One of the classics of science fiction is The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951). In this film the alien Klaatu comes to earthwith the warning that humanity must decide to live in peace or face global annihilation brought about through a race of robots such as Gort, Klaatu’s intergalactic traveling companion. This classic has been reimagined for a contemporary audience through director Scott Derrickson, who has worked previously on films such as The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005). Scott made some time for TheoFantastique during the promotion of the film in Europe to respond to a few interview questions.
TheoFantastique: Thank you so much for agreeing to answer some questions on The Day the Earth Stood Still. I am a fan of your work, and of science fiction and the broader genres of the fantastic, and I hope your film does well given its potential as I have posted on previously.
Scott Derrickson: Thanks much, I appreciate that.
TheoFantastique: Scott, please accept my thanks for making time in a busy promotional schedule to talk about your new film and related questions that touch on your cinematic efforts.
Scott Derrickson: I’m happy to do it.
TheoFantastique: I’d like to begin on a personal note with asking how you came to be personally drawn to horror and science fiction films given your previous work on The Exorcism of Emily Rose and your latest film.
Scott Derrickson: I love sci-fiand horror for many reasons. First of all, I think they are the most imaginativeve of all film genres. The possibilities in those stories push the envelope of the viewers own imagination farther than other genres. I also love the emotional reactions they usually elicit from me as a viewer. With horror, it’s fear of course, fear and anxiety. I love to experience the intensity of those feelings in a safe environment — it results in a kind of cleansing experience. With sci-fi, I think of the emotional component as wonderment — sci-fi inspires a sense of awe in you when it’s well done. And very few human feelings make you feel more alive than awe and wonderment.
TheoFantastique: What drew you to The Day the Earth Stood Still, and did you have any concerns or fears about “remaking” a classic science fiction film, if indeed you consider your new film a remake?
Scott Derrickson: The idea of doing the remake started with 20th Century Fox — they had a script they had developed and they sent it to me. Before I read it, I was very skeptical because I love the original so much, but after reading it I realized that an update of the film really made a lot of sense. The original was very rooted in social issues of its time — the cold war, the fear of the atomic bomb, the struggle to establish the UN, etc…, and I loved the idea of updating the film to deal with current social issues. I also realized that as great as the original film is, it’s not a film that many modern moviegoers have seen, and I loved the idea of telling such a great story to a new audience.
TheoFantastique: To what extent does your film engage the current post-9/11 context for contemporary audiences?
Scott Derrickson: When the spaceship lands in the beginning of the film, the imagery is deliberately evoking the brown clouds from 9/11 — it’s an acknowledgement that this is a post-9/11 film. The film, like the original, is introspective about America — it admits, like most Americans and most people around the world now admit, that we’ve made some mistakes since 9/11. We’ve made a mess of this war in Iraq, we’ve made a mess of our economy, we’ve made a mess of our environment. But the film is not at all cynical – it also reflects the optimism of this moment in history and sees that humanity often rises to the occasion when facing real peril. This film is first and foremost an entertaining popcorn movie, but these social issues are there as well, and I like films that can entertaining as well as provide interesting ideas — as long as the film isn’t preachy or telling the audience how to think. This movie doesn’t really have a message, but rather it simply reflects our current post 9/11 world.
TheoFantastique: What do you hope viewers take away from this film beyond its entertainment value?
Scott Derrickson: An appreciation for the idea that human mistakes and the adversity they create often result in significant human evolution and growth.
TheoFantastique: Scholars and film critics continue to debate the interpretation of Klaatu in the original film. He is killed and is later resuscitated by his robot Gort. Because of this some see Klaatu as a Christ-figure who dies and is resurrected (with an argument for this found here), while others have questioned the legitimacy of this interpretation and have urged caution in the uncritical identification of such figures. Was the Christ-figure in your mind as you created Klaatu for your film?
Scott Derrickson: He’s very obviously a Christ-figure in the original, and in mine as well.
TheoFantastique: How does science fiction and horror provide vehicles for you not only to entertain and tell good stories as a filmmaker, but also to address issues of importance that connect with the culture?
Scott Derrickson: Because they are so extreme in their storytelling and cinematic qualities, horror and sci-fi allow ideas and social commentary in a way other genres don’t. The ideas, whether they are cultural or philosophical, balance out the extremities of the storytelling.
