Movie Review- The Conjuring

Good horror is hard to find, for every bundle that are produced only a handful could every really be thought of as scary.  Many mass produced horror films are slick looking, with hot young bods just waiting to be skinned and mutilated, but underneath there is nothing really there.  That is how you can tell a good scary movie from slick toss away splattershows (not trying to discredit high volume gore movies, Dead Alive is one of my favorites).  Does it stay with you?  Once your back home from the cinema, when the lights are out does your mind go back to the movie?  Is that thing waiting in your closet, or perhaps just outside your room?  The Conjuring, while not the scariest movie I have ever seen, is through and through quality.
     James Wan, Insidious, Saw, and most recently The Conjuring, is quickly becoming a go to for horror movies that have depth and genuine scares.  These movies tend to linger with you in a way that slick horror movies do.  Wan seems to understand that horror is heavily reliant on mood and tone, and too this he does an excellent job of carving out time in the movie to do the proper promotion.  Yes there are jump scares and some gore but that is not what keeps me from looking
in my closet every time I go to bed.  The movie drips with menace and does an excellent job of creating an unseen horror that is only revealed when the impact is maximized.   Ok, enough gushing here is a basic synopsis.
     The focuses jointly on Ed and Lorraine Warren, famous paranormal investigators, and the Perron family.  The Perron's have just moved into a an old country home that seems to be haunted by some force or another.  As things get more and more out of control and dangerous for the Perrons they seek help from the Warrens in dealing with the malevolent force.  I want to keep the synopsis short because the less you know the better.  I hate when the scares are spoiled for me so I will in turn do you a favor.
     See this movie.  Only a couple, maybe three, good horror movies come to the theater every year and if you are a fan of the genre go out, drop $10, and get the shivers.  Also to all that do not like "traditional" blood soaked horror movies this one is very accessible and light on the gore.  While not a homage to more classic horror movies of the 60's and 70's it brings with it the same spirit of high mood/low gore.

Verdict- 8 out of 10 possessed dolls
Who will like this- Any fan of horror movies (especially those who will take mood over gratuitous displays of violence, those that like thrillers more than horror, and a fans of high tension situations.
Who will not like this- Those that do not want to be scared, people who want to see bucket after bucket of blood poured out on the screen, and those that want quick action and plot development.

Happenings Around the Shop

So it's been a while.  Life has been exceptionally busy with school starting up, a robot and unicorn themed party to plan and execute (turned out great, and look to various parts of the site for pictures of homemade robot heads a little later), and some searing hot temperatures at work that I am pretty sure were being piped in directly from the center of Cthugha.  Things are starting to settle and I am hoping to get more into a more productive rhythm with more posts and updates.  Even with being roasted alive ideas are being formulated and things are still being accomplished, although in a rather haphazard fashion.  Here are some current items and things coming into the shop very soon.

GrandCon-  If you have not bought tickets yet I would suggest doing so if you live anywhere near Grand Rapids Michigan.  From what I know this is going to be a big deal with a plethora of comics, board games, card games, tabletop rpgs, vendors, and (of course) celebrity guests.  The two guys putting this together have done there homework and put a lot of heart and soul into the convention.  We Hate Bards will be there in force running games round the clock.  I myself will be running my Cold Numbers Call of Cthulhu, a Homebrew system called No One Gets Out of Here Alive, and much more that has yet to be set.

New Campaign- Started a new fantasy Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 campaign on Friday nights.  I am the DM so the players can expect plenty of oozes, constructs, undead, insanities, and trips to other dimensions that will make their brains turn to pudding.  It will be a barrel of fun.  In fact one of the characters just ate a part of his "fathers" hand and gained psionic powers, I'm sure there won't be any consequences for that.

King in Yellow- My good friend gave me a copy of The King in Yellow for my birthday.  Quite an old copy too.  I'm a fan of musty tombs and I want to read it soon, though my reading docket is so full right now it may have to be postponed till the fall.

Vampire the Masquerade- Started playing a Vampire campaign on Sunday nights.  So far we are just past the preludes (the backstory of how every character became a vampire) and are in to our first session.  We have a seasoned Vampire Storyteller and I am really getting into the system.  Once I play a bit more I'll come back with a more in depth review.

