Editorials
How ‘Fallout 4’ Turned a Normal Mission Into a Nightmare
Preston Garvey had sent me on yet another mission to help yet more settlers, and I had begun to believe they were all the same. Go in, kill some bad guys, get out. This time I found myself at the bottom of the Dunwich Borers quarry, looting the left arm of a dead raider’s power armor—the last piece I needed for my own set—when I saw a door tucked away in the side of a cliff. Curiosity drove me to open it, and that’s when the nightmare began.
The storytellers at Bethesda created an open-world experience in Fallout 4, and sure, the main story is about finding your kidnapped son, but the more terrifying stories are told in the background, in hidden snippets that require you to dig deep and uncover the secret lore of the game. This was one of them.
The Apocalypse and Lovecraft
As I ventured into the caverns beneath the Dunwich Borers quarry, flashbacks shook the screen. Flashes of times before the Great War showed men hard at work carving out the tunnels, only to snap back to the present era where I found only ghouls—humans that had been exposed to too much radiation, their base natures twisted and warped beyond recognition.
The horror should come as no surprise. H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos has long influenced the Fallout series. One of the core stories of this Mythos is known as The Dunwich Horror, a tale set in the fictional town of Dunwich, Massachusetts, the same state where Fallout 4 is set. Fallout 3 included a location called The Dunwich Building in which people worshiped Ug-Qualtoth, an unknown being with god-like powers.
The naming convention of this creature is similar to Lovecraft’s Yog-Sothoth and Yuggoth. Coincidence? Not hardly. The Dunwich Horror features a deformed main character named Wilbur Whateley that is barely recognizable as human, much like a ghoul. The story revolves around mysterious events 0n his family’s farm. Wilbur purchases a lot of cattle, but his herd never grows—and the animals that remain in his heard begin to have hideous open wounds.
I won’t say more. If you haven’t read Lovecraft before, check him out. The man is a master of atmospheric horror. He can scare even the most hardened horror fan. Lovecraft’s words creep into your brain like a fog and leave you unsettled.
It was this same atmospheric effect that made the Dunwich Borers so terrifying. The meaning of the flashbacks is never explained. Their cause is never explained. But their effect is immediately apparent.
Deeper into the Caverns
The ghouls came from every nook and cranny. Bodies I had dismissed as corpses stood and attacked. I began to fire a single round into the skull of every corpse, just to make sure. More than once, the corpses stood and attacked. With each step I took, the lights flickered erratically.
The path descended deeper into the cavern. Bodies and ghouls littered the lower levels more heavily than in the better-lit areas above. The flashbacks seemed tied to power sources within the mine. The moment I flipped one, another flashback would dominate my screen. Moments after it ended, ghouls flooded the hallway.
I fought through tunnel after tunnel until I reached the lowest level. A dimly-lit pathway opened into a larger cave. Construction equipped dotted the room, and a makeshift bedroom had been erected to one side. I dispatched the single ghoul that greeted me and looted the room. I thought I had reached the end; after all, I found a Sneak Bobblehead that permanently upgraded my abilities. Items like that aren’t left about haphazardly.
Then I saw another exit. Tucked away in the darkened corner of the room, a tunnel led deeper into the cavern. I stepped inside. I didn’t expect a flashback. I had grown used to their appearance after flipping a power switch, but I had not found one in the previous room.
When light filled my screen, I watched the eeriest flashback yet. A crowd of people knelt in front of an altar, their hands bound behind them. A man named Tim Shoots addressed the crowd. Just as suddenly as it appeared, the flashback faded—and a named ghoul attacked. I gasped at the name Tim Shoots over the creature’s head. Two more ghouls, Bradley Ramone, and John Hatfield, also joined the fray.
I had just watched a holotape with the three men, but I had not understood their intent.
I killed all three. My last round dropped Bradley Ramone feet from where I stood, and the momentum of his charge carried his now-dead body past me. I walked into the room with the altar, ready to fight more undead, but nothing remained of the flashback. A massive hole filled with radioactive water occupied the space where the altar had been.
At the bottom of the hole, I found Kremvh’s Tooth. This weapon looks like a machete forged from the jagged fang of some otherworldly beast. Upon further investigation, the weapon can be given a unique mod called “Sacrificial Blade.” This causes the target to bleed and deals a tremendous amount of damage.
A simple mission to kill a few raiders had led me to the remnants of a cult that worshiped a Lovecraftian god. Despite the hours I sank into Fallout 4, no other mission created the same level of unease and apprehension that descending through those flashback-filled tunnels did. The storytellers at Bethesda managed to pull me into the long-forgotten lore of a half-destroyed world and used my curiosity as the vehicle.
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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