I dreamt I made an artsy double-feature film combo. One was called "Valentine's Daughters," and it was about badass demonic prostitutes who sucked the souls out of their clients, starring super babe Nicki Minaj, with an incredibly dramatic high ponytail that was like 5 feet long. The second was called "One Mortal," and it was a crazy samurai bloodbath. I wish I'd taken notes on these when I woke up... I remember being so excited.
Tuesday, September 27, 2016
Sunday, September 25, 2016
Ringu (1998)
About to rewatch Ringu.. Mark has never seen it... opening credits and I'm already so scared!!
The Birds (1963)
Not Hitchcock's best, but definitely inspired by the fashion... Who says a girl can't wear a fur coat in a dirty rowboat?!
Scream (1996)
The original teen slasher. This movie terrified me when I first saw it, and it still does. I can never look at a glass sliding door the same way again.
Dead Ringers (1988)
House of Usher (1960)
Now THAT'S what I call horror! House of Usher has it all - Vincent Price, a haunted house, a family curse, a woman who sleepwalks nightly down to the crypt... "Evil is not just a word, it's a reality."
Låt den rätte komma in / Let the Right One In (2008)
So enjoyed watching Låt den rätte komma in (Let the Right One In) with Tiriel... a delightful, offbeat Swedish romance. Reminded me of another subtle Scandinavian film, the powerful Danish werewolf story, Når dyrene drømmer (When Animals Dream).
Diabolique (1955)
Loved Diabolique - snappy dialogue, a nice chance to practice my French comprehension, and a surprising denouement...
Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Silence of the Lambs is so brilliant. And plucky Starling, d'awww, so fierce and inspiring!!
Misery (1990)
Misery is so creepy... If I were a celebrity, I'd be so afraid if anyone told me they're my "number 1 fan"...
An American Werewolf in London (1981)
An American Werewolf in London is hands down my favorite horror movie of all time. Everything about it is so rad... The super badass special effects makeup, adorable protagonist, great sense of humor, etc., etc. A gem!
The Signal (2007)
The Signal (2007) was brutal. 3 different segments by 3 directors - only Jacob Gentry's portion (Jealousy Monster) had any redeeming value, IMHO, because parts were very funny (photo is from this segment). The first part was meh and the third part was just ugly and awful. Overall "yuck" rating for the gratuitous violence against women, which felt motivated more by misogyny than by the plot.
Rosemary's Baby (1968)
Rosemary's Baby is the best horror movie of all time. It is the rare perfect movie. Mia Farrow is captivating. The pacing is brilliant. The aesthetic is compelling. The camerawork is striking. The movie itself is thrilling, and the ending is satisfying. But most of all, the story stays with you, because it taps into deeply felt horrors, which are emotional and cerebral and visceral - no cheap thrills here.
This film perfectly epitomizes (and was seminal in developing) two central horror tropes --
1) A person leading a normal life is exposed by chance to the dark, seedy underbelly of the world. Experiencing this new truth radically transforms the hero's view of society and of their place within it. As the hero probes deeper into this new, ugly truth of the world, they are inexorably dragged deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole. If they conquer the dark forces and emerge successfully, they are forever altered.
~ This trope is profitably explored in Lynch's Blue Velvet (1986), for example.
2) Others refuse to validate the new truth the hero is experiencing, and the hero is forced to choose between denying the truth of their own experiences (and thus accepting that they have gone mad), or believing that everyone around them is out to get them, and is involved in some great conspiracy at the hero's expense. This tension fills the hero (and vicariously, the viewer) with terror and uncanny revulsion, at the loathsome prospects of insanity, or betrayal. The need to resolve this tension is what drives the hero deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole.
~ In this blog, I have used the tag "I know yall think I'm crazy but..." to identify films with this theme.
~ Hitchcock of course inspired the term "gaslighting" with his eponymous 1944 film.
Friday, September 23, 2016
Repulsion (1965)
Wow, Polanski's 1965 Repulsion is POWERFUL!! Definitely one of the strongest films on this list. Dan pointed out something that I did not know, namely that Polanski himself is a sexual predator, which quite possibly informs this movie's gripping portrayal of one woman's (well-founded) androphobia. Yuck!!
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