Editorials
Revisiting the Dark and Bizarre ‘American McGee’s Alice: Madness Returns’
Chances are, you probably haven’t played American McGee’s Alice. Set in a twisted, macabre rendition of Lewis Carroll’s Wonderland, it launched in late 2000 and would later become a cult classic. Praised for its creative premise and evocative visuals, the game ran using id Tech 3, the same engine that powered popular arena shooter Quake III. In fact, American McGee (yes, that’s his actual name) was one of the key members at id during its heyday in the mid-90s, working on both the Doom and Quake series. Although there are definite similarities, Alice was a massive departure for McGee and Dallas-based studio, Rogue Entertainment.
Alice would quickly fade into memory as the video game industry experienced one paradigm shift after the next. Although there had been rumors of a potential sequel, it wasn’t until 2009 that it was officially confirmed during an announcement by EA’s CEO John Riccitiello at that year’s D.I.C.E Summit. This was still a time when EA (and many other big publishers) would invest in smaller, singleplayer-focused experiences – a seemingly bygone era despite only being several years ago.
Alice: Madness Returns finally arrived in 2011 and garnered mostly positive reviews; that said, the game felt out of place and was ultimately overlooked by many. Picking up after the events of the original game, Alice Liddell has bested the Queen of Hearts and broken free from her catatonic state. Still scarred by the death of her family during a house fire (the trigger for her current mental state) she’s still a patient at the Rutledge Asylum and is about to suffer another relapse.
The Wonderland setting and its menagerie of creatures, characters, and bizarre vistas are a combination of superb art direction and very intentional metaphors that represent Alice’s loose grip on reality. Popular media is far more cautious nowadays in how it portrays mental illness though Madness Returns manages to sidestep many of the obvious pitfalls. However, having hysteria used a gameplay mechanic which has Alice doling out extra damage may now be seen as insensitive, as is some of the language used to describe Alice and other patients at the asylum.
Speaking of language, it can be a surprisingly crude game too and one that brandishes its mature rating in a weird yet compelling way. There’s the obvious splicing of Wonderland’s imaginative, Burton-esque imagery with the occasional bloody visuals. Then there are slightly more adult themes regarding the sexual exploitation of children – a subject that a minuscule number of game makers have ever touched upon in their work, though McGee’s own experiences are said to be a large influence. Even for a game that outwardly grabs your attention with its sinister looks, this sequel takes a surprisingly dark turn towards the end.
It’s easy to see why McGee wanted to return to Alice after all those years. id Tech 3 may have been cutting edge at the time though there were technical limitations, the enhanced power of the newer hardware allow him and his new team at Spicy Horse to realize their depiction of Wonderland in its full glory: an enchantingly twisted game world that looks completely alien yet with an eccentric flair that loops back into Carroll’s novels. There are entire areas made from floating teacups and dominoes that contrast the deliberately sludgy greys and browns of Alice’s real world.
Much like the original game, Madness Returns wasn’t immediately followed up with another sequel. Let’s face it, there’s probably zero chance of EA backing a third game to round out the trilogy. Still keen to expand on his brand of game-making, McGee took to Kickstarter in 2013 to fund an Oz-themed spin-off which failed though he found success with a crowdfunding campaign for Alice: Otherlands – a series of short films that continue the game’s story.
Since then, Spicy Horse has closed its doors but McGee continues to operate in his own quirky corner of the games industry. He’s currently looking to “crowd develop” a new project with his fan community titled “Alice: Asylum”. So, a sequel may be on the cards after all though it will be interesting to see how it takes shape with McGee’s new unorthodox approach.
Having grown up in a religious family, Christian movie night was something that happened a lot more often than I care to admit. However, back when I was a teenager, my parents showed up one night with an unusually cool-looking DVD of a movie that had been recommended to them by a church leader. Curious to see what new kind of evangelical propaganda my parents had rented this time, I proceeded to watch the film with them expecting a heavy-handed snoozefest.
To my surprise, I was a few minutes in when Denzel Washington proceeded to dismember a band of cannibal raiders when I realized that this was in fact a real movie. My mom was horrified by the flick’s extreme violence and dark subject matter, but I instantly became a fan of the Hughes Brothers’ faith-based 2010 thriller, The Book of Eli. And with the film’s atomic apocalypse having apparently taken place in 2024, I think this is the perfect time to dive into why this grim parable might also be entertaining for horror fans.
