bloggin it

2003-09-03T17:42:00.000-07:00

IT WORKED!! but i still emailed you them just in case, ok...thank you the pandamonium is through...jeanne

2003-09-03T17:40:00.000-07:00

THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE
While trying to relate the Texas Chainsaw Massacre to Wage Labor and capital, I ran across a section which particularly struck me and fused the connection between the two:” A Negro is a Negro. Only under certain conditions does he become a slave." Although the more obvious connection of capital and wage labor with the family unit, was made evident in the movie,(PA being capital, Leatherface and the brother the laborers) this point made me delve deeper into what condition has in effect to people's actions. Although Marx was using slaves and cotton machines as an example of labor and capital, I applied this to Texas, and found a different meaning altogether. I felt that in accordance with the movie the saying would be this, "A psycho is a psycho. Only under certain conditions does he become a killer." This aptly applies to Leatherface. He and his family have been disenfranchised due to more technically sound machinery in the aiding of cow-killing. Yet with this unemployment, came the opportunity for the family's skill at the slaughterhouse, to go forth onto human victims. The family cannot use their skills in the work environment; so instead, transfer it to badly dressed 70's teens, poking their noses in inappropriate places. What was interesting about this was that most often in horror films, the killer's motive is unquestioned. When you enter a horror diegesis, one similar to that of Texas( a seemingly low budget slasher film) you expect to relinquish the killers history for that of a maniac murderer with neither rhyme nor reason to his killings. Yet, after applying Marx's concept to the film, I see that Leatherface may have simply been exercising his now useless job skills into a new form-humans. The displacement of being laid off did not put the family to ruin, rather they just started treating humans like cattle and killed them in the same manner. You must keep in mind that these folks probably had dormant psychotic tendencies, and when the unemployment triggered this, but still...fascinating to add this angle.
What else...I don't really know how to express this , but the movie scared the living daylights out of me-there is something incredibly frightening about evil hicks/white trash. Maybe it is because they are so rudimentary, crude, and rough in their evil. Like for instance, the infamous girl on hook scene- Leatherface is even more terrifying because he views the girl as a piece of meat- it is almost as if he feels like he is just doing his job(which he sort of is in a twisted, perverse way) but there is no sinister dialogue before or after his crude tortures. The lack of symbolic(use of words and other mannerisms that connect people)makes him all the more terrifying..that and I am sure the chainsaw-wheelding doesn't help.

SHIVERS
I was just thinking about how on my final exam I answered the question of "Why did the director think that Shivers had a happy ending?" After further thought, I would like to add to my ending, and provide more connection with Bataille's Death and Sensuality. In my initial answer, I said that the ending was happy because the main character "gave in" to his eroticism. Now I like to add that this was probably because this allowed certain continuity. By resisting the erotic maniacs, he was discontinuous with them. Batatille argues that all through life, we are discontinuous with each other, simply because we are separate beings. In death, we achieve the great equalizer- we are all the same, we are all dead, and therefore we become continuous. In Shivers the characters all become continuous with the shared host of that horney lumpy thing within them. Although they do not actually die, they give themselves to the same lustful, crazed manner and loose their normal life in the process. Everything ends "happy" because the character has come from discontinuity to continuity. Also to comment on another aspect of Bataille in Shivers is the constant taboo-tattering which occurs right and left in the film. I mean come on- the highly disturbing scene with the father and daughter making out says it all.The most frightening aspect of shivers to me was correlating the virus-y thing which lived in the stomachs of those inflicted to that of STD's. To me, the connection was blatant. I definitely feel that this movie should be shown in health class to freshman in high school as part of there sex education. That is a hellove a lot more effective than those role enactment scenarios, and better get those kids wearing the condoms. But seriously, the movie was not all about how the devastation of free love, yet it does show a darker side of sex that I found interesting. Not once is sex portrayed as a loving, caring act between two people- the same old cliché spiel you were taught when you since you were a wee thing. From the rape scenes between strangers, to one between a husband and wife, sex is violent and strange. The sex displayed in the movie is animalistic and libidinous, and obliterates the sappy connotations that society has placed around love and sex.

