Lone Women by Victor LaValle - Review

From the very start of Lone Women by Victor LaValle, it is made quite clear that whatever is locked inside Adelaide Henry’s steamer trunk is both alive and very dangerous. It tore her parents to pieces, after all. An act that forces Adelaide to burn the family home, with the remains of her parents inside, and flee with whatever she can carry and whatever is locked inside that steamer trunk.

Being a lifelong addict of any and every thing to do with monsters. I was predisposed to wondering and guessing that when the locked steamer trunk would be opened, either by accident or on purpose, what style of entity would be revealed. 

While it could be something akin to Fluffy, the insatiable carnivorous beast that was locked inside The Crate in the first Creepshow movie, and in the source material story of the same name. I had serious doubts that that would be the case. No, my biggest suspicion as to what was inside that steamer trunk was that it was not all that different something akin to Belial, the deformed twin brother of Duane Bradly in Frank Henenlotter’s cult classic Basket Case.

Adelaide’s journey to Montana is not all that easy, but it is also not all that dangerous, either. She is going east from a homestead in California, after all. But while the frontier has been settled, it is also far from being toiled and tamed.

The real dangers and life-threatening challenges Adelaide must face and do battle with as she attempts to settle and build an all new life, in a region where no one knows her, begin manifesting when she arrives in the Montana town of Big Sandy, the city closest to her claim.

This is another homestead claim, which means that Adelaide needs to live there for three years, during which she is required to make it habitable and cultivate crops. If she succeeds in doing so, she gets to keep the land. If she fails or gives up, the land reverts back to the government. Failure is not an option for her. Neither is discovery, or so she thinks when she first arrives in Big Sandy.

While this is Adelaide’s first experience living in an area with few people of color, there was a refreshing absence of overt (i.e. dramatically performative) racism in the narrative. Oh, there is racism. But it is more a humming undercurrent of white noise (pun kind of intended) than anything of the kind that would found if this tale were set in the Jim Crow south.

As long as Adelaide is 'good' (in that she meets with the community standards in an area starved for people to populate it) she will be accepted. But if those arbitrary community standards are altered, or challenged, in any way… Adelaide may no longer be considered one of the ‘good' ones. While this is never explicitly stated outright by any character, it is something that Adelaide knows and is aware of.

There is a lot more to the story than Adelaide and the contents of her steamer trunk. There is also a traveling family or ruthless, murderous criminals that Adelaide gets on the bad side of. A ghost town that may or may not have actual ghosts residing within it. Then there is Mrs. Reed, Big Sandy's wealthy matron, who is supportive of the suffrage movement and the bringing of industry for women to work to the town. But she is also the author and the enforcer of the community standards. She and her husband, Mr. Reed,  are where that humming undercurrent of menace vibrates loudest. Make them happy and, well, everybody is happy. As long as the community standards are met and abided by.

Lone Women is my kind of book. It is exciting, it is touching, it is suspenseful, and, best of all, it continually surprised and subverted my expectations. I give it a hearty recommendation to any all Weird Western fans.

Until next time, happy trails… 

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - July 1, 2003

While the much ballyhooed "all practical" car chase in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines was both exciting and entertaining, I think christening the film itself "The MOST exciting movie of the year" was a tad much. Then again, 2003 was not a good year for me and my son. The only other films I can recall seeing on the big screen that year were Ang Lee's Hulk, Eli Roth's Cabin Fever, and an all-new live action version of Peter Pan released during the Christmas season.

This was the first Terminator film made without the creative input of James Cameron and, despite the admirable effort of director Jonathan Mostow to maintain the tone of and style of the first two films, it shows.

Rise of the Machines is to the first two Terminator films what Jaws 2 was to Jaws. A competent enough piece of entertainment that, nonetheless, fails to retain the creative energy that made the previous movies pop.

Fright Flicks - Trading Card #79

A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 3 Dream Warriors (1987)

"Welcome to prime time, BITCH!"

Count Dracula [il Conte Dracula (1970)] - Soundtrack

Although the film Bruno Nicolai composed this excellent music for was first released in 1970. A soundtrack LP of Nicolai's score would not be released until 1982. Twelve years later, that same album recording would get reissued on compact disc, with an additional 10 previously unpublished tracks. This 2021 disc is a remaster and reissue of the latter and a welcome addition to my collection.

When I checked the IMDB I found that Christopher Lee was in a total of nine films that had 1970 as the registered year of release. Three of those films were Dracula movies. Two of them were Hammer Film productions. The first being Taste the Blood of Dracula, which was the last film, at that time, to have a narrative connection to the entry that preceded it. Seeing that it picked up right where Dracula Has Risen from the Grave had ended. The second Hammer offering was the far inferior, I think, Scars of Dracula.

