United Against Life As We Know It

Ginger Snaps (2000)

My favorite part of Halloween has always been the costumes. I usually start planning as early as December, but this year I'm fresh out of inspiration. I could always bust out my trusty Elvira costume or my personal favorite, blood-and-brain-splattered Jackie-O. I was particularly proud of my homemade Tura Satana costume but that ensemble has rotated its way into my regular wardrobe. Audrey Reynolds said she was going as Sue Ellen Ewing from DALLAS this year so it's pretty hard to beat that.

But you know the one thing that sticks in my craw about Halloween? These rampaging bimbosteins that use Halloween as an excuse to parade around in the skankiest outfits possible. Now, I have nothing against costumes being sexy. Hell, it's Halloween and two out of the three favorite costumes of mine I listed here are cleavage-centric. It's the sheer lack of imagination that gets my goat. I mean, they could at least dress up as a hooker like Audrey's older sister Alice Lee did for career day in high school! I had this roommate in college who on Halloween night put on a costume four sizes too small and looked like she was prepared to perform the floor show that damned men must be subjected to in the ninth circle of hell.
"What are you supposed to be?" I asked.
She rolled her eyes and sneered, "I'm Little Bo Peep."
I was actually relieved because for a moment there, I thought that plastic sheep was for far more nefarious purposes.
She was an Exercise Sports Science major and was failing all her classes. We're talkin' dumber than a sack of hammers.

I dunno, I just hate the idea of this glorious Pagan holiday being profaned by some ho-zillas seeking cheap sexual validation to boost their shattered self-esteems.

I asked Marie Janisse what she was going to be for Halloween but she just told me to let her know when that jerk family across the street started having people over to tour the Hallelujah House in their garage because she wanted to come over and walk around naked with the curtains open. I didn't argue with her because a naked Marie Janisse is a force to be reckoned with. She's madder than a wet nun about them referring to her as the devil's whore. Last week, she scrawled "It's Time for Helter Skelter, Bitches!" on their door and left a pig's head on their front steps. They better hope they've got Jesus on their side, because Marie Janisse is out for blood.

And speaking of rampaging female sexuality, today I'm talking about GINGER SNAPS, the fifth film in the 31 Days of Halloween review-a-thon, written by KAREN WALTON and directed by JOHN FAWCETT. Sardonic, gleefully antisocial Ginger Fitzgerald (Canadian scream queen KATHARINE ISABELLE) and her slightly younger sister, whip-smart, deadpan Brigitte (EMILY PERKINS), are teenage outcasts and best friends, united by their mutual alienation and hatred of the vacuous inhabitants of their suburban Canadian town, Bailey Downs. The girls spend their time avoiding their cheery handicraft-loving mother, Pamela (MIMI ROGERS), devising ridiculous obituaries for their tormentor, mean girl jockette Trina Sinclair (DANIELLE HAMPTON), and staging outrageously gory death scenarios. The girls are inseparable and share a suicide pact as literal death seems preferable to them over the prolonged death of conventional adult womanhood.

On the night Ginger starts her first period, she is attacked by a monstrous wolf creature in the woods. Alarmed by the fact that Ginger's cuts have already begun healing, Brigitte wants to seek medical attention but Ginger dissuades her. But Ginger begins transforming: she dresses more like a vixen and she returns the attentions of high-school "caveboy" Jason McCarty (JESSE MOSS). "You're doing drugs with guys," Brigitte says. "Something is definitely wrong." Ginger also sprouts a tail, her features grow more wolf-like and she begins killing neighborhood pets to feed a newfound hunger. Brigitte finds an ally in local pot dealer, Sam (KRIS LEMCHE) to find a cure for Ginger but as Ginger comes to embrace her monstrousness, she may not want to be cured.

With the contribution of screenwriter KAREN WALTON, GINGER SNAPS is one of the few films I think accurately and effectively depicts the tumultuous emotions, the anger and alienation, anxiety about impending adulthood and the intense bond of female friendship of adolescence (the two others that come to mind are HEAVENLY CREATURES and GHOST WORLD). All of the female characters presented are multi-faceted and defy the stereotypes they could have fallen into. Most horror films about teenagers are coming-of-age stories in genre dressing and GINGER SNAPS uses the myth of the werewolf to explore aspects of female adolescence.

The relationship of the Fitzgerald sisters is the heart of the film and undeniably why it resonates so well. The dissolution of an inseparable teenage friendship is a painful part of becoming an adult and something a majority of viewers can relate to. As a morbid, smart-alecky outsider (teenage and otherwise), I identified with Ginger and Brigitte, particularly Brigitte's journey into dreaded adulthood. Like the girls, I reveled in shock value as a reaction to my conformist environment, but unlike the girls, I thought adulthood offered a welcome reprieve in that I could finally make my own world versus being the outsider looking in.

Like many horror film heroines, Brigitte's maturation is accomplished not through sexual experience but through survival. In her quest to help Ginger, Brigitte proves to be an adept researcher and a resourceful problem solver. Where before Ginger was the dominant personality in the relationship, ("You just do whatever she tells you to, you always have," Pamela scolds her) Brigitte finally individuates, developing enough confidence to assert herself in a healthy manner and to no longer live in her sister's shadow. While their relationship was a source of support for both young women, it was also unequal and grows increasingly toxic as Ginger changes.
"You ruin everything for me that isn't about you," Brigitte tells her transformed sister.
Brigitte ultimately outgrows the relationship and decides she does not have to become the kind of woman her community demands that she be or even the perpetual second fiddle to her demanding sister: she can become the kind of woman she wants to be.
"I'm not dying in this room with you!" she declares. "I'm not dying!" And thus embraces her journey into adult womanhood.

Ginger's journey is a far more nihilistic one. Some have accused the film of biting its own feminist tail in that it depicts female sexuality as monstrous, but I think this interpretation is overly simplistic. The film's portrayal of female sexuality is an ambivalent one, illustrating both the exhilaration and terror experienced in female teenage years. It's undeniable that North American culture views female sexuality as monstrous, an uncontrollable force that needs to be managed with various neatly packaged products so that we do not scare away potential boyfriends. The double-standard still exists that men are free to indulge in their sexual desires, while the sexual desires of women are to be controlled and monitored. Because of this, Ginger becomes a representation of the female id; we simultaneously want to be like her (sexy, dangerous, uninhibited) and afraid of becoming her if we let go. Ginger's transformation conveys the physical pain, the distaste for new body changes, the awkwardness of initial sexual experiences and the simultaneous discomfort and excitement that comes with intense, burgeoning sexual desires. Ginger also finds power in her sexuality; she turns heads as she walks through the halls, she takes charge in gratifying her desires, returns the aggression of the men around her and has the guts to smack down the gym class alpha bitch. For a male viewer, the Monstrous Female confirms their fear of female sexuality as the unknown, and also fears of being sexually undesirable or unable to perform. For female viewers, monstrous women in horror films like Ginger are a strange wish-fulfilment allowing them to vicariously indulge in their inhibited desires.