TheoFantastique: What are the future projects on your list that viewers can look forward to? I have heard that you will be directing Devil’s Knot (2010) a film that tells the story of the “West Memphis Three,” the three young men who were, in my view, wrongly convicted as teens for the murder of two boys in Arkansas in an example of satanic panic. Is this true, and if so why did this story attract you?
Scott Derrickson: That story is just so heartbreaking, and says a lot about the dangers of allowing religious opinion into the judicial process. I’m currently working on an adaptation of Milton’s Paradise Lost.
TheoFantastique: Scott, thanks again for this. I wish you the best with your continued film promotion and for its success in theaters as it opens this coming Friday, December 12th in the United states. I look forward to seeing it.
I recently received a copy of the DVD AAAAAH!! Indie Horror Hits, Volume 1 from my friend Miguel Gallego of Crypt Club Productions, Inc. The DVD is promoted with the idea of “All killer – no filler,” and it delivers through seven short films of independent horror, all festival award winners. A preview trailer for the DVD is available here. Take a look and consider adding this to your horror film collection. You wont’ be disappointed.
The horror subculture and decades of monster kids mourn as news of the passing of Forrest J. Ackerman circulates in the media. As his legion of fans, old and young, are keenly aware, Forry was extremely influential in the rise of the horror subculture, and in the production of specialized magazines devoted to it, through his own Famous Monsters magazine. His influence has been noted by many famous and not so famous people, as recognized in The Sci-Fi Boys documentary produced by Paul Davids.
Forrest J Ackerman, who influenced a generation of young horror movie fans with Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine and spent a lifetime amassing what has been called the world’s largest personal collection of science fiction and fantasy memorabilia, has died. He was 92.
Ackerman, a writer, editor and literary agent who has been credited with coining the term “sci-fi” in the 1950s, died Thursday of heart failure at his home in Los Angeles, Kevin Burns, head of Prometheus Entertainment and a trustee of Ackerman’s estate, told the Associated Press.
As editor of Famous Monsters of Filmland, Ackerman wrote most of the articles in the photo-laden magazine launched in 1958 as a forum for past and present horror films.
“It was the first movie monster magazine,” Tony Timpone, editor of Fangoria, a horror movie magazine founded in 1979, told The Times in 2002.
Timpone, who began reading Famous Monsters as a young boy in the early ’70s, remembers it as “a black-and-white magazine with cheap paper but great painted [color] covers. It really turned people on to the magic of horror movies.”
Primarily targeted to late pre-adolescents and young teenagers, Famous Monsters of Filmland featured synopses of horror films, interviews with actors such as BorisKarloff, BelaLugosi and Vincent Price, and articles on makeup and special effects.
Famous Monsters reflected Ackerman’s penchant for puns, with features such as “The Printed Weird” and “Fang Mail.” Ackerman referred to himself as Dr. Acula.
“He put a lot of his personality into the magazine,” said Timpone, who later became friends with Ackerman. “It was a pretty juvenile approach to genre journalism, but as kids, that’s all we had.”
You can read the entire obituary here. Uncle Forry, thanks for helping fuel my fears, spark my imagination, make my childhood, and create the lifelong monster kid I have become.
Ask a group of people what the “best of” may be in any given category and you’re likely to get a diversity of answers. Along with that may come a good deal of disagreement, and possibly controversy, especially if the answers are shared in a public forum. This is exactly the scenario that has taken place in a small corner of the horror subculture.
Not long ago, B-Sol of The Vault of Horror asked the members of the League of Tana Tea Drinkers to present their top ten list of the best horror films of all time. This was in response to a top 50 list of horror presented by HMV. LOTTD members sent along their votes, from which B-Sol posted our top 50. This resulted in some interesting, and at times heated comments and conversations on The Vault of Horror. The controversy heated up even more with FANGORIA Magazine online posting a response to LOTTD’s choices.
For those interested in such minor skirmishes I thought it might be helpful for me to let readers know about my film choices, and the definitions, acknowledgment of influences and biases, and the criteria that informed my choices.