Originally penned by gaming journalist and The Walking Dead: The Game co-writer Gary Whitta, the spec script for The Book of Eli was already making waves back in 2007 when it appeared on the coveted Blacklist. It wasn’t long before Columbia and Warner Bros. snatched up the rights to the project, hiring From Hell directors Albert and Allen Hughes while also garnering attention from industry heavyweights like Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman.
After a series of revisions by Anthony Peckham meant to make the story more consumer-friendly, the picture was finally released in January of 2010, with the finished film following Denzel as a mysterious wanderer making his way across a post-apocalyptic America while protecting a sacred book. Along the way, he encounters a run-down settlement controlled by Bill Carnegie (Gary Oldman), a man desperate to get his hands on Eli’s book so he can motivate his underlings to expand his empire. Unwilling to let this power fall into the wrong hands, Eli embarks on a dangerous journey that will test the limits of his faith.
SO WHY IS IT WORTH WATCHING?
Judging by the film’s box-office success, mainstream audiences appear to have enjoyed the Hughes’ bleak vision of a future where everything went wrong, but critics were left divided by the flick’s trope-heavy narrative and unapologetic religious elements. And while I’ll be the first to admit that The Book of Eli isn’t particularly subtle or original, I appreciate the film’s earnest execution of familiar ideas.
For starters, I’d like to address the religious elephant in the room, as I understand the hesitation that some folks (myself included) might have about watching something that sounds like Christian propaganda. Faith does indeed play a huge part in the narrative here, but I’d argue that the film is more about the power of stories than a specific religion. The entire point of Oldman’s character is that he needs a unifying narrative that he can take advantage of in order to manipulate others, while Eli ultimately chooses to deliver his gift to a community of scholars. In fact, the movie even makes a point of placing the Bible in between equally culturally important books like the Torah and Quran, which I think is pretty poignant for a flick inspired by exploitation cinema.
Sure, the film has its fair share of logical inconsistencies (ranging from the extent of Eli’s Daredevil superpowers to his impossibly small Braille Bible), but I think the film more than makes up for these nitpicks with a genuine passion for classic post-apocalyptic cinema. Several critics accused the film of being a knockoff of superior productions, but I’d argue that both Whitta and the Hughes knowingly crafted a loving pastiche of genre influences like Mad Max and A Boy and His Dog.
Lastly, it’s no surprise that the cast here absolutely kicks ass. Denzel plays the title role of a stoic badass perfectly (going so far as to train with Bruce Lee’s protégée in order to perform his own stunts) while Oldman effortlessly assumes a surprisingly subdued yet incredibly intimidating persona. Even Mila Kunis is remarkably charming here, though I wish the script had taken the time to develop these secondary characters a little further. And hey, did I mention that Tom Waits is in this?
AND WHAT MAKES IT HORROR ADJACENT?
Denzel’s very first interaction with another human being in this movie results in a gory fight scene culminating in a face-off against a masked brute wielding a chainsaw (which he presumably uses to butcher travelers before eating them), so I think it’s safe to say that this dog-eat-dog vision of America will likely appeal to horror fans.
From diseased cannibals to hyper-violent motorcycle gangs roaming the wasteland, there’s plenty of disturbing R-rated material here – which is even more impressive when you remember that this story revolves around the bible. And while there are a few too many references to sexual assault for my taste, even if it does make sense in-universe, the flick does a great job of immersing you in this post-nuclear nightmare.
The excessively depressing color palette and obvious green screen effects may take some viewers out of the experience, but the beat-up and lived-in sets and costume design do their best to bring this dead world to life – which might just be the scariest part of the experience.
Ultimately, I believe your enjoyment of The Book of Eli will largely depend on how willing you are to overlook some ham-fisted biblical references in order to enjoy some brutal post-apocalyptic shenanigans. And while I can’t really blame folks who’d rather not deal with that, I think it would be a shame to miss out on a genuinely engaging thrill-ride because of one minor detail.
With that in mind, I’m incredibly curious to see what Whitta and the Hughes Brothers have planned for the upcoming prequel series starring John Boyega…
There’s no understating the importance of a balanced media diet, and since bloody and disgusting entertainment isn’t exclusive to the horror genre, we’ve come up with Horror Adjacent – a recurring column where we recommend non-horror movies that horror fans might enjoy.
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