And Now the Screaming Starts
skip to main | skip to sidebar
And Now the Screaming Starts
Wednesday, November 09, 2011
Art: Is this a bust or something?
The It's Alive Project, currently on display at the City Arts Factory in Orlando, FL, is a show of 80 Boris Karloff busts, redesigned by contemporary artists. Some of the busts allude to Karloff's iconic roles, while others take Karloff's famous mug in some truly odd directions. Make with the link clickin' to check out a flikr set of the designs.
Posted by CRwM at 12:47 PM 1 comments
Thursday, November 03, 2011
Mad science: The snuggle of doom!
The Psychologuist has a great info dump article on the psychology of horror that gives readers a nice survey of work in the field: from evolutionary developmental theories on uses of fear to theories on the popularity of specific monster tropes. One nice takeaway is the experimental evidence for what's commonly known as the "snuggle theory." Now you'll rarely see the snuggle theory brought into horror conversations when the horror blog pro-am get around to discussing the importance and meaning of horror. Why? Well, because it's main premise is that horror's just an elaborate pick-up gimmick. Also, what horror blog wants to drop the word "snuggle?" The snuggle theory holds that "viewing horror films may be a rite of passage for young people, providing them with an opportunity to fulfill their traditional gender roles." Basically, it's a danger free way for dudes to act brave in the face of fear and be a comfort to their scared potential mates. Not only is there some awkwardly heavy-handed bio-determinism all up in there, but who wants to take their cherished genre and say that its, at it roots, a kinda of half-assed way to impress the babes with faux courage? But before we utterly dismiss it, here comes the science:
A paper from the late 1980s by Dolf Zillmann, Norbert Mundorf and others found that male undergrads paired with a female partner (unbeknown to them, a research assistant), enjoyed a 14-minute clip from Friday the 13th Part III almost twice as much if she showed distress during the film. Female undergrads, by contrast, said they enjoyed the film more if their male companion appeared calm and unmoved. Moreover, men who were initially considered unattractive were later judged more appealing if they displayed courage during the film viewing. ¡®Scary movies and monsters are just the ticket for girls to scream and hold on to a date for dear life and for the date (male or female) to be there to reassure, protect, defend and, if need be, destroy the monster,¡¯ says Fischoff. ¡®Both are playing gender roles prescribed by a culture.¡¯
So, next time somebody holds a roundtable on what's so great about horror, have the courage to say "I like horror because it's a great way to fool horror chicks into thinking I'm awesome so I can bang them." I know at least one horror blogger who should be answering this way already, but let's all do our horror-blog host pal a solid and take the pressure off by "I am Spartacus"-ing the idea.
Posted by CRwM at 3:57 PM 6 comments
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Random Picture #5: Zip lock.
Posted by CRwM at 9:23 AM 3 comments
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Radio: "Listen to them. Children of the night."
Certainly, the most famous Halloween-centric broadcast of the legendary Orson Welles (shown here in dapper and shockingly young form) is the much mythologized War of the Worlds show that, if one believes, was responsible for widespread panic throughout the Tri-state area.
But Welles's alien invasion radio play isn't the only show in The Mercury Theater archives of interest to the spookshow junkie with a taste for the retro. Over at the fine music and horror blog Psychobabble you can listen to The Mercury Theater's production of Bram Stoker's classic vampire novel: Dracula
When The Mercury Theater (full title: The Mercury Theater on the Air) debuted in 1939, Dracula was their first broadcast. Welles himself provided the voices of the eponymous vampire and Doctor Seward. Theater regular Agnes Moorehead plays Mina and the great Bernard Herrmann provides the score. But why stay here reading my blah blah blah? Click on over and enjoy!
Posted by CRwM at 11:05 AM 1 comments
Friday, October 21, 2011
Stuff: "There won¡¯t be enough bullets left to kill them all."
Just in time for Halloween, the defense-sector rag Military Times takes a look at effective responses to the inevitable zombie holocaust. Some of the article is delightfully wonky, in a sort of crazed militia-man way:
Perhaps the single hottest topic of debate among necro-warfare experts is what makes the ideal weapon against the undead.
Fortunately, as anyone who has seen the ¡°Living Dead¡± movies knows, the possibilities are infinite ¡ª anything that will take out a zombie¡¯s brain will do the trick.