LAST BLOG!!

My reflections on this class..hmmm...I actually really enjoyed this class, I just wish I had taken it during the regular school year, and not in the cramped space of a summer school session. But I constantly find myself applying concepts learned in the class to other movies, especially that of Freud's uncanny/doubling. I see these principles everywhere.Although I do not wholeheartedly agree with Freud's reasoning of castration anxiety, the rest of the concepts in the uncanny are right on in many instances I encounter while engaging in a cinematic experience. I honestly entered this class thinking, "oh my god, we are just going to non-stop watch zombie movies and oogle over the creepiness and gory aspects each film brings." Very not what I expected, but much cooler all in all. Even the definition of "zombie" has changed for me. I did not even connect that in daily life, how we are governed and conditioned in society zombifies us. I never, until this class made the realization that the zombies in horror films in relation to myself and fellows are not that far off. How even denying certain impulses(erotic)or feelings can make you numb, a zombie. This class even allowed me a greater appreciation of horror movies. I never quite understood why I felt fear during my horror film viewings- the essays, lectures, and especially the American Nightmare documentary, greatly enhanced my understanding to my ambiguous anxieties. It is because the films are not distanced from my reality and providing some glance at some far away hellish alternate realm-these films are a medium which comment on the reality in which I live. That is the horrifying part of it. The documentary has an amazingly true and powerful statement to it-(something to the effect of):These movies do not encapsulate the apocalypse. The apocalypse is ongoing. This class made an honest stab(heehee) at questioning and subverting the society in which we accept and abide by, and ultimately it made me think and redefine some of my own existing realities. Oh yeah..it was also entertaining and fun...Kasey, thank you for instructing this class..let me just say that my favorite part of class, besides the movies, was when you flickered the lights after each and every movie- your spooky enthusiasm was so fantastic, and I didn't want things like the strobe-light effects or the zombie music you played to go unnoticed..it added a certain character in the wee early hours. So thank you for your enthusiasm and devotion to the material and movies of ZOMBIE! I saw incredible films, although somewhat obscure and in the process a new way to view history, society, and the zombie.

2003-08-19T01:21:00.000-07:00

Phillip Kaufman's Invasion of the Body Snatchers had one crucial scene which haunted me long after the movie, making me wonder at its verbal significance, relation to Althusser's article and to the ideologies that most humans define and enhance their existence as, with the security of belief, infused with truth. The scene was that when Jeffery and Elizabeth were being detained and the psychiatrist played by Nimoy(I always wondered who he was-what else has he been in...that name sounds so legendary somehow?ha) and Nimoy says something to the tune of, "Don't be trapped by old concepts, imagine a world where there is no hate, everyone is equal..." I was wondering specifically what concepts, or ideologies Nimoy was referring to and how they can be more restrictive than the act of losing them. He is undoubtedly referring to shedding hate and inferiority, but in with those emotions are their opposites-love, equality. It seems as if he is renouncing a way of life where there will be no snags or glitches, but in doing so the effort is pointless- without emotion or ideology it doesn't matter, it will not be regarded as better way of life because the populous will have no concept of better..or worse or anything. How can they be asked to imagine when the future has no meaning? Imagining a blank state of life has no point or merit, for that matter. In doing so the state obviously takes over, and the illusion of free will we thought we had really slaps us in the face as if to say, " you thought you had free will, but baby you didn't and now you are going to get the ultimate fuck you because you aren't going to even realize you lost what you didn't have in the first place(whoo...is that the slightest bit understandable? naw) Alright, I am trying to bring up that Althusser makes the point that ideology is not developed by individuals, but rather created by society. Society allows people to believe that the values they hold to be true, instead of mere reinforcements of society's agenda. Society devoid of emotions lends purpose for Nimoy's new world, free from the traps of "old concepts." If emotions serve as just the package we wrap our ideologies in, eliminating those attached heart strings will allow for one uncomplicated ideology, although people will not enjoy it for they will not remember the way it was before.

