Deeply Odd

That's Really Odd

By Preston Sinclair

"My name is Odd Thomas. I have accepted my oddness."


 The thing I like most about Odd Thomas is that the guy simply cannot stand still. From page one he is in perpetual motion.  He does take a moment to pee, which is a humorously refreshing reminder that he is in fact human.
   This time he's allowed to pause and take a breath, and even eat something. At a pivotal point in the book Tom and Mrs Fischer stop to eat at Ernestine's diner. He adopts the motto, 'We might as well eat'. That's what I love that about him, nobody could deal with the crap he has to on an empty stomach. 
   Oddie's existential angst goes into overdrive in Deeply Odd when he's pitted against the truck driver from hell, a real rhinestone cowboy all right, talk about road rage. The story brings back memories of the 1971 movie Duel with Dennis Weaver, directed by Steven Spielberg.  One can almost smell the diesel exhaust and burning rubber.
    Odd Thomas's pre-apocolyptic visions draw us in and at the same time propel the story forward. He's chasing someone and at the same time being chased by his own fears.  Who here hasn't woken up with night terrors? The feeling that something else dark and blacker than night is sitting beside your bed and watching you sleep.  It pants and mewls in anticipation of your sweat and fear, and then you wake up kicking and screaming.  I think these night terrors are the inspiration for Odd Thomas' bodachs.  Yes, they're a real thing.
    In Deeply Odd, Tom explores the possibility of another dimension he calls Elsewhere. A gateway between this world and a parallel universe that is perhaps deeper and darker than we ever imagined. A mysterious cult has somehow found a key between these two universes which they use to their own evil advantage as they kidnap a group of children to use in an unspeakable ritual. Odd enlists the help of like minded individuals who want to help him save the innocent victims.
     Dean Koontz delivers as always on the theme of good versus evil and yet he leaves many things unexplained and many questions unanswered, which is as it should be.  Odd Thomas, the bewildered honest fry cook, doesn't have all the answers. He just knows what he needs to do.

    

     During the time I was reading Deeply Odd I learned that the original Odd Thomas novel has been made into a movie. I rented it from Redbox. Apparently there was some kind of financing issue and it's release date was postponed for several years.
     Odd Thomas is a good movie. It has solid production values. The cgi script works and doesn't overshadow the characters. It's in the background where it belongs. Anton Yelchin is well cast as the self deprecating average but cute Thomas. He is one of Koontz's most endearing characters. 
     Embrace your oddness. Be odd.

 

Under The Skin

An Itch You Can't Scratch

By Preston Sinclair

"Do you think I'm pretty?"
      Laura

  

   This may seem like an idiotic question under any other circumstances. Scarlett Johansson's voice purrs in a  gorgeous British accent. There's a certain earnestness to her question which betrays her ignorance of human behavior.
   Jonathon Glazer's film 'Under The Skin' is at once jarring and mesmerizing. It defies expectation. Please check your preconceived notions about film making at the door and most importantly, stop trying to figure it all out.  It's part travel log, part music video, part documentary, part science fiction, part film noire.  Take your pick.
    

  If you like Scottish men with woodies, then you'll like this movie. This movie can't stand much more deconstruction than that.  The guys in this film are like Pavlov's Dog. They salivate when they see Laura. Laura, the alien, doesn't know why the men follow her into the black goo, she just knows that they will.  She's just doing her job. Until she starts to wonder what it would be like to be human, then the whole thing goes sideways.
   Laura has an a-ha moment after she meets a man who is severely disfigured.  She seems as charmed by him as he is by her.  She lures him into the ooze as she has probably done dozens of times before yet somehow she lets this one slip away in order to give him a chance to survive on his own. That chance is short lived due to her cohort's apparent clean up crew sensibility. 
   Laura wanders away in a literal fog. She explores her own humanity by trying to eat cake, which makes her gag.  It's somehow painful to watch her lift the fork to her mouth. At one point she is frozen, as she forces herself to eat something by which she is repulsed..  
   Later, She meets a kind man that she thinks wants to take care of her, but he really wants to have sex with her. During this pivotal scene Laura learns why the men have been following her into the black gooky stuff. It's a private and intense moment yet it lacks passion as the man grimaces as he tries to penetrate her.  Laura pushes him off and grabs the lamp on the night stand and shines it "down there" as she realizes that she is not anatomically correct. It appears that her beauty is in fact only skin deep. 
   She tries to escape the maddening world and for a while and she does find some solace in nature itself. She wanders in a lush forest where she crosses paths with what seems to be a friendly woodsman.  Laura is able to pass as a lone hiker in the woods and she stumbles upon what appears to be a vacant cabin where she tries to curl up and take a nap in a kind of "Goldylocks and The Three Bears" moment.
  

   Just when we begin to root for Laura and hope she makes the break from her motorcycle cronies, the bad woodsman comes in and tries to have his way with her.  What ensues is probably one of the most horrific rape scenes since the classic movie 'Deliverance' with Ned Beatty. In the end the predator becomes the prey.
   This movie will haunt you for days, or even weeks after you watch it, kind of like a rash in a spot you can't quite reach.  Yet when you do reach it, it feels oh so good.

References:

Internet Movie Database