Editorials
The Genre Films We Saw at the 48th Annual Boston Science Fiction Film Festival [Event Report]
The longest running genre fest in the US, the Boston Science Fiction Film Festival (Boston SciFi for short) returned for its 48th annual event in Somerville, MA last week.
I was only able to attend one of the five days, but I managed to squeeze in four features plus two panels. Here’s what I saw at this year’s Boston Science Fiction Film Festival.
The Warm Season
Boston SciFi hosted the world premiere of The Warm Season, a character-driven sci-fi drama with shades of Starman. As a young girl, Clive (Carie Kawa) encountered Mann (Michael Esparza), an alien in human disguise, who gave her a glowing rock before being captured by government agents. 25 years later in 1992, an escaped Mann returns to Clive’s failing motel to retrieve the “fail-safe” in order to return to his planet. Between the weather patterns and the government closing in, they only have three days to get him home.
The Warm Season succeeds because writer Adam Seidel and director Janet Grillo craft an intriguing concept with authentic characters in a world that feels lived in. While Mann serves as a more than adequate MacGuffin, at the story’s heart is Clive’s journey toward self-actualization.
Kawa and Esparza are equally affecting counterparts, with the former’s raw performance balanced by the latter’s candor. Esparza speaks in a stilted speech pattern with the occasional ’90s slang phrase thrown in. The supporting performances are also strong, with Gregory Jbara (Blue Bloods) frequently stealing scenes as a gregarious rogue agent aiding Mann’s escape.
The Bystanders
High concept on a low budget, The Bystanders is an British sci-fi comedy that channels the scrappy energy of a young, Spaced-era Edgar Wright with the ambition of Doctor Who. Like guardian angels of sorts, bystanders are former humans turned invisible immortals that watch over their human subjects. Their objective is to clandestinely steer their subjects’ lives for the better, but as the movie shows, their meddling can have dire consequences.
Frank (comedian Seann Walsh) has been duly appointed to recruit former child prodigy Peter (Scott Haran) as the latest bystander. While the rookie Peter ambitiously lobbies to be named Bystander of the Year, Frank does not take his position seriously. Their relationship becomes increasingly strained when they decide to switch subjects – Peter is first assigned to lowly record label intern Sarah (Georgia Mabel Clarke), while Frank is frustrated by slacker Luke (Andi Jashy) – and again when an unexpected romance blossoms between the subjects.
The Bystanders is a bit rough around the edges, but writer-director Gabriel Foster Prior admirably pushes beyond budgetary limitations to create an original feature debut. Further illustrating the divide between dimensions, the picture alternates between black and white from the human point of view and color from a bystander’s POV. The humor ranges from quirky to dry while commenting on the mundanities of life, bureaucracy, and fate vs. free will.
The Antares Paradox
Like The Guilty meets The Vast of Night, The Antares Paradox (known in its native Spanish as La paradoja de Antares) is a contained sci-fi drama thriller from Spain. It’s frustratingly close to being truly remarkable, only to be hobbled by a limp finale. Nevertheless, it’s easy to see why it’s been a favorite on the festival circuit, earning a world premiere at Fantastic Fest and a European premiere at Sitges.
As a SETI scientist searching for alien life, Alexandra (Andrea Trepat) has been ridiculed by everyone from strangers on the internet to colleagues and even family. With her program on the verge of being shut down, a super storm rolling in, and her father dying in the hospital, Alexandra may have finally found proof of extraterrestrial intelligence. Racing against a ticking clock, she has to risk it all in order to verify the signal via strict protocol.
Despite being confined entirely in an observatory’s research lab, writer-director-cinematographer Luis Tinoco (his feature debut after two decades in visual effects) never allows for a dull moment. The tight script continually finds new ways to raise the stakes and ratchet tension, while the high production values and clever camerawork keep the visuals interesting. Trepat is the only actor on screen, save for video calls, and she gives a phenomenal performance that oozes vulnerability and determination. While it loses steam in the melodramatic third act, Tinoco and Trepat are both talents to watch in the future.
Single8
A Japanese cousin to The Fabelmans, Single8 is a love letter to the impact of cinema and the wonder of filmmaking. Brazenly starting with a parody of Star Wars‘ iconic opening crawl, writer-director Kazuya Konaka (Ultraman: The Next) delivers a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age tale based on his own early cinematic explorations. Set in 1978, it’s nostalgic yet timeless.
Inspired by Star Wars, high school senior Hiroshi (Yu Uemura) picks up a Single-8 camera in the hopes of making his own sci-fi epic. With the help of his friends and classmates – including casting his crush (Akari Takaishi) as the heroine – Hiroshi conceives the earnest Time Reverse for their school-wide festival. Along the way he learns about the trials and tribulations not only of filmmaking but of growing up.
