This week on SVENGOOLIE...

[LawrenceA]

There are Hammer films that I like, and that I don't find boring, e.g. this lovely lady, who turned up on TCM earlier this month:

But don't you feel ashamed being a grown-up watching this stuff?

[laffite]

I will adopt the playbook of some around here who unabashedly thrusts their opinions on others (usu. in the mode of "I don't give a rat's rear end...etc.) whether they damn well like it or not. I remember many, many, many, many years ago I actually got scared watching House on Haunted Hill and at that time was young and impressionable. Now I am grown up and cannot for the life of me understand why other grown-ups can watch this stuff. And friend Swithin, did I actually read a post of yours where they actually teach Horror in Universities over there across the pond, home to the great BBC where repeated brilliancies of screen marvels are produced apace. What budget would knowingly spend money on (gasp) Horror? What kind education are they offering over there? Do I detect a fall from Grace since Independence? Is it true now that without the Empire, the realm has shrunk to such decadence that Horror is being taught in all those high and exalted Institutions of higher learning. Woe to this modern world. Why would anyone stoop so low as Dracula one time at all, when one could be watching The Jewell and the Crown or even La Boheme for at least the 1,000th time each. Yes, Italy ; that used to be a "place where angels fear to tread" but now have risen to equality, even without an empire.

Lafitte, I'm surprised at you, since I regard you as among our more sophisticated posters! I have a degree in Theology. My favorite course was Demonology. I also had a course in the horror film. The horror films which surfaced at the beginning at the invention of cinema, represent contemporary expressions of those human feelings -- fears, concerns, expressions of unconscious longings, or just plain wonder -- that used to be expressed in folk tales, myths, oral traditions, literature, visual art, etc. These feelings have been represented in the past in the killing of Tiamat by Marduk; in Euripides' play The Bacchae, in which women tear a man to pieces, his mother then putting her son's head on a pike; Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus or A Midsummer Night's Dream; paintings by Goya and Fusili; or in any number of stories in all religions. Today, they are expressed in the horror film. As you know I love The Jewel in the Crown, but the horror film offers a much more primitive and elemental insight into the human consciousness. Frankenstein and Dracula were novels before they were horror films; and before that, the germs of their stories lurked inside the human mind since the beginning of time. So my recommendation to you, Lafitte, would be to expand your horizons and embrace the genre.


Marduk killing Tiamat. She's his grandmother. A version of the dragon story is found in many ancient religions and also in the Book of Revelation.


Painting by Goya


Painting by Goya


Painting by Fusili


Rangda, Balinese Queen of the Demons


Kali

I appreciate your written response very much and photos were terrific. But I wonder if you took me too seriously. You did not cite the rest of my post, which I believe made clear that most if not all was tongue-in-cheek and that insomnia mention was to be taken as true. No reasonaly serious person would ever post with a straight face all that stuff about the empire, decadence, and all that nonsense about watching La Boheme a thousand times. Thank you for your remark about “sophistication” but unfortunately it does not extend to writing parody since it doesn’t seem to come across.

Or maybe that’s all wrong. Maybe you mean that it requires a certain sophistication in the appreciation of the genre. Okay, but without the background you have, perhaps not so. I respond more favorably to those instances you cite from Western Civilization than I would from a movie. I admit though I am remiss in categorically rejecting Horror. Like anything else, there are good and bad examples. My prejudice is that the movies seem all to often to be mindless expressions of horror for horror’s sake. Sheer escapism. I doubt that most movies, Hollywood especially, are interested in the “elemental and primitive” aspect so much as they are obsessed with bulging box offices. Look at the endless making and re-making Frankenstein and Dracula movies. I can’t get through them and I tried (though not, admittedly, as assiduously as another might). I believe I am open enough to respond to what would represent the cream of the crop in the genre but it is (very) unlikely that I could categorically “embrace the genre.” So do tell me, in all seriousness, what would you consider the Casablanca of the horror genre (or near so). Please don’t say Dracula or Frankenstein, if possible. Hollywood has successfully poisoned my mind on those (if not all).

But The Jewell in the Crown is not horror, so why the comparison? I would that Ronald Merrick were a better personification of the elemental and primitive in a natural setting without the overt horror than I would some wide-eyed, gaping Lugosi staring interminably at the camera, aided by expressionist atmospherics that suggest sensationalism over true substance. You will say that is is an essential but it does not play that way to me. Let's face it, it's all but hackneyed when viewed with our modern sensibilities. I concede it is something when considering it's place in the history of the genre, but that doesn't help me when I looking at it.

