Announcing: Women and African Americans In Horror / Disgruntled Bloggers/ Stuffed Ballot Box - Month!

For me, February always meant three things: Groundhog day, The celebration of when I met my significant other (14 years on 2/12/10), and my older sister's birthday.  This year, it seems, I have to clear my calendar and  make way for a slew of other important events.

In the Horror blogosphere, it seems that February is the month to celebrate the fairer sex's role in thriller films.  Prepare to see many posts that breathlessly praise the works of such noted female thespians as Linnea Quigley, and Sheri Moon Zombie (or you could just CLICK HERE and see that Maxium might have beat us all to the punch).   On the other hand, I am assuming that the usual suspects will be trotted out once again, women like Jamie Lee Curtis or Jamie's Mom, Janet Leigh (for her iconic stint in Psycho).  Then again, you never know, maybe some will avoid the obvious (and I'm looking at you, BJ-C), and delve a bit deeper into the role of women in horror.  Maybe some authors, or directors will get their due ... all we can do is wait and see, this should be fun, and possibly very informative.

Meanwhile, February is also Black History Month, and I am pretty sure that there was some discussion about  spotlighting the role of African Americans in Horror (at least amongst the LOTTD).  Sadly, this idea seems to have been dropped as many were concerned over how a presentation like this might be perceived (consider early horror films from the 30's 40's and 50's and if there was a black actor or actress in one of these films, he or she was either presented as a wide eyed, comical fool scared of his or her own shadow; or they might be voodoo priests/priestess full of malevolence). Then again, one need only look no further than George Romero who has had several African American men play the lead in his films (think for a minute how groundbreaking it was to have Duane Jones as the lead in Night of the Living Dead - that was in 1968 for Christ's sake).  Be that as it may, I know for a fact that several bloggers out there are going to celebrate the role of Black men and women in Horror - again, I think this is going to be fun as well as highly informative.

Two prolific horror bloggers have recently posted their thoughts on the Bloody Disgusting Horror Blogger Award.  For those of you not aware, yet another award is up for grabs and that's great.  However according to Chuck over at Zombie's Don't Run and Johnny at Freddy in Space - trickery may be afoot.  You see there is this other blog, that no one seems to really know anything about that's garnering more votes than other blogs.  I wonder if Pia Zadora was involved (and for those of you too young to get that reference HERE'S YOUR HISTORY LESSON FOR THE DAY).

Happy Women and African Americans In Horror / Disgruntled Bloggers/ Stuffed Ballot Box - Month!

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Finally, in some totally unrelated news, I am happy to announce that my contribution to Butcher Knives and Body Counts Essays on the Formula, Frights, and Fun of the Slasher Film has been accepted, just click on this link and if you know my real name,  you'll see it listed  ... if you don't know my real name, you'll just have to trust me on this one.

Four Unsung Female Characters of Horror

It looks like someone might be declaring February as Women in Horror Month, I thought it was Black History Month - well, what do I know.  Be that as it may, I wanted to take a few minutes and highlight several female characters who are hardly ever sited by anyone when discussing horror/slasher/thriller films...submitted for your approval: Four Unsung Female Characters of Horror:

Kate Miller (Angie Dickinson) in Dressed to Kill:  Not since, Marion Crane met her demise at the Bates Motel has one woman had such a bad day.  Frustrated by her husband's lack of sexual prowess, rejected by her shrink when she comes on to him, stalked by a guy at The Philadelphia Museum of Art, going home and fucking said guy, discovering that she probably caught VD from the guy, and then getting hacked to ribbons by a crazed, cross dressing killer in an elevator - Kate, we salute you!

Sharon Spencer (Kitty Winn) in The Exorcist:  When Sharon took on the job as personal assistant to actress, Chris MacNeil, she probably had no idea that she was signing on as a babysitter for a demonically possessed little girl.  Geez, she even stays  with little Regan when no one else is home (OK,  leaving that drunk director to babysit  while she ran to the pharmacy was a pretty stupid move, but what the heck).  That she avoids most of the demon's wrath means she was damn lucky, or managed to stay out of harm's way for the most part - Sharon, we salute you!

Hortense Daigle (Eileen Heckart) in The Bad Seed: This depressed, drunken mother who has just lost her son is as pathetic as she is funny.  It's hard to tell if she's drinking to dull the pain of losing her child, or if she's just always been a boozy slattern.  Nonetheless, it's apparent that she might just be one of the few people who knows the truth about little Rhoda Penmark, and if given the chance, she'd probably grab the little homicidal brat by her pig tails and hang her from a telephone pole - Hortense, we salute you!

