'Tarzan on the Planet of the Apes' or 'Everything’s Better with Tarzan'

In 1912, Edgar Rice Burroughs, an American former cavalryman turned author, wrote a story that would capture the imagination of the public for generations to come. Tarzan of the Apes is a fish out of water tale about the orphaned child of British aristocrats raised by great apes. This tale of victory over the odds was a roaring success and soon more Tarzan stories appeared in print. In 1918, the Lord of the Jungle leapt on to the silver screen and a film series began that has continued to this day. In France, 51 years later, Pierre Boulle, a former spy turned author wrote another fish out of water tale. He considered this satirical sci-fi novel one of his minor works. La planete des singes, known in English as Monkey Planet or Planet of the Apes, tells the story of a French astronaut who finds himself marooned on a distant planet where humans are animals and intelligent apes are the dominant species. In 1968, as the 43rd English-language Tarzan movie appeared in cinemas, 20th Century Fox's Planet of the Apes was a financial and critical success. Like Tarzan of the Apes before it, Planet of the Apes became a film franchise that continues to the present day. Following their cinematic success, both Tarzan and P.O.T.A appeared in other media and spawned merchandising phenomena. Yet, it took another 48 years for someone to bring the two concepts together. Synopsis

In Tarzan on the POTA, three intelligent chimpanzees, Cornelius, Zira and Dr Milo, escape Earth's future destruction in the 40th century. Instead of landing on 20th-century earth, as they do in the POTA film series, they arrive in late 1800's West Africa. Before long Doctor Milo is dead and Zira becomes the leader of Burroughs' great apes, the Mangani. In this version of the story, it is Zira and not Kala, who becomes the foster mother of the orphaned Tarzan. Here Kala is absent and his foster father Tublat makes an appearance as a minor character. Tarzan is at home in the realm of the intelligent apes and the Mangani. He grows up alongside Cornelius and Zira's son, Milo, as a brother and enjoys arguing with the cantankerous ape, Kerchak. As the story unfolds, Tarzan is taken from his jungle home by his cousin William Clayton, the future Lord Greystoke, who has arrived in Africa on a hunting expedition. William realizes the value of the intelligent, talking Mangani and sees their potential as servants of humanity. Soon Tarzan is living in England under the care of his cousin, who has founded a successful Mangani slave trade through his Greystoke Trading and Import Company. Yet, things aren't going so well at the African end and William convinces Tarzan to return with him to try and broker peace. Upon arriving in Africa, he finds his foster brother Milo, now calling himself Caesar. The young ape is now leading the Mangani in violent resistance against William's slave traders. Soon the foster brothers reunited and together they fight to free the Mangani from the grip of slavery. It is at this point in the story that things begin to shift once again. Two new elements arrive to take the narrative in a new direction. Characters from Burroughs' Pellucidar stories appear in the jungle, as well as a version of the late Dr Milo from an alternate reality. The time portal through which the astronauts and apes had travelled forwards and backwards through time has been affected by the unusual gravitational qualities of Pellucidar's subterranean sun. Throughout Pellucidar, smaller portals have opened, allowing the Mahars, a race of intelligent Rhamphorhynchus, to venture into other realities to colonize them. The story now becomes an attempt by Tarzan, Caesar, Dr Milo, explorer David Innes and their allies to destroy the portals and stop the Mahar colonization of the wider Burroughs/Apesverse. After the quest to destroy the portals comes to a bloody conclusion, Tarzan and Caesar find themselves trapped on the other side of a portal in one of many the alternate futures. The setting, though set in 2016, resembles scenarios from the movie Beneath the Planet of the Apes. In this version of reality Tarzan, aka John Clayton replaces the character of astronaut John Brent. Adding to the drama is the arrival of Doctor Milo, who has followed them from Pellucidar through the time portal. He has come to believe, after visiting many versions of the earth future, that the destruction of Earth is inevitable. Ape will always fight human and the destruction of the world will always be the outcome. Fleeing from that destruction there would always be three chimpanzees who climb aboard a spaceship and return to Earth's past. These chimps would trigger the events that lead to Earth’s future destruction and the cycle would begin again. It's at this juncture that Dr Milo decides to end the cycle. Upon meeting an alternate version of himself in that time zone, Dr Milo he murders him. Now no one will repair the astronauts' spacecraft and the three chimpanzees will perish in the destruction of the planet. The cycle will end once and for all. Yet, this time things are different. Caesar and Tarzan, with the help of the future Cornelius and Zira, have managed to foil the ape invasion of the Forbidden Zone that always leads to the end of the world. Here we are left with a question. Will this version of the Planet of the Apes end in atomic destruction as all the version have? Or will the presence of Caesar and Tarzan of the Apes, ape and human brothers, be the ingredient that changes the destiny of the Planet of the Apes once and for all? For a fan of ERB and the mighty Tarzan, the answer is a resounding, ‘Of Course!'

