| Aug. 27th, 2007 @ 01:44 pm Catch-up post the Second |
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The Last House on the Left: Legendary first film from Wes Craven that broke a lot of boundaries when it was released in 1972, with the simple story of: two girls go from rural Connecticut to NYC for a concert, try to buy dope from people who turn out to be escaped convicts and their accomplices who then rape, degrade, and kill the girls-but only after they move them, coincidentally, back up to Connecticut to woods right near one of the girl's parents house. The parents find out and exact bloody revenge. The first half of this I just kept thinking: "This is what all this fuss is about? Are you kidding?" In the second half I understood a bit more. The film is mared by an absolutely awful soundtrack that takes one out of the film whenever it appears-this god-awful pseudo-folk stuff (it was 1972, after all). Worse, there are a pair of "Komedy Kops" who appear periodically, draining any developing tension and being completely out of place (and, quite frankly, tasteless). Even the killers aren't very impressive in the first half, coming off more like heroes in one of John Waters early "bad taste" films, maybe a little more tweaked, but with a similar sensibility of sleaze. Once the killers leave the city and hit the country things become a bit more horrifying, particularly in the tense scenes where the naive parents are feeding and housing the bastards who raped and murdered their daughter. Their revenge wasn't exactly terrifying (probably because I've seen these scenes one-upped many times, including by director Wes Craven himself in the original The Hills Have Eyes and because the actor who played the father was a lousy porno actor-he appeared in Keyholes Are For Peeping and Deadly Weapons) but the film as a whole definitely left me feeling like I needed a shower and slightly creeped out, so it was not without effect.
Also: Wes Craven, really, really likes traps.
Macross: Watching this in Japanese for the first time. All I can say is-it kick's ass to finally see it this way! I love, love this show.
So I went to my friend's wedding in NJ, and I had a great time-a lot of dancing, good food, etc. Hopefully I'll actually catch up with him now that he lives in my hometown again. Last weekend I also went down to CT to play 40K (things are heating up but I've still managed to avoid serious combat) and to celebrate Brother Grimm's 37th birthday-scary that he's that old. I also got to marvel at his gigantic koi fish. |
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