Category: The Horrors of Life

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Box Office Bangs Creepy Critters Life and Horror Mini Posts Podcast Scares The Horrors of Life

Mini Post 2: Meeting Doug Jones

My mediocre picture with Doug Jones (gotta love conference room lighting!)

I had the privilege of going to the Pop Culture Association 2019 Conference in DC a couple weeks ago. I delivered a paper I wrote about The Haunting of Hill House (which let’s be honest, ended up being primarily about Theo because I’m obsessed with her) and how it is a wonderful example of feminism in horror. One of the biggest speakers they had was Doug Jones.

Do you know who Doug Jones is?

Can’t place him?

I promise you have seen him in at least 2,000 movies/TV shows. They like to refer to him as “the most famous actor you’ve never seen”. He is an actor who specializes in characters, and I’m going to include photos of some of his most famous roles below.

The first time I fully realized just how big of a Doug Jones fan I am was when he was interviewed on the Buffering the Vampire Slayer podcast. They started going through some of his biggest roles, and I was floored. Not only did he play one of the main two Gentlemen on the episode Hush of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but he has been in myriad Guillermo Del Toro movies and is now one of the main characters on Star Trek Discovery.

I was able to meet Mr. Jones, and he was one of the nicest people I have ever met. He seemed genuinely happy to be at the conference and to meet and talk to his fans. When I told him I had promised my mom I would tell him the Gentlemen are still the scariest thing she’s ever seen he seemed so sincerely touched, and he was so willing to take a photo with me. As someone hopeful of being in the horror industry, meeting someone like Mr. Jones who was so genuine and kind and down to earth gave me a lot of hope for the entertainment realm.

It is also a perfect time step back and realize that there are so many unsung and underappreciated actors and performers who are part of some of the most incredible horror/fantasy/sci-fi projects that we never take the time to fully appreciate because they are behind masks or makeup or CGI.

The slideshow below is nowhere near comprehensive of Mr. Jones’ work, but it will give you an idea of how many movies you have seen him in without ever realizing he was the same person. I’m also very aware that this post is just a moment for me to totally fan girl over meeting one of THE GENTLEMEN…but let me live a little bit.

Doug Jones IMBD

Doug Jones Wiki 

Doug Jones Twitter 

Doug Jones Instagram 

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Life and Horror The Horrors of Life

A Quick Life Update

I know I’ve been MIA for the last couple of weeks!

Finals hit me pretty hard with all the studying and paper writing and procrastination. My brain was so fried that even when I sat down to write something about Pet Sematary I couldn’t form full thoughts or ideas. I was going to write a review of the movie, but I think the following conclusion: not only was my brain beyond exhausted from finals, but I am also just not excited enough about the film to write about it – and that should be all the review you need.

I graduated May 4th, 2019 (two days ago from the time I’m writing this). It hasn’t fully hit me yet that I will not be returning to college in the fall, but I’m already feeling the relief of having no homework. Now that I’m done I have an ever growing list of things I want to accomplish this summer. One of those goals is to really get this blog going. I’ve been more active on it the last few months that I had been since I first started it for class sophomore year, but I’m not doing nearly as much as I can and want to do. I want this to be a space for horror lovers, feminists, LGBT+ people, and anyone who feels like a little bit of a weirdo in their world. Right now I’ve focused mainly on horror movies/podcasts/TV shows, but I have several ideas I’m working on that I think will help better expand the horror world that I am hoping create.

I also have several other projects that I’m working on/about to start working on involving writing and creating. I would also like to start involving the any type of audience I’ve built (even if it’s just one or two people), and start curating lists: movie suggestions, podcast suggestions, book suggestions, etc. both horror and non-horror. I have ideas for Pride Month, and I’m making my first plea for audience involvement:

Send me your favorite queer/LGBT+ horror movie suggestions. You can email me at wickedlittleblog@gmail.com or DM on our Instagram account @wickedlittleblog. In the subject of emails please include “Pride Recommendations” in the subject!