State of Decay- Trying to find some time to play the Xbox downloadable game State of Decay.  There are some games where you think, "huh, I can't believe they made a game just for me."  Item management, an open world, survival horror gameplay, and scavenging for supplies, what more could a person want from a game.

The Conjuring- I must see this movie.  Good horror is such a scarce commodity.    

Punktown- The Punktown rpg should be ramping up for distribution sometime in August or a little later.  There are taking there time putting the map together and making sure the quality is there.  I can't wait to get my hands on it.  When I acquire it I'll give a full review and probably start a long term campaign in the setting.    

I have way more percolating under the surface, like always, but nothing concrete enough to put on the shelves as of yet.  Soon though...very soon.

How to keep it going

I find myself asking this question over and over again when I run horror rpgs; how can inject some longevity into this?  Anyone who has played or ran something horror themed, especially Call of Cthulhu, knows all too well that the characters are two steps away from being a smear on the floor.  Chaosium scenarios for Call of Cthulhu are legendary for their lethality.  Spoiler alert, doing anything in any Call of Cthulhu scenario will get your character killed and or insane.  Players have some pretty strong responses to gaming like this, myself I'm a glutton for punishment and love to watch my characters go insane and or die gruesomely.  Usually the player adopt a hopeless attitude, go cracknugget and kill the party (I'm looking at you Ben, aka Mr. Shazam!), or just have their characters simply give up, go home, and refuse to get involved anymore.
     So what is to be done?  It's fine to crush the party into a fine paste in a one shot scenario but what about a year long Call of Cthulhu game?  Players will get sick and tired of dying and stop showing up.  In my pondering a few ideas have popped out of the ether.
     Take it slow and think long term.  Build up the suspense slowly and dish out information slow and steady.  The players should not be going from gunfight to gunfight but from library to library.  This though can get boring fast if something is not done to alleviate the boredom factor, or the cracknugget factor to be more specific.  Props and handouts work well for this, gives the players something to focus on.  If done correctly the mystery will take precedent, which makes for a lot less lethality.
     If your going to kill someone make sure it isn't someone important.  This means if things are going to get messy bring around some fodder for the monster to kill.  This is the trope of every monster movie, you are only invested in one perhaps two characters, the rest are there just to get eaten/stabbed/crushed/gutted/etc.  When the characters go to the haunted mansion, bring some expendable friends along.  Use this sparingly though otherwise it will turn from horror to comedy.  You do not want your characters rounding up innocent people every time they go investigate a cult down at the abandoned Masonic Temple.  A spin on this is to create a beloved NPC, really flesh him out good and have him become a trusted member of the group.  Wait till the players are emotionally invested, then kill him.  Do not do this too often otherwise the players will become hopeless pretty fast.
     Horror games are foremost games of atmosphere.  This can best be described as a sense of unease.  For longer games keep jump scares and horrifying moments spaced out.  Fill in the gaps with long stretches of "there just isn't something right...I can't put my finger on it...but......something."  The players should know that something is wrong but will not know what to do about it or what it is, or if it is even real.  Call for random spot hidden checks with clues that lead to know where.  Make it like the characters are being followed, or are they, is it just paranoia?  The bellhop of the hotel has very sharp canine features, and did he just scratch himself like a dog would?  Keep the players on their toes and only let them keep their balance for short stretches of time.
     Keep your players interests in firearms to a minimum.  Guns kill people very quickly.  4d6 damage from a shotgun blast and I have how many Hit Points, Ten you say, doesn't look good.  Guns are bad and they will kill your PC's quicker than anything.
     Switch to a different system.  I'm saying this mainly to those associated with Call of Cthulhu and are in need of something with a built in buffer towards PC deaths.  There are plenty of other systems out there that are a bit less lethal.

• Kult- Gnostic Horror.  This system offers in depth character creation and a built in world mythology that can rival the Cthulhu Mythos in scope.  The combat is deadly, perhaps even more so than Call of Cthulhu, but it gives the players Hero Points which can turn grievous wounds into mere scratches.  It's not much, but it can turn a lethal scenario into one of survivability.
• Eclipse Phase- Transhuman Horror- I have never played this system but have only heard good things.  Plus if your character gets juiced you can just download your backup into a new body.  No muss or fuss, but sometimes there are worse things than death.
• Hero's of Horror- This is a supplement released for Dungeons and Dragons 3.0/3.5.  It explains how to incorporate horror elements into a traditional fantasy world.  Great resource.
• White Wolf- They have a multitude of horror/dark fantasy games, Vampire the Masquerade being its most popular.  Their World of Darkness core rulebook is a good place to go if you want to play mortals in a world swimming with monsters.

