Women in Horror: When Animals Dream

* spoilers *

Marie is 16 years old and lives on an island with her father and invalid mother. She gets a new job at a fishery where they good-naturedly haze her and she feels she belongs. Then she starts to get some weird symptoms: a strange rash and patches of thick hair. Then, when the changes become noticeable, people start to treat her differently, losing their playful behavior and becoming more threatening. It becomes clear that her father kept things from her since her condition is similar to that of her mother. Marie now has two choices: does she submit to becoming a comatose invalid like her mother or just live her own life, but be hunted by the society she grew up in.

When Animals Dream is a Danish werewolf film with feminist themes in the same vein as Ginger Snaps. While Ginger Snaps is fraught with teen angst, this film is more quiet and subdued. The film opens with Marie, pale, thin, and seemingly frail getting a weird rash checked out. The doctor asks her the same questions over and over during his examination as if he doesn't trust her answers.  experienced the same treatment at the vet when trying to get treatment for my sick cat. These male professionals act like women either aren't sure, are lying to them, or have simply untrustworthy judgment. In Marie's case, she isn't being trusted about her own body, which she obviously knows better than anyone else. Things seem normal, so she's dismissed. She starts working at a fish mongers and is good-naturedly hazed by being shoved into a vat of fish detritus. The staff becomes more friendly and she feels like she belongs. At home, most of her time is spent caring for her mother who seems aware, but can't speak or move due to a mysterious illness. Marie is endlessly patient, quiet, and happy to do what she's asked without question.

Marie knows something is being kept from her, so she tries to get information in any way she can: spying on her parents and stealing evidence about attacks from the doctor. She dreams of being bloody and wild, the exact opposite of her fairly colorless, dull life. Then Marie starts a flirtation with Daniel at work (witnessed by Bjarne) and throws a glass at Esben, a jerk who tried to joke with her then insulted her mother when she didn't deign to respond. Both of these men catch up with her at her locker, proceed to force her to her knees while she's in her undershirt, and then slap her in the face with a fish from under his apron (where he isn't wearing pants) as if it's a penis. Throughout, they tell her to look at them and kiss the fish. When Marie doesn't conform to what they think women should be (quiet, apparently asexual, and subservient), Bjarne and Esben sexually attack her. It's quite a disturbing scene and they could have raped her there if they had wanted to. I felt for her in this helpless and traumatic situation where these men typically retaliated against a woman acting like a person instead of an automaton.

Then Marie finds thick hair growing on the rash on her chest. This is a super obvious, not very subtle image for puberty. Women growing out body hair is now quite taboo. The media has shown women plucked and shaved within an inch of their lives for so long that anything else is alien. The amount of disgust I've seen over a woman's armpit, leg, or belly hair is ridiculous because men showcase the same hair but usually more plentiful and it's just a natural part of our bodies. Daniel feels the hair on Marie's back when they start to get intimate and he reacts with curiosity and a little bit of confusion. Marie takes it as rejection and tells him to leave, but he tells her she's beautiful and accepts her for how she is. Throughout the film, Daniel is the only person to truly accept all of her, flaws and differences and all. He is also the only one to treat her mother as a person instead of a piece of furniture or someone to ridicule. Their romance is sweet and the most comfortable part of the film.

When Marie returns home after seeing Daniel, her father and her doctor try to force the treatment for the illness on her when she already refused. Marie's mother, in her only physical act of the film, leaps upon the doctor and kills him. The disease is just the state of being a woman. Accepting the treatment means becoming a shade of oneself to appease the society. Women are expected to be silent and compliant with no will of their own. Marie's mother accepted that fate, allowing everyone else to dictate what she did, and kept all of her thoughts and feelings on the inside. She showed in that one act of defiance that she wants different for her child. Afterwards, the awful townspeople demand that she be stripped to check for signs of transformation and violence. They don't see her as a person, but a potentially dangerous object with no right to privacy, personhood, feelings, opinions, or even life as she is murdered later on in the film.

