“Requiem for a Dream” by Darren Aronofsky is a monster when it comes to analyzing editing and montage. Every scene if full of rhythmic editing and unsettling camera work. So, instead of taking 3,000 words to analyze the whole film, I am going to pick two scenes and analyze them alone.

One of the most unnerving scenes in the film for me (and Heather based on the way she was grabbing my arm) was the scene where Sara Goldfarb was watching television, but it quickly transforms as the walls of her house come apart and the host of the show steps out to mock her, with none other than her younger, prettier self.

As the scene progresses, the cuts become faster and faster, like the beating of a heart. We cut back and forth between the ever changing scenery and an extreme close up of Goldfarb’s terrified face. The scene is incredibly disturbing because the viewer can’t grasp anything in it’s entirety. If it was a still camera the scene would still be a little unsettling, but the movie is only able to get the awful effect it does through the genius use of rhythmic and tonal montage.

Along with that, the scene also very clearly breaks the 180 degree rule as the camera spins around the room, capturing every horrible angle as Goldfarb’s mind devolves. The scene is truly heartbreaking and this can only be achieved through monstrous editing.

The final scene of the movie is definitely the most heartbreaking, though. It is pure tonal montage as we cut between the fate of our four main characters and rhythmic montage as each “cycle” climaxes with a jolt into Goldfarb’s head. There is a second rhythm going as well that is a little less… PG-13, but I’ll just say that Marion and her new lady friend keep time rather well. The cuts between the characters get shorter and more frantic as the movie drives to a close and then slows down as Harry loses his arm. I had hope for a happy ending when Sara got checked in, but those hopes were absolutely crushed by this scene. Sara is being tortured by “medicine”, Tyrone is in prison, Marion is at… at a party… and Harry has lost his arm to his heroine addiction.

Then the montage stops, and we see Harry, now through a surgery that would have taken hours probably so we can check modal off the list as well. Then as he sobs we cut to a beach. A boardwalk we saw earlier in the movie that seemed to symbolize the end goal, with woman at the end waiting for a happy ending, but it won’t come. That would be intellectual montage as well, with the boardwalk symbolizing happiness. And that’s how this absolutely tragic roller coaster of emotions ends… yeah big upper that one. Thanks.

The late 80s dark comedy Heathers by Daniel Waters is many things. It comments on society, teen culture and high school hierarchies all through the lens of a comedic teen movie. One of the ways Heathers accomplishes this is through the use of color.

Throughout the film, the “Heathers” namely Heather Chandler, Heather McNamara and Heather Duke all dress in signature colors. Chandler wears red up until the moment of her death. Red signifies her power as the leader of the Heathers. Heather McNamara wears yellow, which signifies both her almost childlike joy and also her deep insecurity. Finally Duke wears green which signifies her envy of Heather Chandlers power.

The significance of red is most easily shown through the red scrunchy, one of Heather Chandler’s favorite accessories. After her death, JD gives the scrunchy to Heather Duke. One she has it, Duke becomes the “it girl” and takes over Heather Chandler’s power. She also changes her own color to red. This is also shown in one of the first croquet scenes when Duke asks to use the red ball to which Chandler responds “I’m always red.” This becomes important later after Chandler’s death when Duke starts a game by saying “I’ll be red”. This confirms her transition into her spot as leader. At the end of the film, however, once JD is dead Veronica takes the scrunchy from Duke with the iconic line “there’s a brand new sheriff in town” and she dethrones Heather Duke, insinuating her dismantling of the Heathers.

Green plays off of many of the same scenes, each showing Duke’s envy of Chandler. She wants desperately to be red, but as long as Chandler is around she can’t. Likewise she sheds green once she attains red after Chandler’s death as she never wanted to be green. Green perfectly displays her envy because she doesn’t want it, she covets red. You could also draw a parallel between green and Heather’s vomiting, but there is no confirmation she stops after becoming red and that has no real basis in color theory.

Yellow is a symbol of Heather McNamara’s insecurity and self loathing. This is seen most easily through the way she loses yellow. Before and after Heather Chandler’s death, McNamara shows no interest in red. She is happy with yellow and wears it throughout most of the film. However it seems that her continuing to wear yellow after Chandler’s death was just her lasting influence on McNamara and her cling to social norms. The truth that we find out near the end of the film is that Heather is deeply insecure and has suicidal thoughts. When Heather Duke discovers this she tells the whole school, driving Heather McNamara to attempt suicide. Luckily (because yellow Heather is my favorite) Veronica swoops in to stop her and shows Heather McNamara some kindness her other friends never did. After this, McNamara switches into her cheer-leading uniform which is red and black. The red in the uniform shows Heather’s new found power over herself and she sheds the insecurity of yellow.