Former Marine and ¡°Top Shot Season 2¡± champ Chris Reed says he would keep it simple. ¡°A good Ruger .22 is hard to beat for your typical zombie killing,¡± Reed says. (His perfect deadpan delivery inspired our take on this story.)
Others worry that a .22 round just won¡¯t have the stopping power needed for zombie headshots. ¡°The .22 won¡¯t get skull penetration beyond 100 yards,¡± Bourne says. Instead, he¡¯d grab an M4 carbine or ¡ª better yet ¡ª an AK47 for drag-through-the-mud-and-still-shoot reliability.
Outdoor Life shooting editor John Snow¡¯s top pick: Lauer Custom Weaponry¡¯s LCW15 Zombie Eliminator with the arrow gun attachment and Beta-C 100-round ammunition drum. For backups, he says he¡¯d add the Remington Model 870 Shotgun and Para Super Hawg .45-caliber pistol. All that might seem like overkill for something that¡¯s not even alive ¡ª or real ¡ª but among the ranks of zombie hunters, you can never be too careful.
Of course, firearms need plenty of ammo and maintenance. That¡¯s why Matt Mogk, president of the Zombie Research Society, prefers simple, lightweight and silent ¡ª a baseball bat, metal pipe or other blunt, maintenance-free implement that will deliver a head-crushing blow.
While the simple crowbar and more elegant katana, favored by ancient samurai warriors, typically top zombie fighters¡¯ list of cold steel, Mogk says he isn¡¯t a fan of bladed weapons.
¡°You have to keep swords sharp, especially if you¡¯re to trying take off heads. Plus, it¡¯s too easy for them to get stuck inside a zombie. Then you¡¯re really hosed.¡±
As fun as that is, I found it liked the more atypical bits of advice. For example, how should the smart soldier dress for the reign of the dead (Romero, feel free to snag that title - it's yours, gratis). Again, from the article:
When things come to blows, you¡¯ll be glad you dumped your heavy battle rattle for simple protective gear that will keep you light on your feet and infection-free. A supply of medical face masks and surgical gloves are a no-brainer, but to keep all that blood at bay, try a heavy rubber butcher¡¯s apron.
Posted by CRwM at 9:49 AM 0 comments
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Movies: How much does knowing you suck excuse you from sucking?
What does one write about Monster Island, the Jack Perez (of Mega-Shark Versus Giant Octopus "fame") helmed MTV-produced made-for-TV oddity that pits a gaggle of youths against an island populated by stop-motion animation giant insects and Adam West?
Honestly, this thing is barely a movie, so I feel it's only fair that I barely write about it. The most interesting thing about Monster Island is the unintentionally philosophical question it's existence raises: How much does knowing you suck excuse you sucking? This isn't a purely hypothetical question. Regular readers, God forgive them, will know that we here at ANTSS refer to this as the Byrne Problem, after author Anthony Burgess (yes, of Clockwork Orange fame, but he wrote a lot of other, better stuff too). To sum up: Burgess's last book, Byrne, consisted of the fake autobiographical epic poem of the supposed worst poet in the world. That sounds funny, until you realize that it means reading through 150 pages of the intentionally worst poetry ever written. At no time during this trudge through these 150 pages of utter crap verse do you think Burgess isn't on the joke. He knows he's creating bad verse; that's the point. The idea is that knowing he knows will somehow make what's universally admitted as excruciating somehow less so. Still, you've got to read 150 pages of shit. So, how much does knowing you suck excuse you from sucking? Entire careers have been based on the idea that the answer is "100%." Zack Snyder, I'm looking at you. (Not to be confused with people who don't know that they utterly suck; Day of the Woman, I'm looking at you.) Smack dab in the Byrne sweet spot, you'll find Monster Island.
I'm hesitant to review MI, as I feel that gives it too much credit. So, instead, I'm going to extract some observations from my notes. That's right. I take notes. He says as he indignantly pushes his glasses further up the bridge of his nose.
Two random points.
1. MTV gets props for presenting themselves as heartless exploiters of young people. It would have been enough if MTV had simply allowed their staff to be depicted as shallow, heartless dicks willing to put young lives on the line for a quick buck - which this movie totally depicts them as being - but they actually take it further. Central to the plot of the film is the idea that teenagers would be totally stoked to see a concert by Carmen Electra. Even in 2004, this alone was enough to push the film clearly into sci-fi/fantasy territory, no giant bugs necessary. The oddly brilliant twist is that, later, giant ants (no relation) kidnap Carmen to sedate their human slave population (long story). In drawing the parallel, the film basically suggests that the entertainment MTV peddles isn't just exploitative, but actually part of a control system meant to keep you a slave of the colony. Kudos to everybody involved for the lucid moment. That you buried it in a made-for-TV movie that all of maybe twenty people saw, eh, not so great. Still, lollipops for everybody involved just for doing it.