Marie accepts that she will be rejected and becomes the woman she wants to be with thoughts, opinions, and the right to disagree and be unpleasant. I appreciate that there are men and women on both sides of this issue. It shows that both men and women can either work for or against women. Internalized misogyny can be ingrained by being raised with these ideas, so seeing a woman working so hard against Marie is both accurate and kind of depressing. She decides to shove her state in everyone's faces at the funeral, the wake, and then the next day at work in rebellion. Her coworkers react again, more violently than ever before, chasing her down on motorcycles. They eventually capture and imprison her. This shows how both sides do more extreme things to counter each other, but Marie is still just living her normal life (just not in the way the others want) while the other side is endangering her life. Everyone has turned against her except for her father and Daniel. Her transformation progresses quickly, allowing her to dispatch her enemies easily. It only gets to this point because her life is literally in danger. Beyond defending herself, she has never been aggressive or violent before. The final scene features Daniel hugging her and holding her hand, reassuring her that he is there. It's beautiful and shows that he sees the person beneath what everyone else deemed monstrous.

When Animals Dream is an absolutely beautiful Danish film. Much of the film is very quiet, much like Marie, but meaningful. There's not a lot of unnecessary chatter or filler scenes. Sonia Suhl acts amazingly as Marie. Her transformation both emotionally and physically throughout the film is well done and nuanced. Marie was always quiet, but quiet doesn't mean subservient or weak. Her messages were relayed loud and clear even if her actions were subtle. Sonja Richter does an excellent job as Marie's mother (who doesn't even have a name). Most of the film has her not moving or speaking, but her gazes speak volumes. It's clear that she knows what's going on, but can't communicate with her daughter. I highly recommend this meaningful and gorgeous film.

My rating: 5/5 fishmuffins

Women in Horror: Every Heart a Doorway

Welcome to Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children. You may think it would be filled with delinquents in need of some direction and structure, but you would be wrong. Each child (or young adult) in the school found a doorway to another world. Each world is different, but all of them are vastly different from our own. Each child fit in perfectly there as if the world were tailored to them and all of them have been expelled for one reason or another. They all look for the appearance of a door that shouldn't be there and hold out hope for a return to their perfect world. Everything was going smoothly until Nancy arrives at the school. Suddenly, students and teachers are being murdered with body parts missing. This safe haven now houses an unknown murderer, which is suspected to be Nancy because she is new. So Nancy and her mismatched, misfit friends decide to do their own investigation and find out who the murderer is and why they are collecting body parts.

Every Heart a Doorway is under 200 pages long, but it contains one of the most memorable and heartfelt stories I've ever read. All of the children and young adults at the home just don't fit into their families anymore. They have experienced grand adventures, fantastic people, and worlds beyond imagining. Some of the worlds are whimsical and fun while others are dark and more sinister, but every person fit perfectly wherever they were. Their parents assumed they were abducted and want them to return to how they used to be, but it's just not possible. Some of the parents never knew their child at all and didn't even remember or understand them in the first place. They simply miss their own iteration of their child who doesn't actually exist. These families mean well, but trying to fit a person into a box they simply don't fit in is toxic. This can be translated to real life, where parents don't respect their children's life choices. The cast of characters is diverse with different cultures, gender expression, and sexuality. They don't belong anywhere in this world, so they build a home and a family of choice together. I know plenty of people alienated from their families for one reason or another and have done the same. The family you choose can be much more supportive because they know you as you are, not who they hope you would be.

Nancy, our has white hair with black streaks that everyone assumes is dyed. It isn't. She lived in the Land of the Dead for a while, standing still as a statue and eating tiny amounts of food to sustain herself to please the Lord of Death. Before she even went to another world, she knew that she wasn't interested in anyone sexually. Romance and flirting are fun and enjoyable, but anything beyond that isn't appealing. Asexuality isn't seen much in any sort of storytelling medium, so it was nice to see the world from her perspective. I felt for her when her parents just assumed she had an eating disorder and then sent her to the school with clothes they knew she wouldn't want to wear. She longs for her quiet, still life back in the Land of the Dead, but she befriends a variety of people at the school: Jack (Jacqueline) and Jill (twins) from a world ruled by a vampire, Sumi from a Confection world, and Kade who went into a fairyland but was returned because of his gender.

