Updatery: Fic, The Night Stalker, and Angel the Wolf Man

[thedeadlyhook]

So I've been out of touch as usual for the usual and unusual string of reasons - writing my seasonal_spuffy story took up a chunk of these week, and thanks so much to everyone who read and commented! (I'm still working on the epilogue, after which I finish, I will finally be able to sit down and replies. In the meantime *big smooches*!)

And now, fic recs!

shapinglight's Spike/Dru Halloween story, Night Off, rocked my world. Go read, please. I now yearn to see Highgate Cemetery for myself, sigh.

There is some amazing stuff at seasonal_spuffy - a quick list of my latest favorites includes bogwitch's The Heartstone, thisficklemob's The Spotlight, and missmurchison's If It's Tuesday It Must Be Sunnydale. Yummy goodness all around, and such a welcome antidote to my own story, which ended up being a total baked pie full of angst. Why can't I just write teh funny? (bangs head)

In other news, toysdream and I are still sort of on the Halloween tip. He's done a little treatise on magic, as a followup to some discussions we've been having (it's sort of a thesis in the making), and we've been taking in a number of classic horror films and generally entertaining ourselves by tracing the geneaology of various themes in the genre. Last night we caught the original Kolchak films - now out on a double DVD! - The Night Stalker and The Night Strangler.

First off - the original Night Stalker doesn't hold up that well on rewatch. It was a movie-of-the-week, and it looks it, it's written very much on the level of a cop show circa 1972 (which is, of course, the genre it was more or less parodying), and it's been ripped off so many times and in so many ways by so many shows that none of the surprises are surprising anymore. Which actually makes it interesting for study, since, thanks to that very effect, the bloodline that follows is very, very clear.

But! Both The Night Stalker and The Night Strangler were scripted by Richard "Incredible Shrinking Man/I Am Legend/Etc." Matheson, who we've decided is one of the most prominent influences on modern mainstream horror (largely because his stuff was so pop culture and accessible, through black-and-white teen films and TV - Matheson wrote for Star Trek, so you're almost guaranteed to have seen ripoffs of his work, whether you were a ever Trekkie or not, because that's the power of cult television). The Night Stalker gave us Carl Kolchak, hard-bitten reporter from a different era of journalism ("the people need to know!"), bucking a governmental and police authority that won't take Kolchak's nutty theories about supernatural monsters seriously. This particular nut has been swallowed whole by more modern productions than I can even start to list - say hello to the genesis of the concept that the existence of supernature must be concealed from "the people" that you later see reflected in Buffy and Supernatural.

In Kolchak's case, though, this idea seems more rooted in the corruption-of-authority themes of the Seventies - see Jaws for a good example, or, more pointedly, Death Wish, but this strain of horror goes all the way back to the Fifties teen movies, such as The Blob. Kolchak knows the score, but no one will listen. And... can you see the original archetype at work here? The Boy Who Cried Wolf - only in horror tales, the focus tends to be on the part where the Wolf is real. (In fact, that's the whole plot of many '50s teen-shocker films. Hey, daddy-o, there's a monster down on main street! Why won't you listen? The only real change is who is seen as the suspect source. Interesting.)

What else did Kolchak give us? Well, there's the '70s convertible that practically all supernatural investigators, except for Mulder and Scully, tend to drive (Angel, the Supernatural boys, Nick Knight). The woman walking through a dark alley being attacked by a monster (I would note, sadly, that although the sexism in these early '70s Kolchak movies is incredibly blatant, both films open with a voiceover of Carl telling us the doomed woman's life story in brief to give us a quick connection to her as a real person, a detail that later-generation copies of this scene - e.g., Angel - tend to leave out, thus making the femme in the alley largely anonymous, just Some Dumb Chick.) There's the part where you look up the relevant information on the monster du jour in a moldy old book, with the implication that a) our ancestors were no dummies, and knew the real score on monsters (see: Buffy), and b) modern people scoff at the superstitions of those who have gone before at their own peril! Also: Kolchak gets shafted for fighting the good fight, yet he goes on trying to expose the Truth. (That Kolchak is Fox Mulder's spiritual forebear goes without saying, even if there weren't Chris Carter interviews to prove it.)

