Altered -Movie Review

Directed by Eduardo Sanchez/2006/1hr 27min
SPOILERS AHEAD
Originally published November 25, 2013.

Reading the Netflix synopsis of this movie, I was expecting an extraterrestrial sci-fi thriller rooted in revenge and justice.  I was not expecting a backwoods, beer-fueled, mulleted, old-fashioned ass kickin!

Our film begins with three, dare I say, "rednecks" barreling through the woods in a van chasing after an alien.  Otis, Duke, and Cody, armed with harpoons, guns, chains, and traps pursue the alien until finally it falls in a deep hole and they are able to capture it.  This opening scene also contained my favorite dialogue exchange of the whole movie: "Hey moron, you almost harpooned me."  "Suck it up, piss-pants."

I digress.  They load up the alien and bring it back to the home of Wyatt, a paranoid young man with a picture of a presumed dead relative and a claw-like "tracker" in a jar out in his garage.  Otis, Duke, and Cody bring the knocked-out alien into the garage and lay it on the table.  Wyatt checks to make sure the alien is still alive because apparently if you kill one, the rest will come and annihilate you.  Cody is a bit of an antagonist, giving Wyatt a hard time and revealing that the aliens had attacked before, killing Cody's brother, Timmy.  Upon their escape, Wyatt told all their family members and friends that the men were lying about the alien attack and that Cody had killed his own brother.  Cody's dad believed this story and the shame of the lie has been haunting Cody for 15 years.

Suddenly the alien wakes up, lets out a high frequency screech, leaving Wyatt grabbing his head in anguish.  Wyatt snaps and starts cutting the alien's midsection open.  The alien's arms get free and it starts to thrash as Cody jumps in and restrains it, getting bit in the process.  Wyatt is able to extract the tracker from the alien's intestines and steps on it, ensuring the other aliens will not be able to find them.  It is then revealed that Wyatt has a giant torso scar from when he was abducted many years ago and implanted with a tracker himself.


The alien is passed out again, so they glue it back together and duct tape it to the table - so rednecky - I love it!  Wyatt's wife/girlfriend, Hope, comes into the garage and starts freaking out, as anyone would upon seeing this laying on their table.  Otis had put a welder's helmet over the alien's face so they could all avoid eye contact, but in the tussle, the glass part of the helmet had cracked, and Hope and the alien engage in a stare-off.  Entranced, she grabs an exacto knife, turns it on the men, and then puts it to her own throat.  Cody tackles her, Wyatt screams, "LET GO" and the trance is broken.  They tie Hope to the bed to keep her out of the way while Cody realizes that his entire body is becoming infected from the alien bite.  His skin is turning grey and veiny and splotchy and overall gross.

The creature wakes up again and we go through the process again of knocking it out, this time with a shovel, I believe, and we see Cody's condition worsening.  This is what they believe killed Timmy, the contagious bites, eating from the inside out, their flesh peeling off in layers.  Yum!  They lock his ass in the bathroom because he's starting to trip out.  Out of nowhere, the creature is GONE FROM THE TABLE!  Those long fingernails it had came in handy for cutting the duct tape.  The lights magically go out as well and here comes the town sheriff to investigate after a disturbance call.  The sheriff pops a Yuengling as the alien is revealed hiding in a closet and then scrambling behind Hope's bed.  We get our first clear view of the alien at this moment, black, slimy, pointed teeth, wet black eyes, and what my husband thought was a vagina on its forehead.  Anyway.

The alien and Otis tussle, but the alien gets the better of him, stringing his intestines across the room and starting to chow down.  The other men barge in trying to help, somehow the sheriff gets shot, and Wyatt is able to saw off the alien's hand and fling it across the room.  The sheriff dies, thereby being the most useless character of the whole movie.  Thanks, officer.  Hope frees herself from the bed and threatens to kill the alien.  Instead they load it into the van to take it to "town."  Duke stays behind with Cody and Wyatt explains to Hope about how he was altered many years ago by the aliens and now they want him back.

Wyatt screeches to a halt in the road, sensing the aliens are surrounding them.  Hope walks off and Wyatt discovers, surprise, the sheriff's body is in the cage, not the alien!  Duke had done the old switcheroo and is back in the garage torturing the alien.  Duke's about to set it on fire when Cody's rotting ass crawls out of the bathroom, distracting him.  Upon Wyatt's arrival back home, we see Duke nailed up in the utility closet and implanted.  Wyatt finds the alien in the bathtub, fights it, gets bit and then tackled as the alien flies across the room.  BUT! Duke is still alive, though not for long, as he yells for the alien to "Get off him, you f*cker" but then has his throat ripped out.  Sigh, anyway.