Although I liked Nancy, I thought most of the other ward's stories sounded more interesting. For example, Jack and Jill were raised with arbitrary expectations. Jack was expected to be the beautiful one while Jill would be the smart one without observing their actual interests. Everything they were given by their parents as well as how they were treated reflected this idea. Their world was the only time they were allowed to be themselves and be treated as such. Jill became the favored ward of the vampire lord and Jill became the apprentice of Dr. Bleak, who would bring the dead to life Frankenstein style and do other scientific magic. Kade's story is also interesting, if a little unclear. He went into his fairy world as a girl, killed the Goblin King, and was about to take over the throne when he was expelled. It's unclear what exactly happened, but his gender no longer aligned with what the fairies wanted. It doesn't matter what his physicality is; his gender expression is respected at the school except for one small incident. I would love another book telling the other people's stories or moving forward in time to new wards.

Every Heart a Doorway is incredibly dense. Seanan McGuire packs a lot into this short novella sized book. I would have been happy if it was just a slice of life type of book, but a murder mystery is added. The culprit was pretty predictable, but the journey was still enjoyable and suspenseful. This narrative puts into perspective how horrific fairy tale stories are. Most of them were familiar in some way, but we are used to Disney sanitized versions of them. These ones revel in their darkness and don't always come out with a happy ending. I wish the book were about 300 pages longer, but I will be satisfied picking up McGuire's October Daye or Indexing series in the meantime. I will read anything Seanan McGuire writes because she has a way of magnetic story telling that I can't get enough of.

My rating; 5/5 fishmuffins

Women in Horror: Thirst

* spoilers*

A caring Catholic priest name Sang-hyun wants to save people instead of merely praying for them, so he opts to be part of an experiment with a deadly virus in Africa. He is the sole survivor of 500 volunteers. Unfortunately the symptoms of the disease return unless he consumes blood on a regular basis. He returns home to attempt to resume his regular life as a priest, but he finds the world unbearable with its deafening sounds, sickening smells, and the temptation to do evil. He meets Tae-ju, a deeply unhappy woman living basically as a servant for her comically disgusting husband and his horrible mother. Sang-hyun and Tae-ju fall at the very least in lust and continue their affair in public places where they could be caught by anyone. How long can Sang-hyun go without killing Tae-ju's horrible husband or anyone else for that matter?

This is my least favorite Chan Wook Park film. It starts out well and is pretty unique with great cinematography and makeup effects. Sang-hyun seems so nice (like they all do) at the beginning of the film. He finds prayers just don't satisfy his need to help people, so he goes to Africa for an experiment with a deadly virus that affects almost exclusively young, single foreign men. Although he is the only survivor of 500 people, he was pronounced dead on the operating table until he gained consciousness after being given a transfusion. He returns home, only to find that he's revered as the Bandaged Saint. Acolytes follow him everywhere, begging him to cure their sick loved ones and pray for them. The effects of the disease return as well as new symptoms like being burned by the sun until he gives in to his urges and drinks blood. The symptoms disappear, Sang-hyun is just the nicest guy who ever lived until he meets Tae-ju.

Tae-ju is the most interesting character in the film to me. She seems young and miserable when we first meet her at the hospital, where she and her mother-in-law are hovering over her sick husband. It becomes quickly apparent that she's basically a servant in her household to her comically childish and disgusting husband and his overbearing, at times abusive mother. During the day, she shuffles like a zombie through her life, caring for her husband no matter how rude he is and complying with every demand his mother can think of. The only time she's truly free is when her husband is asleep. She plays at hurting him, but knows that she would have nothing without him and his family. She has no other family or job or friends outside of that family. At night, she runs barefoot through the streets just to feel free for a few hours. As an atheist, her entire existence is now and its being wasted. Then Sang-hyun comes into her life. With him, she finally has some sort of freedom, happiness, and sexual satisfaction. When she discovers his vampiric nature, he becomes abusive and doesn't hide his power anymore. I truly felt for Tae-ju because her whole life has been acting as a servant and enduring abuse from verbal to physical day in and day out which is destined to continue with Sang-hyun. Although Sang-hyun scares her, she latches on to her only way out of her situation.