Edgar Rice Burroughs' Lord of the Apes had finally become a resident of Pierre Boulle's Monkey Planet in the Darkhorse/Boom Studios comic series, Tarzan on the Planet of the Apes. With both bearing similar names and loin clothed heroes, several creators in the past have flirted with the obvious links between the two concepts. Even before Boulles' story, Burroughs himself had created a civilization of scientifically enhanced apes in the book, Tarzan and the Lion Man (1934). In the movie Planet of the Apes (1968), the astronaut George Taylor utters the classic movie misquote 'Me Tarzan you Jane' while trying to communicate with the primitive woman, Nova. In the three 1976 novelizations of the POTA animated television series, Return to the Planet of the Apes by William Arrow, there are several allusions to the Tarzan stories. The name of Tarzan's ape leader Kerchak features in oaths and curses spoken by the apes, suggesting it's the name of an ape deity. In the first book, Visions From Nowhere, it mentions that the burgeoning ape film industry is about to produce a screen adaption of the book Zantar of the Humanoids. This is a story about an orphaned ape raised by primitive humans to become the greatest of their tribe. In 1991 Malibu comics released a 4-part POTA comic series by Australian writer/artist Gary Chaloner entitled Urchak's Folly. The name Urchak was inspired by Tarzan's ape nemesis, Kerchak, a fact confirmed in correspondence with the illustrator/writer. If truth be told, back in 1984 a certain 12-year-old schoolboy also saw the natural coupling of the ape-man and the planet of intelligent apes. Evidence of this could be seen in the large picture drawn on A3 paper in an art lesson and pinned up on the classroom wall.

Yet, it wasn't until 2016 that the first true coupling of these two phenomena came together. Tarzan on the Planet of the Apes is a five-part comic series that takes the two concepts and grafts them together. What writers David Walker (Luke Cage, Cyborg) and Tim Seeley (Hack/Slash, G.I. Joe vs. Transformers) do is create a scenario drawn from the Planet of the Apes film series and expand it to envelop the world of Tarzan and the wider Burroughsverse. Unlike the original book, which takes place on an alien planet, the movie version of P.O.T.A. features a time travel element. Astronauts on an interstellar mission find themselves transported into Earth's future where the world is ruled by intelligent apes. In the third film of the series, Escape from the Planet of the Apes, Boulles' human loving chimps, Cornelius (Roddy McDowell) and Zira (Kim Hunter) are recruited by chimp scientist, Dr Milo, to pilot the repaired human spacecraft to escape the aftermath of the impending ape mutant confrontation. In the movie version, they arrive on 1970's earth and are welcomed by the incredulous human population. Yet, when Dr Milo is killed by a primitive gorilla while in quarantine, things begin to sour. By the end of the movie, Cornelius and Zira are dead and their newborn son, Milo, is smuggled off to be raised by the sympathetic circus owner Armando (Ricardo Montalban). This child grows up to be Caesar, the leader of the ape rebellion and founder of the intelligent ape society (Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1973), Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973). In Boulles' original story the time travel component is absent. Cornelius, Zira and Zaius, all characters featured in Tarzan on the POTA, are denizens of Soror, an earth-like planet orbiting Betelgeuse. It is the POTA film series that shifts the action to future earth, introducing the characters of Doctor Milo, Milo/Caesar and General Ursus. Interestingly, in the period between Caesar’s last appearance in the original film series and that in Tarzan on the POTA, another version of the character was featured as the main protagonist in a new series of POTA films beginning with Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011). In this successful prequel series to the original movie, Caesar is not the child of intelligent apes from the future, but of a laboratory chimpanzee with scientifically enhanced intelligence. Like the original version, he is raised by humans and goes on to lead his fellow apes to victory over their human oppressors.

The epic storyline of Tarzan on the Planet of the Apes draws from various incarnations of the two source materials. Tarzan's first dealings with Europeans and his cousin, Sir William Clayton, ends with Tarzan being taken back to England and the Mangani becoming the centre of a new slave trade. There is no Jane or D'Arnot in this scenario. This is not the story of Tarzan finding love and his human identity. This is about Tarzan and Caesar saving a multiverse from the tyranny of the Mahar's and the Earth from nuclear oblivion. Like Greystoke, The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984), the Europeans are present in Tarzan's jungle on an exhibition of hunting and adventure. In scenes also reminiscent of that movie, we see John Clayton scaling trees in London and being pursued by the local constabulary. We also find members of Tarzan's tribe kept captive in London. Instead of his ape foster father caged in the back of the Natural History Museum, it is the enslaved Mangani, represented by Sir William's ape servant, Happy. Here we slip into territory covered in the movie Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972). In this instalment, humanity has domesticated and enslaved great apes. The enslavement of the apes, in this case, the Mangani, is the set up for the future ape revolution.

Yet, it's not just Burroughs' Tarzan stories that Tarzan on the POTA draws upon. The subterranean world of Pellucidar first appeared in ERB's At the Earth's Core (1914). This tells the story of mining heir David Innes and inventor Abner Perry as they drilled through the Earth's crust and into the subterranean world of Pellucidar. Pellucidar is a world filled with prehistoric creatures, and several species of humans, from the primitive to the advanced. Burroughs would go onto write six sequels, the fourth in the series being Tarzan at the Earth Core (1930). Here Tarzan first meets David Innes and fights the Mahars. In Tarzan on the POTA, David Innes' journey to Pellucidar is introduced into the story via a newspaper article William Clayton shows Tarzan while in London. Yet, in the original novel, David Innes and Abner Perry's journey to Pellucidar is the result of an accident when testing the Iron Mole. It is in the 1976 motion picture At the Earth's Core that the start of their expedition is a public event, complete with cheering crowds, press and a marching band. By choosing to use this version of the David Innes story, a publicly acknowledged event, the creators can introduce it to the new narrative via the shorthand of a newspaper headline.

