Valentine's Death: Into the Dark - "Down" & "My Valentine"

Author's Note: Well, that's what I get about complaining about 2020 already, lol. No sooner had I vented about the crappy way that the year started than it got worse- we're talking torrential downpours, flooding, plummeting temperatures, even a little snow- the works.

Fortunately for me, I live on the top of a mountain, but the surrounding areas were not so lucky, with nearby Vestavia flooding within an inch of its life- for the second time in recent memory, I might add. Send those Valentine well-wishes their way. 💖

Anyway, for obvious reasons, internet has been spotty in our area, and it's been near-impossible to get anything done. But at least we had power and the like, so I'm not really complaining. I'll finish the movie list when I finish it- I'm sure it's not that big of a deal to most of you.

But, in the meantime, I did want to get this one in while it was still timely: it's my take on the two Valentine's Day-themed episodes of the horror anthology series, Into the Dark. Enjoy, and hope you have a better holiday than these two ladies! 💕

I suppose it's to be expected that the two Valentine's Day-themed episodes of Into the Dark revolve around toxic masculinity, but it is interesting that one is directed (and written) by a man and one is written and directed by a woman, and how much of a difference that makes in the grand scheme of things.

The first basically plays like a man's fantasy- think one of those "Letters to Penthouse," for those who can remember back that far- but gone horribly awry; while the second plays like a woman's fantasy gone terribly wrong. Both have points to make about the awkwardness of love in the modern age, but one is more interested in the horror elements than the ramifications of the scenario, while the other is more focused on the emotional toll taken on its heroine than the horror. 

Let's start with Down, the fifth episode of season one of the show. The set-up is basically the underrated P2-by way of Devil. It's hard to talk about without revealing certain things, but that description should take care of it for those who have seen the films. Basically, two people are stuck in an elevator over the extended Valentine's Day/President's Day weekend, and are unable to contact anyone to get out, forcing them to stay there for the four-day weekend until help can arrive.

Now, if you're wondering why they aren't able to call for help or use the alarm button on the elevator keypad, there's a reason for that. The first reason, in terms of using their cell phones, is that they can't get a signal (but of course), the other reason would be revealing too much. But rest assured, that does eventually get explained as well. Either way, they're stuck, and are forced to make the best of things. 

The twosome in question are office workers Jennifer Robbins (Natalie Martinez, CSI:NY, Under the Dome) and Guy (Matt Lauria, Friday Night Lights, Tell Me a Story). At first, it seems like the recipe for a "meet cute," rom-com style. The two have an easy attraction to one another, and get along like gangbusters. The actors themselves have an easy chemistry as well, probably because they have worked together before, on the TV show Kingdom. 

However, this being a horror anthology and all, it isn't too long before things take a turn. We discover that Guy has had a secret crush on Jennifer for some time, and that their meeting may not have been completely a happy coincidental circumstance. It, in fact, may have been the machinations of someone else entirely.

We also discover that Guy may have some secrets in his past that make spending an extended period of time stuck in an elevator with him less than ideal. He may also not be quite who he says he is, much to Jennifer's dismay. Four days is a long time to be stuck in one location, and inevitably, secrets come to the forefront, with confessions on both sides.

What we have here is basically what would be called a "bottle" episode on a normal show, which is to say, an episode that features a limited amount of characters and locations, typically written on the fly and because something else fell through and the show-runners need to buy some time. 

This being an anthology show, where each episode is basically feature-length, my guess it was a clever way to keep costs down. Though there are some scenes set elsewhere, there's not many, so it must have made for a quick shoot, and a low budget to boot, all things considered.

The episode was written by Kent Kubena, a producer best-known for Turistas, the first remake of Black Christmas, Gods of Egypt and Hotel Mumbai. This is his first writing credit, so I don't really have anything to compare it to, but having seen three out of four of those aforementioned films, I can say that this effort is at least in keeping with his other output, for better or worse, which is to say: okay, but nothing spectacular. 

