Book Review: Savage Woods - Some Movies - Why I'm deciding to keep blogging

GUESS WHO’S BACK??? (Well, I guess I just didn’t want to leave.)

I'm going to hold off on my ranting whine fest until the end of this blog...

So, without further ado- todays lunatic rant review will be a novel that I picked up on my Kindle.

SAVAGE WOODS:

Mary SanGiovanni

So it’s been a little less than a year since I’ve been reading on a regular basis… I had been such an avid reader since my teens, but I go through spurts where I don’t read anything and I sort of twist and tumble through life. Last year had been busy with reading a series of droning scripts. More work rather than a leisurely experience that I could sink in to.

(Good lord, if I read or attend one more play about a middle age repressed woman rebelling against her authoritarian/abusive/sexist husband and doing wild stuff with her former college roommate/sister/best friend/person with that one “younger guy” who inevitably tries to pass off his “free wheeling” lifestyle as “sage wisdom”, then I might just puke.)

So I was on Twitter and a random tweet crossed my stream, Mary SanGiovanni was promoting her book and had recommended it on a Friday afternoon where I had some excess money on my Amazon account through gift certificates. Well, I decided to download it and spent the next several days just digging in with a couple of mouthfuls at a time. I mean, I really don’t tend to take my time when I read- devour, done, move on. But this one was getting to me- and I decided to savor it. We had some pretty nasty gruesome imagery right from the start.

SanGiovanni brings us to the New Jersey Pine Barrens and introduces us to a number of characters as they gradually become lost in the deep dark woods. If you’ve never been, these woods are pretty scary looking. Twisting trunks that curl up toward the sky with a kind of greyish bark covered in splotches of moss. They always struck me as kind of “Tendril-like”, so it’s a great location for horror to take place. In “Savage Woods”, The Tree Spirits rule’ ancient creatures of Native American folklore, and they are not happy with man’s encroachment. But there is something else, something darker and driven mad through its long imprisonment. Something that infects the spirits, infects the people, and threatens to plunge the world into madness.

The book moves briskly with likeable protagonists that we can easily identify with. There’s a sub plot involving an abused woman fleeing her abusive ex-boyfriend and the police officer working on her case. But the horror begins before that, long before as the story unfolds. The Tree Spirits are scary, traditional monsters that will make you afraid of each creak and snap as you wander the woods. I’ve had arguments about whether “vegetables” can be scary, and these are a prime example of just how horrifying they can be. They are twisting branches, rotting trunks, and gripping roots that squeeze is undeniable power. But the true horror is in the madness itself, as we are forced to endure the pressure and twist of perceptions as the characters are driven past reason and logic… some embrace the horror that infects their minds, others turn away from it and are just as damned, and still others struggle with thoughts that ae not their own.

All in all, a good horrific tale.

6.5 out of 10. 

 MOVIE:  MAYHEM (2017)

Mayhem!!! 

This movie is fucking INSANE!!!

From the get go we know what kind of film we are in store for as Joe Lynch takes us straight into the heart of corporate America and sets loose the dogs of war with an explanation of the "red eye" virus. A twist on the old "rage" virus, this illness lowers inhibitions and sends emotions to a whirlwind high. Unfortunately, the company that discovered the legal loophole that allowed those infected to literally get away with murder just fired one of their employees on the same morning the company is quarantined with a quick outbreak of the virus.

At times hilarious, well paced, and bat shit insane; Mayhem delivers on its titles promise and delivers a gory and satirical good time. Not to be missed for fans of the B-Grade high intensity exploitation genre.

 Kudos.

8 out of 10

MOVIE: Proud Mary

 Though fairly standard Gloria-type remake, Proud Mary is a throwback in feel to some of the better made Blaxploitatuon of the 70s with a strong influence from Pam Grier. And call me a Jack Rabbit if you will, I do love me some grindhouse exploitation with some smooth ass bitches in charge. Teraji Henson is a charismatic lead and captivates the eye with enough compassion and hardness to make the heart pound a little harder. She kind of mows her way through the "bad guys" in this shoot-em-up, but that's really all there is to the film.

Worth a watch, though maybe a bit if a guilty pleasure.

 6 out of 10

MOVIE: Godzilla - Monster Planet

I've honestly always preferred the "Hero" version of Godzilla, but this animated film delivers a truly terrifying version of the creature in a far flung future. Humanity tries to wrestle control of the planet from the fearsome beast, aided by a mysterious alien race. The film spends the majority of it's run-time developing the "world" in which the story takes place. We see the technology, we see the culture, and we return to earth several million years after Godzilla and the Kaiju monsters have taken over the planet. 

But the movie isn't a "one shot", as we come to learn at the end and development is already under way for a sequel. The way they animated Godzilla in a different style kind of serves the alien nature of the monster but may be difficult to accept for sticklers. All in all, I was pleasantly entertained. 

7 out of 10 

OKAY... you can skip this part if you have no interest in my whinging lameness. 

 So after my whine fest in the last blog entry, I decided to take some time and collect my thoughts and really consider who I am writing this blog for. In the end, it has always been for myself and for the few people who read my words and get some sort of a kick out of whatever I have to say. I’m not some Industry Professional, I’m not some scholar with a wall full of degrees, and I’m not the final arbiter of art and its meaning. I never tried to be any of that. I've never presented myself as that. When I started writing I was a 30 year old new father looking for a creative outlet. Virtually no one read my blog- very few read it now. 

Be that as it may, it has actually grown and people are reading it now. Whether through friends of friends or what have you. Some people are finding my opinions worth noting and sharing and some find my opinions less than acceptable. I have to buck up and accept that- and stop taking their accusations to heart because they largely don't know me. The few that do should know me well enough to realize I'm a surprisingly decent person who often has too open of a heart.

I haven’t changed my views on this regressive thinking that makes people think it’s perfectly acceptable to call out every perceived slight as a reality. I think it’s wrong and I think the “call out” culture is going to lead us down a very dark rabbit hole. The inevitable backlash will be their consequence. But in that respect, I need to have a thicker skin and be willing to let people think I’m this awful monster for having the very controversial views that I have; Split was a fantastic film, exploitation films are fun, and the last few seconds of “They Call Her One Eye” made the entire run time of suffering and horror just flat out worth it. 

I'm not perfect and neither are any of you. Don't worry about it and I'm sorry for wasting your time with my petty problems.