The Horror Movie Genre - Part 2

The Body Horror Genre is a difficult one to come to terms with. I dont know what David Cronenberg is reaching for inside James Woods but it isnt good.

Yes Body Horror is all about special effects but tell that to the number of people who get nauseated at the sight of these things.

What is Body Horror?
Body Horror is where the horror parts are all something to do with something going visibly wrong with the human body. These films have no jump scares but the scares are undoubtedly visual and mental.

I have not been a big fan of the genre as the earlier films I've seen of Cronenberg repulsed me. But i consider it necessary that i mention all the horror genres here and of the few films i have scene that fall in this category i can come to a sort of conclusion.

I saw Brian Yuzna's Society as i was curious about the 'shunting' scene that has a lot of mentions in this genre. Boy was it gross. It is the sort of scene that makes you forget everything else that happened in the film.

Other films like Slither in 2006 and even Altered States in 1980 can also count as Body horror. Even The Thing and Invasion of the Body Snatchers as there are alterations to the human body in them.

But it is almost exclusively Cronenberg. I havent seen Re-Animator (yet) and i dont know anyone else except maybe films like Basket Case and Brain Damage.

Firstly Cronenberg stopped making such films since his 1999 film eXistenz which wasnt even a horror movie in itself but had the weird disfiguration/ something entering the body scenes.

Of his films the ones i have seen are The Fly; Videodrome and Dead Ringers. And Crash obviously.

The final two are not horror films as Crash is overtly sexual with some crazy sex (and i mean crazy) and Dead Ringers is just a drama in which Cronenberg couldnt help but put one trademark scene of Genevieve Bujold biting off a cord connecting the twin Jeremy Irons' characters in a dream.

The thing about Cronenberg's films is they always get straight to the fuckin point at the start. No need for a build up. Crash starts off with the sex and The Fly with Seth Brundle asking Geena Davis' character to come home so he can show her something.

Lets stick with The Fly. When i saw it first on TV in parts; my brother called the developing Seth Brundle 'Chocolate man' and my father would tell us to sleep or Chocolate man would come. That was effective for nealry 4 years.
I finally got down to watching The Fly in full 3 years ago and i could appreciate it.

Cronenberg's films were in the late 70s and 80s and people must have been very uncomfortable and grossed out watching these things happening to the human body - before the magic of computerized animation.
It is great that his latest films from A History of Violence to his latest A Dangerous Method are all very good but completely different from his early offerings.
BUT apparently his son Brandon just directed his own film Antiviral which is a body horror. In the genes?

The Horror Movie Genre - Part 1

Horror movies are not everyone's cup of tea.
It isnt even a case of you either love them or hate them.
People watch horror films because they want to get scared; i guess. And horror movies are rated in two ways.

The first way to rate horror movies is how scary they are. Jump scares is what people relate to horror movies; for me it is more psychological horror - more on that later.
The second way is by the ending. No matter what happens before the ending defines the movie. That is the case with thrillers as well; but horror movies HAVE to end in some way or the other and definitively. The ghost/spirit/murderer has to meet some sort of end.
Great build up poor/cliched ending = bad film.
Terrible build up great ending = good film.

As a fan of the genre it sickens me. As someone who aspires to become a film director but hasnt the means or the contacts it hurts to see a great idea wasted.

I wonder; the person who makes these films has to have an idea what he wants to show the audience. Then how can the final product go so wrong? Believe you me it is rare these days to find a good horror film; in fact the 70s and early 80s had some brilliant films which laid the foundation for the present directors; and most of the new horror films are unoriginal/ cliched or just remakes of those glorious years. These days the Far East make good horror films and they are remade almost always substandard.

I will start off with the Slasher subgenre.

What is the Slasher subgenre. To make it as simple as I can; it involves multiple murders of generally typecast teens by some unknown person who ends up being someone they know.
The murderer can be one of the teens themselves or someone's parents or some escaped convict. Even movies that involve sharks and other predatorial animals and aliens fall under the Slasher genre.
Wikipedia has a page dedicated to Slasher films and is an interesting read. I will not be rehashing anything from there and this will just be my views.

