Sassy sequences and laughs in Vampires Vs The Bronx! #VampiresVsTheBronx #vampires #netflix #horror

Watched the new comedy-horror Vampires Vs The Bronx on Netflix last night! A faceless corporation, Murnau Properties (a reference to the director of Nosferatu, presumably), is buying up real estate in the Bronx on the cheap, gradually dispossessing the underprivileged black and Hispanic community, forcing them out and generally gentrifying the place, so that the real estate is then worth far more. Here, then, is the story of modern America: the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. Once we find out who’s behind Murnau Properties, we’re not surprised really: a privileged, white, parasitic elite (yes, vampires). The vampires in this movie, therefore, work on both a literal and metaphoric level – making the whole movie strangely compelling, despite its general lack of originality.

As you’ll detect from the above, there is a general satire of modern America going on. In keeping with this satirical vibe, there are a good number of visual jokes as we go, using Timberlands, mobile phones and skateboards. Indeed, this movie is authentically immersed in the modern black and Hispanic experience in the US as well as the genre of vampire fiction (Salem’s Lot, Blade, etc). It makes for a persuasive and well-informed mix.

Looked at from a female perspective, there is quite an interesting (albeit understated) debate concerning competing narratives around ‘beauty’. The Aryan white, blonde female vampire dominates the first half of the movie, but is slowly revealed as all manipulative artifice, and ugly, selfish demand, prepared to stop at nothing to win advantage over or destroy men and women alike. Zoe Saldana is actually sacrificed upon the altar of such contrived beauty in the movie’s first scene! By the end of the movie, however, the young black character of Rita (Coco Jones) wins out with a self-possessed and generous version of beauty that is ‘au naturel’, a beauty that cannot simply be owned by others (be they a vampire or the heroic male lead).

So, this film has social relevance and importance! Okay, okay, there’s a LOT of cliche, if you know the genre well. But it’s only 1hr25mins long, so not too much of a demand on your time. It gets a 7 out of 10 from me. Check it out!

Great scares and chills in Bird Box #SandraBullock #BirdBox #Netflix

No wonder Bird Box has been one of the most viewed movies in the world during lockdown! This scif-fi/horror film sees humankind struggling to survive when sight of the ‘monster’ outside causes insanity and a suicide pandemic. You can only get about with your eyes covered, and you must never open the front door when someone or something knocks! Don’t let it in! It’ll infect you! A pregnant Sandra Bullock(!) works with a groups of desperate strangers (including John Malkovich), and she gets to raise two young children in ‘the new normal’. But her group dies one by one, until she has to go outside with her kids to try and get them to some sort of safety. They have to deal with all manner of hazard and marauder!

Honestly, it’s a great great movie that plays with your mind. It’s utterly relatable. And the ending is a triumph. I flaming loved it. 9.5 out of 10. My missis doesn’t tend to like horror, but even she enjoyed it.

Satan speaks out: ‘You shouldn’t believe everything you read. There’s a lot of fake news out there!’ #fantasy #horror #Satanic #science fiction #newbook

Satan launches his new authorised biography today: The Satanic in Science Fiction and Fantasy! ‘What’s the odd misunderstanding between friends, eh? Come on, live a little, before it’s too late. Hey! Don’t look at me. I’ve never even heard of the damned virus. I was busy elsewhere.’

A J Dalton is interviewed and all his ugly truths are exposed, including his more than passing familiarity with Satan! Fie, for shame! #Satan #TheDarkLord #authors #authorconfessions #horror #sciencefiction #fantasy #MondayMood

Argh! Don’t look at it. Put out your eyes! Don’t tell anyone. Bite out your tongue! https://www.lunapresspublishing.com/post/interview-with-aj-dalton-by-megan-bond

Creative writing mini-lesson: no.13 ‘More pain please’, or the principles of conflict #Lockdown #coronavirus #creativewriting #MondayMotivation #MondayThoughts #MondayMorning

Today’s lesson was produced by scriptwriter (and former Lecturer in Scriptwriting) Matthew White. He can be found on IMDb or twitter, and his latest movie is Paul Dood’s Deadly Lunchbreak, starring Katherine Parkinson, Tom Meetan, Jonny Vegas and Kriss Marshall.

