tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22469573339175258242024-03-05T04:09:06.983-06:00October LibraryOctober LibraryAnarchivisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06599522097057431891noreply@blogger.comBlogger453125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246957333917525824.post-76564353399950715672024-01-01T08:59:00.000-06:002024-01-01T08:59:16.041-06:00 A Blue New Year: The Phantom Carriage<p><span style="font-size: medium;">(Reprint from The Haunted Cinema) <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Despite the festive warmth of the holiday season, there is often an air of melancholy hanging over the Christmas season. It’s no coincidence that two of the holiday’s main icons, Ebenezer Scrooge and the Grinch, are representatives of maximum grumpiness, although both are, of course, won over in the end to the Christmas spirit. But it’s obvious that this darker side has been a known element since long before Elvis sang about a “Blue Christmas” or aging hipsters bought CDs with titles like <i>Yule Be Miserable</i>.</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-e5f83c28-7fff-b6da-2cdd-98c626db1cd0" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 372px; overflow: hidden; width: 267px;"><img alt="Carretaposterfe2.jpg" height="372" src="https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/JXTVgBJOPbWXtDM0xvwqqS3Jhlh51Aap66m8NvBEeiIl1ol47svyeR9zzvt3yKX2sb7w-fMDfcrfBnYhYEpGz9p8m-XaDSJNpKlJl1HQxKLZVtsn16bGxSYjEhqxoHCmszOs07_kZ6FX" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="267" /></span></span><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">On that subject, it’s hard to beat the Scandinavians for sheer existential bleakness, and it’s all to be found in director Victor Sjöström’s silent, black and white classic <i>The Phantom Carriage</i> (1921), which is part supernatural fairy tale and several parts bleak, realistic exploration of Swedish social issues: alcoholism, tuberculosis, and domestic abuse.</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9dd36c00-7fff-d4b7-1be7-7eb2e6b4c53c" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 307px; overflow: hidden; width: 572px;"><img height="307" src="https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/iH3JCJYdsDnkxRww7cpqVFZqczaZ0ftQpfKbG0HWSUcwkfJOiQ6d0HcQYYiQlvsq8qTvzq4uPHdwTPsLqm4H1EjZogsh99O3ZYmX9B6FuJvsNgcx4bzMjUIVkTqJNxKgtzNx2r8-YQRB" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="572" /></span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The 1912 source novel, by acclaimed Swedish writer Selma Lagerlöf, was written in part to educate the public about tuberculosis, but its supernatural element always seems to have appealed to readers. The English translation was given the more overtly religious title <i>Thy Soul Shall Bear Witness!</i>, but the original Swedish was <i>Körkarlen</i>, which does mean “Phantom Carriage,” returning the movie to the story’s roots. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The film opens on New Year’s Eve, with Christmas trees still in the backgrounds of several scenes, at the deathbed of Sister Edit (played by Astrid Holm, whose next film would be the silent witchcraft documentary <i>Häxan</i>).<br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-27aeb3c5-7fff-70a0-e3ee-dc4930972578" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 307px; overflow: hidden; width: 494px;"><img height="307" src="https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/2xnH89CKGf3h1ISQCJvcN18tgfwz1uFUhh8TZqbDL-pL_REp_TXj_JLjKXh0_Sqvpagi9w14LAHNLu7YdThJ_Dkr4BG-6KR3wiziUwgJ5jXk7AOljLO5LuB8rsg_per3LiAvIaPXUdUr" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="494" /></span></span><br /></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Just one year ago she was happy and idealistic about the opening of a Salvation Army “slumstation,” but unfortunately, her chance encounter with the surly drunk David Holm, played by Sjöström, led to her ruin. She caught tuberculosis from him even as her professional sympathy was giving way to love, and now her social worker friends race to find him, to fulfill her dying wish. At the same time, out on the street, Holm discovers that the last person to die on New Year’s Eve is forced to spend the next year working for Death, collecting the souls of the recently deceased. He’s slated to take on the job from an old friend who died last year, but before retiring, the current carriageman takes Holm on a series of <i>Christmas Carol</i>-like visitations to show him the repercussions of his life’s mistakes.</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-3c55d85d-7fff-d617-4219-5962b600eb04" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 336px; overflow: hidden; width: 495px;"><img height="336" src="https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/HfO-RVZ0cv9uxTsoPqckJsK3_BIc542S4CJt5rJ5waSwzsJDhQOJR5saeyUgXt-QqCBAkWhRPHYsiMmdCJ-zva7XYC_rzn3s8lx98HXVtLxVy71wStbFTpMIXKTgLUWCq-9OLWtheJrV" style="margin-left: -6.564254318363965px; margin-top: 0px;" width="511.6332256793976" /></span></span><br /></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />Chief among these were his cruelty to his family, so much so that his wife fled after he threatened to deliberately infect their children with TB. Believing that his family’s presence would help Holm reform, Sister Edit convinces her to return (a mistake she later realizes and tries to make amends for), but he continues his abusive, alcoholic ways, including a scene which unexpectedly foreshadows the famous “Here’s Johnny” scene from <i>The Shining</i>. <br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-b323b5c5-7fff-5190-ad1a-5b352d31ac5b" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 336px; overflow: hidden; width: 510px;"><img height="336" src="https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/Iy2YWxOFIXMYZMd_DY-jcCXQGmWDNJktBFHBMOF-kFWTq_J8oZlVsx8lxXLa6vFAeu_PdRhDQ2XlrmV22uxYpBCKGwEzGRbxnCPlxnNcM3IEzW11G_fzmjSStXunbMrx5EwDPaZEpYyX" style="margin-left: -14.208611771464348px; margin-top: 0px;" width="524.3029797077179" /></span></span><br /></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">When he realizes the depths of the despair he has caused, the now-ghostly Holm has to race against time to prevent a horrible tragedy. Not surprising in an obvious morality tale, he winds up winning another chance to become a better person, but despite the redemptive nature of the storyline, the film is still pretty depressing, presenting a grim picture of life’s struggles in the old country. </span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-450091e6-7fff-c04a-a745-4e93533d55d1" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 336px; overflow: hidden; width: 656px;"><img src="https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/ZyQsF7gjZXJFSg-PqabPoPAjEY4eN99ee_CkXqgLxwxRD6YTbSRDsSITISNCdWEet0ED1zHFJnNuD2wNdZJMgMA_bFpPgqcQMmoOOZufOBOtBdeRCb8prS6-QH4E00dllIOG_aIvRKKZ=s16000" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" /></span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The supernatural material is nicely eerie and atmospheric, with respectable special effects, especially its spectral double exposures. Overall, <i>The Phantom Carriage</i> makes excellent use of the limitations of the black and white medium, and even the slightly alienating effect of silent film. This film is not necessarily recommended for those susceptible to Christmas-induced depression or seasonal affective disorders, but it is an affecting classic of Scandinavian cinema, with its own spooky charms.</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-245c95b4-7fff-7157-1969-d240d5fc4f2a" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 288px; overflow: hidden; width: 433px;"><img height="259" src="https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/hfxJ9BI1dpPnJsPjOhK9_9Y0v6-sCa57vWYux5JiK7Mmn0qO9MQXEq0uJxdSpv8zQ0KPBwzUWc09rqh87ONyMPOOJfrRud8SQlDWbnSGRBBCWIp5SO-kgKVl4oQMib_dJXdazp3mazo8=w400-h259" style="margin-left: -6.1266863429918885px; margin-top: 0px;" width="400" /></span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"> <br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /><br /><br /></span></p>Anarchivisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06599522097057431891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246957333917525824.post-34364015774042824502023-12-28T12:47:00.003-06:002023-12-31T07:17:47.072-06:00Monsters are People Too: Bloody New Year <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFUHb1Lmvhs0-qA7KQ8j_dqL8B7EVcup9GhjyTLCd_KPFBu784B6btUzSP4vp096zwMomyL_7xSq85sDLZqP2nzQooOd4LTcMDhUFAWJhQsqzs5gwAP0_Pgjd1zNEIk-Ztc-8C6Clm6P0sCvkc_3L6JATF4FI6flr2hORFLYDsp50hdKHeAICgFUOm36I/s302/Bloody_New_Year.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="302" data-original-width="220" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFUHb1Lmvhs0-qA7KQ8j_dqL8B7EVcup9GhjyTLCd_KPFBu784B6btUzSP4vp096zwMomyL_7xSq85sDLZqP2nzQooOd4LTcMDhUFAWJhQsqzs5gwAP0_Pgjd1zNEIk-Ztc-8C6Clm6P0sCvkc_3L6JATF4FI6flr2hORFLYDsp50hdKHeAICgFUOm36I/w291-h400/Bloody_New_Year.jpg" width="291" /></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;">(Mild spoilers ahead)</span><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Halloween isn’t, of course, the only holiday in horror. The number of Christmas horror movies has exploded in recent years, and even Eli Roth’s joke <i>Thanksgiving </i>movie is now a reality. But for a long time, I had only the camp slasher classic <i>New Year’s Evil</i> for December 31. Not that I don't love hearing Shadow wailing the title tune -- and hey, where's its soundtrack LP? -- but sometimes you need a little novelty.<br /><br />So I was thrilled when the 1987 British movie <i>Bloody New Year</i> crossed my path. From the title, I assumed it was another slasher, but boy, was I wrong! Instead, it’s in the reality-bending genre of, say, <i>Phantasm</i>, <i>The Evil Dead</i>, and with its hotel setting, <i>The Shining</i>. I think there's even an homage to <i>Evil Dead</i> in a brief scene when people are running through the woods and the camera runs as if it’s chasing them, seeming to overtake them. It's surprising in retrospect how few people have borrowed Raimi's Deadite cam.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOJSmoa2ko3FgDkMV4RjKqH_XVNGUsJC_ZnMniYbTcg_KsetcmGXSQpUSMft27ouITHn4CvUVmaP6LeoD1Ru1rvMrh2W117pdSga08ysnljGkw_go0UukGUAhHK0qlbU6JpY42hXCS2skD9qvchD58oONYuIZ0sZFkHg8N-ZJ1t4RccIDugM3V7EH54RY/s301/Bloody%20New%20Year%20-%20party.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="223" data-original-width="301" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOJSmoa2ko3FgDkMV4RjKqH_XVNGUsJC_ZnMniYbTcg_KsetcmGXSQpUSMft27ouITHn4CvUVmaP6LeoD1Ru1rvMrh2W117pdSga08ysnljGkw_go0UukGUAhHK0qlbU6JpY42hXCS2skD9qvchD58oONYuIZ0sZFkHg8N-ZJ1t4RccIDugM3V7EH54RY/w400-h296/Bloody%20New%20Year%20-%20party.JPG" width="400" /></a> </div><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">On the first viewing, I also assumed that the filmmakers somehow had
access to the location and built the script around it. That doesn't
seem to be the case, although the director's commentary with Norman J.
Warren acknowledges that the resort and its environs were a particularly
lucky find.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The plot in short: a group of young people on vacation at the beach go to a funfair, where they stop some locals from harassing a pretty young tourist. They all end up on a boat ride, and the boat sinks, stranding them on a nearby island. Not noticing the overgrown "Keep Out" signs, they take refuge in a hotel that's decorated for the holidays, but is strangely deserted. The chaos starts small, almost inconsequential, with things like doors shutting themselves, but continues to build until
things are completely out of control: objects flying, zombies
attacking, and a table turning into monster, then back to a table again, among other manifestations.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwVkfLZ1ABTrdPXvt5cX_nHethV4gaXYSD2CIkeiFQImjZBh7ufxWPM7oLUiIaHgPTSWlwy9MrqAPZL347uWeXQuaZr0KxxjlyM_lPfHaySxxpGsur19KgC-99IJfOhxFNlJcSek6H3JWBRRYnZFdRscOggZgFW0CN9CFpxN5A0ZjUT9MPjy1bxHq5PYE/s296/Bloody%20New%20Year%20-%20blizzard.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="219" data-original-width="296" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwVkfLZ1ABTrdPXvt5cX_nHethV4gaXYSD2CIkeiFQImjZBh7ufxWPM7oLUiIaHgPTSWlwy9MrqAPZL347uWeXQuaZr0KxxjlyM_lPfHaySxxpGsur19KgC-99IJfOhxFNlJcSek6H3JWBRRYnZFdRscOggZgFW0CN9CFpxN5A0ZjUT9MPjy1bxHq5PYE/w400-h296/Bloody%20New%20Year%20-%20blizzard.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The first weird thing about this movie is that it’s set in the summertime (July). That doesn't scream "Bloody New Year." However, the mysterious hotel has Christmas trees, and a festive ballroom festooned with a large sign: “Goodbye 1959. Hello 1960.” We eventually learn that not only were they having a New Year’s dance with the Flying Cadillacs (a
super-’50s name), as depicted in the opening scene, but it was also screening <i>Fiend Without a Face</i> (1958)! So clearly this was a very cool place to stay.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Interestingly, the fiend here also lacks a face, since it's an impersonal force, not a being, despite sometimes taking human form. During the extended chase scene, where the protagonists are being chased by the hooligans, the guys take refuge in a funhouse. Among other backdrops, there are repeated shots of a creepy doll figure in a shirt that reads “Monsters are People Too.”
Which is true! Although the cast are threatened by various figures, but what happened to the apparent monsters was a personal
tragedy, in a world where nothing is fair.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwyEoiucP3EE81If6wis9h2mELAAd7_KNT4gjJtyi20TB5znQGixFKK3fhKqW8w-ipiVpvTL7VbUIUR1Pt2iuzSAlQ6LDlkRFq5d2RL_AihDtHhgrkmv3VagFdWspV36r-aZjeXb6_0pUEnWdYUYNDrcHRoqe1Jx9o_28gA_UtUaZc8sm77HV1pzml4n4/s299/Bloody%20New%20Year%20-%20table%202.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="216" data-original-width="299" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwyEoiucP3EE81If6wis9h2mELAAd7_KNT4gjJtyi20TB5znQGixFKK3fhKqW8w-ipiVpvTL7VbUIUR1Pt2iuzSAlQ6LDlkRFq5d2RL_AihDtHhgrkmv3VagFdWspV36r-aZjeXb6_0pUEnWdYUYNDrcHRoqe1Jx9o_28gA_UtUaZc8sm77HV1pzml4n4/s1600/Bloody%20New%20Year%20-%20table%202.JPG" width="299" /></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;">During the ‘80s, so many movies with ties to the past focused on a sin committed by the victims in earlier days. Hello, <i>Prom Night</i>! Refreshingly, this isn’t one of them. Without giving too much away, the victims were just having a good time, in the wrong place at the wrong time, and are actually victims of their government’s short-sighted scientific hubris. This adds an unexpected level of poignancy to the film that I did not expect.<br /><br />In the commentary, Warren says that the best thing about working in the horror genre is that “it’s not real. Anything can happen. You make your own rules.” While I went into this movie expecting a generic product, it turned out to be much weirder and more imaginative. Highly recommended to watch while waiting for the ball to drop!</span><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0W460cWr0DyPHqzDrxl30aapUz5jfvPFirkA-MnZMhi762Z6ogczOT1doCKj5EleOdbVwPiXR8lWh4RcoUQF1HazJcxzeR8wr83qgfISBt14cTGwO5tF6hyRhGeQMPN4yMO7AHFt3kwIJB8SEL0O1XWbu2EZYeVzlJ0NvoNTYg0DOirI5iSqD1rnBoKs/s935/bloody%20new%20year%20dvd.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="935" data-original-width="720" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0W460cWr0DyPHqzDrxl30aapUz5jfvPFirkA-MnZMhi762Z6ogczOT1doCKj5EleOdbVwPiXR8lWh4RcoUQF1HazJcxzeR8wr83qgfISBt14cTGwO5tF6hyRhGeQMPN4yMO7AHFt3kwIJB8SEL0O1XWbu2EZYeVzlJ0NvoNTYg0DOirI5iSqD1rnBoKs/w308-h400/bloody%20new%20year%20dvd.webp" width="308" /></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;">A region-free Blu-ray is available from <a href="https://www.powerhousefilms.co.uk/products/bloody-new-year-bd">Powerhouse Films</a> that looks great, and has various extras, including the commentary. But if you're impatient, it's on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qqf5bLgzmE">YouTube</a> (where I first saw it), and the quality is serviceable.</span><br /><p></p><p><br /></p><br />Anarchivisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06599522097057431891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246957333917525824.post-69664350597761007492023-10-13T07:34:00.000-05:002023-10-13T07:34:43.950-05:00“Did you know a young boy drowned?”: Explaining Friday the 13th<p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">In any long-running creative project–a TV or book series, or a movie franchise–continuity will eventually become a problem. Some original works, in their rush to a sequel, introduce continuity issues early on, that will shape the further entries and cause bigger problems down the line. This certainly happens in the big-name horror franchises, and reaches delightful levels of ridiculousness in the <i>Friday the 13th</i> series. <br /><br />One of the reasons I’ve always loved <i>Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan</i>, apart from its hilariously ’80s view of New York (complete with gangs, giant boomboxes, and random barrels of toxic waste), is its giddy embrace of the contradiction at the heart of Jason Voorhees, who appears in this movie both as a frightened child who drowned at summer camp, and a hulking, fully grown killing machine apparently seeking revenge for his own death, and the death of the mother who was avenging his death in the first place. <i>Freddy Vs. Jason</i> will also take on this conundrum, and it’s another movie I like a whole lot. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi-KhvMnTg_K8sCdlK6gUevxs_vbJP8ZpgOcm9T1_c1nkmZ6a-UqwEgcwOnNwXNa3X4XkSFuScnfJCmLIFtOpTkNi9-pju50Y40xNmwaMJ9geW6MfKksfFi-FkrIuHt4EZJo20AVXy032E_zevR0RxbBHbfdQdQdJlAmnqC3V9tgoK7vCdcP-Sd91r82E/s1920/Jason%20Takes%20Manhattan%20-%20big%20Jason.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi-KhvMnTg_K8sCdlK6gUevxs_vbJP8ZpgOcm9T1_c1nkmZ6a-UqwEgcwOnNwXNa3X4XkSFuScnfJCmLIFtOpTkNi9-pju50Y40xNmwaMJ9geW6MfKksfFi-FkrIuHt4EZJo20AVXy032E_zevR0RxbBHbfdQdQdJlAmnqC3V9tgoK7vCdcP-Sd91r82E/w400-h225/Jason%20Takes%20Manhattan%20-%20big%20Jason.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2iPJzyEBThIH0U2QkbnIOCeluRkfbZc_RBkfpFQW1QJNqzq7Si7ZAvwJsIAsWPYL-Y72GHRjQAXeGAVatwGiVmK0AfgE4c-ndcmT_aNTCzOnjSV8NCE0GkJOT7FKG-eGogDqHPqeiB-DpPSBP2Y5hbPjoYTzhgHHdfFXXFdLrhyphenhyphencqOrx2P_UlEQofOic/s853/Jason%20Takes%20Manhattan%20-%20young%20Jason.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="853" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2iPJzyEBThIH0U2QkbnIOCeluRkfbZc_RBkfpFQW1QJNqzq7Si7ZAvwJsIAsWPYL-Y72GHRjQAXeGAVatwGiVmK0AfgE4c-ndcmT_aNTCzOnjSV8NCE0GkJOT7FKG-eGogDqHPqeiB-DpPSBP2Y5hbPjoYTzhgHHdfFXXFdLrhyphenhyphencqOrx2P_UlEQofOic/w400-h225/Jason%20Takes%20Manhattan%20-%20young%20Jason.png" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br />There are other oddities about Jason’s nature, like how, in the earlier films, he can be killed but he never stays dead. Later entries really embrace his unkillable nature, so he’s often referred to as “Zombie Jason.” This is taken to bizarre lengths in <i>Jason Goes to Hell</i> and <i>Jason X</i>. But the central problem is: how did Jason die as a child and still exist as a giant grown-up? Neither <i>Jason Takes Manhattan</i> nor <i>Freddy Vs. Jason</i>, or other of the movies that refer to him drowning at summer camp, explains how this is possible. <br /><br />One day I was reading an interesting book called <i>Between the Living and the Dead: A Perspective on Witches and Seers in the Early Modern Age</i>, by Hungarian scholar Éva Pócs, and I became irrationally excited, bubbling over to discuss the central ideas of her work. Discussing popular ideas about witchcraft in Europe, she describes a commonly-held belief in a supernatural realm, with communication possible between that world and the mundane world, via various means. </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br />While the details “vary from place to place and from people to people” (34), she says that “the image of a soul that departs from its body is familiar in all European cultures, as is the belief in alter egos, or doubles, that appear during altered states of consciousness.” (31) This soul image is alternately known as a mara, mahr, or mora. Similar beings have different names in different cultures, and the image, related to the “nightmare,” which shares a root word, has commonalities with werewolf legends, possession, and various forms of witchcraft. </span><p></p><p></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">The belief in this soul image gives an explanation for why people think they see doppelgangers, ghosts, or people who couldn’t be in certain place, an overriding idea that can explain a variety of strange experiences, all tied in some way to the idea of a soul or spirit, that can act differently at different times, in different circumstances. Because of the spiritual dimension at work, these spirits aren't subject to the normal limiting effects of physical matter.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">“In essence these are humans that have a double … that can detach from, leave, or during a trance be sent by its owner, and after death live on as a dead soul. It can have physical and spiritual (soul) variants … Both types of alter ego have the ability of metamorphose …” (31). So these doubles can go forth from people whether they’re alive or dead, and can take numerous forms: "</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">they would appear either in their own image or in someone else’s” (38), not bound by gender, and including “sometimes in the image of his wife, and at others of his child" (41).<br /><br />This all hit me like the bolt of lightning that strikes a metal post and brings a hulking killer back from the dead. “What does this sound like?” I cried. Everything snapped into place, and since then I’ve been convinced that this piece of European folklore explains this entire mixed-up element of Jason’s existence in the <i>Friday the 13th</i> mythos.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjelsTO9R3C46J0MyWwfuCkvOIACUM2RGKyDxikddH24xpNMIBmfrrCGqBxRgFcdUzdUhiY5-4iKGtdxzFooeRP8qZNhuF3VCMsZl83TyfawJIFeCrzMuZwbMQO8-EoN82IXJZ9P7XZgT_PZ59_ItGYYJJ9H1KoZFSS0TofPbuy9tRmJ1tnweMLStWd5eg/s395/Jason%20Lives%20lightning%202.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="222" data-original-width="395" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjelsTO9R3C46J0MyWwfuCkvOIACUM2RGKyDxikddH24xpNMIBmfrrCGqBxRgFcdUzdUhiY5-4iKGtdxzFooeRP8qZNhuF3VCMsZl83TyfawJIFeCrzMuZwbMQO8-EoN82IXJZ9P7XZgT_PZ59_ItGYYJJ9H1KoZFSS0TofPbuy9tRmJ1tnweMLStWd5eg/w400-h225/Jason%20Lives%20lightning%202.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br />In Pócs’ research, doppelgangers or spirit doubles can be tangible or intangible, created accidentally or on purpose, in one’s own form or the form of a different specific person, generated while the person is alive or dead. The world of the spirits is fluid. As they pass between the realms, they aren’t fixed, but changeable, and the mora is an all-purpose uncanny being, which could serve many functions and explain different strange scenarios, all explained by the spirits’ having varied abilities and avenues in which to manifest. </span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">It can morph in many different ways; for example, it can appear as a wolf, which explains werewolf stories, but it can shift into other forms as well. The common basis lies in the ability of the soul to leave the body and take on a physical form, which can then commit actions. </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-m7oxXWrupMqmL7_-uv0YZ7OkuDAh3o2vP8Gp9lsC5bgNUmS_3ebJVt5eYuv5KAONizGrxyCde_7CpRLlTaJQNSyona9zf4PQSmsMmq7XE66P-tvv-WKp9xworo3q1P_hyphenhyphenqiW5tcUSm6AXrcBLmfR7_pnNxeouE2QSsJqtLcXCytjHOsTUdnxcv9zXIk/s600/Freddy%20Vs.%20Jason%20-%20young%20Jason.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="254" data-original-width="600" height="169" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-m7oxXWrupMqmL7_-uv0YZ7OkuDAh3o2vP8Gp9lsC5bgNUmS_3ebJVt5eYuv5KAONizGrxyCde_7CpRLlTaJQNSyona9zf4PQSmsMmq7XE66P-tvv-WKp9xworo3q1P_hyphenhyphenqiW5tcUSm6AXrcBLmfR7_pnNxeouE2QSsJqtLcXCytjHOsTUdnxcv9zXIk/w400-h169/Freddy%20Vs.%20Jason%20-%20young%20Jason.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Given this, Jason’s spirit could manifest physically after death the way he was in life, as a young boy, but his rage and grief could also manifest as an alternative self, grown and powerful. Maybe more persuasively, his existence could also be explained as the vengeful spirit of Mrs. Voorhees, taking on the projected image of her son in a threatening adult form. This figure doesn’t appear until after her death, but she already behaved as if she was manifesting his spirit when she was alive, with her chanting of “kill her, Mommy!” in his voice, so she was halfway there.<br /><br />Also, “if somebody walks about in something other than their own image, then they are a ‘vacant’ or ‘empty’ body,” Pócs says (40), and the adult Jason certainly appears mindless and soulless. This “vacant” or “empty” body is also sometimes described as “a puppet or mask character” (40), and it was apparently not uncommon to encounter “the picturing of the dead in masks” (42). Masks! </span><br /></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeLOy4LLByGyJVMG9yDQb0U0RwtJUXvFAyrIbdZNXXZvyx2gC1NPu95Z4qnCG3ygAMPzvR3uuWC0cTegVkQ6Qrh2Mbh8CripjseQG9EgadkdxvFqxZFGYc1R01wmtHhqcayYFKfSORfjfqxbys7YUZtjoWVP1PsKdBCOMDENG06FiXoGS2BAdT5k2B3Eo/s1200/Freddy%20Vs.%20Jason%20-%20big%20Jason.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="1200" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeLOy4LLByGyJVMG9yDQb0U0RwtJUXvFAyrIbdZNXXZvyx2gC1NPu95Z4qnCG3ygAMPzvR3uuWC0cTegVkQ6Qrh2Mbh8CripjseQG9EgadkdxvFqxZFGYc1R01wmtHhqcayYFKfSORfjfqxbys7YUZtjoWVP1PsKdBCOMDENG06FiXoGS2BAdT5k2B3Eo/w400-h250/Freddy%20Vs.%20Jason%20-%20big%20Jason.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span></span></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">This idea also explains how Jason can be so impossible to kill, since </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">“the alter ego is imagined to be a physical reality,” (38) appearing that way, and may be able to act on the physical plane, but it's a supernatural projection, not a living, breathing person.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> <br />So maybe Mrs. Voorhees was in some contact with Jason’s spirit. Or maybe her spirit came back after death in the imagined form of a grown son. Or her dead son’s spirit was reactivated in a blind desire for revenge. Anything’s possible and nothing’s contradictory.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br />I am absolutely not arguing that anyone involved with the making of the <i>Friday the 13th </i>films was directly inspired by this folklore, or had even heard of it. There’s no evidence of any direct connection. However, these were once commonly held ideas, found in different countries and cultures. Folk tales seep into the world, so similar ideas might just be floating around now, unprovable and unattached to any specific belief system. <br /><br />People believed these things because they made a kind of sense to them, and they obviously still do. Some critics aside, the average viewer of the <i>Friday the 13th</i> series is honestly no more bothered by the illogic of Jason’s return, the mechanics of his survival, or the continuity between different manifestations of himself, than people were when they accepted outright that human spirits could travel from their bodies in various forms. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgtg8I_eVbLbxfDvm4qWLWDo9ddRrEQq-Uy9vXrG_J1Ga_y_4AManp3-tz9cMYu5kovfqDKicNIMJXwuJQtYy8UszQjIgr-MLYAouivpm2ELEkNayuHiiQzvPB4xFWvJTzrOQAUkPsdAD-mOrkS1iZUQKDX5QpbClGxT1vb0UGPaK2x4rrdAk0HWicl1A/s1920/Friday-the-13th-Part-2-Paul-Tells-Jason-Story.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1920" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgtg8I_eVbLbxfDvm4qWLWDo9ddRrEQq-Uy9vXrG_J1Ga_y_4AManp3-tz9cMYu5kovfqDKicNIMJXwuJQtYy8UszQjIgr-MLYAouivpm2ELEkNayuHiiQzvPB4xFWvJTzrOQAUkPsdAD-mOrkS1iZUQKDX5QpbClGxT1vb0UGPaK2x4rrdAk0HWicl1A/w400-h200/Friday-the-13th-Part-2-Paul-Tells-Jason-Story.webp" width="400" /></a></span></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">The <i>Friday the 13th</i> series has always been akin to tales told around the campfire, made explicit in various of the films, where Jason’s story is told around a literal campfire. Oral ghost stories shared among young people are not that far removed from the cultures in which the mora legends circulated. A campfire tale isn’t something that can be fact-checked, or that anyone would want to. Unlike a written or filmed text, it’s not possible to pin down the details: you can’t go back and re-read, or rewind. So no one goes over them in the kind of excruciating detail we see on modern YouTube channels. The stories can be looser, the fine details lost in the larger flood of atmosphere. </span></p><p></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">“Basically, a spirit came back” is a good enough explanation. The object isn’t to create a perfectly honed logical argument for the existence of something; it’s to show something scary and, preferably, memorable. As long as an atmosphere is created, as long as the story scares someone, it can “make sense” enough to be worthwhile. Especially since much of its real job is to make sense of the mysterious aspects of life and death. <br /><i> </i></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Pócs, Eva. </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><i>Between the Living and the Dead: A Perspective on Witches and Seers in the Early Modern Age.</i> Central European University Press, 2000. <br /><br />Another book on the subject, loaded with information about doppelgangers and shapeshifters related to the mora concept is:</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Lecouteux, Claude. <i>Witches, Werewolves, and Fairies: Shapeshifters and Astral Doubles in the Middle Ages</i>. 1st U.S. ed. Inner Traditions, 2003.<br /><br /></span></p>Anarchivisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06599522097057431891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246957333917525824.post-55093067550017211602023-07-08T09:13:00.001-05:002023-12-28T12:49:00.690-06:00A Crying Shame: The Curse of La Llorona (2019)<p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg69TDMcqjroyxX5VZJiC5KxJaZYAqea8uvlJlGwS2MPB6b-q4W8POchHu1_ySkCpjR4WM6JqHEKsNHvCXzhtbKY1IJA0tBwLnbp2HPe8l7GzCf4fpLkTEcFRj66mHUAWPgu-yINyzqTFWN45xiFKUVUBiOtapX7B_6kDYuWUIiaFkF-Ss0Ft_9AXMGB2w/s326/The_curse_of_la_llorona_poster.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="326" data-original-width="220" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg69TDMcqjroyxX5VZJiC5KxJaZYAqea8uvlJlGwS2MPB6b-q4W8POchHu1_ySkCpjR4WM6JqHEKsNHvCXzhtbKY1IJA0tBwLnbp2HPe8l7GzCf4fpLkTEcFRj66mHUAWPgu-yINyzqTFWN45xiFKUVUBiOtapX7B_6kDYuWUIiaFkF-Ss0Ft_9AXMGB2w/s320/The_curse_of_la_llorona_poster.jpg" width="216" /></a></div><p style="text-align: left;">Most of the the movies and books that I write about, it's because I like them. That gets me excited to talk about them. There are exceptions of course, like my most famous post, "<a href="http://octoberzine.blogspot.com/2010/04/fog-blog.html">Fog Blog</a>," an evisceration of the 2005 remake of <i>The Fog</i>, but even that was informed by my deep fondness for the 1980 original. As Abed said in <i>Community</i>, I like liking things. Sometimes, though, I develop a kind of fascination with the way a movie goes wrong. <br /></p><p>With <i>The Curse of La Llorona</i>, it's an example of hope and disappointment. Now, I am always in the mood for a ‘70s period piece, and I'd like to see more movies based on the rich tradition of Mexican-American folklore, a part of our national heritage.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEFiLdrfd43Sl7WTeoVgHXKWA-KLFin9g1bQjKyOrnljQQnkiko3KsZCyCK5KWPvzlW-I5GBQsVh77eK17s6lngsmnpNWm-ss-OipvQtzb7ioIQq2dYw4SplBjO-04bUWMqI_iGOF8n3Y1SyccEBq17qL9cBHcl17sdQ1l8gz-MY42Egzyok6-3rZeu54/s526/Lots%20of%20candles.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="221" data-original-width="526" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEFiLdrfd43Sl7WTeoVgHXKWA-KLFin9g1bQjKyOrnljQQnkiko3KsZCyCK5KWPvzlW-I5GBQsVh77eK17s6lngsmnpNWm-ss-OipvQtzb7ioIQq2dYw4SplBjO-04bUWMqI_iGOF8n3Y1SyccEBq17qL9cBHcl17sdQ1l8gz-MY42Egzyok6-3rZeu54/w400-h168/Lots%20of%20candles.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><p>La Llorona, the Crying Woman who appears in various Latin American cultures, is a particularly intriguing supernatural being. The image of a mother who kills her own children recurs throughout the world, with a primal fear in the idea of a mother hurting her children. It appears in the Greek myths, and in the Icelandic <i>Saga of the Volsungs</i>, and La Llorona brings the story into the realm of hauntings.</p><p>Where Medea is famous for her rage, the “Crying Woman” is defined by her remorse for her actions, which makes it easier to empathize with her pain. She's overcome with a grief that survives long after her own death. In real life, most women who commit this crime do so under duress, suffering tremendous stresses and/or psychotic breaks, so La Llorona helps to represent those who commit evil deeds out of their own pain, creating cycles of violence and suffering. </p><p>As a horror movie archetype, the crying woman is disturbing and unsettling, especially when the weeping is audible, but you can’t see the source.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy9L8VZSfDrW08T_iFcd21D9fCbOAPLoDLzC2SHKy8TJjvwdPFi0XXrV9THNDNfeiqI02PKk4JgDXf2_vVv-P2bEgxuVFa9_qQbESkmW64kvPiJ8U4BH9APyXqo9Tpj4Aqm9ed5mx6dYqnIyoJW4fIgdQ2SP9jJd_HU8id2XJSBR_htQJaUFIJbWvkBnQ/s530/Creepy%20hands.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="222" data-original-width="530" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy9L8VZSfDrW08T_iFcd21D9fCbOAPLoDLzC2SHKy8TJjvwdPFi0XXrV9THNDNfeiqI02PKk4JgDXf2_vVv-P2bEgxuVFa9_qQbESkmW64kvPiJ8U4BH9APyXqo9Tpj4Aqm9ed5mx6dYqnIyoJW4fIgdQ2SP9jJd_HU8id2XJSBR_htQJaUFIJbWvkBnQ/w400-h168/Creepy%20hands.JPG" width="400" /></a></div> <br /><a href="https://www.dreadcentral.com/editorials/292295/how-the-curse-of-la-llorona-failed-its-latino-audience/">Dread Central</a> has covered the fact this film is a lost opportunity to present the Mexican legend and Latinx culture, which certainly could have enriched the film, so you can read that instead of hearing a white lady talk about it. If we must have a white lead in deference to the Hollywood system, Linda Cardellini’s likeable, relatable presence is a solid anchor for a tale of supernatural wackiness. <br /><p></p><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-EXDfCGE33k0s4f2n3zBkTMOvApy7_Uw0LNMctLRbKy2Gnk5Y4owAZDpNAKpy2AaiCcU53KQq-V4obTXztguk0njVLXJ_0JM5f3GkVkgHquVAXlb0qb2rCarVDTX3kPmKMvLto6Z-LhRojp1Wc6M35o0ysm3VGFOFgEQHUMobZ9Zck3O4aYE3YaIa9UI/s528/Overwhelmed%20mom.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="223" data-original-width="528" height="169" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-EXDfCGE33k0s4f2n3zBkTMOvApy7_Uw0LNMctLRbKy2Gnk5Y4owAZDpNAKpy2AaiCcU53KQq-V4obTXztguk0njVLXJ_0JM5f3GkVkgHquVAXlb0qb2rCarVDTX3kPmKMvLto6Z-LhRojp1Wc6M35o0ysm3VGFOFgEQHUMobZ9Zck3O4aYE3YaIa9UI/w400-h169/Overwhelmed%20mom.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><p>What interests me is how the first half of the film really seems like it has something to say
about motherhood and grief, but fizzles out into something generic. Cardellini's widowed working mom, an L.A. social worker, has more in common with the problems of her marginalized clients than she does with the establishment she represents. She’s struggling, just like Patricia, a woman with truant kids (played by Patricia Velásquez from <i>The Mummy</i> movies, significantly de-glamorized), is also struggling </p><p>Cardellini’s compassionate Anna genuinely wants to help the family, but she’s still the agent of a bureaucratic system and has to follow their rules. She also has the false confidence that comes with her authority, reassuring the frightened children that “whatever’s happening, we can take care of it,” when she has no idea of what’s happening. If she really listened to them or their mother, or took her fears seriously, her own family would avoid danger down the line. She can’t see that what endangers this poor family can also endanger her own, in the large house with a pool.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlg-UVmk2_murTsFgeUFh5TT1GnYucGPftJq_QLKzHvD9X6u_ZpUQoa6_wtaz3_GrxxxptimG80oer5QKwQQLA7vn8-nmRysyFNdw2SkvkyLsQ2swukoMDt26wv_jNPryZre4WA6zTImWIvvVbon-aU1ptLBHs-RmI9H54SrAI6ajBzPlRK83KTKso32Y/s472/Evil%20Dead%20camera%20work.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="227" data-original-width="472" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlg-UVmk2_murTsFgeUFh5TT1GnYucGPftJq_QLKzHvD9X6u_ZpUQoa6_wtaz3_GrxxxptimG80oer5QKwQQLA7vn8-nmRysyFNdw2SkvkyLsQ2swukoMDt26wv_jNPryZre4WA6zTImWIvvVbon-aU1ptLBHs-RmI9H54SrAI6ajBzPlRK83KTKso32Y/w400-h193/Evil%20Dead%20camera%20work.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>Once the curse follows her home, and weird things start happening, they behave like the stereotype of white American middle class life: the kids don’t tell their mom what they’ve experienced, and she doesn’t
tell them, for a long time. The kids say, “I fell;” she says, “It’s
nothing.” If they all suffer in silence, they can’t get to the bottom of
what’s happening. The desire to protect each other with silence, and to deal with
things individually, hampers their ability to survive. <br /><br />I really wanted Anna to understand her connection with Patricia, and how quickly and easily the system she worked for would turn on her. When she takes her children to the doctor after a supernatural attack, her own social services office is immediately called.