But Ginger is also tragic in that she bends everything towards self-destruction. Without the werewolf symbolism, she is the equivalent of a young woman who uses sex to hurt her partner and ultimately herself. She becomes increasingly selfish in her relationship with her sister; though she puts mistas before sistas (pretty un-feminist of her), she wants Brigitte all to herself. Brigitte is ultimately not allowed to exist outside her orbit.
"I'm a force of fucking nature," Ginger purrs. But Ginger ultimately becomes a raging hurricane that destroys everything in her path. Though Ginger, like any teenager undergoing a series of changes, is by turns overwhelmed, afraid, angry or in denial about what is happening to her, she eventually embraces her monstrousness and, on a subversive note, actually enjoys killing, equating it to the pleasure she receives from masturbation. Female sexual desire - and particularly sexual enjoyment - are rarely depicted on film. Somehow, Ginger's monstrousness makes this permissible. It's interesting to note many antiheroines in horror films discover self-confidence and embrace their sexuality through violence (such as Thana's transformation in MS. 45 ).  Once again, I think this has less to do with these films demonizing female sexuality than mirroring how female sexuality is regarded in North American culture. Monsters are metaphors for the darker sides of the human psyche. Since female sexuality is taboo, viewed as something that needs to be repressed, controlled and shamed when it is not, a Monstrous Female is the transgressive id, the urges that refuse to be repressed. Through genre conventions, the audience (both male and female) can explore these impulses and forbidden desires safely and comfortably.

WALTON's script is smart and irreverent, presenting a gleeful skewering of superficial suburban values and teen angst through the perspective of outsiders. Her dialogue is also clever without devolving into self-indulgence and favorably recalls HEATHERS. Naturally, the performances of KATHARINE ISABELLE and EMILY PERKINS carry the film. ISABELLE's razor wit, feral sensuality and sinewy body are perfect for the role of Ginger and she essays the character's transformation flawlessly. PERKINS as the Wednesday Addams-ish Brigitte matches her every step of the way in her character's less showy but equally remarkable emotional transformation. She conveys Brigitte's odd mannerisms, her scowl and her awkward slouch but also brings forth Brigitte's sensitivity and fierce intelligence. MIMI ROGERS is also excellent (and very funny) as Pamela, who is not quite the ditzy suburban housewife she seems to be.
The autumnal photography is beautiful and evokes just the perfect Halloween feeling. I also cannot say enough about the score, which perfectly enhances the emotional nuances of the film.

Whatever you think about the film's metaphor of female-teenage-sex-werewolf, GINGER SNAPS is noteworthy in how it depicts young women; films centering on female friendships where the male characters are secondary are few and far between (especially in the horror genre). It's always refreshing to see a film, horror or otherwise, featuring intelligent, offbeat and defiantly strange female protagonists who don't fit neatly into a stereotype. "Trust me, a woman can only be a bitch, a slut, a tease or the virgin next door," Ginger informs Brigitte, but fortunately that is not the case with this movie. The physical and emotional changes one endures during adolescence can be overwhelming and even horrifying, particularly as a young woman when the roles you are assigned are especially limited, and I believe that is what GINGER SNAPS hits the bullseye in conveying.

She Was Abused and Violated...It Will Never Happen Again!

Ms. 45 (1981)

Normally I'm much happier by myself obsessing over things other people think are a waste of time, but I think my soulmate might be lurking out there in the dark recesses of the internet so I decided to give online dating a try. I haven't been getting any responses to my profile so maybe you, gentle readers, can tell me what you think:

"Wisecracking legal assistant/horror writer, shoots hipsters on sight, early 30s acts 65 most of the time, seeks fellow curmudgeon to share an obsession with drive-in/cult movies and a mutual disgust for humanity. Sharing my political beliefs is not required, but it'll help if you enjoy watching strikebreakers and SJWs explode across the windshield of my Ford like a sack of meat. Hates going new places and meeting new people, but loves going to the library and having someone rub my back while I drink margaritas and binge-watch DALLAS.

Loves:  Horror movies, Jim Thompson, Southern Gothic, baking brownies, Warren Oates, William Jennings Bryan, The Ramones, Edward G. Robinson lookalikes, Sue Ellen Ewing, the Teamsters, crab cakes, outrageous nihilism

Hates: Spending time with friends and family, wussies, bicyclists, everything about the 21st century, other people's feelings

Mad scientist, sarcastic drive-in mutant, or card-carrying member of the ILA preferred. Only serious applicants needs inquire. Seriously, boys, I've got nunchucks and I'm not afraid to dropkick you to Fort Bend County.

There are plenty of decent, responsible guys out there, but I have to tell ya, there's a particularly loathsome subspecies in this generation of men and I think it's spread too quickly across the United States for us to capture it and quarantine it. You'll recognize it when you see it: it's the type that has no discernible skills (except whining) but no shortage of a superiority complex, has few interests except for himself, cries like a spoiled child over everything and believes all women must want him because his mother told them so. It's the kind of "guy" (I use that term loosely) who wants a blow-up doll that can act like a nanny more than a girlfriend. I don't know many women that would appeal to unless they're one of those weirdos with a giant diaper baby fetish. Far more annoyingly, many of these wimpy welps insist the problem is not that they lack the ability to relate to women in a mature and respectful way or that they have no emotional regulation: "You don't understand," they'll bleat. "I'm a sensitive guy!" When did sensitivity become equated with being a total self-absorbed wussy whinemaster? There's a reason the whiny guy always dies in horror movies, folks. I'm not sure why men who act like seventh grade mean girls are considered to be a positive example of evolving gender norms -- especially when I've been treated with more respect by so-called macho rednecks than these eunuchs. And I don't know what made these women raise their sons to be recruits for the Future John Hinckleys of America Training Camp. If they were going to do that, they should have paid the extra money to have them neutered too.  HUNTER S. THOMPSON once wrote of the Generation of Swine, this is the Generation of Wussies.
This foul breed must be stopped. From now on, I'm going to taser every single one that crosses my path in the crotch with my Hello Kitty taser.

And speaking of despicable male behavior and senseless violence, it's time for the fourth film in the 31 Days of Halloween Review-a-thon, MS. 45 (1981), the rape-revenge cult classic and one of my all-time favorites, written by NICHOLAS ST. JOHN and directed by ABEL FERRARA.

The film stars ZOE TAMERLIS in a knock-out performance as the enigmatic Thana, a shy, mute young woman who works as a seamstress in New York City's Garment District.  A twisted sister to Carol Ledoux in REPULSION, fragile Thana cowers from the male sexual aggression she is subjected to on a daily basis.  Men hurl catcalls and insults at her and her co-workers as they walk down the street. Outspoken Laurie (DARLENE STUTO) shouts back and flips them the bird, but a close-up of Thana reveals only distress and fear. Thana's boss Albert (ALBERT SINKYS) pats her on the head like a child and sexually harasses her. When Thana is raped by an unknown attacker (played by FERRARA himself under the name JIMMY LAINE) coming home from the grocery store, she returns to her apartment only to be raped again by a burglar. Thana strikes back at this second attacker, stunning him with an apple paperweight (Eve?) and then bashing him over the head with an iron (the tool of her trade).

Thana enters into a dissociative state and begins to exhibit traits of post traumatic stress disorder such as nightmares and extreme anxiety when anything triggers memories of the traumatic incident. Despite the concern of her co-workers, Thana does not seek their support and feels threatened by their attention. Perhaps she feels isolated from them due to her muteness or perhaps she has learned that others are not to be trusted.
Whatever the reason, Thana feels alone and she will deal with her problems alone.
The attention she receives from men, once unsettling, is now unbearable.
"I just wish they would leave me alone," Thana writes in a note to her co-worker after being subjected to unwanted touching and harassment from Albert.

