Book Review: Will This Be a Problem? The Anthology: Issue V

A unique collection of hauntingly engaging and imaginative stories

 

In addition to being entertaining, speculative fiction short stories can be an excellent way to process real life personal and societal issues through the prism of the fantastic. Will This Be a Problem? The Anthology: Issue V is an anthology of sci-fi, fantasy, and horror short stories, all by African writers. The collection, edited by Somto Ihezue and Olivia Kidula, varies from historical to contemporary, and includes a range of subtle nods or harshly direct commentary on society, religion, and politics. There are also thoughtful philosophical explorations, as well as straight, terrifying, wild adventures. All of stories are imaginative but also beautifully written and hauntingly engaging, incorporating elements of African culture, history, and spirituality.

At times, some of the selections raise an intriguing concept but then end abruptly, leaving the resolution to the reader’s imagination. Other stories dig deeply into complex situations offering interesting answers to philosophical questions. A standout in the collection is Kevin Rigathi’s twisty “If Memory Serves,” a story of science gone wrong in the commoditization of memory and culture. In this tale, a well-meaning scientist creates a way to extract traumatic memories from people but the result is not what he or society expects. In the vibe of the tv show Severance, the story explores the way good and bad memories shape our authentic selves and our defensive instincts. And it explores the way personal experiences can be exploited and cultures appropriated for dangerous purposes. “If Memory Serves” is an ideal companion piece to another story in the collection, the similarly haunting “The Market of Memories” by Azara Tswanya. “The Market of Memories” is the personal tale of a financially struggling woman who sells her memory of a beloved friend in exchange for money to feed her family. While wealthy people gorge on fetishized memories, the poor in her community lose more and more of themselves and their culture. 

That story is one of several that explore larger themes of colonization and cultural exploitation. “The Clans” by Tonny Ogwa is a tale of ancient clans blessed with superpowers from a powerful deity, however the arrival and ongoing influence of a European priest interferes with their powers and leads to unrest. For a more modern take on a similar theme, there is the uncomfortably relatable story “The Language We Have Learned to Carry in Our Skin” by Shingai Kagund. In this haunting story a young girl learns a disturbing secret about those in power and ponders this truth as she grows up to be a journalist and becomes exhausted by reporting on the never-ending violence and exploitation in our society. 

Some stories are more nihilistic such as Yvette Lisa Ndlovu’s “Dinosaurs Once Lived Here” which offers a sharp, cynical overview of the end of Earth. Among the more hopeful stories is one of my favorites in the collection, “Ash Baby” by Andrew Dkalira which offers a clever reimagining of the Biblical story of Job but, in this version, things are not as they seem. Another tragic but hopeful tale is Rutendo Chidzodzo’s “I’m Home,” a brief, second person narrative of a girl stolen by water spirits and the mother who grieves silently and prays for her return. 

The opening story in the anthology is “The Sirangori Fey Market” by Ephraim N. Orji. The story follows a woman who enters a forbidden marketplace filled with dangerous magical creatures as she seeks both answers and revenge for the death of a child. In another of my favorite tales, "Something Cruel" by Gabrielle Emem Harry, a trio of cynical but professional spiritual enforcers compete with each other to exact punishments on humans and each other as part of their obligations. The prose in this tale is smooth and inviting although the ending of this magical story is, more or less, left to the readers imagination. 

On the philosophical side, “Mr. Original Swag” by Victor Forna is told in the form of an interview that we can only hear one side of. Through the conversations we have a parable on the seductive nature of evil and in particular, the way it preys on the poor and vulnerable. At the other end of the spectrum is the very metaphysical “Commensalism, or the Labyrinth’s Vessels” by Albert Nkereuwem. As people look around at the many bad things in our world, some question why an all-powerful deity wouldn’t just stop humans from hurting each other and stop death, exploitation, environmental toxins and diseases. Wouldn’t it be better to just control humanity’s toxic behavior so that the earth and everyone in it is safe? This story offers a thoughtful vision of what it might look like if human beings no longer had free will to make bad choices and were instead controlled in a Borg-style hive mind. The effect is clever, poignant, and full of irony. The collection also includes Alex Tamei’s post-apocalyptic “A Song of Ruin,” Lucille Sambo’s alien adventure “Scales and Arabesques,” Matseliso Motsoane’s quirky “Baby Potion,” and Khaya Maseko’s time-distortion tale, “Acceptance.”

The final story in the collection, “Why Donkeys Have 44 Teeth” by Peter Nena, is an example of intriguing narrative pacing. The tale starts out creepily and slowly as a little boy ponders an odd dream about a talking donkey. But the story picks up speed as a horrific murder mystery and more dreams accelerate the tale. Then, like wheels on a rollercoaster, the story soon descend into horrific mayhem. This is another tale that leaves the ultimate ending to the reader’s imagination but the accelerating pace will leave you breathless and terrified with its old fashioned horror intensity. 

Despite some tales with abrupt endings, the solid prose and strong African cultural influence makes the book a highly enjoyable read. “Will This Be a Problem” is a uniquely satisfying anthology of fantastical stories. The collection has a strong range of tales, each with gorgeous writing and twisted adventures that will leave you intrigued or terrified, or both. In the end, the collection is less of an escape, and more of a truly unique exploration.

