final girl
for reasons that i don't really understand, i'm drawn to horror movies. i know i'm not alone; there are plenty out there with the same sick fascination. i usually make it about halfway through a horror movie when the question pops into my head: why the hell am i watching this? sitting through this? torturing myself.
This weekend, in select theaters, a crazy collection of unreleased horror films is coming to scare the bejesus out of us, and i'm really thinking about going. Watch the trailer...
Awhile back i read an article on the Final Girl theory, about the last character left in a horror movie that has to confront the killer. Go read it, and then turn into a film geek like me every time you get to that point in a movie.
And one final girl to finish off this little post. My daughter seems to be a huge horror buff, all of a sudden. I first noticed when we started watching a cheapo horror movie on FX on a Saturday morning (Boo), and she wouldn't let me turn the channel. Blood dripped from the ceiling of an elevator while 2 future victims flipped out and a dead body in a wheel chair between them started to twitch. I said "are you sure you want to watch this?" and she peaked over the top of the blanket she was hiding behind to say "uh huh"...
It's not just movies though. For her birthday last month (fifth), i got her a collection of kids scary stories, Beware!, and she won't let me stop reading it until we get through every story. So night after night i read along as she sits mesmerized. Sometimes i have to adjust the endings to be a little less frightening (the ice cream man that hides bodies in his freezer section is bad enough - he doesn't need to come back for the little girl after she goes to bed), but she loves them just the same. What am i gonna do with her? Maybe she's the final girl, that faces the killer in the end, and allows the male audience to safely identify with their fear. Or maybe i just spent too many nights in a movie theatre in college.
,
This weekend, in select theaters, a crazy collection of unreleased horror films is coming to scare the bejesus out of us, and i'm really thinking about going. Watch the trailer...
Awhile back i read an article on the Final Girl theory, about the last character left in a horror movie that has to confront the killer. Go read it, and then turn into a film geek like me every time you get to that point in a movie.
And one final girl to finish off this little post. My daughter seems to be a huge horror buff, all of a sudden. I first noticed when we started watching a cheapo horror movie on FX on a Saturday morning (Boo), and she wouldn't let me turn the channel. Blood dripped from the ceiling of an elevator while 2 future victims flipped out and a dead body in a wheel chair between them started to twitch. I said "are you sure you want to watch this?" and she peaked over the top of the blanket she was hiding behind to say "uh huh"...
It's not just movies though. For her birthday last month (fifth), i got her a collection of kids scary stories, Beware!, and she won't let me stop reading it until we get through every story. So night after night i read along as she sits mesmerized. Sometimes i have to adjust the endings to be a little less frightening (the ice cream man that hides bodies in his freezer section is bad enough - he doesn't need to come back for the little girl after she goes to bed), but she loves them just the same. What am i gonna do with her? Maybe she's the final girl, that faces the killer in the end, and allows the male audience to safely identify with their fear. Or maybe i just spent too many nights in a movie theatre in college.,
posted by joe @ 8:13 PM
4 comments
What is it with our fascination with horror? Earlier this year I enjoyed the Frightmare Weekend, a film fest which included Scream Queens and Filmmakers. I love attending the haunted houses at Halloween. I must like the rush. As I get older I find that I also question the darkness of my attachment - I would not like the same scenarios if they were real or if they influenced violence. Some movies I can't handle. I went to see The Descent a while back and had to leave the theatre after the first couple of scenes. I want to be able to go into a cave and not think of that movie.
Ah yes, my son used to love the Goosebumps series of books by R.L. Stine. I was in a Half-Price Books store the other day and saw that the Scary Stories books are now at the top of the list of "Most Challenged Books"...he loved those too. My older daughter likes horror but only to a point (I can't get her to watch Jeepers Creepers 2 with me, the first was enough for her), and my youngest wants no part of it. I do still love it though, so I may have to check out the horror fest on my own. (And I'm still waiting for the release of Behind the Mask...when will they ever release it?!)
ooh, the Descent - i haven't had the guts to sit through that one yet. I've heard it's just too much, especially in a dark theater.
Thanks for the Scary Stories recommendation. Looks like a good Christmas present for her.
And of course when i posted this little ditty on the final girl, i forgot the punchline to the story. I asked my little girl why it is that she likes scary movies so much. her response... "because they always turn out good..."
You know, I went to see The Descent, and I just didn't find it particularly scary or disturbing. I think the biggest problem that I had with it was that the "monsters" reminded me too much of Gollum (from Lord of the Rings). I kept expecting that one of them would hiss "My precioussssss" at any moment. :) I find that over the years I have become such a connoisseur of horror that most movies just don't seem very scary anymore. (Although, as I've mentioned before, I found High Tension to be pretty frightening.)
Hope things are going well with you, and that we get to catch up soon! (I know I owe you an email.)