Nimoy's further creates quite the paradox. When Nimoy is making this argument for Jeffery and Elizabeth to allow for their pod replacements, he is hoping to appeal to their emotions, tap into their sentiments so that he will be able to make them emotionless. Although ironic, it is also quite uncanny. The heimlich of emotions being replaced by the unheimlich of an existence devoid of feeling...Freud rears that baldish head yet again (not to mention the ubiquitous doubling in the movie, thanks.)

Now to completely stumble to a new chain of thought in this blog of semi-incoherence...The entire movie constantly sets up the illusion that things will turn out all right. The kicker for this was when Elizabeth made her confession of love to Jeffery. In any other movie this would be the saving grace, in Body Snatcher it happened to be the kiss of death. A poignant scene which I equated to the calm before the storm (the emotional music before the ass kicking of the podlies) was when Jeffery leaves Elizabeth to go flag down the ship (his ship had just come in, so to speak) that he thinks will save them. The non-diegetic sound of the bagpipes playing Amazing Grace is a hauntingly beautiful lull that tricks you into thinking that (after the songs conclusion) Jeffery is about to reign victorious over the pods. Instead the movie plays on the audienceâ€™s emotions to stun and shock us, upon finding out the pods have gotten to the ship and that amazing grace will not save a wretch like Jeffery.

2003-08-18T13:11:00.000-07:00

Night of the Living Dead-what a multi-dimensional movie! That was my third time seeing the film, and each time I appreciate it more and more. Upon this viewing, I found it fascinating in relation with Marx's German Ideology. Marx thesis is essentially that people exist based on their means of production and the need to organize their surroundings. Due to the environment we are born in, we produce and create systems and social structures; but we did not initially produce and create the environment. To quote Marx, " Life is not determined by consciousness, but consciousness by life." So in saying that business let me connect Marx with Night of the Living Dead, ok...First of all, overwhelmingly I noticed that, although life is based on a system of daily rituals and practices, all it takes is for the status quo to go awry and those founding pleasantries which allow normal everyday to happen naturally..well it all goes to hell. This can be noticed in the first scenes between Barbara and Johnny in the cemetery. In the instance of death, Marx's notion is that we are what we are because we make what we can with what is around us. With the physical inevitability of death, society creates material burial grounds to remember the unexplainable phenomenon of death. We neatly organize this by developing plots of land into many little plots for dead bodies to decompose. Then, again using material, we individualize the great equalizer of death by providing tombstones engraved with names which only held significance in life. Barbara represents at the beginning of the movie, the character who goes along with the importance of material creation and practice in society. She uses her car to make a lengthy journey to the place where her father was buried. In using the means of material transportation, she can exercise the proper way to immortalize a dead loved one. Her brother on the other hand, sees the treatment of the dead as an irritation and waste of time. He belittles the annual wreath that Barbara places on the grave, and sneers at her pious practice of praying by saying, "Church was this morning, huh?" The wreath and the praying act as extensions of social practice and go along with normal life and its ideology. Then with the interruption of Johnny's doubts, plus his invocation of Barbara's lingering childhood fears(saying “They’re coming to get you, Barbara), the situation is placed in a different light. Instead of a peaceful reverence, the correct action for the situation, the creepiness of death overshadows. Meaning, that although Barbara attempted to make grieving for the dead this neat little box that she could check off and accomplish within the parameters of society, Johnny’s teasing is the reminder that death is still an unexplainable eerie force. This is furthered when the actual representation of the dead is physically present and turns the graveyard, incipiently a place to remember the dead, into the place she secretly fears. The entrance of the first zombie disrupts the graveyard as a resting place, and in doing so, social practices are forgone for the attempt to survive. In danger, Barbara throws proper caution in to the wind, and relies on her instincts to run.