In terms of definition, in my view the lines dividing the definitions of horror, sci fi and fantasy are pretty blurred, and maybe even artificial. As Josh Bellin recent discussed in his interview on my site on this topic:
“I tend not to draw hard-and-fast lines between fantasy, science fiction, and horror; I feel that there are too many conceptual problems in these generic definitions for them to be useful. Just to cite one example: what does one do with a film like Aliens? It’s science fiction, right? But it’s also a monster movie—so I guess it’s also either horror or fantasy, depending on where you fall on that ill-defined difference. You’ll see critics tie themselves into verbal knots trying to prove that these are three distinct genres—yet they always end up admitting that there are exceptions to whatever definitions they propose, and once the exceptions start to outweigh the orthodox examples, you realize that the definitions are attempting to create something that doesn’t exist in reality. It ultimately collapses into tautology: fantasy films become films that possess whatever qualities the particular critic defines as characteristic of fantasy.”
For these reasons a few of the films in my list may be characterized by some readers as sci fi, but such hard and fast genre boundaries are difficult to make in my view.
In terms of the acknowledgment of the influences in my choices and the resulting bias, one of the great difficulties in making such choices is the “personal quirks” aspect of the interpretation process. This is a lifelong process of influence whereby what one encounters in film viewing at a given point in life as filtered through a social and cultural grid which then influences what films are appreciated and what are not. I was reminded of this during a trip to a haunted house in October where in the “waiting” area of the long ticket line they had a movie screen that played a collage of clips from horror films to keep us entertained until we entered the haunt. What struck me was that some 95% by my estimate were less than twenty years old, most within the last decade or so. This spilled over into the haunt itself as the theme areas touched on serial killers and the like with no “classic monsters” from Universal or Hammer. Even the nod to the past with Psycho and House on Haunted Hill at this haunt were drawn from the “reimagined” remakes, not the originals. So part of the decision making choices in LOTTD’s list, and the resulting disagreement on the Internet, can be attributed in part to what may be social, cultural, and generational sets of issues that impact interpretation and horror preferences. I readily acknowledge my social location as a North American who grew up watching horror and related genres in the early 1970s and into the ensuing decades, with the expressions of horror I watched which “inculturated” in me a certain set of preferences in my appreciation for these materials. Even so, my childhood and adolescent film viewing and its related nostalgia has hopefully been tempered by deeper cinematic reflection as an adult.
This leads to the criteria which informed my choices. They are threefold. First, I chose films that I believe represent solid examples of good filmmaking, regardless of the genre. The fantastic genres tend to get short shrift when it comes to recognition as good filmmaking in the general culture, but in my view the choices I selected are just plain good cinema regardless of the genre. Second, I chose films with an influence that is profound both within their genre of filmmaking as well as beyond it into popular culture itself. Third, I attempted to incorporate some sense of broad historical perspective that looks beyond my own experiences and generational preferences in film viewing. Beyond these criteria, I must admit a lack of objectivity when it comes to selection number ten: the Gillman was my first childhood exposure to horror. He scared and captivated my imagination, so he has to be included in my list.
With these background thoughts in mind, my choices for the top ten horror films that were tabulated as part of the LOTTD 50 best horror films are as follows:
1. Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
2. Psycho (1960)
3. Night of the Living Dead (1968)
4. Horror of Dracula (1958)
5. King Kong (1933)
6. John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982)
7. Alien (1979)
8. Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
9. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
10. Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
But when all is said and done, regardless of the best arguments and most “objective” of criteria, it all comes down to personal tastes in horror. May the debate continue.
I recently received a press release from my talented filmmaking friend Marc Lougee that describes his latest project with another group of friends, the good folks at Bluewater Productions. Congratulations to them both with this new project:
BELLINGHAM, WASH. (NOVEMBER 25, 2008) – The success of Ray Harryhausen Presents; The Pit and the Pendulum, a short stop motion animated film produced by Hand Made Heroes Film & Television has resulted in a comic book deal with Bluewater Productions. When Bluewater President Darren G. Davis and Director Marc Lougee of Hand Made Heroes discovered they were both producing work independently under the Ray Harryhausen Presents banner, Bluewater immediately penned a deal with director Marc Lougee to further develop film & comic book cross-over properties.
Since it’s premiere hosted by Harry Knowles of Ain’t It Cool News at the BNAT Film Festival, The Pit and the Pendulum short film has screened in over 200 film festivals and comic conventions around the world including AFI Dallas and San Diego Comic-Con. Nearly 100,000 visitors logged into the film’s website within two days of the film’s premier in Austin, TX, and has continued to garner a global fan following.
