Spencer Treat Clark – Movies of the Soul

Vampire Owl: I remember this as America’s answer to Dracula.

Vampire Bat: Do you think that Uncle Dracula would ever want to visit the United States?

Vampire Owl: Some parts of the nation are suitable for him.

Vampire Bat: You are talking about New Orleans where he won’t be an alien.

Vampire Owl: Uncle Dracula would need more than just one town or city.

Vampire Bat: You think that he still wishes to spread the undead curse?

Vampire Owl: I have read that it was the dream of the vampire elders.

Vampire Bat: Well, the vampire elders, even for a vampire lifespan, were too old to be alive.

Vampire Owl: They were still in their senses, even though tortured by light.

Vampire Bat: They are only that much in their sense as Dr Frankenstein during a science exhibition.

[Gets an egg puffs and three cups of tea with boost].

What is the movie about? :: In the 1975, a strange man from Europe opens an antique store in the town of Jerusalem’s Lot and starts residing in the long-abandoned Marsten House, which has a history of murders. It is then that Ben Mears (Lewis Pullman) has returned to this hometown after a very long time, this time as a writer. He falls in love with Susan Norton (Makenzie Leigh), who also wishes to leave the town one day. The place seems to be a peaceful little town where almost nothing happens, and there is almost nothing of interest. But the new entrant from Europe has a huge coffin in there, and something sinister seems to be lurking in the shadows of the night. There are boys who go missing, and as no clue is found, the locals begin to be suspicious about Ben who had only recently arrived and after which these missing cases started. The police is unable to find any clue about the particular missing.

So, what happens with the events here as we just keep looking? :: After the disappearance of the boy named Ralph Glick (Cade Woodward), his brother Danny Glick (Nicholas Crovetti) is also attacked, and after spending some time in the hospital, the boy dies, and is soon buried. Mike Ryerson (Spencer Treat Clark), gravedigger who buried the boy is soon attacked by the undead version of him and gets sick. It is Matthew Burke (Bill Camp) who first notices and identifies the signs of vampirism in the gravedigger and is able to connect the same to recent disappearances, illnesses and corpses. But things are worse than he could imagine as this is not a case of a random vampire attacking a few people in the town. Kurt Barlow (Alexander Ward) is an ancient vampire whose origins go a long way back, and is a source of pure evil. He would stop at nothing as the intention is to turn the whole town into a vampire colony and spread the undead curse even further. Can anyone even come close to stopping him?

The defence of Salem’s Lot :: The movie takes us to the 1970s feeling, and we see that again, and most of us who were not alive during the time can only know them through movies – this one seems to show that nicely, and place the vampire curse right in between. Finding the vampires around would be more chilling at that time as it is displayed in the movie, because there is no friendly neighbourhood vampirism as it has been popularized now. The movie maintains that original essence, and has vampires as the true evil creatures of the night, all prepared for some nocturnal hunting of humans. The setting is really well-constructed and the world suits works with perfection. The vampire attacks are shown with all the required intensity and the fear elements get good dose as the movie demanded. With the old style vampires with the long-established weakness and fear generation, the nostalgia returns like it has wings.

The claws of flaw :: The movie struggles to rise from the tag of just another old-style vampire movie which offers nothing new, and do not even make the book feel better with its content. There is the feeling of lack of depth at times, and the movie struggles to maintain pace. The length of the movie does not seem to justify itself and we see a lot of lagging in between. The struggle feels real, but it should not have been the case with a film which has the base material set from a long time ago – the whole things should have been as safe as adapting Dracula and adding so many new things to it, and still having the vampire world to work like a dream. Some characters do not really develop and we do not feel for them, even when they are dead. The emotional strength feels to be lacking, and the establishment of pillars of the movie might have been the problem as they threaten to fall. The mystery could have been deeper and it is to be noted that the new world would never cease to be terrifying even without vampires, as there are already existing monsters.

