Editorials
[Best of 2018] How ‘Pokemon Let’s Go’ Tames the Horror of Lavender Town
Pokemon’s Lavender Town is notoriously spooky. From the Creepypasta tales surrounding the apocryphal Pokemon Green to the anime depiction of ghosts incarnate, the atmosphere of Lavender Town is uncanny, weird, and deeply unsettling.
This year, however, saw the release of Pokemon Let’s Go, the most recent iteration of Pokemon Generation 1. It is true that the uncanny atmosphere of Lavender Town persists after the events of Generation 1, as the soundtracks in Gold and Silver — set three years after Gen 1 — attest to with their toned down yet still eerie instrumentation. Ultimately, though, things seem to be a little better at this point in the Pokemon timeline.
Let’s Go builds on the bridge between Gen 1 and Gen 2 that made this so by directly confronting and actually resolving the horrors of Lavender Town. This is because Let’s Go brought a whole new take on Lavender Town, which ultimately succeeded in taming the horror imbued in the infamous setting. In particular, the story of Cubone’s mother was changed slightly — slightly, but enough to make a serious difference.
For those who aren’t familiar with the story of Cubone and its lost mother, Generation 1 Pokemon games have always featured a story in which Lavender Town’s Pokemon Tower has been overrun by terrifying ghosts. The player, however, can cause the ghosts to materialize if they have the Silph Scope.
After obtaining the item from a Team Rocket base, it becomes clear that the unsettling omens plaguing Lavender Town came about due to the fact that a late Marowak couldn’t rest. It is implied that this Marowak was brutally murdered by members of Team Rocket and was unable to ascend to the afterlife due to the fact that it feared for its now-orphaned Cubone.
In Pokemon Let’s Go, the whole sequence of events that takes place in Lavender Town is changed. Aside from the spooky music and immaterial wraithlike ghosts, Cubone’s tale is given some real love, making it incredibly touching and bittersweet in the most heartfelt way. Often known as the “scary” part of Pokemon, Let’s Go’s Lavender Town gives Cubone a real presence for the first time ever, as it climbs the steps of the Pokemon Tower searching for its dead mother. It is implied that Cubone knows that she was murdered, but is tragically unsure of what this means for it.
These tragic elements are important because they are made central to the horror her. Cubone is kidnapped by Team Rocket and taken to the Celadon Game Corner. It is the unplayed parts of this that contain the real scary stuff, as Cubone’s fate is uncertain. In an effort to set Cubone free, the player infiltrates the Rocket base and defeats Giovanni, the leader of Team Rocket.
Although this is what players must do in order to get the necessary Silph Scope item in previous games, in Let’s Go you go there with the sole purpose of saving Cubone from the unseen horrors of being held prisoner by his mother’s murderers. After bringing Cubone back to Lavender Town, is is briefly reunited with the spirit of its mother, who materializes for just a moment, but long enough to reach out to Cubone. Marowak then takes on the form of an ethereal golden light before transcending to the afterlife. Cubone, irreparably and understandably hurt, receives some closure at least.
Feeling sorry for Cubone, your rival will offer to raise it, to the extent that their final Pokemon team includes a Marowak. With the help of your rival, Cubone was able to channel its loss into newfound strength. The previously unwritten parts of Lavender Town’s horror story are given a narrative for the first time in the history of Pokemon. Lavender Town is still scary, but there’s meaning in the horror. Cubone’s own horror story doesn’t end in tragedy but in new hope. Let’s Go tames the horror of Lavender Town without being overtly cheesy or cringy. It’s a sincere way of giving Cubone closure and highlighting the transition between Lavender Town’s iterations in Gen 1 and Gen 2.
Ultimately, the horror of Lavender Town is stripped of its power for the most part, as the touching story upon which this part of the game is based on comes front and centre. The horror is still very much there; however, it’s tamed by a cathartic tale telling the story of the bond shared between parent and child, and the recognition of the fact that, as Japanese author Haruki Murakami would say, “Death is not the opposite of life but an innate part of it.” From Marowak’s untimely and unjust death at the hands of Team Rocket, Cubone draws strength, which culminates in Marowak’s restless soul being soothed. As a result, Lavender Town’s Pokemon Tower becomes calm once again, which is reflected in the ambiance of the town at large. On a more microcosmic level, though, Cubone’s overcoming of its own horror story is what makes it strong.
In Pokemon Let’s Go, the things that made Lavender Town so scary in the 90s have been completely flipped on their head. The uncanny music is tamed by Cubone’s evocative tale, and the resolution of this tale offers more in the way of a sense of remedy than any previous iteration of Gen 1 offered. Although Mr. Fuji has always concerned with the wellbeing of a newborn Cubone, this is the first time Cubone is actually present in the flesh, which accentuates the tragedy imbued in the story, but by the same logic accentuates the bittersweet resolution, too.
As a result, Lavender Town’s original horror value belies something far deeper here. The horror isn’t lost, and new players will still be able to recognize the uncanny nature of the haunted town, but they’ll also be able to tangibly see the ways in which their impact on the story manifests itself. Cubone, despite having gone through tragedy, says farewell to its mother and develops a bond with a loving trainer, allowing it to evolve into a Marowak itself by the end of the game. It’s subtle, but it’s truly sweet. Amidst a plethora of remakes that seek to make their tales scarier, Pokemon Let’s Go tames the horror of its most emphatically horrific part. It subverts the origins of the tale, converting them into something that’s tangible, meaningful, and most importantly of all, not so scary once you take the first brave step to embrace it.
Editorials
Before ‘The Blair Witch Project’, ‘Alien Autopsy’ Showed How Real Found Footage Could Feel
The line separating artist from con man is a lot thinner than you might initially believe. While I think we can all agree that lying for the sake of profit is actively malicious behavior, isn’t it also true that the faux documentary aspect of The Blair Witch Project is half the reason why that film became such a cultural phenomenon? After all, if there’s one thing filmmakers have in common with stage magicians, it’s that misleading and misdirecting audiences is simply part of the job.