Eventually Cody harpoons the alien across the room into the wall and they have an epic staredown.  The alien mind controls Cody making him beat Wyatt's ass even though all his bones are breaking and his flesh is rotting off and finally Hope busts back in and shoots the alien in the head.  Wyatt puts Cody out of his misery, shooting him in the head, but then ALL the aliens start to break in.  It's pandemonium!!  Wyatt and Hope run to the basement in a little bunker Wyatt has created and they blow the whole freakin' house up.  We see an exterior shot of the UFO lingering over the house and then escaping up into the atmosphere.  Oh yeah, the UFO looks like a giant damn frog.  Disappointed.  Wyatt and Hope are alive and although they blew up their entire house, somehow the body of the original alien is still within a couple feet.  Our final scene ends with them leaving the charred alien body on the doorstep of a man named "Towne" (this was never really explained) and they drive off in their van.

Alright, so this movie was utterly ridiculous, perhaps only remotely scary due to Cody's flesh rotting off, but overall hilariously entertaining, whether intentional or not.  My husband even sat down halfway through to watch it and didn't leave til the end, even though he has Assassins Creed 4 to play downstairs, so that's got to tell you something.  Anyway, on sheer terror factor alone, I have to give it a thumbs down, but being from Virginia and having spent my fair share of time around guys just like those in this movie, it almost reminds you of home in an odd...way...

Anyway, if you have an hour and a half to kill and a beer or two to drink, I'd definitely suggest watching this movie with a group of friends.  It's got just enough suspense to keep you interested and enough humor that you'll be quoting for the next few days.  Thumbs up from me!

-Amanda

Cotard's Delusion: Walking Corpse Syndrome

In 1880, French neurologist Jules Cotard treated a middle-aged woman now known only as Mademoiselle X.  She claimed she was missing several vital body parts.  No brain, no nerves, no chest, no stomach, and no intestines, she said.  She didn't believe there was a God or a Devil, and yet believed she was condemned to eternal damnation - and thus couldn't die a 'natural' death.  She also claimed she was "eternal and would live forever."  As such, Mademoiselle X didn't see the point in eating and soon starved to death.

Cotard published his description of this delire des negations, and it was widely circulated, eventually leading to the disorder being named after him.  However, delusions of missing organs and immortality are only two of the ways in which Cotard's delusion may manifest itself.

Patients suffering from Cotard's delusion may believe:
-They are already dead, do not exist, or self-identify as a dead body or zombie.
-That they are missing any number of organs or body parts (or deny the existence of those parts).
-That the things around them are dead (animals or trees).
-That the world will soon be destroyed.
-That they have been taken to Hell.
-Patients may have an increased fascination with death and the macabre, frequently wishing to visit graveyards so they do not feel so alone.
-That doctors or other medical professionals are deceiving them with regard to their non-existent parts.  (A woman who didn't believe she possessed blood, would accuse her doctors of this when they took blood samples or checked her blood pressure.)

 Cotard's delusion often presents alongside migraines, psychotic depression, hypochondria, and sometimes schizophrenia.

Unfortunately, Cotard's delusion is so rare that there has not been a large amount of study devoted to its pathophysiology.  However, the current theory is that it is caused by a misfiring in the fusiform gyrus and amygdalae.  The fusiform gyrus is thought to be responsible for facial recognition; the amygdalae, the emotions related to those faces.  When damaged or impaired, this can lead to not recognizing the people in one's life, oneself, and a sense of derealization about the world in general.  Capgras delusion (the notion that everybody in your life has been replaced by an exact replica) is another disorder associated with damage to these areas of the brain.  There is also some study that suggests Cotard's delusion is linked to lesions of the median frontal lobe.

As observed, Cotard's delusion goes through three stages.  The "Germination stage", where the patient first observes the feelings of the self-negating delusion, depression, or hypochondria; the "Blooming stage" wherein the disorder develops fully; and the "Chronic stage", characterized by ongoing delusions and depression.

These stages might be better described via examining the case of Haley Smith, an Alabama teen, who was diagnosed with Cotard's Delusion and found treatment through therapy and Disney movies.  According to Smith, she was having a hard time dealing with her parents' divorce, and in English class one day, she was struck with the sensation that she was dead.  The school nurse was unable to find anything wrong with her, and sent her home.  On her way, she wanted very much to stop by a graveyard, but was unable and continued home to sleep the feeling off.  It worked.  The sensation went away for several days.