Meanwhile, the director is Daniel Stamm, who directed several episodes of the criminally-underrated Intruders, as well as an episode each of Scream: The Series and Fear the Walking Dead and the feature films The Last Exorcism and 13 Sins. Exorcism was an okay found-footage possession flick that was, at the very least, better than The Devil Inside. (Not saying much, I know.)

Down definitely has its moments, and the last twenty minutes or so are engaging and exciting, with lots of action and a little bit of gore, as some unexpected visitors show up. I also liked the ending, though one has to wonder how a certain someone is going to explain how all of this insanity went down- something this film has in common with the next one, BTW. 

Yes, there are some issues with plotting- for instance, there are several instances in which, had the character behaved in a certain way, a lot could have been avoided, and, if the circumstances had been real, they probably would have done just that, but, this being a movie, we're just supposed to go along with them making dumb decisions or doing stupid things because it is what it is. For that matter, had certain characters- on either side of the equation, I might add- simply finished the job at hand, they could have saved themselves a lot of grief.

But, if you're a longtime horror fan like I am, you're probably used to such dopey plot machinations and head-slappingly dumb character moves. It's all sort of par for the course, as they say. It doesn't mean we can't do better, though, so I feel compelled to bring it up, anyway, i.e. phones conveniently not working, people not fully checking to make sure other people aren't really dead, people stupidly putting themselves in harm's way in a way that could have easily been avoided, etc. 

When all is said and done, though, Down isn't bad, just sort of predictable, at least once you get to a certain point. You might not see the first twist coming, but once you get to the final act, you shouldn't have any trouble figuring out where all this is headed. Still, it's very well-acted by the main two stars, and ably directed, with some tensely-staged set-pieces and some decent acting, all of which make it a decent watch overall, so it's a solid enough time-waster. 

On the other hand, the clever, ripped-from-the-headlines, recent episode of the show, My Valentine, is far better, if you're looking to make a choice between the two. The story revolves around a down-and-out musician named- what else?- Valentine (Britt Baron, GLOW), that decides to stage a comeback after her former abusive boyfriend-turned manager/producer, Royal (Benedict Samuel, Gotham, The Walking Dead), emerges with a carbon-copy performer, Trezzure (Anna Lore, Doom Patrol, Katie), that is starting to hit it big on the charts- with Valentine's material.

If this sounds familiar, then you must be a fan of either Kesha (aka Ke$ha) or Poppy (aka That Poppy), two pop singers with decidedly similar tales to tell. In Kesha's case, she accused her former producer, Dr. Luke (aka Lukasz Gottwald), of being emotional and physically abusive, and allegedly raping her at one point after drugging her. She also said it wasn't the first time, and that he had done the same thing to fellow pop star Katy Perry, who has stayed mute on the subject, for the record, though her "team" denied it. 

Thus far, Kesha has been on the losing side of the argument in court, though public support has been on her side. Of course, as we all too sadly know, it's tough to prove such allegations- just ask Christine Blasey Ford, who had to see her accuser appointed to the highest court in the land, in spite of her moving- and highly credible- testimony. Only time will tell if Kesha wins her own battle, but thus far, it doesn't look good.

Meanwhile, Poppy's situation is even more like the one portrayed here. Along with her producer and co-writer, Titanic Sinclair (aka Corey Michael Mixter), Poppy came up with the persona, and the two began releasing quirky videos and songs together, all the while engaging in a romantic relationship. As Poppy's star began to rise, fellow performer Mars Argo (aka Brittany Sheets) emerged, accusing them of ripping off her act- turns out that she and Sinclair used to date, and he had unsuccessfully tried to do a similar act with her before they broke up. 

Poppy denied it at first, but eventually discovered that it was indeed true- Sinclair had removed all trace of Argo's work on the internet to hide his subterfuge- and admitted that Sinclair had also been emotionally abusive to her, just as Argo had claimed. Argo's lawsuit against Sinclair was eventually settled out of court, with charges against Poppy dropped, and Argo getting back the rights to her "character."