Beverly R. Sutphin (Kathleen Turner) in Serial Mom: It does not matter if she's making obscene phone calls, disemboweling a guy who breaks her daughter's heart, committing vehicular homicide on the teacher who is failing her son, or beating a woman to death with a lamb chop because said woman fails to rewind her video tapes upon returning them; Mrs. Sutphin is always impeccably dressed, and her domestic skills rival those of Martha Stewart.  When the chips are down, and she's hauled into court, she even acts as her own defense attorney and wins!  Beverly, we salute you!

Go Into the Light, Zelda

Sad to report that the diminutive actress, Zelda Rubinstein, who appeared in 1982's Poltergeist (and pretty much stole that movie from all involved)  has passed on.  She was 76 years old.

WTF?

Hmmm...seems my blog is nominated for an award, that's cool. Thanks to whomever thinks that this little exercise in mediocrity is worth it.

I wish all my fellow nominees the best of luck.

Some Long Overdue Love for Wes Craven's New Nightmare

"Maybe we're gonna have a big earthquake. They say things get really weird just before."- Tina Gray ( A Nightmare on Elm Street)

When Wes Craven took the Fred Kruger myth back, he reworked it as a post modern/showbiz/fairytale and gave the world one of the more original horror films of the 90's (considering that the Nightmare on Elm Street thing had pretty much been beaten into the ground by this point, and Freddy Kruger was about as terrifying as a Hanna-Barbera cartoon character).  

The film starts with a familiar set up; a glove with long knives is being fashioned in some kind of hellish workshop...

...but it does not take us long to realize we are on a movie set, and look it's Heather Langenkamp and a couple of actors playing her husband and son...

...that handsome hubby is one of the special effects guys working on the film, and at first it's just another day in Hollywood-land, until suddenly, the damn glove malfunctions and starts flying through the air slashing at everyone on set...

...chaos ensues...

...as the glove rips out the heart of another one of the stage crew...

...even the director, Wes Craven, can't stop the madness...

...but wait, Heather wakes up, it's just another nightmare - however, a major earth quake is occurring...

...soon Heather and handsome hubby make their way down to their son's bedroom and make sure he's OK.

Later that same morning, at breakfast, it seems that Heather's son, Dylan has formed a familiar face in his Cream of Wheat...

...and if that's not enough, he keeps turning on the tv where it seems that the original Nightmare on Elm Street is playing in heavy roataion.  Heather turns the set off...

...and the little guy goes ballistic.  If all of this isn't enough, apparently, Heather has a crazy fan who makes harassing phone calls to her house.  Clearly all of this is just making her wreck.  Nonetheless, Heather is a trooper, and she agrees to appear on a television program that same morning...

...where the topic is the 10th anniversary of the original film.  To add to the merriment, Robert Englund in full Kruger drag shows up ...

and the audience loves his campy antics...

...after the show, Englund asks Heather to do another Nightmare film with her, she declines but says that she'd consider a romantic comedy.  And then as she's about to leave, she's summoned to New Line Cinema's office...

...where both Sara Risher...

...and Robert Shaye try to talk her into appearing in a new Nightmare film.  And once again she declines.  However, she soon discovers that Wes Craven has already started a script, and that handsome hubby has been working on the effects.

When Heather get's home she discovers that once again, Dylan is having another fit, the baby sitter can't explain why, she says he was taking a nap and then he woke up screaming.  Finally, Dylan tells his mother about the scary man who tries to come after him in his sleep.  He also tells her that his stuffed dinosaur, Rex, is what he uses to protect himself.  Uh oh, looks like Rex might have had an accident.  Heather decides to call handsome hubby (who is on the set of a commercial working)  and have him come home after their son's latest episode, handsome hubby agrees and heads home...

...dozing at the wheel, handsome hubby suddenly  feels something tapping at his crotch...

...giving it a cursory scratch, he sees nothing is wrong...and then dozes off again...

...and suddenly the infamous gloved hand rips through the car seat and into his chest.  Handsome hubby is killed.  It's at this point that Wes Craven's New Nightmare takes on a decidedly much darker air than any of the subsequent Elm Street sequels ever did.  From Heather's mourning of her husband's death, to little Dylan's decent into madness.  That said, we do get some fun moments like a half a second cameo by...

