list http://www.spout.com/ Recent community activity around Carrie on Spout Copyright 2005-9 Spout, LLC Spout RSS http://www.spout.com/images/SpoutLogoRSS.jpg http://www.spout.com/ 136 30 http://www.spout.com/films/Carrie/5299/default.aspx Title: Carrie
Year: 1976
Director: Brian De Palma
Plot: This classic horror movie based on Stephen King's first novel stars Sissy Spacek as Carrie White, a shy, diffident teenager who is the butt of practical jokes at her small-town high school. Her blind panic at her first menstruation, a result of ignorance and religious guilt drummed into her by her fanatical mother, Margaret (Piper Laurie), only causes her classmates' vicious cruelty to escalate, despite the attentions of her overly solicitous gym teacher (Betty Buckley). Finally, when the venomous Chris Hargenson (Nancy Allen) engineers a reprehensible prank at the school prom, Carrie lashes out in a horrifying display of her heretofore minor telekinetic powers. Many films had featured school bullies, but Carrie was one of the first to focus on the special brand of cruelty unique to teenage girls. Carrie's world is presented as a snake pit, where the well-to-do female students all have fangs -- even the reticent Sue Snell (Amy Irving) -- and all the males are blind pawns, sexually twisted around the fingers of Chris and her evil cronies. The talented supporting cast includes John Travolta, P.J. Soles, and William Katt. One of the genre's true classics, the film was followed by a sequel in 1999, as well as by a famously unsuccessful Broadway musical adaptation that starred Betty Buckley, the movie's gym teacher, as Margaret White. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
Times Tagged: 58
Number of Lists: 57
Number of blog posts: 5
Number of discussion threads: 9
SpoutRating: 3
]]>Wed, 29 Jul 2009 03:43:08 GMTCarrie1976Brian De PalmaThis classic horror movie based on <a href="/players/P____97473/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Stephen King</a>'s first novel stars <a href="/players/P____67043/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Sissy Spacek</a> as Carrie White, a shy, diffident teenager who is the butt of practical jokes at her small-town high school. Her blind panic at her first menstruation, a result of ignorance and religious guilt drummed into her by her fanatical mother, Margaret (<a href="/players/P____40813/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Piper Laurie</a>), only causes her classmates' vicious cruelty to escalate, despite the attentions of her overly solicitous gym teacher (<a href="/players/P_____9345/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Betty Buckley</a>). Finally, when the venomous Chris Hargenson (<a href="/players/P_____1046/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Nancy Allen</a>) engineers a reprehensible prank at the school prom, Carrie lashes out in a horrifying display of her heretofore minor telekinetic powers. Many films had featured school bullies, but Carrie was one of the first to focus on the special brand of cruelty unique to teenage girls. Carrie's world is presented as a snake pit, where the well-to-do female students all have fangs -- even the reticent Sue Snell (<a href="/players/P____34559/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Amy Irving</a>) -- and all the males are blind pawns, sexually twisted around the fingers of Chris and her evil cronies. The talented supporting cast includes <a href="/players/P____71670/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>John Travolta</a>, P.J. Soles, and <a href="/players/P____37064/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>William Katt</a>. One of the genre's true classics, the film was followed by a sequel in 1999, as well as by a famously unsuccessful Broadway musical adaptation that starred <a href="/players/P_____9345/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Betty Buckley</a>, the movie's gym teacher, as Margaret White. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide58Tag Target (>10)57593http://www.spout.com/ProductImages/u47065v9cfw.jpghttp://www.spout.com/films/Carrie/5299/default.aspxFilm http://www.spout.com/blogs/spoutblog/archive/2008/10/23/36623.aspx Post By: SpoutBlog
Post To: SpoutBlog on spout.com
Post Date: 10/23/2008 2:01:21 PM
Body: As if the run-of-the-mill high school movie wasn’t scary enough (cough–High School Musical 3), Hollywood has been upping the ante for years by tossing unsuspecting teens into horrific situations. Audiences seem to enjoy watching vulnerable characters having the hormones scared out of them — or else they just enjoy seeing annoying teens get tortured. Every high school teen horror flick has a stereotypical cast of characters straight out of cliche-ville: the jock/hot guy, the cheerleader/hot girl, the know-it-all nerd (male or female), the misunderstood girl, the new student, and a slew of others who normally end up as a victim for the killer/monster/plague at the heart of the movie. Maybe this is one of the reasons why the acclaimed Swedish preteen vampire film Let the Right One In (which comes out in limited release tomorrow) has been so successful at festivals: it finds ways to rework the nerd/bully/bad guy constructs that Hollywood has been regurgitating in teen movies for fifty years. After the jump, we take a look at the prototypical high school horror stories that make Right One feel so fresh. Carrie Talk about rough times in high school, Carrie is ridiculed by students and teachers alike when she experiences her first period during gym glass. However, she develops telekinesis and goes on a killing rampage that is still impressive in sheer terms of numbers as she takes out a whole gym full of students on prom night. The movie is based on Stephen King’s first published novel, and inspired a terrible sequel (The Rage: Carrie 2), a Broadway musical, a TV movie, and Zapped! Although that movie doesn’t feature Scott Baio going through the joys of menstruation, and the prom scene involves a lot more nudity. Teen Wolf The Michael J. Fox modern-day version of the 1957 I Was A Teenage Werewolf may not hold up that well today, but it still holds a spot in my heart because this was one of the first movies I ever took a date to. And yes, I was in my teens. This movie about a high schooler who becomes a werewolf has a lead female character inexplicably named “Boof,” a sequel starring Jason Bateman, an animated cartoon series, and it was the inspiration for a live-action TV sitcom called Big Wolf On Campus. If that weren’t enough, when this movie was released in Brazil, not long after Back to the Future, they translated Teen Wolf into Boy from the Future. Someone explain that one to me. Buffy the Vampire Slayer Joss Whedon wrote the script for this 1992 movie before it went through several rewrites by others, and as a result it changed so much that he eventually walked off the set and didn’t return. Of course, he got his sweet revenge when his Buffy TV series later became a billion times more popular than this movie. Still, it’s not half bad: Rutger Hauer makes a great vampire, as does Paul Reubens in one of the hammiest death scenes you’ll ever see from a bloodsucker. It’s one of the first times a teen was employed as a Van Helsing instead of becoming the monster, and the fact that it’s a woman made it even more unique. Try and ignore Luke Perry and you’ll probably enjoy this. Fright Night This is basically a love letter to teens who are obsessed with horror movies, and if you haven’t seen this one you need to get a group of friends together, rent it, and decide how cool Evil Ed is. Plus, Roddy McDowell really shines in this as a star of old vampire movies turned late-night horror movie host (based on Vincent Price) who gets recruited to fight vampires. It’s got Susan Sarandon’s brother Chris as a vampire, a werewolf, straddles the line between horror and comedy, and even has a sequel that returns both of the main stars. The Faculty Finally a horror movie that tells us what we’ve suspected all along: our teachers are horrible aliens who want to inhabit our bodies and turn us into vicious killers. This often overlooked Robert Rodriguez film stars Josh Hartnett, Elijah Wood, Bebe Neuwirth, Famke Janssen, and even Jon Stewart, and doesn’t treat high school students like they are idiots. If you can forgive the incredibly out of place and pandering cameo appearance by Harry Knowles, there’s some good stuff in here. With the exception of a couple of scenes, it all takes place in the halls of high school, including the creepy climactic scene in the gym locker room. Why are so many horror films obsessed with locker rooms? Puberty: The Horror can’t be far away. The Monster Squad Probably most famous for giving us the highly quotable line “Wolfman’s got nards!”, this movie features 12 year old kids doing battle against the classic Universal monsters: Dracula, Wolfman, Frankenstein, the Mummy, and “Gill Man” (apparently there were rights issues with The Creature From The Black Lagoon). While not exactly in high school, these preteens have a clubhouse and their own business cards that proclaim “The Monster Squad.” Isn’t that an extracurricular activity any kid would want to be involved with? Apparently there’s a remake in the works right now; maybe they can squeeze in Dr. Jekyll and The Invisible Man. Prom Night Returning to the ground already consecrated by Carrie and her prom night massacre scene, this 1980 movie sees some 12-year old kids (a popular age for horror) playing in an abandoned building, when one falls to her death. Six years later, on prom night, the rest of them start dying. Spooky, right? Prom Night starred Jamie Lee Curtis and Leslie Nielsen (and it’s not a comedy) and inspired a three sequels and a remake this year. Could it be that all of these writers had disappointing prom nights themselves, and this is their revenge? Just listen to that terrible narration in the trailer. Pretty soon 10 Year Reunion and My Second Marriage horror films will start popping up. Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Final Destination All of these movies star high school students in jeopardy from a deranged serial killer, aliens, or even Death itself, and have multiple sequels. These students might not spend much time in class, but they seem to get all of their lessons in running, screaming and making poor decisions just fine. They earn an honorable mention on our list because of the sheer numbers of students in the cast that get taken out along the way, and the fact that two of them are from Dawson’s Creek creator Kevin Williamson, who also wrote The Faculty. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog
