The Lot: A Guaranteed Bad Idea For A Movie Pitch
The Lot comes from Bad Idea, after a period of delays. This time, Marguerite Bennett of Animosity and Insexts (and Angela) fame works with Renato Guedes for a look at Hollywood.
The Lot of Stories
Hollywood has been a topic of discussion for generations. At its best, it's a city of inspiration in movie making; at its worst is a sleazy world of corporate shame. Bennett decides to go into how these clashes surface in the battle of old vs. new fame.
The series follows Aviva Copeland, the young new head of a movie studio. Aviva knows all about the dark sides of Hollywood, as well as the expectations, but she doesn't care. She just wants to tell her story by her actions and rules. It's a feeling she shares with her college friend and her assistant, people desperately looking for authenticity.
Which brings them to the titular studio lot. Back in the 70s, a five member film crew in a bid for fame try their hands at creating authentic horror. To do so they find a cult and their devilish god (The Binder) for a ritual. But unlike the controversial Cannibal Holocaust to criticize Hollywood's drive for sensationalism, this defeats the purpose of authenticity. What's the point of creating actual fear and misery on screen when it means selling your soul?
The studio and the Five naturally wants to keep things under wraps; both to keep their reputation positive and to prevent the Binder from stirring. Unlucky for them, a resourceful new studio head made every precaution to use the lot for projects. Whoever heard of a haunted movie studio?
Curse Terms and Conditions
Another appeal of The Lot is using the Binder to explore parallels with contracts and curses. The Binder stands in for Hollywood's producers, studio executives, or "fixers" to give characters what they want for a price. As such a prayer to this being is just another contract that depending on the bindings have costs. Like most of these faustian narratives, there's the lack of satisfaction, the addictions, and the dominance over others.
But like any contract, there are loopholes. The film crew have to pay in "Blood or Love"; with how vague those conditions are, there's a real sense of desperation. A sense of desperation the reader feels when trying to figure out the conditions for Aviva's sake. Because when the crew's actor tries to sacrifice Aviva's friend Jaya, there's relief and terror when he fails. Did he not love Jaya enough in that moment? Was he too self-absorbed? All those questions and not enough answers. Leaving Aviva and her friends trying to find the fine print to hold the crew responsible for the deaths they cause.
Only For The Exceptional
But then again, Aviva's motivations throughout The Lot aren't exactly benevolent. She's twice as driven as the crew to make her story; her entire crusade against them is as much justice as it is securing her stake in the lot. The real problem Aviva faces doesn't come from the Binder, it's the fact that what the Binder brings from his world already exists. Since the ages of myth, storytelling serves as the bedrock of culture. With the Binder around, nobody needs to hide ugliness as the general public considers it oversaturated. In the words of John Quincy Adams: "whoever tells the best story wins"; and the best stories tend to be the trend makers not the trend followers.
Aviva's story of overcoming the odds and glass ceilings has been played out. It comes as little surprise when Aviva's attempt to expose the crimes of the Five have damning consequences. The Binder (and by extension Bennet) make her out to be little more than a collection of tropes that Hollywood consumers lose interest in. The strong female protagonist, the girl boss, the model minority, etc. Which is actually part of the tragedy as Aviva admits that trying to be exceptional is both exhausting and exploitive.
Anything But Black and White
In the art department of The Lot, Renato Guedes uses his illustrations to bring a sense of a black-and-white movie. The retro usage of such an aesthetic feels both nostalgic and authentic. Before the normalization of color and special effects, filmmaking in this style relies on practical effects. For horror movies in particular, this style helps set the mood with atmosphere.
There are times when Guedes' illustrations fit this mood perfectly, like the film reels on the original movie. It fits well with found footage spanning across time. Then there's a spread where Aviva opens the lot. It gives the feeling that something woke up inside from long ago. The Binder in timed reactions showcases how powerful its influence is through an overwhelming assortment of projected imagery. The reader can't help but fear for Aviva who's too pumped up. Especially when Dave Sharpe provides specially designed word balloons that include Satanic text.
The Lot Is Out Now!
With just its first issue out, The Lot captures the reader's attention like a movie's first preview. There's still much to do down the line though so this gets an 8.5/10. Stay tuned for further updates.