In a twist on her earlier words, her dead husband’s partner, who had just been over for dinner as a friend, is terse with her, saying “Whatever’s going on here, fix
it.” That’s the extent of the advice or support she gets. Like it’s that simple!</p><p>Unfortunately, none of this potential is developed. Almost an hour in, the crazy starts, and it doesn’t really let up. Then it’s a
lot of door slamming and people getting thrown around the room, in as generic a way possible. Even a visit to a cool botanica doesn't really help. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0Pvd59mU1sjAb50tN7V92M6LJMY3zQzyOgosTo-ueuZg9FTOeNVBKu7HFXJZmEOmebxt6jFNoy5n7M9dV3GNj2I8d4MDD2HRGK5iJiT94jIyefgYaGaOXr5hxC5X3lU5ZDYyCFhwNRL5LR7Xpp5C6Wlq6KqDvbPGZ30kLwcLBBbfpedUxccD4qMwLX8U/s519/Botanica%20overview.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="218" data-original-width="519" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0Pvd59mU1sjAb50tN7V92M6LJMY3zQzyOgosTo-ueuZg9FTOeNVBKu7HFXJZmEOmebxt6jFNoy5n7M9dV3GNj2I8d4MDD2HRGK5iJiT94jIyefgYaGaOXr5hxC5X3lU5ZDYyCFhwNRL5LR7Xpp5C6Wlq6KqDvbPGZ30kLwcLBBbfpedUxccD4qMwLX8U/w400-h168/Botanica%20overview.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>There’s a moment near the end where
the ghost stops and looks at the children in her original human form. The film belatedly seems
to remember that its monster was originally motivated by pain, who had acted without knowing what she was doing, and is now mad with her grief. But then there's an irritating fake-out. Nope! She’s just demonic, and ends up
stopped by the power of cliché.</p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQzq_3dKsUmL_cg3Wba3VLyo44FqDmAPdM0bgtR5QSzqnilIB5lGx4EJSh--c_l7MQjZPf0nFnCR9nkVWdh7h-8UEV_BJH8ekxePGlqODRIO-PEHQRB9Wkbit9GOmr_9ESF1dWroiUmQ7n5cVQqAzx9JcOmo0r8uP5cAgVCHoU4f2u281Iye7G1_ep_U0/s516/The%20Crying%20Woman.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="221" data-original-width="516" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQzq_3dKsUmL_cg3Wba3VLyo44FqDmAPdM0bgtR5QSzqnilIB5lGx4EJSh--c_l7MQjZPf0nFnCR9nkVWdh7h-8UEV_BJH8ekxePGlqODRIO-PEHQRB9Wkbit9GOmr_9ESF1dWroiUmQ7n5cVQqAzx9JcOmo0r8uP5cAgVCHoU4f2u281Iye7G1_ep_U0/w400-h171/The%20Crying%20Woman.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcXyblq-UECXTt4VbeqlW6NBMPYa53YsQmbRgdsdpPWj2Xjtvw3vD2-TBREM7n_Ot16fndoBrbYh-dljEw4dAchEL4QuYzce3AYgd7lxc-RVknhaTq0RM6HlzJB61KGh55Vw3-QYaDmyFqxkpLDxyJRBxIdIRy7mfZ90JSY1Z7OYzqrpCrYyI2DAuFD0E/s532/The%20Crying%20Woman%20-%20monster%20face.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="224" data-original-width="532" height="169" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcXyblq-UECXTt4VbeqlW6NBMPYa53YsQmbRgdsdpPWj2Xjtvw3vD2-TBREM7n_Ot16fndoBrbYh-dljEw4dAchEL4QuYzce3AYgd7lxc-RVknhaTq0RM6HlzJB61KGh55Vw3-QYaDmyFqxkpLDxyJRBxIdIRy7mfZ90JSY1Z7OYzqrpCrYyI2DAuFD0E/w400-h169/The%20Crying%20Woman%20-%20monster%20face.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>The film spans 300 years, starting in Mexico, 1673, and quickly transitioning to 1973 and the strains of “Superfly.” One big positive: the Los Angeles setting is beautifully portrayed, with gorgeous cityscapes and lighting in nighttime scenes that my screenshots can't do justice to. Sorry!<br /></p><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzJo-hGPXf1T0vnR_ZddscOAAWr7c_PaHa8jH3c9k6e4m8-xgk0MO5StEdsSKFA3b1n0FKLxsYUka46h8B0w3UjQQJ_sVfo1wz-aZkTLCMpiCfavhnkK_buyRy8qGeyr5GMCGaVsjLjGvKJydSDMMBFWJ35_rAW8AiDzDiA1QZKS_e57nBoelr5OVlsWI/s531/Morning%20shot%20of%20city.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="224" data-original-width="531" height="169" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzJo-hGPXf1T0vnR_ZddscOAAWr7c_PaHa8jH3c9k6e4m8-xgk0MO5StEdsSKFA3b1n0FKLxsYUka46h8B0w3UjQQJ_sVfo1wz-aZkTLCMpiCfavhnkK_buyRy8qGeyr5GMCGaVsjLjGvKJydSDMMBFWJ35_rAW8AiDzDiA1QZKS_e57nBoelr5OVlsWI/w400-h169/Morning%20shot%20of%20city.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p></p><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieJGt2j8TiwtNy3pxZBw9F5TlASDoIcxyHHeaf16iTGSHXxD5GbshdwILX17-ijqYuXn1NZbi8nnPTElsTmisR0Z2n-QxeKnk8jgaOP806CshMYKpRWL3-89-Q0YMNrw1yAJ5pONAdUFMEOgufuxPk6BEaSUzMaCQh32cx65e83R_LKNwe0iiI9Rl_oZk/s562/Red%20light.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="249" data-original-width="562" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieJGt2j8TiwtNy3pxZBw9F5TlASDoIcxyHHeaf16iTGSHXxD5GbshdwILX17-ijqYuXn1NZbi8nnPTElsTmisR0Z2n-QxeKnk8jgaOP806CshMYKpRWL3-89-Q0YMNrw1yAJ5pONAdUFMEOgufuxPk6BEaSUzMaCQh32cx65e83R_LKNwe0iiI9Rl_oZk/w400-h178/Red%20light.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p></p><p>So yes, I wrote this whole thing to think through why I was so disappointed in this film. It looks good, it's competently made, and it's about things I'm intrinsically interested in. I really wanted to like it, but I ended up sighing a lot. Sometimes the desire to play it safe, to stick with the formula, works against a film in both the short and long terms. The movie came and went, and is rarely mentioned now. If it had embraced its Mexican-American lineage, or stuck with its more ambiguous themes, it might have had a longer shelf life. A lot of worse films have!<br /></p><br /><br />Anarchivisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06599522097057431891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246957333917525824.post-87791609105871558912023-06-16T08:02:00.001-05:002023-06-21T12:43:07.032-05:00Slouching Towards Lovecraft: Messiah of Evil (1973)<p style="text-align: center;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-6e9ff77a-7fff-8c10-2bff-67b97aab840d" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span style="border: medium none; display: inline-block; height: 387px; overflow: hidden; width: 257px;"><img height="387" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/irtAcreh_BHOuU2H24NegtOP2uBldUt4BFCCsB-hbWcaj1iD8Tm1sVVJgTpt3uyFXyaA_1h_aIvmpSTasjydNJma-1YqBVCYkxYNahQ4Cau3nM4ZGiYnwJMeVkrGl_0CggtflcSy0DMTiTTAiQnpqA" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="257" /></span></span> <br /></p><p>Sometimes films fall into undeserved obscurity, but some also get surprising revivals. This seems to have happened with the moody <i>Messiah of Evil</i>, filmed in 1971 and released in 1973. Over the years, the transfer quality on the VHS release and some free streaming services didn’t do its reputation any favors, but now that it’s available on a decent Blu-Ray from Code Red, and streaming on Shudder, the visuals, with strikingly creepy set-pieces and dream-like atmosphere, can get their due. It was even featured on Elvira’s 2021 Halloween special!</p><p>The plot, in which a young woman visits a beachside town in search of her missing artist father, puts it in the sub-genre that evokes H.P. Lovecraft’s “Shadow Over Innsmouth”: an isolated small town where outsiders seem unwelcome, and increasingly sinister townspeople worship beings from the past. While Lovecraft famously had his own unique pantheon, the films that get tagged “Lovecraftian” tend to have older pagan gods, witchcraft cults, or in this case, a mysterious prophetic figure who represents the forces of darkness. </p><p></p><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"> <span id="docs-internal-guid-ecb25927-7fff-14f0-e34e-88888ed1e0aa" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span style="border: medium none; display: inline-block; height: 264px; overflow: hidden; width: 624px;"><img height="264" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/T5JDXQGwdSVciFswwuouOpqx1EPVvuhcmPACuZ_jdL1ORL7I_uUwv94VT7bnMpe66v36eqnpllxrGwW05hddrrOefm60p8o6ZwyrvqbFGDNlZjzAxxFn6Hf8aKbYr_Suzg1ml_KT5t1pb8Uge6owBg" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="624" /></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;">Other films with similar elements include <i>The City of the Dead</i> (aka <i>Horror Hotel</i>) and <i>Halloween III: Season of the Witch</i>, which like this film uses California locations and gets some eerie ambience from a night-time gas station. In <i>Messiah</i>, it’s a Mobil station, with the connotation of “mobile,” as the characters are. They also both have characters similar to Lovecraft’s Zadok Allen, a drunken derelict who reveals too much to the newcomer. </p><p style="text-align: center;"> <span id="docs-internal-guid-d409212d-7fff-8711-9102-67d860825b3e" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span style="border: medium none; display: inline-block; height: 264px; overflow: hidden; width: 543px;"><img height="264" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/gMtjJznegzz1bq0eHVYSlkTDLL7-aCN4Y0rbvVLxV9LS1tIaKJYfnuuxq93K8cit2dC1I2-3yreqVoNhogCdaPMFnE5vO_nS9S-GpFPFea3KNq1KuC1k7tj9XMOroPOECQdsYIPSWyPRt55xwiUK9w" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="543" /></span></span></p><p>I watched <i>Messiah of Evil</i> with the director’s commentary specifically to find out if the “Lovecraftian” elements were purposeful. Co-writers and directors Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz (probably best known for their relationship with George Lucas, having worked on <i>American Graffiti</i>, <i>Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom</i>, and other films) both verify this. Katz refers to the “Lovecraftian mood,” and how creating this mood and its dreamlike quality, going for “creepy and unsettling,” was more their intent than character development or traditional narrative. Houyck says that Lovecraft was “a big inspiration,” that he had been a fan since childhood, and that a reference to “the Old Gods” was indeed meant to evoke Lovecraft. </p><p style="text-align: left;">This certainly isn’t the first Lovecraftian film -- <i>The Haunted Palace</i> came out in 1963 and <i>The Dunwich Horror</i> in 1970 -- but it’s still an interesting and very early entry. While people like Huyck did grow up reading Lovecraft stories, the author certainly wasn’t a household name well-known to the general public at this time, long before the era of Cthulhu plushies or even <i>Re-Animator</i>. <br /></p><p>The commentary contains other interesting anecdotes, like that the original title, <i>Blood Virgin</i>, was rejected for sounding like a porn film. The working title was <i>The Second Coming</i>, after the poem by William Butler Yeats, but people thought that sounded even more like a porn film! Oddly, it was briefly released as <i>Return of the Living Dead</i>, 12 years before the cult zombie film, although George Romero put the kibosh on a tagline about there being “no more room in hell.” </p><p style="text-align: center;"> <span id="docs-internal-guid-597e3f2d-7fff-e095-96ca-e15b777d84b0" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span style="border: medium none; display: inline-block; height: 261px; overflow: hidden; width: 624px;"><img height="261" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/mfuz8-zpUrZcZZKQMbb_O3tKnUfLDrqk9CpmFgWr4pFx6y6fqgCc7m4n_42y493L7wnXq-ZtJkQv3cT_IqqRf08r-yBAltl-Z9KjK-rsxJUKKWe7qNukKq5UPoaFZpb2Q3CLR--IyxQnH29ytz6HxA" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="624" /></span></span></p><p>The Yeats reference struck a chord with me. Joan Didion’s famous essay, “Slouching Towards Bethlehem” was written shortly before this, in 1968, and uses a line from the same poem for her analysis of the aimlessness and ennui of the hippie counterculture in contemporary California. In her introduction to the book of the same name, Didion describes writing “to come to terms with disorder,” in a world where she was seeing the foundations of society unravel, “proof that things fall apart.” This is very much the atmosphere of <i>Messiah of Evil</i>, although the film doesn’t treat it as something new, instead tying it back to the Donner party and the early history of the state. </p><p>In the film’s post-hippie twilight, people can drift through life expressing their individuality, leading hedonistic lifestyles, but, with that echo of Innsmouth, those without ties become victims of those who do, the drifters falling to those who have a history within a place. Individuality breeds isolation, and when people get in trouble, they’re on their own. </p><p style="text-align: center;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-017dbdcd-7fff-8a3d-6d55-45946fd0d9f3" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span style="border: medium none; display: inline-block; height: 264px; overflow: hidden; width: 612px;"><img height="264" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/FYzwlzET6ZOFeTiRsj9klrQm98wocMQgSRcFRs01P8RO7PXw5gyG8AsR1H3tMLwECvG_sTrlpWhjw355uOBBg5JmFUVigaS1kPKWKmwgyjBJYZ2F2rHycw-Uh402kIW7WiNRqq0E73q3EmPG0qzDfg" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="612" /></span></span></p><p>Within the dreamlike world of the film, with this Messiah figure, who exactly are the townspeople waiting for, and what do they want him to save them from? It raises the question of what cultists get out of their cult. In Lovecraftian terms, why worship the Old Ones? This question is never really answered here, but my instinct is to say that they’re being saved from their everyday sense of meaninglessness and ennui. I may be projecting onto what I know about the time period, but they all seem to live pretty easy-going lives, in a beautiful natural setting. Nonetheless, there’s a fog of listlessness over the town, a sense of dullness and stagnation, and the return of the Messiah brings meaning and excitement. </p><p>Is the town so listless because it’s caught up in a web of evil, or did its people get caught up in a web of evil because of the moody ennui that permeates the film? The hotel lobby is empty, the streets are dark, construction projects are eerily unfinished, and people stare soundlessly, unnervingly, at the sky. There’s a famous artist who disappears almost without anyone noticing. His daughter passively allows thing to happen, like when people start living in her house and she just lets them stay. A group of apparent drifters are well-dressed and apparently well-off but have nowhere to go. Even the local art gallery is run by a blind man who can’t see any of the art. </p><p style="text-align: center;"> <span id="docs-internal-guid-98d477e1-7fff-40b5-f998-72fa981ba2ce" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span style="border: medium none; display: inline-block; height: 264px; overflow: hidden; width: 626px;"><img height="264" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/qL9G8gLbYPb2WI5wSlZ8Wa8zD_mfEVpAsyIk5-iYuGiedIWvMviWeA6WrsOzxVFHkDrOTTa0fgVrRo4llBmo6_OPiRZPJOyzO08wD4MFgqxU5-PJK0yAYGHfa1F0xvAoqtfCGAz6_Y3CPljdVR4xrA" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="626" /></span></span></p><p>The horrific set-pieces, taking place at a gas station, a grocery store, a movie theater, and the isolated coast, all show an individual against a group of threatening locals, who are under the influence of the mysterious Messiah figure. From the 2020s, we can look back and see the downside of the loss of community, but here we’re reminded of the dark side of collective identity. Part of why the hippie era and the 1970s “Me Generation” happened was to escape the stultifying conformity of life where everyone knows you, in conformist small towns and suburbs. It also led to a new trend of communal living, faux “tribalism,” and pursuit of empty hedonism that could be equally alienating. The mood of the times meshes surprisingly well with the themes Lovecraft developed in New England in the 1920s and ‘30s, and maybe that association will bring a few more viewers to this under-seen film.</p><p>Note: the Code Red edition referred to here is out of print (argh!), but there is a new special edition due out from Radiance Films in October 2023. They're in the U.K., but it's an all-region blu-ray available through <a href="https://diabolikdvd.com/product/messiah-of-evil-le-radiance-films-blu-ray-all-region-preorder/">Diabolik DVD</a>. It includes tons of special features, but doesn't seem to bring over the director's commentary, so I'm glad I got the Code Red version when I did. There is a new documentary on the film though, so I'm tempted to pick it up. That would be my third time buying this movie! Wow.<br /></p>Anarchivisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06599522097057431891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246957333917525824.post-32369329616802082902023-06-14T16:42:00.000-05:002023-06-21T12:43:02.831-05:00Spookerama Sideshows: The Funhouse (1981)<div><p>While not completely forgotten, <i>The Funhouse</i> has never quite gotten the attention of Tobe Hooper films like <i>The Texas Chainsaw Massacre</i> or <i>Poltergeist</i>, often getting lumped in with serviceable ‘80s horrors of the <i>Prom Night</i> variety. It never got a sequel, and didn’t produce a fan-favorite villain, but it does include a lot of amazing, real-life carnival imagery, since Hooper filmed at a Florida site used to store traveling rides and attractions in the off-season. Along the way, it also tells a bleak story of alienation and the breakdown of communication and support within the American family.</p></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span face="Calibri,sans-serif" id="docs-internal-guid-6b976dd9-7fff-bfa8-25a0-afc352f7d82a" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span style="border: medium none; display: inline-block; height: 283px; overflow: hidden; width: 610px;"><img alt="C:\Users\KJK\Documents\Haunted Cinema\Future screenshots\The Funhouse\The Funhouse - Directed by.JPG" height="283" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/eQ572IRNvpWvy3ovbi5MXmUD9rUNHzi8VPrxIXfHwHRON__2koajCLoHyEOyD3djH6aMfflO9ocgLkdZe470u75BJ8f2qkr8Pjjw2nMkoCfX48MdMHHK1hE8lfUWSQqAh7C1w6BFmfqdcL_1ui0tvg" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="610" /></span></span></div><p>The plot is particularly simple. On a whim, two teenage couples sneak in to spend the night inside the Funhouse of a traveling carnival, where they witness a murder through the floorboards, ending up trapped and fighting for their lives. A barker claims the Funhouse is full of “goblins, ghosties, and ghoulies,” asking “Who is man enough to enter that world of darkness?” It represents a desire for scares and thrills that are assumed to be harmless, and with their sheltered lives, the couples at first think what they’re seeing is funny, unaware that their light-hearted walk on the wild side contains real horror and danger. </p><p>Protagonist Amy is introduced in scenes that show her separation from her pesky little brother, Joey, and her parents. Watching TV on a pastel sofa, her mother nags her about her date’s prospects (“We’re not getting married!”) and her father tries, unsuccessfully, to control her behavior. In their nice, big, comfortable house, the couple doesn’t seem at all happy, and the mom drinks heavily, appearing quite drunk in her later appearance. </p><p>She doesn’t fare much better with her friends, who can’t appreciate the good sense that could keep them alive. Her father had legitimate concerns about “that damned carnival,” which is connected in the public mind with the previous deaths of two children, but when she tries to avoid it, they pressure her with “Loosen up, will you?” </p><p style="text-align: center;"> <span id="docs-internal-guid-6d12a396-7fff-b533-7596-33c3086545b8" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 252px; overflow: hidden; width: 624px;"><img alt="C:\Users\KJK\Documents\Haunted Cinema\Future screenshots\The Funhouse\The Funhouse - King Kong mouth.JPG" height="252" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/deYxd4g5cC6vBee3mJbMhkA8CfSTgL9ui09zKtcc-b6f3AO0j0HiscO9FNytPqlgJJiiGI6qBWHD4LV46Ah9fSeM_atdy2pZgLax96bwue0FejBndT05JeMyyyb9eUy9JX8QkyGkqJNIJG85HrYfvA" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="624" /></span></span></p><p>Joey sneaks off to the carnival himself, just in time to see them go into the Funhouse, and when he’s found there after hours, his parents are called. In mid-ordeal, Amy sees her entire family right outside, but her brother, who knows she’s there, hasn’t told anyone. No one can see her, and she can only scream for unheard help, then watch them drive away. </p><p>All this adds up to a theme of isolation and alienation. We never see any part of town but Amy’s house, and the carnival is reached after passing through empty countryside. There are random glimpses of a sinister world, not directly related to the carnival, but showing the supposedly normal world. A bag lady unnerves the girls and Joey in separate incidents, and Joey is -- jokingly? -- threatened with a shotgun by a passing motorist. He doesn’t have any Goonies or a Monster Squad, no friends to back him up; he just goes out into the night alone. </p><p style="text-align: center;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9e97c348-7fff-29a5-18e1-06884a852135" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 249px; overflow: hidden; width: 624px;"><img alt="C:\Users\KJK\Documents\Haunted Cinema\Future screenshots\The Funhouse\The Funhouse - Giant eyeball.JPG" height="249" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/8RFmlAkQuNloBrLgIblxsHL0JVMljgHvjVLNTkoSpp-rtnaYNQF6RvNxgQQ1Er44sjbB8M-X-N_GUV3f9sOx9xFMvjHbAVs_wC8dS5TsejC3CJrVNiOYSIf96NaimksyIDNAkOceRdn-LWZYJ6NJQQ" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="624" /></span></span></p><p>Similarly, the young couples, in training to be future nuclear families, don’t have any other friends who know what they’re doing. They enjoy their individuality, the lack of restraining neighbors or authority figures, until they need help and can’t reach it. Their lives, and deaths, take place in a vacuum of individuality. </p><p>Ironically, the barker and his son are murderers, but they have a sense of protective community which the teenagers do not. The barker doesn’t care what his son does to the “locals,” but is angry that he’s killed “one of the family.” When he urges his son to kill the witnesses, he justifies it by saying “We gotta take care of each other.” </p><p style="text-align: center;"> <span id="docs-internal-guid-1f3cfdf7-7fff-7f6f-a343-7d7b5521f5ef" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 248px; overflow: hidden; width: 624px;"><img height="248" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/XQLhasN3rbuwYe32u2EdQxZSle9aCF5teUu3S2ChonOZ7HWZMDtGKihGry5EPeJBTlY9Zm9GO3SeSfPJqc-xFELDyNXXQE-k2wVNLpmK0ArQda9EuLnNk9AAEE8_d5RitJeiTk63f0BCEWD8gun5ug" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="624" /></span></span> </p><p>The film’s conclusion reinforces this idea, echoing the earlier scene where Joey remains on the site as the carnival closes down. The camera pans back and he becomes very small, all but disappearing in the frame. At the end, with her friends dead, Amy emerges onto the carnival grounds as if into a wasteland, and again, the slow pan back of the camera highlights how small and alone she is in the vista of the hostile universe, becoming smaller and smaller, until she’s swallowed up by the carnival. Brother and sister are both shown in this same position, but they remain isolated and separated, never meeting after their argument in the beginning of the film. </p><p style="text-align: center;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-23ac2478-7fff-0299-a2f8-3a6f8ba4608b" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 252px; overflow: hidden; width: 624px;"><img alt="C:\Users\KJK\Documents\Haunted Cinema\Future screenshots\The Funhouse\The Funhouse - Amy aftermath - getting smaller 2.JPG" height="252" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/ub2PKPy0XH3RlSbRS5Mh-rdhzgr30XevUBr1P1lLcB8qcHsfRSx5iBLRjbD9RzSTwYHY3Y1nRm0ieTjZgv088bJkfvsHWI5vedOO-7hPj0S4eM14rB5_EQPI7x3S-QBkiQF1PNPRFHGrM0-ZUVMtPA" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="624" /></span></span> <br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"> <span id="docs-internal-guid-ba724ca5-7fff-4f43-040c-f7ba560e17cf" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 253px; overflow: hidden; width: 624px;"><img alt="C:\Users\KJK\Documents\Haunted Cinema\Future screenshots\The Funhouse\The Funhouse - Amy aftermath - getting smaller - swallowed up.JPG" height="253" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/WT0P9Nceg9bvDO93ti0wNpJQkcEv9jT86lopBPWKLqnQ6afCmRxc0rcKJwKSvx8LuxqguD9YiJ7psL5HeI6Nc5gAUtMHQuYr1E8tjheQqmky9GsUhdsyNYlUGbBQdsukuBMR7CrpQFuvW2hFnEszqw" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="624" /></span></span></p><p>Throughout the films I’ve watched here, carnivals and amusement parks are used as potent symbols of a common human desire to escape the grind of life for pleasure and a sense of freedom, but audiences are always reminded that stepping outside the norm can lead to danger. That can arguably be seen as reinforcing a certain social order, meant to keep young people, especially, in line. But the carnival’s very visual appeal in a film like <i>The Funhouse</i> also reminds us that too much constraint is incompatible with the human spirit. While its carnival people are presented as threatening, even murderous grotesques, there’s a level of grotesquerie outside in the so-called normal world, as well, and even with the supposedly safe confines of the nuclear family. </p><p> It is not to disparage the film’s style or originality to say that it fits the basic template of formula, in a way that earlier films like <i>The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies</i> or <i>She Freak</i> did not. Those were strange, shaggy beasts, and this is the work of professionals, conscious of an audience with certain expectations that need to be met. Formulaic films can be very entertaining in the ways that formula is used, but they do feel different from the horror films that were made before the formulas had gelled into a set of conventions. </p><p style="text-align: center;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-dcf2f5be-7fff-2854-c48e-072cb0f8fbbb" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 284px; overflow: hidden; width: 655px;"><img height="284" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/xggK73AoFklPKQZS9V8lFkp9GoLgassPb8xBoAMK7i7wAGMCrzIE2aAtiOPOZQI9MHPR0PCGK0fMaxMl8jvGsHTvf2sR2P8GJaDRs2nZwG6qDQ7tsW3FJDOPCILhmoHpNNMGVijhiZ0Jg5hVM28-2A" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="655" /></span></span> <br /></p><p>Hooper’s film is far from generic, veering in some unexpected directions, but its basic outline is shared with dozens of horror films from the 1980s: teenagers break the rules and, as a result, face deadly consequences. By Hollywood studio standards, this would probably be considered a fairly low-budget genre film. But while it retains the oddball touches Hooper is known for, it’s still slicker and glossier than any of the other films discussed. </p><p>Note: <i>The Funhouse</i> clearly references a long-time tradition of treating “freak show” performers as monstrosities, which unfortunately plays into negative stereotypes of disabilities as strange and threatening. A similar issue plagues all the films in the <i>Friday the 13th</i> franchise. This is tempered somewhat by the moral villainy of the physically “normal” characters. Although a physical deformed and mentally incapacitated Frankenstein Monster commits a murder out of instinct and anger, it’s his father who covers up the crimes, perpetuating them rather than allowing him to face the consequences, and manipulates him to commit murder in cold blood.
