wihm day17/Debra Hill

Posted by Jen - February 17th, 2012

Debra HIll was a very talented screenwriter and producer. She produced movies like Halloween (which she also co-wrote), Halloween ll,  Escape from New York (Snake Plissken!!!),  The Dead Zone, The Fog,  The Fischer King and many more.  She started out in Hollywood in 1975 as a production assistant on documentaries. There weren’t a lot of women working in the film industry back then and she was one of the first trail blazers – “Back when I started in 1974 there were very few women in the industry and everybody called me “Honey”. I was assumed to be the makeup and hair person, or the script person. i was never assumed to be the writer or producer. I looked around and realized there weren’t many women, so I had to carve a niche for myself”.  And carve out a niche she did.

When writing Halloween with Carpenter, Hill was responsible for Laurie Strode’s babysitter storyline and Carpenter was responsible for Dr Loomis’s narrative. They married the 2 ideas together with Michael Myers and voila -  Halloween was born. They set the story in the town Hill was born, Haddonfield, New Jersey, though it was filmed in LA. After the success of Halloween, Hill and Carpenter went on to have a very fruitful produciing partnership on a number of movies.

Debra Hill&John Carpenter on the set of Halloween

In 2003 she was honoured with the Crystal Award which is given to  women who through “their endurance and the excellence of their work, have helped to expand the role of women within the entertainment industry”

In 2005 Hill passed away from cancer. What a sad loss. She was truly one of the first women in horror and she will forever live on in her work.

wihm day16/Charlotte Gainsbourg&Antichrist

Posted by Jen - February 16th, 2012

Anitchrist was hard to watch and it made me sick to my stomach – but I liked parts of it and have to say I’m glad I saw it. Charlotte Gainsbourg’s portrayal of “She” in Antichrist earned her the Palme d’Or from Cannes in 2009. Her acting is so unique – she has an air of total solidness while all the while almost whispering through the characters she plays. I’ve  loved her acting in every movie I’ve seen her in and she is definitely someone who goes out on a limb when choosing roles.

Lars Von Trier – who wrote and directed Antichrist – originally offered the role to Eva Green. Green wanted to do it but on the advice of her agents declined due to the graphic nature of the story. That’s when Charlotte Gainsbourg stepped in. She really wanted the part and it’s great Von Trier gave it to her.  It’s not easy viewing. Gainsbourg does an incredible job beginning the movie as the grieving mother you feel compassion for and ending the movie as the psychotically unbalanced female who’s descent into darkness becomes complete.

Nature plays a huge part both physically and symbolically in Antichrist; beautiful yet savage. It was interesting to read that Gainsbourg felt really insecure and vulnerable being in it. She spoke of her relationship with nature in the July 17/2009  Guardian interview - “I’m scared of nature. I don’t really understand it and I’m not attracted to it. I feel very good in a very, very civilized atmosphere.”

Von Trier says he wrote Antichrist in the midst of a deep depression. He claims the story is a metaphor for his depressed state of mind.  Who knows? What I do know is that Gainsbourg is unrelenting in her portrayal of a woman who deals with her emotions in an extremely sexual and violent way. Whether you like the movie or not Charlotte Gainsbourg puts herself way out there. She fully commits to portraying a character not many actors might feel comfortable playing. That’s why I chose her for day 16 of women in horror month.

wihm day 15/Janet Leigh&Jamie Lee Curtis

Posted by Jen - February 15th, 2012

What are the odds that a mother and daughter will star in movies 28 years apart and have both actors and movies become icons in the horror genre? Pretty small I’d say.

Janet Leigh will be eternally remembered as the lead female character that Hitchcock kills off in Psycho (1960). The scene where she is murdered still has such an impact today – it must have been so controversial to see violence of that nature back then. Whenever I watch Psycho I still get really grossed out by the knife in the shower scene. The sound design and editing is amazing. Just the thought of a knife going through skin and veins, hitting and chipping bone……..so painful looking. it’s what you don’t see that’s so terrifying. What a risk Hitchcock took – killing off a main character in the first 1/3 of the story. Leigh’s character is so tense as the woman who has stolen a lot of money then has a change of heart. That’s what’s so horrific. She’s a decent woman who makes a rash decision, decides to try to make the wrong right but before she can she’s murdered in a super violent, horrible way. Brutal!

