Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Nightcrawler Experience!
Happy Halloween, everyone! Or, at least, everyone who celebrates it.
In the last edition, I looked at an episode of the classic show 'Are You Afraid of the Dark?' For this entry, in contrast, I'll be looking at a newer movie that is already being hailed as a Halloween classic: The 2012 stopmotion movie 'ParaNorman.'
First, a bit of a disclaimer: While this is technically a PG movie, I do NOT recommend it to kids under 12. It has a lot of pretty scary moments, and a surprising amount of adult content for a PG movie (i.e. a lot of risque humor, and near the end of the movie one of the major characters is revealed to be gay). So, exercise a little bit of caution before letting kids see it.
Anyway, as you can probably tell from the title, it centers around a boy named Norman. He is able to see the spirits of dead people (Most of whom are quite friendly and sociable towards him, especially the ghost of his kindly grandmother who stuck around to keep a promise she made in life to always look out for Norman), and is viewed as a freak by both his family and everyone at school because of this. Eventually, weirder things than usual begin happening, and Norman realizes that the ghost of an ancient witch who had become something of an urban legend for the town is about to return in order to fulfill a centuries- old curse she made against the town that condemned her. In the process, the judge who sentenced her to death and the villagers who accused her are brought back as zombies. Norman finds himself teaming up with his overbearing big sister Courtney, a pudgy and goofy yet likable kid named Neil who he had started to become friends with, Neil's dumb jock brother Mitch, and the brutish school bully Alvin so he can use his gift to stop the curse, save the town, and help some lost souls find peace.
Even though, as I said, the humor can get a bit crude at times, I loved 'ParaNorman.' It had a great story, some pretty funny moments, and some pretty cool action sequences (i.e, Mitch trying to drive everyone away from the zombies in his van, and in the end when Norman confronts the spirit of the "Witch" causing everything).
The animation on this film is splendid. Stopmotion animation is a lost art, capable of real beauty in the right hands, and that's clearly on display here, especially in terms of the characters. The animation company that made this film, Laika Studios, has made several other quite excellent stopmotion films, such as 'Coraline,' 'The Boxtrolls,' and the more recent 'Kubo and the Two Strings.'
The characters were all a lot of fun, too. Norman is a great unlikely hero, with his courage, kindness, and even his awesome hairstyle (Even when he tries to comb it down, it quickly springs back up again). Courtney is initially a rude, annoying valley- girl, but you grow to like her over the course of the film as she learns to be more supportive/ accepting of Norman. Neil is very funny, and makes an awesome supporting character.
Another character I found I liked a lot more than I expected was Alvin. Usually the "School bully" character in movies is just an unsympathetic jerk for audiences to hate and heroes to stand up to, but Alvin proved to be a very funny and entertaining character to watch, especially for the scenes involving how brainless and cowardly he is in spite of the tough front he puts up. For instance, in one scene, he is attempting to carve his name into a bathroom stall with a knife, but has to keep crossing it out and starting over because he keeps misspelling his own name! Adding to the humor of Alvin is that his voice actor, Christopher Mintz- Plasse (Probably best known as McLovin from 'Superbad'), is usually known for playing really nerdy characters that are pretty much the polar opposite of Alvin!
Now, for the theological point I'm hoping to make: The main message of 'ParaNorman' deals with the nature of fear. The movie points out that being afraid is nothing to be ashamed of, yet we need to be very careful that we don't let our fears change who we are or drive us to do things we shouldn't.
It becomes clear as the movie goes on that the curse started as a result of scared people hundreds of years ago letting their paranoia and panic drive them to do something terrible.
Then, later in the film, history nearly repeats itself in a way, as our heroes at one point find themselves in more physical danger from the panicked townspeople than from the zombies.
Many truly monstrous acts throughout history have been driven by people's uncontrolled fears, from the Spanish Inquisition to the Salem Witch Trials to the Holocaust. Fear, if left unchecked, quickly overrides people's common sense and consciences.