“Seeing the film published as a comic thru a brilliant publisher like Bluewater is the realization of another dream of mine.” said Director, Marc Lougee, “What started as a labor of love, and a once in a lifetime chance to make a film with Ray Harryhausen at the helm, has just continued to expand and reach further than I’d imagined. I’m really excited to have an issue of Ray Harryhausen Presents; The Pit and the Pendulum comic in hand come February 2009.”
Susan Ma, producer on the stop motion adaptation of The Pit and the Pendulum, says the soon to be released comic book is a wonderful extension of the film. “In producing the film, we sought to bring the story to life for a broad audience, while staying as close to the original story as possible. Executive producer Ray Harryhausen was especially keen to see the story develop with a strong visual aesthetic and real storytelling. In bringing the film version into the realm of comic books, I feel we’re accomplishing the goal of making the story very accessible. We’ve been surprised with wonderful feedback from teachers and professors who are thrilled to have a resource like the film to teach Poe’s works in class.”
Director Marc Lougee adds, “ I think between the comic book and the DVD, we’ve got a wonderful package to create interest in great literature thru visual means, starting with E.A. Poe’s The Pit and the Pendulum. Gothic horror, Ray Harryhausen and Edgar Allan Poe– who wouldn’t be thrilled?”
The story in brief: The Pit and the Pendulum. A victim of the Spanish Inquisition is brought before a tribunal. Condemned and alone, he’s left to suffer a fate worse than death as his captors employ fiendish machinations in their efforts to unhinge him.
About The Pit and the Pendulum comic book. Featuring images taken directly from the award-winning animated film and coupled with Poe’s original text, the graphic version of the story in comic book form ratchets up the effect of Poe’s tale of Gothic Horror, creating a spine-tingling experience not to be missed.
The Pit and the Pendulum comic book is scheduled for release in February 2009. The PIT AND THE PENDULUM DVD is available online at www.thepitandthependulumdshortfilm.com
About Bluewater Productions:
Bluewater Productions, Inc. is one if the top independent production studios of comic, young adult books and graphic novel titles. In the tradition of great storytelling and cutting edge art, Bluewater storms onto the comic book and graphic novel scene. With more titles than ever, including smash hits such as the 10th MUSE, VSS, and THE LEGEND OF ISIS, Bluewater is poised to continue to produce engaging stories with art from both the top names in the industry alongside with up and coming stars.
As of May 2007, Bluewater Productions, Inc. moved from production studio to publisher, in conjunction with legendary filmmaker, Ray Harryhausen — the genius behind some of the greatest movie magic of all-time while continuing to publish it’s popular superhero line starring it’s flagship character the 10th Muse. Bluewater has also just signed a publishing deal with William Shatner,Roger Corman and Lionsgate.
About Hand Made Heroes: Hand Made Heroes Film & Television produces compelling & entertaining animated properties for television, film and online audiences.
Director & Creative Producer Marc Lougee & producing partner Susan Ma share years of experience in the genre, playing part in many series & film projects, including the BBC/ Discovery Kids! series DINOSAPIEN, BBC’s ACE LIGHTNING, CBC’s WHAT IT’S LIKE BEING ALONE and MTV’s CELEBRITY DEATHMATCH. Aside form broadcast projects, Marc & Susan have produced several award-winning films, including THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM animated film (exec produced by Ray Harryhausen), available now on DVD. For more information on the PIT AND THE PENDULUM animated film, visit the official website: http://www.thepitandthependulumshortfilm.com.
I was asked by Vince Liaguno of Dark Scribe Magazine to be part of a discussion with a few fellow League of Tana Tea Drinkers (LOTTD) horror bloggers. The result is the “Dark Genre Roundtable” which can be found here. My thanks go to Vince and Dark Scribe for the interview and where I can tell the story of TheoFantastique and my contribution and perspective to horror an dthe fantastic, and to John Cozzoli of Zombos Closet of Horror, the moving force behind LOTTD, for the invitation to be part of this interesting group. I hope the reader of our roundtable gains an appreciation for the varied stories, perspectives, and motivations behind what we do in discussing horror and the fantastic.
