Enjoy a night of fear with these flicks

Carnival of Souls (1962)

Originally printed in the Batesville Daily Guard

Halloween is upon us and what better time to catch up on your horror movie watching?

Sure, you can say “I’m already watching ‘The Walking Dead,’” but that’s just a soap opera with zombies. No, what you want on Halloween is something that will make you feel uneasy, frightened or at least a little nervous … not a TV show that frustrates, angers or even bores you.

So, today I’m passing on a couple of movie suggestions for those who have a few hours to curl up in front of the TV Halloween night while the kids are out or have been put to bed. Each movie represents what I would call a different sort of fear so that the viewer gets a nice rounded experience.

“Carnival of Souls” (1962)

Ghost stories were being passed from generation to generation by humans way before Halloween was ever conceived. “Carnival of Souls” is a ghost story, but it isn’t about a haunted house or vengeance from beyond the grave. Instead it’s a movie about a protagonist, a woman who is the only survivor of a car wreck at the beginning of the film, growing more detached from, and eventually rejected by, the world and people around her. Eventually, the only ones who seem to notice her are the ghosts she sees more and more frequently.

The film never goes for outright scares. Instead, the events in the film build upon each other. The increasing isolation of the movie’s lead character from the world around her and the final confrontation with the ghosts, who appropriately gather to dance the night away at a carnival, leave the viewer with a sense of hopelessness and futility instead of fear.

“Night of the Living Dead” (1968)

If it weren’t for this movie, you wouldn’t be watching “The Walking Dead,” reading “World War Z” or playing “Resident Evil.” We’re so accustomed to cannibal zombies in media now that they’re no longer scary, but back when George Romero made “Night of the Living Dead,” they were something new.

Sure, there had been zombies in movies before, “White Zombie” jumps immediately to mind, but until “Night of the Living Dead,” they had been mostly portrayed true to their roots in African culture — a dead person brought to life to serve a single master. “Night of the Living Dead introduced much of the world to swarms of flesh-eating zombies that overwhelmed their human prey by sheer numbers. It also introduced that other zombie movie trope: You often have more to fear from your fellow man than the zombies.

“Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (1974)

Along with “Night of the Living Dead” this is considered one of the movies that modernized horror. Before these two movies, horror movies largely followed a monster-of-the-week type pattern where the monster died in the end and the, usually male, hero got out alive, if not unscathed. “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” turned that formula totally on its head. Not only was our “monster” human, the “hero” (survivor is more appropriate) is a woman.

It follows, and pretty much established, a formula we’ve grown used to. A bunch of teenagers or 20-somethings go out in the middle of nowhere and are killed one-by-one until the lone survivor fights off the killer/monster and makes it out alive and damaged. But unlike its lesser descendants, this movie goes for unsettling over disgusting. The Sawyer family, whose interior decorating was inspired by the home of Ed Gein — the real life inspiration for Norman Bates in “Psycho” and Buffalo Bill in “Silence of the Lambs” — and their twisted abode will cause several nights of restless sleep for the first-time viewer.

“The Thing” (1982)

John Carpenter is a director whose name is synonymous with Halloween. After all, he introduced the world to Michael Myers in, well, “Halloween.” Halloween was a very influential horror movie, but it was not Carpenter’s best. His best work would be just four years later when he delivered what I, and many others consider his masterpiece: “The Thing.”

“The Thing” is a violent film, no doubt about it. The violence isn’t from slashing, bludgeoning or drilling as we are prone to see in horror moves nowadays. Instead, the violence comes from the creature being revealed, transforming its human forms into something truly horrific. The scares don’t come from the boogeyman sneaking up behind you or coming out of the dark. Instead, he hides right in front of you, within the skin of your co-worker or friend, waiting to take you when it’s only the two of you in the room. Worse yet, he can be more than one person, or animal, too. All through the film, even in its last scene, you’re left to wonder “is it one of them?”

“Session 9” (2001)

By 2001, most mainstream horror movies were trending toward jump scares and way too much self-awareness thanks to movies like “Scream” and “I Know What You Did Last Summer.” “Session 9” is one of the few movies to buck that trend, largely hiring actors to play characters instead of pretty faces to play victims.

