Friday the 13th – Throwback 10

Originally published on Set The Tape

It would be easy to call the 2009 Friday the 13th a remake. It came out around the time a lot of remakes of popular 70’s and 80’s horror films such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and A Nightmare on Elm Street, but you can’t help but feel that this fails to fall into that mould.

For one thing, the very first film, which was so popular that it knocked Empire Strikes Back off the number one spot in cinemas, doesn’t follow Jason Vorhees at all, with it instead being his mother, Pamela Vorhees. Not only does this new film recount the events of the very first Friday the 13th within the opening titles, thereby giving any unfamilar audience members the info they need to get started, but the events that fill up the rest of the film aren’t a retread of any of the existing sequels.

Yes, Jason comes across a group of teens who do drugs, drink, and have sex so therefore need to be punished with brutal deaths, but that happens in all of the films and is more a trope of the series and horror films in general than a specific scenario. This Friday the 13th follows the formula of the series, but tells its own story. So can it really be a remake?

Whether a remake or not, it’s pretty damn good. Horror franchise sequels can often get a bad reputation, mostly due to their flimsy plot and excuses to ramp up the killings and gore factor, and Friday the 13th is no exception to this. Instead of trying to compete with these old films the 2009 version chooses to tell its own story instead.

Twenty five years after watching his mother (played by Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s Nana Visitor) Jason Vorhees (Derek Mears) stumbles across a group of teens camping up at the remains of Crystal Lake where he has been living. Whilst attacking and killing the group he discovers that one of the girls, Whitney (Amanda Righetti) looks like his mother, and kidnaps her. Several weeks later Whitney’s brother Clay (Jared Padalecki) is searching for his missing sister when he comes across a group of teens heading up to a cabin near Crystal Lake for a weekend of partying. Clay and the teens soon become the targets of Jason.

It’s a fairly standard kind of horror set-up, and doesn’t contain anything revolutionary, but the plot around Whitney looking like Pamela Vorhees and her brothers search adds a little something extra to the standard partying teens get killed scenario. The teens are the standard mix of attractive Hollywood teens, but have some pretty good actors amongst them, including Ben Feldman from Superstore, Travis Van Winkle from The Last Ship, and Danielle Panabaker from The Flash. They’re a great mix of actors, all of whom are able to pull of the silly teenager shenanigans, yet also portraying the fear and desperation of people being hunted by a killer.

If there’s one cast member who stands out, however, it’s Jared Padalecki as Clay. Honestly, this is just a personal thing, but after years of seeing him play Sam Winchester in Supernatural watching him searching for a missing girl and having to fight an unstoppable, almost supernatural killer kind of threw me because I was just waiting for Jensen Ackles to turn up too. Whether or not he was cast in the role because he would essentially be doing the same thing he’d been doing for years on TV it’s great casting, as he’s clearly very comfortable in this kind of role.

The film is full of vicious killings, some of which are gruesome to watch, yet the filmmakers manage to keep things from going too far into the gore territory and become off-putting. The main thing that may put some people off the film would be the nudity over the violence. Whilst the violence is fairly toned down and less gory for a slasher film Friday the 13th embraces the old sensibility of showing their characters having sex. They don’t just make it clear through scripting and direction that two people have gone off to have sex, they show Juliana Guill naked on top of her costar. This is sure to appeal to some, most likely teenage boys, but feels a little gratuitous and unnecessary.

A new addition to the Friday the 13th franchise, the film takes the best parts of the series and does its own thing, telling a fairly well rounded story that makes more sense than some of the previous entries. With smart direction, good cinematography, and a well cast group of actors it stands up as a pretty darn good addition to the series.


Buy Amy A Coffee
Go to Amy's Blog

Follow Amy on Twitter

Add Amy on Tumblr

Connect with Amy on LinkedIn

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. 2×05 – ‘A Hen in the Wolf House’ – TV Rewind

Originally published on Set The Tape

The second season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is definitely moving at a brisker pace than the first, with big developments to the story continuing to unfold in the fifth episode. Whilst many shows would continue to have Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) stay undercover within Hydra, yet the series brings this story-line to a swift conclusion, though she does bring an awesome new character back with her.

With Hydra having developed a deadly new weapon from the mysterious alien obelisk Simmons is placed in a compromising position as security increases, bringing her into suspicion as being a double agent. It’s a disappointment that it was spoilt before hand that Adrianne Palicki would be playing Bobbi Morse, the comic book hero Mockingbird, as it means that there’s a lack of tension when she investigates Simmons.