Another influence on the story is the time portal which interacts with the gravity within Pellucidar to open further portals. Although not featured on Boulles' original book, the idea of a time portal is alluded to in the narratives of the first three ape movies, Planet of the Apes, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, Escape from the Planet of the Apes, and the TV series Planet of the Apes (1975) and Return to the Planet of the Apes (1976). These feature spaceships travelling forward and backwards in time when following the same trajectory after take-off. In Tim Burton's 2001 remake of the Planet of the Apes, such a portal in the form of an electromagnetic space storm is not just the cause of the plots time travel to and from the future, but the cause of the entire Planet of the Apes scenario within the narrative.

Similarly, the idea of a portal entrance to the land of Pellucidar was a feature in Tarzan's Return, the pilot episode of the television series Tarzan: The Epic Adventures (1996-1997) and the authorized novel adaption by R.A. Salvatore. Unlike the Burroughs' stories, where Pellucidar is accessed through holes in the earth's crust, access is gained to the subterranean world through a portal opened by a mystical gem. As in Tarzan on the POTA, this story sees the Mahars interested in the portal as a way of conquering the surface world. What Tarzan on the POTA cleverly does is bring these two elements together, providing a means for Tarzan and Caesar to not only enter Pellucidar and other realms of space but through time itself.

Tarzan on the Planet of the Apes is an ouroboros-like tale that takes two beloved icons of imaginative fiction and threads them together into a cleverly woven narrative. Two heroes of popular culture, Tarzan and Caesar are brought together to effectively prevent the Burroughsverse from the domination of the Mahars and finally the Apesverse from its nuclear destruction in a human/ape conflict. The new story treats its subject material lovingly and creates a saga that holds up on its own. Drawing elements from various incarnations of the source materials, Tarzan on the Planet of the Apes demonstrates something that all Tarzan fans instinctively know. Whether it’s jungle adventure, period drama, the threat of world domination by intelligent pterosaurs or a future dominated by intelligent apes, everything is better with Tarzan.

Looking at a Tragedy From Afar

Watching the events of the Christchurch Shooting from afar, my perspective this time has been different from other disasters like this. When I hear of events overseas, I’ve been saddened but somewhat detached. Even after hearing about the Port Arthur tragedy and the events of Martin Place, they didn’t seem to be too close to home for me. But this has been different, even though it’s taken place overseas. This somehow feels as though my home has been attacked. I suspect it’s because I’ve just returned from New Zealand, and although I never visited Christchurch, the New Zealand I visited felt a lot like home. There’s also the fact it was perpetrated by an Australian, someone I could have sat next to in a bus or a plane. It’s also a horror that has occurred when people were engaged in worship. As a leader of a faith community myself, and one who has been a regular worshipper since before I could walk, the idea of being attacked at such a time of peace and openness is chilling.

                I also find it a hideous thought that someone should be killed purely because they were born into a particular culture or racial group. We are all born into a culture, we all are born with a race and none of us has any choice about which one we find ourselves within. With such randomness seemingly at play, how can a person be punished for being who they are? Race seems to have developed purely for humans to survive in whatever environment they have lived for long periods of time and culture is always shifting to embrace new situations and environments. As a white Christian, I know that in some parts of the world I would be viewed with suspicion and a symbol of foreign imperialism. In other parts, I’d be a symbol of wealth and foreign prosperity. These are all stereotypes others may apply to me. And I would be wrong to be killed because of them. As an individual I know I pose no threat to anyone, for I choose to see others as humans just like me, individuals living in the culture and the skin into which they were born. I still struggle seeing past stereotypes at times, but I know that this is what they are and not who my fellow human beings are. Most people are largely good, some people badly damaged, and some people are driven by evil intent. From experience, the scales predominately tip towards the good, and even in those of the latter, I’ve seen glimmers of hope. That people should die because of fears driven by stereotypes and situations in which they have played no part, is heartbreaking.

                I remember in my teen years a time when things seemed to shift in the public discussions about migration. I’d grown up in the seventies and eighties and had gone to school with and lived near people from different racial and cultural backgrounds. There were racist elements back then but generally, we all got on regardless of one’s ethnicity. Then things began to shift in our national politics. As is always inevitable, our country and culture were changing. The world felt as if it was growing smaller. Discussion over immigration and multiculturalism seemed to be at the forefront of debate. It started at the peripheries and quickly moved to the focus of debate. Fringe talk became a central discussion. Where one was from, what religion and what culture became political hotcakes. After 9/11 things got even worse. Boat people became bad, the yellow peril morphed into the Muslim threat and seeking asylum became a nominally criminal act. Migrant communities became the bogeymen of the nation and were dragged out for discussion whenever the political numbers or the price of energy looked bad. Once the spectre of the same-sex marriage debate was put to rest, climate change and migration seemed to be all that was left. And then the Christchurch terror attack occurred, and we are all left wondering why this shared tragedy happened. We instinctively know that this is the ultimate outcome of the demonization of a group of people. But it is politically expedient and doesn’t necessarily refer to the ‘good ones’ within those communities. It’s not long before they are viewed as a scourge and a problem to be dealt with. We like to think that we were involved in a nuanced debate, but nuance becomes lost when people’s fears are engaged. In the irrational thinking of the arachnophobe, there are no harmless spiders. They all must be dealt with. And now in the wash-up, we are scrambling to distance ourselves from what’s been said and done and to ostracize those who continue to join in wholeheartedly. In Matthew 5: 21-22 Jesus said ‘21 “You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not murder’; and ‘whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, ‘You fool,’ you will be liable to the hell of fire (NRSV).’ Here Jesus makes the connection between unjust anger and slander, the assassination of a person’s character and the extreme outcome of it, the act of murder. The root of one lies in the other. Words are powerful things and hateful ideas are dangerous. Our politics and rhetoric have slandered a whole group of people. We’ve accused them of the crimes of others, treated them as outsiders, and accused them of not doing enough to prove our stories wrong. And we’ve done so in the name of the greater good. Sadly, for the people of Christchurch, they’ve reaped what we’ve sown. Let us, our politics and our cultural discussions work hard to sow better fruits in the future, lest we see another Christchurch.

