Legacy, Redemption, Destiny, and Disney; A Faith- Based Look at 'Descendants.'

Hi everyone, welcome back to the Nightcrawler Experience!
This summer has yielded a lot of good theatrical movies ("Avengers: Age of Ultron," "Inside Out," "Ant- Man," "Minions," etc.), but for this entry, I’ll be looking at a TV movie.
Normally, I avoid Disney Channel’s made- for- TV movies like the plague. A month or so ago, however, a new one premiered on Disney Channel that had such a cool and potentially interesting concept that I had to DVR it and give it a watch; It’s called, simply, ‘Descendants’ (Not to be confused with the George Clooney movie).

As the mythology behind this film, every Disney hero and heroine now lives in a kingdom called Auradon, and their teenage children attend a prep school there with the Fairy Godmother as the headmistress. The Disney villains, in contrast, have all been exiled to an island called the Isle of the Lost for their crimes, with a magic force field preventing them from ever setting foot in Auradon again.
As ‘Descendants’ starts, Prince Ben (Mitchell Hope), son of Belle and the now- human Beast, is preparing to take the throne. As his first royal decree, he proclaims that four of the villains’ teenage kids from the Isle of the Lost will be allowed to cross over and attend Auradon Prep, in an attempt to redeem their family names and show he doesn't believe kids should be punished for their parents' bad decisions.
      The four villainous offspring that are chosen for this experiment are an interesting bunch: Mal (Dove Cameron), daughter of the infamous Maleficent; Jay (Booboo Stewart), son of Aladdin’s nemesis Jafar; Evie (Sofia Carson), daughter of the Queen from ‘Snow White’; And last but not least, Carlos (Cameron Boyce), son of the fur- coat fanatic Cruella De Vil. None of them initially have any desire to accept Prince Ben’s offer, but Maleficent sees a way it can be used for their evil advantage; She tasks her daughter and the other three kids with going to Auradon Prep, finding the Fairy Godmother’s magic wand, and stealing it to help Maleficent and the other villains regain their power and take over the world (Mua-ha-ha-ha-ha!).

      The wand is normally kept in a nearby museum, but when the villain kids break in to try and make off with it, they find that its security system is tight. Mal gets the idea to use a love potion to make Prince Ben fall madly in love with her, so that she could be allowed to be close enough to him at his coronation ceremony to make a grab for the wand when the Fairy Godmother removes it from its case. As she gets to know Ben more, however, she begins to sincerely fall for him and begins to question what she really wants out of life.
       Amidst all this, the other three villain kids are surprisingly adapting pretty well to Auradon Prep; The smarter- than- she- seems Evie turns out to be nearly as adept at chemistry and potion- making as her mother was, the athletic and aggressive Jay proves to be a natural at “Tourney” (The sport they play there: Sort of a soccer/ lacrosse hybrid) and learns to be more of a team player, and the severely cynophobic Carlos gets over his fear of dogs (The scene in which Ben helps him do this is hilarious and heartwarming). However, things go south in a hurry at the school's Family Day, as an awkward moment of Mal meeting Sleeping Beauty's mother leads to a misunderstanding among some of the kids and an outburst that causes the villain kids to be treated more like outcasts than ever. It all leads up to an action- packed climax at Ben's coronation, Mal and her three friends having to decide which side they're truly on, and a hint at a possible sequel.

I won't lie, 'Descendants' has some problems. In the songs, there is often obvious lip- synching. The songs themselves are good enough (More on that later), but it's something that can't be ignored. Also, Mal is made such a center of the story that the other villain kids don't get quite as much play as they should (Especially Jay and Carlos). For that matter, a lot of the hero kids in the school aren't used as much as they could have been, either, especially Mulan's kind- hearted daughter Lonnie (One of the first hero kids to really make an effort to befriend the villain kids), and Dopey's band- geek son Doug (A very funny character who ironically hits it off really well with Evie).

All of that being said, 'Descendants' was a fun, enjoyable movie nonetheless. It didn't take itself too seriously, had plenty of intentional humor, was well- enough acted for a Disney Channel movie, and had a decent story with enough nice twists to it that a couple moments near the climax really did take me by surprise. If you take it for what it is and what audience it's mainly aimed at, you should enjoy it.

The performances from the younger actors are all pretty solid. Dove Cameron nails the role of Mal. You can really feel how conflicted she becomes over what she's doing, and can sympathize a lot with her inner struggles. Sofia Carson makes Evie into a pretty well- developed character as well. Booboo Stewart (the only young actor in this I had seen in anything else before, from when he played the mutant hero Warpath in 'X- Men: Days of Future Past') did a great job as Jay, and he too is well- developed, going from a hotheaded, bullying spotlight- hog to being willing to help another player score the winning goal in a Tourney championship. Carlos ended up becoming my favorite character, as I expected he would be. He provides great comic relief, and Cameron Boyce's performance helps ramp up the humor even more (Especially the many scenes in which he's cringing in terror at one thing or another).
Among the adult actors, the only real stand- out is Kristin Chenoweth as Maleficent. She is hysterical, so delightfully venomous and over- the- top, you can tell she's really having fun with this role. Cruella De Vil and Jafar are both rather under- utilized, but the Evil Queen at least has some funny lines later in the movie (Her reaction to seeing Snow White as a TV hostess is priceless).

Of course, considering that it's a Disney Channel movie musical directed by Kenny Ortega, who also directed 'High School Musical,' I must talk a little about the songs. When you get past the lip- synching, the songs (Other than possibly an acapella cover of the Disney classic 'Be Our Guest' that I didn't care for) are cool and fun to listen to and watch. My favorites are 'Rotten to the Core' (A catchy, energetic song at the start of the movie which serves to introduce the villain kids) and 'Did I Mention' (A silly, lighthearted song in which Ben, while under the influence of the love potion, wildly declares his love for Mal in song form). Another good addition to the songs is Maleficent's song, 'Evil Like Me.' While most of the songs in the movie have a modern- pop feel common to Disney Channel's TV movies, 'Evil Like Me' has more of a Broadway feel to it (Unsurprising, considering that Kristin Chenoweth is a Broadway veteran), adding a nice bit of variety to the soundtrack. The dancing's pretty good, too, especially for the final song "Set it Off."