I will start with the Bad.

I have yet to see the original Prom Night. I did see the remake recently that was hyped up and i was disappointed. It was bleeding obvious who would die (almost in what order too) and who wouldnt by the time the characters were established. Lead white couple; black couple and secondary white couple. If you havent seen the movie; there are spoilers of sorts here but dont worry it wont do you any harm.
Ok so the secondary white couple will die first. Since the lead here is a woman; she will either survive or die last. So - from the black couple the guy will either survive or die second last. (not being racist here btw). It is just so obvious.

Thought i would mention Shark Night 3D here; when we saw the trailer we laughed as it showed an attack on the lead black guy and we felt that he didnt even survive the fuckin trailer! As it turned out he did.
Another point about Shark Night 3D is that the film could have been much better than it ended up. The idea was original for once but the acting - which is almost always below par for horror films - and just the way it was played was a real let down. It's like ordering your steak well done and finding it red in the middle.

Scream was a much better film. While it does fall short when compared to some of the great Original films like Halloween; Friday the 13th; Nightmare on Elm Street and the kind it is clearly the best of the latest bunch of Slasher films. Even the first sequel and the 2010 movie Scream 4 were well made.
What made Scream better than the others was it had smarter characters; especially Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott while most Slasher films have dumb teens who do not even strike a chord with the audience. When a character is strongly made then the audience wants the character to survive as well. I mean; who cared if Brittany Snow died in Prom Night? Or Paris Hilton in House of Wax?
Also; Scream created an iconic new villian in Ghostface. I wanted a Ghostface mask. The acting was good as it was a stellar cast if you consider the age group that the actors had to be; the scares were good and you genuinely did not know who the killer was. Kudos to Wes Craven and Scream deserved the plaudits and the money it earned.

But who can forget the movies that began it all? Halloween still is the best pure Slasher film ever made. It made a legend of Michael Myers as the masked truck driver who terrorizes a young Jaime Lee Curtis who needed a full ten years to diversify from her scream queen title in A Fish Called Wanda. Four years before that Tobe Hooper made The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Another pioneering film based loosely on Ed Gein that was a major success.

 Or these two films; so popular they spawned a ridiculous number of sequels you couldnt keep up. There even was a (horrible) crossover and they have both had reboots. The concept of Freddy Kruger killing you in your dreams in A Nightmare ... and the hockey mask of Jason Voorhees are memorable hallmarks of this genre.

 

 Ah!
For me the best horror films are those which dont just fuck with your eyes but fuck with your mind as well. Ridley Scott's Alien in 1979 and John Carpenter's The Thing from 1982 (albeit a sort of remake of 1951's The Thing from Another World) are both films that do not fall exclusively in the Slasher genre. But that is what they are.
People are killed. And you dont know who is killing them.
But - in this case it is not 'Who' is killing them; but 'What'.
Both films have strong leads- infact even the 2011 prequel of The Thing had a very good performance by Mary Elizabeth Winstead and was a much better film than what people said - and they have a watertight plot.

What makes The Thing such a solid horror film is despite the plethora of visual scares the main sense of tension that the film creates is that the 'Thing' could be any one of the people in the film as it metamorphosises into the person or animal it consumes. They dont know who it could be and you dont know who it could be.

Both Alien and The Thing have a killer that makes you go - 'What the fuck is that thing?'.
Critical to the films is that you hardly see the creature. The thing in The Thing is only shown a couple times and H.R. Giger's Alien is never shown in full which leaves it to the audience to imagine what the whole thing looks like - This was a major source of disappointment in the poor David Fincher directed Alien 3 which has an amateurly animated Alien that looks like it had been pasted on the screen. In Alien 3 the alien is shown in full and it looks like a lizard bringing down the curiosity and hence the fear to almost nothing.

Also key to both films is the settings. While The Thing is set in Antarctica Alien takes it a step further and is set in space - the Tagline for Alien 'In outer space no one can hear you scream' is one of the best ever made. These are both claustrophobic settings and that transcends into the audience. These are clear signs of a well thought out production. Alien is to the alien genre what 2001: A Space Odyssey is to the science fiction genre; well ahead of the times and films so good that they are almost impossible to better despite being 33 and 45 (incredible) years old.