Finally, fearful that her intrusive landlady, Ms. Nasone (imagine a combination of SYLVIA MILES and EDITH MASSEY) will discover what has transpired, she dismembers the body in her bathtub and makes trips around the city to dispose of the garbage-bagged pieces. She begins to carry her attacker's .45 with her for protection when she goes out.  On one of her body disposal adventures, a Fonzie wannabe assumes she has accidentally left behind a bag and chases her down. Fearing another sexual attack, a cornered Thana shoots him in the head.
The incident transforms Thana: vampishly dressed, she prowls the streets of New York, armed with the dead rapist's .45, blowing away men who behave in a sexually aggressive manner towards women. Thana refuses to remain a victim, instead taking action against misogynistic transgressors. She'll make them leave her alone. Her special brand of SCUM MANIFESTO feminism culminates in a rampage at a Halloween party where Thana turns her gun on her victimizer/boss and the other male guests before being literally and figuratively stabbed in the back with a phallic knife by Laurie. I guess that's what Betty Friedan meant when she said, "Men are not the enemy but fellow victims. The real enemy is women's denigration of themselves."

Whether it's through unwanted come-ons, workplace harassment or sexual violence, men in the film consistently view women is little more than pleasurable objects.  Albert treats his all-female staff in a patronizing fashion (he refers to them as "my little brownies...my little workers") and sexually harasses Thana because she is young and vulnerable. Some viewers balk at the outrageousness of someone enduring two rapes in a single day, but I think that's the point that the film is trying to make. Sexual violence as a means of subjugation is epidemic and though CAMILLE PAGLIA would cry "I spit on this blog!" at the mention of Rape Culture, I think it's fair to say that in the world that the film presents, misogyny has been normalized.

The male characters do not notice Thana's muteness, instead interpreting her silence as feminine passivity. It is even questionable in the film if Thana is indeed mute, or if it's the psychological result of childhood trauma. Thana has been silenced through abuse and invalidation; she has learned not to speak up for herself or express her wants and needs. She finds her voice, so to speak, in her rampage, allowing her gun to speak for her. In many narratives, a young woman will embark upon a journey of self-discovery, usually through more traditional rites of passage. In MS. 45, Thana discovers herself through survival and self-assertive violence. Unlike Carol Ledoux, Thana is a fighter.

The film is refreshingly from Thana's perspective and Thana is never sexualized for the viewer's voyeuristic pleasure. The street harassment Thana and her co-workers must face is seen through Thana's point of view. Her second rapist is filmed from her point of view. The rape scenes focus heavily on close-ups of Thana's agonized reaction rather than the sexuality of the act itself. After dismembering her second attacker's body in the bathtub, Thana stands before the mirror and unbuttons her shirt. As she disrobes, an imaginary hand reaches out and grabs her. Stunned, Thana crosses her arms protectively over her chest and hallucinates the rapist from the alley appearing behind her in the mirror. An exploitation audience expecting to be titillated by the sight of Thana's breasts is only greeted with a shock -- which places them in the same shoes as the traumatized antiheroine.

Thana's journey from timid seamstress to vengeance-wreaking femme fatale is both an empowering and self-destructive one. After the trauma of the double-whammy rapes, she refuses to surrender to fear and will not allow herself to continue being abused. Though she reclaims the phallus by arming herself with the dead rapist's .45, symbolically castrating him and using it further to castrate other male predators, she does not assume male characteristics. She actually begins to embrace her own feminine sexuality, wearing more make-up, styling her hair and wearing vampish figure-accentuating dresses, leather pants and knee-high boots. Once nervous and socially awkward, she exudes confidence and grace. No longer afraid of male aggression, she feels free to express herself as a death-dealin' vixen.

In the Halloween party finale, Thana arrives dressed as a sexy nun: she is both the Madonna and the Whore, a union of both rigid categories in which women are placed. Having lured her away from the party under the mistaken impression that he will finally seduce her, Albert lifts Thana's skirt. To his dismay, rather than exposing Thana's genitals, he sees the .45 positioned in her garter belt, and a cross from the beads around her waist dangles between her thighs.
Thana has fully transformed from a victim to angel of vengeance: once sexually victimized by men, she now uses her sexuality to lure and punish misogynistic would-be attackers. After blasting them into oblivion she could easily smile and explain they were asking for it.

However, while other rape-revenge films such as I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE and THRILLER: A CRUEL PICTURE, end on a close-up of the antiheroine once her revenge has been completed, MS. 45 ends with Thana being stabbed in the back by her friend and co-worker. While the women in those two films have simpler quests in punishing those who have directly wronged them so that they can heal and move on, Thana is on a mission to punish all men who abuse women. In that way, Thana is similar to Paul Kersey in DEATH WISH. Both characters' rampages are a violent form of activism.

But while her revenge is initially empowering, Thana's refusal to let go of her anger causes her to spiral further and further out of control and finally destroy herself.
How effective was her one-woman war against the patriarchy? Though there are a few more misogynists six feet under, there is no hint in the film that Thana's killing spree has instigated any social change or made the world a fairer place for women.
Much like the GLORIA STEINAM wing of feminism but I digress.
Paul Kersey, however, becomes a sort of modern-day Western hero. Because society has broken down so much, the institutions we have established to protect us fail to do so and it must be up to the people to take action. Paul's spree actually inspires change in that the people of New York City finally want to take a stand to protect themselves. I think this would have been a subversive wrinkle for MS. 45, but Thana's motives are a mystery to the other characters.

Unlike her cinematic sisters, Jennifer Hills in I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE and Madeline in THRILLER: A CRUEL PICTURE whose victims ultimately all deserve their fate by having done violence to the heroine or even Paul Kersey who only shoots those who prove themselves to be criminals, Thana comes to see all men as aggressors. Her hostility towards men is understandable in that, like Carol in REPULSION, pretty much every man she encounters behaves like a would-be date rapist, but it also causes her to lose her grip on reality.

In a scene that echoes the famous "You talkin' to me?" sequence in TAXI DRIVER, Thana prepares for the Halloween party, blessing each bullet with a kiss. She poses in front of her mirror with her gun, playacting shooting and smiles at herself. You know how I'm always saying the mirrors generally represent a psychological space in these kind of movies? Well, get ready to read it about it again. The mirror, once indicating Thana's fear of victimization, now -- much like the aforementioned scene in TAXI DRIVER -- represents her isolation from the reality of the rest of the world, sinking further into the warped reality created by her mind. Her revenge has consumed her entire life.
Once an angel of vengeance, she loses her ability to distinguish predatory men and instead seeks to exterminate all men. Her name itself is significant deriving from the Greek word "Thanatos" or personification of death. Rather than being a campaign for justice, Thana's crusade is ultimately a nihilistic one.

A romantic relationship is never a cure-all, but I have to wonder if Thana's journey might have been less difficult had she met her soulmate, Travis Bickle.

MS. 45 is an excellent female companion piece to TAXI DRIVER, both being films set in a grim, garbage-strewn New York City and featuring an alienated protagonist driven to madness by the everyday brutality in its streets and the "scum" that inhabit it, finally finding catharsis through violence. Travis's violent actions, much like those of Paul Kersey, are construed as heroic - though he could have easily turned his gun on the political candidate instead -- illustrating the film's point that society has become so insane the line between hero and villain are indistinguishable. However, while Travis drives on to an uncertain future at the end of the film and DEATH WISH implies that Paul Kersey's campaign against the scum on the streets will continue, Thana's violent crusade is ended by another woman.  Is male violence simply more acceptable then female violence?  Or has Thana simply gone further off the deep end than her male counterparts?

