Planetsuzy Dawn Mckenzie

Leave the dead in peace!

Despite the speculations of scholars, the outcome of Dracula by Bram Stoker, published in 1897, leaves little doubt about the return of the Carpathian vampire. According to the protocol of destruction, followed to the letter by the crusaders of Professor Van Helsing, Count Dracula has been reduced to dust. And even if the castle still stands at the top of its peak Transylvanian myth died. In his epilogue, Jonathan Harker mentions his son Quincey. Van Helsing said to him: "That fellow will one day what it was courageous mother! Already, he knows his tenderness and love. Later, he understood that several men loved it at the point of daring for its salvation, they would never have dared otherwise .
hundred years later, two writers, one of whose descendants Stoker imagined the future predicted by Van Helsing, offering a sequel to the original novel: Dracula Immortal * . The plot unfolds in 1912, more than 20 years after the story by Bram Stoker imagined, and has central character Quincey Harker, the son of Jonathan and Mina Harker. But things did not go quite as planned. Far from it. And that's probably what disappoints in this project now official. The new story takes place against the current direction hoped for by fans at the point of making an aberration. After reading the first chapters, I was jubilant to find our hero. At the mention of their past, many images came back to me in mind: the mysterious arrival of Jonathan in the castle of the count, the landing of Demeter in Whitby, the slow destruction of the beautiful Lucy, the love story between Mina and Dracula, Renfield's madness and, of course, stalking the monster by "religious fanatics" to the gates of its lair. But, like many sequels, including the movies, return to prefer farewell. Indeed, it is detrimental to a good magic trick twice, at the risk of delivering secrets or jeopardize the soul of the magician. I can not say the book without revealing the mysteries. And so be it. You will forgive me. The disappointment is so great that I am taking the risk of giving the keys of a novel that should not wake the dead.
The authors have not chosen the date of their plot at random. 1912 is the year of the death of Bram Stoker and the sinking of the Titanic, two elements found in the novel. Moreover, this concern to include the fiction into reality and increase the evocations history will lead the authors to draw too many strings at once, creating a cheerful tote unafraid interpretations. I like seeing the puzzle scenarios in the saga Back to the Future where he had to consider several time to avoid inconsistencies. So if you intend to dive into this novel, whatever the cost, do not particularly read what follows. I mean everything!
1 / Bram Stoker's novel is a character who writes a Dracula on testimony indiscreet. So there's novel Dracula Bram Stoker's great-uncle in the novel Dracula the Immortal Dacre Stoker's great grand son. Stoker's Dracula will even meet in person in the guise of an actor, Basarab, who wants to interpret the Dracula of the play at the Lyceum Theatre in London where Stoker was manager, for real. You follow me?
2 / The connection between the historical Dracula (Vlad the Impaler) and Stoker's antihero is again used, but more accurately as another historical figure, a distant relative of the lord of Romania appeared in demonic creature : Erzsebet Bathory, the Blood Countess, which, according to legend, bathed in the blood of his victims to keep her youth. Poor mortals that we are, we are currently witnessing a gangland family in which two vampires engaged in a bloody end that also lacks credibility. A struggle between vampires, it does remind you of anything?
3 / mystery of Jack the Ripper, who scored the annals of crime in England in 1888, here's yet another climax. Who is behind the butcher of Whitechapel? Dracula and Bathory? He had to think ...
4 / Character development seems inconsistent with the trajectory that gave them their creator. Professor Van Helsing becomes public enemy who barters his soul against evil intentions. Mina finally gives in to his adulterous inclinations. Lord Holmwood and Dr. Seward are free riders, thus betraying the friendship that bound them with Harker, who continue to tear, to the chagrin of their only son. In short, it will be understood that only come out unscathed from a vampire hunting ...
5 / Authors multiply horrible deaths, pushing the boundary descriptions of gore, no one escaped. Not even the Inspector Cotford, that Bram Stoker had deviated from his novel, not wishing to add dimension to police his masterpiece of horror. The authors give a new role in their plot, the binder including Scotland Yard detective who investigated the murders of the Ripper, Frederick Abberline. But its existence is so short that its sad end.
6 / Dracula is known by the pen of his enemies, in the epistolary novel by Bram Stoker: a damned, evil incarnate. While, for the authors of the immortal Dracula , it was ultimately not a bad guy and has been judged too harshly. He even tried to save Lucy by making her a vampire. Because they are blood transfusions from Van Helsing who condemned to certain death. Problem blood group. Ignoring its destruction, Dracula is therefore returned to prove his redemption. And then there is now worse than him ...
7 / The action of novel beyond the Victorian era and is in a rapidly changing industry and science. It was therefore logical for the authors to modernize the myth of the vampire characteristics and to consider a genetic origin to its powers. By changing its DNA, he uses his brain faculties unexplored and manages to regenerate. The vampire is a mutant who can even keep fighting, his heart torn out. A little too new age for me ...
8 / If Dracula by Bram Stoker took the form of a brilliant collection of letters, diary entries and newspaper clippings, which gave a narrative point of view with each chapter given to each character The novel Dacre Stoker and Ian Holt died in the fashion of "page turner" where everything comes together in a frenzy, with short paragraphs, in a simultaneity of actions. So it's more like a screenplay (by the way Ian Holt is a writer and had conceived his project as such) as a novel which we have to do. When will the movie?
9 / After discovering that his father is Jonathan but Dracula himself ("I am your father" I've heard that somewhere ...), Quincey is doomed since unknowingly, in the final pages of the novel, he embarks on aboard the Titanic. But after all, maybe he is one of the survivors? Another novel gives us probably the answer ...
The most interesting pages of the book at the end. As a bonus DVD, there is the afterword by Elizabeth Miller, an authority on the world of vampires, as well as testimonies of authors offering a trip backstage at the development of the novel. Lighting exciting.
For a magisterial history of vampires, read Dracula by Bram Stoker ...!
And let the dead rest in peace.

