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greyghoulclub · 1 year

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harringrove flip it reverse it prompt 2 - angst becomes fluff

for @harringrove-flip-reverse-it

ao3 link: Movie night at Steve's - greyghoulclub - Stranger Things (TV 2016) [Archive of Our Own]

Billy antis DNI

“We should watch Footloose,” Steve said after finishing his shift at Family Video. Billy had scoffed at first because he didn’t like romantic movies. If it was up to him they’d definitely be watching Nightmare on Elm Street and definitely not because he found Johnny Depp hot in a crop top.

“Didn’t know you were into dancing pretty boy,” Billy offhandedly remarked. He saw Steve roll his eyes from the chick flick section of the store. He also grabbed Reanimator for Max and The Lost Boys.

“Robin said it was good, and I trust her opinion,” Steve grabbed the three VHS tapes Billy was holding and took them to the counter where Robin was waiting. She looked over their choices with a raised eyebrow and took one of the tapes, “Lost Boys? Fitting since Billy looks like a discount David.”

“Buckley I can and will slash your bike’s tires,” Billy half-heartedly threatened while Steve doubled over laughing. Robin mhmm-ed him and she put the tapes on Steve’s account. Billy pouted a little at the fact his boyfriend wasn’t defending him. Steve was wiping away tears and gasping for air, “don’t look at me like that-” Steve never finished the sentence before he dissolved in another fit of giggles.

“You’re lucky you’re cute Stevie,” Billy threw a couple of bags of sour candy onto the counter, “I have way better hair than David.” He chuckled when he heard Robin's fake gag.

“You two are disgustingly in love, stop making me witness it,” Robin slammed the register shut and handed Steve his change out of 20 dollars. Billy barked out a short laugh and said he’d tell Heather that Robin was being mean.

“Heather would think it’s really cool and sexy of me that I bully you two,” Robin reached over the counter for a bag of gummy worms and tore the bag open. Neither Steve nor Billy could argue with that, if anything Heather would encourage more friendly bullying. “C’mon get out of here lovebirds, I don’t wanna see you two being gross in front of my gummy worms.”

Billy licked Steve’s cheek just before they left, just to hear Robin groan.

*******

Billy rummaged in the pantry for some microwave popcorn while Steve set up the VHS player. For someone who lived off of what he could jam in a microwave, Steve did seem to have a pointed lack of popcorn. He heard Steve open the door for the pizza guy and nearly dodged a box of Ritz crackers falling on his head. He cursed under his breath and rubbed the corner of his temple where the box of crackers had attacked him.

“B, the pizza’s here,” Steve called from the living room. Billy gave up on finding the popcorn, slammed the pantry door shut and joined Steve on the couch.

“Only you would get olives on a pizza,” Billy teased his boyfriend a little, laughing when Steve rolled his eyes at him. He took a slice without olives, took a bite and immediately burnt his tongue on the hot cheese. It was Steve’s turn to laugh then.

Billy halfheartedly told Steve to shut up, and snuggled into Steve’s side. Steve gave him a kiss on the forehead as the opening theme to The Lost Boys started to play.

*****

“Ugh I hate that scene,” Steve muttered when Micheal thought David was eating worms out of a Chinese takeout carton.

“Huh? That’s like one of the least gross scenes,” Billy looked up at Steve cringing at the TV screen, watching David slurp up the noodles, not worms.

“Yeah but the idea of eating worms grosses me out, like them wiggling in your mouth? I’d rather eat my own tongue- what are you laughing at?”

“Nothing Stevie, I just think you’re cute when you’re talking.” Steve blushed all the way down to his chest.

****

After The Lost Boys and Terminator, Steve put the Footloose tape in the VHS player. Billy still didn’t know why Stave chose it, he said that Robin recommended it but he was sure Steve wasn’t that into romantic movies. Sure the music from the movie was ok, but a chick flick?

They had finished the pizza by the middle of Terminator and tore through the sour candy Billy had bought at Family Video. Steve left the living room to look for more snacks leaving Billy with the opening minutes of Footloose. He kinda thought the plot was a little dumb, a small podunk town in the middle of nowhere banning rock music and dancing? Sounded like something Carver would get his dad to do.

“Have they got to the part where they race the tractors yet?” Steve came back into the living room with a bag of barbeque chips. He flopped onto the couch next to Billy and opened the bag, popping a chip in his mouth.

Billy put on a faux-offended tone, “Hey! Spoilers!” he topped it off with a hand on his chest. Steve couldn’t help but take the bit, “I thought you didn’t care about chick flicks,” he laughed when Billy made some more mock offended gestures.

They watched the tractor race and then the campaign to have a senior prom at Bomont high after Ariel had told Ren the reason why the town had banned dance. They both yelled at the screen when Chuck hit Ariel. “Fucker,” Billy had mumbled under his breath. The whole standing up for what you think is right felt like an after-school special to Billy, although he did feel for Ariel having an overbearing and suffocating father.