In conclusion; slasher films these days ask you to leave your heads at home and watch as people get killed. They want to scare you with someone popping up from somewhere and try to be smart by making the killer one of the cast. The best Slasher films are those where who does the killing doesnt matter - you know who the killer is in Halloween and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and you know something is killing people in Alien and the Thing. Or even if you dont know who the killer is; the development of the characters is important.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes?

I want to be a gentleman one day. Till then its raven haired women for me.
I am a big big fan of Mia Kirshner BTW.

 Well, it is quite clear that i prefer black hair. I had to do a lot of digging to find Mia in Blonde, which is from a 2000 movie called The Innocents. I don’t like that blonde hair (May be a wig).

Mia in brown hair, also acceptable, which is an understatement.

Lets look at some other people in different colored hair.

Emma Stone is first. And i must say, even i couldn’t believe she was naturally blonde. (I must add however, that the new photos are quite nice)

Ready for a shock?

Hollywood’s most famous actress is a natural blonde. Now i bet you didn’t know that (neither did I frankly)

So is everyone’s favourite ummm ... vampire lover? This you might have known. Again, brunette always.

I saw a movie recently called Columbus Circle, and in that Amy Smart had dyed her hair black in the end. Maybe i am used to seeing Amy Smart as a blonde.

The gorgeous Rachel McAdams is also a natural Blonde. Looks really nice as a brunette.

Lindsay Lohan is Naturally Blonde as well, and you would know from her antics. In the middle picture, with black hair, she looks distinctly like Mila Kunis.

Katy Perry is also a natural blonde. I would like to add that i really like the second picture here.

In Sucker Punch, Emily Browning began blonde-ing, only to begin browning again, albeit slightly first for Sleeping Beauty.

 

If there ever was an exception to the rule of blondes being hot, there is Amber Heard. Did you know that this uber hot bisexual (LESBIAN!!) is actually a brunette? That is why some people should dye their hair blonde. Megan Fox should try it too.

Then there is the crazy awesome Milla Jovovich. I have no clue what her natural hair color is, i think black. And she dyed it blonde. Well Milla Jovovich can do anything she wants, and it will still be awesome. Apt photo the second one. Milla Jovovich is the standout example of how you can be super hot without having fake tits, see, even Maynard James Keenan agrees with me. Considerately, Killing me.

I am really bored aren’t I?

A Woman List

There aren’t many things i like to do more than to find new women in all walks of life that are in the public eye. Ill try and mention only those i have come to like recently and those i wouldn’t have put in any of my prior lists.

Michelle Williams really impressed me in her portrayal of Marilyn Monroe, and with 3 films releasing soon (maybe?) and with short hair, Mia Kirshner is also alive and kicking but they aren’t on this list as these are the others.

Elena Anaya – Sex & Lucia and Room in Rome, but those are just titillation. I am not one to like the latin American, Spanish actresses but i like her, and Paz Vega. The two movies mentioned are fixtures on my hard drives, but then for an actress, acting is what counts. I really liked the 4 hour, two part Mesrine and maybe that is why i decided to keep her in this list. And she shares her birthday with ... ME! Remember that clearly as she was the only person i knew who had the same birthday as me when i made that list of celebrity birthdays. Another fact – related to Mesrine – is that the other lead actress in the first film, Cecile De France, also shares her birthday with me. Funny. Pedro Almodovar is the most renowned of the Spanish directors and he casts only the main actresses, hence Penelope Cruz is a fixture. His latest, The Skin i Live in, has Elena Anaya, and it was nominated for Best Foreign film. Downloading.

Isabelle Adjani – She doesn’t look pretty now at all, but in the late 70s and 80s she looked amazing. And she is a Two time Academy Award nominee. Similar to most of my favourites, it took one film. Here it was Andrej Zulawski’s surreal Possession, which i was raving mad about in college. Her performance won the acting award at Cannes. Plus she had a child with Daniel Day-Lewis. I have a new found admiration for French women & I really hate it that people have to age.

