Red Tide Keeps Going plus Remember Lisztomania?

SPOILERS FOR AMERICAN HORROR STORY RED TIDE AND

THE 1975 movie LISZTOMANIA DIRECTED BY KEN RUSSELL 

SPOILERS FOR AMERICAN HORROR STORY RED TIDE AND

THE 1975 movie LISZTOMANIA DIRECTED BY KEN RUSSELL 

SPOILERS FOR AMERICAN HORROR STORY RED TIDE AND

THE 1975 movie LISZTOMANIA DIRECTED BY KEN RUSSELL 

Oh, look! 

In the 1975 movie Lisztomania starring Roger Daltrey as Franz Liszt and Veronica Quilligan as his daughter Cosima, Franz has a similar issue that Harry (Finn Wittrock) in Red Tide does. He has a daughter who is an amazing violinist but who hates him and wants to kill him. 

In fact, a lot of the themes in these two shows are quite similar.

Cosima has a voodoo doll of daddy and is running off with bad boy Wagner who in this twisted fever dream is a Nazi. In fact, a Super Man named Thor is created as a superweapon for the Nazis but that's only one tiny bit of weirdness that permeates Lisztomania. 

Wagner steals Liszt's "talent" through a bizarre vampire scene. 

The movie talks a lot about selling your soul to the devil for fame and fortune. Another Faustian story. 

At the time, this crazy movie had a star-studded cast including Ringo Starr and Rick Wakeman among many others, many who also appeared in Tommy such as Paul Nicholas who played Cousin Kevin.

I've actually not watched Lisztomania in many years but anyone who loves 70s rock operas such as Phantom of the Paradise, Ken Russell, Roger Daltrey, weird movies, horror, and giant cocks, you'll love this madness.  

The seventies were weird, very weird.

After I saw Tommy, I proceeded to have a lifelong crush on Roger Daltrey, so of course, I went to see his next opus, Lisztomania. No mean feat as it was rated R and I was way below the age limit but luckily I was able to slap on makeup and a lowcut shirt and snuck into the movie. Both movies were directed by Ken Russell, whom I actually got to shake hands with a few weeks before he died about ten years ago.

 

I couldn't find any video clips of father and daughter on YouTube. There used to be a couple including when they're playing violin and harp in heaven (like that picture above) but they've been taken down, or at least I couldn't find them today for this article. 

You need to see this whole movie, it's so weird.

I got to meet Ken Russell in the flesh a few months before his death when he came to Toronto for Fan Expo and to show The Devils. (Eternally grateful to Shade Rupe for introducing us!) I took pix at the theatre as well but this is my fave. His lovely wife who was very involved in his movies with costumes and much more is in the background. It meant the world to me to shake his hand and tell him how much Tommy had changed my life. 

If you've seen Lisztomania or even if you haven't, this one scene stands out, and that is of Paul Nicholas playing Wagner turning into a vampire and sucking the blood from Roger Daltrey as Franz Liszt. It's hot and kinky and weird as fuck.

Okay, the seventies are over, let's get back to 2021!

From when I first realized there was a father-daughter rivalry in American Horror Story Double Feature Red Tide, I thought back to Lisztomania. I'm sure there are tons of other movies and stories with this rivalry, but it was the one I resonated with as I am who I am!

Last week, I said that it was the finale chapter of Red Tide! Boy, was I wrong! I told you I try to avoid all commercials and ads and trailers for this show so I didn't know that there was more to go. I think it's over over now, but who knows?! I even try to avoid Finn Wittrock's Instagram so that I won't know what's next though he never gives spoilers but even a photo can sway my imagination!

In our final episode, we have more Finn Wittrock and that's always a good thing!

Harry (Finn Wittrock) still dreams of going back to normal life, after all, he's now written five years' worth of best-sellers so he's good to go. However, his demonic spawn thinks otherwise. 

Alma auditions for a prestigious orchestra and destroys the competition in the best way she knows how. We presume she'll get the part. 