Jamie Lee Curtis is Laurie from Halloween (1978). Curtis is exceptional  as the innocent babysitter (Laurie) that has to defend 2 small children and herself against a monster that she knows nothing about.  I love how Laurie knows something is wrong, even before it occurs; moments like the classroom scene where she’s looking absentmindedly out the window.The teacher is discussing the nature of fate and what it is. Laurie is not paying attention yet when the teacher asks her a question about fate – she knows the answer. The unconscious subtext in that scene is super cool. It taps into the primal way we often have knowledge about what’s going to happen to us even before we’re aware of it. Halloween is much more than just a teenage slasher flick.

Both Psycho and Halloween bring up questions of morality, the roles each of us play in society and the sometimes dual nature of psychopaths. I chose Janet Leigh and Jamie Lee Curtis for day 15 of women in horror because as actors they said yes to characters that dealt with more taboo subject matter. Leigh and Curtis were not afraid to explore their darker sides and for that I admire them.

wihm day14/Emma Stone&Zombieland

Posted by Jen - February 14th, 2012

Zombieland was a fun zombie movie with a lot of heart. Emma Stone plays Wichita, the big sister of Abigail Breslin (Little Rock). A mutant strain of Mad Cow has turned the entire continent of North America into flesh eating zombies and Stone’s character is trying to get them to an apparent safe zone – an amusement park in California.  The sisters are perfect as con artists before the world fell apart and con artists after the world fell apart. They pull a con on the other 2 main characters near the beginning of the movie and it’s all out zombie warfare from there.

Zombieland is a really enjoyable modern zombie flick.  The use of pop culture references and left of centre characters makes it unique unto itself.  Emma Stone is so talented – she really brings a self sufficient vibe to Wichita’s character and she does a great job with all the action scenes she’s in.  In an interview with her on YouTube she said smashing every thing to pieces in the store they stop at was by far her favourite part of making the movie. She loves action roles!  It’s cool to see that Stone got to have a bit more to do in Zombieland after her earlier movies like Superbad where she was really good but had a pretty small role. It’s been all uphill for her since her Wichita role and she’s now starring in movies liked Easy A, The Help and The Amazing Spiderman.

I picked Emma Stone for women in horror month because she’s really believable in Zombieland as a young woman who is strong, scared and flying by the seat of her pants. She holds her own with a very talented and seasoned actor like Woody Harrelson and she makes Zombieland something more than it might have been if a generic cookie cutter female actress had been cast.

wihm day9/Alice Krige&Sleepwalkers

Posted by Jen - February 9th, 2012

Alice Krige played the shapeshifting mother/vampire/ werercat in Stephen King’s Sleepwalkers. Both her and her son have to feed off the blood of a virgin to keep living and Krige stops at nothing to ensure the survival of her son.  Krige was great in the role – creepy, unnatural and super intense as a mother who is also in love with her son.

This movie stayed with me not totally because of Krige but also because of the otherworldy sounding song Sleep Walk that set such a weird tone.  Krieg went on to star in more horror movies ( Habitat, The Calling, Ghost Story) but it’e her role as the Borg Queen!!! in  Star Trek: First Contact that I’ll always remember.

I also just saw her in a BBC movie called Page 8  with Bill Nighy.  She’s still playing incredibly strong, loyal and intelligent characters.  It was great to see her alongside talent like Nighy’s – I’m a huge fan of his!

Here’s the eerie song from Sleepwalkers – Sleepwalk -  recorded in 1959 by Santo&Johnny.

Planet Etheria article – women directors/short movies/Rhode Island International Horror Film Festival

Posted by Jen - October 11th, 2011

Planet Etheria posted an article about  women directors who have shorts screening at the Rhode Island International Horror Film Festival this year. Just wanted to say a big thank you to Heidi Honeycutt and Planet Etheria for including Hike. We appreciate the support! You can check out the article on Planet Etheria’s website here: http://www.planetetheria.com/2011/10/12/rhode-island-horror-fest-screens-hawkins-hill-dolores-street-doll-parts-nice-guys-hike/

Walter Murch – The Conversations

Posted by Jen - March 30th, 2011

The Conversations

Reading The Conversations right now – really intersting book about film editing and sound. Here’s an interview with Murch http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4994411

How it Happens – netdud blog

Posted by Jen - February 12th, 2011

This is my friend’s blog – he writes about many different topics. He programmed the Whitebowl site and I love talking to him on the phone  - he’s funny.   http://www.netdud.com/blog/2011/02/how-it-happens/