Film Festival
May 24
Last night Meg and I rented Splendor. It's a lovely, charming little movie, and it's a good poly movie, too. It makes me want to live in a happy little triad… What I like most about the film is that, beyond a certain point, it isn't about the fact that the three main characters are a threesome, a triangle-- that's just another characteristic about them. All the tension doesn't come from the fact that they live in a multiple relationship. I'm often tempted to have polyamorous characters in my own fiction, but I usually refrain because I don't necessarily want the story to be about the fact that they're poly, and I fear that the nontraditional relationship would overwhelm any other issues in the story. It's the same reason I avoid characters who are into BDSM in my fiction-- I worry that that aspect of sexuality would become too prominent in the reader's mind, when I really just want it to be another character trait. Which is a shame, because I'd like to do my part to demonstrate that normal, loving, moral people are poly, or involved in BDSM. I'm still trying to figure out how to do that.
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We went to see Shrek today (yes, we're movie-watching fools). It was… okay. Incredibly predictable, but it's a kid's movie, so I guess that's okay. There's some funny stuff in it-- I love when Cinderella bitch-slaps Snow White-- but overall I left feeling dissatisfied. It's just... thin. There's not much to it. The plot is obvious and straightforward and (despite what the filmmakers think) not terribly original, at least not to anyone with more than a passing familiarity with the fantasy genre. I only spent $4.50 for the ticket, though, so I guess I'm not too annoyed. It was a nice diversion, and the animation was rather amazingly good.
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Heather has volunteered to watch a horror movie with me! That's love, y'all. Heather enjoys the darker side of life, but she's got the same vivid imagination I do, and stuff like that can get down inside minds like ours, take root and sprout tentacles. The difference is that I like horror-- I often chase down the nightmares in my mind, and I use them in my fiction. I can look at the nasty stuff with a degree of detachment-- I've trained myself to do that. But Heather trusts my judgment, I think… she wants me to pick a movie that's good, suspenseful, dread-filled, preferably not too gory. Some of that Horror as Art I was talking about.
That's where it gets problematic. Because a lot of my favorite horror movies just aren't very good. Not all-over good, not unreservedly good-- I love them despite their flaws, sometimes because of their flaws. I like the whole Hellraiser franchise. I like Candyman and Nightbreed and Lord of Illusions (and though I've never seen the other Barker-derived film, Rawhead Rex, I'd probably like it, too). I like The Amityville Horror (preferably in 3D). These are not great films, y'all. I want to show her something better than that.
So I swoop over to the more respectable end of the genre. Rosemary's Baby. The Haunting of Hill House (the original, not The Haunting). Maybe Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The Stepford Wives. But they're too respectable, actually, too understated-- they're not personal favorites. I like my horror a little weirder (which is why all the Barker stuff appeals), a little more wacky. I also don't want to delve into classics like The Tingler or The Cat People-- maybe later, if she likes some of the other stuff, we can get into that.
Stuff like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is out-- too gory. Ditto the first Friday the 13th, the first Hallowe'en, the first Nightmare on Elm Street (which I think are all good films, and excellent examples of a particular end of the genre, with Elm Street being my favorite of those). I might want her to see them sometime, but they're not exactly prime examples of what I like most about horror, honestly.
Non-supernatural horror is out-- it's not what I'm looking for here (otherwise I'd need look no further than Silence of the Lambs or Seven, which anyway she's got a better-than-average chance of having already seen). Likewise horror movies thinly disguised as science fiction (Alien).
So my field narrows. I start thinking of stuff like the original Village of the Damned (old, but odd, so it works). Maybe Night of the Living Dead, which is cheesy enough in its violence that the gore isn't overwhelming (in my opinion, anyway). Maybe Jacob's Ladder. Ah, that's more what I'm interested in-- weird, dark, tense, twisty. But I've seen that one recently… so then it comes to me. The right film. It's not perfect, but I like it a lot, and it's about a writer (sort of), so that's appropriate, right? It's Lovecraftian (in a good way). It's similar in many of the good ways to Jacob's Ladder-- lots of the same sort of imagery. Have you got it yet? It's directed by shock-master John Carpenter. Still don't have it?
In The Mouth of Madness. Aw, yeah. Almost no gore-- blood and guts used judiciously, with style. Some really creepy scenes. A twisty (if somewhat illogical) plot. Oh, man. I've seen that movie at least three times (it's a favorite of D.'s, and he had it on tape). Now I'm all excited about seeing it. I think Heather will like it… or, at least, see what I like about it. Mmm, yum.
Now that I've given you a general idea of what I'm looking for, though, I invite suggestions! Tell me your favorites. I'll probably still choose In the Mouth of Madness this time, but I'm always looking for new good dark twisty flicks…
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This is going to be the last entry for a few days. I'm off to WisCon bright and early tomorrow (though not as early as my West Coast compatriots, who seem to all be leaving pre-dawn). I doubt I'll post again before I get back to Santa Cruz, which will be on Tuesday. It's possible, I suppose, that I'll write an entry or two while at WisCon, but don't count on it. I expect to be otherwise occupied.