The performers of the soul :: The cast nicely blends into the 1970s setting and their work and appearance give us the best feeling of the time period. The blending into that world and characters work like a dream. The journey is led well by Lewis Pullman, who plays the protagonist who comes across the least possible evil and has to react quick enough to survive. Bill Camp is solid in a role which could be this movie’s Van Helsing, even though he does not survive that long with the undead curse spreading faster than that of Dracula. Makenzie Leigh seems to be the one person best suitable for the age with the work, and the character holds on so well. Alfre Woodard also keeps the anti-vampire battle going on well. John Benjamin Hickey could have had even bigger role to play when we see how things have been going. And then, the master vampire works really well, reminding one of Nosferatu.

How it finishes :: Salem’s Lot could have improved on the content of the book, but here it seems like just trying to use the available content and do nothing much to add to the same. There were lots of opportunities to bring a classic touch or visualize better, but the same are not taken by the movie. But the horror arrives well, and we are ready to accept the same. After all, horror is the one true feeling that everyone experiences and believes in, unlike the movies with college romance which is more myth for people who do not experience them. As part of the one true genre of horror, the movie has managed well. We are not supposed to expect more than what meets the eye as a usual thing though. This journey is indeed in the right direction to bring more horror to the scene, and take us back to the original vampire world – not that of the blood-drinking entities that glitter and live in the house on the other side of the street.

Release date: 3rd October 2024
Running time: 113 minutes
Directed by: Gary Dauberman
Starring: Lewis Pullman, Makenzie Leigh, Alfre Woodard, John Benjamin Hickey, Bill Camp, Jordan Preston Carter, Nicholas Crovetti, Spencer Treat Clark, William Sadler, Pilou Asbæk

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@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

Vampire Owl: So, have you watched the Unbreakable film series?

Vampire Bat: I have heard that it is better known as the Eastrail 177 Trilogy.

Vampire Owl: I am sure that nobody has really heard about this fanchise having such a strange and complex name.

Vampire Bat: I have watched Split, which was a very good movie, and I don’t remember much about Unbreakable.

Vampire Owl: I do feel that some memory of that movie might be needed to follow this one.

Vampire Bat: Well, I can remember something, but as far as Split is concerned, memory works better.

Vampire Owl: It is quite natural though, considering the fact that the first movie released in 2000 and the second in 2016.

Vampire Bat: I watch so many movies that my memories are very quickly replaced – I often forget a movie which I watched only a few months ago.

Vampire Owl: You are suffering from a case of movie overdose.

Vampire Bat: Yes, and there is no treatment for that. Even lock-down couldn’t do much.

[Gets a British cake and three cups of cardamom tea].

What is the movie about? :: Nineteen years have passed since the Eastrail 177 train wreck, and David Dunn (Bruce Willis), a superhuman who survived the wreck is not working as a vigilante who is often called by the media as the Overseer while continuing his business with his son, Joseph Dunn (Spencer Treat Clark). Elijah price who called himself Mr Glass remains confined to a psychiatric hospital for the criminally insane, after David had reported him to the police, as the one who was responsible for that train wreck which killed everyone except David. Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy) who has twenty three plus one distinct personalities formed in him after he was abused as a child by his mother during his childhood remains in action, as he kidnaps four cheerleaders (Diana Silvers, Nina Wisner, Kyli Zion and Shannon Ryan) and keep them chained inside a warehouse, just like he did earlier with Casey Cooke (Anya Taylor-Joy) and her friends who were to be sacrificed to the greatest entity inside him.

So, what happens with the events here? :: Kevin keeps the girls chained at all times, even though he does have the manifestations of different personalities at all times, none of them ready to rescue the girls from their bondage. It is then that David comes across Kevin, and understands that he is holding a secret, which is none other than the missing young girls. He gets into the warehouse and unchains the girls, only to come face to face with the personality of the Beast. While the girls escape, the two superhumans fight, only to fall in front of the police force, and has to surrender. Dr Ellie Staple (Sarah Paulson), an experienced psychiatrist specializing in delusions of grandeur visits them at the mental hospital where the two are admitted along with Mr. Glass. She tries to make them believe that they have no superhuman abilities, and they are just a little stronger than the rest, and might not be stronger than the strongest and the most muscular men in the world. But Mr Glass will have other plans. Who will succeed in achieving their mission?