The literary writers are conspiring against the Hollywood writers; lots of inside jokes about how screenwriters aren't real writers and so on. 

I do have to say that screenwriting is a completely different art than novel writing. Screenwriting is teamwork and more like a blueprint. A novel is a whole complex world reliant on the author's turn of phrase. Both ways of writing demand great skill and concentration, it depends what you like to do as a writer. And both ways of writing can take years to create material that will make any money or provide a living for the creator. 

The Muse is a great shortcut and the agent coming to town is even better since she can connect people right away. 

Anyway, the age-old battle between "real art" and "sellouts" is examined with The Muse and the monsters. Does anyone really win?

A monster is a monster and talent doesn't matter in the end.

I loved so much of the commentary and symbolism of this thesis as I'm a professional writer working in these worlds, not to mention I've had summers in Maine and Rhode Island, and I have children, so I connect on all those levels as well. 

It was nice to hear actual New England accents in this installment!

Alma has had enough of dad trying to reclaim his humanity by his plans of taking his kids and moving back to New York, so she eats him. Bye-bye Harry...

The agent and the pharmacist have moved to Hollywood where they can really feed the masses. All hell breaks loose and it's great fun!

NOW I think that the Red Tide story is over?

So, the student who stormed out of the screenwriting class...will he be in the next story? Is he writing the next story? 

Shhhh, don't tell me, I want to be surprised!

Can't wait for next week even if Harry is dead. But no one is ever really dead in American Horror Story...

On a completely other vein...

WATCH OUT FOR CATFISH!!!!!!!

LOVE FRAUD!!!!!

IMPOSTERS!!!!!!!

I do need to say something else that's kind of bugging me.

Over the past couple of years, "Finn Wittrock" has messaged me on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook multiple times. Sometimes I'll answer, usually I don't as there's no reason on earth that the real Mr. Wittrock would message me out of the blue with the types of messages I've received. Also, he has thousands of followers so accounts that are freshly made with zero followers created "just to talk to me" don't ring true, catfish people.

From what I've seen from the real Mr. Wittrock in his interviews, his Twitter, and his Instagram is that he's well-spoken, educated, and has never written in broken English that I've noticed. I've noticed a few other things about him that these messages don't contain. I've been conned a few times in other areas of my life so I'm extra careful these days especially on social media.

However, if by chance Mr. Wittrock DID message me, I'm sorry if I was rude but I don't believe for a minute that "real" Finn Wittrock has any reason to contact me for the reasons that so far have been used in the DMs. I can think of other reasons, and I don't mean anything nefarious or kinky, but none of these "Finn Wittrock"s have chosen that route. 

So this is both an apology if by chance one of these dozens of messages really was Mr. Wittrock, so sorry, but this is also a warning to the rest of you, that lots of people love to troll people and get them excited to think that their favourite star is speaking to them, but the reality is, it's likely a catfish trying to get your real name, address, workplace and so on so they can commit identity fraud.

I've also had a couple of Roger Daltreys as well in the past year. No reason for Mr. Daltrey to contact me either though I'd pee my pants if he did!

Waiting on some Adam Drivers, Mark Hamills, and Tom Hiddlestons catfish, you know they're swimming this way! 

Be careful out there, people!

Okay, not catfish but the 80s were kind of fucked up too!

Need some reading?

Check out my books on the brand new SCREAM: Chills and Thrills app!

My novel, A Hearse of a Different Color, is the story of a witch who loves a horror anthology TV show, Scary Haunted Stories, and is thrilled to find out that it will be shooting in her home town including with her favourite star, Oscar Dominion! Find out what happens!

UPCOMING PUBLIC APPEARANCES

As Halloween approaches, watch my social media for events.

I'll be on Planet Lizzdom at 8 pm est on October 28, 2021 to talk about my writing.

I'll be at Frightmare in the Falls  in Niagara Falls on October 29 and 30, 2021 at The Great Lakes Horror Company booth where I'll be selling paperback copies of A Penny Saved, Captured Souls and Flesh Failure among other wares. I may even do tarot readings, depending on how the pandemic is going.