Ludivine Sagnier – Maybe you all know her. Water Drops on Burning Rocks? Some actresses sign these ‘Non-Nudity’ clauses for films but this one here definitely signs a Nudity clause. Just five minutes after she appeared in Mesrine, naked. Scrolled through this year’s ‘The Devils’ Double’, naked. Swimming Pool – half the film naked, and these are the English Language films only! If god exists, thank you for these women who are unashamed of their bodies. Maybe the best looking of all these French actresses, or maybe the hottest since i love Marion Cotillard.

Charlotte Gainsbourg – French! Her parents were very famous, mother British actress Jane Birkin and father Serge Gainsbourg was a famous French singer. Serge Gainsbourg was a womanizer and dedicated one of his songs to Isabelle Adjani, also on this list, and in 1984 released a song called Lemon Incest, which contained references to paedophilia and incest, featuring his then 13 year old Daughter! Talk about controversy! Charlotte Gainsbourg is possibly the finest example of an actress known because she can act and not for how she looks, which isn’t great. Plus she is a singer as well, and her song featured in FIFA 11 for that matter.  A fixture of late under Lars von Trier, ive decided to watch every movie of hers, but then i need the time.

Oh these French women. Take Lea Seydoux (MI 4, Midnight in Paris) , Clemence Poesy (Fleur DelaCour, In Bruges), the wonderful Juliette Binoche, the pretty Elodie Bouchez, Audrey Tautou, Laetitia Casta, Marion Cotillard, the most beautiful news reporter of all time Melissa Theuriau, Alizee Jacotey, ex-pornstar Clara Morgane,   Berenice Berjo (The Artist), Berenice Marlohe (Skyfall – the next bond film) and even  Eva Green, who is of Jewish descent and an atheist. American actresses can suck it.

BTW, apart from Berenice Marlohe, there is an English women playing one of the bond girls. Her name is some Naomie, and she was Calypso in the Pirates films (if you don’t remember just check, seriously). That is a high profile role really.

Bryce Dallas Howard – I really liked her in Manderlay, and having seen The Help & 50/50 as well, it’s been a nice introduction to Ron Howard’s daughter. After a role like Manderlay she should have got some starring ones, and you cant judge the acting talent of anyone based on one film alone.

Jessica Chastain – just realised she wasn’t in my earlier list. One of my favourites now, and i am backing her for an Oscar win in the near future. Al Pacino cast her in Wilde Salome – yet to be released – and recommended her for Tree of Life. She is in India right now, shooting for Kathryn Bigelow’s latest film. Thats the third closest ive got to one of my favourite actresses. (Sienna Miller was in Mumbai once and Camilla Belle was a block away at the Marriot).

Anna Kendrick – I haven’t seen Up in the Air, or the Twilight films. I have only seen 50/50 and as expected, it took one film. My word her face is spotless, like a mannequin for fuck sake. Downloaded Up in the Air and if she got an Oscar nomination for that, im going to love it, DESPITE George Clooney, who i don’t like, even though he acts well. Dating Edgar Wright, who directed the brilliant Nick Frost – Simon Pegg duo in Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. And why do these actresses like to do voice-overs for animations, come in front of the camera with a face like that!

Evan Rachel Wood – well you’ve got to be barking mad to get engaged to Marilyn Manson, but who knows what he is like actually? I take it all of you have seen 11:14, and picture Evan Rachel Wood there and now, she looks like she’s lost half her weight. Has a number of movies under her belt (not figuratively) that i like, and there are a few i have and have to see yet, like Thirteen, S1m0ne, The conspirator, etc. Plus my interest was refuelled because of The Ides of March & Mildred Pierce – if you know what i mean. And - the kicker – cane out as bisexual. We love these confused girls. Keep em coming.

