This review isn’t strictly speaking of a movie shown at a Society meeting, but I watched it privately with one member recently and I have enough to say about it that it’s worth a post. The official trailer is a good representation of the movie as a whole. See it with open-minded friends and I guarantee you’ll have a good night.
Genres: Slasher, Southern Gothic
I will start by saying that this is the best horror film I’ve seen in the last five years set in the South. Specifically, the movie is set in Louisiana, and much like Chernobyl Diaries, Venom leverages its setting both effectively and artistically. The scenery in this film is as amazing as it is authentic. I grew up in the Silicon Valley, and have lived the past couple of years in Eastern Washington. Swamps were always something I fantasized about as a child (The Werewolf of Fever Swamp, anyone?), much as I did with snow (I get plenty of snow where I live now, though last winter was on the light side). I saw my first snow by the time I was nine, but I didn’t see my first real swamp until I went to Basic Training at Fort Knox, Kentucky. Venom showcases swamps like nothing I’ve ever seen. As I watched it, I was captivated by the rural dirt roads, and found myself marveling at what it would be like to ride my bike down those dusty tracks with the murky snake-infested water on either side of me, ready to swallow me up if I fell over (I’m from the city, okay?).
We didn’t have a Literary Meeting this month due to the fact that I was in Minneapolis for AWP, so I couldn’t resist reading a short story to open the meeting. That story was “Ghost Hunt,” by Wakefield H. Russell. This 1938 story follows an ill-fated paranormal investigation of The Grange, a haunted house near Richmond Bridge in London, England. Other than exercising the Chairman’s Prerogative, the excuse I make for shoehorning a literary entry into the Cinematic Meeting is that the story takes the form of a narration by one Tony Weldon as he and one Professor Mignon of Paris look into the reported haunting of the house for a radio documentary. I’d be happy to take anyone who would care to come with me down to the river to listen to what happens. 