I can think of quite a few Scriptural messages that can tie into 'Descendants.' One of the first is considering family, and how you shouldn't judge a person based on his or her past or family. Jesus Himself had a less- than- perfect family tree; Some of His ancestors included a woman who tricked her own unknowing father- in- law into sleeping with her in order to get pregnant (Tamar in Genesis 38), a prostitute (Rahab, seen in earlier chapters of the book of Joshua), a woman from an evil and rightly- hated tribe that most Jews wanted nothing to do with (Ruth, in the Bible book of the same name), and a king who had an affair with the wife of one of his most trusted military officers then had him killed in battle so he could marry her (David, 2 Samuel 11). From such a bizarre and flawed family tree came the Savior of the world. Similarly, in 'Descendants,' even though Mal and her friends had such vile fiends as parents, each of them ends up becoming his or her own person and making great unlikely heroes.
The opposite can hold true too, of course. Even good parents and families can produce offspring that don't hold to their parents' good examples. Hezekiah (Seen in 2 Kings), one of the best and most righteous kings Israel ever had, was succeeded by his son Manasseh, who for most of his reign was one of the worst and most wicked kings Israel ever knew. In 'Descendants,' we see a little of that principle as well, as Cinderella's son, Chad Charming, is quickly revealed to be a self- absorbed creep with none of the noble qualities his parents possessed.
Lastly, probably the most important Biblical theme seen in 'Descendants' is redemption. Mal, Evie, Jay and Carlos start out the movie as kids who really like finding random ways to be mean and cruel to others, clearly following in their parents' rotten footsteps. Over time in Auradon, however, they discover that the friends they made and the things they find out about themselves are what makes them truly happy, and ultimately find that they want to be good. In the same way, the Bible makes it clear in verses such as 1 John 1:9, Colossians 2:13- 14, Psalm 103:10-12, and  Ephesians 1:7-8  that no matter what a person may have done or how badly he or she may have fallen, they can be forgiven and redeemed through accepting Jesus, and His grace can transform them entirely. As one of my favorite hymns says, "The vilest offender who truly believes, that moment from Jesus a pardon receives."
So, there we have 'Descendants': A fun, lighthearted little TV movie that shows how even someone who seems "Rotten to the Core" can be brought to the light.
That's all for now. A new entry of the Nightcrawler Experience should come in a few weeks. Until then, God bless you all!

Providence, enjoyment, and awareness: Some Godly lessons I learned from Megacon 2015.

Hi everyone, welcome to another installment of the Nightcrawler Experience!
On April 11th, I attended the 2015 Megacon comic book convention in Orlando, FL with my dear friend Elizabeth (Who may from time to time in the future be seen writing guest articles here on the Nightcrawler Experience, as well). Other than my phone being dropped and the screen's visuals knocked out, I had a great time there. Not only did I have a lot of fun, get a lot of stuff from my comic collection signed by some of the writers and artists who were there, acquire a few buttons for my collection on my travel- backpack, see some great cosplayers, and meet some cool celebrity guests, I also learned some pretty valuable lessons about living for God from being there, so I'll be presenting them here along with my general thoughts as this entry.

My first lesson occurred right at the start of the convention, and dealt with not letting circumstances steal the joy we have. Early in the day, before the convention floor itself actually opened, something happened that has never happened before: A cosplayer actually wanted to take a picture with me, rather than the other way around (I was wearing my Captain America hoodie, and he had a backpack that resembled Cap's shield)! I insisted on having a picture of it taken with my camera phone as well, but as the guy was handing it back to me, it got dropped on the cement floor, wrecking its visual display. When this happened, I freaked out a lot, wondering how I could make things work out and if it could be fixed or replaced. Elizabeth, however, noticed the fear and focus I was developing, and strongly encouraged me to let it go. She pointed out that if I kept obsessing over my worry with my phone, it would ruin my enjoyment of the entire convention. So, through that wise bit of advice, I put my worry about the phone on the backburner, and had a lot more fun in the convention in the process.
In much the same way, God teaches us not to let obsessive worrying about our immediate circumstances steal the joy and service to Him we can gain from our lives. In Matthew 6:25 and 27, Jesus tells us '“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?... Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?"' 1 Peter 5:7 says 'Cast all your anxiety upon (God), because He cares for you.' God loves us enough that He doesn't want to see us wasting our lives worrying about petty things. It's not to say He doesn't want us to have a plan for things or think through our problems, just that we shouldn't let them consume us so much that they keep us from living our lives to the fullest.
By the way, here's the picture in question:

Another great lesson I learned was that God is immensely faithful, and can find ways to deliver His faithful children, whom His eye is always on. See, I went with Elizabeth, but we quickly went our separate ways to look at different things, agreeing to meet at a panel on creative writing at around noon. I went to it when the time came, but Elizabeth apparently didn't, and I couldn't find her anywhere. This really worried me, because I was hoping that I could use our meeting there to arrange where and when we would meet when we were ready to go home for the day, and now that was out the window (Especially due to the fact that my phone was broken and I was fairly certain hers would be out of battery power by that time)!
After the panel ended, I felt a pulling that that should be the time I should then go and get in line for the media guest Alan Tudyk's autograph. See, his presence as a guest was one of the major draws that led me to attend Megacon this year. For those who aren't familiar with him, Alan Tudyk is a quite talented character actor I've been a fan of for over 12 years, playing great roles in movies like 'Dodgeball' (As Steve the Pirate), 'A Knight's Tale' (In which he played the short- tempered squire Wat), the magnificent cult- classic TV show 'Firefly' and its theatrical movie 'Serenity' (As the fan- favorite pilot Wash), the horror- comedy gem 'Tucker and Dale vs. Evil,' the Jackie Robinson biopic '42,' and doing voice work in the Disney movies 'Wreck- it Ralph,' 'Frozen,' and 'Big Hero 6'. I went through the line to meet him slowly yet surely, and as I was doing so, I started trying to think up increasingly complicated plans to try and get into contact with Elizabeth (Some of the plans I thought up involved borrowing another convention attendee's phone, using my laptop to connect to the convention center's wi/fi, calling Elizabeth's mom, and similar ridiculous things). Then out of nowhere, when I was about 10 spots away from Tudyk's table, Elizabeth came along! I had a guy in front of me hold my place in the line, and ran up to her. We talked quickly, and made our arrangements on where and when we'd meet when we wanted to go home. She got into line herself (She's a fellow Alan Tudyk fan), and I went the rest of the way through and met Tudyk.

Through this, I learned a good lesson about God’s providence. I remembered that God always makes all things work together for good for those who love Him (As it says in Romans 8:28), and will always look after and provide for His faithful children. It might not always be in the ways we want or expect (More on that in a bit), but it comes just the same. Furthermore, Psalm 33:18 says that '... The eyes of the Lord are on those who fear Him, on those whose hope is in His unfailing love.' I believe it was indeed His will that Elizabeth and I each got the idea to get Tudyk's autograph then so we'd run into each other, and better work out our plan to meet up and get home safely.

