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tlbodine · 4 years

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A Brief History of the Slasher

Is there a more iconic face for the horror genre than the knife-wielding psychopath? Many would say no. Although the tried-and-true slasher formula is so played out as to be a cliche -- and fresh examples played straight are tough to come by in the modern age -- for many, slasher films are the heart and soul of horror movies.

How did that happen? What do they say about us on a cultural level? And where should you start when it comes to a formal study of the topic? Let’s delve deep and find out!

Murder and mayhem are evergreen topics of fascination for humans, and we’ve been telling stories about murderers since Cain killed Abel. But these stories didn’t become what we would formally call “slashers” until the 1970s.

So what is a slasher?

Slasher films are defined by a few shared characteristics:

A high body count (multiple victims)

Murders are shown on-screen and often from the POV of the killer

The murders happen one by one, incorporating pursuit, struggle, and finally death

The killer may have a supernatural influence, but it will have the physical appearance of a human (and may often simply be a human)

In almost every instance, the killer is portrayed as being insane or rendered deeply troubled by a past trauma which had triggered the murderous impulse. The killer is frequently dehumanized, and the victims are usually young.

Slashers often adhere to their own sort of moral logic, more closely resembling Medieval morality plays than perhaps any other modern genre of storytelling. By utilizing a cast of archetypes, various virtues and flaws can be represented among the victims.

These traits are what differentiate slashers from other murder-focused horror, thriller and mystery tales.

Consider, for example, the narrative structure of an Agatha Christie murder mystery like And Then There Were None. In this book, a group of strangers are brought under mysterious circumstances to a remote location, where they are systematically murdered as an act of vengeance. In concept, this seems like it should be a slasher -- but its execution is quite different. In the book, the murders are a backdrop; the characters (and reader) are confronted with bodies rather than scenes of overt violence.

The First Slasher

In 1974, two films came out that gave birth to the modern slasher.

The first, released in October, was Tobe Hooper’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The second, released in the USA in December of that year, was Bob Clark’s Black Christmas.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre tells the story of a group of friends who run afoul of a family of cannibals living in a rural farmhouse. Black Christmas is about the systemic murder of sorority girls during Christmas break. And both left an indelible mark on horror history.

It’s important to put some context on the world these films were created in:

The recent dissolution of the Hays production code meant that movies could be more graphically violent and morally depraved than ever before

The Vietnam war was raging, and for the first time in history, televised footage of the battle was piped into living rooms on the evening news

Multiple serial killers were active in the country, and their exploits also graced the daily newspapers and nightly news to sow terror

Richard Nixon’s presidency was marked by an as-then unprecedented level of corruption and scandal

Gender politics provided both sexual freedom and career ambitions to a generation of women, and the 1973 landmark Roe v. Wade case legalizing abortions played a massive role in both gender relations and the way we would think about life and bodily autonomy.

The 1970s provided, in other words, a perfect storm of circumstances that collided to give birth to slashers, and neither Hooper nor Clark are shy about citing these as their inspiration. Texas Chainsaw was billed in theaters as a true story as an act of political defiance against newscasts that spread misinformation; Black Christmas is at its heart a film about abortion and a woman’s right to leave an abusive relationship. They were undeniably films of their time.

Texas Chainsaw inspired a wave of sensationalist "ripped from the headlines" murder movies loosely based on real killers, such as Wes Craven's The Hills Have Eyes (1977), which was based on the Sawney Bean legend or Charles B. Pierce's The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976), which was based on the Texarkana Phantom Killer.

And Black Christmas, of course, served as the thematic springboard for a little film called Halloween.

Halloween and the Final Girl

In 1978, a little-known small-time director named John Carpenter was hired to make a movie with the working title, The Babysitter Murders. It would be about -- you guessed it -- babysitters who got murdered. The idea was later adapted to take place on Halloween, likely for commercial reasons: People like watching scary movies in October, so setting a film on Halloween night would surely help with popularity.

John Carpenter certainly did not wholly plagiarize Black Christmas with his holiday-themed slasher, but the earlier film's influence is visible all the same -- from a shared lineage of "the call is coming from inside the house" babysitter folk legend, to the perspective work on establishing shots of the house and the ambiguously bleak ending.

But compared to Black Christmas, Halloween is horror with its edges filed down so it'll be easier to swallow. Both films have predominately female casts, but the sorority girls in Black Christmas have sexual agency and outspoken opinions that are nowhere to be found in Carpenter's work. In fact, Halloween so aggressively fails the Bechdel Test that it seems to do so on purpose -- there is not a single scene with two girls where they are not talking about a boy. And while Black Christmas deals with complex topics like abortion, domestic violence, and the unreliability of the police, Halloween simplifies its formula down to the utterly basic: Michael Myers kills because he is pure evil, and that is simply what evil does.