My (Belated) Christmas Message

Almost every culture has a belief that they are not alone in the universe. I’d argue that many atheists have a certain sense of wonder at the scope and expanse of the universe, as well as a belief that there is more life out there than just us down here. Stories of God’s and heroes fill many books and oral tales through the ages but something that is important to the followers of Christ is the strong sense of history. Jesus isn’t merely a divine figure that lives in some mystical time before history, whose adventures and dealings with other God's and monsters are told to explain the world in which we live. Jesus was a flesh and blood figure who walked the dusty roads of 1^st century Palestine and who's blood relations still walk the earth today. And we find the importance of the when, where and when of Jesus in the first chapter of Luke's gospel, within the Christmas story.

The When: Circa 6 BC

Luke’s gospel makes it clear that Christ’s entrance into our world happened at a point in time when things were changing.

Augustus Caesar, nephew and adopted son of Julius Caesar had just become the first Emperor of Rome and he was beginning to take stock of his empire. Censuses were going on around the empire and Rome's power was on the rise. Even the King of Judah, King Herod the Great, ruled the country on behalf of the Roman Empire. He was not descended from the great King David but came from a line of rulers that had taken control...

The setting Luke gives us is a bit like saying ‘In the days of JFK there was a great space race and Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. The Quirinius mentioned was governor a decade after the birth of Jesus and his census was well recorded in history. The events that lead to Jesus’ family heading to Bethlehem must have been a part of what would be remembered as the census that Quirinius finalised many years later. Archaeology may yet turn up more information.

Jesus entered history at a time when Rome ruled supreme and even probed the lives of individuals living in far off Judah. God’s chosen people, were intended to be ruled over by the right hand of their God Jehovah, King David and his descendants. Instead, they were under the rule of a half Jewish puppet King and an empire that sought to count and catalogue them for its own purposes. God's people were at a low place, a small province, under the dominion of a growing superpower.

The Where: Bethlehem, Judah

The Gospel of Luke also tells us where Jesus was born. Bethlehem. Because of the census, Joseph had to return to his home town of Bethlehem. Bethlehem was a tiny town in the days of Jesus, famous for being the birthplace of King David and the burial place of Rachel the wife of Jacob. It was also famous as the place where the Messiah would be born. The prophet Micah said’ But you o Bethlehem of Ephrathah, who are one of the little clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to rule in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days…and he shall be the one of peace.'. The birthplace of King David would also be the birthplace of the great king to come, the ancient one, the one of peace.

The next where is the place of the birth. Traditionally presented as a stable of an inn, it is thought that at the time of Jesus’ birth, Bethlehem was too small to have had an inn. The word translated as inn can also mean living space. Houses in this time often kept the animals on the lower floors of the home, with the upper areas for living and sleeping. Sometimes these houses would be built over caves, giving the animals greater space to move. Here we can imagine a busy house, full of family visiting for the census. When a baby is suddenly born, the stable area is the most appropriate place for the delivery to take place, with feed trough acting as a makeshift crib. This scene of a newborn baby wrapped up and placed in a feed trough becomes the sign the shepherds are required to look for.

The Who: The Son of the Unseen God.

The who is the greatest part of the story. On the face of it, the baby is the child of a builder and his wife from Nazareth. They've come to town for the census just as the child was due. They had no choice but as law-abiding citizens, they were doing the right thing. But, they were fulfilling the ancient prophecy.

‘But you O Bethlehem of Ephrathah, who are one of the little clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to rule in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days…and he shall be the one of peace.’ The baby was a descendant of King David, one of Israel’s greatest kings and one whose families reign was said to be eternal. He was born in David’s home town of Bethlehem and God had made it clear to his parents, and relatives, prophets, shepherds, wise men and angels that he was the promised king that had been foretold. But this child was more than just an earthly king. The Davidic Kings had sat on the throne as God's right hand, his representative on earth. They were called his sons (Psalm 2: 7) and were given royal titles like 'Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9: 6).' They were called Messiahs or ‘anointed ones’ because God had anointed them to rule over his people. But this child was something more. All the promises of the kings were to be fulfilled in this Son of David. Not merely another earthly King, this child of David was something more, he was the unseen God in human flesh. He was the fulfilment of all that the ancient kings pointed to and his kingdom was a heavenly one and not of earth. Just as the swaddling bands wrapped his newborn body that had left the darkness of the womb, the very words of God had left the unseen world of God the Father and were wrapped in flesh and blood. God was now amongst us. God had come to bring us peace with him and each other.

Halloween (2018): A Race Against the Clock

Before the movie Friday the 13th (1980) terrified audiences around the world, there was Halloween (1978).  This year has seen the release of Halloween (2018), the 11th instalment in the Halloween movie franchise. As the twentieth anniversary outing, Halloween H20 (1998), this movie presents itself as a direct sequel to the original. Like H20, it reintroduces the character of Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), the lone survivor of the Haddonfield babysitter murders of 1978. Laurie has spent the last 40 years suffering from PTSD, all the while preparing for the return of the serial killer Michael Myers. In the original movie Michael Myers, also known as the Shape, killed his sister on Halloween night in 1963, escaped captivity and continued his killing spree 15 years later. Like all good Halloween tales, the 2018 movie is a story about a specific date when people don masks, going door to door to play a game of trick or treat.