Even today, we're seeing a lot of that in our society, between fears being stoked in our election season, and the increase in "Clown sightings" sparking fears of what might happen tonight, and leading to some people threatening to take drastic action if they see anyone in a clown costume.
The one command that God gives most often in the Bible, more often even than to believe in Him, is to "Fear not." In Numbers 13 and 14, the Israelites were prevented from entering the Promised Land for decades because a few of the spies they sent to scout out the land caused the people to become afraid that they couldn't overcome the land's strong residents, even after God specifically told them through Moses that they could do it.
2 Timothy 1:7 has God saying "I have not given you a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind."
Jesus Himself said in John 14:27, "Peace I leave you; My peace I give to you. I do not give as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid."
As followers of Jesus Christ, we are told to not give in to our fears, because that causes us to focus more on our fears and problems than on the God who is bigger than all of them and can get us through them. I have gone many times over the years to Universal Studios' Halloween Horror Nights, and each time I'm about to enter a House, I recite the 23rd Psalm to myself, paying special attention to "I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me." That always helps to steady my nerves before entering, reminding me that God will always be there for me.
To sum things up, here's the link to a song that truly sums up how faith in God casts out fear:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8TkUMJtK5k .
So, that's it for this edition of the Nightcrawler Experience. I'm working on some more entries soon that I think you'll like. Until then, have a safe and happy Halloween, and may God bless you all!
Monday, October 31, 2016
Tuesday, October 18, 2016
Christ's victory; Conquering 'The Nightly Neighbors.'
Hey everyone, welcome back to the Nightcrawler Experience!
Sorry it's been such a long absence, so much has been going on in my life and my walk with God.
Here is the first in what will hopefully be a two- part Halloween- related entry set.
I explained in my 'Bride of Frankenstein' review a couple years ago my personal thoughts on the ethics of if a Christian should celebrate Halloween or not, so if you have any questions about that, see that entry. If not, full steam ahead!
I recently was given a great pop- culture and theology revelation, tying into the resolution of something on TV which had scared me bad as a kid, so I think I'll share it with all of you.
NOTE: This might get a little scary, so proceed ahead with some caution.
The Early- mid 1990s, when I was a kid, were an absolute golden age for the TV network Nickelodeon. So many awesome, diverse shows came out during that period which gave me hours of entertainment, and many of them still hold up pretty well today. One of the shows in that period which really stuck out for me (And helped start my enjoyment of horror entertainment) was a show called "Are You Afraid of the Dark?"
For the uninitiated, it was a kind of horror anthology show in which a group of kids calling themselves "the Midnight Society" would meet regularly at a clearing in the woods to tell scary stories around a campfire, with each episode featuring one of those stories, involving kids coming into contact with the supernatural or the otherworldly.
It was a show which wasn't afraid to take risks and push the envelope as far as kids' programming is concerned, I seriously doubt it would be allowed on Nickelodeon today. Many of those episodes (Especially in the show's first season) were quite scary, especially considering that a) I was only eight years old when it first premiered, and b) the episodes aired at 9:30 PM on Saturday nights, so they'd often be the last things I'd see before going to bed that night.
One episode that I recall particularly scaring me was entitled 'The Tale of the Nightly Neighbors.'
SPOILERS!
In this episode, two siblings, the adventurous and imaginative Emma and her couch- potato brother Dayday, get mysterious new neighbors who've come all the way from the Ukraine: Mr and Mrs. Braun, and their young son Lex.
(Meet the Brauns; Credit for this picture and the one after it go to the user "Villainslover98" on the Villains Wiki)
Emma quickly grows suspicious of her strange new neighbors. They only come out at night (Hence the title of the episode), dress all in black, and shortly after they arrive, several other people in the town suddenly appear very sick and weak, all sporting bandages on their throats, and all saying that they first started feeling that way shortly after being visited by the Brauns. Emma quickly comes to the conclusion that the Brauns are vampires, and convinces the more skeptical Dayday to help her investigate. In what seems to be the final nail in the coffin (No pun intended), upon sneaking into the Brauns' basement, the two siblings discover a refrigerator filled with large bottles of blood.