I’ll be posting a review soon, and also I will be keeping you more updated on my actual life and the projects that I am working on and their progress. To anyone who is actually reading at this point in my blog’s life span, thank you so much and I would so appreciate if you would share this with any and all friends that would be interested!

 

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B Calm Female Horror The Horrors of Life

The Art of Revenge

Revenge*Trigger Warning: Discussions of rape and sexual assault*

I’ve never been into rape revenge films.

Sexual violence has always been the one thing that I can’t stomach in movies. From a purely horror story standpoint, I’ve always thought of rape and sexual assault as the lowest hanging fruit that a writer/director can use to scare their audience. As women we already have to go about our daily lives with the very real understanding that, quite literally at any moment, we could be raped; therefore, I don’t like to spend time consuming media where that is the driving force behind the entire story.

But then Shudder added their exclusive film, Revenge, and I was intrigued.

The synopsis of the film was vague enough that, while I knew the implication was rape, it drew me in. Director Coralie Fargeat talked about the film in an interview with Mick Garris on his podcast Post Mortem. In the interview Fargeat and Garris both agreed that the traditional rape revenge formula of 90+ minutes of the female character being tortured with 10-20 minutes at the end of her getting payback is a lot to stomach. That’s where Revenge deviates from the beaten path.

The main character Jen, played by Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz, arrives in a remote and unnamed desert to spend a long weekend with her married lover, Richard who is played by Kevin Janssens. When her Richard’s friends arrive for their hunting trip early things take a turn for the worst. After one of the friends assaults Jen, a chase ensues through the dessert that will keep you on the edge of your seat the entire time.

The thing that I really admire about the way that Fargeat handles the assault and the subsequent chase does not make the viewer feel worse at the end. The amount of pure torture most women in rape revenge sagas go through is hard to stomach, and tend to just leave me feeling dirty and gross by the end.

In Revenge the audience is introduced to Jen as a stereotypical horror movie floozy. She’s sleeping with a married man, she wears risque clothing, she flits with her lover’s friends, and uses her sexuality to her benefit. However, the moment the viewer can tell the assault is coming, she is thrust into our sympathies. It’s one of those moments that you really don’t want to watch, but you can’t look away from. We get a brief couple of scenes in which Jen has to deal with the aftermath of the assault; we watch as she lays in bed, staring blankly ahead of herself, unable to wrap her head around what happens.

Our sympathy for Jen quickly turns into murderous rage for the three men whose mercy she is, seemingly, at. Her lover returns back to the house, and finds out what has happened, he rages at the man who has raped Jen but refuses to let her go home. Instead of truly taking action, he offers his mistress a large some of money. After Jen refuses and threatens to expose their affair, Richard slaps Jen and she runs away as the three men chase her.

That, in my opinion, is where Revenge truly begins.

The cat and mouse game in the dessert devolves into a bizarre and almost fantasy like sequence as Jen deals with bodily injuries, dehydration, exhaustion, and emotional trauma while trying to get back at the men. The social and gender commentary in this movie are beautifully incorporated into a nail biting epic as Jen becomes a proverbial superhero out to save herself.

One of the most poignant and stomach churning scenes is the conversation that leads up to Jen’s assault. The man who rapes her tells Jen that she was coming on to him earlier in the weekend, and that she clearly wants what is about to happen. This is an all too familiar excuse used in rape and sexual assault cases all the time. Everything from “If she didn’t want it she wouldn’t dress that way” to “If you hadn’t been drinking so much it wouldn’t have happened.” Women have always been blamed for their own rape and sexual abuse, and Fargeat does an incredible job of taking that horrible reality and flipping it onto the men who truly deserve what they get.

I highly recommend this film to those that are able to stomach a brief scene of sexual violence.

 

Revenge Wiki

Revenge IMDB 

Revenge Trailer