Mechademia 3 Limits of the Human Frenchy Lunning, editor
University of Minnesota Press | 288 pages | 61 b&w photos | 2008
ISBN 978-0-8166-5482-6 | paperback | $19.95
Mechademia Series, volume 3 Exploring the possibilities and perils of a posthuman future through visionary works of Japanese anime and manga
Dramatic advances in genetics, cloning, robotics, and nanotechnology have given rise to both hopes and fears about how technology might transform humanity. As the possibility of a posthuman future becomes increasingly likely, debates about how to interpret or shape this future abound. In Japan, anime and manga artists have for decades been imagining the contours of posthumanity, creating dazzling and sometimes disturbing works of art that envision a variety of human/nonhuman hybrids: biological/mechanical, human/animal, and human/monster. Anime and manga offer a constellation of posthuman prototypes whose hybrid natures require a shift in our perception of what it means to be human.
Limits of the Human—the third volume in the Mechademia series—maps the terrain of posthumanity using manga and anime as guides and signposts to understand how to think about humanity’s new potentialities and limits. Through a wide range of texts—the folklore-inspired monsters that populate Mizuki Shigeru’s manga; Japan’s Gothic Lolita subculture; Tezuka Osamu’s original cyborg hero, Atom, and his manga version of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (along with Ôtomo Katsuhiro’s 2001 anime film adaptation); the robot anime, Gundam; and the notion of the uncanny in Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, among others—the essays in this volume reject simple human/nonhuman dichotomies and instead encourage a provocative rethinking of the definitions of humanity along entirely unexpected frontiers.
Contributors: William L. Benzon, Lawrence Bird, Christopher Bolton, Steven T. Brown, Joshua Paul Dale, Michael Dylan Foster, Crispin Freeman, Marc Hairston, Paul Jackson, Thomas LaMarre, Antonia Levi, Margherita Long, Laura Miller, Hajime Nakatani, Susan Napier, Natsume Fusanosuke, Sharalyn Orbaugh, Ôtsuka Eiji, Adèle-Elise Prévost and MUSEbasement; Teri Silvio, Takayuki Tatsumi, Mark C. Taylor, Theresa Winge, Cary Wolfe, Wendy Siuyi Wong, and Yomota Inuhiko.
It’s that time of year again: Hollywood has begun to release its winter films that it hopes will be blockbusters, or at least do well in box office returns in connection with the holiday movie viewing habits of consumers. The latest fantasy film involving youth and the supernatural (or supranormal) is doing very well in this regard. But this film is not the latest installment in the Harry Potter series. Move over, J.K. Rowling, there’s a new player in town. Instead of wizards and wands its teenagers and vampires in the romanctic vampire hybrid film Twilight,[1] which made $70.5 million dollars through North American theaters in its opening weekend in November, making this the fourth-highest box office opening for a film in that month of the year.[2]
In case you’re not a teenager girl, a woman, or keep up on developments in vampire mythology through literature and film, some background information might be helpful in understanding the Twilight phenomenon. The film is based on the first book in a four-part series that includes not only Twilight (Little, Brown Young Readers, 2005), but also New Moon (2006), Eclipse (2007), and Breaking Dawn (2008). The books are the brainchild of Stephenie Meyer,[3] housewife in Arizona who credited a vivid dream about “an average girl” and a “sparkly” vampire falling in love and dealing with its implications as the inspiration for what would later become Twilight.[4] This unlikely idea for a literary phenomenon has gone to become just that, having spent “a combined 143 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list”, and selling more than 5 million copies of the books in the United States alone.[5]
Twilight introduces us to a Bella, a teenage girl living in Phoenix with her mom and step-dad who must temporarily move to the small town of Forks in Washington State to stay with her father. As the story unfolds the more mundane challenges of moving, the teenage angst of developing a relationship between an estranged daughter and father, and developing an identity and social life in a new high school, are quickly complicated with a romantic angle. Bella becomes aware of a small group of fellow students from the Cullens Family, and soon falls in love with one of them, Edward, who she later discovers is more than he appears. After some research on local Native American legends and folklore on strange creatures in the area, as well as experiences and personal conversations with Edward, Bella learns that Edward is a vampire.