Instead of being worried that Simmons is in some kind of danger we’re left wondering exactly when she’s going to find out that she has an ally within Hydra. I was half expecting the series to carry this on for a while, perhaps imitating Alias, having Bobbi playing the Jack Bristow role of the older and more experienced agent helping her to keep her cover and lean Hydra’s secrets. Strangely, the decision is made to have Simmons lose her cover and be extracted in the same episode. Whilst this does limit the options for interesting undercover plots it does give us a fun reveal of Bobbi as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., kicking the crap out of Hydra thugs with her iconic battle staves.

Palicki already seems like a great addition to the cast, and shows that she has some great range just in one episode. She comes across as cold and calculating when posing as Hydra, but is immediately charming and fun as soon as she’s back in the S.H.I.E.L.D. base, interacting with people like she’s been friends with them for years. The surprise revelation that she’s the ‘evil’ ex-wife that Hunter (Nick Blood) has been complaining about since his introduction is a brilliant turn, and something that is sure to lead to a lot of fun moments as the two of them stick around. Whilst Bobbi joining the team looks set to be something that’s going to be a great change I’m curious how Simmons being back is going to impact Fitz (Iain De Caestecker), who has been working hard to deal with his recent injuries and the absence of Simmons.

The episode also continues the ongoing plot of Coulson (Clark Gregg) and his mysterious carvings, as Skye (Chloe Bennet) learns the truth about what is going on. Once again, this is a plot point that I was surprised to see this early on into the season, expecting the show to play it out over the vast majority of season two. It really goes to show how the series has changed it’s approach to storytelling, relying less on adventure of the week episodes with the occasional advancement of the main plot and shifting to a story that moves with a much punchier pace.

The scenes with Coulson and Skye have also improved this year, and we get to see just why he thinks that she’s so special, something that her murderous father seems to agree upon. Kyle MacLachlan is still impressing as Skye’s father, and the final scene where he teams up with Hydra in order to kill Coulson makes for an interesting and unexpected twist.

A lot happens in ‘A Hen in the Wolf House’, and it all seems designed to moving the central story forward. This is the kind of pace and excitement that was lacking a lot in the first season, but finally seems to be becoming the standard for the series.


Buy Amy A Coffee
Go to Amy's Blog

Follow Amy on Twitter

Add Amy on Tumblr

Connect with Amy on LinkedIn

Dread Nation – Book Review

Originally published on Set The Tape

‘Jane McKeene was born two days before the dead began to walk the battlefields of Gettysburg and Chancellorsville—derailing the War Between the States and changing America forever. In this new nation, safety for all depends on the work of a few, and laws like the Native and Negro Reeducation Act require certain children attend combat schools to learn to put down the dead.

Almost finished with her education at Miss Preston’s School of Combat in Baltimore, Jane is set on returning to her Kentucky home and doesn’t pay much mind to the politics of the eastern cities, with their talk of returning America to the glory of its days before the dead rose. But when families around Baltimore County begin to go missing, Jane is caught in the middle of a conspiracy, one that finds her in a desperate fight for her life against some powerful enemies. And the restless dead, it would seem, are the least of her problems.’

Whilst on the surface Dread Nation seems like a fairly straightforward alternate history story there’s a lot more to the world of the zombie-filled reconstruction-era America that Justina Ireland has created than it would at first appear.

Set within a world where the undead brought the American Civil War to an abrupt end, readers follow Jane, the black daughter of a wealthy white plantation owner, as she trains to become an Attendant, a bodyguard for a wealthy white woman.

‘An Attendant’s job is simple: keep her charge from being killed by the dead, and her virtue from being compromised by potential suitors. It is a task easier said than done.’

Following the end of the war the government established the Native and Negro Reeducation Act: an initiative that would train First Nation children and children of colour to fight zombies. This is one of the first places that it becomes apparent that there’s more to Dread Nation than just kick-arse women of colour fighting the undead. The combat schools created by the NNRA are based a lot more within reality than you would expect. For decades in the history of the United States native children were ripped from their families and sent to schools where they would be taught to be ‘civilised’ – to act like white people. This was often presented as something that would benefit these children, a way of bringing them into society and bettering them, where in reality it was often brutal and incredibly damaging. The combat schools are no different.

In the early parts of the book Jane is often worried about getting kicked out of Miss Preston’s. This isn’t because she wants the social advantage that graduating from the school would bring (think the Attendant version of Harvard or Princeton), but rather because many of the other schools are lacking. They train only a fraction as hard and over a shorter period, which often means that those graduating don’t last long. A background element to the story, this is a surprising commentary on how many systems in the United States are structured against people of colour, offering just enough that white people feel that they’ve done something good to help, yet failing to actually provide POC with anything that actually gives them any real advantages or advancements.