Then, as Smith entered the Blooming stage, the sensation was not solved with sleep.  One day when out shopping, her whole body went numb and she ran home, reeling under the severity of the feeling.  It didn't go away this time.  It took her two years of coping with the syndrome before seeing a psychiatrist, who quickly diagnosed her.

Thankfully, with the help of her therapist, her boyfriend, and classic Disney movies, Haley's condition improved.  As she put it: "Watching Disney films gave me a warm, fuzzy feeling...  I asked my boyfriend, Jeremy, 'How can I be dead when Disney movies make me feel this good?'"  Thus, Smith was able to stave off the third stage: Chronic Cotard's delusion.

Certainly, not everyone gets such a happy ending.  Don't forget about poor Mlle. X.  But, compared to many other extremely rare disorders, those with Cotard's tend to respond very well to treatment.  However, this doesn't undo the creepiness of the experience.  With no markers for predisposition, anyone could be struck with Cotard's delusion.

-Joanna

I Saw the Devil - Movie Review

I Saw the Devil
Original Title: Ang-ma-reul bo-at-da
2010
Dir. Jee-woon Kim

Spoiler Free!

Imagine a world in which Craven's Last House on the Left was subtly-made, compelling, beautiful, and ends up actually meaning something... Well, guess what: minus the famous 'biting' scene, you're in luck!  I Saw the Devil is your ticket.

This Korean horror-drama by Jee-woon Kim takes the cliche secret-agent revenge flick to a new level.  After only 53 minutes, this movie had the main characters in 'the final showdown', and I was baffled at what it was going to do with itself for the remaining hour and a half.  Well, it does plenty, weaving a plot so satisfying it had me clapping with sick glee.

A psychotic killer by the name of Kyung-chul (played by Min-sik Choi), kidnaps, rapes, and murders women.  One of those women was the fiancee of secret agent Soo-hyeon (played by the handsome Byung-hun Lee).  Taking two weeks off work, Soo-hyeon begins to track down her killer in the most badass way possible.  He doesn't faff around with investigating his suspects, he just sneaks up, assaults them, and gets them to confess about whether they're the killer.  Just so you know how serious he is, he smashes one rapist's junk with a hammer - just for good measure.  After two dead ends, he tracks down Kyung-chul and the real story begins.

There's a magnificent fight scene in a greenhouse that establishes Kyung-chul as physically intimidating and ruthless, but also establishes that Soo-hyeon is an unmitigated bad-ass.  Soo-hyeon WRECKS Kyung-chul.  But then, Kyung-chul wakes up with bruises, a broken wrist, and an envelope full of cash on his chest.  And this is where the movie takes off.

See, just killing Kyung-chul would be too easy, to simple for Soo-hyeon.  He wants that monster to suffer in pain and fear, just like Soo-hyeon's fiancee did in her final moments.  Thus I Saw the Devil takes us on a twisting ride that I can genuinely call cat-and-mouse without hating myself.  Kyung-chul goes about his serial-killing psychopathic business, stalked and repeatedly beaten by Soo-hyeon.  Along the way we meet all manner of strange low-lifes, cannibals, innocents, and diligent cops trying to tag along in Soo-hyeon's wake.

But do not mistake I Saw the Devil as a mere action-thriller.  There is no emotional triumph at the end for Soo-hyeon.  Justice is not served.  When all is said and done there is only blood and cold and despair.  And despite the fact that I Saw the Devil wallows heartily in all the great things about the horror movie psychopath (placing it squarely in the horror genre, I think), it maintains a steady, fundamental undercurrent of existential darkness.  It's the same theme that plenty of artsy movies try to get at, just without the wham-bang fight scenes and outstandingly rendered gore.  Sort of like if The Bicycle Thief were re-written by a Nebraskan teenager in a Cannibal Corpse t-shirt.  But then somebody with taste took it away and made sure it was good.

