i used to be quite a devout christian, which may or may not account for my predilection for horror flicks with religious content. the majority of this sub-genre is terrible, which is not to say that i haven't seen most of them. and a few of these freaky faith stories are pretty amazing, or at least pretty entertaining. these are my favorites.
the prophecy
the one that started it all. with christopher walken as fallen angel gabriel and viggo mortensen as the-most-terrifying-satan-ever-filmed, what's not to love? not to mention sweetheart virginia madsen.** srsly though, this movie was the first time i came across the concept of angels as assholes and i lurved it. hard. it makes so much sense that a race entirely devoted to worship and obedience would be a race of hard-edged, unforgiving jerks. or killers. often both. a bonus feature of this film? the deliciously tortured priest played by the deliciously named elias koteas. what can i say? i like emotionally disturbed clergy. makes for good angst.
supernatural
well, of course. all my thought trains lead to spn. probably why i'm writing this post. in my defense though, kripke took the idea of angels as dicks and ran with it. his bad angels are bad. as in, bringing on the apocalypse bad. as in, probably more insane than the denizens of hell bad. ferocious warrior angel uriel scares the pants off me. bureaucratic zachariah is such a dick, you just know he doesn't give a shit about any human. even angry castiel is quite intimidating, regardless of the trench coat. but then, lucifer? the fallen angel you'd expect to be the most terrifying? really, kind of a cool guy. pretty mellow, aside from that whole trying to take over sam's body issue.*** so the devil's pretty swell, angels are pricks and god is...missing? not your average take on christian mythos, but then the bible never mentions sam and dean, so i'll stick with this version.
the exorcist
it's a classic for a reason. this shit is fierce, even 37 years down the line. old priest + young priest + demonic tween vomiting pea soup = cinematic and narrative g. o. l. d.
seven
release in 1995, this one's almost a classic too. which makes me feel old. ooh! time for an anecdote. when i was about 14, i still wasn't "allowed" to watch any r-rated movies. (i hadn't yet realized that i didn't always have to obey the rules.) anyway, one night i was down the street babysitting with a friend of mine and after we put the kids to bed, we decided to watch "pulp fiction". i had never even conceived of the word fuck in so many different capacities. so, i was a little shocked, but thought the film was spectacular. of course. the next week, same babysitting arrangement and my friend and i decided to watch "seven". long story short, my mom found out and freaked! i shouldn't have been exposed to such violence and profanity at my young age, blah blah blah. so her answer was to let me watch whatever i wanted from then on, because it couldn't possibly get any worse. twisted logic, but i felt victorious nonetheless! but anyway, there are a jillion reasons "seven" is fantastic, but here's a quick overview. brad pitt! morgan freeman! kevin spacey! super inventive ways of killing people! lots of blood! "just because a guy has a library card, doesn't make him yoda!" "what's in the box?!?!?" david fincher! okay, i'm done.
constantine
oh shut up. i sincerely love keanu reeves, but this movie is ridiculously awesome and silly anyway. and a great campaign against smoking. srsly, watch it. i bet it would make a great drinking game.
the omen (and sorta the omen 3)
i had my first panic attack because of "the omen." true story. i was living in a dorm at the time and home alone one night. i get kinda spooked sometimes anyway, but i kept hearing these weird scraping noises from behind the wall, like a nail scratching on metal. it was quiet at first but became more and more insistent. then the sink turned on by itself. at which point i became rather hysterical. sobbing, i ran around the corner to my r.a.'s room and was raving about demons when she opened the door. long story short, she calmly walked me down the hall to where a bunch of maintenance dudes were working on the plumbing. oh, okay. plumbers, not the anti-christ. right. point is, it's kind of a scary movie. especially if you don't particularly like children.****
**secret fact, i love everyone/thing associated with the highlander series. ginny madsen was in highlander 2. so, there.
***fangirl musing...when lucifer possesses someone, does he take the form of demonic black smoke or angelic white light? maybe white smoke or black light? disco lucifer? i like.
****why the omen 3? because sam neill plays damien and he is a very convincing anti-christ/demonic figure. see also: "event horizon", "in the mouth of madness". i once wrote an article for my high school newspaper on how mr. neill was the scariest man alive. except for his turn as dr. alan grant in jurassic park. dr. grant tears it up, yo.