]]>Thu, 23 Oct 2008 18:01:21 GMTSpoutBlogSpoutBlog on spout.com10/23/2008 2:01:21 PMAs if the run-of-the-mill high school movie wasn’t scary enough (cough–High School Musical 3), Hollywood has been upping the ante for years by tossing unsuspecting teens into horrific situations. Audiences seem to enjoy watching vulnerable characters having the hormones scared out of them — or else they just enjoy seeing annoying teens get tortured. Every high school teen horror flick has a stereotypical cast of characters straight out of cliche-ville: the jock/hot guy, the cheerleader/hot girl, the know-it-all nerd (male or female), the misunderstood girl, the new student, and a slew of others who normally end up as a victim for the killer/monster/plague at the heart of the movie. Maybe this is one of the reasons why the acclaimed Swedish preteen vampire film Let the Right One In (which comes out in limited release tomorrow) has been so successful at festivals: it finds ways to rework the nerd/bully/bad guy constructs that Hollywood has been regurgitating in teen movies for fifty years. After the jump, we take a look at the prototypical high school horror stories that make Right One feel so fresh. Carrie Talk about rough times in high school, Carrie is ridiculed by students and teachers alike when she experiences her first period during gym glass. However, she develops telekinesis and goes on a killing rampage that is still impressive in sheer terms of numbers as she takes out a whole gym full of students on prom night. The movie is based on Stephen King’s first published novel, and inspired a terrible sequel (The Rage: Carrie 2), a Broadway musical, a TV movie, and Zapped! Although that movie doesn’t feature Scott Baio going through the joys of menstruation, and the prom scene involves a lot more nudity. Teen Wolf The Michael J. Fox modern-day version of the 1957 I Was A Teenage Werewolf may not hold up that well today, but it still holds a spot in my heart because this was one of the first movies I ever took a date to. And yes, I was in my teens. This movie about a high schooler who becomes a werewolf has a lead female character inexplicably named “Boof,” a sequel starring Jason Bateman, an animated cartoon series, and it was the inspiration for a live-action TV sitcom called Big Wolf On Campus. If that weren’t enough, when this movie was released in Brazil, not long after Back to the Future, they translated Teen Wolf into Boy from the Future. Someone explain that one to me. Buffy the Vampire Slayer Joss Whedon wrote the script for this 1992 movie before it went through several rewrites by others, and as a result it changed so much that he eventually walked off the set and didn’t return. Of course, he got his sweet revenge when his Buffy TV series later became a billion times more popular than this movie. Still, it’s not half bad: Rutger Hauer makes a great vampire, as does Paul Reubens in one of the hammiest death scenes you’ll ever see from a bloodsucker. It’s one of the first times a teen was employed as a Van Helsing instead of becoming the monster, and the fact that it’s a woman made it even more unique. Try and ignore Luke Perry and you’ll probably enjoy this. Fright Night This is basically a love letter to teens who are obsessed with horror movies, and if you haven’t seen this one you need to get a group of friends together, rent it, and decide how cool Evil Ed is. Plus, Roddy McDowell really shines in this as a star of old vampire movies turned late-night horror movie host (based on Vincent Price) who gets recruited to fight vampires. It’s got Susan Sarandon’s brother Chris as a vampire, a werewolf, straddles the line between horror and comedy, and even has a sequel that returns both of the main stars. The Faculty Finally a horror movie that tells us what we’ve suspected all along: our teachers are horrible aliens who want to inhabit our bodies and turn us into vicious killers. This often overlooked Robert Rodriguez film stars Josh Hartnett, Elijah Wood, Bebe Neuwirth, Famke Janssen, and even Jon Stewart, and doesn’t treat high school students like they are idiots. If you can forgive the incredibly out of place and pandering cameo appearance by Harry Knowles, there’s some good stuff in here. With the exception of a couple of scenes, it all takes place in the halls of high school, including the creepy climactic scene in the gym locker room. Why are so many horror films obsessed with locker rooms? Puberty: The Horror can’t be far away. The Monster Squad Probably most famous for giving us the highly quotable line “Wolfman’s got nards!”, this movie features 12 year old kids doing battle against the classic Universal monsters: Dracula, Wolfman, Frankenstein, the Mummy, and “Gill Man” (apparently there were rights issues with The Creature From The Black Lagoon). While not exactly in high school, these preteens have a clubhouse and their own business cards that proclaim “The Monster Squad.” Isn’t that an extracurricular activity any kid would want to be involved with? Apparently there’s a remake in the works right now; maybe they can squeeze in Dr. Jekyll and The Invisible Man. Prom Night Returning to the ground already consecrated by Carrie and her prom night massacre scene, this 1980 movie sees some 12-year old kids (a popular age for horror) playing in an abandoned building, when one falls to her death. Six years later, on prom night, the rest of them start dying. Spooky, right? Prom Night starred Jamie Lee Curtis and Leslie Nielsen (and it’s not a comedy) and inspired a three sequels and a remake this year. Could it be that all of these writers had disappointing prom nights themselves, and this is their revenge? Just listen to that terrible narration in the trailer. Pretty soon 10 Year Reunion and My Second Marriage horror films will start popping up. Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Final Destination All of these movies star high school students in jeopardy from a deranged serial killer, aliens, or even Death itself, and have multiple sequels. These students might not spend much time in class, but they seem to get all of their lessons in running, screaming and making poor decisions just fine. They earn an honorable mention on our list because of the sheer numbers of students in the cast that get taken out along the way, and the fact that two of them are from Dawson’s Creek creator Kevin Williamson, who also wrote The Faculty. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog http://www.spout.com/groups/Weekly_Theme/Re_Weekly_Theme_for_October_6_Revenge/625/35952/1/ShowPost.aspx Post By: Tizzy
Post To: Weekly Theme
Post Date: 10/6/2008 7:06:19 PM
Body: [quote user="mercurial"] Well since probably my favorite film focusing solely on revenge was mentioned (She-Devil), I'm gonna have to go ahead and list those that pale in comparison. Jaws: The Revenge - The first Jaws is incredible, but not really about revenge. The fourth installment, with revenge blatantly placed in the title, is a great little B-movie that increased my fear of sharks and has made me vow to myself to never get on a floatation device that gets dragged behind a boat: cause you know great white sharks love that shit. I was recently able to see Machine Girl which was insanely gory and loaded with laughs. Premise: a young school girl gets revenge by attaching a Gatling gun to her amputated forearm and killing the bullies that picked on her and her brother. A Nightmare on Elm Street is more or less a revenge flick about Freddy killing the kids of those who killed him. Carrie gave mousy nerds in high school hope of becoming telekinetic and getting revenge on all those snot nosed cheerleaders and jocks. Death Becomes Her is all about revenge between two woman that continues throughout their entire lives. Dick presupposes that Deepthroat was just getting revenge on Nixon. Election is yet another meditation on revenge set in high school. Pick Flick or suffer the wrath of Reese Witherspoon! Friday the 13th. No explanation needed. Gladiator Maximus is all up on getting revenge. Hackers spends half the film getting revenge on those that dare to mess with computer nerds and their porn. Hard Candy was a very twisted revenge thriller. Jawbreaker and Mean Girls focus on big breasted teens plotting each others demise. Overboard has a lowly carpenter getting revenge on a bitchy debutante by surreptitiously making her into his wife and the father of his children when she gets amnesia. Rushmore has fantastic moments of revenge between Max and Mr. Bloom. The "Non-Fiction" part of Storytelling has a great bit of revenge at the end. The First Wives Club is a guilty pleasure about scorned ex-wives getting revenge on their husbands that left them for younger women. The Incredibles centers around Syndrome getting revenge on super-heroes. What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? is some classic screen legend revenge. Lastly, Wild Things. Great B-movie with acts of revenge and lesbian trysts around every corner. [/quote] I see your Jaws: The Revenge, Mercurial, and raise you one Revenge of the Nerds. I'd also like to throw Heathers into the mix of teenage revenge movies, with very dark consequences.
