Editorials
“Salem”: Another 5 Reasons Why You Should Be Watching WGN’s Series (On-Set Interviews!)
“Salem” started its second season this month with a terrifying bang and some new characters that are going to shake up this tiny Puritan community more than it already has been. The Witch War has begun; allegiances have fallen and trust has been broken. Now it’s every man, woman, child, and witch for themselves.
I was skeptical about “Salem” at first. It’s a bit soap opera-y. It’s not entirely historically accurate…not at all really (there are tiny bits here and there that call on actual historical events as we know them). And I simply didn’t think it would be any good at doing horror. I was SO super wrong. Not about those first two points. It still watches a bit like a soap opera, but a damn steamy one. And it’s not aiming for historical accuracy but who the hell cares? Go read a book.
But the horror! The horror! It does horror so damn well. It’s dark, sensual, disgusting, and terrifying. This week, BD writer Trace Thurman listed his top 5 reasons why we should all be watching “Salem.” And below are reasons 6-10… (SEASON ONE SPOILERS AHEAD)
Elise Eberle
Eberle (“Tiger Eyes”) plays Mercy, one of the very few characters from history, and one of the few characters from history that actually follows historical events fairly close. Once hunted by the witches, she is now one of the darkest and cruelest witches in Salem. But like all great and memorable characters in television history, she is deeply multi-faceted. Though evil and ruthless, she is lost and broken. Aside from Mercy’s phenomenal character trajectory, Eberle is one of the best physical actresses I have seen on television in a very, very long time. Maybe ever. Everything she does is insanely visceral.
Her entire body and every movement in it carries the weight of all the horror Mercy has been through. I had the chance to speak with Eberle at the “Salem” press junket last month and ask her how she prepares for such a daunting task put upon her body. She spoke of The Alexander Technique and releasing tension in her body (in a way, she’s releasing her own tension to fill our own bodies with tension). “Being aware of your body is such an important thing,” Eberle said, “It’s important [to understand] where your body is and how you can use it to your advantage. I love physical acting. It’s a pretty perfect role and I’m so blessed to have it.” This girl knows what she’s doing and it is the most stunning thing to watch.
The Gore
From Mercy Lewis biting off her fingertip to Tituba’s torture scene to one of the head witches bleeding out in a gruesome yet comical manner…“Salem” is full of blood and gore.
There are heartbreaking scenes during which Mercy sleeps with rotting dead bodies and equally cringe-worthy scenes in which main Bitch-Witch, Mary Sibley, shoves a toad down her husband’s throat (if you have any gag reflex at all, these scenes will terrorize you). But perhaps the best moment of horrific carnage was when Anne Hale went full “Scanners” on her mother’s head. KaBOOM. That’s what I’m referring to. As in, out of the blue, she telepathically blew up her mother’s head. Speaking with show creator Brannon Braga, he referred to Anne Hale as a “Carrie” type character—unaware of her incredible powers to do some truly horrendous shit. Anne’s powers have only just started to manifest. So we can only imagine what horrors await us in season two.
The Atmosphere
“Salem” is among the top atmospheric television shows airing right now. It’s broody, dark, and chaotic yet calm, filled with stunning costumes and beautiful people. The set is as disgusting as it is accurate, perhaps disgusting because it is accurate. There are pits filled with the rotting corpses of the town’s dead, dark woods and darker whorehouses. This little village sitting on the water should feel safe but it feels nothing like that. It gives off a sense of dread at every turn, especially when every turn is filled with men who will kill to save the town and women who will kill to own the town.
The Psychosexual Horror
If you happen to follow my writing in the slightest, you know how obsessed I am with psychosexual horror—the emotional confusion of eroticism with horror and vice versa. “Salem” utilizes psychosexual horror in such a subtle way that it works for both fans of the genre and those who are wary of it. As I mentioned above, “Salem” exudes sensuality. Literally in every fiber of its being. And when that sensuality if so often paired with the horrors of death, decay, mutilation, and murder…the recipe for psychosexual horror is perfected.
Iddo Goldberg
Goldberg (“Peaky Blinders”) plays Isaac, the town fool. But he is nothing of the sort. He is often described as the wisest man in Salem and he has an absolute heart of gold. He is loyal to a fault, a beautiful human being. His character will absolutely destroy your heart.
