Editorials
Through the Cracks Thanksgiving Edition: ‘Incident in Lake County’
As hardcore horror fans, sometimes it feels like you’ve seen it all. There are no surprises left to discover, no classic slasher film waiting around the corner to thrill you and slap a childlike grin on your face. You try to feed the fix by searching through lists of “The Scariest Films You’ve Never Seen” only to come across titles like “May”, “The Descent”, and “Suspiria”. These are, of course, films that us diehards know and love all too well. That’s where I come in, dear reader. We’ll be taking a deep dive into the bowels of obscure horror from decades past and uncovering titles that might have fallen “Through the Cracks”…sometimes imitated but never duplicated. 😉
Alien Abduction: Incident in Lake County (1998)
AKA: The McPherson Tape,
Directed By: Dean Alioto
It’s slim pickings’ when it comes to Thanksgiving horror films. Everyone knows (or should know) about the over the top gory-glory that is Blood Rage. Beyond that, there’s only a smattering of other titles worth calling attention to. Our own Meagan Navarro did just that. In an attempt to discover a worthy “Through the Cracks” entry for Thanksgiving, I plopped down with 1981’s Home Sweet Home starring Body by Jake as a wild eyed, maniacal slab of beef of a man who goes on a killing spree during a dysfunctional family’s festive get together. Unfortunately, I found it to be a complete slog to get through. Half way into the runtime, I hit “stop” on that one. As I’m sure you’re aware, I have a high threshold for cruddy 80s trash, but even I couldn’t handle this one. That said, I’m sure there’s a situation where watching it with a group of like minded midnight movie fans could make it more palatable. I quickly needed to switch gears and find something else.
Alien Abduction: Incident in Lake County is something of a trailblazer for its time. Originally aired on UPN January 20th 1998 to much audience confusion as to its validity, Lake County is a found footage flick that predated the release of The Blair Witch Project by one year. Sure, Cannibal Holocaust was really the first horror film to adopt the narrative style, but Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez put the subgenre on the map. But, even before we dive into this made for television shaky cam fest, it should be noted that Lake County is a remake! Ten years earlier, director Dean Alioto was itching to make his first feature. He had no money and one great idea, “War of the Worlds with video.” A simple conceit was turned into a truly authentic hour long feature aptly titled UFO Abduction.
Alioto provided a fantastic interview to the gang over at Found Footage Critic last year chronicling the making of both films. If you’re interested in the films at all, or in true no-budget filmmaking, I highly recommend giving it a read. In the film, a five year old girl’s birthday party is interrupted when three Greys show up and start picking them off one by one. The film is a success in the sense that it often feels real and hardly anything is seen (or at least can be seen in the VHS rip that remains of the film’s release). It falters, however, in being painstakingly boring. It really carries the air of being forced to watch that guy at work’s family video that he is certain you will for some unknown reason enjoy. The production was carried out in one night using mostly improvised dialogue and untrained actors. Despite the film’s drawbacks, it’s an exciting experiment that went on to spawn numerous conspiracy theories as people began to “discover” the tape in UFO believers’ circles.
Cut to 1995, and a deal with Dick Clark Productions was struck to remake the UFO Abduction as The McPherson Tape as UPN premiere movie. The budget was $1.5 million dollars, a far cry from the original’s $6,500. The title was changed to the far more straightforward Alien Abduction. The basic premise is the same, only this time the special family gathering has been transposed from a birthday party to Thanksgiving. The actors are all far more conventionally attractive professional actors (a baby faced Emmanuelle Chriqui shows up in one of the more thankless roles), most of them ill suited for the cinema verite’ approach. The stagey performances are by far the biggest drawback for this remake. The characters are about as stock as they come. The sensitive teenage boy is our cameraman. The oldest brother is a hothead racist, the middle a horndog, and the mother a drunk. Despite the obvious colors they may be painted with, it’s this sense of the cliche that makes Lake County one of the more perfect entries in holiday horror. We’ve all been to those terrible Thanksgiving dinners that will inevitably go awry. This one just so happens to do so because of an alien invasion as opposed to a drunken argument.
Where the original sailed, this one sinks. The reverse is also true. Lake County moves with a sense of immediacy that can almost exclusively be found in some of the best found footage flicks. Not every thrill lands, but there are more than enough bumps throughout this one terrifying night to keep viewers on edge. I was literally yelling at the screen as the characters continuously made terrible decisions. On a narrative tip, such actions by your leads is often a major misstep. “You keep saying you need to leave. So LEAVE!” But in regards to suspense, stupid people surely make for white knuckle cinema sometimes.
Despite being one of the first and seemingly lesser known efforts in the POV subgenre, Lake County offers up many of the same cliches that one has grown accustom to seeing in this type of film. The characters bicker incessantly, there’s never a legit reason given to keep rolling the camcorder, and our cameraman makes a weepy appearance to provide his final confession direct to camera. Still, for fans who haven’t yet completely tired of the structural conventions of found footage, Alioto keeps things moving at a decent clip and several set-pieces will send a cold shiver straight down your spine. Until someone like Scream Factory snatches this up for a cleaned up modern release, you can find the film streaming on Archive.org Just don’t get confused like the thousands who viewers who believed the film was real back 98′. Apparently they missed the closing credits where the actors’ names were clearly listed next to their characters…not to mention those “written” and “directed by” credits. Happy Thanksgiving!