Despite its flaws -- or perhaps because of them -- Halloween became an immediate and enormous hit. It also introduced several clever storytelling techniques that were crucial to the advancement and development of the slasher genre:

The introduction of a Final Girl, the lone survivor who holds out against the onslaught of terror. (Carpenter denies that Laurie Strode’s virginal innocence has anything to do with her survival, but “final girl as virgin” would persist as a trope for a very long time)

A masked killer. Although we’d seen masked murders in many films before (I’ve talked in the past about the trope of the mask-wearing murderer, and the way it is both thematically and logistically useful in storytelling: https://tlbodine.tumblr.com/post/189658195609/the-masked-knife-wielding-psycho), the “look” of Michael Myers is so iconic that it inspired a need for future killers to have a similarly thoughtful design, decking them out almost like comic book superheroes.

Franchising opportunities. Although earlier movies had spawned sequels, Halloween exploded as a franchise thanks in large part to the iconic design and the simplistic good-vs-evil storytelling formula. Future slashers would latch onto this killer-centric franchise formula for over a decade.

Halloween became the most profitable independent film, holding the record for 16 years, which goes to show just how successful the formula truly was.

The Golden Age of Slashers

As the 1970s gave way to the 1980s, the advent of VHS and Betamax formats created a market for low-budget straight-to-video films. Because slashers are so cheap to make (you don't need any famous actors, can film entirely in one location, and practical effects can be as simple as a few gallons of stage blood), they were ideal candidates for the job. On the big screen, horror was enjoying an unusually high level of popularity, a proven money-maker, simultaneously commercial and subversive in a decade of opulence and social conservativism.

So onto that stage walks Sean S. Cunningham's gory slasher, Friday the 13th, where a group of teenage camp counselors are brutally murdered, frequently wile having sex. The film spawned a widely successful franchise, which swiftly began borrowing elements of Halloween -- a silent and indestructible masked killer, a signature musical score -- to become a pop culture mainstay. The 1983 Robert Hiltzik film, Sleepaway Camp, cashes in on the "death to camp counselor" plot in the same way that Fred Walton's When a Stranger Calls touched on babysitter murders in 1979.

A whole slew of less-successful films would follow, most of them lost to the history books but still living in dollar-bin DVD collections. Some, like Prom Night and My Bloody Valentine, would earn a cult following. One noteworthy cult favorite is Slumber Party Massacre, directed and written by women (Amy Holden Jones and Rita Mae Brown, respectively), which turns some slasher tropes in their head.

A glut of films, most of them instantly forgettable, led to a decline in slasher popularity -- until Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street in 1984.

Cracking Wise and Slashing Teens

A Nightmare on Elm Street introduces Freddy Krueger, a different sort of horror villain than audiences had seen before. Krueger is a supernatural killer who stalks his victims in their dreams, bringing a fresh supernatural twist to the slasher genre. And, unlike Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees, Freddy is anything but silent. Thanks in part to the charisma of lead actor Robert Englund, the character's darkly comedic personality became utterly riveting.

Plenty of dream-related horrors would follow, none of which would make much of a splash. But one film franchise did latch on to a similar formula: Child's Play, directed by Tom Holland in 1988, introduced another supernatural wisecracking killer in the form of Chucky, a murderous doll possessed by the soul of as serial killer.

These major film franchises -- Halloween, Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Child’s Play -- would go on to spawn numerous sequels and become such a thoroughly pervasive part of pop culture that you can find their likeness everywhere. But despite the many imitators, there was little in the way of innovation in the genre until the mid 90s.

Do You Like Scary Movies?

Wes Craven toyed with the idea of self-referential horror in New Nightmare, a Freddy Krueger film that was itself a meta-analysis of Freddy Krueger films. But he would revisit the idea with far greater success in 1996 with Scream.

Created by horror lovers, for horror lovers, Scream is designed to be the most quintessential slasher film ever created. Relying on a hip, young cast to draw in a fresh audience, Scream works by combining nostalgia, meta-analysis, humor, and buckets of blood into a single film. The opening scene is a direct homage to When a Stranger Calls, and the masked killer is a deliberate call-back to earlier films.

Unsurprisingly, Scream was a huge hit that ushered in a brief but furious wave of slashers, like the star-studded I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) and Urban Legend (1998), and Scream itself had several sequels and even a TV series. But the 1990s were something of a dark era for the slasher film, seeing the release of some spectacularly lackluster franchise installments. One exception to that was the fan-favorite Freddy vs Jason, which pits the two killers against one another -- a delightful premise, but one that had strayed far from the slasher roots.

