Girl Meets Freak
Mad Scientists
Movie Discussion: Bryan Forbes’ The Stepford Wives (1975)
Girl Meets Context: Throughout the month of May we will be watching 1970s films about cults and conspiracies – from covens of witches to New Age self-help groups to neo-Pagans. This week we watched The Stepford Wives, Bryan Forbes’ adaptation of Ira Levin’s best-selling novel (note: Levin also authored Rosemary’s Baby). Forbes actually passed away this … Continue reading
Movie Discussion: Georges Franju’s Eyes Without a Face [Les yeux sans visage] (1960)
Girl Meets Context: John Carpenter has alluded that the basic concept for Michael Myers’ mask in Halloween was inspired by the mask Christiane wears in Eyes Without a Face. Watching the movie today, a whole host of modern movie references seem to be traceable back to Eyes Without a Face - the barrage of tests Paulette undergoes foreshadow the sequences … Continue reading
Movie Discussion: Rob Zombie’s House of 1000 Corpses (2003)
Girl Meets Context: Children of the 1990s know Rob Zombie as the frontman of White Zombie, a.k.a. the feral guy with dreads doing ‘magic hands’ in the “Thunder Kiss ’65″ video. But it turns out Zombie was dead serious about that video’s aesthetic statement – it wasn’t simply a bunch of empty references meant to … Continue reading
Movie Discussion: Tom Six’s The Human Centipede (First Sequence) (2010)
Girl Meets Context: Director Tom Six has good taste in some things. He cites Pier Paolo Pasolini, David Lynch, David Cronenberg and Takashi Miike as his cinematic idols. Six allegedly came up with the idea for The Human Centipede (First Sequence) by amalgamating some dirty child molesters jokes he once told with his own experiences as … Continue reading
Movie Discussion: Lucky McKee’s May (2002)
Girl Meets Context: Self-described feminist filmmaker Lucky McKee’s first solo-directed feature film (he co-directed the low-budget 1999 zombie film All Cheerleaders Die) has become enshrined as a cult classic and rapturously reviewed by the film press (including renowned horror-hater Roger Ebert who called it “a horror film and something more and deeper, something disturbing and oddly moving”). … Continue reading
Movie Discussion: Stuart Gordon’s Re-Animator (1985)
Girl Meets Context: Re-Animator was the most exciting directorial debut in the world of horror since Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead in 1981, and it put director Stuart Gordon on the horror map in a big way. Combining the manic intensity of H.P. Lovecraft’s original story with a pitch-black sense of humor, Re-Animator became an instant cult classic. It … Continue reading
Movie Discussion: David Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers (1988)
Girl Meets Context: Dead Ringers is loosely based on the lives of real-life identical twin gynecologists Stuart and Cyril Marcus (who also inspired the Peter Greenaway movie A Zed & Two Naughts). Cronenberg’s film concerns Elliot and Beverly Mantle (Jeremy Irons in twin roles), esteemed specialists in women’s fertility who are nearly impossible to tell apart. … Continue reading
Movie Discussion: Pascal Laugier’s Martyrs (2008)
Girl Meets Context: When an unfortunate twist of fate landed Kristine back in the Old Pueblo for the weekend, we knew it was time to tackle one of the genre’s most infamous movies: the French ur-torture spectacle Martyrs. The movie is considered to be one of horror’s most polarizing films and Kristine, knowing it’s reputation, insisted … Continue reading
Movie Discussion: Drew Goddard’s The Cabin in the Woods (2012)
Girl Meets Context: It is difficult to even synopsize The Cabin in the Woods because the plot of the movie relies so much on twists and turns… so please be forewarned that there will be massive SPOILERS AHEAD!!! If you haven’t gone to see this movie yet, rush to your local theater to see it, then … Continue reading
Movie Discussion: Renny Harlin’s Deep Blue Sea (1999)
Girl Meets Context: Deep Blue Sea was the first movie made by Renny Harlin, the Finnish émigré and commercial Hollywood movie director, after his divorce from Geena Davis in 1998. He had directed Davis in both the well-loved spy thriller The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996) and Cutthroat Island (1995), which still holds the title of the biggest box-office bomb … Continue reading
