'I am immortal - and I am not alone.'

 

a brief history of 'Highlander: The Series' - and a look back at Season One

There Can Be Only Six
I remember Highlander: The Series being on TV at home more than most things that aired in the 1990s.

The made-for-syndication spin-off started in 1992 and ran through 1998. After that, it was followed up by the divisive Highlander: Endgame, took a break for a few years, then finally wrapped up on Sci-Fi Channel with the made-for-TV, much maligned Highlander: The Source.

By that point (2007), the franchise’s heyday had long since ended. Fans pointed to the middling last two seasons of the show as reason. Others blamed to the lackluster reception of Endgame. And still others — including star Adrian Paul and series producer David Abramowitz — pinned The Source as the true final nail in the coffin.

story of N

 

Marvel Comics today aren’t sexy.

This is a conscious attempt on part of the company. Marvel NOW! kicked in in tandem with and response to an increasing online call for better representation in comics in the 2010s. It de-emphasized sexuality and put an increased focus on “strong female characterization” as a comics brand. Heroes like Captain Marvel and Ms. Marvel led the charge, and bold experiments like A-Force were pushed through. She-Hulk even got a run that didn’t feel like a horny Spider-Man fanboy wrote it, and Elektra got a tremendous solo series. It was hard – as a socially aware liberal college lad – to find much to fault with the trajectory of the company.

You have to remember that at the time, “sex = right-wing” and “sensible clothes = left-wing.” It feels impossible to explain now, but essentially, the long-standing rampant sexualization and eroticization of female characters in comics came home to roost in virtually every online comics circle. A lot of readers were tired of their only heroines being in skintight bodysuits and posed at improbable angles. It was a fair response, but also one Marvel was entirely too eager to meet in hopes of garnering new readership and (most importantly) synergizing with the cuddly positivity of the Disney brand. It’s led to a company that feels downright puratanical at times next to the brazen horny queerness found in DC.

What does this have to with Natasha ? Everything.

tinkerbell in heroin(e) hell

 

Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare is an effective rumination on this moment in queer history — and equally potent bloodletting of our fears, anxieties, and hopes.

High Tension (also known as Switchblade Romance) is Alexandre Aja’s 2nd directorial feature.

Released in 2003, the French film follows a repressed lesbian staying at the family home of her best friend. As her psyche comes unwound from repressed desire, an unseen killer stalks the remote manor and begins to kill the family in horrific ways. But at the film’s climax, the audience discovers they’ve been misled — the actual killer is Marie, the repressed woman who Aja has spent most of the picture endearing us to.

This is a jarring, but effective decision. It fits square in the New French Extreme category, in that it frames socially prescient anxieties of the time with a hyper-violent and psycho-sexual light. At film’s end, Marie is alive and under psychiatric care. Her friend and object of affection, Alex, stares at her from the other side of a one-way mirror. But through it, Marie’s eye catches her, and the woman stares her victim down. Reaches for her. Aware that she is just on the other side of the wall.

game over

 

Is Saw pro-torture?

In Saw, dying serial killer John Kramer traps tough-as-nails addict Amanda Young in a jerryrigged reverse bear-trap contraption. She escapes, and later credits Kramer with ‘saving’ her.

In Saw II, Amanda is kidnapped and tortured by Kramer again – until we realize that she’s since been groomed into being Kramer’s accomplice. She survives a pit of syringes to continue her role as his loyal assistant, and successfully guides victims through their games.

But in Saw III, we see the tragic ends of her loyalty. Amanda loses faith in John’s methods, and starts to rig unwinnable games. From her perspective, John isn’t actually ‘rehabilitating’ people anymore. The only way to fix society, she’s convinced, is to selectively put people down like sick animals. Their conflicting tensions result in a terse stand-off that leaves both of them – and all of their victims of III – dead in a haunting final shot.

So – is Saw pro-torture?

colonized bodies, living and dead

 

thoughts on ‘Nun in Rope Hell’ (1984), Korean annexation at the hands of Imperial Japan, and the political apparatus of erotic grotesque nonsense. 

After an opening scene of S&M that sees a rose stem refashioned as a whip, Nun In Rope Hell (1984) brings viewers to the Kadowaki Suspension Bridge. I recognized it as a climactic set piece in horror sequel Sadako 3D 2 (2013), but it’s also been featured in Koji Shiraishi’s Occult (2009.) Located in the Shizuoka prefecture, the bridge is suspended right above the Jogasaki Coast. Both from the side and on the bridge itself, the view is astonishing – albeit somewhat terrifying.

This is an appropriate setpiece for director Katsuhiko Fujii and cinematographer Teio Noda to open on. Nun In Rope Hell is as mystifying as it is scary – and twice as erotic by any measure. Fujii pushes major boundaries for not only what a theatrical pink film could show by 1984, but the limits of contemporary rope play. Through artful shot composition and imaginative mise en scene, the film elevates the human body to a work of art in sublime form. Like the Kadowaki Bridge, the weight of this picture rests on the suspended backs of the actresses.

what Saw says about America's relationship to torture

 

Saw and Hostel are both cultural nadir incarnate. What I mean by that is that most people have a preconceived notion of both series based on what they’ve been told about them.

They’re the poster children for the ‘torture porn’ sub-genre, which tends to be classified as inherently misogynistic and excessively violent. By consequence, both Lionsgate series are often dismissed as pure exploitation and nothing more. Some folks in the horror community even refer to them as ‘bro horror.’

But when viewed today, it’s difficult to just write either series or their numerous imitators off as, well, just that.