The defence of Glass :: As one would expect, the performances of the three actors playing the three main characters, the protagonists, the superhumans – this keeps the movie at a higher level even when the flick slows down and makes one wonder if it is not going to reach anywhere. The action sequences here are kept simple. The idea keeps growing within the movie, and if you watched the previous two movies, you are going to be more interested in the proceedings here. The ending is the highest point of the movie, and there is one twist there which you should have guessed, but most probably you might not have – these final scenes show the mastery of M Night Shyamalan over the material, on what concerns the comics and the superheroes, very much unlike your usual superheroes. There are a few moments in this movie, which later turns out to be smart and masterful acts, but in the middle, you won’t know them to be that good. Then, in the end, you ask for a sequel.

The claws of flaw :: As the third movie of the story, and with the three main characters already established, you would probably expect this to be a tale which ends a good v/s evil story, but this one more or less continues that origins story rather than doing anything else. There is also the absence of action for most of this movie, and when you are having a superhero movie here which is not Brightburn, you will be expecting full action or thrills, but such an option is not here. The movie has a lot of dialogues, and most of them are in a place without colours – inside the mental asylum, but some of it are totally unnecessary. After the initial fight, there is a lot of time spent at the talks rather than anything else, and it often makes the movie slow, unlike any superhero movie which you have ever watched. This is a movie which you cannot watch as your regular superhero movie, because it looks for meanings rather than any kind of heroism. This is not the superhero world you dreamed about.

Performers of the soul :: Glass depends heavily on its performances just like its predecessor Split did. James McAvoy once again leads the way, continuing the form with twenty three plus one distinct personalities. He shines in different ways as personalities alter. Most people from this part of the world might have known him from the X-Men movies, the last one being X:Men: Dark Pheonix, a film which didn’t make that much of an impact as one had expected it to. But related to movies like X-Men: Apocalypse and X-Men: Days of Future Past, you know that he has been there raising the level of the movie. But none of them matches this character that he plays here. Bruce Willis is back in action, with some action sequences, and you do want the Die Hard star to do that – here he also has an emotional touch to his character. Samuel L Jackson begins ordinary, but as the movie goes to its end, we see the change, and he is glorious in those moments. Anya Taylor-Joy, the girl from The Witch is the Beast’s girl with a beautiful serenity running through her, while Sarah Paulson is good.

How it finishes :: Glass thrives on James McAvoy, Bruce Willis and Samuel L Jackson, who plays the three superhumans with augmented abilities, but the viewer has to note that it is not a regular superhero movie, and if one falls into that kind of a trap, this is not going to be that interesting. The common view pertaining to all those superheroes we have known not just through movies, but also through comics and cartoons, reaching their zenith in the recent years with those Avengers and Justice League movies collecting all of them and presenting them to the audience as spectacle on the big screen in 3D. Changing this viewpoint is essential when watching this movie, or the film might just end up changing it by adding a certain amount of realism to the whole thing. Glass is surely a movie with a difference and as we look at M Night Shyamalan’s movies which we have watched and liked, he has been a master in that, whether it was this movie’s predecessor Split, or the surprise fun which was The Visit.

Release date: 18th January 2019
Running time: 129 minutes
Directed by: M Night Shyamalan
Starring: James McAvoy, Bruce Willis, Anya Taylor-Joy, Sarah Paulson, Samuel L Jackson, Spencer Treat Clark, Charlayne Woodard, Luke Kirby, Adam David Thompson, Diana Silvers, Nina Wisner, Kyli Zion, Shannon Ryan