Movies
Creepers (Short)
“It’s a shame because somewhere in there it seems like there is a solid story to tell—evidenced by the recent L.A.-based disaster film RIGHT AT YOUR DOOR, we can see the compelling nature of the unknown—it’s just all wasted in what turns out to be a great opening sequence followed by a film that’s lost its soul.”
Big cities always seem to be ground zero for big problems, Tokyo, Washington D.C, Las Vegas and New York have all seen their fair share of monsters and aliens—which is why I always liked the TV Show INVASION because I would like to think an alien attack would start somewhere less populated and then spread out from there. In the short film CREEPERS this time the illegal aliens in Los Angeles are way worse then someone looking for a job and some money to send back home. These aliens are taking over your body and turning the human race into cannibal maniacs.
CREEPERS shares a lot of lore with everything from Zach Snyder’s DAWN OF THE DEAD to John Carpenter’s THE THING and even the recent film THE SIGNAL. It asks the burning question “when the world ends…who can you trust” the answer comes from a pair of survivors holed up inside an abandoned house. The bulk of the production takes place behind closed doors and the pair passes their time waiting for rescue and growing increasingly paranoid of each other in the process. The film clocks in at less than 20 minutes and it explodes out of the gate with some intense hand-held camera work as the audience is taken on a whirlwind tour of the carnage occurring on the sunny Southern California streetscapes. Unfortunately, once the film gets to the meat of the story, all the action stops for what should have been a slow-build section of increasing anxiety. Instead of stepping up with the drama, the film fizzles from some strange pacing and the feeling that there is just not enough time to really tell these peoples story. It’s a shame because somewhere in there it seems like there is a solid story to tell—evidenced by the recent L.A.-based disaster film RIGHT AT YOUR DOOR, we can see the compelling nature of the unknown—it’s just all wasted in what turns out to be a great opening sequence followed by a film that’s lost its soul.
The trailer for Ti West’s upcoming adaptation of A Christmas Carol raised a lot of eyebrows when it dropped earlier this week. While plenty of folks initially dismissed Ebenezer as a derivative project meant to cash in on the recent wave of unnecessary prequels that expand the backstory of beloved characters (such as 2023’s Wonka), Charles Dickens’ original novel already made a point of exploring Ebenezer Scrooge’s origins in detail – meaning that this new film is likely just a particularly faithful adaptation of the source material under a different name.
Couple that with the fact that the movie is being helmed by a genuine horror auteur and I think it’s safe to say that the latest iteration of the first modern ghost story is in good hands.
That being said, one detail that immediately jumped out at me during the brief teaser (other than a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nod to Johnny Depp’s iconic bedroom death scene from the original A Nightmare on Elm Street) is the fact that many of Ebenezer’s ghosts appear to have been directly lifted from the iconic John Leech illustrations that accompanied the first edition of Dickens’ novel.
Here are a couple of stills from the trailer compared to the original artwork:
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
The Phantoms in ‘A Christmas Carol’ and ‘Ebenezer’
Marley’s Ghost in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
Mainly working with old-school wood and steel engravings that would later be transferred to print, Leech was instrumental in crafting the iconic look of history’s most influential phantoms – especially since Dickens is said to have been deeply involved with the creation of these so-called “comic illustrations.”
And since the novel is commonly said to have popularized spiritualism in Victorian England, much of the ghostly iconography that we still see in genre media to this very day (including some of Ti West’s previous films) can be traced back to the author’s partnership with Leech.
Ebenezer won’t be the first A Christmas Carol adaptation to borrow heavily from these designs, but I can appreciate how Ti West is incorporating an important part of horror history into his latest film.
Ebenezer will be available in theaters starting November 13.
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