Laurie's final knife in the back can be interpreted in a few ways. Perhaps it's the equivalent of women maintaining the restrictions placed upon them by degrading one another. Maybe it's the equivalent of bitch policing (ie when a woman tries to stand up for herself, she is reprimanded with "Don't be a bitch").  The large knife penetrating Thana's back is a nasty visual metaphor for her previous rapes, perhaps indicating that the system of oppression cannot ever truly be destroyed.
On the other hand, feisty Laurie does not allow herself to be victimized by men and is able to stand up for herself without resorting to violence the way Thana does. Laurie may be a healthier alternative (and a true feminist rather than a misandrist) to what Thana ultimately becomes.

It cannot be denied much of MS. 45's power comes from ZOE TAMERLIS as Thana. A genius, musical prodigy and political activist, Ms. Tamerlis delivers an emotionally agile performance, and invests Thana with intelligence, feline grace, mystery, beauty and inner-strength. She is able to convey so much with her body language, facial expressions and soulful eyes. She died prematurely at only 37 due to complications from drug use and the film world is a lesser place without her. "I think she was unhappy a lot of the time...Maybe she got too old too fast," her mother laments in the documentary short ZOE RISING. At only nineteen, she gives Thana a world-weariness and tragedy that a different actress might not have brought to the part. She has been quoted as saying that MS. 45 is not specifically a feminist film; that it is a film championing all disempowered and disenfranchised people. However, I would have to ask, what is the significance of making the stand-in for all the disempowered a woman?

Aren't You a Handsome Devil?

 

The Final Conflict (1981)

Well, with Halloween mayhem just around the corner, everyone in Dead River is jabbering about the high crime rate. Stabbings went up 20% from last year, or something like that. To tell you the truth, I wasn't really paying attention. I think the high crime rate makes this a fun place to live. Every day I step out my front door, I have the sense that something exciting is going to happen.

There was one Sunday where I was completely bored; nothing on TV, didn't want to watch a movie, I had already finished my book and I didn't really want to drive anywhere. Then all of a sudden, the woman who lives on the corner was walking back from the Laundromat and her husband chases her down the street and stabs her to death with a pair of sewing scissors.

The police came and took the guy away but said it wasn't there job to move bodies; there were living people who still needed help in this city. Therefore, it was up to the neighbors to stand around the body until someone from the medical examiner's office could get there. Naturally bonding under traumatic circumstances, we have become close friends. It was better than a block party.

And the holiday mayhem is just beginning: Otis Calhoun has sworn revenge upon the uptight Thomas family for their refusal to hand out Halloween candy and threatened to burn that Hallelujah House they run out of their garage to the ground. I know he's lurking out there somewhere in the dark, hatching a diabolical plan as we speak.

And speaking of diabolical plans, today I'm talking about the third film in the OMEN series. Let's take a little detour from the 31 Days of October marathon and take part in FINAL GIRL's awesome annual Shocktober Fest with one of my favorite films, THE FINAL CONFLICT (1981) written by ANDREW BIRKIN and directed by GRAHAM BAKER. Before I rented this, I was under the mistaken impression this was about Damien Thorn, everyone's favorite Antichrist, running for president. A Satan-infused version of HOUSE OF CARDS? Pardon the expression, but - HELL YEAH! However, that is not the case. It's still a perversely enjoyable movie, though.

The film picks up with a thirty-two-year-old Damien Thorn, now played by SAM NEILL (IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS, POSSESSION). Damien has gained control of Thorn Industries and transformed it into a multi-national corporation. And thanks to the Satan-influenced suicide of the previous holder of the position, he is appointed as Ambassador of Great Britain. But wait, isn't it illegal for him to hold that post and maintain control of Thorn?
"We'll bend the rules a little bit," the President says.

He's preparing to run for the Senate in three years, but there are a few obstacles in his way. A constellation in the sky foretells the Second Coming of Christ so Damien must obliterate his archenemy before his archenemy can destroy him. There are also seven priests who have uncovered the Seven Knives of Maggiddo (and if you were paying attention to the first OMEN you know that is the only thing that can kill the antichrist) and make several bumbling attempts on his life.
Seriously, these guys are pretty incompetent. Really, Forces of Good, that's the best you can do? Also, aren't you supposed to stab the antichrist with all seven knives in order to kill him? I guess they didn't read the directions either.

He also becomes distracted from his diabolical pursuits by his relationship with pragmatic journalist, Kate Reynolds (LISA HARROW) and her young son, Peter, who finds the fatherly attention he craves in Damien.



 
There's also Damien's own increasing paranoia which causes him to enlist his Army of Satanic Acolytes (including a priest - talk about inner-conflict! - and some British Boy Scouts) to eliminate all newborn boys born on the suspected day of the Second Coming. That's right -- infanticide-a-go-go!

Let's get the bad out of the way first: THE FINAL CONFLICT is a pretty flawed film. The direction lacks the atmosphere and flourish of the first, and the script meanders all over the place juggling disparate subplots but not really devoting enough time to any of them. Therefore, the ending, which should be a knock-out, ends up being pretty anti-climatic.

I think the adult female characters in this film are interesting but not much time is devoted to either one of them. Kate is a hard-nosed professional journalist, but also still recovering from the death of her husband and trying to raise a young son at a difficult age while she fulfills the demands of her career. As if that wasn't enough on her shoulders, the handsome, successful man she's in love with is none other than the antichrist!  Oh, the drama!
And what about Barbara Dean (LEUEEN WILLOUGHBY) who discovers her husband, Harvey, is not just Damien's devoted Press Secretary but also Satan's Cabana Boy, then goes berserko with an iron? That sounds like the best Lifetime Original Movie ever!

The film is really at its most interesting following Damien's ascendance to the top. In THE FINAL CONFLICT, Damien Thorn is the ultimate post Me Decade nightmare. He starts out with a plate full of advantages, continues to rise by manipulating others to do his dirty work for him, and both literally and figuratively advances by knocking opponents down and stabbing others in the back - backed by the power of Daddy Satan the whole time. He hypocritically hides behind the mask of the Great Humanitarian, the head of an international youth council espousing the importance of young people in bettering our society, all the while he's having his goons butcher babies.
"I condemn all violence," he says, smiling to the news media.
He's a danger too in that he represents the alliance of politics with big business, a threat that the script whispers about but does not delve deeply into (wouldn't that have been a more interesting movie, though?)
Even those in his inner-circle are only pawns to be manipulated and discarded when they are no longer of use.
The film presents the epitome of evil as a Machiavellian, two-faced, megalomaniacal career politician and corporate honcho.

Another interesting aspect that is introduced but never really fully explored in the script is the notion of evil. "True evil," Damien explains. "Is as pure as innocence." Damien and his followers revel in evil the way most people feel spiritually uplifted by a church sermon. Damien denounces Christian values as "mundane" and "servile" forcing slavish followers into a life of suffering for a vague reward. Are good and evil really not so different? Is morality just a form of repression and hypocrisy?Is evil just a form of cynicism? Hey, if humankind is made in God's image, maybe the devil isn't so bad after all! Unfortunately, the script does not explore these notions any further than speeches throughout the film delivered with relish by SAM NEILL.