]]>Mon, 06 Oct 2008 23:06:19 GMTTizzyWeekly Theme10/6/2008 7:06:19 PM[quote user="mercurial"] Well since probably my favorite film focusing solely on revenge was mentioned (She-Devil), I'm gonna have to go ahead and list those that pale in comparison. Jaws: The Revenge - The first Jaws is incredible, but not really about revenge. The fourth installment, with revenge blatantly placed in the title, is a great little B-movie that increased my fear of sharks and has made me vow to myself to never get on a floatation device that gets dragged behind a boat: cause you know great white sharks love that shit. I was recently able to see Machine Girl which was insanely gory and loaded with laughs. Premise: a young school girl gets revenge by attaching a Gatling gun to her amputated forearm and killing the bullies that picked on her and her brother. A Nightmare on Elm Street is more or less a revenge flick about Freddy killing the kids of those who killed him. Carrie gave mousy nerds in high school hope of becoming telekinetic and getting revenge on all those snot nosed cheerleaders and jocks. Death Becomes Her is all about revenge between two woman that continues throughout their entire lives. Dick presupposes that Deepthroat was just getting revenge on Nixon. Election is yet another meditation on revenge set in high school. Pick Flick or suffer the wrath of Reese Witherspoon! Friday the 13th. No explanation needed. Gladiator Maximus is all up on getting revenge. Hackers spends half the film getting revenge on those that dare to mess with computer nerds and their porn. Hard Candy was a very twisted revenge thriller. Jawbreaker and Mean Girls focus on big breasted teens plotting each others demise. Overboard has a lowly carpenter getting revenge on a bitchy debutante by surreptitiously making her into his wife and the father of his children when she gets amnesia. Rushmore has fantastic moments of revenge between Max and Mr. Bloom. The "Non-Fiction" part of Storytelling has a great bit of revenge at the end. The First Wives Club is a guilty pleasure about scorned ex-wives getting revenge on their husbands that left them for younger women. The Incredibles centers around Syndrome getting revenge on super-heroes. What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? is some classic screen legend revenge. Lastly, Wild Things. Great B-movie with acts of revenge and lesbian trysts around every corner. [/quote] I see your Jaws: The Revenge, Mercurial, and raise you one Revenge of the Nerds. I'd also like to throw Heathers into the mix of teenage revenge movies, with very dark consequences. http://www.spout.com/groups/Weekly_Theme/Re_Weekly_Theme_for_October_6_Revenge/625/35951/1/ShowPost.aspx Post By: mercurial
Post To: Weekly Theme
Post Date: 10/6/2008 6:45:27 PM
Body: Well since probably my favorite film focusing solely on revenge was mentioned (She-Devil), I'm gonna have to go ahead and list those that pale in comparison. Jaws: The Revenge - The first Jaws is incredible, but not really about revenge. The fourth installment, with revenge blatantly placed in the title, is a great little B-movie that increased my fear of sharks and has made me vow to myself to never get on a floatation device that gets dragged behind a boat: cause you know great white sharks love that shit. I was recently able to see Machine Girl which was insanely gory and loaded with laughs. Premise: a young school girl gets revenge by attaching a Gatling gun to her amputated forearm and killing the bullies that picked on her and her brother. A Nightmare on Elm Street is more or less a revenge flick about Freddy killing the kids of those who killed him. Carrie gave mousy nerds in high school hope of becoming telekinetic and getting revenge on all those snot nosed cheerleaders and jocks. Death Becomes Her is all about revenge between two woman that continues throughout their entire lives. Dick presupposes that Deepthroat was just getting revenge on Nixon. Election is yet another meditation on revenge set in high school. Pick Flick or suffer the wrath of Reese Witherspoon! Friday the 13th. No explanation needed. Gladiator Maximus is all up on getting revenge. Hackers spends half the film getting revenge on those that dare to mess with computer nerds and their porn. Hard Candy was a very twisted revenge thriller. Jawbreaker and Mean Girls focus on big breasted teens plotting each others demise. Overboard has a lowly carpenter getting revenge on a bitchy debutante by surreptitiously making her into his wife and the father of his children when she gets amnesia. Rushmore has fantastic moments of revenge between Max and Mr. Bloom. The "Non-Fiction" part of Storytelling has a great bit of revenge at the end. The First Wives Club is a guilty pleasure about scorned ex-wives getting revenge on their husbands that left them for younger women. The Incredibles centers around Syndrome getting revenge on super-heroes. What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? is some classic screen legend revenge. Lastly, Wild Things. Great B-movie with acts of revenge and lesbian trysts around every corner.
]]>Mon, 06 Oct 2008 22:45:27 GMTmercurialWeekly Theme10/6/2008 6:45:27 PMWell since probably my favorite film focusing solely on revenge was mentioned (She-Devil), I'm gonna have to go ahead and list those that pale in comparison. Jaws: The Revenge - The first Jaws is incredible, but not really about revenge. The fourth installment, with revenge blatantly placed in the title, is a great little B-movie that increased my fear of sharks and has made me vow to myself to never get on a floatation device that gets dragged behind a boat: cause you know great white sharks love that shit. I was recently able to see Machine Girl which was insanely gory and loaded with laughs. Premise: a young school girl gets revenge by attaching a Gatling gun to her amputated forearm and killing the bullies that picked on her and her brother. A Nightmare on Elm Street is more or less a revenge flick about Freddy killing the kids of those who killed him. Carrie gave mousy nerds in high school hope of becoming telekinetic and getting revenge on all those snot nosed cheerleaders and jocks. Death Becomes Her is all about revenge between two woman that continues throughout their entire lives. Dick presupposes that Deepthroat was just getting revenge on Nixon. Election is yet another meditation on revenge set in high school. Pick Flick or suffer the wrath of Reese Witherspoon! Friday the 13th. No explanation needed. Gladiator Maximus is all up on getting revenge. Hackers spends half the film getting revenge on those that dare to mess with computer nerds and their porn. Hard Candy was a very twisted revenge thriller. Jawbreaker and Mean Girls focus on big breasted teens plotting each others demise. Overboard has a lowly carpenter getting revenge on a bitchy debutante by surreptitiously making her into his wife and the father of his children when she gets amnesia. Rushmore has fantastic moments of revenge between Max and Mr. Bloom. The "Non-Fiction" part of Storytelling has a great bit of revenge at the end. The First Wives Club is a guilty pleasure about scorned ex-wives getting revenge on their husbands that left them for younger women. The Incredibles centers around Syndrome getting revenge on super-heroes. What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? is some classic screen legend revenge. Lastly, Wild Things. Great B-movie with acts of revenge and lesbian trysts around every corner. http://www.spout.com/blogs/rik_tod/archive/2008/9/10/34966.aspx Post By: rik_tod
Post To: The Cinema 4 Pylon: SpOutpost
Post Date: 9/10/2008 2:04:56 AM
Body: Director: Shawn KuUS, 22 minutes, colorCinema 4 Rating: 5Despite a title sure to be at least partially tempting to any horror nut, Pretty Dead Girl: A Musical Necromance turns out to be rather tame. And if you could get the subject of necrophilia past the initial tsk-tsking of your grandma, there is a good chance that she would end up at film’s end thinking the movie was rather sad and sweet, and would hardly take offense at all to what is being suggested by its potentially creepy premise.I first saw Pretty Dead Girl on some cable network sometime about a year ago. I am not sure if it was Sundance or IFC, but honestly, I mix those channels up so much that I am never able to check out any of their shows regularly. Of course, most of the shows I have seen on there are of the variety about which I don’t give a rat’s ass, except for the ones done by Henry Rollins and Jon Favreau, but honestly, even thinking really hard, I can’t remember which one of the channels, Sundance or IFC, either show was actually on. I keep wanting to check out Live from Abbey Road – which is also on one of them -- but every time I flick over to it because someone I like – Muse, for instance – is on there, I end up having to sit through someone deplorable, like Josh Groban, Big and Rich or some Idol failure, to get to the good stuff, all of which seems to be interspersed with the horrendous. Can’t they just concentrate on one artist for a show? And one of these channels shows a bunch of '70s horror flicks on Friday nights -- all of which I already own, but it's nice to have them at one's fingertips anyway -- and one of them shows a lot of Japanese samurai and gangster films from the ‘50s and ‘60s, so they have that going for them. Whichever channel they are.What does this have to do with Pretty Dead Girl? Well, nothing at all, but -– Hey! Maybe I saw this on one of the Showtime networks instead? All I know is that I had Pretty Dead Girl on my DVR queue for a good long while, meaning to show it to Jen, who has some measured interest in musical films, and musical theatre in general. I watched it and enjoyed it, whatever channel it was on, though I wasn’t blown away it by it. This possibly had something to do with the musical episode from Buffy, titled Once More With Feeling, and how it seems, in my head at least, that any attempt to music up the horror or sci-fi genres should actually run through Mr. Whedon first. (Oh, if