The final dance scene however, is where it got Billy. The pure joy and the lift between Ren and Ariel had his eyes watering again. He had turned away from Steve so the latter didn’t see him tearing up at a dumb movie.

“Billy? Are you ok?” Steve tried to put his hand on Billy’s shoulder but he knocked it away.

“Leave me alone! That shit was fuckin’ beautiful!”

“I am so fucking in love with you Billy Hargrove.”

#harringrove #harringrove fic #harringrove flip it reverse it 2023 #harringrove flip it reverse it prompt 2 #billy hargrove #billy antis dni

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danidoesathing · 1 year

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Can you list some of your favorite horror movies facts you know? :0

oh anon you have opened up pandoras box

-In Midsommar, the images of Dani's dead family is overlaid multiple times throughout the film despite her never seeing their bodies like the audience did

-X and Pearl were filmed at the same time!

-Miles Fischer, who plays Peter in Film Destination 5, is also a musician and made a music video with the cast of FD5 which was a parody of said movie and sitcoms like Save By the Bell. It's called New Romance and can be watched here

-Speaking of Final Destination, Mary Elizabeth Winstead (the star of three) actually produced a that single tear in the final scene all naturally. She had to do it twice because the first take was ruined.

-The Roller Coaster scene in 3 was also the last filmed!

-Tony Todd appears in every Final Destination movie except for 4 (In three he voiced the ominous devil statue in front of the Coaster). His character is named William Bludsworth (yes really).

-Scream had originally Dewy dying at the end, but the director made a decision (I mean literally while filming that scene last second) to change his fate

-You can tell who is Ghostface at any point in time by the way they hold the knife. Stu uses two hands with the knife, while Billy only holds it with his right hand. Billy also tends to strangle people for whatever reason.

-Wes Craven did not know about line about all the Nightmare on Elm Street's sequels sucking so he had no part in that.

-None of the Cloverfield movies were written to be in a connected universe, and two of the three were actually made under different titles that had both those and their scripts altered to fit the "connected universe" thing. So if you ever felt like those movies felt weirdly disconnected, congrats! you're right

-John Goodman actually makes an appearance in The Cloverfield Paradox in a brief news interview. Once again, he plays a character whose theories are 100% correct but sounds insane, but they are confirmed not to be the same character

-The first Cloverfield Movie actually had an ARG. Really. like a whole ass ARG for promotion. wild

-In the Hellbound Heart book, Pinhead and the rest of the Cenobites are written as gender neutral leaning towards feminine. Diversity win! the torture bondage demons are nonbinary!

-Hereditary was originally planned to take place during winter, but Ari Aster changed his mind once arriving on set

-The set of Hereditary was constructed in a way that had the walls and ceiling able to be moved/removed which allows for the more creative camera angles seen in the film.

-Tony Todd has played Candyman/Daniel Robitaille in every Candyman movie. Yes even in the sequels

-Prey is the first full lengthen film to have a full Comanche dub (which was all recorded by the originally actors!)

-The translator in Prey, Raphael, appears in the Predator comics (specifically, Predator: 1718) and is referenced in Predator 2

-Cabin in the Woods was obviously heavily inspired by Evil Dead. But the infamous betting board actually names Deadites as a monster. This implies that Ash's unfortunate adventures in the cabin was a successful ritual and the only reason he was allowed to live was because he played the role of the Virgin (this is obviously not canon, but its a neat idea)

-It also makes reference to the "Angry Molesting Tree" from Evil Dead. "Snowman" may be a reference to Jack Frost (killer snowman movie) and the Reanimated may be a reference to The Reaminator

-The dog in The Thing, Jed, was not trained to a lot of the odd behavior the Thing actually shows. For example, the brief moment where he looks into the camera and then looks away, which creates a very uneasy feeling of being seen in the audience. There are also moments where he dead still. He was not trained to do either of these things. He was just a very talented actor and I love him.

-The first victim of The Thing's shadow is not done by any of the actors of the movie. Its actually the director's, as it creates more ambiguity as to his identity

-Joe Hill is Stephen King's son. He is also a writer, and wrote the original source material for things like The Black Phone, Horns, Locke and Key, and NOS4A2. They both wrote In the Tall Grass

and now for facts about one of my favorite horror movies

-Nope originally ended with the deaths of both OJ and Angel. Even after OJ's fate was changed, they only changed Angel's fate after Brandon Perea (his actor) convinced Jorden Peele to change his fact. Angel's plot armor ascends even reality fr

-The track that plays during OJ's final scene is called "A Hero Falls" likely because it was written for his death. The song also has parallels to a track that played in the beginning of the movie during OJ and Em's car ride to the ranch

-OJ's actor, Daniel Kaluuya, mentioned having suffered an injury years ago due to a horse riding accident and developed a fear of horse riding from that. He had to work through that for the role.