Olivier V.

* Immortal Dracula, Dacre Stoker and Ian Holt

Editions Michel Lafon

October 2009

Kate Beckinsale's New Dog

Evidence of a third-rate movie * Ink Blood

Currently, good fantasy films are rare in cinema. Erick Fearson has been the sad experience with Paranormal Activity, Evidence of a Hauting , psychological thriller mounted sauce Blair Witch Project , Which proves to be an artistic work best marketing phenomenon. Unfortunately, the public is by appointment. To believe that in times of crisis, the moral and neurons go on strike ...

By Erick Fearson

I just saw paranormal activity, the "scariest movie" 25 years in its class. At least that is how the media we sell. What is it really? Before going into details, a few words on the pitch. A young couple suspects their house is haunted by a demonic spirit. They decided to implement a video surveillance during sleep to save the evening events which they are victims. The images dated from September to October 2006 were retrieved and assembled into a film of 86 minutes: paranormal activity.
Those who know me well know I'm fond of fantasy movies where everything is based on suggestion rather than demonstration. Verily, films with special effects and moult liters of hemoglobin annoy me deeply. I leave these childish amusements for young pre-pubescent that nothing tantalizes. So I made myself a joy to watch Paranormal Activity , shot using the technique of subjective camera and, most importantly, no special effects at three million dollars. Especially as the film in question deals with a subject that is dear to me: the ghosts. In fact, not at all but I still did not know before seeing the movie ... So
? Nothing new under the sun, with this behind closed doors that do not even reinvented the genre. Indeed, is not Blair Witch Project wants! If it is a gem of its kind, Paranormal Activity is a souffle that does not. The documentary aspect of the film could have been used. In fact, and in this case, we have the unpleasant impression that this process serves to hide the poverty of the movie.
To be honest, I was that I did not see this movie for the sole purpose of being afraid. For my part, a director must be pretty talented to scare me a little bit with a ghost film or sold as such. Moreover, as is my habit, I never enters into the trap of a marketing buzz of any kind whatsoever. Especially, dubious strategy when we are served by the production of the film itself. My first approach was, above all, to see how they would broach the subject and the psychological aspect. Because if I stick only to the synopsis and the trailer, the hero sets up a methodology similar to that of the ghost hunters to try to clarify the supernatural events that happen in this house. Of course, if I could, in addition, get a few chills, so why not! But apart from a few young virgins, I wonder who this movie can scare? Of course, there are many moments in the film where sweaty apprehension and tension. But it is rather lightweight. In reality, the pressure is during the night scenes, and especially in the last ten minutes a final big strings, sloppy and totally predictable.
Because the film is long ... very long. And therefore quite boring. Several times I've been surprised not by the entity of the film but my yawns. And yet, I'm more likely to appreciate the long, slow films (such as art films of Asian cinema for example) and bored farm for action movies. But I appreciate that these films contain a slow background, poetry, aesthetics, emotion or even a coherent, which gives food for thought. This is not the case with dull Paranormal Activity. In the absence of minds (or mind ?) Is the utter incoherence that haunts the film. Indeed, people who, like me, are interested in the paranormal field will appreciate the many amalgam between the world of ghosts and the demons. Two completely different worlds that the director tries to nest regardless of any consistency. Big deal! In the confusing and it gives us a completely unlikely scenario and completely disjointed, but still usable for the novice spectator who will not look any further.
Not necessarily focusing on the absurdities and inconsistencies of theme, History is full of flaws unacceptable rookie mistakes.