Rooney Mara – Didnt notice her in Social Network, although i read she got the plum role on that basis. Nightmare on Elm Street passed me by and all i said about the remake was that Jackie Earle Haley made a good Freddie Kruger. The original “Men Who Hate Women”, more commonly known as the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, had Noomi Rapace, who was wonderful in the role. But, you didn’t know Noomi Rapace. Yes ive flicked through some of her films but she seems a versatile actress. You watch Rooney Mara in these two films, or just look at her fucking face and you wonder – how the hell will she pull off that role? When you go into something expecting very little, if you get a few positives you feel happy. But what if you get the whole fuckin nine yards? I was immensely impressed – yes one film i know – and despite Meryl Streep and my fondness for Michelle Williams i would have planted the Oscar on her lap. If you saw The Fighter, you would see the role that Amy Adams played was one of a bitch of sorts, and Amy Adams plays Disney characters with aplomb as she is the happiest face in Hollywood. That was fantastic character acting and this performance exceeds that, as the role is complex, of a deranged female who has had a terrible foundation. You need to weigh in everything when it comes to appreciating a performance and on one side you have a Meryl Streep, who can play any role and has done it time and on the other you have a young actress who everyone presumed to be one of those one-dimensional, one trick ponies pulling this off. Maybe the fact that a movie with such adverse thematic content did garner Rooney Mara an Oscar nomination is testament to the appreciation she deserves. Fincher has signed on for the two sequels as well, and i am waiting eagerly. (There even is a Mia Kirshner connection here, as they both acted in successive episodes of The Cleaner)

Plans for this Blog

I have decided to take this seriously.

This post is more for myself than for anyone who reads this blog.

I would like to have three sections here.

The first will be movie related. Maybe a movie review or some movie related thoughts.

The second will be a people list of the kind i have made before.

The third will be of a particular movie person - an actor/actress or director.

Hopefully I will start posting here more often.

Movie Reviews - Paper Man & The Rum Diary

There is one word in common between these two movies, and why i watched them.

Stone.

Stoned - as in I am a big fan of Terry Gilliam's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and the idea of another of the late manic journalist Hunter S Thomson's novels being made into a film, starring Johnny Depp - who else - had me excited.

And Stone - Emily Jean Stone, or Emma Stone to most people.

Paper Man first -

The thing about Paper Man is that it is an independent film that had no marketing. A lot of films suffer this fate, where they deserve much more.

Directed by the Kieran and Michele Mulroney (husband and wife) it stars Jeff Daniels as a struggling writer, who moves to a beach community so he can get away from the city and focus on putting up a novel people will read, after his first novel sold almost nothing. Jeff Daniels wife is played by the sprightly Lisa Kudrow, who also co-starred with Emma Stone in the utterly brilliant Easy A. Emma Stone plays a 17 year old girl in the community, who is hired by Jeff Daniels as a babysitter - although he has no children, and Kieran Culkin plays Emma Stone's only friend. Ryan Reynolds plays Jeff Daniels imaginary friend Captain Excellent and looks ridiculous.

Paper Man echoes He was a Quiet Man, and similar to Frank Capello's film it is one i could relate to heavily, and one where certain scenes are exactly what i dread happening to me. These kind of scenes are hard to erase from memory, and the sad0-masochistic mind of mine likes such things. While Quiet Man ended with death, this film ends with life.

The film is all about the two main characters, Richard - player by Daniels, and Abby - played by Emma Stone. It is how two people who have been completely alone in their lives can form a bond, a friendship bordering on a relationship. (if this happens in real life, and i can get someone half as awesome as Emma Stone - sign me up). Richard is old, about 50, and he still has an imaginary friend. He is a writer, but feels his first book was terrible and feels he lacks creativity, and this leads to him being unable to write anthing of note at the start of his stay. He constantly emotes about being unable to do anything with his hands, and needs the help of Captain Excellent to make any decisions. Abby has an abusive boyfriend, but sticks with him - why? -and has a friend and confidant in Kieran Culkin, who is madly in love with her but she rejects him curtly. She has a past of sadness and loneliness as well which i wont reveal here.

Jeff Daniels does a great job, and his comedy is controlled. Emma Stone, however, puts in a performance that should have made people take notice before her star turn in Easy A. For an actor with no prior major film roles, this is first-rate. Her character tries to portray herself as someone who is mentally tough and confident, but as the movie moves ahead she slowly drops her guard. There are scenes which could so easily have been botched and looked artificial, but there is enough restraint on both counts, never over the top, never off the deep end. It isnt an easy role for anyone, let alone a novice but the then 19 year old shows signs of why she is one of the most in-demand actresses today. At the films end, i wanted to start it all over again, as it wasnt enough.