It's SAM NEILL's performance as Damien that really carries THE FINAL CONFLICT and is the reason I enjoy revisiting it again and again. He plays this damn role like he's in a production of RICHARD THE III and not a Part Three, investing the character with charisma, charm and gravitas. The scenes in which Damien engages in a florid diatribe against a crucified Christ statue are actually my favorite parts of the film. They could have easily been silly but they are performed with Shakespearean bravado by MR. NEILL.

THE FINAL CONFLICT is the cinematic equivalent of The Bad Boyfriend With a Prison Record: everyone points out its glaringly obvious flaws, but I can't help but be seduced by its charm. Hey, call me crazy, but I have a soft spot in my heart for florid, rhetorical monologues!

It's Fast, Loud and Thrashin

Trick or Treat (1986)

Dead River had some serious street flooding the past week so I spent a lot of time watching people floating down the street on inflatable mattresses to the Winn-Dixie to restock on cold beer.

But now that the city's starting to dry out, it's time to continue carrying a grudge because nobody carries a grudge like we do in the South. As promised, Marie Janisse - paralegal, former Satanic go-go dancer, and best friend extraordinaire - continued her quest for revenge against the Thomas family. For those just tuning in, they're the uptight folks across the street who convert their garage into a Hallelujah House for Halloween every year instead and refuse to hand out candy because it's un-Christian. They have also incurred the wrath of Marie for referring to the two of us as "the devil's whores." I was called worse in grad school, but as promised, Marie arrived with the rest of Satan's Chanteuses, her all-girl punk-acid-metal-zydeco band (email me if you'd like a CD) to serenade God's Frozen People.

"I'm going to send them back to hell where they came from," Marie snarled.
"I think they're from Iowa," I said.

I reminded her too that the last time she vowed revenge, she ended up paying a hundred-and-fifty dollar retainer to a lawyer named Butch.

Still, the Satan's Chanteuses all showed up dressed like Diane Lane in LADIES IN GENTLEMAN, THE FABULOUS STAINS and have been playing at twice their usual volume all day long.

Mr. and Mrs. Thomas at one point emerged from their home. The wife always hides behind her husband's back when talking to other people, but it wasn't until she gave him a covert elbow to the spine that he blurted out, "If you people don't leave, I'm going to call the police!"

"Relax," I said. "We were only sent here to test you."

I have a feeling that this impromptu street concert may end with someone being bludgeoned with an accordion, but it's been fun. A sheriff's deputy finally showed up, but he just gave Marie his phone number and told her she sounds like Jinx Dawson.

And speaking of the devil's music, the third film in the 31 Days of October marathon - where I'll be talking about horror movies set on Halloween all through October - is TRICK OR TREAT (1986), a teenage horror take on the heavy metal Satanic Panic of the 1980s. Written by MICHAEL MURPHY, JOEL SOISSON and RHET TOPHAM (and supposedly an uncredited JAMES WONG and GLEN MORGAN) and directed by CHARLES MARTIN SMITH, the film stars MARC PRICE (Skippy from FAMILY TIES) as high school headbanger Eddie "Ragman" Weinbauer. Eddie is a high school outcast, a heavy metal fan amongst overachieving preppy snobs.  He is constantly bullied by Hitler-Youth-In-Training, Tim (DOUG SAVANT) and his gaggle of goose-steppers, but still dreams of teen angel, Leslie Graham (the lovely LISA ORGOLINI) who unfortunately hangs around with the popular crowd. Eddie worships Sammi Curr (TONY FIELDS), a controversial rocker who is also a local of Eddie's hometown, so he knows Sammi understands what a suffocating hellhole Lakeridge, North Carolina can be. Eddie writes his hero letters detailing his alienation and angst, knowing Sammi will understand.

When Sammi is killed in a hotel fire, Eddie is devastated. Fortunately his favorite DJ, Nuke (GENE SIMMONS in a cameo appearance) gives him Sammi's final album. Eddie soon discovers that playing the record backwards gives him a direct line to his dead idol and to his glee, Sammi even helps him engineer ways to get back at his tormentors. But while Eddie's confidence grows, he realizes his dead hero is only using him and that he cannot control what he has unleashed. As the Lakeridge High Halloween Dance approaches, it's up to Eddie to stop Sammi from making one final concert appearance.

Like most teenage horror films, TRICK OR TREAT is a coming-of-age-story underneath supernatural dressing. Eddie is a lonely latch-key kid with an absent father, few friends and feels like he doesn't belong anywhere. Like most teenagers, he copes with his angst through music (hell, I did the same thing with movies which is a big reason I started this blog). So eager to connect to someone who understands him, he projects all of this onto Sammi Curr. Ever met a childhood hero and somehow expected they would be your new best friend, the person who understands you better than anyone, and then are just a little dismayed that they just politely signed your poster and moved right on to the next person in line? Well, that's what TRICK OR TREAT is about. Because of how we react to their work, we feel like our heroes are our confidantes, but they really don't know us at all. Come to think of it, I think JOHN WATERS still has a restraining order against me.

Revenge-of-the-outcast horror movies are always winners with me, and TRICK OR TREAT is no exception. However, unlike the protagonists of these other films like CARRIE and EVILSPEAK, Eddie is not a tragic figure. Eddie, at first, uses his hero to help him stand up against the bullies, but he doesn't want revenge as much as to be left alone. As Eddie gains confidence, he learns to stand up for himself and realizes he no longer needs the support he craved from Sammi Curr. "Who are you without your fans?" he cries. He becomes a hero, winning the battle and winning the love of Leslie.

And speaking of Leslie, what about the female characters? Leslie is the standard Girl-On-A-Pedestal that was common in '80s teen movies: beautiful, friendly, wholesome, seemingly free of baggage and ultimately attainable. Normally I hate the Girl-On-A-Pedestal character as they are empty objects of male desire in the movies and in real life were the kind of girls who used to call me Wednesday Addams in school, but I actually like Leslie. She's sort of like Sue Snell, a girl who's popular because she's genuinely nice and LISA ORGOLINI invests her with charm and sparkle. She also may be a closet metalhead as she references Judas Priest. And speaking of the girls I hated in school, Tim's girlfriend, Genie Wooster (TIFFANI-AMBER THIESSEN lookalike ELISE RICHARDS) is a perfect movie characterization of every humorless, snobby, preppy bitch I loved to hate. When she asks Eddie, "Is it hard to maintain this level of creepiness?" I had to smile. I used to get similar versions of that questions from my middle and high school tormentors too. Genie ultimately meets TRICK OR TREAT's most gruesome fate as she is molested by a demonic lizard version of Sammi Curr. Is rape by an-undead-rockstar-as-a-demonic-lizard too extreme a punishment for just being a high school bitch? Some feminists theorize that women claim power over men through sex and fantasies of men disempowering women are really manifestations of their fears of sexual rejection. In that frame of mind, this scene with mean-girl Genie fits in with the high school revenge fantasy of TRICK OR TREAT. Horror movies present the darker side of the human psyche and don't have to be nice or politically correct.

Although shouldn't the head bully meet the film's most gruesome fate? I thought that was a rule in Aristotle's The Poetics. Therefore, revenge fantasy of the fearful sexually rejected male aside, I really think it's Tim who should be raped by a demon-lizard!

