Week Six - A Rich Fantasy Life

TOLKIEN 

      A master of the Epic Journey. Today he is not only known for his work in literature but also for everything associated with those works and the movie franchise. The Lord of The Rings and now the Hobbit made into a trilogy!...

The most Epic walk you will ever watch. The most epic Adventure you will ever read. Tolkien gives so much detail and background whist just teasing you with the surface of a grand epic tale. He will start to tell you about something only to stop himself and save it for later. He already knows the whole thing (or at least seems too) before he's even written it down! As someone who had seen the movies first it was pretty interesting to read the things I has missed out on. Like the goblins song, which was way less pretty then the dwarves fun one. 

< ...Don't even get me started...>

UPDATED: Saw the deleted scene for the Goblin song. Hands down best song. Y'all nee to get on that and watch the full version.


I plan on finishing The Hobbit by the end of the semester.

Week Five - Witches

Witches!!

Practical Magic is one of my favorite movies and after seeing it on the List of movies I instantly picked it out to watch. The rather funny part is that Nichole Kidman is in it and todays reading was Aunt Maria by Diana Wynne Jones. What do those two people have in common? I'll get to that...

On Aunt Maria....
Aunt Maria was a creepy old bitch. She wanted nothing to do with moving on with the times anywhere anyhow. she was appalled at women leading a more 'male' lifestyle'. She was set in her old ways and it really pissed me off. I grew up (1-9) in a household where children should be seen and not heard so this novel did not really sit well with me. (which is probably also why I chose not to finish it.) The Character Aunt Maria was a witch, hence the practical magic (1 Nichole ref ) in which two sisters deal with some magic interrupting their lives; but Aunt Maria also had a sort of Stepford Wives take on it except that it was more like Stepford sons and fathers and some freaky clone orphan kids locked away in some creepy ass house. The families were drone like and all the women did was have tea parties. it was super creepy to even think that this old woman did even think there was anything wrong with how she treated people. Stepford wives, was my second link to Nichole Kidman.

 And lets not forget about Bette Midler ( who also plays a badass witch in Hocus Pocus!)

Week Four - The New Weird

weird

wird/

adjective

1. 1.

   suggesting something supernatural; uncanny.

   "the weird crying of a seal"

   
   

   synonyms:

   uncanny, eerie, unnatural, supernatural, unearthly, otherworldly,ghostly, mysterious, strange, abnormal, unusual; So what is Weird? If we are calling the New Horror/scary films a form of the new weird then I can certainly agree. Not only are film makers having to come up with new and crazy situations to scare people (most in which could/would never happen) but people are all so demanding that they come up with new way to scare the living hell out of people!  I personally love being scared by these sorts of movies because a majority of it is the scare thrill. Plus the more creepy freaky the movie is the bigger chance it has to be made into a Scare House in Hallow Scream or Halloween Horror Nights. Two things in which I love participating in every year with my friends. I chose to read Monster Island. I'v got to say I had no idea how much I would love this online novel but I had to stop my self in order to write about it. The Weird, the word weird is defiantly used in terms of the unnatural, eerie and abnormal; which is exactly how I would describe a Zombie epidemic. This online novel not only took the unnatural weirdness of zombies but also things humans find weird even in todays times, the girl soldiers whom had been subjected to the Female circumcision, people in the western world find that so strange, and horrible. A father leaving a daughter behind in a disgusting excuse for life and knowing thats the best she's ever going to get. not many people ever experience that so to read about it makes you feel very strange like your missing something.   Zombies were the main attraction to the weird in Monster Island. The Undead, nothing could be weirder than a dead human being returning to life as a flesh eating monster. People have been obsessed with this notion for years and I don't see it stopping anytime soon. Maybe someone will go as far as creating a Zombie virus. I would defiantly recommend reading Monster Island- especially if you are from the States, it will most certainly be a weird and terrifyingly satisfying read.

Week Three - Asian Horror

I read some of the Ghost stories from Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things by Lafcadio Hearn 

I read a few but the two that stuck with me were the last two I read. Before I talk about them Iv got to tell you all that you need to read these at night with some traditional Japanese music playing in the background- it defiantly sets the right mood.

