Spooky Times

Getting closer and closer to our first shoot date, my head is just constantly going through the script. Which is why im having trouble thinking of a blog post, but since it's 11pm this is what I have.  Something to look forward after the long days of shooting will be dressing up for halloween. Me and my friend cat v will be dressing up as Wayne and Garth from Wayne's World.

(I just ordered my hat.) Anyway, I was thinking how many people have dressed up as these characters before us... it's probably a ridiculous number. Its so interesting how influencial movies can be. So much of pop culture and slang comes from the most popular movies. The classics, the ones that live through many eras. What does it take for a movie to become such an iconic thing that people will reference and even try to replicate. It's kind of weird when you think about it, or maybe it's just me. Sorry for this weird stream of conciousness blog post about how film and culure and holidays relate.

Success of the Silence of the Lambs

Over the weekend I rewatched one of my favorite films of all time, Silence of the Lambs. The film has be hailed by many a critic and it's easy to see why, simply stated it's a goddamn masterpiece.

It's writing, it's production design, the casting, it call comes together in such a harmonious way. Each scene is rich with subtext and detail, and it does such a fantastic job of showing rather than telling.

In trying to write the character of a maniacal psychopath it's hard not to take a few pages out of the good doctor Lecters book. I see so many movie villains now a days with traces of his marvelously malevolent personality. I love the way we're introduced to him as a character.

First off we're given snippets of his backstory, how he killed and ate his patients for seemingly no reason. Secondly we're informed by an orderly escorting Clarice to Lectors cell of the unbridled brutality that Lector inflicts on others, even while he's still incarcerated. We're told that we aren't allowed to get too close to his cell, and that we can't tell him anything other than the information that we've been cleared to disclose. Every shred of information that Lector learns about you is ammunition he can use against you. With that in mind it makes it all the more chilling when before engaging Clarice in conversation, Lector smells the air for a moment and tells her what skin lotion she uses, and the perfume she wore the night before. It's chilling, invasive, and remarkably thrilling. While I don't think I have the writing chops to crank out a character with the complexity of lector, it's still extremely interesting to watch the ways he unnerves us, and take that as inspiration. 

Everything that Pisses me off About American Horror Story

Yes, I'm fully aware that Halloween is over, but with American Horror Story: Freak Show only four episodes into it's new season, I thought it would be the perfect time to whine about everything that the show is doing wrong. I'm not typically a fan of horror shows/movies in general, but after watching the first episode of the show's first season (Murder House) I was hooked. It was some weird combination of intrigue, disgust, and - admittedly - fear, that kept me going. It was enjoyable, and I'll be damned if it wasn't a little scary to boot.

Then the second season came and lost me a little bit with it's convoluted story lines, but I was willing to ignore these and hang on for the ride. The third season almost lost me completely: while the title sequence was (and always has been) terrifying, the overall campiness and basic lack of anything scary drove me to almost ditch the show. But then they announced what the theme of the fourth season would be - Freak Show - and pulled me right back in.

RIP buddy

"Alright," I thought. "Clowns scare the shit out of me. This should be perfect." And it was! At least, some of it was. In the few episodes since the season began, there's been one storyline in particular - that of the deranged, murdering, ultimately misunderstood clown Twisty and his whiny, mother's-boy protege - that has been some of the best material that Horror Story has done since it's first season. The clown was, obviously, disgustingly scary, and was easily the most interesting part of the show.

I say was because - BIG OL' SPOILERS AHEAD - they already killed off Twisty. And with that, they may have killed off my viewership.

Let's go through everything that's wrong with the show right now. I've got time to kill, I guess. For starters, the dialogue is laughably bad. As in, I actually spend most of the episode laughing at some of the shit that these characters say. I honestly don't know if it's intentional at this point, but it's just so campy and awful. Also, Kathy Bate's accent is way overdone and outrageously weird.

Aesthetically, Ryan Murphey spends too much time - as always - attempting to make weirdly stylized and dynamic shots. This season is set in the 50s, and as Meghan Malone has so adeptly pointed out, if they had filmed the season as if it was something filmed from that era, it would be way less distracting and make the acting/dialogue slightly more believable. Instead, we're stuck with 30 different shots to cover a 1 minute scene. Not to mention that half of the strange shots are done just so Murphey can cover his own ass when it comes to saving on special effects (every time Sarah Paulson's two-headed character is framed with just one head in shot, you know they got a little lazy)

ooh yah, eh

Finally, this season has featured some of the weakest characters of any Horror Story season thus far. You'd think that the Freaks - each of the main characters is easily distinguishable by some physical deformity or another - would be relatable or unique or even significant in their own way. This is what made Twisty - and, if we're lucky, Dandy - so special: they were interesting. Three dimensional. Complex. The last episode briefly dipped into the past of a few other key characters, but apart from this, all of the plot lines that don't feature a killer psycho clown have just been boring. Find a way to make me actually care about some of the other freaks, Ryan Murphey, and I'll stick with the show for at least the rest of this season.

