“Rainy Season” , by Vanessa Ionta Wright. A.K.A ” It is raining frogs, alleluia!!!”
Once upon a time, our favorite author wrote a story about a nice young couple, the Grahams, who were staying in a nice small town called Willow. But the city is in the state of Maine, so every single Stephen King fan knows that the “shit is about to hit the fan”. Or maybe not shit, in this case it would be frogs! Yeah, Constant Readers, it’s raining frogs, alleluia!!!!
Stephen wrote many things about faith and beliefs at the introduction of “Nightmares and Dreamscapes”. He shared with us, Constant Readers, that he used to be the kind of kid that would believe in everything that people would say. And I confess that I can relate to that, I was a naive kid too. And when we talk about frogs I always think about what I used to believe when I was a small kid: I used to be afraid of frogs, because someone once told me that if a frog would pee in your eyes you would become blind for the rest of your life. So, when I was a small kid I was very afraid of frogs. Of course, years later, even before I thought that this could be a lie, when I thought about this I used to think ” well, the pee would never reach my eyes and I would never be dumb enough to bend over and take a closer look at a frog”. I never actually looked to find out if frog’s pee can really make you blind, but now I do believe that it is a lie.
Well, lie or myth, Stephen King gave me another thing to think about when we talk about frogs: In his story called “Rainy Season” he made me start wondering about raining frogs. I have heard about that a few times in my life and now, before I wrote this review I did a small research and just found out that it is possible. Of course not in the way that King wrote in his short story, but if you search for it you will find that it is really possible to have an “animal rain”. Which animals? Well, fishes, spiders (duuuude) , birds and also frogs. If you doubt me, try and Google it yourself.
Are you guys still with me? Thanks, let’s go back to the review. I remember the first time I read “Rainy Season”: it was a hardcover copy of “Nightmares and Dreamscapes vol. 2” (here in Brazil they were divided into two volumes). I remember I was working that night, driving my cab and reading it when I had no passengers. I remember I was close to a Church and they were having a kermesses in there. I almost stepped out of the car and joined them, cause I love kermesses. But I was in the middle of my reading and that story was so damned good. Besides, my passenger could come back at any minute, so I stayed in the car and finished reading. I love this story, it is one of King’s best short stories. It is one of those that just keeps in our minds. Twenty years later and here I am again sitting in my car, I just read the story for the second time before I watched Vanessa Ionta Wright‘s “Rainy Season” again, now so I could write this review.
I remember how excited I was the first time I watched this Dollar Baby. When I heard that the second edition of the on-line Canadian Dollar Baby film fest would have a version of “Rainy Season” I went nuts. I was dying to see frogs falling from the sky and eating everything in front of them. And when I watched it on my cell phone, I was so happy sitting in my kitchen. And it was worth the wait. Thank you, “Stephen King Rules”. I hope someday you guys will have a third edition of this wonderful on-line Dollar Baby film fest.
But let’s get back to that night when I first watched this wonderful Dollar Baby: I was about to have the first edition of my own Dollar Baby film fest here in Brazil (“Long Live the King”) and I remember that while I was watching Vanessa Ionta Wright’s Dollar Baby I was so amazed that I though” I have to screen this Dollar Baby if I ever have a second edition of my film fest”. And I had a second edition, believe it or not. So I invited Vanessa’s Dollar Baby to be part of the Brazilian film fest and once she sent me the movie I started to work at making subs in Portuguese. So I spent some hours working in this Dollar Baby, the same way I always spent at every single Dollar Baby that I have to translate into Portuguese so one day I can screen it. And do you know what happened after I had watched “Rainy Season” at least 8 times? I realized that this is the kind of movie that gets better every time you watch it.
Recently I got the chance to screen this Dollar Baby again, this time at an even better room, with a bigger screen and really great speakers. And this time I also realized that every single time I watch this movie I find something new in it. This time it was the sound. I heard this time in the best speakers ever, so once again I heard like it was the very time ( “…like a virgin, touched for the very first time…”) . That is why I am writing this review today, because it is still fresh in my memory. So, I will start explaining why this is such a great Dollar Baby first by talking about the sound design.
If I had to choose only one thing to call the best thing at this movie, man, it would be the sound design. It already was my favorite aspect of it, but this time, with the new speakers, man, I went nuts again. Do you know why? Because the sound design is what brought life to the frogs. See, we actually don’t see the frogs in the movie. Or at least we don’t have a close look at the frogs, we only see them kind of far away. We only have a glance of them through the windows while they are falling from the sky. And, although I was pretty anxious to see the damned frogs, I confess that I was kind of relieved that the director chose not to show them, we can only hear them. And I can assure you that it was the best choice Vanessa Ionta Wright could ever have made for this short movie.
Because, first of all, they only had U$ 18.000,00 for the movie and CGI effects are expensive. And, second, if you don’t have the budget of a long feature blockbuster, it can be very dangerous to even try to have CGI monsters at low cost. We all remember a certain Stephen King TV movie called “The Langoliers“, right? Please, don’t get me wrong, I love that movie, but let’s face it: the creatures in that movie are so fake. Of course we understand that it was a 90th TV movie, the CGI wasn’t as good as they could be nowadays, but man… It almost spoils the fun of watching that movie. So, once again I say that when Vanessa Ionta Wright did not show me evil frogs with big teeth, I was glad. By doing that, the director gives the audience the chance to use their own imagination. And if in their heads the creatures look fake, well, it is not Vanessa’s fault, is it? If you have a good imagination you can have a wonderful experience at this Dollar Baby, the sound of the creatures eating a person alive can even give you nightmares if you imagine it right. Thank God I do have a great imagination, if I would close my eyes right now, I would still be able to hear the damned frogs and also “see them”.
