Our Relationships With Creative Geniuses

Over the past few weeks I have been thinking about our relationships with what we might consider "creative geniuses." These are the writers, musicians, and directors who's works have had an actual affect on our lives either by inspiring us, opening our eyes, making us think or just by amazing us.

My internal discussion was sparked by a documentary about J.D. Salinger (author of The Catcher In The Rye). The documentary mostly focused on Salinger's life and what had inspired his stories, but near the beginning of the film there was an especially interesting scene. In this scene, a fan goes to Salinger's home and waits outside to speak with him, when Salinger finally comes down and speaks to the fan, he's left feeling very disappointed. This fan had manufactured an idea of what Salinger would be like. He expected to have a life changing experience just by speaking to his hero but ended up being so disappointed because his hero turned out to be a normal old man. Before the fan left Salinger returned to his home and said to him something in the lines of, "I'm not a psychologist, I'm just a fiction writer..." 

This really stuck with me because I think all of us do this to some extent. Salinger based The Catcher In The Rye on really deep personal feelings and experiences and ended up writing one of the most relatable characters in history, but just because you relate with Holden Caulfield, it doesn't mean you will with JD Salinger. While Salinger has admitted that Holden is basically a representation of him, people tend to forget that Holden is also kinda an asshole...

In our minds we start blurring the lines between artist and art.

This opened the door to a whole new discussion, where do we have to separate art from the artist's opinions or actions? A great example of this was Roman Polanski, director of Repulsion and Rosemary's Baby. Polanski was accused of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl. Before Roman could be sentenced he fled to France, but years later he did serve his time in prison. Now, while I know no-one except Roman and Samantha (his victim) really know what happened, it's still very screwed up that this director, who made all these fantastic movies (one even insinuating that a woman's sexual frustration and psychosis was caused by the sexual abuse caused by her father) molested a 13 year old?! To be honest, you almost feel betrayed...

A photo of Carol from Repulsion. In the film it is strongly insinuated that Carol's sexual confusion and distress was caused by a male family member's sexual abuse.

That being said, does this make his work any less fantastic? Does it make me a bad person for enjoying his work? In my opinion, no. One way that I rationalize this is that Polanski's work was never directly connected with what he did.

Another, and more recent, example of this is how numerous people and supporters of the LGBTQ-community boycotted the new film, Ender's Game, because the writer of the novel (Orson Scott Card) doesn't support same-sex marriages.  While I understand why people are doing this (and I support them for it) I'm still gonna read the book/ watch the movie. Firstly, if someone still doesn't support same sex marriages they are so idiotic their opinion shouldn't even matter anymore... (I mean c'mon it's 2014, get over it!) Secondly, Ender's Game doesn't encourage Card's views. (Although I couldn't help but think twice before I bought the book)

As you guys can tell, I'm still pretty conflicted about all of this but I would love to know where you guys draw the line between an artist and their art.

The Stepford Wives (1975) - Mirco-Review

I think that there is something extremely unsettling and truly disturbing about the idea of a secret club of men who that want to replace you with a robot clone, all taking place in a supposed suburban haven. The Stepford Wives was based on a novel of the same name written by Ira Levin (who also wrote Rosemary's Baby.) 

The film follows a family who decide to move from Manhattan to Stepford, a town where everyone is living the American Dream. Joanne, the mother of the family, starts to think that the housewives of Stepford are too perfect. Joanne and her friend start to get even more suspicious of the members of the men's club. Joanne, now convinced the women of Stepford aren't human, has to get out of Stepford before they change her as well, but will she be able to get away?

A few years back I watched Nicole Kidmam's remake and all I can remember is how stupid the whole movie was. They took this disturbing story and made it a crappy low-brow comedy. I was left with a bad taste in my mouth, until I saw that Stephen King added the original film to his list of horrors that contributed to the genre, after which I immediately wanted to see it...

Needless to say, I was not let down. From the family's arrival in Stepford I was captivated! The story was great, which is not surprising since Rosemary's Baby is considered to be one of the best horror films ever made. Many of the same themes explored in Rosemary's Baby are also present in Stepford. One of the biggest themes it has in common is the protagonist's feeling that everyone around her is out to get her, even her husband. The film's continuous satirical commentary on the absurdity of gender roles is also very entertaining.

