Hi everyone, and happy Halloween from the Nightcrawler Experience!
This will be the first of what will be another hopefully two- part Halloween- related series of entries (I realize Halloween will be over by the time Part 2 comes out, but this has been a very busy Autumn for me). I didn't know if I'd be able to find two entries that would work for this blog this year, but God has provided me with special inspiration for this one!
Much as I did with one of my Halloween entries last year, this one is a look at a segment from an episode of the Shudder streaming show 'Creepshow: The Series.' For those who didn't catch that entry, 'Creepshow' is a series on the horror- related streaming website Shudder, which is based on the movie series of the same name, which in turn is based on the old EC horror comics of the 1950s such as 'Tales From the Crypt. Each season contains six episodes, and each episode contains two stories/ segments.
This show is now in its third season, and a recent episode featured two creature- related stories, respectively entitled "The Last Tsuburaya" and "OK I'll Bite." While "Bite" (The story of a prison inmate who has a MAJOR affinity for spiders) was great, I'll focus on what I consider the superior of the two tales, "The Last Tsuburaya."
1. DISCLAIMER! This episode has scary and possibly objectionable content.
2. SPOILERS!
Co- written by Paul Dini (Who in the 90's wrote several episodes of the magnificent "Batman: The Animated Series," and was in fact the creator of Harley Quinn), this tale opens by telling us a little about an ancient Japanese artist named Ichiro Tsuburaya. As known for his misanthropic attitude as he was for his gruesome paintings depicting ghosts and monsters from Japanese folklore, the artwork of Tsuburaya (Pronounced "Soo- buh- rye- uh") tends to sell for immense sums of money at auction.
When this tale begins, we learn that Tsuburaya's final painting was recently discovered in the ruins of a Japanese monastery, and has never been seen by ANYONE (Other than the artist himself, obviously), and his only living relative/ heir, a young man named Bobby, is presented with a crate that apparently contains this painting. An art historian named Dr. Sato attempts to purchase the painting from Bobby so she can display it in her museum for all to enjoy, but is foiled by the sudden, uninvited arrival of a man named Wade Cruise (Brandon Quinn). Immediately coming across as an arrogant sleazebag, this tech billionaire and art collector nevertheless convinces Bobby to instead sell the crate with the last Tsuburaya painting to him for his private collection for the princely sum of $10 million. As an added display of his nastiness and arrogance, Wade then invites Dr. Sato to his unveiling of the painting at his penthouse that evening as a way to further rub his victory over this acquisition in her face.
Worse is to come from him. At the unveiling, Wade removes the Tsuburaya painting from the crate, admiring it while holding it in such a way that all the attendees of the event can only see the back of it, while we the viewers catch only small glimpses of it, enough to see that it is of a particularly heinous- looking demon. The guests all come closer and closer to Wade, eager to finally see this masterpiece. Just then, in a shocking and honestly despicable act, Wade out of nowhere whips out a lighter and burns the painting in front of everyone, thereby ensuring that he himself will have been the only person in history to ever look upon Tsuburaya's last painting (As he then smugly puts it, "It now exists in the most exclusive gallery of all: My mind."). Everyone else is of course disgusted by this incomprehensibly selfish act, as he then orders everyone out, having done what he intended to do.
Among those who hated Wade doing this is his own
girlfriend Geesa, an accomplished artist herself whom Wade acts as a patron/
benefactor to in exchange for her only painting for him. In a scene that helps
demonstrate both of their personalities and philosophies on life in general, they have a conversation in which Geesa tells Wade of her first art sale: A simple drawing of a cat which she made as a toddler, and which her father
bought from her for 25 cents, in what seemed to be the first time he really acknowledged her as she was often drowned out for attention by her older brothers. This led her to grow up believing that the only way anyone would notice her would be if she created something they found valuable.