 Now the "nice guy" shows his true colors. Sang-hyun is one of the most abusive protagonists I have ever seen. When Tae-ju discovers his true nature, he forces his presence on her when she obviously doesn't want him there and he tries to take her away against her will. He also cites his vampirism as the only reason he wanted to have sex with her or kill anyone or do any other sinful thing. (Yeah, right.) After some planning, he kills her husband because of assumed abuse. In between the two events, he bites her a couple times and lifted her by the throat when she got in his way. When he finds out that her husband was never abusive, he beats her, throws her around the room, and then breaks her neck in the midst of strangling the life out of her in a drawn out and disturbing scene. Even after this minutes long violent episode, Sang-hyun is suddenly filled with remorse and turns her into a vampire against her will. This guy has solid decision making skills. How can I root for a guy who is so incredibly abusive to the woman he supposedly loves and then makes the worst decisions ever? Tae-ju isn't a perfect person and did manipulate Sang-hyun into getting rid of her husband, but I find her much more understandable. This opportunity was probably the only one she would see in her lifetime to escape her awful family and her joyless life. Sang-hyun is simply an overpowered abuser who looks for excuses to justify his abuse.

So now Tae-ju is a vampire after almost being killed by her lover. She reacts in the most unnatural way possible and seems incredibly happy. I expect her to be happy to have more power than she's ever imagined, but why is she happy to be with the guy who came so close to killing her? There are women who return to their abusers over and over, but keeping her character in mind, I would have expected her to just leave with her new powers. Look at how she felt about her own. Anyway, Tae-ju doesn't have the qualms about killing humans that Sang-hyun does and doesn't hesitate to go out and kill some people. He then predictably abuses her even more savagely to express his disagreement: bashes her head against a wall and drops her off a building. At least this time, Tae-ju can fight back, but it's still baffling why she would stay with such a person when a whole world is out there. When she becomes sick with the virus, he leads a doctor to her, but mopes in the basement while she eats. One day, they are playing a game like usual with their friends and her now invalid mother-in-law reveals in a unique way that Sang-hyun and Tae-ju killed her son. A predictable bloodbath ensues and that's the arbitrary limit for Sang-hyun. He saves one of the victims, then acts like he's going to rape one of his acolytes. I guess this is to save them from falsely worshiping him after his death, but how is that in any way good when he literally assaulted a woman naked and sacrificed her mental and physical wellbeing for it.

The film ends with Sang-hyun driving Tae-ju to the beach with no cover just before sunrise. She fights like hell to survive, but he takes away every means of survival. Sang-hyun really just wanted a mate that was his ideal, but she was never his ideal. He, like so many men, wanted someone to agree completely with him and do whatever he wanted, which really isn't so much a person as a puppet. I think the intention of the film was to illustrate how evil, godless Tae-ju corrupted saintly Sang-hyun with her feminine wiles that led to their self destructive end. Even the cover art has her as the perpetrator of violence, not the victim of it as she actually is in the film. I see it differently. Sang-hyun epitomizes the nice guy that is quick to call a women names, harass her, or even kill her after being rejected. He was not nice in the first place if he can somehow justify abusing his supposed lover for the majority of the film. Tae-ju is simply a person trying to survive in the best way she can. She's not perfect. Her manipulation and lies don't make her a good person, but she isn't near as monstrous as Sang-hyun. No amount of lies or manipulation will justify the violence against her.

Thirst has a whole slew of other problems besides demonizing Tae-ju and putting Sang-hyun on a nice guy pedestal. Many scenes are weirdly silly like the scene where Sang-hyun and Tae-ju try to have sex with the murdered husband full of water with a boulder on his lap literally between them. It just doesn't match the serious tone of the rest of the film. Pretty much all the characters outside of the main two are flat caricatures. I don't care about them and I can't even remember their names. The CGI of the vampire powers is pretty cheesy and also brings the film down. The only saving graces of the film are Kim Ok-Bin as Tae-ju, the cinematography, and the music. Kim Ok-bin is amazing. She manages to take this character and make her believable even through her mercurial tempers. I especially love her slightly crazed smile when she no longer has to hide her vampirism and she's about to strike. The cinematography is so gorgeous at times, playing with light and dark with red, but it seems so wasted on this movie. The music is as beautiful and serene as any of his other films. I can't get past the bald faced misogyny and an abuser practically treated as a saint.