Meyer adds a few new twists to the ongoing development of the vampire mythology through the Twilight series. In keeping with the folkloric creatures of the past the Twilight characters are immortal blood-drinkers, but in Meyer’s mythos the vampires are possess great speed, do not sleep (in coffins or otherwise), do not avoid the sunlight (indeed, they glitter in the sunlight), and each possess singularly unique abilities such as Edward’s power to read minds.
For horror movie fans thinking about rushing to theaters to catch Twilight a few words of clarification are in order. Twilight is probably best understood as a teenage romance film which incorporates elements of vampire mythology rather than a horror film that also includes elements of romance. This emphasis on the romantic in vampire literature is not new. The romantic as well as the erotic aspects of vampire stories have a long history, even before Bram Stoker penned the infamous Dracula novel. Sheridan La Fanu wrote a short story in 1872 titled “Carmilla” which presented a female vampire and included “[e]rotic undertones in the strange, unearthly bond that develops between the vampire and victim [which] echo throughout the story.”[6] With the emphasis on romance, Twilight may be understood as the latest take on the vampire myth which emphasizes this facet. 2007 saw the first and only season of Moonlight,[7] a television program about a vampire private investigator and his romantic relationship with a human reporter. From 1997-2003 teenagers and other television viewers enjoyed the romantic relationship between Buffy in Buffy the Vampire Slayer[8]and Angel, a vampire with a soul, as they pursued not only romance but also saved the world each week from various monsters and frequent near-apocalypses.
Given the romantic element of Twilight the above mentioned influences from treatments of the vampire in pop culture are most apparent, but other influences seem likely. Beyond the tragic teen love story elements of classic literature in Romeo and Juliet, other vampire films seem to have influenced the author. These include Underworld (2003)[9] and Underworld: Evolution (2006),[10] two films which not only involve romance between mortals and vampires, but also introduce the narrative element of conflict between the vampires and another iconic creature of horror, the werewolf. This is only hinted at as a subplot in Twilight through references to ancient folklore and hostility between these creatures, but this element is expanded upon in subsequent books in the series and will no doubt become major elements of the future films as they are produced. An additional cinematic influence can be seen in The Lost Boys (1987),[11] a film about two teenage boys who move to a new town only to encounter trouble through romantic connections to a vampire. The Lost Boys involves a subtext of broken traditional family structures, a social issue that came to the fore in the 1980s, and while Twilight does not address this issue in a major way it can be seen as a background issue in regards to Bella’s divorced parents and her fragile relationship with her father.[12]
In the 1996 volume which he edited, Monster Theory, Jeffrey Cohen suggested that monsters are a projection of the culture that creates them. In his view they are a metaphor that serve as “symbolic expressions of cultural unease that pervade a society and shape its collective behavior.”[13]As a result, he suggests that cultural theorists need to make monsters seriously, and that doing so results in new insights into the culture that creates them. What does our continued interest in the vampire in popular culture tell us about ourselves, and more specifically, what might we learn from the particular expression of the vampire in Twilight?
The vampire has long been recognized as a mythical symbol that embodies a variety of concepts and fears. “These include death (and all of its psychological ramifications), immortality, forbidden sexuality, sexual power and surrender, intimacy, alienation, rebellion, violence, and a fascination with the mysterious.”[14] Although the zombie has perhaps become the most popular monster figure in late modern western culture,[15] the vampire continues to fascinate us as we wrestle with what it means to be human.
Beyond the general considerations related to the vampire figure, Twilight’s appropriation of the creature seems to function as a significant metaphor where ethical choices take center stage:
“Resisting temptation is a constant struggle. Edward’s choice – and the willingness to choose a different way in general – is a major theme in Meyer’s books. ‘I really think that’s the underlying metaphor of my vampires,’ she says. ‘It doesn’t matter where you’re stuck in life or what you think that you have to do; you can always choose something else. There’s always a different path.”[16]
The centrality of ethical choice-making in Twilight may be due to Meyer’s Mormon background which includes a strong emphasis on avoiding temptation and choosing the correct moral path, summarized in the Mormon culture with the phrase, “Choose the right.” In the continued development of vampire mythology Meyer has incorporated not only the more traditional vampiric elements of death, immortality, and sexual conflict, but has also infused ethical considerations into this mix that builds upon previous treatments of this issue. In the 1990s Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel[17]television series Angel and Buffy wrestled with their own temptations and the negative ramifications associated with sex that held the potential to unleash the worst in Angel’s nature. In Twilight, Bella and Edward also wrestle with this challenge, and the overarching ethical framework of Meyer provides Edward with the strength to not only avoid sexual transgression, but also an overwhelming violence toward Bella and the rest of humanity. In the Twilight universe this ethical dimension is extensive and is summarized by one of the merchandizing tag lines associated with the series that might be understood in some sense as Mormonism’s ethical echo: “I don’t want to be a monster.” Through her books and film Meyer reminds us that the monster may not just dwell in others, but also lies within us. It is only through love and the exercise of will and self-restraint that are able to contain the monster seeking release from within.