Actually meeting Alan Tudyk was of course awesome, too. He was really nice, and had a great sense of humor, as I'd imagined he would. He even did a little of his King Candy (The villainous character he played/ voiced in Disney's 'Wreck- it Ralph') voice for me! I asked him if there was going to be a 'Tucker and Dale' sequel anytime soon, and he basically said that he and some others are working on developing it, but won't really commit to it unless they can make it into something at least as good as the first film. I then asked if he was going to be doing any more voice work for Disney in the near future. He responded by saying yes, but that he wasn't at liberty to say anything else about it at the moment. I'm hoping that means he'll be doing a voice for Disney's next big animated film, 'Zootopia.'

Another important lesson I learned was also associated with meeting a media guest. I had set out to also meet Tudyk’s ‘Firefly’/ ‘Serenity’ costar Summer Glau, who’s also been in shows like ‘Arrow,’ ‘Alphas,’ and ‘Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.’ Problem is, the line to meet her was one of the worst- managed lines I’ve ever seen for a media guest in my entire life. Between how incompetent the volunteers running the line were, and the fact that Glau would regularly step out for long periods to do photo- ops for fans, I was in that line for almost two hours without making much progress. When there were about 30 people between me and her, she abruptly left again, presumably for another photo op. What’s worse, it was very close to the time when I would be expected to meet Elizabeth so we could get ready to go home. I happened to look over to the left, and noticed that in the very next booth over, there was almost no line at all to meet another actress I like, Danielle Panabaker (From movies such as ‘Sky High’ and the 2009 ‘Friday the 13^th’ remake, and currently playing Caitlyn Snow on the hit TV series ‘The Flash’). I jumped over to her line, and got her autograph instead! She was very sweet and friendly, and definitely worth the autograph, but there was another surprise in store for me, too: Shortly before getting to Panabaker, Summer Glau abruptly popped out from the curtain (Separating the tables where the media guests were sitting from the hallways leading to other areas of the convention center) right behind her! I waved at Summer, she noticed, and waved back at me with a big smile! I got to have my cake and eat it, too!
This got me to thinking: God’s ways and plans are often completely different from our own plans, largely because He has a MUCH better sense of the "Big picture" than we do. There are plenty of verses in Scripture that drive home this point, such as Proverbs 16:9 ('In their hearts humans plan their course, but the LORD establishes their steps.') and Isaiah 55:8-9 ("'For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,' declares the Lord. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts."'). Lots of times, we’ll need to keep our eyes open to see if the things we’re working on and pouring our efforts into are truly worth the effort, or if maybe God has something even better in mind right in front of our noses!

So, just from my one day at Megacon, I got a lot of fun, a lot of autographs, some cool meetings with celebrities I admire, and three very valuable lessons on what it means to walk with Jesus. From not letting outside circumstances steal my joy about the here and now, to trusting in God’s deliverance for His faithful servants, to keeping our eyes open for unexpected opportunities He may send our way. I may very well attend next year's convention as well!

That's all for this edition of the Nightcrawler Experience. Some new entries should be on their way soon, including possibly a guest- entry by Elizabeth. Until then, God bless you all!

Hope in the Worst of Times: Stephen King vs. Dean Koontz.

Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Nightcrawler Experience!
Today, I felt like talking a little about books, comparing (From both a Christian perspective, and a pop- culture nerd perspective) an author who used to be my favorite with one who is currently one of my favorites, and who have been kind of rivals in the same genre.

WARNING: Both of these authors have made content that isn’t suitable for kids. Exercise caution and discernment before reading their works if you're under 16 or so or if you're squeamish.

From about my 8^th grade year, to shortly after graduating high school, I was a devoted fan of the works of Stephen King. I read a lot of his classic books like 'It,' 'Carrie,' 'Salem's Lot,' 'Christine,' 'Firestarter,' the anthology 'Different Seasons,' and many others. I loved them all. In fact, 'Salem's Lot' almost inspired me to write a book of my own once, but nothing really came of it.

However, Stephen King largely jumped the shark in the early- mid 90's, shortly after writing 'Desperation' and 'The Regulators.' The last good things he did were an episode of 'The X- Files' he directed in 1998 called "Chinga" and the TV miniseries 'Rose Red' in the early 2000s, and even those can't compare to his earlier works. Much of his work since then has been simply awful. Even his 'Dark Tower' comic book limited series he came out with some years ago was so bad and so dull that it literally put me to sleep. When not even a comic book can at least keep my interest, you know something's really wrong.

Part of the problem, which many have noted in critiquing King's works, is that there tends to be a very formulaic style to a lot of his works, especially in terms of his always including certain tropes and cliches in his works. For instance, nearly all of his works take place in Maine (Or occasionally in another dimension), nearly all of his works have a writer of some sort as a major character (I get that part of it is him incorporating his own inner struggles into his works, and it was novel the first few times it was done, but it's gotten old really quick), most of them have a stereotypical "Bully" character who is completely unsympathetic, many of his books feature children and babies dying, they often end on a quite bittersweet note, and so on. It's so obvious and so repetitive, that one of my favorite Internet personalities, the Nostalgia Critic, has created a "Stephen King Drinking Game," based around taking a shot every time you see one of those tropes in one of his books or the movies based off them. It's actually gotten even worse in King's more current works, with these tropes becoming much more pronounced and predictable.

There is one more major cliché that’s a regular in King’s works, which is a big part of the reason why I’m not really a fan of his anymore: In many of his works, especially nowadays, there will be a token “Christian” character who will inevitably be portrayed as either an ultra- stereotypical ignorant moron, an ultra- stereotypical narrow- minded jerk/ bigot, or (King seems to particularly favor this one) an ultra- stereotypical raving psychopath who spouts Bible verses while killing or otherwise mistreating people for no good reason.

 As those who know me personally or have read this blog in the past would probably know, I tend to be very permissive in terms of what I watch and read (Probably too much so: I partially attribute it to the fact that before I found Jesus, I was into even grislier fare, which largely desensitized me). There is very little that will bother me so much that I would flat- out avoid it. However, the one exception to this is I have VERY little patience for movies, shows, books, etc., that portray Christians in a blatantly insulting and stereotypical manner, and many of King’s works do exactly that with Christian characters. It’s a big part of the reason why I haven’t seen the ‘Carrie’ remake from a couple years ago, even though I’m a fan of the actress who plays Carrie in it, Chloe Grace Moretz, because I knew that Carrie's psycho religious- nut mother in the story would undoubtedly be made even more over- the- top and offensive in the remake. I’d imagine my reaction to these kinds of portrayals isn’t much different from how an African- American might react to seeing the old movie ‘The Birth of a Nation.’
 It wouldn't be as much of an issue with me if they at least made it a little more balanced by featuring other Christian characters portrayed in a more positive light (Sort of like what Disney did with 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame'; I've GOT to do a review of that for this blog some time), but King rarely does that, and on the few occasions he does, those characters tend to be relatively minor and rarely if ever even mention their faith. This is the sort of thing that we as Christians should expect. The Bible contains numerous verses pointing out that we will be insulted, slandered, and mistreated by the unbelieving world; It's why Jesus said in Matthew 5:11-12, "Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on My account. Rejoice and be glad, for great is your reward in Heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you." Because the unbelieving world doesn't understand us and doesn't know Jesus, it's understandable that many of them would openly insult and slander Christians as a whole. Still, that doesn't mean I have to keep giving my reading time or my money to support an author whose works deliberately promote hatred and intolerance of everything I believe in.

