Michele and I were on the Mythic Gaming special episode of Voice of Olympus. We discussed Minecraft Dungeons. The episode can be streamed/downloaded from BlogTalkRadio.
Next, for our monthly Scholars from the Edge of Time program, we discussed the film Hercules Against the Mongols. This, too, can be streamed/downloaded from BlogTalkRadio.
In HP Lovecast news, our news Fragments episode is online! In this episode we tackle Michael Mann’s The Keep. The episode is on our Buzzspout page and all major podcast applications.
Mike Mitchell has passed away at the age of 65. He was in Gladiator (2000), Braveheart (1995), Morning Star (2014), The Legend of Mordred (2019), and The Wilhelm Tell Saga (202x).
Messalina is a 1960 Italian toga and sandal film, directed by Vittorio Cottafavi (who directed many proto-peplum films in his career) and starring Belinda Lee as the titular character. A historic epic, Messalina tells the story of Valeria Messalina (Belinda Lee), the new wife to Roman emperor Claudius (Mino Doro), and her rise to power via her charms and schemes. The story also follows Lucius Maximus (Spiros Focas), a respected soldier who falls in love with Messalina but comes to realize her cutthroat ways. What follows are some general musings and observations about this film.
Toga and Sandal Genre Conventions
Messalina falls into sword and sandal subgenre called the “toga and sandal” film. While the “sword” in sword and sandal draws martial images and has strong connotations to combat (be it physical combat as when a strongman engages with an opponent with his fists, or when a soldier or gladiator fights melee with weapons), the “toga” in toga and sandal downplays the action aspect of these films. Instead, in a toga and sandal film, what is underscored are politics, with an emphasis on intrigue, espionage, strategy, scheming, planning, oratory and speeches. In these films, the loincloth wearing Herculean character is replaced by the well dressed solider or statesman, the gladiator replaced by the assassin, and the dangerous cavern or labyrinth replaced by the palatial court. These films also tend to be more grounded in realism and overlap with the historic epic genre.
That is not to say the toga and sandal film is completely void of martial content, it is simply not the primary focus. Messalina contains a peppering of traditional sword and sandal scenes: these include two strongmen fighting each other as part of the festivities and entertainment when Claudius officially takes over as emperor, and the ending contains a small battle of Maximus and his loyal soldiers fighting the corrupted praetorians who were sent to assassinate Claudius.
In a greater Italian cross-genre (filoni) sense, the courts of Claudius, full of food, wine, and entertainment (be it dancers,musicians, fighters, or all of the above), is akin to the bars of the spaghetti western and the nightclubs in the Eurospy film. Of note, early in Messalina, Maximus returns back from a military campaign and engages in a celebratory bar fight.
Lady Peplum
Messalina is one of the rare non-Cleopatra female-centric peplum films that came out of the golden age of historic epics and sword and sandal films. Decades later, peplum media would see a smattering of more female-led titles. Most of these were 1980s sword and sorcery flicks, such as Red Sonja (1985), Barbarian Queen (1985), Amazons (1986), and Hundra (1982), but also include the television show Xena: Warrior Princess (1995-2001), and the video game Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey with Kassandra as one of the two playable characters.
As a typical sword and sandal film focuses on a muscleman’s body, so too does Messalina emphasis the titular character’s body. Messalina makes use of veils to both obfuscate and draw attention to her form. Sequences of her taking a milk bath and when she disrobes, (the camera pans down her exposed legs), show no nudity, yet offer much in the way of titillation. Messalina also utilizes a great deal of seductive pinup poses: laying on her back, body stretched and tilted to showcase her lithe figure.
Messalina and the strongman both make use of their bodies as tools to overcome obstacles. While Ursus may singlehandedly lift a horse-drawn cart out of a pit, Messalina uses her body to seduce an assassin. Though her body is a great asset, Messalina also uses her intelligence, intimidation, guile, and charms to plot, scheme, and advance her agenda. In this regard, she is a multifaceted character, more than just her sex appeal.
Waterfalls of Monte Gelato
Towards the end of the film, there is an epic battle between Maximus’ men and the praetorian guards atop a waterfall. These are the Waterfalls of Monte Gelato.
Many other films have been shot in these waterfalls. Other pepla filmed here include:
Messalina straddles the line of acceptable and taboo, particularly in the representation of the sexualized Messalina (she doesn’t show nudity and there is no on screen sex, but the film comes really close to depictions of both with lots of not-so-subtle winks and nods).