One of the best things about this movie is that, as it progresses, one isn't sure exactly who the Devil in it is.  At the mid-point, the perspective of the movie tilts toward Kyung-chul, the killer's, almost making him the protagonist as he bullies doctors and rapes a nurse.  This part, in particular, was where I felt the Last House on the Left resonance the most.  I was always put off by how LHotL seemed more concerned, even sympathetic, with the raping, murdering hooligans than the totally dorky, lame-o parents.  Perhaps it's the cynical part of me that knows there's countless douche-bags out there that agree.  Likewise, Kyung-chul runs around like an MRA's comic-book hero, not taking shit from old people, telling it like it is, complaining about how "the bitches are always out to get him", and generally being a huge prick.  But, a prick than has no compunctions about slitting your throat with a broken piece of glass.  This said, when Soo-hyeon begins to haunt him like a relentless spectre, I Saw the Devil almost seems to say that Soo-hyeon is the devil, and that's AWESOME.

But of course, nothing is so clear cut.  Later, as we see Soo-hyeon's broken condition, it is clearly Kyung-chul that was the devil.  Kyung-chul destroyed everything about Soo-hyeon's life, including his ability to be himself.

However, I don't mean to oversell the complexity of this movie.  What I'm trying to explain is that this movie deftly examines the most rudimentary blocks of morality and how our actions influence our identity.  It doesn't go very deep, so don't expect it to.  However, it goes deeper than I ever expected a movie like this to go.  Gory revenge flicks almost seem hard-coded to be mindless, pointless, and pornographic in the most boring of ways.  I Saw the Devil is not.  It's fun, exciting, scary, gruesome, but also puts the effort in to be good at all.

The reason why I react with such enthusiasm to this movie is that it's a bit of a rare bird.  It's an example of a horror movie that is splashy and satisfying enough to please the most plebeian audience, but is well-made enough to make stern critics shrug and admit it's not ALL BAD.  And this isn't just in the plotting or the excellence of the acting.  The editing (and subsequently, the pacing) is magnificent.  I Saw the Devil takes its time to show character development, while seamlessly advancing through the engrossing plot.  It's shot beautifully, in stern, wintry greys that are exploded apart by bright blood sprays.  Further the manner in which the camera conveys its action (even outside its color palate), is masterfully conducted.  If this convinces you: it's the first time I've ever seen the Michael-Bay-360 happen in a movie and actually BE GOOD.  Mindblowingly good.  Good because it makes the onscreen action claustrophobic, yet entirely visible in necessary ways.

In conclusion, I would recommend I Saw the Devil to anybody who likes a horror movie.  Because even if you don't go in for the splatter of serial killers, you can at least enjoy it for being a well-made film.  You can enjoy it for how it (might) make you cry, and (might) make you cheer or laugh.  You can enjoy it for how it doesn't turn away from its moral implications and inevitable personal repercussions.  But really, when you get down to it, it's just one of the hands-down best showings in the revenge-flick category you're likely to see.

-Joanna

Shain Erin - Artist Review*

Sorceress - Female Nude

*and genuine mystery... but I'll get to that later.

Shain Erin's Morbid Art dolls.  Where do I even begin on how amazing these are?

Since graduating from the San Francisco Art Institute with a BFA, Erin has used his sculpture skills to create terrifying figures that have been displayed in art shows around the world.  His collections have ranged from pale ghosts reminiscent of Victorian poppets, to small withered mummies swaddled tightly in their fetishistic bindings.  Erin boldly delves into grotequerie and monster-making, pushing the boundaries of what a "doll" is and can be.

In the bio from Erin's wordpress site, he states that these toys are not meant to be comforting.  Rather, they are "disturbing and enchanting, irrational and frightening, beautiful and sad."  And discomforting they are.  Some of the dolls are immediately spooky: the kind of thing a 13-year-old lingering outside a Hot Topic would enjoy.  Very quickly, though, his work veers into the horror of severe disfigurement and mutation.  Mouths gape with a snarl of huge, malformed teeth.  Extra eyes, uncomfortable goiters, unreasonable cleft palates, and swollen skulls grace these figures delicately sculpted in paperclay.  Eventually, the dolls, like those in the Fallen series, are reduced to vaguely humanoid lumps of scabrous flesh.

Christina

But, Erin is not in the business of making mere scary dolls.  His work is deeply rooted in world art and mythology.  As such, his works often aim to excavate and explore a personal mythology, creating "artifacts that never were."  In this vein, we see his series of mummies, reminiscent of real-life tiny  mummies or shrunken heads.  Instead of being dressed in child-like nightgowns, these mummies are given crude shifts and bead necklaces- or are tightly bound like a witch-doctor's doll.

When not riffing on the traditions of Western or international art, Erin subverts the human form to make monsters.  Some are genuinely bizarre like the Whispering Roots Woman, while others seem carefully constructed to inspire the most fear.  They'd fit right in to a Guillermo del Toro movie.  Erin will swap out heads for animal parts, tinker with misplaced anatomy, and distort the proportions of his dolls until they are perfect.