only Firefly had made it to that style of episode…) We are now in an age where, every time one turns around, it seems that another classic horror or science fiction film is being adapted into a musical (or opera – big difference there…) onstage. (Plan 9 from Outer Space, The Evil Dead, Carrie, Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Fly, etc.) Or, at least the notion gets raised that such-and-such (say, Chainsaw) would make a swell musical. I don’t know why things are trending this way – perhaps because the horror genre itself has gotten more and more trapped in its current torture porn rut – but outside of an almost rubbernecking interest I have towards these things, since I like both musicals and horror films, I actually start to despise the gimmick after a short while. And then it affects my attitude when confronted with mildly ambitious little films like Pretty Dead Girl.It’s not a fair comparison, though, because Pretty Dead Girl is not really in the horror genre; it merely teases the viewer with promises of sick glory via its title. Honestly, once I realized it was a musical, I started to imagine a remake of Return of the Living Dead 3 with that hot little zombie chick played to pierced goth glory by a smokin' Mindy Clarke. Now, that would be highly interesting (and also make RotLD3 a much better overall film.) Pretty Dead Girl doesn't even get near such possibilities, centering itself on all-out romantic tragedy instead. All told, it is no more offensive than any number of other Romeo and Juliet-style stories, where suicide is playfully dangled in the air due to the hopelessness of the romance. The title, though, implies so much more beyond a simple desperate love affair that it really is disappointing to see that all told, Pretty Dead Girl is nothing more than magic potion fluff, with a bottle of poison bringing on the appearance of suicide, but only if every single drop is gulped down the gullet (hence the magic part). Otherwise, it becomes a full-on suicide. That this storyline springs forth from the actions of a morgue techie (with a clearly misguided missile) who cavorts and dances about (always in a G-rated way) with the bodies of deceased hotties does make it seem potentially horrific at first, and one almost can’t wait for the film to go all Re-Animator on us and suddenly we shall find torrents of blood gushing from the stumps from where the limbs of unsuspecting doctors have been ripped, and there shall then commence a rising bout of rampant cannibalism in the halls of the hospital, syringes stuck through eyeballs of screaming nurses, zombie fetuses that devour their mothers from the inside out, and, perhaps worst of all, an Alaskan governor will then get dangerously close to the White House. And then only one of those things happens… and it’s not even in the movie.Unlike most of the examples listed two paragraphs above, the musical part in Pretty Dead Girl is not the gimmick. Instead, it is the false trappings of horror that are the actual gimmick, and it almost seems like a gimmick which has only been employed to get people to watch the film who are ultimately going to be disappointed once the film doesn’t follow through on its sick promise. It certainly tricked me into watching it the first time. And instead of where I thought it was going, I got a nice – just nice – little musical instead, with a couple of catchy tunes (I have had that “I have waited more than the better of my life” melody ear-worming me for the past couple of weeks since I started watching the film again), a lot of leggy dames hoofin’ it in a dream sequence, a trio of well-turned (and well cast) performances in the main roles and… well, that’s about it. It doesn’t go beyond that for me. It’s good, it's pleasant, and then I forget about it.When I first saved it on my DVR to show Jen, I never followed through. A couple of months later, as it sat there unwatched, I finally deleted it after convincing myself that she really wouldn’t think that much of it. And then I forgot about it until I received the Shorts! Volume 3 collection from Spout Mavens. Now, with DVD in hand, I have once more sidled up to the “should I show it to her?” stage, and already I am convincing myself to the negative impulse again of not even showing it to her. The problem here is one of too much familiarity with the genre. The more experience or expertise one has in a certain genre, the more lesser items in that genre start to give way almost immediately to feelings of ennui. At least, that’s the way it normally works. I know some people that are horror nuts – some even on this very website -- who unabashedly adore every single horror movie that comes out, practically carving little gory hearts with dripping arrows through them into the top of their computer desk while once more giving five stars to something like Saw IV. Sure, some are better than others, but still… horror is great! Isn’t it? Aren’t all horror movies, no matter how bad, instantly awesome and cool, just because they are horror movies? Well, no. Some just blankly suck outright, and some are just downright atrocious from every conceivable angle. The same with every genre.As I have said before, at least 75 percent of everything is garbage, no matter what form of media, no matter how much there is, and into this giant slice of pie, I heap mounds of the merely average. There is another slice of percentage, a chunk that perhaps appears as a normal slice of that pie, which accounts for the merely good. And finally, there is left a much thinner slice, the remainder, that denotes that which exists in the "very good to great" range. The continued and legendary greatness of certain entries in any genre make it increasingly harder, over time, to enjoy that category’s far more noxious efforts. It is towards a target sublime to which artists, even popular artists, should aim their talents. Back to the point, because my girlfriend has a good deal of experience, and therefore opinion, regarding the musical genre, and is well versed in those films which serve as the pinnacles of the form, I know instinctively that it is going to take far more to impress her in this genre than it would, say, me.And I already think that Pretty Dead Girl is merely a good short musical film. Not fantastic, not knock your socks off, but just good. And so, for someone with the more than average eye for musicals in general, having seen the excellence which can be achieved in the genre, watching this is like seeing a dance sequence pop up in Ally McBeal. Sure, the actors might be giving it their all, but they are miles from being in the real thing. And, further discounting it for the gimmick factor of its fake fantasy horror trappings, Pretty Dead Girl can seem pretty dead from the beginning. And, if not dead, then just merely playing possum. And nicely at that.And, speaking for myself, though I liked it well enough, nice is not what most people who would be intrigued by such a title as Pretty Dead Girl are going to be expecting.
]]>Wed, 10 Sep 2008 06:04:56 GMTrik_todThe Cinema 4 Pylon: SpOutpost9/10/2008 2:04:56 AMDirector: Shawn KuUS, 22 minutes, colorCinema 4 Rating: 5Despite a title sure to be at least partially tempting to any horror nut, Pretty Dead Girl: A Musical Necromance turns out to be rather tame. And if you could get the subject of necrophilia past the initial tsk-tsking of your grandma, there is a good chance that she would end up at film&rsquo;s end thinking the movie was rather sad and sweet, and would hardly take offense at all to what is being suggested by its potentially creepy premise.I first saw Pretty Dead Girl on some cable network sometime about a year ago. I am not sure if it was Sundance or IFC, but honestly, I mix those channels up so much that I am never able to check out any of their shows regularly. Of course, most of the shows I have seen on there are of the variety about which I don&rsquo;t give a rat&rsquo;s ass, except for the ones done by Henry Rollins and Jon Favreau, but honestly, even thinking really hard, I can&rsquo;t remember which one of the channels, Sundance or IFC, either show was actually on. I keep wanting to check out Live from Abbey Road &ndash; which is also on one of them -- but every time I flick over to it because someone I like &ndash; Muse, for instance &ndash; is on there, I end up having to sit through someone deplorable, like Josh Groban, Big and Rich or some Idol failure, to get to the good stuff, all of which seems to be interspersed with the horrendous. Can&rsquo;t they just concentrate on one artist for a show? And one of these channels shows a bunch of '70s horror flicks on Friday nights -- all of which I already own, but it's nice to have them at one's fingertips anyway -- and one of them shows a lot of Japanese samurai and gangster films from the &lsquo;50s and &lsquo;60s, so they have that going for them. Whichever channel they are.What does this have to do with Pretty Dead Girl? Well, nothing at all, but -&ndash; Hey! Maybe I saw this on one of the Showtime networks instead? All I know is that I had Pretty Dead Girl on my DVR queue for a good long while, meaning to show it to Jen, who has some measured interest in musical films, and musical theatre in general. I watched it and enjoyed it, whatever channel it was on, though I wasn&rsquo;t blown away it by it. This possibly had something to do with the musical episode from Buffy, titled Once More With Feeling, and how it seems, in my head at least, that any attempt to music up the horror or sci-fi genres should actually run through Mr. Whedon first. (Oh, if only Firefly had made it to that style of episode&hellip;) We are now in an age where, every time one turns around, it seems that another classic horror or science fiction film is being adapted into a musical (or opera &ndash; big difference there&hellip;) onstage. (Plan 9 from Outer Space, The Evil Dead, Carrie, Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Fly, etc.) Or, at least the notion gets raised that such-and-such (say, Chainsaw) would make a swell musical. I don&rsquo;t