Pan’s Labyrinth directed by Guillermo del  Toro is a visually complex journey through Spain during a civil war, seen through the eyes of an imaginative young girl. There are many good examples of how del Toro uses “Mise en Scene” to convey different things, but I found that the more fantastical scenes can portray the themes of the film through our protagonist’s eyes.

In this scene, the placement of the camera and the actors is very important. With Ofelia in the foreground, clearly unaware of the “Pale Man” creeping up behind her in the background. Along with that the fairies squeal at her, attempting to notify her. The camera being so close to her face also shows how unaware she is and how close the “Pale Man” is getting.

As far as scenery goes, you can see the decadent feast behind her and the room is dark. It feels like a monsters lair in a children’s fairytale. Even if the monster wasn’t in the shot, you’d be able to tell that something is wrong, purely from the set, camera and props.

In this scene, Ofelia enters the bowels of the tree to find the giant toad. This shot is extremely effective at setting the tone for the whole scene.

Firstly, the set is very natural looking and earthy, so without knowing you could tell she is going underground. The darkness of the scene silhouetting Ofelia makes the task seem scary and unknown, showing Ofelia’s own reluctance to enter the roots and complete her first task. The angle of the camera also makes her seem too big for the space, giving a claustrophobic feeling to the whole affair.

All of these things put together show Ofelia’s somewhat reluctant cross into a world of the unknown, which is very symbolic of the situation she has found herself in at the Captain’s house in a time of civil war.

Ofelia is an imaginative little girl using magic and fairy tales to cope with the surrounding war that closes in on her by the minute, and the mystical scenes we see through her eyes are nothing but indicative of that fact.

Kill Bill Vol. 1 directed by Quentin Tarantino is a menagerie of different genres, some of which weren’t even American in origin. Tarantino was able to blend different types of action flicks to create the thrilling revenge flick we know today.

The first genre that can be seen in Kill Bill Vol. 1 is the western. Westerns usually amount to the story of a cowboy or outlaw in the Old West and are a highly American type of action flick. Close up shots of integral pieces of a scene like a weapon or the characters’ faces are used to draw the audiences eye, quite dramatically, to something that either builds tension or will become important. An example of this in Kill Bill is the close up shots of the Bride’s face whenever she encounters someone from her past, signalling to the audience that this person is an enemy. This builds up the tension at the opening of a fight. Alternatively you have the close up of the key chain labeled “Pussy Wagon” before later finding out that the Bride stole this car from her awful nurse after waking up from a four year long coma.

The fight scenes themselves, however, often seem to draw from a similar genre, however it hails from the other side of the world. Kill Bill‘s action sequences are very dramatic, very extraordinary and very Eastern. Tarantino draws inspiration form the Kung Fu movies of Japan and China. From wild gravity defying kicks to Japanese swordplay there is no shortage of deadly martial arts used by the Bride on her quest for vengeance. Not only that, but the plot has a very distinct Japanese feel as well. While most Westerns are about saving an innocent family from Old West outlaws or an anti-hero getting some money out of a Western criminal enterprise, noble revenge quests are not all too common. Meanwhile the style of going through one lieutenant at a time before finally reaching the “big boss”, or in this case Bill,  is also a very Japanese element that I personally recognize from video games of Japanese style or origin.

While the two genres seem to have stark differences, especially in region of origin, they come together nicely in Kill Bill Vol. 1 and play quite well together. The way they come together is often intense and action packed, but definitely leaves room for some well timed comedic moments, like blood fountains when an enemy is slashed. Kill Bill is truly a film for the ages and, apparently, both halves of the world.

We’ve all heard the joke the black guy dies first. When it comes to the representation of black people, horror does a particularly bad job in how it contrives these characters. Comedy doesn’t do well either, but horror really takes the cake.

In most instances, black people in horror movies are either minor characters, most likely for comic relief, or they are the monster plaguing the white characters in the movie.

In the case of “Candyman,” the titular killer is a black man, killed long ago because of his relationship with a white woman. The film follows a white researcher named Helen Lyle. Helen and her friend Bernadette are researching the myth of “The Candyman”. Things take a dark turn however when he appears and begins killing people and framing Helen in an effort to get her to join him as a killer spirit.

 

 

It is clear that the Candyman has more than just his violence that is used as a fear factor. He is also a large black man who towers over the white leading lady and it is clear that his skin color is meant to be imposing.

 

 

This is a problem not only because of the insinuation but also because of the people behind the camera making these decisions. The director is a white man who not only made this choice, but it’s also a divergence from the original source material, which means that the decision was made simply for the movie, so there is no excuse.