Editorials
‘Leprechaun Returns’ – The Charm of the Franchise’s Legacy Sequel
The erratic Leprechaun franchise is not known for sticking with a single concept for too long. The namesake (originally played by Warwick Davis) has gone to L.A., Las Vegas, space, and the ‘hood (not once but twice). And after an eleven-year holiday since the Davis era ended, the character received a drastic makeover in a now-unmentionable reboot. The critical failure of said film would have implied it was time to pack away the green top hat and shillelagh, and say goodbye to the nefarious imp. Instead, the Leprechaun series tried its luck again.
The general consensus for the Leprechaun films was never positive, and the darker yet blander Leprechaun: Origins certainly did not sway opinions. Just because the 2014 installment took itself seriously did not mean viewers would. After all, creator Mark Jones conceived a gruesome horror-comedy back in the early nineties, and that format is what was expected of any future ventures. So as horror legacy sequels (“legacyquels”) became more common in the 2010s, Leprechaun Returns followed suit while also going back to what made the ‘93 film work. This eighth entry echoed Halloween (2018) by ignoring all the previous sequels as well as being a direct continuation of the original. Even ardent fans can surely understand the decision to wipe the slate clean, so to speak.
Leprechaun Returns “continued the [franchise’s] trend of not being consistent by deciding to be consistent.” The retconning of Steven Kostanski and Suzanne Keilly’s film was met with little to no pushback from the fandom, who had already become accustomed to seeing something new and different with every chapter. Only now the “new and different” was familiar. With the severe route of Origins a mere speck in the rearview mirror, director Kotanski implemented a “back to basics” approach that garnered better reception than Zach Lipovsky’s own undertaking. The one-two punch of preposterous humor and grisly horror was in full force again.
With Warwick Davis sitting this film out — his own choice — there was the foremost challenge of finding his replacement. Returns found Davis’ successor in Linden Porco, who admirably filled those blood-stained, buckled shoes. And what would a legacy sequel be without a returning character? Jennifer Aniston obviously did not reprise her final girl role of Tory Redding. So, the film did the next best thing and fetched another of Lubdan’s past victims: Ozzie, the likable oaf played by Mark Holton. Returns also created an extension of Tory’s character by giving her a teenage daughter, Lila (Taylor Spreitler).
It has been twenty-five years since the events of the ‘93 film. The incident is unknown to all but its survivors. Interested in her late mother’s history there in Devil’s Lake, North Dakota, Lila transferred to the local university and pledged a sorority — really the only one on campus — whose few members now reside in Tory Redding’s old home. The farmhouse-turned-sorority-house is still a work in progress; Lila’s fellow Alpha Epsilon sisters were in the midst of renovating the place when a ghost of the past found its way into the present.
The Psycho Goreman and The Void director’s penchant for visceral special effects is noted early on as the Leprechaun tears not only into the modern age, but also through poor Ozzie’s abdomen. The portal from 1993 to 2018 is soaked with blood and guts as the Leprechaun forces his way into the story. Davis’ iconic depiction of the wee antagonist is missed, however, Linden Porco is not simply keeping the seat warm in case his predecessor ever resumes the part. His enthusiastic performance is accentuated by a rotten-looking mug that adds to his innate menace.
The obligatory fodder is mostly young this time around. Apart from one luckless postman and Ozzie — the premature passing of the latter character removed the chance of caring about anyone in the film — the Leprechaun’s potential prey are all college aged. Lila is this story’s token trauma kid with caregiver baggage; her mother thought “monsters were always trying to get her.” Lila’s habit of mentioning Tory’s mental health problem does not make a good first impression with the resident mean girl and apparent alcoholic of the sorority, Meredith (Emily Reid). Then there are the nicer but no less cursorily written of the Alpha Epsilon gals: eco-conscious and ex-obsessive Katie (Pepi Sonuga), and uptight overachiever Rose (Sai Bennett). Rounding out the main cast are a pair of destined-to-die bros (Oliver Llewellyn Jenkins, Ben McGregor). Lila and her peers range from disposable to plain irritating, so rooting for any one of them is next to impossible. Even so, their overstated personalities make their inevitable fates more satisfying.
Where Returns excels is its death sequences. Unlike Jones’ film, this one is not afraid of killing off members of the main cast. Lila, admittedly, wears too much plot armor, yet with her mother’s spirit looming over her and the whole story — comedian Heather McDonald put her bang-on Aniston impersonation to good use as well as provided a surprisingly emotional moment in the film — her immunity can be overlooked. Still, the other characters’ brutal demises make up for Lila’s imperviousness. The Leprechaun’s killer set-pieces also happen to demonstrate the time period, seeing as he uses solar panels and a drone in several supporting characters’ executions. A premortem selfie and the antagonist’s snarky mention of global warming additionally add to this film’s particular timestamp.
Critics were quick to say Leprechaun Returns did not break new ground. Sure, there is no one jetting off to space, or the wacky notion of Lubdan becoming a record producer. This reset, however, is still quite charming and entertaining despite its lack of risk-taking. And with yet another reboot in the works, who knows where the most wicked Leprechaun ever to exist will end up next.
Horror contemplates in great detail how young people handle inordinate situations and all of life’s unexpected challenges. While the genre forces characters of every age to face their fears, it is especially interested in how youths might fare in life-or-death scenarios.
The column Young Blood is dedicated to horror stories for and about teenagers, as well as other young folks on the brink of terror.
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