Modern Slasher Films

The 1990s slasher reboot was short-lived and mostly forgettable, and by the 2000s filmmakers had mostly turned away from the genre entirely, except for a slew of nostalgia cash-in reboots of every popular franchise.

The one exception was meta-analysis -- building on Scream, these films began to deconstruct the genre in a way that would combine horror, humor, and criticism.

The Final Girls (2015), directed by Todd Strauss-Schulson, takes this sort of meta approach. The Cabin in the Woods (2012), directed by Drew Goddard but bearing the fingerprints of co-writer and producer Joss Whedon, takes it to even further excess, providing both a thorough deconstruction of horror gropes and an entirely new mythos to give it a fresh framework.

But the problem with deconstructions is that, once a few truly successful ones have been made, it becomes essentially impossible to create the original thing in earnest anymore. And so the slasher as a sub-genre has reached its bloody end.

Where Did All The Slashers Go?

With dozens of slashers spanning more than 40 years of film history, it’s pretty hard to create something new with the format. Which is not to say that people aren’t still making them -- they are -- but there is less room to innovate within the notoriously rigid and simplistic slasher formula.

Culturally, we’ve moved on a lot from the 1970s as well. For one, serial killers are no longer the threat they once were. Babysitters and camp counselors are rarely teenagers, either -- in fact, teens aren’t leaving the house as much in general. And a rise in information technology, communications and surveillance has made it harder to isolate victims and commit murders over a long period of time -- our mass murders tend to happen in shooting sprees instead these days. For another, that same information technology has made us extremely jaded and hard to impress with gore.

The 2000s delivered violence at levels utterly beyond anything in history. The rise of the so-called torture porn -- a genre that dispenses with the stalking and killing of multiple victims in favor of lingering on the painful mutilation of a small handful -- delivered gore unlike any seen in earlier slashers. Cable television series like The Walking Dead deliver graphic violence with unprecedented regularity -- you no longer need to pick up a “video nasty” to indulge in some gruesome gore.

And, well, unfortunately, the internet has made it easier than ever to see real violence, from terrorist beheading videos to medical gore to live-streamed murders.

Gore for gore’s sake is simply not as compelling in the 21st century, and that takes away much of the slasher’s appeal.

Slashers have had to morph and adapt to find a foothold for survival. In the 2000s, we saw their metamorphosis in real time: From torture porn to home invasion to a cornucopia of more innovative horrors dwelling on fears both large and small.

We’ve probably seen the last of masked knife-wielding, babysitter-killing psychos...but the horror genre is richer for it.

#horror movies #slahsers #slasher films #horror #horror analysis

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tuppencetrinkets · 2 years

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Sorted caps from seasons 1, 4, 5 & 7 of The Walking Dead.