During this period, Italy was under the Christian Democratic government, which held great influence over the film industry and could dictate what was able to be depicted on screen or not. Genre productions active through these decadeswere able to have their cake and eat it too by showcasing sex, (sometimes) nudity, violence, blood, and other taboo activities, so long as the film as a whole was able to affirm Christian Democratic morality: reward the righteous and punish the wicked.
For Messalina, her crimes, of course, is showing pseudo-nudity, engaging in affairs and sexual trysts, and (the greatest crime of all) being a successful woman. By the movie’s end, she is killed when stabbed through the stomach with a gladius. Her sexual proclivities are punished by death.
Maximus also must adhere to these provisions. Though he is the (male) hero of the story, he still falls for Messalina’s charms and becomes an agent of her when he forces Christians from their homes. His atonement comes with conversion: at the end of the film he takes the side of Silvia (Ida Galli) and travels with her to a new Christian land. Maximums has given up his love for Messalina, Rome and her wicked ways, and found a new (and subservient) love interest and perhaps salvation.
Miscellaneous Thoughts
History is written by the winners and it is no doubt that Messalina (the historic figure) has been portrayed in a hyper negative fashion by later, misogynistic historians, which of course has influenced her depiction in pop culture (such as this film). In the past few years, Medusa has seen a great shift in in perception and interpretation (from monster to victim), so it’s possible that Messalina will receive some reconsideration as well.
The big question that Messalina leaves viewers with is did Messalina truly love Maximus in the end? The romantic notions of the period, as depicted in other films, strongly hints that she did, for in the end, Messalina is still a love story, and in order to have a love story, there’s got to be a great love. Messalina, when she is in the embrace of other men, tilts her head away from them, so only the audience can see her facial expressions of disgust and revolt. She does not do this with Maximus, strongly suggesting that she truly loved him, but was not able to negotiate having his love and her power at the same time.
Friend, colleague, and AnnRadCon alumni Rahel Sixta Schmitz has their debut book, The Supernatural Media Virus: Virus Anxiety in Gothic Fiction Since 1990, being published by transcript Verlag.
Cover image from the publisher’s website
Schmitz’s book cites her essay, “Mapping Digital Dis-Ease: Representations of Movement and Technology in Jim Sonzero’s Pulse and Stephen King’s Cell” and Frazer Lee’s “Koji Suzuki’s Ring: A World Literary Perspective” both of which appeared in Horror Literature from Gothic to Post-Modern: Critical Essays. I am honored to be mentioned in the acknowledgments.
The book can be purchased at the publisher’s website or at any major online bookstore.
Exotica Moderne #12 Cover Reveal
Issue 12 of Exotica Moderne will be out soon! The cover of a Tiki Statue fighting a shark makes me recall Lucio Fulci’s Zombi 2:
Exotica Moderne #12 Cover
This issue contains my write up of the video game “The Touryst” published by Shin’en Multimedia. Here’s an interview preview that shows a bit of my article:
I’ll admit, I’m proud of the pictures in this one, they were convoluted to get! I played the game on the Xbox One, which allows screen captures. However, I don’t have a Microsoft cloud storage, so I wound up posting screenshots to Twitter from the Xbox and downloading them from there.
The magazine will be able to be ordered at the issue’s product page at House of Tabu.
Black Ink Fiction has an open call for 2-5K neo-peplum short stories for an anthology called Shadows Over Olympus. Details can be found at the publisher’s website.
New episode of the H. P. Lovecast Podcast is online! In this episode we discuss “The Barrens” by F. Paul Wilson and “The Faces at Pine Dunes” by Ramsey Campbell both from the Arkham House anthology Cthulhu 2000. The episode can be streamed from our Buzzsprout website or your Podcast app of preference.
General Neo-Peplum News
Call for Peplum Papers
There are a few CFPs for peplum related conferences going on right now.
The first is from Dr. Jeremy Swist and Dr. Charlotte Naylor Davis on Heavy Metal and Global Premodernity. The CFP can be found here on Google Docs.
The second is from Michael A. Torregrossa on Medieval in Popular Culture Sponsored Sessions at MAPACA 2020. The CFP can be found at UPENN.
