Love and Monsters, Part 2
Oct. 30th, 2019 11:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
glitter_n_goreHappy Devil's Night! Here's Part 1 of this countdown if you missed it. The middle chunk of this list is all about symbolism and subtext. Sometimes what the characters don't say is more beguiling than the dialogue itself.
9 - Twixt (2011)
The darkly funny, surreal, modern Gothic vampire movie no one's seen or heard of but me, apparently. But you should. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, this movie is a phantasmagoria of high-contrast dream sequences, lakeside Goth parties, haunted woods, a mysterious clock tower, and a struggling writer trying to find his next bestseller. The wonderful sequence with Ben Chaplin as Edgar Allan Poe, who appears as an otherworldly muse to help Val Kilmer's troubled author out of a creative rut (see below), is worth the viewing all by itself. At its center, this movie is a strangely accurate depiction of how a mystery writer comes up with new ideas. It's a combination of external stimuli and personal exorcism, and that's what Kilmer's going through here. It's hard to describe but impossible to forget, also featuring Elle Fanning as a beautiful dead girl, and Alden Ehrenrich as a Goth teen who quotes Charles Baudelaire in perfect French. Keep an eye out for it, and good luck!
8 - Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)
Yes, two Coppola movies in a row, but I promise it is a coincidence. Rewatching this is a trip these days, because it's so over the top, so highly stylized, and has so many instantly memorable moments that I didn't even clock as weird the first time I saw it. Some scenes almost have the feel of a staged production, with the use of shadows and the massive wide shots of Dracula's rooms. And then there's stuff like the Absinthe scene, which is part fever dream and part music video. I don't know why it works, but it does. It's not the most accurate version of the original book out there. Actually, it might be, but filmmakers seem to have an aversion to adapting the original book faithfully, instead trying to put their own spin on the classic tale. However, 90s Keanu Reeves and invented love story aside, the sheer spectacle of this film make it an all-time favorite for me.
7 - Dorian Gray (2009)
Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray is my favorite book. I reread it every year, sometimes twice, and the 2009 adaptation with Ben Barnes and Colin Firth is the most complete and accurate version of it committed to film so far, despite Rebecca Hall as Lord Henry's daughter, who was not in the book. I actually like her character a lot, since she gives you a sense of what moving through the centuries might be like for Dorian. The film's visually dark in a lot of places, but there's also a lot of bright reds, yellows, and whites as contrast, juxtaposing the glittery aristocracy of Victorian London against its grimy underbelly, which of course is what the book was always about. I'm glad Ben Barnes found his calling here as one of the greatest villain actors of my generation. He's lovely to look at, but has this quiet demeanor that makes you wonder what he's thinking even when he's not saying a word.
6 - The Others (2001)
As I said with Get Out, predictability is not a bad thing, but this movie gave away a LOT in the initial trailer. Not the best idea if you're working with a twist ending, but that doesn't really ruin it for me. The emphasis, as always, is on the atmosphere and the rising sense of dread, delivered beautifully by Nicole Kidman who, if I haven't mentioned this, is my favorite actress. Her strict, overbearing, but also visibly stressed character, is barely coping, living in near-constant darkness thanks to her children's unusual affliction, and plagued by unseen "intruders" who open the doors and make thumping, knocking noises. The illness in question, likely a form of Porphyria although it's never named, has been linked with the rise of the vampire myth due to the sufferers' aversion to sunlight. The scene with the baptismal dress is more well known, but this one made more of an impression on me:
5 - Stoker (2013)
Mia Wasikowska is going to come up a couple times on this list. If you haven't seen Stoker yet, be aware it's not actually a vampire movie, and has nothing to do with Bram Stoker or his family. At least, not overtly. There's a lot of symbolism and hazy mythology happening in this grim coming-of-age tale about a young girl reaching her potential. It's also the first English language film by Park Chan-wook, a Korean director known for pushing the envelope of good taste with an impeccable sense of dark humor, but this is one of his more toned-down works. India Stoker has an affinity for spiders, an almost preternaturally keen sense of sight and hearing, and a detached fascination with all things morbid. She's also exceedingly patient, waiting until just the right moment to act. So much of this movie is built entirely on subtext, and the scene with the piano duet is a particularly potent example. This comes at the moment she's figured out what her uncle is capable of, but before she's decided what to do about it:
9 - Twixt (2011)
The darkly funny, surreal, modern Gothic vampire movie no one's seen or heard of but me, apparently. But you should. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, this movie is a phantasmagoria of high-contrast dream sequences, lakeside Goth parties, haunted woods, a mysterious clock tower, and a struggling writer trying to find his next bestseller. The wonderful sequence with Ben Chaplin as Edgar Allan Poe, who appears as an otherworldly muse to help Val Kilmer's troubled author out of a creative rut (see below), is worth the viewing all by itself. At its center, this movie is a strangely accurate depiction of how a mystery writer comes up with new ideas. It's a combination of external stimuli and personal exorcism, and that's what Kilmer's going through here. It's hard to describe but impossible to forget, also featuring Elle Fanning as a beautiful dead girl, and Alden Ehrenrich as a Goth teen who quotes Charles Baudelaire in perfect French. Keep an eye out for it, and good luck!