2. Whenever a film targeted at the mainstream, no matter how hopelessly as may be the case, has to include the taste of an indie music slob, there's always an interesting conflict between the visual and the audio. The perfect exemplar of this is the film High Fidelity. The cats in that flick are supposedly the ultimate in music snobs, but the first time we meet Jack Black's character - a character so music obsessed that he regularly chases away customers by insulting their taste - he's grooving on Katrina and the Wave's "Walking on Sunshine." A spiffy little song to be sure, but hardly the signifier of obscure, elitism. Throughout the whole film, we get, again and again, bizarro cop-out music choices. When Jack Black tries to take over the store's stereo from the sad sack mumbly dude, we learn that the sad music he was trying to play was Belle and Sebastian. That's as indie as it goes. The rest of flick rest clearly in common knowledge. When the shop staff debate esoterica like what's the best first track of the B-side of an album, they land safely in Clash and Stevie Wonder territory (not to diss either of those, 'cause they're great). Who is the favorite musician of the indier-than-thou record store owner? The Boss, Bruce Springsteen. Don't get me wrong: the only boss I ever listen to is Bruce - as me spotty employment career more than attests to. Still, it's kind of weird.
(Okay, as a I'm-no-hipster device, sure. When I was a college DJ, the head of the station was a brutally hip woman - so indie her shirts don't fit - who swore that she was the biggest Madonna fan; but it was bullshit, she deployed this po-mo hyper-intellectualized version of Madge as a defense against the charge that her profound love of intentionally inaccessible math rock was some classist affectation. It's the same reason modern hipster doofuses professes to love Beyonce. But we all know it's bullshit. Own your hipster elite douchebaggery and be done with it.)
Anyway, I bring this up because there's an important scene in MI when our hero, a perfectly insufferable self-righteous dick of a indie boy, thumbs through the CD collection of Carmen Electra - and that's not a euphemism, though the phrase "thumbs through Carmen Electra's CD collection" sounds dirty because of Carmen Electra - and decides, despite the fact that she's whoring out (metaphorically this time) for MTV, she must be okay. The pivot point: Radiohead and the Ramones. Seriously? Why does this kid have the taste of 37-year-old man? What's the point of being a snotty music snob kid if you have to worship at the altar of your parents' balding over-the-hill hipster's music tastes?
That said, the whole scene has an unintentional patina of nostalgia: how long before digital music effectively kills the tradition of secretly checking out a potential sexual partner's music collection for hints as to their suitability?
Posted by CRwM at 7:18 PM 2 comments
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Neo-folkie Madeline - who was not, I think, named after one of the cats I grew up with, but I like to pretend that she was - has a video that exploits ANTSS favorite horror flick. Enjoy.
Posted by CRwM at 8:07 PM 0 comments
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Random Picture #5: Variations on a Theme.
Posted by CRwM at 7:44 PM 0 comments
Labels: halloween, Meyers, random picture
Older Posts Home
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)
About Me
CRwM
I have no pets. I own several ties, but rarely have a reason to wear any of them. I sing in the shower but can never remember the words, so I make them up as I go along, and they always end up being songs about showering. I collect slang dictionaries. View my complete profile
Screamers and Screamettes
'); }
Links
Archetypal Archive
Basement of Ghoulish Decadence
Black Horror Movies
Bloody-Disgusting
Brain Tremors
Canadian Horror Movies
Carfax Abbey
Castle Vardulon
Cavalcade of Perversions
Cinema Fromage
Come Play with Us, Danny
Dark Destinations
Eerie Coterie
Final Girl
From Parts Unknown
Funeral Cakes
The Groovy Age of Horror
Hold On to Yr Genre
The Horror!?