Rest in Peplum
Rest in peplum to iconic director Richard Donner! Director of many high profile and influential films, such as The Omen (1976), Superman (1978), and Lethal Weapon (1987), he also directed peplum adjacent fare such as Ladyhawke (1985) and Timeline (2003). He passed away at the age of 91.
Prolific character and genre actor William Smith passed away at the age of 88. His most iconic peplum role was playing Conan’s father in Conan The Barbarian (1982). He was also in Atlantis, the Lost Continent (1961).
Michele and I had the honor to meet William Smith at a convention.
New episode of the H. P. Lovecast Podcast is online! This one is our monthly Transmissions episode, and we got three guests on this episode: G. A. Lungaro, Angela Sylvaine, and Rhonda Jackson Joseph. The episode can be streamed at our Buzzsprout website or on your podcast app of preference.
The Podcast index page has not only been updated with this episode, but descriptors for upcoming episodes. They are:
7/4 – F. Paul Wilson’s “The Barrens” and Ramsey Campbell’s “The Faces at Pine Dunes” both from Cthulhu 2000.
7/18 – Fragments episode will be on Michael Mann filmic adaptation of The Keep.
7/30 Transmissions episode will have J. H. Moncrieff and others tbd.
August is our King in Yellow month were we will be looking at the brand new anthology Under Twin Suns, interviewing some of the contributors, and also looking at a graphic novel adaption.
Scholars from the Edge of Time
Another new episode of Scholars from the Edge of Time is online! For this episode Michele and I talk about the 1960 peplum film Messalina. The episode can be streamed or downloaded at BlogTalkRadio.
General Neo-Peplum News
Final Call for Abstracts – Ancient World, Modern Music
A reminder: Dr. Swist has an open CFP called “Ancient World, Modern Music” for the Classical Association of the Middle West & South conference in March 23-26 2022 at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina:
We are seeking abstracts for a panel on the reception of antiquity in modern music. 15-minute papers on the topic may discuss any genre of modern & popular music, including folk & country, rock & metal, hip-hop & pop, and theater & soundtracks, and may focus on lyrics, album artwork, music videos, live performances, or the music itself. We are particularly interested in questions of how musicians integrate ancient culture, myth, and art into modern medium, and how they read antiquity in response to the personal, the aesthetic, and the political.
Send 300-word abstracts & questions to Jeremy Swist (jeremyswist@brandeis.edu) by 10 July 2021. Potential panelists must commit to present in person if accepted.
On Thursday Michele and I had our monthly Scholars from the Edge of Time segment on the Voice of Olympus program. In this episode Michele discussed the mummy anthology Spirits Unwrapped while I talked about the classic peplum film Ursus in the Valley of the Lions. The episode can be listened to at Blog Talk Radio.
Peplum Ponderings
I’ve started a new series here at my website called Peplum Ponderings. This is reserved for after I’ve watched a peplum film and I’ve taken notes, as a venue for me to share my informal observations about the film. My first one is online and it is for Ursus in the Valley of the Lions. Expect one later on this week for Messalina.
HWA CFP Board
The Horror Writers Association (HWA) Academics/Non-fiction board has been updated with a few new CFPs:
NEPCA – Monstrous in Disney
NEPCA – Northeast USA contribution to Monstrous canon
Call for chapters for book on horror comics
Details for these CFPs can be found on the board. If you have a CFP yourself that needs to be added, please send an email to annradcon@gmail.com .
General Neo-Peplum News
Physical Release of Ancient Greece and Rome in Videogames
The physical version of Dr. Ross Clare’s Ancient Greece and Rome in Videogames: Representation, Play, Transmedia will be published next week! The New Peplum is cited many times in this book.
The electronic version is already out while the physical version can be found at the Bloomsbury website.
Band of Warriors #2 Kickstarter News
Samuel G. London has been sending out the Kickstarter rewards for backers of Band of Warriors #1 (which you can read my interview with London here). In a news update for backers, the script for issue #2 is being worked on and the campaign to fund the issue is likely to launch in September. However, there is a cover reveal for issue #2, with art by Federico Avila Corsini:
Follow London on Twitter for more information about this comics.
New Ex Deo Album
Canadian neo-peplum band Ex Deo officially announced on their Facebook page their next album, The Thirteen Years of Nero, will be released on August 27th. They released the first video of the album, “Imperator,” on Youtube.