Poppy and Sinclair have since gone their separate ways, and her sound and look have changed dramatically as a result, with Poppy going into a direction similar to that of Asian girl group Babymetal, which is to say, a combination of pop music and thrash metal. As much as I dug some of what her and Sinclair got up to, I must say this new version of Poppy is much more up my alley and far more original, at least from a musical standpoint, than her former sound. In a word, she's better off all around. 

So, basically, what writer/director Maggie Levin (the TV shows The Friendless Five & Miss 2059) has done is to slightly fictionalize these two real-life incidents, much like Law & Order and other shows of its ilk do all the time with other real-life cases, only, in this instance, she's given it more of a horror slant.

Basically, Royal shows up to confront Valentine after one of her concerts, to tell her to back off and stop performing "his" material and dressing like "his" artist, Trezzure, even though she wrote the songs and they came up with the look together. In exchange, he'll "let" her write the material for Trezzure's next album, and get paid this time around, but she has to permanently retire and stop publicly claiming Trezzure is ripping off her act.

Perhaps needless to say, Valentine doesn't take too kindly to this proposition, and it's there that things take a turn and get violent. The remainder of the episode is basically the showdown between Royal and Valentine, with Trezzure, Valentine's bandmate Julie (YouTuber Anna Akana, who also created and starred, along with Lore, in the aforementioned Miss 2059), and others, including the vocal members of Trezzure's internet fan club, getting caught in the crossfire.

This episode is far-better written than Down, with acutely-noted character development that is adeptly augmented by flashbacks to Valentine and Royal's troubled relationship. These scenes help to fill in the blanks of the story and support Valentine's version of events, which, naturally, Royal tries to deny, especially when Trezzure is around. 

Will Valentine get the best of Royal once and for all? Will Trezzure come to her senses and side with Valentine? You'll just have to watch and see for yourself, but I think you'll see what's coming overall- but that doesn't make it any less satisfying. I suppose one could say the same thing about Down, but the situation here is a little easier to commiserate with than that one.

Put another way, in Down, we do sympathize with the male character to a point: he's charming, and he isn't wrong about it being hard to forge a connection with people being so self-involved- it's just the way he goes about it that's dubious. Here, there's no doubt that Royal is a bad guy, and that he'll go on to abuse Trezzure- if he hasn't already- the same way he did with Valentine. As such, there's no denying that we are fully rooting for Valentine here. 

In that regard, I suppose Down is the more challenging watch- after all, we do sympathize with Guy, at least at first. But My Valentine is just plain better all around, despite a somewhat similar "bottle" episode type set-up that takes place largely in one location, just like Down. However, we also get those flashbacks, and some nifty music videos that are very much of the moment, popular-music-wise.

Somewhat ironically, the music is actually by someone else than the people we're seeing- a performer who goes by the name of Dresage (aka Keeley Bumford, because you knew there had to be an "aka" in there somewhere, lol). BTW, that's the band's spelling, not mine, spell-check! Anyway, the girls do a good job with the whole lip-sync thing, so you shouldn't have trouble buying it. 

I'm not sure either episode is solid Valentine's Day viewing, at least if you're looking for romance. But if your reaction to Valentine's Day is, well, like most people's reaction to actual VD, then you should have a bloody good time with either, though I lean slightly more towards My Valentine.
It's just a better idea for a storyline, what with it mirroring things that are actually happening in current events, as opposed to what goes down in Down, which seems unlikely to be something that could actually happen, even under the given circumstances, which are themselves a bit iffy.

Interestingly, though, I thought My Valentine was a better version of what Black Mirror got up to in the episode "Rachel, Jack & Ashley, Too," which was more silly than scary- not exactly BM's standard operating procedure, which tends to lean more towards the disturbing. Go figure.

Both episodes of Into the Dark are worth at least a watch, though, thanks to solid acting all around, interesting plotlines and decent writing and directing. They're nowhere near the best the ongoing series has to offer, to be sure, but they're not bad, either. If you're down on Valentine's Day, you could do a lot worse- but you could also do better. My Bloody Valentine, for instance- either one. 😍 

PS: Longtime fans of Into the Dark, be sure and keep an eye out for a Pooka cameo in My Valentine!