</p>Anarchivisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06599522097057431891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246957333917525824.post-35530972524253757982023-06-14T16:18:00.000-05:002023-06-21T12:42:54.069-05:00Spookerama Sideshows: She Freak (1967)<p style="text-align: center;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-7a00effa-7fff-fcb4-7d5d-0e7ffffa083c" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-7a00effa-7fff-fcb4-7d5d-0e7ffffa083c" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span style="border: medium none; display: inline-block; height: 336px; overflow: hidden; width: 237px;"><img height="400" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/wuulE_5W8ttjIUEOsLoquIaYflc4emIliDkZAvZFQgfPtEWDpLl91c7mTY8ZNOgVdkCZeFJD4WQrGFir89-lIwLEJ51Y0pOvS7ojpUU0MxiSjfgjUlYSO_2QlxIrlHPnXAHfwJ0ji2eUIcN6oWCmAg=w282-h400" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="282" /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">
</span><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">In the heyday of amusement parks, the phenomenon spread from the coasts and throughout the country. In many landlocked areas, however, the attractions they offered were experienced in an inverted form. Instead of traveling to visit a place of pleasures, the experience could come to you, through the long-standing tradition of the traveling carnival. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Just as amusement parks are often depicted as uniquely, desirably American, but also as potentially threatening places of misrule, we see conflicting ideas and mixed messages about traveling carnivals. The images of rides and funhouses, of young men winning prizes for their girls at games of chance, are enduring symbols of the American experience. Underneath, however, we can find ideas of threat, of sin, of outsiders bringing temptation to otherwise placid, close-knit communities, although sometimes it’s the other way around. </span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"> <span id="docs-internal-guid-6b0df4fb-7fff-c5f9-eb1e-04b0fe51c263" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: medium none; display: inline-block; height: 384px; overflow: hidden; width: 516px;"><img height="384" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/0VcIf6kb4acf2FbjQ6DPmv78hOY9hRpoQgeV_guk12aF6zoPJhejAoVcRkvIyp_LamhOYOFuyRLJ_LqFDDiyrdr1NQus3FmPejlm4g-XamclSVMUlV4zTsJL7cxVV8XZukce2liPiueNfWputDxJ7A" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="516" /></span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-8bbacca1-7fff-845d-4f66-13f51e0edada" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She Freak</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, written and produced by quintessential showman David F. Freidman and directed by Byron Mabe, borrows the outline of Tod Browning’s black and white classic, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Freaks</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (1932), laying a version of its simple morality tale over the real-life West Coast Shows. </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Part of the modern appeal of films like </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Night Tide</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is their documentation of real places, once major sites of American experience, that are now long-lost. This element is even more notable in </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She Freak</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, which provides an invaluable view of a vintage traveling carnival, not least in its delightful sideshow posters (for Alligator Girl, Monkey Girl, Atomic Girl, and Phantasma-Goria) and incredible wardrobe choices, like the snake handler’s psychedelic blouses and crochet vests.</span></span></p><p style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span id="docs-internal-guid-753b63b3-7fff-6d0f-40b5-732901c975f0" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: medium none; display: inline-block; height: 384px; overflow: hidden; width: 607px;"><img height="384" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/gUfy7K50JHbJLEhWJMxhra7RVTF6bt5Bsv8Mvdo9W-4JsoUYyhbWWgDyNwbXWWK20q396W0Y7JhCiIQz31UWIbkrNWXk7e9clyRyek_hp_P68-UpgZMib7VCqjvf3mz8Pq7t3iTi6TgwmkyEPQhn8g" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="607" /></span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-e805f4aa-7fff-2f63-4e49-b772993494c8" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As surf music instrumentals play over its colorful documentary footage of carny life—with long intervals of setting up tents, rides, and games, and longer intervals of tearing them down—it’s almost a shame that there has to be a plot at all.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">According to the carnival blog <a href="https://www.docsmidwaycookhouse.com/carnival-movies/carnival-movie-she-freak/)">Docs Midway Cookhouse</a>, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">filming took place at the Bakersfield and Madeira, California Fairs; “Kern County,” where Bakersfield is located, is visible on some of the fairground buildings. The cooperation of West Coast Shows is thanked with a disclaimer, that the story “simply would not and could not happen in this time and setting,” now that the industry has been taken out of “the hands of mountebanks and gypsies.” This is amusing in light of the film’s sensational poster, full of advertising ballyhoo that echoes the carny patter in the film, which trumpets it as not only “all the more appalling in color,” but “filmed on the actual locations where it COULD have happened.” </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She Freak</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is, like </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Night Tide</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, focused on the carnival people themselves, and presents a unique stage on which to critique the misuse of power. The character who’ll obviously become the villainous counterpart to </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Freaks</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">’ Cleopatra has a plausible, understandable motivation. Potentially sympathetic at the start, she is hardened by experience, so that when she gains a position of power, she is greedy and unfeeling, becoming part of the system that made life hard for people like her, instead of having solidarity with them.</span></span></p><p style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span id="docs-internal-guid-b9603b6e-7fff-8888-623e-1f8eb34c8584" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: medium none; display: inline-block; height: 375px; overflow: hidden; width: 495px;"><img height="384.0010017156601" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_Q4Vd0CP1zv_DKRPQM3PlR0akpjk9ClCCYIoVMVrhtIUY0ULZLVm6zwGGbg4aU_A78qbxNZaKBguv_ioJizEh08Eajr47T2EjOQxCKY8KoFPVcR22bK9BH_x3vIfuF2a8d9YeCaUG_RMFSZA-jeRqQ" style="margin-left: -4.99877px; margin-top: 0px;" width="505.94875037670135" /></span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-12c611c3-7fff-4ff8-caff-59b06542a67e" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The film opens with that carnival set-up, and the barker who reminds us that “there are only two kinds of freaks, ladies and gentlemen. Those created by God, and those made by man.” From there, we shift to a small-town diner, where above-it-all waitress Jade scorns the advances of the customers. “You sure don’t give those rednecks the time of day, do you?” her lecherous boss asks, and the answer is a definite “no.” </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Jade starts out pretty tough-talking, and isn’t entirely sympathetic, but she makes valid points about her dead-end life and the example of her unhappy parents. “I know who I am. I’m nobody, just like you … There’s gotta be something better than that. I don’t know what or where it is, but when I find it, I’m gonna get it. Even if I have to lie or beg or cheat or steal for it, I’m gonna get it.” When the carnival’s marketer tries to talk her out of applying for a job, saying “it’s a rugged life,” she merely replies, “what ain’t?”</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thank goodness the Internet exists to explain this hand-written sign in the diner: “YCHJCY A ¼ FTJB.” It’s a gag with the answer, “Your curiosity has just cost you a quarter for the juke box.”</span></span></p><p style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span id="docs-internal-guid-2fc18ada-7fff-08c2-e2c3-0732b0af44aa" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: medium none; display: inline-block; height: 384px; overflow: hidden; width: 502px;"><img height="384" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/KMg_It4RytUuIrrg66QqJuPriMs9Up1jW_7lpiUmcoLAqYG7SgXilWbWt0GCzMmtJsRqVb8UFrlZ61FmtGXLYAD3_OjvP5xTelyiF6CzIWrvjOgkcyzfef42wsXtAhbVzWuLonRikCD7w0UCc4MMwA" style="margin-left: -5.00228px; margin-top: 0px;" width="512.004563331604" /></span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-7b8b599e-7fff-dd30-fe52-b23b073fd8af" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There’s a seductively nostalgic quality to </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She Freak; </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the specificity of the time period shows up in the clothes, the room decors, and the soundtrack, creating a vivid sense of a very particular bygone day. But the story includes the fact that the “good old days” were a time when a small-town bully could feel free to harass an employee, then fire her at will for rejecting his advances. A young woman like Jade had few real career prospects, and even when she joins the carnival, her opportunities don’t expand that quickly: in a surprisingly realistic touch, she ends up at the Midway Diner, doing the same job she was already doing.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She makes a friend, attractive “Moon” Mullins, who’s pleasant and welcoming, and Jade isn’t at all judgmental about her position as a stripper in the Paris at Midnite show (advertised as “50 million Frenchmen can’t B wrong: Ooh! La! La!”). Everyone needs to make a living, and everyone else is matter of fact about the reality. But the new girl doesn’t want to listen to the old pro’s advice about steering clear of the flirtatious Ferris wheel operator, and she isn’t so tolerant about the freak show, even though all we see is the sword swallower and that stylish, motherly snake handler.</span></span></p><p style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span id="docs-internal-guid-a4719017-7fff-85f3-e06c-6f2b691ea378" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: medium none; display: inline-block; height: 384px; overflow: hidden; width: 503px;"><img height="384" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/z1LzW9_WeimWdgaeN7vVcwV4cEs_nqH7eFOXBUWeItNS-E-EGvGSwqOqPblQaasxUuiXjxB03k1wLXwFYNjH40Lh-6yyjUT0JRKT16o_PJIdXCm4PTGm_O1z9FfaRhIMo05L2raS8l12golEGY1-Kw" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="503" /></span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-f130f1de-7fff-561b-8fec-8fb573224b19" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Their conversation at this point more or less gives us the film’s mission statement.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Moon: The freaks? So?</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Jade: They’re so horrible.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Moon: Honey, God made ‘em the way they are. They’re better off around here than most places.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Jade: Why do they have to be anywhere?</span></span></p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Jade’s desire to better herself is warped into a sense of contempt for those she perceives as abnormal and in some way lower than herself. Once she indulges that intolerance, she begins to turn in a different direction. Before long, she’s pumping Moon for information about which men have enough money to be worth pursuing. The best prospect is Steve, who runs the freak show. He’s a decent guy, who treats the freaks with respect and considers them friends, with whom he’s in a cooperative business, so when Jade continues to call them “disgusting,” that should be a real red flag.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Despite these improved prospects, she still takes up with trouble-maker Blackie on the side, and given the insular nature of the small community, she’s clearly not thinking this through. She and her future husband even have a romantic ride on Blackie’s Ferris wheel, which is asking for trouble. </span></span></p><p style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span id="docs-internal-guid-c99b2a43-7fff-f5d8-694e-bf9bca65728b" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: medium none; display: inline-block; height: 384px; overflow: hidden; width: 619px;"><img height="384" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/m1JcSwvJDDm8UCBTs0GjyKkGl9-tONg80sYnjh6XwNg7NcmE2bHjmH-AIODYvTTYc_SWz0Nn3D4dmWCo83SrRFgKTsrc5sKKLpbm_2KuBqcnNGY8dD3IlGy0MRpPzfdEzCX-wD_wa5eVWMJqBCLX8A" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="619" /></span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-23c2c9c5-7fff-c99a-a7f5-64b7adff80ff" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">By the time Jade marries her sugar daddy, Moon subtly disapproves of her friend’s transformation into a hardened gold-digger. At one point, one of the carnies refers to Jade as a “hash-slinging yokel,” but the boss defends her as “just a little country gal looking for something better,” reminding us of her original motives. Joining the carnival, going out on the road to make one’s fortune, is treated as a kind of contemporary American version of the frontier. There was nothing wrong with Jade’s ambitions, and her desire for more opportunities and new experiences was perfectly understandable. But once she starts down the path, her goals become a moving target. She isn’t satisfied with what she gets, but keeps wanting more, and one moral compromise quickly leads to another.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></span></p><p style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span id="docs-internal-guid-06cdffed-7fff-5b73-016a-038624722465" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: medium none; display: inline-block; height: 384px; overflow: hidden; width: 512px;"><img height="384" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/rAcdMecaqnhy_sl5znVxx7CFt2-ADyjKIpb6bK_QVkF3R17ueMR0nmd_EJiA-k1iWGqVGgStI-g_0liyRcoRwA51VU8mccteoNYGPCBzot2_y2iah8SejHJidDzI0fyRM_-s-ykitrLQ7fLqq3Pz2w" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="518.94873046875" /></span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-4d2361bd-7fff-29d3-8304-4f9a5aa25951" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Broadly speaking, there are two general responses to struggle and hardship: either becoming more compassionate to the struggles of others, or more hard-hearted. Here, the apparent protagonist becomes the villain. Her aversion to those who are different from her, lower and suffering more than she did, and her inability, or unwillingness, to overcome it, are the first steps in indulging her negative side, to the detriment of the better instincts she showed earlier on.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Attaining wealth and freedom, she is corrupted by power, leading to a violent, Browning-inspired comeuppance. The message of the film could be interpreted as a condemnation of the small town girl’s independence and ambition: that she should, perhaps, stayed in her place and not reached out for more. Fortunately, the character of Moon helps balance this idea. Her job as a stripper doesn’t impair her dignity or her moral compass, just as the freaks have their own dignity and sense of community, outside the mainstream of society. Jade, though, destroys her ties of friendship and connection with others, choosing to become the worst kind of boss and the worst kind of rich person, looking down at anyone she sees as lower than herself, which was never necessary or inevitable. </span></span></p><p style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span id="docs-internal-guid-5dba7bb5-7fff-d93e-60e2-dc12b559f02a" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: medium none; display: inline-block; height: 384px; overflow: hidden; width: 503px;"><img height="384" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/M36xDiEG7_EWKcHTHeRdID5cIO2SCxKSCWyO5sX8NXo1m1_sa-89amwLwAPl91RBxjLEZBOAl5XpsEpIelXi4ZKIfyskufW6qdrP742Z1gTMrWBE6Xz48ES0TJl5oQjBCc7sxdnRsmyAumz04UaxHg" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="508.4917047023773" /></span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-1ec797d7-7fff-a8aa-39a9-005e13c9c5e3" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Early on, Moon had told her, “you’re with us, you belong.” Jade took advantage of the carnival’s countercultural opportunities to escape the stifling limitations of normal, everyday life, but she didn’t respect them, or the people who were happy to include her in their community and even their family. Obviously, no one’s condoning what happens to her, which is disproportionate to her sins, but this is clearly not a realistic twist, but more of a fable, in which nothing bad would have happened if people had done the right thing.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While there isn’t a whole lot of story, the film looks surprisingly good, considering the speed and budget of the production. </span></span></p><p style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span id="docs-internal-guid-8db7c789-7fff-376d-0cac-d4ba94e11795" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: medium none; display: inline-block; height: 384px; overflow: hidden; width: 508px;"><img height="384" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/mMX1eNh6NFzi5rM6U-XA_or_BuOPWYfwUu5k8lQYK5UmafHzj_ECPH4rd50oGdHgDqXtHzP2buPzcpXm9oiSI1y0vUcmC0EJ7QkKZgZTMlFHO0aPhmnsmxO1GDzacV-SY4KzcUhf-62sFOhtZTUfXQ" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="508" /></span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-dd229dc3-7fff-15ec-87a7-cbcb3796b38f" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lead actress Claire Brennan had a long career, mostly in 1970s TV, but the most famous name in the cast is 3’11” actor Felix Silla, who appears here as cowboy Shorty, and would play Cousin Itt on </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Addams Family</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Internet rumors claim the two started a long-time secret relationship during shooting, eventually having a child, but this is difficult to confirm.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The website </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sideshow World</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, packed with behind-the-scenes information about life on the sideshow circuit, includes memoirs by magician Vanteen, who played Mr. Babcock, the man who gives Jade her job at the carnival, and he describes the filming of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She Freak</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> <a href="http://www.sideshowworld.com/13-TGOD/Vanteen/Vanteen-pg5.html">at some length</a>.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> He and the snake handler (billed as “Madame Lee”) were married in real life, and the film depicts her own real-life snake act, so the feeling of documentary, less often found in later genre films, is well-earned. </span></span></p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></span></p>Anarchivisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06599522097057431891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246957333917525824.post-64056498987052220902023-06-09T08:11:00.003-05:002023-12-28T15:52:21.755-06:00Spookerama Sideshows: The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies (1964)<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1dlhJBP4YscL9Ovf32agzRxUQsM7vkYHLdY3d8DOcyI5eifdSqUXmq3uvF0fuVyVT4H72aXagFnPK_8DxqjHuUVzFyaqcsMDKYSzrfaD00NIOGMSfSyrzi_2x-jAUHgcDoOk-kvstSsCfpHz7oPeRC0vejNyjFaUhJqGW-tRI1EznApFhmOLwYPar/s384/Incredibly%20Strange%20Poster.jpg" style="font-family: inherit; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="384" data-original-width="251" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1dlhJBP4YscL9Ovf32agzRxUQsM7vkYHLdY3d8DOcyI5eifdSqUXmq3uvF0fuVyVT4H72aXagFnPK_8DxqjHuUVzFyaqcsMDKYSzrfaD00NIOGMSfSyrzi_2x-jAUHgcDoOk-kvstSsCfpHz7oPeRC0vejNyjFaUhJqGW-tRI1EznApFhmOLwYPar/w261-h400/Incredibly%20Strange%20Poster.jpg" width="261" /></a><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Many films that deal with carnivals and amusement parks—which have the word “amusement” right there in the name—will eventually run into the Paradox of Hedonism, the idea that the pursuit of pleasure is ultimately counterproductive, leading to less enjoyment than is found in more selfless or productive activities, and even a sense of emptiness.</span><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;">This theme increases in cultural relevance during the
midcentury time period, when the United States grew richer, and the average
person began to enjoy unprecedented amounts of physical comfort, spending
money, and free time, all of which led to a material culture that many have
taken for granted. These factors elevated the importance of entertainment, as
the desire to escape from reality and normalcy, with its work ethic and need
for respectability, developed into a far-ranging money-making industry, and an
important medium for transmitting society’s ideas about itself. </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="379" data-original-width="627" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_Sa6QlvjRgEy6eJ_IYTX2t8e4zA-jWuc5lHSNbYyVpuMS8angxspGksbjU7Rr7nRseyCXtIsADKmK5o8s_BCVkYj6QwgiH4qPz157XccGvfL6XhVCNyWKqwjodsqzbJHEo5kzMFYtTysFBZEul-kmHHOKbAn-l4ICaYLDOLY1Ev7hMYPhmaV36gMR/w400-h241/Incredibly%20Strange%20night.jpg" width="400" /> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;">Directed by Ray Dennis Steckler, who also stars under
the pseudonym Cash Flagg, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Incredibly
Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies</i> depicts
some of the drawbacks of a hedonistic culture. The film begins with the
contrast of an amusement park looking inevitably bleak by day but alluring in
the neon-lit night, and its menacing aspect is immediately revealed, as a fortuneteller
uses an apparently acidic potion to turn anyone she doesn’t like into the
“strange creatures” of the title.</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM8pBhEiZzSWRz6Z9zNPl0iVjKDXoE-TcUxxgbdwocEFjQBeJOCnhEGLA-X_84vQXGmQuBuF_i7YGU4I9T6xDYoCc4BW_BAzAijJ9XHnrnhWFdPSr0kidDtB3eYPQF6VaD2Mk1bJSk70BYnp-Ox_9nSqSiyiAp5dPJ3pPxvM-jyuihXCqUGWEaQVIn/s579/Incredibly%20Strange%20Estrella.jpg" style="font-family: inherit; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="384" data-original-width="579" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM8pBhEiZzSWRz6Z9zNPl0iVjKDXoE-TcUxxgbdwocEFjQBeJOCnhEGLA-X_84vQXGmQuBuF_i7YGU4I9T6xDYoCc4BW_BAzAijJ9XHnrnhWFdPSr0kidDtB3eYPQF6VaD2Mk1bJSk70BYnp-Ox_9nSqSiyiAp5dPJ3pPxvM-jyuihXCqUGWEaQVIn/w400-h265/Incredibly%20Strange%20Estrella.jpg" width="400" /></a></div></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;">A scene-setting panorama of the amusement park’s
arcades, cafes, and games abrupt shifts to a shabby apartment where two
bachelors, rebellious Jerry and his good-natured, heavily-accented buddy Harold,
discuss Jerry’s problems with his girlfriend.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Her mother doesn’t like anything. Especially
me.” <br />
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Well, if you get a job or
something, she might change her mind, you know?”<br />
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“A job?” <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;">Jerry, openly contemptuous of the idea, responds with
a thesis statement for life that could apply to much of the developing 1960s youth
culture: “Why? The world’s here to be enjoyed, not to make you depressed.
That’s what work does … It makes you feel depressed.”</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP6Ul9iJpZXy1wBCxp85tlPgCjbxojF_GkjwUrC7dsgK3L8AGqtaIgonNgiUOcxBAvgVGZErOirBrcAyKzf526x7JmaElnDjY2esRGY8_dXxFWkqhXjIq8u67-oeMmiwE7JuvaqDQvd3kvdchgsNQ0Nf6FyKbiRDII6HQEVBd3VTypuIGAdCgfkHrM/s592/Incredibly%20Strange%20house.jpg" style="font-family: inherit; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="355" data-original-width="592" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP6Ul9iJpZXy1wBCxp85tlPgCjbxojF_GkjwUrC7dsgK3L8AGqtaIgonNgiUOcxBAvgVGZErOirBrcAyKzf526x7JmaElnDjY2esRGY8_dXxFWkqhXjIq8u67-oeMmiwE7JuvaqDQvd3kvdchgsNQ0Nf6FyKbiRDII6HQEVBd3VTypuIGAdCgfkHrM/w400-h240/Incredibly%20Strange%20house.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"> <br /><span style="font-size: medium;">This central conflict is immediately advanced at
girlfriend Angie’s suburban home, where she’s turning down a date with someone
who isn’t as “fun” and “exciting” as Jerry, even though her mother (rightly)
sees there’s no future in it. He arrives to pick up her up, and when asked
about college, smugly says “The world’s my college.” Angie, with a nice home
and a comfortable middle-class life, is drawn to Jerry’s aimless, vaguely
philosophical qualities. His life, focused on leisure and pleasure, represents
a sense of freedom, and a diversion for her from the path that leads to a
stodgy, boring life of domesticity.
</span></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;">For Jerry, a figure created for restless,
anti-authoritarian youth to identify with (according to an interview with
Steckler on the Guilty Pleasures DVD), the nearness of the amusement park fits
in with his passively rebellious rejection of work, college, and the approval
of the older generation, and that’s where he takes Angie directly from her
straight-laced suburban environment.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipvZOzoH89948xFByGres4cPDFewDgVlEWsmQ3vxP30G6jz0FwwdiHfwBqVwTchILO8GH5N2Lph5nvPHPiQ_UBXSOeULqInwzCAQgJuTEwEPpqEyzT_kXZUDa3cWw8A6sstTOrRuWyJZDYYkngF5htESLa7y9-8uOY2-DTT7ailU4nXM77jVf7gXkO/s597/Incredibly%20Strange%20entrance.jpg" style="font-family: inherit; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="358" data-original-width="597" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipvZOzoH89948xFByGres4cPDFewDgVlEWsmQ3vxP30G6jz0FwwdiHfwBqVwTchILO8GH5N2Lph5nvPHPiQ_UBXSOeULqInwzCAQgJuTEwEPpqEyzT_kXZUDa3cWw8A6sstTOrRuWyJZDYYkngF5htESLa7y9-8uOY2-DTT7ailU4nXM77jVf7gXkO/w400-h240/Incredibly%20Strange%20entrance.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">There’s more impressive footage of the park and its
rides, including first-person views of the rollercoaster, as the young people
light-heartedly explore the locale. This sequence depicts the positive side of
entertainment: the characters are truly having fun, and if they’d only known
when to stop, they’d have avoided pain and tragedy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead, their day of pleasure, in a world “here
to be enjoyed,” is extended into the nighttime, when the misrule grows darker. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Behind the curtain of what the customers see, a
subplot follows dancer Marge, played by Steckler’s wife, Carolyn Brandt. Fearfulness
and paranoia have led her to drink, so she stumbles, screwing up her act,
although the audience doesn’t seem to enjoy it any less. She is compelled to
visit Madame Estrella, the murderous fortuneteller; stating that “I only know
that something evil lies ahead for me,” she seeks answers to her sense of
impending doom, After turning up the ominous Ace of Spades in her reading, she
runs right into a closet full of monsters, then out the door, just as the young
people are going in to get their fortunes told. She never tells anyone about this
experience, but instead resigns herself to her unlucky fate.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBz7xyslGy3y6CQD3V-yFhhILDavfkduGx0r3Ur9UPog1DE6c-Lf_5TqwH3yqJnQV0Tq7yq2aJZmRCHCWZsKmqa5nvUuqY6YI2untHJgX7c6DkLbKweMIj0xFFC4_SQqDuJ4uXBwFZr0OuENnQ4SNWOURA-dXpDAVCTBNDThtmJvBBWBcdBRkNKYnr/s613/Incredibly%20Strange%20crystal%20ball.jpg" style="font-family: inherit; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="384" data-original-width="613" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBz7xyslGy3y6CQD3V-yFhhILDavfkduGx0r3Ur9UPog1DE6c-Lf_5TqwH3yqJnQV0Tq7yq2aJZmRCHCWZsKmqa5nvUuqY6YI2untHJgX7c6DkLbKweMIj0xFFC4_SQqDuJ4uXBwFZr0OuENnQ4SNWOURA-dXpDAVCTBNDThtmJvBBWBcdBRkNKYnr/w400-h250/Incredibly%20Strange%20crystal%20ball.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"> <br /><span style="font-size: medium;">“Sometimes the crystal sees things it is better that
we do not know,” Estrella tells Angie.
</span></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The amusement park as seen in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Incredibly Strange Creatures</i> hearkens back to the era before the
rise of Disneyland, which is everywhere identified with a sanitizing effect. Historian
Lauren Rabinovitz refers to the role of vice—more adult, illicit forms of
hedonism—in luring customers to their attractions in the pre-Disney age. The
newer versions “ have eliminated many of the defining features of the
turn-of-the-century electric park—its entertainments and audiences who breached
social and sexual mores, its more vulgar attractions of gambling and drinking,
its enthusiasm for defining the exotic and the sensational, its excessive
visual spectacle” (from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Electric
Dreamland: Amusement Parks, Movies, and American Modernity</i>, p. 172). <br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPEv2eEAFr9OczNDy5_jj-3oSqWjZ85WNERT8W5sVc6JuvNCplZEjgCwSWh4tJu7VxiSvczovXEKdOkpUmNByZq0LoxhvVfIzunx5ajiLKTUmPJI6iMwQdhkRfTs0Ls0vnGTQIbBPNrVFZ7ToBAKDKwBfZ7LOw9Dd5HlA5xhSj71j5HiQE3wYuVlBo/s589/Incredibly%20Strange%20cafe.jpg" style="font-family: inherit; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="358" data-original-width="589" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPEv2eEAFr9OczNDy5_jj-3oSqWjZ85WNERT8W5sVc6JuvNCplZEjgCwSWh4tJu7VxiSvczovXEKdOkpUmNByZq0LoxhvVfIzunx5ajiLKTUmPJI6iMwQdhkRfTs0Ls0vnGTQIbBPNrVFZ7ToBAKDKwBfZ7LOw9Dd5HlA5xhSj71j5HiQE3wYuVlBo/w400-h243/Incredibly%20Strange%20cafe.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</xml><![endif]--></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">This element of enticing seediness is on prominent
display in Steckler’s film, with montages that highlight the presence of
cocktail lounges, and a lot of time is spent at the girl show, symbolically
named the Garden of Eden, which becomes the site of conflict between the young
couple. When Jerry is strongly attracted to the girl show and its featured
dancer, Angie shows her backbone by refusing to join him.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">At this pivotal point, the young woman realizes her mother
may be right. Seeing her boyfriend fascinated with a stripper leads to
questions about the future of their relationship. For the young man, her
concerns represent a push into a committed relationship, a path that could lead
to adult responsibility, opposed to the kind of liberty he has as a bachelor to
go to all the strip shows he wants. </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpRZPvxsrEgvPxZ2eWP2yWk8gh99_tfCf4Hes-WThxR-GxKAj8LOr7IAXgwuwYLe_ZavzuUCTpHnqR0rWOcZ6EwxrPDTchnXXPSds3OJBTgWWDyO70f-eSVAVl2IR53H0MdF3OimfeIHf64Pu1xNEfzXmcQ-HlYPr1J3E0X3MmmjMAi6xL1mEz2D-H/s616/Incredibly%20Strange%20dresses.jpg" style="font-family: inherit; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="367" data-original-width="616" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpRZPvxsrEgvPxZ2eWP2yWk8gh99_tfCf4Hes-WThxR-GxKAj8LOr7IAXgwuwYLe_ZavzuUCTpHnqR0rWOcZ6EwxrPDTchnXXPSds3OJBTgWWDyO70f-eSVAVl2IR53H0MdF3OimfeIHf64Pu1xNEfzXmcQ-HlYPr1J3E0X3MmmjMAi6xL1mEz2D-H/w400-h239/Incredibly%20Strange%20dresses.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> <br />Jerry’s desire to visit the Garden of Eden is almost a
compulsion, much the way Marge was drawn to the fortuneteller. In a world given
over to the pursuit of freedom, they are victims of their unconscious impulses,
and follow them right into danger. As he becomes a “Mixed-Up Zombie,” his
situation is similar to those in exploitation scare films about drug use and
juvenile delinquency, in which the desire to test the boundaries and break the
rules, leads characters into a more blatant kind of slavery to drugs or crime. Giving
in to the temptation of the girl show, he is separated from his friends, rendering
him more vulnerable, and, lured by a fake note from the star dancer, walks
right into a trap, hypnotized by spinning spirals until he is ready to kill at
Estella’s command. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUBTA-9gBwXrBec6igL97Tnb_Qd84DKR0p_QeBVSrW2vaOHDxYoy1V0jBFawdF_LCIpqlcOCi1RngxlpaXvpC6lY8RNhP5eSRqdyoaDfWuN_NHww9vZFMedetze05gQoT38XMF9iYsRuybOoeTowsTGwoadQOstshJ-iunoJzaSpKgBb4LdSeaexTB/s597/Incredibly%20Strange%20jerry.jpg" style="font-family: inherit; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="384" data-original-width="597" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUBTA-9gBwXrBec6igL97Tnb_Qd84DKR0p_QeBVSrW2vaOHDxYoy1V0jBFawdF_LCIpqlcOCi1RngxlpaXvpC6lY8RNhP5eSRqdyoaDfWuN_NHww9vZFMedetze05gQoT38XMF9iYsRuybOoeTowsTGwoadQOstshJ-iunoJzaSpKgBb4LdSeaexTB/w400-h258/Incredibly%20Strange%20jerry.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"> <br /><span style="font-size: medium;">His crime blending into a surrealistic nightmare,
Jerry doesn’t realize at first what he’s done. In the morning, he goes to
apologize to Angie, but begins to strangle her in a trance. Pulled away from
her, he escapes to wander the streets of a shabby neighborhood, where a passing
elevated train shows reality echoing the amusement park, with its rollercoaster
on similar raised tracks.
</span></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Realizing he needs help, Jerry’s friend and girlfriend
track him down back at the park, where the zombies have been unleashed. While
they have been indulgent of his bad behavior, they were not invested in his
countercultural attitudes, so they are left behind to mourn when he succumbs to
his literal dead-end existence.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1rdt3LvC43b5X9b5m1U9BzZsqzkonacTw5cUmU2235VQ_3NTpjqAEdlEI-R98rsdjHQjwFhXt7hyIlInTYBqauDVKNdb6jWwKhWB8bsmlkFqG2e_Yh3Z8aUlOPWRwrXMCcNPJ0R82Y1hpwX5NEOygaksgjurQP3VLri0BfCEwxdPsczIxhU15mtwe/s591/Incredibly%20Strange%20ocean.jpg" style="font-family: inherit; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="356" data-original-width="591" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1rdt3LvC43b5X9b5m1U9BzZsqzkonacTw5cUmU2235VQ_3NTpjqAEdlEI-R98rsdjHQjwFhXt7hyIlInTYBqauDVKNdb6jWwKhWB8bsmlkFqG2e_Yh3Z8aUlOPWRwrXMCcNPJ0R82Y1hpwX5NEOygaksgjurQP3VLri0BfCEwxdPsczIxhU15mtwe/w400-h241/Incredibly%20Strange%20ocean.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"> <br /><span style="font-size: medium;">Most films in the amusement park/carnival genre focus
either on the lives of the workers (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Night
Tide</i> and the iconic black and white <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Freaks</i>
come to mind, along with the TV show <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Carnivale</i>,
or non-horror films like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Carny</i>), or
on the people who come to a carnival and have unpleasant experiences (as in
Tobe Hooper’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Funhouse</i>). <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Incredibly Strange Creatures</i> is unusual
in being equally split between the two. The villain is fortuneteller Estrella, taking
advantage of the transient rubes, but dancer Marge, certain she’s been cursed
by bad luck, is more sympathetic. The trio of paying customers is presented as
the main characters, but the most prominent, Jerry, is almost as unlikable as
the villain, and it’s hard to feel too sorry for him when things go wrong.
</span></span><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;">As with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Night
Tide</i>, this film takes advantage of Southern California’s existing amusement
parks for location shooting. In this case, footage of the park was filmed at the
Pike, a park in Long Beach, California, which would close in 1979. The Cyclone
Racer rollercoaster, featured heavily in the film, would close in 1968.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgOGph7hFv30ng2Idq0Jt-RhVTIzvKlXGpnPiZWSg1PD7YCDcyqhx7BCSdV7O8UVzBOCMSow-3pztnrzj1WGzrlC1ZXtL4mV0HwxaxSDCwuSWxaLU1cZ94Yjlw3v79uApBjsTelKRMqlv4AKfnix4jCDMkwzVGNw31klLygu_z_pCcjs_OMfe_gf9k/s434/Incredibly%20Strange%20Madam%20Anna.jpg" style="font-family: inherit; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="434" data-original-width="353" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgOGph7hFv30ng2Idq0Jt-RhVTIzvKlXGpnPiZWSg1PD7YCDcyqhx7BCSdV7O8UVzBOCMSow-3pztnrzj1WGzrlC1ZXtL4mV0HwxaxSDCwuSWxaLU1cZ94Yjlw3v79uApBjsTelKRMqlv4AKfnix4jCDMkwzVGNw31klLygu_z_pCcjs_OMfe_gf9k/w325-h400/Incredibly%20Strange%20Madam%20Anna.jpg" width="325" /></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">(A real-life fortune teller at the Pike. Photo credit:
Photo credit: William Reagh, Herald Examiner Collection.)</span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">A lot of interesting history about the Pike is
available online, including this link from the <a href="https://www.lapl.org/collections-resources/blogs/lapl/taking-peek-pike-long-beachs-oceanfront-amusement-zone ">Los Angeles Public Library</a> (thanks, comrades!)</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">
and this link from <a href="https://www.kcet.org/shows/lost-la/a-walk-along-long-beachs-gaudy-tawdry-bawdy-pike">public television station KCET</a></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">
that appropriately calls it "gaudy, tawdry, and bawdy."</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The Sinister Cinema DVD has an enlightening interview
with Steckler, who reveals, among other details, that Jerry and Harold’s
depressing apartment is where he and Brandt lived at the time, in real life. While
Brandt was a professional dancer, there was no time to choreograph or rehearse
the performances, so Marge’s drunkenness was written in to cover those flaws. Mocked
on the otherwise superlative <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mystery
Science Theater 3000</i> episode for her mannishness, she and Steckler himself
are the only notable members of the cast with experience beyond a few
exploitation films. (A new edition is out from Severin Films, but we haven't checked that out yet).<br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Things were different on the other side of the camera.