So, between his blatantly insulting and stereotyping my religion time and again, and also just the quality of his work in general declining so rapidly, I can say that while I still like Stephen King's older works, he definitely no longer occupies the position he once held as my favorite author.

Now that I've talked about King, I'll move on to talk about another author, seen as a sort- of rival to his (Though not quite as successful as King), who over the last few years has become one of my current favorite authors: I am referring to Dean Koontz. The first of his books I read was 'Watchers,' around the time when my love of Stephen King was starting to wane, and I did really enjoy that book. Then, in the summer of 2010, I began getting interested in his books again, sort of by accident; My mother and I were beginning the long drive up to our family's vacation cabin in Canada. Since driving that steadily over that long of a period ensures we'll never be able to enjoy a radio station for very long, the drive can get boring and tedious for everyone involved. On this occasion, my mom was driving, and she started feeling a little dozy from the silence and boredom, so she in an exasperated tone told me to get a book from her tote bag she brought and read it aloud to her, to help break the tedium. The book I selected from her bag was Koontz's novel 'Relentless.' As I read it aloud, not only did it put Mom in a better mood and help her stay alert, it also proved to be quite an enjoyable read for myself! After 'Relentless,' I got into his 'Frankenstein' series,' and soon afterwards, his 'Odd Thomas' series as well (btw, the first 'Odd Thomas' book has been made into a VERY good movie a year or so ago, starring Anton Yelchin as the title character). I've finished the 'Frankenstein' series, borrowed a one- shot book of his called 'What the Night Knows' from a friend and will start reading it soon, and I have the third Odd Thomas book, 'Brother Odd,' set aside as part of my summer reading.

Koontz's writing quality cycle appears to be the exact opposite of King's: As King's writing began steadily declining over time, Koontz's work, in turn, began steadily improving over time. His characters became more developed, his stories more complex and unique, and his work just generally more enjoyable to crack open and spend some time with
One benefit that Koontz has over King imo is better protagonists. Many of King's protagonists, especially in more recent years, tend to be incredibly bland and uninteresting. He's made some good heroes in his day, to be sure (i.e. the Losers' Club from 'It,' Dennis and Leigh from 'Christine,'), but most of them are quite forgettable. Koontz's heroes, in contrast, are all insanely fun and likable. From the trio of Travis, Nora, and Einstein in 'Watchers,' to Cubby Greenwich and his family in 'Relentless,' to all the various protagonists in the 'Frankenstein' books (i.e. Carson and Michael, the original creature Deucalion, and many others), to of course the great Odd Thomas, they are all great, well- developed heroes that are easy to root for.
Another benefit Koontz has over King, something that developed over time and became more apparent in each book, is his humor. While King's books have occasional funny moments, they are relatively rare. Koontz's books, in contrast, have loads of witty humor, which can come in a variety of different forms, to help relieve some of the tension. For one example, there is a scene in his third 'Frankenstein' book, 'Dead and Alive,' in which the main characters, the tough policewoman Carson and her wisecracking yet effective partner/ love interest Michael, are chasing down two of Victor Frankenstein's replicants that have gone mad and are attempting to kill a dog, and manage to gun down one of the two replicants. Obviously, this is a very intense chase scene, with the replicants chasing after the dog and Carson and Michael chasing after them through a city park, pouring bullets at them and taking out one. In the middle of all this, out of nowhere, Michael's cell phone rings, and his ringtone happens to be of Curly's distinctive laugh from the Three Stooges ("Nyuk nyuk nyuk... nyuk nyuk nyuk..."). Just the picture of that in my imagination made me burst out laughing!
What's more, while Koontz does often feature Christian characters in his work, he tends to portray them in a MUCH more balanced way than King does. For instance, one group of characters featured in the last two books in the Dean Koontz ‘Frankenstein’ series are the members of a Montana- based church called the “Riders in the Sky Church.” They are an admittedly colorful/ eccentric church (i.e. Cowboy- centered imagery factors heavily into what they do, such as the church’s pastor having a painting in his home of Jesus riding on a horse and carrying six- shooters). Koontz, however, refrains from portraying them in such a bigoted, dime- a- dozen way as Stephen King does with most of the Christian characters in his works. Rather, he portrays the Riders’ beliefs as being colorful and a little odd, but also portrays them as good, brave, kind- hearted people who earnestly love the Lord.
Dean Koontz's books don't try to sugarcoat things (He wouldn't be much of a thriller/ suspense writer if they did): They make it clear that real evil does exist in the world, be it through evil, demented people or through dangerous ideals and worldviews. However, a common theme to Koontz's books is that even in the darkest times, clinging to faith, hope, humor, and love can help us on the side of good find our way and emerge victorious. Even when the victories at times come with a heavy price (i.e. The ending of the first 'Odd Thomas' book), it's one worth paying for us to stay true to what's important and see good triumph over evil in large or small ways.
This is very much a strong Christian theme as well. We can endure in the face of evil and suffering through trusting in the Lord and keeping hope alive. In Deuteronomy 31:8, it says that "Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord is the one who goes before you. He will be with you; He will never fail you nor forsake you." It also says in Psalm 56: 3-4, "When I am afraid, I will trust in You. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can mortal man do to me?" Lastly, in Psalm 33:18-22, it is said that "The eyes of the Lord are on those who fear Him, on whose hope is in His unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine. We wait in hope for the Lord; He is our help and our shield. In Him, our hearts rejoice, for we trust in His holy name. May Your unfailing love rest upon us, o Lord, even as we put our hope in You." By doing these things, trusting in God and keeping our faith and hope in HIm alive, we may similarly triumph over what the world and the Devil throw at us.
For all of those reasons and more, I can comfortably say that Dean Koontz has officially become one of my favorite authors. He may not hold the same position that Stephen King used to hold for me, but pretty darn close.
That's all for this edition of the Nightcrawler Experience, but a new entry should hopefully come soon, as I'll be going to Megacon next week. Until then, God bless you all!

Repeating Christmases, the Joy of Giving, and Everyday Miracles: A faith- based look at two relatively new Christmas movies.

Hello, welcome back to the Nightcrawler Experience! 