Dave Wilson, you did a wonderful job at the sound design at this Dollar Baby. Even before we “see” the frogs, if we realize, they were in there the whole time. All the sounds surrounding the characters (the insects, the birds, the wind) give us an immersive experience on such a great level that I felt I was no longer in a movie theater but in the countryside. Dave Wilson, thank you so much for this.
Another cool thing in this movie is the soundtrack. It is an original score by Ross Childress. There are two music’s with lyrics and some others only instrumental. The instrumental songs are great, all of them played at the right time so it could get a sensation of growing suspense. But what really got my attention in this original soundtrack was the first song with lyrics, the one playing in the radio at the first scene: “who will stop the rain now?“. No, it is not about raining frogs. It is about a couple having some problems in their relationship. And that is exactly what the main characters are living when the movie starts. When we first see them inside their car , we can feel the tension in the air. It is not just the air conditioner that it is not working, their relationship is not working either. I don’t know what that guy did to his wife before the movie started, but it is pretty clear that she is pissed. And that song helps us not only to understand that, but also it helps us to create empathy for that couple. We don’t want to see them fighting , the story is not about that, it is about a couple struggling with their problems and now trying to find a way to survive tata nightmare. And this first song, it is so cool too. I usually don’t translate songs while I am making the subs, but when a song dialogues so clearly with the story I do translate it too. It happened another couple times with some other Dollar Babies and I love when it happens. It gives me more work when I do the subs, but it is so cool when I watch it later. So, thank you Ross Childress, your song really helps to tell this story.
Still talking about this first scene, I could not avoid talking about its cinematography: the very first thing we see in the movie is an aerial shot made by a drone. We see the woods, we see the road and an old car. It is a beautiful image by itself and also a clear reference to Stanley Kubrick‘s “The Shining“. For the rest of the movie the cinematography is okay, nothing too fancy, but still a very competent cinematography with some good moments, but the first scenes, the aerial and also inside the car, are the best moments of the cinematographer Mark Simon in this Dollar Baby.
The main actors, Brian Ashton Smith and Anne Marie Kennedy, don’t shine too much either, but they are good at the movie too. Anne Marie shines more than Brian, but they both have good moments, especially when they are together. They do make the audience believe not only that they are pissed with each other, but also that deep in there they do love each other.
But when we talk about the cast in this Dollar Baby, who really shine are the supporting actors: Jan Nelson and Kermit Rolison. They both are the old folk in town who advise the young couple not to stay in the town that night because it is Rainy Season. Jan and Kermit (the actor, not the frog) had only two scenes in the movie, but they really nailed them, Kermit in particular (sorry about the “Muppets joke”, I couldn’t help myself). Kermit in his first scene gave us such a great and fluid performance. He starts talking to the young couple almost without looking at them, because he is rolling his cigarette. He drops his cigarette in his own lap and almost curses and a second later, when he finally does pay attention to John and Elise Graham, we see him talking seriously to them and we almost think that he is being racist with John (Brian is a black guy), but no. Instead we see that old guy treating the couple with due respect for the first time, really concerned about them and all these changes in Kermit’s acting in such a fluid performance was fun to watch. Jan Nelson too, when they are together they are not that kind of creepy old folk, but instead we see how tired they are, how they wish they could save that young couple’s life. If I would give a best supporting award at dollar baby performances, I would give to these two actors , Jan Nelson and Kermit Rolison.
Another person that should win an award for this Dollar Baby is Vanessa Ionta Wright. And if I am not mistaken, I do think she did win a couple awards for this movie. Her debut as a director was amazing, it is such a well-directed Dollar Baby. And a good adapted screenplay too (Another award?), I really liked what she did with the story. These tension between John and Elise is new, King did not write in that way (in the original story they actually make love before frogs start falling from the sky), but when she decided to have a couple in crisis in the middle of this rainy season, Vanessa gave the story new layers and it is better this way. It helps us to really care about them. We see that not only are they in the middle of a crisis in their marriage, but also that they still love each other and maybe this trip to the countryside is happening so they can try to reconnect.
There are so many choices Vanessa did directing and writing this Dollar Baby, all of them made this an unique Stephen King movie. Once again we can see a director that not only nailed it at the debut, but also one that really knows the King universe. It looks like a Stephen King story, it sounds like a Stephen King story and I can assure you that it smells like one of them too. Yeah, it smells: when Kermit’s character says he hates the smell of the dead frogs the next day, man, the audience with a good imagination can also smell it. And it has such a disgusting smell.
Thank you, Vanessa, for giving us such a great Stephen King short movie. From now on I will never hear the sound of frogs again without remembering your movie. And I will probably stay away from them, you gave me new reasons to be afraid of frogs now, so thanks again.
The Dollar Baby’s grade? We from SKSM give Vanessa Ionta Wright’s “Rainy Season” four fingers from the dead guy’s hand. (I would give five, but I’m pretty sure I saw one of the frogs eating the fifth finger.)
That is it for today, Constant Readers. See you next time.
Leonardo Granado.
PS : there is an easter egg in the movie. At some point we understand that a certain man in black had his chance against the frogs during the rainy season of 1955. Vanessa, my question is: Did any frog bit Randall? Or was it Randall who bit one of them?