Eh. Who am I kidding. As long as there's at least one more psycho clown out there, I guess I'm committed.

Not Another Halloween Movie: The Rise of Slasher Films

Dun, dun, duuuuuun! Another conveniently holiday themed blog post! And every year when Halloween comes round, the first thing that comes to mind for us film buffs is usually the slasher film genre. So stick around... if you dare, and let's do this thing.

A Little Bit of History

The sub-genre known as "Slasher Films" dates back to the 19th century French theatre plays known as The Grand Guignol. It was a violent, shocking form of theatre that was a pioneer for horror films in general, but that's a whole other blog post's worth of information. Oh wait, I did do a blog post on it. Check it out here if you want more info, or wikipedia it or whatever. Anyway the real stuff started with Alfred Hitchcock's infamous film, Psycho (1960). Although the character Norman Bates wasn't technically a serial killer, he paved the way for the big stars like Michael Meyers, Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees. The subgenre itself was a hybrid of thriller and horror films from the 70s and 80s, starting with Black Christmas (1974) and Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974). But, the movie Halloween (1978) really defined the genre. Close after came Friday the 13th (1980) and A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984), which solidified the famous trio of psycho killers (mentioned above) places in film history.

What's a Slasher Film?!

For those of you who grew up under a rock, the definition of a slasher film is a subgenre of horror and thriller, usually involving some kind of psycho who kills a lot of people. But, what sets it apart from splatter film or psychological thrillers is that most of the time, it follows a pretty recognizable formula:

1. Sexy Lookin' Teenagers: That's right folks, what's a slasher film without a bunch of beautiful, unsuspecting, high school/college kids? I guess it's less satisfying to watch ugly people get murdered in horrible, horrible ways.

2. Sex, Drugs and Alcohol: You know the drill. All the beautiful kids get together at a party and participate in risqué activities and drunken debauchery, until it's broken up by many of the guests' guts being spilled all over the place.

3. Psycho Killer: There's no slasher film without someone doing the slashing. The psycho killer is usually equipped with some kind of unconventional weapon (chainsaw, blade, axe, etc...) and may possess supernatural abilities, like never, ever, ever dying. Ever.

4. Teenagers Get Killed Off: One by one they fall. If you're sexually active, stupid, ridiculously heroic or a minority, then sorry, you're probably not going to make it. Which leads us into the final rule of a slasher film:

5. Final Girl (aka Survivor Girl)

The final girl of a slasher film is the last woman/girl alive to face the serial killer. To be a final girl, you usually have to have some of the following characteristics:

• Sexually unavailable or virginal
• Avoids alcohol/drugs
• Have a unisex name (Laurie, Sidney, Teddy, Billie, Georgie, etc...)
• Short hair
• Spend half of the film terrorized, then overcome your fear through masculinity
• Become masculinized through "phallic appropriation"

That last one refers to stabbing the psycho killer with some kind of long, pointy object (get it?). Typically, a final girl has quite a few masculine qualities (like the short hair, or the name) and steps into that role when they overcome their fear of the killer and fight back. There are many theories about whether or not slasher films are feminist or anti-feminist, but the best discussion about it that I've seen so far is Carol J. Clover's Men, Women, and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film (1992). Check it out if you have the time.

Examples of Slasher Films

And finally, here's some examples of slashers films:

• He Knows You're Alone (1980)
• Dressed to Kill (1980)
• The Boogeyman (1980)
• Hell Night (1981)
• Jagged Edge (1985)
• Halloween (1978)
• Friday the 13th (1980) - which was notably the most successful horror franchise of the 80s.

And if you're like me and love a good satire, you should check out the film Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006). It's shot mostly in documentary format and follows a film crew who interviews an alleged legendary psycho-killer, and how he keeps up the appearance of the supernatural aspects of the legend. It's a funny film, but also provides a really good insight to the sub-genre of slasher films.

Happy Halloween folks! And if you decide to drink tonight, remember that there's always a chance that you may be murdered by a psychopathic killer.

A tribute to horror films... just in time for Halloween!

It's that time of year again. Trick or treaters everywhere, candy by the boat loads and costumes from the elaborate and clever costumes to the put together at the last minute costumes. But to be honest my favorite part of Halloween is the movies. They can range anywhere from the family oriented movies like Hocus Pocus or the more horror style of movie like Nightmare on Elm Street.  I prefer the horror style of movie this time of year.

