Artist Spotlight: Fanny Bieler

Wer Schattenspiele 2012 gelesen hat, der kennt auch „Glitzerndes Wasser“, die letzte Geschichte im Heft. Und wer es noch nicht wusste: Fanny, die Autorin, zeichnet nicht nur, sie hat auch einen Master in Modedesign. Und genau wie ihre Geschichte sind auch ihre Kleider verspielt, detailreich und auf ihre eigene Art düster. (Die Bilder anklicken, um sie zu vergrößern.)

    

 

Inspiriert wird sie von vergangenen Epochen, wie Rokoko, Empire und dem Viktorianischen Zeitalter, aber auch von der modernen Gothic-Szene. Einfach von „Sachen, von denen man die Augen nicht abwenden kann, weil sie so schön sind und doch irgendwie makaber“ sind. Fernab von zeitgenössischem Minimalismus bringen ihre Kleider wieder etwas Glamour und Pomp in die jetzige Zeit. 

Ihr Label „living in a fool´s paradise“ ist momentan noch im Aufbau, wer gerne weiter auf dem Laufenden gehalten werden würde, findet sie auf Deviantart: cavicanem und Facebook: Fanny Bieler.

 

Movie Review: Coraline

Adapted of the book of the same name by Neil Gaiman, Coraline is a small wonder made of small wonders.

The story revolves around Coraline, whose parents just moved into the  Pink Palace, an old apartment building in the middle of nowhere. Her parents, both authors of a gardening book are pushing near their deadline and none of the other eccentric inhabitants care to or can remember her name correctly, so her life right now is not exactly great. Then however she receives a strange doll that looks like herself and a small door opens itself to another world. There she is greeted by her other mother, her other father, her other everything. And all is so much better there, beautiful, interesting, magical...
ooor is iiiit?

Well, of course it´s not, it´s a scary movie.

While not really scary for adults, it the movie still does not shy away from creepy imagery or heavy themes. It presents a good blend of funny, suspenseful, creepy and calm moments. The story feels surprisingly authentic for having such phantastic themes. The motivations and feelings of Coraline and her parents are understandeable and relateable. The other neighbors (apart from Mr Bobinski maybe) seem like people one might actually know. It captures the view of a child and parent equally well. And even the antagonist is more than just "evil", at least in my opinion, though one can see it like that. There is a bit more complexity to it that is briefly touched upon, but not explained.
The story is not "easy", there is no "so this is what we learned today, folks!" It does provide questions without them being distracting and it can be interpreted without interpretation being necessary to understand the story.

The movie looks gorgeous and the differences between the one and the other world follow an internal logic, not so much dictated by the symbolism that a lot of other movies present (you know... someone is seen next to a cross and the audience knows that it´s supposed to be a jesus-analogy or something like that, which is not bad altogether, just a bit overused sometimes). And it´s one of those movies that you can watch over and over again and see something new again. Claymation is an impressive art by itself and it´s used masterfully here. The soundtrack is so good that I found myself listening to the ost on a regular basis for fun, which I barely do. It´s spooky, beautiful and fits extremely well.

One great tidbit is this: There is a female, believeable main character, several people of color, people of all ages, thin, fat, beautiful, ugly, bitchy, awkward, conservative, even "slutty"... and those characteristics don´t reflect on how bad or good a person they are. The movie, even though it has a rather small cast, has great diversity and not one unmemorable character design. And it pulls it off with elegance, in the sense that you only start to notice when you actually stop and think about it. Bravo.

There are a few small downsides: The movie tends to move too fast sometimes and there is one big plothole towards the end in my opinion, which i´ll put into the [ ] in white, so you can highlight if you want to read the spoiler: [Why didn´t the parents get tipped off that they had been away for so long when they were freed from the snow ball, when even the groceries were mouldy? And if they weren´t really away, why was there snow on their coats? Either they were away or they weren´t it´s not one of those situations where one can assume that both is possible.] The main character too I found rather unsympathetic when first watching it... but maybe that was the point. Also I personally just don´t  like headstrong characters. Altogether those are minor problem in an otherwise awesome movie.

And that´s it: It´s an awesome movie, not "an awesome movie for kids". It´s an awesome movie. Period.

Movie Review: Evil Dead (2013)

Let´s start off by saying the things that are the most obvious:

No, it is not like Evil Dead 2 or Army of Darkness

No, it does not need to be

Yes, it orients itself more on the first Evil Dead

No, it is not directed by Sam Raimi

Is it good?