Clocking in just shy of two hours, Single8 is a tad overlong. The pacing is obstructed by showing the students’ film in full at the finale; it would have been better served in intermittent glimpses throughout the movie to leave the audience wanting more, which Be Kind Rewind did so effectively. That said, its heart is ample enough to overlook the shortcomings, making this the highlight of the festival for me. As an added bit of fun, the end credits feature clips from Konaka’s own early productions that inspired the film, a la The Goldbergs.
Duwayne Dunham Panel
A panel with editor/filmmaker Duwayne Dunham was billed as a “master class,” and it was just that; inspiring insight from an accomplished industry veteran who has collaborated with some of the biggest names in cinema. He’s best known for editing the likes of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, Blue Velvet, and Twin Peaks, in addition to directing such projects as Homeward Bound, Little Giants, Halloweentown, and episodes of Twin Peaks and Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
Having worked in features, episodic TV, and TV movies — not to mention having both edited and directed for George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and David Lynch — Dunham shared his perspectives on storytelling regardless of medium or genre. I could have listened to his stories from the trenches — like being the first person to screen test the original Boba Fett armor, transitioning from editing the Twin Peaks pilot to directing the first episode, and helping Spielberg turn a 30-second McDonald’s ad into Little Giants — all day.
Dunham recounted the advice bestowed upon him by his successful mentors before his first directing gig. Lucas told him to never work with someone who just won an Academy Award and to throw out the script when you edit. Francis Ford Coppola pragmatically advised him to wear comfortable shoes. Lynch wryly said, “When the car comes to pick you up in the morning, get in. When it gets to set, get out.”
Dunham emphasized never underestimating the power of the editing room, as that is where the story is fully realized. Editing, he said, comes naturally to him. “Directing is hard work. Writing is even harder. That’s why I try to avoid it,” he noted with a chuckle. His latest effort, a drama that he wrote, directed, and edited titled The Happy Worker, is currently stuck in distribution limbo with hopes of being released later this year.
The Fabricators Panel
The Fabricators was a two-part panel with prop masters/fabricators who have worked on many of the most successful and beloved properties of the last 25 years: Tamara Carlson Woodard (The Mandalorian, Avengers: Endgame), Jason Kaufman (Starship Troopers, Star Trek), Brad Elliott (Avatar: The Way of Water, Obi-Wan), and Giang Pham (Venom, Jurassic World).
Unlike most panels, in which a subject is interviewed by a host they don’t know, Pham served as the moderator. Not only was she intimately familiar with the other panelists’ work, all of their paths have crossed on various projects, so there was a palpable camaraderie on stage. They broke down the props department’s symbiotic relationship with visual effects, stunts, wardrobe, and cast to ensure the best possible results for a film.
Star Wars was a frequent point of conversation, as all four panelists have experience working in a galaxy far, far away. They addressed what Pham referred to as the “fanboy factor,” in which fans want something new but don’t want anything to change. As such, they are tasked with respecting the legacy canon while pushing forward with their artistry.
Boston SciFi also featured screenings of Doctor Who Am I, UFO Club, Beyond Tomorrow, It’s Quieter in the Twilight, Breaking Infinity, The Cold Dead Look In Your Eyes, The Mind Thief, Everyone Will Burn, and Isaac Asimov: A Message to the Future; several short film blocks; a panel with animation editors Joe Elwood and Nate Cormier; Asimov’s Robots, an experimental Clue-like mystery game; and The Time Traveler’s Ball celebrating 60 years of Doctor Who.
The festival came to a close with its legendary 24-hour sci-fi marathon. This year included celluloid screenings of Back to the Future Part II (on 70mm), Alien, Escape from Planet of the Apes, Stargate, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, UFOria, and Future Kill, plus digital showings of the original Godzilla, Total Recall, Bill & Ted Face the Music, After Yang, and more.
The penultimate season of Tales from the Crypt (1989–1996) aired its first three episodes on October 31, so it’s understandable that at least one of those three stories is set on Halloween.
Sandwiched between “Let the Punishment Fit the Crime” (Russell Mulcahy, Ron Finley) and “Whirlpool” (Mick Garris, A. L. Katz & Gilbert Adler) is the most severe episode of the bunch. Maybe the entire series? William Malone and Dick Beebe’s “Only Skin Deep” traded the show’s typical sense of fun for startling amounts of bleakness and kink.
“Only Skin Deep” is, apart from the Crypt Keeper’s intro and outro, noticeably unfunny. There are no considerable attempts at making the viewer laugh. Come to think of it, if those bookends had been replaced, and there was more of a sci-fi element in the story, HBO could have easily squeezed this tale into that successor anthology, Perversions of Science (1997). In Crypt, though, “Only Skin Deep” is much too grim for an audience that had become accustomed to campiness and levity.
What makes “Only Skin Deep” feel dark, among other things, is its protagonist. Showing up to a Halloween party where he’s not welcome, and where his former girlfriend (Diane DiLasco) is attending, Carl Schlag (Peter Onorati) first comes across as your standard bitter ex. You soon realize it’s much worse than that, once Carl threatens Linda (“You know, silly me, thinking I gave you what you deserved. If I’d have done that, I’d have killed you”). Now, I haven’t forgotten that Tales from the Crypt was teeming with vile men who did women harm. Yet Carl’s brand of misogynistic menace hits differently—it borders on being too realistic for this kind of series.
