Well Red – Dragula – S4 E1
Hello uglies, let’s talk about Dragula S4 E1, shall we? Welcome to “Well Red,” Haunted MTL’s weekly review and recap of Shudder’s horror drag competition, The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula. We’re going to catch you up on who slayed, who stayed, and who passed away. We’ll also give the overall episode a critique.
Dragula – S4 E1: What Went Down
“I’m Merrie Cherry and I’m scared as fuck.”Merrie Cherry, The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula – S4 E1
The episode began with a pretty long opening that set up not only an ancient ritual but a modern possessed mask story. It was a bit long, but the production values were great. The problem is that it takes away time to get to know the contestants. While I applaud the effort I mostly felt left in the cold with the opening.
Thankfully, we get a really fun introduction to this season’s competitors. They are shepherded into a haunted house and we get to know our competitors a bit. We also get some initial tension which will likely simmer throughout the season. Specifically, we get a pair of potential troublemakers in La Zavaleta and Merrie Cherry. La Zavaleta is particularly boisterous and that certainly carries through the episode. Merrie Cherry felt a little needy, taking offense at not getting a certain level of attention. Grim signs for what is ahead.
We also get introduced to HoSo Terra Tom and Astrud Aurelia who seem to have some mutual respect – and maybe a little more. We’ll need to see. We also have a lady duo alliance with Sigourney Beaver and Bitter Bettie. We’ll see how long that lasts.
Fright Challenge
The fright challenge this week was an extreme haunted house that subjected our contestants to a number of fun scare gags including a backward blind drop, a gag with a speeding car, a tumbling room, and plenty of masked meanies. It was a lot of fun to see the two groups make their way through, but the most significant moment involved Astrud Aurelia.
In the workroom, La Zavaleta snarked at Astrud Aurelia about collapsing in the haunt. Astrud revealed she had a traumatic encounter with a car once, and that the car gag in the haunt took her surprise. We also get some other shade, a great deal thrown at Formelda Hyde for being a masked queen. Masked queens have notoriously low life expectancies on Dragula.
Main Challenge
The main challenge was to remake the look of a classic horror character, and we certainly get quite the spread.
- Astrud Aurelia – Xenomorph from Alien
- Koco Caine – Morticia Addams from The Addams Family
- Sigourney Beaver – The Bride of Frankenstein from… The Bride of Frankenstein
- HoSo Terra Tom – Other Mother from Coraline
- Merrie Cherry – Stay Puft Marshmallow Man – Ghostbusters
- Saint – Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
- Jade Jolie – Sarah Sanderson from Hocus Pocus
- La Zavaleta – The Blind-Man from Pan’s Labyrinth
- Bitter Bettie – Elvira
- Formedla Hyde – Billy from SAW
There was some shade being thrown around the workroom, but not as much as earlier. Still, some personalities, alliances, and conflicts are forming. Things will certainly get more intense as the season progresses. One sign that our contestants may be in trouble – most were still applying makeup while the final looks warning sounded. Yikes.
The floor show was every bit as stylish as expected and the assemblage of looks, on the whole, was great, with some very, very noticeable misfires. In particular, La Zavaleta and Formelda Hyde made for the bottom two, and while Formelda Hyde could have pushed her look and shape further, La Zavaleta’s look was completely off, in my opinion. Rather than drooping skin associated with her character, La Zavalta’s “Blind-Man” came off as lumpy, flakey, and her motions didn’t really put emphasis on the hands which had the eyes – kind of the point of “the Blind-Man.”
The winning look was Astrud Aurelia’s punk-looking “Xenomorph” and it definitely deserved the win. The gesture was just right, the materials had the gothic-tech look of H. R. Giger’s art, and the tail on the costume was fantastic, creating a striking profile. A close second for me was HoSo Terra Tom’s “Other Mother” hitting all the points of the character and building on the look. I think HoSo is my early choice for the performer to take the grand prize this season. While she didn’t win this go, she was one of the top looks.
Also of note was Astrud’s rather loud pop upon winning and Sigourney’s very clear side-eye that followed.
Elimination Challenge
The elimination challenge is an old one, but always fun. Israel got to seal La Zavaleta and Formelda into coffins, cover them in dirt, and pipe in some mealworms, crickets, and a little water. It’s not the most horrific elimination challenge we’ve seen, but it’s always a fun one. Between the two, La Zavaleta handled the whole thing a little better than Formelda which is probably why Formedelda was killed by our venerable hosts, Dracmorda and Swanthula. Unless maybe the club-kid boots are that big of a sin?