Autographs are always free when you buy one of my books or if you bring one from home for me to sign! I'll also sign for free posters/DVDs from movies I've been in such as Slime City Massacre and Killer Rack.

Red Tide Episode: Episode Six Thoughts and Musings

 

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Last night, the story of Red Tide was pretty much summed up. This story is the tightest, most coherent entry into the American Horror Story franchise. I really loved it, especially as it combined two of my favourite movies: The Shining and Rosemary's Baby!

I’ve been saying either in blogs or videos that over the past few years, Murphy has been making his AHS less convoluted and more focused. I actually feel like he tied up all the loose threads with this one, and, of course, we don't know if the second story hooks into the first or not, so we'll see next week!

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Red Tide was one story with several characters, and we followed Harry (Finn Wittrock) through the main plot and linked to the subplots involving the locals, the most compelling storyline being Mickey (Macaulay Culkin) and Karen (Sarah Paulson) but the most fun storyline belongs to Evan Peters and Francis Conroy as the egotistical writers controlling the town, somewhat... 

The opening to this week’s episode was fun as it took place at the birth of the baby boy with Harry (Finn Wittrock) eyeing all the bloody rags and towels during the delivery. He manages to steal the garbage can and squeezes out his wife's delicious birthing blood into tiny cups so he can feast. It was pretty hilarious. Finn often gets these demented roles with truly comedic moments. One of my all-time fave moments in any horror franchise is when he’s sawing off Matt Bomer’s arm in Freakshow and saying, “How can you still be alive? You’re making me feel bad!” It’s horrific and hilarious at the same time. You don’t know whether to throw up or chuckle.  

The Harry storyline goes full Rosemary’s Baby in this final installment with several moments paying homage to the iconic film and famous scenes. Doris (Lily Rabe) hearing voices and walking into a room of conspirators. The blue nightgown butcher knife homage right from Mia Farrow’s trembling hands. The paranoia that something isn’t right, that everyone around Doris is different somehow and she’s trapped in a nightmare where she can’t escape.

We suspected that Doris would eventually take the pill, but we never knew which way she would go. Throughout the series, Harry more or less says that Doris has no talent but he loves her and she’s the mother of his children, so he wants to keep her around. They even have Denis O'Hare mocking her designs just so that we truly understand how shitty she is. 

Alma, the daughter, hates her mom and wants her dead and knows that she's a crappy designer so it was zero surprise that she bullied, actually seduced in a truly evil manner, mom to take the pill. We knew that Alma wanted mom to take The Muse so that Doris would turn into the untalented vampire and go away as Alma wanted daddy to herself. It was classic Greek tragedy and what makes a story compelling. A child hating a parent so much they would lie to destroy them.

Doris takes the pill, oh yes. And we wonder how she will turn. For a moment, it looks like she will have talent and join her family. But then, we see that no, Harry and everyone else was right, she has no talent.

And so, much to Alma’s delight, Doris is released into the wild with the other vampires, while the true vampire, the agent, continues to scheme about marketing The Muse. I’m not sure how long she’ll last among the vampires as the elite writers had discussed killing her but we’ll never know. Or will we?

At any rate, after Doris turns, she joins the other untalented vampires. We met the original untalented vampire last week and learned his sad genesis story and also why they all dress the way they do. Billy Lourd is the local Jill of All Trades; she sells vintage clothes, does tattoos and is the dentist who makes dentures for the talented ones.

Last week we also had directly in our face the question we’ve all been dancing around for a few weeks. Is being a talented vampire superior to being an untalented vampire?

All the creatures kill and drink blood.

One does it to fuel their art, the other does it because they took the pill and realized they are hacks and so become “angry” and kill people…yet they too have the thirst for blood.

So, most people would say that both are evil.

The already narcissistic artists who took the pill are beyond insufferable and have no redeeming qualities left. 

Harry spewed a bunch of really cruel stuff to his transformed wife, which he admitted he thought all along but never said. We're used to Finn's characters being assholes but this husband character seemed particularly cruel, likely because he was the most realistic or grounded of the AHS characters he's played. 

