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nitrateglow · 4 years

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For the character meme: Jack Griffin, Jack Torrance, Harry Roat Jr, and Jonathan Brewster, please!

Favorite thing about them: His gleeful arrogance. Plus he’s got such style. If I was invisible, I would not think to put together such a stylish outfit.

Least favorite thing about them: I mean, he does want to kill people and take over the world. He could really put his talents to better use and be more like Violet Parr.

Favorite line: “HERE WE GO GATHERING NUTS AND HAAAY, NUTS AND HAAAAY, NUTS AND HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYY”

brOTP: Jack and science.

OTP: I think his relationship with Flora is actually really sweet. She’s the only person who can make him stop murdering and plotting for five minutes.

nOTP: None

Random headcanon: He got major frostbite when running around nude in the snow, only he’s too badass to complain about it.

Unpopular opinion: None!

Song I associate with them: “I’m the Invisible Man” by Scatman John because I am an unoriginal person sometimes

Favorite picture of them:

Iconic.

Favorite thing about them: Uh.... well.... he makes funny faces?

Okay, before he goes totally bonkers, I do think he wants to be a better father for Danny than he is. That scene in the bedroom where Danny asks “would you ever hurt me and mom,” I do think Jack was trying to go through the motions of being a good dad, but he just-- doesn’t feel it. And eventually, he stops trying.

Least favorite thing about them: Being horribly abusive to his wife and child. The way he treats Wendy even before homicide enters his brain is just so hard to watch.

Favorite line: “YOU’VE HAD YOUR WHOLE FUCKING LIFE TO THINK THINGS OVER!”

brOTP: Jack and Floyd.

OTP: NONE.

nOTP: Jack and Wendy. I feel so bad for that woman. I imagine she was desperate when she even started dating him.

Random headcanon: Jack married Wendy out of obligation when she ended up pregnant with Danny. I think Danny was an accident and that Jack probably dated Wendy because she was easy to seduce and she hung on his every word, which gave his ego such a boost. However, he didn’t want to marry her and when she ended up pregnant, she made him feel like they had to get married and that he had to set more writing time aside to be a better provider for their family, so this is why he resents her so openly.

Unpopular opinion: I do think Jack Nicholson goes maybe a bit too overboard even early on in the movie. But then again, his over the topness is so entertaining that I can’t complain too much. But then again, the fact that he’s already being a massive monster in the hotel the moment everyone else vacates does make sense. Now that he and his family are alone, he doesn’t feel the need to even pretend to be civil to Wendy.

Song I associate with them: Both “Midnight and the Stars and You” and on a slightly related note, “Walking in a Winter Wonderland.”

Favorite picture of them:

He makes the movement of eyebrows a high art, I tell ya...

Favorite thing about them: How his intelligence is his biggest asset. While the studio wanted to cast more physically intimidating people like George C. Scott or Rod Steiger, I love how Arkin’s Roat is just an average height/weight guy who is powerful because he’s quick on his feet and resourceful. Much like how the Joker would not last in a fistfight with Batman, Roat would totally get his ass kicked by Mike and Carlino (together or alone) if he weren’t the smartest guy in the room. I gotta appreciate that, being a Ravenclaw.

Least favorite thing about them: He’s a murderer/pusher/blackmailer/rapist/con-man/arsonist.

Favorite line: “They had comic book minds, so we did it their way, right until the end. And then, topsy-turvy-- me topsy and them turvy :D “

brOTP: Roat and whoever stocks the plastic gloves at Hammacher Schlemmer.

OTP: Roat and Lisa. I mean, it doesn’t turn out well since they’re both treacherous and greedy, but they certainly seem like they would have interesting dates, don’t they?

nOTP: Roat and anyone else. Like, I’m afraid if I pray for more Wait Until Dark fic to exist, fate will just give me extremely OOC, poorly written Roat/Susy or Roat/Mike fics with terrible summaries like “The end of the movie wasn’t the only time Roat penetrated Mike from behind nudge nudge wink wink.”

Random headcanon: He got Geraldine after getting into a fight with another thug when he was a teenager still a bit green when it came to the underworld. He killed the guy and collected Geraldine as a trophy to commemorate his first official kill.

Unpopular opinion: None. He is the perfect trash. Though a more meta unpopular opinion might be that I am morbidly fascinated with the fact that Quentin Tarantino played this character. It was a panned performance but I would love to see it just the same, especially what he did with the disguises.

Song I associate with them: “Theme for Three” from the film, pretty much anytime it plays. Even though it’s supposed to apply to all the con-men, I mainly associate the unstable melody and off-key pianos with Roat-- it really fits his f’ed up personality.

Favorite picture of them:

Because anytime he licks his lips, it just does things to me.

Favorite thing about them: He just totally owns how violent he is. Like, he gives no freudian excuse, no tragic event that twisted him. He’s just there and bad and badass and you better know not to mess with him. I also love how much he clearly loves his criminal work.

