Horror

The Walking Dead – Season 2 Episode 12

Because of conflicting TV shows Sunday night, I was only able to watch the most recent episode tonight and it was REALLY worth the wait. The wife and I have multiple shows we like that are on different nights so we alternate to keep things fair. Next week is going to be the finale so I have to watch it real time. FYI, mucho grande spoiler alert if you have not yet seen the episode.

This episode starts off with the burial of Dale and four of the more aggressive characters (except T-Dog) going out and taking their aggressions on some harmless flesh eating zombies. The episode moves along and for a while it’s just some background character story with Lori telling Shane how much she cares for him and how thankful she is for what he did for them. Also, Carl confides in him about seeing the zombie that killed Dale in the mud and how he couldn’t shoot him. And then finally, Shane confronts the kid in the barn and is conflicted on how to kill or get rid of him. After dwelling on it, smacking himself around trying to figure it out, he decides to let him go. Well, not really. Instead he concocts a plan to make it look like he escaped by smacking his face on a tree and get the group riled up to go after him. You don’t really know it yet but once it’s all over you can see how the writers were ramping up the Shane character only to kill him off. What is it about T-Dog that makes him such a background character, he’s almost a non character.

Moving right along we find Shane, Rick, Daryl and Glenn going after the kid who “escaped”. Daryl and Glenn eventually stumble on to him and he is now a zombie. However, he is a zombie without being bit. For as backwoodsy and redneckish as Daryl is, he’s smart and he notices things. Not to mention he figures things our very quickly and formulates plans effectively. Back with Rick and Shane, they are going out farther and farther away from everyone. As time passes Rick figures it out and realizes Shane is going to make his play and try to get rid of him. What I don’t know is how Carl gets out that far without anyone else knowing he’s gone and more directly, how did he track them?

Anyway, things happen, plans unfold and Shane decides he is going to Kill Rick. Blah blah blah, they talk back and forth and finally Rick is able to pull a knife and stab him. Carl meanwhile sees this all unfold from afar and pulls his gun. The screen has weird zombie flashes that don’t make much sense to me until they flash to Shane with his eyes glassed over and very subtly twitching. What they were trying to portray was the Zombification of of Shane due to dying and not just being bit. While walking and talking to Carl Rick does not see or hear Shane get up and start walking towards them. Carl being the “crackshot” that he is shoots Shane in the head thereby killing him…again.

Final scene is a hoard of zombies walking over the foggy meadow towards the farm. Ok, don’t get me wrong as I love this show…however, some things don’t always make the the most sense to me. This time for instance is the whole Carl making his way out there and shooting Shane in the head concept. 1. He is a kid and can’t have that good of aim yet. 2. He in no way could track them that well. 3. how did his mother let him out of her sight long enough for him to get there when there is supposedly a crazy kid on the loose who could get the jump on Shane and run loose.

The entire time I am watching the episode unfold I am on the edge of my seat. I’ve become so invested in the characters that I felt horrible when Dale was gutted and they had to shoot him. Not to mention I sort of felt bad for the kid they had locked up because he may have been a product of his environment. And, the whole background story between Glenn and Maggie is quite touching and give the show a bit of hope for new romance. So you can see I am a fan and the show itself has me engaged enough to blog about it. What I think happened was they need to edit it in to the right length for an episode and ended up editing too much. Or, they did not think through how Rick ends up killing Shane twice. Since it is about zombies, or walkers, and end of days type stuff you have to think they would get a bit hokey. As long as people are watching, talking, blogging, tweeting and discussing it, they must be doing something right. Especially since I cannot miss an episode.

Regardless, I really do love this show and for as much as I am trying to rationalize a world full of zombies, the writing is top notch. How are they going to replace a main character like Shane? Are they going to promote Daryl or T-Dog to be a more prominent part of the team? Will they pick up another person along the way? How will the Shane/Zombie story effect Lori and Carl and their relationship with Rick? How are they going to survive the next episode with tons of walkers coming after them, making it through the barb fence and attacking them all? And most importantly what is up with the the dead characters becoming zombies without being bit? Has the virus mutated? Is it airborne or in the water or food supply? Are their carriers who and not infected until their heart stops and then it manifests? So many questions and I have so few answers.

So I leave you with this image…RIP Dale.

Tell me what you think…I am dying to hear it.

Let Me In – 2010

let me in movie poster

So it’s Saturday night and there is normally a good new movie on Starz or Showtime or HBO at 8 or 9pm. We decide to turn Let Me In on because neither of us read or heard anything about it but thought it was supposed to be a horror movie. Not sure if anyone out there has seen this movie or not, but in the truest sense of the word, it was a horror, but it was in no way scary at all.

It’s about this little boy who is shy and introverted with a wino mother who passes out early every night. He is bullied at school, has no friends and steals money from his mom’s purse every now and then to buy candy. One night while up in his room peering out in to his apartment complex courtyard through a telescope he sees a young girl and an older man entering the complex. She is barefoot and the old man is carrying a steamer trunk looking thing which intrigues the boy.

As the story moves on, which is very slow, the boy eventually meets the girl but as she tells him, they will never be friends. She can’t have friends. I have to admit the acting is good and these young kids do an excellent job selling their characters. The father figure seems to be a serial killer but it seems he is not killing for himself…hmmmmm I wonder why. In the beginning it seemed as thought the boy was going to be a killer in the making, especially in the scene where he is wearing the creepy mask, playing with the knife and saying “how do you feel now you little girl” That was odd and creepy so for us not knowing anything about the movie, we thought the boy was going to go off and start a killing spree.

Well, to our surprise, it turns out the little girl is the creepier one (being barefoot in the snow should have been the hint) and she has a really deep vicious voice when yelling at her “dad”. He goes out and finds people to slaughter and then drain their blood in to antifreeze containers. I smell a vampire! Oh yeah…the little girl is a vampire and she is vicious when she has to be she’s also very sweet and loving with the little boy. Turns out she is twelve, but she’s been twelve for a very long time. And SURPRISE, the father figure turns out to be her boyfriend from years gone by. The little boy, by the way his name is Owen, finds a picture of the little girl, Abby, with a young boy that looks remarkably like the older father figure guy. Holy shit… I am liking this movie more and more as time goes on.

It’s a modern day vampire Romeo and Juliet (notice if you watch the movie, Owen is reading that in school) as the two kids fall in love and need to be with each other. But, there is a twist as a local cop investigating the murders finds the apartment where Abby is staying and attempts to do something.  not sure what he planned on doing with the little girl as a prime suspect but Owen saves the day and she kills the cop which obviously means she has to move again. The twist is that Owen as a twelve year old boy cannot just up and leave with her so they part ways and both are heartbroken. Well, he is, not sure if she still has a heart.

The next thing that happens is really cool but you’ll have to watch the movie if you want to find out. So, now comes the rating which was very tough to come up with for some reason. The story starts out slow, picks up steam, slows down again and then…yep, watch it and find out the rest. I give it 5 stars for the acting, I think everyone did a great job, especially the kids. The story was good and it was unexpected since neither of us knew anything about the movie…4 stars. Now the cinematography was also very good, especially the car wreck scene. Confused…watch it and find out because I give it another 4 stars. The music was ok but I was not overly impressed so I give the soundtrack 2.5 stars. Overall…I give it 4 stars.