The Seer - Journeys of the Soul

The best place to view Erin's work outside of a Google image search is his deviantart gallery.  His blogs (on blogspot and wordpress), are still up as of this article's publication, but don't display as much of his work.  However, this does bring us nicely to the Mystery of Shain Erin!

If you thought you liked this guy because of his talent, craftsmanship, and twisted imagination, I've got one more course of dessert to put in front of you.

Shain Erin has completely disappeared.

As I dug into this artist, to gather information about how they produce their work, their background, and what themes they intend to play with, I found dead end after dead end.  Erin used to have an Etsy storefront where he sold his dolls.  It's not longer in service.  The domain name that he links to from his blogs as his official website (www.shainerin.com) is up for sale.  His still-standing blogs haven't been updated for four and a half years.  His facebook page hasn't shown any activity since October 1, 2011.  In fact, the facebook upload of a photo seems to be his last known communication with the rest of the world.

There's even a sad trail of recent messages on Erin's deviantart page asking where he's gone and hoping that he's okay.  Aside from the two blogs and the deviantart account, Shane Erin isn't on the internet anymore.  Despite the continued attention that his work receives, Erin hasn't come out of the woodwork to display more dolls at art shows, or sell any of his creations.

I'm not sure the question will ever be answered, but it must be asked: What happened to Shane Erin?

-Joanna

Creepy Twins - Part 2! The Eriksson Twins

Warning: Video footage below contains elements that may be disturbing.  View with caution.

Way back in January, I did the first installment of Creepy Twins with the Gibbons sisters.  Today I bring you part two, the even creepier, definitely more insane, Eriksson twins, Ursula and Sabina.  The documentary above "Madness in the Fast Lane" details the events that took place on May 17th, 2008 when Sabina and Ursula flung themselves into the busy traffic of the MG motorway.  Police were alerted when witnesses saw the sisters attempting to cross the motorway, acting strangely and erraticly.  Once stopped on the side of the road by officers, the twins spoke briefly to the police before Ursula, without warning, dashed and ran into the side of a 40 ton truck traveling 56 miles per hour.

Moments later, Sabina ran into traffic and was hit by a Volkswagen.  Amazingly, both women survived.  Ursula was immobilized as her legs had been crushed but after being unconcious for 15 minutes, Sabina began to fight paramedics and police officers screaming, "They're going to steal your organs" and "I recognize you - I know you're not real."  Sabina punched a female officer and ran into traffic again on the other side of the motorway.  She was finally caught and restrained by emergency workers and sedated in an ambulance.

This story takes a more ugly and disturbing turn a day later.  Sabina was released from police custody without a full psych evaluation.  She began to wander the streets of England before being stopped by two men, one of which was Glenn Hollinshead.  Sabina stopped to pet their dog and they had a brief conversation.  Although noticing her odd behavior, Hollinshead offered Sabina a room for the night.  Sadly, the next morning, Sabina stabbed Hollinshead five times and killed him.  Sabina then ran out of the house with a hammer, hitting herself in the head repeatedly.  The police were notified and Sabina was again chased before jumping off of a 40 foot bridge, breaking several bones in the fall.  She was charged with murder and gave no explanation for her behavior despite repeated questioning.

Folie a deux is a French term for "A madness shared by two."  In other words, a shared psychosis, a psychiatric syndrome in which symptoms of a delusional belief are transmitted from one individual to another.  The defense council in Sabina's trail claimed that she was a secondary sufferer of folie a deux, influenced by the presence of her sister Ursula, the primary sufferer.  The defense claimed Ursula had a history of mental illness which then transferred to the weaker personality of Sabina.  The defense also tried to assert that Sabina suffered a case of bouffe delirante or "puff of madness" where a perfectly sane person will lose their mind for a small time and then return to normal.  Sabina was sentenced to five years in prison on the plea of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

The most recent updates on the Eriksson twins is that Sabina was released from prison but her current whereabouts are unknown.  Ursula is thought to be living in America looking after Sabina's two children.  Ursula also underwent an exorcism at her local church to help drive away the demons that forced her onto the motorway back in 2008.