The Results
Winner: Astrud Aurelia (shown)
Top Looks: Astrud Aurelia, Koco Caine, Sigourney Beaver, and HoSo Terra Tom
Safe Squad: Merrie Cherry, Saint, Jade Jolie
Bottom Looks: La Zavaleta, Bitter Bettie, Formelda Hyde
Episode Score
The contestants this season have some serious chops and the production this season looks like it will be very impressive. Dragula should be a fun ride this season. However, the episode ran a little too long with an overstuffed opening. I found myself getting a little annoyed with the window dressing and wishing we spent more time with the ghouls.
Also, as much as I love drama, eliminating Formelda Hyde was the wrong move – La Zavaleta’s blind-man was the weaker of their bottom two looks and Formelda’s only real flaw was their scale wasn’t large enough. Now, instead, La Zavaleta is going to stick around and cause drama, which is fun, but feels a bit forced given that her look just didn’t serve.
(3.5 / 5)
We hope you enjoyed our coverage of The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula – S4 E1. Let us know what you thought of the competition and who you think will take the prize. We’d also love to hear your assessment of the looks. Which gagged and which were groaners?
We’ve reached the final episode of American Horror Stories, season three. After the ups and downs of the season, I didn’t know what to expect. I felt that we were due a big finish, Killer Queens. But I feared we were in for a big letdown.
As it turns out, The Thing Under The Bed was neither.
The story
We begin our story with a little girl named Mary, who is scared of something under her bed. She sneaks out of her room, only to be caught by her father and sent back to sleep. And of course, there is something horrible waiting for her under her bed.
This scene cuts away to a woman named Jillian. She has strange dreams, including one about Mary. But her husband, Mark, doesn’t want to hear about it. He’s only interested in a little lovemaking because he wants a baby. Jillian doesn’t, which makes total sense because she’s already married to one. But her irritation with her childish husband goes away when he goes away. And by goes away, I mean he’s sloppily devoured by something vicious under their bed.
What worked
In short, this episode just worked. The acting was professional and believable. The cinematography and lighting work were wonderful, adding spooky effects and startling moments without impairing visibility.
Best of all, the story was solid. There were no plotholes to be found. Our main character, Jillian, was relatable and sympathetic.
This was maybe my favorite part of the story. I thought Jillian was a remarkably sympathetic character. She was dealt a hand she never asked for, having her husband slaughtered in their bedroom. I don’t think she missed him, so much as she was afraid of the legal ramifications of being caught with literal blood on her hands.
Then, when it would have been safest for her to just lay low and save up for a good defense attorney, she instead goes into unlikely hero mode. She does her best to save people, putting herself in legal and physical danger. It’s hard not to root for her.
It’s also a little hard not to root for the antagonist, too. I don’t want to ruin the twist for you, so I’m going to tread lightly here. But it’s great when you have an antagonist who might be off their rocker, but also maybe has a point.
What didn’t work
I can only really think of one complaint with this episode. And that is how frequently one character says the word Chickadee. And if you’ve seen the episode, you know what I am talking about.
I get it, he has a pet name for his daughter. It’s adorable. It’s meant to convey that the two of them have a healthy loving relationship and I get it. We all get it. Blind monks get it. But the fact remains that no parent on Earth calls their kid by their pet name every single time they speak an individual sentence to them. It was just too damn much.
All in all, this was a good episode. It was a classic story, turned on its head, told by professionals from start to finish. And I hope that if there is another season, we see more stories like this one. But after the efforts put into this season at large, I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the last we see of American Horror Stories.
(4 / 5)
If you’ve watched enough short-form horror anthology shows, you’ll notice that some stories are mainstays. Each show seems to put on the same sort of episodes, with the occasional surprising storyline that we’ve never (or at least rarely) seen before.
Leprechaun was an example of a repeated story—the story of a greedy thief whose punishment far outweighs the crime.
The story
We begin our story in 1841, with a drunk man leaving the bar one late night. He’s distracted by something glowing at the end of the well. When he reaches down for the glowing thing, he falls in. Moments later, he screams.