-Ricky is referred to as "Jupe" through almost the entirety of the film, even in the subtitles. This has no meaning or symbolism for his character whatsoever im sure.

-Jean Jacket and it's alternate form was inspired by sea creatures like Jellyfish and Octopus, but it was also inspired by the angels in Neon Genesis Evangelion. Specifically Sahaquiel, the tenth angel

-Em performs the Akira slide during the climax of the movie

-There's a few alternate dialogue for scenes that can be seen in the deleted scenes. it doesn't make that much a difference in terms of themes/story/characterization/etc but we did learn that OJ had a thing for Oprah when he was younger which explains some of Em's jabs at him

-There's a deleted scene that has an alternate introduced to Em that revealed the reason she was late was because she hitting on a group of girls. cant say im surprised tbh but I find it funny the longest deleted scene is just another confirmation that Emerald gets the most pussy in the state of California

-Antlers wears a skirt for the entirety of the film

-While OJ was going after Ghost and sees the power going out during Ricky's practice for the Star Lasso Expereince, you can see the power line's lights going off which shows JJ's path back to the farm

-Brandon Perea was the one that insisted on expanding Angel's character during development past Peele's original baseline idea

-Michael Abels scored this film as well as Get Out and Us

and I probably have more but. christ this post is long

#THANK YOU ANON I OWE YOU MY FIRSTBORN #I like horror movies and I love studying them and noticing little details #I like facts behind the production and writing and development and how things changed overtime and what was cut and-#well you get the idea #I had to separate Nope from the rest cause I have. so much knowledge on that movie #it might be because I watched fourteen times but whatever #can you tell what my favorite movie is? can you #I would like to personally thank Brandon perea for angel. he wouldnt have been the same without you (literally)#dani speaks #ask #asks #long post

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amplesalty · 5 years

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Day 5 - Frankenhooker (1990)

I think you’ll find it’s called Frankenhooker’s Monster

We’re branching out into the wider filmography of Frank Henenlotter today. He’s primarily known for Basket Case, which was one of the entries in the early days of this blog. I had a weird moment before watching this in trying to remember if I ever saw Basket Case 3 as I didn’t seem to mention it on here. Evidently I watched it during my attempt at the ‘365 movies in 365 days’ challenge in the mid 2010’s, which seems a little odd for me as normally I feel like I would have normally left it until Halloween, especially since I discussed the first two movies.

As the title might suggest, we’re very much dealing with the ‘Frankenstein’ tropes in this, with a whole bunch of gratuitous nudity thrown in from the hooker side of things. ‘Ol Tor has his work cut out today.

We start out by meeting Jeffrey, an oddball sort of fellow that dabbles in a little bit of mad science on his kitchen table. He follows the more Jeremy Clarkson school of tool selection as he does his mad science with hammers. Neither his fiancé or family seem to mind this and just casually carry on enjoying the birthday party they’re throwing around him. Would you mind passing me the ketchup whilst you’re performing invasive surgery on your brain/fish thing, honey? I don’t know what that thing is and they never explain it. I guess it’s just a quick way to introduce the fact that he’s able to create life in some weird ways.

He later moves it into a fish tank, at least it’s more roomy than just being a brain in a jar. Plus it has neighbours! Do you think it eats the fish food as well?

It reminds me of Arrghus from A Link to the Past, only without the tentacles or the little creatures satelliting around it.

This party takes a turn for the worse when his fiancé demonstrates the remote control lawnmower Jeffrey invented by turning it on and standing in front of it whilst it runs her over. What is it with people in Hollywood who are too stupid to take a sidestep out of incoming danger? Seriously, just a few feet either way but no, she just stands there and screams whilst the machine cuts her down.

This is an event summed up on the evening news in a manner rather lacking in any tact or dignity, proclaiming the young woman’s ‘personality’ was chopped up and rained upon the party guests like some sort of human tossed salad.

This Prison Break reboot looks a bit odd. And as much as I am curious to see if muscular and flesh level nudity would flag up Tumblr’s censors, I’ll play it safe here.

No, those are just Jeffrey’s plans to make things right again; like Doctor’s Frankenstein and West before him, he will restore life.

I say West because there is a bit of a low rent Jeffrey Combs vibe going on here. Actor James Lorinz is a bit cheesey in his delivery at times but it probably doesn’t help he spends half the film spouting exposition to himself. He has the look down though, with some good facial expressions and looking like he hasn’t slept in a week. Puts me in mind of the guy in Nightmare on Elm Street 2 as well actually. I keep going on about that bloody movie.

See, Jeffrey was only able to salvage a few body parts before the cops did their clean up. The most important thing is he got the head so he can just put that on a new body and he’s back in business.

A head that he likes to enjoy candlelit suppers with.

I must say, these fake nude images were a lot cruder before the invention of Photoshop.

The only trouble is, where to get a donor body? Jeffrey is wracking his brains but can’t think of anything so, bizarrely, he drills into his own head which seems to tap into some wickedness like tricking a bunch of stewardesses off a plan by dressing as a maintenance man and saying there’s a fault. He doesn’t think they’ll fall for that though so he figures he’ll just go kill a bunch of hookers.

