Sunday, November 13, 2011
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Sick Boy
Sick boy in his faded blue jeans, like leather jacket scene.
He's always in trouble with the law, don't ya know?
He carries a switch blade knife, likes to get into fights.
He'll go drinking with the boys all night long.
Sick boy rides a big motorbike and combs his hair up just right with tattoos up and down his arms, don't ya know?
He's got a girl wrapped around his arms with his street-like charm.
He'll make love to her all night, don't ya know?
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
A horrific message
As you may or may not already be aware, this month is a special one. It has a Friday the 13th in it. What does that mean? Scary movies of course! Now, I’m no horror film buff by any means, unfortunately, but I do know a few things about the dichotomy of the horror film (see: Horror Films: The Nature of the Beast & Post-Modern Horror Films). This month I will be researching and compiling a list of the best horror films by genre. I hope to get it done by Friday seeing as it is the 13th. If I fail, you’ll have to wait til May 2011.
The genres are as follows:
1. Psychological Horror
2. The Noir Horror
3. Slashers
4. Grindhouse
5. Monster (ghosts, demons, witches, vampire, werewolf, zombie, prehistoric, lab creature)
6. Horror Comedy
I will report my findings as soon as possible, but for now, good night to all of you out in cyber space.
The genres are as follows:
1. Psychological Horror
2. The Noir Horror
3. Slashers
4. Grindhouse
5. Monster (ghosts, demons, witches, vampire, werewolf, zombie, prehistoric, lab creature)
6. Horror Comedy
I will report my findings as soon as possible, but for now, good night to all of you out in cyber space.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
The Revival of the Musical
Whether one likes musicals or not, there is no question that the musical genre suffered a decline in popularity in the 1960s but that musicals such as Moulin Rouge (2001) and Chicago (2002) indicate a modicum revival of interest in the musical. There were still musicals during the 1960s, but the popularity of such musicals, like West Side Story (1961) didn’t increase until later generations resurfaced it.
The 1960s were a time of change of the old ways of seeing the world. People were fighting for a dramatic shift in the way life was lived and the movies reflected that need of the public. People wanted movies and characters that they could recognize with like Dustin Hoffman’s character Ben Braddock in The Graduate (1967). People were tired of beautiful actresses and hunky actors and they made a change from studs like Clark Gable to regular men like Al Pacino and Jack Nicholson. The 1960s was an age of anti-glamour where gruesome shoot out scenes were shown, uncut, to audiences like in Bonnie and Clyde (1967). The whimsical musical had no place in this time period. With their shifts in register and dream-like musical sequences, the musical didn’t fit into the gritty realism that the people of the 1960s craved so badly.
Not everyone was jumping on the revolution bandwagon, though. Movies like West Side Story, which showed the racism that Latinos suffered in America, were a slight success. Also, the 1960s was the time when Elvis Presley made his musical movies like Roustabout (1964) and Spinout (1966) which caught the young girl population of that time.
Recent movies have revived the musical slightly. Movies like Across the Universe (2007), which ironically is a musical set in the 1960s, The Nightmare before Christmas (1993), which was an innovation of the musical, and Sweeney Todd (2007) have grasped a younger audience into appreciating the meticulous work that goes into musicals. There is minimal dancing in these movies, but the audiences is captivated by the intergration of the storyline into the musical numbers, like in Across the Universe, which was on everyone’s favorite movie list for years after the release. The musical The Nightmare before Christmas is a pivotal film in cinematic history and its merchandise is still being sold quite impressively. These movies show that a modicum revival of the musical is taking place which may lead to gradual increase in the popularity of the musical.
The 1960s were a time of change of the old ways of seeing the world. People were fighting for a dramatic shift in the way life was lived and the movies reflected that need of the public. People wanted movies and characters that they could recognize with like Dustin Hoffman’s character Ben Braddock in The Graduate (1967). People were tired of beautiful actresses and hunky actors and they made a change from studs like Clark Gable to regular men like Al Pacino and Jack Nicholson. The 1960s was an age of anti-glamour where gruesome shoot out scenes were shown, uncut, to audiences like in Bonnie and Clyde (1967). The whimsical musical had no place in this time period. With their shifts in register and dream-like musical sequences, the musical didn’t fit into the gritty realism that the people of the 1960s craved so badly.