The main goal I'm attempting is to keep the death rate down while still maintaining the "fun" aspects of the game.  Fun being a rather loose word for barricading the door so the unspeakable thing will not get in and eat everyone.  If anyone else has some suggestions I would like to there them, post them up in the comments.  And when all else fails just have your players bring extra character sheets.                    
    

Movie Review- V/H/S 2

Short films are a medium which receives little love or attention from mainstream audiences.  Shorts seems to have peeked out during the mid 80's to early nineties with anthologies like Creepshow or Amazing Stories.  Recently though there has been resurgence in anthology film making, especially in the horror genre.  At  a local horror film festival the shorts features are the only thing that I will not miss.  For myself the horror genre is a perfect avenue for short feature films; a little introduction, some buildup, a couple of scares or creepy moments, and end.  If the short was bad it's ok, because another one is following up quickly to wash out the bad taste.  If it was good that only heightens the scares and anticipation of the next short.  Which is why when I heard a while back about V/H/S I was exceptionally excited.  I watched it and was very impressed.  The shorts were cleaver, scary, bloody, and entertaining.  Some were better than others but on a whole the vehicle delivered what it needed to.  Fast forward a year and another anthology has been released titled V/H/S 2.  

     I tried to keep the anticipation low for this movie.  I did not want to over hype it till it could not deliver the goods.  I couldn't help myself and began readings some reviews, and they were unabashedly gushing over it. I was hooked in.  Though after watching it I'm not sure how to come down about it.  It was not a bad movie by any means and they did "ramp" things up for the sequel, but I'm not sure that was the best approach.  The movie definitely has a harder edge and is much more bloody.  The amount of times someone puts a gun to their head and pulls the trigger seemed almost like a running gag after while.  It had the same clever feel to it as the original but the gore gets in the way.  Why I am no prude when it comes to onscreen violence and gore but with all things you have to walk a fine line before it becomes too much and ceases to have shock value anymore.  While trying to be edgy and upping the gore the film becomes exactly the opposite.  The segments which had the least gore proved to be the ones I enjoyed the best; the first and last segments.

     To give a quick no spoiler account of the film; the first section is about a man who gets an eye implant, but the implant starts to glitch giving him strange glimpses of people who may be dead.  The second is different spin on the zombie tale.  The third has to do with a cult and the sinister dealings they are involved in.  I mean they are a cult after all.  The last segment is a alien abduction tale.  All the segments are woven together in a story of two private eyes looking for a missing kid and stumbling upon the tapes, of the features, at his house.  

       The movie overall was uneven and tried to hard with slop buckets full of gore which was detrimental to the scares and unease it was trying to create.

Verdict- 5 out of 10 Fatal Head Wounds
Who will like this- Horror and short fans, people who like something on the different side other than mass produced horror movies starting young hot bods, and lovers of gore.
Who will not like this- Those who are sensitive to gore need not apply, those who want in depth characters and long arcing stories, and those who obviously do not want to be scared.

Forbidden Knowledge- The Unspeakable Oath

Anyone being heavily involved in Call of Cthulhu back in the good old days remembers a magazine called The Unspeakable Oath.  The magazine was like nothing out there at the time, the content was solid and edgy and perfect for the system it used.  The magazine went defunct a while back, but due to a pact with some indescribable being the Oath is back!  They have all ready put out a number of issues and every single one of them is a keeper's trove of resources including tombs, scenarios, informative articles, reviews, and more.  The  writing is top notch and all the hard hitters of the Cthulhu gaming world are there including Scott Tynes and Shane Ivey.  These are not mere read and toss magazines, these are more akin to finely published materials one would see from a sourcebook.  Anyone looking to run Call of Cthulhu, or any horror themed rpg, should take a look.  They have a website where you can take a look at their musty worm ridden tombs.  To take the Oath head on over to Arc Dream to get a hard copy or RPG Now for a digital copy, for those who dislike the sheer heft of musty old books.