Rare Exports - trailer

The Americans call him Santa Claus. The British call him Father Christmas. Anglos be aware. That jolly fat old white man with matching beard is a Coca-Cola™ invention¹. What is common knowledge to some is revelation to others.

This year American horror cinema is 100 years old (Frankenstein 1910). To celebrate the centenary Hollywood released A Nightmare on Elm Street and My Soul to Take amongst other bilge. That is not to say the genre is bankrupt – Hollywood storytelling maybe but not horror films. The aficionados have learnt to look elsewhere for their scares: Italy, Japan, South Korea, Spain. There are other finding places – other countries and cultures each rich with legend and myth.

One of Hollywood’s great inventions is the zombie; an inspiration from Haiti. Hollywood should go to Africa the oldest and richest of cultures. In Nigeria there is the tale of the mermaid. A temptress, a seductress, a demon dressed in female skin to lure men to the depths to their deaths. The Europeans have mythology too. In Finland Santa Claus is derived from the pagan Yule Goat. Not that jolly.

Rare Exports is more fantasy than horror. As was The City of Lost Children 1995 and Pans Labyrinth 2006. If it’s as good as the latter two or as its trailer suggests then our rewards will be at Christmas.

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¹ Coca-Cola and Santa Claus

² UK release date

³ US release date

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The Walking Dead 102 sneak peek

The cliffhanger from the weekend premiere was the message radioed into the tank. Who is this zombie (above) and why did the camera linger on him?

If he’s the one who sent the message then this opens dramatic parameters. The rules of the living dead are not set in blood. In this story can humans mimic the walkers thereby avoiding detection? The readers of the comics already know this. The rest of us shall see.

The preview for episode 102 is a thriller/horror sequence. It is well delivered – dramatically and thematically. This early in The Walking Dead has already established its action and thriller credentials. It is the soft spots – those scenes of human drama – which flailed in 101.

Whereas most of the internet is praising Caesar I say lend me your ears. The dramatic arc of this series seems to be the hero’s quest: to walk on broken glass to reunite with family. It is simplistic, condescending in a nation with a 40% divorce rate and trite.

Despite the disappointment of 101 I reserve judgment on 102 but I am not deceived. Like the trailer for the premiere this preview looks great.

I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.

William Shakespeare

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