Ursus in the Valley of the Lions is a 1961 Italian sword and sandal film starring Ed Fury as the titular Ursus, a strongman character in the same vein as Hercules. Ursus in the Valley of the Lions is an origin story of sorts, depicting Ursus as being raised by lions and eventually overthrowing the evil Ayak (Alberto Lupo) who usurped the kingdom from Ursus’ parents. What follows here are general and informal observations about the film.
In Chains
When Ursus is locked in Ayak’s dungeon, he is chained up in a fashion that mimic’s the iconic shot of Hercules (Steve Reeves) at the end of Hercules (1958): arms outstretched, chains pulled in opposite directions.
There is a major difference though: Hercules’ strength allows him to pull his chains and cause the pillars they are attached to to collapse. Ursus, on the other hand, is unable to break his bonds. Instead, Attea (Moira Orfei) frees him. This portrayl of Ursus diminishes the notion that the strong man in pepla are 100% independent and can rely solely on their body’s capabilities to best any situation. This dungeon scene, along with a scene later in the film where Simba the lion helps free Ursus from a cave, demonstrate that a strong man does, indeed, need the help of others. A better way to put it: as much as the strong man helps those in need, he, in turn, needs help when he is in need (and that is ok!).
Swordless and Sandals
Ursus doesn’t use a sword or any other melee weapons in the film. Aside from a few instances of improvisational weapons (such as the throwing of tables or other debris at attackers) Ursus relies entirely on fisticuffs in all his battles. This is exceptional, consideration a) his opponents typically have an arsenal of weapons (swords and nets) and b) being raised by lions he doesn’t really have a combat school to adhere to.
Tarzan and Romulus/Remus?
Some texts, such as the film’s Wikipedia entry and Barry Atkinson’s book Heroes Never Die! (pg 140) compare Ursus in this film to Tarzan in that both characters are considered feral children, with noble births, raised by animals (Ursus by lions and Tarzan by apes). Though the comparison is certainly apropos, it would be worthwhile to factor in the mythology of Romulus and Remus as well considering that many peplum films drew heavily from Grecian and Roman mythologies. Ursus’ upbringing, and eventual destiny, shares much in common with Romulus and Remus: as babies they represented threats to their respective kingdoms, they were raised by animals (lions/the she-wolf), and eventually go on to restore the throne to the proper heir. Echoes of Ursus (and Romulus and Remus) can also be found in episode four of the first season of the Netflix series Blood of Zeus where the character of Seraphim is also a baby that represents a threat to the throne and is eventually raised by bears.
The Revolt of the Slaves
The ending of Ursus in the Valley of the Lions shares similarities to The Revolt of the Slaves (1960). Both films end with rebels of sorts (Christians in Revolt and rebels proper in Ursus) being captured and put into an arena where many are burned alive for the amusement of others.
Depiction of Animals
As a low budget Italian genre film, it probably goes without saying that animals were, indeed, harmed in the making of this film. The beginning scenes showing Ursus trying to coerce a kiss from a lion who clearly didn’t want to give one, to the hyena pit, and the climatic end where elephants are forced down to their side. Of note when the film introduces an adult Ursus interacting with this lion family: any shots of Ed Fury’s face are close up with nary a lion in frame, while all instances of Ursus interacting with the lions are wide shots, with Ursus’ back to the audience. What can be inferred here is that these scenes don’t actually contain Ed Fury but an animal handler instead.
Some of the plot synopsis of Ursus in the Valley of the Lions claim that Lothar and his men kill all the lions (but Simba) by poisoning them. When Ursus finds the lions, they all appear to be on their sides in a drowsy state. Is can be surmised from the film that the lions were not killed, only tranquilized. Also, these are well kept lions and not dumb creatures, they can probably use their sense of smell to suss out that the meat they’ve been tossed is not consumable.
Ursus as a Hero and Political Leanings
Ursus is a hero with goals and motivations that seem to change throughout the film, which may be a combination of him adapting to the evolving narrative coupled with with his own naivety. The film implies Ursus is a feral child, raised by lions, however he contains a degree of civility, saying he has learned the language from caravans that pass by. The early scenes that show interactions between Ursus and the traveling slave trader convey that Ursus doesn’t know much about money or the value of objects (hence why he gives up his royal necklace so readily). However, there is a wink and a nod in the performance of Ed Fury that hints that Ursus knows more than he leads on, and is perhaps not as naive as the audience think he is.