Mike Vosburg’s EC-style comic cover for “Only Skin Deep”, as seen in the Tales from the Crypt episode.
Despite donning a party mask for much of the episode, Carl can’t ever mask his true nature. The invitation did say “come as you are”, after all. That inability to change and be better, however, is why Carl ends up in such a karmic predicament. His outburst of anger at the party attracts the attention of one loner partygoer named Molly (Sherrie Rose, who was also in Season Four’s “On a Deadman’s Chest”). Her bone-white, featureless “mask” and body-bag costume don’t initially register as too strange, especially on a night like this. But at a party chock-full of colorful, cartoonish, and lighthearted ensembles, it does look out of place.
Darkness attracts darkness as Carl ditches the party and accompanies the mysterious Molly to her place. Which, by the way, should have been an immediate red flag. But perhaps she’s so hot, he doesn’t seem to mind the serial killer aesthetic. Resembling a warehouse that has been converted into living spaces, but never then decorated to remove the cold, industrial look, Molly’s home (or lair) is as gloomy as this whole episode feels. It’s like the set of a grungy music video, albeit a tad cleaner. The environments in a typical Crypt episode tend to be small, overfilled, and broken-in. Warm, regardless of any weird goings-on. All that empty space in Molly’s hovel, on the other hand, elicits a creepy feeling that Carl was unwise to ignore.
Tales from the Crypt featured more sex than it didn’t, but hands down, “Only Skin Deep” boasts the steamiest scene in the show’s history. Pushing it over the line, in addition to Onorati showing bare buns and the camera never turning down one of his pelvic thrusts, is the twisted dirty talk. Carl stays in the moment, whereas Molly unleashes charged lines like “the hurt, the anger, give it to me” and “take it out on my flesh like you want to”. It’s all quite kinky, as well as tied into the story’s theme of pain.
How else “Only Skin Deep” differs from other episodes is its twists. Or rather, its lack thereof. Nothing comes as a great surprise here, particularly because the deuteragonist’s ulterior motives are so obvious. By no means is Molly a wolf in sheep’s clothing; her face is a fright mask, she practically reeks of death, and she lives in what can best be described as a serial killer’s hideout. That last-act revelation of Molly’s mask really being her face is also nothing shocking. Cleverness is certainly not this episode’s strength.
A page from “…Only Skin Deep!”, as seen in EC Comics’ Tales from the Crypt.
While “Only Skin Deep” isn’t the most universally loved episode of Tales from the Crypt, it’s an interesting preview of William Malone’s future as a director. Most notably, he went on to helm House on Haunted Hill (1999) and FeardotCom (2002), the former of which was co-written by Dick Beebe, this episode’s writer. Dark Castle Entertainment, that genre house founded by Crypt producers Joel Silver, Robert Zemeckis, and Gilbert Adler, was instrumental in bringing out Malone’s gruesome, over-the-top vision in House on Haunted Hill. However, FeardotCom and Malone’s Masters of Horror episode, “Fair-Haired Child”, are the most stylistically compatible with “Only Skin Deep”.
As one might guess, this episode is nothing like its source material. The “…Only Skin Deep!” found in the pages of EC Comics is set during Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and save for its last couple of pages, is pretty sweet in nature. There, a man named Herbert is enamored with a woman he met five years prior to the present-day story. Every year, he has come down to Mardi Gras to see Suzanne, who’s always dressed as a hag-faced witch. Well, this time, Herbert plans on popping the question and marrying someone who is, for the most part, a total stranger. Suzanne accepts his proposal, but with one condition: they stay in costume until they’re officially hitched. You can probably see where this is going…
Once they are married, Suzanne remains incognito, even when she and Herbert have consummated their vows. A semi-predictive nightmare then rattles Herbert; he dreamt that Suzanne’s real face was as wizened as her mask. Finally, in his haste to find out the truth, Herbert winds up killing his new wife. Faceless and well on her way to bleeding out, the dying Suzanne manages to say she never wore a mask.
For more traditional EC-style ghastliness, your best bet is reading the comic. It’s wickedly sad. For something less conventional, as far as Tales from the Crypt goes, the role-reversing adaptation is worth watching. It’s not the best this show had to offer, although Malone’s visual style, plus the sexual abandon, does set the episode apart. If nothing else, “Only Skin Deep” leaves an impression that, even years later, shows no signs of fading.
Season Six of Tales from the Crypt can be streamed on Shudder, starting on June 5.
Tales from Tales from the Crypt celebrates the show’s Shudder premiere by singling out one episode from each season. So don’t even think about changing that dial, boys and ghouls. More spot-“frights” are to come.
Carl discovers Molly’s collection of human ‘masks’ in the Tales from the Crypt episode, “Only Skin Deep”.
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