| Author | Message | ||
     Niki Flynn (Niki) Username: Niki Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.32.69.29 |
I've been indulging in my own little horror film fest this week and today's matinee was RABID, which I hadn't seen in years. It doesn't stand the test of time as well as - say, VIDEODROME (eerily relevant!), but it's still a brilliant little gem. And major kudos to Mr Cronenberg for casting Marilyn Chambers. (I can't help being amused by the concept that, to a vanilla audience, doing horror counts as "respectable" for an actress who's only done adult work. Is sex really that bad? **shakes head**) I love Cronenberg's comment about how his films should be seen "from the point of view of the disease". Probably never more sympathetically portrayed than in THE FLY, but RABID is strangely compelling when looked at that way. A truly unique take on the classic monster movie theme. And a special friend just sent me the soundtracks to both HOSTEL films, so those have been playing in my car and here at my desk virtually nonstop, filling my brain with even more darkness. Last night I watched Hostel 2 and tonight I'm treating myself to the original before bed. I was in Cesky Krumlov a couple of years ago, so it's always a treat to see it again and imagine what *could* have happened to me there... | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.129.23.231 |
Sex in movies, you see, is 'real', even if it's not full. Horror is faked, and we know that, mostly. As a kid it was always easier to watch a scene with violence than sex in it. And less disturbing. Nikki - did you feel turned on at any point by the hostel films? Are scary things ever sexy? I think it can happen. As long as it's pretend, of course. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.242.126 |
RABID is one of my favourites - I actually watch it every couple of years, and it never seems dulled or diluted. the subway scene is brillint, as is the bit with the guy in the car and the builders attacking him with a jack hammer. | ||
| Niki Flynn (Niki) Username: Niki Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.32.69.29 |
Scary can be *extremely* sexy, yes. Blood - definitely. Remember Bela Lugosi's rap to Ed Wood about DRACULA being the ideal date film. Nothing makes me feel more alive than fear. It probably has an added frisson of "forbidden pleasure" for me: as a child my parents would let me see any gruesome horror film I wanted, but if a sex scene came on, my father would turn the TV off. (No idea what a psychiatrist would make of how that affected my sexuality!) I tend to watch horror films on two levels - one where I'm lost in the fictional world and one where I'm fantasising about playing the final girl.  Either way, I do often find certain situations hot in the abstract and yes, the general concept of HOSTEL can be twisted into an erotic fantasy for me. Though my private version is far less gory and causes no permanent damage. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.242.126 |
Niki - regarding the thing with Marilyn Chambers crossing over into the mainstream with RABID, the porn industry was nowhere near as "respectable" in 1977 as it is now. These days someone like Traci Lords is seen as being edgy and anti-establishment by the mainstream; back then, Chambers was simply classed as a slapper. I think attitudes to this have changed, although I still think that being in a dodgy horror flick is considered more respectable by most than a performing bit of DP in some shot-on-video skin flick. :-) As for the rest: sex and death, baby; flipsides of the same coin. | ||
| Niki Flynn (Niki) Username: Niki Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.32.69.29 |
Good point about changing attitudes towards porn, Zed. I have to wonder how different the film would have been with someone else in the lead role? Cronenberg originally wanted Sissy Spacek, but I just can't picture her in it. The film also works on a sort of meta-level, with the "sex object" Chambers inadvertently avenging herself on all the men who come on to her in the film. I certainly hadn't appreciated that angle when I saw it as a kid! I also can't help but wonder why Cronenberg never made TEETH. The theme is pure Cronenberg and he'd have done a much better job. | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 80.167.124.223 |
I love all of Cronenberg's films. And Videodrome is certainly a classic. I will always go to the big screen and see a new Cronenberg film. I think I read somewhere that he has just completed a novel. |