know why things are trending this way &ndash; perhaps because the horror genre itself has gotten more and more trapped in its current torture porn rut &ndash; but outside of an almost rubbernecking interest I have towards these things, since I like both musicals and horror films, I actually start to despise the gimmick after a short while. And then it affects my attitude when confronted with mildly ambitious little films like Pretty Dead Girl.It&rsquo;s not a fair comparison, though, because Pretty Dead Girl is not really in the horror genre; it merely teases the viewer with promises of sick glory via its title. Honestly, once I realized it was a musical, I started to imagine a remake of Return of the Living Dead 3 with that hot little zombie chick played to pierced goth glory by a smokin' Mindy Clarke. Now, that would be highly interesting (and also make RotLD3 a much better overall film.) Pretty Dead Girl doesn't even get near such possibilities, centering itself on all-out romantic tragedy instead. All told, it is no more offensive than any number of other Romeo and Juliet-style stories, where suicide is playfully dangled in the air due to the hopelessness of the romance. The title, though, implies so much more beyond a simple desperate love affair that it really is disappointing to see that all told, Pretty Dead Girl is nothing more than magic potion fluff, with a bottle of poison bringing on the appearance of suicide, but only if every single drop is gulped down the gullet (hence the magic part). Otherwise, it becomes a full-on suicide. That this storyline springs forth from the actions of a morgue techie (with a clearly misguided missile) who cavorts and dances about (always in a G-rated way) with the bodies of deceased hotties does make it seem potentially horrific at first, and one almost can&rsquo;t wait for the film to go all Re-Animator on us and suddenly we shall find torrents of blood gushing from the stumps from where the limbs of unsuspecting doctors have been ripped, and there shall then commence a rising bout of rampant cannibalism in the halls of the hospital, syringes stuck through eyeballs of screaming nurses, zombie fetuses that devour their mothers from the inside out, and, perhaps worst of all, an Alaskan governor will then get dangerously close to the White House. And then only one of those things happens&hellip; and it&rsquo;s not even in the movie.Unlike most of the examples listed two paragraphs above, the musical part in Pretty Dead Girl is not the gimmick. Instead, it is the false trappings of horror that are the actual gimmick, and it almost seems like a gimmick which has only been employed to get people to watch the film who are ultimately going to be disappointed once the film doesn&rsquo;t follow through on its sick promise. It certainly tricked me into watching it the first time. And instead of where I thought it was going, I got a nice &ndash; just nice &ndash; little musical instead, with a couple of catchy tunes (I have had that &ldquo;I have waited more than the better of my life&rdquo; melody ear-worming me for the past couple of weeks since I started watching the film again), a lot of leggy dames hoofin&rsquo; it in a dream sequence, a trio of well-turned (and well cast) performances in the main roles and&hellip; well, that&rsquo;s about it. It doesn&rsquo;t go beyond that for me. It&rsquo;s good, it's pleasant, and then I forget about it.When I first saved it on my DVR to show Jen, I never followed through. A couple of months later, as it sat there unwatched, I finally deleted it after convincing myself that she really wouldn&rsquo;t think that much of it. And then I forgot about it until I received the Shorts! Volume 3 collection from Spout Mavens. Now, with DVD in hand, I have once more sidled up to the &ldquo;should I show it to her?&rdquo; stage, and already I am convincing myself to the negative impulse again of not even showing it to her. The problem here is one of too much familiarity with the genre. The more experience or expertise one has in a certain genre, the more lesser items in that genre start to give way almost immediately to feelings of ennui. At least, that&rsquo;s the way it normally works. I know some people that are horror nuts &ndash; some even on this very website -- who unabashedly adore every single horror movie that comes out, practically carving little gory hearts with dripping arrows through them into the top of their computer desk while once more giving five stars to something like Saw IV. Sure, some are better than others, but still&hellip; horror is great! Isn&rsquo;t it? Aren&rsquo;t all horror movies, no matter how bad, instantly awesome and cool, just because they are horror movies? Well, no. Some just blankly suck outright, and some are just downright atrocious from every conceivable angle. The same with every genre.As I have said before, at least 75 percent of everything is garbage, no matter what form of media, no matter how much there is, and into this giant slice of pie, I heap mounds of the merely average. There is another slice of percentage, a chunk that perhaps appears as a normal slice of that pie, which accounts for the merely good. And finally, there is left a much thinner slice, the remainder, that denotes that which exists in the "very good to great" range. The continued and legendary greatness of certain entries in any genre make it increasingly harder, over time, to enjoy that category&rsquo;s far more noxious efforts. It is towards a target sublime to which artists, even popular artists, should aim their talents. Back to the point, because my girlfriend has a good deal of experience, and therefore opinion, regarding the musical genre, and is well versed in those films which serve as the pinnacles of the form, I know instinctively that it is going to take far more to impress her in this genre than it would, say, me.And I already think that Pretty Dead Girl is merely a good short musical film. Not fantastic, not knock your socks off, but just good. And so, for someone with the more than average eye for musicals in general, having seen the excellence which can be achieved in the genre, watching this is like seeing a dance sequence pop up in Ally McBeal. Sure, the actors might be giving it their all, but they are miles from being in the real thing. And, further discounting it for the gimmick factor of its fake fantasy horror trappings, Pretty Dead Girl can seem pretty dead from the beginning. And, if not dead, then just merely playing possum. And nicely at that.And, speaking for myself, though I liked it well enough, nice is not what most people who would be intrigued by such a title as Pretty Dead Girl are going to be expecting. http://www.spout.com/groups/Weekly_Theme/Re_Weekly_Theme_for_July_29_Locked_Up/625/33587/1/ShowPost.aspx Post By: Risselada
Post To: Weekly Theme
Post Date: 8/5/2008 6:35:27 PM
Body: [quote user="mercurial"]Some from my youth that scared the crap out of me are Flowers in the Attic, The People Under the Stairs, Carrie and The Goonies. All films about sick and twisted parental figures locking their children in various small, dank rooms of their house. An American Crime, with poor little Juno getting brutalized in a basement by all the neighborhood children and caretaker, could also go into this category.[/quote] Well then we will have to go even further and look at one of my absolute favorite films, The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser. The real life story of a boy who was locked up from birth. So isolated that he never even saw another human being until he was a teenager. He didn't even know anyone other than himself existed or had ever existed. Until he was suddendly approached by the person who was probably his captor and taught one phrase and brought to the middle of a town in Germany. Remember, it's a true story! I love these stories about these children. It's an exploration of what makes us truely human.
]]>Tue, 05 Aug 2008 22:35:27 GMTRisseladaWeekly Theme8/5/2008 6:35:27 PM[quote user="mercurial"]Some from my youth that scared the crap out of me are Flowers in the Attic, The People Under the Stairs, Carrie and The Goonies. All films about sick and twisted parental figures locking their children in various small, dank rooms of their house. An American Crime, with poor little Juno getting brutalized in a basement by all the neighborhood children and caretaker, could also go into this category.[/quote] Well then we will have to go even further and look at one of my absolute favorite films, The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser. The real life story of a boy who was locked up from birth. So isolated that he never even saw another human being until he was a teenager. He didn't even know anyone other than himself existed or had ever existed. Until he was suddendly approached by the person who was probably his captor and taught one phrase and brought to the middle of a town in Germany. Remember, it's a true story! I love these stories about these children. It's an exploration of what makes us truely human. http://www.spout.com/groups/Weekly_Theme/Re_Weekly_Theme_for_July_29_Locked_Up/625/33392/1/ShowPost.aspx Post By: leeroy711
Post To: Weekly Theme
Post Date: 8/1/2008 11:30:35 AM
Body: [quote user="mercurial"] Some from my youth that scared the crap out of me are Flowers in the Attic, The People Under the Stairs, Carrie and The Goonies. All films about sick and twisted parental figures locking their children in various small, dank rooms of their house. An American Crime, with poor little Juno getting brutalized in a basement by all the neighborhood children and caretaker, could also go into this category. [/quote] Well now, along those same lines, you can't forget a film by one of my favorite directors. Jim Sheridan's My Left Foot was incredible. It's based on Christy Brown's (who spent his first years hidden from his ashamed and confused family in a crawl-space) autobiography. If you're in the mood for a tearjerker that's simultaneously triumphant and inspiring............ there you go.
