Introductions: A by-gone eraI feel like it takes a little while for any new medium, in one form or another, to really get comfortable with itself. For example, early films were That era that back when YouTube was populated primarily by AMVs and cat videos (more so than usual I mean)? That era just after we were just getting over the appeal of flash animations, and internet videos were starting to become a thing that people other than teenagers enjoyed. It feels like forever ago, doesn’t it? Makes you feel old, doesn't it? Still, though, there are some shows and personalities from that era that managed to last longer than the bubble bursting. So-called internet celebrities like: Yahtzee Croshaw, the Nostalgia Critic, the Angry Nintendo Videogame Nerd, Little Kuriboh, I could go on. And like the emergence of any new medium, it was during this time that people were really experimenting with what could be done with internet videos, particularly sites like the Escapist came about. Now, while the Escapist may as well be a second rate Kotaku these days, back in the day, it was the center of such genuinely unique takes on the video game genre as “There Will be Brawl,” “Unskippable,” “Zero Punctuation,” (which stars the aforementioned Crowshaw), "Escape to the Movies," and “Extra Credits." They also gave us one of the more unique internet series this side of Carmilla: a strange, slightly melodramatic series called Drawn by Pain. What's it about?Drawn by Pain is easily one of the best pieces of cinema I have ever seen.--Ten Star review on IMDb Drawn by Pain tells the tale of one Emily Waters (no relation to a certain film maker who regularly had Divine in his pictures), and her unique gift and curse, her “pain.” You see, the day her abusive father killed mother died, and her father came to beat her, all the anger and rage she felt manifested itself into a living version of the heroine she would draw in her spare time, and kills her father. Fast forward a decade and she’s a grown woman, who spends her time fighting what she sees as injustice (which apparently includes soliciting prostitution) by drawing upon her “pain.” One day, though, she loses control of her pain and it attacks those who don’t deserve it. Sounds like an interesting premise, right? Well... "If you liked Catwoman then you'll love this treat"--One star review on IMDb Yeah, let me just get this right out the way out of the gate: “Drawn by Pain” is not the greatest internet serial out there. Compared to the likes of "The Guild,” “Carmilla,” "RWBY," or even "Adult Wednesday Addams," it's a second-rate mess whose IMDb page has barely been touched. The acting is stilted, and the writing is hokey, with a young woman not going to a single therapist despite both of her parents dying in a single day. Waters herself feels dull and emotionless, but not even in a fun, in a "Troll 2" sort of way. In fact, if I were I a lesser person, I’d recommend this bad boy for a so-bad-it’s-good, snarkfest a-la the room or Birdemic. The characterization of several characters is a flat as a wile e. coyote after a particularly ill advised scheme, such as grown men acting like school-yard bullies, which while used as a reminder of the way Emily herself has been tormented as a child, is still ridiculous to behold. Her father is also above and beyond the call for one dimensional, what with his penchant for just walking around all day waiting for an opportunity to beat Emily or argue with her mother. This is an especially large issue seeing as her father is the primary catalyst for her powers in the first place. This is why Man on Fire is such a good revenge flick. We get to know Denzel Washington and Dakota Fanning’s characters, and how Denzel is ultimately someone who’s living without a purpose for a quite a while. The story is also littered with plotholes. After watching her father murder her mother, no one apparently thought to give this girl help. We know this because Emily only gets herself some psychological help over the course of the series proper, meaning that at no point did the little girl who lost both of her parents in a single day get a single second of counseling. Gee, that’s not gonna lead to some issues down the line. All of that being said, however, there is an undeniable spark to this series. While the music can be a bit cheesy at times, it has an undeniable haunting quality to it, reflecting Emily’s own confusion and anxiety. The drawing aspects of her powers, her “pain”, lends itself wonderfully to the symbolism of Emily’s seething ill-at-ease. This is a beautiful mess filled to the brim with pure, unadulterated potential. This is a tale of trauma and how it turns us into monsters. And how it is only when we truly face our problems with others, others who care for us and who are willing to be there for us, that we can harness our own pain. It’s a tale of how our anger and rage can hurt others just as much, if not more, than it hurts us. It also has, what I like to call, a latent fandom. These are the people who still remember the likes of Twin Peaks or the Prisoner. The people who still remember and appreciate something even when pop-culture has moved onto something completely different, such as how hundreds of people's head popped up when they heard that The Handmaid’s Tale was getting an adaptation. These are the people that come to the surface whenever something like Lord of the Rings or Watchmen or even West World comes out. These people who, even if they’re just moved by nostalgia, will say something to the effect of “oh yeah, that was a thing I liked back in the day.” Or perhaps some long lost memory of it pops into their mind like a shadow from the past. This is especially pertinent to DbP because the fandom was practically integral to being a part of the series. Fans did everything from provide the aforementioned haunting soundtrack to even starring in several episodes. In other words, there is a definite potential for this series to be something more than a cheesy-as-all-hell mid-2000s schlock fest. Even if most of what I found about it online wasn’t older than 2010. Recommendations for the AdaptationNeedless to say, this series is going to need a massive, and I mean massive, overhaul, especially in the writing department. Characters like Emily’s father are going to need a proper motivation for their actions if they’re going to be more than just “the reason for Emily’s pain.” We’re also going to need at least some sense of what she went through as a child after her parent’s death, outside of “being bullied,” that turned her into the brutal vigilante murdering random guys just for soliciting hookers. It also wouldn’t hurt to have Douglas, the one person who befriends her over what has undoubtedly been an exceedingly lonely life, be someone from work, or possibly a roommate she finds through craigslist, as opposed to just some stranger who talks to her randomly, because, yeah, women will regularly talk to random strangers who talk to them. This will make his observations of her day to day activities significantly less creepy than if he was just some random schmo sitting on a bench in Central Park. Better yet, he could be the doorman at the apartment she lives at, which will give just as much excuse as previously mentioned. As for the source of her powers, I would thoroughly recommend not giving a clear answer as to where she got her powers from. After all, doing so would take away from what arguably the main strength of the series: psychological trauma given form via the various drawn various monsters and weapons. Lastly, while not a major concern, I would recommend remixing the original soundtrack. Now, I’m not saying it needs to be completely removed or even needs a complete overhaul, but I think a bit of work could be done to add to the haunting, Silent Hill esc. feeling of it. If it does end up getting changed, I'd also make sure to keep the core of what made the original intact, not unlike what Mick Gordon did with the Doom soundtrack in the 2016 game. If you're interested in checking out Drawn by Pain, you can watch the entirety of the director's cut below, assuming you still have a good hour and a half left to kill, or just the first episode if you just wanna taste. Here's a link to a playlist with the original 12 episodes if you wanna experience it the way it was originally intended.
0 Comments
|
Details
AuthorHello all and Welcome to Jacob's Latter. Here I will be giving my opinions on everything from movies, video games and books to my general outlook on the world. Archives
January 2018
Categories |