I don’t know what the deal is with the drilling thing. It’s like something out of the middle ages, trepanning. He uses it later on and seems to act as some sort of relief to him. See, Dr Spengler had it right, it would have worked.

Forget all this dealing with tragedy and grief business, it’s sexy hooker party time! The girls think this is just some weird roleplay fantasy that Jeffrey has, with his white gown and stethoscope, but really he’s just sizing them up as suitable donors.

Things go slightly wrong though when they find the bag of super crack he’s being cooking up and they just go to town on it. That’s the problem with crack, it’s really morish.

Mr Stark…I don’t feel so good…

It also has the slight side effect of making you explode. The crudity of this scene really makes it, just take a load of dummies, strap some fireworks to them and just watch the show. I shouldn’t jest, there are dozens of people that spontaneously combust every year, it’s just not really widely reported.

Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Jeffrey scoops up the body parts and takes them home. I think this shows the kind of neighbourhood he was in that he can drive around with his trunk rigged open, with body parts spilling out, and no one bats an eyelid.

You got these titties but then you got like this whole tray full of titties and that’s just too many titties. You need like some well rounded female characters in the titties to make titties sweeter.

Those aren’t the kind of bolt ons that most women elect to have surgery for…

Like when Dr Frankenstein created the bride for his creature, so to does Jeffrey have to deal with a rebellious streak within his creation. When she finds out that he doesn’t have any money, she shows him the back of her hand and heads off into the night. Forget being a hooker, she should be running the show with a pimp hand like that!

See, the slight problem with the new body that Jeffrey has put together is that it has infected his fiance’s mind, no longer the sweet, innocent girl he knew, now she’s taken on the personality of one of the hookers, just going round asking if people want a good time and if they have any money. For all the gore and breasts on show so far, you have to give the movie credit for finally delving into the sort of deep, metaphysical questions that I’m sure Mary Shelley had in mind when she wrote the original story. What makes us who we are? Is it just our thoughts and memories or is there something more, a soul within our body?

Eh, who am I kidding? Bring on the ungodly creature effects from all the reanimated hooker body parts!

#Halloween 2019 #Frankenhooker

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nightmareonfilmstreet · 6 years

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M. Night Shyamalan’s Greatest Magic Trick: THE SIXTH SENSE

When we think of horror storytellers it is extremely easy to associate them with a specific sub-genre and style. Wes Craven birthed a slew of slashers in different periods of horror with both A Nightmare on Elm Street’s Freddy Krueger and Scream’s Ghostface, James Wan continues to construct a word of haunted homes starting with Insidious, Alfred Hitchcock trapped us in suspense with his first person point of view in Psycho. What comes to mind when you think of M. Night Shyamalan and The Sixth Sense?

The twist.

A few simple maneuvers here and there, a slip of the hand, a purposeful distraction, and a finale leaving us shocked, guessing how we could have missed such important parts of a sequence happening right before our very eyes only to be truly fooled in the end. It’s a magic trick, you see? A trick that can’t be taught and most certainly cannot be duplicated, its secret buried in the mind of a master, or so we thought.

Today Shyamalan shares his birthday with the theatrical release of The Sixth Sense, a great cinematic illusion that opened his mysterious act nineteen years ago, yet still demands the spotlight time and time again.

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The Setup

The Sixth Sense reeled eager audiences into theaters back in 1999, a year when horror pulled back its curtains to unleash a variety of new sub-genres ranging from Japanese adapted tales with The Ring, to highly stylized period pieces with Sleepy Hollow, to found footage releases with The Blair Witch Project. The shine of the 70’s classics was, forgive me, beginning to dim, the slasher formula was exhaustively recycled, and garish science fiction had lost its appeal. With the dawning of an exciting millennium approaching, a new wave of filmmakers began to pave the road of the unique with the greatest showman, Shyamalan, leading the way.

By now you’re surely educated on The Sixth Sense’s plot and are aware of the third act twist that reanimated horror from its stagnant evolution, but if you are not I beg you to do two things now: One, do not read any further than my next plea as there will be spoiler content, and two, contact me immediately so I may study your reaction after I’ve convinced you to finally watch it.

We all know the story written and directed by Shyamalan, but in case you need a reminder: The Sixth Sense focuses on child psychologist Dr. Malcolm Crowe, played by Bruce Willis (Die Hard), who is attacked by an old patient, Vincent Grey, played by Donnie Wahlberg (Dreamcatcher) after therapy treatment yielded no results in helping his “possible mood disorder”. He takes on a new patient after some time off in Cole Sear played by Haley Joel-Osment, a lonely sad boy who later reveals to Malcolm that he can see the spirits of the dead. As the two bond, Cole’s anxious mother Lynn played by Toni Colette (Hereditary) grows worried by her son’s behavior, and Malcolm’s wife Anna, played by Olivia Williams (Rushmore), grows colder towards him, their marriage borderline estranged. Malcolm concludes that Cole shares the same gift that Vincent had, realizing the only way for Cole to be fearless of these ghosts is to listen to them, helping them cross over from this life. What he does not realize is that he is one of them, having been dead since Vincent’s attack all along.