First up, a very merry Christmas to everyone! Here, as with the entry I made last month, is an idea I’ve had for quite a while, but have been too busy to put up before today.
I love Christmas, everything about it! I adore Christmas movies and TV specials, of all sorts, both the familiar and well- loved (i.e. ‘A Christmas Carol,’ ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’), and also the more obscure (i.e. ‘Olive, the Other Reindeer,’ the "Batman: The Animated Series" episode ‘Christmas With the Joker’). They can make me laugh, help me to see the holiday in a new light, and enable me to become a better person in general.
Last year, I came across not one but two that were brand new, and each taught me an important lesson about living for God year- round. Most of you probably haven't heard of either of them, but they're worth a watch.

The first I shall be looking at is a Hallmark Channel movie called ‘Pete’s Christmas.’ As the title suggests, it centers around a boy named Pete (Played by ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’’s Zachary Gordon), the second of three sons, who goes through the worst Christmas ever in his house, in which pretty much everything goes wrong. He’s the only one who doesn’t get a present, he is humiliated at a football game against another family, Christmas dinner is ruined so the family goes to a restaurant to eat and gets food poisoning, and finally the day ends with Pete’s quasi- estranged grandfather (Bruce Dearn) abruptly leaving because he feels unwanted. 

Then, however, similar to the Bill Murray film ‘Groundhog Day,’ Pete finds that this disastrous Christmas keeps repeating itself over and over again. He falls asleep each Christmas night, then when he wakes up, it’s the same Christmas morning all over again. When he gets over the initial shock of this (At first, he thinks his family is pulling a prank on him to somehow punish him for the parts of the ruined Christmas that they have blamed him for), he decides to try and use this, the advance knowledge of what happens, to make things better, initially in rather selfish ways. As time passes, though, and the day keeps repeating, Pete begins realizing that he should use this to help others. He uses the repeating Christmases to better get to know each member of his family and start to see them in a new light, teaches himself to play guitar and uses that to make the day more special for everyone, befriends a lonely girl named Katie (Bailee Madison) who just moved in next door, and finally realizes that he should try and set right all the things that went wrong this Christmas. He uses his knowledge of how the football game unfolds to ultimately become its MVP, ensures that Christmas dinner is saved and proves to be a big hit, and each time learns something new on how to make things better. He eventually comes up with what really needs to be fixed in order to reconcile his family and end the repeating Christmases.

            ‘Pete’s Christmas’ does a marvelous job of driving home the message that it’s better to give than to receive. When Pete first tries to take advantage of the repeating Christmases for his own selfish purposes (i.e. arranging so that he gets a present that originally went to his younger brother but that he had wanted all along, settling a couple scores), he soon finds that this gets boring quick and doesn’t satisfy him. He gets to know each member of his family and Katie, begins to see things from each of their points of view, and finds ways to do right by each of them. As Pete uses his knowledge of how the day unfolds to set things right, you can see how making others happy makes him happy too. As it says in Philippians 2:3-4, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others as better than yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of others.” Pete learns this lesson in spades, and you know he will emerge from this whole incident afterwards a much better, kinder person.

Zachary Gordon is quite effective as Pete. You feel for him all throughout the film, and can see the reasoning behind everything he does. Bailee Madison (A young actress I’ve long been a fan of) is very charming and likable as Katie, and also deeply sympathetic when you learn how lonely she is, and the fact that it stems from more than just her being new in town. Bruce Dearn is wonderful as the grandpa, grumpy yet funny and good- hearted deep down, though he can have a hard time showing it. The writing is pretty clever for a Hallmark TV movie, with humor and good character development.

That sums up “Pete’s Christmas.” By Hallmark TV movie standards, it is VERY good and worth a watch to help us learn, as Pete learned in the very end of the film, “Life is like an empty box; It doesn’t matter what you get out of it, what matters is what you put into it.”

The second is a film which came out in theaters, but only on a limited release. It is a film called ‘The Christmas Candle,’ based on a book by renowned Christian author and pastor Max Lucado.

This film takes place in 1890, in an English village named Gladbury, in which one of the local landmarks is a family- owned candle shop with a fascinating legend to it. Every 25 years, on the first night of Advent, an angel visits the shop and blesses a single candle there. Then, whoever lights that particular candle on Christmas Eve and says a prayer after doing so will receive a miracle.

Into this village comes a new pastor, Rev. David Richmond (Hans Matheson). He doesn’t have a lot of faith in divine intervention and miracles, preferring instead to motivate others to act as God’s hands and feet to those in need, to be their miracle. He’d very much follow the philosophy of “Be the change you want to see.” As you can guess, he isn’t impressed with the story of the Christmas Candle. He quickly clashes with many of the townspeople as a result, and especially with the candle- shop owner (Sylvester McCoy, best known for playing the hippie wizard Radaghast the Brown in the “Hobbit” films), who is himself going through some family troubles.

When David learns about some of the miracle- requests that the townspeople may have if they should get the Christmas candle (Everything from a woman whose house has a wall in need of repair, to a mute boy who wishes to be able to speak, to a rather homely woman who wishes to get a husband in time for Easter, among others), he tries his hardest to find ways of meeting their needs directly, either through his own personal actions or through encouraging other townspeople to help them. David finds an ally in a lovely yet skeptical young woman named Emily (Samantha Barks, best known for playing Eponine in the 2012 ‘Les Miserables’ film), and together they seek to help bring Gladbury into the modern age, both through the pastor’s teachings that people should try to help shine God’s light to others through their own good deeds rather than through hoping in the Christmas candle or other divine intervention, and also through him making a controversial decision to install electric lights in the church at a time when electric lights were a relatively new and at times mistrusted invention. By the end of the film, the Christmas candle is lit, the miraculous and human collide, many miracles come to pass, and the village of Gladbury has probably the single most memorable Christmas in its entire history.

‘The Christmas Candle’ is a very good film, especially by Christian movie standards. The performances are all great, especially Matheson, McCoy, Barks, and a nice breakout role from renowned singer Susan Boyle as one of the townspeople. The writing is great, including drama, inspiration, and a good amount of humor as well. The scene in which the Angel appears in the candle shop to bless the candle is stunning. Considering that Christian films generally don’t have the budget for very impressive special effects, they make do very well with making this scene visually beautiful. The changes and arcs that each of the major characters go through over the course of the film all fit very well and make a lot of sense. The only minor issue I have with the film is that it’s a shame we don’t hear Samantha Barks sing much in the movie. She showed in ‘Les Miserables’ that she can be a quite talented singer, but in this, the only time she sings is in the very end, when she and the rest of the cast together perform the quite beautiful song ‘Miracle Hymn,’ and even then, it’s largely Susan Boyle whose voice steals the scene.

