Well, the madness of Star Wars and Christmas is over and I can get back to this blog and to the horror genre.
Quick though - Star Wars The Force Awakens was everything I dreamed of and more. It changed my world. I have never cried so much in a public theater since Dobby was cruelly murdered. I was a fucking wreck when I came out of that movie. BUT it was worth the wait, it was worth the hundreds of dollars I spent on merchandise, and I can't wait to see it again in the New Year.
Christmas is obviously still happening - it's only Boxing Day. But Mitch and I had a great day yesterday as this is the first year in a few years that we've been able to afford gifts for each other. Also we cooked a real turkey breast! And it was incredibly stressful.
BUT what I'm really here to talk about are two things:
Until Dawn and Making a Murderer.
Mitch got me Until Dawn for Christmas and I spent about 6 hours playing it last night (could be more, it was all a blur) and finished the game up today with another few hours under the belt. As I type this Mitch is currently starting the story himself so we can see how different it can be.
THIS GAME IS AMAZING.
And I know I'm late to the game but my broke ass can't afford video games so bear with my lateness.
Little history:
Until Dawn is obviously a video game, it's called an "interactive drama survival horror adventure video game" which is a mouthful. Basically it's like being in a horror movie - from the safety of your couch/floor/ottoman (if you're me). It was released in August of this year and was met with an extreme love from fans and critics. It took the video game world by storm.
It is designed to be played multiple times as you make decisions quickly as the game goes along that determine the outcome of the story and characters. Each time you play should be a unique experience. It uses the "Butterfly Effect" as well which means any choice or action by you can cause unforseen consequences later on. Which usually end up being traumatic. (RIP WOLFIE - IM SO SORRY).
Some of the decisions you make are so damn moral and ethical it makes you want to puke. Like, my back got so sweaty. I was so stressed out. There's also an auto-save system that basically prevents you from reloading and trying to change a decision you made. The only way to change it would be to start all over again.
So since Until Dawn is basically a horror movie - let me give you this perfect horror movie plot:
7 friends - Sam (played by Hayden Panettiere), Mike (Brett Dalton), Chris (Noah Fleiss), Ashley (Galadriel Stineman), Emily (Nichole Bloom), Jessica (Meaghan Martin), and Matt (Jordan Fisher) are hanging out at their friend Josh (Rami Malek) and his twin sisters' cabin on Blackwood Mountain (in Alberta - hometown ya'll!!). After the friends pull a prank, embarrassing one of the twins, the two of them run off into the wilderness. But they are soon chased by something we cannot see and eventually fall to their death.
Flash forward to a year later and the 7 friends are invited back by Josh who wants to forget the tragic (still unsolved) events of the year before and just "party like porn stars" (what?). But once the 7 arrive, things get dangerous quickly. And Blackwood Mountain has a mysterious past involving mines, an insane asylum, and Native American history.
The game is divided up into chapters and in between each chapter you are met with a weird therapist who asks you all sorts of questions that then determine what will happen in the next chapter. There's an interesting segment where you are asked to choose which scares you and dumb old me answered honestly only to spend the rest of the game screaming every time a crow flew at the screen.
You guys, this game is amazing. It is just SO much fun to play, and so much fun to watch other people play. It's also terrifying! I was screaming my ass off and jumping out of my seat the entire time. It was such a thrill ride. I can't wait to play it again and see what happens next time. It really does feel like you are in a horror movie and I can't believe I waited this long to play it.
MAKING A MURDERER
Unless you've been living under a rock for the past two weeks you've probably heard the uproar over Netflix's original fascinating documentary Making a Murderer. I was immediately hooked on this show because umm...ten part true crime documentary? sign me up. This is me, the same person who has watched all 6 hours of the Staircase documentary multiple times, and all of the Paradise Lost episodes over and over. So yeah, I was good to go.