]]>Fri, 01 Aug 2008 15:30:35 GMTleeroy711Weekly Theme8/1/2008 11:30:35 AM[quote user="mercurial"] Some from my youth that scared the crap out of me are Flowers in the Attic, The People Under the Stairs, Carrie and The Goonies. All films about sick and twisted parental figures locking their children in various small, dank rooms of their house. An American Crime, with poor little Juno getting brutalized in a basement by all the neighborhood children and caretaker, could also go into this category. [/quote] Well now, along those same lines, you can't forget a film by one of my favorite directors. Jim Sheridan's My Left Foot was incredible. It's based on Christy Brown's (who spent his first years hidden from his ashamed and confused family in a crawl-space) autobiography. If you're in the mood for a tearjerker that's simultaneously triumphant and inspiring............ there you go. http://www.spout.com/groups/Weekly_Theme/Re_Weekly_Theme_for_July_29_Locked_Up/625/33362/1/ShowPost.aspx Post By: mercurial
Post To: Weekly Theme
Post Date: 7/31/2008 8:27:07 PM
Body: Well, one of my favorites has to be Dogville and the relentless imprisonment that Nicole Kidman's character must endure. However, not too many people tend to like that film. The Matrix et al is pretty much about the human race trying to escape being imprisoned. Similarly, Cube is all about a random group of people trying to escape a monstrous Rubik's Cube full of booby traps. The Silence of the Lambs is fantastic in the way it gets you to almost root for the cannibalistic imprisoned serial killer to escape his plate glass jail cell. And within the past few years there have been all of the Saw movies which everyone knows about. Some from my youth that scared the crap out of me are Flowers in the Attic, The People Under the Stairs, Carrie and The Goonies. All films about sick and twisted parental figures locking their children in various small, dank rooms of their house. An American Crime, with poor little Juno getting brutalized in a basement by all the neighborhood children and caretaker, could also go into this category. Lastly there are all those flicks about escapes one's self. Fight Club with Edward Norton's character trying to escape the entrapments of his own alter ego. Max in Pi ultimately resorting to extreme measures to release himself from his mind. And all the craziness of people entering into other peoples minds and getting trapped in Being John Malkovich.
]]>Fri, 01 Aug 2008 00:27:07 GMTmercurialWeekly Theme7/31/2008 8:27:07 PMWell, one of my favorites has to be Dogville and the relentless imprisonment that Nicole Kidman's character must endure. However, not too many people tend to like that film. The Matrix et al is pretty much about the human race trying to escape being imprisoned. Similarly, Cube is all about a random group of people trying to escape a monstrous Rubik's Cube full of booby traps. The Silence of the Lambs is fantastic in the way it gets you to almost root for the cannibalistic imprisoned serial killer to escape his plate glass jail cell. And within the past few years there have been all of the Saw movies which everyone knows about. Some from my youth that scared the crap out of me are Flowers in the Attic, The People Under the Stairs, Carrie and The Goonies. All films about sick and twisted parental figures locking their children in various small, dank rooms of their house. An American Crime, with poor little Juno getting brutalized in a basement by all the neighborhood children and caretaker, could also go into this category. Lastly there are all those flicks about escapes one's self. Fight Club with Edward Norton's character trying to escape the entrapments of his own alter ego. Max in Pi ultimately resorting to extreme measures to release himself from his mind. And all the craziness of people entering into other peoples minds and getting trapped in Being John Malkovich. http://www.spout.com/groups/if_i_were_a_movie_character/Re_What_movie_character_best_represents_you/550/32616/1/ShowPost.aspx Post By: filmgal81
Post To: if i were a movie character
Post Date: 7/16/2008 10:53:23 AM
Body: Honestly, i think i am somewhere between jo from little women and carrie, with a touch of anne of green gables thrown in. [quote user="theKommune"] Nobody acts the same 100% of the time...Everyone has multiple personalities depending on the situation and their surroundings...but most of us have at least one personality that comes out 60-75% of the time...for this first discussion...I ask YOU... What movie character represents you 60-75% of the time? David Hasselhoff picked the SuperHoff...that's a heady pick for all of you to live up to.... [/quote]
]]>Wed, 16 Jul 2008 14:53:23 GMTfilmgal81if i were a movie character7/16/2008 10:53:23 AM Honestly, i think i am somewhere between jo from little women and carrie, with a touch of anne of green gables thrown in. [quote user="theKommune"] Nobody acts the same 100% of the time...Everyone has multiple personalities depending on the situation and their surroundings...but most of us have at least one personality that comes out 60-75% of the time...for this first discussion...I ask YOU... What movie character represents you 60-75% of the time? David Hasselhoff picked the SuperHoff...that's a heady pick for all of you to live up to.... [/quote] http://www.spout.com/blogs/lopezdash/archive/2007/12/10/22694.aspx Post By: lopezdash
Post To: The Movie Blog
Post Date: 12/10/2007 1:02:19 PM
Body: From the Entertainment and Culture blog over at New York Magazine comes a list of THE TEN MOST ANTI-CHRISTIAN MOVIES OF ALL TIME. What a title, eh? 10. Carrie (1976) After the titular protagonist gets her first period at school, her crazy, devoutly Christian mother locks her in a closet and tells her to pray, explaining that only sinners menstruate (Wikipedia says this is false). Luckily, Carrie has telekinetic powers, which she uses to toss her mom across a room, electrocute her principal, and burn down her high school's gymnasium, killing hundreds of students. Parents, take note.Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJe0iVo8y3A 9. Priest (1995) Antonia Bird's film — which caused a flash of protest when Miramax released it — follows Linus Roache's gay priest as he struggles against his vow of celibacy, and his inability to help a young girl who confesses that her father is abusing her. Perhaps better described as anti-celibacy than anti-Christian, the film ends with a moment of grace that casts the film's view of faith in a somewhat gentler light, but it's hard to overstate how violently some religious viewers responded to the image of a Catholic priest doing it with Trainspotting's Robert Carlyle.Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHVNbV1zPDU 8. Footloose (1984) Despite its canonical status as an eighties classic, we’re willing to bet that if an original script like Footloose — in which fun-loving teen Kevin Bacon arrives in a small town where preacher John Lithgow has banned rock music and dancing — landed on a Hollywood exec’s desk today, they’d be too afraid to produce it, lest it offend some key demographic. It’s Lithgow’s villain who really makes the movie: Soft-spoken and patronizing when he’s not spitting out the fire and brimstone ("He’s testing us!!"), his performance is a bone-chilling portrait of smug self-righteousness and could easily blend in among any number of Sunday-morning-TV preachers. The only thing missing is a bad hairpiece. Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lH2t6T7rhCU 7. Dogma (1999) Sure, not all of the jokes were funny. Also, its plot is almost as incomprehensible as the Bible's. Even so, you've got to admire Kevin Smith for having the nerve to cast George Carlin as a cardinal (who tries to make Catholicism more accessible by replacing the crucifix with a statue of Jesus giving a thumbs-up), Chris Rock as the thirteenth apostle (who was omitted from the Bible for being black), and Alanis Morrisette as God (this really pissed off Christians, since her second album had just come out and it was a total stinker). Plus, he got Disney to pay for it!Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3zEraHgfO4 6. Jesus Camp (2006) Documentary filmmakers Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing probably never set out to make Evangelical Christians look crazy, but when they showed up at the Kids on Fire School of Ministry, a children's Bible camp in Devils Lake, North Dakota, and set up their cameras, that's exactly what happened. The home-schooled little rascals roll around on the floor speaking in tongues, take strategic pointers from radical Islam, and bless a cardboard cutout of President Bush (see above). Disgraced pastor Ted Haggard even shows up to decry the horrors of homosexuality, presumably in between visits to his gay, meth-dealing masseur.Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CgvgjfwyPs 5. The Name of the Rose (1986) True, the heroes of Umberto Eco's religio-literary mystery are themselves monks — played by Sean Connery and Christian Slater in the movie version — but that doesn't stop this thriller, set in a medieval abbey where the faithful are dying in pursuit of a long-lost and forbidden copy of Aristotle's Poetics, from being one of cinema's most damning looks at religious superstition. Not the least because,besides the two leads, practically every monk in this film (1) is hideous-looking and (2) dies a horrible, excruciating death. It's as if H.R. Giger and Dario Argento collaborated on the film version of God Is Not Great. Don't miss the scene where Ron Perlman eats a rat.Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sc-_hkLBVnc 4. The Magdalene Sisters (2002) There have been plenty of movies in recent years about priestly abuse — God only knows why — but few are more single-minded in their condemnation than Peter Mullan's harrowing look at three unfortunate young Irish Catholic women who wind up under the custody of a Magdalene convent for wayward girls in the sixties. Between the beatings and rapes they're subjected to at the hands of sadistic nuns and lewd priests, and the brutality of the ostensibly God-fearing society outside the convent walls, Mullan's film plays at times like Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS remade in monastic disguise. Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJYiJQ-jbkM 3. The Boys of St. Vincent (1993) This four-hour Canadian telefilm is a difficult, complex portrait of a Catholic orphanage ruled over by a pedophilic priest (Henry Czerny, in a role that launched him into a career of playing creepy bastards). But the film isn't anti-Christian because it's yet another movie about a priest who can't keep his hands off the flock; it's anti-Christian because its primary theme is the creeping danger of Catholicism's emphasis on submission of the self to those above you on the pecking order, whether that's a priest, a Church administrator, or God Himself. 2. Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (1983) The blasphemous Life of Brian would have been the obvious choice here, but that one just gently chides the Jesus myth, whereas the Pythons' final film actually eviscerates the pettiness of religion in everyday life, never more effectively than in the hilarious musical number "Every Sperm Is Sacred," sung by a miserably poor and overpopulated Catholic household while their preening, repressed Protestant neighbors look on in pity. ("When Martin Luther nailed his protest up to the church door in 1517, he may not have realized the full significance of what he was doing, but 400 years later, thanks to him, my dear … I can go down the road any time I want and walk into Harry's and hold my head up high and say in a loud, steady voice, 'Harry, I think I'll have a French Tickler, for I am a Protestant!'")Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0kJHQpvgB8 1. The Canterbury Tales (1972) Although he made what many still consider to be the quintessential Jesus movie (The Gospel According to St. Matthew, 1964), Italian Marxist homosexual poet Pier Paolo Pasolini was no fan of religious dogma, and his sex-drenched, free-form adaptation of Geoffrey Chaucer's poem constantly thumbs its nose at the falsely pious. But Pasolini saves the big one for the end: The film ends with a shocking and hilarious vision of Hell in which Satan cracks open his butt cheeks and shits out streams of screaming friars. In close-up. Repeatedly. Sadly, we were unable to find this clip on YouTube, but then we realized we could put it up ourselves. Enjoy, because it won't last long.