Kathrine Ross, who plays Joanna, is one of my favorite parts of this movie (and the fact that she reminded me a lot of a young Catherine Deneuve makes it even better!) The rest of the supporting cast also did wonderful jobs. The kids were as bad as kid actors usually are but at least they got near to no screen time.

Left: Kathrine Ross. Right: Cathrine Deneuve

For most of the film I found the characters believable and interesting but close to the end of the film, Joanne's actions seemed extremely stupid and unbelievable. How she reacted resembled Melanie Daniels in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, who towards the end of the film seemed to lose the ability to successfully open a door... 

The Stepford Wives is truly a great psychological horror film. With a great story, great characters and great direction this is a definite see for any film lover!

Rating: 8/10

The Conjuring (2013) - MOVIE REVIEW! ver.2

The Conjuring follows the Perron Family (consisting of Carolyn, Roger, and their five daughters) who have just moved into a new house. The family quickly realizes that something inhuman and insidious is present in the house after numerous unexplainable paranormal occurrences. After a night on which Carolyn gets trapped in the basement and their eldest daughter is attacked in her room, Carolyn decides to get help from Ed and Lorraine Warren, a demon/ghost hunting power couple. The Warrens start their investigation but when the haunting starts to affect their own family they have to fight harder than they ever have before.

*clap, clap*

Did I scare you? No? Well it works better with video reviews, oh well. The Conjuring is a haunted house movie directed by horror-genius and puppeteer, James Wan. The film stars Patrick Wilson and Vera Varmiga as the real life demonologists, Ed and Lorraine Warren. It also features Lili Taylor and Ron Livingston as the parents of the Perron family. 

When I first saw The Conjuring I enjoyed it a lot and after re-watching it, I was once again completely taken aback! It doesn't happen a lot that a horror film can still entertain and scare me the second time I watch it the way this did. This proves to me that The Conjuring truly could go down as a great haunted house movie.

I've heard a lot of people criticize The Conjuring because they say it "doesn't bring anything new the genre." Really? Just because a movie is similar to others, it doesn't mean that it's not innovative or "new." James Wan told a story that has been told before, but still managed to make it his own. That is what makes The Conjuring so interesting and fun to watch.

Although there are some jump scares throughout, it's not what the film relies on to actually scare you. No, the truly scary scenes are scary thanks to more atmospheric things like other characters' performances and James Wan's incredible ability to make it feel like you're the character experiencing what's happening. One way he accomplishes this, is by only showing what the characters see, when they see it. A good example of this is the scene in which Roger is walking through the house at night and the camera only pans to where he looks.     

I want to congratulate Wan on this film. There are so many little things he added that make the movie so great. One being the way he made several scenes look like they came straight from a 70's classic. The movie is also filled with really interesting POV and spinning shots that make you feel like you're in the film.

Wan also did a fantastic job with the scary scenes. One scene in particular (where one girl sees someone is standing by her doorway while her sister doesn't see anyone) really frightened me. It was done extremely well, without even showing anything. Wan also used the "hide and clap" game the girls play in a very creepy and effective way to further the story.

One of my favorite scenes.

However, The Conjuring is far from perfect, one of the biggest gripes I have with the film is that there are way to many characters in the Perron family. Because there are so many people, it's extremely hard to properly develop all of them. This led to me not really caring about some of the daughters (I cant even remember most of their names.)

Another thing that bothered me was the ghost make-up. While Bathesheba was done pretty well, the other spirits looked very cheap (much like the ghosts from Insidious.) Throughout the film there were also some cheesy voice over effects that didn't fit in with the atmosphere at all, but in the end this wasn't enough to actually take away from the film's overall experience.  
  

Ohh, Bathesheba, baby, why you so cute, beau?

All in all I think The Conjuring is a really well made and actually scary horror film. While it does fall a bit short with the character development and make up effects, it makes up for it with a fantastic story and great cinematography. The film did end a bit abruptly, but the final act is still a very entertaining spectacle that reaches a gratifying climax.

