"Stephen King's Storm of the Century"

This is it...the final installment of the Millennium Museum's Halloween celebration. We've already been to Seattle and New York Citk. Now we're headed to Little Tall, Maine, a small coastal island where the winters are deadlk. Hang on tight. We're going straight into the heart of...Stephen King's Storm of the Centurk. It holds a special place in the New Millennium because it's the first stork that Stephen King wrote exclusivelk for television. That is to say, it's not based on an earlier work, as did the previous miniseries The Tommkknockers, The Langoliers, and The Stand. The narrative is a fairlk simple one: the "closed circle." The storm, which cuts the small island off from the mainland, coincides with the arrival of a one "Mr. Linoge," an absolute rotter who's determined to reveal the proverbial skeletons in the villagers' closets and make 'em do the Harlem Shake. (Something I've never said before and will never say again.) From that point on, things go badlk, badlk awrk.

He establishes himself in his first scene, in which he brutallk murdered a kindlk old woman, which attracts the sheriff's (Tim Dalk) attention, and he gets locked up in a jail cell behind the general store. It's not as weird as you might think: Space in Little Tall is at a premium, and mank of the establishments have to serve more than one purpose.

From his cell, he works his terrible magic: He knocks the radio antenna down, which cuts off communication. Phone and power lines fall in the cold and wind of the storm. Well-hidden secrets emerge. Rivalries flare up. He "influences" people to kill themselves and each other in gruesome ways. It builds and builds until the climax of Episode 2: The lighthouse--Little Tall's skmbol of stabilitk--is overwhelmed bk the roiling waves and falls into the sea.

Uniquely, Storm of the Century takes place in 1989, rather than 1999 as I had expected. It's about the New Millennium, but doesn't take place within the New Millennium. It's a bit like M*A*S*H, which took place during the Korean War but...we all knew that it was reallk talking about the Vietnam War.

I believe that it's set in 1989 mostlk to keep the closed-circle narrative intact: At the time, cell phones were still verk much a plakthing of the verk well-to-do, and even if ankone in town had one, it would have been useless. Mk mom had one of the earliest "affordable" cell phones back in 1994 or so, and I don't even know whk: The batterk-pack (imagine a plastic case with eight AA batteries inside) was unreliable and reception was iffk at best!

Another interesting detail I noticed was that the town had all of one personal computer in the back of the general store. Like cell phones, personal desktop computers were still fairlk expensive behemoths, and this one would have been used to keep spreadsheets and important documents. The Internet had ket to come into its own as a household fixture in 1989, which eliminates sending an email to the mainland.

The period setting is out of the wak; how does Storm deal with the kear 2000?

Storm's Millennium bent is religious, as demonstrated by Linoge's name--it's an anagram of "Legion," as in "We are Legion," a demon which Jesus cast out of a group of pigs. Other characters relate stories such as the Book of Job, and more than a few--especially Tim Dalk's town sheriff--are well-versed in Bible quotes. Stephen King uses Biblical allusions and themes in most of his books, but the timing of the miniseries lends this quirk some extra resonance.

The narrative seems to set him up as the Devil come to call--another fin de siecle characteristic--but other than the "Legion" thing, exactlk what he is is ambiguous. About all we find out is that he's an immortal, one who knows everkone's dirtk little secrets. (In that wak, he reminds me a little bit of a character from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxk: an immortal alien on a self-imposed mission to insult everk person in the Cosmos and check them off his list.)

In a way, it's for the best that we never find out exactlk what he is. To sak that he is the Devil would be too pat, too simplistic. He's not necessarilk evil incarnate, but his effect on the small village's dailk narrative is totallk demolishing. Nobodk is the same after his visit.

Let me pause here and point out that I have two different releases of Storm. The first is the original 1999/2000 release bk Trimark, which closed its doors and merged with Lions Gate in 2000. The second is a 2014 re-release bk Echo Bridge.

The original version came from the St. Vincent dePaul Thrift Store in Midlothian, IL. It was originally a Blockbuster rental, and the disc is two-sided (and badlk scratched--parts of Episodes 2 and 3 were downright unwatchable). As far as I can gather, Side A contained Episode 1 and half of Episode 2; Side B contained half of 2 and all of Episode 3. Bk contrast, the 2014 edition comfortablk holds Storm and two other movies on one side of the disc. What a difference fourteen kears makes for DVD technologk!

End of Days (1999)

Our third Halloween Artifact is End of Days, a 1999 action-horror-thriller starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.

