Movies
[Review] MTV’s ‘Death Valley’ Episode 2
With vampires, werewolves, and zombies running amok in the San Fernando Valley, only the Undead Task Force can protect citizens from the spreading evil. A camera crew is on scene to record all the kills, busts, and shenanigans in MTV’s new horror-comedy series, “Death Valley.” Although opinions regarding the pilot episode were all over the place, we’ll take a fresh look at the series in this week’s coverage of episode two. This week Death Valley attempts to build on its dubious pilot as the UTF deals with the aftermath of a misguided public service campaign. If last week’s comments were any indication, at least the unbridled gore offered something to talk about. The full review lies just beyond the break.
This week begins with Captain Dashell lamenting the recent death of soundman Rodney (“Obviously he was a natural blonde who smelled like apricots…he didn’t deserve to die this way”) before introducing a public service campaign that calls on ordinary citizens to assist the UTF. When local teens take the campaign as blanket approval for zombie abuse (in this case, whaling on “slow walkers“ with baseball bats), John John and Rinaldi are called in to deal with the repercussions. Their action-packed smack down with teenage “freshies” is easily the highlight of the episode. Texas Battle is starting to grow on me in the role of John John. He may not get the best lines, but with his motor-mouthed delivery and cocky smirk, he wrings the most out of every moment he’s in front of the camera. Meanwhile Tania Raymonde seems to be struggling to make Officer Rinaldi more than just another pretty face in the cast.
Captain Dashell finally takes rookie Kirsten Landry out on the beat, and while their rat-hunting storyline is weak on laughs, Dashell gets to deliver some real nuggets of wisdom while teaching Kirsten the ropes (“Zombies are a cross between hobos and poo”). That’s the thing about Death Valley, so far it’s proven to be a show that can deliver some killer lines in the middle of extremely unfunny situations. And as the dry, subconsciously pervy Captain Dashell, actor Bryan Callen has got the line delivery nailed. If there’s one aspect of Death Valley that will get me to keep tuning in, it’s definitely Callen’s presence.
Stubek and Billy are mired in the weakest “storyline” of the episode, as Stubek attempts to find redemption for the vampire prostie they captured last week. Stretching its legs with this second episode, Death Valley seems intent on eschewing the one-off sketch humor in favor of multi-episode story arcs. Here’s hoping the casual wackiness isn’t sacrificed in favor of stupid-ass plot points. Death Valley only has so much promise to squander, and this mediocre second episode was a slow, shuffling step backwards.
There’s been a lot of talk about how Christopher Nolan snuck in some horror elements into his epic adaptation of The Odyssey. However, even before the Cyclops began to eat Ithican soldiers and Circe subjected them to magical body-horror, cinemagoers were already witnessing supernatural terror through a certain trailer that was attached to most IMAX screenings of Nolan’s film.
It turns out that this trailer was for Rob Savage’s Other Mommy, an adaptation of Bird Box author Josh Malerman’s horror novel, Incidents Around the House. With the teaser now available online and revealing that the award-winning Jessica Chastain is playing the titular antagonist (as well as her ill-fated human counterpart), not to mention the fact that the picture is being helmed by the director of hits like Host and The Boogeyman, genre fans are understandably hyped for this upcoming thriller.
That’s why I’ve decided to take a closer look at the trailer and share four things we learned from this sneak peek at Other Mommy!
4. Rob Savage is Going Back to His Supernatural Horror Roots
I know I’m in the minority when I admit that Dashcam is my favorite Rob Savage movie, but even I understand why the filmmakers’ fans have been waiting a while for the director to get back to telling more grounded paranormal stories as he did with 2020’s Host.
Other Mommy obviously isn’t a found footage movie, but moments like the poltergeist activity on the kitchen table combined with the nature of the source material, which actually features a full-on exorcism, indicate that this adaptation is more than a simple creature feature. That’s why I think Savage is once again going to borrow from the same ghostly narratives that made his debut film such a viral hit.
3. Other Mommy is a More Convincing Doppelganger in the Adaptation
Part of the horror from Malerman’s original novel came from the fact that the entity taking on the form of Bela’s (Arabella Olivia Clark) mother wasn’t very good at passing itself off as human. This resulted in several uncanny moments where other characters began to notice that there was something visibly wrong with the family and decided to keep their distance.
Savage’s film appears to be taking a different route, with the trailer showing a version of the entity that can, at least physically, imitate Chastain’s character perfectly. This change is likely the result of the filmmakers wanting to incorporate more paranoid scenes where Bela and her father, played by Jay Duplass, are confused about which Mommy is safe to interact with.
2. The Family is Also Better Off This Time Around
Incidents Around the House featured some interesting subtext about how poverty can negatively affect American family dynamics. After all, the main characters were already feeling scared and isolated before the entity emerged from Bela’s closet and began scratching at their emotional wounds. The trailer for the movie, however, depicts the family as being relatively well off before these incidents begin to occur.
I can only imagine that this part of the story was changed so that the family’s fall from grace can be even more dramatic as the mom and dad’s pasts are revealed and Bela falls further into the clutches of the demonic antagonist.
1. Jessica Chastain is Embodying Evil Dead Rise’s Alyssa Sutherland
Mothers turning against their children is one of the most disturbing horror tropes out there (just check out classics like Hereditary and Carrie if you need proof), but it takes a remarkably skilled actress to pull off such a monstrous transformation. This is especially true when both a regular, loving mother and the Other share the screen in the same film.
That’s why I appreciate how Chastain appears to be channeling another evil redhead mother that recently traumatized audiences with her performance. It’s too early to be sure, but I’m fairly confident that Chastain’s character has at least some amount of Ellie in her cinematic DNA – Ellie being the iconic deadite brought to life by Australian actress Alyssa Sutherland in 2023’s Evil Dead Rise.
Let us know in the comments if you think we missed any important details from the trailer, and don’t forget to check out Other Mommy when it hits theaters on October 9!
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