Holiday Horror

The original film continuing the trend of holiday and other date-based horror films such as Black Christmas (1974). During the 1980's there would be Prom Night 1 (1980), 2 (1987), and 3 (1989), Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 1(1984), Part 2 (1987), and Part 3 (1989) the spoofy April Fool's Day (1986), as well as four more Halloween sequels. This procession of date themed slasher films would continue into the 90's and beyond. Popular film series were ripped-off, remade, rebooted and reimagined. At the heart of this phenomena is the dichotomy of the joyous celebration coupled with the horror of tragedy. Celebrations are times that we mark out for joy and merriment. Tragedy on these days is always heightened, the annual celebrations of life transformed into a yearly anniversary of loss. And Halloween is the perfect setting for such a story. The outward images of death and fear mask the joyful festivities of the annual celebration. In the Halloween film series, this subversion is reversed. The symbols of death regain their original meaning. The man dressed up in the pale white death mask going door to door is the agent of death bringing death with him. He is not a man dressed as the bogeyman, he is the bogeyman. The mask doesn’t obscure his features, it externalises his inward self. The conventions of Halloween night are his native environment. Just as pumpkins are carved to resemble heads, in the latest movie Michael takes the head of a policeman and carves it into a jack-o-lantern. In Halloween (2018), Michael’s deranged psychiatrist Dr Sartain (Haluk Bilginer), after years of studying the killer in captivity, revels in the opportunity to see Michael free in his element, i.e. Haddonfield on Halloween Night. Usually existing in a catatonic state since the murder of his sister, he only becomes active when he escapes in time for Halloween.

It's About Time.

The fixing of the story to an annual event allowed time to become an important theme in the Halloween series. This 40th-anniversary film will be known as Halloween (2018), just as the 20th-anniversary film was known as Halloween H20 (1998). A date is implied in the title and this date becomes the catalyst for Michael Myers’ return. In the opening of Halloween (2018) we are presented with a montage made up of inmate’s stares and an image of a clock hanging on the wall in the Smith’s Grove Sanitarium. The clock introduces the idea of time passing and the approach of Halloween evening. The eyes of the inmates suggest the waiting game of those looking on. When the time arrives what will Michael do? The eyes are also mirrored by the gaze of the audience. We are waiting to see the bogeyman of the series in action. Once Michael dons his Halloween mask, he will spend time watching and waiting until it is time to begin his lethal ritual. This sense of the passing of time is also assisted by the soundtrack of the film. Beginning with a ticking clock at the start of the film, this feeling of time racing to an impending event is evoked by the rapid staccato of the main theme. Coupled with its unsettling 5/4-time signature and languid countermelody, the theme underscores the film's sense of countdown towards the inevitable events of the Shapes’ return.

Part of the thrill of the countdown is the sense that there is a game afoot. It's a game that the filmmakers are playing with us as we eat our popcorn, thrilling to the shocks and scares that jump out at us from the screen. In the original Halloween, Doctor Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasance), Michael Myer's psychiatrist, enters into the spirit of the festival. While waiting for the Michael outside of the killer's childhood home, he scares some neighbourhood children that have approached the house. We are reminded at this point that the movie is a trick being played on us. Its fun being scared, it's a treat. We are observers of a game of cat and mouse being played out on the screen, all which is a scenario designed to trick us. This sense of the game is also prevalent in the latest instalment. In the opening scene, two British podcasters are granted permission to try and interview the non-verbal Michael Myer’s. They are led out to where Michael is restrained in the centre of the exercise yard, an area comprised of black and white squares reminiscent of a giant chess board. Here they question Myers about the events of the past to which there is no response. Even when producing the original mask from his 1978 killing spree he is unresponsive. All around guard dogs bark and other inmates cry out, yet Michael is silent. He is waiting in his square to make his move.

The Long Game.      

Once Michael is free, the game begins. The streets of Haddonfield become a maze in which Myers can appear and disappear seemingly at will. The Shape toys with his victims, obscuring himself in shadow and hiding in cupboards. He plays tricks on potential victims, hiding corpses, displaying bodies in ways that strike fear in other potential victims (and the audience).

Narrative expectations are also toyed with. Although it was established in previous sequels that Michael Myers and Laurie Strode were brothers and sister, the latest film sets out to ignore this plot device. The idea is raised in conversation between several characters and dismissed as mere gossip. At one-point Laurie’s granddaughter, Allyson (Andi Matichak) falsely claims to have heard Michael Myers utter a word, claims to which psychiatrist, Dr Sartain asks ‘was it the name of his sister?’ The sister being referred to was Judith Myers whom he murdered in the prologue of the first movie. Yet to those familiar with the franchise it also acts as a tease. Is Laurie indeed his secret sister or not? As no word was uttered the truth remains unanswered. The movie also plays with the conventions of the slasher genre. No longer is the female lead the prey in the game of cat and mouse. She has positioned herself as the hunter, trying to beat Michael Myers at his own game. In Halloween (1978), Doctor Loomis played the role of the Shapes’ hunter. In Halloween (2018) we find that he has passed away and replaced by his former student, Doctor Sartain. Though poised to be the hunter it is revealed that he is more interested in observing Michael's homicidal activities. He is even more interested in simulating them, than apprehending him. The security represents is undermined when it is revealed he is part of the chaos. Now it becomes clear that it is Laurie Strode who is the heir to Loomis’ role as hero.  She is no longer the survivor, the last girl, she is the hunter. Just as Michael has been waiting to begin the game again, Laurie has been playing an even longer game, luring Michael into a trap. Just as the game begins with the chessboard imagery, it finishes with the criss-cross of bars, caging Michael in a fiery trap.