Well... 

How the hell do you define "good" in a Horror movie anyway?

Doesn´t a Horror movie betray it´s own purpose when you feel good (after) watching it?

It advertised itself as "the most terrifying movie you will ever see"

it certainly was not the most terrifying movie I´ll ever see

but it sure as hell wasn´t pleasant, either.

The problem is that I am probably not the best person to talk about this movie. 

It´s a very gorey movie. It was very gross and yes, it was disturbing.

I don´t like those things in a Horror movie.

But for a splatter movie it was pretty much the best it could be... for me.

The plot is quick to summarize: A few tweens drive to a shack in the woods to party, have sex and get killed by a monster. Wait, no. Sorry, that sequence of words is ingraved into my brain after watching one too many horror flicks. No, actually the story of Evil Dead (2013) is a bit more interesting: 

See, they drive to a shack in the woods because one of the girls is a drug addict and they plan to make a cold detoxification. From the get-go it´s also pretty obvious that some things happened in the past and that there is some unresolved tension between them. Soon after one of them discovers the necronomicon and - reading a page out loud - summons a demon, who will bring the apocalypse as soon as he has feasted on five souls. And thus begins a game of "and then there were none" with lots and lots of self- and regular mutilation.

The good:

* The effects were VERY effective, apart from maybe one or two scenes, what happened on screen made me sick to my stomach or made me cover my nethers (those who know the scene know what i mean)

* The lady playing the demon was awesome. She was so good in fact that only after the movie I did remember that she was playing two different roles and that the demon was in fact not played by a different person.

* I did not hate the characters, nor did I find them particularly interesting, BUT: The way the group started to play off each other, their resignation, despair and anger when facing the cold intoxification really got to me. It was a realistic portrayal in my opinion and the premise alone would mak for a fascinating film on its own.

The bad:

* Good GOD the brother character. He was very, very frustrating to watch. He was exactly the wrong blend of gutless and gutsy. 

* Resulting from the above: The thing with the grave. Errr... no. No, suspension of disbelief went ooout daaa window. I know that it´s a Horror movie and logic does not need to apply, but still nope. I can believe anything the demon does, cause the demon is magic. But that? No. That´s just bullshit. Nice bullshit. But still bullshit.

* The sexual... things... Which is weird to critizise, because I am pretty certain that it´s there JUST to make the viewer uncomfortable. But still, it only happened to the girls and... argh, i don´t know. It does make sense from the perspective of the demon to do nasty stuff, but I... just can´t not put it on the bad list. I would have to write an entirely different entry for this particular can of worms, just bear with me here, this review is long enough as it is.

So all in all: It was an interesting experience, to say the least. I am still not entirely sure what I should think about this movie and I think that´s actually a good thing. It makes me rethink the parameter by which I consider a Horror Movie good or bad and it is an interesting thought to be had:
Does it make sense to critize a movie for being disturbing?

As it is obvious: I would not watch it again.
Should you watch it?
Reading the above I´m sure you already know.

- Nekromantenhase

PS: Concerning the stinger:  (¬▂¬) *shrugs* eeehhh...

About writing Horror-Comics

Or: What I have learned about scary stories in the three years of Schattenspiele.

First off a rhethorical question: What do an erotic story and a scary story have in common? Answer: What you don´t see is what´s the most interesting. In other words: Tension and build-up, with the goal being the best possible stimulation. While shocking moments are important, they should be used sparingly, even if that does not seem logical at first. But I´ll elaborate.

There are different kinds of fear, let´s just put them into three categories for now:

Unsettling: Something is off, something is alarming or even just uncomfortable. You might not be able to put your finger on it, but it´s there (probably) and it´s haunting. It might or might not be enough to get your imagination starting.

Scary: You know that something is there and it´s out to get you. It´s not here yet, though, but you know that it´s going to come, inevitably and with no or only a small hope of avoiding it. And when it happens, it´s gonna be BAD.

Shocking: It is there, immediate, no distance in between and the self loses itself for a moment in a pure, overwhelming moment of fear. Maybe it came out of the blue, maybe there was a build-up, but the result was even worse or something entirely different, but equally terrifying as what was expected.

