The Old Dark House - John Cunningham

 Recently, I've developed quite a taste for the horror genre, be it video games, tv shows, movies, or what have you. So I was quite excited when I heard that we would be watching an old 1930's horror film yesterday (I like seeing how they did special effects back then as well).

   

This movie does a good job of being a horror movie without relying on excessive gore, monsters (or really anything paranormal). I was honestly surprised that only one character ended up dying in the end. I thought we'd have some sort of slaughterfest on our hands with the way the other characters kept describing Morgan. Speaking of Morgan, I do feel bad for him. He's incredibly misunderstood (while he does do some questionable things while he's drunk out of his skull) due to his inability to speak. It must be absolutely maddening to have something to say and no way to say it. Perhaps (and this may be one of the biggest stretches in logic I'll ever make so bear with me) Morgan's inability to communicate and being greatly misunderstood relates to how the queer community felt at this point in time (especially since they were being repressed as much as they were at the time by the film censorship boards and the like)? Another little instance I noticed was when Rebecca Femm was assisting Ms. Waverton in changing. Rebecca was going on a tirade about how youth is fleeting and corrupts the mind in its mortal temptation. She approaches Ms. Waverton and prods her around the collarbone. Ms. Waverton reacts in a very volatile manner to this simple action (it's understandable to not want to be touched, but Ms. Waverton could have been mistaken for an escaped mental patient with how she was rampaging around). Perhaps this is a metaphor for how society at the time would vehemently reject any semblance of non-normative behavior.


To conclude, this movie was a nice little experience with many lines of dialogue and bits of imagery that contain much deeper meaning than meets the eye.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Becoming Your True Self

Image
Jared Lestenkof I think I’ve seen “The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of The Desert” before or at least I’ve seen scenes from it because I recognized a lot of it. It got to the point where I was trying to guess what was going to happen next and I was right half the time. I’ve seen my mom watch this movie before, I’m pretty sure that’s how I recognize it.  Anyways, I thought this movie was unique, it wasn’t my type of movie, but I enjoyed the story and the plot of it. While watching this movie it made me sad and feel bad for the characters the way they were treated for just being themselves.  What I really liked about this movie was the fact that they were just being themselves. They didn’t care what other people thought about them, all they wanted was to be treated like everyone else. My favorite scene was when Adam got chased by the homophobes and Tic, Robert, and Ralph came to his aid. It really shows the unity they have with each other and that no matter how much they...
Read more

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert- Olivia Vinci

     This was by far my favorite movie we have watched this semester and I would 100% watch it again. I absolutely loved the main characters and how they all kind of bounced off of one and another. They were all different it their own ways and at different points throughout the movie you found out more and more about their personal lives and sort of the "demons" that they face outside of the world of being a drag queen and as a performer. Bernadette was a character that really spoke with me throughout this film. She is seen as an aging transgender woman who in her previous life she went by Ralph and is seen to be the one who is the most out spoken. She does speak her mind and lashes back at anyone who throws prejudice and bullying in their way. I also really enjoyed the character Bob who first comes out as a stereotypical male character and ends up being very excepting and respectful to these three individuals. He even stuck up for them when a group of guys that he was wi...
Read more

Priscilla, Queen of the Desert -Sarah Dickerson

Image
Before watching this movie I decided to look it up to see what to expect. When I did this it set my expectations pretty high and this movie did not disappoint. Something about Drag Queens always just gets me- the hair, the makeup, the drama, the exaggerated personalities. I just love all of it.  My main focus for this blog post is going to be on the characters. I loved how each character was portrayed so much differently but at the same time they meshed together so well. The reading for this week did a great job summarizing this. Bernadette was by far my favorite character in the film. There's no other word that I think can describe her better than a queen. My favorite scene in the film was when the lady at the bar tried to kick out the trio because they "don't accept their kind there". Bernadette kept her composure as the strong woman she is while also standing her ground. Winning the shot competition was also just the cherry on top. I could see her confidence grow a...
Read more