Least favorite thing about them: Well, going after Mortimer isn’t very nice. And the scene where he ties Mortimer up so he can torture him is actually a really terrifying scene in an otherwise hilarious, light movie.

Favorite line: “He wouldn't have died of pneumonia if I hadn't shot him! “

brOTP: Jonathan and Einstein. All his threats to Einstein aside, I love how odd a pair they make. You mentioned them listening to Christmas music on the radio while driving, and I just love that image-- Einstein peering through the dark, humming along, and Jonathan scowling and hating it, but he’s too tired to harp on Einstein about everything so they just drive on.

OTP: None in the movie, though I loved that one fic with a certain OC character...

nOTP: I’m sure somewhere, on someone’s hard-drive or in someone’s twisted mind, there is a fic shipping Jonathan with Mortimer. This person needs Jesus very badly.

Random headcanon: After his surgery, he just hates Boris Karloff since he so often gets compared to the guy. He refuses to look at any movie the man is in and often says he wishes he could kill him just from the frustration of comparison. Though when he was younger, he did enjoy The Black Cat, especially the flaying scene.

Unpopular opinion: None.

Song I associate with them: “Psycho Killer”

Favorite picture of them:

Look at them. Look how mischevious they look. Like they’re going to toilet paper roll a house and not gruesomely maim and murder Jonathan’s family members.

These were all such fun to write. Thanks!

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amostexcellentblog · 7 years

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Since you seem to like classical films from back then, I wanted to ask you with Universal's Dark Universe picking up, and then announcing Bride of Frankenstein being the next film after The Mummy, who would you like to see play the Bride?

I have a lot of thoughts about this, they’re somewhat contradictory and will likely become clearer as more information, and an actual movie, comes out.

So, this is something Universal has been trying to do for decades, mainly reintroduce their iconic monsters to a new generation of fans who they can then sell related merchandise to. And they’ve actually done it, once. In 1999 they had a big hit with their reboot of the 1932 Boris Karloff chiller The Mummy, which is actually a really good popcorn flick, even if it retooled the horror film into an action-comedy (the mummy’s name and backstory are about all that made it into the remake). The movie spawned a ton of sequels and tie-ins, and Universal tried to do it again with Van Helsing from the same director and starring Hugh Jackman with every non-Mummy monster in Universal’s library. It flopped, the Mummy-sequels were bad, and so in 2010 Universal tried a back-to-the-basics approach by remaking The Wolfman as a straight up horror flick. It also flopped, then in 2012 The Avengers came out and Hollywood went crazy for Shared Cinematic Universes, so Universal decided to build their SCU around their monsters. It was supposed to launch in 2014 with Dracula Untold, but that flopped so they retooled their plans, shilled out big bucks for A-List stars, and now they’ve gone all in.

On top of all that, the studio has hired Alex Kurtzman to oversee the franchise, the man behind such beloved classics as Transformers, Star Trek: Into Darkness, and Amazing Spider-Man 2. And it’s hard not to watch the Mummy trailers and feel a sense of dread. Does this movie have anything in common with the Karloff version? Is Kurtzman so determined to shake off the dames of decades of official and unofficial parodies (The Munsters, Mel Brooks’ masterpiece Young Frankenstein) that he’s buried what made the originals special under cgi action? Why is Dr. Jekyll serving as the franchise’s Nick Fury character when he’s not even a Universal Monster? Why does this franchise even need a Nick Fury character?

The thing is, despite the ample reasons to be skeptical I just outlined, there’s also a very good reason why this could work and be spooky fun. the images the movies created still influence our culture so clearly something about them resonates with modern audiences. These characters have been crossing over since the 1940s, there’s actually an argument to be made that they pioneered the SCU, and so why shouldn’t they be allowed in on the current craze? And even if Kurtzman seems to just be copying Marvel, Bride of Frankenstein director Bill Condon is a legit fanboy. Whether that saves him from studio mandates remains to be seen. Bride is best known today for its gay subtext, which isn’t the sort of thing studio’s want in their summer tentpoles. The studio is allegedly looking for an A-List actress to play the Bride, but the character only appears in the last 15 minutes of the original (and she doesn’t speak, just hiss), so obviously the remake will be very different. I’ve heard they want Angelina Jolie, she’d be good. Personally I think AHS alums Jessica Lange or Sarah Paulson would kill it. And hopefully Condon will at least keep Dr. Pretorius, the ultimate queer coded bad guy, in the movie, and he has to have at least thought of his frequent collaborator Ian McKellen for the role. Please Bill, make it happen!

#wow this got long #basically #I'm really skeptical #and I don't plan on seeing The Mummy because it looks so bad #but I'm kind of in love with the idea of a Bill Condon directed Bride of Frankenstein reboot

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