Laszlo Kovacs, the assistant cameraman, was later Director of Photography on
films like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ghostbusters</i>, and camera
operator Vilmos Zsigmond has many notable credits, including an Academy Award
as the Director of Photography on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">E.T. the
Extra-Terrestrial</i>.<br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy1H6S9_NC5JjKau4UOVnwh9eJTaA1c5hY81W00pNZYOQUgaJTckkMKwrXB-yCIUUsA4RZ9ycoMvcEbtacLLagTZXbyLYn4qA4856_KbzcRRbqGNQMC_DXcyk_r2OxPJOIOidl0nW97MHa_sfJr63rPnWN91qS1fFN8XfRaYOZvymcoEty4ftrC1e4/s595/Incredibly%20Strange%20neon.jpg" style="font-family: inherit; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="324" data-original-width="595" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy1H6S9_NC5JjKau4UOVnwh9eJTaA1c5hY81W00pNZYOQUgaJTckkMKwrXB-yCIUUsA4RZ9ycoMvcEbtacLLagTZXbyLYn4qA4856_KbzcRRbqGNQMC_DXcyk_r2OxPJOIOidl0nW97MHa_sfJr63rPnWN91qS1fFN8XfRaYOZvymcoEty4ftrC1e4/w400-h217/Incredibly%20Strange%20neon.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Steckler also reveals that the film’s musical numbers
were all shot in one day, which explains a lot. There are nine such numbers in
80 minutes, including three nightclub sequences with Marge and her dance partner;
a male balladeer with a guitar; a female torch singer, who made me wonder if
David Lynch has seen this movie; and four performances at the girl show. </span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">One of these is a group dance number, a sort of
fashion burlesque, in which women in tights and feathers perform for an
audience full of older women in hair nets. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">MST3K</i>
points out that the tune is very similar to “Little Drummer Boy,” which is hard
to get out of your head. One is a PG-rated striptease by star dancer Carmelita,
who’s supposed to be a fiery dancer, but just strolls on the stage, full of
ennui. Then there are two more group performances: something with a rock-n-roll
feel that sounds like they’re singing “Schick out of Shake,” but is titled “Shook
Out of Shape,” and a strange faux tribal number that’s disrupted by an all-out
attack of the incredibly strange creatures. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The end credits include “Music released by Rel
Records,” but I can find no evidence of an existing soundtrack, which is,
frankly, a shame.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXC1iaDFibDFQGBAPyk6rkkVCMUY8Wpm9V6WCk_pFBdAty69u9kjkQkgmZpD-qE3aD2Y4vfKHdn8Z_XCLAeTsrVCo_7gVyOPExyXUfKugkRKfo8tjaUKuZLmiBZ3Zhm-iTY7yxMbwc9oKYLIu4y9uOYoT2Bq_9ucUTv6BRMZnav9yEd24iQ05WQ0gf/s595/Incredibly%20Strange%20pinwheel.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="358" data-original-width="595" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXC1iaDFibDFQGBAPyk6rkkVCMUY8Wpm9V6WCk_pFBdAty69u9kjkQkgmZpD-qE3aD2Y4vfKHdn8Z_XCLAeTsrVCo_7gVyOPExyXUfKugkRKfo8tjaUKuZLmiBZ3Zhm-iTY7yxMbwc9oKYLIu4y9uOYoT2Bq_9ucUTv6BRMZnav9yEd24iQ05WQ0gf/w400-h241/Incredibly%20Strange%20pinwheel.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /> </span>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Block Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Hyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="FollowedHyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Document Map"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Plain Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="E-mail Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Top of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Bottom of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal (Web)"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Acronym"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Address"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Cite"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Code"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Definition"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Keyboard"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Preformatted"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Sample"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Typewriter"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Variable"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal Table"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="annotation subject"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="No List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Contemporary"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Elegant"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Professional"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Balloon Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Theme"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" QFormat="true"
Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="41" Name="Plain Table 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="42" Name="Plain Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="43" Name="Plain Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="44" Name="Plain Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="45" Name="Plain Table 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="40" Name="Grid Table Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="Grid Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="List Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="List Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="List Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 6"/>
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<p></p>Anarchivisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06599522097057431891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246957333917525824.post-67977219405042425862023-06-07T15:10:00.003-05:002023-06-09T08:12:34.689-05:00Spookerama Sideshows: Night Tide (1961)<p><span style="font-family: inherit;">Spookerama Sideshows: <i>Night Tide</i> (1961)</span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjepp4OXln-NVhu2WBiD4m0i-riamPEIBqJ8Ej-rlP_C4cPv54ry4eOd8LzMhi5TEIlIExoL3OxKC_dFPam_e_qUFSnag70118ee37In_vZBdcYn6JbEJdqZ0gECW-H0FZAdGu_es2scs8tPbXiF3c-lWrqizCYojyu22VzRNwubfbav2KjNoG9tqK2/s384/Night%20Tide%20poster.jpg" style="font-family: inherit; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="384" data-original-width="242" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjepp4OXln-NVhu2WBiD4m0i-riamPEIBqJ8Ej-rlP_C4cPv54ry4eOd8LzMhi5TEIlIExoL3OxKC_dFPam_e_qUFSnag70118ee37In_vZBdcYn6JbEJdqZ0gECW-H0FZAdGu_es2scs8tPbXiF3c-lWrqizCYojyu22VzRNwubfbav2KjNoG9tqK2/s320/Night%20Tide%20poster.jpg" width="202" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A while back I did a
series of articles called “Americana Spookerama,” which looked at a group of
films, from the mid-50s to the 1960s, that placed horror in the context of
wholesome small-town American life. The existence of these horror films reflects
a shadow side of the post-war prosperity and simple, apple-pie values so often
attributed to this time period in our country’s history, and this series will
explore another aspect of “Americana,” in the symbolism of amusement parks and
traveling carnivals.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The entertainment industry is both a shadow and a mirror,
reflecting an image of America, but also its darker aspects. The idea of the
American Dream includes freedom, leisure, and entertainment, so the fairground
images of roller coasters and merry-go-rounds, along with the games and the
concession stands handing out cotton candy, are as red, white, and blue as the
white picket fence. At the same time, there’s another layer of shadow, since
society has often had a complex relationship to entertainment and the pursuit
of pleasure. People enjoy it, revel in it, and seek it out, while still
treating it as disreputable, and too often negatively judging the people who
work to provide this entertainment. The carnival has always contained an
element of seediness, with the possibility of danger and deception, and the
allure of taking a walk on the wild side.</span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt6aCaXHeHl-DwR5tmdr6oIe-8vCS1z3c2bJ6BaS2AD1G1YSB_Xg1CtLzXu_V9avHoZoJE2W-zDac783NheekUWew_kUWqzhJ45c1PBkg-VunEULvG1i6pbjkNZM9fP9GgZEdIkkMJSrJ8ET5xXZZZ20__ic-d6JpbKsvBFWEYHh6NG490ZJz8Zj2a/s499/Night%20Tide%20-%20Lovely.jpg" style="font-family: inherit; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="384" data-original-width="499" height="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt6aCaXHeHl-DwR5tmdr6oIe-8vCS1z3c2bJ6BaS2AD1G1YSB_Xg1CtLzXu_V9avHoZoJE2W-zDac783NheekUWew_kUWqzhJ45c1PBkg-VunEULvG1i6pbjkNZM9fP9GgZEdIkkMJSrJ8ET5xXZZZ20__ic-d6JpbKsvBFWEYHh6NG490ZJz8Zj2a/w400-h308/Night%20Tide%20-%20Lovely.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Carnivals and their related environments appear in works
from Tod Browning’s 1932 classic, <i>Freaks,</i>
to the multiple modern representations that appeared in 2019 (the TV series <i>Stranger
Things</i> and the films <i>Us</i> and <i>It: Chapter 2</i> all featured
carnival settings, sharing dramatic scenes inside Halls of Mirrors). I’m going
to look at a few favorites of the genre, starting in the same mid-century
period as the previous <i>Spookerama</i>
series, but extending into the 1980s, another fertile time for horrific
archetypes, starting with the moody black and white classic <i>Night Tide</i>,
the first full-length film by genre vet Curtis Harrington (of <i>Ruby</i> fame,
among others).</span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><o:p></o:p></span>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX94heEVdYmw_35Y5GFyp2l2sCK3tWGKSdt7rAiqjH1_21taeYZn5SMQM7UilCpof6ZiiaS8dyefhJ3Wov1GZqsP3fyyRx4xjUPrsQ42sjJj3Dzs84ZKbaO2diYF_q7pg4Gchr418IO3z9yIyW22WqPSHt1rTu0n9fgv9odLEPNCHXdXRJlUgt8uJ8/s502/Night%20Tide%20-%20Hopper.jpg" style="font-family: inherit; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="384" data-original-width="502" height="306" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX94heEVdYmw_35Y5GFyp2l2sCK3tWGKSdt7rAiqjH1_21taeYZn5SMQM7UilCpof6ZiiaS8dyefhJ3Wov1GZqsP3fyyRx4xjUPrsQ42sjJj3Dzs84ZKbaO2diYF_q7pg4Gchr418IO3z9yIyW22WqPSHt1rTu0n9fgv9odLEPNCHXdXRJlUgt8uJ8/w400-h306/Night%20Tide%20-%20Hopper.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Lonely sailor Johnny, played by a young, sensitive Dennis
Hopper, wanders alone at an ocean-side amusement pier, searching for amusement
and companionship in its panorama of carnival games, taverns, and jazz clubs, all
variations on the culture of leisure. Winding up at a beatnik coffeeshop, he spots
a pretty girl (played by Linda Lawson) sitting alone, and he tries to engage
her in conversation: “It’s really a great combo, huh?” She dodges him like an
old pro at being hit on, saying, “I’d like to listen, please.” <o:p></o:p></span>
</div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">She gets spooked when a strange woman comes over and speaks
to her in a foreign language, an open nod to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Cat People</i>, and eventually gives in to Johnny’s uncomfortable
pushiness. She invites him to breakfast at her place on the pier, and she
explains that “I’m an attraction … a mermaid. Half-woman, half –fish,”
advertised as “Mora the Mermaid, the Lovely Siren of the Deep.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Night Tide</i>, the
carnival environment is seen from the point of view of the people who live in the
world, plus Hopper, who becomes integrated into it, and is treated as part of
the community. Behind a façade of illusion, where people from the outside, everyday
world go to indulge their fantasies and desire for novelty, lies a different
everyday world. Even though “it must be pretty noisy living above a
merry-go-round,” the carnival is depicted as the norm for its residents, who
have friends and neighbors, with nothing unseemly about any of them. Luana
Anders’ Ellen, the sensible girl-next-door type at the concession stand, and
her grandfather, who runs the merry-go-round, could just as easily be running a
small-town diner or general store.</span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk8MyyPW1iAKfB_2ylwS6wrel_REdel4WmFUOMP3NUlG6IfeRyz-a1H6yqHw0LF9suQ932iMVBCprK34hpDEFZyl2oybhi-IL393WkDtuIC4d4U625pLz8p7ItAIipaNCgeOX67bppvtbw88vNMWHowUSGGVCJoJMHLUT786HzbqAVhpsdpSKQckp6/s500/Night%20Tide%20-%20coffee.jpg" style="font-family: inherit; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="384" data-original-width="500" height="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk8MyyPW1iAKfB_2ylwS6wrel_REdel4WmFUOMP3NUlG6IfeRyz-a1H6yqHw0LF9suQ932iMVBCprK34hpDEFZyl2oybhi-IL393WkDtuIC4d4U625pLz8p7ItAIipaNCgeOX67bppvtbw88vNMWHowUSGGVCJoJMHLUT786HzbqAVhpsdpSKQckp6/w400-h308/Night%20Tide%20-%20coffee.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There is an edge of melancholy at the amusement park, which
looks rundown, and nobody seems to be making much money with their hard work. There’s
also a bit of gossip about Mora, whose last two boyfriends mysteriously
drowned, though “nothing’s been proved” against her. Her boss, a former sea
captain, tells Johnny that he found her on an island, warning him that she’s a
real siren, dangerous to anyone who gets close to her. “Where do myths come
from? Do you think they’re just made up? … She’s a monster.”</span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><o:p></o:p></span>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The normal and rational Johnny doesn’t think this kind of story
could be real, but Mora also believes that the other sirens are trying to lure
her to “go with them to the sea.” The film’s central mystery is whether she has
become mentally affected by her environment, coming to believe that fake
stories are true, or is a real mermaid, working as a version of herself, the
real pretending to be a fake pretending to be real. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLPvqfVyhXT61nGBj7HTLXrxaouu5fKKZcry-0FB6-zjv6dW0uBtSR0i3gi4cJz9IgWneOPGbnjC8PpW5N69qPB8ug0cyRIYpRTeXUOwBfrig8mQlk1-uqAJJ3r_rzBagU8B4G7rP4N1yiW1gkkuODhcL7cuCNaDa0hbJ-_Ytlo7nOEiVFbNOXYlE2/s566/Night%20Tide%20-%20bird.jpg" style="font-family: inherit; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="384" data-original-width="566" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLPvqfVyhXT61nGBj7HTLXrxaouu5fKKZcry-0FB6-zjv6dW0uBtSR0i3gi4cJz9IgWneOPGbnjC8PpW5N69qPB8ug0cyRIYpRTeXUOwBfrig8mQlk1-uqAJJ3r_rzBagU8B4G7rP4N1yiW1gkkuODhcL7cuCNaDa0hbJ-_Ytlo7nOEiVFbNOXYlE2/w400-h271/Night%20Tide%20-%20bird.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;">Mora’s story suggests the existence of a mythic aspect of
life, more full of wonder than the manufactured amusement park world, which
offers facsimiles of the strange and unusual. She lectures Johnny that “Americans
have such a simple view of the world. You think that everything can be seen and
touched and weighed and measured. You think it’s the sum of reality. But you
don’t even know what it is.”<o:p></o:p></span>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">He got involved in her drama because of some yearning, a
desire for what the amusement park represents. In some ways he’s open to
expanding his view of reality, but retains an idea of what’s practical and
realistic, a fitting theme for this point in American history, as more people
questioned received wisdom about American life and sought for new
possibilities, but didn’t always knowing how to handle the consequences. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Reflecting the cultural shift, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Night Tide</i> is refreshingly accepting of the common reality that
people have wants and needs beyond the ordinary, and is largely not judgmental
about that. It reminds us that even a woman who performs in a circus sideshow,
providing amusement for the public, wants to go to a coffeeshop and listen to
jazz, seeking her own entertainment and escapism in other people’s art.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibqChzXoByQuKcgTv3cmqFWqXtTMiTEWyhY0mKMi-qb1WMC3fy9zh7NZnNyUyT6QYXp3yQihHhOLYJFkg2qZsrgceHPOyfcNOZGYjiQ55Sri6HTHv1Utyo7VF27a3gClyhCpIwrV4fQLHxtOWTh6fxpUVzhPDpyonjj9HVcehPBbOQRISv9kCmJvdb/s503/Night%20Tide%20-%20Blue%20Grotto.jpg" style="font-family: inherit; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="384" data-original-width="503" height="305" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibqChzXoByQuKcgTv3cmqFWqXtTMiTEWyhY0mKMi-qb1WMC3fy9zh7NZnNyUyT6QYXp3yQihHhOLYJFkg2qZsrgceHPOyfcNOZGYjiQ55Sri6HTHv1Utyo7VF27a3gClyhCpIwrV4fQLHxtOWTh6fxpUVzhPDpyonjj9HVcehPBbOQRISv9kCmJvdb/w400-h305/Night%20Tide%20-%20Blue%20Grotto.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The inevitable conundrum is that the amusement park also provides an environment where more ambiguous fantasies, like the mermaid story, can take root and seem more real. A place that, to some extent, rejects the comforting conformity of the mainstream society can unwittingly become a refuge for criminal behavior, which threatens its own community.</span></div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p style="font-family: inherit;"></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In this case, the sea captain, in love with Mora, has
invented the mermaid story, working on “her young, pliable mind.” Despite her
belief in the legend, she had “an independent will,” insisting on living by
herself and having boyfriends, whom he killed out of jealousy, then convinced
her she’d done it in a trance state. The whole idea of the siren, a kind of
black widow or <i>femme fatale </i>who is dangerous to the men who love her, is all a
fiction created by a man who wants power over her, as a red herring for his own
crimes of jealousy and possessiveness. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In the end, the “exotic” beauty, while an innocent victim,
meets a tragic end, and her lover begins to appreciate the charms of the nice,
normal girl who’s still there, proving that even in a more imaginative world,
the conventions of the mainstream culture are still in force.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><o:p style="font-family: inherit;"></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgii2UZd3GMraCrYJ0WDEI2FhEGneSUvqIp4xnrxcH12qZ_gfXiH-oCRd8MX4D-d4IkgG38r1gU9pHW411Lkf-by1fdEbxsBn1YIrcqoz62wduybwshVShuUNUGGlO6r3486SHfT7fDsniFQ8u0IMMrHKsfqIeaSI3zz8JSbGVcNSiy_SmTcXP3yq9O/s500/Night%20Tide%20-%20carnival%20ride.jpg" style="font-family: inherit; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="384" data-original-width="500" height="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgii2UZd3GMraCrYJ0WDEI2FhEGneSUvqIp4xnrxcH12qZ_gfXiH-oCRd8MX4D-d4IkgG38r1gU9pHW411Lkf-by1fdEbxsBn1YIrcqoz62wduybwshVShuUNUGGlO6r3486SHfT7fDsniFQ8u0IMMrHKsfqIeaSI3zz8JSbGVcNSiy_SmTcXP3yq9O/w400-h308/Night%20Tide%20-%20carnival%20ride.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Night Tide</i> was
filmed in 1960 on location at the Santa Monica Pier and the Ocean Park Pier, as
well as Venice and other SoCal locations. For anyone interested, there’s a
whole book about the complex built at the Ocean Park Pier, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pacific Ocean Park: the Rise and Fall of Los Angeles’ Space-Age
Nautical Pleasure Pier,</i> by Christopher Merritt and Domenic Priore. Full of
fabulous, full-color vintage graphics, it tells us that the pier was “a vibrant
and gaudy mixture of carny rides, suspicious characters and games of chance
that weren’t always above the board—but it was exceptional in its own sordid
way” (p. 254).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The history of these seaside amusement parks seems to have
been of perpetual upheaval, and the period of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Night Tide’s</i> filming coincided with the start of development to upgrade
the area, from working-class to upscale, in a five-year process that began in
1959. The neighborhood contained “cheap hotels and weathered restaurants dating
back to the early 1900s. Populated by working families and a large retired
Jewish community … This was in direct contrast to the look the City of Santa
Monica wanted …” (p. 144). In interviews, former locals lament the loss of
the kind of community seen in the film; in its own way, a part of restless and
ambitious American life.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgq_N0MCGtx9kkNsxmjQ-szKnGYUNdg4oiYdfWz4ncnVNHzOGgto7m3MyqOoxG5nHrebY0YXfaQlkyZNO6HKfTHc-ZdkNi9_4_gP7nN6VrTaP8CUohO9c04wMS6qNPav60ukgDC-2TMG5rFBG2CnJ754x42Oya2zDu9CsAnFLkUmrEfNpYBEdH7GsP/s499/Nigh%20Tide%20-%20Poe.jpg" style="font-family: inherit; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="384" data-original-width="499" height="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgq_N0MCGtx9kkNsxmjQ-szKnGYUNdg4oiYdfWz4ncnVNHzOGgto7m3MyqOoxG5nHrebY0YXfaQlkyZNO6HKfTHc-ZdkNi9_4_gP7nN6VrTaP8CUohO9c04wMS6qNPav60ukgDC-2TMG5rFBG2CnJ754x42Oya2zDu9CsAnFLkUmrEfNpYBEdH7GsP/w400-h308/Nigh%20Tide%20-%20Poe.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>Anarchivisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06599522097057431891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246957333917525824.post-24646792164331695642023-02-09T05:44:00.002-06:002023-02-09T05:54:17.780-06:00Oh Black Water, Keep On Rolling<span style="font-style: italic;">Kala Pani</span> (1958)
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-Ffzc1XhjKw_cyjCWmfgr2reJoY3KL0wpfY4v6GBhtqEDwyZs7MpwUvqz2SDqgyrTDNZxkxAFfsDqCFtDXseMQJr1fdybmbzhVWBiGHF5WXdZv6rXM0bg53uZNYLNmnDJvPNm7YU8Ygg/s1600/Kala+Pani+-+drama+of+love+2.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5631836855138674546" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-Ffzc1XhjKw_cyjCWmfgr2reJoY3KL0wpfY4v6GBhtqEDwyZs7MpwUvqz2SDqgyrTDNZxkxAFfsDqCFtDXseMQJr1fdybmbzhVWBiGHF5WXdZv6rXM0bg53uZNYLNmnDJvPNm7YU8Ygg/s400/Kala+Pani+-+drama+of+love+2.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a>Okay, <span style="font-style: italic;">Kala Pani </span>doesn't refer to actual "Black Water" in this case (it's named after a prison, and the film title is usually translated as <span style="font-style: italic;">Life Imprisonment</span>), but it put the song in my head, so it's share and share alike.
Young Karan's mother has always told him that his father is respectably dead, and he emotes furiously when he learns the truth -- he's actually undergoing "rigorous life imprisonment" for murdering a dancer in a brothel. He rushes to the prison, and after hearing the story, devotes himself to proving that his father was falsely accused. Because Karan is played by Dev Anand, his crusade almost immediately gets him emotionally entangled with Kishori, Hyderabad's Most Famous Courtesan (Nalini Jayawant), and Asha, Hyderabad's Most Beautiful Landlord's Niece (Madhubala).
In his furious urgency to free his father, Karan rushes to a newspaper office to research the details of the crime, but then has the good sense to be distracted upon meeting their Chief Reporter (who is, by the way, busy telling callers that it's only a rumor about man landing on the moon: "Till now Russia has not sent any man up in the Sputnik").
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCtqPViR9_ppOeFI3k05T6QPWWbVmsGDE4d9Lm5dFZavrs81FT2r57OW1wdeghJRdNxA9Ery3chun94yM10FuIoa8EihfpdANJk68CdJkzDdNHCmpau8CcKYOCOSYPTD-8fvPlNqcQG_M/s1600/Kala+Pani+-+Madhubala+3.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5631835559633424306" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCtqPViR9_ppOeFI3k05T6QPWWbVmsGDE4d9Lm5dFZavrs81FT2r57OW1wdeghJRdNxA9Ery3chun94yM10FuIoa8EihfpdANJk68CdJkzDdNHCmpau8CcKYOCOSYPTD-8fvPlNqcQG_M/s400/Kala+Pani+-+Madhubala+3.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieIF_avYQV6xvstyKh_WWOzEx5eoZPIpVbrd_IRBBDJXoSvbszZnmyU4tnntLZba0DB2Kj_ByRYwOktyRwr5UdFyFLii1FNIrFlcnRO-odn7ta-vHWLNMjUlZCxRWZfAmq4IX3SnXUs4w/s1600/Kala+Pani+-+Dev+astonished.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5631835775051142786" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieIF_avYQV6xvstyKh_WWOzEx5eoZPIpVbrd_IRBBDJXoSvbszZnmyU4tnntLZba0DB2Kj_ByRYwOktyRwr5UdFyFLii1FNIrFlcnRO-odn7ta-vHWLNMjUlZCxRWZfAmq4IX3SnXUs4w/s400/Kala+Pani+-+Dev+astonished.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a>The investigation well underway, Karan goes undercover to meet Kishori, at which point I was totally distracted by her makeup, which was very like a teenage trend in the late 1990s. I was teaching Freshman Comp at 7:30 in the morning, and couldn't believe those girls would bother to glitter themselves up at that hour.
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCWD1kpjuywncFjcnIUnVEm4wlOHk3VhKlWe14Dty9lA-spJqNeL2I062hD83vueyYfybU_oJAWWZJjLOdBmjkx2RwFFyZDjttGD71GuTiVnOMp6iA6Z_JWhgmKsZekYH6Mihh_y-QkK8/s1600/Kala+Pani+-+Nalini+glittery.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5631836327362741010" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCWD1kpjuywncFjcnIUnVEm4wlOHk3VhKlWe14Dty9lA-spJqNeL2I062hD83vueyYfybU_oJAWWZJjLOdBmjkx2RwFFyZDjttGD71GuTiVnOMp6iA6Z_JWhgmKsZekYH6Mihh_y-QkK8/s400/Kala+Pani+-+Nalini+glittery.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a>Nalini Jayawant is so sympathetic as the courtesan who really believes Karan is going to marry her and take her away from all this, I completely forgot that she let an innocent man go to prison (so she could live on the proceeds from blackmailing the real killer) until he threw it back in her face. I still found it pretty unlikeable how he toyed with her emotions.
But frankly, the reason I watched this movie was because of the song "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAUAluS5_sg">Acha ji main hari chalo</a>," which was so adorable, I wished there was a lot more romantic frolicking, and a lot less anguish about justice. Not that I didn't enjoy it, and I especially liked Kishore Sahu, who was much sexier than Dev as the mysterious and powerful lawyer Rai Bahadur Jaswant Rai.
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpMQX4iDWzuld72neMHmyxf55kD8guiCfGjQtfbflN223i6xryjy792UBEQX5Cp6FUu5TKk7wN28AT5AXU5W8auRwaHTfGW3qVLz3ewfFDO61mNo9pYn_rIywvqbYBr-zQ6gvEnsgcyNw/s1600/Kala+Pani+-+Kishore+Sahu+at+window+3.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5631836564872730450" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpMQX4iDWzuld72neMHmyxf55kD8guiCfGjQtfbflN223i6xryjy792UBEQX5Cp6FUu5TKk7wN28AT5AXU5W8auRwaHTfGW3qVLz3ewfFDO61mNo9pYn_rIywvqbYBr-zQ6gvEnsgcyNw/s400/Kala+Pani+-+Kishore+Sahu+at+window+3.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a>Too bad that year's Filmfares didn't have a "Best Scowl" category.Anarchivisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06599522097057431891noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246957333917525824.post-28792690315726386072022-10-14T12:42:00.002-05:002023-06-21T12:42:28.706-05:00Evil Dies Eventually<div class="separator"><p>"That nutbag lives a highly flammable lifestyle." -- neighbor about Laurie Strode in <i>Halloween Kills</i></p></div><p>(Spoilers for <i>Halloween Kills</i> and <i>Halloween: 20 Years Later</i>) </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMnkPSFdK8NgkfcdqONJ95OwnJBBPlgEU1FIHAYz72ofUyL8MLg66BNZBI5vMehtSPfzbAc7YqwvIJhskpV816bO2_7CSFsKyQf3pFWln1VQqeES-EMi43GYueipiH2a2jM0nM16T96s3B8xhLTfwKVoBrSOqDCzpy6b2a3Gu9t5A9Pqnc-LnP4DKI/s1176/Halloween%20Ends%20-%20Michael.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="489" data-original-width="1176" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMnkPSFdK8NgkfcdqONJ95OwnJBBPlgEU1FIHAYz72ofUyL8MLg66BNZBI5vMehtSPfzbAc7YqwvIJhskpV816bO2_7CSFsKyQf3pFWln1VQqeES-EMi43GYueipiH2a2jM0nM16T96s3B8xhLTfwKVoBrSOqDCzpy6b2a3Gu9t5A9Pqnc-LnP4DKI/w640-h266/Halloween%20Ends%20-%20Michael.PNG" width="640" /></a> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">(NOTE: Not only did I hesitate about seeing <i>Halloween Kills</i>, but I hesitated in finishing the blog post! Mostly completed in November 2021, except for the ending. We'll see if I have a better reaction to <i>Halloween Ends</i>).<br /></div><p></p><p>All through the Halloween season I hesitated about seeing <i>Halloween Kills</i>, mostly because the reviews, and people I follow on Twitter who know their stuff, were pretty dubious about it. But now that we're into November, with weekend plans that fell through and still one matinee showing, I was suddenly in the mood. </p><p>I'm admitting my bias upfront: <i>Halloween: 20 Years Later</i> (aka H20) is far and away the superior version of this basic story: Laurie confronts her trauma and faces Michael once and for all. It had great Halloween ambience, and Laurie's decisions -- moving across the country, changing her name -- were sound responses to the belief that an unstoppable killer was obsessed with her. And it frankly screwed the needs of the franchise by having the most satisfying possible ending to the saga. I'll reserve judgment until <i>Halloween Ends</i> (ha! I'll believe that when I see it!) comes out, but it's pretty hard to believe that it can contain anything to top the moment she grabs that ax and screams "Michael!" I mean, even if she conclusively defeats him ... she already has! </p><p>Of course it's always great to see Jamie Lee Curtis, and Judy Greer was a welcome addition to the franchise, so for better or worse, we got more of her. Who knew I wanted to see Judy Greer wielding a gun and kicking ass? But so far, these new movies have shown Laurie Strode, the most beloved heroine in horror history, utterly wasting her life and getting everyone around her killed for no real reason.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXkXhZhXNyt7pW2STc_KocPn9sSErGw7dPf63Sg64iQ5g4IqodT2NV3v78zJKY_ZcU_rDIXgLliKwFZ8fN230lX6HA0zC09HvM3P3Y85o56qlh3z4KBzD4nOieShuaHdrA2UaOvVOb2CczHlA-j0TTXFO1YIfUp3t7jNjslcBYKyl7eNpBCQGQyK1u/s1260/Halloween%20Ends%20-%20Karen%20gun.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="535" data-original-width="1260" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXkXhZhXNyt7pW2STc_KocPn9sSErGw7dPf63Sg64iQ5g4IqodT2NV3v78zJKY_ZcU_rDIXgLliKwFZ8fN230lX6HA0zC09HvM3P3Y85o56qlh3z4KBzD4nOieShuaHdrA2UaOvVOb2CczHlA-j0TTXFO1YIfUp3t7jNjslcBYKyl7eNpBCQGQyK1u/w640-h272/Halloween%20Ends%20-%20Karen%20gun.PNG" width="640" /></a></div><p>I'm trying to be less nit-picky about things: movies are movies and they do things in order to tell a visual story in a compressed time frame. I've seen one too many killjoy YouTube videos, and I don't want to be like those people. But sometimes it's just too egregious! So, seriously people: hospitals don't put dead bodies in rooms right next to where they admit patients. They have morgues for this purpose, which are out of sight. </p><p>Bonus complaints about this: the bodies lying around in that room, visible to passers-by, were from the first wave of killings, so there's no way the staff was overwhelmed at the time. And even if they were: those characters were definitively, unambiguously dead long before they were brought there. It's not like they brought them to the ER, they died, and then they needed to be moved. So they'd have been brought directly to the morgue, which would have a separate entrance. More specific complaint: even if you were putting dead bodies in a visible room on a busy corridor, the room in question has BLINDS, which could easily be closed, but are not. Notification of family, schmotification of family! Medical facilities have protocols for every step of this situation (up until the time a torch-and-pitchfork mob breaks out), so when all this is over, somebody in Haddonfield is almost certainly getting sued.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFEGsrrZGibnivjtdcl1Uw5sqObi84cbE1seQvD0iW3I5NH9tkVOmL0d7RFQ1IJk5TkS9uB-uEYBPsUuGmCXJJTTI_7f8LGukTyr4U1W2fTLy85osJpaBgC-CcvJ_IjEg3XftHCD96q7Cg_qzcwtYvqENqN6ChWEuJcEuoxTXAHq0ymKwD61SQhWPt/s1270/Halloween%20Ends%20-%20bat.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="511" data-original-width="1270" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFEGsrrZGibnivjtdcl1Uw5sqObi84cbE1seQvD0iW3I5NH9tkVOmL0d7RFQ1IJk5TkS9uB-uEYBPsUuGmCXJJTTI_7f8LGukTyr4U1W2fTLy85osJpaBgC-CcvJ_IjEg3XftHCD96q7Cg_qzcwtYvqENqN6ChWEuJcEuoxTXAHq0ymKwD61SQhWPt/w640-h258/Halloween%20Ends%20-%20bat.PNG" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p>I knew there was going to be some mob-mentality stuff, and I wasn't as appalled as I thought I'd be. It was funny, though, that the Haddonfield residents decide they've had enough, in the one continuity where nothing has happened there for 40 years. It seems motivated by the residual knowledge that in other timelines, he's killed a lot more people and wrecked more havoc, even though it didn't happen in theirs. In this timeline, Michael killed his sister in 1963, and then killed four people in 1978. It's a running gag that younger people only vaguely remember any of this, and the trick-or-treating kids haven't heard of it even as an urban legend. Tommy specifically got some people in a bar riled up with his story, but the idea that Michael has been "terrorizing the town" for 40 years is beyond absurd. </p><p>Yes, they're probably going for something with this, with the whole "mirror image" thing, but come on, we've seen a normal town turning into a mob in <i>ParaNorman</i>, and that seems a lot more organic and way better motivated. <br /></p><p>The film is also puzzlingly interested in Lonnie, the kid who picked on Tommy Doyle in the original Halloween and got scared away from the Myers house by Dr. Loomis. I'm not sure why, although I'm relieved that the sequel dropped the confusing stuff about how the grown-up Lonnie and his family are in a cult (present in the 2018 film's novelization, where it seemed plunked in for no apparent reason and was never explained, just mentioned enough to confuse us). Showing him in flashback, bullied by weird kids who make a point of saying their family name, the Mullaneys, was an odd choice. (No, that doesn't come from any of the previous movies, so you didn't miss anything). Maybe it's a thing about how the bully can get bullied by others, when he's apart from the gang? But he seems very vulnerable, more Tommy-like, not like a kid who had been swaggering around town with his friends all night, bullying other kids, until just before this encounter. <br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQhP4BPW_KZlBHkj5vP9a3XOE9U-3NOxaR3kXGccVkd0_19LQxuZEysNdz3BAKF4299ErrL5GX6WO4OpTxtzAFtoj-n1WBqX5bIpRiNgUYNtmbte7u-XIiAVA0fyhNnR1OqkFwsxletH2ZQIUy3unwWt5on-_1gxQK6u55OmqF9QlWzbAj-cnRAGPm/s1260/Halloween%20Ends%20mask.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="474" data-original-width="1260" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQhP4BPW_KZlBHkj5vP9a3XOE9U-3NOxaR3kXGccVkd0_19LQxuZEysNdz3BAKF4299ErrL5GX6WO4OpTxtzAFtoj-n1WBqX5bIpRiNgUYNtmbte7u-XIiAVA0fyhNnR1OqkFwsxletH2ZQIUy3unwWt5on-_1gxQK6u55OmqF9QlWzbAj-cnRAGPm/w640-h240/Halloween%20Ends%20mask.PNG" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p>This random plot thread, though, makes me wonder if there's a connection to the obnoxious modern-day trick-or-treaters. In the past and in the present day, there's a group of three kids who are being jerks to everyone. Maybe this is just a "the more things change" piece of background business, but I'm kind of worried they're going to make something out of it. </p><p>It's also hard to watch "slow-walking Michael stalks running victim" scenes with a straight face in a post-Leslie Vernon world. If you don't know what I'm talking about, go watch <i>Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon</i> ASAP.</p><p>Overall, some of the choices in this movie retroactively made me more critical of the 2018 <i>Halloween</i> reboot, which I had liked well enough on first watching, but that seemed to fall apart the more I thought about it. Now we're on the eve of <i>Halloween Ends</i> (again: HA!), and I'm still wanting to like it. I've come to appreciate <i>Halloweens 4</i> and <i>5</i>, for Pete's sake, so it's not impossible that this series can redeem itself. Or at least give me a few scenes, a few images, to add to the lore. It's possible, right?<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiYoX1Ie-GWSNmsdbqG9xohiUGxMs4kK2BB3hn4p2L-JRtknuSdOZwl3x8v13W8md2yUPw9WxSIDk12ybuhujNP_dc8RrFpGSo02YnJgUNDN-NpIV9ndA0VjClwYHZwa11GcPm-7UHVmxZLbMLimC-JUN0PfqfZtlEGXiSHb1Lys43iY7XVpFSx28g/s680/Halloween%20Ends%20-%20Lynda.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="669" data-original-width="680" height="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiYoX1Ie-GWSNmsdbqG9xohiUGxMs4kK2BB3hn4p2L-JRtknuSdOZwl3x8v13W8md2yUPw9WxSIDk12ybuhujNP_dc8RrFpGSo02YnJgUNDN-NpIV9ndA0VjClwYHZwa11GcPm-7UHVmxZLbMLimC-JUN0PfqfZtlEGXiSHb1Lys43iY7XVpFSx28g/w320-h315/Halloween%20Ends%20-%20Lynda.jpg" width="320" /></a> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">(Image from the Lynda Van Der Klok Twitter account: <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">@TotallyLyndaV)</span></div><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Anarchivisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06599522097057431891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246957333917525824.post-43522456313360129042022-05-06T12:34:00.001-05:002022-05-06T12:34:25.861-05:00Steps to Make Things Better<p class="MsoNormal">This is not a catchy name that’s likely to catch on, but I
don’t have a better one yet. If you have suggestions, let me know!
</p><p class="MsoNormal">You absolutely don’t have to get carried away with any of these
steps (and there’s no reason to be jerks to be people who aren’t following
them, since you don’t know their circumstances). The idea is to do what you can!
So here it is.</p>
<ul style="text-align: left;"><li>If you can do it or produce it
yourself, do that. <br /></li><li>If you can get it from small,
non-corporate sources, do that.</li><li>If you can get it locally, do
that. </li><li>If you can fix it or reuse it, do
that.</li><li>If you can do something without
using electricity, do that.</li><li>If you can do something without
driving a car, do that.</li></ul>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" QFormat="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" QFormat="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" QFormat="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" QFormat="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="41" Name="Plain Table 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="42" Name="Plain Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="43" Name="Plain Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="44" Name="Plain Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="45" Name="Plain Table 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="40" Name="Grid Table Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="Grid Table 1 Light"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
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<![endif]--><p class="MsoNormal">In practical terms, this would mean: if you can bake your
own bread, do it. (I can’t, and I don’t feel bad about that). If you can buy
your bread from a local, non-corporate business, do it. (I can, and often do).
But if the only bread available is from a national chain store, that’s fine!
You’re always working within your current situation. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The working title of these steps was “American Swaraj,”
based on Gandhi’s ideas of self-governance, but applied to our serfdom under modern
capitalism rather than being under the official rule of another country. However,
most people in the U.S. don’t know what “swaraj” means, and Gandhi’s legacy is
complicated, so it’s not going to work in the long run. “Self-reliance” doesn’t
seem quite right, especially since in the U.S., it more suggests a single,
highly independent person, not a community that has collective self-reliance.