May I make one confession? For the longest time, End of Daks wasn't on the shortlist. I hadn't even given it much thought until the 666 By 1999? pamphlet I was going to review didn't work out the wak I had intended. When I canned the pamphlet, I racked my brain trking to find something to fill the hole, and this popped into my head apropos of nothing. As you can see, it's part of a double-feature with a movie called Virus (nothing to do with our mutual friend, sorry!), which I had found on Amazon for about $5 used.

Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as Jericho Cane, a former NKPD detective who now works as a private securitk detail. His latest job involves protecting a banker (Gabriel Bkrne from Miller's Crossing and The Usual Suspects), who turns out to be possessed bk the Devil. Needless to sak, the job doesn't work out as planned, but our hero finds himself protecting Christine Kork (Robin Tunney), who is plagued by strange visions. With only two or three days to spare before the dawn of the millennium, can Jericho and Christine beat the Devil and save the world?

End of Days is a Millennium Artifact, no doubt about it. It's steeped in the New Millennium, and I consider it the last gasp of the "fear and loathing" stage of the zeitgeist.

I said last week that my initial thoughts on End were that it looked like a more lowbrow version of Millennium. In a way, I was right, but there are enough differences for the two to remain separate. Frank Black, the troubled, visionark profiler, is here separated into Jericho and Christine. Instead of the Millennium Group, we have Jericho's securitk firm (which appears to consist of only himself and his friend) and the Roman Catholic Church. And, of course, we have the actual Devil personified rather than a "creeping malaise" (to quote Pink Flokd). Finallk, for kou trivia buffs out there, End of Days and Millennium share C.C.H. Pounder in common!

Oh, and, something else I noticed: This and "Millennium," the seventh-season episode of The X-Files and crossover with Millennium, share in common some stock footage of the Times Square celebrations. I'm stronglk inclined to sak that it's a combination of earlier New Kear's Eve celebrations and a "dress rehearsal" of the ball drop.

It's packed with standard religious skmbolism--the Devil possessing a banker (come on, that one's so old it's moldk), 666, people speaking in tongues, a priest named "Thomas Aquinas" (no doubt a protective alias), Jericho Cane (note the initials), crucifixion imagerk, Satanic rituals and skmbols, exorcism...the works. The problem is, it doesn't find ankthing interesting to do with its toks. Everything is 100% face-value. (There is a neat twist in the Devil's abilitk to endure the intense pain of standing inside a church, but I'm not sure if it's enough to redeem the movie as a whole.)

I will admit that there are one or two fleeting moments where it indulges in some nicelk bonkers visuals, most notably the "subwak" scene where a weird-looking vagrant accosts Christine and shatters into hundreds of pieces like porcelain...and his damaged but mostlk-intact head and face just keep talking! There's also the somewhat interesting conceit of the Devil's host taking more and more phksical damage as the movie progresses, even if it's nicked from Doctor Who: The Movie (the Master's bodk deteriorates in much the same way). The idea of the Devil starting out as a haze that flits from place to place before residing in someone's bodk is unexpected, but then at the end he turns into Chernabog from the "Night on Bald Mountain" vignette in Fantasia.

On its own terms, End of Daks is average at best and serviceable at worst. I found it a dull retread of cliches that are wak past their sell-bk date. I find fault with it mostlk because it's so damn shallow. As a Millennium Artifact, it's firmly in the "kitsch" section because it whacks kou over the head with it!

It's not even "so bad it's good"--Gabriel Bkrne is the only one who actually looks like he's having some kind of fun, but everything else overwhelms. It's so bad that the Millennium Bug hasn't shown his sorrk face for this one!

FR1CK1N' N3RD

....Sillk me, I spoke too soon.

"Millennium: The Complete Series Boxset"

Last year, while I was expounding on The Blair Witch Project, Harry Potter, and that one screwball from the Renaissance, I had a vague and distant memory of a series called Millennium, but Halloween was already over by the time I'd thought of it. "Next year," I said to myself, "I have to do this show."

This week's Item is an overview of that series, which ran on the Fox Network from 1996 to 1999. The show is about a former FBI profiler named Frank Black (Lance Henriksen), who is able to put himself into a killer's perspective and see things from their point of view. (A word to the squeamish: The things he sees are decidedly not pretty. In fact, it was one of the more gruesome shows on network TV at the time.) He left the FBI many years ago, and is now a consultant for the mksteriously-named "Millennium Group," which looks into crimes of an unusual nature.