With a sequel and a prequel coming up, I am very excited to see where the series is going, I just wish James Wan would reprise his roll as director because clearly he knows what he's doing... 

Rating 7/10

This is part of the Final Girl Movie Club! Check it out! (http://finalgirl.blogspot.com/)
A few months back I wrote another review for this but decided to re-write it. Check out the original here!

Why do we love Horror so much? - The Insomniac's Cinema

Why do we love horrors so much?
The Insomniac's Cinema

Horror is a very unique movie genre, it's one of those genres that people either love or hate. Usually the people who hate it say that they cant handle being scared or that the violence and gore is just too much for them, and then there's us, the people who cant get enough of those exact things! Why is this, why do we enjoy and love horrors so very much while others can't stand them at all?

Over the past few years I've heard several different theories explaining our fascination with horror movies. Some people argue that our love of horrors comes from the resurfacing of our most primal urges. That when we watch these types of movies we satisfy an aggressive and primal spirit that lives deep within us. The same affect can be used to explain the morbid fascination you might experience when seeing a car crash on a highway, how you know that there's a chance that if you look you will see something upsetting on the road but you can't help but stare as long as possible until your too far away to make anything out.


Another explanation suggests that while we watch horrors we get an adrenaline rush similar to what you would experience when you are actually in danger. This is the same reason people give for taking part in extreme sports or riding roller coasters. I think this a very good argument, but the thing is I've watched so many horror movies, that few scare me at all anymore while that same movie would make somebody (who isn't fond of horrors) go completely hysterical...


Something else that makes me wonder a lot about horror movies and their effect on us is that they almost always get such a polarized reaction... People either LOVE them or HATE them. Some would say it's because some people are just tougher and don't get scared so easily, I don't agree with this...

I think that one of the many reasons for our fascination and love for horrors and why they can  have such a polarizing effect can be linked to early exposure...

My father is really not a huge horror fan today but when he was younger he used to  be a complete Stephen King and all around Horror fiction lover! In our loft he stored all his horror books and when I was very young I went up there and looked at their interesting covers. Most of them didn't bother me that much except for one, a book called Headhunter by Michael Slade.

The exact same cover
 that is still gathering
Dust in our loft...

I have no idea why but this one book scared me so much but at the same time kept drawing me back to it, for years afterwards whenever I went up there I looked at that book and every time it creeped. me. out! See, my theorie is that, that book planted the seed in my head that lead to me being such  a huge horror fan,  it was jut scary enough to frighten and entice me but not that scary that it completely scared me away, thus I formed this fascination with this genre as a whole. Usually when I speak with the horror haters they tell me that they experienced something horror related when they were younger and that it scared them so much they can't stand horror at all, even today...


Thank you for reading and please remember that this is just someone who doesn't really know anything about anything's theorie, but I would love to hear all of your own opinions so please share them in the comments below!

-The Insomniac's Cinema

Evil Dead (2013) - Review by The Insomniac's Cinema

Evil Dead (2013) - Review

Directed by: Fede Alvarez.
Produced by:  Bruce Campbell, Sam Raimi and Robert G. Tampert.
Starring: Jane Levy, Lou Tayor Pucci, Shiloh Fernandez, Jessica Lucas and Elizabeth Blackmor

Evil Dead is a remake/reboot/continuation of the 1981 horror classic, The Evil Dead, which was directed by Sam Raimi and starred Bruce Campbell. Since almost 99% of all horror remakes suck really badly a lot of people were skeptical about this one as well, but since Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell were both producers (who were very  present in the making) of this film, there were also people (including me) that were excited for it. In the end I can honestly say that this is one of the best Horror remakes ever! However, this is very different from the original. One of the biggest complaints about it, is that it's too scary and not funny enough but something that I think people forget is that the reason The Evil Dead was funny, wasn't because it was supposed to be but because Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell had a budget so small they couldn't even afford to buy gum while filming it (true story!) Evil Dead is The Evil Dead made with the budget that Sam and Bruce never had, it's more scary because they could actually afford the effects the wanted...