As the book goes on the commentary on life in America for POC only gets stronger, as more and more overt racism moves to the fore. This mainly comes from the antagonists of the book, rich white men who belong to the Survivalists, a political group that wants to ‘take back America’ and make things like they were before. Whilst slavery is now illegal in this world these people make it their mission to find workarounds for these laws, using black people as front line defenders against the undead, yet failing to provide them with real weaponry, keeping them shut away behind the scenes, giving them barely enough food to live, and brutally torturing them when they break the rules. Slavery in everything but name.

We get to see Jane, a young black woman who grew up treated well and sheltered from the horrors of slavery, have to face the harsh reality of life before the undead, and those who want to bring that world back. She’s not a fool, she’s faced prejudice countless times herself, but the events of the book push her to her physical and emotional limits. Accompanying her throughout most of the events of the novel is Katherine, a fellow student from Miss Preston’s. Katherine, however, is fair enough to pass as white, and has to play this role for a portion of the story.

This allows us to observe a new and mostly unexplored approach to racism: a black woman who everyone thinks is white having to see and hear awful racist things and not only not say anything, but to play along with it. Katherine begins the book as an annoying character, and something of an enemy for Jane, but by the final pages she’s an incredibly well rounded person, and one who has more than earned both ours and Jane’s affection.

One of the more surprising elements of the book is the lack of any romantic subplot, something that most books shoehorn in. These are strong and independent young women who not only don’t need men in their lives, but frankly don’t have the time to worry about romance whilst fighting to survive.

As well as representing people of colour, Dread Nation features LGBT+ leads. In a scene towards the end of the book it’s revealed that not only is Jane bisexual, but that Katherine is asexual. There’s isn’t a huge amount made of this, and it doesn’t hugely impact the story, yet it’s still great to see such positive representation. The characters aren’t defined by their sexuality, nor does it dictate events.

Dread Nation is a book with surprising layers, a story that on the surface is an action adventure story with women of colour fighting zombies in an alternate history. But beneath this is a look at racism and slavery in America, a story that shows that even though laws change and politics alter, people are still judged solely on the colour of their skin. Though never having been treated poorly due to the colour of my skin, as a transgender woman it’s easy to understand what it’s like to be judged as soon as someone sees you, because of who you are. Dread Nation captures these feelings perfectly: it puts you in the shoes of someone who is trapped in this life of hate and prejudice but can’t escape from it, even when they prove to be a more competent, kinder, and braver person than those in power.

A book with something important to say, Dread Nation is sure to stick with you long after you finish reading.


Buy Amy A Coffee
Go to Amy's Blog

Follow Amy on Twitter

Add Amy on Tumblr

Connect with Amy on LinkedIn

Resident Evil 2 Remake – Looking back at the original

Originally published on Set The Tape

This week sees the release of the new version of the 1998 Resident Evil 2 on Xbox One, Playstation 4 and PC. Completely remade from the ground up, with a new and dynamic story, redesigned environments and game-play innovation, it’s already set to be one of the biggest releases for the franchise in years. The excitement around the new game is based largely upon the popular opinion among fans that Resident Evil 2 was the series’ highlight.

Even before the success of the original Resident Evil, development began on a sequel just a month after the first game was completed. Whilst this game, which would later go on to be referred to as Resident Evil 1.5 by producer Shinji Mikami, differs greatly from the final version of Resident Evil 2, it did introduce some story elements that would carry over to the game, such as a citywide outbreak, Leon Kennedy and Sherry Birkin.

Upon its release in 1998, Resident Evil 2 became an instant hit, wowing fans and newcomers alike as it shifted from a small story set within the confines of a single mansion to a story that took players across Raccoon City and explored the inner workings of the evil Umbrella Corporation.

Whilst the first game allowed players to choose from two separate campaigns to play through, with neither one of them interacting with each other, Resident Evil 2 was much more ambitious, offering four scenarios. If players completed Leon’s campaign they would gain access to a ‘B Scenario’ for Claire, which intertwined with the events of Leon’s story, and even relied on items being left behind in your first play-through for Claire to use. Alternatively, you could play as Claire, which allowed you to unlock a second scenario for Leon. This was a bold innovation to the series, and one that allowed players a greater opportunity for replaying the game, exploring both scenario options for each character.