Regardless, Ursus begins the film not as a hero and without a goal, save perhaps to make Annia (Mary Marlon) his love interest. When Annia is captured by Lothar (Gérard Herter) and his men, Ursus’ motivating goal is to rescue her. When brought before Ayak, Ursus’ goal now changes to vengeance, to kill Ayak. When finally freed and grouped with the rebels, Ursus states his revised motivation: “I didn’t come here to claim a throne, though your words touch me. I came for only one reason: to return all your lands to all of you, the rightful owners.”
As Michael C. Cornelius states in the introduction to Of Muscles and Men, one of the selling points of these peplum films is that (corrupt) empires topple (page 5) and certainly that occurs at the end of Ursus in the Valley of the Lions. Politically, the film is concerned with overthrowing overly maleficent dictators and warlords, but restoring the government back to one with a monarchy and landowners, probably a form of Feudalism.
Waterfalls of Monte Gelato
Towards the beginning of the film, Annia is swimming in a pool under a set of waterfalls. Later Lothar’s men attempt to capture Ursus here by throwing a net on him. These are the Waterfalls of Monte Gelato:
Screen capture from Alpha Video release.
Lots of other films have been shot in these waterfalls. Other pepla filmed here include:
New episode of HP Lovecast Presents: Fragments is now online. This is our discussion on the film Caltiki: The Immortal Monster, which was delayed from last month due to StokerCon/AnnRadCon. The episode can be found on our HP Lovecast Buzzsprout website or on your podcast application of preference.
Transmissions will drop June 30th and I believe we may have three (!!) interviews on this one.
This Thursday we will both be on an episode of Scholars from the Edge of time.
Chopping Spree Writeup
Michele and I interested Angela Sylvaine last week for an upcoming episode of HP Lovecast Presents: Transmissions. I plucked up her novella Chopping Spree and saw all the fun that was being had in the story by mixing around different genres (including pepla!) that I simply had to get a writeup about the novella out ASAP. My musings on Sylvaine’s debut can be found here. Stay tuned for when her interview will drop on HP Lovecast!
General Neo-Peplum News
Norse Mythology II #1 Review
Michele Brittany has a review at Fanbase Press on the first issue of Norse Mythology II.
Chopping Spree is the debut novella of Angela Sylvaine and the 27th entry in Unnerving Press’ Rewind or Die series. The novella is about Penny, a young teenager who works in a fashionable, 80s inspired mall in Eden Hills, Minnesota. After working her shift at a clothing store, she and her coworkers stay late in order to have a party. They soon become menaced by a wolf-masked murderer who chases them through the mall. The tables turn when Penny’s coworkers capture the wolf man and take him to a secret room in the mall in order to sacrifice him to the Greek god Plutus, who will in turn guarantee wealth to his followers. It is a night of terror as Penny has to not only survive a murderer, but cultists that count her own family in their ranks.
Sylvaine’s Chopping Spree is an ambitious novella that, much like a mall proper, offers up a variety goods for readers (consumers) in the form of genre blending. Overtly Chopping Spree is a horror novella, but it is a combination of two distinct forms of horror: the 80s slasher (such as Halloween and Final Exam) along with the occult/secret society genre (such as Rosemary’s Baby, but perhaps more appropriately, The Wicker Man). In addition, the novella dips a toe in the neo-peplum genre while at the same time, by virtue of its faux 80s mall setting, flirts with the 80s retrowave genre style without going full synthwave/outrun. These genre juxtapositions merit a closer look.
Firstly, and Chopping Spree’s strongest aspect, is its combining of the slasher/secret society genres. The first three chapters (first half) of the novella recreates the feel of being trapped in an 80s mall while being pursued by a masked killer. Penny, of course, is the virginal final girl, seeking acceptance from her friends and fawning over a coworker named Dirk. After vomiting from drinking whisky, Penny soon discovers a murdered pretzel store employee, which leads to the wolf man giving chase to the teens.