Shortly after that, they to their surprise run into Mr. and Mrs. Braun in broad daylight! The Brauns explain to the kids that they are paramedics and the hospital where they work has a surplus of blood, so they were asked to help store some of the extra units of it in their basement. This explanation and seeing them out in the daylight lay the siblings' suspicions to rest, so when Mrs. Braun then asks if young Lex could come over to their house that evening to play video games, they agree. The siblings walk away, with Dayday laughingly assuring Emma that he won't let her forget this embarrassment.
However, we then find out that Emma's suspicions were not that far off. It cuts to the Brauns' basement, where we learn that while Mr. and Mrs. Braun are not vampires, their "son" Lex IS one! Rather than being his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Braun are merely his human servants/ protectors. They inform him that he has been invited into the siblings' house so he can now feed on them with ease, point out it was wise to come to America where there's so much fresh blood, and Mr. Braun smugly says "And no one would believe that a little boy could be a vampire!" He and his wife laugh evilly as Lex awakens for the night, and opens his mouth in a wide grin which reveals his fangs, and so the episode ends.
(Behold, the image that haunted me for days afterwards!)
Being an eight- year- old boy at the time who hadn't seen all that much scary stuff outside of the show, 'The Tale of the Nightly Neighbors' so thoroughly terrified me that I remember I had to in my mind make up a happier ending for that episode just to get any sleep that night. I recall it was at least 6 months before I could work up the nerve to even watch that episode again.
About a year or two after that episode premiered, a book version of it was published, which expanded the story greatly (The plot of the episode only made up about the first half or so of the book) and apparently did indeed give it a happier ending. Problem is, back then, I was unable to acquire a copy of the book, let alone read it, so I had no way of knowing what eventually happened, and if Emma and her brother managed to survive or not. It remained a mystery to me for a good 24 years or so.
Fortunately, I just recently discovered on Youtube that someone posted a series of videos of himself reading the book aloud, so I was able to follow along with the extended story that way, kind of like listening to a book on tape.
I was satisfied to at last learn that the book version of 'The Tale of the Nightly Neighbors' did indeed have a happier ending than the episode itself suggested; Emma manages to destroy Lex by tricking him into being exposed to sunlight, all the people he bit and infected then return to normal with no memory of what happened, and Mr. and Mrs. Braun quietly flee the town in defeat, never to be seen again.
Somewhere, my eight- year- old self is grinning with relief.
This, then, leads to the point I'm hoping to make. For so many years, upon remembering that episode, I remember it as the Brauns' evil plans triumphing, with the heroes Emma and Dayday almost certainly about to join the ranks of the undead. But, finally, several years later, I learned the full ending through the book and saw that the Brauns were ultimately defeated and Emma prevailed through her courage and resourcefulness.
While vampires obviously aren't real, we live in a fallen world where there are many real people as evil as the Brauns (Rather than being driven by a literal thirst for blood, they may be driven by greed, sadism, a longing for power, devotion to a twisted ideology, or any one of countless other dark desires) who thrive and at times seem to win in life, while good people seem to lose and suffer regularly. Also, much like Lex in the story, they can at times take on seemingly innocent or harmless forms to make it even harder to recognize or stop them. It's what happens when Satan so thoroughly controls our world.
But, the good news for us as Christians is, it won't always be that way. We serve a God who loves us enough and has a strong enough sense of justice that He won't let the forces of darkness prevail forever. Right in the beginning, in the Garden of Eden, God said to Satan (Who at the time was in the form of the Serpent) that the Son will not just defeat him, but flat- out destroy him. He says of Him in Genesis 3:15, "You will bruise His heel (Indicating the crucifixion), but He will crush your head." Think about that for a second: Bruised heel vs. crushed head. That is a full- on landslide victory, not even close! God won the first major victory when Christ died for us to save our souls, and He will win the ultimate victory in the End when Satan and his forces are defeated and cast down once and for all.