What is interesting is that later on, when she is telling Ben the story of how she first saw the zombies, she changes certain parts of the tale. Although this is partly due to her shock and not being able to remember everything sequentially, it also shows a deeper connection to society's standards. She says that since Johnny was making fun of Barbara's graveyard fears, saying "they're coming to get you, Barbara" in a menacing tone, she felt the need to go and apologize to the zombie-like gentlemen. This is not what happens in the actual scene; rather Barbara tries to avoid the man until he grabs her making this unavoidable. The fact that she still adheres to this formality of social standards shows how ingrained they are, and how she relies on these ideologies to maintain social order. Even in the height of hysteria (when recounting the events to Ben) Barbara practices are proper.

Since the movie is showing the world in midst of disaster, basic ideology is left behind for the more tangible material. Yet in doing this characters are still utilizing ideology, just in the form of Marx's material ideology. All of the characters, but especially Ben, use the material to fend off the horde of zombies. Everything is simplified to "definite material limits.... independent of their will"(Marx, 52) The unraveling of ideological society, leaves the characters to tend to basic necessities of survival...food, shelter, just staying alive. Ben is quite resourceful, and is the guru of the material. He is the one trying to find food, boarding up the house, using the furniture as touches to frighten the zombies, etc.

Marx's ruling class was also present in the movie in that the ruling class was the media presenting the ideology of survival. The actual zombie eliminators, headed by Chief McClellan, also offer the ideology to those affected by zombie mania- to survive you must kill. Since the television is regarded as a deity in this film, the news reporters, or anyone else who appears on the screen has ultimate authority. They are, as Marx's proposes, "the class which has the means of material production at its disposal, and has control at the same time over the means of mental production." This is shown when uttered by one character, "The television said it was the right thing to do!" and also shown when Mrs. Cooper wants to go upstairs because there is a TV up there and therefore a source of direction to survival.

It was interesting to see how when there is mass chaos, the humanity dissipated from the characters. I wonder if humanity is also something created by society to be the pretext under which all formalities and practices of society fall. Death in Night of the Living Dead was boiled down to "just dead flesh" or "just another one for the fire."

What I found most frightening about the movie was not the flesh-munching zombies, but the pointlessness of the actions of the characters. Within the last five minutes of the film, Ben, our crafty hero, is killed and it gives the movie this horrifyingly nihilistic quality. The diminishing of society, the family unit, the racial barriers, the death, the panic-all of this so that Ben can be burned next to the fist zombie seen in the film.Blahh...The greater fear evoked by the film is that of empty hopelessness.

2003-08-13T13:12:00.000-07:00

Freud's article on the uncanny touches on the creepiness we experience in regards to thinking of the living dead-whether an "inanimate being is really alive; or conversely, whether a lifeless object might not be in fact animate." This phrase stuck out in my mind while screening I Walked With A Zombie. Jessica certainly employs this factor with her vary existence-it is in constant question whether or not, she is actually alive, or just maintaining the illusion with the ability to perform motor skills and to sustain breathing. I think this creates an even more uncanny effect, than say your typical, run-o-the-mill flesh-eating zombie, because of the lack of her sensationalized zombie appearance. Jessica is a hauntingly beautiful woman, with out the trappings of rotting flesh and bullet/hatchet wounds characteristic of the zombie persuasion. She appears perfectly human and normal, except for her blank distant stares, and non-responsive nature. Due to her outward appearance, it is difficult for the audience to believe that she poses as the walked with zombie. This is precisely what Freud touches on: " In telling a story, one of the most successful devices for easily creating uncanny effects is to leave the reader in uncertainty whether a particular figure in the story is a human being or an automaton..." Her image as the hauntingly beautiful wife, and the emotionless zombie solidifies Freud's point, and a feeling of the uncanny. It is because Jessica's appearance represents the heimlich(as the beautiful wife) and simultaneously the unheimlich(the lifeless zombie) that I Walked With A Zombie demonstrates Freud's concepts accurately.