Dandy Mott (my favourite character of his) was a psychopath from the word go, he was never redeemable. But Harry began as a normal, struggling writer with a little ego and much love for his wife, child, and unborn baby. As he transforms, we don't even think he loves his kid anymore, just keeps her around so she doesn't kill him, and he definitely hates his wife. And though he tries to protect the baby, there's no real reason for him to do so. He will likely feed the baby to Alma now that mom is gone. A baby would interfere with their genius work.

Harry wasn't too hard to convince to take the muse. His drive to succeed was huge, spurred on by having to support his family, so even though he was a little bit reluctant, he was pretty quick to take it. After all, he'd already committed murder.

But Mickey and Karen have watched the town transform over the years. Even though they were junkies, they didn't want to be murderers. They were both offered the drug for their talents many times but they didn't want to pay the ultimate price of murdering innocent people no matter which way they could turn from The Muse. They didn't want to be evil.

Which is why it took Mickey and Karen so long to be seduced by The Muse.

Last week we learned that Mickey was the first person to meet the pharmacist and refused The Muse but he brought in all the customers. He resisted for years, not wanting the side effects that came with ingesting The Muse until the agent came to town and then he took the gamble and won. He became rich and famous and came back for Karen.

Karen has never been seduced by The Muse yet she’s addicted to heroin or whatever and uses all the other drugs but she refuses to take The Muse because she doesn’t want to kill people. Even though she’ll bring babies now and again for the lead bitch.

Karen refuses Mickey’s offers of taking The Muse and going to Hollywood. He’s furious, he loves her.

Karen’s luck has run out and there is no one to protect her. Mickey appears with the pill and leaves.

Karen either has to take the pill or be eaten by vampire monster things; both sides hunger for her.

She takes the pill.

We see her hair is less greasy, her teeth are less coated and so on as effects take place. Mickey wants to take her to feed. They go to the beach. She feeds on Mickey, kills him. It was shocking and unexpected. I was very sad that Mickey died like that. 

She paints furiously and then wanders out to sea where she slits her wrists, thus creating a Red Tide and is washed away.

We actually never know which way she turned; if she had talent or was a hack.

A bleak depressing ending but hey, it’s a Ryan Murphy horror show!

Next week will be the second part of the double feature. Maybe Karen gets washed up and discovered by aliens or the Black Lagoon dude or someone?

Who knows?

I’ve done my best to avoid seeing spoilers, so I hope to be surprised.

American Horror Story Episode Three Thoughts and Musings

 

Episode Three of American Horror Story Double Feature was on FX this week.

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This week began where we left off last week and I have to say, this is the most focused, put-together season of American Horror Story yet. Often the series suffers from too many cool storylines happening at once and there's always a thread or two left hanging or the ending gets rushed. 

This year, we are watching Finn Wittrock struggling with writer's block a la Jack Torrance in The Shining and I'm loving it. Finn, as we know, has been a regular on AHS for years and this might be his best part yet aside from Dandy Mott. And those who follow me know that I've been a huge Finn Wittrock fan ever since I first saw him Freak Show back in 2014. And as a writer who myself recently emerged from a nearly ten year writing paralysis, I can relate in a million different ways to Harry, Finn's character.

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As I mentioned last week, this is a totally different character yet again from others that Finn's played in the franchise. He's realistic, (not hitting the ground running as some kind of monster), even as he turns to the dark side. He's playing a husband and dad who is on the verge of scoring a big Hollywood gig. He goes to a small Massachussetts town to get his head together and focus on the work for the deadline. The drive to the town was remisincent of The Shining (both open in a similar vein) as are many other shots and motifs. Now in episode three, Harry's already in thick with other writers in town.