Aaron - Ross Marquand - #5,400

Abraham - Michael Cudlitz - #6,900

Amy - Emma Bell - #2,600

Andrea - Laurie Holden - #11,600

Astrid - Brianna Venskus - #3,300

Beth - Emily Kinney - #12,600

Bob - Lawrence Gilliard, Jr. - #4,800

Carl - Chandler Riggs - #16,300

Carol - Melissa McBride - #28,000

Cyndie - Sydney Park - #2,100

Dale - Jeffrey DeMunn - #8,700

Daryl - Norman Reedus - #19,000

Dawn - Christine Woods - #2,600

Deanna - Tovah Feldshuh - #3,000

Dwight - Austin Amelio - #2,900

Eugene - Josh McDermitt - #13,100

Ezekiel - Khary Payton - #4,800

Gabriel - Seth Gilliam - #4,600

Glen - Steven Yeun - #19,000

Governor - David Morrissey - #9,400

Gregory - Xander Berkeley - #3,000

Hershel - Scott Wilson - #6,000

Jadis - Pollyana McIntosh - #1,800

Jenner - Noah Emmerich - #3,300

Jerry - Cooper Andrews - #900

Jesus - Tom Payne - #3,700

Jim - Andrew Rothenberg - #2,600

Joe - Jeff Kober - #1,600

Lily - Audrey Marie Anderson - #2,900

Lizzie - Brighton Sharbino - #5,000

Lori - Sarah Wayne Callies - #17,000

Maggie - Lauren Cohan - #17,000

Merl - Michael Rooker - #1,400

Michonne - Danai Gurira - #11,000

Mika - Kyla Kenedy - #5,000

Mitch - Kirk Acevedo - #1,100

Morgan - Lennie Michael James - #5,700

Negan - Jeffrey Dean Morgan - #14,100

Noah - Tyler James Williams - #2,500

Richard - Karl Makinen - #4,000

Rick - Andrew Lincoln - #69,000

Rosita - Christian Serratos - #10,000

Sasha - Sonequa Martin-Green - #16,500

Simon - steven Ogg - #2,500

Sophia - Madison Lintz - #1,300

Spencer - Austin Nichols - #3,000

Tara - Alanna Masterson - #15,000

T-Dog - IronE Singleton - #3,500

Tyreese - Chad Coleman - #8,800

This content is free for anyone to use or edit however you like; if you care to throw a dollar or two my way for time, effort, storage fees etc you are more than welcome to do so via my PAYPAL. Please like or reblog this post if you have found it useful or are downloading the content within. If you have any questions or you have any problems with the links or find any inconsistencies in the content, etc. please feel free to drop me a politely worded message via my ASKBOX ON MY RESOURCE BLOG (second icon from the top on my theme!)

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richincolor · 4 years

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New Releases for the Week of Oct. 19

Here are the new releases we're watching for this week.

My Heart Underwater by Laurel Flores Fantauzzo Quill Tree Books

After Corazon’s mother catches her kissing her older female teacher, Corazon is sent to the Philippines to live with a half brother she barely knows. There she learns more about loss and love than she could have ever imagined.

Corazon Tagubio is an outcast at her Catholic school. She’s attending on scholarship, she keeps to herself, and her crush on her teacher Ms. Holden doesn’t help anything. At home, Cory’s less-than-perfect grades disappoint her mom and dad, who are already working overtime to support her distant half brother in the Philippines.

When an accident leaves her dad comatose, Cory feels like Ms. Holden is the only person who really sees her. But when a crush turns into something more and the secret gets out, Cory is sent to her half brother. She’s not prepared to face a stranger in an unfamiliar place, but she begins to discover how the country that shaped her past might also change her future. — Cover image and summary via Goodreads

Cane Warriors by Alex Wheatle Andersen Press

Nobody free till everybody free. Moa is fourteen. The only life he has ever known is toiling on the Frontier sugar cane plantation for endless hot days, fearing the vicious whips of the overseers. Then one night he learns of an uprising, led by the charismatic Tacky. Moa is to be a cane warrior, and fight for the freedom of all the enslaved people in the nearby plantations. But before they can escape, Moa and his friend Keverton must face their first great task: to kill their overseer, Misser Donaldson. Time is ticking, and the day of the uprising approaches . . . Irresistible, gripping and unforgettable, Cane Warriors follows the true story of Tacky’s War in Jamaica, 1760. — Cover image and summary via Goodreads

FORESHADOW: Stories to Celebrate The Magic of Reading & Writing YA edited by Emily X.R. Pan & Nova Ren Suma Algonquin Young Readers

Thirteen Short Stories from Bold New YA Voices & Writing Advice from YA Icons

Created by New York Times bestselling authors Emily X. R. Pan and Nova Ren Suma, Foreshadow is so much more than a short story collection. A trove of unforgettable fiction makes up the beating heart of this book, and the accompanying essays offer an ode to young adult literature, as well as practical advice to writers.

Featured in print for the first time, the thirteen stories anthologized here were originally released via the buzzed-about online platform Foreshadow. Ranging from contemporary romance to mind-bending fantasy, the Foreshadow stories showcase underrepresented voices and highlight the beauty and power of YA fiction. Each piece is selected and introduced by a YA luminary, among them Gayle Forman, Laurie Halse Anderson, Jason Reynolds, and Sabaa Tahir.

What makes these memorable stories tick? What sparked them? How do authors build a world or refine a voice or weave in that deliciously creepy atmosphere to bring their writing to the next level? Addressing these questions and many more are essays and discussions on craft and process by Nova Ren Suma and Emily X. R. Pan.

This unique compilation reveals and celebrates the magic of reading and writing for young adults.

#New Releases #YALit

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undertheinfluencerd · 3 years

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The Boys Showrunner Explains How Jensen Ackles Was Cast As Soldier Boy

The Boys showrunner reveals how Jensen Ackles was finalized for Soldier Boy. Amazon Prime’s subversive take on Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson’s comic book series of the same name, The Boys is currently one of the most revered superhero shows around. Featuring an ensemble cast led by Jack Quaid’s Hughie Campbell, Karl Urban’s Billy Butcher, Antony Starr’s Homelander, and Erin Moriarty’s Starlight, the series satirically chronicles the tale of the eponymous group of vigilantes as they strive to take down a team of superpowered individuals who abuse their abilities. Last Fall, The Boys‘ second season became a bona fide sensation, landing the show an Outstanding Drama Series nod at the 2021 Emmys, and becoming the first non-Netflix show to appear on the Nielsen Top 10 Streaming Shows list. Even ahead of the sophomore season’s debut, showrunner Eric Kripke and Amazon were confident about its success. That’s why a third season was ordered early on, with a spin-off series also being put in development.