He is the soul of the show and the glue that binds. This character is very important on a socio-level and I had the chance to discuss this with Goldberg. “It’s a lesson to us in society…there are people who we just don’t look at who have an interesting perspective on things or who have useful thoughts to put into the mix and he [Isaac] always manages to crystalize the situation,” Goldberg said of his character on “Salem.” His character alone makes “Salem” worth the watch.
Episode three of “Salem” season two airs Sunday April 19 on WGN America. Look for more features on Bloody Disgusting from my visit to the “Salem” set and interviews with the cast and crew.
There’s been a lot of talk about how Christopher Nolan snuck in some horror elements into his epic adaptation of The Odyssey. However, even before the Cyclops began to eat Ithican soldiers and Circe subjected them to magical body-horror, cinemagoers were already witnessing supernatural terror through a certain trailer that was attached to most IMAX screenings of Nolan’s film.
It turns out that this trailer was for Rob Savage’s Other Mommy, an adaptation of Bird Box author Josh Malerman’s horror novel, Incidents Around the House. With the teaser now available online and revealing that the award-winning Jessica Chastain is playing the titular antagonist (as well as her ill-fated human counterpart), not to mention the fact that the picture is being helmed by the director of hits like Host and The Boogeyman, genre fans are understandably hyped for this upcoming thriller.
That’s why I’ve decided to take a closer look at the trailer and share four things we learned from this sneak peek at Other Mommy!
4. Rob Savage is Going Back to His Supernatural Horror Roots
I know I’m in the minority when I admit that Dashcam is my favorite Rob Savage movie, but even I understand why the filmmakers’ fans have been waiting a while for the director to get back to telling more grounded paranormal stories as he did with 2020’s Host.
Other Mommy obviously isn’t a found footage movie, but moments like the poltergeist activity on the kitchen table combined with the nature of the source material, which actually features a full-on exorcism, indicate that this adaptation is more than a simple creature feature. That’s why I think Savage is once again going to borrow from the same ghostly narratives that made his debut film such a viral hit.
3. Other Mommy is a More Convincing Doppelganger in the Adaptation
Part of the horror from Malerman’s original novel came from the fact that the entity taking on the form of Bela’s (Arabella Olivia Clark) mother wasn’t very good at passing itself off as human. This resulted in several uncanny moments where other characters began to notice that there was something visibly wrong with the family and decided to keep their distance.
Savage’s film appears to be taking a different route, with the trailer showing a version of the entity that can, at least physically, imitate Chastain’s character perfectly. This change is likely the result of the filmmakers wanting to incorporate more paranoid scenes where Bela and her father, played by Jay Duplass, are confused about which Mommy is safe to interact with.
2. The Family is Also Better Off This Time Around
Incidents Around the House featured some interesting subtext about how poverty can negatively affect American family dynamics. After all, the main characters were already feeling scared and isolated before the entity emerged from Bela’s closet and began scratching at their emotional wounds. The trailer for the movie, however, depicts the family as being relatively well off before these incidents begin to occur.
I can only imagine that this part of the story was changed so that the family’s fall from grace can be even more dramatic as the mom and dad’s pasts are revealed and Bela falls further into the clutches of the demonic antagonist.
1. Jessica Chastain is Embodying Evil Dead Rise’s Alyssa Sutherland
Mothers turning against their children is one of the most disturbing horror tropes out there (just check out classics like Hereditary and Carrie if you need proof), but it takes a remarkably skilled actress to pull off such a monstrous transformation. This is especially true when both a regular, loving mother and the Other share the screen in the same film.
That’s why I appreciate how Chastain appears to be channeling another evil redhead mother that recently traumatized audiences with her performance. It’s too early to be sure, but I’m fairly confident that Chastain’s character has at least some amount of Ellie in her cinematic DNA – Ellie being the iconic deadite brought to life by Australian actress Alyssa Sutherland in 2023’s Evil Dead Rise.
Let us know in the comments if you think we missed any important details from the trailer, and don’t forget to check out Other Mommy when it hits theaters on October 9!
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