This film has absolutely wonderful theological messages. It deals with how Christians should balance their trust in God to work miraculous things through divine intervention with their own responsibilities on Earth and how God has called them to do His work on Earth through their own actions of kindness and love. That is a very important message for us as Christians to keep in mind, finding an appropriate balance between the two. Trusting in God’s providence and working to help those around us who are in need are both bedrock elements of the Christian faith. Just one or the other isn’t good for a whole lot, as seen in Ephesians 2:8-9 and James 2:14- 26, but through both of them together, truly extraordinary things may be done for God’s Kingdom.
So, there we have ‘The Christmas Candle,’ a marvelous Christmas film which I believe will become part of my traditional holiday viewing.
That’s all for this edition of ‘The Nightcrawler Experience.’ See you next time, merry Christmas, happy New Year, and God bless you all!

He lives! A faith- based look at the death and return of Nightcrawler.

Hi everyone, welcome to another edition of the Nightcrawler Experience!
This is an entry I’ve been working on writing off and on for quite a while now, and my first foray into comic books in this blog.
             As I pointed out in my blog’s first edition, I named this blog after one of my favorite superheroes, the X- Men hero Kurt Wagner, aka Nightcrawler. He was cool, funny, brave, and a dedicated Christian. In fact, as seen in the picture above, my best friend a couple Christmases ago gave me a vintage action figure of Nightcrawler because he knew what a big fan I am. In late summer of 2010, however, Nightcrawler was killed off in an issue of the comics, dying a hero’s death to protect his friend Rogue and an important young mutant named Hope from falling victim to the evil cyborg Bastion. His death was quite sad, as was his funeral in the next issue (One memorable line from the funeral was Professor Xavier saying that “He was the student I taught the least, yet who taught me the most.”).

 I figured that they would bring him back eventually, both because Marvel comics superheroes generally don’t stay dead for long (Especially members of the X- Men; Pretty much every major character in that team has died at least once, and usually come back in no more than a year or two), and because in Nightcrawler’s funeral, the priest presiding over the ceremony cited the story of Ezekiel in the valley of dry bones from Ezekiel 37:1-14, which I saw as the writer’s way of hinting that Nightcrawler would return to life as the dry bones did. However, for three and a half years, no such return happened. An alternate- dimension version of Nightcrawler showed up for a while, but he was a mean- spirited and cynical version that possessed none of the qualities that made the character so endearing for me.

Then finally, earlier this year, what I had waited years for happened: Nightcrawler returned! Issue #1 of the new ‘Amazing X- Men’ series began a 5- issue storyline involving how Nightcrawler would come back to life, and he got his own series as well.
So, I thought I’d give my thoughts on the comic book storyline which featured his return, entitled, simply enough, “The Quest for Nightcrawler.”

Amazing X- Men #1 gets started setting up his eventual return. Mutant heroine Firestar is seen arriving at the Jean Grey School for the Gifted (Kind of a spinoff of the Xavier School that was the original home of the X- Men), having been offered a teaching position there. We see some good interactions and exchanges with the various characters, such as a hilarious debate between Wolverine and Storm as to whether taking the kids off- campus to view a kung- fu movie marathon at the last minute during exam week would be considered an approved field trip, and Beast expressing pure, unadulterated fury over the theft of his beloved coffeemaker. We see that the Bamfs (A group of rodent- like creatures who bear a noticeable resemblance to Nightcrawler and have taken up residence in the Mansion) stole his coffeemaker and various other electronic devices around the mansion to build some kind of mysterious machine.

 While all of this is happening, we see that Nightcrawler is in Heaven, but he remains lingering at the very edge of it. He does not feel that he should go deeper into Heaven, even though it is everything that he, as a man of faith, had hoped it would be and more, because he feels that he still has unfinished business on Earth. At this moment, Heaven is abruptly invaded by Nightcrawler’s father, the evil demon Azazel. He and his demonic minions are in the process of kidnapping righteous souls from Heaven and not- so- righteous souls from Hell for their own foul purposes. They attack from strange celestial pirate ships, each captained by the soul of a different historical fiend (i.e. Jack the Ripper, Billy the Kid, Caligula). The Bamfs’ device ends up opening a portal to the afterlife, which several X- Men get sucked into, Wolverine and Northstar being transported to Heaven and then to Limbo, while Storm, Iceman, and Firestar find themselves in Hell. Beast also eventually comes into there, leading to both a funny scene in which he fights Azazel and some of his crew (i.e. A great moment in which he manages to use his knowledge of math to take out several pirates with one blow), and a quite scary scene in which he goes almost completely feral for a while. Eventually, Nightcrawler is reunited with all his old friends, and they mount a massive assault on Azazel and his remaining henchmen. Nightcrawler ends up sacrificing his own eternity in Heaven to pull both himself and Azazel to Earth, thus saving/ freeing all the souls that Azazel has captured. While this means Nightcrawler is now back on Earth and reunited with the X- Men, he now is left without knowing if he’ll ever be able to return to Heaven again.

There a lot of good Scriptural lessons to be learned from this storyline. One of the foremost that sticks out is Nightcrawler as an allegory for Christ. Like Jesus, Nightcrawler wasn’t content to remain comfortably in Heaven while those he loved were in mortal jeopardy. It says in Ephesians 2:5-8, “ For let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:  But emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and in habit found as a man.” Like Jesus, Nightcrawler set aside the comfort of Heaven to save innumerable souls. Most obviously, like Jesus, Nightcrawler died sacrificing himself for another (As it says in my favorite verse in the Bible, John 15:13, “There is no greater love than to lay one’s life down for one’s friends”), and eventually rose again. Like Jesus helping to redeem His disciples and restore their faith after the Resurrection, Nightcrawler refused to give up on any of his friends that came into the Afterlife with him. He is determined to reunite all of them again, even as they’re in opposite sections of the Afterlife. As I said earlier, Beast momentarily goes feral in an issue and attacks Nightcrawler, yet Nightcrawler patiently helps his old friend regain his former state of mind by reminding him of a happy memory they shared.
The storyline as a whole is quite a great read. The artwork is absolutely wonderful, the characters’ portrayals are all spot- on, it has great amounts of action and humor, and I liked the way it handled each of them in their parts of the Afterlife (i.e. Wolverine makes a poignant observation upon his glimpse of Heaven and struggle through Limbo, and there’s a great scene in which Iceman pushes his powers to the limit to fend off an army of demons in Hell in a way that gives new meaning to the term "When Hell freezes over"), and the action sequences are thrilling. So, ‘Amazing X- Men’ issues 1-5 are definitely worth a read, for X- Men fans, and especially fans of that incredible blue elf.

That’s all for this edition of the Nightcrawler Experience. I promise there will be some new entries more frequently over the next couple months. See you next time, happy Thanksgiving, and God bless you all!