Not everyone was jumping on the revolution bandwagon, though. Movies like West Side Story, which showed the racism that Latinos suffered in America, were a slight success. Also, the 1960s was the time when Elvis Presley made his musical movies like Roustabout (1964) and Spinout (1966) which caught the young girl population of that time.
Recent movies have revived the musical slightly. Movies like Across the Universe (2007), which ironically is a musical set in the 1960s, The Nightmare before Christmas (1993), which was an innovation of the musical, and Sweeney Todd (2007) have grasped a younger audience into appreciating the meticulous work that goes into musicals. There is minimal dancing in these movies, but the audiences is captivated by the intergration of the storyline into the musical numbers, like in Across the Universe, which was on everyone’s favorite movie list for years after the release. The musical The Nightmare before Christmas is a pivotal film in cinematic history and its merchandise is still being sold quite impressively. These movies show that a modicum revival of the musical is taking place which may lead to gradual increase in the popularity of the musical.
Post-Modern Horror Films
The handout “Modern (Classical) Horror and Post-modern Horror Film” discusses many differences between the two horror genres. The many differences are listed effectively and it shows that there is a giant leap, almost polar opposition, between modern horror films and post-modern horror films. The movie Psycho is considered to be a post-modern horror film, due to it many differences from that of a modern horror film.
The first difference discussed is the prominence of good and evil, normality and abnormality, and reality and illusion. Modern horror films have the good and the evil easily distinguishable, but in post-modern, just the opposite. In Psycho, the characters all have traits and flaws that make them both good and evil. For example, Norman Bates, through out the movie, is seen to be just another victim of his mother’s brutal killings, but later we see that Norman is the brutal killer and his evil is seen. Even the first victim of the killings, Marion Crane, is not completely good. In fact, she has stolen a large amount of money. The normality of Marion is paralleled to her abnormality. She seems like a meek woman who would never commit a crime, but she is thief who becomes paranoid that she is being followed by the police. She struggles with her decision to become abnormal and wonders what it would be like to just return the money and go back to being normal, but it is too late. Her normality and abnormality is melded into a paranoid mess of a person. Norman is also struggling with his issue. In his head, he can not look at beautiful women because he feels his mother is watching. He tries to live a normal life, but is pushed to kill when his natural desires flair up. The characters also struggle with reality and illusion as Norman Bates is unaware that he is taking on the persona of his murdered mother and Marion Crane is paranoid of people’s intentions.
Another element that makes Psycho a post-modern horror film is the lack of narrative closure at the end of the movie. The psychologist does explain why Norman killed all those people, but the last scene belongs to the mother side of Norman. Her monologue gives the feeling that her tirade is not completely over and that someone will die again. The fact that Norman is psychotic comes as a complete shock to the audience which makes the movie a post-modern film. The twist in the story kills the audience’s expectations of the horror genre and leaves them in shock. Psycho fits so perfectly in the post-modern horror film genre that one is left to speculate if Alfred Hitchcock invented the new genre.
The first difference discussed is the prominence of good and evil, normality and abnormality, and reality and illusion. Modern horror films have the good and the evil easily distinguishable, but in post-modern, just the opposite. In Psycho, the characters all have traits and flaws that make them both good and evil. For example, Norman Bates, through out the movie, is seen to be just another victim of his mother’s brutal killings, but later we see that Norman is the brutal killer and his evil is seen. Even the first victim of the killings, Marion Crane, is not completely good. In fact, she has stolen a large amount of money. The normality of Marion is paralleled to her abnormality. She seems like a meek woman who would never commit a crime, but she is thief who becomes paranoid that she is being followed by the police. She struggles with her decision to become abnormal and wonders what it would be like to just return the money and go back to being normal, but it is too late. Her normality and abnormality is melded into a paranoid mess of a person. Norman is also struggling with his issue. In his head, he can not look at beautiful women because he feels his mother is watching. He tries to live a normal life, but is pushed to kill when his natural desires flair up. The characters also struggle with reality and illusion as Norman Bates is unaware that he is taking on the persona of his murdered mother and Marion Crane is paranoid of people’s intentions.