February 28, 2010
February 23, 2010
let's start at the very beginning
or
the strange case of supernatural
my first blog. wow. this is a rather momentous occasion for a girl with a long standing fear of the internet gaining sentience and killing us all. awaiting the skynet apocalypse and yet feeding the massive belly of its antecedent. oh well, la-ti-dah.
so why start a blog?
in short, the television made me do it. no, really. here's how it went down.
a few months ago, my friend todd and i were at work having geek bonding time, as is our tradition. he turned to me at one point and spoke the life-changing words, "so have you started watching "stupid-natural" yet?" i had no idea what he was talking about, which in this arena of esoterica is pretty unusual. i have an uncanny and completely useless ability to remember film and tv trivia. i know random facts about shit that i would never watch and am not remotely interested in. if i hear/read something once, it stays put in my brain. (unfortunately, this is only true of showbiz trivia and not rocket science or auto mechanics.) in any case, i had never even heard of supernatural, but to appease todd's query, i watched the episode that aired the next week. i found it charming enough to ask for the first season of dvds.
a month later, i had zoomed through all 4 1/2 seasons. hello, new obsession!
now, i've had some pretty ridiculous media infatuations before, i.e. val kilmer, n sync, buffy, bsg. they all pale in comparison to this. the stars have to align for such affinities to exist, and my life was changing in just the right ways for this particular piece of art to resonate like a big ole gong of war.
it's just a tv show, sure. but it has impacted me in a serious way. it has reawakened parts of me i thought long gone and made me reassess my life goals. it has made me appreciate the creative abilities of the masses and inspired me to write again. it has helped me hold my life together at a time when i could have completely fallen apart. it has made me lustful beyond all reason :-)
my point is, things only have the value that we imbue them with and this show has become a talisman of sorts. i use it as my happy place; whenever i'm feeling overwhelmed or sad, i can daydream about the winchesters and everything seems better. when i recently found myself lacking a social life, i reached out to the internet and found the supernatural fandom. suddenly i had something in common with thousands of fangirls. i don't know these women and to date i haven't met another female supernatural fan in person, but we all understand and share this devotion to the show and it's periphery. there is undoubtedly a community spirit.
which is probably the best thing to come of the internet. aside from free porn, obvs.
so now i am contributing to this world wide web of information and tomfoolery. the feeling is akin to participating in a census; standing up and being counted as part of something. i am part of the information age and the internet. if humanity leaves anything behind, i kinda hope it's this, for within the ethereal confines of the net lie all the beauty, misery, obsession and hope of (wo)mankind.
anyway, welcome to the quiet life. i'll be over there in the corner with a book. probably day dreaming about the winchester boys.
so why start a blog?
in short, the television made me do it. no, really. here's how it went down.
a few months ago, my friend todd and i were at work having geek bonding time, as is our tradition. he turned to me at one point and spoke the life-changing words, "so have you started watching "stupid-natural" yet?" i had no idea what he was talking about, which in this arena of esoterica is pretty unusual. i have an uncanny and completely useless ability to remember film and tv trivia. i know random facts about shit that i would never watch and am not remotely interested in. if i hear/read something once, it stays put in my brain. (unfortunately, this is only true of showbiz trivia and not rocket science or auto mechanics.) in any case, i had never even heard of supernatural, but to appease todd's query, i watched the episode that aired the next week. i found it charming enough to ask for the first season of dvds.
a month later, i had zoomed through all 4 1/2 seasons. hello, new obsession!
now, i've had some pretty ridiculous media infatuations before, i.e. val kilmer, n sync, buffy, bsg. they all pale in comparison to this. the stars have to align for such affinities to exist, and my life was changing in just the right ways for this particular piece of art to resonate like a big ole gong of war.
it's just a tv show, sure. but it has impacted me in a serious way. it has reawakened parts of me i thought long gone and made me reassess my life goals. it has made me appreciate the creative abilities of the masses and inspired me to write again. it has helped me hold my life together at a time when i could have completely fallen apart. it has made me lustful beyond all reason :-)
my point is, things only have the value that we imbue them with and this show has become a talisman of sorts. i use it as my happy place; whenever i'm feeling overwhelmed or sad, i can daydream about the winchesters and everything seems better. when i recently found myself lacking a social life, i reached out to the internet and found the supernatural fandom. suddenly i had something in common with thousands of fangirls. i don't know these women and to date i haven't met another female supernatural fan in person, but we all understand and share this devotion to the show and it's periphery. there is undoubtedly a community spirit.
which is probably the best thing to come of the internet. aside from free porn, obvs.
so now i am contributing to this world wide web of information and tomfoolery. the feeling is akin to participating in a census; standing up and being counted as part of something. i am part of the information age and the internet. if humanity leaves anything behind, i kinda hope it's this, for within the ethereal confines of the net lie all the beauty, misery, obsession and hope of (wo)mankind.
anyway, welcome to the quiet life. i'll be over there in the corner with a book. probably day dreaming about the winchester boys.
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