Freud's doubling concept also plays a role in the film, to contrast many narrative elements. Lucie states many of these doublings in her blog- native/civilized, good/evil, and life/death. The most obvious, and significant doubling occurs between the two lead women, Jessica and Betsy. A scene which embodies the doubling most noticeably would probably be when Betsy sees Jessica for the first time. What is interesting about this scene is if you further apply it to the concept of the mirror image. Since Betsy's initial reaction is of terror, I wonder if the mirror theory can offer more than the ideal image of oneself, but also reflect inner demons, appearances that do not want to be shown. This pondering of mine could also apply to Mary's demonic reflections in Carnival of Souls, where her image reflects that of ghastly horror. Yet to contradict this inkling, the double effect is that which is your opposite- Jessica=death, Betsy=life, and so forth. Another interesting observation during the doubling scene, was the fact that Jessica was garbed in white, while Betsy donned the usually sinister black. This muddling of the traditionally good and bad colors might signify the intermingling of the two selves, and the fact that the movie never really presents Jessica as evil...Possibly the white symbolized the notion that although she is supposed to be the bad to Betsyâ€™s good, really she incarnates no evil.

This is the second Jacques Tourneur film I have seen in the past year, the first one being Cat People (which by the way is a pretty excellent film, and I'd advise for all of you lovelies to see it). As with Cat People, I was struck by Tourneurs incredible use of light and sound to enhance the quality of the narrative and the aesthetic beauty of the film. Both films used low-key lighting to add to the mystery and horror of the films, constantly interspersing shadow and light. One of the most integral scenes which added to the suspense of I Walked With a Zombie, was the journey from the house, through the sugar cane fields, to the Voodoo rituals. The night lighting and shadows produced by the sugar cane stalks disorient the viewer from familiarity, and the suspense rises with each note of the incessant Congo drumbeat. It is as if it symbolizes the increasing heartbeat of the captivated viewer. With this scene, I was instantly reminded of the definitive suspense/horror building scene in Cat People. In Cat People, one of the main women characters is stalked by another main woman in the film. To add to the suspense, the constant sound of her high-heeled footsteps is employed, normal paced at first, and then faster and faster as the terror increases. The lighting is set at night, with the shadows of unknown lurkings enhancing the effectiveness of the creepy. Just by these two scenes alone, Tourneur creates an excellent dynamic between sound, light, and the spooky. He employs the idea of beauty in not only the narrative, but also the mis-en-scene, and applying a little Freud to boot, gives his films the extra shiver effect.

2003-08-07T17:15:00.000-07:00

During today's screening, I found that Carnival of Souls employed many of the psychoanalytic aspects explored in Mulvey's "Visual Pleasures and Narrative Cinema." Throughout Carnival of Souls, I kept wondering if Mary was being objectified or if she was playing the role of the subject, especially when it came to the gaze of the audience, and whether or not it was through the male gaze that Mary was portrayed. In some instances, Mary is not being objectified, because she is the main character of the film we see the "real" and the "imaginary" through Mary's point of view. Yet on the other hand, Mary can be shown to be the object of desire and eroticized. An example of this was shown in the scene where Mary first meets her neighbor, John Lyndon. In this scopophilic scene, John takes great pleasure in peering through the door crack to see Mary disrobe. This delegates the role of scopophilia on to the audience, and we view Mary as simply a sexual object. In accordance with Mulvey's essay however, I had to ponder WHY she was the object in the scene. As Mulvey states, "...[a woman's] visual presence tends to work against the development of the story line, to freeze the flow of action in moments of erotic contemplation." this holds true to the bath and the peeping Johnny Lyndon scene. The fact that Mary is naked in the bath, and also found sexually desirable by her neighbor really have nothing to do with the plot of souls and death and all of that, except to say that its appearance in the film, strengthens the proof of patriarchal cinema.
There is also a shot, during Mary's exploration through the deserted carnival that juxtaposes Mary's blond image, to that of a billboard brunette pin-up girl for salt water bathing behind her. This could be a moment of duality in the film, where Mary is independently facing her fears and intrigue, while simultaneously being compared to a docile pretty pin-up, thus objectifying her yet again.