In a turn of fate, his very pregnant wife topples down the stairs (The Omen? I can't remember what movie that might be from, AHS always has touchstones to other properties) and she has to spend a few days in the hospital so she won't lose the baby. Harry is thrilled because now he can work on his opus  without her nagging and continue his turn to the dark side in secret, in tandem with his nine-year-old daughter. Alva. Both Harry and Alva are under the spell of the little black pills, caring only for their own art with little regard for those around them. This episode was like a Lone Wolf and Cub/Mandalorian and Grogu adventure but with talented artistic narcissistic addicts. Harry will hunt food for Alva or so the deal is supposed to go. But hey, it's a horror movie. That cop got a bit too close...

This season has great atmosphere and fun performances. The ensemble works well together and the story so far makes sense. Well, except a couple of things that most would overlook, I'm sure. 

Shooting in a pandemic also gives an air of creepiness as the town is very sparsely populated, no one is around and the bars and so on are pretty empty. I'm not sure if they did the technique with background performers on green screen like they did in Good Girls.

                                           

I think what is irking me are all the people who say it's time to kill Harry. Instead of killing him, hey they're vampires, (why would they think twice?) they just keep talking about it all. This often happens with Murphy projects so I hope this won't kill the momentum. We all know that everytime a villain doesn't immediately take action but just blathers about it, the villain likely isn't going to succeed. But this is AHS, anything can happen...

          

I'm absolutely loving Macaulay Culkin as Mickey this episode. I love his acting, he has some wonderful bits and is so good. I hope we see much more of him in the future, not only in this show but others. I could see his little boy Kevin face underneath the meth/artist, and it was so wonderful and creepy and fun. Imagine the Home Alone boy battling vampires or becoming one with them but they still shun him. 

                                            

The vampires want to kill Harry all of the sudden, but they want to kill the agent more. So, why didn't they just Kill Her? They kill everyone else without blinking an eye. What's with the delay?

These are two things that bug me. The talking about killing Harry and the agent but no one does...yet. I'm sure that will all go down next week. 

                                           

I also don't know why Mickey killed someone in broad daylight on the beach right where someone else was killed. That didn't make much sense but perhaps it shows how he doesn't think things through?

                                          

Evan Peters is amazing and fun and insane as always. He's always a joy to watch and his many characters in the franchise have all been very different from each other. So much talent. 

 

I re-watched part of the second episode waiting for the third one, and was struck how much Billie Lourd is channeling her mom. She always looked very much like her mom but in this season, even more so. It's actually creepy, maybe because she's pushing thirty now. She also speaks like Carrie Fisher, that quick, clipped fifties patter. They still have Billie doing that cadence and it's enjoyable.

You gotta feel sorry for Lily Rabe's Doris who is being betrayed by her own husband and daughter. Everyone around her is turning into someone else. Her bland little world of bland design "grey-eige" is being turned upside down. Instead of her vain husband being an actor as in Rosemary's Baby, he's a writer but still has sold his soul. I wonder what's in store for the baby? Is it a devil baby preordained by the coven? Is the coven from Coven going to show up to claim it?

The show has bits of The Shining, Rosemary's Baby, Salem's Lot, Dark Shadows, The Omen, and many other horror movies threaded through it. I've actually never seen any incarnations of Dark Shadows but Evan Peters seems like he's channeling Barnabas Collins at some point. I'm not ignorant that the show exists but just don't know the inside scoop of it. 

We didn't have to wait long for our buddy Harry to be captured by kinky weirdos and thrown into a dungeon to be sexually violated in a snuff video. Well, he went there to kill the girl for her blood but she flipped the tables on him and he became the victim. I have to say, I was trembling with an-ti-ci-pation to see if the sex scene would actually happen, being a kinky weirdo myself. I loved how he used his fangs to bite his bindings and then destroy them. Go Finn-Harry! 

Oh, and if the snuff film weirdos hadn't been explaining how they were going to kill Harry in detail (to entice him to take the Viagra) and had just done it, he wouldn't have had time to chew through the bindings. 

Looking forward to next week! In the meantime, have a bowl of blood! It's nutritious and delicious. 

Or just go relax in the tub like Dandy used to like to do...

 

And while you're waiting and soaking, check out some of my books on the new SCREAM Chills and Thrills app both on iPhone and Android!