Evil Dead is about a group of friends who go to stay at a cabin in the woods so that their drug addicted friend can get clean, but when one of them reads from a mysterious book something evil is released that starts to possess them one by one, the different characters have to defend against their now deadite friends and try to survive the  night… Jane Levy plays Mia, the young drug addict trying to get clean with te help of her friends Eric (Lou Taylor Pucci), Olivia (Jessica Lucas), Natalie(Elizabeth Blackmore) and her brother David (Shiloh Fernandez) 

The characters were pretty much what you’d expect in a horror (under-developed, boring etc.) except for Mia , who was the only interesting character and only one you really cared about. I think that most of the cast did fine acting wise but everyone made extremely dumb decisions throughout the movie (like reading a book bound with human flesh, full of scribbles like, “DON’T READ THIS” after finding it in a cellar full of dead cats hanging upside down...) 

There are some major changes in the story compared to the original (including an awesome twist in the end) like Mia’s drug addiction which is a great reason for them not wanting to leave or taking what she says or does too seriously. Something that I WISHED they never put in the movie was the opening scene. In my opinion it doesn't add anything to the story, all it does is put questions in my head like, "when did this take place?" and "who the hell are those people?" or "why did they kill all the cats?" and "whoa, what's up with that dude." The opening scene was also one of the very few scenes in which they used CGI instead of practical effects. 

Original Book of The Dead compared to the remake.

The practical effects in the movie are done really, really well! They are disgusting and creepy and will definitely make you cringe at least once. The movie isn't very scary in the typical sense but it is very tense and disturbing, even the (few that there were) jump scares were done very well. I don't know if it was just me but the first time in a long time that I watched a movie that made me feel so super tense, not scared, but tense... Roque Baños composed a fantastic and eerie score which I would easily buy. Something that made a few scenes a lot creepier to me personally was that they used a siren sound effect throughout the movie when something scary was happening and every time I heard it, I thought of David Lynch's short film Six Men Getting Sick. I was also surprised to find that there was quite a lot of foreshadowing and symbolism used, like the fact that Mia is fighting to herself, trying to get clean but she also has to fight the real demon inside of her. 

Evil Dead was a disturbing, well made and interesting retelling of the classic. To me, the biggest problem was that the characters were under-developed. The movie does differ from the original but is still scary and effective in telling The Evil Dead story. The practical and sound effects were done really well and some changes added to the story, while others could've been left out. All in all, Evil Dead is a super cool and disturbing horror movie.

Evil Dead Final Verdict:

Best Character: Mia.
Worst Character: Natalie.
Best Scene: Final Fight Scene.
Worst Scene: Opening scene.
Best Change from the Original: Mia's drug addiction and *spoiler*  the fact that Mia "became" Ash.
Worst Change from the Original: The Book of the Dead.


Rating: 7/10 GOOD!

*spoiler talk*
After Bruce's cameo in the credits I immediately thought holy shit, Mia and Bruce are gonna star side by side in Evil Dead 2! But after doing some research I found out that Sam And Bruce are planning a Army of Darkness 2 and Fede Alvarez is already busy working on Evil Dead 2! How cool is that? They said that they want to have the two movie series' to conjoin in the 7th Evil Dead movie! Nothing is completely set in stone so only time will tell!!!

*end of spoiler talk*

The Walking Dead: 30 Days Without An Accident - Review (S4 Ep01)

Like American Horror Story, The The Walking Dead is back! After last year's season, we all had high hopes for the new one. Now that the the premiere has aired, I think it's safe to say that four is gonna be a great season. 

In the beginning of the episode we see Rick busy tending to the prison's crops. Rick acts strangely towards to the walkers and you immediately notice that he is different. Carl comes down to Rick and they both walk to a pig's sty where they look at a sickly pig. Hershel approaches Rick and tells him that the "counsel" wants him to take his gun with him when going outside and Rick agrees reluctantly, again showing Rick has changed a lot. 