--

Nerd Coefficient: 8/10

Highlights:

• Solid writing across a range of stories
• Some abrupt endings
• Mind bending exploration of philosophical and social issues

POSTED BY: Ann Michelle Harris – Multitasking, fiction writing Trekkie currently dreaming of her next beach vacation.

Anime Review: The Summer Hikaru Died

Creepy, artistic, poignant, coming of age, horror

The Summer Hikaru Died is a unique, hypnotic, creepy horror series with lots of coming of age angst addressing the stress of social and family pressures. The series is a perfect addition to the list of cerebral horror stories for those who don’t always like horror, but enjoy solid, mind-bending storytelling. High school age Yoshiki is devastated when his best friend Hikaru goes missing in the creepy mountains in their rural village. Hikaru is cheerful, funny, outgoing, and popular, whereas Yoshiki is more serious and reserved. The boys have been close friends since childhood, growing up in a small town where everyone knows each other. Hikaru is found safe a week later and his family and friends rejoice but Yoshiki is the only one who realizes this returned person is not the same Hikaru. When Yoshiki confronts the returned Hikaru, Hikaru admits the deception and quickly reveals his inhuman nature but states he wants to live as a human in Hikaru’s body. Hikaru asks Yoshiki to keep his secret because he doesn’t want to have to kill Yoshiki, (but he will). Yoshiki, in a moment of grief, decides that he would rather have this monster version of Hikaru instead of truly facing his loss. However, Hikaru’s presence begins to attract grotesque spirits and a mercenary demon hunter. All of this leads to disturbing revelations about the town’s dark past and danger for Yoshiki and his friends and family.

The Summer Hikaru Died is a clever combination of horror, coming of age, and friendship that artistically addresses deep questions about grief, identity, and the value of human life. Most of these themes are explored through Hikaru himself. The returned Hikaru has the face and persona and memories of the original young, fun-loving boy. But he is also lethal, physically monstrous, and comfortable killing innocent people. Through their strange friendship Yoshiki tries to teach Hikaru to respect life and understand emotional connection to others. Over time we also learn the secret backstory of the real Hikaru and the troubling history hidden by his family. This mix of slice of life, horror, and coming of age is vaguely reminiscent of the first two seasons of Stranger Things. However, the result is much more subtle and hypnotic.

The art design of the show is highly unique and captures the quiet horror aesthetic by contrasting normal slice of life vibes with sudden terror. The characters are drawn in soft lines with flowing movements that exude the soft fluid vibe of Studio Ghibli. However, that softness is dramatically contrasted with jump scares of shadowy, grotesque humanoid monsters with fearful faces. Additionally, the animated scenes are sometimes interrupted with abrupt real-live photographs, jarringly interposed on an intense moment. Even ordinary moments are given a creepy vibe by using unusual “camera” angles. For example, in one passing scene, Yoshiki is buying items at a small grocery store while the middle aged cashier gossips non-stop about the problems she perceives in Yoshiki’s family. We see the cashier from various angles including an odd view looking up at her face from below and close ups of her mouth. The criticism filled conversation is punctuated by the incessant beeping of the scanner and strange views of a cat shaped speaker near the register. All of this happens while Yoshiki stressfully absorbs the cheerily delivered comments about how messed up his family is. That small scene is filled with as much macabre tension as another scene where a very creepy monster directly attacks Yoshiki in the woods.

While the art design and the primary plot emphasize, and solidly deliver, traditional horror, the series is, fortunately, not oppressively grim. The creatures who haunt the town are more creepy than horrific and the violence is mostly off camera. In fact, much of the show is focused on Hikaru moving from faking an understanding of society (through his acquired memories) to actually seeking to truly understand his community. Through Yoshiki, Hikaru is encouraged to develop a taste for treats and to bond with their fellow classmates, Asaka, Maki, and Yuki. However, the show deliberately chooses genuine and terrifying complexity in the boys’ relationship rather than a happy linear redemption story. Hikaru and Yoshiki’s interactions becomes more fraught as Hikaru fails to maintain control and Yoshiki realizes how dangerous Hikaru is and is forced to make an upsetting choice. Against this backdrop, the series explores larger life themes of sexuality as well as societal and family pressures. Hikaru openly teases Yoshiki about possibly being attracted to him and the two have highly unusual and terrifying symbolic intimate moments in the form of body horror. It’s all so well done that it feels both hypnotic and horrifying at the same time.

The only disappointing element of the series is the subplot about the hired demon hunter, Tanaka. After a promising introduction in the early episodes, the character mostly just lurks and doesn’t offer up any helpful content to build the story. The other old men who hire him (and constantly yell at him) are equally problematic in their lack of usefulness to the story. Every monster movie needs a stereotypical monster hunter to explain the monster and to add tension. However, this character, despite periodic encounters with Hikaru and Yoshiki, ends up not really contributing anything in either of those regards—at least not in the current season.

