Family First – Texas Chainsaw (2013)

Original Post Date: 10.21.18

“After the first massacre in 1974, the townspeople suspected that the Sawyer family was responsible. A vigilante mob of enraged locals surrounded the Sawyer house, burning it to the ground and killing every last member of the family. Decades later, a young woman named Heather learns that she has inherited a Texas estate from her grandmother. She decides to bring her friends along on the road trip to investigate her inheritance. On arrival, she discovers she has inherited a mansion, but is yet to uncover the terrors that lurk in the basement underneath it.” Written by Tom Thomas via IMDB

Thank you, Tom Thomas, for such a great plot summary for Texas Chainsaw (2013). Now that we are all up-to-date, let’s talk about Heather and her realizing she was a Sawyer, but most importantly, her finding out her “evil” family was brutally murdered by the townspeople and, once they knew she was back, they were out to get her:

As Tom Thomas mentioned on his plot summary above, the terrors lurking in the basement awaiting for Heather to discover were the works of Leatherface who—surprise!—was still alive and taking residency right there. For the record, Leatherface was just doing his thing, protecting his family by killing the strangers that got inside the house. Leatherface was older and a little slower of course, after all, the current events took place 39 year after the infamous Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974). Quick side note: The intro for this Texas Chainsaw (2013) movie sequel showed archive footage from the original and oh my god, the way they incorporated it with this new film was A+ (loved it!).

Now, let’s all say hi to Leatherface and his antics:

Towards the end of the story Heather and Leatherface were best pals, realizing all they had left was each other, so after taking vengeance on the Mayor they returned home together, as a family. I am not going to lie, my heart started feeling for Leatherface because, in all honesty, he was crippled by his lack of self-reliance and kind of felt bad for him – it was clear he would now depend on Heather and, in exchange, he would be there to protect her like he always did with his family, because after all, family comes first.

In Love and Fear,

- Marath

Mayfairs, Gone

Original Post Date: 10.11.18

I feel like a crazy person. Yes, I am aware this is something I should not say out loud, and definitely something I should not declare in writing on such a permanent and public forum. But fuck it, I feel like a crazy person. Only a crazy person would cry inconsolably four times in a row after finishing reading a fiction novel. Four times. Unnecessary. Even for me.

Back in February 2018, eight months ago, I started reading “The Witching Hour” by Anne Rice. It was my third time trying to read it (detailed explanation found here) as, basically, the size of the book was overwhelming and I could not see myself finishing almost one thousand pages of the same story. The thing was, eight months ago I didn’t know it would not be the same story, and that that same almost one thousand pages would not be enough to tell it all, and that now I find myself in October craving more.

I wish there was more so I could end this sudden bout of sadness that I feel. I was not prepared for such a sad ending. I was not prepared to letting the Mayfairs go, period.

Do you know what bothers me the most? The fact that I was not aware I cared so much for Michael Curry, I was so enthralled by The Mayfair Witches and Lasher that the minute their ordeal imploded, all the rawness of Michael was revealed and exposed and taken advantage of. I hate it. Why do I feel sad for him? What does his story say about the human condition? About me? Maybe it says that we are imperfect, trying to make things better for ourselves, letting our guard down either by inexperience or by choice. Perhaps it says we are willing to put ourselves at risk to one day feel happy and complete again, to one day make sense of everything that went wrong just to be ourselves again.

[Okay, I am back, I had to take a break. Make that five times in a row.]

The thing is, you let someone have all that really actually matters—love, companionship, hope for the future—just to take it away? WHY!? Wow, look at that, my sadness is slowly turning into anger… interesting.

By the way, whenever I write about horror books I never write a proper report, not even a review; I only share my experience from—one could say—a ‘feelings’ perspective as that is something I am well versed at: feeling my feelings. Wait, were you waiting for me to tell you who the Mayfairs were, or what the story was about, how it began, how it ended? Are you new to marathMARATH? (damn, thank you and welcome)

I would like to end this short yet emotionally draining post with a much needed positive quote:

“And I suppose I do believe in the final analysis that a peace of mind can be obtained in the face of the worst horrors and the worst losses. It can be obtained by faith in change and in will and in accident; and by faith in ourselves, that we will do the right thing; more often than not, in the face of adversity.” – Michael Curry

In Love and Fear,

- Marath

Shook & Triggered – CASTLE FREAK (1995)

Original Post Date: 08.23.18

I have two words for you, Shook & Triggered (kindly excuse my #eldermillenial moment).