But we haven't even gotten to my favorite part of TRICK OR TREAT and that's Eddie's best friend Roger.  Roger is a sarcastic nerd, who has nicknamed his best bud "Eduardo," insists the play-the-record-backward-for-Satanic-messages hysteria is just a gimmick by record execs to get fans to wear out their records and have to buy multiple copies, blatantly looks up a cheerleader's skirt in the middle of the hallway, puts a frantic Eddie on hold because his new call waiting makes him "feel like a total big-wig," and puts together an overly-elaborate burglar costume when asked to break into a car to retrieve the evil Sammi Curr tape. Oh, and he watches THE FOG on TV. Roger rocks.  He is also played by a young GLEN MORGAN who would go on to be a prolific writer on THE X-FILES and direct FINAL DESTINATION and the WILLARD remake.

If I have a quibble about the film, it's actually with the Halloween finale. You will never hear me complaining about an undead rockstar shooting electric bolts at high-schoolers out of his guitar, but as a Satanic heavy metal rocker, Sammi could have been a more compelling villain. Instead, in the third half of the film, he's reduced to a Freddy Krueger-lite in leather pants who shoots lightning bolts at people like Ernest P. Worrell in the ERNEST GOES TO JAIL finale. TONY FIELDS is an excellent dancer, though, and the Halloween dance concert is one of the most memorable scenes in the film.

And while I like the soundtrack, it seems strange to me that Sammi is considered so controversial and even outright evil by morally outraged crusaders against heavy metal music (including OZZY OSBOURNE in a cameo as an evangelist). With the Fastway songs on the soundtrack about rock n' roll and partying all night, you kind of wonder what the fuss was about.

Oh well - coulda, woulda, shoulda. TRICK OR TREAT is shameless fun for the teenage outcast in all of us. And I'll be first in line if they ever make a Roger-centric sequel.



A Chopin Concerto, Almond Cookies and a Hot Cup of Tea Laced with Cyanide

The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (1976)

Am I the only one who's tired of that Kim Davis schmuck? Using your religion to excuse your own homophobia is pretty despicable, but using religion to not do your job is a new low.  Back when Marie Janisse was working as a waitress, she told the manager she was a born-again Pagan and she wasn't going to wait on "any goddamn Christians." If it didn't work for Marie Janisse, it shouldn't work for anyone else.

A quick sidebar about Marie Janisse. We met at the Dead River Paralegal Association and we're quickly becoming the psychotic version of LAVERNE AND SHIRLEY. Marie hails from Covington, Louisiana; it's part of the suburbs north of New Orleans known as the North Shore, land of country clubs and crazy houses. She's a former juvenile delinquent (in eighth grade she finally broke bad and bitch-slapped the newly-elected class president with her pocketbook), at one time had outstanding warrants across Tex-Ark-La, and before she earned her paralegal certificate, she was a topless dancer in a Satanic-themed go-go show in New Orleans. Many say she's a loose cannon, but she has impeccable taste in movies (she not only loves but lives FASTER, PUSSYCAT! KILL! KILL!), she's handy with a buck knife and she loves The Ramones as much as I do.

But anyway, I don't mind religion. I mean, for me it reminds me too much of school with all it's follow-the-rules-even-though-they-don't-make-sense-but-we-promise-this-stuff-will-pay-off-one-day. There are a lot of people out there whose religion enriches their lives and helps them be better people. But I can't stand people who use religion as a façade for their own willful ignorance and cruelty. Like that lousy Thomas family across the street. The husband and wife were missionaries before they moved here so they were in the trade of forcing people to renounce their beloved Pagan gods if they wanted access to sorely needed medical care. Then they joined some cult in Charlotte, North Carolina that sounds like a nerd-version of Jonestown. The cult is trying to expand throughout the rest of the South, presumably so more people can fork over their life-savings, and now the Thomas family is here trying to convert the godless heathens of Dead River. I think that wife spends way too much time being pregnant for them to judge other people for unclean thoughts. Seriously, it's like they're trying to manufacture a boy band over there!

The Thomases are the same jerks that turn their garage into a Hallelujah House every Halloween. For the uninformed, a Hallelujah House is like a haunted house for people that have no sense of humor. It depicts atrocities inflicted upon people who transgress against the scriptures like pregnant cheerleaders gushing blood from a botched abortion and unmarried homosexual men transforming into something from a DAVID CRONENBERG movie for having non-child-bearing sex. And I thought I was depraved.

So, Marie Janisse and I are out minding our own business, painting a new set of homemade tombstones to put up in my yard. Then the Von Twerp family comes out of their house and has to stop and watch us intently for about twenty minutes rather than simply going about their business and you can hear the mother audibly instruct the children not to look over at "the devil's whores" or they'll be turned into salt. I smiled and said, "Aw, now, that's hardly true, I belong to the Church Without Christ, where the blind don't see, the lame don't walk and what's dead stays that way." Marie just shouted the only thing she's ever done for the devil is dance topless and hurled a rock through the windshield of their car. She's made some progress though, because the last person that called her a "whore" ended up getting bashed in the face with a skateboard. She said she's going to bring her all-girl punk-acid metal-zydeco band, Satan's Chanteuses, over for a non-stop jam session whenever they're setting up their Hallelujah House but I told her that Otis Calhoun vowed revenge on them last Halloween, and whatever his other faults, Otis is a man of his word.

And speaking of hypocritical neighbors, the second film in my 31 Days of October review-a-thon, is THE LITTLE GIRL WHO LIVES DOWN THE LANE (1972), adapted by LAIRD KOENIG from his own novel and starring JODIE FOSTER (who also knocked it out of the park with TAXI DRIVER the same year) in a mature, graceful performance as the titular antiheroine, Rynn Jacobs. The film opens on Halloween night in a quaint coastal village in Maine. It's not only Halloween, but it's Rynn's thirteenth birthday and she is celebrating on her own. Rynn is a precocious, fiercely intelligent young girl who supposedly lives with her poet father, but if anyone asks about him, Rynn always has a quick explanation for his absence.

She lives an autonomous, isolated existence. Rather then attend school ("School is stultifying," she says), she follows a rigorous curriculum (presumably developed by her father) and occupies the rest of her time walking on the shore, reading, listening to classical music and playing with her pet hamster, Gordon. I remember 13-year-old me that saw this movie thought Rynn had it made.

There are some intrusions to this idyllic existence, however, mainly in the form of the Hallets. Cora Hallet, the property manager (ALEXIS SMITH) and her son, Frank (MARTIN SHEEN in a skin-crawlingly creepy performance) exemplify everything Rynn's father warned her about other people: They are petty, nosy, xenophobic, bullying and mindlessly cruel. Mrs. Hallet simply invites herself in and acts as though leasing the property gives her the right to treat Rynn any way she likes. Even though she has leased the house to Rynn's father, she still comes over to the property and picks all the good fruit from the trees. She re-arranges the furniture. She makes condescending, anti-Semitic asides to Rynn ("Awful lot of outsiders in the village these days," she sneers) and makes veiled threats when Rynn refuses to bow down. Every act is calculated to assert her authority and control over another. Mrs. Hallet covers her own sins (including veiled promiscuity) with a façade of respectability and self-righteousness.

Frank Hallet is almost exactly like his mother. Every action in his first encounter with Rynn  is a passive-aggressive tactic to exert dominance and control over the girl: like his mother, he invites himself in; he tracks mud all over the floor and plops down in Rynn's father's chair, despite Rynn's visible disapproval; he also sexually harasses her.  Rynn discovers that Frank is a child predator, but his mother's wealth and influence has allowed him to avert punishment. She has even gone so far to help mask Frank's deviance by arranging his marriage to a waitress with two children from a pre-existing relationship. Where's Chris Hansen when you need him?