Now none of these films would be around if it weren't for the pioneer of horror films, Mr. Alfred Hitchcock. Many of his films are considered to have established the benchmark for horror films. Almost every horror film can have at least one of their cinematography techniques traced back to one of Hitchcock's films. During their time, movies such as Psycho and The Birds terrified audiences. With clever cinematography and editing techniques, Hitchcock was able to strike fear into the hearts of audiences all over the world. Never before has a movie been able to strike emotions into an audience quite like Hitchcock can.






But in recent years horror films have somewhat strayed away from Hitchcock's style of horror. There are still traces of the same kind of scare factor Hitchcock was known for but now horror films are aiming for what I like to call "Gross-factor." By that I mean they will do everything they can think of to absolutely disgust and shock an audience. Instead of making us jump out of our seats with fear, horror films now a days make us cringe in our seats. Some examples include, Ithaca College's own Dan Heffner's Saw series, The Hills Have Eyes series, and The Human Centipede series.  I believe that these films are redefining the horror genre. The Gross-Horror films strike fear into it's audiences by grossing them out beyond their wildest imaginations.

Lastly, scary movies have become a part of Halloween more than ever. Iconic horror film characters such as Freddy Krueger from Nightmare on Elm Street, Jason Voorhees from Friday the 13th , and Michael Myers from Halloween have all become regulars as Halloween costumes.
You can't deny the impact that horror films have on people when deciding on what they want to be for Halloween. Its amazing the influence a movie can have on people.

 

Enjoy your trick-or-treating and watch a good horror film or two with your candy this Halloween. Happy Halloween everyone! 

You Don't Need Money to Scare the S*** Out of People

As a college student looking pursue a career in the movie industry, I have heard the same advice on countless occasions: 

"Movies? Yikes...You should probably study something more stable; like psychology, or art history." 

However, upon realizing that I'm pretty set in my decision to make films, people in the industry give me another piece of advice: 

"Start by producing horror. They're relatively cheap to make, and they have a built in audience." 

I decided to do my own research on the topic. How small of a budget can horror films have and still make a profit? Does a bigger budget necessarily guarantee a better movie? I started by comparing two horror films with very different budgets.

This is the trailer for the 2010 thriller, The Wolfman directed by Joe Johnston. It cost $150,000,000 to produce.

This is the trailer for the 1978 horror film, Halloween, directed by John Carpenter. The independent film had the minuscule budget of $325,000.

When looking exclusively at box office sales, The Wolfman outperformed Halloween; grossing a whopping $139,789,765 as opposed to Halloween's $70,000,000. Despite this, in the end, The Wolfman lost $10,210,235 while Carpenter's Halloween made $69,675,000. This comparison isn't the only example of low budget horror films ultimately earning more money than bigger budget productions.

Director Tobe Hooper's 1974 film, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is my all-time favorite example of the little budget guys coming out on top. The thriller cost under $140,000 to produce and ended up grossing $26,000,000. Not bad Tobe. Not bad. 

For those who haven't seen it:

Horror movies will *almost always sell tickets.

 ( *I use the word "almost" due to the failure of the horror film Playback which earned exactly $265 at the box office in 2012.)

Horror films will always sell tickets, but they'll never be blockbusters. Some people just don't like scary movies. They never will. Luckily, there will always be those high school couples and adrenaline junkies that will go out and see anything classified as a horror film. Keeping this in mind, it doesn't economically make sense to spend millions upon millions of dollars to produce a genre of movie that targets a relatively small (although stable) population.

So in the end, the second piece of advice is correct. Scary movies are a great place to start when you want to break into the industry but don't have any money. Still, if horror isn't your thing, there's always porn.

The Cabin in the Woods - Purposefully Cliche

I recently watched The Cabin in the Woods (2012), directed by Drew Goddard, to prepare myself for Halloween. (I normally don't like too many "horror" movies because of how cheesy they can be, but this one was slightly different.) A jock, a nerd, a stoner, a dumb blonde, and a virgin decide to get away for the weekend by going to a desolate cabin in the middle of nowhere. Before which, they were warned by a creepy old man not to go there. Sound familiar?

That's because you've seen it a thousand times in every other scary movie.

However, The Cabin in the Woods played off of these normal cliches in a clever way. I won't explain in detail as to not give it away, but this movie is about ritual sacrifice. It's sort of The Hunger Games with a ritual sacrifice twist combined with every scary movie... If that makes sense.