Also, Mary is seemingly self-sufficient-she lives by herself, doesn't want a boyfriend, or any social contacts whatsoever. Yet, when she is in trouble or afraid, she immediately relies on the protecting comforts of a man. This can be seen when she is frightened at the water fountain, and is aided by the doctor. Also, when she has seen the creepy pasty face one too many times, this drives her to spend her time with her slinky neighbor out of fear. Whenever she is frightened, she immediately runs to the stereotypical source of strength. Telling Lyndon over and over again "I don't want to be alone tonight, I want to be with you" could have put her in a compromising situation, possibly resulting in rape. These instances objectify her character further.

The symbolic order was brought up in class today, with speculations that Mary did not abide by its rule because she chooses not to. I feel that death has stolen that option from her-she has no access to the symbolic order. It is not that she doesn't want to, but that she has no choice in the matter. With the ripple of wave-vision, reminding her that her fate lies in the bottom of a lake, Mary cannot belong to the world. She doesn't even have access to words, which induces panic. The reality of her death cancels out the symbolic she cannot obtain and the imaginary that she has created.

Lastly, the mirror is employed many times in Carnival of Souls to show Mary's true identity. When she sees her own reflection, she smiles at its beauty and idealizes its existence as a living image. Yet her true image(that of the white faced ghoul, representing death)keeps popping up, and instead of idealizing, she is horrified by its reality. Since mirrors and reflections were utilized extensively in the film, I thought that an interesting addition to the film would be a fun house encounter when she is exploring the carnival. Mary entering a room filled with mirrors would have been an opportunity for a frightening scene, full of symbolic possibility( and not as in THE SYMBOLIC). I could envision the horror of Mary being overwhelmed with her living and dead images. Perhaps that would have been a more terrifying ending- instead of having the gaggle of ghouls surround Mary on the beach, she would have been consumed in the fun house by her ideal image, and the many faces of death.

Off I go: Until the ending, i thought that the ghoulish man crowding Mary's reflection was a manifestation of survivor's guilt..nope guess not!
Also this movie reminded me of Hitchcock's Psycho quite a bit. The scene where she is driving from Kansas to Utah is reminscient of the drive in Psycho. Another similar element is the back of the chair. Just as when the woman in Psycho turns around the chair to find "mother", so does the chair turn around to reveal the ghoul to Mary. There is a bathroom scene in each, though the outcome at the end of the scene differs- in Psycho the heroine is murdered, in Carnival she is already dead. Carnival was shot in 1962, and I think Psycho came out around that time...hmmm? also, the plot of Carnival was almost identical to a Twilight Zone episode, "The Hitchiker" where a young woman is driving across country, after a minor car accident, and picks up a hitchiker. She begins to see him everywhere she goes, in 10 different states, or something eerie like that. Turns out that she died in the car accident, and he is her friendly reminder that she needs to go to the grave. Very popular horror story. Oh and by the way, I thought that the scene of the dancing zombies was so uncannily beautiful. Maybe because dancing is a vivacious lively activiy and the dead,in a syncronized waltz were alive for a few minutes. It was gorgeous.

2003-08-06T12:38:00.000-07:00

Ok! first blog..sorry it took so long, and you best be belivin that there are more to come...

It seems to me that the adage "Be careful what you wish for" aptly applies to many outcomes after tampering with the mysterious and unknown. Oftentimes, taking matters into your own hands to achieve a desired outcome backfires and a monster is created. This seems to be an aspect in many horror films, from the likes of Frankenstein to Pet Cemetery. With its conclusion, it is as if each one of these stories is trying to instill the moral of not screwing with the powers that be- if you attempt to reanimate lost life, or even create a synthetic human, you will be punished with the lingering effects of death. You may get what you want, but never in the way you want it. This factor held true in the film White Zombie, as well.