So the “branding” (LOL) is a work in progress.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">My ideas about “swaraj,” whatever we call it, are largely
summed up in this anecdote: “Some advice that Gandhi once gave to a colleague …
(who) wondered: what can one individual do to emancipate India? ‘Please do not
carry unnecessarily on your head the burden of emancipating India’, Gandhi wrote
back. ‘Emancipate your own self. Even that burden is very great. Apply
everything to yourself. Nobility of soul consists in realizing that you are
yourself India. In your emancipation is the emancipation of India. All else is
make-believe’. (<i>Collected Works</i> 10: 206-7). Quoted in <i>Hind Swaraj and
Other Writings</i>, p. lxii.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Right? We can’t save the world, or the nation, whatever that
even means anymore. When we make our own contribution to doing things better,
even that burden is very great. So don’t beat yourself up, and don’t beat up
other people! That’s a start!</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Stay tuned for more along these lines. </p>
Anarchivisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06599522097057431891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246957333917525824.post-76037102551303559352021-12-24T08:47:00.000-06:002021-12-24T08:47:18.266-06:00"Christmas Evil" is "Joker": only better!<p>Welcome to my seasonal hot take, based on a recent re-watch of the 1980 classic <i>Christmas Evil,</i> in its clean and shiny new Blu-Ray form, where it looks unexpectedly beautiful. Thanks, <a href="https://vinegarsyndrome.com/">Vinegar Syndrome</a>, you're the best! While I enjoyed the movie in the past as a mix of campy violence and late-70s grittiness, this time I was struck by the story's resemblance to the 2019's critically acclaimed <i>Joker</i>. Maybe that very acclaim made me rethink it. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi6H4AhExKrztovtcI-nRSC1NBd8DoOnqz_nHWjAhnj_S9R8yKHGTUEoJbeMvgYFIpOyeOr8duJPhVONNuJCge3hjJTuDKuIpgV11Kuq8qYt-_u9aEWiofvGENiHajrdcJEGDzOeOC-2TTn1WvKIOZbzX-AlTMpp9XixexCcCOgeXILTd57xLBK8fEg=s432" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="227" data-original-width="432" height="336" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi6H4AhExKrztovtcI-nRSC1NBd8DoOnqz_nHWjAhnj_S9R8yKHGTUEoJbeMvgYFIpOyeOr8duJPhVONNuJCge3hjJTuDKuIpgV11Kuq8qYt-_u9aEWiofvGENiHajrdcJEGDzOeOC-2TTn1WvKIOZbzX-AlTMpp9XixexCcCOgeXILTd57xLBK8fEg=w640-h336" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p>So hear me out. Both movies are character studies about mentally ill loners, living realistically drab lives in uncaring cities. Under stress, the obsessions that sustain them develop into full-on delusional states. As they begin to act out their fantasies, some people view them as in some way heroic, which reinforces their delusions, and since the audience is inside their perspectives, we're inclined to sympathize with them, even though they start committing murders.</p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhCY6Gz5tRstIFo-eF9bwp1sFpyJcFR4dTmztpdREs3S1KlFInFQEIq0rsdpMa2QMRqw6SDRtixFmJy_0lA2rWSuna_jO6uJ1KYfBS7miQAG3IZGQIany9IGJQwgV5GqstTrOy1mXkLzoAkkdmP3CM4Ck1aGNTvIawjD6838Ku17zEHo6HD00PwlI39=s430" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="239" data-original-width="430" height="356" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhCY6Gz5tRstIFo-eF9bwp1sFpyJcFR4dTmztpdREs3S1KlFInFQEIq0rsdpMa2QMRqw6SDRtixFmJy_0lA2rWSuna_jO6uJ1KYfBS7miQAG3IZGQIany9IGJQwgV5GqstTrOy1mXkLzoAkkdmP3CM4Ck1aGNTvIawjD6838Ku17zEHo6HD00PwlI39=w640-h356" width="640" /></a></p><p></p><p>For me, <i>Christmas Evil</i> is a much more subtle and nuanced take on this basic shared story. It doesn't feel the need to over-dramatize the plight of hapless Harry, who mostly just wants to believe that Santa Claus is real, even if he has to become Santa himself to make that happen. He has a decent job, with a recent promotion, and a tense but intact relationship with his brother. Some of his co-workers rag on him, but others are friendly. People think he's a little strange, but especially in the build-up, it's not over the top. This provides a much better depiction of mental illness. For him, it's a low-key background radiation in his life that eventually comes to dominate him. </p><p><i>Joker</i>, by contrast, gives its protagonist Arthur much more dramatically visible symptoms, and really piles on his problems and traumas. After all, he becomes the Joker, or at least a Joker, with all the flamboyance that suggests. The Joker is always in some way over the top. It's not even necessarily unrealistic, but it feels a lot broader, a lot more obvious. And that's the difference between a film that's trying to evoke a late-70s New York feeling, and one made in the late '70s, with New York actors in real New Jersey locations, during a time when a film like this could be made without any glossiness. <i>Christmas Evil </i>is an absurd story full of campy violence (and that torch-wielding mob is still a wonder to behold!), but I think it succeeds in doing what <i>Joker </i>was trying to do, in a more grounded way. </p><p>Too bad it never got its Academy Award nomination.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgRls8aBZe38Z0EaHWlLFSut7ZU_WWzmpoUncR0EHUDqvM_TdMUHWh80VtVdKNAjRnfrtjB42hkTiajLQzQHFrfG09f-Z582G2XPntKRjkSTTxKjOI_u5WQw4OVrjBcP7F29MR0WfsjGQMmByJGDuwXLBSJIe2lQ1cKvc12x6G7Dfy9Ks2JB22pAYlO=s428" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="241" data-original-width="428" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgRls8aBZe38Z0EaHWlLFSut7ZU_WWzmpoUncR0EHUDqvM_TdMUHWh80VtVdKNAjRnfrtjB42hkTiajLQzQHFrfG09f-Z582G2XPntKRjkSTTxKjOI_u5WQw4OVrjBcP7F29MR0WfsjGQMmByJGDuwXLBSJIe2lQ1cKvc12x6G7Dfy9Ks2JB22pAYlO=w640-h360" width="640" /></a></div><br /> <p></p>Anarchivisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06599522097057431891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246957333917525824.post-77478401167439087102021-10-15T06:34:00.005-05:002022-01-22T06:14:41.095-06:00Halloween in a Suburb: WandaVision<p>The 2021 Halloween episode of Marvel's <i>WandaVision </i>aired in February, which will probably lead to it being neglected in this season's viewings. It doesn't help that it takes place in the middle of a heavily serialized storyline, so it can't function well as a stand-alone one to watch for Halloween. Nonetheless, its ambience is fantastic; up there, in my opinion, with <i>Trick 'r Treat</i> and the opening shot of <i>H20: Halloween Twenty Years Later</i>. </p><p>For those who haven't watched <i>WandaVision</i>, its format is that each episode mimics the style of TV sitcoms from a particular time, from <i>The Dick Van Dyke Show </i>era to that of <i>Modern Family</i>. These recreations are meticulous, not just in the wardrobe and set decoration, but also the lighting, camera angles -- everything. This episode, "All-New Halloween Spooktacular!," clearly evokes <i>Malcolm in the Middle </i>as its primary influence, and that chaotic energy is perfect for Halloween, with shaving cream pranks and smashed pumpkins, courtesy of Wanda's visiting brother, dubbed "a man-child" by the precocious Malcolm-like narrator. Wanda and Vision dress in kitschy costume versions of their original outfits from the comics, and a whole panorama of neighborhood kids trick or treat in broad daylight. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQwtz_dEFmAMEJ1PBgV5P7VYX1Uq5Okk1ImqbMY_Y26B9t5Argz2MThyRoU694xjtRZP5hczh0WwqD2wMdiqeG25Mj7syXCj7nO5Rq3MjWW1dmfDkljryMSeXtIdmtP-qcA-B3qJCAEQc/s425/WandaVision+-+neighborhood+-+pumpkins+smashed.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="233" data-original-width="425" height="350" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQwtz_dEFmAMEJ1PBgV5P7VYX1Uq5Okk1ImqbMY_Y26B9t5Argz2MThyRoU694xjtRZP5hczh0WwqD2wMdiqeG25Mj7syXCj7nO5Rq3MjWW1dmfDkljryMSeXtIdmtP-qcA-B3qJCAEQc/w640-h350/WandaVision+-+neighborhood+-+pumpkins+smashed.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p>Later, they attend the delightfully named "Town Square Scare," complete with a hay bale maze and goofy inflatables.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS9XtIYN0pg9uzpgo9DDjhsKMkFbh74ctCecS2jfEDwbGKIfRB8hyphenhyphen0wD9wLQb9vFn8k6C3WsIvo3KmhehMjUM3bTd7iKF6QKYV0KGNxKCzgOkoBusi9rlR00EA4QOPaypOhsFpWLVxWw8/s430/WandaVision+-+town+square.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="233" data-original-width="430" height="346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS9XtIYN0pg9uzpgo9DDjhsKMkFbh74ctCecS2jfEDwbGKIfRB8hyphenhyphen0wD9wLQb9vFn8k6C3WsIvo3KmhehMjUM3bTd7iKF6QKYV0KGNxKCzgOkoBusi9rlR00EA4QOPaypOhsFpWLVxWw8/w640-h346/WandaVision+-+town+square.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivdSYecz1yIJ9AroX3nPNqybYmBmM_-6PleOVWfxuxuBcZiqgXNwe23IXPALgv_MpVW11BtbIUI3r7XZgwTJv8jgiOicdYNiTDPwqDADOoHeO8l7OUBxS7K4SV7m8YCUsFfr886W3boHE/s740/Wandavision+-+Town+Square+Scare.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="416" data-original-width="740" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivdSYecz1yIJ9AroX3nPNqybYmBmM_-6PleOVWfxuxuBcZiqgXNwe23IXPALgv_MpVW11BtbIUI3r7XZgwTJv8jgiOicdYNiTDPwqDADOoHeO8l7OUBxS7K4SV7m8YCUsFfr886W3boHE/w640-h360/Wandavision+-+Town+Square+Scare.png" width="640" /></a> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">But true to the spirit of the season, under the colorful paper decorations, cartoony blow-molds, and kid-friendly atmosphere, it's really about darkness, loss, and death. Pressed on the alternate reality she seems to have created, Wanda describes the origin pretty bleakly: "I only remember feeling completely alone. Empty. Just -- endless nothingness." </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Away from his family, Vision experiences a different kind of ambience: the darkness on the edge of town. His scenes are truly eerie, as he moves from scenes of frolic and fun to ones where people seem trapped in a kind of purgatory, against a background of night darkening over increasingly more isolated suburban homes. <br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgewTfafQT6bTiODag9HxtYufMUp0YayzEoYs2426Xz3dBcqaOo4eKd4CjZ32patwrJpsqFUfjjK6pr29p7H6iOUqbX2-1ur4kWPeK7BoyqOIx44B83SP8lQIlkV6OammiC8DHcANZ3uCo/s680/Vision+Halloween+4.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="255" data-original-width="680" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgewTfafQT6bTiODag9HxtYufMUp0YayzEoYs2426Xz3dBcqaOo4eKd4CjZ32patwrJpsqFUfjjK6pr29p7H6iOUqbX2-1ur4kWPeK7BoyqOIx44B83SP8lQIlkV6OammiC8DHcANZ3uCo/w640-h240/Vision+Halloween+4.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwXHitdg2m6TuKkYFokwEeD-WaDY59x2C-m8vHI718fxYgQGB0QoBINJdXln_fRF-z2uJXW6Y7lWa-ykGGE0wUch2FJDuz4wzunppUtmEDHBN0f8A08_lwh_fWyCBYYFlCEh4s9-jUoc0/s433/WandaVision+-+edge+of+town.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="433" height="354" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwXHitdg2m6TuKkYFokwEeD-WaDY59x2C-m8vHI718fxYgQGB0QoBINJdXln_fRF-z2uJXW6Y7lWa-ykGGE0wUch2FJDuz4wzunppUtmEDHBN0f8A08_lwh_fWyCBYYFlCEh4s9-jUoc0/w640-h354/WandaVision+-+edge+of+town.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The houses are lit up with decorations, but that only highlights the darkness and emptiness of the world.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLmuHfx7l2CuMrgsLb-CpBLC26f-LRA-sKgH_DIywEHxmqBTx5rIPv9Zud4pBfp1q1hwd3kzxfPwg60fxldxgUcMMgG2SKBYfj2xb4xkSx92V2HQ2Mc0my1KiuZHdPo9AzdWvH6QaYFhY/s429/WandaVision+-+edge+of+town+2.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="236" data-original-width="429" height="352" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLmuHfx7l2CuMrgsLb-CpBLC26f-LRA-sKgH_DIywEHxmqBTx5rIPv9Zud4pBfp1q1hwd3kzxfPwg60fxldxgUcMMgG2SKBYfj2xb4xkSx92V2HQ2Mc0my1KiuZHdPo9AzdWvH6QaYFhY/w640-h352/WandaVision+-+edge+of+town+2.JPG" width="640" /></a></div> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The entire sequence of Vision walking alone through Westview, to the empty fields near the city limits, is gorgeously unsettling, backed by an equally eerie piece of soundtrack music aptly titled "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgPnk6o7KNg">Dead or Alive</a>." The orange plastic gives way to the uncanny, right in the middle of what's so often thought of the safest of places. A whole spectrum of what Halloween contains.<br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><p></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><br /><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Anarchivisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06599522097057431891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246957333917525824.post-83010762643063239082021-09-30T07:00:00.025-05:002022-01-22T06:14:50.058-06:00All I Have to do is Scream<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSO6ijtTUCaqONCQY5C-qpJfSBhEaxrPOo_lcU5k1FproLOQyoCE2szPZji0K2m-K60wUjC9TOxciY8gWIrfEyjH5Y7ElhyphenhyphenmK5qGlKVhwt6qZ1bF94YhsavfO9nUxL7wsH8qh_asNnIAE/s1040/Scream+posters.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="382" data-original-width="1040" height="237" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSO6ijtTUCaqONCQY5C-qpJfSBhEaxrPOo_lcU5k1FproLOQyoCE2szPZji0K2m-K60wUjC9TOxciY8gWIrfEyjH5Y7ElhyphenhyphenmK5qGlKVhwt6qZ1bF94YhsavfO9nUxL7wsH8qh_asNnIAE/w640-h237/Scream+posters.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p>Spoilers for all the existing <i>Scream </i>movies, plus an assumption of familiarity. <br /></p><p>We just did a re-watch, and I had completely forgotten that <i>Scream 5</i> is in the works until we were midway through. I’m sure I’ll see it, but I don’t know how I feel about it. It’s a unique situation in the genre to have four films with the same director, a consistent core cast, and three of the four written by the original creator. Even the same composer worked on all the films! The only comparable situation I can think of is the <i>Phantasm </i>films, where four of the five had the original director/creator, and all five starred Reggie Bannister and Angus Scrimm. So I have mixed feelings about <i>Scream </i>returning without Wes Craven at the helm, even if the series had the usual diminishing returns. Neve Campbell, David Arquette, and Courteney Cox are all set to return, along with <i>Scream 4</i>’s Marley Shelton … and I swear to God if there’s a love triangle I’ll, well, scream. It’s being directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, and written by Tyler Gillett, the team who did<i> Ready or Not</i>, so that's promising. In the meantime:<br /></p><div><p><i>Scream </i>(1996)</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZW4a_maFx4kC7bnxAs8Z5rPl-QL-6NcSLEqtYRLPfJ28OscB58r0QrOGqsgOOkSUiFuufOLaOEVeGKOg0gKXaBykhqDTs23aXC9mBQ_TzRyFf9ARfisBff2T9tck3T2dTXd2TLQ0f1pM/s427/Scream+-+bitch+went+down.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="179" data-original-width="427" height="269" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZW4a_maFx4kC7bnxAs8Z5rPl-QL-6NcSLEqtYRLPfJ28OscB58r0QrOGqsgOOkSUiFuufOLaOEVeGKOg0gKXaBykhqDTs23aXC9mBQ_TzRyFf9ARfisBff2T9tck3T2dTXd2TLQ0f1pM/w640-h269/Scream+-+bitch+went+down.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p>A slasher full of characters who’ve seen all the horror movies, and base their ideas about a killing spree in their town accordingly. I couldn’t even tell you how many times I’ve seen this. I even bought the score. I used to have a coffee mug! And the script, published as a trade paperback. For the record, I was obsessed with <i>Party of Five</i> in the '90s, but never watched <i>Friends</i>, except an occasional snippet.<br /></p><p>Most frustrating death: I think I’ve been mad about Tatum’s death every time I’ve seen it, all the way back to the first viewing, and I’m still mad. Her "Bam! Bitch went down!" scene, reenacting Sidney slugging Gale with a stuffed bunny, is still super-endearing, as is her general protective instinct toward her friend. And I feel like she should have done more damage with those beer bottles.<br /></p><p>Cringiest moment: The mean girls gossiping about Sidney in the bathroom look way too old, and are so exaggerated, it’s like they’re in a different movie.<br /></p><p>Cameo: Henry Winkler turning up was a real surprise on the first viewing, and he’s pretty fun as the creepy, ultra-vain principal constantly startled by the many mirrors in his office.<br /></p><p>Personal favorite: I enjoy the early stages of the Gale/Dewey relationship. They have a really natural chemistry, easily falling into a rapport, and I like how Gale is clearly flirting with him as a manipulation technique, but that she also enjoys his company and starts genuinely flirting at the same time. It’s all pretty charming. <br /></p><p>The twist: Good, actually. It was certainly a surprise at the time. Billy was such an obvious suspect, slasher conventions made him seem like an obvious red herring. But that convention was the red herring! I’m sure I never believed it was the father, though, so I honestly don’t remember who I thought the killer was.<br /></p><p><i>Scream 2</i> (1997)</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2REc5C-gtuETVxCHoL-x10PGpMi1Vyg2Xcfu8K-t4A4gunbZad4JHJ0oc3HXbUEQr_UbYvPSeSAb1Qi8UnoFwMbn4z2sv6WTFcOmz13SVq1bJ-afMfhm0EksIZpOTDXY6e7wl8vhCyJs/s424/Scream+-+Mickey+with+gun.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="190" data-original-width="424" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2REc5C-gtuETVxCHoL-x10PGpMi1Vyg2Xcfu8K-t4A4gunbZad4JHJ0oc3HXbUEQr_UbYvPSeSAb1Qi8UnoFwMbn4z2sv6WTFcOmz13SVq1bJ-afMfhm0EksIZpOTDXY6e7wl8vhCyJs/w640-h286/Scream+-+Mickey+with+gun.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p>Ghostface goes to college. The survivors of the first film are trying to get on with their lives when people are murdered at the premiere of <i>Stab</i>, a movie based on their ordeal. </p><p>Most frustrating death: Randy. Over time, he’s definitely become the iconic character (far more than any of the killers under the Ghostface mask), especially with his speech about the rules. I guess his death lets us know that nobody’s safe, but still, once he’s gone, some energy goes out of the whole series.</p><p>Cringiest moment: When Derek sings “I Think I Love You” to Sidney in the college cafeteria. Eeg.</p><p>Cameo: Portia de Rossi in an early role as a sunshiny sorority girl, already showing off her comedic skills saying things like: “Hi! I really mean that. Hi!”</p><p>Personal favorite: The final confrontation has some great moments, possibly the best of the series, with Sidney saying that Mickey forgot one thing about his hero, Billy Loomis: “I fucking killed him.” Then Mickey tells Sid she has “a Linda Hamilton thing going … It’s nice. I like it.” That's a compliment near to my heart! Sidney and Gale totally blowing him away with massive overkill is also pretty great. Side note: Timothy Olyphant gives one of the funniest performances of all time in the underrated <i>Santa Clarita Diet</i>, as the uptight suburban dad flummoxed by his wife turning into a zombie, and it’s crazy to remember this as where I first saw him. I wonder if he and Drew Barrymore ever compared notes on their times in the <i>Scream </i>franchise!</p><p>The twist: Already getting to be a bit of a stretch. The presence of Laurie Metcalfe makes you think there's more to this character, but since she excels at playing the everywoman, she could have been a red herring to give Gale more to play off. However, it would have been more of a surprise if Mickey and someone else had just been copycats, and not tied back into that rat-looking mama’s boy, Billy Loomis. Insisting on that muddies the waters. If Mrs. Loomis’ whole motive was to get revenge on Sidney for Billy’s death, she could have killed her way more easily if they hadn’t orchestrated the <i>Stab</i> killings and gotten her into protective custody. I guess she also wanted to torment her and make her suffer, but doing that clearly made it harder to achieve her true goal. <br /></p><p><i>Scream 3</i> (2000)</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjemPH2EYScj7BTKThtgFP2JBAbxYVuq_Q57jkZE-EWhoEo2z2sKohjpIZBYjdP2wPGpt379rDpcalOV_wPaRvAUpENZSBeAIuPtPYtm72hqNafrlt914SGfDMxMvV1EWF0aen1csoBg3E/s427/Scream+-+two+Gales.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="190" data-original-width="427" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjemPH2EYScj7BTKThtgFP2JBAbxYVuq_Q57jkZE-EWhoEo2z2sKohjpIZBYjdP2wPGpt379rDpcalOV_wPaRvAUpENZSBeAIuPtPYtm72hqNafrlt914SGfDMxMvV1EWF0aen1csoBg3E/w640-h285/Scream+-+two+Gales.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p>Cartoonishly meta at points, this one’s set in Hollywood, centered on the set of <i>Stab 3</i>, the sequel-within-a-sequel.</p><p>Most frustrating death: Parker Posey, no doubt. Her Gale Weathers is the best thing in the movie, and I wish the option was open for her to return. </p><p>Cringiest moment: At the time, I’d have named the creepy, stalkery vibe given off by Patrick Dempsey’s red herring cop. But now it’s the existence of a whole casting couch/executives raping young actresses subplot in a Weinstein film. That's really unpleasant.<br /></p><p>Cameo: Despite the presence of Roger Corman, Carrie Fisher, and Jay and Silent Bob, my fave is definitely Heather Matarazzo as Randy’s sister. We should have gotten to see more of her!</p><p>Personal favorite: Everything with the two Gales. “Are you gonna help Gale Weathers or not?”</p><p>The twist: It’s not as egregious as Freddie Krueger suddenly having a wife and daughter he’d never thought about before, six or seven movies in, but it’s getting there. All the <i>Scream </i>killers to this point have had specific blame-the-victim mentalities, which is kind of weird. Sidney’s targeted for having killed someone in self-defense. Her mom was a target because she gave a kid up for adoption, and then had an affair, while the men involved (like her just-as-guilty lover) are barely mentioned, I guess the sleazebag who hosted the party where she was raped does get his throat cut, but it seems more like part of the plot to frame Sid than the killer caring about it. Also, here and in <i>Scream 2</i>, the killers have elaborate plots, contingent on all sorts of coincidence and dumb luck, which involve grooming catspaws to do their killing for them, when they’re perfectly willing to kill people themselves, and no one would have any reason to suspect them. I mean, if Billy and Stu hadn’t been killed in the first movie, they'd have sold out Roman in a second! <br /></p><p><i>Scream 4</i> (2011)</p><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjeViy8gqx8IgfYSjacg0GGL-GtOyTdapv4PtxcF72HobUYHObOd0zzvVgdFkzFPekQ7089pgv0-j4vZykEaFtkx4VPqRngV1YLFMzfjrw9VwOW1MvlJZrQLYnUEM_vuGbGL-7TOKJZUk/s423/Scream+4+-+Anna+Paquin+and+Kristin+Bell.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="185" data-original-width="423" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjeViy8gqx8IgfYSjacg0GGL-GtOyTdapv4PtxcF72HobUYHObOd0zzvVgdFkzFPekQ7089pgv0-j4vZykEaFtkx4VPqRngV1YLFMzfjrw9VwOW1MvlJZrQLYnUEM_vuGbGL-7TOKJZUk/w640-h280/Scream+4+-+Anna+Paquin+and+Kristin+Bell.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p>Somehow this one is so undistinguished, I kept referring to it as <i>Stab 4</i>. Several years later, Sidney returns to Woodsboro on a book tour, on the anniversary of the original murders. She acts above all the exploitative promo stuff, but come on, she knew that wasn’t a coincidence, but timed for maximum press.</p><p>Most frustrating death: Mary McDonnell. Come on! Casting the President of the galaxy just to waste her in such a nothing role is downright bizarre, especially since she functions as a never-before-hinted-at aunt for Sidney right there in Woodsboro. Apparently just to explain why there’s a cousin to position as an heir to scream queendom. But she gets one line about “hey, the murdered Maureen Prescott was my sister, so I have trauma too!” Then a line about shopping when she’s stressed. And then she’s dead. So wasteful. </p><p>Cringiest moment: Maybe the whole vlogging thing? No, wait, it’s the guy who says the only way to know that someone will survive a horror movie these days is if they’re gay. I’m still trying to figure out what his evidence for this is.</p><p>Cameo: Anna Paquin and Kristin Bell from the opening. I am equal parts both characters, so having the “I dunno, I enjoy a dumb scary movie” woman stab the critical, analytical one was like a scene inside my own brain. </p><p>Personal favorite: Alison Brie’s performance really hits the same notes from <i>Community</i>, but it’s admittedly fun to see a version of Annie who’s so foul-mouthed and gleefully insensitive. </p><p>The twist: It’s okay, I guess. I’m not sure I suspected Jill the first time, but it does smack a bit of “the kids today.” Which, to be fair, was also a thread in the original, about desensitization and whatnot. There is an interesting, if barely noticed, nod to the gendering of violence and the assumption of female innocence when Sidney asks her cousin how she could do this to her friends. I don’t think anyone has ever, at any point, questioned how Billy and Stu could have done the same to their friends. For young men, it’s taken as more of a “why not?” And “there’s always some bullshit reason to kill your girlfriend,” as Randy pointed out so long ago. </p><p>Overall, while they're all enjoyable, it's hard to look back and understand why I was so deeply invested in the <i>Scream </i>movies. All the '90s copycats, with their glossy surfaces and attractive young casts plucked from TV, certainly dulled the freshness of the original. In retrospect, the first film does have an unusually strong sense of place. Filmed in California wine country (my cousins went to high school in the building used as the Woodsboro High School!), the real locations give it a dual impression of affluent ease and unsettling isolation. And you really feel the relationships: Dewey and Tatum snipe like real siblings, and Sidney genuinely seems like she's known Dewey all her life. There's a lot of little warm touches in the performances, and that all works for me. It probably helped that, for example, the very worst <i>Halloween </i>sequel, <i>The Curse of Michael Myers</i>, had just come out the previous year, so a lot of us were pretty desperate for something new to come along. And that might be enough to explain the phenomenon.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV7B8g_clXdK-cAazyRhhLmFOzkZhIk3T7aW68AfcBxyQs07Q8oOYzkPLaabHBRG8E-g6qHItUQ2GtRiD3dV8AfkhjD9j6m6ZCVwuIkgv3snOYLAc_S5C4OBNW1BVXN5T5zFA67Grae-s/s435/Scream+4+-+masks.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="181" data-original-width="435" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV7B8g_clXdK-cAazyRhhLmFOzkZhIk3T7aW68AfcBxyQs07Q8oOYzkPLaabHBRG8E-g6qHItUQ2GtRiD3dV8AfkhjD9j6m6ZCVwuIkgv3snOYLAc_S5C4OBNW1BVXN5T5zFA67Grae-s/w640-h266/Scream+4+-+masks.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p></div><br /><br />Anarchivisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06599522097057431891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246957333917525824.post-88479198972754919292021-09-13T06:10:00.005-05:002022-02-16T05:52:19.708-06:00Back to School Horrors: Rush Week<p>Spoilers galore, so beware!</p><p>I<i>n Rush Week</i> (1989) a transfer journalism student investigates the disappearance of a young
woman at a mostly sedate college, at the same time a rowdy fraternity house is reopening, which may or may not be connected. The film begins with a nighttime vista of the empty campus, set to creepy
background music, showcasing a sense of emptiness and isolation,
before shifting to a frat party full of (mostly drunken and immature)
camaraderie. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRmmSwlEDgkF5mg_SWNzS3_WUOjfOBYWHM6wKLR82RghQoTqjrjzQHu4HUG-8ZkzPuf5sPsZJ6f5bhoClTDON2Ac2-xCh3-wCSc4s4DrqjMJHGqvv2vDlJvZ0aBlhXZOFtdP_kPa742nU/s693/Rush+Week+-+frat+house.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="334" data-original-width="693" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRmmSwlEDgkF5mg_SWNzS3_WUOjfOBYWHM6wKLR82RghQoTqjrjzQHu4HUG-8ZkzPuf5sPsZJ6f5bhoClTDON2Ac2-xCh3-wCSc4s4DrqjMJHGqvv2vDlJvZ0aBlhXZOFtdP_kPa742nU/w400-h193/Rush+Week+-+frat+house.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>Coincidentally, I just read the book <i>The Great Good Place</i>, with its discussions about place, and the increasing difficulty of creating community in modern spaces, so much so that people are losing “the habit of association” (73), and I noticed it was originally published in 1989, the same year as<i> Rush Week</i> came out. The campus isolation contrasts with one of the main reasons why people join fraternities and sororities: to make friendships and/or connections. Even if it’s for future professional reasons, there’s an assumption that personal ties will help with that.<br /><br />Unlike <i>Monster on the Campus</i>, the emphasis in this film is solidly on the students. The adults are unhelpful, exploitative, or downright sinister. Like Dr. Blake in <i>Monster on the Campus</i>, this college’s Dean Grail is concerned with civilization and the danger of regression: “Fraternities, sororities tend to accentuate the very worst, the most degrading influences.” He wants to guide the students instead toward “productive futures,” but this is clearly part of his mental instability. An attitude of “don’t trust anyone over 30” is ingrained even in young people who, certain <i>Animal House</i>-style shenanigans notwithstanding, dress like yuppies and are far removed from the hippies who popularized that idea. <p></p><p>In that 1958 film, the lead was a professor distracted from his classroom duties by higher research; here, they’re students distracted by their extracurricular social activities, which certainly seem more important than their schoolwork. In the case of protagonist Toni, she’s a journalism major, but she spends all her time at the campus newspaper office and the computer lab, not in class. And how quaint are those early CRT computer terminals! Awwww!<br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4FZGb_hB28dX5zaC1JMDG2km2z6hGdzSzG4L35ExpVaJ-8tl8On8slN-NGCIPuJqbB-VtYn2BKDIEtVlZTgUCppU6CTKx4AwI8wFS2a-ojACZMypB0mOtAq1xeKDjgT5-XqzPGmYwKv8/s432/Rush+Week+-+crt.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="232" data-original-width="432" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4FZGb_hB28dX5zaC1JMDG2km2z6hGdzSzG4L35ExpVaJ-8tl8On8slN-NGCIPuJqbB-VtYn2BKDIEtVlZTgUCppU6CTKx4AwI8wFS2a-ojACZMypB0mOtAq1xeKDjgT5-XqzPGmYwKv8/w400-h215/Rush+Week+-+crt.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>Like <i>Monster on the Campus</i>, many of the horrific events
center around the science building, but not because of instruction or experimentation. The dangers are no longer centered around science itself. Instead, it’s a large, empty place where a
cafeteria worker can moonlight taking nude photos of female students, who
are openly motivated, at this stage in the ‘80s, by the difficulty of
paying for college. There’s one significant exception who probably
didn’t need the money, but it’s hard to say for sure. Wealthy parents
controlling their kids by controlling their finances isn’t a new story
