pumpktoberfest #22 - crazy pants island.

film: dark island
beer: fire island pumpkin barrel ale

i'm not entirely sold on the whole "sci-fi horror" genre. much of the time the plots are absolutely ridiculous & not all all horror-inducing. case in point, dark island, a recent entry to the genre which came out earlier this year. it's the next film in the oeuvre of screenwriter simon boyes, the man who's brought us such gems as blood river & the devil's chair. it stars a bunch of people i've never heard of, including australian actor jai koutrae, who won an australian screen actor's guild award for his role in the 2007 short film death's requiem. didn't see it? neither did i.

like i said, sci-fi horror plots are often quite ridiculous. in this case, the entire premise behind dark island tips the ridiculous scales. a group of scientists are out on an island off the coast of british columbia working on an experimental military weapon called "test 48." when altracorp, the corporation they're working for, loses touch with them, a team of scientists & soldiers heads out to the island to find out what's going on. the team, made up of dr sophie miller, tech specialist alan thurston, rachel gant (reconnaissance & rescue) and the team leader, raymond hua, hop a boat driven by will cain (koutrae) & upon arriving on the island shore they see a bunch of oil-covered crows impaled on sticks. they're all like "umm...that's kinda weird" but they decide to go ahead with their mission anyhow.

ray & rachel head off into the woods to locate the missing scientists' camp & after arriving & not finding anyone, they decide to explore more. that's when mitchell, one of the missing scientists, comes darting at them out of nowhere. unfortunately for them, he's become a violent zombie who keeps saying that they need to get off the island NOW but won't tell them why. they soon find out as...get this...a BLACK SMOKE MONSTER (um, LOST anyone?) comes barrelling out of the woods, turning zombie mitchell into dust & enveloping him. ray & rachel take off running with the smoke monster in pursuit & when they reach the beach, they discover that the smoke monster can't cross the line of crows on sticks for some reason. they figure it has something to do with the fact that the birds are organic, which for some reason leads them to believe that the smoke monster will hate fire as well. OBVIOUSLY.

as the film continues on, they continue to battle the smoke monster whilst trying to figure out what it is & what it's doing to people. in the course of doing so, a ton of secrets are revealed & we get to see a bunch of ridiculous scenes, including a montage where dr miller does a whole bunch of science stuff, complete with shots of microscopes, test tubes & petri dishes. SCIENCE! by the time the film comes to a close, boyes has thrown a number of "scientifically-explained" twists at you, revealing the truth behind the experiment & taking you on what's a relatively entertaining ride. if you're like me though, you'll enjoy yourself but be left thinking "c'mon now. that shizz is completely implausible."

to keep up the whole island theme, i had a bottle of fire island pumpkin barrel ale whilst watching the events on crazy island unfold. new this year, it's the third beer from long island's fire island beer co. & their first seasonal beer. until now, they've only produced two beers--the lighthouse ale & the red wagon i.p.a.--and to be frank, neither one of them were all that exciting. in making the pumpkin barrel ale, they worked with a local, sustainable new york farm to get just the right pumpkins. according to jeff glassman, the president of fire island beer, the beer is "the next big step" in their mission to "create world-class craft beers that are inspired by the color, character and delicious experience of fire island."

does that mean that it's supposed to be sort of fruity? ZING! it's sort of world class, i suppose, but i'm sort of on the fence about it. it's a hazy orange beer made with a bunch of the usual pumpkin beer spices--cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves & allspice--and a good amount of pumpkin. overall, between the spices and the pumpkin, the flavor & scent are fairly well-balanced. it's definitely drinkable & i'd rank it ahead of many of the pumpkin beers i've tried during pumpktoberfest, but there was something missing & just like with dark island, after finishing it, i wasn't entirely satisfied.