As strange and horrific as their actions were, we will never know the true reason the Eriksson twins ran across that motorway, what possessed them to fling their bodies into oncoming traffic, one right after the other.  Were they possessed by supernatural forces?  Did they suffer from undiagnosed mental illness?  Are folie a deux and bouffe delirante plausible excuses?  If Ursula's legs had not been crushed resulting in a multiple week hospital stay, would she have joined her sister in killing even more people?  If Sabina were truly suicidal, why did she not turn the knife on herself instead of killing an innocent man?  There are too many questions unanswered that I don't even believe Sabina and Ursula would be able to clarify themselves.  Unfortunately an innocent life was lost in this tragic and confusing story and Sabina and Ursula are both still out in the world today.  There have been no further widely known reports of criminal activity from the Eriksson twins, so perhaps they truly have been exorcised or healed of their psychosis.  Maybe a "puff of madness" truly can make an average day take a horrific turn.

-Amanda

The Babadook - Movie Review

The Babadook
2014
Directed by Jennifer Kent
Spoiler-Free!

This is probably self-destructive for a blogger to say but: STOP READING THIS BLOG RIGHT NOW AND GO WATCH THE BABADOOK.  IT IS ON NETFLIX INSTANTVIEW, and if you don't have Netflix, I'm sure you can pay some exorbitant one-time price on some other website.

Point is: this is hands-down one of the best horror movies I've ever seen.  I have a deep, deep love for early German Expressionism and magic realism.  The Babadook scratches both of these itches in a most potent and brilliantly powerful way.  Further, I'm currently preggo, and am terrified of postpartum depression, so The Babadook hits home hard.  These two things, style and heart, are what set The Babadook apart from other scary movies (despite the fact that we're in the giddy throes of a horror renaissance).

Warning: This is not so much a review, as it is a long essay about the two things I loved the most about The Babadook.  There are far better reviews out there, and I don't think I can add to them.  Check them out if you'd like something more concise and review-y.

Synopsis: The Babadook is about a mother whose husband died in a car-wreck on the way to give birth to her son.  Seven-ish years later, the mother and son discover a children's book titled Mister Babadook, and soon the babadook is an all-too-real entity ruining their lives.  As the mother spirals into madness, both her life and her son's are in danger.

Part I:  Why the ending confuses people 

Or, Americans can't grok Magic Realism.

Let's start with the style.  The Babadook is impeccably made.  It's not merely put together well.  It doesn't just have excellent lighting and set-direction.  It isn't simply acted with a potency that reaches into your guts and rips out all your fears.  It is all these things and more.  The most thrilling thing about The Babadook (stylistically) is that it dwells deep in the land of expressionistic magic realism.  This is what leads to some of the more far-out sequences and what makes certain passages of The Babadook so unfathomably terrifying.  This is why the visual-effects are not "polished" (something Jennifer Kent did intentionally).  This is also why the ending confused so many hapless movie-goers.

I promise, I'm not about to spoil this.

Hi, Count Orlok!  I've missed you...

So what do I mean when I say expressionistic magic realism?  I'm probably going to botch this definition because I'm not a film or literary scholar, but bear with me.  In this movie, the babadook is absolutely real, but that is not what the movie is trying to say.  Kent's story is told using something magical (the babadook) to talk about something perfectly true and real in real life.  This is not the same as riding along on a premise about something supernatural that then has an undertone or subtext that is supposed to connect up to real life.  Kent is talking about mundane reality, using magic.  The point is not to walk away thinking babadooks are real, but to walk away thinking about the thing the babadook represents in an extremely real manner.

To get my point across, it might help for me to talk about the current state of horror movies and then explain how The Babadook deviates.  This movie does not come down on one side or the other in what I call "The Literalist Dilemma".  That is to say, 99% of American horror cinema falls into one category or the other in this dilemma.

One category is that GHOSTS ARE REAL.  This includes movies like Oculus that are very serious about the audience buying into the premise that supernatural stuff is real and that's just how this movie is gonna be.  Other examples are The Ring, The Exorcist, and, to reach for an uncommon example, the Friday the 13th movies.  These movies say "This is a supernatural train that will never happen in real life, so if you're not down with that- then get off now."

The other category is GHOSTS ARE NOT REAL.  These movies often end with a "twist" where the camera pans out to see the main character has been talking to themselves in an empty room the whole time.  There are no ghosts or monsters, it's all in their heads!  It has been the whole time!  Examples include Session 9, The House on Haunted Hill, and The Village  A friend of mine helpfully pointed out I could call this The Scooby-Doo, so that's its official name now.

Just wanted to share some of the best Scooby-Doo fanart by Dijonay with you. Never has Fred looked so good...

