In light of
SHUTTER‘s (a flick about a ghost looking to get
even) July 15 DVD release
(get the disk here), I was asked to do a little
write-up about “vengeance” within the genre. If you stop and think about it, the
universal theme is one that pops up often enough in horror flicks. For example:
the final girl/guy paying back the
killer for what he did to his/her friends or the many ghosts with
vengeance driving them.
Revenge even sometimes acts as a slasher franchise starter! Friday the 13th
and Nightmare on Elm Street for example had both their bad to the bone
baddies begin their “kill run” cause they were fueled by an unquenchable thirst to strike back.
So with that, here are the six
revenge inclined genre bits that have stuck in my hollow noggin since
the day I first saw them. Dig in this cold dish!
– WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD! –
I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE
“Bye bye pecker!”
Before revenge…
After surviving the lovely Jennifer Hill
(Camille Keaton) getting severely raped for 25 VERY LONG MINUTES by a
group of mooks in
I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE, I was exhausted. But the
ringer was worth it. Cause I was rooting and tooting like a Rooster in heat when she
bounced back within
the second half of the flick for some good old fashioned payback.
Although all
of the kills were pretty damn harsh in this film, the “castration in the tub”
scene so stuck out.
Hill’s warped seduction of her prey, her choice of slapping on some opera music
so she won’t hear the dude scream , the implied snipping of the dong and the
abundance of blood all came together to deliver quite the visceral scene. Man did I feel that
one on so many levels. With that said, I was a FULFILLED human being after our
scorned victim castrated that human trash. You go girl!
REVENGE APPLIED! Take that mofo!
FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 2
“Ice Pick temple massage”
Before revenge…
For some damn reason, the swift disposal of cutie Alice (the
surviving heroine of FRIDAY THE 13TH played by Adrienne King) in the opening of
FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 2
always disturbed the hell out of me.
Was it because I liked her so much in Part 1?
Was it that she got dispatched so easily after all that she survived in the
first film? Or was it the sheer brutality of the kill (stabbed
in the temple with an ice pick )? IT WAS ALL OF IT! It should be yapped that HALLOWEEN 5
tried to do the same thing with the character of Rachel but it didn’t work.
Here, seeing Jason take vengeance on the poor girl for the death of his mama
WHOOPED ME!
REVENGE APPLIED! Sniff, sniff…
THE CROW
“Tin – Tin – kabob!”
Before revenge…
THE CROW is one of my favorite movies period
and although so many scenes from it have been engraved in mind, payback wise, I always had an affinity
for the Tin-Tin buys the farm, re-sells it and buys it again scene.
The fact that it was the first
act of retribution in the picture –
that Tin Tin was such an a-hole and that Brandon Lee looked utterly insane (in a
good way) in the scene made it stand out for me. The kinetic editing, the
poignant flashbacks, the crow POV shot, the hypnotizing score and the one liners ( my fav
“Victims aren’t we all”) hit hard ass well. Result? A keeper!
REVENGE APPLIED! Yes murder is easy Tin Tin.
NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET
“Tina’s bedroom romp!”
Before revenge…
If you cross “murdered by an angry mob of parents” Freddy Krueger you pay, your children pay,
your dreams will suck… everybody pays. The
dude holds a grudge like nobody’s business and he made quite the impression on
me when he took care of cutie Tina “old school” in
NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET.
What do I mean by “old school”?
Um… slashing her belly open, swinging her around like a red wet rag doll,
dragging her up a wall to then finish her off on the ceiling. When Tina finally
unglued off the ceiling to land in the bed below dead, sending a splash of blood in
the face of her “Tarzan man fix Jane” boy-toy Rod; I knew one thing – don’t f*ck with the BIG K. He aint playing. The parents
of Elm Street have been learning that one the hard way for 8 movies now.
REVENGE APPLIED! Freddy be pissed!
FATAL ATTRACTION
“Don’t mess with The Douglas!”
Before revenge…
So Michael Douglas (playing horn dog Dan) has a one “weekend stand” with some broad
(Glenn Close) in
FATAL ATTRACTION. He’s straight up with her off
the bat (he’s married loves his kid) doesn’t make
false promises and plays no games whatsoever. Pretty damn honorable for a
cheater if you ask me. But what does she do once he
ends the courtship? She goes POSTAL-PMS on his ass pulling all kinds of out of
line crap.
Stalking on every level, emotional manipulation (she slices her own
wrists for attention), showing up at his
place to talk with his wife… WTF! Douglas was losing it and SO WAS I! Therefore,
you can bet your sweet patooski that when Douglas reached the “ENOUGH” stage and
broke into the mademoiselle’s pad for some “eye for an eye” man-handling, that I was cheering and clapping for the lad! You don’t f*ck with The
Douglas man, The Douglas does the f*cking!
REVENGE APPLIED! Take that you crazy broad!
SEVEN
“That damn box!”
Before revenge…
The final scene from SEVEN
is all about revenge. The nutso (John Doe played by Kevin Spacey) wants to evoke
revenge out of Detective Mills (Brad Pitt) to complete his “Seven Deadly Sins”
murder masterpiece. If he gets it, he
“wins”. So when Detective Mills (and us) found out what was in the box and then
payed Mr. Doe back, it resulted in conflicting
feelings from yours truly.
I mean, after the box’s content was revealed; anger filled me
up and I wanted Mills to kill Doe
a lot! But once Mills did the deed, I kind of felt weird about it. Not
because I thought what Mills did wasn’t justified, but because Mills will
now have to pay for his reprisal (jail time?) while the psychopath got what he wanted, and he’s dead, hence
won’t have to own up to his actions. Twisted revenge sequence, one that I will
always remember.
REVENGE APPLIED! And I don’t know how I feel about
it…
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