance on any of his films, now’s a good time to try.

“Rants & Ravings About Horror” - Week 4: “The Importance of Horror Novelizations”

Week 4: “The Importance of Horror Novelizations”

“I love horror novelizations!” – There I said it.  This is probably not something you would expect from a die-hard horror fan like me since novelizations of films are the bastard child of the publishing world.  If you don’t know what these are or are confused by “films based on novels” here is my definition.  A novelization of a film is a novel specifically produced from the screenplay or film that it is based on as a way to allow fans to enjoy films that they loved in an alternative way.  They are produced as a tie-in to the film and a subsidiary way for studios to make more money and profit from a film.  They are usually exactly like the film it is based on and usually written by hack writers just doing it for a paycheck.  So why, do you ask, do I love them?  

There are two really good reasons.  

Reason number one is that novelizations can sometime be written by some amazing authors and be better than the film because of this.  One of my favorite authors Alan Dean Foster is behind such iconic novelizations like Alien, Aliens, Alien 3, John Carpenter’s The Thing (not to be confused by the original novel “Who Goes There?” by John W. Campbell, Jr.), Dark Star, Alien Nation, Starman, The Last Starfighter, Terminator: Salvation  and countless others.  These are some amazing reads that add to the story and characters and give the reader an additional experience that just watching the film cannot.  Keith R.A. DeCandido is another one of my favorites for his novelizations of Resident Evil and its sequels Apocalypse and Extinction all of which add more to the universe of the films and expands my enjoyment of the films themselves (he also wrote the novelizations for Darkness Falls, Serenity, and countless Star Trek novels).  I’ve never cared for the film Resident Evil: Apocalypse but after reading the book I watched the film a second time and enjoyed it a little more.  One of my more recent favorites has been The Woman by Lucky McKee and Jack Ketchum which is a sequel to one of Ketchum’s film Offspring that was produced simultaneously as a book and a film.   Anyone who knows me knows that one of my favorite horror franchises is Child’s Play and Matthew J. Costello’s novelizations of Child’s Play 2 and 3 were among some of the first ones I ever read as a child (I still have them on my shelf to this day along with countless others).   I love to immerse myself into the worlds of some of my favorite horror films and novelizations are a great way for me to do that.

The second reason why I love novelizations is because since they are usually based on the screenplay of a film rather than the actual film itself (since the novel is probably written simultaneous with production of the film) it is very common for a novelization to include stuff that was cut out of the film before it was released or contain major changes that can sometimes make the novel a whole different experience.  This is exactly what happened with Foster’s Alien 3 novelization which differs significantly from the final film which had major changes done to it due to the director (a young) David Fincher and the studio not agreeing on the final edit of the film (FYI – the Dark Horse comic book adaptation of the film also differs from the final film as well).  There are whole character arcs and changes in the Resident Evil novelizations.

More often than not, most novelizations are a plot point by plot point exact replica of the film and by inexperienced or incapable hands this can make for a tedious read (I know because I’m still trying to get through John Shirley’s novelization of Resident Evil: Retribution which is not written with the same style as DeCandido’s previous books).  Sometimes they may even be unnecessary as just about every major studio film has a novelization whether we care to know it or not.  Sometimes you’ll come across a great one while other times not so much.

I buy novelizations based on whether or not I enjoyed the film and wish to go back to that world in a different way.  I never buy a novelization of a film I have yet to see because why bother to read a book based on a film I didn’t like.  The exception is if I like the writer (i.e. my reading of DeCandido’s Resident Evil: Apocalypse) but this is rarely the case as I love Foster and there are a ton of novelizations of his I don’t ever plan on reading.  I will say that as a horror fan, you should read horror just as much as you watch it whether it be novelizations or original novels.  Horror can be enjoyed in so many different ways so don’t fail to overlook even one of them.