The plot and writing (Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard, who worked together on Buffy the Vampire Slayer) are what really make this movie worth watching. They play upon the stereotypes of scary movies, referencing many things that have been done over and over again. For example, there are spirits, zombies, killer mermen, giant snakes, flying beasts, and many other horrible creatures. All these typical monsters come out all at once in an exciting, gruesome climax.

To be able to play off the irony of the stereotypical characters, they need to be very well cast. Chris Hemsworth plays the role of the alpha male, thick-headed jock well. Fran Kranz is superb as the "fool" pothead, who's theories turn out to be true this time. Jesse Williams, a bit boring as the nerdy nice guy, but it is always harder to play the straight character. Anna Hutchison has the easy character ("easy" in both senses), as all she really does is look good and scream. And Kristen Connolly - the "virgin" - also seems a bit boring at times, but has a little more intellect and character depth.

All in all, I really enjoyed this film. It's entertaining, as most horror movies are, but also has more substance.

"Trick r Treat"

TRICK R TREAT

In light of the Halloween season, since I have been home for break I took the opportunity to choose from my wide selection of  horror films. My mom recently bought “Trick r Treat” a scary movie from 2007 that I had never heard of. So, we popped it in and began watching it.

This film features three to four different stories, all intertwined during on Halloween night in Ohio. There is this scary little “kid” with a cloth bag over his head that is always present in each individual story.  It is hard to follow the stories at first, as the viewer is constantly switched from on to another. The movie establishes them quickly, and soon it is easy to differentiate.

The composition of shots is average, nothing too special or intriguing. Lighting in the film is mostly dark, with shadows and “moon” light.  The character development was poor, since there were so many stories intertwined I never got a chance to really know them. The idea of this movie is interesting, but it could have been composed better.

One of the scenes I thought was well done is a scene of a group of girls in the woods. (this is not going where you think/hoping it was!) We find out the girls are all werewolves and the each brought a “date” to the “party”.  The metamorphosis of the girls is done well, as they each begin turning into their true and scary selves. The scene has awesome lighting and special effects that are very believable.

Overall I probably would not see this movie again. In the end the viewer is taken back in time to see the events again, but from different perspectives and that is pretty cool how they tied that in.  All the stories are meshed together, but it didn’t entice me to the point that I would want to watch it again.

Here’s the trailer, take a look 

JOHN AND KYLE DO EVERYTHING! Including a movie!

                                                 

                                               John and Kyle Do Everything



John and Kyle Do Everything is a web series created by John Horan and Kyle Vorbach and directed by Erich Westfield. Both are Ithaca students and I have worked with them directly. They are creative, professional, and both are hilarious. For John's thesis project he is making this web series into a movie and I am excited to see how it turns out.

If you have not seen the show, you should. It is about two guys, John and Kyle, who have a bucket list and plan to complete all the ridiculous things before they die. The show has great lighting, picture quality, and sound. They use Premiere to edit their shows, along with Adobe after effects. In my opinion, these episodes look so professional and really entertaining to watch.

In this specific episode, I am featured in it! The objective of the episode is for John and Kyle to go to a "rager". The party scene of this episode is fantastic, they used gels to have different spectrums of lighting and created a visually stimulating montage. I think there work is fantastic and I would gladly work with them again. In this episode I am a "sexy terrorist" and it is a little risqué(my dad didn't like it that much)

For a student production, John and Kyle Do Everything is very well made and enjoyable to watch.


Watch episode three, along with the other four episodes!

Twas the Nightmare Before Christmas

Since this is my final post, I felt I should end with one of my favorite movies of all time The Nightmare Before Christmas. Also it's good movie for this time of year to curl up with by the fireplace, where I assume your chestnuts will be roasting.
The Nightmare Before Christmas is a post stop motion animation film that was created and produced by Tim Burton (before he lost his stride in my personal opinion). This film broke so many barriers at the time (1993), it was one of the first mainstream post stop animation films released (before it came Gumby and other less known shorts). Henry Selick (also known for Coraline) directed the film. Burton had no hand in any of the animation work because of Batman. The score and lyrics were created by Danny Elfman, a well known collaborator with Burton (Pee-wee's Big Adventure, Batman, etc).
Two useful items were invented during the making of this that would make animators lives a little easier. The first was a light alarm. This device would alert animators if any of the lights on any of the sets were down before they took the next shot. The second was a replacement system where in the animator was easily able to switch out a broken puppet for a new one.
The Nightmare Before Christmas has created a cult following that gains still is growing to this day. I hope you take the time to watch this if not only to see the hard work and long hours the animators committed. Happy holidays y'all.

What is a Halloween Movie?