Count Dracula, an offering from Spanish director Jesús [Jess] Franco, would be the third time Lee would play the legendary vampire on the big screen in the year 1970. The lure here seems to have been an intention stated by the filmmaker(s) to hew closer to the narrative of Bram Stoker's novel than any other film had, up to that point.

While I have seen, and enjoyed, Franco's more Universal Monster mash styled (and almost dialogue free) Dracula, Prisoner of Frankenstein (1972), which also used this score. Count Dracula remains a vacancy in my viewing history. One that I hope to rectify, sooner rather than later.

Explorers (1985) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - June 30, 1985

I was not living in the States at the time of Explorers theatrical release, so I missed out on seeing it on the big screen. The version I did see was the home video release from Paramount, which had some modest alterations.

The tragedy of this movie's perceived failure, both commercially and critically, in 1985 most likely is rooted in its dire (and admitted by director Joe Dante) third act issues.

When Explorers went into production, it was slated for a Fall of 1985 release. At some point during production the film's release was moved forward to July, which shortened the film's post-production and might even have cut into some of its filming schedule. That latter point is an assumption of my part, at that time of writing this particular blog entry, that is. But I make it after having read how Dante has regularly voiced disappointment with the film's third act and stating that the moving forward of the release robbed them of the ability to work out the revelation and tighten the pacing. So it goes.

Still, it the film as is had more than enough charm and magic and love for schlocky science fiction movies that it is impossible not to enjoy it. And Jerry Goldsmith's score is, as always, a joy to hear. 

Alien 3 (1992) - Trading Card #43

Behind the scenes: Alien Head - Rubber Model

A final rubber model of the Alien's head is constructed only after a series of schematic drawings were created depicting the Alien from several angles. The original Alien design came from H. R. Giger and was reworked by Tom Woodruff, Jr., and Alec Gillis for Alien 3.

Tentacles [Tentacoli (1977)] - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - June 29, 1977

I have a memory of seeing the poster for Tentacles displayed at the Alameda Theatre and being unnerved and grossed out by the idea of being gripped and engulfed by slimy and sucker encrusted tentacles. The concept so unsettled me that I did not go and see the film.

Now there might be some out there that might hold the opinion that I dodged a bullet by making that decision. Because, when the film made its network television premiere and I finally watched it, I found the film to be a rather underwhelming and silly affair.

Ovidio Assonitis, credited here as Oliver Hellman, having made considerable bank with his Exorcist cash-in, known stateside as Beyond the Door, struggles to build and maintain any kind of tension whatsoever. While there a few nifty moments scattered throughout, they are just that. Moments. Not sequences, just an occasional well crafted edit or nicely angled shot during an attack sequence.

Though I would like to add Stelvio Cipriani's zesty score to my soundtrack collection at some point.

A check of the Theatre Guide revealed that, at the Lux, Tentacles was on triple-bill with The Little Cigars Mob, a film about gang of bank robbing circus midgets, and Savage Sisters, another Eddie Romero Philippines lensed exploitation flick. The Coliseum drive-in, that aforementioned Alameda Theatre, as well the Hayward 6, the Hilltop Mall, and the Nimitz drive-in all had Tentacles paired with a re-issue of The Food of the Gods. Not surprising, really. As both were American International releases and The Food of the Gods was the distributor's biggest moneymaker of the previous year.

The California Cinema, which is where I saw Boots Riley's debut Sorry to Bother You on the big screen, had Tentacles showing with Eddie Romero's Philippines lensed exploitation flick Twilight People.

Fright Flicks - Trading Card #78

Day of the Dead (1985)

"You almost killed Rickles. Yeah. You almost fucking killed Rickles." 

Gigantis The Fire Monster [Godzilla Raids Again (1955)]/Teenagers from Outer Space (1959) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - June 26, 1959

The first Godzilla movie took two years to reach theaters and drive-ins in the United States, albeit in a cosmetically altered version. This quickie sequel, released the very next year in Japan, took twice as long getting to the states. Titled Godzilla Raids Again in Japan, the film was retitled Gigantis The Fire Monster because, well, the distributor did not have the rights clearance to use the moniker Godzilla.

While Gigantis The Fire Monster is no Godzilla King of the Monsters, it does introduce Anguirus. Although a quickly vanquished antagonistic nuance to the Godzilla here, Anguirus would, much Godzilla itself, be resurrected and evolve into Big G's forever BFF.

I have never seen Teenagers from Outer Space, not even on Mystery Science Theater 3000. All I know about it is that one of the alien threats is represented by the black silhouette of what is clearly a lobster. It was evidently a real lobster and quite dead and therefore quite odiferous.

There is also a moment, at the very beginning, where an "annoying" dog gets zapped by a raygun and collapses as a skeleton.

Alien 3 (1992) - Trading Card #42

Behind the scenes - Planet surface

To create the surface of the planet Fiorina 161, the set was littered with derricks and cranes, on the back lot of Pinewood Studies, London. The planet's unusual horizon will eventually replace the plain blue background.