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?

new american extremity

 

Historically, the Evil Dead franchise is not a political powder keg.

The first three films are a time lapse in watching young professionals hone their craft through gory homage and pastiche. They're bonafied classics, yes, but hard-hitting social commentary wasn't on Sam Raimi's mind. Together with Rob Tapert and Bruce Campbell, Raimi wanted give every last ounce in his tank to shock audiences and make them laugh. Over 40 years later, he continues to succeed.

Greetings From Gatlin, Nebraska

 

Two weekends ago, I was doing research for Cinema Cauldron and found myself on Bloody Disgusting. At the bottom of the page, an image of a little girl holding a bloody sickle caught my eye. Below her - that Stephen King font that Stranger Things brought back in vogue. You know, the same one they used for Firestarter last year? 

Anyway. The ad was for a new Children of the Corn, which I was totally in the dark about until that very moment. But I had to see it.

I'm a slavish devotee to seeing any new Stephen King adaptation. Then I found out it was only in theaters for 16 days - and disappearing from most of our local cineplexes within a couple of days. 

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.