It’s coming back! It’s coming back! As you can tell from the box above, I’m talking about Black Mirror, the horror/adventure game – not the tv show.
The original Black Mirror (2003) was about a man (Samuel Gordon) returning to his ancestral home to explore his family’s past and the evil that has plagued them for generations. It spawned 2 sequels and then the castle lights dimmed…
Until now.
This November, Black Mirror is getting the re-imagination/reboot treatment. It works for movies, why not games? This time around, it’s David Gordon whose going back home to figure out what happened to his father. This trailer looks really good.
My mom visited recently and took over the remote. She loves horror movies but between cable, Netflix and Hulu she kept getting “duds” – poorly acted films that had decent cover art. Even the movies that were good quality-wise bored her because the plots ran out of gas.
When the conversation turned to our faves, I asked what horror films she would recommend to folks. Here is her list:
1) The Hellraiser Series
Mom: The first three movies are the strongest; the rest of them are okay. Everything but the last one. That was trash.
2) The Woman In Black
Mom: This had it all: story, atmosphere, that harry potter boy. It’s not just a haunted house; it’s haunted people.
3) The Abominable Dr. Phibes & Dr. Phibes Rises Again
Mom: This is how you do “horror” comedy right. It’s a simple premise, a bad guy motivated by his undying love. Dr. Phibes is a sympathetic character-even when he does really nasty things. It feels good to root for him. Plus, it’s not the same type of murder over and over again.
One hundred years ago, the founders of Antonio Bay did a horrible thing. On a foggy night, they purposely guided a ship, the Elizabeth Dane, into rocks. As the crew perished, they looted the wreck and used the gold to establish the town. Now, just as the town is gearing up to celebrate, the fog is back…and so is the crew of the Elizabeth Dane.
This movie is one of my faves. Let me tell you why.
The typical horror revenge flick has one killer who is targeting a group that has done him wrong. The targeted group almost always includes an “innocent” – usually a young woman who is nicer than the others. Maybe her heart wasn’t in the prank or she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Perhaps she tried to convince the others not to go through with it. Whatever the case, she agreed to keep silent after the deed was done. While the audience gets a thrill out of watching the obnoxious bad guys get haunted and hunted down, the killer going after the innocent is supposed to feel as if vengeance is going a step too far.
The Fog doesn’t really do this. The killers – the ghost of a captain and his crew – are looking to take six lives. Because anyone in Antonio Bay can get it, the movie doesn’t ask us to be overly invested in the wellbeing of anyone in particular. No one wants the fog to snatch up little Andy…but you understand why the ghosts don’t care.
At the same time, no individuals stand out as being extraordinarily bad or evil. They are normal people going about their everyday lives.
The townspeople know the story of the shipwreck but they don’t believe it. There’s even a sanitized version that suggests the tragedy was an accident; it’s a local legend to scare children around the campfire. Because the town has worked so hard to whitewash the tale, the argument for innocent/ignorance really isn’t here.
On top of everything else – it’s good, creepy fun.
Goodnight, Father.
*Ghosts shattering car windows? The fog does not care about your property. What a riot!
*In an alternate universe, Laurie Strode escaped from Haddonfield, changed her name and hitched her way to Antonio Bay…and more trouble.
*Hard to find sanctuary in a church built with blood money.
Tawanna Sullivan 