Getting back to
Hitchhiker's,
I just had to share this paragraph from
Sight and Sound's
feature on the movie.
In both its presentation and content... [the scene] exemplifies the blend of whimsy and sceptical (rather than satirical) self-awareness that characterises Hitchhiker, along with much of Doctor Who. To call this mix 'British' would be to ignore how much it's travelled in recent years. Strip Buffy the Vampire Slayer of its California trappings and one finds the same principles lying beneath. Buffy, though, could successfully have a girl at its centre, while the earlier versions of Hitchhiker traditionally present the universe as an all-boys' club, something not quite covered up in the new version.
If they're namechecking Buffy things must be good, right?
Well, you're right - The Haunting movie is a perfect example of horror which doesn't depend on moritification of the human body. Though some might quibble that this places it into more of a psychological thriller/terror mode, I wouldn't.
I'd revise then to note that there is a very large strain of horror movies which depends on buried anxieties about the body. The classic pre-code Horror movies (Freaks, Island of the Dead, Frankenstein, Dracula, Tod Browning's ouevre, particularly The Unknown where the lead cuts off his own arms) are rife with it. But the RKO Jacques Tourneur produced films that I so love (Cat People, Curse of the Cat People, The Seventh Victim, I Walked With A Zombie) dip into the uncanny valley but just subtly and with a big emphasis on the psychological sensation of losing control.
David Cronenburg's entire film career is based in body horror, though.
David Cronenberg's entire film career is based in body horror, though.
I'm mostly in agreeance with that. I think he has done a couple of basically mainstream movies, but
Videodrome
and
The Fly
certainly qualify.
a very large strain of horror movies which depends on buried anxieties about the body.
Oh yes, both personal anxieties and social ones. I always thought it Verrrrry Interestink that in
Halloween,
Laurie defends herself against the monster with a wire coathanger. In the 1970s, kind of a significant tool, when relating to a woman's body.
David Cronenburg's entire film career is based in body horror, though.
The interesting thing with Cronenberg is that his focus has shifted massively over the course of his career. Where his early stuff was very objective and head-on in exploring body horror, his work slowly shifted to deeply subjective. Around the time after The Fly, he started mostly giving up on the gorey stuff (although, as he has said, him being him means you still get healthy doses of the goopy stuff in NAKED LUNCH and eXistenZ) and exploring how perception of reality alters one's reality (which he first really touched on in VIDEODROME).
By the time you get to SPIDER, you're getting an almost entirely subjective movie about what it's like to be schizophrenic. Still a lot of body issues involved, but almost nothing in the way of special effects or gore.
Anyway, the guys one of my favorite director's, and a great interview subject to boot - very articulate and thoughtful.
You saw that Bats is opening slightly earlier than planned, right?
In my quest to re-locate the Superbowl spot (now if only I could recall who I promised the link to), I noticed that there are a gazillion new Batman Begins wallpapers at the official site.
I waffled, saved them all, and am now using the Batmobile.
Zaphod Beeblebrox For President music video.
(Not in the film, but funny.)
There's a picture of Viggo and his crew in costume for Alatriste here. -- Look at the gallery, there are also some very pretty pictures of Andalusia.