Castle Freak (1995) has been the best movie I’ve watched in 2018, period. I had heard good reviews about it so my expectations were high and the film delivered for sure. Man, what a movie! I watched it for the first time a few weeks ago on youtube in Spanish which was great and, now that I think about it, I guess listening to it in my mother tongue added a little extra flair which made me like it even more.

Okay, let’s get into it. Castle Freak tells the story of a prisoner living in a castle in Italy which has now been inherited by John Reilly, the last known relative from the late Italian owner, Duchess D’Orsino; this owner was the mother of the prisoner which, spoiler alert, was John’s half-brother. Wait, is it right? The owner (dead) had a son (prisoner) with an American soldier (John’s dad) who abandoned them and returned to America… yeah, that is right, the prisoner (castle ‘freak’) and John had the same father. Drama! (I mean, Tea Time!) No wonder the Duchess had a breakdown and faked the kid’s dead (had a crypt and everything) and fired everyone from her castle.

This was the castle inherited by John.

John had a wife and a daughter and they kind of seemed excited to be there but it was hard to tell as they were dealing with their own problems, you see, John was a recovering alcoholic with nine months into his sobriety and still struggling with the unimaginable gilt of having caused the car accident which ended up blinding his daughter and killing his young boy #shook.

As one would imagine, John and his wife, Susan, were dealing with all sorts of relationship problems. She was emotionally distant and yet physically present by his side the whole time. When John confronted her at the castle after being sexually rejected by her she snapped at him, letting him know she was not over his alcoholism and blamed him for the death of their son, JJ.

The ray of sunshine throughout the movie was the teenage daughter, Rebecca, as she did not let her handicap stop her from doing anything. She was curious and fearless. I liked her a lot.

Now, the real dark part of the story, Giorgio, a.k.a. the castle ‘freak’. As you would imagine, he was in awful bad shape after having spent his whole life in solitude, chained, eating gross food, drinking water dripping from the walls, being lashed by his own mother, who, by the way, might have been the one castrating him #triggered. Honestly, I was surprised he survived for those 40+ years.

When the American family arrived to the castle neither them nor Giorgio knew about each other’s presence, but when Giorgio saw Rebecca across his cell he mutilated his hand so as to unchain himself. He now had a goal, a reason to leave his old life behind. This is when trouble started for the Reilly’s. At night, Giorgio would get close to Rebecca and look at her, remember that he was a forty plus man who never experienced physical contact so try to imagine what was going thru his head, also, remember he was castrated so all those hormonal urges had no way of getting any release. (oh my god, that sounds worse than torture! #shook)

Rebecca kept claiming there was someone else in the castle, but at the beginning her parents did not believe her, that was until mirrors started breaking (Giorgio did not like his reflection) and people started showing mutilated and dead (again, Giorgio has ‘hungry’ for physical contact and acted on it in the only way he was able to). This is when the Italian police got involved. 

The first victim was the prostitute who had sex with a very inebriated John. Yes, John got off the wagon after a huge fight with his wife and cheated on her. Quick side note, the sex scene between John and the prostitute, Sylvana, was really hot, like, a lot, just fyi (god, don’t you miss the 90’s? Nudity in film was not a big deal back then). Okay, as luck would have it, Giorgio witnessed the sex and, unfortunately, when Sylvana was on her way out he grabbed her and took her to his cell where he proceeded to try to imitate John’s behavior. Sadly, there was no way of working out so he got super frustrated and started biting her instead. (oh, my womanhood! #triggered)

Long story short, everything went downhill from here on. The police arrested John for Sylvana’s murder, Susan and Rebecca decided to leave John and go back to America, the police didn’t allow them to leave until they got interrogated, Giorgio got his hands on Rebecca while managing to kill a handful of policemen guarding the castle, John escaped from jail and got into a fight with Giorgio… disaster and death everywhere!

So yeah, the movie really captivated me as it dealt with the horrors of human behavior. Yes I know, the whole plot sounded cheesy and farfetched, but, if you think about it, how many dysfunctional families are there dealing with addiction and mental illness? Low-key kidnapping and torture? Scary shit, right?

Let me close this post on a good note –with the ending of the film. I really appreciated the final scene when John’s coffin is taken to the car and, far away, we see Sylvana’s son accompanied by her ex-lover. Susan sees them. Her face changing from distraught to relieved as, finally, thru very simple yet beautiful symbolism, Susan realizes her own late son JJ stopped being alone as his father was now next to him. Father and son reunited in death.

The End.

- Marath