]]>Mon, 10 Dec 2007 18:02:19 GMTlopezdashThe Movie Blog12/10/2007 1:02:19 PMFrom the Entertainment and Culture blog over at New York Magazine comes a list of THE TEN MOST ANTI-CHRISTIAN MOVIES OF ALL TIME. What a title, eh? 10. Carrie (1976) After the titular protagonist gets her first period at school, her crazy, devoutly Christian mother locks her in a closet and tells her to pray, explaining that only sinners menstruate (Wikipedia says this is false). Luckily, Carrie has telekinetic powers, which she uses to toss her mom across a room, electrocute her principal, and burn down her high school&#39;s gymnasium, killing hundreds of students. Parents, take note.Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJe0iVo8y3A 9. Priest (1995) Antonia Bird&#39;s film &mdash; which caused a flash of protest when Miramax released it &mdash; follows Linus Roache&#39;s gay priest as he struggles against his vow of celibacy, and his inability to help a young girl who confesses that her father is abusing her. Perhaps better described as anti-celibacy than anti-Christian, the film ends with a moment of grace that casts the film&#39;s view of faith in a somewhat gentler light, but it&#39;s hard to overstate how violently some religious viewers responded to the image of a Catholic priest doing it with Trainspotting&#39;s Robert Carlyle.Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHVNbV1zPDU 8. Footloose (1984) Despite its canonical status as an eighties classic, we&rsquo;re willing to bet that if an original script like Footloose &mdash; in which fun-loving teen Kevin Bacon arrives in a small town where preacher John Lithgow has banned rock music and dancing &mdash; landed on a Hollywood exec&rsquo;s desk today, they&rsquo;d be too afraid to produce it, lest it offend some key demographic. It&rsquo;s Lithgow&rsquo;s villain who really makes the movie: Soft-spoken and patronizing when he&rsquo;s not spitting out the fire and brimstone (&quot;He&rsquo;s testing us!!&quot;), his performance is a bone-chilling portrait of smug self-righteousness and could easily blend in among any number of Sunday-morning-TV preachers. The only thing missing is a bad hairpiece. Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lH2t6T7rhCU 7. Dogma (1999) Sure, not all of the jokes were funny. Also, its plot is almost as incomprehensible as the Bible&#39;s. Even so, you&#39;ve got to admire Kevin Smith for having the nerve to cast George Carlin as a cardinal (who tries to make Catholicism more accessible by replacing the crucifix with a statue of Jesus giving a thumbs-up), Chris Rock as the thirteenth apostle (who was omitted from the Bible for being black), and Alanis Morrisette as God (this really pissed off Christians, since her second album had just come out and it was a total stinker). Plus, he got Disney to pay for it!Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3zEraHgfO4 6. Jesus Camp (2006) Documentary filmmakers Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing probably never set out to make Evangelical Christians look crazy, but when they showed up at the Kids on Fire School of Ministry, a children&#39;s Bible camp in Devils Lake, North Dakota, and set up their cameras, that&#39;s exactly what happened. The home-schooled little rascals roll around on the floor speaking in tongues, take strategic pointers from radical Islam, and bless a cardboard cutout of President Bush (see above). Disgraced pastor Ted Haggard even shows up to decry the horrors of homosexuality, presumably in between visits to his gay, meth-dealing masseur.Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CgvgjfwyPs 5. The Name of the Rose (1986) True, the heroes of Umberto Eco&#39;s religio-literary mystery are themselves monks &mdash; played by Sean Connery and Christian Slater in the movie version &mdash; but that doesn&#39;t stop this thriller, set in a medieval abbey where the faithful are dying in pursuit of a long-lost and forbidden copy of Aristotle&#39;s Poetics, from being one of cinema&#39;s most damning looks at religious superstition. Not the least because,besides the two leads, practically every monk in this film (1) is hideous-looking and (2) dies a horrible, excruciating death. It&#39;s as if H.R. Giger and Dario Argento collaborated on the film version of God Is Not Great. Don&#39;t miss the scene where Ron Perlman eats a rat.Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sc-_hkLBVnc 4. The Magdalene Sisters (2002) There have been plenty of movies in recent years about priestly abuse &mdash; God only knows why &mdash; but few are more single-minded in their condemnation than Peter Mullan&#39;s harrowing look at three unfortunate young Irish Catholic women who wind up under the custody of a Magdalene convent for wayward girls in the sixties. Between the beatings and rapes they&#39;re subjected to at the hands of sadistic nuns and lewd priests, and the brutality of the ostensibly God-fearing society outside the convent walls, Mullan&#39;s film plays at times like Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS remade in monastic disguise. Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJYiJQ-jbkM 3. The Boys of St. Vincent (1993) This four-hour Canadian telefilm is a difficult, complex portrait of a Catholic orphanage ruled over by a pedophilic priest (Henry Czerny, in a role that launched him into a career of playing creepy bastards). But the film isn&#39;t anti-Christian because it&#39;s yet another movie about a priest who can&#39;t keep his hands off the flock; it&#39;s anti-Christian because its primary theme is the creeping danger of Catholicism&#39;s emphasis on submission of the self to those above you on the pecking order, whether that&#39;s a priest, a Church administrator, or God Himself. 2. Monty Python&#39;s The Meaning of Life (1983) The blasphemous Life of Brian would have been the obvious choice here, but that one just gently chides the Jesus myth, whereas the Pythons&#39; final film actually eviscerates the pettiness of religion in everyday life, never more effectively than in the hilarious musical number &quot;Every Sperm Is Sacred,&quot; sung by a miserably poor and overpopulated Catholic household while their preening, repressed Protestant neighbors look on in pity. (&quot;When Martin Luther nailed his protest up to the church door in 1517, he may not have realized the full significance of what he was doing, but 400 years later, thanks to him, my dear &hellip; I can go down the road any time I want and walk into Harry&#39;s and hold my head up high and say in a loud, steady voice, &#39;Harry, I think I&#39;ll have a French Tickler, for I am a Protestant!&#39;&quot;)Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0kJHQpvgB8 1. The Canterbury Tales (1972) Although he made what many still consider to be the quintessential Jesus movie (The Gospel According to St. Matthew, 1964), Italian Marxist homosexual poet Pier Paolo Pasolini was no fan of religious dogma, and his sex-drenched, free-form adaptation of Geoffrey Chaucer&#39;s poem constantly thumbs its nose at the falsely pious. But Pasolini saves the big one for the end: The film ends with a shocking and hilarious vision of Hell in which Satan cracks open his butt cheeks and shits out streams of screaming friars. In close-up. Repeatedly. Sadly, we were unable to find this clip on YouTube, but then we realized we could put it up ourselves. Enjoy, because it won&#39;t last long. http://www.spout.com/blogs/erico_77375/archive/2007/7/22/15538.aspx Post By: erico_77375
Post To: erico_77375 Blog
Post Date: 7/22/2007 6:21:32 AM
