As we approach Halloween, a season of stories in a more storied year than any I can remember, it brought me great joy to discover these two recent releases. As Chuck says when discussing anthologies, at worst if you don't enjoy what you're watching you can at lease embrace the fact that a new story isn't long in waiting. When anthologies are done to their best, however, they open a whole series of doors with which a director can explore themes in overlapping cascades, something I felt both of these films do very well. That these are both stories examining the nature of story in direct ways, it made for an easy choice to consider these movies together. Yet...they are both very different films.
Tonally, the visions could not be more different. Befitting a Clive Barker inspired film, Books of Blood carries an ominous presence throughout, it's characters bearing their flaws to scars as their psychological torment ultimately leads to physical desecration. Befittingly, it draws us through a puzzle box of horrors that had an ending that will impact most viewers deeply as a moment of ultimate release or ultimate despair. It delivers, in my humble opinion, what one would hope for in a Clive Barker piece, deliciously and without remorse.
The Mortuary Collection, on the other hand, has a sense of whimsy but do NOT be fooled by the poster (or the font, as Elizabeth points out in the episode) as it's meant to lure you into the belief that what you're to see isn't going to be horrific. Horror abounds in this place, and with remarkable and unexpected visuals that will make the horror fan alternately cheer, squirm, and outright fawn over. The movie reminds me explicitly of Peter Jackson's Braindead (1992), Dead Alive as it was released in the states, in many ways, but perhaps most importantly in that it's grand and colorful characters populate a world in which there is no fate too twisted, or gross, or bombastic by which they might meet their gory end. It's a fun and beautiful film, and one that will probably stand as my favorite of the year. I really hope this episode turns some folks onto it.
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Cover art for this episode by Crystal Mielcarek! Find more of her work on Facebook, Instagram, or Smushbox.net.