For 40 years the characters created by John Carpenter, Debra Hill and others have thrilled horror movie fans with their classy atmospheric approach to the slasher genre. Even at it’s weakest, the Halloween franchise has been a cut above the rest. The unrelenting march of its emotionless villain, Michael Myers through jack-o-lantern lined streets of Haddonfield, always casts an eerie image. Halloween (2018) continues this legacy, with its thrilling game of cat and mouse played out against the countdown to Halloween. It’s a tense game where at times it is unclear who is the hunter and who is the hunted.

The Killer Gorilla: The Role of the Ape in Popular Culture (Part 2)

                                                                              

Six years after Edgar Alan Poe introduced us to his killer orang-utan in The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841), a new species of great ape was discovered in the wilds of Africa that captured the public imagination. Bigger than the other anthropoid apes, and roughly three times heavier than the average human, the discovery of Troglodytes gorilla in 1847 re-enforced the idea of the killer ape in the public imagination. After Charles Darwin published his On the Origins of Species in 1859, this human like beast took on a new identity that surpassed its reputation as animal imitator of humanity, that of  the missing link to our simian ancestry, our wild animal cousin . No longer just the companion of showmen and clowns, the ape was quickly becoming the hairy henchmen and guinea pig of the mad scientist wanting to explore evolution’s wonders.

It wasn’t long before the evolutionary link infiltrated the great ape’s carnival attraction persona. In the 1880’s the magician Herbert Albini, aka Albini the Great, invented the popular sideshow illusion Girl to Gorilla in which a beautiful girl in a cage appears to transform into a savage gorilla before the eyes of the audience. Following the classic mirror illusion, a man in a gorilla suit would proceed to break out of the enclosure and chase the audience from the tent. Not only could apes be seen at the zoo or entertaining at the circus, now one could also witness the horror of evolution take place in reverse. A classic of sideshow alley, the trick can still be found in carnivals around the world. It wasn’t long before the popularity of the gorilla, and the availability of gorilla suits, saw the figure of the  ape appear in various stage productions around the world.

During the twenties the Old Dark House genre of drama was popular. Typically a mixture of people would assemble in an old house, complete with secret doors, often for an official reason, (e.g., the reading of a will) after which a murder or murders would begin to take place. Frequently something unusual present in the house would be blamed for the murders until the real identity of the murderer would be revealed. In 1924 Adam Shirk wrote the play The Ape in which a group of investors in an archaeological expedition assemble in an old house to confront a long missing archaeologist about their share of the recovered treasure. Once in the house it seems as though they are caught up in an oriental curse placed on the treasure and executed by a sacred ape.  A year later Ralph Spence wrote The Gorilla, in which the an escaped gorilla enters an old dark house in which the reading of a will is about to take place. Coincidentally, the animal's presence confuses the issue, when investigators arrive seeking to capture a murderer rumored to be targeting the gathering also known as the Gorilla. In 1927 The Gorilla was adapted to the silent screen and the killer gorilla was on its way to finding a place in cinema’s gallery of ghouls and haunted house and ghost train sideshows around the world.

With the advent of sound, both plays were adapted for the screen, The Gorilla again in 1930  and once more 1939 featuring the Ritz Brothers. In 1934 The Ape was filmed as The House of Mystery  and loosely adapted as The Ape starring Boris Karloff and adapted by Curt Siodmak in 1940. Following in the footsteps of these productions was The Monster Walks (1932) another old dark house story which again saw the blame for various murders following the reading of a will wrongly leveled at a lab chimp caged in the basement. The human-likeness of the gorilla makes the primate a perfect fall guy for human murderers that hope the brutality of their actions will be blamed on the innocent brute.

In 1932, Universal released the first cinema adaptation of Murders in the Rue Morgue which broadened the bounds of the original story and  introduced a new scientific element. The film version told the story of a Doctor Mirakle (Bela Lugosi) who has learnt to speak the language of his trained gorilla, Eric (Charles Gamora) and who seeks to find a human female with a compatible blood type so he can create a suitable mate for Eric. After several candidates have been found incompatible and discarded, a suitable candidate is found in Camille (Sidney Fox), the girl friend of Pierre Dupin (Leon Ames), the detective hero of Poe's original story. After the kidnapping of Camille from her apartment by Eric results in the murder of her mother (Betty Ross Clarke), Mirakle and the ape are soon tracked down to the laboratory located in the Rue Morgue, where the heroine is saved, the villain strangled by the ape and the gorilla shot.

Here we have an interesting development in the idea of the killer gorilla, that is the ape as the raw material of human life. No longer did would-be-Frankensteins need body parts to create monsters, now they could go right to the source of human life and harness the power of evolution, to evolve apes into human monsters or devolve humans back to there primordial selves. As the Girl to Gorilla side show suggested, the harnessing of evolution could create true horrors. Now the gorilla was not just the denizen of the side show and the old dark house but that of the mad scientists lab as well. Interestingly the last scene of Morgue featured a trope that would be made famous by a film  released the following year, that of the ape carrying it's the intended human mate up to the roof tops only to be shot down for the brazen, forbidden act of inter-species (possibly read interracial) romance.