As well as more story options, the sequel also offered improved storytelling and acting. Yes, there are a few moments where the dialogue feels awfully clunky, even back in 1998, but it’s still a big improvement over the original. The game looked more into how Umbrella worked, exploring how they bribed the chief of police to hide evidence against them, and how internal factions worked against each other, leading to a confrontation that resulted in the infection of the entire city.

Game design also made a sharp improvement allowing players to explore bigger and better looking environments that made much better use of the Playstation technology. Locations were better designed, puzzles took more thinking through and enemies were a bigger challenge.

It’s not hard to see why Resident Evil 2 is held up as an all time classic. It took everything that made the original a success and improved upon it in every way. Story was better, gameplay was improved, replay value was increased. Filled with excitement, action and horror, it became the Aliens to the first game’s Alien.

The game may be more than 20 years old, but it’s still a great experience today thanks in large part to the effort that was put into making it. It began development before the first game was a success, so it wasn’t a cash-in or a money making sequel. It was made because the creators believed in the product, because they wanted to make something great and that’s why it’s still one of the best entries in the entire franchise. If the remake remains true to these values, if it’s made with the same love and care that the original was, it’s sure to not only live up to the legacy that Resident Evil 2 created, but will be a huge success in its own right.


Buy Amy A Coffee
Go to Amy's Blog

Follow Amy on Twitter

Add Amy on Tumblr

Connect with Amy on LinkedIn

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. 2×04 – ‘Face My Enemy’ – TV Rewind

Originally published on Set The Tape

Ming-Na Wen’s Agent Melinda May was one of the standouts from the first season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., an experienced agent with a history, a trained fighter on the same level as Black Widow or Hawkeye, and someone with hidden depths and emotions; she was the most exciting character in a cast of young inexperienced agents, apart from Coulson (Clark Gregg).

Whilst the second season has done a good job of showing how some of these other characters have begun to grow, such as Skye (Chloe Bennet) becoming a competent field agent, or Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) living with his trauma, May seems to have been relegated to the background. ‘Face My Enemy’ changes this, however, as we not only get May being a central focus of the episode, but we even get two of her!

When a mysterious church fire destroys everything but a painting that contains the same strange writing that has been plaguing Coulson he and May infiltrate a fancy gala in order to steal it. This feels very much like the early season one episodes, taking on a bright, almost fun, Mission: Impossible style feel. There’s great chemistry between May and Coulson in these scenes, and it really helps to sell the idea that these two have known each other for years, and that they’ve been on dozens of missions like this together. These scenes also let Ming-Na show us that she can do more than just act as the colder, stoic member of the team, as she takes on a persona that smiles and laughs, much to the surprise of some of the rest of the team.

This being Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., however, means that the mission does not go as planned, as the painting appears to be stolen by General Talbot (Adrian Pasdar). Whilst it’s initially worrying when this happens because it would mean another apparent good guy turning out to be working for Hydra, the reveal that it’s actually a disguised Sunil Bakshi (Simon Kassianides) makes for a great moment. Plus the face swapping masks makes this feel much more like Mission: Impossible.

Making a return from the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier the face changing tech is a great addition to the series. It allows for interesting narrative challenges for the characters, as shown in this episode, but it also makes a tiny bridge to the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe. The fact that it just appears here, rather than having someone say ‘ah yes, this is the same technology that Black Widow once used’, much like they kept doing in season one, actually feels very organic too.

Hydra make good use of this device here by having the brainwashed Agent 33 (Maya Stojan) take on May’s identity to infiltrate S.H.I.E.L.D.. Unfortunately for her Coulson knows May well enough to be able to see through this ploy and figure out that she’s a fake. The fact that the episode went out of it’s way to have Coulson and May spend so much time together in the early part of the story and establish how comfortable they are around each other makes this a much stronger moment, Coulson didn’t catch her out because she slipped up on an obvious detail, it was something that only he would notice because of their friendship.

The Hydra story comes to a head as the two May’s come face to face in a fight that is hands down the best one the series has given viewers up to this point. It’s clear that this is a big part of why Mortal Kombat: Legacy director Kevin Tancheroen was given this episode to direct, as the two versions of May fight each other suing their fists, knives, lamp poles, and even electrical cables. They tear apart the room their in as they keep beating the crap out of each other. Whilst there are moments in the fight during the wide shots where you can tell that it’s Ming-Na fighting a body double it works very well for the most part and looks great.

May’s finishing move where she does a mid-air spinning face slam into a table is a moment that is guaranteed to make you cheer out loud just for how absolutely awesome it is.


Buy Amy A Coffee
Go to Amy's Blog

Follow Amy on Twitter

Add Amy on Tumblr

Connect with Amy on LinkedIn