Fright Tomes: How to Fail Better with C. Robert Cargill
By T.J. Tranchell
Previous ⬅ Fright Tomes: The Bloodline of Peter Atkins
In his novel Sea of Rust, author and screenwriter C. Robert Cargill writes, “Magic was just something people liked to believe in, something they thought they could feel or sense, something that made everything more than just mechanical certainty.” This comes to readers from the perspective of a robot, indeed the only sentient creature to survive an apocalypse. Brittle, as the robot prefers to be called, is a Simulacrum Model Caregiver. It is a fitting designation and one Cargill thoroughly explores. If there is no one left to care for, does the one designed to care still have a purpose?
Discovering purpose in the face of purposelessness or even simple human failure is a central theme to Cargill’s work in prose and on the screen, solo or with his writing partner, director Scott Derrickson. Brittle faces seemingly insurmountable odds in order to regain meaning to life. The challenge feels all the more human and relatable because Brittle is a robot. A human would have given up well before Brittle does.
Another example and perhaps one more familiar to a wider audience: Doctor Stephen Strange. Cargill and Derrickson took on the task of bringing the Sorcerer to the screen as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Strange’s success as a superhero is a direct result of his lack of direction and disappointment after numerous surgeries fail to fix his hands after a car accident. Had those surgeries succeeded, had he been able to simply resume the life he had been leading, he would not have reached the heights of sorcery he attained and would not have joined the Avengers. Granted, the basics of that story were not created by Cargill and Derrickson; they were tasked with bringing that story to life in a real and relatable way. The path to full enlightenment in a Cargill story always goes through failure.
For the horror fans, Cargill’s biggest contribution is the film Sinister. I love this movie more every time I watch it. Part of what makes Ellison Oswalt so relatable is his ability to fail massively. Yes, we know he had early success in his career as a true crime writer, but failure after failure followed him afterward. He’s failing at producing a new book. He’s failing in his marriage because his wife doesn’t trust him. He’s failing as a father for not paying attention to his children as he becomes more and more obsessed with the case and book he’s working on. Sinister is all about failing and feeling like one doesn’t have a purpose anymore. It’s the old question of “If I’m not good at the thing that defined my life, what good am I?” Oswalt, just like Doctor Strange and Brittle, has to find a new path to success. Brittle and Strange manage to navigate their paths back to meaningful existences. Ellison Oswalt runs from his and pays for it later.
Cargill on his own and with Derrickson has faced failure. Sinister was a massive hit. Sinister 2, which the team wrote but Derrickson did not direct, was a flop. Another moment of failure in some eyes, the pair leaving Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, led to an even bigger box office success than Sinister. The adaptation of the Joe Hill short story The Black Phone grossed $161 million worldwide on an $18 million budget and gave Ethan Hawke the chance to play one of horror’s newest and scariest villains. The film’s success has even led to production on a sequel. Because that is what failing can lead to: more and more success.
“The definition of intelligence is the ability to defy your own programming,” Cargill writes in Sea of Rust. Throughout the novel, Brittle fights against the programming embedded in it since it was first turned on. Brittle acknowledges that we all face challenges designed to prevent us from reaching our full potential. Cargill’s experience brings the robot Brittle to a fuller life than it would have had before the apocalypse. We might think it odd — Strange even — that the world must be destroyed for some of us to fully live the lives we believe we are destined for. “Though I may have been constructed,” Brittle says, “so too were you.”
Cargill’s writing not only acknowledges that failure IS an option, but he also vehemently states that it can be the best door for greater self-fulfillment and ultimate success. Fail, fail hard, fail gloriously. Burn the world you know to the ground and rise out of the ashes reborn and ready to kick the ass of the world that kicked your ass first.
Failure is like Ashley Oswalt in Sinister. She’s going to kill her family, but as she tells her father Ellison right before, “Don’t worry, Daddy. I’ll make you famous again.” 🩸
About
T.J. Tranchell was born on Halloween and grew up in Utah. He has published has published six books, including The Blackhawk Cycle, a hardcover omnibus. In October 2020, The New York Times called Cry Down Dark the scariest book set in Utah. He holds a Master’s degree in Literature from Central Washington University and is pursuing an MFA through the UCR-Palm Desert Low Residency program. Tranchell has also published work in Fangoria. He currently lives in Washington State with his wife and son and teaches at a community college.
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