May 2023

adidas shoe with bloody knife through it with the words Sleepaway Camp written on the bottom

What A Wild Ending! I Never Saw it Coming!

It’s the ending of this movie that is the big ticket. Once you get to the last few minutes, you have a good idea of what’s coming. They did a great job hiding this though. The first time I watched this one, I had no idea and it really caught me off guard. It wasn’t Saw but, the same super surprise out of nowhere. I think another thing about this movie is the scream of Felecia Rose and her noticeably huge mouth. I went to a convention once where she was and spoke to her in passing. She was on her way to the restroom. At the time, I had no knowledge of Sleepaway Camp. Her mouth is noticeably large though. I don’t mean this offensively at all. If you read this Felicia, I am in no way trashing you. A big mouth also makes for a great scream.

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Young Man's face with red shape of marching nazi solider in the pupil with the title Apt Pupil

Tutelage Under A Psychopath Makes For A Wild Psychological Thriller

Philosophically, I was interested in this movie and an idea it presented. The old man who was a Nazi warns Tommy Bowden that he needed to be careful that he was playing with fire essentially. After this point in the movie, you begin to see the darker side of the old Nazi come out. For instance, he attempts to burn a stray cat in an oven and eventually and calmly murders a drifter. The drifter, a homosexual, who thinks he is going to trade a relationship for money and alcohol says, “I’ve done this before” to ease the tension. Nazi standing behind him says, “me too” as he shoves a stiletto in between his shoulder blades. Hearing the old man’s stories is disturbing too. I imagine there is some accuracy to the details. There’s an eeriness to this movie and it holds your attention in its entirety.

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Ballet dancer daning in pool of blood with the words Suspiria written on

Use of Color & Music in Suspiria is Chillingly Good

The story of Suspiria can be summed up quickly. A young ballet dancer goes to a prestigious academy and while there learns, after a series of murders, that an ancient witch and her coven control the school. She discovers this and defeats the witch thus dispersing the evil and seeing the school set ablaze. This short plot takes an hour and a half and is an hour and a half of art and gripping suspense. This “gripping suspense” for me was created through color and music more so than the story. Further, it is this same color and music that grabbed me from an artistic perspective. I intend to direct films one day but currently, I paint. Thus, color and the way it is used is something I pay a lot of attention to. I had no idea this could work so well in an Italian horror movie.

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Bloody Hand placing vhs tape into vcr with title video violence

Ever Watch Faces of Death? You’re Guilty Too!

You know if you’ve read anything I’ve wrote, I must point out nostalgic things I’ve noticed. Some cool pieces of history to look for in Video Violence are the other movies and related memorabilia. For instance, there is a copy of Conan The Barbarian on the shelf, a Friday the 13th Part 5 movie poster, an April Fool’s Day poster, and a sticker on the door that says, “Official Ghostbuster Station.” Yes, the Ghostbuster sticker is complete with the iconic logo. Filming taking place in a video store, there is no shortage of the adage “Please Be Kind and Rewind” plastered everywhere.

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