Well, that turned out to be a bit of a surprise. It even gives me something to work with for post length. Speaking of that, I feel like I need to give context for what A Voice From The Dark is, and the specifics of why it is a thing. Not because I assume the backstory is something unfamiliar (I'm sure like 90% of you know all about what I'm going to mention), but because it is important to understanding the actual thematic resonance of the story. Yes. It has one. Incredible. So. There's a website for a particular old-school style of Internet review show called Channel Awesome. Until about... last year or so, it had a hell of a lot of people on it and a huge community of different and varied critics covering their own niches, all rallied around the main draw of the site; Doug "Nostalgia Critic" Walker. There are two things you need to know about all of this. The first is that, over the first few years of the website's history, Doug Walker brought all of his pals together to film anniversary specials. Like, The Avengers of Internet reviewers. These started as 20 minute crossover "brawls" with a lot of pretend fighting and memes, and then grew into actual feature-length movies and a four-hour miniseries before culminating. You should also know that I hate these things. They have their audience, but I am on the fringe of that audience and yet all it is to me is hammy bullshit, obnoxious memery, and a shitload of pretend fighting. The second thing you need to know about all of this is that, last year or so, a mass exodus occured from Channel Awesome after several allegations came to light; some unprofessional annoyances, others massive accusations. It is far beyond my wheelhouse to detail them at length; suffice it to say there are grievances, I believe them, and just about everyone abandoned ship en masse. Then, born out of some nostalgia on the part of these creators over the good parts of those old anniversary films, a bunch of them got together to create another crossover miniseries, this one as an audio drama instead of a filmed thing. That's A Voice From The Dark, and it's got Lovecraftian undertones and is set in a haunted house, so that's why it's here. What does it have, though?Well, it's definitely a step up from those movies. I admit some trepidation upon setting this venture up, due to the main creator behind it. Linkara, Internet reviewer of comic books, is hardly my favorite content creator out there. Nevertheless, I remained curious to see what one of these "Internet reviewer crossover adventure" series would look like without the ego, writing, or comedy of Doug Walker lording over the joint. As it turns out, mostly okay. The opening moments of the audio are just these content creators all meeting up and shooting the shit about different things. (I kind of liked cutting to a conversation by Nella where she's just explaining the plot of State Of Decay to another girl. Finally, a reference I get!) Then shit goes south, haunted house shenanigans are afoot, everyone is separated into groups so we can cut between smaller casts of four or five with their own subplots and explorations... it's structured well! Okay, so maybe a bunch of the humor doesn't land with me, like most anything involving critic Diamanda Hagan (who did an otherwise pretty good Guide To Classic Doctor Who that I liked for the most part) as a dictator with a loyal minion or whatever. There's a bit with echo-proof walls that both acts as a clue for what's happening, and is just a great use of the format in general. That goes just as well for the antagonist as well; the Voice From The Dark is literally the disembodied voice of some Lovecraftian beast from another realm who wants to cross over and destroy our dimension for eldritch horror reasons. Also HP Lovecraft is here. For some reason which I assume is a reference I don't get. Ironically he's the one who gets taken over by the Voice in the third act, so that's... cute, I suppose. Over six episodes you get lots of spooky shit. Killer dolls, zombies, ghosts, a Frankenstein-like doctor and his grotesque body he built to house the Voice. It's wild, and that's not even getting to the thematic resonance of this thing. Linkara is actually trying to put a theme in here beyond "and then the Internet man I like says the thing I know before having a pretend punch fight.".
It's revealed halfway into the audio that Linkara, the character in the story, invited everyone to the spooky house to play like an escape room game... because he missed having everyone together like this. Like the old days of those movies. Interestingly, there's a parallel between those movies and the events which led all these people to leave Channel Awesome. The in-universe experience of having life-threatening adventures versus demons and knights and aliens is mirrored by the real-world experience of Channel Awesome lying and betraying and hurting these people. Linkara (the in-universe one) is paralleled as falling to the same failings as Doug in lying to his friends and putting them in this shitty situation. An undercurrent of the allegations was that the time on the sets of those anniversary movies was hellish, with long and gruelling shoots, Doug Walker and pals being incredibly unprofessional, and even some serious allegations of neglect and abuse. This story is Linkara and his pals coming to grips with that, and Linkara being humble enough to do what Doug and his company never did: apologize, profusely and sincerely, and to do his best to make up for it. Though the times on set were terrible, they also brought all these people together... and they are friends. Friends stick together, and that's the key to victory. It may seem like the key to victory is harmonizing an "anti-frequency" to stop the Voice from manifesting in our world (again using the medium of audio to its advantage), but I can see what it really is. It's a bunch of friends getting together, having a good time, and doing a goddamned karaoke sing-along to the Time Warp from Rocky Horror Picture Show. Friendship is what beats the thing that should not be and sends it packing to hell, and then the story ends as it began: a bunch of Internet reviewers who went through hell and back, but still maintained those friendships with each other, all getting together to shoot the shit and have a good time. Say what you will about the humor, but I just think that's a really lovely message, and I'm glad Linkara and his friends wanted to share it with us all.
No comments:
Post a Comment