Another element that makes Psycho a post-modern horror film is the lack of narrative closure at the end of the movie. The psychologist does explain why Norman killed all those people, but the last scene belongs to the mother side of Norman. Her monologue gives the feeling that her tirade is not completely over and that someone will die again. The fact that Norman is psychotic comes as a complete shock to the audience which makes the movie a post-modern film. The twist in the story kills the audience’s expectations of the horror genre and leaves them in shock. Psycho fits so perfectly in the post-modern horror film genre that one is left to speculate if Alfred Hitchcock invented the new genre.
Horror Films: The Nature of the Beast
In American Film Genres (New York: Dell, 1974), Stuart M. Kaminsky has developed the “Seven Branches of the American Horror Film,” a seven-branch paradigm for analyzing the American horror film. Each branch is identified by the first of six categories for each branch—its “source of horror.”
The seven branches presented in order are:
(1) Animal drives which threaten man,
(2) Immortal parasite,
(3) Witches, corrupt humans who worship evil,
(4) Resurrected dead, or possessed beings who are figuratively dead,
(5) Unpredictable mad men,
(6) Mad scientist and created monster, and
(7) Creatures from outer space, inside the Earth, or from the Id.
The five categories for each branch are:
(1) Source of horror,
(2) psychological issues,
(3) goal of monster,
(4) reason for violence,
(5) weapons, and
(6) characters.
In addition, Kaminsky lists key films for each branch. Thus, for the movie Creepshow in “The Crate” story each category can be explained as follows for branch seven—Creatures from outer space, inside the Earth, or from the Id.
(1) Not all given horror film fulfill each category effectively of a given branch. In Creepshow’s “The Crate,” director George A. Romero, with the help of legendary special effects make up artist Tom Savini, creates a monster that exemplifies all the types of monsters named in branch seven. The “source of horror” is coming from a monster that was discovered in a lab. The audience is kept unaware of its origins and one can begin to imagine that the monster could come from outer space, inside the Earth, or even from the Id of the main character Henry Northrup.
(2) The “psychological issue” of this branch is labeled “Retention of sanity in a microcosmic, disoriented version of a community.” The college that the lab is located at is a large community of closely-nit professors, students, and even janitors. The main character, Henry Northrup, is part of this college community as he tries to escape his brutish wife, Wilma. Henry’s psychological issue stems from Wilma’s verbal abuse and her constant drinking. He wants so badly to be free of her tyranny but can not find an outlet to accomplish this. His self-confidence is so low that when his friend Professor Dexter Stanley comes to him to help with the monster in the crate, he is reluctant at first but finds an opportunity to escape his wife and be a hero at the same time.
(3) The “goal of the monster” for this branch is “attainment of suppressed urges, desires.” Quite obviously, the goal of the monster is to eat as much as possible before returning to the crate once more. When “The Crate” begins, we see that the crate that is, unknowingly at the time, carrying the monster is covered in mounds of dust, long discarded. The monster inside is understandable hungry after all the years of being locked in a crate under a flight of stairs and eats as many people as possible to qualm his hunger, including the janitor, a student, and finally Wilma. The goal of the monster is to never return to the crate again, but if the monster is from Henry’s Id, the ultimate goal is to be free of Wilma, which he is at the end of the section.
(4) The “reason for violence” for branch seven is that the monster is a savage beast. The monster has been locked in a crate for quite a long time (this can be assumed by the rusty chains and dust on the top of the crate) and he is not only hungry, but angry as well. Most monsters in horror film don’t need a reason for violence, for they are savage monsters who do not need a reason.