My rating: 1/5 fishmuffins

Women in Horror: The Dark Days Club

In London 1812, Lady Helen Wrexhall lives with her aunt and uncle after the death of her parents. This would be fairly normal had her mother not been a traitor to England and caused a huge scandal. Very soon she will be presented to the court of King George III and into society, which needs to happen without mishap or scandal. Her uncle finds her deficient and prone to disobedience. He won't hesitate to disinherit and throw her out onto the streets should she bring any more shame to the family name. Then one of their maids goes missing. She suspects mysterious Lord Carlston, infamous for most likely murdering his wife. Following him and investigating him leads her to world of great evil, where creatures feed off of people's energy masquerading as aristocracy. Lady Helen discovers she has the power to fight them, but should she? There's danger on all sides and there's her reputation to think about as well.

Regency era England isn't the typical setting for a horror novel, but it's one not seen very often. Supernatural creatures become much scarier when technology like cars, cell phones, and other things we view as necessities today aren't available. There's also the difference in culture. In the aristocracy, manners and social conventions must be followed to letter as to not offend or insult anyone or appear in any way untoward. The way women are treated is also completely different. They are expected to be decorative, learn appropriate subjects like sewing and dancing, and find a suitable husband to have children and run a household for. Ambitions beyond that are not possible. Women don't own anything and depend on their male relations to dole out their money, tell them what to do, and control their fates. Even marriage just transfers the ownership of a woman to someone else. Lady Helen's uncle epitomizes the worst of this part that society. He considers women frivolous and inferior in every way to men. The fortune left by her parents is controlled by him and he makes no secret that it will all be taken away if she doesn't comply with his demands. Although I find this horrific, this is simply regular aristocratic English society.

The evil comes in when creatures like Deceivers (who consume others energy) infiltrate the upper echelons of this society to gain power and influence, hopping from body to body over generations. The good side comes in the form of Reclaimers, those able to kill Deceivers and the like with superhuman strength and speed, abilities of prediction, and the ability to purify the afflicted and drain energy from the evildoers. I like this world building. I thought that the view of the evil side was pretty limited, but maybe that's being saved for other books. The Reclaimers are not all as good as they claim. One of the older ones sees female Reclaimers as slaves and deposited into Lady Helen's mother all of the evil he had accumulated on his soul from saving people and killing the demons. The majority of Reclaimers simply stop before they go mad, but this one decided to do this without her consent or knowledge. When Lady Helen comes into this war, neither side looks honestly very good and I don't blame her for being conflicted.

This brings us to Lady Helen. She is rebellious in her own small ways although she mostly follows the conventions of her oppressive society. Her refusal to condemn her mother as a traitor is the main point of rebellion. Remotely showing her true opinion would bring shame and scandal to her family, as would a huge laundry list of the other things that sound ridiculous. Her heart is good and she wants to help those less fortunate than her, leading her on the journey to discover the seedy underbelly of the aristocracy. As her abilities start to appear, Helen knows that her desire for other things and her abilities set her apart from what is expected of her. I found her relatable and easy enough to like, but one thing really bothered me. She views fairly normal sexuality like masturbation or looking at porn to be as much or even more evil then demonic energy eating creatures. Sexuality isn't a modern invention and it's disappointing to see such a negative view being set by a modern writer. It may be stereotypically accurate for the time, but it's honestly toxic for modern teen audiences to reaffirm that female sexuality is undesirable at best and unnatural at worst. Lady Helen's mind is changed a little bit, but she doesn't connect her own desires with the supposedly degenerate ones of others.

The Dark Days Club is an interesting foray into horror and fantasy in a Regency era setting. The writing is engaging, but the book feels about a hundred pages too long. It starts out rather slow and doesn't pick up steam for a while. I appreciate that there aren't any lost story lines. I would read the next in the series especially considering the ending, but I hope my problems with this book are fixed in the next.

My rating: 4/5 fishmuffins

Women in Horror: Last Shift

* spoilers *

Officer Jessica Loren's first day of work involves her being a glorified security guard, much to her disappointment. The only reason a police officer needs to stay and babysit an empty police station is that a hazmat team is set to pick up the biohazardous evidence between the hours of 10pm and 4am. On the surface, this seems like an easy but dull task foisted off on a rookie cop for her first assignment As the night goes on, unexplainable things happen with increasing intensity having to do with the circumstances surrounding her father's death. Is she going crazy or is there something supernatural at work going on?