These two categories comprise the horns of The Literalist Dilemma.  In other words, the premise and the leverage of the twist of these movies are based on the audience taking the events depicted in the film literally.  There are literally ghosts or there are literally no ghosts, only madness and assholes. Put another way, these movies are CLEAR about whether they posit supernatural things or not.  By the end, the audience can be comfortable knowing which side of the dilemma the movie falls on, and process it accordingly.

Magic realism, however, throat-punches this dilemma right in its reductivist... throat.  This is why I've watched countless people tie themselves up in knots trying to "decipher" movies like Pan's Labyrinth.  The deciphering is an attempt to figure out which horn to stick the movie on, and magic realist movies staunchly resist this.  They blur the line between the reality and fantasy in such a way that it is unclear whether we are supposed to 'believe' magic actually happens in the movie.  Thus, getting obsessed with whether or not the babadook is a real monster is missing the point.

To highlight a finer point, there's a part of me that is tempted to refer to the babadook as 'metaphorical', but this leads into an easy trap laid by the Literalist Dilemma.  Oculus, for example, is ultimately about childhood trauma.  It tells a story where there are literally ghosts, but the ghosts are 'metaphorical' for traumatic memories.  The childhood trauma is a subtext that we ought to 'get' while the movie goes about its supernatural business.  This is often how value is found in horror movies at all.  We use bogeymen to address our real problems.  However, there is something distinct in magical realism that puts that metaphor up front.  The babadook is a tool, a symbol, for talking about postpartum depression, but is also real.  There are no 'two-levels' of thinking about the movie, because the babadook and the PPD exist on the same plane of reality here.

Or, the babadook is immediately representational, instead of subtextual.

This leads to confusion for people who don't have a way of processing film outside of the Literalist Binary.  Even my favorite reviewer, David Edelstein, seems to succumb to this in one of his few, tiny bits of criticism of the movie: stating that some viewers might think its metaphor too "obvious".  To rate metaphor in terms of obviousness isn't going to work for a movie like this...  It's like talking about the obviousness of an animal.  "Sorry, your cat was too obvious.  Obvious cats are just so crass."  What is that even supposed to mean?

Let's pretend with script-writing:

Is the babadook real?  Yes.  So then this is a supernatural movie?  No.  Wait... but you just said the babadook was real.  It is.  So then how is this NOT a supernatural movie?  Because there's nothing supernatural about it.  The babadook is real, and her depression is real.  In fact, they're the same thing.  Yeah... but what you mean is the babadook is a metaphor for the depression?  That depends on how you're using the word 'metaphor.'  If you're using it to mean that this is a movie about a monster that doesn't exist, that is separate from the depression but can be read metaphorically, then no- because the monster does exist, every day, in the real world we are living in right now.  But that's impossible!  I don't understand, waaaaaaaah.... I'm gonna go complain on imdb. :(

The Babadook requires the audience to be capable of parsing a reality that is NOT fantasy (i.e. realism), but that includes magical elements.  The babadook is no less real than the dog, or Mrs. Roach, but don't make the mistake of thinking that means this movie is supernatural.

I won't stop screaming until I know if it's real or not!!!!!!!!!!!

Part II: You are not your depression

Or, sometimes kids ARE terrible and that doesn't make you a bad mom...

The other glorious thing about The Babadook is how it treats the complex relationship between a parent and child.  There are so many, many movies that tell an overly simplified version of this struggle: usually where the child is sweet and only occasionally annoying, and the mom Just Goes Crazy because that's Just What Moms Do.  Because Mothering Is Hard.  I cannot even begin to express how stupid, lazy, and harmful this is to women coping with motherhood, mustless PPD.  

So many reviews on the internet harp on about how annoying the kid in this movie is.  Every time I see one, I turn into Grumpycat and go "GOOD. :(" because the kid not being a darling angel is important to understanding the cycle this movie is all about.  Sometimes kids aren't good and sometimes mom's aren't good.  The events in The Babadook are grueling, both for the mother and child.  They are both dealing with immensely heavy emotional shit, and it makes them drive each other crazy.  The mother makes the kid crazy, and the kid makes the mom crazy, until everything is just covered over in the darkness of the babadook, and they are actually trying to murder each other. 