At this point in the story, Chopping Spree could run with the genre formula, have the teens get picked off one by one by the wolf man, with Penny performing some final girl trickery at the end to best the villain and escape the confines of the mall. Instead, it turns out that Penny’s friends/coworkers are all part of a secret cult that worships the Greek god Plutus. They take out their ceremonial daggers and more-or-less become slasher villains themselves. They apprehend the wolf man and take him to a secret chamber in the mall to sacrifice him. Chopping Spree has now left slasher territory and entered the niche horror subgenre that deals with secret societies and the occult. It is in this genre that folks sell their souls for power and prosperity. Rosemary’s Baby is a fine example of this type of genre, with Rosemary’s husband making a deal with the devil. However, Chopping Spree is much more akin to the classic The Wicker Man. Both Chopping Spreeand The Wicker Man feature communities that are down on their luck and turn to sacrifice to bring in prosperity: the cult of Plutus needs to sacrifice people to guarantee the mall’s prosperity while Lord Summerisle needs a sacrifice to guarantee a bountiful crop for the island. The fact that The Wicker Man contains diegetic folk singing while Chopping Spree peppersclassic 80s synthpop and new wave songs in its narrative further strengthens the connection making them both musicals.
What makes this genre turn so unique is the subject of the sacrifice: in these stories it is usually the protagonist (or final girl) that is to be the offered sacrifice. Chopping Spree turns this on its head by instead offering its slasher villain as the sacrifice.
With its mall setting, Chopping Spree joins the ranks of films such as Chopping Mall and Dawn of the Dead that offerscritiques on consumerism and capitalism, though Chopping Spree is a bit heavy handed at times. Employee bathrooms in the mall have motivational John Locke quotes scribbled on the walls, while characters robotically recite pro-capitalist verses. These moments are not so subtle and perhaps a bit handholdy, however there are other brilliant elements of the story that accomplish the critique in a much more creative and subtle fashion, specifically via Howard the wolf-masked slasher villain.
Howard’s donning of the wolf mask as his villain MO is multifaceted. At a base level, it is leveraging the 80s slasher trope of the masked killer (Leatherface, Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, and so on), which of course, is appreciated by genre connoisseurs. Intentionally or not, there is also a Scooby Doo vibe with his character, manifested when his mask is removed (by meddling kids no less) to reveal “old man Howard.” As Howard pursues Penny and entourage he makes various references to “The Three Little Pigs” and “This Little Piggy,” which seems fitting for a wolf character, but it is when he is juxtaposed against another horror character that new meaning (specifically a critique on capitalism and consumerism) is taken on. In the film Motel Hell (another 80s cult horror film), the character of Vincent Smith is an aged farmer and butcher who also runs an inn. As with the cultists in Chopping Spree, Smith is an unabashed capitalist, and his ace in the hole to keep his business ventures afloat are to capture other people, plant them in his farm, and then butcherthem to create smoked meats. At the film’s climax, Smith gets into a chainsaw duel and dons a pig’s head as a mask. Smith’s pig facade and what it stands for (protecting business ventures built on murder [the very same as the cultists in Chopping Spree]) becomes a visual counterpoint to Howard’s wolf facade, aimed at tearing down those ventures. Chopping Spree is the ying to Motel Hells’ yang.
Leaving the horror genre, Chopping Spree flirts with the neo-peplum genre by way of having the cultists worship Plutus. Genre expectations would have normally lead to the cultists engaging in devil worship, but having them revere a Greek deity is a welcomed surprise (though the story sometimes conflates Greek with Roman, but this can be attributed to Penny’s educated guesses). Visually, the sword and sandal elements are presented in the story via Grecian decorations displayed on the hidden chamber’s entryway (“Dirk pushed open the wooden doors, which were carved with figures of ancient [R]omans in togas”) and stamped coins (“gold coins that looked ancient, their surfaces carved with the head of a Roman god”). Mythologically, however, Chopping Spree is brilliant by making the cultists revere Plutus. Firstly, the cultists thirst for money and power don’t make them ordinary run-of-the-mill capitalists, but full on plutocrats. Secondly, by having them in a secret cult, echoes Plutus’ own mother (Demeter or Persephone) who also have a secret cult as referenced in the Eleusinian Mysteries.
There is some subtle trickery here by having the cultists worship Plutus: at no point in Chopping Spree does anything magical happen. While films such as Rosemary’s Baby and The Omen depict supernatural and occult ongoings, Chopping Spree stays firmly in Wicker Man territory in that no overt divine intervention or miracles overtly occur. This begs the question: is Plutus actually granting favour? Depending on the answer radically changes the subtext of Chopping Spree.