In Robin R Means Coleman’s article “Studying Blacks and Horror Films,” she talks about the concept of “Blacks in horror” which discusses the “horrifying” nature of many black people in the horror movie genre. “Candyman” fits this category, because it is a black man who is doing the horrifying in it and as he plagues the life of a white woman it becomes clear that the creative team behind this movie use many stereotypes of black people to supplement the fear factor of this already over the top movie.

Not even the child in the movie escapes these stereotypes with the way he talks and acts being very reflective of the stereotype of a black child. “Candyman” clearly has some explaining to do and to say it hasn’t aged well would be the understatement of the decade.

 

 

P.S. Word count before this was 387, so you don’t have to count this, but fun fact the actor who played the Candyman actually played the spooky undertaker I was talking about in the Final Destination movies. Anywho thank you so much for letting me do this! Have a great summer.

Parenthood can be scary. Many parents to be experience all sorts of anxieties when faced with the reality that they will soon bring a life into the world. A life that they are now responsible for. Few parents to be, however, are faced with the anxieties of a creepy monster man attempting to end that life, but that isn’t the experience of Amelia and her son Samuel.

Samuel grows up without a father, which as we’ve discussed in class is already a huge red flag in the horror movie family structure. However, this is not the focus of this week, even if it is clear that it is about family. No, this week we read David Skal’s “It’s Alive! It’s Afraid!” The Babadook fits many of the ideas Skal lays out in his analysis of parenthood in the horror genre.

At first, Amelia and Samuel seem to have a mostly functioning, yet strenuous for Amelia, family structure. Their relationship is loving and seems to be a perfectly normal single parent household. However, soon enough a strange book appears on their doorstep. It’s called “Mister Babadook” and it appears to be some sort of children’s book.

This is a horror movie though, so the book is read and the spirit of the Babadook is released. Many theorists believe the tale to be a commentary on depression and the monster is representative of the mother’s internal struggles with the illness. Skal forces us to look at a different perspective though. Regardless of what the monster is representative of, we must look at how this threat affects the child and his relationship with his mother.

As the movie goes on and the Babadook grows stronger and stronger and the tensions between Amelia and Samuel grow. He acts out and she yells at him, saying extremely hurtful things insinuating that she regrets having him to begin with. This is mostly rooted in the loss of her husband and the stress of single motherhood especially raising a child with some kind of special needs. It’s a lot for one woman. Adding the new pressure and threat of the Babadook just sent her over the edge and dividing up this family relationship seems to be the Babadook’s goal.

Eventually, Amelia defeats the Babadook in a sense. When she confronts it, it flees into the basement and she keeps it there under lock and key. Like a trained animal rather than killing machine. She feeds it and keeps it there. This could be seen as yet another metaphor for depression in the sense that it never goes away you just find a way to control it. Or it could be about parenthood, finding a way around the issues that come up with your child and controlling them. Either way, it was an interesting ending and something I don’t believe I’ve ever seen before. Hope that works out for her.

 

 

The Stepfather, 1978, directed by Joseph Ruben follows that life of Stephanie and her mother Susan and the new man in their lives, Jerry. The family life seems normal in the film but underneath the surface, Jerry is a serial killer on the run and desperately searching for that perfect American family life.

 

 

Jerry obsesses over finding the white picket fence American dream, but not in the way that many people are. Jerry settles down with a family and if that family lets him down or breaks his dream, he kills them all and begins a new life elsewhere.

Tony Wiliams writes about these themes in his article, “Trying to Survive on the Darker Side: 1980s Family Horror”. In the article, he also critiques what Carol Clover calls a final girl and gives us his own definition of what a final girl should be in the process.

In The Stepfather, Stephanie represents a different kind of final girl. Yes, she may be resourceful and crafty like many, but she doesn’t need saving. Rather, she saves herself by killing Jerry and saving her mother. This is even more exaggerated by the only major male character in the film other than Jerry, Jim, who rushes to Stephanie’s house to warn them that Jerry is a threat, only to be promptly killed before he can even do anything.

 

 

This leaves all the saving up to Stephanie, and she is successful. However, Williams makes another crucial critique of the Final Girl archetype. Unlike many final girls, Stephanie survives after the trauma. She bonds with her mother, takes down Jerry’s birdhouse and lives happily ever after. No open ending, no mental trauma, nothing.

On top of this, there is a very feminist representation here as well. Throughout the movie, Jerry makes many remarks that allude to (or directly say) that the women need a man, or that there are certain things women can not do. One example of this is when they are discussing boarding school for Stephanie and, even though he is only recently apart of parenting Stephanie, Jerry shuts down the conversation with a simple “Father knows best”.

But in the end, Stephanie castrates the father and chops down his birdhouse, putting an end to his control over these women’s lives.