Critic sites havent rated this highly, and i wonder why. While it doesnt do anything out of the ordinary, it is well made, well scripted and well acted. That, is enough for me.

Recommended.

Try, Try, Trier

Lars von Trier is a sadistic fuck.

There is no other director who has consistently made movies that are so fuckin good. Tarantino’s Jackie Brown, Nolan’s Insomnia & Aronofsky’s Pi are movies which are not as good as their rest. Nearly every Von Trier film has had the same effect on me. For an hour after the film ends it is all you think about. Every film. I trust not one of these have you seen, and frankly they may not even be to your liking.

In my formative years as a movie watcher, i would never have watched a movie directed by a Dane and if reviews called it slow and ponderous.
Indeed, i downloaded and deleted Dogville a number of times before finally getting down to watching it.
I remember deciding that a movie rated 8 on iMDb, with Nicole Kidman, would be worth watching and getting on with it, and with the play-like setting and the catatonic characters and dialogue, i felt what i was watching was damn good. And then there was the ending. Spell binding (which i came to realise is a fixture in all von Trier movies).

Then there was Antichrist, a movie which won an Anti- award for its misogynist tone. While Dogville can be considered mainstream in some quarters, this is out of the league of most people. A whole movie where a nameless couple spend a few days of depravity in the forest after the loss of their child. Willem Dafoe is known, but Charlotte Gainsbourg’s no holds barred performance stole the show.

And that is a hallmark of all Von Trier films. They all have a central female character. Maybe that is why i am so fond of them. And there is the whole morose atmosphere. The sadness which no other film-maker can emanate from their films without being over the top. (And plus there tends to be copius amounts of nudity as well, a feature of these European directors.)

Bjork’s performance in Dancer in the Dark is the finest example of that - the sadness that is. Maybe the most depraved of his films, there are song and dance and happy faces which actually work in exactly the way he wants, the opposite. The joy on the face of the character makes you feel even more for her predicament.

Then you have the stellar debut of Emily Watson as a wide eyed nymphomaniac whose husband is paralysed in Breaking the Waves. Like Bjork, she earned acting nominations, and, like Bjork, should have won at least a Golden Globe.

Bryce Dallas Howard plays the same character Nicole Kidman played in Dogville in a sequel called Manderlay. The movie continues where Dogville left off, and Bryce Dallas Howards eases into the role, and you dont feel that Nicole Kidman was missed. The subject might be not to taste, with slavery the focal point. Performances all round are top notch, and while this film does not weigh up to the others it still isnt one you can dismiss as average, if you can dismiss a film as average.

Which brings me to the latest. Melancholia (you know it means sadness don’t you) is again a masterpiece. With the exception of Nicole Kidman, none of the lead actresses are beautiful. This one has Kirsten Dunst, who (until i saw this) i did not rate as an actress either & Charlotte Gainsbourg, who is definitely not going to feature in any askmen lists (is that a good enough benchmark anyway?) playing sisters Justine and Claire who don’t have a very solid relationship.

Justine is Melancholic and Claire is quite level-headed. The movie is split into two halves, the first is Justine’s wedding, (titled Justine) and the second is the events after (titled Claire). The Premise is that a rogue planet, Melancholia, is on course to fly past the earth, and some scientists suspect its path is so close that its pull will end in Earth being pulled towards it, resulting in the end of the world. The film deals ONLY with the relationship of the sisters btw. Far fetched i agree, but its in the portrayal of events rather than the story that matters.

Kirsten Dunst won best Actress at Cannes, but bizarrely isn’t nominated anywhere else. It is a career redefining role and one in which she shines, it is dark and reserved. Charlotte Gainsbourg is brilliant again & there is a fantastic support cast, although there isn’t much they do. It is about how these two sisters face normal life and how they change in the face of death. The best film Ive seen in 2011. Ahead of Drive, The Help, Midnight in Paris and even The Artist, which by the way, was a deserving winner at the Oscars.