Monday, March 31, 2008

Number 1 fan!

I've done the rounds, movie wise anyway. I've seen quite a few of them. Recently I've discovered how much I really enjoy horror flicks of most kinds. It still feels very strange to me when I look at all of the horror movies and slashers and thrillers that I had so heavily avoided for so long. I blame it on the timing of my birth. When I was just but little, during the formative years of the awakening of my brain my brothers were in their prime scary movie watching years. They also were coincidentally just starting out into their jerk years. What does this mean? Torture the young one! Oh and they did, they had me freaked out about everything from Jaws (one of my now favorite movies) to Freddy (I'm ambivalent about the first two but love the 3rd movie in his series so far) to Jason (awesome!) to Michael Myers (Also quite awesome himself) and so on. There was even a time that they had me so freaked out that I couldn't stay in the room when they played that really shitty "Jaws" NES game.

Don't get me wrong there was nothing really wrong with my brothers, just the normal sibling torture. I knew that if anything happened they had my back. Unless of course a vampire showed up, then it was every man for themselves, and they reminded me constantly that they were quicker than me...

So though I've always loved movies I really never looked into the scary ones for the longest time. Well past the point of being afraid, at a certain point it wasn't the fear anymore that kept me away, just habit and conditioning. The first real horror type movie that I actually made an effort to see was "Scream" in '96. Late '96 as a matter of fact since was a VHS affair. As I understand it that was a pretty good jumping on point for the genre, which I agree with.

I really enjoyed "Scream" even without getting the inside jokes and references that I now find easier and easier to spot. In fact back in the day the only one I remember really catching was Wes Craven's cameo as Fred the janitor (clad in Freddy's sweater and hat). I won't lie, the slight campyness of if all helped me stay into it (my love of the B flicks was alive and well back then as well) the humor was really well done as well. Not forced or unbearably hokey as can be the case easily. Back on track though "Scream" contains a few really memorable gruesome scenes (at least for me). The first one that comes to mind is the entire sequence with Casey Becker (Drew Barrymore) being chased,stabbed, gutted, and strung up. Now it could be because that was my initiation scene, I'm not sure but I do know that the scene really sticks with me. Especially the last bit where her parents discover her...just creepy. The other standout scene and this one I'm fairly sure is just one of my quirks is Principal Himbry (Henry Winkler) hanging from the goal post. Though that scene is more memorable because, well lets face it seeing Henry Winkler murdered like that is just about the most heartbreaking thing ever. How could anyone even think of harming him??

So yeah I dug Scream, I even caught the next two sequels in the theater, I didn't love them as much as the first. But I hold a soft spot for them since they are in the family of that what brung me. Sadly during those times I still didn't discover my "love" for the genre simply because I was staying with the new movies. That means I was stuck with the "I Know What You Did Last Summer"s of the world and the like. In other words cash in crap. Luckily thanks to the net and some awesome blogs some of which I've even mentioned I've corrected my past bad movie habits.

So where was I? Oh yeah, gristly terrible images that I've exposed myself to in the name of entertainment. I won't go into why I (or any of us) are drawn to this stuff, if I tried I'd probably depress myself and worry myself into therapy and I don't want that. But yeah honestly I have seen some horrible things, sometimes I do get to wondering if I've totally desensitized myself and distorted what I would find horrible in reality. Have you seen "Lovers Lane? Talk about ouch! That isn't even mentioning the hell that the classics (Jason, Jason's mom and Myers, etc...) have unleashed on poor unsuspecting (usually) teens.

Luckily for me there are occasional scenes that really do touch me and make me realize that yes I'm still human and not psychotic (hopefully). As I previously mentioned, two scenes in "Scream" bring me back to reality, a handful of others exist as well. And then there is this one, which I've seen quite a few times in many places but it wasn't until earlier tonight that I actually sat down and watched the entire movie.

Ladies and gentlemen I give to you a scene from "Misery" that no matter how many times I see it I still jump and cringe.



....Go ahead, call me a wimp if you like but dammit that is just messed up. Just when you are starting to recover she goes to the other foot!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey! Sorry to "spam" your blog but I was reading blogs and well thought I'd let you know I'm still alive. LOL Just crazy busy with work...don't get excited it's on a temp position..and other things. Mighty windy down here in ol' KS. Just as long as it doesn't start swirling because my ruby slippers are being repaired. I've got those striped socks though! LOL

*hug*

Ash

The McGuffin said...

http://www.platypuscomix.net/fpo/videos/index.html

Flashback!

FatalPierce said...

Ash, you left this message then went AWOL again. tsk tsk.

Robert, Nice link! Man some of that stuff takes me right back. The strange small stuff sticks with you, like that damn Rick from Empire glass!

Its a bit strange to see the goings on since I left too. Like Holy crap, Ron Carlson's last day.

I wonder if Daria O'Neal is still on TV and/or radio in the Portland area? I got well acquainted with her TV persona when she did the bumpers for Star Trek: TNG.

The only thing missing from that list that I can think of off hand that I would have added to that list was something on Ramblin' Rod.

The McGuffin said...

Daria O'Neal...can you say smokin' hot? Personally, I'm down with your fellow Greshamite and KPTV weathergal Stephanie Kralevich.

I'm off to Portland tonight for a few days. The Avett Bros. are gonna rock The Crystal Ballroom tomorrow night, and I will be front and center! Then I'm meeting some friends for TAB show in Seattle this weekend. When they roll through Michigan, you should go see them. Great show!

FatalPierce said...

A few years back the WWE did a PPV from the Rose Garden, I was sitting directly behind Daria O'Neal. She looks even better in person. She of course spent the entire show making out with her boyfriend, can't blame her though since we all got hosed with our seat location. They "upgraded" our seats to a more expensive level so the place would look more full which meant putting us in a section that couldn't see anything happening at all. Not even a video screen.

I had to look up Stephanie Krevalich, she must have popped up right as I was moving or right after. Not bad at all. I can't stand the local news here in Mi. Not a single watchable broadcast.

Awesome, I hope the show in Portland is great. I've probably said it before but I've never been to the Crystal Ballroom, every time anything I was interested in showed up there it was sold out before I could get tickets.

The McGuffin said...

"She of course spent the entire show making out with her boyfriend."

...typical.

Steph used to work here in town and we were friends. I think she was a dreaded Gopher, rival to your school back in the mid 90's.

Both shows rocked, but the PDX was epic. The floor at The Crystal Ballroom is all wood and "gives" a good 2-3 inches when 1,500 screaming fans are bouncing on it like a trampoline. Therefore...all my pics are blurry! But I'll blog some video/pics from both shows soon.

FatalPierce said...

I think the most unfortunate part of that entire ordeal was hi faux hawk. Just brutal.

Ah the mighty gophers. I could make fun of them all day long. Unfortunately they do on occasion churn out some winners. My mom was a gopher, my sister ended up there for a year, and of course Anne Schedeen* of ALF fame also was a gopher...Still you'll notice none of them could help the football team.

Awesome, glad the shows rocked. That floor definitely has stories behind it. From what I gather you either love the bounciness or you hate it. My brother had a friend who wasn't a fan of it. But then I think that may have had something to do with certain substances altering his equilibrium.

Cool can't wait to see the post on the shows!



So let's see, I know my mom, she knew Anne Schedeen in HS, Anne was in "Heaven's Prisoners" with Teri Hatcher, and Teri Hatcher was in "The Big Picture" with Kevin Bacon.