Movies
TV: Sink Your Teeth Into Some ‘True Blood’ Season Four Info
Even though season three’s finale was pretty lackluster, the eleven episodes leading up to it blew me away. One of the most intriguing things about last season was LaFayette’s storyline (and the fact that his mother might not be as crazy as we thought), which looks to be one of the big driving forces for the upcoming fourth season. EW found out some interesting tidbits about what’s to come on True Blood, which follows the strange goings-on in Bon Temps, Louisiana. I know the show has strayed from the Charlene Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse series and is being used just as a basis at this point (kind of like Dexter), but for those who read the books, do any of these characters sound like the Hallow Stonebrook were-sorcerer Alan Ball teased a few months ago? Sound off in the comments.
– Marnie is a Z-list palm reader who’s painfully aware of what a joke she is — that is, until she comes to be possessed by the spirit of a real witch. Anybody else thinking said sorceress might turn out to be the Hallow character Alan Ball told me about back in August?
– Andy’s sister, Portia, is as easy on the eyes as she is sharp in the courtroom. And, since I hear possible portrayers have to be cool with nude scenes, we’re gonna get an eyeful.
– Naomi is an Asian-American cage fighter who, outside of the ring…er, cage…is hot-‘n’-heavy with one of her female competitors. My hunch is that, driven away by brother Sam, Tommy starts putting up his dukes for money instead of his paws.
– Queen Mab is an elegant beauty who presides over a fantasy land that sounds a lot like the fairy domain into which Sookie (Anna Paquin) keeps being pulled. But, ethereal as her highness may be, she’s also got a temper…
– Suzanne McKittrick is a Real Housewives type who throws a hootenanny to bond with “her kind.” That “kind,” I’m thinking, being shapeshifters like buttoned-down African-American (and fellow newbie) Emory Broome.
The trailer for Ti West’s upcoming adaptation of A Christmas Carol raised a lot of eyebrows when it dropped earlier this week. While plenty of folks initially dismissed Ebenezer as a derivative project meant to cash in on the recent wave of unnecessary prequels that expand the backstory of beloved characters (such as 2023’s Wonka), Charles Dickens’ original novel already made a point of exploring Ebenezer Scrooge’s origins in detail – meaning that this new film is likely just a particularly faithful adaptation of the source material under a different name.
Couple that with the fact that the movie is being helmed by a genuine horror auteur and I think it’s safe to say that the latest iteration of the first modern ghost story is in good hands.
That being said, one detail that immediately jumped out at me during the brief teaser (other than a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nod to Johnny Depp’s iconic bedroom death scene from the original A Nightmare on Elm Street) is the fact that many of Ebenezer’s ghosts appear to have been directly lifted from the iconic John Leech illustrations that accompanied the first edition of Dickens’ novel.
Here are a couple of stills from the trailer compared to the original artwork:
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
The Phantoms in ‘A Christmas Carol’ and ‘Ebenezer’
Marley’s Ghost in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
Mainly working with old-school wood and steel engravings that would later be transferred to print, Leech was instrumental in crafting the iconic look of history’s most influential phantoms – especially since Dickens is said to have been deeply involved with the creation of these so-called “comic illustrations.”
And since the novel is commonly said to have popularized spiritualism in Victorian England, much of the ghostly iconography that we still see in genre media to this very day (including some of Ti West’s previous films) can be traced back to the author’s partnership with Leech.
Ebenezer won’t be the first A Christmas Carol adaptation to borrow heavily from these designs, but I can appreciate how Ti West is incorporating an important part of horror history into his latest film.
Ebenezer will be available in theaters starting November 13.
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