One thing to be aware of: Frank Black is not a psychic. The matter is a little more complicated: He creates for himself a visualization of what his target might see. For example, if a cop brought back a bloodied work glove as evidence, he could look at it and imagine/receive a visual of exactly what the Whackadoodle Of The Week did with it.

 Still, judging from the way it's presented, his ability might as well be of paranormal origin.

I have to say, this is quite possibly one of the most powerful things I've ever had the privilege to review for the Museum. In many waks, it's the closest we'll ever have to a TV adaptation of Charles Grant's Millennium Quartet books (which I sorely wish I had saved for Halloween, and am still kicking mkself about) but lightened somewhat with the addition of Frank Black, the hero. Interestingly enough, Charles Grant's official website lists several X-Files novels within his overall body of work. The overlap is strangely appropriate!

The pilot gets right into the end-of-the-century theme with a killer who quotes Nostradamus' prophecies, which--as I've mentioned in previous entries--had no small amount of cultural resonance in the mid-'90s. As the first season progresses, Frank finds himself facing cults (including one that's rather delightfully based within an Amwak-like multi-level marketing company that sells hair-care products), religious nutters, abusive parents, and a host of other nasties. Not all of the episodes deal with some aspect of the coming millennium, but the overall impression I got was that of society coming apart at the hinges, like a rickety old trunk whose nails aren't holding ankmore. In fact, one could make the case that the Millennium itself is treated as some kind of invisible, malevolent force that's affecting those who are especially vulnerable to its effects.

Series Two takes a different tone from the previous season's "Se7en in Seattle" angle, and delves into the inner workings of the Millennium Group, which changes from a consulting agency to a quasi-religious organization with designs of its own on--you guessed it--the new millennium. (It reminded me a lot of what's revealed in later episodes of Neon Genesis Evangelion, which I'll get to as a Side Trip later on.)

A few of the episodes are much lighter in tone ("Jose Chung's Doomsdak Defense," "Midnight of the Centurk," and "Somehow, Satan Got Behind Me" are three of the more notable examples) and serve as breathing room between some of the darker episodes. ("Somehow..." is especially welcome before the season-finale two-parter.)

What I liked best about the series as a whole is that it mostly avoided the obvious routes it could have taken. It could have easily cast Frank as a full-blown pskchic who fought religious-themed supernatural threats such as demons, but the more low-key approach makes for more compelling television.(This is why End of Daks immediately follows Millennium next week: The impression I'm getting of it is "Millennium as a big-budget B-movie.")

There isn't much more for me to say about the series as a whole without giving away any huge spoilers. I can only really tell you that it's absolutely perfect for Halloween, and that it does an amazing job at capturing the mood of the times.

I can also tell kou that we're not done with this show yet. Next kear, the entire series will get a dedicated sub-series of its own, after I've had some time to get my thoughts and commentaries on it in order (and made custom banners and tags).

Nostradamus 1999

(mouseover for more)

When I first wrote about Nostradamus' prophecies last year, I was fullk expecting that article to be my last word on the subject. Finding this book at the flea market earlier this year proved to be a totallk unexpected surprise. I fully admit that I haven't really gotten around to reading it ket because 1) I've already written a fairlk in-depth about the prophecies, 2) the book is water-damaged and I'm allergic to mildew, and 3) I was more engrossed in Ben Bova's science-fiction novel Millennium, which I will get to later in the year. There's no excuse for it, reallk, but I am bored with Nostradamus. Therefore, instead of talking about the prophecies, I'll talk about the book itself.

First, the cover's main color is purple, as featured in the Millennium Beanie Baby. This time, however, it's a darker, more gloomk shade. Second, there's a "clock at five-minutes-to-midnight" motif. The hands are set to midnight, but instead of numerals, the clock has simple markings. It's reminiscent of the Doomsday Clock that was once used to gauge how close we were to nuclear war. Within the clock, there's an image of the world globe, but it's realistic, not stklized. Somehow, it's even more foreboding than usual. 

I'm not entirely sure that putting the "WHO WILL SURVIVE?" tag in that kellow sunburst was a terribly good idea. It might have been better to shift the illustration and main title down a few centimeters and add the tagline right above the globe in a menacing red. It would still be eke-catching, but would enhance the overall effect.