Body: There will never be an ultimate scary movie since fear is a subjective idea. Fears come from experiences that have caused great tension and anxiety. The films that scare us can only grab the ones that can relate to the emotions on screen. Perhaps what I see as being a great horror story is horror of the monster of the film, but the forces around it that creates the monster. Film purists would probably suggest James Whale's Frankenstein. I suggest Brian DePalma's Carrie.In the film's first scene, we are inside a high school shower stall in which we close into a rather plain girl taking a shower. The music is somber and almost Stepfordish. Then, as we close in to Carrie's face, her hands run down her body as she bathes then comes up bloody. Even to those who knows that she's having her period are automatically jolted by the sight of blood due to the suddenness of it. But the ghoulishness of the following scene isn't the blood. In fact, the blood is not even the factor. It is the other girls in the shower. Terrified by her first period, she darts around terrified. Obviously, these girls know what's going on. But instead of helping, they ridicule her. They throw tampons on her and shout, "Plug it up!" with such vile adolescence. This spawns everything to come. This is the beginning of the end.Carrie plays like a Greek tragedy. You know something's going to happen. You know that the vile girls who got punished for their actions are going to get back at her. Not in just any little way, but big time. But how? Their opportunity comes when one their own, Sue Snell (Amy Irving in the beginning of a great career for her), tries to make amends in a very unusual way. She insists that her boyfriend (William Katt), take Carrie to the prom instead of her. Her reasoning is flawed, but it doesn't matter if we understand, as long as she does. He goes along with this after considerable objections, including Carrie's. The human drama is the most important part of this film. Especially when you have a cleverly cast group of teenagers playing the leads and backup, you want to shine everything you have on them. But Carrie's life has other larger problems. Her mother (Piper Laurie in an unforgettable performance) is a religious fanatic. Their house almost a monastery with crucifixes everywhere. She probably wouldn't let Carrie go to school if she'd have things her way. And before her daughter's period, she didn't have to worry much. But now boys are involved and her daughter is starting to rebel. This is beginning to rattle the hornet's nest. What Laurie and DePalma do with this character is to show her seep deeper and deeper into madness the more Carrie pushes away. Only until the very end do you see just how psychotic this woman is.And there are those things that Carrie is able to do like making things move on their own. Now in other scary movies, this will be THE focus point. This is the ringer for the story's climax after all. But it only plays a small part up to the end, where we're trying to get all the pieces connected up to the prom. But we see things from time to time with this power almost as foreshadowing for what is to come. By the time we get to the prom, the trap is set, the pieces are in motion and what happens on the stage as Carrie is named prom queen (thanks to the conspirators), becomes inevitable. What Carrie becomes is tragic, not horrific. The true evil are those kids who set the trap. What they get for what they've done is consequence.You can tell that DePalma had Greek Tragedy in mind as he directed this film. Foreshadowing is subtle, but obvious. Take the scene where Carrie and her date dance. He's apparently falling under Carrie's spell. Maybe he's even falling in love with her. The camera's circling around them, slowly at first, then faster and faster as they dance counter to the camera movement, giving the sensation of spiraling out of control (side note: It wasn't what happened to her that created the monster. It was when the prank knocked him unconscious that she snapped).For Carrie, Sissy Spacek was crucial. The film works or fails on her performance. Spacek, like Hilary Swank, is an actress that isn't considered a Hollywood cover girl. It's her plainness that allows us to accept Carrie. It's her performance that allows us to sympathize with this troubled girl. And Spacek underplays most of her scenes. She sees Carrie as a girl lost in the confusion of a womanhood she's unprepared for.Back on the subject of scary movies, I don't know if you'll find Carrie a horror classic as I do. Horror today is linked with violence or cheap gags involving someone coming out of the dark saying, "Boo!” And those things are creepy. But what I think is more creepier are the things you'll more likely see on the streets where you love. The people you see but don't know. The horrors they lived through, or even worse, the horrors still held in their hearts.
]]>Sun, 22 Jul 2007 10:21:32 GMTerico_77375erico_77375 Blog7/22/2007 6:21:32 AMThere will never be an ultimate scary movie since fear is a subjective idea. Fears come from experiences that have caused great tension and anxiety. The films that scare us can only grab the ones that can relate to the emotions on screen. Perhaps what I see as being a great horror story is horror of the monster of the film, but the forces around it that creates the monster. Film purists would probably suggest James Whale&#39;s Frankenstein. I suggest Brian DePalma&#39;s Carrie.In the film&#39;s first scene, we are inside a high school shower stall in which we close into a rather plain girl taking a shower. The music is somber and almost Stepfordish. Then, as we close in to Carrie&#39;s face, her hands run down her body as she bathes then comes up bloody. Even to those who knows that she&#39;s having her period are automatically jolted by the sight of blood due to the suddenness of it. But the ghoulishness of the following scene isn&#39;t the blood. In fact, the blood is not even the factor. It is the other girls in the shower. Terrified by her first period, she darts around terrified. Obviously, these girls know what&#39;s going on. But instead of helping, they ridicule her. They throw tampons on her and shout, &quot;Plug it up!&quot; with such vile adolescence. This spawns everything to come. This is the beginning of the end.Carrie plays like a Greek tragedy. You know something&#39;s going to happen. You know that the vile girls who got punished for their actions are going to get back at her. Not in just any little way, but big time. But how? Their opportunity comes when one their own, Sue Snell (Amy Irving in the beginning of a great career for her), tries to make amends in a very unusual way. She insists that her boyfriend (William Katt), take Carrie to the prom instead of her. Her reasoning is flawed, but it doesn&#39;t matter if we understand, as long as she does. He goes along with this after considerable objections, including Carrie&#39;s. The human drama is the most important part of this film. Especially when you have a cleverly cast group of teenagers playing the leads and backup, you want to shine everything you have on them. But Carrie&#39;s life has other larger problems. Her mother (Piper Laurie in an unforgettable performance) is a religious fanatic. Their house almost a monastery with crucifixes everywhere. She probably wouldn&#39;t let Carrie go to school if she&#39;d have things her way. And before her daughter&#39;s period, she didn&#39;t have to worry much. But now boys are involved and her daughter is starting to rebel. This is beginning to rattle the hornet&#39;s nest. What Laurie and DePalma do with this character is to show her seep deeper and deeper into madness the more Carrie pushes away. Only until the very end do you see just how psychotic this woman is.And there are those things that Carrie is able to do like making things move on their own. Now in other scary movies, this will be THE focus point. This is the ringer for the story&#39;s climax after all. But it only plays a small part up to the end, where we&#39;re trying to get all the pieces connected up to the prom. But we see things from time to time with this power almost as foreshadowing for what is to come. By the time we get to the prom, the trap is set, the pieces are in motion and what happens on the stage as Carrie is named prom queen (thanks to the conspirators), becomes inevitable. What Carrie becomes is tragic, not horrific. The true evil are those kids who set the trap. What they get for what they&#39;ve done is consequence.You can tell that DePalma had Greek Tragedy in mind as he directed this film. Foreshadowing is subtle, but obvious. Take the scene where Carrie and her date dance. He&#39;s apparently falling under Carrie&#39;s spell. Maybe he&#39;s even falling in love with her. The camera&#39;s circling around them, slowly at first, then faster and faster as they dance counter to the camera movement, giving the sensation of spiraling out of control (side note: It wasn&#39;t what happened to her that created the monster. It was when the prank knocked him unconscious that she snapped).For Carrie, Sissy Spacek was crucial. The film works or fails on her performance. Spacek, like Hilary Swank, is an actress that isn&#39;t considered a Hollywood cover girl. It&#39;s her plainness that allows us to accept Carrie. It&#39;s her performance that allows us to sympathize with this troubled girl. And Spacek underplays most of her scenes. She sees Carrie as a girl lost in the confusion of a womanhood she&#39;s unprepared for.Back on the subject of scary movies, I don&#39;t know if you&#39;ll find Carrie a horror classic as I do. Horror today is linked with violence or cheap gags involving someone coming out of the dark saying, &quot;Boo!&rdquo; And those things are creepy. But what I think is more creepier are the things you&#39;ll more likely see on the streets where you love. The people you see but don&#39;t know. The horrors they lived through, or even worse, the horrors still held in their hearts. http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/Classic/MemberTagFilms.aspxClassic
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