either.<br /><br />One thing I appreciate about <i>Rush Week</i>: it contains actual female friendships, and recognizes that the characters involved in sexual "transgressions" are motivated by financial need. The roommate of the sexy first victim (last name McGuffin, by the way!) sincerely worries about her, describing her as a responsible young woman, and is reluctant to reveal her friend's sideline in amateur porn, knowing she’ll be judged negatively for it. New student Toni is immediately befriended by Jonelle, who introduces the audience identification character to the campus and its various groups. Thanks to film conventions, when she first appeared, I half expected her to be a “bitchy girl,” but this film didn’t have one! <p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm4oS6jIs2EMyd2vslH9gd5dVMDaytk7AeAwrCsTUj0W3rz5DSaGE62gMSgMNUAxPUILPnFuQ2E0Vse-VGq-S-Er94I4gzf3mqVew6EdzXOAQDpmR8CZtSQJWNrMSHzuURPi_tbx6pjAw/s703/Rush+Week+-+song+2.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="462" data-original-width="703" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm4oS6jIs2EMyd2vslH9gd5dVMDaytk7AeAwrCsTUj0W3rz5DSaGE62gMSgMNUAxPUILPnFuQ2E0Vse-VGq-S-Er94I4gzf3mqVew6EdzXOAQDpmR8CZtSQJWNrMSHzuURPi_tbx6pjAw/w400-h263/Rush+Week+-+song+2.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>Jonelle's an attractive blonde with big hair and bedazzled clothes, and a boyfriend in the frat, but she’s also the computer expert who explains “back doors” to Toni, and later hacks into the university’s system to warn her of potential danger, before showing up with a whole cavalry of people from a costume party to rescue her in the last act. Not only that, but she <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWrNcFfgSyY">sings with the band</a> at a frat party; a fun featurette with actress Courtney Gebhart on the Vinegar Syndrome blu-ray talks about this as one of the highlights. The famous L.A. punk band the Dickies also appears, and “Baby Doll,” the parodic Devo pop song featured in <i>Tapeheads</i>, is also heard in the background, so I like to think these films take place in a shared universe.<br /><br />In some ways I wish the fun-loving and multifaceted Jonelle were more the focus than Toni, although that’s not the fault of Pamela Ludwig, who’s fondly remembered, especially, from 1979’s teen rebellion classic <i>Over the Edge</i>. As the most serious and stolid character, Toni comes across as something of a straight woman to her campus peers. She’s hampered, too, by her relationship with frat president Jeff (Dean Hamilton), a red herring who’s never called on his awful behavior in condoning his frat brothers’ cruel pranks on a prostitute, which, in the worst of frat boy stereotypes, they do just because they can. When the young woman goes missing and Toni worries about her, Jeff says, “Hey, she’s just a hooker,” and she should have dropped him right there.<p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_bAY5Qxy-YbAiuj-mD4ojEpSSFzGmIX2OmEJH3fwYX8xyB1KJxzm7QdTChWRMPlW5Uja7faXvjmmZO-c_HNeXZMO7KkpAsKhhP8DFm4MPE9akZWbXEmOgukkJ8rg5fewfRg_f6PFf2Xw/s431/Rush+Week+-+Ludwig+serious.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="236" data-original-width="431" height="219" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_bAY5Qxy-YbAiuj-mD4ojEpSSFzGmIX2OmEJH3fwYX8xyB1KJxzm7QdTChWRMPlW5Uja7faXvjmmZO-c_HNeXZMO7KkpAsKhhP8DFm4MPE9akZWbXEmOgukkJ8rg5fewfRg_f6PFf2Xw/w400-h219/Rush+Week+-+Ludwig+serious.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>Their relationship is especially frustrating since he's rude to Toni from the start, immediately telling her “you’re too intense.” He cuts down her ideas, telling her to “wake up. This is real life, not some stupid horror movie,” and “I told you not to get so wrapped up in this.” Even though there was an unsolved ax murder on campus the year before, and he knows she’s onto something! If he was concerned for her safety, he could warn her about that! But nope, he just constantly tells her not to follow her instincts, and not to be herself. <br /><br />In response, she overlooks his Jekyll/Hyde qualities, gives in to his persistence, and out of nowhere says she’s falling in love with him. He might not be the killer, but the fact that he’s such a plausible red herring is still a red flag about his potential as a boyfriend. He’s also involved in the film’s gay jokes, which are unfortunate but certainly period-appropriate. <br /><br />I do like the scene where the two have a date at a campus hangout, because it brings back fond memories of places like Minneapolis’ Valli Pizza, all of them long-gone, and Jeff’s musing about how for the students, “most of ‘em have no idea what they wanna do with their lives.” While his frat house seems to be 100% dedicated to crazy pranks and mooning, there's one interesting aspect in that Jeff’s heart really isn't in it anymore. His best friend has to keep nagging him to do the responsible thing by taking part in fun and debauchery, where he presides over the ceremonies, announcing “I sever the bindings of social constraint.”<br /><br />This brings up a question of what that even means. The frat's resistance to social constraint is itself ritualized, a tradition, and it’s the authority figure on top of the org chart who is actually freed from social constraint to the point of ax murder.<br /><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzKATpciqenpNs0aavggAoqBK-k9UTpQByaWhYmBoq1qM4nvzFtsdXRQuSsLVwYtQJVBj1mg_QeATR97Vu0iy1cA_xQYiUlgQ99pQVsDqqpWaFd0VcvbDRv18R3eRI0c_Xq85vTLayQAo/s431/Rush+Week+-+prostitute.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="236" data-original-width="431" height="219" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzKATpciqenpNs0aavggAoqBK-k9UTpQByaWhYmBoq1qM4nvzFtsdXRQuSsLVwYtQJVBj1mg_QeATR97Vu0iy1cA_xQYiUlgQ99pQVsDqqpWaFd0VcvbDRv18R3eRI0c_Xq85vTLayQAo/w400-h219/Rush+Week+-+prostitute.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>This all made me think of the apparent decline of frat culture, at least anecdotally, and certainly locally. My own alma mater had eight Greek organizations and one home-grown fraternity in 1970, seven of which had free-standing houses right next to campus. I couldn't find an official count for the '80s, but as of 2021, there are three Greek groups, none of them with a house. <p></p><p>The social upheavals of the ‘60s clearly affected the popularity of Greek life, which then saw a revival in the ‘70s; a frat house like the one seen in <i>Rush Week </i>would probably have gotten their ideas from movies like <i>Animal House</i> as much as from local tradition. By this time, there was a lot concern about alcohol abuse and hazing. As late as 2020, <i>AHS: 1984</i> includes a fraternity hazing death in one of the characters’ back stories, so this still comes up in pop representations, although social and economic changes probably do more to influence the decline of interest among new students.</p><p>Overall, while there are certainly slashery elements, like hooded guys committing
ax murders, <i>Rush Week</i>'s plot gives it more of a mystery/thriller feel, creating more
forward motion than some of the more bare-bones slashers do. I’m not arguing that it's a real lost masterpiece, but it was still a fun new discovery. Sometimes “you need something new, yes you do,” as Jonelle sings at the frat party (voiced by Addie, of the Addie Band). </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicNRNd44A-9TUiyNlIFuax-pFuSPqYUzlB8mNrAGgOYzJfv1Vo0x0WOHb7QEsUBCHIH89Ms13mE5SfD4TpZUIzvDZ6aRBn1ThFCpXXjYTq0SLHjz5mnU8-RfZ1Ewa7c44eCu6bXo4WBLc/s433/Rush+Week+-+guys+in+robes+2.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="233" data-original-width="433" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicNRNd44A-9TUiyNlIFuax-pFuSPqYUzlB8mNrAGgOYzJfv1Vo0x0WOHb7QEsUBCHIH89Ms13mE5SfD4TpZUIzvDZ6aRBn1ThFCpXXjYTq0SLHjz5mnU8-RfZ1Ewa7c44eCu6bXo4WBLc/w400-h215/Rush+Week+-+guys+in+robes+2.JPG" width="400" /></a> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">It's clearly unsatisfying for some viewers, with a frequent consensus that the movie fails because it’s fairly tame, with fewer, less graphic, and less creative “kills” than other slashers. However, the idea that this is the primary way, or the only way, to judge a slasher film seems like a limited view of the genre, one that plays to stereotypes about lowest common denominators. I’m probably in the minority, but I’ll go on blithely assuming that’s not the case, and that other people might enjoy a competent film with decent acting and a baseline of suspensefulness.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Director Bob Bralver was most well-known as a stunt man and stunt coordinator, who did some actingand started directing TV shows. <i>Rush Week</i> was his first full-length film, and watching the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-H3xFP8FBR4">Vinegar Syndrome</a> release blu-ray, I was fairly impressed. For a mostly unknown film, it looks GREAT!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghnvJzDNFZLreI3ERqFAvcOb0tz4KFmmxmEKFrGEG2kiHUG8FBExMsBdEfRT25u68n6Wf8pSWU7TM8UQ4S2Rc53K0ciSHWZeavyZvhgG1h78no74HzN3tJjV0oZ9f41K3bn8oMe_iXVpM/s383/Rush_Week_poster.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="383" data-original-width="255" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghnvJzDNFZLreI3ERqFAvcOb0tz4KFmmxmEKFrGEG2kiHUG8FBExMsBdEfRT25u68n6Wf8pSWU7TM8UQ4S2Rc53K0ciSHWZeavyZvhgG1h78no74HzN3tJjV0oZ9f41K3bn8oMe_iXVpM/w266-h400/Rush_Week_poster.jpg" width="266" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p><br /></p></div>Anarchivisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06599522097057431891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246957333917525824.post-33357177695587072772021-08-31T06:11:00.003-05:002021-08-31T06:51:51.763-05:00Back to School Horrors: Monster on the Campus<p>As colleges welcome their students back for the new school year, and don’t get me started on real-world issues, we’re featuring a few campus-set horror movies that deserve more love.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8oBTzeR0-Ns7UpbUDQdaayVfGPuUIXmO7WH3kvtOEkLstPbvvDtvl8YSuLMQ0q0cGT_zf420__bdtxu7xu1a4TjPKWirqLuAiL8qAWo0Tgmla9BO1H8dYpzW6voarqjgkIEXVENDJoD0/s1218/Monster+on+the+Campus+-+poster.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1218" data-original-width="800" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8oBTzeR0-Ns7UpbUDQdaayVfGPuUIXmO7WH3kvtOEkLstPbvvDtvl8YSuLMQ0q0cGT_zf420__bdtxu7xu1a4TjPKWirqLuAiL8qAWo0Tgmla9BO1H8dYpzW6voarqjgkIEXVENDJoD0/w263-h400/Monster+on+the+Campus+-+poster.jpg" width="263" /></a></div><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Director Jack Arnold’s is revered for his work on the all-time classic Universal monster movie <i>The Creature from the Black Lagoon</i> and its sequel, <i>Revenge of the Creature</i>. He also directed famous genre films like <i>It Came from Outer Space</i>, <i>This Island Earth</i>, <i>Tarantula</i>, and <i>The Incredible Shrinking Man</i>, not to mention one of the equally all-time classic <i>MST3K </i>shorts, “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1G0stojwYjI">The Chicken of Tomorrow</a>” (“in a deadly battle against the Chicken of Today.") Later in his career, he primarily directed for TV. His last credit, in 1984, is for his 8th episode of <i>The Love Boat</i>, one in which teenage Vicki gets drunk and Captain Stubing has a heart-to-heart with her about his alcoholism. Quintessential! <br /><br />He also directed an episode of <i>The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries</i> called “Campus Terror,” which was the tagline on the poster for our first Back to School Special, 1958’s <i>Monster on the Campus</i>, a film that has received significantly less attention than many of his other works, but which totally agrees: We Are Devo.</p><p>Unlike so many later horror films, the focus here is on adults, not on the students. The college setting would seem ideal for young audiences, who were flocking to the new science fiction and horror films, to relate to, but this one doesn’t offer them much in the way of audience identification. The academic environment is more important thematically, as a forum to explore evolution and its counterpart, devolution. The campus, a site of education, progress, and general intellectual advancement, can be potentially threatening as well as enlightening. Study can lead, indirectly, expose people to something dangerous, and here those dangers are extrapolated to outright physical ones.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPZ3DC_u7v1hc9hukGal-GNKXI9rrh3KHWaMsHqITmjD2DxNlJnnys7cSmFLskqN6XVkoL716OYsU2Z00fNl8f-KIFNnbYlg8dGlRxspEx8e8BGaAva9MEmI1itPZyBI7HZyXb2QQ5dqE/s610/Monster+on+the+Campus+-+horror+tagline.JPG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="340" data-original-width="610" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPZ3DC_u7v1hc9hukGal-GNKXI9rrh3KHWaMsHqITmjD2DxNlJnnys7cSmFLskqN6XVkoL716OYsU2Z00fNl8f-KIFNnbYlg8dGlRxspEx8e8BGaAva9MEmI1itPZyBI7HZyXb2QQ5dqE/s400/Monster+on+the+Campus+-+horror+tagline.JPG" width="400" /></a>The protagonist, a professor at Dunsfield University, is introduced making a sexist joke, just to remind us what we’re dealing with in the time period. This is Dr. Donald Blake – yes, the name of Marvel’s original Thor alter ego, and Jane Foster’s ex-boyfriend in the film version! He has a coelacanth shipped to him as a scientific specimen, which was exposed to – what else? – gamma rays! So that makes me wonder if Stan Lee or somebody saw this movie and it stuck in their unconscious.<br /></p><p></p>Like <i>The Vampire</i>, which came out the previous year, this is a contemporary scientific twist on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, although its science is more than shaky. The radiation causes anyone exposed to the fish, or even the water it came in, to quickly revert to a lower stage of evolution. Although the effects wear off fairly quickly, when a dog turns into a large-fanged wolf, or a man to a Neanderthal, their behavior becomes immediately violent. Progress took millions of years, but it only takes moments to devolve back to an earlier stage of brutal instinct.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPhI8PQxmMKnxnjwVGd22SV5K2zNSVCufPd9Hv-JBFQBM0Pn-savqAcs-Nqk3Cb240p-ZXd7jK2TZHSSBF6rSgVzovLSfx_mQjFmqkN4FJH9OgCAGMMy375OccJ89abl0bvfAOo-WcjNY/s519/Monster+on+the+Campus+-+dragonfly+with+heads.JPG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="329" data-original-width="519" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPhI8PQxmMKnxnjwVGd22SV5K2zNSVCufPd9Hv-JBFQBM0Pn-savqAcs-Nqk3Cb240p-ZXd7jK2TZHSSBF6rSgVzovLSfx_mQjFmqkN4FJH9OgCAGMMy375OccJ89abl0bvfAOo-WcjNY/s400/Monster+on+the+Campus+-+dragonfly+with+heads.JPG" width="400" /></a>This idea is reinforced by Dr. Blake’s speechifying and his general attitude toward life. His fiancée Madeline argues that “Humanity still has a future,” but the professor is dour about its chances, believing that unless it can learn to control its primitive instincts, “the race is doomed.” <br /><p></p><p>More on this theme: “Man can use his knowledge to destroy all spiritual values and reduce the race to bestiality. Or he can use his knowledge to increase his understanding to a point far beyond anything now imaginable.” Also, “Man’s only one generation from savagery” and “Civilization isn’t inherited, it’s learned.” And “The past is still with us … It’s the savage in modern man that science must meet and defeat if humanity is to survive.” He’s pretty gloomy for a guy with a good job and an attractive, supportive fiancée well-placed to help his career. <br /><br />Some scholars, like Patrick Gonder, see a message about segregation and integration in the film, that the devolved throwback represents a white supremacist fear of black Americans, often coded at the time in the language of the primitive. This is certainly a possibility, and an interesting angle. It’s clear that white men at the time believed they had things to fear from black advancement, even as they continued in their positions of power. Gonder's excellent essay is online <a href="https://www.colorado.edu/gendersarchive1998-2013/2004/12/01/race-gender-and-terror-primitive-1950s-horror-films">here</a>, so check it out.<br /><br />Dr. Blake is deeply worried about the survival of humanity’s baser instincts, pontificating about this at length, but it’s his experimentation, his efforts to understand the primitive state in order to rise above it, that unleashes these forces. Without his fear of devolution, this extreme form of devolution wouldn’t have happened, and a lot of people would still be alive. This seems to reflect a popular distrust of science and what it might lead to, especially with something like evolution. The Scopes trial took place decades earlier, well before any college students of 1958 were born, but anxieties about evolution and its teaching have never left American life. </p><p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-2tzityOvSYVHi2XM3oy_L_CUcpPw7-7KxKbJ_04fM6ORXkDYgQXF3uCuz8nXROjHon-CKTGgZ3yKEvzU_05OG_Pc2yQ2zQP6vqdXTr1sAAW6wIlTIE22am3O8W_ZzgEEK3aw7q2TSPk/s533/Monster+on+the+Campus+-+monster+in+the+living+room.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="338" data-original-width="533" height="254" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-2tzityOvSYVHi2XM3oy_L_CUcpPw7-7KxKbJ_04fM6ORXkDYgQXF3uCuz8nXROjHon-CKTGgZ3yKEvzU_05OG_Pc2yQ2zQP6vqdXTr1sAAW6wIlTIE22am3O8W_ZzgEEK3aw7q2TSPk/w400-h254/Monster+on+the+Campus+-+monster+in+the+living+room.JPG" width="400" /></a> </p><p>The students’ perspective on all this is largely unexamined, but when Blake dismisses class to work on the fish, the students are mostly happy about it, some of them going off to a movie instead. In the background, though, you can hear one of them complain, “Don’t you want to get an education?” Academia is maybe most strongly represented by Madeline’s father, an administrator hoping that the prehistoric fish will bring in publicity and alumni donations. He says, “An institution’s like a living organism. The moment it stops growing, it starts degenerating. So, anything that promotes growth is all to the good.” So the language of science, even of evolution and devolution, is put in the service of capitalism. Later, even after mysterious deaths start happening on campus, his real tipping point is when Dr. Blake makes a lengthy and expensive phone call to Madagascar, at “$5 a minute!” which is unusually realistic. <br /><br />I have to note that Dr. Blake goes to a cabin in the woods to record his story on an old-school tape recorder, which is very <i>Evil Dead</i>.<br /><br />It’s all over the Internet that this movie premiered December 17, 1958, in Bismarck, North Dakota, a real WTF? I could not find a citation, and the same sentence with this factoid is repeated in tons of places, so I couldn’t track down the original source. It did play there at the Bismarck Theatre in December 1958, as a double feature with <i>The Blood of the Vampire</i>, which was originall released in October 1958. After Interlibrary loaning microfilm reels of the Bismarck newspaper and scrolling through them, though, I feel fairly certain of one thing: if <i>Monster on the Campus</i> did indeed premier in Bismarck, nobody in Bismarck knew that at the time.<br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhixrxQQnjwU0892bI2eCoicKuSJtQjn8HyuSNNd6deFVzcyQyHRQutjTZTADtS7cYg4TdeXbhbpZVuSm2PsCHPDAwtf1Durwqz26pCxjPdlIYS-u58LBZ7boGfbpn5rrvF9BgWSea1Ov4/s1349/Monster+on+the+Campus+-+Bismarck.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1349" data-original-width="725" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhixrxQQnjwU0892bI2eCoicKuSJtQjn8HyuSNNd6deFVzcyQyHRQutjTZTADtS7cYg4TdeXbhbpZVuSm2PsCHPDAwtf1Durwqz26pCxjPdlIYS-u58LBZ7boGfbpn5rrvF9BgWSea1Ov4/w215-h400/Monster+on+the+Campus+-+Bismarck.jpg" width="215" /></a></div><p></p><p>It's only mentioned in the regular columns about the films currently playing in town, and even there, only in passing, barely footnotes to material about bigger pictures like the thriller <i>Cry Terror!</i> and Disney's <i>Tonka</i>. The <i>Bismarck Tribune</i> stated on 12/12/58 that "Wednesday through Saturday a double feature shocker will show at the Bismarck. <i>Blood of the Vampire</i> is one half of the feature, <i>Monster on the Campus</i> the other ... Both movies have their crazed monster created in the medical laboratory." They were mentioned again on 12/19/58: "A dim-witted, one-eyed hunchback ... runs wild in <i>Blood of the Vampire</i>. In <i>Monster on the Campus</i>, a test tube horror takes its toll. Of course pretty girls have to be the victims in each show." </p><p>I did not cross-reference with our own library's microfilm to see if <i>Monster on the Campus </i>played any local theaters at the same time, or any other cities, because I was already microfilmed out. All I can say is that the Bismarck showing has no indication that it's a premiere, or that it's anything but part of a regular B-movie package. Of course, who know? As Dr. Blake says, rather metafictionally about the plot of his movie, it's "as improbable as life itself!"<br /></p>Anarchivisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06599522097057431891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246957333917525824.post-49045428712829721472021-08-23T06:29:00.002-05:002021-08-23T06:32:54.132-05:00I Know What You Did Last Summer: Hollywood Lets Everyone Off the HookSpoilers for the book and the movie, so beware!
<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWndOrldNtUWMgCS4w03UaRFZu-SxGbcIl6McSMfhAt6ayzsJW4m-y00GYxTC7h4ZD3dvlCyCiSJhng3Px1Icr7lPtjETGQK5lKg2QOmLzDBqh7TjCM3iz9VKBtho9MpxmlP7f7_zN0gU/s686/I+Know+What+You+Did+Last+Summer+-+hook.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="336" data-original-width="686" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWndOrldNtUWMgCS4w03UaRFZu-SxGbcIl6McSMfhAt6ayzsJW4m-y00GYxTC7h4ZD3dvlCyCiSJhng3Px1Icr7lPtjETGQK5lKg2QOmLzDBqh7TjCM3iz9VKBtho9MpxmlP7f7_zN0gU/w400-h196/I+Know+What+You+Did+Last+Summer+-+hook.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><p>Hollywood is not a single entity. Individual works and filmmakers are sometimes willing to explore complexities and ambiguities, but in general, the mainstream movie industry tends to simplify issues, dodge hard ethical questions, and let its protagonists off the hood for lasting consequences and moral judgments. It’s safer to have a clear-cut sense of right and wrong, ultimately freeing film protagonists, especially, from meaningful moral judgment. A classic example of this phenomenon is the case of <i>I Know What You Did Last Summer</i>.<br /></p><p>In Lois Duncan’s 1973 YA novel, a group of teens is threatened with exposure, and worse, a year after their part in a deadly hit-and-run accident. The novel’s potency comes from the fact that the protagonists are being punished for their real moral failings, relatable ones that invite us to question what we’d have done in the same situation. Even the most likeable characters, especially Everygirl Julie (played in the film by Jennifer Love Hewitt), are in the wrong, and have suffered no meaningful consequences for their actions, which motivates a grieving family member to take murderous vengeance. </p><p>The 1997 film adaptation ups the violence; none of the hit-and-run drivers actually die in the book, much less random characters in their periphery, whereas the film has a bloody body count. But while the film’s stakes are more extreme, it also lets its characters off the hook, morally speaking, softening their accountability and then removing it completely.
Despite the film’s violence, the novel is darker by remaining more ambiguous. There are various points on which the novel is changed in order to soften the moral responsibility of the characters.</p><p>1. In Duncan's version, realistically, everyone’s drinking. The movie strains to show that this was a more innocent accident. Julie’s boyfriend Ray has remained a sober designated driver, and prevents their friend Barry from drinking under the influence. Barry, however, drops a liquor bottle on Ray, causing him to smell like alcohol. This is all more than a little convoluted. In the novel, all of the friends are buzzed, and fate, in the form of a coin toss, determines which of them drives. The “good” couple is happy to let Barry drive drunk, so they can make out in the backseat. Ray, who lost the coin flip, acknowledges that Barry “just happened to be the one who was driving” (50), and Barry points out to the moralizing Julie that “you were awfully anxious to get into the back seat tonight … You knew I was a little high. It didn’t bother you then” (51). </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdhiPDdLUg53gGpXy9F5TmE9sjYzFzcwY5ITSnOC_NAt1T3wMmalyFTJMoxBXzDqNzC2Kcriz1yXkgzrz5XYvZc95FUHZGANqo0ZkYTtSEOTGh8tRv87uDRMBgseG_jFE02Xnz8yKkZbo/s624/I+Know+What+-+campfire+stories.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="340" data-original-width="624" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdhiPDdLUg53gGpXy9F5TmE9sjYzFzcwY5ITSnOC_NAt1T3wMmalyFTJMoxBXzDqNzC2Kcriz1yXkgzrz5XYvZc95FUHZGANqo0ZkYTtSEOTGh8tRv87uDRMBgseG_jFE02Xnz8yKkZbo/w400-h217/I+Know+What+-+campfire+stories.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><p>2. In the aftermath of the accident, no one in the book is shown suffering due to their actions. The retribution against them is partly fueled by the fact that none of them have faced any real negative consequences. Julie and Ray, the pair with more moral qualms, have broken up, and Julie’s gotten a little more serious about life, but Helen and Barry are still together, and everyone’s school and career goals are on track. The person threatening them, a family member of the person they hit, sees that “Our whole family is wrecked, and what about you four, the ones responsible? … All your lives are going along peaches and cream” (182). In the film, though, all of them have suffered indirect punishments. The romantic relationships have all fallen apart, career aspirations have failed, and Julie is a pale, guilt-ridden wreck of a person. In the book, she has some pangs of conscience, sending anonymous condolences, but that’s about it. They all felt bad about it, but time passed, there was nothing to be done, and they went on with their lives, which infuriates their grief-ridden persecutor. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiKPUpG_eYxYrYNjy3Kb6YFc8Gsk3_ja5tStpWpIukE_oWh_o3f7UXHDiTIVvzQ6WbNtAhx3cHA1M1bn1A5rM9cFlcbcDycCXMtJddlcQobPgxbWhW6m-D1_urBspxKk8vMer_DQVThrg/s644/I+Know+What+-+Julie+depressed+2.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="271" data-original-width="644" height="169" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiKPUpG_eYxYrYNjy3Kb6YFc8Gsk3_ja5tStpWpIukE_oWh_o3f7UXHDiTIVvzQ6WbNtAhx3cHA1M1bn1A5rM9cFlcbcDycCXMtJddlcQobPgxbWhW6m-D1_urBspxKk8vMer_DQVThrg/w400-h169/I+Know+What+-+Julie+depressed+2.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><p>3. Most significantly, in the novel, the accident really was a hit and run, not the result of someone stepping in front of their car. They hit a child, not a grown man. They do drive away, not stop and agonize about what to do. While they telephone for an ambulance, they don’t go back, leaving the child alone. The actions in the film are more extreme, since they toss the victim’s supposedly dead body in the ocean, and at the last minute realize he was still alive, so in this case, their actions would be real murder. Not surprisingly, though, he doesn’t die, and they are able to honestly say “We never killed anyone.” Then, of course, it turns out they hit a vicious murderer, who then goes around killing people unrelated to the incident, apparently just to mess with them. This places a focus on the sinister fisherman as much worse than they were, so that actually killing him would have meant other innocent people would still be alive. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2AHKtE2DxdDPY_cZBMaLmE-NljCXvIwPekQ2lR6GphjDM23zcTElaueUaRLgmKHUU-Iu9Vaf1SiF2Sts2ggHKjRBpzMhjQroJ3e751ar2jh7J5fUDpjJEJMqZdOJmGMOyy01R_VaG-p8/s628/I+Know+What+-+Hewitt+with+boot.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="282" data-original-width="628" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2AHKtE2DxdDPY_cZBMaLmE-NljCXvIwPekQ2lR6GphjDM23zcTElaueUaRLgmKHUU-Iu9Vaf1SiF2Sts2ggHKjRBpzMhjQroJ3e751ar2jh7J5fUDpjJEJMqZdOJmGMOyy01R_VaG-p8/w400-h180/I+Know+What+-+Hewitt+with+boot.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>In the book, however, it's clear that they did do something wrong, legally and morally, and were on the path to getting away with it, forgetting about it in time, and suffering no repercussions. It’s almost a fluke that they are held accountable in any way. Of course, Julie and her friends don’t deserve to die, but they shouldn’t experience no consequences, either. On the last
page, Julie muses, “We can never erase it … What we did last summer is
done. We can’t undo it, ever. But we can face it. That will be
something” (198). And it’s a lot more than the film version can bring
itself to do. </p><p>Side notes:<br /></p><p>The film has its charms, like the post-<i>Roseanne</i>, pre-<i>Big Bang Theory</i> Johnny Galecki hilariously failing to be a tough guy. Hewitt’s line-reading of the on-the-nose dialogue “The secret is killing us” is so earnest it edges into its own kind of camp. And then ther's Freddie Prinze, Jr., who I thought was so bland in this, thanklessly playing the blandest character, little knowing some day he would voice my all-time favorite Jedi Knight, even overtaking Obi-Wan Kenobi in my heart, as Kanan Jarrus in the animated <i>Star Wars: Rebels</i>.
There’s great scenery, too, which always makes me fleetingly want to move to the movie’s version of North Carolina, and it’s great to hear L7’s version of “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEEtq8mj30E">This Ain’t the Summer of Love</a>” on the soundtrack. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvh9GzREoFeE2FDAIflxv9xOVfTxAvMWjn_4tKrrIkX5Z-Hm69Wt8rrHZ61q4FTfGsEAFZcFAZ64RKiHwCN7S6FLdg9c_BK5q2n6dwLhvqXGV6Wv6bznb-kyWzEeXMT96YtVTDnPFHGYg/s643/I+Know+What+-+quaint+little+fishing+village.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="274" data-original-width="643" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvh9GzREoFeE2FDAIflxv9xOVfTxAvMWjn_4tKrrIkX5Z-Hm69Wt8rrHZ61q4FTfGsEAFZcFAZ64RKiHwCN7S6FLdg9c_BK5q2n6dwLhvqXGV6Wv6bznb-kyWzEeXMT96YtVTDnPFHGYg/w400-h170/I+Know+What+-+quaint+little+fishing+village.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPffvLgpZKHAqasILCFoywZFKRjxNyG0ughdwpHFE_C2dUGULnsXT9qG12mmRY-XiIAbTtz-51WJ-HuNLCo3enbPuuNCbTYgybsIO8vYBK1xAjw7YoyJHWktSyw2ifaiO1GItFuexXS-Y/s640/I+Know+What+-+ocean.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="278" data-original-width="640" height="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPffvLgpZKHAqasILCFoywZFKRjxNyG0ughdwpHFE_C2dUGULnsXT9qG12mmRY-XiIAbTtz-51WJ-HuNLCo3enbPuuNCbTYgybsIO8vYBK1xAjw7YoyJHWktSyw2ifaiO1GItFuexXS-Y/w400-h174/I+Know+What+-+ocean.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>Overall, though, the changes to the story, and the softening of its whole thematic center, creates a lot of unnecessary plot complications. Like, they find out the fisherman’s name. He lives in the area, and had been in the news due to his daughter’s death. Don’t he and Ray both “work the boats” in the same small town? Does he have friends, or neighbors, or people who buy his fish? What do they think happened to him? Or do they think he’s dead? There’s an attempt here to graft the “unstoppable slasher killer” mystique on something too grounded in reality to make that work. His ability to move dead bodies in broad daylight, and at a workplace full of people in the next room, brings it into the satiric territory of <i>Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Verno</i>n, with its scenes of the killer planning how to pull off these impossible things. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtQE653meGyK2u0v5SiwMfo3ebywS7Xi9SfhhKQ5FEszQu5QHybO_0jqzrpSg6rginWHz1wrTewIb3eUN_5t-anSv-SmhowaNsmn980KhF8z7YJrMWPHOMCfHeLoyRMck6KLLTp0P2XK0/s629/I+Know+What+-+What+are+you+waiting+for.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="271" data-original-width="629" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtQE653meGyK2u0v5SiwMfo3ebywS7Xi9SfhhKQ5FEszQu5QHybO_0jqzrpSg6rginWHz1wrTewIb3eUN_5t-anSv-SmhowaNsmn980KhF8z7YJrMWPHOMCfHeLoyRMck6KLLTp0P2XK0/w400-h173/I+Know+What+-+What+are+you+waiting+for.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><p>Plus, for all the whole plot is motivated by the group’s fear of legal repercussions, there don’t seem to be any! The authorities don't even notice the killing spree going on the middle of the annual “Croaker Festival,” and in the end, they don't question Julie and Ray's half-truths about the events, allowing them to go on with their lives ... the same thing that motivated the novel's original threat!<br /></p><p>Finally, I can't resist commenting on the problem this shares with much 1990s horror. Everyone’s too pretty. Pretty people are nice, but when everyone has a movie star sheen, it can add to that glossy, Hollywoodized feel, separating a story from relatability. It's particularly noticeable here with Helen’s frumpy sister Elsa, who in the book has a “heavy, doughish face” (79) and “plump shoulders” (158), and is shown as a complete contrast to TV personality Helen, who’s pretty enough to be “beauty queen material” (11). In the film, Elsa is played by Bridgette Wilson-Sampras, an actual beauty queen (1990’s Miss Teen USA). That kind of says it all on this subject!<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-vlGRkYd5b3JqgQdZA3GltS5DBWs4WHU6jCgSTSPoiyHeHeu5ODWE4RGuDQfrdMF9F0kI-pRsYfsnPZItxf3sdkjGrQYH1DzAeix0JxzqkbDm7w5WUN7aI9yQjUuYC_kfvm2z5cHMEvw/s379/I_Know_What_You_Did_Last_Summer.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="379" data-original-width="262" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-vlGRkYd5b3JqgQdZA3GltS5DBWs4WHU6jCgSTSPoiyHeHeu5ODWE4RGuDQfrdMF9F0kI-pRsYfsnPZItxf3sdkjGrQYH1DzAeix0JxzqkbDm7w5WUN7aI9yQjUuYC_kfvm2z5cHMEvw/w276-h400/I_Know_What_You_Did_Last_Summer.jpg" width="276" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Anarchivisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06599522097057431891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246957333917525824.post-86159021056455137882021-08-07T10:31:00.002-05:002023-09-19T06:05:51.588-05:00Reprint from The Haunted Cinema: Us and Them<p>Like so many things in my life, this essay started as a joke. When I first watched Jordan Peele’s thought-provoking 2019 horror film <i>Us </i>in the theater, I proposed a double feature with Gordon Douglas’s 1954 giant ant epic <i>Them!</i> Later, on re-watching, I found that, while in many ways as different as different can be, these favorites have some striking commonalities, placing the origin of their horrors in relation to threats internal and external.