Later that day when Rick is outside the prison, he comes across a woman who begs for help and says that her husband urgently needs food. Rick hands her some food and they start to speak about the camp. Rick says that before they can come to the prison they have to answer three questions. The Woman agrees and starts to lead Rick to her and her husband's camp. When they finally get there, the woman tries to kill Rick but fails. She then decides to take her own life instead... Rick looks at the husband's severed head, covered with a dirty cloth, and leaves without disturbing the couple.

At the same time, Daryl and his team (consisting of Glenn, Michonne, Tyresse, and two other disposable characters) make a run to for supplies. They go to a huge store and at first, everything is fine but little do they know that the store's roof was immensely weakened by a military chopper and that it's also infested with walkers. Before they can get away, walkers start dropping through the roof. They take them all out but in the posses lose Zach, Beth's boyfriend.

The episode ended with a scene of a young man falling down and coming back to life as a walker, without ever being bitten...

I really loved this episode. It was great to see how the main characters have changed over the past seasons. Especially Rick who seems to be tired of all the violence and killing. All he wants is to raise his kids and help other people. To me, Rick's new attitude towards the walkers and his gun, is his way of not accepting his reality, he wants to live a happy, normal life. But, by meeting the woman in the woods and going through what happened he realizes that what he wants, he will never truly have. He will never escape the horror that the world has become and he will never be safe, no-one will. This fits in perfectly with the overall theme of the episode, even if there are "30 Days Without An Accident" the chances are that there will be one soon...

What happened to Daryl and his crew also fits perfectly with the theme. They started to get too cocky, they thought they had everything under control but as we saw, they didn't. Anything can go wrong at any time, with anyone.

I don't know if I'm the only one who thinks this, but it really seems like Glen's time is up. After he was almost killed in the store, spoke about what it means to be alive with Maggie and the fact that he only appeared once in the "this season on" trailer I would not be surprised if he dies in the next few episodes.

And now I have to speak about something we all knew was coming, yes, the zombie virus is evolving! It had to happen sometime. I don't think that there has ever been a movie or a series in which we see the zombie virus evolve so that it can spread though other mediums. To see how the characters will react, is going to be awesome. I'm also looking forward to seeing how exactly it spreads and if the pig had anything to do with it.

For the next episode I hope we see a lot of blood and violence (which is a given) but also to see them explore the future of the series and where they want to go, once the prison is uninhabitable. 

All in all, this was a great episode and a great start to a new season. Tell me, what did you guys think? 

Rating: 8.5/10

Jessica Lange Retiring Soon?!

Lange as Fiona Goode, Supreme witch in AHS Coven.

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past few weeks, you'll probably know that on Wednesday the premiere of American Horror Story season three, subtitled Coven, was aired. You might also know that the premiere was a huge hit with 5.54 million U.S. viewers alone. Even with show's success, during a recent interview with Yahoo TV Coven star, Jessica Lange, has announced that she is planning on retiring in the next few years.

Since Lange, who has starred in all the previous AHS seasons, is a fan favorite her announcement might upset some, but it's not all bad. Jessica said, "... if we do another one, I’ll do that, but then … yeah.  Because I’m kind of coming to the end of acting, anyhow.” So, even if she does retire in the near future we will still see her play at least one more awesome and crazy AHS character.

However, all hope is not lost! Ryan Murphy, AHS creator, when asked about the announcement said that each year Jessica says it's her last but keeps coming back for more. Since she's already committed to a fourth season, who knows? Maybe she'll stick with AHS till the end. (Which might actually be a long time since Murphy also said that he wants to see AHS go for 10, 12 or maybe even 15 years!)

I think there will definitely be some backlash towards Jessica's decision but in her defense, it's completely reasonable for her to want to retire, after all, she is almost 65... 

For now all we can do is enjoy Coven and look forward to season 4! 

What do you guys think? Are you upset over her announcement? If Game of Thrones has taught us anything, it's that a show can still be AMAZING even if beloved characters depart from the show. I think that the rest of AHS's great cast will easily be able to carry the show without Jessica... 

Check out my review of Bitchcraft, episode one of AHS Coven!
Sources here and here!