If you want to read a story about a witch who gets to meet her favourite horror TV star, check out my latest book in my Witch Upon a Star series.

American Horror Story Double Feature Episode One and Two Thoughts

Oh, Ryan Murphy must be in my head! Maybe not!

But wow, a horror story with my favourite AHS cast member, Finn Wittrock, playing a WRITER!

A crazy writer, perhaps like Jack Torrance, or perhaps not, you’ll have to watch to find out!

And yes, Finn-Harry, writing is hard. But the lure of fame and fortune at any cost is harder, isn’t it?

I’m loving this story so far.

There’s also a violinist!

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I’ll try not to be too spoilery and since it’s just the beginning episodes, anything can happen as this is Ryan Murphy after all!

 

Harry (Finn Wittrock) and his pregnant wife (Lily Rabe) and their pre-teen daughter, Alma (Ryan Kiera Armstrong), a virtuoso violinist move into a creepy house in Massachusetts so Harry can find his muse for a TV pilot his agent needs him to write as Hollywood is calling.

(Way to go, Harry. I’ve been working on TV pilots myself…oh, can't wait for Hollywood to call!)

This is the first time for me that I’ve seen Finn cast as a grown-up. Of course, I’ve not yet had a chance to see all his work as I’m still waiting for some to be released here in Canada. I saw him in Judy and he played the husband of Judy Garland but he wasn’t a family man. In this show, Finn is a dad! No more pretty boy young angry monster roles, I guess…our Finn has grown up.

Well, we know he’ll likely be back to naked push-ups in Season Two of Ratched so don’t despair!

I love seeing Finn as a husband to a pregnant wife and with a daughter. It’s fun and he does it well.

(He's married with a child in real life so he knows what to do!)

Some weirdness happens.

Harry has huge writer’s block as all of us writers who face daunting deadlines get. 

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Harry is excited to meet a couple of rich and famous writers who live in town. They want to share their secrets of success with him. Of course, these authors with their temptations are played by Evan Peters and Frances Conroy who look like they are having the time of their lives vamping it up as they lure in reluctant Harry.

Harry is faced with the choice of taking a little pill to enhance his writing abilities.

His daughter also learns about the pills when she spies on him. She’s been frustrated with her violin practicing. She’s a virtuoso but stumbles on a passage in the music. 

Mom is a home decorator who seems to be lost in the shuffle of family talent. No one really takes her seriously, not her writer-husband and not her violinist-daughter.

The drug brings fame and fortune to those who have real talent. As well as blood lust. To those who don’t, they turn into despicable insane vampire creatures.  

 

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Harry takes the drug and writes up a storm.

His daughter sneaks the drug and plays up a storm, no more stumbles!

Mom doesn’t know why her husband and daughter are obsessive assholes.

In the meantime, we meet Sarah Paulson, Macaulay Culkin, and Billie Lourd as well as some other franchise favourites.

Billie, (who is one of my lady AHS favourites along with Emma Roberts who I hope is in this but not sure, they did both just have babies in real life) plays a tattoo artist dentist! 

Sarah plays an addict called Karen which I’m sure is a hilarious nod to the current state of Karen in our modern times. Sarah is so far doing her usual great job of stranger in a strange land. 

Macaulay plays a writer who flirts with the idea of taking the drug. We’ll find out later if he has talent or not. I'm loving watching him as an adult. 

I’m sure that eventually Lily Rabe will discover the drug and we’ll find out whether she has talent or not. Right now, they are playing like she doesn’t really, her decorating abilities are rather stale but they may be tricking us for a twist ending where she’ll survive and everyone dies. Or maybe the baby has talent and she doesn’t. Or who knows what kind of crazy Murphy has in mind for that pregnancy!

We have The Shining, Cape Fear, Salem's Lot, vampires, drugs, temptation, monsters, New England...

Anyway, so far so good.

I’m hooked in as always.

Can’t wait for next week!

 Oh, and as a little side note, Finn was born in Massachusetts so there's that little homage as well!