In Malachi 4:1, it says ""For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze," says the LORD of hosts, "so that it will leave them neither root nor branch." In that day, not only will the evil people and forces of this world be defeated, but there will not even be anything left of them. From then, we who follow Christ will enjoy an eternity with no more tears, no more pain, just pure joy and peace.
Through trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ and His inevitable final victory, we can be at ease knowing that the day will eventually come when the "Nightly Neighbors" of this world will fail and goodness and righteousness will reign forever.
Keep your eyes open, part 2 of my Halloween series will come soon. Until then, God bless you all!
Sorry it's been such a long absence, so much has been going on in my life and my walk with God.
Here is the first in what will hopefully be a two- part Halloween- related entry set.
I explained in my 'Bride of Frankenstein' review a couple years ago my personal thoughts on the ethics of if a Christian should celebrate Halloween or not, so if you have any questions about that, see that entry. If not, full steam ahead!
I recently was given a great pop- culture and theology revelation, tying into the resolution of something on TV which had scared me bad as a kid, so I think I'll share it with all of you.
NOTE: This might get a little scary, so proceed ahead with some caution.
The Early- mid 1990s, when I was a kid, were an absolute golden age for the TV network Nickelodeon. So many awesome, diverse shows came out during that period which gave me hours of entertainment, and many of them still hold up pretty well today. One of the shows in that period which really stuck out for me (And helped start my enjoyment of horror entertainment) was a show called "Are You Afraid of the Dark?"
For the uninitiated, it was a kind of horror anthology show in which a group of kids calling themselves "the Midnight Society" would meet regularly at a clearing in the woods to tell scary stories around a campfire, with each episode featuring one of those stories, involving kids coming into contact with the supernatural or the otherworldly.
It was a show which wasn't afraid to take risks and push the envelope as far as kids' programming is concerned, I seriously doubt it would be allowed on Nickelodeon today. Many of those episodes (Especially in the show's first season) were quite scary, especially considering that a) I was only eight years old when it first premiered, and b) the episodes aired at 9:30 PM on Saturday nights, so they'd often be the last things I'd see before going to bed that night.
One episode that I recall particularly scaring me was entitled 'The Tale of the Nightly Neighbors.'
SPOILERS!
In this episode, two siblings, the adventurous and imaginative Emma and her couch- potato brother Dayday, get mysterious new neighbors who've come all the way from the Ukraine: Mr and Mrs. Braun, and their young son Lex.
(Meet the Brauns; Credit for this picture and the one after it go to the user "Villainslover98" on the Villains Wiki)
Emma quickly grows suspicious of her strange new neighbors. They only come out at night (Hence the title of the episode), dress all in black, and shortly after they arrive, several other people in the town suddenly appear very sick and weak, all sporting bandages on their throats, and all saying that they first started feeling that way shortly after being visited by the Brauns. Emma quickly comes to the conclusion that the Brauns are vampires, and convinces the more skeptical Dayday to help her investigate. In what seems to be the final nail in the coffin (No pun intended), upon sneaking into the Brauns' basement, the two siblings discover a refrigerator filled with large bottles of blood.
Shortly after that, they to their surprise run into Mr. and Mrs. Braun in broad daylight! The Brauns explain to the kids that they are paramedics and the hospital where they work has a surplus of blood, so they were asked to help store some of the extra units of it in their basement. This explanation and seeing them out in the daylight lay the siblings' suspicions to rest, so when Mrs. Braun then asks if young Lex could come over to their house that evening to play video games, they agree. The siblings walk away, with Dayday laughingly assuring Emma that he won't let her forget this embarrassment.
However, we then find out that Emma's suspicions were not that far off. It cuts to the Brauns' basement, where we learn that while Mr. and Mrs. Braun are not vampires, their "son" Lex IS one! Rather than being his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Braun are merely his human servants/ protectors. They inform him that he has been invited into the siblings' house so he can now feed on them with ease, point out it was wise to come to America where there's so much fresh blood, and Mr. Braun smugly says "And no one would believe that a little boy could be a vampire!" He and his wife laugh evilly as Lex awakens for the night, and opens his mouth in a wide grin which reveals his fangs, and so the episode ends.
(Behold, the image that haunted me for days afterwards!)
Being an eight- year- old boy at the time who hadn't seen all that much scary stuff outside of the show, 'The Tale of the Nightly Neighbors' so thoroughly terrified me that I remember I had to in my mind make up a happier ending for that episode just to get any sleep that night. I recall it was at least 6 months before I could work up the nerve to even watch that episode again.
About a year or two after that episode premiered, a book version of it was published, which expanded the story greatly (The plot of the episode only made up about the first half or so of the book) and apparently did indeed give it a happier ending. Problem is, back then, I was unable to acquire a copy of the book, let alone read it, so I had no way of knowing what eventually happened, and if Emma and her brother managed to survive or not. It remained a mystery to me for a good 24 years or so.
Fortunately, I just recently discovered on Youtube that someone posted a series of videos of himself reading the book aloud, so I was able to follow along with the extended story that way, kind of like listening to a book on tape.
I was satisfied to at last learn that the book version of 'The Tale of the Nightly Neighbors' did indeed have a happier ending than the episode itself suggested; Emma manages to destroy Lex by tricking him into being exposed to sunlight, all the people he bit and infected then return to normal with no memory of what happened, and Mr. and Mrs. Braun quietly flee the town in defeat, never to be seen again.
Somewhere, my eight- year- old self is grinning with relief.
This, then, leads to the point I'm hoping to make. For so many years, upon remembering that episode, I remember it as the Brauns' evil plans triumphing, with the heroes Emma and Dayday almost certainly about to join the ranks of the undead. But, finally, several years later, I learned the full ending through the book and saw that the Brauns were ultimately defeated and Emma prevailed through her courage and resourcefulness.
While vampires obviously aren't real, we live in a fallen world where there are many real people as evil as the Brauns (Rather than being driven by a literal thirst for blood, they may be driven by greed, sadism, a longing for power, devotion to a twisted ideology, or any one of countless other dark desires) who thrive and at times seem to win in life, while good people seem to lose and suffer regularly. Also, much like Lex in the story, they can at times take on seemingly innocent or harmless forms to make it even harder to recognize or stop them. It's what happens when Satan so thoroughly controls our world.
But, the good news for us as Christians is, it won't always be that way. We serve a God who loves us enough and has a strong enough sense of justice that He won't let the forces of darkness prevail forever. Right in the beginning, in the Garden of Eden, God said to Satan (Who at the time was in the form of the Serpent) that the Son will not just defeat him, but flat- out destroy him. He says of Him in Genesis 3:15, "You will bruise His heel (Indicating the crucifixion), but He will crush your head." Think about that for a second: Bruised heel vs. crushed head. That is a full- on landslide victory, not even close! God won the first major victory when Christ died for us to save our souls, and He will win the ultimate victory in the End when Satan and his forces are defeated and cast down once and for all.
In Malachi 4:1, it says ""For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze," says the LORD of hosts, "so that it will leave them neither root nor branch." In that day, not only will the evil people and forces of this world be defeated, but there will not even be anything left of them. From then, we who follow Christ will enjoy an eternity with no more tears, no more pain, just pure joy and peace.
Through trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ and His inevitable final victory, we can be at ease knowing that the day will eventually come when the "Nightly Neighbors" of this world will fail and goodness and righteousness will reign forever.
Keep your eyes open, part 2 of my Halloween series will come soon. Until then, God bless you all!
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