That’s why I’ve developed a habit of mostly ignoring the moral quandaries behind many of film and television’s biggest “hoaxes” in favor of appreciating the narrative elements that drive productions like Mermaids: The Body Found and even Animal Planet’s highly underrated The Cannibal in the Jungle. However, if there’s a definitive case of a highly publicized broadcast fooling the world into taking it seriously, it has to be Fox’s infamous 1995 TV special Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction.
It’s been over three decades since that eerie footage first haunted television screens right at the peak of the ’90s ufology craze, and in that time, the video has taken on a life of its own. From countless parodies and references in everything from The X-Files to Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater (as well as John Dower’s recently released tell-all documentary The Alien Autopsy Scandal, which I’d highly recommend to genre fans everywhere), there’s no denying the legacy of the Alien Autopsy video. However, I rarely see the tape discussed as what it truly is: a highly convincing found footage film directed by a passionate stage magician and brought to life by masterful practical effects work.
That’s why I’d like to invite readers to join me on a deep dive into one of the most infamous broadcasts of all time in an attempt to reevaluate the footage as a fascinating narrative experience rather than a complete hoax.
The TV Special That Convinced Millions It Was Real
Ray Santilli next to Extraterrestrial replica in ‘The Alien Autopsy Scandal’
For starters, regardless of whether or not you believe that there was in fact an extraterrestrial crash in Roswell during the summer of 1947 and that some form of autopsy was performed on the victims, the producers behind the black & white recordings, Ray Santilli and Gary Shoefield, insist that their video was a “restoration.” Though I’d argue that the proper word is “remake”of genuine footage that was too damaged to air on television. That’s why the duo went on to recruit filmmaker and eccentric magician Spyros Melaris and sculptor/monster designer John Humphreys to bring their version of the autopsy to life and sell it to the highest bidder.
This is where the story of the Alien Autopsy as a narrative experience really begins. Melaris claims that his approach to the faux recording consisted of striving for extreme period accuracy in both shooting equipment and setting while also planting subtle details that would initially seem like mistakes but could later be revealed to actually fit the time period. That being said, the filmmaker was under the impression that the short would be released for free as a PR stunt, with the team later producing and selling an informative documentary chronicling exactly how the footage was faked and commenting on how easy it is to manipulate public perception with a good old-fashioned magic trick.
This obviously isn’t how things went down, and that’s likely the reason why Melaris has since distanced himself from everyone else involved with the project. Yet, no amount of behind-the-scenes drama can undermine the genuine effort that went into making the short as impressive as it is. From the sourcing of real animal organs from a local butcher to make the organic part of the creature more lifelike to the highly detailed sculpt that made use of a hollowed-out underlayer that could be filled with fake blood and assorted viscera, there’s a reason why so many Hollywood specialists are still impressed with the artistry on display here.
Of course, the believability is only half the story, as I think that the best part of the autopsy is how Melaris builds on the existing tension by obscuring certain details and often embracing the chaos of what a real examination of extraterrestrial life could feel like. The camera often goes out of focus at just the right time to make certain effects hit even harder, and we can only speculate as to what the hazmat-suited doctors are gesticulating about during the operation. There’s a real air of mystery to the whole thing that almost makes it feel like a cosmically terrifying, cursed film containing forbidden knowledge that civilians were never meant to see.
So when Fox’s Fact or Fiction brings in the specialists to comment on the film and its otherworldly subject, it’s no surprise that we end up with one of the most memorable mockumentaries of all time – albeit one where the participants are unaware that the footage they’re commenting on is basically a large-scale practical joke. A joke that the network was obviously in on, as many participants claim that the TV special cut out significant portions where guests point out that they believe the footage to be an elaborate hoax.
The Lasting Impact of the Hoax Turned Cultural Event
Regardless, I remember going to bed terrified after watching reruns of the special and thinking about the respected pathologist who claimed that the body was almost certainly inhuman, with even effects maestro Stan Winston commenting on how difficult it would be to recreate some of these visuals through practical puppetry. That’s not even mentioning Jonathan Frakes’ dramatic hyping up of the disturbing imagery as if he was talking about the tape from The Ring, with his spooky demeanor here likely being responsible for his later role as the host of Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction a few years later.
Personally, I’d argue that the Alien Autopsy phenomenon had just as much of an impact on me as a horror fan as The Blair Witch Project, a film that was almost certainly influenced by the success of this immensely popular hoax (to the point where they even produced their own TV special commenting on Heather’s found footage). Even if Fox didn’t intend to produce a narrative feature about the aftermath of the Roswell crash, the end product still holds up remarkably well as a highly entertaining mockumentary exploring the idea that we may not be alone in the universe.
While neither Santilli nor the rest of the production team has ever commented on this, I also think it’s very likely that the idea of a faux Alien Autopsy could have been influenced by Dean Alioto’s The McPherson Tape/UFO Abduction. I’ve already written about how this granddaddy of found footage was co-opted by rogue ufologists who began selling bootlegs of the tape at conventions as if it were real evidence of a close encounter, so it’s not that much of a stretch to imagine that Santilli and company could have heard about this phenomenon and been inspired to come up with their own highly profitable hoax.
At the end of the day, it’s unlikely that the Alien Autopsy film is recreating any real footage from Roswell, but I can still appreciate the short and the accompanying television event as a standalone horror story that still influences the way we see found footage to this very day.
After all, the possibility that something could be real is often much scarier than finding out for sure – and that’s why I think Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction is still worth revisiting three decades down the line.
You must be logged in to post a comment.