Although precise details pertaining to the plot of The Boys‘ upcoming season 3 are slim, it’s guaranteed that the show will bring Congresswoman Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit) under the spotlight, after season 2 revealed her to be the person responsible for blowing up people’s heads. Some additional characters will also be introduced, including Laurie Holden’s Crimson Countess, Sean Patrick Flanery’s Gunpowder, Nick Wechsler’s Blue Hawk, and Gaston Villanueva’s Supersonic. But the debut that fans are most eagerly anticipating is of Soldier Boy, one of Vought’s original superheroes, played by Supernatural alum, Jensen Ackles. Ackles’ casting was revealed in a surprise announcement ahead of season 2’s release, and it left fans particularly elated as it marked the actor’s reunion with Kripke, who supervised him as showrunner during the early seasons of Supernatural.

Related: The Boys: Jensen Ackles Season 3 Look Supports Soldier Boy Theory

Recently, during a conversation with Vanity Fair, Kripke went into detail about how Ackles was cast as Solider Boy. The showrunner said that he had written the character long before the star was attached to the role. In fact, initially, he was looking for someone older to play the part. But he failed to find someone who’d fit right into the character’s shoes, and that had him quite frustrated. In the meanwhile, Kripke got a call from Ackles, who had been in touch with him since the Supernatural days. Read Kripke’s full quote below on what that phone call entailed:

“We had written Soldier Boy long before I cast Jensen. The majority of the guys we were looking at for that part were actually quite older than Jensen. Because it’s a World War II hero. But it’s so funny how these things sometimes happen. Jensen called me and I’m not on the show anymore but we keep in touch and text every so often. But he happened to call me and we were just chatting and I’m like well I’m prepping Season 3 of the show, and I have this character Soldier Boy, and it was a real pain in the to cast, and I haven’t really found anyone. Hey, wait a minute, do you want to do it? I sent him the script, and he’s like, oh my God, I totally want to do this. Less than a week later, he was cast. He just happened to call that day, is one of the big reasons he got that part.”

It stands to reason that the conversation between Kripke and Ackles was auspicious for everyone – the show, the actor, and all of The Boys‘ fans who have been bowled over by teasers showing Ackles’ updated look as the Captain America parody. Of course, viewers are yet to catch the star in action, but Ackles’ preparation and realistic embodiment of Soldier Boy is a clear indication that his character will be a hit among audiences once he appears in season 3. At the moment, it’s not sufficiently clear how Solider Boy’s arc will play out, but he is believed to act as a foil to Homelander, Vought’s current leading Supe.

The mutual goodwill between Ackles and Kripke has been largely resonant of late. When Ackles announced that he was developing a Supernatural prequel series, Kripke was quick to show his support for him. This only manifests how strong the ties are between the producer and the actor, and this is particularly good news for The Boys as it means the duo will be able to recreate their iconic collaboration on the show after Supernatural. For the rest, fans will need to wait for an official trailer as it’ll probably be only then when they can catch Ackles delivering his power-packed chops.

Next: Every Supernatural Actor In The Boys

Source: Vanity Fair

#Undertheinfluence #weed

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rick-grimess · 7 years

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the walking dead ended when andrea got killed off in season 3, dont care if you didnt like her but comic Andrea was iconic and Laurie Holden never got to play it out. It ended way before we lost Beth, Glenn, CARL ????? Hershel, Tyreese, Sasha

THE WALKING DEAD WRITERS ARE TRASH. PURE FUCKING TRASH

i’m literally....in.....awe.....

#the walking dead #twd #spoilers

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dazedplace-blog · 4 years

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The Mist - Film

09/09/20- offsite

Screen play written and directed by Frank Darabont

Sci-fi/Horror, rated R (18)

Plot summery by Kevin Awty: Project Arrowhead, a military experiment gone wrong has opened an interdimensional rift setting loose unthinkable creatures in the town of Maine. After a storm rips through Maine, a local Hollywood artist, his son Billy and their next door neighbour drive into town for supplies. Whilst at the supermarket, shoppers are alerted by the presence of military convoys, emergency vehicles and the town’s emergency siren. Shortly after, the town is engulfed by a thick mist; it becomes apparent that this is no ordinary fog. Barricaded in the supermarket for days on end, frightened shoppers fight for survival against the horrific creatures that lurk outside, unaware that perhaps the biggest monster is already amongst them. Based on the Stephen King novel, the director brings to life what King is famous for with an ending that will leave you mortified.