Now what an author might want at the end of the tale is “shocking”, but what they really aspire most of the time is “unsettling” or “scary”. Why? Because while shock is indeed the most intense feeling, it´s over soon. I bet every one of us has witnessed a jump scare in our lives. Yes, it´s bad, but when it´s over, it´s over and a sweet release of endorphin ensures us that we are indeed still alive. Shock alone only releases tension, is what I want to say. You need context to make it last. You want to make it last. And yes, horror authors have to be sadists. Actually, most authors have to be sadists. Comes with the territory.

What you need to prepare a good scare is a “dark hallway”. A “dark hallway” is something we all encounter in our daily lives that unsettles us irrationally, meaning that we cannot logically explain why it unsettles us. We can find explanations, but since the phenomenon is in itself harmless, it stays irrational. It needs to be relateable. So, for example, if you as an author are scared of buttons it´s not enough to show a button on every page to make someone uncomfortable, since most people aren´t. You need to find the root of your fear and try to convey it to the person reading your story to feel with you. A dark hallway on the other hand has the advantage that it tends to unsettle most people. 

This is something you can build upon, in many different ways, making the unsettling scary. A dark hallway, to pick up the example again, is a good place for an attacker to hide. Even if the hallway seems empty, since we cannot see completely, the fear still remains. One possibility is to show or hint at an attacker that actually exists, could be a murderer roaming the house or something supernatural. Even better if said supernatural attacker somehow utilizes the fact that it cannot be seen or uses shadows.

For example: There is a monster in the house that can only move in the dark. Our protagonist sees said dark hallway, unsure if it is there, the eyes fixated on the dark spot where he thinks it might be. He knows that it can´t move forward any further, the light prevents it and his hand is on the switch. But then a small hand-like blurry thing moves over the wall, it seems to sizzle in the light and a faint scream is heard. It moves towards the light bulb and finally crushes it. In the next pages the protagonist retreats further and further into the house in a battle of wits that might or might not be hopeless while said monster is out to get him.

The shock element would be the sight of said monster, it might be in the beginning of the story to help build up tension or in the end as a grand finale, in any way it should be a sight that neither the protagonist nor the reader wants to see again.

And that is how I build up moments in horror stories. Of course I don´t always stick to this, some stories don´t need shock moments at all, some just live off of them, also it really depends on what you understand as unsettling, scary or shocking, of course. But I hope I was able to bring you a bit of insight into how this can work.

- Nekromantenhase

Movie Review: The Shadow within

Also known as „Ghosts”, also known as “Les meres noires” (the black mothers), while I personally like the last title the most. Because, although it is a tale about ghosts and a shadow within someone, the mothers are what makes it special. But first things first:

In a little French village in the mountains set in the forties, the nine year old Maurice lives with his mother. The war has taken away the husbands, the phthisis is taking away the children. After losing his twin brother at birth, his mother has become a bitter woman, obviously and irrationally preferring the dead twin over him. And the bond to his dead brother is still strong – and threateningly so. And now the women of the village want to use said bond to communicate to their dead beloved children.

Well, what could go wrooong?

A shocker or thriller this is not. Instead it is what I would describe as a drama with added mystery. The movie moves slowly and in low tones, probably a trait that outs it as an adaption of a book. The recurring themes and the atmosphere are nicely done and gloomy. The special effects are meh, but i´d still recommend this movie. While the dead twin/ dead child schtick has been done to dea- a LOT – what I liked about the movie was its grounding in reality and its pessimism. The relationship of the mother to the child is sad and believable and so are the circumstances that lead up to the decision that they want to use Maurice as a medium to the other side. The real horror, if any, lies in the daily life of Maurice between the coldness of his mother and the closeness of his dear brother.

So if you are waiting for jump scares or masses of ghosts, you won´t get them – no matter how much the cover art tries to make this movie look like a screamer-picture or a gore-fest* – but if you are in the mood for some solid spookiness mixed with melancholia, this might be for you.

*= Pfft, seriously, look at this:
This one is actually rather accurate, all things considered...

... but then this one´s like:
Damn, sales are dropping, we gotta up the scariness!
And BAM: Scream/er face is gonna eat your SOUL!
Only scary thing is that this reminds me of a blow-up doll
... hrrr... okay, that implication IS scary.