But you are the academic and I am the average movie watcher. I think I remember theology with you but not the demonology. I cannot compete with you, academically (or intellectually I'm sure) and as to the movie watching, well I can only say, essentially, what I like and what I do not like, in the best way I possibly can. So an uneven match and I do of course recognize your expertise. The photos you sent are stupendous. I will save to the computer. Thank you for posting them. And for responding.

[laffite]

I will adopt the playbook of some around here who unabashedly thrusts their opinions on others . . .

In the immortal words of Eric Von Zipper:



"You, I don't like."
. . . and keep your prissy, sticky fingers off my playbook!

Sorry, should not have done that, especially under the circumstances. That was trolling. I shall overcome.

[Swithin]

There are Hammer films that I like, and that I don't find boring, e.g. this lovely lady, who turned up on TCM earlier this month:

But don't you feel ashamed being a grown-up watching this stuff?

No!

[EP Millstone]

But don't you feel ashamed being a grown-up watching this stuff?

Pray tell, what stuff should a grown-up be watching, LawrenceA?

[Swithin]

//

Lafitte, I wrote a response and it never appeared! That has happened to me before. I must be pushing the wrong buttons. I find it cumbersome to respond to posts that quote posts, I never know what to erase. (Need EP's guidance again, I guess.)

I don't consider myself an academic nor you an average movie goer! And it's not a question of looking for the Casablanca of horror, because often the best expressions of horror reside in the crudest, most elemental movies. I'm merely saying that horror films are the mode of expression through which today's folktales and myths are expressed, and I think they have the same validity as the means in which the stories were transmitted through the ages. I mentioned Jewel in the Crown because you did, and I agree that Ronald Merrick is a horrible person!

[EP Millstone]

. . . I find it cumbersome to respond to posts that quote posts, I never know what to erase. (Need EP's guidance again, I guess.)

Swithin,

Take a look at my December 24 post with a, I hope, helpful visual aid.

[laffite]

There are Hammer films that I like, and that I don't find boring, e.g. this lovely lady, who turned up on TCM earlier this month:

But don't you feel ashamed being a grown-up watching this stuff?

lol

[LiamCasey]

There are Hammer films that I like, and that I don't find boring, e.g. this lovely lady, who turned up on TCM earlier this month:

But don't you feel ashamed being a grown-up watching this stuff?

I occasionally feel ashamed of being a grown-up. But never because of this!

[TikiSoo]

Wow, never thought Svengoolie would result in such a heated debate. My favorite demon of all time-


As with most Hammer, I found last night's offering a complete bore. The players seem to be over-acting but maybe that's a result of really lousy dialogue - I'm never engaged by a Hammer film.

[Swithin]

Wow, never thought Svengoolie would result in such a heated debate. My favorite demon of all time-


As with most Hammer, I found last night's offering a complete bore. The players seem to be over-acting but maybe that's a result of really lousy dialogue - I'm never engaged by a Hammer film.

My favorite demon too!

Last night's film was indeed a bore. I had never seen it. They seemed to be trying to conflate a vampire movie with a devil-worshipping cult movie, like The Black Cat (1934). Just didn't work.

There was so much Latin at the beginning, I was wondering if it was authentic and really meant something!

[ziggy6708a]

[ziggy6708a]

unfortunately, it looks like it's Creature from the Black Lagoon
...again

[TikiSoo]

Aw, too bad. I've never seen Killer Clowns From Outer Space. But I've seen Creature numerous times-several times in 3D in a theater.
The Universal horror library is limited and I've been over-exposed, but well, I'm a senior citizen.

I'm glad there's a TV show that introduces a new audience to these classics. Especially with 3 Stooges shorts first, replicating my childhood theater-going experience.

[LiamCasey]

This month on Svengoolie...

2/4: Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) w/ Richard Carlson, Julie Adams, Richard Denning, Antonio Moreno, Nestor Paiva, Whit Bissell, Ben Chapman and Ricou Browning.

2/11: Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988) w/ John Vernon, Royal Dano and Christopher Titus. So you still have the opportunity to catch it, TikiSoo!

2/18: Duel (1971) w/ Dennis Weaver. Written by Richard Matheson. And directed by Steven Spielberg.

2/25: War of the Gargantuas (1966) w/ Russ Tamblyn, Kumi Mizuno and Kenji Sahara.