Hated and Loved: A faith based look at 'The Bride of Frankenstein.'

Hello everyone, and welcome to another edition of the Nightcrawler Experience!
I am so very sorry it’s been so long since my last entry, things have been very busy.

It’s nearing Halloween, and so I have a faith- based look at one of my favorite classic monster films.

First, though, I just want to quick give my personal thoughts on something, and you’re all welcome to disagree with me if you feel differently:
There has long been a lot of debate among Christians as to whether or not it is morally right to celebrate Halloween. I am well aware of its less- than- savory origins as the pagan holiday Samhain, in which some genuinely awful things were done by people who served the Devil, and as such, I fully understand and respect the views of Christians who do not celebrate Halloween. However, keep in mind that both Christmas and Easter also started as pagan holidays, yet we have turned them into days to celebrate Jesus’s blessed birth and resurrection, respectively.
The way I see it, Halloween is one of the only cases in which the secularization and commercialization of a religious holiday is actually a GOOD thing. As a result, the darker and more reprehensible aspects of its early years (i.e. Human sacrifices, people being in genuine fear for their lives) are almost completely gone, and it has instead become mostly a fun and harmless time to wear costumes, go to parties, give and receive candy (Or buy gigantic portions of it at discounted prices the next day, as I do), and in my case, watch a ton of monster movies from all periods in cinematic history, one of which I shall now talk about.

I’ve always loved the classic Universal monster movies (i.e. ‘Dracula,’ ‘Frankenstein,’ etc.), and one of my favorites of them is unquestionably ‘The Bride of Frankenstein.’ This was, in my opinion, the first case of a movie’s sequel being better than the film which preceded it. It has a more complex plot, better special effects, mostly better acting (With the possible exception of Una O’Connor as Dr. Frankenstein’s obnoxious, shrieking maid) and more richly- developed characters, especially the Creature (I personally refuse to call him “The Monster”; The way I see it, the real monsters in this movie are the enraged and ignorant villagers and the scientists who try to toy with God’s creations). It also has a very nice religious subtext to it, with a lot of faith- based messages to it. The only real issue I have with the movie is that the title is a bit misleading: The Bride doesn’t even appear until near the end of the film.
When the villagers learn that the Creature survived the windmill fire that they believed had killed him in the first film, they once again become driven by fear and hatred, and set out to imprison or kill him. In real life, Jesus Himself and much of the early church knew what it was like to be the victims of a panicked, hate- driven mob. I’d imagine that even in the present day, Christians living in Communist nations and especially in nations under Sharia law are familiar with this, as well. Jesus said in John 15:18- 21, “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated Me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong in the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed My teaching, they will obey yours as well. They will treat you this way because of My name, for they do not know the one who sent Me.”

To add further to making this point and possibly even making the Creature something of a Christ- allegory, there is a scene early on in which the villagers capture the Creature and tie him to a tall wooden pole as a way to carry him to the village dungeon. Seeing that, I couldn’t help somewhat imagining Jesus on the Cross.
Probably my favorite scene in the movie (And one of my favorite scenes in ANY Universal monster film, for that matter) is when the Creature, while later on the run from the villagers, comes across the home of an old blind man. This man has lived a hermit’s life for many years, and as such, has hardly seen a soul in years, leading to him feeling intensely lonely. When the Creature comes to his house, the blind man not only is not afraid of him, but he is actually quite thankful to finally have a little company. He takes the Creature in immediately, feeds him, gives him a little bit of medical attention (The Creature suffered a gunshot wound to the arm earlier in the film), and even gives the Creature his own bed to sleep in. The blind man then says a prayer, joyously thanking God for having finally brought him a friend. Upon finishing the prayer, he weeps with happiness, and we can see the Creature tearing up as well. The two live together for a while, and the blind man helps the Creature to become more docile and develop his speaking skills a little. They develop a very nice friendship, and it seems hard to tell who is happier: The blind man for having at last found a friend, or the Creature for having found someone who not only doesn’t hate or fear him, but actually likes him and cares for him. Eventually, though, a pair of lost hunters arrive at the hut, recognize the Creature, and ruin everything.

The Christian symbolism of this segment is pretty much off the charts. First and foremost, the blind man demonstrates a true servant’s heart, offering his house, food, and bed to someone he just met and knew nothing about, who was in need, and showing Godly love and care for him. It’s pretty much the perfect embodiment of the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25- 37. Second, even though the hermit is physically blind, he is able to “See” and bring out what the villagers were unable to see; The gentle nature that the Creature possessed deep down. It brings to mind 1 Samuel 16:7, which points out that “The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."
            And so, that’s just a brief analysis of some of the Biblical messages that can be found in ‘The Bride of Frankenstein,’ a classic film in every sense, and one that is most definitely worth a look, if you haven’t seen it yet.
That’s all for this edition of the Nightcrawler Experience. I should be back soon, as I have a couple great ideas for future entries. Until then, happy Halloween and may God bless you all!

Standing against evil; Some principles I've discovered...

Hello everyone, and welcome to another installment of the Nightcrawler Experience!
Sorry this one took so long to get up. As you can see, it's a big one.

I don’t plan on talking about horror- related stuff very often on this blog, but this entry is an exception.

Now, while ‘The Nightcrawler Experience’ is itself a family- friendly blog, the same cannot necessarily be said for some of the movies, TV shows, etc., that I’ll be talking about. Though, each time I’m about to look at something that maybe kids might want to stay away from, I’ll post a disclaimer similar to this one.

In this case, the topic is standing against evil. I’ll be looking at three examples from pop culture relating to people facing real, demonic evil, and how they react to it.

            The first example I’ll be looking at is a pretty well- known 2007 horror film called ‘Paranormal Activity.’ This “Found Footage” horror film I am selecting to help show what NOT to do when facing evil. It centers around a couple, Micah and Katie, who purchase a video camera to document strange occurrences that have begun happening in their house. It turns out that the source of these occurrences is an extremely malevolent demon who has followed Katie off and on since she was little.

Now, in horror movies, it is quite common for there to be at least one character who is not terribly bright, but Micah in ‘Paranormal Activity’ takes this to a new level; He is a complete buffoon in pretty much everything he does, he never treats the situation with the seriousness it clearly calls for, and he causes things to escalate rapidly. At times he even deliberately TRIES to antagonize the spirit (i.e. Early on, one of the first supernatural occurrences seen is their bedroom door slowly creaking one way then the other by itself while they’re asleep; Micah, upon discovering this, says something to the extent of “Ooh, a creaking door. Is that all you got?” Unsurprisingly, the entity starts to up its game after that).