Main Cast: David Drayton - Thomas Jane, Billy Drayton - Nathen Gamble, Mrs. Carmody - Marcia Gay Harden, Amanda Dumfry - Laurie Holden, Brent Norton - Andre Braugher, Ollie Weeks - Toby Jones, Jim - William Sadler, Dan Miller - Jeffery DeMunn, Irene Reppler - Francis Sternhagen, Private Jessup - Sam Witwer, Sally - Alexa Davalos

Quotes: David Drayton: ‘Sure as long as the machines are working and you can dial 911. But take those things away, you throw people in the dark, you scare the sh*t out of them, no more rules. You’ll see how primitive they can get.’

Mrs. Carmody; ‘There’s no defence against the will of God. There’s no court of appeals in hell. The end times have come; not in flames, but in mist.

Ollie Weeks: ‘As a species we’re fundamentally insane. Put more than two of us in a room, we pick sides and start dreaming up reasons to kill one another. Why do you think we invented politics and religion?’

Ollie Weeks: ‘You can’t convince some people there’s fire even when their hair is burning. Denial is a powerful thing.’

Original Film Poster Analysis

The original photo used for the The Mist’s film poster shows the silhouette of a man holding a young child on his hip, facing, backlit by a large glass door and window showing a foggy outside setting.

Like The Mist’s original book cover, the colours used in the poster gradient inwards to white creating contrast and a halo effect around the central man and child, highlighting them as the poster’s most prominent and what the eye is drawn to first. As the main feature, we can assume that the man and child are the main characters of the film; the man holds the child closely in a seemingly protective manner indicating that they are in a vulnerable position. The main characters positioned this way hint that the genre of film is most likely that of a action, thriller or horror.

The photo for the poster has been taken a a slight upwards angle (camera lower to the ground), this technique is often used to allow the background to loom over the foreground, inferring that it is much bigger, more powerful or dangerous. In this instance, the angle was used to make the characters look small in front of the window before them, suggesting that the danger is beyond the window and they are avoiding at or are trapped inside. Further imagery of shopping trolleys besides the characters establishes scene is probably set in a supermarket; we can assume that a supermarket is where the film, or at least its most most prominent scene/s, takes place.

Colours that dominate the poster are black, white, green, red-orange and blue. The darker black edges to the piece further simulate the ‘trapped�� state the characters are in along with the aforementioned imagery. The blurred mix of the other colours layering outside of the window also suggest something abnormal or supernatural is happening. I believe these colours and value altering were added post-production through Photoshop with filters and washes made with the brush tool.

Cloud-like smoke has seeped through the door and surrounds the feet of the characters, this along with the title The Mist on the poster point to the biggest plot point of the film: the mist. Beside the colouring, vulnerable position of characters and additional imagery, the mist has a threatening insinuation.

Alternative Film Poster Designs

This alternate film cover for The Mist features the silhouetted image of a truck and large, tentacle like form hovering above it composed centrally, instantly and simply making them the subject of the piece. This imagery, much like in many of The Mist’s covers is textured with a foggy wash of grey and black, representing the plotline’s namesake; the mist.

The completely monochrome palette used, along with the softened outlines of the imagery, give a tone of quiet mystery; contrasted with the eerie and unfamiliar tentacle, I would associate this cover with the thriller genre. This still shot of what appears to be the tentacle reaching for this truck (the truck itself almost being a stable of action movies itself) hints towards a scene of action, this tentacle now being seen as a treat to the truck and linking back the thriller genre, I can also assume that this film is apart of the horror genre also.

The text for the title of the film, quote and information is also in a central position. The particular typeface used is strict serif but is quite simple and slim, this type has been represented in many different film genres but is most often associated with less easy-going themes such as in thrillers and horrors and sets a more melancholy tone to the poster for the audience to pick up on. Positioned at the very top of the poster is the movie’s tagline: ‘Fear changes everything’, in matching font. This tagline alone suggests the horror genre instantly, however I believe the line would be more impactful if it was more dominant on the cover, simply fixable with a larger font size, but I also understand the minimalistic approach needs to be considered also. I would assume the demographic worked towards for this poster to be adults whom the horror genre appeals to as the subdued text and colour palette plus the overall frightening imagery is not commonly appealing or targeted to children.