“Session 9” doesn’t start with a bang. It hardly has any bangs at all. Instead, you start out having a feeling something is very, very wrong on what should just be a regular job for a group of contractors removing asbestos from Danvers State Hospital, a real-life psychiatric hospital that once stood in Massachusetts. The movie builds on that feeling, every scene removing layers beginning with the normal and pealing away to the horrific.

The sense of unease is not lifted by the end of the movie, instead you’re left to wonder about who, or what, is to really blame for what unfolded. Danvers State Hospital is almost a character itself, with its decaying walls, massive empty rooms and small hallways. Danvers State Hospital was totally demolished in 2006.

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Golden rice may be Vitamin A jackpot

 July 27, 2016

Ordinary rice to the left, golden rice to the right.

Originally printed in the Batesville Daily Guard

Ever hear of Vitamin A?

Sure you have, it’s up there with Vitamins B, C, D, E and K as being essential to a healthful life.

Vitamin A plays a critical role in the maintenance of the body in regards to vision, neurological function, healthy skin, building strong bones, gene regulation, cell differentiation and immune function. It is an antioxidant, thus is involved in reducing inflammation through fighting free radical damage. A high antioxidant diet is a way to naturally slow aging.

The best sources for Vitamin A are eggs, milk, liver, carrots, yellow or orange vegetables such as squash, spinach, and other leafy green vegetables.

But in many parts of the world, many of these things are unavailable in the necessary quantities. This is especially true in areas where the overpopulation and poverty are the norm. The most vulnerable people are the children of Africa and Southeast Asia.

There is one food that is widely available in these parts of the world, though: rice.

The problem though is that rice doesn’t have enough vitamin A to be effective. Naturally, anyway.

That’s where Golden Rice comes in.

Golden Rice is a genetically modified organism. Unlike regular rice, it carries beta-carotene, a major source of Vitamin A, which gives it the color for which it’s named. Like many GMOs, it contains genes that don’t originate in rice. The genes come from daffodils and a bacteria known as Erwinia. I know the word “bacteria” sounds scary to people, but remember, bacteria are on the most part tiny, tiny plants. Like plants, some bacteria are beneficial to us and some are bad for us. Luckily, golden rice has passed the safety standards and is safe for human consumption, like most GMOs on the market.

Clinical trials with adult volunteers from the U.S. concluded that “beta carotene derived from golden rice is effectively converted to vitamin A in humans,” according to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. The American Society for Nutrition said that “Golden Rice could probably supply 50 percent of the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) of vitamin A from a very modest amount — perhaps a cup — of rice, if consumed daily.

It sounds good, right? It’s even got the support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Well, instead of sounding like a way to help millions, for many, it was akin to opening Pandora’s Box.

Many anti-GMO activists, particularly Greenpeace, have made it their mission to prevent Golden Rice from being planted by farmers in Vitamin A-poor parts of the world. Aside from spreading conspiracy theories about biotechnology companies, particularly Monsanto, they also attack the plots where the rice itself is grown. In 2013 an trial plot of Golden rice was uprooted by a gang of protesters in the Philippines, claiming that U.S. corporations were only seeking profit.

But why the resistance?

Greenpeace claims “... GE ‘Golden’ rice is a proposed but not practically viable crop solution that has never been brought to market. It is also environmentally irresponsible and could compromise food, nutrition and financial security.” Of course, they never offer any evidence to support their beliefs. Instead, we get inaccurate claims that farmers can’t “save their seeds” or “the rice will contaminate existing species.” 

Greenpeace has already been taken to task over this by 110 Nobel Prize Laureates in a letter, pleading with them to stop with the fear mongering.

Greenpeace’s response: The Nobel Prize Laureates didn’t offer “relevant expertise.”

Unfortunately for Greenpeace, nobody aside from anti-GMO activists are getting on board with them. Farmers associations in Nigeria support moving ahead with the cultivation of the rice, as does the Philippine Rice Research Institute. Anti-GMO activists accuse the groups and governments supporting Golden Rice consumption as being “bought by corporations” and have voiced support for radical groups that attack the farms where the rice is grown, destroying the crop.

So does the radical anti-GMO crowd offer an alternative solution?

“Plant sweet potatoes.”

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