As the 30's progressed, the popularity of the killer gorilla went from strength to strength. This was in the main due to the release of the two special effects extravaganzas, King Kong (1933) and Son of Kong (1933), which figuratively and literary took the idea of the Killer Ape to new heights.

To be continued...

Ghostbusters Re-heated

Doggy bags are a wonderful thing and one of simple pleasures in life is that blissful moment the pizza from the night before comes out of the microwave and hits your early morning taste buds. The crust might seem a little soggy but all the things that are right out weight the potential staleness. In many ways, this is the story of the latest installment of the Ghostbusters franchise, although this pizza has had a few jalepenos thrown on for good measure. It's been 27 years since the last cinematic instalment of the Ghostbusters franchise, and audiences finally get to see the proton packs blaze away in all their sizzling glory once again. The twist in this film is the much discussed nixing of the original male Ghostbusters characters in favour of an all new of female line-up.

Helmed by director Paul Feig (Bridesmaids, The Heat), the movie, eschews the continuity of the previous films, and the two critically acclaimed animated series from the nineties, in favour of a new narrative that ignores all that has gone before while dragging us safely back into familiar territory. Replacing the original line-up of male Saturday Night Live alumni, are an equally funny group of female comedians drawn from the same show. Added to the convention flipping is Chris Hemsworth, who appears as the useless but hunky 'himbo' receptionist whose main function is to act as eye candy for the 'Busters', as well as to get caught up in events in a way that recalls Rick Moranis' character in the original movies. While the characters are different, Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones portray a similar group of off beat scientists who desperately want their research into the supernatural to be taken seriously while seeking to save New York from a world shattering supernatural apocalypse. If it sounds familiar that's because it is and enjoyably so. What are the jalapenos on this reheated pizza you may ask? Well for some it  be the uber-hunky addition of Chris Hemsworth but for others it might be the sparkling, witty and quirky performances of McCarthy and Co who also provide an element of eye candy for the thinking man and possibly for many that don't. For GB geeks, another new pizza topping in this outing is the array of new gadgets the teams creates that sit in their armory alongside the more familiar ones of old. No matter the gender, these 'Busters' love their toys.

While the movie is determined to be a version of  Ghostbusters that stands alone in it's own continuity, the film tries desperately to remind us that it is still part of the 80's-90's franchise. You may be the 30 something fan who watched every show, read every comic, had every figure and spent your holidays with your mum's vacuum cleaner strapped to your back and mourn the erasing of your childhood heroes. Don't worry, they are not far away. With frequent cameos by original cast members, even including a bust of the late Harold Ramis, its pedigree is constantly thrust at the audience in case we have forgotten it's the third installment of a popular but long dormant franchise. If we feel that it's not kosher with out the original GB team, they hope to convince us otherwise by turning up like a sprinkling of turkey bacon on a cheese pizza. Ironically Bill Murray, who played the cynical Peter Venkman in the original films, takes on the role of an equally cynical skeptic who publicly challenges the credibility of the Ghostbusters with dire consequences. If all this fails, we get to see a version of the Marshmellow Man and the return of Slimer, the only continuing character to survive all incarnations of  Ghostbusters franchise.

Plot wise, the movie safely follows the basic formula of the previous films and reproduces much of the same iconography as the original series. The Ghosbusters must work with and against the City Council to foil a massive supernatural plot centered around New York which threatens the world as we know it. Far from a bad thing, it reminds us of all the fun and silly things that we loved about feasting on the original movies. With proton packs, witty dialogue, ghouls, cranky mayors, a giant monster and an impending apocalypse laid on with thick SFX cheese, this is a reheated dish that is still delicious after all these years. Busting still makes me feel good the third time around.

The Love of Christ: Letting the Genie Out of the Bottle

In The Beginning
In the first part of the modern era the Christian faith burst onto the cultural scene from what seemed like a disastrous beginning and rose to a point where it was the official religion for the once hostile Roman Empire. The defining elements of this faith were 

• That the Creator God had entered human form in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, a Jew whose followers saw him as God's promised savior and king. 
• He taught that the Law God had given to the Jewish people could be summed up in the two commands, 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind' and  ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’
• He was executed by the Romans and that He went willingly to death, offering Himself as the final atoning sacrifice that would allow humanity to reconnect with the divine.
• That He rose from the dead and now is present with God the Father 
• That He will return again one day in judgment over the living and the dead, examining each on how they have followed his faith and lived out his commands of love, after which the creation will finally be set free from the bondage that evil forces have had over it.

So Christians went out seeking to follow Christ's example of extravagant love, freeing those in bondage and speaking out against those who showed injustice to their fellow humanity.  Though, as time went on, tribalism in the church began to take hold. Starting originally as a cultural dispute between Jewish and Gentile Christians, it soon began to spread further a field to others, as different understandings around the nature of the incarnation of Jesus took hold, the message got lost and the fights began. Did Christ become divine at His birth or baptism? Did he exist before his birth as a human or did he only appear to be human and was really a spirit being? Were the divine parts of His nature at one with his human nature or were they separate? Was He the same being as the Father God or was He actually a separate angelic entity. Was He even human at all, or was He even divine? These questions began to be asked because if you were going to die for your faith, you needed to know what that faith was and how it was the same as the person being executed next to you. Christian love should have prevailed over this, but the forces of this world were at work.