The Summer Hikaru Died offers an unusual story in a gorgeously intellectual and artistic horror palette. Although I’m not primarily a horror fan, I do enjoy a well-executed, low gore, cerebral horror. The Summer Hikaru Died is fascinating, engaging, creepy, and disturbing, and is definitely the kind of show that is worth a re-watch to catch the subtle hints and one of a kind art design. The quiet storytelling and fluid art style stand out from most other anime and deliver an engaging experience on multiple levels. If you are in the mood for something creepy and emotionally fascinating, this story of a boy and a monster navigating life and death in rural Japan is definitely worth watching.

--

The Math

Nerd Coefficient: 8/10

Highlights:

• Engaging, cerebral horror
• Thoughtfully presented themes of sexuality as well as societal and family pressures
• Unique animation elements

POSTED BY: Ann Michelle Harris – Multitasking, fiction writing Trekkie currently dreaming of her next beach vacation.

Film Review: Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched

A sprawling, exhaustive (and exhausting?) documentary about folk horror films

 

This three-plus hour documentary was not what I was expecting. I went into the 2021 documentary Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror expecting something along the lines of a modern-day Haxan, the Danish/Swedish silent 1922 documentary/dramatization discussing the roots of local legends surrounding witches and witchcraft, dating back to the Middle Ages.

Instead, what I got was a survey of some nearly 200 films from (one of my favorites) Robin Hardy's The Wicker Man (1973) all the way through contemporary films like Ari Aster's Midsommar (2019). How they managed to license clips from so many films, from so many countries, to visually tell the story of folk horror films in this documentary is a wonder. I say in all seriousness, hats off to the distributor's legal team. Without the absolute waterfall of clips included in this documentary, the proceedings would be extremely dry and I don't think the film would offer the viewer anything approaching the same level of engagement.  

Written and directed by Kier-La Janisse, the film begins with the "Big Three" of folk horror, Witchfinder General, Satan's Claw, and The Wicker Man. The film touches on the actual events that inspired the first two films -- a depraved religious zealot who exploited the societal breakdown of a civil war in England to amass power to himself and torture people he deemed "witches," and a true-crime case of a child who committed murder and was rumored to be involved in demonic cult, respectively. The popular conception of folk horror films begins with these, and in the minds of most casual viewers familiar with the subgenre, hews mostly to stories set in the British Isles, and usually involving some type of ancient pagan practice persisting unnoticed into the modern day.

But over the next three hours, Wilderness Dark and Days Bewitched then widens the lens beyond the British Isles, and I think this is the real mission of the documentary. It explores films either produced in or set in England, the United States broadly -- its previous colonial incarnation and various Native cultures, New England, and the American South -- Australia, Brazil, Mexico, Russia, Japan, the Philippines, and within Nazi Germany's occult fascination (while gesturing at by not including the Indiana Jones films explicitly). 

The central conversation of folk horror is one between the present and the past. One aspect is that change itself is frightening, both because of the unknown looming on the horizon, but also because of what has been forgotten from the past. There may be traps set, there may be poisons latent in the land itself, in the primordial soup from which modern culture evolved that lie in wait or, worse yet, bear us ill will. The horror comes from our inability to resist these things because we are ignorant of their possibility. This tension exists in every culture, it seems, and so the film makes a compelling argument that folk horror is a global phenomenon.

The film does stumble, however. In some ways, it falls beneath its own weight. Even at 3+ hours, it feels like it merely scratches the surface, and films are mentioned in a clause of a sentence and then gone before much can be done to link them to a larger thought. The documentary may have benefited from a closer look at fewer films in order to tell a more focused story. That lack of focus manifests in another quirk of the film, as well -- the writer/director is one of the interviewees featured throughout, and she is not identified onscreen as the filmmaker. I found myself wondering at the creative choices that led to the author being presented as one of many, rather than a guiding presence. I think the film may have benefited from a stronger authorial voice, rather than the presentation it ultimately went with. 

The breadth of films included also, I think, weakens the central argument of the movie. Here is a sampling of just some of the movies I've seen personally that were excerpted in this documentary: Witchfinder General, The Wicker Man, Burn Witch Burn, Night of the Demon, Dunwich Horror, Lair of the White Worm, Suspiria, The Witch, Let’s Scare Jessica to Death, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Messiah of Evil, The Lottery, Deliverance, The Shining, Poltergeist, I Walked with a Zombie, Serpent and the Rainbow, Ganja & Hess, Candyman, Hour of the Wolf, Midsommar, Black Sabbath. At a certain point, it starts to feel like if everything is folk horror, nothing is folk horror.

The overall impression is of a film that is both too much and not enough, one that introduces compelling ideas but leaves them largely unexplored. Here is a nice YouTube examination of some of the specific areas in which it does that. That said, the steady stream of titles and concepts does propel the documentary, and I found myself not regretting, or even really noticing, the long running time, which I spread out over two evenings.

--

The Math

Highlights: If you like folk horror, or the even-more-specific category of daylight horror, this doc is a revelation of film recommendations; a specific focus on widening the lens to be more inclusive and thoughtful about traditions that are often excluded in film discussions

Nerd Coefficient: 7/10

Posted by Vance K—resident cult film reviewer and co-founder of nerds of a feather, flock together