Despite her understandable distrust of others, Rynn is able to develop relationships with the friendly Officer Miglioriti (MORT SHUMAN) and his loquacious teenage magician nephew, Mario (BAD RONALD himself, SCOTT JACOBY). Both are outsiders among the xenophobic villagers because of their Italian heritage, and Mario is alienated from other boys his age due to a limp from childhood polio. Mario's wisecracking bravado acts as a shield against the ridicule of others and his own insecurities. Rynn and Mario become devoted to one another, even to the extent that Mario is willing to become an accessory after the fact for her.

WARNING! HEREIN THERE BE SPOILERS!

Mario demonstrates his dependability and as Rynn grows to trust him, she begins to reveal her secrets. Her father is dead; he was terminally ill and rather than continue to waste away, he organized a plan for Rynn to live without the interference of others and then committed suicide by walking into the ocean. After his death, Rynn's emotionally abusive estranged mother was able to find out where she was living and arrived at the house. Rather than be subjected to her abuse and abandonment again, Rynn disposed of her by slipping cyanide into her tea.

Like all children who have been subjected to abusive treatment, Rynn has learned that other people are not to be trusted and the only person who can be relied upon is yourself. This mistrust was reinforced by her aloof father, who instilled in her the belief that people are all vicious, controlling and cruel. Rather than teaching her to develop appropriate boundaries to protect herself, he instructed her to build barriers to keep everyone else out. Her worst suspicions are only confirmed by people like the Hallets. Others remark to Rynn how awful it must be to be alone, but to Rynn, alone is safe. Horror is other people.

Rynn has also been the perpetual outsider looking in; as an old soul among flighty pre-teens, an American educated in England and finally an outsider to a provincial New England village. This has only emphasized her alienation and the barriers she has built against others.

Rather than descend into madness, Rynn is a fighter and a pragmatic survivor. She will not surrender to the abuse and subjugation of others. She is a murderess, but it is her only defense against those that wish to do her harm.

As her relationship with Mario grows, Rynn learns that she is not completely happy in her isolation. She has found warmth in another who has proven himself worthy of her trust. Through both Mario and Officer Miglioriti, she has learned that there are kind, generous people in this world, even if they are usually outnumbered by people like the Hallets. However, Rynn knows she is condemned to a life of protective isolation, a life of hiding from people like the Hallets who want to hurt her and it's only a matter of time before there is nowhere left to run.

I had not seen this movie (omitting catching the first half of it on cable about seven years ago) since I first watched it when I was about Rynn's age and there was something special about viewing it this time. Rynn's struggles, the eerie, evocative soundtrack, and the autumnal scenery all struck a melancholy chord with me.

On this viewing, I was surprised by how much Rynn has in common with the Blackwood sisters, Merricat and Constance, in one of my favorite books WE HAVE ALWAYS LIVED IN THE CASTLE. Though not as defiantly eccentric as Merricat, Rynn also only wants to live in peace on her own terms, but is intruded upon by spiteful villagers. But while Merricat and Constance have one another, Rynn walks alone.

The film, like many others featuring young protagonists, also concerns how children pay the price for the selfishness and cruelty of adults. Mario suffered polio as a child because his mother could not remember which of her children had or hadn't received the vaccine. And what about those poor children who now have Frank as a stepfather? They are casualties of adult machinations. And then there's Rynn: Rynn has been forced to surrender her childhood, to become hardened and disillusioned. She commits murder, but it's only because the adults around her leave her no other choice. The film ends with an act of perfectly justifiable homicide and the final shot is a close-up of Rynn. She betrays no emotion as her tormentor dies before her, her eyes like stone. The viewer will not blame Rynn for her actions, but at the same time there is concern that in continually defending herself against the heartlessness of others, she may be gradually freezing her own heart as well.

You Can't Break a Dead Girl's Heart

Deadly Friend (1986)

It's been a dark and stormy week here in Dead River, perfect for the beginning of the Halloween season. Mumblings about the possibility of power outages from the storm has Dead Riverians scrambling to the store to stock up on bottled water, non-perishables and bourbon rather than plastic skeletons. That's all right, though, as whenever Dead River gets a heavy rain they usually uncover some real ones. Still, you can feel the beginning of the Halloween season. I think the rain has finally washed away Otis Calhoun's withered jack o' lanterns from last year, but I just saw him drive by in his Dodge Charger with a passenger seat full of fresh pumpkins. And there's a whole aisle at the Winn-Dixie devoted solely to children's costumes, candy corn and plastic skulls that scream. I even found a Medusa head that gave me the creeps. I think that snake hairdo reminds me of that perm I got at Lurleen's Beauty and Gun Shop.

So let's let the Halloween festivities here commence! I've got a 24-pack of Mountain Dew ready and I'd like to keep the Wes Craven love going and start off the 31 Days of Halloween with DEADLY FRIEND (1986).

Did I mention before I have a thing for sarcastic mad scientists? I've personally got an eye on Dave Spencer, at the Dead River Medical Examiner's office because in addition to being a snarkmeister, his high school science fair project involved a re-animated frog with a taste for human flesh. Anyway, DEADLY FRIEND is based on the novel FRIEND by DIANA HENSTELL but DEADLY FRIEND had a notoriously troubled production and apparently the more interesting aspects of HENSTELL's novel were left on the cutting room floor by those money-grubbing greed swine at Warner Brothers. So while the novel is an engaging pre-teen update of FRANKENSTEIN and doomed romance, the movie version is more like a psychotic episode of SMALL WONDER.

So, let's compare, shall we? FRIEND introduces the reader to 13-year-old genius Paul Conway, relocating from Boston to the town of Welling, Pennsylvania with his single-mother, Jeannie. Paul has had his fair share of trauma: the move is not only the result of a divorce (in which dad has opted for a new wife and new family) but also a fiery lab accident in which Paul was partially responsible for another student's death. Paul is also a kid who has difficulty friends: he is alienated from his peers not only by his advanced intelligence but his social awkwardness and feigned arrogance as a defense mechanism. He was also mocked in Boston for his weight, earning the nickname "Piggy." Paul is such a smartypants, though, that he built and programmed a robot named Beebee, who has been his sole friend and companion.

In DEADLY FRIEND, Paul is about 16, chiseled handsome and trim (played by MATTHEW LABYORTEAUX of LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRE and the terrific A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE)  but still moving to Welling with his single mother and sickeningly cute robot. However, there is no backstory about the divorce. No grief for an ended marriage from Jeannie, no conflict about now having to raise a challenging son on her own, no feelings of rejection from Paul about his father's abandonment, no grief and guilt about the lab accident in Boston and no angst about making friends and being able to fit in. Everything here is all sunshine and lollipops. Sure, there are some lunkhead bullies on motorcycles but they're only in two scenes so they're not much of a threat. The move in the film is not so much to escape demons of the past, but to pursue an educational advancement for Paul: he's been accepted into a college program at Polytech and kindly Dr. Johansen will be his mentor. I understand too why the film would opt to add a few years on to the pre-teens in the novel as I don't want to be in the same room as a bunch of thirteen year olds, much less direct them. However, I think that age does add something to Henstell's novel as the middle-school years are even more emotionally turbulent than high school years.