Doing the Splits
For the early church already finding itself divided from Judaism, schism among its members was an already a sad possibility. Maintaining unity while actively seeking to discourage those that caused division was never an easy thing. Some, believing they were carry on the leadership of Christ's disciples, sometimes disagreed with others who were also considered to hold authority. Charlatans and opportunists were already appearing to take advantage of the good nature of the young movement and looked to lead it in directions that were directly opposed to to the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. This didn't go unaddressed in the letters and other writing that would in time become collected together as The New Testament. The Gospel of John is very clear about what is important in relation to understanding who Jesus is and the nature of his being. In the Gospel of John it says, 

'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it................. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (The Gospel According to John 1: 1-5, 9-14).'

Here the writer is laying out the idea that the origins of Jesus Christ didn't begin in the womb but stretched back into the very essence of the Eternal Divinity. He was a major player in creation and now He inhabited it. This idea of Christ being eternal divinity, God's Word made flesh, is carried on into the 1st Letter of John, which traditionally the church has attributed to the same author. Here it becomes a rallying point for those who are seeking to discern what teaching and which persons truly represent Christ against those that seek to deceive, 

'Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. (1 John 4: 1-3)'

For John, the most dangerous thing that could take hold of the church was a belief that denied that the divine Word of God, the means by which the unseen Heavenly Father had interacted with his creation since the beginning of time, had not been born into human history as the man Jesus of Nazareth. If Jesus was merely a man or even a spiritual being that merely looked like a man, the Christian message was undermined. God could dwell with in his creation, his creation was good and he loved it enough to die for it. Human life is precious, human life matters, Human life is of eternal value and the way we treat others counts. The way of this world says that someone has to die to pay the piper, the way of Jesus says that if someone has to die to appease the murderous spirit of this world,
 it will God giving himself freely. God is love and he loves us, warts and all.

'This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.  No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. (1 John 4: 10-12).'

Dying For the Here and Now
This amazing cocktail of love is the good news of the christian message. We are agents of God's love who share this love with others because He loved us first. In fact it is by our love that people will know us and by which God will recognise us as His people. It seems simple but as history rolled on the same old enemies began to rear their heads. In my own life time God's people seem to have been recognised by their doctrine, their assigned list of beliefs. Often it didn't matter how much this lead to discrimination, oppression, hate and intolerance, what counted was that the persons doctrine was perceived to be right. If this was the case these things could be over looked no matter where it lead the holder of such beliefs. In fact if your life was a mess and you were suffering, it was probably your own fault because you were following the wrong set of beliefs. You  probably deserved everything you got. Maybe your faith wasn't strong enough, that's if you had one at all. For many Christians it was belief in a right set of doctrines that guaranteed entrance into heaven and not a belief in the divine power of love that would empower you as a child of the God to transform the world here and now. They forget it was in the 'here and now' that Jesus came and dwelt in order to the redeem the whole 'here and now' from the destruction that a lack of love was bringing upon it.

Street Freak Fear
This has lead to what I call 'street freak fear', the moment when a street preacher approaches you and asks whether you are a Christian. If the answer is in the affirmative, they will begin to tell you why your not and why they need to save you. Loving God and your neighbour is no longer enough, there are levels of Christianity beginning with what ever doctrinal slant the preacher holds to and where ever they see as you sitting theologically. Look out if you belong to another religion all together, you are hell bound no questions asked, despite the fact that Christians believe that Christ is the ultimate judge. Love has seemingly disappeared as the true defining principle of Christ's followers and has been replaced by an adherents to a set of propositions. There was even a time, long after the Romans ceased burning Christians at the stake, that the followers of Christ started burning each other over issues of doctrine. I'm not suggesting that we should turn our backs on the basic tenants of the Apostolic Tradition, only that Christ's command to love comes first in our dealings with others. Instead of being the salt that gives flavour to the world, we are at risk of becoming pickled in our own self righteous juices. Is this how Christ meant it to be?

Release the Genie!
Looking back through history, through reformations, schisms between East and West, inquisitions and crusades, I think it's time for us to return to our first love, Christ and His sacrificial passion for the 'last, the lost and the least'. We need to let the genie out of the bottle and unleash the lavish love of Christ on a world that needs it more than ever. When we meet others, no matter who they are, their well being needs to be our main concern. In fact, the way we treat them is the way we treat Jesus (1 John 4: 19-21). It's always seemed ironic to me that the church has fixated on all kinds of things that it has perceived to be the greatest of sins, even to the point of social isolation and execution, and has ignored the very things Christ said would be the issue in question at the last judgement. We struggle with common law marriage, same sex relationships and evolutionary theory but openly tolerate greed, social inequality, sexism, racism and gossip. Something seems to have been lost over the years.

Nail Your Colours!
If the just, merciful and loving treatment of those around us is the ultimate hallmark of a Christian, why don't we nail our colors to that mast? Why don't we make that our goal? Then we will truly be salt and light in our tiny corner of the cosmos. Only Christ's love has the power to transform our world, when we come to see all humanity as beloved brothers and sisters redeemed by Christ's blood and not enemies to be crushed. We need to let love flow freely and to all, no matter who they are, because in doing so we are showing Christ how much we love him. We need to be the people who cause the vulnerable to breath a sigh of relief in our presence and the ones with a vested interest in suffering to flee or change their hearts. Christ has called us to be the ones who work with him to piece back the broken pieces of the human race into a beautiful mosaic of spirit filled family, at one with its creator and one another. Release the genie now!