Whether you are a fan of his work or not, Shyamalan changed horror in more ways than one. His directing style – with single character angles, long drawn-out shots, and engaging dialogue, sometimes dubbed over a secondary occurring scene, was, and still is, freshly artistic and captivating. He signs his pieces with a twist you never saw coming, each ending laid beneath a veil intricately stitched with masterly duping mechanics and expertly hidden exposition.

After giving The Sixth Sense a very thorough viewing, I decided to aim this ‘look back’ at one of horror’s most discussed films by laying out Shyamalan’s deliberate techniques, of which there are three: the first, obviously being the twist ending, the second is sudden “jump scares” throughout a relatively slow-paced story, and carefully placed audio pops contrasting with mostly quiet ambiance. It was not until I tuned my attention in on one scene in particular, possibly the least tense scene of the whole film, that I noticed how purposeful those specific techniques are and how he cleverly disguises this formula for all to see.

Ladies and gentleman, I give you…

The Coin Trick.

Malcolm, being surprisingly uneasy around children given his profession, attempts to connect with Cole using a magic trick. He shows the boy a penny, claiming he will make it disappear from his right hand to his left hand with a Clap. He continues with a shake of the left hand (now supposedly holding the coin) and taps his jacket pocket, claiming the penny is now inside, magically transported. The end of the trick comes with him repeating the first step in reverse with the penny winding back where it started from, in his right hand. Cole is a little nonplussed, taking it for a joke and foiling the magic by letting Malcolm know he’s aware the penny never left his hand to begin with.

The joke is on us. What appears to be a charming scene interpreted as an appropriate chaism for the film’s events specifically, I found holds even more weight when looking at Shyamalan’s work as a whole combined with his first-born masterpiece. The whole film is one big coin trick, one he’s been pulling on us for well over a decade.

Let’s peek behind the curtain.

Loud Claps

In the nearly two hours of runtime of The Sixth Sense, there are maybe only 7 minutes where the volume peaks over a whisper. And that includes its creeping score. Shyamalan advances this silence technique by working it with its significant other: booming interjection. I never noticed how sudden these loud pops of sound were until turning this on for a family movie night, my mother asking me to turn the volume up continuously throughout the first 10-minutes. Once we reached a comfortable level of being able to hear the soft dialogue, the first boom interjected: Anna’s gasp when Vincent’s shadow falls over her and Malcolm. Her quick, loud shock wailed through our television resulting in a few of our own follow-up yelps. Through Vincent’s angry screams and even the gunshot, we aren’t as shocked with sound like that of her gasp ripping through the quiet.

We’re met with that shock again almost 15 whole minutes later when Lynn enters the kitchen to find the drawers and cabinets hanging open out of nowhere. Long drawn out moments again filled with a murmuring tone only to be shattered by her jolting gasp. Another 20 or so minutes build up tension forcing us to pay attention to the characters and their conversations and we’re hit with the Stuttering Stanley scene. The intensity and the sound bursts into the scene, our hearing now completely out of focus. How about that balloon pop in conjunction with Cole’s screaming from the cupboard during the birthday party scene? The rock through Anna’s shop window? Each time the score’s instrumental pang comes out of nowhere as a ghost is suddenly present in a scene? All separated by consuming, purposeful quiet.

“The intensity and the sound bursts into the scene, our hearing now completely out of focus. “

With each segment of the coin trick, Malcolm makes a gesture with his hand, whether it be a wave or a shake, but his sudden clap is what throws the observer off-key. It’s a simple method, complete misdirection. The observer is busy keeping track of the movement when a sudden, loud CLAP interjects to knock them off their game. What happened? Did I miss something? Wait, where did the coin go?

Sudden sounds, especially as we are conditioned to regular low, mellow notes over time (well over an hour’s worth), are used to distract us as viewers. It’s a tactic necessary to draw our attention inward, slowly and steadily leveling our consciousness, before the interjecting boom blares the nerves out of us just as the claps throughout the coin trick do to the observer.

Waves and Shakes

As we’re relating Shyamalan’s cinematic moves to that of the coin trick, what some would consider “jump scares” mimic Malcolm’s wave and shake of the hand. These movements are the meat of the sequence, and they’re not particularly ‘jumpy’ in terms of action, but rather suddenly riddle us with fear. The Sixth Sense is full of waves and shakes, scenes created to develop the plot and warm up the brain.

We can separate a few of the slower monotone scenes from the ones that build in potency as the dialogue moves along, i.e. the “I see dead people” scene. The potent scenes, the waves and shakes that make up this film are Shyamalan’s most relied upon actions intentionally crafted with the end in mind.