Horror News
The Horrors of It All
I Like Horror Movies
I Love Horror
I Spit on Your Taste
Igloo of the Uncanny
In It for the Kills
The Kid in the Hall
Killer Kittens from Beyond the Grave
Kindertrauma
The League of Tana Tea Drinkers
Madam Talbot's Victorian Gothic Lowbrow
Mermaid Heather
Midnite Media
Monster Crazy
Monster Librarian
Monster Memories
Monster Rally
Monsterland
The Moon Is a Dead World
Musings Across a Continuum
Obscure Hollow
A Patchwork of Flesh
Rue Morgue
Scare Sarah
Sweet Skulls
Tomb of the Headless Werewolf
Top Horror Movies Club
Watching Hammer
Werewolf News
When Is Evil Cool?
Zombie Cupcake
Zombots
Blog Archive
¨‹ 2011 (52)
¨‹ November (2)
Art: Is this a bust or something?
Mad science: The snuggle of doom!
? October (4)
Random Picture #5: Zip lock.
Radio: "Listen to them. Children of the night."
Stuff: "There won¡¯t be enough bullets left to kill...
Movies: How much does knowing you suck excuse you ...
? September (1)
Neo-folkie Madeline - who was not, I think, named ...
? August (5)
Random Picture #5: Variations on a Theme.
Stuff: Does anybody ask mystery writers what crime...
Books: Speaking of American Psycho . . .
Movie news: Atlantic psycho? Raging bull shark?
Random Picture #4: Dig through the ditches and bur...
? July (7)
Stuff: Fast food.
Random Picture #3: Hot for creature.
Movies: "It will give you this wonderful new compl...
Meta: Uncle Strangely's Dark Mansion of Big Crap S...
Mad science: "Activite their Capgras" sounds more ...
Random Picture #2: The kiss.
Random Picture #1: 'Zilla waders.
? June (5)
Books: Stabbing her repeatedly with sharp, knife-l...
Movies: Enjoy, puny human!
Television: House of 1,000 Unisex Solid Paprika Ri...
Movies: Nick Fury, Magica de Spell, Godzilla, the ...
Movies: I'll give you my Axe Body Spray(TM) when y...
? April (4)
Stuff: "I have a problem with mirrors."
Stuff: What scares the scary people?
Stuff: "What's nice about Selphyl is you're only u...
Movies: Last night a psychopathic clan of murderou...
? March (11)
Movies: You're going to have to find yourself some...
Music: Schoolly D(emon)
Stuff: Pause for reflection.
Comics: Don't let the pigeon drive us straight to ...
Music: "I shall reign, I reign, I have reigned, I ...
Movie: "Have noted 52 distinct uses of WHOOOOOOOOO...
Music: "Yeah, sure Satan rules. But that doesn't m...
Movies: There's no cannibalism in the champagne ro...
Stuff: La Muerte Baila la Samba!
Television: "You can do whatever you like. I'm goi...
Movies: Trusting young normal human girl wanted to...
? February (8)
Stuff: CRwM and the Case of the Bed-Bug Free, But ...
Movies: This is sound of what you don't know killi...
Stuff: Swan dive.
Books: Bizarre art-by-the-pound stately pleasure d...
Music: "As a person who has always said that more ...
Music: But I wanna know for sure.
Books: Sure it's the end of life as we know it, bu...
Movies: Tiger style.
? January (5)
Guest blogger: Books: The Last Werewolf
Movies: Take this job and shove it. I'm not gettin...
Stuff: But you can still write off that eye of new...
? 2010 (172)
? December (4)
? November (6)
? October (11)
? September (7)
? August (12)
? July (14)
? June (16)
? May (20)
? April (20)
? March (14)
? February (27)
? January (21)
? 2009 (302)
? December (17)
? November (21)
? October (28)
? September (26)
? August (33)
? July (23)
? June (23)
? May (28)
? April (31)
? March (27)
? February (22)
? January (23)
? 2008 (202)
? December (24)
? November (28)
? October (28)
? September (20)
? August (16)
? July (16)
? June (20)
? May (15)
? April (13)
? March (6)
? February (7)
? January (9)
? 2007 (116)
? December (11)
? November (8)
? October (14)
? September (15)
? August (7)
? July (5)
? June (9)
? May (6)
? April (10)
? March (11)
? February (7)
? January (13)
? 2006 (70)
? December (22)
? November (22)
? October (20)
? September (6)
My Other Life
New Yorkers Read Leaves of Grass
Loaded With Shinny: Lane Cakes & "To Kill A Mockingbird"
"Chasing the White Dog" with Max Watman