Last Shift is a very unexpected film that I just stumbled across on Netflix. I expected a typical horror film that was marginally enjoyable, but it exceeded all of my expectations and more. The film starts a little off kilter. When Officer Loren gets to the station, the Sergeant acts strangely, which is easily brushed off. The tense mood is heightened by startling events that get harder and harder for her to explain away. It starts with flickery lights, loud noises, a seriously disgusting bathroom, and a weirdly long hair in her sandwich. Then it escalates to an erratic homeless man, a frantic phone call from a girl under attack, an eerie song sung over her radio, and things that move by themselves. A lot of these events happen in quick succession, heightening the suspense. One of the best scenes is when she locks up the homeless man in a holding cell after he enters the station twice. The door slams shut behind her, startling her into dropping her flashlight. The room is pitch dark and her flashlight is shined in her face and rolled around to three different unseen people in the room as they taunt her in barely audible voices. The scene makes the viewer as disoriented and creeped out as the main character. Another scene is filmed close to Officer Loren's face as she desperately tries to help a girl running from murderers. Every emotion plays across her face. These two scenes in particular both heighten the mood of the film and puts us in her shoes and make us feel what she feels with unique cinematography choices and good acting.

Officer Loren takes the majority of these things in stride. She keeps a cool head through much of the film even in the face of the unexplainable. Her drive is to prove herself and to be the best police officer she can be. Instead of praying, she recites the law enforcement oath she took to uphold the law and have integrity and responsibility as a police officer. It shows how steeped in reason she is and how dedicated she is to her career, which she shares with her deceased father. Unfortunately, she doesn't really know how to process all of the strange things going on, so she ends up dismissing them as delusions or simply rejecting them because they don't fit into her world view until it's too late. I appreciate a woman in a horror film who isn't totally hysterical or irrational as they are often portrayed. Officer Loren has training for stressful and dangerous situations and utilizes it well. Many times, she experienced insane, horrific events and then interacted with people fairly normally not long afterwards. The only thing she acts irrationally about is her job. Most people would have just left, but her drive to continue her father's legacy overrides logic. Unlike many horror films, Officer Loren isn't cut off from everyone. She can call anyone at any time and can freely leave the building, but who is going to believe her? She can't prove what's happening and anything she tries to explain sounds like a prank or insanity. In the quiet moments between the nightmarish episodes, she contemplates calling someone, leaving, or simply waiting in her car, but something always brings her back in and she dismisses mentioning the strange events directly to anyone she interacts with until the very end. I especially enjoyed that the main dilemma of the film is centered around the inability to explain the supernatural rather than the protagonist's ineptitude.

The supernatural episodes make sense after a prostitute named Marigold hanging around outside shares that she was in a holding cell when a wannabe Manson family called the Paymon's were brought in and killed themselves inside their cell. Marigold is surprisingly fleshed out for her short screen time. She is irrepressibly cheerful despite the fading shiner on her face, but her whole demeanor breaks when she describes the song the Paymon's sang and their suicide. It's clear how deeply the event affected her. Public records states that the criminals were killed at the crime scene and only few people know they were interviewed and then killed themselves. Presumably, the events are caused by their ghosts. Like the Manson family, they have a charismatic leader who his followers will do absolutely anything for. They view him as the second coming of King of Hell, who is different than Satan. Satan is God's lapdog, who still carries out his commands. The King of Hell was there before Satan, will be there after, and demands the sacrifice of innocents. The Paymon's surety, fanaticism, and fervor are frightening and they are no less so as apparitions (if that's what they are) especially when they sing their song. Officer Loren's father died during the raid trying to save the teenaged victims. Obviously, she has a lot of emotions about the event and it may be causing her to lose her mind and hallucinate. Other people's accounts point to strange events, but this is all through Officer Loren's unreliable point of view. The ending is rather ambiguous, but tragic all around.

Last Shift is a stressful film to watch. It's easy to put yourself in Officer Loren's shoes as she tries to not only survive but make sense of the situation. There are moments of humor or boredom to break up the tension, but I felt shaken after watching and I kept thinking about it days afterwards. The twists and turns keep coming even during the lulls and I had no idea where it was going to end up. Juliana Harkavy does an excellent job of portraying competent and logical Jessica Loren as she deals with supernatural forces or descends into madness, depending on how you interpret the film. Natalie Victoria had about 5 minutes of screen time, but made Marigold into a fully fleshed out character. The Paymon's, portrayed by Joshua Mikel, Sarah Scuclo, and Kathryn Kilger, made their characters stand out as cheerfully evil and unphased by capture, threats, or even death. Last Shift is on Netflix at the moment, so I recommend that you give it a watch if you haven't already.