8 - Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)
Yes, two Coppola movies in a row, but I promise it is a coincidence. Rewatching this is a trip these days, because it's so over the top, so highly stylized, and has so many instantly memorable moments that I didn't even clock as weird the first time I saw it. Some scenes almost have the feel of a staged production, with the use of shadows and the massive wide shots of Dracula's rooms. And then there's stuff like the Absinthe scene, which is part fever dream and part music video. I don't know why it works, but it does. It's not the most accurate version of the original book out there. Actually, it might be, but filmmakers seem to have an aversion to adapting the original book faithfully, instead trying to put their own spin on the classic tale. However, 90s Keanu Reeves and invented love story aside, the sheer spectacle of this film make it an all-time favorite for me.
7 - Dorian Gray (2009)
Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray is my favorite book. I reread it every year, sometimes twice, and the 2009 adaptation with Ben Barnes and Colin Firth is the most complete and accurate version of it committed to film so far, despite Rebecca Hall as Lord Henry's daughter, who was not in the book. I actually like her character a lot, since she gives you a sense of what moving through the centuries might be like for Dorian. The film's visually dark in a lot of places, but there's also a lot of bright reds, yellows, and whites as contrast, juxtaposing the glittery aristocracy of Victorian London against its grimy underbelly, which of course is what the book was always about. I'm glad Ben Barnes found his calling here as one of the greatest villain actors of my generation. He's lovely to look at, but has this quiet demeanor that makes you wonder what he's thinking even when he's not saying a word.
6 - The Others (2001)
As I said with Get Out, predictability is not a bad thing, but this movie gave away a LOT in the initial trailer. Not the best idea if you're working with a twist ending, but that doesn't really ruin it for me. The emphasis, as always, is on the atmosphere and the rising sense of dread, delivered beautifully by Nicole Kidman who, if I haven't mentioned this, is my favorite actress. Her strict, overbearing, but also visibly stressed character, is barely coping, living in near-constant darkness thanks to her children's unusual affliction, and plagued by unseen "intruders" who open the doors and make thumping, knocking noises. The illness in question, likely a form of Porphyria although it's never named, has been linked with the rise of the vampire myth due to the sufferers' aversion to sunlight. The scene with the baptismal dress is more well known, but this one made more of an impression on me:
5 - Stoker (2013)
Mia Wasikowska is going to come up a couple times on this list. If you haven't seen Stoker yet, be aware it's not actually a vampire movie, and has nothing to do with Bram Stoker or his family. At least, not overtly. There's a lot of symbolism and hazy mythology happening in this grim coming-of-age tale about a young girl reaching her potential. It's also the first English language film by Park Chan-wook, a Korean director known for pushing the envelope of good taste with an impeccable sense of dark humor, but this is one of his more toned-down works. India Stoker has an affinity for spiders, an almost preternaturally keen sense of sight and hearing, and a detached fascination with all things morbid. She's also exceedingly patient, waiting until just the right moment to act. So much of this movie is built entirely on subtext, and the scene with the piano duet is a particularly potent example. This comes at the moment she's figured out what her uncle is capable of, but before she's decided what to do about it: