All in Event
It’s not very often that I find TV shows that really feel like I’m the target audience. My interests are wide and varied. I like crafting. I love horror. I’m a lifelong home haunter. I bake. I sew. I work in theater (educational theater mostly, but theater nonetheless) and love set design, lighting, props, and puppetry.
Content warning: A Dark Song features scenes of violence against women and sexual assault.
A Dark Song is a film about truth and perception. A woman, grieving the loss of her son, is willing to do anything to feel a sense of relief from the pain of her loss. She hires an occultist to take her through a dangerous ritual that will allow whoever participates to be granted one wish from their guardian angel. You just need to survive the ritual and not quit. Quitting is bad. Very bad.
American Poltergeist is a horror film inspired by the Lizzie Borden story. A group of five college students move into a too good to be true mansion so they can live off campus while attending Brown University. They are renting rooms from a woman who does not tell them anything about the history of the house. This palatial mansion is apparently the former home of Lizzie Borden, the alleged ax murderer who killed her parents and got away with it in the 1800s. In this story, the house and the family have been cursed ever since.
Errementari is a retelling of one of the oldest folk tales in the world. “The Smith and the Devil” is the tale of a blacksmith who makes a deal with the devil. Whatever the deal is, the blacksmith uses his new power to trap the devil and torment him until the deal is broken and the smith regains control of his own life. It could be any number of wishes and even a genie or Death itself, but the arc of the story remains the same.
Stephanie is a horror film about isolation and fear from the perspective of a young child. Stephanie is living on her own. We see her try to do the best she can to survive. She cooks with the few ingredients left in her house—some frozen and canned fruits and vegetables—that aren’t rotting. Aside from isolation, there are signs that something is wrong. The occasional news report talks about containment procedures and an outbreak. The girl hears strange noises at all hours of the night. Objects move on their own, the doors and windows open even if they’re locked, and any light source is likely to go out with no explanation. Oh, and there’s the fact that her brother is dead in the bedroom next to her and she’s convinced he can move.