BUT I was not prepared for the rage and emotion I would encounter. I started it on a Wednesday, stayed up till midnight watching the first 6 hours (which for me is unheard of on a week day) and then rushed home the next day from work to finish the final 4.
Let's back up though and I will tell you the story of Steven Avery.
SPOILERS IF YOU PLAN ON WATCHING THE DOCUMENTARY.
If you haven't seen it yet - stop what you're doing and watch it RIGHT now.
Steven Avery is a man from Wisconsin who comes from the lower middle class and lives with his family on a used car lot. When he was in his 20's he was convicted for a rape he did not commit, based purely on hearsay from a bitter cousin who was married to the police chief. And so Steven spent 18 years in jail until DNA analysis proved he was not the man who had committed rape. In fact, it had been a man of the name Gregory Allen who was a known sex offender in the area. And who went on to commit a few more crimes when he should've been locked up in jail. Instead, Steven rotted away in jail, innocent.
He was released finally and began to sort out his life. He reconnected with his children, fell in love with someone new, started working for the family business, and continued on with the rest of his now free years. Steven was encouraged to file a lawsuit against the Manitowoc County for the obviously flawed police work that was conducted. The lawsuit was $36 million.
Now here's where it gets messy. Soon after filing the lawsuit, Avery was accused of the murder of a young woman by the name of Teresa Halbach. Why? Because he was the last person to see her alive. She visited his car lot to take photos of a van he was selling. And after that, she disappeared. Instead of the police doing what any good detective would do - looking first at the closest people to Teresa - they instead blamed Steven and banned him from his home and land. They held onto it for 8 days while they conducted some pretty shifty searches.
The car that Teresa was driving was found on Steven's land, mysteriously cleaned of all DNA evidence EXCEPT for splatters of Steven's blood in the front seats, and Teresa's blood in the trunk. Then the car key was found in Steven's bedroom, after already being thoroughly searched three times, and again - the key was wiped clean of DNA except for Steven's.
So, let's take a minute here. You killed Teresa - what's the first thing you do? Get rid of evidence. You clean the car, you don't drop car keys on the floor of your bedroom, and hey - you own one of those giant car crushers - why not just crush the car to make absolutely sure the evidence is hidden.
But according to the police, Steven did none of that. He committed murder and then acted like a complete idiot - leaving perfectly placed evidence all over his land. Including the findings of Teresa's burnt body remains in the fire pit right underneath his bedroom window. Oh, and in a barrel a few feet away, oh, and in a quarry a few miles away. Yeah, okay.
Then enters Brendan Dassey - Steven's unintelligent young nephew who a few weeks after all of this is pulled out of his class, interrogated without a parent present, and basically coerced into admitting this murder happened and in fact, Brendan helped! According to Brendan's statements, the two of them murdered Teresa violently in Steven's bedroom and then burnt her body in the fire pit. Which....none of that makes any sense when you look at the evidence.
And so, Steven and Brendan are sentenced to prison for a murder neither of them committed, based on minimal evidence and obviously coerced interrogations.
The show plays out the history, the crime scene, and the trial itself. It's an absolutely beautiful piece of documentary work and regardless of where you stand on all of this, it is addictive to watch it all play out. I've been aggressively recommending it to everyone. And spending hours online researching it and yelling about it all. It reminds me SO much of the West Memphis Three case.
I implore you to go watch this amazing and beautiful show and form your own opinion.
Alright, that's pretty much all from me for now. Headed to Calgary next weekend to see the family and then I'll be back into watching horror movies and reading horror novels and updating this bad boy.
Quick news before I go:
WE'RE GETTING A NEW MEMBER OF OUR FAMILY!!!!
And no, I'm not pregnant.
We're getting a second fur baby. His name is Obie and we are re-homing him from Oprah who is just not in the best situation to keep him right now. So Tony is getting a baby brother and he will be here in February. I can't freakin' wait.
Look at this adorable mug:
He is going to destroy me.
Stay spooky ya'll!
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