Two interesting responses have appeared with the success of the film version of Twilight. First, some critics have noted Meyer’s Mormon faith and allege racism and sexism in its depiction of Native Americans and women’s roles as a result of the influence of the faith. I have not seen any hint of this in the Twilight material and in my estimation such criticism is suggestive of anti-Mormon bias rather than an outworking of problematic elements of Meyer’s beliefs in her story. Second, horror fans, and vampire fans in particular, are lamenting the heavy emphasis on romance and the downplaying of the more violent and erotic aspects of vampire mythology in Meyer’s treatment of the creatures. A while back I wrote that films like 30 Days of Night might be construed in some sense as a reconstruction of symbolism that attempts to frame the vampire in more violent ways as a means of opposing more benign expressions of the vampire, as well as the culturally popular zombie figure so as to position more gritty depictions of the vampire as the more dominant symbol in horror. My thesis seems to be playing outself out as expressed in some of the critique of Meyer’s conception of the vampire.
It appears that Meyer has the potential to enjoy pop culture success for quite some time. Just recently Summit Entertainment announced that it is moving forward with the second installment in the Twilight series with production of New Moon.[18] Although readers of her books will have to be content with continued re-reading of the completed series of volumes, her fans can anticipate many more years of cinematic enjoyment as future volumes in the Meyer series are translated into film. As a concluding note, Twilight was not my “cup of tea” in that I prefer vampires with a bit more teeth (literally and metaphorically), but this too has its niche. To each their own in vampire mythology.
[6] Martin V. Riccardo, “Foreword: A Brief Cultural History of the Vampire,” p. xi in J. Gordon Melton, The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead (Visible Ink Press, 1999).
[15] There is a plethora of books and movies and phenomenon such as public zombie walks and crawls that take place internationally testifying to the zombie’s increasing and continued popularity rivaling the vampire. Like vampires and other monsters in the academic study of horror, zombies have also become the subject of scholarly investigation as evidenced by the Religion and Popular Culture group of Yahoo! call for papers on an interdisciplinary collection of essays on the zombie.
I was a young child when I first discovered the fantastic through television broadcasts of science fiction films. These became sources that fueled my fears and fed my imagination. My fears took shape through films like Invaders From Mars (1953) with the images of aliens burrowing underground and mind control devices drilled into the base of human skulls. My sense of wonder gorged on films like The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) with my imagination running wild through the possibilities presented by an army of Gort-like robots zapping people with his laser beam. Over the years my appreciation for these films has increased, and among fans they have become classics. For me, the problem with classics of cinema is that as a general rule they should be left alone in the area of remakes, although I am sympathetic to such films providing the inspiration for new creations of the fantastic.
This is particularly the case with December’s release of a new version of The Day the Earth Stood Still. I first heard that this film was in the works a few months ago and immediately my shields of skepticism were raised as I pondered how bad a remake of the classic could be. My skepticism was tempered somewhat when I heard that Scott Derrickson served as director, perhaps best known for The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005) and Hellraiser: Inferno (2000). Derrickson has a real appreciation as a fan for horror that contributes positively to his work, and my hope is that this will lend itself to a fresh interpretation of the ideas behind the new take on Klaatu, as well as his 2009 effort in the remake of The Birds. (In my view the remake of Psycho [1998] was unnecessary and contributed nothing to Hitchock’s classic, even reproducing Hitchcock’s orginal shot for shot thus confirming the brilliance of the original, so why The Birds [1963] remake should fare any better is beyond me. But I’m trying to think positively.)
Beyond these general concerns for the new film a few other areas are worth watching for.