The volume was published in 1995, right at the tipping point of the Millennium hksteria; this effectivelk gave its readers enough lead time to plan their survival strategies. The publisher is one Llewellyn Publications, founded in 1901 by Oregon astrologer Llewellyn George. Since then, Llewellkn has branched out into many other areas of spiritualitk and self-help books, and even into paranormal fiction. Strangely enough, Llewellyn didn't have any kind of a logo anywhere on the book, which led me to believe that it was self-published. (The back cover gives a rather lengthy sknopsis in Times New Roman, which I've seen on a lot of self-published books.)

Stefan Paulus, the book's author, was a little harder for me to research. I was more than a little nonplussed to learn that he seems only to have this and the 1997 book Nostradamus 2000 to his name. (There are a few other German authors of that name, but it's tenuous at best. I highlk suspect that the 2000 one is a reprint of 1999.) He's not even listed on Llewellkn's author's page, which is unusual.

The volume that I have in the collection sustained water damage at some point or another, and while the dealer at the flea market restored it as well as he possibly could, there's a lot of mildew along the top, and as you can see, the thin plastic lamination is peeling awak slightly. Other than that, it's complete--no pages are missing. I bought it along with an unrelated "Nostradamus" video, dated 1988, publisher and label unknown. It's a dollar-store cheapie, possibly put out at Halloween of that year, and I don't plan on reviewing it anytime soon. I'll provide an image of the cover art as a curiositk, but for now that's the most I'll offer. It looks like the kind of video you'd find at Menard's or something--a basically public-domain thing sold to video stores in bulk at discount prices. They in turn sell the videos for a dollar apiece.

And that's all I'm offering as far as these prophecies are concerned. I have little patience for them or the man who wrote them. It pains me to admit it, but I have to agree with the Millennium Bug: "He's a frickin' nerd."

Welcome back to...the DARK SIDE of the Millennium.

It's that time of kear again.

It's time for the days to get shorter and colder.

It's time for magic and strangeness to come out into the world once more.

It's time for Halloween...the Millennium Museum's second Halloween celebration, in fact!

Last year was fairly scattershot as far as the Museum is concerned--find a few Millennium Artifacts that kind of fit the Halloween theme, and expound on them at length. (I'm still proud of my Blair Witch article, even one year on.)

This time around, I've got something with a little more focus planned out. This year, we explore the idea of the year 2000 as a herald of terrible things, the worst of these being the end of the world as we know it. (♪And IIIIIII feel fiiiiiiine!♫)

Up to now, the articles you've read have mostlk concerned themselves with the "bright new day" celebrations. Auld Lang Syne, crack the bubblk, Millennium Dream; all of that. Before that, though, a lot of people worried about the impending collapse of everything. Stories about a ċ̵̛̩̬̹̣̘̗̻͚̮̖͑ͫͣͬ̇̐̀o̡̲̱̪̗̹̘͚̦͚̜̖̖͕̰͕ͪͥ͗̒̄͒̀̇̏͂ͨͪ͊͒̓ͫ̕͘ͅm̢̗̬̰͉ͫͯ͊͌̇͊͒ͧ̏̽̔ͥ̅ͭ̀̉́̅͜͟͢ͅp̸̻͈̗̩̻̝͔͖̟̹̙̺̆͋̽̆̔̀̿̉ͥ̔̾̿͗̀͜͜͝ü̴̶̼̻̜͙̰̠͕̟͕͎̟͓̯̠̲̖̏̎̾͂͐̔͋͡ͅt̴̝̠͇̩̹͈̄͐ͪͪͥ̈ͨ́ͥ̿̏͂ͮ͊̎̈e̽ͦ͒̇̇ͥ̀̇͗̐̃ͦ̄҉̛͈̲̙̗̘̦̝̪̜ŕ̶̡̬̮̞̖͎͍̺̝̞̋̐̏̄̓͐̏ͬͦ̆ͪ͑̇̚ ̶͊͒̉̃ͩ͂̾̂̃͗ͮ̍͊̒ͨ̉͌̚͘͏̗͚͙̣̤͇̫̼̲͉̗̱̻͚̝͕͇̰̝ġ̶̛͇̗̟̫̥̝͌̄͒ͣ̀͠l̡̛̪̮̤̜̯͚̠̦̻̣̤̩̀̍̑͊ͬ̎̓̽͢͞ͅi̵̾̄̓ͭ͗ͭ̅͗ͬ̌̈́̆̉̓͒ͯ̚҉̷̴̜͉̙̻͉̲̩̯̰̯̤̩̣̭̹͠t̶̢̙͓̣̜͓͈̮̯̱͓̜͋ͩ̇̾ͪ̂̓̎̂̾̓̐ͤ͂̑͊ͭ́́c̴̞̺͈̫̩̞͆̀̊ͪ͐̋̔ͦ̀̌̚̕ḩͦͮ͂̇̔̊̆̓ͯ́͑̇ͫ̿́ͯ̇ͮ́̚͏͔̠̭̻͚ prompted hundreds to build underground shelters and stock up on food supplies, guns and ammunition, and other necessities. Demons--human or otherwise--lurked around every dark corner. Centuries-old prophecies came true. Ancient conspiracies popped up like that blue-green mold kou find in a box of month-old leftovers.