The sequel, The Night Strangler, is actually the better film. It's better written for one thing, snappier and sometimes truly witty, and a nice evolution from the first film instead of just a full-on repeat. Carl is still trying to get people to listen, and we see how he's affected by it - and boy-howdy, did that characterization ever make an impression on later TV, as in, Let's See the Hero Get Bitter and Obsessive! (Carl, I note, eventually overcomes the Bitter, even though he's shafted yet again.... and again, in the subsequent TV series.) From this movie, you get the Immortal Monster Who Kills At Set Intervals And Then Goes Into Hibernation Of Sorts Before Resurfacing Years Later To Kill Again - hello, X-Files. Hello, Eugene Tooms. Although I would note Matheson's version, as the Primary Example (unless this was done earlier, in a story I'm forgetting?), has a nice set of paired metaphors going on that the Tooms story omits - the modern killer's hidden past is mirrored by the buried old city under Seattle. (In The X-Files, Toom is portrayed as more of a Silence of the Lambs style serial killer shut up in his moldy basement - admittedly a better fit for the X-Files premise, a sort of FBI profiler procedural plus Night Stalker supernatural crap squooshed together - but the Flukeman in that series does have the sort of Night Strangler vibe, of things flushed away coming back with a bite.)

Whew! That's enough for one day. Further thoughts on how Angel is really, iconographically speaking, a classic Wolf Man instead of a vampire, will have to wait. (Although, dude - you will believe me if you see the original Wolf Man movie. Observe the gypsies. See the curse. The tormented guilt of Larry Talbot, a man divided - he becomes a monster, and can no longer control himself, but then comes back to his senses, and oh, the pain! Dude. Vampires are not typically conflicted. Gypsies cursed Angel to turn him into the Wolf Man. Who must be killed by one who loves him, dude! Also see: American Werewolf in London.)

(And oh! God! In the final season, Angel starts dating a werewolf!! D'oh!)

Comments

[toysdream.livejournal.com]

Thanks for jotting down all these cool Kolchak thoughts! Night Strangler really was pretty awesome - by the tail end I was thinking how much it reminded me of a Dario Argento movie, with its crazy lighting and the hero busting into the boarded-up undercity to confront an immortal alchemist. Obviously there's a strong connection here to Argento's Inferno, but also to Deep Red, especially with the bantering teamwork of the male and female leads.

Kolchak definitely does end up being the Boy Whose Job Is Crying Wolf, which seems rather appropriate. If the Big Bad Wolf lies at the very bottom of every horror-movie monster archetype, as we've discussed, then perhaps the various types of horror hero can be likewise classified based on their reactions to the wolf. We have the Kolchaks who expose the wolf, the Larry Talbots who are the wolf, the Beowulfs who slay the wolves that nobody else can or will, and so on and so forth. (In this case, I guess Buffy is a Beowulf and Angel is a Larry Talbot.)

There's one detail, however, in which Fox Mulder differs from Carl Kolchak. Mulder is someone who wants to believe--he's predisposed to seek supernatural or esoteric explanations, and one gets the feeling he'd be pretty disappointed if they ever had a case where Scully was able to solve everything with rational, mundane explanations. (Fortunately for him, this happens maybe once throughout the entire series.) But Kolchak doesn't have any predispositions. He's just following the clues wherever they lead him, always opting for the simplest and most logical explanation no matter how nutty it might sound to other people. While Mulder is trying to prove his view of the universe, Kolchak is just trying to dig up the truth on a case-by-case basis, and I don't think he really cares whether or not it involves moss monsters and headless ghost bikers. Like the detective in John Landis's Deer Woman, he's just looking for the best explanation based on the available evidence.

Maybe it's this slight variation that makes Kolchak a recognizable Richard Matheson character. While Nigel Kneale's heroes tend to be exceptional people driven by insatiable curiosity, Matheson's heroes are usually ordinary guys thrust into crazy situations. As curious and meddlesome as Kolchak may be, he's not driven to seek out ghosts and ghouls and vampires--they're coming to him, and he's just using his reporter's instincts to deal with them as rationally as he can, much like Neville in I Am Legend. I note that the TV series, in which Kolchak becomes something of a monster specialist, doesn't seem to have any Matheson involvement.

[thedeadlyhook.livejournal.com]

I note that the TV series, in which Kolchak becomes something of a monster specialist, doesn't seem to have any Matheson involvement.