Do not talk about the psychology of caricature and non-existent in our two heroes IQ whelk. Or narrative gaps. We will never know the nature of the "entity" which pursues the heroine, where she came from or why it's there and what she wants. What is the purpose of the photo found in the attic, if not to effect the "Twilight Zone"? No answer. Why reveal information via the Ouija which is totally unnecessary to the plot then? No answer. The director was he looking at save time with these tricks to fill the painful 86 minutes of film? One might legitimately ask the question. Note in passing that the session with the Ouija is absolutely ridiculous. It is part of the stereotypes peddled by those who ignore the object and its use. The Ouija film itself is laughable. Rather than taking a classic Ouija to gain credibility (the model of William Fuld, for example), the film serves up a model of Ouija-style "satanic" with an inverted pentagram. Cliché, cliché, when you hold us ... Through the spirits of the board, our two heroes will discover the firstname someone they end up looking good on the internet and that it happened the same thing. And that's it! You read correctly, they will not try to learn more! As for the medium that occurs in this fiction, it borders on the ridiculous. It does everything a real medium should not do, starting with their damn scared before they admit that in any case they are lost! Makes you wonder if he knows his job so much what he says is wrong and worthy of a superstitious fundamentalist! The pinnacle is reached when it occurs again in the house to tell the hero he can do nothing to help. Indeed, he admits he can not stay here so the presence of the entity is resonance. To tell you the truth, I could not help but let go a laugh on the scene.
In a case like this, we think it sufficient to leave the place to escape the haunted phenomena of hauntings. Well no, we are told, because it is the heroine who is "haunted" or, to be fair, that is "owned." Fleeing will not solve the problem. If, in this case, it is possessed, then why include in the scenario of the phenomena which are typically associated with hauntings but have nothing to do with demonic possession? For indulgence, one might assume that psychokinetic phenomena are linked to a poltergeist (nothing to do with a ghost, by the way), in addition to the possession of this poor girl. In this case, it would, quite unconsciously, the agent trigger these events. But, again, it does not hold water. Indeed, some phenomena that occur when heroin is out of the room in question. When the "poltergeist" is activated. Example: the chandelier swaying or television lights.
Finally, the director / screenwriter should bone up a little more technical investigators haunted places because his hero uses very clumsily, making them obsolete.
I doubt he knows a little bit of demonology and the world of ghosts. Indeed, in his own words, he does not believe in ghosts and do not focus on this universe. Suffice to say it clearly transpires on screen! It is therefore impossible at the outset to believe in this farce is sold to us as a true story (sic).
Nevertheless, the idea is to use the director a type of minimalist and anxiogenic effects, thanks to the presence of time code that participates in the anxiety of the viewer. It reveals and amplifies certain phenomena. But despite that, the sauce does not. The events could be credible, at least some, if used in isolation and in moderation. Unfortunately, the director uses all the cliches of the genre, managing to serve us in the same film in a relatively short period of time: moving luster and drape, footprints and bruise on the victim, whispering from nowhere , abruptly slamming doors, lights and TV that light up, etc ... to dream all the ghost hunters! At the same time, and oddly, the film does not show much. And paradoxically, leaves no room for interpretation. Too bad.
Despite this, the last ten minutes you will perhaps startle even if it remains in the utter inconsistency as the ending is weak and easy. Note that I am talking about the end the least bad alternative. Indeed, did you know that Paranormal Activity has two different endings? The second end (that which is visible in theaters) is even more ridiculous than the original. It especially allows producers to announce a sequel. Besides already short of "shooting". Business is business ...
In all honesty, the trailer is more interesting than the movie itself. As is often the case. Even if the reactions of the spectators in this trailer are totally disproportionate. Nonetheless, these spectator-picked by the production are Americans and we know how these, the first Spielberg are so good customers right audience.
But fantasy fans will certainly appreciate paranormal activity rather that the very poor and vapid Twilight who is also the buzz right now. This feature film to be preachy and dull, just for flower girls, has as much to do with vampires that Paranormal Activity with ghosts.
It is unfortunate that this film is so oversold in the media. He does not deserve the attention that he is. We are far from masterpieces such as The Exorcist , The Extent or the beautiful pearl horror Rosemary's Baby .
In conclusion, with paranormal activity, the avowed aim the director is to bring only fear with some big strings. Unfortunately, it fails in doing so by a lack of consistency, as well as the misuse of various clichés. Just worthy of being posted on YouTube, the film gives no noble letter to the fantasy genre. It
said.
EF

* Proof of a turnip