The Rickety Man - Live blog

Hello!

So, you might recall that I was supposed to live blog my viewing of a horror movie over Halloween. That didn't quite pan out. HOWEVER!..

A very talented writer (also person I inspire ((surely)) ), Jeremiah Lewis has written a very good tale called The Rickety Man.

I was able to read a feature length screenplay of this Man who Rickety's. The short film set in this world was released recently and so what better way to spend this blog than by watching and live blogging.

Just some notes before the viewing commences:

I am a fan of reading horror. That's great. Watching? Well I get childishly grumpy and annoyed at jump scares so it takes me out of the enjoyment. I have cursed under my breath "motherfucker" at too many jump scares in cinema screens in my younger days.

So! This will be interesting. I've read the feature....a very atmospheric story through the pages. If I could lift that feeling in it and transport it onto my own half finished horror feature idea, I would be doing well. But...now I am going to watch the short film of The Manety Rick.

I'm sort of killing the tone of it already with the needless screw ups of the actual title, right?

Apologies...

Let's begin...

Feel free to join in on the viewing...

The Rickety Man

(Pfft, I can probably draw a bit better than that!)

Dead bird : (

Fuck off giggly child

This guy has a great voice. After this he (Edward) should go to Transylvania and be a solicitor for Mr. Dracula. These opening images, sounds (besides giggly child) feel like we are at Dracula's, or maybe Dr. Frankenstein's autumn home.

So one obvious positive of watching, rather than reading, is that the actors can show off their skills. Giggly child (and I apologize to the actress who is doing great!) saying the name Rickety Man is making me feel very "kill her quick father!" feelings. Oh, giggly child is Mathilda.

Mathilda and her father (Edward) are doing great. Kudos to those two acting. If Game of Thrones was still going I'd suggest getting them on the show. I can see them both rock up on screen as members of House Tully.

The music under this scene in the field works really well.

OK...Dinner scene was...so it was a bit unnerving. It made the ominous music seem the most cheerful thing about the scene.

See personally, I like this a little more than WHAM jump scare. I can appreciate this. (I can also internally bark "For God's sake Edward!! Run!! Forget the kids!!) but alas...

What we will assume is the Rickety Man looks great. That's a great shot actually. I paused it to have a nosey look at him. And everything about the scene between the lighting and the framing of father and what's at the door is great stuff.

About half way through. It's doing great at building tension. It's like walking slowly up creaky stairs to a dark attic.

Again, actors are doing great work here too.

I want to stop a moment and come back to this point. Slow viewing of the descent of Mathilda.

OK, I m going to fill in what this means:

Now I forgot details on the feature screenplay so I am viewing this in a somewhat fresh light. What I really find appealing so far is, we aren't being introduced to a "haunted" house and then hit over the head quickly with evil girl. This feels more like watching the slow collapse of daughter Mathilda from good kid to evil. That's a bit refreshing I think. Again I say this part only as a fantasy "oh if I wrote a feature based on what I've seen in this short" I'd be inspired to show a father not fully understanding but worrying over his children and their turn to evil.

Notice the house gets darker the further we get into the story?

Notice how that unsettling constant "drone" of music for the majority of the story so far has stopped suddenly. Now it's unsettling how quiet it is. That's cool.

Ah, well James is...well...I mean, he had a good run. : /

Damn accent on Mathilda saying "Rickety Man". If she told me Superman was on his way I would be creeped out by him.

That hand from the monster is well done again. Actually, scratch that, that whole transition from Mathilda running to the hand trying to stop Edward from shutting the door is very cool. Kudos to everyone setting that up.

Door knob turns. Obviously a raptor.

Oh, this short brings up another point that I appreciate. So, if you'll notice there is a voiceover. Now this is tied to the writings of Edward in his letter. Very nice. What I really dislike, at least it's something I personally do not want to do in my own writing, is just add in a voiceover into a script just as a character speaking directly to the audience. That, I don't like. I do like if a voiceover is also the dialogue (or in this case written word) of some part of the story. It doesn't just tell us the audience what's going on, it actually has a story reason for existing, so to speak. So great. Plus that's a nice tying up of the story at the end.

And we're done. We survived The Rickety Man.

I was never worried.

Intrigued? Lot of exploring to do in that house, property, story. Again, I do enjoy reading horrors whereas I don't often watch them. This was very unsettling and I feel the atmosphere I got from the feature screenplay was here for sure. Thanks to the rest of the crew and cast because the music, cinematography and acting added a lot to it!

(I hold a small but very big petty grudge against Mathilda for her pronunciation of Rickety Man. No monster is bothering to teach her to pronounce it in such a needlessly creepy way. That's all her doing!)

But yes I hope you check out the short. Well, I hope you already did because reading this first and then watching is just sheer lunacy.

And thanks for reading the blog!

Unnerved Kevin