Witch Craft

Suspiria was quite an interesting movie. There was a shitload of bad acting and very dramatic moments within this movie. It was a little hard to watch and follow along with what was going on. I did enjoy the horrible effects of this movie. The part when the heart was ripped open and there was about a minute long pause of the heart just being stabbed. It was quite humorous.

The one movie I did really enjoy about witches was The Craft. That movie is one of my favorites! There are three high school students that are into witchcraft and need a fourth witch to complete their square. A new girl transfers into their high school and they see that she has “magical powers” and try to recruit her into their group. As they are hanging out, each one of them has their own problem they are trying to deal with.

 Sarah was being played by a guy and put a love spell on him. Nancy was tired of being trailer trash, used a spell, her moms boyfriend wound up having a heart attack because of her and they became rich. Bonnie was burned in a fire and had nasty burn scars on her back. So she cast a spell that would make her better and when she went to get her surgery that wasn’t proven to work, completely rid her of her scars. The beautiful, blonde popular girl in school was bullying Rochelle about her hair on her head being pubic hair. So Rochelle casted a spell that the popular girls hair would fall out and it did, strand by strand. Towards the end of the movie, all the girls started receiving the bad end of karma coming back at them. Using black magic will ricochet back at you.

I love the term witch because I believe that can be anything. I believe it to be someone who is really connected to themselves and spiritually that they are able to do anything. They see things that others don’t, giving them powers to do more. I also believe a witch to be someone who uses more of his or her mind. A mind is a powerful thing and can conquer anything. 

The Audition from Hell

Audition has to be one of the best foreign films I have seen. The sound of when Asami was sawing the foot off of Shigeharu with piano strings was the most disgusting and gut wrenching noise ever, but I loved it! I could feel the pain of Shigeharu just through the sound effects. I was eating when I was watching that part and I was almost on the verge of gagging. I don’t get freaked out by horror movies because I watch so many but this one definitely made me feel sick.

The story line was different. I liked that is was very psychological. My interpretation of this movie was that it was showing his insecurities and his feelings. His wife passed away. She was the one for him, the one woman who fit his puzzle piece and the one he could always count on being by his side. Asami was the figment of his imagination. Asami symbolized the pain and hurt that took his wife away. When he craved to see Asami, it was showing the desire of wanting to see his wife again. That pain of wanting someone so bad it hurts. When Asami would kill others it symbolized how the pain affected other parts of his life. When she attacked him it was showing how the pain was torturing him.

When it showed the man in the wheel chair burning her and torturing her it was symbolizing how this man tried defeating the pain. It tends to keep coming back but he keeps pushing it away. My interpretation is probably so wrong but that’s how I read the message.

This movie is very powerful with its message and could mean so many different things. I never liked foreign films but because of this class I am really starting to love them. The different messages that different cultures express through different ways is truly amazing. I always heard of Japanese Horror being extremely creepy, scary and out of this world but I never really got the chance to check any of it out so I am glad I got the chance!

J Horror Tales

The reading I chose for J Horror was Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things. I enjoyed these readings a lot especially the one chapter, Oshidori. Each chapter was like a different lesson in life. Oshidori was my favorite because a man sees a pair of oshidori together and he decides to shoot and kill the male one. Later that night the man had a dream of a woman coming to him telling him he took her partner from her. After he awoke he went down to the lake where he shot the duck and he seen the female swimming alone. The duck swam up to him and ripped itself inside out. I took that as a lesson. Every action you do or make has some sort of a reaction to something else. Not even just that, but he has taken an animal’s life partner, that’s cruel as hell! 

Another one I really like was the first story, The Story of Mimi-Nashi-Hoichi. The blind man recited the biwa for the priest whenever he wanted. One night someone strange came and tricked him into reciting over a grave to raise an evil spirit. The priest had caught him and told him the spirit was going to rip him to pieces unless he was covered in blessings. He had to remain still and quiet so the evil spirit wouldn’t see him. The writings made him invisible but the spirits tore his ears off because the priest forgot to write on his ears. Another lesson learned, don’t trust anybody! Whether, it was the strange man tricking him into raising the evil spirits of the dead or the priest being forgetful.

 I really enjoyed these stories because they were life lessons but described in a disturbing way. Making people think different ways about things. J Horror is definitely one of my new favorite things.

Frankenstein did what?

I'm really glad I was able to get the chance to read Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. I learned so much about it that I didn’t even know happened. Frankenstein was almost a completely different story from what I knew of as a child.
Reading Frankenstein I learned that Dr. Frankenstein was actually afraid of his creation. After he creates the monster, the monster actually runs away and Dr. Frankenstein is so excited about it. The monster then kills someone and comes back to Frankenstein. The monster is lonely and upset because he’s so hideous that everyone is afraid of him. When Frankenstein refuses to create the monster a woman, he makes Frankenstein’s life hell by killing people he loves. The whole time the monster is having a full conversation with Frankenstein. 

From what I have learned about Frankenstein is that the actual monster’s name was Frankenstein, he wasn’t nameless. He never even talked he just grunted like a beast. He never killed anyone or even touched him. Dr. Frankenstein and the monster were friends. He never ran away from his tower wreaking havoc on the town and never was ashamed of what he looked like. He was just a friendly monster.

It was totally a shock reading the novel because everything I have learned about Frankenstein growing up is completely not true. What really shocked me is that he actually had full on conversations with Dr. Frankenstein. Another thing that really stuck out to me as well that was in the book, the monster was more described as a yellowish decomposing type monster so it sounded more like that he was a zombie then a giant monster. I always known Frankenstein as being green and extremely giant, his feet like moon boots and his hands like boulders.

I really enjoyed this story. The whole time I was reading this I just kept thinking why would this scientist bring a dead human back to life and then abandon him. He created the life of this “ugly creature,” disturbing him from his eternal rest and you can’t even take responsibility for him. I was rooting for the monster the entire time. This story to me was a good story about bad karma on Dr. Frankenstein.

         

Let the Right One In

Let the right one in was so much better in the original Swedish version. I have seen the American version let me in and I loved the story line but the story seemed a lot more mysterious. I usually hate watching foreign films due to missing the movie trying to keep up with the subtitles but I didn't mind this movie because the dialogue wasn't overwhelming. I believe it was creepier because it was foreign and you don't really know what lurks where you haven't been. 

         I’m not a huge fan of vampires because recent films have completely destroyed the term “vampire.” Films and books have now turned them into sexy lovebirds and that is not what they are. Vampires are meant to be mysterious, creepy and animal like. They suck blood, can’t be in sunlight, don’t have reflections and are killed by a wooden stake through the heart. That’s my term of a vampire.

         Recent movies are trying to turn the image of horror into something heartwarming and comforting. That is not horror! Vampires do not sparkle!

         But back to Let the Right One In, I love the storyline to this movie. The weird little nerd kid that gets bullied to the point of death and the little vampire girl saves him. My favorite scene is where the little boy (Oskar) is swimming and the older brother of the bully attempts to drown him by holding him under the water. All the kids surrounding the older brother, the little vampire girl (Eli) comes in and rips each boy to shreds and that was the ending of the movie. It’s the perfect “Karma is a Bitch.”

         Twilight does seem to be an older knock off of this movie. This movie is a love story between two little kids. Twilight is like a grown version of this movie. I love the more grotesque things in Let the Right One In like the guardian of Eli captures people hangs them upside down, slits there throats and lets their blood drain down a funnel and into a container. The only thing grotesque about twilight is probably the birth of the baby. Twilight is just lame because vampire movies should be scary!