I believe this poster consists of an edited photograph; additional contrast, colour and tentacle added post-production. This style of creation is not one I wish to explore myself as I don’t believe I could utilise my particular skills or artistic interests this way but if I were to produce this poster I would first take the picture of the truck in this environment, change it to black and white and then adjust the contrast, along with smoke-like texture added with brushes here, to give the appropriate, natural lighting effect. I would add the tentacle to the poster latterly, first drawing it up and adjusting it’s colouring to simulate depth separately. Finally the text would be added, blended between layers of the imagery and highlighted with white to give the same effect.

I assume this to be the promotional poster for The Mist in Japan. We can see a slightly different artistic approach here, instead of a choreographed photograph as seen in the previous two posters, this poster features a splice of stills taken directly from the from the production of the movie with less dramatic contrasted editing. We can once again see the image of a man holding a child, indicating a vulnerable position, but now the lead actor’s face is in full view for the audience. allowing more context for emotion; the man appears unsure, anxious. Below this image, the audience cans see further members of the cast in a group looking out of a large window, once again appearing to be unsure and shocked.

With the text (in a black, grungy typeface, setting a further horrific tone to the poster) of the information and title of the poster positioned more around the edges of it, the focus is pointed towards at the central figures displaying emotion. Focusing on the actors this way, instead of establishing the scene specifically could be a way of transcending the cultural barrier between America where the film is set, and Japan where this poster was promoted as it communicates directly to the audience that this is not a peaceful film and is more likely to be that of a thriller, horror or action without any complications due to cultural differences as any culture can understand emotion through facial expression.

The palette of this poster ranges from dark grey and blue to white; a common scheme used of The Mist’s posters and book covers, however, instead of highlighting the main features with white in a halo effect, the images blend into white representing the mist consuming the scenes. The blue and grey suggest to the audience a more depressing to the tone to the film and with a lack of bright colours and typically fun imagery, we know this film is not targeted towards children.

Japan is known as a pioneer in the horror movie genre with their influential kaiju monster films (e.g. Godzilla) and other iconic movies such as The Ring and The Grudge based off the works of Koji Suzuki. With this knowledge, the lack of typically frightening imagery and colours associated with horror (red, black etc.) leads me to believe that The Mist may not have been promoted as a horror movie and the monsters of the mist could have been left as a surprise to the preconditioned Japanese horror fandom to draw more interest instead of being the usual horror film they would expect.

This poster shows a much wider variety of imagery from differing scenes compared to the previous and original poster, however, it does follow the same colour palette and use of light blurred texture to represent the mist. This poster also includes the tag line of the film ‘fear changes everything’ and focuses on the central image of the main character.

What stood out to me on this poster is how the artist incorporated the title: The Mist into the scene using appropriate typography to appear like the name of the supermarket in the background of the piece; where the majority of the film takes place.

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flyinaminddance · 6 years

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To the people who demand the return of Glen Mazzara as The Walking Dead’s showrunner and who are certain that he would do a better job than Scott Gimple: have you forgotten how disgustingly Mazzara treated the actors? How he verbally abused Laurie Holden and basically killed Andrea off purely out of spite because the actress dared to speak her mind about him diminishing her character’s importance? Mazzara didn’t respect women, nor have any idea what to do with female characters. If he were still in charge of the show, Carol wouldn’t even be alive. And Michonne definitely wouldn’t be Rick’s love interest. Careful what you wish for.

And those nostalgic for the Frank Darabont days of The Walking Dead... have you seen The Mist? Darabont directed that movie. Dude changed Stephen fucking King’s original ending because apparently it wasn’t morbid enough. If Darabont could continue to run The Walking Dead, Rick would first shoot Carl and then the rest of the survivors at the very end for no other reason than just giving up on everything. Believe me, you don’t want either of them back.

Also, blaming Gimple for Glenn’s demise and Negan’s existence in general accomplishes nothing since both aspects of the story are the work of the creator of The Walking Dead - the comic book writer Robert Kirkman (who has mentioned several times that his own favourite character is Negan and that Rick Grimes will die at some point in the comics).