Check out this passage from a script, and see if you recognise which film it’s from:

John wakes up – his clothes are neatly arranged on the end of the bed. He gets dressed, enjoys a steaming mug of coffee with his muesli. He kisses MICHAEL goodbye, climbs into his car and drives to work.

 

 

Trick question: it’s not from a film, because it’s terrible. It’s poorly written, it has no rhythm or movement or life.

And, most importantly, there’s no conflict.

Conflict is your story engine: you can’t tell a story without drama, and you can’t have drama without conflict. Here’s my very simplified description of how drama works:

A character or group of characters wants and/or needs something (goal). A character or thing (antagonist) gets in their way. There’s a struggle (conflict), rising to a crescendo (climax) and an emotionally powerful resolution (catharsis).

Simple!

 

As a bonus, here are some handy tips on how to make conflict your friend:

1) Keep conflict central to your planning

A powerful way to express your theme is to do so through conflict. For example: I once had an advisory session with Barbara Crampton, one of the Gods of Horror. And she told how to deal with theme in horror: when someone lives according to your message, they live. When they don’t, they die.

2) Forget good guy/bad guy

The world has moved on from this binary conflict. Think about the most successful “bad guys” of the last 30 years in film, TV, theatre and literature. They may be monstrous, they may do some horrible things, but in their own mind they are convinced that they are the good guy. Kurt Vonneghut never wrote a villain in his life – and he didn’t do too badly. Consider a book and movie like The Martian. Where’s the bad guy? There’s fundamental conflict between the characters, but it’s caused by brilliant people struggling to solve an almost impossible problem.

3) Conflict can – and should – take many forms

As Robert McKee famously said, conflict can be as simple as two people needing to get past each other to reach the other side of the room. He also encourages writers to build conflict upon conflict, and try, at the very least, to cover the following:

• Internal conflict: the battle between opposing aspects of the protagonist’s own psyche. It’s often the most fundamental battle of the story, and what your third act is really about. Or to put in another way:
  • Chief Brody has to overcome his fear of the water before he can kill the shark.
  • Carol Danvers has to overcome her disdain for the Skrulls and unleash her true self if she wants to save the day.
  • Arthur Fleck has to channel his rage before he can fight back against a world that keeps stamping on him.
• Personal conflict: the battle between the protagonist and their lovers, friends, family. In a heist or quest movie, your team is a great source of conflict. If a hero needs to save her loved ones, make sure that the loved ones don’t WANT saving. And don’t even think about writing romance or drama without having a wealth of conflict stored up here.
• Everything else! The shark. The rules of society in Victorian England. The ticking clock – and the bomb sitting underneath it. This is the stuff that hooks your audience in, gives them excitement, makes them hold their breath and propels them into that third act where our protagnist has to resolve all the other problems!

[Different genres of story will focus more on different areas of conflict, but if you can deliver on all three, you’re going to give us powerful stories and reduce the risk of repetition.]

4) There’s always room for one more

In other words – don’t be nice to your characters. Think about the last time a story left you breathless. Was it because the hero was having an easy time? Or did things just keep getting worse?

As the old saying goes: get your character up a tree, throw some rocks at them, show them getting down from the tree. To which I would add: whilst you are throwing rocks at them, put some barbed wire around the tree. Tell them that their wife hates them. Steal their dog. And set fire to the tree.

Quick tasks

Look at the passage at the top of the page and try to imagine five places where you could introduce some conflict.

OR

Use my ‘how drama works’ formula below in order to write a logline or short summary of your own movie idea.

A character or group of characters wants and/or needs something (goal). A character or thing (antagonist) gets in their way. There’s a struggle (conflict), rising to a crescendo (climax) and an emotionally powerful resolution (catharsis).

If you’d like me to look at how successful your attempt is, please do feel free to email me (Adam, in lieu of Matthew): adz_d2003 @ yahoo.co.uk – deleting the two spaces either side of the @ sign.

I’ll be posting a new lesson every day (Monday-Friday), to help people who are stuck at home because of the coronavirus situation. These mini-lessons will give you a useful daily routine, and might just keep you sane! Stay safe.

If you enjoyed this mini-lesson, do SHARE it with others.