We then cut to the modern day. The well is still there, and now it’s surrounded by a dying town. In this town lives a young man named Colin. He’s married, his wife is pregnant, and he’s out of work. Like many of his friends.
Desperate for cash, Colin and his friends decide to rob a bank. They put together an Equate version of Ocean’s Eleven, and break in one night. But, of course, they find that the gold is nothing more than bait. And the creature waiting for them is something they never expected.
What worked
The first thing I want to point out is how real this episode felt. At least to anyone currently living in the same small town they grew up in. These characters felt like guys I went to school with. Guys I would see at the bar.
I appreciated the real anger and frustration these characters are feeling. Especially Colin. He’s bitter, and maybe he has a right to be. He did exactly what he was supposed to do to succeed. He went to school and invested in his career, and yet now he’s out of work and struggling to support his family. I probably don’t need to tell you how that feels. Because of this, we can all kind of understand why he was tempted to rob a bank.
I also want to talk about the fact that this was, as I said, an often-explored story. That can be a bad thing, but it can also be a good thing. This story is told over and over because it’s a good story. A relatable story. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
What didn’t work
That being said, this version didn’t try to do much to break out of the mold.
Because we have seen this story so many times, most of us could tell the story themselves. I would have expected something new, or some twist. But, in the end, the story didn’t bring anything new to the discussion.
Maybe because of this, the ending left a lot to be desired. Trapped in the basement of the bank, everyone just sort of stares at everyone else, until the thieves give up. And that’s it. The ending wasn’t scary, shocking, or funny. It was just sad, on multiple levels.
Overall, this was an okay story. It was entertaining, if not surprising. I would compare this episode to homemade macaroni and cheese. Everyone’s got their own version, they’re all pretty good, and none of them are exciting.
There’s just one episode left in this season of American Horror Stories. Let’s hope they’ve saved the best for last.
(3.5 / 5)
It happened. It finally happened. We got another good episode of American Horror Stories.
The story
We begin our story late at night, with a hospital security guard named Malcolm. He is frightened one night when he sees a woman with a distorted face in the hospital parking lot.
We then joined an RN named Claire. She’s doing her best to explain to a struggling mother that the hospital will not be able to treat her son with cancer because she can’t afford the treatment.
Not like she’s happy about it.
Fortunately, Dr. Nostrum, played by the legend Henry Winkler, swoops in at the last moment to tell the mother that her son qualifies for a special place in his cancer treatment clinic.
Claire is lamenting the fact that she became an RN to help people, but it feels like she isn’t doing anything good. Then, she and her friend Lilly stumble upon the same woman who menaced Malcom the night before.
While Claire is trying to figure out what’s wrong with this woman, she brutally slaughters an orderly and vanishes into the hospital. But not before struggling to say two words to Claire. Ward X.
What worked
I want to start by praising the effects of this episode. Because they were fantastic. Aided by the black and white filming, the bloody and distorted faces of Alice and her fellow victims are nightmarish. They look like a horrific version of Lockjaw taken to a terrifying extreme.
I also want to discuss the fantastic work of Henry Winkler. He is an absolute legend and never has a bad project.
Winkler’s character in this episode was exactly what we’d expect from him. He seems genuinely warm and kind, concerned about others’ well-being. Even when he’s planning to kill Claire, he comes off as such a caring guy.
Finally, I want to talk about the historical significance of this story. Because, like I always say, the scariest stories are the ones based on truth. And I’m sorry to say, this story has a basis in truth.
Mankind has a dark and twisted history when it comes to medical advances. Most doctors and scientists are good, moral people who abide by the first line of the Hippocratic oath, to first do no harm. Some, historically, are little more than monsters in white coats. Consider the Tuskegee Experiment, Unit 731, and the horrific acts of Josef Mengele. If you’re going to look up that middle one, be warned that it is NSFL.
While this episode of American Horror Stories was a work of fiction, it wasn’t that far off. I don’t think many of us want to admit how close to real life it was. This is the gift of good horror, to force us to come face to face with the worst aspects of humanity. To acknowledge them, accept them, and change them.
All in all, this was a perfect episode. The acting, the effects and the story were all top-shelf. And it’s certainly a story that will stick with you.
There are just two episodes left in this season of American Horror Stories. Let’s hope that they reach closer to the quality of X, and away from the dull and dismal episodes that began the second half of this season.
(5 / 5)
