Tis the season to think about the slasher films of my youth, those long ago sepia-colored days spent in trailers watching such classics as Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween, and all the Friday the 13th movies. Not to mention The Nightmare On Elm Street franchise with its creepy ass Freddy as a warning of all the bad things that can happen when you're not paying attention. Even thought I was kind of a classic final girl in some ways (flat-chested, brunette, and able if called upon to tell a tale of survival), I always liked the stories behind the monsters. Take Jason, a poor man's Norman Bates. Jason has Mommy issues with a capital M and takes them out on teenagers who dare to dabble in the dark illicit side of life on his turf. Or Freddy, a child killer who was conceived from a gang rape -- he carried the horror with him, a genetic legacy of sorts.
Once someone asked me who in the hell thought this shit up? Somebody very rich now, I replied. And the proverbial million dollar question -- why are the teenagers always so stupid? Again, have you met any teenagers lately? As Anne Lammott points out in an essay of hers, the gospels never even touch on Jesus as a teenager. We need not know all. I both loved and hated being that age -- the awkwardness was epic, the emotions out of proportion. But I did love the freedom of scaring myself sick with a few other girls in the middle of the night while the mother in charge was working the night shift at the hospital. Her gin bottle sat on the counter, a forlorn symbol of loneliness and exhaustion. Or maybe it was just a bottle of Beefeaters. I do tend toward the dramatic! But we never touched it one way or another; we didn't need those potions then to transport us the way we would later.
Michelle's Spell of the Day
"One of the ways I think I gain fodder for characters is by watching people." Edie Falco
Ccoktail Hour
Okay people - just saw an ad for Dr. Drew's Sex Rehab. This looks really good and will placate me until Celebrity Rehab returns.
Benedictions and Maledictions
Happy Thursday!
7 comments:
Living in Detroit I never really understood the slasher genre. I mean really why look at the fictionalized version when I can walk outside after dark and live it?
Tell the truth...that bottle of gin didn't stay untouched for very many years did it?
"Sex Rehab" ? ??? Why ????
I'm rather glad to be through with the freakish waves of emotion, but there was something submlime about the firsts.
My wife is going to see Robert Englund tonight at the Chicago Flashback Weekend.
http://www.flashbackweekend.com/celeb.html
I don't quite see the attraction of these types of movies. It must be a girl thing.
For my own part, I'm looking forward to the next "Sex in the City" and the third Bridget Jones movie (but only if Renee Zellweger is in it).
Hi Hon, altho my movie tastes lean to the same as Dave's, I did see "Carrie" and "The Exorcist" before giving up on those type of films. The images stay too imprinted on my mind and that's just too negative and scary for me. I didn't know you read Ann LaMott! I love her stuff... xoxo
I think you've hit the nail on the head. The teenagers are stupid...because teenagers are stupid. At least we get to see them removed from our planet in these movies. Reality is far worse. <:\
I avoid teenagers at all turns.
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