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

[ludditerobot.livejournal.com]

I hadn't thought about it, but yeah, Angel is the werewolf vampire. Except, y'know, the wolf is hungry and feral, but it isn't conniving. But Stephen King lumps the Wolfman and Dr. Jeckyl/Mr. Hyde (not a slash pairing I care for, actually B) ) together, as they're variations on the same theme.

And of course, there's gypsies. The werewolf thing starts from a gypsy curse. Even a man who is pure in heart and says his prayers by night, may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright. But that's not the defining arc of Angel, really. But yeah, ironic. And makes me wish for more Angel/Nina fic.

[thedeadlyhook.livejournal.com]

Not the defining arc, no, but there's defninitely a type at work - I'd agree with you that King's assessment of the Wolf Man and Jekyll/Hyde is a little off, which is why I'd go with Angel the Wolf Man in the final analysis rather than Jekyl/Hyde... for the earliest version of the character. When we see Angel get turned, it's portrayed as not really his fault, and something he has no real control over. Jekyll/Hyde is a volitional transformation, like Dorian Gray. Later Angel, say, S5 Angel, I think you could make a case for some Dorian Gray.

I think the most revealing thing about the Wolf Man movie was that Larry Talbot was already a sort of "wolf," in the ladykiller sense, even before the curse, using a telescope to peek at pretty girls. One gets the sense that this is the type of "wolf" every man is thought to have the potential to be. ; )

[ludditerobot.livejournal.com]

S5 Angel is Michael Corleone. Yes, that means he's drawn in by the darkness and is transformed into it. I don't see humanity having a dog in the race for "NFA", really. It was taking care of family business. But that's not an archetypal horror figure, is it?

[thedeadlyhook.livejournal.com]

Hm. I'm not sure I see a really strong Godfather parallel. The personal ambitions there feel of a different type, although I might feel different if I watched that movie again and looked for the connections - it's been awhile since I've seen it.

And not really a horror archetype, no, although that's not really important - what does strike me is that the Godfather is actually a good symbol for God, period, or at least how a lot of god-based magic works, traditionally. You do Him a favor (sacrifice, prayer, etc.), He does you a favor....

[ludditerobot.livejournal.com]

Both stepped up to head an organization with evil aims in order to help family. Compare "NFA" and everyone going out to take care of his or her chunk of the family business with the baptism at the end of Godfather.

[toysdream.livejournal.com]

Even a man who is pure in heart and says his prayers by night, may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright.

Although the ironic thing about Larry Talbot, as the Hook points out, is that he isn't pure of heart. Even before Bela Lugosi puts the fang on him, our man Larry is already spying on his pretty neighbor, picking out walking sticks with wolf-and-moon motifs, and luring his lady friend out into the woods in what even she identifies as a classic Little Red Riding Hood moment. On the level of literal plot mechanics, it's the werewolf bite that makes Larry a monster, but on a symbolic level it's pretty clear that he was halfway there already.

And of course, as a man of rational science whose friends and family frown on mumbo-jumbo and superstition, it's likely that Larry isn't saying his prayers either. If even the pure-hearted and religiously observant can fall victim to the werewolf curse, then I guess Larry Talbot doesn't stand a chance!