Halloween is here and television channels are flooded with Halloween movies like Hocus Pocus and Nightmare Before Christmas. However during fall break I was home watching ABC Family and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory came on. Now don't get me wrong, I love that movie. Gene Wilder is one of my favorite actors, but...I would not call it a Halloween movie. It has candy...I guess that is Halloween related. ABC Family does that a lot. Harry Potter isn't really a Christmas movie either but they put all of them on during the season. I don't know ABC Family is weird.

Community's Halloween Episodes and Parodies

To many people Community is a television series about a group of students at a community college but it is so much more than that. The series heavily uses pop culture references and meta-humor often parodying film and television clichés. These episodes include a holiday stop-motion episode, a clip show of memories that never happened, a parody of westerns, and even a recent episode that had seven alternate timelines. Every single of one these are worthy of an entire blog post but today in the spirit of Halloween I am focusing on their annual Halloween episodes.

In the first season their Halloween episode was called “Introduction to Statistics” and dealt with Jeff and his decision to blow off his study group’s Halloween party in order to score with the young Statistics professor. However the b-plot of the episode is a great parody of superhero films and Batman. Abed is a student that is obsessed with pop culture and entertainment, much like the show’s creator Dan Harmon and the writers. At Halloween he dresses up as Batman and more specifically as the Christian Bale reboot version. At the end of the episode he saves the day as a chair and desk fort begins to collapse on Jeff who is trying to comfort Pierce about realizing he is old and “un-hip.” Jeff is usually the first to complain about the absurd behavior of Abed but at the end of the episode after he made his decision to choose the study group over the teacher he accepts Abed, his behavior, and his new batch of friends. The ending moment is then a straight parody of the heroic music and narration Batman will often do which was just recently seen in the movie The Dark Knight.

Last season the Halloween episode was called “Epidemiology” but most fans know it has the zombie episode. In this episode the study group is left to fend for themselves when their classmates become “zombies” due to tainted food the Dean cheaply bought. While it was actually an outbreak of rabies instead of them actually being zombies, the episode features numerous horror movie clichés the would be seen in a zombie or horror movie. First was a cat rustling in an abandoned area. Many times in movies characters are often spooked by some animal like a cat flying past them when they are trying to hide and escape the real evil outside. Community parodied this by having the cat constantly keep reappearing and showing it unconvincingly flying across the screen. Another funny comment on horror movies the show made was on music. Usually horror movies have scary, dark, and very intense music but on Community the music was the greatest hits of ABBA mixed in with the Dean’s voice memos. Unable to leave that section of school to change the playlist, upbeat songs like “Dancing Queen” played as the zombies attacked and bit the study group. Finally another comment on horror movies (or any movie in general) came when Troy tries to run through crowd to save the day and turn down the thermostat (which is believe to slow down the symptoms of the zombies before they suffer brain damage). While normally the action hero will burst through the group and destroy all the bad guys in his path, Troy is immediately attacked and stopped. He ends up reaching the goal but after he was bit himself.

I love Community and their themed episodes like their past two Halloween episodes. Tomorrow night at 8 pm on NBC their third episode airs called “Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps” and I am sure based on the title and the prior history of the show that it will continue to make fun of and comment on horror movies, pop culture, and entertainment in general. I for one can’t wait for the hilarity and references to ensue.

Halloween=The Walking Dead

About this time last year, I started watching a new television series on AMC called The Walking Dead. With Halloween around the corner, this new show is packed with guns, violence, and you guessed it, zombies. The second season just started up this past Sunday, and left the audience in shock with a surprise ending. Compared to the other zombie movies and shows, this one definitely has the most realistic looking zombies and a practical plot that every other zombie movie is missing. After a virus breaks out, a group of survivors are forced to leave their home in attempt to find a secure location that hasn't been infected yet. There is no vaccine and they are getting by day to day with what they can find. The streets are blocked due to all the traffic that tried to escape, so the use of vehicles is almost imposs
ible. This is what a zombie apocalypse would be if one

were to happen in the US.

The presentation of the zombies is awesome. Each one is unique and acts differently to the one standing next to him/her. The makeup artist and costume designers both won awards for last years season at the Saturn Awards Ceremony for TV shows. Below you can see a before an after picture with the makeup and effects. Picture

Last, I wanted to comment on the music and sfx in the show. Almost every dramatic scene is silent on this show. At first, I didn't like how they were setting the tone, but later I realized that with no music, you could never tell when something was gonna happen or pop up. You can't guess, which sometimes pisses me off, but makes for great TV. The Walking Dead is a mini series and I seriously suggest you catch up on the episodes if you want a good scare and plot. You can find all the episodes at amctv.com or 1channel.tv. Any questions or comments, please ask. I love discussing this show.