... and on to the Mega-Digitation:
LOOK AT HOW DARK EVUL AND TRUE I AM!!!111eleven
I´M FSK 18 BEEATCH!
LOOK AT ALL THAT KETCH- I MEAN BLOOD!
IT`S SO RED!
YOU SCARED YET!?
No?
BUT LOOK THERE´S A VAGUE MONSTER HAND
 AND A VAGUE MONSTER SKULL!!!
Or something.
BE SCARED!!!
Please?

Neuigkeiten... erneut

Hallo meine Damen und Herren,

leider muss ich mitteilen, dass sich die Herausgabe von Schattenspiele um ein halbes Jahr verschieben wird. Von den, mit mir eingeschlossen, vier Zeichnern haben zwei abgesagt und ich kann die daher ausfallende Menge an Material nicht innerhalb solch kurzer Zeit zeichnen und will das auch gar nicht. Es lag mir immer am Herzen, dass die Schattenspiele-Comics einen gewissen Mindest-standard an Qualität haben und dass ich kein Heft herausbringe, in dem weniger als 60 Seiten Comics sind. Hinzu kommt, dass ausgerechnet in den Zeitraum von Mitte Oktober bis Mitte November viele wichtige Termine meinerseits gefallen sind. Also ist die logische Konsequenz, das Heft zeitlich zu verschieben.

Bis dahin werde ich mein Bestes geben um den Blog hier wieder regelmäßiger zu updaten und falls es wieder etwas Neues gibt, halte ich euch natürlich auf dem Laufenden.

-     -     Nekromantenhase

Comic Review: Night of a thousand wolves

... might as well be called: Comic of a thousand gorgeous wolves.

The art ist beautiful. It is hand-drawn, giving the pictures a vibe of age and tradition which nicely tingled in the back of my head while I was reading it. That is not say that I dislike digital art (not at all) I just want to say that it fits the theme and the story, which is set in the middle ages. And yes, the masses of wolves by the artist Dave Wachter are very impressive. There are only minor nitpicks, such as the zombie wolves and the faces of the humans just don´t look as interesting as the rest of the art. It is still eye porn, though.

The story is rather classic horror with fantasy elements: A family lives out in the wilderness among green hills and sheep. One day, all of a sudden, the Grandpa grabs one of these sheep and an axe, he wants to sacrifice it, as it seems, to an unknown force called Nagbre. The father intervenes, he argues with the old man, but as they stop their argument end and they look up when they hear a noise, a wolf has already half devoured the white animal, now gnarling his teeth at them. And he´s only the omen of an army of wolves coming their way...

Unfortunately it is not as interesting to read as I am making it sound. The story is not particularly grabbing and it feels a bit like a "what standard-horror-route will they go with?"-game. It mixes up the formula up a bit in the middle of the story when the "family alone a in a shack"-story becomes a "city under siege"-story, unfortunately ditching the horror element for that part completely in my opinion. It´s just not the same kind of fear when you are lying in your bed, unsure if the monster in front of the window has seen you yet then when you stand in the middle of a crowd, uneasy if all those people in front of you will provide a shield thick enough to save your life. I personally find the second scenario not as effective as the first, but that is of course subjective. While it starts out strong, if very clichéd and it mellows down towards the middle, the ending is nice, with a legitimate eerie feel to it and a bit of an open end that still manages to conclude the story.

The characters are pretty one-note. Nothing more to say here, unfortunately. The most memorable one was the mother, but apart from that the story sticks rather firmly to narrating down what´s happening with little to no characterization and little to no background story. While I am not a fan of the "we explain evey little detail"-approach, knowing a bit more about the lore would have been nice. It felt more like they did not have enough pages to tell everything they wanted to (the story is not that long and can be read in a single volume) and not like they meant to leave things out. Still, there is a mythological feel to it and as if there IS a backstory and a greater world behind it. 

Altogether, the story is not bad, just not very special. It is not full of twists and new interpretations, instead it is rather conservative. It´s like bread, essentially. Nah, that´s too harsh. It´s like bread that´s a little special. Like potato-bread. And it´s a good foundation for the delicious layer that is the artwork, the atmosphere and the wolves.

The thousand incredibly pretty wolves.

Buy: If you like the art or just like wolves a lot and want a comparatively "soft" and classic horror story. 

Pass: If you don´t like wolves that much or want an innovative horror story.

A preview of "Night of a thousand wolves" can be read here: Night of a thousand Wolves preview

and it can be bought on amazon.com by IDW publishing as a paperback here: Buy Night of a thousand Wolves