Once you get past your initial knee-jerk reaction and ponder these alternatives a bit, then Gimple’s way doesn’t seem so bad after all. Even with Carl gone. Gimple is a softie compared to Kirkman himself. The actors on the show care and know more about Kirkman’s characters than Kirkman does. He admitted as much. Sure, he created Glenn amongst others, but he didn’t give a crap about him, which should have been a huge red flag for anyone following the comics. It was Steven Yeun who made Glenn iconic

#The Walking Dead #Scott Gimple #Glen Mazzara #Frank Darabont #tv shows #Robert Kirkman #comics #The Mist #movies #Stephen King #horror

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mrmichaelchadler · 5 years

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Dragged Across Concrete

The cops-and-robbers genre is typically one that feels more accelerated than others, complete with quick cuts, witty dialogue, and narrative time jumps. S. Craig Zahler’s “Dragged Across Concrete” asks does it have to be? Extremely purposefully decelerated, even more so than his very deliberate “Bone Tomahawk” and “Brawl in Cell Block 99,” this brutal, ultra-violent film feels like an extension of Zahler’s work as a novelist, where he can work at a different pace than most filmmakers are forced to do. He takes 158 minutes to cover narrative ground that someone as kinetic as Edgar Wright would do in about 25. And the result is a film that often feels like Zahler’s most assured to date. Self-indulgent? Oh yeah. A provocation? You bet. But it’s difficult to ignore the craftsmanship and performances “Dragged Across Concrete” simply because you don’t like some of its darker themes or feel like it’s too long.

Casting Mel Gibson as a kinda racist cop who longs for the days before political correctness is clearly a provocation in and of itself. And yet Zahler and Gibson don’t lean into that aspect as much as you may expect. Gibson does his best film work in years as Brett Ridgeman, a cop on the cusp of his 60th birthday and perpetually scowling. In their opening scene, Ridgeman gets a little rough and a little racist as he and his partner Anthony Lurasetti (Vince Vaughn) are working a drug bust. Their bad behavior is filmed by a neighbor, which leads to a suspension and an incendiary scene in which Gibson, Vaughn, and their chief (played by Don Johnson) discuss the PC state of the world. Does Zahler agree that political correctness is hampering police work? Is he presenting or endorsing? He’s tantalizingly vague even as Lurasetti proclaims he’s not racist because he orders dark roast on MLK Day.

Zahler’s provocations continue in a scene that follows in which Ridgeman’s wife (Laurie Holden) talks about how she was once a liberal but the crime in their heavily black neighborhood has made her racist. Zahler is working a classical road here narratively—a man who feels cheated by life and goes to extremes to correct the bad hand he’s been dealt—but he’s lined that road with hot topic land mines. Ridgeman believes that he’s at a point where stopping the drug trade doesn’t matter as much as doing it in a PC way, so he’s going to stop playing by the rules. He then gets a tip about a money exchange that he can rob, which means retirement and moving his wife and daughter to a safer neighborhood.

Meanwhile, Zahler introduces us to another iconic character from the potboiler genre—the ex-con jumping from being behind bars to the criminal assignment. Henry Johns (Tory Kittles) comes home to find his addicted mother has been working as a prostitute to make ends meet, and he too is going to change his predicament. So Zahler presents us with a black young man and a white old man who are both going to commit crimes to change their luck. Is he asking us to compare the two? Obviously, at least a little. And yet “Dragged” never feels like a “We’re all the same” moral message movie. It’s a character piece—take whatever themes from it you choose, but don’t expect them to be highlighted or underlined.

We also have to talk about the way Zahler uses women in his films, this one in particular. They are all victims who need to be protected by the men in their lives or worse—brutally abused and murdered. Early in the film, Anthony suggests the world changed when men started saying “we’re pregnant” instead of “she’s.” Is it just a funny line? A character detail? Or does Zahler agree? And one could really argue, no spoilers, that this is a film that asserts that women shouldn't go back to work after having babies. Again, the line between commentary and misogyny feels razor thin in a way that I find fascinating but will almost certainly offend some people.

Whether or not you can roll with Zahler’s provocations is one thing, but it’s impossible not to admire how he’s developed as a filmmaker. His framing here, shot by his regular collaborator Benji Bakshi, is beautiful. Everything looks confident without calling attention to itself in a way that a lot of Tarantino and Leonard acolytes often do. Most of “Dragged” is shot in low light, especially the final hour, but Zahler has a great sense of space and blocking, which helps keeps the film engrossing. And he draws a fascinating, world-weary performance from Gibson, who reminds one how good he can be with the right material.

In every way, “Dragged Across Concrete” feels like it’s trying to challenge you. It’s a little racist, a little sexist, almost aggressively slow—we watch Vaughn eat an egg salad sandwich in what feels like real time—and incredibly violent. It is a great lost Elmore Leonard book that’s been slowed to a crawl and updated to reflect the impact of political correctness and smartphones on characters who used to be able to operate in the shadows. In a sense, it pulls the classic, tough cop characters from great fiction and drags them across the concrete, leaving everyone bloody and battered. You will feel it too.

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