(5) The “weapons” for branch seven are the monster’s large claws and even larger mouth. The monster is not very large, but it has the element of surprise and sharp claws to destroy and eat its prey.
(6) Finally, “the character” for branch seven is Henry Northrup; the protagonist who is “threatened with insanity.” Henry is driven mad by his wife Wilma and is turned evil when he finds a way to get rid of her: feed her to the monster. Her constant nagging has driven him to this point and Henry finds no other way to deal with Wilma. Like a protagonist, Henry helps his friend Dexter Stanley clean up the blood and guts that the monster has left behind from the previous kills. On the surface, Henry is perceived to be a spineless yes man, but he is holding in a wild beast.
The seven branches presented in order are:
(1) Animal drives which threaten man,
(2) Immortal parasite,
(3) Witches, corrupt humans who worship evil,
(4) Resurrected dead, or possessed beings who are figuratively dead,
(5) Unpredictable mad men,
(6) Mad scientist and created monster, and
(7) Creatures from outer space, inside the Earth, or from the Id.
The five categories for each branch are:
(1) Source of horror,
(2) psychological issues,
(3) goal of monster,
(4) reason for violence,
(5) weapons, and
(6) characters.
In addition, Kaminsky lists key films for each branch. Thus, for the movie Creepshow in “The Crate” story each category can be explained as follows for branch seven—Creatures from outer space, inside the Earth, or from the Id.
(1) Not all given horror film fulfill each category effectively of a given branch. In Creepshow’s “The Crate,” director George A. Romero, with the help of legendary special effects make up artist Tom Savini, creates a monster that exemplifies all the types of monsters named in branch seven. The “source of horror” is coming from a monster that was discovered in a lab. The audience is kept unaware of its origins and one can begin to imagine that the monster could come from outer space, inside the Earth, or even from the Id of the main character Henry Northrup.
(2) The “psychological issue” of this branch is labeled “Retention of sanity in a microcosmic, disoriented version of a community.” The college that the lab is located at is a large community of closely-nit professors, students, and even janitors. The main character, Henry Northrup, is part of this college community as he tries to escape his brutish wife, Wilma. Henry’s psychological issue stems from Wilma’s verbal abuse and her constant drinking. He wants so badly to be free of her tyranny but can not find an outlet to accomplish this. His self-confidence is so low that when his friend Professor Dexter Stanley comes to him to help with the monster in the crate, he is reluctant at first but finds an opportunity to escape his wife and be a hero at the same time.
(3) The “goal of the monster” for this branch is “attainment of suppressed urges, desires.” Quite obviously, the goal of the monster is to eat as much as possible before returning to the crate once more. When “The Crate” begins, we see that the crate that is, unknowingly at the time, carrying the monster is covered in mounds of dust, long discarded. The monster inside is understandable hungry after all the years of being locked in a crate under a flight of stairs and eats as many people as possible to qualm his hunger, including the janitor, a student, and finally Wilma. The goal of the monster is to never return to the crate again, but if the monster is from Henry’s Id, the ultimate goal is to be free of Wilma, which he is at the end of the section.
(4) The “reason for violence” for branch seven is that the monster is a savage beast. The monster has been locked in a crate for quite a long time (this can be assumed by the rusty chains and dust on the top of the crate) and he is not only hungry, but angry as well. Most monsters in horror film don’t need a reason for violence, for they are savage monsters who do not need a reason.
(5) The “weapons” for branch seven are the monster’s large claws and even larger mouth. The monster is not very large, but it has the element of surprise and sharp claws to destroy and eat its prey.
(6) Finally, “the character” for branch seven is Henry Northrup; the protagonist who is “threatened with insanity.” Henry is driven mad by his wife Wilma and is turned evil when he finds a way to get rid of her: feed her to the monster. Her constant nagging has driven him to this point and Henry finds no other way to deal with Wilma. Like a protagonist, Henry helps his friend Dexter Stanley clean up the blood and guts that the monster has left behind from the previous kills. On the surface, Henry is perceived to be a spineless yes man, but he is holding in a wild beast.
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