Wade, in turn, shares a little story of his own: He was once given the opportunity to buy a quite valuable antique vase from a man who urgently needed money to pay for an
operation to save his (The seller’s) young daughter’s life. Upon learning of
the man’s desperation, Wade used this fact to force the poor guy to accept a price
for the vase far lower than what it was actually worth. Six months after acquiring the vase, Wade sold it at auction for over ten times what he paid the father for it. When Geesa then asks him what happened to the daughter
in the story, Wade responds "Not my worry." This experience taught him that, while simply acquiring material things didn't bring him much happiness or satisfaction, crafting unique experiences for himself and finding ways to deliberately bring stress and misery to others in the process was, as he put it, "Like crack to me." This was obviously what led him to do what he did at the unveiling.
Bottom line, Wade is the sort of person that is ripe for the kind of supernatural comeuppance that most evildoers on this show face, and boy oh boy, does he ever get it!
Later that very night, Wade begins seeing elements of the destroyed Tsuburaya painting everywhere he goes (i.e. The normal- looking eyes on a portrait in his private gallery suddenly resemble the Tsuburaya demon's yellow, serpentine eyes, and a sketch that Geesa made of the demon based on what little she heard about it suddenly stretches its mouth open in a snarl). Not long after that, the demon begins appearing to him in the flesh, stalking and eventually attacking him.
After a while, Wade manages to kill the monster by impaling it with a tribal spear (In addition to being an art collector, he also had a large collection of antique weapons from around the world). While initially gloating over his victory, talking about how he'll have it stuffed and mounted on display, he is immediately stunned into silence as the monster then transforms into a robed Japanese gentleman. You see, the monster was really Tsuburaya himself.
As the mortally- wounded artist explains, "On my death, my hatred trapped me between worlds, becoming the image of my most monstrous creation, imprisoned, until you released me. My curse is broken; Now, YOURS begins." Tsuburaya disintegrates into dust, and Wade looks down in horror to see that his own hands have become the claws of the Tsuburaya demon. Realizing what's happening to him and obviously not wanting it, Wade commits suicide, impaling himself on the same spear.
As coroners later come and remove Wade's body, a flash of lightning reveals that, along the massive window where the deaths took place, there is now a bloodstain trail resembling the outline of the Tsuburaya demon, and so the episode ends.
"The Last Tsuburaya" pretty much instantly became another of the most memorable episodes in the series so far for me.
The story makes for an interesting look at art and philanthropy, and kept me riveted from start to finish.
The costume design for the Tsuburaya demon looks great, a little bit hokey (But in a way that works, considering that the show is heavily based on the 1950s horror comics, and regularly incorporates a little bit of camp into their stories), but also genuinely frightening.
The characters are mostly well- done, other than the lucky heir Bobby who is never seen again after Wade acquires the painting from him. Dr. Sato is the most sympathetic; It's clear that she deeply loves the works of Tsuburaya, and is motivated by a desire for others to be able to enjoy his works just as much, rather than just the self- promotion of her museum potentially hosting his last work.
Of course, the main focal character in this story is Wade. This guy is so vile and loathsome, yet in a way you can't take your eyes away from, if only to see when he inevitably gets what he deserves by the end of the episode. Brandon Quinn does an amazing job playing him, both with his smugness and narcissism in the first half of the story, and with his growing terror, paranoia and panic in its second half.
It also I suppose goes without saying that much of the artwork seen in the episode (Both the renderings of Tsuburaya's supposed works, and the random artwork on display in Wade's private gallery) is gorgeous.
In short, "The Last Tsuburaya" makes for a fascinating and quite enjoyable tale.
I could think of a couple Scriptural lessons that could be taken from "The Last Tsuburaya."
The main one I can think of concerns the proper Biblical use of wealth.
It brings to mind a story found in Mark 10:17- 27. Jesus is approached by a wealthy young man who asks Him what he (The young man) must do in order to gain eternal life. Jesus responds that he should follow God's commandments. The young man says he already does all of those. Jesus then responds, "One thing you lack; Go, sell everything you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in Heaven. Then, come, follow Me." At this, it says that the young man's face fell, and he went away very sad, because he had many great possessions. Jesus then turns to His disciples and points out how hard it is for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God. He further says, "It is easier for a camel to travel through the eye of a needle that for someone who is rich to enter the Kingdom of God."