Vincent’s scene at the very beginning, the wrist-cutting woman, the boy who was wreckless with a gun, the hanged fugitives, Stuttering Stanley, Vincent’s therapy audio recordings, and each scene with our semi-final ghost played by a young Micha Barton (The OC, Homecoming), Kyra, are all pieces of subject matter moving us towards the filmmaker’s endgame. Subject matter that is relatively scary to audiences honing in on those parts of the brain that force us to think about what’s happening.

Each of these scenes are building blocks adding one to the other as we reach The Sixth Sense’s end, yet each measured in simple, almost stabilized intensity. They are the movements of our sequence begging our attention and keeping us focused as the trick is being carried out before us.

Now, we give the penny another little shake, this one in particular being the scenes related to Kyra and Cole overcoming his fear to help her, as the coin has mysteriously made it way into Malcolm’s pocket. Problem solved? The end, right?

“But that’s not the end of the magic trick.”

End at the Beginning

Malcolm gives one final shake and clap ending with the penny magically returning to his right hand. The subtext of this simple trick’s ending being that we’re right back where we started from. What Cole so appropriately points out is that Malcolm had the penny in his right hand the whole time, it never went anywhere. Cole is the observer of the crowd pointing out the truth behind the artifice of the magician’s act.

This comes across to the audience as Cole being the all-seeing entity of the story. He can see the dead, and therefore can see through the trick’s ploy. But what his deadpan comment suggests further, is that it is Malcolm himself who holds the key (or the penny) to the sequence of this story. It begins with his death and ends with his death, the whole twist of him being a ghost stuck among the living throughout his time with Cole running parallel to the penny remaining in his hand through the whole trick. He aids Cole in coming to terms with his fear of listening to the ghosts that haunt him, all the while Cole is aiding him through the afterlife’s ascension. Like the coin, Malcolm never moved onward from where he began in the first place, needing Cole to point out the obvious in order to come to terms with this trick he has (unknowingly) performed.

The syntax of Malcolm’s silly coin trick runs linear with Shyamalan’s profound formula. Like unsuspecting observers hoodwinked by a magician’s cunning strategy, audiences experiencing The Sixth Sense, or almost any Shyamalan film, we are nimbly deceived by the shakes and waves of his scare tactics, thrown off by the unexpected claps of sound, and ultimately trapped in this chaism’s last twist with the prominent clues hidden by waves, shakes, and claps, finally exposed by the enlightened observer.

Repeat

Though many directors and writers have attempted to apply this method, it is my strong opinion that all films with a big twist ending pale in comparison to The Sixth Sense. As horror fans, we appreciate the common understanding that while there are great possession films out there, none can attain The Exorcist’s standards. Once a film has really broken ground in our genre by achieving that unique status, the films that attempt to follow in its footsteps will always remain beneath it. The Sixth Sense, like Shyamalan, leads at the forefront sheathing imitators and shams beneath its veil of success.

Shyamalan, being the experienced magician he is, recycles this trick throughout his career. However, what separates him from the one-trick-pony shows were often subjected to within the horror genre is that each time, this same trick is actually different. The sequence may remain, but Shyamalan has that special quality of shaking and waving the penny around in a multitude of ways that the only element we can expect when being participating in his audience is that, of course, there will be a twist in the third act.

Shyamalan is so skilled in the application of this coin trick that he can begin it by placing the penny in one hand and make it disappear… for 17 years before revealing it to be in that same hand all along.

After a scattered hiatus between the release of The Village in 2004, and the release of After Earth in 2013, the director seemed to fade into the background. Cue the dry ice and closed curtain, right? Many believed we had seen the last of the showman, that he had gifted us with his grand finale in his first release, until he reemerged relevantly successful with The Visit in 2015. Fans welcomed him, and his unmatched twist endings, back to the genre with open arms.

“Fans welcomed him, and his unmatched twist endings, back to the genre with open arms.”

The Visit wasn’t the only card up his sleeve. In 2016, Shyamalan pulled off the longest running coin trick in all of cinema’s magical history with the release of Split. I remember the slight feeling of disappointment run through me as the last few minutes of the film revealed no twist, just a well done, well acted flick. What happened to my penny?

Then, with a quick wave and a shake, Bruce Willis’ David Dunn of his second collaboration with Shyamalan, Unbreakable, a dark superhero tale released back in 2000, appears within the absolute last-minute of Split marrying the two films with a twist so bold I know I let out my own sudden dramatic gasp when I realized what was happening right before my very eyes. There’s my penny!

For 16 years there was a quiet stillness to Shyamalan’s career, few of his films making true movements within horror, but then came the CLAP! Multiple claps. An entire theater, actually.

Shortly after, a third installment of this ambiguous trilogy, Glass, was announced bringing the characters of Unbreakable and Split into one film that will surely leave us in the same mystified, gloriously shocked state we can only find ourselves in at Shyamalan’s hand. The Glass trailer recently premiered at the San Diego Comic Con in mid-July with reception all pointing to extremely high anticipation.