<i>Us </i>and <i>Them!</i> both involve people living their normal lives, who encounter incomprehensible and horrific threats which will potentially affect the entire world. Each begins with a little girl, about the same age, who is traumatized to the point of muteness by an uncanny event. </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span style="border: medium; display: inline-block; height: 288px; overflow: hidden; width: 387px;"><img height="288" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/uZ9LqTnIY1u3RgZjIJryF15uGgv6SXgkkbqDqj798IiIqTLGuKFatUR90yGd7YWpR69auLYmDRq-aqgwkCY9xk54Po-FEk_4KNVciUkil-jO6iyCYLHdFqbFwzzwv2t1m0o2m6g" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="387" /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span style="border: medium; display: inline-block; height: 288px; overflow: hidden; width: 683px;"><img height="288" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/RL9Rcf5YAY0el4Zg4sCvvV6DmwPOIYy4BRENTw0OHczUQj4d1l1iUijiohRdgci5YfqpQ6gA0X0bI2Z3FBwZKABtLsKxnfindUfCTrRb68bWu4Ihl_tolbokIOrhk1w1mBos-QM" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="683" /></span></span></p><p><i>Them!</i> has its climax in the 700 miles of storm sewer tunnels under Los Angeles. <i>Us </i>opens with mention of “thousands of miles of tunnels” under the United States, and the concluding confrontation takes place in one of these tunnels under Santa Cruz, California. In each case, the protagonists must venture into a hidden, interior space, an act with a built-in psychological symbolism. </p><p>In <i>Them!</i>, there are authority figures who seem to have things under control, and are the focus of much of the action in fighting the ant invasion. But at the same time, scientists, working for the U.S. military, caused the problem in the first place, so the government is working heroically to solve a problem it created. By contrast, in <i>Us </i>, there are no authorities who can do anything to help. Faced with violent and inexplicable doppelgangers, the family calls 911 early on, and are told the police will be there in 14 minutes, but they never show up. Later, when they find the lines are busy, it’s clearly because there are “too many twins,” and their first call took place at the start of the larger event that will prevent them from getting help. </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span style="border: medium; display: inline-block; height: 288px; overflow: hidden; width: 461px;"><img height="288" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/gGT9pnmJ6XsTYiF1R3ImZ9bFDolEhkTUZIFKWC18bSmHA_Eb5G5SqgL0GJPPmAFG_y3J9xz6dBynHxapg77mbJBpReLjGXCj6RJPlJPMC4CBPCvFGOm0C9plIezHA1EK4ckfvM4" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="461" /></span></span></p><p>Among the recurring subjects of horror is the question of whether the threatening elements come from the outside, as an external intrusion, or inside, from the dark side of a person or their community. Many works that are particularly evocative complicate this question. For example in <i>Halloween</i>, Michael Myers seems like an external force of evil that randomly comes upon the teenage babysitters, but he originally sprang firmly from within a nuclear family, killing his sister in their own comfortable home. </p><p>One fairly common way of looking at the insides and outsides of horror is through the lens of the “other.” In <i>The Birth of the American Horror Film,</i> Gary D. Rhodes defines this frequently discussed phenomenon as “any race or group of people who were different than healthy white Protestants. With notions of difference came those of white superiority.” Of these others, he says “They are not Us, and so perhaps They should be exhibited for Us to examine” (256, capitalization in the original). All of which raises the question of what’s “other,” in relation to what, and what is just plain old “us.” </p><p>In opposition to “us,” the human race, the threat of “Them!” is a distinctly alien part of the natural world, all animal instinct with no human feeling or reason. <i>Us</i>, by contrast, is more psychologically oriented, and the complications of inside and outside form an intrinsic part of its premise. </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span style="border: medium; display: inline-block; height: 288px; overflow: hidden; width: 465px;"><img height="288" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/PjYWwnORg5osOBVlZ9Y2vY_EIcUlmymHTcsPSwY3rwEWdMvxQ8_y8hDiPaityGieXy9yeTJPO6daq012s2bfzaRjXIKkekx94mNUAB6h5l7GZ0f9RSYCXUgvbGnzbFud3CBlgPM" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="465" /></span></span></p><p>It’s easy to look at <i>Them!</i> as the epitome of an Atom Age big bug movie, but despite the limited, non-realistic special effects, there is nothing campy or cheesy about it. Much of the film is a straight-forward procedural, first with a local investigation, then the FBI and the Department of Agriculture, all of which creates an environment of plausibility around the events. </p><p>When the father-daughter team of scientists arrives, the elder Dr. Medford immediately starts talking about the atomic bomb. He acts as a prophetic voice throughout the film, with many excellent lines: “We may be witnesses to a biblical prophecy come true … the Beasts shall reign over the Earth,” and “we’ve only had a close view of the beginning of what may be the end of us.” </p><p>This continues to what becomes a somber ending. With the immediate danger past, there is speculation about all the nuclear explosions that have taken place since the first one, which caused this terrible mutation. Dr. Medford says that “when man entered the atomic age, he opened a door into a new world, and what we’ll eventually find in that new world, nobody can predict.” </p><p>The connection to the Atomic Age lies in more than the origin of the monstrous insects: when reporters catch wind that something’s going on, their question is “Has the Cold War gotten hot?” </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="border: medium; display: inline-block; height: 288px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; overflow: hidden; width: 381px;"><img height="288" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/vi3aNPWSVBRKRT3FEb8Z3iM9e7RaJ05LQYCWzFITR936SY-MCVtPLDv9XBVuB56_tNuwOV2PGoQsoT3tYY1aaeE0Ek7O1znI_TAHkLR1Ah2JNlh0M6_eEML_CyAq7gmAmnW8FPA" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="381" /></span></div><p>While killer ants are clearly a “Them!”, a threat that comes solidly from without, they also come symbolically from beneath (in this case, under the desert sand), formed from within the nation by the actions of its highest authorities. The veneer of reassuring resolution ultimately leaves open the possibility of related future nightmares. </p><p>In <i>Us</i>, there’s an ambiguity about the identity of the others, who call themselves the Tethered, which has irritated some viewers but plays into the film’s themes. Many reviewers have referred to the sinister doppelgangers as clones, but there’s no real evidence for that, and much of the backstory wouldn’t make sense if they were. The character who explains things, Lupita Nyong’o’s Red, doesn’t really know what’s happening, or exactly how it works, but whatever the mechanics, somehow these shadow selves, dark reflections of living people, were given physical form. An abstraction familiar from Jungian psychology was somehow made corporeal, by what appears to be the government, “so they could use them to control the ones above. Like puppets.” </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="border: medium; display: inline-block; height: 288px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; overflow: hidden; width: 699px;"><img height="288" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/EW6hYxNpQyk8QPdnR7ntg2oy-X1JrMApE4UBo7XlH8NmwrDZBTWb9RsV6rTMLc0gHixLCqVOE-ArhFEd5rrQ8ZTUV8xkYmJwxPtyt4Yvxi5DjgZ0Tgll79VY86NFJIFwESBYV4o" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="699" /></span></div><p> This is reminiscent of the dead souls being enslaved in <i>Phantasm</i>, or the subplot from Grant Morrison’s <i>Doom Patrol</i>, in which a shadowy government agency captures souls for use by the military, which then have to be controlled and pacified like troubled children. </p><p>Arguably, from a psychological perspective, people can and do develop complicated relationships with parts of themselves that they ignore or reject, so the idea that they are “alienated” from themselves doesn’t sound odd to us at all, and this is part of what plays into the film’s themes. Even more, the existence of these others reflects everyone who loses so others can win, representing every form of underclass that suffers away from everyday notice. The conspiracy element illustrates how our unconscious impulses, and the darker sides of our nature, which are here literally unable to express themselves, can be used to manipulate behavior. This can be seen in advertising or political rhetoric that influences people in ways they’re unconscious of, particularly by appealing to their “dark” or shadow sides. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="border: medium; display: inline-block; height: 266px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; overflow: hidden; width: 624px;"><img height="266" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/tNUim6jyoNev4NciCuwFTubbBA4zlqu4XmHwPhwoFeEIlsEUdYn0_AnqwyhPYZVYd8sFc5LzjlpqWsw3gVw66BCytNnngibx9OzCF4mFVa2GMabTFbkHy6vsDOWUvthGXkcp6YE" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="624" /></span></div><p><span id="docs-internal-guid-f9342dc8-7fff-e3ab-939c-8edca51fe049" style="background-color: transparent; color: #00796b; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"></span> In the film’s prologue, the events are set in motion when a little girl enters a “Vision Quest”-themed Hall of Mirrors, where the sign reads “Find Yourself.” She is inextricably drawn to her shadow self who, we eventually learn, captures her and takes her place in a version of the changeling myth. Here, though, the two remain connected, so that what happens to one affects the other, and the better things are for the above-ground persona, the worse they are for the underground one (part of what makes this some kind of shadow self and not a clone). </p><p>But it isn’t that one is the “real” version, and the other a copy or a fake, or that one girl is innocent and the other is a villain. Neither deserves to be imprisoned, especially since they’re legitimately the same person, just somehow manifested into two, with the one kept hidden, unable to communicate, and the other unconscious of the other’s existence. They can be exchanged, and either can fill either role. In this reality, separate as they are, there is no “other.” There’s only us.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="border: medium; display: inline-block; height: 269px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; overflow: hidden; width: 623px;"><img height="269" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/U7MOZar_cYU2QIL58dz5X8S7fl4GEGYy42YnPK-eXTkk5QL8v2p2Xj0R0CrkWJzRqHFvaJdYcZ-AnEqUdhX7XagLdoo-vrIWoj6CNWV5sxgPjTV8oFwO5sLx8gX79ycuLTQY_u8" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="623" /></span></div><p>Given his obvious interest in exploring American race relations through the context of horror film, it doesn’t seem coincidental that Peele would use tropes of “otherness” in <i>Us</i>. In the study <i>On Monsters: An Unnatural History of Our Worst Fears,</i> author Stephen T. Asma discusses how “the myth of the black monster has had a prosperous career in the twentieth century” (233). He makes a lengthy exploration of the philosophies and psychology behind “the demonizing or monstering of other groups” (234), and ends up quoting a biologist who states that “Us-versus-them thinking comes very naturally to us” (239). </p><p>With the likeable Wilsons as our focus for audience identification, the idea of African-Americans as demonized “others” is almost completely brushed aside. The film casually presents the Wilsons as the norm, the average nuclear family, who still identify with touchstones of black culture: in one detail, the nostalgic music from the parents’ youth is a hip-hop classic. But the remembrance of this racial history complicates the fact that the family itself, as successful Americans, is implicated in the suffering of a deeper, invisible underclass. They aren’t “others” because they’re “us,” the same as their richer, crasser white neighbors are, at the same time as those mirror image others exist as a part of themselves. </p><p>Yeah, it’s twisty stuff. </p><p>It’s too simplistic to treat these films, which were almost randomly selected, as singularly representative of their times. But on some level, they do seem to reflect changes in the way their themes are thought about. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="border: medium; display: inline-block; height: 384px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; overflow: hidden; width: 248px;"><img height="384" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/z3nB250xTKnFOvPooxcZ9HmX6GhAr_QTc9jwEfMD2AnypD2l5i621yZPKrfbThn_J1JkweRZd9CvgOTtQmBtAmq3e63mqKrqeWIysvvPYutmOdF09_2VgRnSeMuhg1uLhWO1CdY" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="248" /></span></div><p> <i>Them!</i> has an archetypally sincere depiction of competent authority, that runs alongside a matter-of-fact view of military complicity in the crisis would be unusual in a contemporary film. By contrast, in something like 2018’s <i>Rampage</i>, the giant monsters are similarly created by science, but it’s motivated by the greed of over-the-top evil villains. </p><p>The more cerebral storyline of <i>Us </i>feels very modern. In previous decades, science fiction on the page could be speculative and open-ended, but what appeared on the screen tended to be less ambiguous. The film’s basic situation could have come from an alien invasion film, or the original <i>Twilight Zone</i>, but it’s hard to imagine it becoming so focused on the complications of personal identity and responsibility. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="border: medium; display: inline-block; height: 384px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; overflow: hidden; width: 243px;"><img height="384" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/IZAqfpeVPvxHMB3ocA2YfxkZGRsuAgvg4MuG23KNbe6GPmaoKaSnHy_Zb4oXq1JjsV-XNty_NJiuc0xQzozwUhwSI_OgzW9-SinYakFVXbf4IlJNxPMS76PDhzDYR0RT3L7F2FI" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="243" /></span></div><p> Early on in <i>Us</i>, daughter Zora talks about fluoride in the water, which, in a bit of foreshadowing, “the government uses to control our minds.” When her family responds with silence, she adds, “I forgot. Nobody cares about the end of the world.” At the film’s conclusion, Nygong’o’s character tells her son that “everything’s gonna be like it was before.” This promise is reminiscent of the theoretically conclusive ending of a more traditional kind of horror film, in which the heroes defeat the menace, as happens in <i>Them!</i> Unfortunately, the way it was before was a nightmare for the Tethered, and continuing on the same path would only spawn more monsters, just as continued nuclear testing could theoretically breed more terrifying mutants, however much we want to bury this knowledge in our unconscious minds.
</p>Anarchivisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06599522097057431891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246957333917525824.post-50302688721164759292021-08-01T07:53:00.002-05:002022-08-08T13:12:14.563-05:00For the Love of C.H.U.D.<div class="separator"><p><i>C.H.U.D.</i> (1984)</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhontVXFsAfDHo8AdElh7yyNTUr8U7iq9xbyKRgjlUJE4mIu9CLD5H4dbaGOdPi3wMmtrUEE8ne1jNLZUZYzDEfrhLMxpt24-eKwPMQL1g5VtOpmpWost3KQg8gpAXg3i_G9YyAuEyDh0E/s393/CHUD_poster.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="393" data-original-width="257" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhontVXFsAfDHo8AdElh7yyNTUr8U7iq9xbyKRgjlUJE4mIu9CLD5H4dbaGOdPi3wMmtrUEE8ne1jNLZUZYzDEfrhLMxpt24-eKwPMQL1g5VtOpmpWost3KQg8gpAXg3i_G9YyAuEyDh0E/s320/CHUD_poster.jpg" /></a></div>There are several movies that, if I hear them mentioned, I can't help bursting out with my affection for them. I just can't let it go unsaid. The Gamera movies are like that, <i>Carnival of Souls</i> is like that, and, probably most amusingly, <i>C.H.U.D.</i> is like that. Any hint of its existence and I am guaranteed to exclaim "I love <i>C.H.U.D.</i>!" And why not? It's true. I do love <i>C.H.U.D.</i><p></p></div><p>My history with the film is sort of roundabout. Even though I'm the correct vintage, I never saw it back in 1984. I was pretty poor in the '80s, so I missed a lot of movies in the theater, and then I didn't have a TV for years. Filling in the gaps in my movie watching, I picked it up, more or less randomly, at some DVD sale in the early 2000s. On the bus, I read the poster blurb about how "They're not staying down there, anymore" and said, "I could write an essay about this as a Reagan-era artifact and I HAVEN'T EVEN SEEN IT YET!" Luckily, it turned out to be a good Reagan-era artifact in the vein of <i>They Live</i>, with a distinct critique of the government and the socioeconomic status quo, so I can enjoy that aspect along with its crazy monster effects.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjORPUlsxz7pyVTEflR3Hrv2UCVd3nFVKojRAy80_msUC5X5hdMWKNDV_mlUu5HjmLK_iR2WJS0kgdveVlpBW9G-sU97C8jfIm-aGOvyit7YPcil-108V28M6u1tH79mFTJPwG5xUTlVRs/s428/CHUD+-+monster.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="239" data-original-width="428" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjORPUlsxz7pyVTEflR3Hrv2UCVd3nFVKojRAy80_msUC5X5hdMWKNDV_mlUu5HjmLK_iR2WJS0kgdveVlpBW9G-sU97C8jfIm-aGOvyit7YPcil-108V28M6u1tH79mFTJPwG5xUTlVRs/w400-h224/CHUD+-+monster.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>The film has a peculiar relationship to the sociological studies of underground homeless communities in New York City. One of the most famous was the book <i>The Mole People: Life in the Tunnels Beneath New York</i>, by Jennifer Toth, although its inaccuracies in geography and information about the actual subway system have led many to question its validity. In particular, see the detailed essay "<a href="http://www.columbia.edu/~brennan/abandoned/mole-people.html">Fantasy in The Mole People</a>" by subway expert Joseph Brennan. Another well-known example is the documentary <i>Dark Days</i>, directed by Marc Singer, a photographer who befriended various homeless New Yorkers and was welcomed into their world, just like the photographer played by John Heard in <i>C.H.U.D. </i></p><p>In the back of my mind, just based on the general knowledge, I vaguely assumed that <i>C.H.U.D.</i> had been inspired by some of these works. However, Toth's book came out in 1995, an expansion of reporting she did in 1990, and Singer's film wasn't released until 2000, based on material he gathered in the 1990s. Another photographer, Teun Voeten, did similar work in the early '90s, leading to a 2010 book called <i>Tunnel People</i>. Another documentary, <i>Voices in the Tunnels</i>, came out in 2008.<br /></p><p>So <i>C.H.U.D.</i> predates all of these! </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqhoFB-XTOm_m-oLnrhAos3AxFR4-wc1_20aI1jQB8faYdUgxapgNxj4gKHhLuLCS9bAJfhI_VGHfgMSlup56XOPNNv-3Kany9MMZKMbD400u91wA8rBgsjbgLBpJH3Fo7dOVj8dnh91M/s350/CHUD+-+cop+cars.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="237" data-original-width="350" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqhoFB-XTOm_m-oLnrhAos3AxFR4-wc1_20aI1jQB8faYdUgxapgNxj4gKHhLuLCS9bAJfhI_VGHfgMSlup56XOPNNv-3Kany9MMZKMbD400u91wA8rBgsjbgLBpJH3Fo7dOVj8dnh91M/s320/CHUD+-+cop+cars.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><p>According to the American Film Institute's <a href="https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/MovieDetails/57036">information</a>, the screenplay was partly inspired by a <i>New York Times</i> article from November 29, 1977. Written by Dena Kleiman, the headline reads "<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1977/11/29/archives/hobo-colony-lives-molelike-in-an-inferno-of-pipes-under-park-avenue.html">Hobo Colony Lives Mole‐Like in an Inferno of Pipes Under Park Avenue</a>." The article calls it "a shelter from the street that offers space, privacy and sanctuary from harassment by authorities," and that the residents "prefer their freedom and privacy to the world of regulations and limitations on their movement." This ties in with attitudes displayed by various <i>C.H.U.D. </i>characters, who are similarly in retreat from a society that treats them with disdain and disrespect. This theme is, of course, reinforced by the presence of Daniel Stern's street reverend, who runs a soup kitchen and only reluctantly deals with the authorities. </p><p>And they have good reasons not to trust those authorities, since while the homeless population is victimized by a society and an economy with no place for them, they are doubly harmed by the actions of greedy business interests, that dump toxic waste in the spaces they've retreated to. Financial greed and government corruption are directly complicit in what happens to the people underground, and responsible for those killed by the monsters they've been turned into. The only reason police officer Harry Bosch is trusted by anyone is because he actually lives in the neighborhood, and so has a personal stake in what's going on. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNm6RsT6OwjkSJyQcURiVjXetA34bGSf90ij_udWGy8Ery47JzMJ2YT20ycZPmh3ZmDFQ2KbdsqByb7Pf9Wwmbmw2m0phv9AvbLULXqSSUhr8aI-DOUful9yii4Xb-alKSRzliL5591kQ/s431/CHUD+-sword.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="238" data-original-width="431" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNm6RsT6OwjkSJyQcURiVjXetA34bGSf90ij_udWGy8Ery47JzMJ2YT20ycZPmh3ZmDFQ2KbdsqByb7Pf9Wwmbmw2m0phv9AvbLULXqSSUhr8aI-DOUful9yii4Xb-alKSRzliL5591kQ/w400-h221/CHUD+-sword.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>Making use of the problems of unhoused people for a monster movie can be seen, fairly, as inherently exploitative. At least this film is sympathetic to the counter-cultural Reverend and his regulars, even when they're unwashed or mentally ill, and that isn't something one always sees in mainstream media.<br /></p><p>Similarly, while one might wish that Heard's character, so kind to elderly street people, would be less of a jerk to his partner (<i>Brazil</i>'s Kim Greist), she also comes off in a positive light. A fashion model who's joined him in moving to a gritty inner city apartment, she has doubts about NYC's suitability as a place to raise a child, but she doesn't come off as uptight, or a nag, or any of the stereotypes so ubiquitous in films of the era: just as a person with legitimate concerns. She expresses both vulnerability and strength, whether she's facing monstrous creatures coming up from her basement, or the concern that, despite their commitment, she and Heard might not be compatible. <br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7oLVltCREhGkfWp_d_Dqmqzws35tWe6TiwUMGjikSgyM98BALVoIdR6XP6x7wmTFj0cj5FU8ZWbBVTwbeRAoiNr8lklVSUOoLyZKMVXfo67HpRbSQ9iCkdtPjJsiQIAXZM9F8KIxmWCU/s436/CHUD+-+alley.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="237" data-original-width="436" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7oLVltCREhGkfWp_d_Dqmqzws35tWe6TiwUMGjikSgyM98BALVoIdR6XP6x7wmTFj0cj5FU8ZWbBVTwbeRAoiNr8lklVSUOoLyZKMVXfo67HpRbSQ9iCkdtPjJsiQIAXZM9F8KIxmWCU/w400-h217/CHUD+-+alley.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>There's a lot of evocative nighttime alleyway photography, which in many ways is all I really want from a movie. This is aided by Martin Cooper and David Hughes' eerie synth score, which was mysteriously hard to find for a long time, but recently released by the good people at <a href="https://waxworkrecords.com/collections/cd/products/chud-cd">Waxwork Records</a>.<br /></p><p><i>C.H.U.D.</i>'s always been a little under the radar; not forgotten, certainly, having a place in the '80s horror pantheon, but it's never gotten the attention of the slashers, or anything like <i>The Lost Boys</i>. That seems appropriate, somehow, for a movie that centers on a literal underground, and how the evils that befall a society's forgotten people will eventually bite everyone. Classic Reagan era! <br /></p>Anarchivisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06599522097057431891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246957333917525824.post-23499390759350246772021-05-08T16:29:00.003-05:002022-05-06T12:29:20.650-05:00Americana Spookerama: Strait-Jacket (1964)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh453Gn9lcvL1PbUnHVPIjnEQ0Mkj2ZgJ46fvmtMn_ZOkC7jYRj-_ui1aQxghw9eiex16wmiNEvFMsB2q7eR5qBP6VoeLxciOZEnekdfxHjGfhphLN4T9EsFeQeGbAvS-n54jIkQ0Uzv-o/s660/Straitjacket+-+poster.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="660" data-original-width="431" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh453Gn9lcvL1PbUnHVPIjnEQ0Mkj2ZgJ46fvmtMn_ZOkC7jYRj-_ui1aQxghw9eiex16wmiNEvFMsB2q7eR5qBP6VoeLxciOZEnekdfxHjGfhphLN4T9EsFeQeGbAvS-n54jIkQ0Uzv-o/w261-h400/Straitjacket+-+poster.jpg" width="261" /></a><br /></div><p>The question of whether the horror genre is ultimately conservative or subversive has probably been over-emphasized by some scholars, considering that there are conservative works, subversive ones, and ones with elements of both. Sometimes terror or suspense, similarly to the murder in a traditional mystery novel, appears as a disruption to be dealt with. When order and normalcy are ultimately restored, the work may seem to veer toward the conservative, but larger underlying problems may be revealed in the process.</p><p>William Castle’s <i>Strait-Jacket</i>, a slightly Johnny-come-lately collaboration with Robert Bloch, four years after <i>Psycho</i>, is in this tradition. The horrific parts of the plot appear as an intrusion into everyday life, but are also motivated by, embedded in, the structure of that everyday life. Its climax involves a violent, potentially subversive reversal of expectations, which is then followed by an optimistic coda, leaving us with a meditation on the complexity of the American family and the American Dream. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitY2vGShUmG5vWiI509rc1um2NdGxBJWXvBP_2qqxQWOjZTbCkVW_VwGt4VP3PFsgF6LyUXJHb99zSVy2qkTPi5RhfSr9iaWdjGA1Ot9hbHVJWsn1ceC-80QBu9OHr_8v8vBw4ojkpubY/s512/Straitjacket+-+child.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="288" data-original-width="512" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitY2vGShUmG5vWiI509rc1um2NdGxBJWXvBP_2qqxQWOjZTbCkVW_VwGt4VP3PFsgF6LyUXJHb99zSVy2qkTPi5RhfSr9iaWdjGA1Ot9hbHVJWsn1ceC-80QBu9OHr_8v8vBw4ojkpubY/w640-h360/Straitjacket+-+child.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />The film starts abruptly, with father of the year Lee Majors (in an uncredited debut) leaving his young daughter home alone, while he gets drunk and brings a young woman home from the bar. Witnessing the infidelity would probably be traumatic enough for the child, but then her mother comes home early from a trip.<p></p><p>Joan Crawford is glamorous as Lucy, a 1940s farm wife whose introduction emphasizes her disadvantages in life. Uneducated, grown up poor, married off young by her parents to an older man, she now has property, fancy clothes, and a young, sexy second husband, so that “at last she had what she wanted out of life.” When she finds her cheating husband and his lover in bed (asleep on their backs, fully clothed, probably the placate the censors), she murders them both with an ax, and is taken away in the titular strait-jacket.</p><p>The combination of an irresponsible, cheating husband, and a woman whose struggles and insecurities have brought her to a psychotic break, lead to the violent fracture of the nuclear family, as their daughter witnesses the dramatically broken home. Obviously this is very different from divorce, an event increasingly part of the American cultural landscape, but there may be some symbolic resonance, an acting-out of violent emotions of betrayal and loss.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU4EHvEVVYXb3JBPC9gF2VvMzw3Fo6g9suFwY41oqO2gpGZKHH2QBs2izPGA3OOM79jsBAqbW9pUPWl6U2hVkD_XcQRwzRoCO-qJKdEbrFDYE2cOObQYddkvXef5LtO2DO3m_CZ4_1zpI/s1600/Straitjacket+-+car.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="1600" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU4EHvEVVYXb3JBPC9gF2VvMzw3Fo6g9suFwY41oqO2gpGZKHH2QBs2izPGA3OOM79jsBAqbW9pUPWl6U2hVkD_XcQRwzRoCO-qJKdEbrFDYE2cOObQYddkvXef5LtO2DO3m_CZ4_1zpI/w640-h362/Straitjacket+-+car.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p>This film’s all-American setting is more down-home than the others we’ve looked at, moving from this isolated farm to the one where Crawford’s daughter Carol has been raised by her aunt and uncle. <br /><br />The rich boy Carol is in love with has a pompous (but apparently well-meaning) father and a snobbish mother, elegantly dressed and bejeweled, who drink Scotch in their palatial home, but their money comes from the dairy business, and they eagerly show the neighbors a new “cow barn.” These scenes show multiple sides of American agriculture, upholding values of self-sufficiency and family togetherness, but also a business that can bring material success and a separation between the social classes.</p><p>At the more modest country house where Carol grew up, everyone is cheerful, certain that “everything’s going to work out just fine” when Lucy is released from the mental hospital, except for Crawford’s insecure figure of gloom. Unnerved by the casual violence of farm life, she’s an ideal red herring when fresh ax murders inevitably occur, but she remains unexpectedly sympathetic. No longer a flashy party girl, she is a respectable-looking matron, and this transformation is a key plot point.</p><p>Twenty years ago, trying to distance herself from the hard times in her past, she just wanted to have a good time, and a life full of bright clothes, upbeat music, dancing and cocktails. Part of her still wants to have these things, but the film largely seems to agree with her psychiatrist that it’s a healthier path for her to act her age, with somber dresses and a quiet demeanor.</p><p></p><p>These reminders that “you can’t turn back the clock” sit alongside Lucy’s attempts to express her feelings and set boundaries, but she’s easily manipulated by social expectations, and especially by the desire to make her daughter happy. When she tries, rightly, to escape a triggering social situation, Carol responds with the commonplace pressure that “they’re expecting us,” and she continually encourages her mother’s fun-loving but inappropriate persona. These mixed messages are symbolized by the jangling bracelets that were Lucy’s trademark, evoking both the enjoyment of life and dark memories of past trauma.<br /><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJd6xcLxjg54Tf_2lBs1392wAHmh0xYjXkLQM3BqKGPJXMr8xX3PsXlhO779sV25wRAWv0Qbtgc6Nk2eNJ9FBRoHSp_uMgY1rXTt_BxnaBm5X8Y1fgxJ8XFYpfDGnFU_WFs7tEpUGLclA/s1369/Straitjacket+-+bangles.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="802" data-original-width="1369" height="374" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJd6xcLxjg54Tf_2lBs1392wAHmh0xYjXkLQM3BqKGPJXMr8xX3PsXlhO779sV25wRAWv0Qbtgc6Nk2eNJ9FBRoHSp_uMgY1rXTt_BxnaBm5X8Y1fgxJ8XFYpfDGnFU_WFs7tEpUGLclA/w640-h374/Straitjacket+-+bangles.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p></p><p>While Anthony Perkins is likeable in <i>Psycho</i>, he does let the mask drop
early on. As Carol, Diane Baker (best known then for playing Anne
Frank), is as warm, pleasant, and wholesome as a farm girl-next-door
could be, and all of her actions early in the film could be plausibly
motivated by good intentions.</p><p>This makes it more of a surprise when her understandable efforts to bond with her mother, in memories of the past and an almost clichéd montage of shopping and make-overs, are revealed as a calculated attempt to unhinge her. Carol’s madness is completely covered up, although close inspection after the fact does expose a certain manic quality in her performance. Even someone who seems perfectly well-adjusted, having bravely overcome a traumatic past, can still be permanently scarred by it. </p><p>Like <i>Psycho</i>, <i>Strait-Jacket</i> hinges on parent/child dynamics and multi-generational mental illness, but the mother/daughter relationship gives it a different tone. Without the Oedipal implications, Carol's dressing as her mother to commit violent crimes instead echoes more clearly the common idea that children in some sense “turn into” their parents, and what that means in the face of trauma and negative parental influence.</p><p>Considering the importance of her physical appearance, it makes sense that Lucy’s eventual freak-out takes place within the crazy patterns of an over-decorated dressing room: just one of the domestic spaces of a comfortable home, along with the bedrooms, bathrooms, and closets, that will become sinister in the conclusion of the film.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-VZiqJmdQSZcxdkzXqzVX4PD6TdU92dB3Cu2i7vXC89ScB1OV_o84IxviU9AN2goUsaUn7l44I2m1vDnctImznqR8ii9qEthPEVeWsQnCmD-15zodHdCK9U3TCnQBLItlZugGeFRklvQ/s1488/Straitjacket+-+bathroom.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="798" data-original-width="1488" height="344" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-VZiqJmdQSZcxdkzXqzVX4PD6TdU92dB3Cu2i7vXC89ScB1OV_o84IxviU9AN2goUsaUn7l44I2m1vDnctImznqR8ii9qEthPEVeWsQnCmD-15zodHdCK9U3TCnQBLItlZugGeFRklvQ/w640-h344/Straitjacket+-+bathroom.jpg" width="640" /></a> <br /></div><p></p><p>Crawford’s speech during her break-down is refreshingly honest, and hearkens back to the description of her hard-knock life in the beginning of the film: “My girl is going to have what she wants out of life. She is. I was cheated. But she’s not going to be.” Her mother’s daughter, Carol’s murder spree was similarly motivated. She wasn’t about to be thwarted from achieving her dreams, even if that meant murdering her boyfriend’s parents and framing her mother to do that.</p><p>Despite all this, the film ends on a strangely optimistic note, with a cheerful musical fanfare and Lucy, aglow with purpose, dedicating herself to helping her daughter. This ending suggests a conservative intent, with normalcy and order restored, and Lucy’s character solidified in a respectable, maternal role. But Baker’s likeability and Crawford’s sympathetic qualities, both of them surprisingly relatable despite their brutal ax murders, keep us in mind of the factors within the apparently orderly normal life that brought them to such dark points.</p><p>In The American Dream: A Cultural History, Lawrence R. Samuel describes an important part of the concept as “the idea that one can, through dedication and with a can-do spirit, climb the ladder of success and reach a higher social and economic position. For many in both the working class and the middle-class, upward mobility has served as the heart and soul of the American Dream, the prospect of ‘betterment’ and to ‘improve one’s lot’ for oneself and one’s children much of what this country is all about” (p. 7). Both the women of <i>Strait-Jacket</i> are striving for this version of the American Dream. But as Samuel adds, the problem comes in when “our mythology (is) mistaken for a promise” (ibid).<br /></p>Anarchivisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06599522097057431891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246957333917525824.post-2001377085622940822021-05-08T16:12:00.002-05:002022-05-06T12:29:30.763-05:00 Americana Spookerama: Macabre (1958)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7DiApy2kxtohstqHM6jWRWEXvP-EjEVGndIu1iH8xejR7B4LlYBUw6blth7DVcaYn_YPArnVCPOkugqKZFWsFeizPDXzDnfp259wkdwvMWeHys55HxjbNFxg2Ih3qkg5fMgdmimucM0Y/s948/Macabre+-+poster.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="948" data-original-width="728" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7DiApy2kxtohstqHM6jWRWEXvP-EjEVGndIu1iH8xejR7B4LlYBUw6blth7DVcaYn_YPArnVCPOkugqKZFWsFeizPDXzDnfp259wkdwvMWeHys55HxjbNFxg2Ih3qkg5fMgdmimucM0Y/w308-h400/Macabre+-+poster.jpg" width="308" /></a> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Released the same year as <i>The Return of Dracula</i> (1958), William Castle’s <i>Macabre </i>is the film that originally sparked my interest in the idea of small-town horrors, although in revisiting it, I can see that in some ways it takes a different approach, not quite fitting in. Apart from the opening, and some abrupt flashbacks, the film takes place at night, giving it a certain morbid atmosphere and a <i>film noir </i>feeling.</div><p style="text-align: left;">Castle was already an industry veteran when, inspired by an enthusiastic audience reaction to the thriller <i>Diabolique</i>, he entered the genre of low-budget horror where he would find his greatest success. This film also marked the beginning of his penchant for promotional PR gimmicks, with an insurance policy against death by fright, and the filmmaker arriving at theaters in a hearse. It also contains a dramatically ticking clock that counts down the hours to the film’s conclusion, and ends with a narrator who addresses the audience directly, asking them not to reveal the ending: “It will spoil the enjoyment of it.” </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtpvEBLZeQOtpvRVbubffKjHF4ofSdM54estKOOrGsaTRa9YADm-CA1STZzMlr1u6JQ9_Uy-lCNOoFbdcllIticlmV-_qIuTCWYnpT1TQJ-EL90ytFacRUjF2aHtV5o_HTY3sTU_EVrjE/s1252/Macabre+-+graveyard.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="620" data-original-width="1252" height="317" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtpvEBLZeQOtpvRVbubffKjHF4ofSdM54estKOOrGsaTRa9YADm-CA1STZzMlr1u6JQ9_Uy-lCNOoFbdcllIticlmV-_qIuTCWYnpT1TQJ-EL90ytFacRUjF2aHtV5o_HTY3sTU_EVrjE/w640-h317/Macabre+-+graveyard.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p>Despite this entertaining ballyhoo and the film’s importance in Castle’s career, <i>Macabre </i>has never received the attention of its more well-known counterparts. Other of the director’s famous thrillers have been commercially available on VHS, DVD, and Blu-Ray, and <i>The House on Haunted Hill</i> and <i>13 Ghosts</i> received big-budget remakes in the ‘90s. The sole legitimate commercial release of <i>Macabre</i>, however, has been through the Warner Archives, on DVD-R, although it is now available on some streaming services as well.</p><p>The film is surprisingly low-key, which may explain why it’s not as fondly remembered as some of Castle’s other efforts. It’s more of a drama than a full-fledged horror film, although there is plenty of spooky ambiance in the cemetery scenes, and one jarring shock sequence.</p><p>As in Paul Landres’ <i>The Vampire</i>, the protagonist is a small-town doctor and single parent to a preteen girl. Dr. Barrett is an outsider who married a local girl, and stuck around after her early death. Now he’s juggling an elegant (but apparently not entirely public) fiancée with the girl-next-door nurse who’s practically a member of the family. His dishonesty with these women is fairly subtle: when the fiancée suggests he’s leading the nurse on, he says that including the other woman was his daughter’s idea, which the audience knows is a lie, although it would be easy not to catch that.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7OOhsk6kWo9odo6iLXAju9WE-eVXPI_3ZwYrmOwuqCQgclkvw-H_rYvA3xQBL_rUX_n8JUIWaZlEewHF7NvU2rpwOunbQkumE4ZmW7fQaRPo-zReoYQU9DdY0Wd1C4XGfXlUrskwfUEc/s639/Macabre+-+telephone.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="417" data-original-width="639" height="418" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7OOhsk6kWo9odo6iLXAju9WE-eVXPI_3ZwYrmOwuqCQgclkvw-H_rYvA3xQBL_rUX_n8JUIWaZlEewHF7NvU2rpwOunbQkumE4ZmW7fQaRPo-zReoYQU9DdY0Wd1C4XGfXlUrskwfUEc/w640-h418/Macabre+-+telephone.