AluminiumXmasTrees [he/him]
Oh yeah, I’m not saying you’re wrong about Texas Chainsaw not having much influence on Halloween. Remember Carpenter had already made a student film (“Captain Voyeur” I think it was called?) about a man following a college student home and stabbing her to death. So clearly he was already thinking about these themes as early as 1969/1970. However I think it’s clear that the Texas Chainsaw Massacre was a big influence on the wave of slashers that followed in Halloween’s wake.
The Hills Have Eyes definitely owes more to TCM than Halloween ever did, and that whole subgenre of “hillbilly horror” is basically all because of TCM. However I would say that so many films of the slasher boom attempted (and failed) to marry the simple structure of Halloween (what Ebert used to call “the dead teenager formula”) to the tone of TCM, you know that unclean, voyeuristic, “wrong” tone that the film has? For me that’s the main influence of TCM on the slasher genre.
I’d also argue TCM proved there was an audience for well made, horrifying cinema that crossed lines
He wasn’t ruthless enough to keep his position during the power struggle that followed when Lenin got sick.
Then when Stalin took over, Trotsky decided it would be a great idea to suddenly find his backbone and aggressively push for “continuing world revolution” That would inevitably lead to the dismantling of the current Soviet state as it was at that moment. No one else wanted this. So Trotsky then got mad and began openly criticising Stalin for the lack of democracy in the Communist Party under his rule and his failure to have what Trotsky viewed as a viable economic plan for the future of the USSR. Remarkably Trotsky was tolerated as a nuisance for a hit before they finally got sick of him and exiled his annoying self after a drawn out propaganda campaign against him where he lost his important titles and jobs one by one.
Read “Red Rosa” - it’s my go to resource when I’m feeling frustrated with the state of the left. Trotsky seems a bad choice when you’re frustrated because by his very nature he was bloody infuriating.
I’ll reply properly after I’m done with physio but in brief while I have a few minutes -
One
death of the author applies here. I don’t think his statement on NOTLD is wrong. Whether Romero or Russo intended any allegorical significance to the casting of Duane Jones, I don’t think it can be argued that the ending - an innocent black man, whom the audience has identified as a hero throughout the film, is without warning gunned down by an armed militia, the aftermath of which is shown only in grainy stills, recalling newspaper photographs of real crime scenes - would have carried a lot of weight in the civil rights era and especially so in the aftermath of MLKs assassination (which I know happened during post production but I’m not arguing what Romero’s intention was). I also don’t think Romero could have been as unaware as he claims he was when it comes to Duane Jones and the power behind making such a casting choice in that era. Especially given Judith O’Dea claiming that Romero altered the script for Duane Jones (which I know he denied)
Two
Re: TCM and its influence on slasher. Again I think death of an author applies. I also don’t think the essay specifies TCM is specific influence on Halloween but on the larger slasher genre as a whole which imo is inarguable. I’d also say Black Christmas is more of a touchstone for Halloween (which Carpenter had seen) than Tobe’s effort but I think TCM had a massive impact on the subgenre itself, just in terms of tone and set-up. And honestly, the similarities between Halloween and TCM are striking enough that I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch - a modern twist on urban legends (TCM taking on the exaggerated and twisted true crime tales that rose up around Ed Gein and similar, Halloween interpretating the local urban myth about that abandoned house on the street in every town in the world), a specific realistic tone, a shocking lack of Gore despite the reputation of both (which in both is down entirely to tone and implication) and of course an anonymous, masked killer stalking a group of naive young teenagers. Both have strong feminist interpretations and both are from directors who approached the material in a new and unique way for exploitation cinema at the time. I think enough similarities exist that you can argue some kind of influence, even if just on the level of “TCM proved their was an audience for a new take on horror…”.
Three
I agree with you on the Italian section. Seems obvious the author was mostly unfamiliar outside of the standard giallo canon and the obvious italio-extreme titles.
Sorry if this is all over the place, I wrote it during a break from physio very quickly. I’ll reply properly when I’m done.
Thanks, I may take you up on that. I’m kinda bored here most of the time and there’s literally one other person on my ward who only wakes up to watch soaps and eat and sleeps the rest of the time and I don’t have the energy to get up and do anything except lie here and read/post/watch trash tv (I literally have to ask for help getting out of this damn bed half the time). So genuinely thank you.
Also yeah it was bloody painful and I was stuck in a cave for like an hour and a half after. Not the best time to break your ribs, rock isn’t a forgiving substance. And of course my hiccups didn’t stop, so I was wincing every 30 seconds or so.
You might be right. Dave is usually such a “IDGAF” guy though, it just seems odd he gave in so easily.
Yeah, I’m posting via vpn from a hospital bed. I’m here til March, I’m waiting on a kidney operation and its been pushed back twice so far but I’m not well enough to go home because if anything happens, I may not have very long for them to react. I’m now also waiting on a vaccine dose because I’m pretty much done for if I catch it. So it’s a lot of boredom and waiting around at the moment.
My worst hiccup experience was the time I had them for a week straight and I kept waking myself up hiccuping. Or the time I hiccupped crawling through a very small gap whilst caving with a youth group and I broke three ribs when my chest expanded to hiccup and was constrained by the solid rock. Im pretty much used to it though. It’s embarrassing when you’re in public and in a lift or queuing and you’re stuck making abrupt squeaking noises and everyone keeps turning around to look at you.
You’re probably right actually. I should be grateful she’s at least trying and probably knows how frustrated I am here.
I get its a minor inconvenience and I feel whiney as hell for complaining but when the only help you’re being offered is a plastic straw and a glass of water as a solution for something that doesn’t bother you, while you spend afternoons burying your head into a pillow trying to make the pain stop, it gets a bit grating after a week.