White Zombie creates a situation in which Beaumont must work outside his natural abilities to obtain Madeline. Madeline is in love with Neil and despite Beaumontâ€™s attempts to interfere, will be his bride. In his desperation, Beaumont goes to see Murder Legendre (did he have no reservations about seeing a guy named umâ€¦MURDER? Of course it was going to end ill fatedly) to try and help him woo the lovely Madeline. This is the critical turning point in which he steps outside of his own power and free will to obtain his wishes and moves into a darker region to conjure the desire he can never have. Murder basically whispers to him that the only way itâ€™s going to happen for him and sweet Maddie is if he makes her into a zombie (although we are not sure this is what Murder is telling Beaumont, it is assumed and the ambiguity adds to the mysterious elements that must be utilized to capture Madelineâ€™s affections). Through a poisoned flower, the lifeless Madeline is taken to Murderâ€™s castle and plays the piano with a beautiful blank expression on her face, while Beaumont tears around the castle like a mad man lamenting what he has done. Although Beaumont initially gets what he wants- Madeline all to himself- he does not get the version of Madeline he desired so obsessively. What he wished for backfired, for he did not heed the wise warning.

The film relates to Zora Neale Hurstonâ€™s chapter from Tell My Horse in that people tamper with the unknown to fulfill their wishes in her anecdotes as well. As she writes, â€œWhen a man is ambitious and sees no way to get there, he becomes desperate. When he has nothing and wants prosperity he goes to a hounganâ€¦â€� This is precisely the action that Beaumont decided to take in the film, Murder acting as the houngan to grant his desires. Yet, as the Haitians in Tell My Horse go to procure money and prestige, Beaumont goes out of selfish desire for love. Although the various reasons for seeking a houngan differ in Beaumont and the Haitians, the principle of greed and unnatural desire exist in all motives. As in White Zombie, most of those that seek help from greater powers for selfish purposes, end up regretting their decision. Hurston describes a tale of a man visited by Bosu Tricorne, the three-horned god, that tells him it is his time to go. The man goes insane out of fear and starts screaming out all the things he has done to gain success. He then dies two days later, confessing in his last breath. He wished for success, but with his prosperity came an untimely demise. Beaumont serves a similar fate in that his desires are manifested by a higher power, and he pays the price with his life. White Zombie seemed to be a more in-depth account of some of the stories told in Hurstonâ€™s article. The movie and the article shared the same elements of practicing Voodoo to gain impossible desires, and having the outcomes backfire.

Now for the going off partâ€¦ I though this movie was strangely familiar the whole way through. I kept feeling that I had seen images in the movie from other sources, possibly in other movies, paintings, pictures, etc. (DÃ‰JÃ€ VU!) As I was piecing together the familiarities, I was reminded of Edgar Allen Poeâ€™s poem â€œAnnabelle Lee.â€� The expressionist setting of White Zombie mirrored my image of the scene in Poeâ€™s poem. In â€œAnnabelle Lee,â€� a man laments the death of his beautiful wife whose body resides in the â€œsepulchre by the sea.â€� Legendreâ€™s castle, with its winding staircases and creepy tomb like dÃ©cor, reminded me of how I pictured Poeâ€™s kingdom by the sea. Also, the characters in White Zombie can be compared with those in Poeâ€™s poem. Neil would be Poe, in search for the love of Madeline/Annabelle Lee who, in death, has become the immortalized beauty and purity. I wonder if Victor Halperinâ€™s artistic image was influenced at all by Poe macabre poem of lost love?

2003-07-30T23:33:00.000-07:00

hey..i blew it and did not attend the first class, but will comment quite soon after catching up...