This "Camel through the eye of a needle" verse is probably one of the most controversial verses in all of Scripture. Many interpretations have been made of it, ranging from proponents of liberation theology viewing it as an explicit condemnation of literally all wealthy people, to others who claim it is more of a warning against self- righteousness and trying to earn one’s way into Heaven through works (i.e. The rich young man tells of everything he has done to apparently earn righteousness, yet does not seem to give much if any thought as to God’s grace; He thinks he can get into Heaven purely through what he himself does rather than through what God does), while still others say that it is about the impossibility of being truly perfect in God’s eyes.
While I’m not particularly big on liberation
theology due to it leaning a bit too close to Marxism for my tastes, I do
appreciate its point on the immorality of some people wasting their wealth on ridiculous, obscene displays of extravagance while there are starving beggars no more
than a couple miles away from them for whom a few bucks could mean the difference between life and death.
The great theologian John Wesley, founder of the Methodist church, believed this as well, based on his sermon/ essay "Thoughts on the Scarcity of Provisions." This sermon largely dealt with his thoughts on why food in his native England was becoming so hard to come by and so expensive, thereby worsening the plight of starvation among its poor and needy citizens. In this sermon, one of the major reasons Wesley gave for why this was the case was because of the excessive luxury that the upper classes demonstrated. For instance, their love of riding through towns in carriages pulled by many horses contributed both to the scarcity and rising costs of meat (So many ranchers switched from raising cows, pigs, etc., to the more lucrative practice of raising horses), and also to the scarcity and rising costs of oats (More horses needing more feed, after all, meant less oats as food for humans).
I’d say “The Last Tsuburaya” can act in a
sense as a good way of demonstrating their interpretation of this passage and
verse. Having a lot of wealth at one’s disposal can easily corrupt a person. If
they do not have their heart in the right place and their priorities in check,
it can lead to them using their wealth to satisfy base and at times even flat-
out evil desires. I think it's a big part of why so many celebrities get heavily into vice and develop sometimes- fatal substance abuse problems. In Wade’s case in this episode, it drove him to use his money to find ways to
gain happiness for himself by making others miserable, with his use of the
Tsuburaya painting being a perfect example of this. He shelled out $10 million
on a painting purely for the ego trip of being the only one to see it and the
sadistic joy of depriving other art aficionados of the pleasure of observing
it. With that kind of money, he could have supplied an impoverished African village
with food, clean water, and medical supplies for a decade or more.
In that sense, Wade’s fate of turning into a monster before killing himself
made for a perfect picture of his life of selfishness, hedonism, and hatred
towards his fellow man finally catching up to him and showing through his outer appearance, just as it did to Tsuburaya himself.
All that being said, I personally know of many wealthy people who do earnestly know Jesus and who I am quite positive will enter Heaven (In fact, one such person I knew who shall remain anonymous passed from this world into the arms of Jesus just a month or two ago). The difference between them and people like Wade or like the rich young man is how they used their wealth. They were rich, sure, but they were also generous towards others, using what they had to help build God's Kingdom. They followed John Wesley's advice that Christians should try to "Earn all that we can, so we can save all that we can, so we can then give all that we can."
It also ties into what Jesus then says immediately after the "Camel pass through the eye of a needle" verse; The apostles, in response to this, then asked each other, "Who then can be saved?" Jesus replied, "With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God."
The Lord's immense mercy and grace is capable of reaching and saving even the worst of us, as long as we merely ask Him in faith to do so.
Thus, through trusting in the Lord's grace alone for salvation and properly using the blessings He has given us, we can avoid becoming like Wade and more fully become children of God, true masterpieces in His eyes.
That's all for this edition of the Nightcrawler Experience. My next entry should hopefully come quite soon. Until then, stay safe, have a happy Halloween, and may God bless you all!