The Dead Secret was probably my favorite because it had those scary elements without being too upsetting. Its sort of a classic ghost story in which she doesn't want to harm anyone but she also isn't finished here on earth. My thought was that her secret (SPOILER) letter at the bottom drawer might have not just been a love letter- maybe she wrote it knowing she would die? Suicide ghosts often feel as though they haven't finished their job in the mortal world. at least this way the spirit could go to rest.
The short story reminded me of the tv show Ghost whisperer. She helps ghosts finish what they need to before moving on and thats exactly what the priest did for the dead mother. A kabuki performance would be a perfect rendition for The Dead Secret.
I might do my own in a comic style.

Yuki-Onna I picked to read because I had heard the name before and was curious to what story was behind it. Creepy for sure. I was really creeped out by this story not just because of the content but also because of the atmosphere I had created in my room whilst reading it. The music brought my fear to a whole new level. Yuki- Onna was one sly SOB to go threw all that trouble just to get some guy for telling a secret. scary bitch.

I will be reading the rest of these stories on my own time, I recommend them to anyone with a sense of fearsome adventure.

Week Two - The Vampire

Vampires have got to be one of my favorite 'monsters' in novels today. I have both read and seen Interview with a Vampire and loved both, although the book is always better. I chose to re-watch the Interview and read Stephanie Meyer's Twilight.
Eh. I dont really look at Twilight as a novel about Vampires since I must certainly agree with the angry crowds that Vampires do NOT sparkle. I much prefer the creepy, dark creatures to these well educated sparkly demons.

Not to say other Vampires in other stories are not well educated, but come on. There has got to be a better way to spend your'e immortal years then repeatedly putting yourself threw high school. Yet high school was my own personal hell, and this specific set of Fangs thinks that they all deserve to rot in hell then to be walking the earth taking lives.
Thats why they all went vegi! This is really where the author lost me, you cannot be a real threat to me if you don't need to drink my blood, therefore in my eyes, I lose complete interest. The very reason I like Vampires is the danger about it. you cant tame them because in a sense they are a wild beast, their thirst ultimately means more to them then you do.
Meyer takes that away in her novel- while in Anne's she really makes the vampire tragic and beautiful without having to go to extremes with the vegi idea (although Louis does try). Lestat is sort of my hero vampire in that way he stays as a monster and what all true vampires should be. They are creatures of the night who long for the day. He gives into his true nature of the vampire and doesn't try to change it.

Louis and Stephanie Meyers vegi vampires do share some traits in that he wishes to keep as much of his human self he can as do the Cullens and he is tormented by the past and sees himself as a monster. I believe this was done so that us as a reader would not want to be led down a path and become like them. either way you are doomed as a vampire to walk this earth as a powerful killing cunning killing machine or a sad immortal being forever locked in conflict with ones self, which I think
some humans already do for the duration of their life.
The saddest monster ever created was the Immortal Vampire.

At least in Disney's kid version 'The Little Vampire' they gave the population a fresh start as humans.
That was nice of them..... I guess.

Week One - Frankenstein

Tonight I chose to watch Van Helsing (2004) as a contemporary take on the  character Frankenstein and his Monster. Id seen the movie previously but re-watched it with new eyes. I'v got to say I do like this movie and its mash up of different horror stories. Frankenstein as a employee scientist for Dracula was a pretty cool and scary choice for this movie, the fact that Hugh Jackman played Van Helsing helped a bit too, he doesn't make a bad werewolf either! Haha.

Usually in films Gothic is described as spooky, eerie, atmospheric, dramatic and romantic. Usually there are supernatural elements but not all the time. In this case however, Supernatural definitely is at the heart of this film. Its got three of the the BIG TIME gothic folklores and some small other ones. Frankenstein, Vampire, Werewolves, are the big top three known gothic themed folklores out there.
Van Helsing works as a gothic film because it is able to provide the dramatics and romance without sacrificing the atmosphere and spooky-ness that pulls all the different monsters together without complications.







An over all very entertaining take on the classics and warp of the monster.
I actually liked that they gave the monster a voice. everything I sort of felt for The Monster in Mary Shelley's original novel- was said or felt threw the Monster in Van Helsing. I liked seeing a " happy" ending for him. though the movies ending was questionable with the somewhat of a "Lion king face in clouds" reference but i was able to deal with it..... for the most part.
I would watch it again though. if i didn't have better movie.
Here have a awesome Dracula still~