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Gwen

Posted on February 27, 2017

Case 39 Challenges Our View of Children

Gwen

After watching Case 39, I started mulling over one of those nature vs. nurture conundrums: are children in horror films born innocent and made evil or are they born evil and we suppress their natural tendencies. So often, children in horror films serve as cautionary tales where parental missteps lead to baby Beelzebubs.  Freudian analysis would suggest that humans are born naughty and dominated by their self-serving, Id driven psyche.  Freud also argued that in order to maintain a civilized world we must repress our instinctual drives such as Thanatos. If Freud is correct that children are impulsive imps who must be tamed, then horror scholar Robin Wood speaks in tandem when he suggests that children are the “most oppressed section of the population.”* Interestingly enough, much horror scholarship assumes a psychoanalytic tone, yet often minimizes the inherent and uncanny nature of the child.

I am arguing here that the evil child in horror film is not always an innocent babe perverted by the reckless decisions of adults. Children are born uninhibited, selfish, and matter of fact. However, these traits are not the ones that disrupt normality in the horror film nor do these traits make the child monstrous.  Since the millennium, I believe it is when children use these traits to usurp established power structures that they become monstrous.

There are moments in time that change the way we think about things. I recently had one of those moments when re-watching the film Case 39 (2009), directed by Christian Alvart.  Here, Detective Mike Barron (Ian McShane) makes a spontaneous statement that presents the viewer with an astute juxtaposition between man’s best friend and the innocent child.  His one sentence exposes the way we tend to lump all children together as innocent.

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Posted on January 13, 2017

Top 10 Films About the Horrors of Caregiving

Gwen

What follows is my list of films which reveal the horrors of caregiving. The role of caretaker requires you to give something of yourself, sometimes giving more than you have to offer. This is a precarious assignment that takes a toll on the physical as well as the psychological self. One must make moral decisions and selflessly sacrifice time, patience, and dreams. Ineffective caregivers sow the seeds of lasting consequences for themselves and others. Needless to say sometimes there is a backlash for giving so much of one’s self. (For the purposes of this list, I tried to stay away from using examples of parents as “caregivers”.)

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Posted on January 4, 2017

Hopes for Horror in 2017

Gwen

FILMS:

A Cure For Wellness

Due for release in February 2017, this Gore Verbinski directed psychological horror has stirred my interest.  The cyclical story has me wondering what they are hiding up there in the Swiss Alps. As one man goes to retrieve the CEO of his company from a wellness spa, his own well-being is tested. Will he fall victim to what ails all those who walk through these doors, or will he escape intact?  “Only if we know what ails us, can we find a cure.” If you are looking for jump scares and the such, this might not be for you as it is shaping up to be more of a slow building contemporary gothic film that taps in to your senses.

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Posted on December 5, 2016

House (1986) and House II (1987) Offer Insight into the Performance of Masculinity

Gwen

I initially delved into these movies with the aim of revisiting some great horror comedy. What I unearthed instead was an instruction manual for becoming a man in the 1980’s. These texts are just as rich with gender ideals as uncovering a 1950s Ladies Home Journal. Within both films I noticed a not so subtle description of what passes for appropriate masculinity. The narratives are different but the trajectory of the leading man is the same. In House, Roger Cobb (William Katt) has to overcome his failures in Vietnam to become man enough to have his family back. Similarly in House II Jesse (Arye Gross) isn’t even worthy enough to have a family until he butches up. Cue up your Betamax and your VHS as we are going to revisit the 1980s version of how to become a man.

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Posted on November 1, 2016

Ouija: Origin of Evil

Gwen

October 2016   |   Mike Flanagan   |   PG-13   |   99 min   |   (USA)

Review: “Ouija: Origin of Evil delivers a trifecta…story, substance, and scares.

Synopsis: A widowed mother of two young girls tries to keep her family afloat by conducting elaborate (and staged) séances. Little does the family know that their humble abode is home to some horrific secrets which are set free when the family introduces the Ouija board to their act. Once the board is in the home, the youngest daughter Doris (Lulu Wilson) becomes a conduit for all the evil that is about to be unleashed. In seeking answers from their past, the family brings their future to a screeching halt. As best said by Cherríe Moraga, “Don’t let your past, steal your present”; or, as I like to say, “Don’t use a Ouija board with your creepy little kid in your freakishly hellish house.”

Grade: A-
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