Movies
[BD Review] ‘Haunted History’ Is Valuable And Appealing
Years ago, when I still had cable, watching documentaries and programs on the History Channel was a favorite pastime. Which is to say I’d turn the channel on mostly for background noise and pick up a few facts along the way. With the release of the 2 disc Haunted History DVD set, I felt like it was days of yore.
Eight episodes of the H2 series make up this set: Ghosts of Gettysburg, Salem Witch Trials, Murder Castle, Lost Souls of Pennhurst, Katrina Cannibal, A Deadly Possession, The Torso Murders and The Manson Murders. Most people would immediately flock to Salem or Manson, however, the first episode on the disc, and one of the most intriguing for me was Murder Castle.
Murder Castle tells the story of H.H. Holmes, a man who built a hotel in Chicago designed with a misleading layout specifically to kill people. While the generalized story of this specific serial killer may be well known, the History Channel episode includes the possible idea that Holmes was also Jack the Ripper, as they had many similarities. This is the basis for each of the episodes: a simple history of a location or person, which is then expanded on for an hour.
While these episodes tend to include some lesser known facts, they also have a tendency to ramble on and deviate from the title’s intended focus. There are a handful of supernatural experiences, yet the historical research part of the episodes seems to dominate. And yet, they are never thoroughly investigated as the runtime prohibits it. The main issue I would find with such a set is the re-watch value. Unlike films and television series, these documentary type of programs are normally a one time viewing. However, I very much enjoy learning the history of supposedly haunted locations. Even with the set deviating from the haunted aspect, having such knowledge about topics such a H.H. Holmes, to me, is extremely valuable and appealing.
The DVD set has no extra features and is simply presented in widescreen with 2.0 digital audio. It’s just a TV show on a DVD. Unless they are for educational purposes that would be repeatedly used, the value of this set would be left to benefit those who collect such memorabilia on certain topics. Yet, for those of us that enjoy being well versed on any of the subject matters presented, Haunted History is definitely worth owning.
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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