Girl Meets Freak
Torture Porn & New French Extremity
Movie Discussion: Ken Russell’s The Devils (1971)
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 Ken Russell’s controversial art film. Based both on Aldous Huxley’s 1952 book The Devils of Loudun and the subsequent John Whiting play from … Continue reading
Movie Discussion: James Wan’s Saw (2004)
Girl Meets Context: We kick off Horror Franchise Month with the first film in the top-grossing horror franchise of all time. Like many horror movie success stories, Saw was made for a song – a mere 1.2 million – and proved to be insanely profitable when it grossed over a hundred million dollars. Kicking off a long-running … 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: Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986)
Girl Meets Context: Twelve years after the release of the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre, director Tobe Hooper finally made a sequel to the film. Written by Kit Carson (the ex-husband of scream queen Karen Black), the sequel picks up 13 years after the events depicted in the original film: Lefty (Dennis Hopper), a former Texas … Continue reading
Movie Discussion: Lars von Trier’s Antichrist (2009)
Girl Meets Context: In the wake of a crippling depression, Lars von Trier wrote and directed the controversial Antichrist, which debuted at Cannes in 2009. Audience members fainted during the screening, von Trier smugly declared himself “the greatest director in the world” when confronted by journalists about the film and the festival’s Ecumenical Jury derisively gave the … Continue reading
Movie Discussion: Alexandre Bustillo & Julian Maury’s Inside [À l'intérieur] (2007)
Girl Meets Context: If Martyrs is the blood-soaked Cinderella of the mid-2000s wave of so-called “New French Extremity” films, then Inside is that movement’s Ugly Stepsister. Made by first-time co-directors, the film has been hailed by horror fandom (and press) as one of the 21st century’s signature classics. The film has a bare-bones premise: a young woman named … Continue reading
Movie Discussion: Michael Reeves’ Witchfinder General (1968)
Girl Meets Context: Witchfinder General was the third and final film made by Michael Reeves before his tragic death-by-overdose. He was only 25 when he died, and at the time he was considered to be one of the most promising and exciting young genre directors in the U.K. Now considered his masterpiece, and one of … 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: John McNaughton’s Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986)
Girl Meets Context: Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer was made in 1986 but remained unreleased until 1990 because of its controversial content. The movie is a low-budget docudrama about a pair of mass murderers who are thinly-veiled fictionalized versions of Henry Lee Lucas and Ottis Toole. The film follows Henry, played by Michael Rooker, a laconic … Continue reading
