From the equal time department: Pete Mesling of Fearfodder waxes rhapsodic on John Carpenter’s Cigarette Burns as part of a “midstream assessment” of the Masters of Horror series. I, uh, felt differently about the film, and praise of Pete’s sort (Cigarette Burns is emblematic of the overall quality of the series) makes me less than enthusiastic about catching up with the other episodes. Am I gravely mistaken? You’re welcome to let me know…
Switching gears, I’ve seen several items of interest to horror fans on the big news sites lately. First up, on CNN.com, is a post-“Basic Instinct 2 bombs” piece on the dearth of the erotic thriller, which filmmakers Paul Verhoeven and Nicholas Meyer blame on a McCarthyite purge of sexual content from the American public sphere. I suppose it’s easier to completely completely ignore the increased prominence and availability of porn, lad mags, and racy-yet-high-quality premium-cable drams as competition and blame it all on politics than it is to admit that most of your movies suck, huh? Jim Treacher makes that very point in his own inimitable fashion by way of rebuttal. Still and all, I’m too big a Body Double fan not to wish there were a viable critical and popular market for such movies; in light of Unfaithful and Femme Fatale and even A History of Violence and Match Point, I’m not convinced there isn’t–I just don’t think that the Joe Ezsterhas crowd is a part of it.
Next up is this MSNBC.com/Newsweek piece on Sebastian Junger’s A Death in Belmont, the new book in which the superstar journalist relates the story of how Albert “The Boston Strangler” DeSalvo worked as a carpenter in the Junger household when Sebastian was a baby, and how a murder committed in the area at that time was instead pinned on a black man who may not (but may) have been guilty of the crime. It’s an intriguing story for me for several reasons: 1) I’m always stunned when people have multiple experiences with fame or infamy–a good example in light of Junger’s situation is how famous true-crime author Ann Rule was actually a co-worker and friend of famous true-crime perpetrator Ted Bundy. I’m just stunned that lightning strikes twice for some people, even if one of the strikes is horrible. 2) It seems like the book was originally conceived of to do one thing–exonerate Roy Smith, the man convicted of the murder DeSalvo may have committed–and ended up doing something else–become a meditation on whether we can really ever be sure of anything. I am fascinated by projects that get away from their creators–again, a good example in light of Junger’s situation would be how Errol Morris set out to do a documentary on the infamous witness-for-the-prosecution psychiatrist nicknamed “Dr. Death” and ended up focusing on one of the cases the good Doctor was involved in instead, thus coming up with The Thin Blue Line. 3) DeSalvo is already so shrouded in mystery and unknowables, what with his confessions and retractions and possible co-killers and on and on, that his case seems practically tailor-made for examinations such as these.
Also at MSNBC/Newsweek, critic David Ansen does a sort of Chin-Scratching Examinations of the Cultural Relevance of Horror Movies for Dummies workshop. If you’re interested in awestruck praise for Joe Dante’s dopey zombie-movie Masters of Horror episode depicting some alternate reality in which the Iraq War’s soldiers oppose the Iraq War, or sentences like “These are the horror movies that self-consciously act out our societal traumas in lurid allegories,” or a reiteration of the old saw (no pun intended) that “great horror movies leave the scares to the imagination,” then it’s the article for you, I suppose.
That link came courtesy of Matt Zoller Seitz, in the comment thread for his reader-participation dialogue with Christopher Kelly over the value of the current torture-horror cycle. Seriously, if you’re interested in this genre at all (and if you’re not, why are you reading this?), you should click on over.
Seitz has also posted his latest excellent Sopranos episode review; spoilers, and insights, abound.
While we’re on the mob beat, Slate reporter Dan Ackman has returned with another glimpse into the chillingly blas