My rating: 5/5 fishmuffins

Women in Horror: Pretty When She Kills

It seemed as though Amaliya Vezorak's happy ending was just beginning when she harnessed her necromantic powers, killed her creator the Summoner, and started her life with Cian, her lover and the vampire master of Austin. Their happiness comes crashing down when the master of San Antonio decides his area is just too small and he needs to branch out into Austin. The threat of this supernatural war makes the pair wish they had more supernatural allies than they do. Meanwhile, Samantha, Cian's ex, is seeing ghosts and a mysterious man is trying to convince Amaliya's family that he can make her human again. On top of all this, Rachon, the Summoner's favorite creation, is out for revenge. Can Amaliya, Cian, and their untested vampire hunter friends survive this onslaught?

Pretty When She Kills is the second book in the Rhiannon Frater's vampire series. I greatly enjoyed the first and its predecessor is not quite as good, but still formidable. Amaliya is back, a little more weathered, but also more mature and powerful. Her old self is so used to running away when things get tough and that version of her is still in there, screaming at her sometimes. There's still room for her to continue to grow. She's still figuring out her powers that seem to include a lot more than she initially realized and doesn't really have any guidance in this area. Her relationship with Cian is as sweet as ever and I love reading about them. It just warms my heart to see their relationship with caring, heat, trust, and a true partnership. Cian isn't controlling or gross even though he is a supernatural creature. This trope is seen way too much in supernatural works and it doesn't excuse abusive behavior.

My biggest grievance of the last book was the horrible character Samantha, Cian's ex. After being ousted by Amaliya, Samantha would just spew obscenities at Amaliya and didn't really have too much else going for her. I felt it was pretty bad writing honestly because she felt so one dimensional, grating, and incredibly childish. She starts out that way here, equally insufferable. Then she finds that she received residual power from Amaliya's life saving blood from the last book and now she can see ghosts. at first, she reacts in typical Samantha fashion, whining and blaming "that whore" Amaliya for all of her problems. Then, when they actually sit down and talk about it, Samantha completely changes. She realizes that being completely insufferable to both Cian and Amaliya isn't productive and they don't deserve it. Sam sees and accepts the reality of her situation instead of how she wishes it would be and starts being an actual person. Suddenly she isn't so bad. I understand her and I see her as a person instead of a cartoonish shade of one. Amaliya and Samantha actually have a friendship now and can relate to each other. I'm looking forward to more development with her in the next book of the series.

Pretty When She Kills is a fun, exciting read, but it has some flaws. Shortening the basic plot points to the above paragraph was kind of difficult because so many things are happening all at once. During my read, it wasn't hard to keep track of, but afterwards it's a lot to look back on. I think the many plot lines detract from character development and there are a lot of characters to keep track of. Usually, I don't have much of a problem with this, but if they aren't very present or there isn't something to set them apart from each other, they start to blend together. In this case, it's with the vampire hunters and some of the new characters. My other problem was that Amaliya's family wanted to turn her back to human without even asking her if she wanted to be human again. It's a pretty big violation of trust and shows that they think they know what's best for her. It turns out getting them in big trouble, which is satisfying. The novel has a lot going for it, but it suffers as many second books in trilogies do. I will definitely finish the series and I plan to pick up Frater's Vampire Bride series as well.

My rating: 4/5 fishmuffins

Women in Horror: Goodnight Mommy

* spoilers *

There's something wrong with the mother. Her face is covered by bandages as the result of cosmetic facial surgery and even through the bandages bruising is quite obvious. She seems to be completely different from before the surgery: more severe and less prone to laugh or sing like she used to. She puts strict rules on her twin boys Elias and Lukas to allow for her to rest and recuperate including complete silence in the house, blinds always drawn, and playing only outside. It's curious from the beginning that she completely ignores Lukas: doesn't serve him food or drink, doesn't accept presents from him, doesn't listen to what he says, and only interacts with Elias. When possible, she avoids the children altogether, even pretending to be asleep when they try to wake her. Could she be someone masquerading as their mother? 