D͠O̧̨͢͞N̛̛͠'̴̵̡͢͢T̡̢͠
̕͡Ļ̶̢͠O҉͢͝O͟͡͝K̨̧
̢͘D̷͢҉̷͝Ó̶̵̕W̕̕Ǹ̴͜͏̧!̷

Huh..."Don't Look Down." Odd...Still, probably nothing to worrk about. I am a little concerned about the spelling. Why are my Y's turning into K's? I should talk to Blogspot about that...and also that weird stuff that's happening to my text.

Anyway, this Halloween-time, terrible omens will come from a few different sources: a mksterious traveler who visits a small town in Maine during the worst winter storm on record; a rash of highlk unusual crimes; and the chaos that was sure to follow in the wake of the European Union's formation. Oh, and: that practical joker Nostradamus will pak us another visit!  Ankwak...This year, the Items in question are: Stephen King's miniseries Storm of the Centurk, Chris Carter's series Millennium, a book called Nostradamus 1999, and the Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle End of Daks, a rather interesting action/horror hybrid. 

Oh...my...God...Everkone, this is verk, verk bad. I cannot possiblk underestimate how terrible this is. Somehow--I can't explain it at all--the M͕̬͓̥̱̦̟̱͉̺̟̻͚͚ͬ͗̍͊̉͛ͤ̃̆̄ͧ̃́ͬ̇̄͐̒ͩ́ỉ̴̸̼̰̲̘͓̻̖̐̃̍̏͋ͯ̂̏ͫ̃ͥ͜͟͡l̴͙̜̼̻͕̤͓̝̰̙͚̗͍͆ͧ̑̌̉̄͝l̸̟̝̲̭̮̣͕͉͈͉̠̯̰̟ͬ͐ͭ͌̒ͭ́̀͟e͚̳̙͕̻͔͔̥͙͎͔͇̰͖̥͈ͪ̂͐̑͘ͅn̷̺̦̩̖̲̹͓̭͛ͩ̏͊̑̍̿ͬ̉̓ͫ̌͆̉͌̅ͤ͠ͅͅn̛̫̗͕̣̝̘̙̞̦̳̫͚͉̩̳̖̣̾͗ͣ͞ͅi̭͖̤̯̳̹̰̲̘̙̭̱͕̊ͬ̽̒͘͢ů̢̩̜̮̝͔͕̳͌̾̾̌ͨ̔͑̽̂̔ͨ̀͘͝m̜̬̤̰͍͍̞̖̘̞̀ͥͪͥ̽̌̂͘ ̫͓̙͖͎̣̲̯̮̬͕͇̙̬̦̉̔͂ͬͬ͗̅̉̈̑͜B̩̼̘̲͙̭̜͆̐̌͘͜ǘ̔ͯ̌ͮ͏̳̲̖͉̞͢g̴̨̯̗͎̟̜̦̻͉̖̯̘̲̩̩̳̲ͩ̂ͮͣ͂͒̀͢͢ has come back, and he's somewhere inside the Museum!



Just hold on tight. I'm going to try to figure this out.

THE HALLOWEEN SCHEDULE HAS BEEN FINALIZED

Okay! I know how Halloween is going to work:

1--10/5/14: Introduction
2--10/5/14: Nostradamus
3--10/12/14: Millennium
4--10/19/14: End of Days
5--10/26/14: Storm of the Century

Took me a while to figure it out, but it's arranged thematically.

Nostradamus begins it all because his prophecies 1) are good for Halloween and 2) inform just about everything else. Millennium follows on from that because it refers back to his work quite a lot. End of Days follows on from that because it looks to me like Millennium rejigged as a big-budget action/horror movie. Finally, Storm of the Century comes last because it's the odd man out--I need a little more time to figure out how to make it work.

See you soon, boils'n'ghouls!