“Texas Chainsaw Massacre” follows a group of five friends who are on a trip to check on the Hardesty siblings’ grandfather’s grave after a series of grave robberies plague the area in which he is buried. Once they find his grave untouched, they travel to an old house owned by the Hardestys’ father. Once they get there, they are picked off one by one by a hulking figure known only as “Leatherface”.

Leatherface, however, does not work alone. Though in the beginning, it seems as though he is a lone killer, it is revealed that he is killing to feed his family. His family who went bankrupt after the slaughterhouse business became more technologically advanced and moved from blunt killing to an air gun. After they lost everything they resorted to cannibalism to survive.

This narrative has something different from every other horror movie out there. Its background is based on two things: Capitalism and family structure.

“Texas Chainsaw Massacre” shows a family that is perverse and twisted. While many think of family as a support system and a loving environment, this is not the case for the Slaughterhouse Family. They revel together in killing and eating humans. Their patriarch, an old, muppet-like grandfather, seems to be sustained by drinking human blood. Obviously, these are not your everyday family values and “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” plays heavily on the fear of the loss of these values.

But why did the family turn out this way? This movie is truly about a family torn apart by capitalism. The capitalist business world is ruthless, and when the Slaughterhouse family couldn’t keep up, they were spat out the other end and abandoned. That concept is another real fear for many Americans because almost anyone can be destroyed in today’s economy.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre tells an almost somber tale of a family who was destroyed by the business world that, seemingly, they helped create. Even if they did resort to killing people, you have to feel a little bad for them, right? … No… actually you do not.

“It Follows” recounts the story of a girl who begins dating a new guy. After a few dates, the two decide to have sex, something that seems totally normal for two teenagers to do. However, there is nothing innocent about this, because the man is carrying something that he neglects to tell her about: AIDs. Well, not actually AIDs, but the AIDs of horror movie monsters.

This relates to the idea of “when the woman looks”. When she goes and has sex with a guy, she unknowlingly contracts “It”, whatever “It” is. This is her punishment for being semi-promiscuous and for the rest of the movie she has to suffer with her newfound disease. The man also gave it to her without her knowledge, so now Jay is being punished even though she had no idea of the risks of sleeping with him.

HIV/AIDs is a near perfect correlation to this. You can contract it from someone who doesn’t tell you they have, it can be spread on purpose, you can never truly get rid of it and it’s deadly. Many people in the real world go through something similar to what Jay is suffering through. Of course they don’t have to run away from an actual person monster, but the similiarities are there nonetheless.

HIV/AIDs is almost a real world punishment for sleeping around, because you could get it from anyone and unless you see that person’s medical history you have no idea if they are telling the truth when they say they are clean. So, therefore it can be asserted that the monster from “It Follows” is the same way. Jay is being punished for being sexual, just like so many other women in horror, and that’s the true evil of the “It” in “It Follows”. It isn’t the monster that really sentences you to death, it’s the human that passes on the awful disease because they were able to get you in bed.

The Exorcist is a visceral, horrifying experience chronicling the descent of Regan and the invasion of the devil into her body. The major problems of the movie are caused by this invasion from a foreign force into Regan’s body, causing her issues both physical and mental.

Throughout the film, Regan descends from a sweet, young girl into what looks like a grizzeld corpse. She loses everything that is implicitly “feminine” about her in the process of her posession. It all starts when she begins playing with a ouija board and speaking to “Captain Howdy”. However, what seems like an innocent game quickly becomes malevolent when the demon, “Captain Howdy”, who now calls himself the Devil, takes control of Regans body and strips away her girlhood.

The start of Regan’s defeminization is her voice. When the demon inhabits her, she speaks in a low grizzled voice, clearly a mans, but it doesn’t end there. The demon also speaks from within her of vulgar things that most of society would consider “unladylike” for lack of a better term. The change in her voice and demeanor aren’t the only things however. Finally her face and body change, losing the natural beauty Regan had before and replacing it with torn, green- gray flesh that is horrifying to look at. Therefore, the demon effectively strips Regan of everything that once made her feminine.

On top of this, the movie has very obscene images of vomit and other abjections from the body, representing the demon inside of her. In an early scene, Regan comes downstairs to a party her mother is having and begins peeing in front of the guests. Even more apparent however is how the demon reacts to the exorcism. Once the priests begin praying and attempting to rid Regan of her demonic roommate, Regan begins to vomit all over the room, a clear example of abjection based off of Barbara Creed’s article “Horror and the Monstrous Feminine: An Imaginary Abjection”.

The imagery of “The Exorcist” is very clear as poor, innocent Regan is torn apart from the inside by a demon she does not understand. He strips away her femininity and her innocence, pulling every bodily fluid she has out as a weapon and in the end, it is the man that saves her.