This level of emotional complexity is not only refreshing, but makes the terror of The Babadook so much more severe.  It would be easier to dismiss a movie that worked in broad strokes.  It would be easy to say: well, that woman is deeply disturbed; I'm not deeply disturbed; therefore I'm safe from being this woman and this movie couldn't possibly happen to me.  Instead, The Babadook shows just how feasible it is to slide down that slope of grief, sleep-deprivation, and bitterness into becoming a monster yourself.  The Babadook does not turn away from the horribleness of PPD.  It doesn't give the easy out of the babadook just being a fantastical, fictional bogeyman that lives in a movie, tormenting the innocent (GHOSTS ARE REAL).  Rather, it shows how the babadook can be an all-too-real darkness festering on the inside of lonely, desperate parents.  

And yet!  The babadook is separate from the mother, Amelia.  If this were a movie that flopped over onto the GHOSTS ARE NOT REAL horn, it would quickly fall into the pathetically sexist trap of "Well, she's just a crazy, bad mother."  Think Carrie or Mommy Dearest.  Considering the monumental amount of pressure and guilt moms labor under in our society, this trap is particularly insidious.  The last thing moms need is another story telling us that when we are at our worst: weak, damaged, and struggling, that it just means we are bad.  Because if we were 'good moms' we wouldn't be having these problems, and we especially would never, ever, EVER take any of it out on our darling angel children.  Oh, you did take it out on your kids that one time?  Well, guess they're gonna need therapy later and you are a BAD MOM.  And that narrative just feeds the evil cycle of depression, further isolating hurting women and hurting families.

By making the babadook a thing that is separate from the mother's identity, it (strangely) gives a positive, hopeful, and empowering view on mental illness.  You Are Not Your Depression, The Babadook says.  Even better, it says: You Can Fight It and Be Happy Someday.  

Now, you're probably going to have to keep your babadook locked away and feed it worms for the rest of your life because you 'can't get rid of the babadook', but you know what?  That's pretty okay.

But don't get uppity and think The Babadook condones abuse.  If it's clear about one thing: it is how horrible all this is.  But it doesn't leave it there, down at the bottom of that pit.  It concludes with a message far stronger and more powerful: 

You Can Beat The Babadook.

-Joanna

Oh, and aside from all this lengthy rambling: The Babadook is FUCKING TERRIFYING.  So go watch it already...

Travis Louie - Artist Review

Herman and Morris

Atmosphere and strangeness; Travis Louie displays a mastery of both in his paintings.  Rendered in acrylic over graphite, Louie's work depicts an alternate world of Victorian society littered with dreamlike touches.  Odd creatures and persons not quite human have their portraits taken.  There is a mundanity to the practice, but the subjects of the paintings are anything but mundane.

On one hand, you have the familiar.  Stern tintypes of relatives with slicked-over hairstyles and curly mustaches are things we might find in any of our family attics.  The formality of the portrait served a few purposes back in the day.  Not mere records of appearance, they were also a display of status and place in the society.  One's dress, one's posture, and the style of one's brooch are all details that indicated the larger world surrounding the subject.  One could argue that the rigid structure dictated by the technology of the time gave definition to these minute differences between a baker and a broker.

Leveraging this attention to detail, and how it can lead to the weaving of insinuated worlds, Travis Louie's portraits of imaginary persons are each deeply fascinating.  Once you get past the upfront strangeness of troll-like appearances or giant toads, you may be struck by the familiarity of the work.  They way the subjects sit and look off camera is comforting.  And then, again, upon examining the details that indicate that larger world, that strangeness comes creeping back.  For example, look into the unnatural gleam in the eyes of the man in Herman and Morris above.

Candletop Hastings

On the other hand, Louie is great because of the up-front weirdness of his work.  I mean, really, to somebody who has spent far, far too much time wallowing in descriptions of Edwardian fish-people or fantastical steampunk half-breeds, Travis Louie is like an uncomfortable dream come true.  There's monster-people, monkey-people, people holding giant goldfish, people with odd little creatures floating above their heads.

While Louie's style is undoubtably his own, I can't help but point out a few other ways to describe his style that might appeal.  His work is like looking at the great-grandparents of Toni DiTerlizzi's faeries, rendered in film noir shading.  Louie's portraits are like peeking into the fantasy world of a book not-yet-written, but that I desperately want to read.  The influence of his childhood days spent watching atomic-age sci-fi thrillers is evident in his mutants and independently-minded hairdos.

I wish I could show you everything Louie has done.  Picking examples for this post was immensely difficult, so I'll just direct you to his website: http://travislouieartworks.com/  Also, a google image search under his name will produce further wonders.  Oh, and what wonders they be.

-Joanna

P.S. Sorry this is late, my laptop blew up.  Grrrrr. :(