Good Night Mommy centers around the mystery of the mother. The children think there's something wrong with her or she's a completely different person than she says she is. They do usual childish antics like being loud, bringing in cats from outside, and generally being kind of a nuisance. When caught, their mother becomes cruel and acts violently towards them.Then they discover pictures removed from the house, prompting them to investigate their mother further. Things escalate further when the cat they brought in the house is found dead in the basement. Elias and Lukas leave it for their mother to find in a terrarium and she flies into a fury, demanding Elias to repeat the she is his mother and to never talk to Lukas again. The boys are locked up in the house until the mother turns sweet and offers them a present. The first opportunity they get, they run away to a church to try to find help, but they are returned to their home.

At this point, I am completely sympathetic to the boys. Their mother's mercurial moods are unpredictable. The abuse she doles out is cruel and extreme considering the offending acts. Elias and Lukas are far from perfect, but they don't deserve to be treated terribly for acting like children. The whole situation is undeniably suspicious and it's understandable for the boys to looks for answers. The film is brilliantly constructed and filmed to build up uneasiness through a lot of pointed silences and uncomfortable scenes. Beyond the mother's abuse and the cat's death, nothing is really wrong, but something is definitely off in the house. Small things like the out of focus framed pictures, the mom's all white bedroom and dress, and the way the characters sometimes just stand and stare for uncomfortable stretches heighten the off kilter feeling. The amorphous and haunting soundtrack also adds to the uncomfortable atmosphere. The last third of the film throws everything we've believed into question.

When the mother wakes up, the boys have tied her up and literally torture her in a variety of ways including burning her face with magnifying glasses and supergluing her mouth shut to try to find out where their mom is. These scenes are incredibly uncomfortable both from the nature and length of the scene. My sympathy shifts from the sons to the mother even if she is an imposter. No matter what she's done, she doesn't deserve to be callously tortured. The mother finally concedes to allow Elias to speak with his brother because Lukas was killed in an accident. This was far from the conclusion I expected, but it makes sense. Elias already proved his capacity for cruelty with burning the bugs outside and presumably killing the cat himself off screen. Lukas always encourages him to be more extreme and callous because he is a hallucinated aspect of Elias' own psyche that can't process his twin's death. He reacts with violence possibly because his mother does so on a smaller scale. The film ends with Elias setting the house on fire after he challenges the mother to see his hallucinated brother and she fails. 

This brings me to the mother. I completely understand her after the last revelation of the film. She is processing her own grief while trying to raise her son and help him process his. Not only did her son die, but her husband also left her. She can't afford to keep the large house anymore and has to adjust to a great many new things in addition to her grief and her remaining son's grief. It must be painful for her to see and spend time with Elias since he looks exactly like Lukas, so she hides from him and doesn't quite know how to treat him when he misbehaves. The bandages symbolizes her own pain and grief. It keeps her from relating to her son and she needs time away from him to process, causing her to neglect her son's needs. Since Elias killed the cat, her reaction to that makes so much more sense. He murdered a cat and left if for her to find while denying she is his mother and talking to his dead sibling. While her abuse is still horrible, she's obviously overwhelmed and simply doesn't know how else to help her son with no other support. Her solution is to force him to repeat true things, but it simply doesn't force him to believe them. When she returns all smiles and presents, it's clear that she realizes how monstrous her actions were and she wants to make amends without actually admitting her faults. The mother is human and wants the best for her son. Like anyone else, she needed to process her own emotions and she made a mistakes along the way. 

Goodnight Mommy is slow burn film with incredibly uncomfortable scenes. The tragic ending shows how toxic denial and ignoring grief can be. Lukas and Elias Schwarz are amazing actors. They can elicit sympathy from the audience one moment as innocent children and then turn psychotic the next. Susanne Wuest is also formidable as the mother and brings depth to her role. It would have been easy to make the mother a flat character especially since her face is hidden for more than half the film, but Wuest makes the role memorable and keeps the audience guessing. I highly recommend Goodnight Mommy and I would recommend it to those who liked The Babadook as it shares theme and circumstances. 

My rating: 5/5 fishmuffins