First, the context for the 1950s classic was the Cold War, the potential for global thermonuclear war, and the newly formed United Nations. It remains to be seen how the new film will engage its current historical, social, and cultural context of a post-9/11 world of global terrorism and the many failures of the United Nations to address this and other challenges. Hopefully the new film will move beyond the current tendency to create action films with thin veneers of horror or sci fi and will engage our current cultural crises through the promising possibilities of social engagement and commentary provided by science fiction.
Second, Michael Rennie did a wonderful job as the alien Klaatu in the original film, lending gravitas to the subject matter which even his co-stars such as Patricia Neal did not take seriously. Keanu Reeves plays Klaatu in the new film, and while he has established a body of work in science fiction, including the Matrix trilogy, most critics acknowledge his popular appeal while recognizing his lack of depth as an actor. Will Reeves’ popularity in science fiction films in the past be enough to counter possible perceptions of lack of gravitas in the title role? I suppose it depends upon the depth this film attempts to present to viewers, and whether it is a sci fi-action film or a sci fi film with great digital effects which nevertheless wants to be taken seriously in addressing contemporary cultural issues.
Third, the original film is still the subject of academic debate in the figure of Klaatu who is killed and resuscitated by Gort. Many commentators, such as Anton Karl Kozlovic, have interpreted Klaatu as a Christ-figure who dies and rises again, while others such as Douglas Cowan, have challenged this commonly accepted interpretation. It remains to be seen whether the new film will present Klaatu as Christ-figure, especially given Derrickson’s Christian faith, whether the character and the plot are so different from the original that it is not possible to interpret the character in this way, or whether many viewers will interpret Klaatu in this fashion regardless of the way in which the character is depicted. (See Christopher Deacy’s interesting discussion of this phenomenon here.)
Perhaps next month I will be watching this film with greater scrutiny than many of my fellow film goers. But in any event, it holds the potential of being a successful end-of-year sci fi film much like last year’s I Am Legend. Despite my continuing skepticism, I’ll try to think positively. See you in the theater with popcorn and Whoppers in hand.
The discussion list for the Popular Culture and American Culture Associations included an item recently of interest to TheoFantastique. Ithica College is hosting a Rod Serling conference in October 2009. As the college event’s website describes the event:
Picture, if you will, a place where communication students can study the creative work of one of the most prolific writers in television history – not from textbooks – but from the actual scripts he crafted. In the Rod Serling Archives at Ithaca College can be found one the most unique and complete collections of work by a writer whose name is synonymous with the “golden age of television.” It’s the material from which Emmy-award winning programs are made — like Patterns… Requiem for a Heavyweight… and The Comedian and the series that gave birth to the modern “TV marathon” – The Twilight Zone. Rod Serling taught at the Ithaca College Communications School from 1967 to 1975.
Why Ithaca College? Just 50 miles south is Serling’s hometown (Binghamton), and much closer is the family cottage on Cayuga Lake where in an airstream trailer behind the main house – some of the most memorable scripts in television history were crafted. Then, there is the fact that in the early 1970’s, writer became teacher – and shared his creative genius with students at the College… and that after his death in 1975 Carol Serling (a longtime Ithaca College Board member) decided her husband’s work needed a permanent home where it could be preserved and shared.
The 2009 conference will be held October 2-3. The call for papers may be found here.
Related to Serling and his work on The Twilight Zone, readers may recall TheoFantastique’s previous interview with Marc Scott Zicree, author of The Twilight Zone Companion (Silman-James Press, 1989).
Scott Derrickson: When the spaceship lands in the beginning of the film, the imagery is deliberately evoking the brown clouds from 9/11 — it’s an acknowledgement that this is a post-9/11 film. The film, like the original, is introspective about America — it admits, like most Americans and most people around the world now admit, that we’ve made some mistakes since 9/11. We’ve made a mess of this war in Iraq, we’ve made a mess of our economy, we’ve made a mess of our environment. But the film is not at all cynical – it also reflects the optimism of this moment in history and sees that humanity often rises to the occasion when facing real peril. This film is first and foremost an entertaining popcorn movie, but these social issues are there as well, and I like films that can entertaining as well as provide interesting ideas — as long as the film isn’t preachy or telling the audience how to think. This movie doesn’t really have a message, but rather it simply reflects our current post 9/11 world.