Yes, and the amazing coincidence of him running across supernatural cases all the time became just as hard a sell after awhile as Scully being an eternal skeptic. ; )

There's one detail, however, in which Fox Mulder differs from Carl Kolchak. Mulder is someone who wants to believe--he's predisposed to seek supernatural or esoteric explanations, and one gets the feeling he'd be pretty disappointed if they ever had a case where Scully was able to solve everything with rational, mundane explanations.

Very true! And corrrect me if I'm wrong, but I think the series eventually forgot to address what he actually planned to DO with proof if he got it, whereas Kolchak's one goal is to get the news out. I think that's a lot of where The X-Files lost me, when it began to show Evol Gov't Agents and aliens every week, and Mulder doesn't ever go "okay, that's it" and just start publishing. As Carl would say, this is NEWS.

[toysdream.livejournal.com]

I think Mulder is probably in the wrong line of work. For all the access that his FBI badge brings him, any hard "evidence" he could ever hope to secure would just end up being warehoused in a crate next to the Ark of the Covenant. Maybe the idea was that he'd leak it to the Lone Gunmen so they could put it in their crummy little mimeographed fanzine, and I'm sure that would really make all the Muggles sit up and take notice. Or perhaps he'd drop it off at the New York Times offices a la the ending of Firestarter. Ah, such an innocent age...

I think history has shown that the only foolproof method for Getting The Word Out is a symbiotic partnership between a Crusading Journalist and a Sympathetic Insider Who Leaks Like A Sieve. Since The X-Files only had half that equation, Mulder's quest was probably doomed from the outset. And if he'd actually had an ally in the press, Mulder himself would have been almost redundant, since Deep Throat and Mister X could just feed their scoops directly to the reporter in question. I guess in the long run, it might have made sense for Mulder to either succeed Throat and X as the leaking insider, or drop out of the Bureau and become a crusading crank reporter.

[thedeadlyhook.livejournal.com]

I guess in the long run, it might have made sense for Mulder to either succeed Throat and X as the leaking insider, or drop out of the Bureau and become a crusading crank reporter.

I am now wishing that I'd had a computer at that point, so I could've gotten into XF fandom. There must have been fic written about something like this.

I think history has shown that the only foolproof method for Getting The Word Out is a symbiotic partnership between a Crusading Journalist and a Sympathetic Insider Who Leaks Like A Sieve

Bwah! Also, the reverse is sometimes seen - the hero, and the journalist who keeps their secrets, ala Matt Murdock and Ben Urich.

[toysdream.livejournal.com]

What's ironic about Mulder's situation is that, as best I can recall, the depiction of the media in that show tended to be pretty negative, and characters like Jose Chung and the movie producer who shows up in the last seasons tend to make a mockery out of Mulder's (highly mockable) life's work. Even if he did find "evidence," would you trust these clowns to help him publicize it?

Also, the reverse is sometimes seen - the hero, and the journalist who keeps their secrets, ala Matt Murdock and Ben Urich.

Or even, in the case of Superman and Spider-Man, the hero who's also a journalist and can publicize his own findings. Once again, comic books for the win!

[thedeadlyhook.livejournal.com]

The media is generally portrayed in a negative light on TV and in film - I remember that was brought up in my photography class, in regards to the assignment where we had to go out and ask strangers if we could take their picture. There's a long line of sleazy photogs especially in filmed entertainment. (Which, oddly enough, makes me almost curious to see that show FX is constantly pimping these days, Dirt.) But the crusading reporter seems to have had a heyday with All the King's Men and then fell mysteriously silent.

Or even, in the case of Superman and Spider-Man, the hero who's also a journalist and can publicize his own findings. Once again, comic books for the win!

Ms Marvel also ran a magazine. And in George Perez's update of Wonder Woman from a few years back, she had a publicist. Image spin!

[ludditerobot.livejournal.com]

But the crusading reporter seems to have had a heyday with All the King's Men and then fell mysteriously silent.

With a rise again with All The President's Men, culminating in "Are You At Risk?!?" stories and the like on your evening news.

And might I comment that Superman started with an alter-ego that's just an extension of his day job -- crusading reporter becomes crusading superhero. Despite Bill's words at the end of Kill Bill, there isn't a superhero that's more always himself than Superman.