In the film, Welling is a nondescript suburban any-city USA type place. In the novel, Welling seems perpetually dreary and its constantly raining. The townspeople are provincial, suspicious and downright mean. Paul is dismayed by the open hostility with which he is greeted with by the adults. Their children are not much better, merely miniature versions of their ignorant parents. Being in Welling only increases Paul's feelings of rejection and alienation. Not only is he an outsider, he's openly hated. And hey, a city-to-small-town move for any kid - particularly when that move is a result of death or divorce - is traumatic. After my parents divorced, I had to move from Houston, Texas (population 2 million) to a small university town in the Southeast  (population 57,000) where most of the townspeople resembled academentia versions of the villagers in WE HAVE ALWAYS LIVED IN THE CASTLE. To phrase it eloquently: that shit sucked.

In the novel, Paul's mentorship with Dr. Johansen offers no reprieve as despite being a man of science, Johansen is just as willfully ignorant as the other Welling residents. He resents Paul's intelligence and perceives Paul's ideas about life and death as sacrilegious. Also, while Movie Paul benefits from a college curriculum, Novel Paul is enrolled in a Welling private school (where his mother teaches) where he is not only ostracized, but is completely bored and unchallenged by the curriculum.

Fortunately, Paul is able to make one friend, a fellow outcast Tom Toomey, nicknamed Slime and ostracized because his father is the local funeral director. However, Tom Toomey's quirkiness is deleted from the film and he is simply a paper boy and archetypical comic-relief-buddy whose father is a security guard at the local hospital.

And in both the book and film, Paul falls in love with tomboyish sweetheart, Samantha Pringle (played very well in the film by KRISTY SWANSON of FLOWERS IN THE ATTIC and the original BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER), the girl next door. However, their budding relationship is hampered by Harry Pringle, Samantha's domineering, physically (and the film version implies also sexually) abusive alcoholic father.

In both novel and film, Harry Pringle is a slimy ol' bastard. Sam is less his daughter and more his caretaker and personal punching bag. However, Novel Sam is already a disillusioned and cowed middle-aged woman in a little girl's body. Both Novel Sam and Movie Sam express ambivalent emotions about her father and abuser, but Novel Sam also grieves over the abandonment of her mother. If you were going to leave, why couldn't you take me too? she begs to a missing mother and will never receive an answer. Novel Sam knows her future is grim, but her friendship with Paul and care from Jeannie allows her a sliver of hope. It's no wonder Novel Sam and Novel Paul develop such an attachment for one another; they have already experienced a lifetime worth of rejection and loss before the eighth grade.

And am I the only one who got the vague suspicion that Novel Sam's mom may not have left voluntarily but may have been buried in the backyard by Harry?

Wes Craven has always excelled at presenting some genuinely frightening Primal Father Figures and Harry Pringle is no exception. As played by RICHARD MARCUS he's like a sweatier, nastier BRUCE DERN in full-on psycho mode.

Even worse, in the novel, the townspeople are all complicit in Sam's abuse; they know perfectly well what is happening but until the arrival of the Conways, not a single person offers to help her. When Jeannie expresses horror that no one has done anything about Harry Pringle abusing his daughter, Slime says, "He doesn't abuse her. Just hits her once in a while."

In the movie, Sam, Paul and Slime/Tom venture out together on Halloween and Beebee is blown to smithereens by neighborhood mean-ol'-witch Elvira Parker (played in the film by the amazing ANNE RAMSEY of THROW MOMMA FROM THE TRAIN fame). In the novel, Beebee is destroyed by Harry Pringle on a drunken rampage. The destruction of Beebee has more power in the novel than the film as it's a culmination of the hostility with which all the residents of Welling direct at Paul and Beebee. He is not like them so they wish to punish him and probably destroy him. And since Beebee is the only companion Paul can truly rely on in his unstable universe, Beebee's "death" is equivalent to the death of a best friend or since he's Beebee's creator, even the loss of a child. In the movie, it's still cruel but the action of one nasty woman. And Movie Paul does not seem to have the emotional reliance on Beebee that Novel Paul does so the act does not feel like a devastating one.

In both book and film, Sam has Thanksgiving dinner with the Conways only to return home to be beaten to death by Harry. And in both, Paul can't handle the loss of his first love and decides to put his scientific prowess to use and resurrect her using technology he used to build Beebee. Novel Paul as in inhabitant of an unstable, chaotic universe cannot bear another loss; everything and everyone he has is taken away by someone else. While everything else remains out of control for him, he believes Sam's fate is the one thing he can control. In the movie, without the emotional core presented in the novel the horror just plays out as hollow.

Wes Craven's films usually do an excellent job of exploring the unpleasant emotions we try to repress so I have a feeling the film's emotional core ended up on the cutting room floor at the hands of some scissor-happy numb-brained studio execs.

Likewise, the re-animated Sam in the novel is both grotesque and beautiful. She's still a lovely blonde, violet-eyed girl, but her hair is intermingled with wires and though her brain has been revived, her body continues to decay, even being gnawed upon by rats. In the movie, Sam is pasty-faced and has dark circles under her eyes, but I look like that without being revived from the dead.

Both Sams are clearly not the same girl and go on a murderous rampage throughout the town, despite Paul's efforts to care for her. Since the townspeople were all complicit in Sam's abuse in the novel, they all bear responsibility for her death. This gives the mayhem some extra power. Sam's undead revenge is probably the strongest part of DEADLY FRIEND as revenge is a powerful motive and the mayhem is well orchestrated. Harry Pringle's murder is one of the more effective scenes in the film and you will never hear me complain about seeing someone decapitated with a basketball.

Both FRIEND and DEADLY FRIEND are about the inability to accept death and how science can never control nature; nature simply will not be controlled. You can revive the body, but a body without a soul is a terrifying thing. Both are also about the attempts of male institutions (in this case represented by science) to exert control over the female body, which like the forces of nature, cannot be entirely controlled.

Sam is a true victim of a cycle of violence. Abused, controlled and eventually murdered by her father, she is returned from the grave by Paul, who in his obsessive love for her, becomes as controlling as Harry. He denies her the peace of death, preferring to keep her alive more for his own selfish needs then her benefit, keeping her locked up so that he can care for her like she's an ill-behaving pet. Sam, in turn, (and as a robot-zombie no longer plagued with feelings of learned helplessness or a conscience) becomes a violent abuser herself, lashing back and killing those who have tormented her. Eventually, she even turns on those who have been kind to her as 1) she's a robot-zombie and 2) hurt people hurt other people; even if she had not been transformed into a science experiment, as a victim of chronic abuse with no stable, loving figures in her life, it is likely she would have been unable to trust others and fallen back into the familiar patterns of receiving abuse and lashing out.

I told Dave Spencer that if I died, to leave me be and that if he revived me I'd just come back as some rampaging murder-machine who decapitates people with basketballs. He said that wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing.

And what about the ending? FRIEND, like all doomed romances, ends with tragic self-destruction. DEADLY FRIEND features a tacked-on shock ending from those yacht-owning tax-dodging snakes at the studio. It's sad, I get the feeling that there's a pretty good movie somewhere in DEADLY FRIEND, but the film's heart lies cut out on the editing room floor. In a sense, the film is like Undead Sam, a body without a soul. But hey, KRISTY SWANSON sure does a mean robot walk, doesn't she?