Movies
[LOL] Join The One-Man ‘Madison County’ Boycott!
Arriving on DVD and Digital Download May 8 is Eric England’s backwoods slasher Madison County – which we’ve teased in this extensive exclusive set report. But before you can get your hands on a copy, an official boycott has emerged. And by boycott, I mean one YouTube user who hilariously declares that he’ll “stingle handily tarnish” England’s career. It’s unclear why the little guy is so angry, but it’s an absolutely hilarious video that was retweeted this weekend by a thick-skinned England. Watch the video below and then share your thoughts on Madison County next Tuesday.
“Madison County is about a group of college kids that travel to a remote, mountain town called Madison County to interview the author of a tell-all book on the accounts of the grisly murders that happened in the town over two decades ago. Upon their arrival, the author is no where to be found and the townspeople state that they’ve “not seen him in years.” They also deny that Damien Ewell, the notorious murderer, ever existed and that the murders never happened. As the kids start to dig around to get their own answers, they come to find that the stories, and Damien, maybe more real than the townspeople are letting on.”
Madison County stars Ace Marrero (who also co-produced), Colley Bailey, Matt Mercer, Joanna Sotomura, Natalie Scheetz, Katie Stegeman, and Adrienne Harrell, with Laid To Rest’s Nick “ChromeSkull” Principe as the savage killer Damien Ewell.
Here’s where it started:
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.
You must be logged in to post a comment.