tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3845713942442113471.post4045136680500846609..comments2022-11-11T07:08:58.715-05:00Comments on The Screaming Axe: V/H/S (2012)Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3845713942442113471.post-15406414491055504362013-03-11T09:37:03.485-04:002013-03-11T09:37:03.485-04:00It seems to me like it takes a village to make a m...It seems to me like it takes a village to make a movie. Lots of crewmembers, all doing different things. In any case, you need actors, and I may be a photographer, but I haven't honed my "working with models" skill just yet.<br /><br />Yeah, it is a weird thing about that movie. The male characters are douchebags, which suggests misandry, but then their activities (including the misogynistic ones) almost seem to be glorified. Then you have the women, who are exacting vengeance on the douchebags as an almost feminist fantasy, but they're often not very likable characters either.<br /><br />I read something about it being a "critique of the male gaze", which kind of puts it into perspective - showing men treating women as sex objects - and then suffering a cruel fate. But of course, I'm critical of critiques of the male gaze, because it all too easily becomes a misandrist attack on male sexuality. What you need to balance that is a visible example of the way a male can properly relate sexually to a woman, so as to say, "I'm not against male sexuality, just douchebags treating women poorly for sexual reasons". And this film seems to lack that, while meanwhile somebody who's not willing to read beyond the surface layer (the type of people who never get satire), will just see a glorified and violent movie about men being dicks to women, and view it a prime lesson in the school of misogynism. It's, like, *showing* misogynism in order to criticize it, and some people aren't capable of thinking past the first level (or else just don't think the satire or the underlying moral is effective enough, which I think is a valid criticism in this case).zharthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09995423745639356980noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3845713942442113471.post-58265177471979629672013-03-10T21:46:32.692-04:002013-03-10T21:46:32.692-04:00Hey, you can totally do it. With my geekish FF kno...Hey, you can totally do it. With my geekish FF knowledge and your natural photography skills we seem like an ideal team! =D<br /><br />Anyhoo on the IMDB board it occurred to me that VHS is a pretty interesting case: it's equally called both misogynist and misandrist. Because on the one hand all the male characters are horrible douchebags, but on the other hand all the female characters are evil betrayers. So I guess the film is just... misanthropic? Though I suppose being misogynistic and misandrist simultaneously is totally possible.Tenzin Swifthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05925867097747621833noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3845713942442113471.post-83480463553681937142013-03-03T09:26:43.169-05:002013-03-03T09:26:43.169-05:00Yeah, if only...Yeah, if only...zharthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09995423745639356980noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3845713942442113471.post-66160146402830913022013-03-03T07:55:23.796-05:002013-03-03T07:55:23.796-05:00You can change that when you start making movies. ...You can change that when you start making movies. ;)Tenzin Swifthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05925867097747621833noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3845713942442113471.post-8632443406360419192013-03-02T18:11:23.672-05:002013-03-02T18:11:23.672-05:00Well, yeah, that's the thing. "Movie nudi...Well, yeah, that's the thing. "Movie nudity" is lame. Case in point, Hollywood's idea of "nude" is walking to the bathroom in a tightly wrapped bedsheet after sex, <i>when noone else is in the house</i>.<br /><br />It's like Jessica Alba wearing a swimsuit to the shower scene in Machete, and then the production studio photoshops her to appear nude after the fact. Lame.<br /><br />They don't have to make a big deal about it, either - turn it into a set piece. I would be thrilled to see some <i>incidental</i> nudity - hell, maybe even in the background of a scene - just to say "yeah, it's there, and we're not making a big deal about it."zharthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09995423745639356980noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3845713942442113471.post-87328481053098661492013-03-02T17:05:08.324-05:002013-03-02T17:05:08.324-05:00I dunno, I think movies go out of their way to inc...I dunno, I think movies go out of their way to include nudity far more often than they ever try to avoid it, practically every big actress does a nude scene sooner or later. But for me "movie nudity" (and TV nudity) is just so... fake. It always looks *exactly* like those uber-cheesy soft core porn movies that pay channels play at night. Tends to take me out of otherwise fairly gritty shows like Game of Thrones, when all of a sudden I'm watching airbrushed, dime-a-dozen skinemax for a minute and a half. Now if they want to do something like Amateur Night did, and make it feel more sincere, I'd have no problem with that.Tenzin Swifthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05925867097747621833noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3845713942442113471.post-51350241024245001692013-02-27T19:16:55.195-05:002013-02-27T19:16:55.195-05:00Absolutely, and I wish "traditional" fil...Absolutely, and I wish "traditional" filmmakers would adopt that philosophy as well. You don't always have to go out of your way to include nudity in your movie (that depends on your style and what you're going for), but when it occurs naturally in the course of the story, it just tends to emphasize our culture's collective fear and immaturity surrounding the subject of nudity when you go out of your way to *avoid* it. And that's something that never fails to get on my nerves in a movie. (There's a prime example of this in Megan is Missing, but I'll spare you the gruesome details :p).zharthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09995423745639356980noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3845713942442113471.post-8153647377371640822013-02-27T14:24:57.786-05:002013-02-27T14:24:57.786-05:00Oh, cool! I'm glad you saw this. And I'm g...Oh, cool! I'm glad you saw this. And I'm glad you liked it, too. We seem to have near identical taste in found footage, but very different taste in traditional films, ever notice?<br /><br />I'd give Amateur Night a solid 10 out of 10, just a fantastic short. 10/31/98 would probably get a 9 or an 8. Rumor has it, that short was filmed in the house from The House of the Devil. The other shorts I wasn't so fond of, but at least in Sick Thing the part where she is digging into her arm was fantastically gruesome. I actually thought the wrap-around was very creepy, too.<br /><br />As much as I could easily do without nudity in just about any movie, I too thought it was very refreshing that they actually inserted nudity into this, because, as you said, these are supposed to be people's home tapings. It's just straight up realistic, it adds a lot of realism that found footage tapes would be enencumbered by traditional film ideology. I think this was done especially well in Amateur Night, where several of the characters are completely naked for an extended period -- a very realistic scenario to encounter in real life, but one you'd almost never encounter in film. And especially, it's one you'd never encounter so matter-of-factly where being sexy is *not* the intended goal, for the majority of the time.<br /><br />I've seen so, so many FF teases where the idea of nudity is brought up, but then ultimately reneged. PA3 comes to mind, but most frustratingly it's often done in zero-budget, z-grade, unrated, direct to video found footage where, realism is pretty much the only thing they can hope to achieve, so why not go for the gusto? It's not like they have to try and get a PG-13 rating, it's never even going to be rated. Tenzin Swifthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05925867097747621833noreply@blogger.com