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p>A set of briskly introduced but fully differentiated characters is brought in, including an excellent Jim Backus as the menacing sheriff, and before long, nurse Polly answers the phone, and learns that the doctor’s daughter has been buried alive. <br /></p><p>The screenplay, by frequent Castle collaborator Robb White in his first film work, was based on the novel <i>The Marble Forest</i>, later reprinted as <i>The Big Fear</i>; while it changes some key plot points, the film stays true to the book’s general tone. Co-written by a group of mystery writers under the pseudonym Theo Durant, the novel was published in 1951 but set in 1948, and openly engages with some major themes of the genre, including these evocative descriptions of the setting:</p><p>“There was his own house again, placid, glimmering white among rain-drenched shrubs. There was the porch light, burning with a steady and commonplace glow that belied terror or tragedy” (p. 23). As the night wears on, with characters trying to find the buried child before it’s too late, “the sight of his white house gave him a sick feeling of despair. It looked … calm and cheerful with its shaded lights, so that the evening took on the quality of a nightmare in which one wanders hopelessly from one half-familiar scene to another, to another and back again; all of them a little wrong, growing hideous at least through sheer recurrence” (p. 114). </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyG3QxcOBtR1ywTiSpOLHgtGJxqEKu000K4ec8PTg5MUV1o2jJGyYvlLgnylme8oIJS_haX8lq0C2nkqicgprLBReXRXzmJkxnZCequyqw_Za0v6FuMSZvZP2LZRkpZJwg3sdfJWU6UHQ/s1011/Macabre+-+street.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="510" data-original-width="1011" height="322" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyG3QxcOBtR1ywTiSpOLHgtGJxqEKu000K4ec8PTg5MUV1o2jJGyYvlLgnylme8oIJS_haX8lq0C2nkqicgprLBReXRXzmJkxnZCequyqw_Za0v6FuMSZvZP2LZRkpZJwg3sdfJWU6UHQ/w640-h322/Macabre+-+street.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p>In a bleak vision of human nature, the sleepy small town is revealed as a place where the doctor can realistically assume someone hates him enough to bury his 3-year-old daughter. He considers his patients, “sane, decent people with sane, everyday ills. But one of those ordinary faces was a mask for hate, for a warped, pitiless mind,” counting “at least four good, right upright citizens near enough to that, full of hate, full of sadism, on the borderline” (p. 34, 43). Barrett has been unfairly blamed for some patient deaths, and for reporting another doctor for potential malpractice; interestingly, one of these grudges involves the suicide of a young woman who he refused to help with an illegal abortion.<br /><br />A version of this speech and this subplot exist in the film, attaching it to Nancy, the little girl’s live-fast-die-young aunt, a blind woman who’d been having an affair with Backus, although she declares the baby’s father is a “person or persons unknown.” </p><p></p><p>Various personal dramas – unrequited love, unwanted pregnancy, conflicted loyalties and well-founded suspicions – all lead to the overgrown and atmospheric cemetery, full of dry ice and ancient mausoleums. <i>Macabre </i>seems in some ways less connected to the wholesome settings of Paul Landres’ vampire tales than it is to the contemporary <i>Peyton Place</i> (published in 1956), with the legacy of Sinclair Lewis’s <i>Main Street</i> hovering behind them. These works portray the small town as a quaint-looking hotbed of moral hypocrisy, filled with the festering, petty hostilities of people with constrained lives in close quarters.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwG7_3zvVjfEBSQN_aA-HpvEU3ToIsYMxprClJvZd78Ccd4QRVXihGevPMp3HdmErHVLsBHOl0bnCPko0b7QzWwqR4X_nQPDMxe01S6jrkqot78F5QvvU76qloyzjyt7M4U46rrn3eki8/s1275/Macabre+-+graveyard+2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="646" data-original-width="1275" height="325" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwG7_3zvVjfEBSQN_aA-HpvEU3ToIsYMxprClJvZd78Ccd4QRVXihGevPMp3HdmErHVLsBHOl0bnCPko0b7QzWwqR4X_nQPDMxe01S6jrkqot78F5QvvU76qloyzjyt7M4U46rrn3eki8/w640-h325/Macabre+-+graveyard+2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p>After several attempts to find the little girl before it’s too late, the main characters attend Nancy’s peculiar midnight funeral, in an extreme form of keeping up appearances. They go through the motions, covering up their trauma, afraid that if people knew what was going on, legalities might prevent them from digging up more graves.</p><p>In a major twist (changed from the novel), the kidnapping is revealed to be a hoax. The doctor has drugged and hidden his own daughter, using the situation to frighten his wealthy father-in-law to death. <i>Macabre </i>expands on <i>The Vampire</i>’s portrayal of a threat that originates with a respected member of the community. This time, there’s no Jekyll/Hyde formula to create sympathy for the villain. Instead, the respectable man is simply deceiving the people around him about his character and willing to commit murder for personal gain, which gives the conclusion a darker, more cynical quality. Just as Dr. Barrett is not what he seems, the small corpse they finally find in Nancy’s grave isn’t what it seems: a gruesome wax doll, rather than a dead daughter, which nonetheless provides the film’s biggest scare.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpEtUrgbG8JOOZxkGq-3M8QwnyFeg9TH45FYa4YZ8ZUfii14jAytZBP6fWC0enOjF8ZEwbzUfZJVekFkfJz21EV4GELXqn4IJ8zIqWaAPtToIKZwfEl0FrQ4dD6LJZR7Q_WVtqy_R1yrY/s956/Macabre+-+doll.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="526" data-original-width="956" height="352" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpEtUrgbG8JOOZxkGq-3M8QwnyFeg9TH45FYa4YZ8ZUfii14jAytZBP6fWC0enOjF8ZEwbzUfZJVekFkfJz21EV4GELXqn4IJ8zIqWaAPtToIKZwfEl0FrQ4dD6LJZR7Q_WVtqy_R1yrY/w640-h352/Macabre+-+doll.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p>Sociologists like Stephanie Coontz, in her influential work <i>The Way We Never Were</i>, have argued that the 1950s was the time when the nostalgic view of a particular American culture, made up of complacent nuclear families in a prosperous middle-class, was invented. If that’s the case, then the depictions seen even in low-budget horror films were creating this image in front of their audiences’ eyes. </p><p>At the same time, in <i>Rational Fears: American Horror in the 1950s</i>, scholar Mark Jancovich reminds us that evidence shows “people were not so complacent in the 1950s as it is often suggested” (p. 22), often expressing “a deep-seated anxiety” with the conditions of contemporary life. That anxiety is often found lurking around the edges of the “normal life” that the 19050s media so often depicted, and the darkness underlying that normality is seen in a film like <i>Macabre</i>, where its clean-cut, close-knit community is a place, in the end, where no one seems entirely innocent. <br /></p><p></p>Anarchivisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06599522097057431891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246957333917525824.post-37401721540521602232021-05-08T15:53:00.002-05:002022-05-06T12:29:38.789-05:00Americana Spookerama: The Return of Dracula (1958)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh2yHpYXvtzYjSdnzexidLyikXEN0R9rgsd7C6FA_XiiV-2gq7vzhFE5wAq1KQEPk0o3OjBXcKE-Ke2U3U3CZJdGuULcR-b-X7w0-FBTgoYZMFFYJqS8OtVViSNv9UghP5nYQYFlbOVP8/s880/Return+of+Dracula+-+poster.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="880" data-original-width="676" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh2yHpYXvtzYjSdnzexidLyikXEN0R9rgsd7C6FA_XiiV-2gq7vzhFE5wAq1KQEPk0o3OjBXcKE-Ke2U3U3CZJdGuULcR-b-X7w0-FBTgoYZMFFYJqS8OtVViSNv9UghP5nYQYFlbOVP8/w308-h400/Return+of+Dracula+-+poster.jpg" width="308" /></a></div>Director Paul Landres and screenwriter Pat Fiedler followed up 1957’s <i>The Vampire</i> with a second foray into the American Gothic that directly mixes traditional supernatural tropes with a contemporary small-town setting. This time, the vampire wasn’t created by modern science, but instead is from the “old country,” and does all the things an audience expects: he sleeps in a coffin, suspiciously avoids mirrors, and hypnotizes young women into doing his bidding. <p></p><p>All this takes place, though, in a California town described as “most picturesque,” and this Dracula, stealing the identity of an Eastern European artist, finds himself in the bosom of a nosy, cozy American family, named -- two years before the airing of <i>The Andy Griffith Show</i> -- Mayberry. There’s a blustery widowed matriarch who bakes blueberry pies, a starry-eyed teenage daughter, and a rambunctious, Opie-like young son. Dracula could pack up and leave at any time, which seems like it would uncomplicated his life, but he does have vampire hunters on his trail, posing as immigration officials, and the Mayberrys provide a cover to explain his presence. </p><p>While this kind of wholesome small-town setting was still an innovation in horror films of the time, similar backdrops were previously used in thrillers, and various commentators have noted this film’s family resemblance to Alfred Hitchcock’s <i>Shadow of a Doubt</i>. This is especially noticeable in Dracula (a.k.a. “Cousin Bellac”)’s relationship with teenage Rachel. The actress, Norma Eberhardt, starred the same year as a bad-girl juvenile delinquent in <i>Live Fast, Die Young</i>!), but here she is almost aggressively wholesome, even by the standards of a 1950’s B-movie. </p><p>Apart from her romance with Tim, the literal boy next door, her social life revolves around her closer-knit nuclear family, and the patients at the local nursing home (a brave blind woman and a group of ‘60s-sitcom-ready elderly gossips), for whom she’s planning a big Halloween party. At the same time, she feels restless, identifying with the artistic cousin she sees as more cultured and sensitive than her boyfriend, an ordinary teenager she scolds for his lack of refinement. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmJWkMZVNIwXIx1cMxkRCrOr8eDmZ2zVILW6HgYeCf01QPWpbVHxdQokWipR6gvsH1e5-6rmeo0Xgq2Exlxp5ibBnq7I1pzWPILX4eF6Z9lZSXDcgyNNkkw36iCM3M8BQenBcgBL68JfY/s638/Return+of+Dracula+-+fence.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="351" data-original-width="638" height="352" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmJWkMZVNIwXIx1cMxkRCrOr8eDmZ2zVILW6HgYeCf01QPWpbVHxdQokWipR6gvsH1e5-6rmeo0Xgq2Exlxp5ibBnq7I1pzWPILX4eF6Z9lZSXDcgyNNkkw36iCM3M8BQenBcgBL68JfY/w640-h352/Return+of+Dracula+-+fence.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />Dracula’s vampiric nature is for a time explained away as artistic eccentricities, and a reaction to how confined and repressed he’d been in the old world, the filmmakers taking advantage of the fact that Transylvania was, at the time, under Communist rule. “That’s why I’ve come here,” he tells her. “For freedom. I must have it.” <p></p><p>Despite her loving family and placid community, Rachel identifies strongly with him, saying that “I could feel the pain you felt, and how you wanted to express yourself, but couldn’t. I know how that is. I feel the same way, too, sometimes.” She has already learned to stifle and downplay her ambitions; while dreams of being a fashion designer, “I guess I’ll end up being a nurse.” </p><p>Later in the film, when she confronts Bellac about his distance from the family, he asks if “there’s a price for your acceptance, for me to conform, to be as you would want me to be,” adding, “if my behavior seems different, perhaps it is because it serves a higher purpose than to find acceptance in this dull and useless world.”</p><p>Here, he uses the relatable angle of independence and individualism as an excuse for his evil behavior against those he thinks are beneath him. <i>The Return of Dracula</i> ultimately comes down on the side that non-conformity to the expected social norms is a warning sign, rightly suggesting that the non-conformist is a danger to those around him. This certainly plays to a conservative audience, satisfied with the rightness of their beliefs, which would reject these ideas from the mouth of the villain.</p><p>This judgment, though, exposes an irony. The family’s real artistic cousin was escaping Communism, coming to America for freedom, wanting to live his own life and express his individuality, and this societal contradiction is there to be noticed by any members of the audience who share Rachel’s vague dissatisfaction with the status quo.</p><p>The tension between the ideal of American individualism and the reality of the need to conform, especially in the culture of the 1950s, was explored by psychologist Robert Lindner, most famous today for coining the phrase “rebel without a cause.” In his 1956 book 1956 book <i>Must You Conform?</i>, he called it “the most vital issue of our era,” the thing that “can be said to characterize the time we are living in … the extreme tension that exists between the individual and his society” (p. x, 149). The pressure to “adjust” and conform means that “uniqueness, individuality difference … are viewed with horror” (168). </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVz1_r8zL2UtD1OYT9zkea_5BPriQ5sGlhXeyDzLAHSI4N6HRy13dVGozqCWXFz9dYGL7ZXs5F0-gikofWbcMCITIc3VPYlJstN1mBhl4uP5igRrK4bMJ-eaUuJBiPPcLPgsT3A6xMbtM/s629/Return+of+Dracula+-+moon.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="629" height="355" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVz1_r8zL2UtD1OYT9zkea_5BPriQ5sGlhXeyDzLAHSI4N6HRy13dVGozqCWXFz9dYGL7ZXs5F0-gikofWbcMCITIc3VPYlJstN1mBhl4uP5igRrK4bMJ-eaUuJBiPPcLPgsT3A6xMbtM/w640-h355/Return+of+Dracula+-+moon.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjst7TMYSuUoKWphfYrptPuUiTWT0H5Qsh5_7KWiPOOnYbN3NCF2gkBAIP3dqWv0X49RTRm9JFuiY7TAkwXCbGyXKtrExhE_SWkgCrgxMT4uaPDqVyXRTQeylzo4zj0UKLeFKNENUbH6jU/s624/Return+of+Dracula+-+kitchen.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="394" data-original-width="624" height="405" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjst7TMYSuUoKWphfYrptPuUiTWT0H5Qsh5_7KWiPOOnYbN3NCF2gkBAIP3dqWv0X49RTRm9JFuiY7TAkwXCbGyXKtrExhE_SWkgCrgxMT4uaPDqVyXRTQeylzo4zj0UKLeFKNENUbH6jU/w640-h405/Return+of+Dracula+-+kitchen.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p> Early in the film, a scene of the sinister night-time life of the vampire, complete with coffin and full moon, is immediately followed by a homey one in the family kitchen. The contrasts sit side-by-side, complicating our reactions to the world it depicts. When her son’s pet is killed (off-screen), the mother immediately tries to stifle his emotional reaction, emphasizing positive thinking. Later, she judges a funeral as “depressing,” and no one seems to expect Rachel to mourn much for a friend who died in front of her. All of this adds to a sense of normal life as a little unhealthy, as does the minister’s statement that this death is “not for us to question, but to accept”: not a wise approach, considering she was murdered by a vampire.</p><p>While these unsettling threads weave through the background of the story, there are other suggestions that the world Rachel and her family take for granted may be passing away, sooner than they think. Despite his seeming to represent an Old World of artistic endeavors, cultured manners, and familiar supernatural imagery, this Dracula’s intentions are focused, like an American, on the future. He doesn’t seem to kill for sustenance, but to create of a kind of planned community of vampire subordinates, and his sales pitch to his victims includes the promise that they will outlive their “dying world.” </p><p>Paul Lederer, a veteran Czech actor, isn’t very imposing as Dracula; the role calls for magnetic charisma, and he’s a bit too passive and low-key. This might be partially the result of his dissatisfaction with a film he “hated.” In a 1993 interview on a program Skip E. Lowe Looks at Hollywood (link <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tm5Ry8eDLPs">here</a>), he says he took the job thinking it was going to be a comedic take on tired vampire tropes. He was unhappy when it ended up being “the same as everything else,” and is openly hostile to its eventual cult success. Eberhardt, too, is a little wooden, which doesn’t help the important connection between the characters feel as real as it might.</p><p>Nonetheless, the film has a can-do spirit, and some oddball charms. For fans of Landres’ <i>The Vampire</i>, there’s a cameo from a medical examiner named “Dr. Paul Beecher,” a different actor and obviously different character, but a nice little Easter egg. When one of Dracula’s victims is staked, the film briefly shows her blood spurting in full color, which must have been very effective in its original showings. And the presence of international vampire hunters who pose as immigration officials is an interesting way of aligning the obviously unreal in a more realistic context.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT4_v-UTsca6feXUOTSb14WAg8hD-g0VupzW8Q87v77V8b2_2ozwzBZT_wz0Icjw_3dTO5a4LxMFF1bafI1x6-u-0mPpLfLnNq6SxhMfBYb45Lh3s62VNNdwv1R5Zz2nvg5rOZpU8uHkE/s512/Return+of+Dracula+-+woman.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="269" data-original-width="512" height="336" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT4_v-UTsca6feXUOTSb14WAg8hD-g0VupzW8Q87v77V8b2_2ozwzBZT_wz0Icjw_3dTO5a4LxMFF1bafI1x6-u-0mPpLfLnNq6SxhMfBYb45Lh3s62VNNdwv1R5Zz2nvg5rOZpU8uHkE/w640-h336/Return+of+Dracula+-+woman.jpg" width="640" /></a> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">But the film’s raison d’etre is the juxtaposition of creepy supernaturalism with a contemporary setting, and the ideas that sparks about American life, something we’ll see more of in future films.<br /></div><p></p>Anarchivisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06599522097057431891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246957333917525824.post-63882523647009323822021-05-08T15:39:00.001-05:002022-05-06T12:29:53.081-05:00Americana Spookarama: The Vampire (1957)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcmCr82axWEpdGO1JLCXCUIFCgqNO9Y4KQHbwnwMsEj9mZJJYVwyuA7Np1TsjKvqeFZPTS3wqTnk7saHNcNHV2t2YAGgpeYMxFFbmhA1-vFVCMbFZJnkIVNnD4BlW05YqTB0iJhFm33bA/s880/The+Vampire+-+poster.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="880" data-original-width="675" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcmCr82axWEpdGO1JLCXCUIFCgqNO9Y4KQHbwnwMsEj9mZJJYVwyuA7Np1TsjKvqeFZPTS3wqTnk7saHNcNHV2t2YAGgpeYMxFFbmhA1-vFVCMbFZJnkIVNnD4BlW05YqTB0iJhFm33bA/w306-h400/The+Vampire+-+poster.jpg" width="306" /></a> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Tales of murder and supernatural threat have existed as long as human beings told each other stories, but the development of these subjects as a literary genre had its origin in the work of Horace Walpole (1717-1797). A wealthy, aristocratic eccentric and son of a powerful British Prime Minister, Walpole turned his obsession with medieval ruins and manuscripts into a new form of fiction. His “Gothic” stories became wildly popular, inspiring a wide variety of writing and, eventually, into other media: notably, the horror film</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">True to its beginnings, the Gothic and its descendants have frequently inhabited the same haunted castles. This became less the case over time, so that by the Victorian era, writers like Robert Louis Stevenson and even Bram Stoker had brought horror to their working class readers, placing it in a contemporary world not so reliant on ancestral mansions or familial curses. The protagonist of the thriller <i>The Beetle</i> (1897), by their contemporary Richard Marsh, is a young woman who works in a London department store. Nonetheless, for much of its history, the literature of terror focused on the nobility, or at least the well-to-do, set in landscapes drenched with history. </div><p style="text-align: left;">In the United States, where class distinctions were always less rigid, there was still an early emphasis on tales involving wealthy families and inherited estates, as seen in the work of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Charles Brockden Brown, and much of Edgar Allan Poe. Following that tradition, the early Universal monster films and their imitators were largely set in the U.K. and Europe, an “old world” full of traditional imagery, architecture, and social patterns with lords and ladies on one side, servants and peasants on the other. </p><p style="text-align: left;">By the late 1950s – a time period associated in the popular imagination with a new prosperity and the flourishing of perceived “all-American” values -- films began to be made in which elements of the traditional Gothic are translated to a vision of wholesome, clean-cut, then-contemporary small-town America. One of the earliest examples is 1957’s <i>The Vampire</i>, directed by Paul Landres, written by Pat Fiedler (her first screenplay), and starring John Beal and Coleen Gray. </p><p style="text-align: left;">The prolific Landres’ more recent work in films and television had been in the particularly American genre of the Western, and, in the same year as <i>The Vampire</i>, a TV version of the long-running American comic strip, <i>Blondie</i>. He and Fiedler would collaborate three times in two years on genre projects, following this up with both the sci-fi horror of <i>The Flame Barrier </i>and another small-town American Gothic, <i>The Return of Dracula</i>, in 1958. </p><p style="text-align: left;"><i>The Vampire</i>’s poster advertised “a new kind of killer to stalk the screen!” This is a complete exaggeration, but also kind of true. Some elements of the storyline are reminiscent of the more famous <i>I Was a Teenage Werewolf</i>, and strangely, both films were released in June of the same year. <i>The Vampire </i>places the same central metaphor -- a scientific experiment causing reversion to a state of beastly, primitive instinct -- not on a hormonal teenager, but on a respectable middle-aged man. </p><p style="text-align: left;">Genial Dr. Paul Beecher lives in a pleasant small town where no one is a stranger. A single father, he dotes on his pre-teen daughter, who in turn cooks his meals and fusses over his well-being, in between the piano and ballet lessons she receives in lieu of payments from patients he’s told to not worry about their bills. But before long, chaos is introduced into this orderly world. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCUkecTVy7tj8oZtE20K8vMNbl04tF9RLK_JHBeFdLFm8eQ1qrVWi3PE_blV-_eCrR98-t7_5Vo2zApCm5IXXwlBCsd4DmwDeQT4ncZLApmt2bvijU35gJOpJVuPpJOHr6ystbTlB8D18/s512/The+Vampire+-+fence.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="254" data-original-width="512" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCUkecTVy7tj8oZtE20K8vMNbl04tF9RLK_JHBeFdLFm8eQ1qrVWi3PE_blV-_eCrR98-t7_5Vo2zApCm5IXXwlBCsd4DmwDeQT4ncZLApmt2bvijU35gJOpJVuPpJOHr6ystbTlB8D18/w640-h318/The+Vampire+-+fence.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p>The picturesque streets, lined with leafy trees and white picket fences, become the site of terror, as residents meet brutal violence and death at the hands of someone they have known and trusted for years. All it takes is a single trivial mistake, mixing up some dangerous experimental pills with a dose of migraine medication, to turn an ordinary man into a monster.</p><p>Not far into the film, Paul becomes aware of what’s begun to happen to him: a Jekyll and Hyde-esque transformation with a vampiric edge, causing him to attack others in an amnesiac state, leaving two puncture wounds on his victims’ necks when he attacks them. As scientific advancement began to supplant religious faith as a means of explaining life and the human condition, science becomes the source of the transformation to an evil being, rather than a curse or other supernatural cause. </p><p>Although there are scientific researchers at the scene who might be able to help, including one of his oldest friends, he keeps secret his exposure to the drug causing his devolution, and tries to manage the effects on his own. While he has the presence of mind to send his daughter to live with relatives, in a realistically heart-wrenching scene, his refusal to admit his weakness puts others in mortal danger. <br /></p><p>There are hints that Paul is acting on impulses he has long repressed in his roles as a father and a professional adult embedded in a community. While his attacks are, refreshingly for the genre, not limited to attractive young women, the first attack is exactly that. Later, the scenes of most sustained tension involve his stalking Coleen Gray’s Carol, the lovely nurse who works for him. While he has maintained his decorum, treating her as an assistant and friend, a running joke shows he has also tried to keep other men from meeting her, which suggests he would secretly like to keep her for himself. Only after his transformation can he show that interest, in an ugly and aggressive way, much the same way it allows him to snap impatiently at his daughter. <br /></p><p>The doctor’s situation parallels the classic werewolf scenario, in which a decent man is overcome by violent animal instincts. What sets him apart as a “new kind of killer” is his position as an eminently responsible man in a quaint, recognizably ordinary American town. The killer isn’t a stranger, come from without, but one who is solidly from within the seemingly safe, cozy community. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-ARGtMzoLLYYHCZHMtrNxKtofUDysvQwEgEEvEfX8B1t_1ka0xdMWzn6ia8E2uWiHyILAAtJVsQtzEJQcTXibA8speR5OSQLHA-njMDjNVmLZPau21h6MyDr6fx1Z45s7gCbdsnqDw4E/s756/The+Vampire+-+hug.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="436" data-original-width="756" height="370" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-ARGtMzoLLYYHCZHMtrNxKtofUDysvQwEgEEvEfX8B1t_1ka0xdMWzn6ia8E2uWiHyILAAtJVsQtzEJQcTXibA8speR5OSQLHA-njMDjNVmLZPau21h6MyDr6fx1Z45s7gCbdsnqDw4E/w640-h370/The+Vampire+-+hug.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p>As such, this film brings horror into the world of everyday Americans in a way that recognizes that world’s contradictions, an idea that would be developed and refined in the years to come.</p>Anarchivisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06599522097057431891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246957333917525824.post-2055080685284694392021-04-25T09:16:00.072-05:002021-05-01T07:39:49.920-05:00Americana Spookerama: The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (1966)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="border: medium none; display: inline-block; height: 314px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; overflow: hidden; width: 205px;"><img height="314" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/Vou4dqfFXWspfdtmNhbDT7CeldVsXzw_R2pEhIBXA8NH0IUExKWtScllmz-WJmhcQsmc3NmxAAXsY6n8vPYDXNdfZgX-g-jKjvsr7M5MpDZttge2avv3FMbx1HoNzEpwNOqej9k" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="205" /></span></div><p><span id="docs-internal-guid-5af48303-7fff-face-46bc-727688934d33" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"></span> It’s easy to view the art of earlier times, especially ones that evoke a specific, apparently more wholesome period like the 1950s and ‘60s, through a lens of nostalgia. At the time of their creation, though, these were not a product of reminiscence, but of up-to-the-moment mythologizing. Their depiction of American life was based on how people at the time saw themselves, or at least the way they wanted to be seen – or, to further complicate things, the picture that the mass media thought Americans wanted to see reflected back at themselves.
</p><p>If the 1950s created the image of a new, prosperous national identity, promoted by the media and public rhetoric, this vision had firmly taken hold by the mid-60s, and everyone knew what a typical American town with typical American values was supposed to look like. At least they did if they watched television -- and were white, and of the socioeconomic statuses represented on the programs of the day. By the time director Alan Rafkin’s <i>The Ghost and Mr. Chicken</i> came along in 1966, the film’s depiction of quaint small-town life itself has a quality of nostalgia, and a self-awareness that separates it from earlier films. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeFobobciMULn4XzoBWNLoJmkMxhfLc_kklhl6ztp95kVkkqU625m9CFAAlmeOa8ey5msYgsKR-U3IY5kdPVbqTFjYFBVkPSqtHRkLFxQ0Or04yYe5vzTgF5UdUP63qckyHwk5zfI2JKY/s512/Ghost+and+Mr+Chicken+-+picnic.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="217" data-original-width="512" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeFobobciMULn4XzoBWNLoJmkMxhfLc_kklhl6ztp95kVkkqU625m9CFAAlmeOa8ey5msYgsKR-U3IY5kdPVbqTFjYFBVkPSqtHRkLFxQ0Or04yYe5vzTgF5UdUP63qckyHwk5zfI2JKY/w640-h272/Ghost+and+Mr+Chicken+-+picnic.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p>Its setting always reminds me of <i>The Music Man</i>, which debuted on Broadway in 1957 and became a film in 1962. That similar world of porch swings and clustered, gossiping townspeople, dressed in their Sunday best, is set in 1912: a sanitized image of the past, not a supposed present.
</p><p>Rafkin’s film evokes that older American idea with its sometimes “old-timey” feel. His fictional Rachel, Kansas, a clean and clean-cut corner of the heartland, has no veneer of the realism found in the pioneering works of 1950s small-town horror like The 1957's <i>The Vampire</i>, or William Castle's 1958 <i>Macabre</i>. Instead, it looks more like the towns seen in TV sitcoms and Disney live-action films, with contemporary elements wedged into what often seems like a period piece. The men wear suits and ties every day, the women are always dressed up (and with a fabulous array of crazy flowered hats), and rooms are full of old-fashioned décor, as if frozen in time. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="border: medium none; display: inline-block; height: 264px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; overflow: hidden; width: 354px;"><img height="298" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/9N-eW9aUEqXhXbMydhdUrWm2uj9bEwgUYHhy0Pv3l_MgDF4eJBorYfDRZB2LpuCdjeLaraLk-IW9D5B1q-a2-P-PCk1_2t3oxES0yI24pqJuDVislQlOM99VCNW25NqAY7JO5HY=w400-h298" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="400" /></span></div><p>The film opens with Don Knotts driving into Rachel, which exhibits the literal signs of prosperous normalcy: advertising the Chamber of Commerce, the Kiwanis, Rotary, Lions, and even the Optimists Club. Then, almost immediately, the film presents a full-on Gothic haunted mansion in this cozy town, with hidden passages and a dramatic pipe organ, which everyone calls a “murder house,” just like in <i>American Horror Story</i>.
Knotts’ Luther, an imaginative typesetter and aspiring reporter, is convinced by a nosy elderly woman that she’s seen a murder there while “getting ready to brush my teeth and watch Lawrence Welk.” In actuality, the local drunk was hit in the head by his angry wife, but the neighbor’s dull existence and lack of worldly experience have led her to imagine things. The incident turns the eager Luther into a laughing stock, but a chain of events causes him to spend the night in the haunted house as a publicity stunt. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAcPEjPa6nGr2j0p1AX7HXy6Y22zEQbhfHUnjKe50VPwz8RZjqLpCBQqXXHefzhW8JaJDdGD7RU_vkiEfKfKsM-vq0RD9FT90ddyMVocfojPPDGFLJeEm_MnD-UuDu8uC747wx6ksQcQo/s512/Ghost+and+Mr+Chicken+-+mansion.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="295" data-original-width="512" height="368" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAcPEjPa6nGr2j0p1AX7HXy6Y22zEQbhfHUnjKe50VPwz8RZjqLpCBQqXXHefzhW8JaJDdGD7RU_vkiEfKfKsM-vq0RD9FT90ddyMVocfojPPDGFLJeEm_MnD-UuDu8uC747wx6ksQcQo/w640-h368/Ghost+and+Mr+Chicken+-+mansion.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p>The inheritor of the property and his banker discuss the merits of simply tearing down the house versus selling its parts piecemeal, in a pretty bald depiction of subordinating history to the profit motive, common enough in the American Midwest. The desire to bulldoze over the past in the guise of progress, however, is openly presented as a way to cover up old crimes, a subtly subversive spin.
</p><p>Many of the horror films of the time, while reflecting some degree of a wholesome all-American environment, show the dark cracks that existed from the beginning, and <i>The Ghost and Mr. Chicken</i> is no exception. It is a lighthearted, G-rated, family-friendly film, about an idealized time and place that never really were, but that people still believe in. At the same time, it centers around a couple who were brutally murdered by a family member, out of sheer greed. Their wealth and position couldn’t shield them from the threat of evil within their own family unit, within their own home.
Only the diligence of their working-class immigrant gardener brings the killer, another imminently respectable pillar of the community, to justice, and he was afraid to say what he had witnessed without proof, assuming that the more privileged man would be believed. So even here, there’s a vein of underlying darkness. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2rlX_zDMiSoS9cwqFoHHzyXYIXb-ZbgIUaclW-w99Cm8rZ-J5JYYdgUxXIODs2sXJjLUhpaXs5S1dXKoqkZfd2LKwwZ6UuEbL4pkMiNQ-LBaOsmg_rvuIM6IH3V7QOvPC0jXJr1N9KWE/s512/Ghost+and+Mr+Chicken+-+breakfast.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="215" data-original-width="512" height="269" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2rlX_zDMiSoS9cwqFoHHzyXYIXb-ZbgIUaclW-w99Cm8rZ-J5JYYdgUxXIODs2sXJjLUhpaXs5S1dXKoqkZfd2LKwwZ6UuEbL4pkMiNQ-LBaOsmg_rvuIM6IH3V7QOvPC0jXJr1N9KWE/w640-h269/Ghost+and+Mr+Chicken+-+breakfast.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p><span id="docs-internal-guid-4b830bce-7fff-40a1-2582-b1bbd0839293" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"></span> All of this is embedded, though, in a resolutely wholesome and cheerful environment, appropriate as a vehicle for actors familiar from the archetypal TV sitcoms Rafkin had worked on. Screenwriters James Fritzell and Everett Greenbaum had written for multiple shows, including the one that made Knotts famous, <i>The Andy Griffith Show</i>. In his memoir, <i>Barney Fife and Other Characters I Have Known</i>, Knotts describes the origin of the film in that program’s “Haunted House” episode, and his and Griffith’s involvement in its development and pre-production.
</p><p>Much of the supporting cast was plucked from Mayberry as well, with the first three people onscreen all well-known regulars: Knotts, Hope Summers (who played Aunt Bea’s friend Clara), and Hal Smith, playing basically the same character, with a different name. Supporting actors Reta Shaw, Bert Mustin, and Lurene Tuttle (also in <i>Psycho</i>!), had also appeared on <i>Andy Griffith</i>. Dick Sargent, famous from <i>Bewitched</i>, is also present as Luther’s boss. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkV67qlE31EcV6HmymD-q3BmR6RjBXtQkHU8KKKps0R15N-F_7ITqPPGR4gFxdDUn2DQhS6ECLBBrCa-yHO1qHtxienoXqhl7cGDlck_hUE4jQECsiF8XeXQvCyC5op-lbzd47rAuoC8M/s643/Ghost+and+Mr+Chicken+-+occult+society.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="270" data-original-width="643" height="269" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkV67qlE31EcV6HmymD-q3BmR6RjBXtQkHU8KKKps0R15N-F_7ITqPPGR4gFxdDUn2DQhS6ECLBBrCa-yHO1qHtxienoXqhl7cGDlck_hUE4jQECsiF8XeXQvCyC5op-lbzd47rAuoC8M/w640-h269/Ghost+and+Mr+Chicken+-+occult+society.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p>These connections with Mayberry and other family-oriented comedies add to the sense that it the film is taking place in a slightly romanticized simpler time, probably even in the context of 1966, a time of growing cultural change.
One intriguing scene is set in the small-town diner, staged to highlight a prominent, fully integrated lunch counter. Given the importance of lunch counters to the struggle for Civil Rights, with the term often standing in as shorthand for segregated spaces, it’s hard to believe this is a coincidence. Especially when one considers that the landmark case of Brown vs. the Board of Education took place in Kansas, the heartland of America, the state where this movie is set. Other black background characters appear at the Chamber of Commerce picnic, too, and a black woman congratulates Luther near the end, so Rachel’s all-American nature is specifically depicted to include non-white residents.</p><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuPhE4vlPcrBQqtsLaL33nEXZh_sINPKQ803sFZr5hwEX8cfzXtv6eJSQBORtehZ05OOjeMhAj83IhJM7BBRlInyPCh9vnoGbmyg7oYHSe-NRX8HAEcGxX0YHFTuSuFTYtCzQigOAsU44/s512/Ghost+and+Mr+Chicken+-+diner.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="217" data-original-width="512" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuPhE4vlPcrBQqtsLaL33nEXZh_sINPKQ803sFZr5hwEX8cfzXtv6eJSQBORtehZ05OOjeMhAj83IhJM7BBRlInyPCh9vnoGbmyg7oYHSe-NRX8HAEcGxX0YHFTuSuFTYtCzQigOAsU44/w640-h272/Ghost+and+Mr+Chicken+-+diner.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p>In another subtle progressive nod, the attractive young Alma, who’ll become Luther’s unlikely love interest, is depicted as a fairly modern woman. She’s introduced picking up her boyfriend in her own car, and when she inevitably dumps him, reminds him that “you don’t own me … You never did.”
Refreshingly for a G-rated film of its time, where one might expect a Ronnie Howard equivalent or a pesky kid brother for Alma, there are no children in the cast, except for a few in the crowd scenes. Its concerns are those of adults: career aspirations, the desire for respect, and insecurity about romance. These common, everyday concerns play out in a picturesque, optimistic world, where none of these suggested social changes are rocking any boats. Throughout, thought, right down the street, is a representative of the whole Gothic tradition, hiding horrors of the past that are still coming to light.
</p><p>Just two years later, George Romero’s <i>Night of the Living Dead</i> would be released, changing horror films forever. Many later movies in the genre would take place in small towns, but they largely lack the sense of their settings as representing American life or ideals. Even in the less generic towns in films like John Carpenter’s <i>Halloween </i>and <i>The Fog</i>, we often find that the subtext has become text, with storylines that more openly expose the conflicts and hypocrisies found there. They reflect other social changes, as well. The nosy neighbors, the family doctors, the people met on the streets have all disappeared, swept away by isolating modernity. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibbSrpx7hloSxTTWzMAff4fv4CAdaFhUhokBsiDLIpVXlfeovYbDU6Xr64X3937igjjcCeG1Dl6gsZR67aa7Z-Y26pXAa_8S2UOn57py4Wv-A2vgtOlo_Cv77nS7PpxHq3hHEkYAX8WxI/s629/Ghost+and+Mr+Chicken+-+inside.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="272" data-original-width="629" height="277" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibbSrpx7hloSxTTWzMAff4fv4CAdaFhUhokBsiDLIpVXlfeovYbDU6Xr64X3937igjjcCeG1Dl6gsZR67aa7Z-Y26pXAa_8S2UOn57py4Wv-A2vgtOlo_Cv77nS7PpxHq3hHEkYAX8WxI/w640-h277/Ghost+and+Mr+Chicken+-+inside.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p><span id="docs-internal-guid-ae83d393-7fff-8b91-baca-d3b9c775bc57" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"></span> In this mid-century micro-genre of all-American small-town horrors, with their mundane settings and lack of supernatural ambiance, do these films exhibit a failure of the imagination? Or in rejecting many of the expected traditional trappings of horror, bringing its themes to new, modern settings, was it an expansion of the imagination? Perhaps both, as they fuse old and new, dark and light, in a peculiarly American way.</p>Anarchivisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06599522097057431891noreply@blogger.com0