Like the penny, and like his first story’s iconic lead, Dr. Malcom Crowe, M. Night Shyamalan never left. He has always been present, watching, waiting, and planning his next trick to ascend above our beliefs.

This artist and the rich, phenomenal, complex worlds he shares with us, his observers, has proved one very important thing:

Some magic’s real.

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flapsfilmfiles · 6 years

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20 Best Horror Films from the 80s Pt. 2

Fright Night (August 2, 1985)

Vampires in the 80s? Yes please! Fright Night starring William Ragsdale, Chris Sarandon, and Roddy McDowall may not have been the most memorable film from the 80s, but you have to give it some credit. What’s great about Fright Night, is that this movie has vampires and werewolves, or just vampires who take the form of a werewolf I guess. The characters in this film make fun of the cheesy late night horror films as well as comment on how people lost interest in vampires for homicidal maniacs.

Re-Animator (October 18, 1985)

Re-Animator is adapted from H.P. Lovecraft’s Herbert West- Reanimator, and is essentially a Frankenstein tale on steroids. The film follows Herbert West who has formulated a serum to bring the dead back to life. Things don’t go exactly to plan, and West’s discovery ends up creating more problems than scientific breakthroughs. The makeup and special effects made this movie stand out, but Jeffrey Combs’ portrayal of a mad scientist really brought the film together.

Aliens (July 18, 1986)

With as popular as Alien was, a sequel was inevitably going to happen. While the first film was directed by Sir Ridley Scott, Aliens was directed by none other than the famous James Cameron. People still debate to this day which Alien film is better. While the first film focused on the horror of one alien, Aliens introduced the war aspect to the movies, as well as a seemingly infinite amount of Xenomorphs. Ripley makes a triumphant return, but the new characters such as Newt, Bishop, Hicks, and Hudson are equally as memorable.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (February 27, 1987)

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors may not be able to beat out the original, but it stands as the best sequel of the entire franchise. Heather Langenkamp returned to Elm Street in 1987 by reprising her role of Nancy Thompson. While this was one of the major reasons why this film did well, it also helped that the story was really well written. Even though Wes Craven’s and Bruce Wagner’s original script was changed drastically by Frank Darabont and Chuck Russell, the story was still riveting. Instead of having one person fight Freddy, Craven thought that it was time for a group of kids to fight him; hence “Dream Warriors”. Even though Wes Craven got gypped after he penned the first script, Dream Warriors still stands as many people’s favorite Freddy flick.

Evil Dead 2 (March 13, 1987)

When 1987 rolled around Evil Dead 2 was released and people loved it even more than the first. With even more gore and slapstick violence, Evil Dead 2 succeeded in being both a horror movie and a comedy, which can be hard to do. This sequel also introduced viewers to a deadite version of Ash as he was attacked at the end of the first one. Even though there are some massive continuity issues between the first and second films, people seem to overlook them. It’s easy to overlook issues when you have scenes as epic as Ash attaching a chainsaw to his arm and saying, “groovy”.

Hellraiser (September 18, 1987)

The Hellraiser series started back on in 1987 when Clive Barker’s first film in the franchise came out. Known for its excessive gore and chilling special effects, Hellraiser introduced everyone’s favorite demonic cenobite named Pinehead. Pinehead was accompanied by a female cenobite and two other cenobites known as Butterball and the Chatterer. All of them are equally as terrifying, but Pinehead usually tends to steal the show. Fans of the series can catch the latest installment when Hellraiser: Judgement comes out sometime this year.

Maniac Cop (May 13, 1988)

Maniac Cop may not be a film everyone has seen, but it does feature everyone’s favorite deadite slayer! After Bruce Campbell slayed deadites in Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2 he took a break from running around in the woods, to become a cop in New York City. While they never explain in the first film how the main villain is able to withstand the trauma that he receives, the film was still suspenseful. Usually you can trust police officers, which is why the idea behind Maniac Cop ended up being so frightful.

Killer Klowns from Outer Space (May 27, 1988)

Killer Klowns from Outer Space is probably one of the silliest horror films on this list. If having guns that shoot out popcorn and cocooning their victims with cotton candy weren’t funny enough, their look will certainly do it for you. The masks and outfits for the actors are one of a kind and unlike anything else on this list. The tagline for this movie really sums it up perfectlty; “It’s crazy!”.

Child’s Play (November 9, 1988)

Evil dolls are often used as a scare tactic in horror movies, but Chucky is still probably one of the scariest. In his debut in Child’s Play, serial killer Charles Lee Ray gets shot by the police, but not before he transfers his soul into a Good Guy’s doll. Ever since then, Chucky has been a symbol of the horror genre. The idea of Chucky is still terrifying to this day, especially since they used practical effects on set. Ed Gale played Chucky for some of the scenes that were too extreme to use a puppet. Fun fact, Ed Gale is also the guy who dressed up as Howard in Howard the Duck!