Overtly, Chopping Spree shows the ends of the process: it is a contemporary setting book, with a hugely successful mall, which in reality, is hard to fathom as the mall has been a dying concept. Yet, here it is, alive, well, and extremely successful in Chopping Spree. For this end to happen, only one of two scenarios can be true:
A: The mall is successful because capitalism and the invisible hand of the market has actually granted it success. Despite all odds, this mall in Eden Prairie flourishes because of consumer want. If this is the case, that means (much like in TheWicker Man, where the destitute crop harvest is attributed to poor volcanic soil), that Plutus does not exist and therefore is not granting favours, and the cultists are simply murderers.
B: The mall is successful because of the (unseen) intervention of Plutus. This means that the cultists spewing of capitalist slogans and Locke quotes is hypocritical. The laws of capitalism have spoken and have determined that the cultists/their mall should fail, so the cultists must turn to corrupt/criminal/occult activities in order to survive. They are capitalists only when it benefits them. As soon as it does not, capitalism is just veneer they overtly tell the world while inside they are hypocrites and murderers. Which, perhaps on the path of creating a plutocracy, is expected.
Finally, Chopping Spree engages with the synthwave genre, albeit in a slightly different manner than genre expectations. Post Stranger Things, Drive, and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, 80s retroism is big. Today, there are many stories that are set in the 80s and embrace the visual hallmarks of the genre: VHS tracking artifacts, VHS rental box recreations, neon pink and purple vector gridlines, the broken sun, palm trees, and so on. Chopping Spree eschews these genre tropes: it is retroism without being retro. The story is contemporary and not a period piece, yet it has 80s call backs that readers enjoy seeing in their retro texts, specifically the slasher and mall aspects coupled with the novella’s various name droppings of various 80s synthpop and new wave hits (such as Duran Duran’s “Hungry Like the Wolf” and Echo and the Bunnymen’s “The Killing Moon”). The 80s mall initially feels out of place in the story: why have an 80s throwback mall in the present day? Firstly, it is the 80s mall that helps ground the story in retroism, but secondly, and surprisingly, the 80s mall couples extremely well with the neo-peplum genre. If one is going to venerate Plutus, what better way to do so than with a mall, which of course, is a modern interpretation of the Agora. As to why specifically an 80s mall? The 80s (and early pre-internet 90s) was when the mall was at the zenith of its cultural dominance, and as the people of antiquity erected statues and created art to celebrate their deities and empires at their height, so too do the Plutus cultists seek to celebrate the mall at its peak.
Chopping Spree does not just feature a mall, it also acts as a literary mall of genres. Just as one can enter a mall and walk by different offerings: the sports store, the clothing store, the pretzel restaurant, and the bookstore, one reads through the pages of Chopping Spree and are treated to various horror subgenres, and differing genres in the form of pepla and retroism. The novella is successful in this regard, successfully blending genres while at the same time both embracing and subverting genre expectations to create a fun and frightening experience.
2024-04-21 – Addendum
The Unnerving Press edition of Chopping Spree is out of print. However, a new, updated editing with a brand new cover is being published by Dark Matter Ink on September 24th. The new cover art, by Dan Fris, looks like this:
New interview at my website! I’ve interviewed so many comic book creators as of late, time to hop over to another medium for a bit. I had the honor to interview the dungeon synth outfit Sidereal Fortress about their neo-peplum album, Circus Maximus. Check it out here.
ICYMI H. P. Lovecast Podcast Episode
ICYMI, a new episode of the HP Lovecast Podcast dropped last weekend. In this episode Michele and I talked about the comic book series Vinegar Teeth from Dark Horse Comics. Vinegar Teeth is more-or-less “The Colour out of Space” made into a buddy cop story. The episode is uploaded to our Buzzsprout website and also available on all major podcast applications.
Part two of Dr. Swist being on the Against the Lore Podcast is live and can be found here. Part one can be found here.
Isidora #2 Kickstarter Live
G. A Lungaro‘s crowdfunding campaign for issue 2 of his Lovecraft/neo-peplum comic Isidora is now live and can be viewed on Kickstarter.
There is a stretch goal at $3,500 contributors will receive this gorgeous pinup.
Folks, I NEEED this pinup, it’s amazing! So check out the campaign and consider contributing. A reminder: I had the honor to interview G. A Lungaro about Isidora #1, so check that out too.
