Sunday, April 18, 2010

In other news: Donner Party horror flick


Well, the latest flap seems to have died down, and not a minute too soon, either. This is exactly what happened in back January 2006: archaeologists report that they found no evidence of cannibalism in the bone fragments at one Donner Party site, and the idiot media turns it into "Donner Party cannibalism a total myth!" Gabrielle Burton, the author of two recent books about Tamzene Donner, confronted the nonsense in a Huffington Post article, and I hope it has an effect.

But now another myth has reared its ugly head again. Back in 2007, there was some buzz about Necrosis, a horror film with a Donner Party theme. Well, it's finally being released next week.

According to the official website, during the winter of 1846 a wagon train was trapped in the Sierra Nevada. "As days turned into weeks, and weeks into months, the members of the Donner Party slowly dissolved into madness, eventually turning on each other in what became a desperate, cannabalistic slaughter."

Statements like the above, and the perennial comments likening the Democrats or Republicans to a "modern Donner Party," demonstrate the all-too-common misconception that the Donner Party was a feeding frenzy and the trapped emigrants turned upon one another in a savage bid to survive. This faulty premise is the basis of what happens in Necrosis: More than a century later, six friends arrive at a Sierra Nevada cabin to spend a weekend in the snow; ghastly revenants of the emigrants return to slaughter the hapless young people -- or do they? Here's a trailer.


The film didn't get good reviews, and after kicking around in limbo for a year or so, it's finally coming out as a straight-to-DVD release on Tuesday, April 20. Not having seen it, I can't recommend it, but dyed-in-the-wool Donner Party fanatics can pre-order a copy at Amazon.com or from the movie website.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Here is what the Director said in an interview on HorrorNews.net regarding the history and the movie.

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How much research did you have to do about the Donner Party & Cannibalism before starting on this project? I hope the research wasn't too detailed. gulp.

ANSWER -
I had heard the Donner Party story when I was a kid and then again in
High School. I regularly ski and snowboard in the Tahoe area as well and had been to the Donner Memorial..... but with all that said. We really played on history in Necrosis. We have some Donner Party reference and flashbacks as them (Donner Party People) actually going crazy and killing each other with axes - which never happened... or that's what"they" want you to believe. If you are a history buff then you will say we got it all wrong. Which is fine. I told one Donner Historian that seemed angry at the lack of historical fact that "It's just a
horror movie."

Billy said...

I saw this last night. Actually, it's an interesting concept for a horror movie and that had some potential. But it didn't deliver- this is badly acted, badly written and badly done. When the first image of one of the 'Donner party' came up, I actually started laughing because it was unintentionally funny and just so awful and over-the-top. Not even worth a rental.