...Mr. Nick Corri of Nightmare 1.  Corri and others have gathered for hubby's funeral, and half way though the proceedings another earth quake hits, knocking Heather out for a second...

...causing her to hallucinate this morbid moment of Kruger dragging her son into his father's coffin...

...luckily, John Saxon manages to wake Heather up and comfort her.

Trying to keep some semblance of normalcy, that night, Heather agrees to read Dylan his favorite fairy tale, Hansel and Gretel.  Dylan seems to really enjoy the fact that after the witch is burned in the oven, the children return to the safety of a parent.  

The next day, Heather meets with John Saxon again, and he almost has her convinced that little Dylan is fine until they discover the kid teetering high above the playground...

...after he's rescued, he tells his mother that god would not take him...

The next day, Heather calls Robert Englund and tells him about Dylan, her crazy stalker (who has also been sending her odd single sheets of paper in the mail with one letter printed on them), and finally, that she's having nightmares.  She tells him that she's dreaming of Freddy again, but it's different, he's darker, more menacing.  Then she asks Englund if he's been having any odd dreams...

...and even though he claims that he's not having bad dreams, something is driving him to create the bizarre paintings he's been doing lately. 

That night, she dreams again, only this time, Dylan is wearing finger knives...waking up from the latest nightmare, she finds Dylan walking around the living room staring at the floor...

...where all of the stalker mail has been arranged to form this message, and the phone does ring...

...and the old familiar tongue from the phone pops out  - but this time we hear Freddy's voice say, "I touched him".  Frankly, this is the creepiest moment for me keeping in mind that Kruger was supposed to have been a child molester originally - and since most of Freddy's attention thus far has been on Dylan.

Now, the poor kid starts foaming at the mouth...

...as does the phone.  And finally, Heather takes Dylan to the hospital...

...where a rather imposing doctor treats the boy and then starts to question Heather about her personal life, and if she lets her son watch the horror films she's starred in ...clearly the doctor feels that this little boy is the victim of some kind of parental abuse.   Leaving her son at the hospital, Heather decides it's time to pay a visit on Wes Craven to get to the bottom of things.

On her sojourn, she passes real life evidence of the earthquakes that have been tormenting Southern California.

Once she gets to Craven's she discovers that he is indeed working on a script. But there's something else, something darker at work here.  Wes hypothesizes that some demonic force is trying to break into our world via his creation, and the only way to stop that would be for Heather to once more play Nancy and best the deamon/Freddy once and for all.

The most chilling moment of the film occurs as Heather and Wes are talking, and the camera pans over to Craven's computer screen showing the script he's working on, and it's the same dialogue we are hearing until the scene does indeed, fade to black.

Heather goes back to the hospital and has another nightmare when she dozes off at Dylan's bedside ... this time the imposing doctor becomes Freddy...

...after she wakes up, we find that Freddy has finally manifested and is about to kill Dylan's babysitter...

...and this of course hearkens back to Tina's death in Nightmare 1.  Dylan runs from the hospital at this point...

...while a monolithic Kruger looms over him as he tries to cross a traffic choked, multi- lane highway with Heather in hot pursuit. 

Heather manages to contact John again (once she and Dylan have crossed the highway), and by this point she's hysterical and raving...to make things even more intense, John keeps calling her, "Nancy" - and he's driving a police car, and Heather's clothes have turned back into the familiar pair of pajamas she wore for much of A Nightmare on Elm Street ... and once John leaves...

... the exterior of her home becomes very familiar, and Heather understands that she must become Nancy; one last time. 

Meanwhile, inside, Kruger has arrived - note the Nosferatu homage here- kidnapped Dylan and taken him to a hellish dream world that Nancy/Heather must now infiltrate.

Following a trail of sleeping pills her son left for her, Nancy/Heather climbs into Dylan's bed, goes under the covers and slides on down into a phantasmagorical world...

...where she discovers her son being pursued by Freddy in some sort of ancient temple...

...the walls of this place are adorned with the seven deadly sins...as well as all manner of creepy crawly things, but Nancy/Heather is ready to kick some ass...

...she's apparently got one mean right hook!  Eventrually, like Hansel and Gretel did, Mother and Son trick Kruger into climbing into a sort of oven...

...and send...

...him back...

to hell.

Once Kruger is vanquished, Heather and Dylan escape and tumble out of bed into the boy's bedroom where they discover a script with a note from Wes Craven...

Heather pages through the script and finds everything she has gone through in black and white ... her son, as is dictated in the script, asks her to read it to him...and she does.