Pet Sematary (April 21, 1989)

While it may not be as famous as Stephen King’s IT or The Shining, Pet Sematary is another one of his works that got a film adaptation. Pet Sematary is about a family who moves into a house that is next to, you guessed it, a pet cemetery. What makes the cemetery special is that it is connected to a MicMac burial ground which can bring dead animals, and humans back to life. Honestly, the best part of this film is Jud Crandall who is played by Fred Gwynne. Maybe it’s because he played an interesting character, or maybe it is just because he previously played Herman Munster, but either way he was a highlight of the film.So those are Flap’s Film Files 20 best horror films. Did I miss any of your favorites? Let me know in the comments below and don’t forget to hit that like or share button!

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retrorendum-blog · 7 years

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Halloween - Movie Review

Halloween is a movie I’ve been hearing about for years from my mom, whenever I say I’m seeing or have seen a horror movie, she always brings up Halloween and how much it scared her when it first came out. Because of the fear she bestowed upon this film, I had put off seeing it for a while since I thought it’d make me crap myself. I ended up renting it from the library a couple of weeks ago, and she and I watched through it together. Here’s my thoughts on the classic horror film, Halloween.

Info: 1978 - 1 Hr 41 Min - Thriller/ Slasher

Rating: R

Story: Halloween follows a simple premise. A young 6 year old boy named Michael Myers (no relation to the actor of Austin Powers fame) brutally murders his sister on Halloween night, and is sent to a mental facility for his crime. 15 years later he escapes on the night before Halloween, and the following day chaos ensues. Myers truly is the optimal “realistic” horror movie villain. He’s not a reanimated object like Chucky and doesn’t have spooky dream powers like Freddy, but he has a large build, a pale, white, emotionless mask, and he’s quite the artist with a knife for such a big guy. He may be slow, voiceless and dull, but this just makes him more terrifying because these things make him seem less than human. The main “protagonist” - a term I use lightly since she really just acts as a scared teen the entire movie - of Halloween is a high school teenager named Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), a pretty stereotypical goody-two shoes teen, who spends her time studying and reading books while her peers are out partying, smoking and having sex. This naivete works out for her though, because all her friends end up acting as nothing more than numbers on a growing body count for a deranged killer. The final really important character in the film is Myers’ psychiatrist doctor, Samuel Loomis (Donald Pleasence). Loomis has been Michael’s doctor since the day he went to the loony bin, and knows as much as there is to know about him, so he’s the main source we have of learning who Michael Myers is and how he thinks. According to Dr. Loomis, Michael hasn’t spoken a word in 15 years, and is the “personification of evil”. The story of a killer loose in a neighborhood might not be incredibly creative, but Halloween still manages to hold your attention for it’s duration, so story gets an 8/10.

Visual Effects/ Soundtrack: Halloween is obviously an older movie, so i’ll be slightly lenient on how I judge it’s visual effects, but they managed to get away without using many effects overall, so it isn’t a problem. This is one of the few horror movies I’ve seen where there’s nearly no blood at all, even when a kid is getting stabbed to death or when someone gets shot. The filmmakers used dramatic camera angles to avoid having to show blood, instead choosing to show the action, like the movement of a knife or pain on the stabee’s* face. All the horror in the film isn’t relayed by jump scares or gory moments, but instead is showed by tense moments through the use of amazing background/ foreground shots and a usually confined setting inside of houses. I personally prefer this horror style of shooting over gore and violence, because this is more relatable and feels like something that could actually happen to yourself. As for the music, there honestly isn’t much to say other than the soundtrack is absolutely classic. The entire thing is pure piano, (which might sound annoying but really it’s the forward repetition that gives the music it’s power) and uses 5/4 time to be slightly offsetting and droning. The track was written in 3 days by the composer John Carpenter, which is impressive because of how well it worked with the rest of the tone of the film. Halloween was shot in 3 months with a budget of $300,000 but the direction of effects makes it seem like any big budget Hollywood film. Effects and sountrack gets a 10/10.

Verdict: Halloween is clearly a classic, and pretty much every single horror and thriller film released since it came out draws influence from it. I recently watched A Nightmare on Elm Street (review coming soon hopefully) and there are some really clear parallels it has to Halloween. I’m not usually one to say the classics are really great or better than newer films, but with “horror” flicks like The Bye Bye Man and some Ouija movies coming out lately, and Halloween still looking, sounding good and retaining it’s tense and suspenseful qualities, I’d say this is one classic that stands the test of time. Halloween might not be very terrifying to people like me who are used to computer generated special effects, gory video games and violence on TV, but I greatly respect what Halloween did for the thriller genre and for film making in general. Halloween is a great movie and deserves the 9/10 that I’m giving it.

*stabee is not a word present in the English dictionary and I am aware of that.

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