Girl Meets Freak
Masterpiece!
Movie Discussion: Peter Weir’s Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)
Girl Meets Context: Throughout the month of June we will be watching Ozploitation films from the 1970s and 1980s. This week we tackle a metaphysical mystery film about a group of schoolgirls in 1900s Australia who go for a Valentine’s Day picnic at the local landmark Hanging Rock, a volcanic protrusion in the landscape, but several … Continue reading
Movie Discussion: Dario Argento’s Suspiria (1977)
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. We end the month with this classic supernatural giallo, often considered to be director Argento’s signature masterpiece. The film is the first entry in Argento’s “Three … Continue reading
Movie Discussion: David Cronenberg’s The Brood (1979)
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 discuss one of Cronenberg’s early efforts – in fact, The Brood is often considered to be the director’s first “classic” film. The movie … Continue reading
Movie Discussion: Neil Marshall’s The Descent (2005)
Girl Meets Context: It’s Indie Horror Month, where we cover some of the best original and independent horror movies to be released in the last few years. The Descent is the second feature by British director Neil Marshall (after 2002′s Dog Soldiers). In the film, a group of six friends (most of them Brits) go on a caving … Continue reading
Movie Discussion: James Gunn’s Super (2010)
Girl Meets Context: It’s Indie Horror Month, where we cover some of the best original and independent horror movies to be released in the last few years. Between 2009 and 2010, three films came out that all had a similar premise – setting the superhero story in a real-world milieu, as opposed to a fantastical one. … Continue reading
Movie Discussion: Kerry Prior’s The Revenant (2009)
Girl Meets Context: It’s Indie Horror Month, where we cover some of the best original and independent horror movies to be released in the last few years. First up is The Revenant, the feature directorial debut of special effects guy Kerry Prior. The movie’s about Bart, an American G.I. killed in Iraq (played by Alias/Vampire Diaries baddie David Anders) … Continue reading
Movie Discussion: Jack Clayton’s The Innocents (1961)
Girl Meets Context: This is the best known and most critically lauded adaptation of Henry James’ novella The Turn of the Screw. It was not a commercial success at the time of its release, but the film has gone on to have a long life as a “classic” psychological thriller (Scorsese included it on his “11 … Continue reading
Movie Discussion: Kaneto Shindô’s Onibaba (1964)
Girl Meets Context: Post-WWII Japan gave rise to a Golden Age of samurai films (called chanbara movies). These movies of the 1950s and 1960s were often cynical and psychologically complex, from Inagaki’s Samurai trilogy (1954-6) to Kurosawa’s masterpieces like Seven Samurai (1954) or Yojimbo (1961) to the genre’s crowning jewel, Masaki Kobayashi’s spell-binding Harakiri (1962). Director Kaneto Shindô merged the chanbara … Continue reading
Movie Discussion: Roman Polanski’s Repulsion (1965)
Girl Meets Context: I’ve read that Roman Polanski and his collaborator Gérard Brach quickly wrote the screenplay to Repulsion and made the movie only so they could secure funding for the project they really cared about: the 1966 thriller Cul-de-sac. Ironically, Repulsion is considered one of Polanski’s masterworks and a classic of psychological horror, while Cul-de-sac has faded to … 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