They bring in a psychic to try and help, and while he of course offers very little help (As further evidence of how this shows how NOT to react to such a situation, they contact a psychic, yet it apparently never even occurs to them to contact a priest or minister), one helpful suggestion he gives is that they NOT use a Ouija Board or any other means to try and contact or communicate with the spirit; Halfway through the film, not only does Micah pick up a Ouija Board for that purpose, but he gets probably the scariest- looking Ouija Board I’ve ever seen (The result of this is one of the film’s subtlest yet scariest scenes, in my opinion). All throughout the film, Micah stubbornly insists that he’ll handle the situation and he is in control, which at one point leads to Katie snapping at him, “No, you haven't been having any progress, and you're *not* in control. *It* is in control, and if you think you're in control, then you're being an idiot!” Unsurprisingly, things don’t end well for the young couple, largely the result of Micah’s ignorance and pride.

As a second example from pop culture relating to people facing supernatural evil but helping to show a little of how to overcome it, there is a horror anthology TV show for kids called ‘R.L. Stine’s The Haunting Hour.’ There was an episode of it a few months ago entitled “Long Live Rock & Roll,” which concerns three teens who’ve formed a garage band. It mainly centers around a boy named Holden who acts as the band’s vocalist and lead guitarist, but at the start of the episode he’s not doing so well in the latter of the two roles. He insists it’s due to his guitar being a cheaper model that can’t stay in tune, but the others in the band think the problem may in fact be him not having the right talent for lead guitar.

Feeling upset over this, Holden meets a man known as “Sir Maestro,” a British rocker type who physically resembles the Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards. Sir Maestro has just opened a music store in town and offers to sell Holden a magnificent guitar that Jimi Hendrix, Jerry Garcia, and Kurt Cobain had all used at some point in their careers. Its price tag is way out of Holden’s budget, but Sir Maestro says that he can have it on the conditions that Holden return to play for Sir Maestro at a later date, and sign a lengthy contract to finalize the deal. Eventually, of course, things start going bad, and it becomes clear that Sir Maestro wants Holden to play for him forever, as his eternal slave. The closest it comes to Sir Maestro revealing who he truly is (As if it wasn’t obvious already from how much of a “Deal with the Devil” vibe we got from the first half of the episode) occurs later in the episode when Holden notices something odd about his new guitar, asks Sir Maestro who he is, and the sinister store owner replies, “I’ve been known by many names over many thousands of years, but lately I prefer ‘Sir Maestro.’”

Things worsen when Holden’s two bandmates learn about Sir Maestro’s store and purchase new instruments of their own for similar contracts. Determined to save his friends, Holden returns to the store where he finds his bandmates playing their new instruments in a trancelike state, and challenges Sir Maestro to a guitar duel to try and win his and his friends’ souls back. At first, Holden barely holds his own against Sir Maestro’s impressive guitar skills, partly because one of the terms of the contest was that Holden has to use his old, out- of- tune guitar rather than the new one. It appears Holden may lose the contest, but just then, he gets an idea; He approaches his friends, who are still playing in their trancelike state, and reminds them of the good times they’ve had playing together in the past. This snaps them out of Sir Maestro’s spell, and they provide Holden with musical backup and a nice boost of confidence, which he uses to hold out and win the contest. The good guys get their souls back, Sir Maestro vanishes back where he came from in defeat, and Holden realizes he doesn’t need a new guitar to be a better player, as he and his friends close out the episode with a catchy victory song.

I find this episode of ‘The Haunting Hour’ to offer part of a solution for how to face evil. Holden humbles himself, and realizes that he can’t overcome Sir Maestro on his own. He appeals to his friends by reminding them of what’s truly important (Their past friendship and experiences in playing together) so they can have a positive memory to snap them out of Sir Maestro’s spell, and by relying on them for musical and emotional backup, he gains the strength needed to face Sir Maestro and emerge victorious. The only thing missing was relying on God and His strength, but considering this is a kids’ tv show, it’s not surprising that part was left out.

The final example I’ve found on responding to evil, which I think does the best job of showing how to respond to it, is in the 2013 horror film ‘The Conjuring.’ Based on the true story of a case from the files of paranormal experts Ed and Lorraine Warren (Whose work also inspired ‘The Amityville Horror’), it centers around a family that moves into a new house where very strange and often quite frightening things begin happening. It soon becomes clear that this house has a very disturbing history and is inhabited by a number of spirits: Some that are relatively harmless, but others that are extremely hateful and dangerous.

In desperation, their mother Carolyn goes to the Warrens for help. First, she sits in on a lecture they are hosting to ensure they are on the level, then afterwards she asks them to do what they can to save her and her family. Things ultimately come to a head when the most vicious of the spirits possesses Carolyn and tries to get her to murder her youngest daughter. Lorraine first helps to get her to stop by reminding Carolyn of a very happy memory she had with her family, to appeal to the humanity still left in her. This distracts the possessed Carolyn long enough for Ed to get to her and finish performing an exorcism, calling out the evil spirit by name and loudly calling on the name of God to get it out of her. It works, as the spirit leaves and Carolyn’s life and soul are saved.

As I said, I think ‘The Conjuring’ offers one of the best pictures I’ve seen on how to respond to evil. The family was humble enough to realize they needed outside help and to ask for it, and Carolyn first checked out the Warrens for herself to verify that they could be competent and trustworthy. A powerful, positive memory with a lot of love and devotion behind it is used to help the possessed Carolyn remember the kind and loving woman she still has within her. Lastly and most importantly, Ed calls on the demon by name (As Jesus did when driving Legion out of the man in Mark 5), and calls on the name of God to drive the demon away and free Carolyn and her family from its dark control.

While obviously most of us won’t be confronted with demons or devils, the fact of the matter is, we can still see evil all around us in everyday ways. Crime, substance abuse, domestic abuse, gossip, apathy; All of these are forms of evil that we as Christians are called to stand against in one way or another. I think we can learn at least a little about how to confront it from the examples I just cited. Avoid Micah’s mistake in ‘Paranormal Activity’ of being so proud and stubborn as to think you can handle it on your own. Like Holden in ‘The Haunting Hour: Long Live Rock & Roll’ and Carolyn in ‘The Conjuring,’ humble yourself enough to admit you need help, and seek it from those who you know are trustworthy, which is near enough to what the Apostle Paul said in Galatians 6:2. Again like Holden and like Lorraine in ‘The Conjuring,’ cling to positive memories as a way of remembering what’s important. Lastly, like Ed in ‘The Conjuring,’ whatever you must do, do it in the name of God, and keep your desire to serve Him at the center of all that you do. By following all of that, I think we can stand against whatever evil the world may try to throw at us.

That’s all for now. I should have another entry ready for the Nightcrawler Experience in the next couple weeks. Until then, take care and God bless!