disgruntledowl

 Fannish thoughts and experiences this week:

1. On the classic horror front, I checked out The Wicker Man (1973), and found it really interesting. (I can call the 70s classic now, right?) In the film, a devoutly Christian police officer, Sgt. Howie, investigates a report of a missing girl on a remote island off the Scottish coast. The islanders, who are friendly and otherwise modern, are pagans. Their practices and their confounding information about the missing girl bewilder Howie, who grows increasingly hostile to the islanders but presses on with his investigation, which ends with a horrifying twist. The film does a great job using tension and misdirection to create its terrors. There's hardly any gore (which made it easier for me to watch). There is a fair bit of nudity and sexuality, but people who have sex in this movie get to survive!

I'm still chewing on how I feel about the depictions of paganism in this film. It drives the dark elements of the plot, and because we enter this world through Howie's perspective, it is alienating even before it is threatening. Still, its treatment is more nuanced than "Christianity good, paganism bad." The film presents things in a way that encourages the audience to take Howie's Christian worldview with a grain of salt. The islanders' lives are relatively modern, like Howie's, even while their beliefs are not. They accept Howie's scoffs and insults with good-natured equanimity. In their isolation, their outlook on the world seems to make sense. despite the sacrifices it demands.  

I've been on a scavenger hunt for Hot Fuzz (2007) references for years, and The Wicker Man contains some real gems. The "police officer investigates seemingly harmonious but creepy village" concept is a cornerstone influence for Hot Fuzz. Edward Woodward, who plays Howie, appears 35 years later in Hot Fuzz as neighborhood watch leader Tom Weaver. The Hot Fuzz team's choice to make Woodward's character a villainous pillar of the creepy village was a deft touch, though both Howie and Tom Weaver have death by immolation in common.

Christopher Lee also stars in The Wicker Man as Lord Summerisle, local leader and grandson of the agronomist who founded the island's society. I'm so used to seeing Lee preen, scowl, and flash fang that watching him play a cheerful, relaxed antagonist was really jarring. I actually got to see him smile, and he is quite handsome when he smiles, regardless of his ridiculous wigs. Supposedly he offered the part of Howie to Peter Cushing, who couldn't play the role because of a scheduling conflict. While Cushing-Lee team ups are usually wonderful, I have a hard time imagining Cushing playing Howie as boorish or as guileless as that character needed to be. 


 

2. Today, August 11, is the anniversary of Peter Cushing's death in 1994. I've encountered moving memorabilia on Tumblr and Facebook today. I found myself gravitating to Youtube videos of him and Christopher Lee joking around with one another, both in the 70s and just before Cushing died. These are my pick-me-ups when I am feeling blue, but they are bittersweet today. I grow ever more impressed by Cushing as I watch more of his movies, but I feel ever more connected to him by reading books about him, like David Miller's Peter Cushing: A Life in Film. While his talent was astounding, he seemed to have characteristics that I do (dreaminess and sensitivity) and struggles that I do (anxiety and perfectionism). He's a person I really wish I could have met when he was alive, but I am grateful to all the fan websites and accounts that share photos, stories, and memories about him. Here's to a great man.



 3. The Venture Brothers is back! It's been...a while, though Jackson Public has good (albeit snarkily-delivered) reasons for the delay. Season 7 starts off with a horror episode, which to my relief brought the return of the Order of the Triad, including the wonderfully, irredeemably dorky Dr. Orpheus. I've read mixed reviews of the previous season, during which the plot grows more intricate and circuitous, but I found the Blue Morpho plot line gripping almost to the point of being painful, a sensation I don't get often from a TV show. This season's first episode ends with a main character tied to a chair, in the clutches of a mortal enemy, which made me gasp out loud (and that's not even getting into the "ghost in the machine" business in the other plot). Hopefully my fingernails don't look like hell by the time the season finally wraps up. 

4. Question for the audience: What's your favorite music to listen to when reading or writing science fiction?