The Wicker Man (1973 version)

There is just something about this film. I know that's corny and a cop out, but if the Farrelly brothers can get away with it (regarding Mary) then I suppose I can too. There is just something about Sergeant Howie. There's just something seriously weird and addicting about this movie.

The music is odd and light, airy, yet mysterious. My favorite song is, not suprisingly, "Willow's Song". A lovely, slightly melancholy lilt to it. Made more so by Sergeant Howie's torturous few minutes fighting those deepdark urges that momentarily consume him, bringing out a full sweat as he is drawn to the wall opposite Willow's room, where she sings her song and dances in the buff.

Without the consummate acting of Edward Woodward, this movie might not have worked, at least not as well. When he finally realizes he's been duped the whole time, and sees, and I mean, really fucking sees, The Wicker Man-- he exclaims, "Oh Jesus Christ!". It is a really powerful moment. But he only gets that faceless tower of wood stareing blankly down at him, and the uniform gaiety-- a hallmark of all that are blindly and wholly swayed by any religion-- seen on all the dancing faces of the townsfolk during their demented May Day celebration.

Best Hammer Film? Quite possibly.

My Horror Heroes

These can include artists who create horror, real individuals who are famous for wreaking horror upon society, or simply famous icons from film or books that you feel have an important, historic place in Horror History.

1) Dario Argento: In the 1970s, amid worldwide violence, like the insane horrors of Vietnam and the Kymer Rouge, our planet shifted ever so subtly from a stifled, body-fearing superculture to one with a taste for true animal freedom, with the pandora's box of animal tastes exploding into the mainstream.. Amid this, the italian director created THE blueprint slasher film, Deep Red and other films such as Suspiria and Inferno, merged the horror of murder with the sensitivity of subtle art, through tricky plots and amazingly original filmmaking techniques. For more info on Dario and Deep Red go to: http://www.contamination.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/articles/deep_red.htm

2) Charles Manson: if Napoleon Bonaparte were born more than a century and a half later, in the humble environs of Kentucky, USA, the product of that genetic curiousity might have resembled Charles Manson. Manson was just smart enough to realize that the justice system of the United States was (and still is), mostly a sham, a con, just like himself. And what do the better cons of the world do? They compete. Manson is the perfect symbol for unique mediocrity failing to find it's true voice, it's perfect medium. The consequences could only be murder, murder on a grand scale. His victims were basically his alter-egos. Individuals as mediocre as himself, but through whatever dumb luck, actually made it in the world. He's not a bad artist, no not at all: http://www.museumsyndicate.com/artist.php?artist=478

3) Michael Myers, aka The Shape: He is certainly one of the 3 or 4 most horrifying characters in film history, but what seperates him from others is his anonymity, his voidness, his abyssmal lack of personality and humanity couched in a man-shaped form bearing a vapid mask. Few things are scary in the daytime, but The Shape is one of those. Rob Zombie, who never should have made it out of White Zombie, an admirable sludge-metal band, made the idiot mistake of trying to humanize and elaborate on what was already a perfect horror icon.

4) Elizabeth Bathory:

http://www.geocities.com/Wellesley/Veranda/7128/