So who's got the horror SPUNK?
October 11th 2006 02:19
I’m taking a red-blooded, male-centric point of view; I’m talking feminine spunk. The main reason for this is more often than not guys don’t survive horror movies, or if they do, it’s because of the gung-ho spirited assistance of some spunky chick. This is why there are whole chapters in horror film books about what has been affectionately coined as The Final Girl.
It’s a rule of thumb, and rules are broken from time to time. But in today’s post I wanna talk about the girls. It’s kinda like DJing; you play for the ladies, ‘cos if you get the girls on the dance floor the guys will follow, simple as that. So, by applying this formula to the horror movie genre, you can double your audience. You get the girls in because they like to root for a no-bullshit-leading-lady-with-spunk-to-burn, and of course the guys will be there in droves, ‘nuff said.
So who has got the spunk then? This is a contentious question at the best of times, because there’s the age old casting problem of one person’s princess is another person’s dawg. Then there’s the added problem of, she might scrub up in front of the harsh lights, but she ain’t gonna win any Oscars. But hey, when did any actor ever win a major award for a horror movie? Okay, so Jodie Foster won an Oscar, a Golden Globe, and a BAFTA for The Silence of the Lambs (1991) (as well as a semi-major Horror award for the little-known gem The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane, 1976). But Silence is a rare beast; it won the Best Picture Oscar too.
Jamie Lee Curtis was a great screamer, just check out the first couple of Halloween flicks (1978, 1981). But she was an emotional wreck by the second one, and spent most of the time in a daze. Plus, spending the duration of a film in a frumpy, ill-fitting hospital nightie isn’t likely to win you any spunk awards.
I was never a fan of the mournful moodiness of Neve Campbell, nor the doey-eyed, anxious glance of Jennifer Love Hewitt. Both these girls should never have graduated Final Girl exam, despite their well-endowed intentions.
The spunky horror heroines - or femme fatales - who’ve floated my horror boat in the past, have included Nancy Allen in Dressed to Kill (1980), Nastassija Kinski in Cat People (1982) (not to mention Simone Simon in the 1942 original, meowww!), Linnea Quigley in Return of the Living Dead (1985), Lisa Bonet in Angel Heart (1987), Anne Parillaud in Innocent Blood (aka A French Vampire in America, 1992), Anna Falchi in Dellamorte Dellamore (1994), Salma Hayek in From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), Fairuza Balk and Rachel True in The Craft (1996), and numerous arrogant Italian beauties, too many to mention, in the films of Dario Argento.
More recently the spunk quota went into overdrive with Eliza Dushku in Wrong Turn (2003), Jessica Biel in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003), Sarah Polley in Dawn of the Dead (2004), Rachel McAdams in Red Eye (2005), Emilie de Raven in The Hills Have Eyes (2005), Natalie Mendoza in The Descent (2005), and the bevy of butt-kickin’ beauties in Sin City (2005): Rosario Dawson, Alexis Bledel, Jessica Alba, Devon Aoki, Carla Gugino, Jaime King, and Brittany Murphy …. Sheeesh, that film had it in spades!!!
So, the pussycat is outta the bag … Who gets your vote for horror spunk?
* images on this page were taken from the following wikipedia pages:
Cat People (movie poster), Lisa Bonet (publicity shot), Wrong Turn (movie poster), and Alexis Bledel (Sin City screen shot).
They are licensed from the GNU Free Document License.
It’s a rule of thumb, and rules are broken from time to time. But in today’s post I wanna talk about the girls. It’s kinda like DJing; you play for the ladies, ‘cos if you get the girls on the dance floor the guys will follow, simple as that. So, by applying this formula to the horror movie genre, you can double your audience. You get the girls in because they like to root for a no-bullshit-leading-lady-with-spunk-to-burn, and of course the guys will be there in droves, ‘nuff said.
So who has got the spunk then? This is a contentious question at the best of times, because there’s the age old casting problem of one person’s princess is another person’s dawg. Then there’s the added problem of, she might scrub up in front of the harsh lights, but she ain’t gonna win any Oscars. But hey, when did any actor ever win a major award for a horror movie? Okay, so Jodie Foster won an Oscar, a Golden Globe, and a BAFTA for The Silence of the Lambs (1991) (as well as a semi-major Horror award for the little-known gem The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane, 1976). But Silence is a rare beast; it won the Best Picture Oscar too.
Jamie Lee Curtis was a great screamer, just check out the first couple of Halloween flicks (1978, 1981). But she was an emotional wreck by the second one, and spent most of the time in a daze. Plus, spending the duration of a film in a frumpy, ill-fitting hospital nightie isn’t likely to win you any spunk awards.
I was never a fan of the mournful moodiness of Neve Campbell, nor the doey-eyed, anxious glance of Jennifer Love Hewitt. Both these girls should never have graduated Final Girl exam, despite their well-endowed intentions.
The spunky horror heroines - or femme fatales - who’ve floated my horror boat in the past, have included Nancy Allen in Dressed to Kill (1980), Nastassija Kinski in Cat People (1982) (not to mention Simone Simon in the 1942 original, meowww!), Linnea Quigley in Return of the Living Dead (1985), Lisa Bonet in Angel Heart (1987), Anne Parillaud in Innocent Blood (aka A French Vampire in America, 1992), Anna Falchi in Dellamorte Dellamore (1994), Salma Hayek in From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), Fairuza Balk and Rachel True in The Craft (1996), and numerous arrogant Italian beauties, too many to mention, in the films of Dario Argento.
More recently the spunk quota went into overdrive with Eliza Dushku in Wrong Turn (2003), Jessica Biel in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003), Sarah Polley in Dawn of the Dead (2004), Rachel McAdams in Red Eye (2005), Emilie de Raven in The Hills Have Eyes (2005), Natalie Mendoza in The Descent (2005), and the bevy of butt-kickin’ beauties in Sin City (2005): Rosario Dawson, Alexis Bledel, Jessica Alba, Devon Aoki, Carla Gugino, Jaime King, and Brittany Murphy …. Sheeesh, that film had it in spades!!!
So, the pussycat is outta the bag … Who gets your vote for horror spunk?
* images on this page were taken from the following wikipedia pages:
Cat People (movie poster), Lisa Bonet (publicity shot), Wrong Turn (movie poster), and Alexis Bledel (Sin City screen shot).
They are licensed from the GNU Free Document License.
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Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
A few that spring to mind, at midnight on a wednesday are-
Julie Christie in Don't Look Now
Catherine Deneuve in The Hunger
Susan George in Race With The Devil
Monica Belluci in Brotherhood Of the Wolf
Jennifer jason Leigh in The Hitcher
Bridget Fonda in Lake Placid
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
Monica Bellucci ... yikes! Droooool.
Angie Dickinson in Dressed to Kill. Yes. Superb shower scene.
Jennifer Jason Leigh is a fave actor of mine. Pity she got torn in half ...
Julie Christie. Yes. Great - apparently unsimulated sex scene in Don't Look Now ...
And what about Isabelle Adjani!!! I forgot my all time fave, although in The Tenant she's a nutter, and in Possession she's even more of a nutter (but oh so gorgeous!)
P.S. It's Bryn mate not Byrn ... lol
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
And agreed Isabelle Adjani is supreme eye candy.
I will add Anna Farris in May as the lesbian secretary to my list
Comment by suitably*wounded
Eternal Days; Author: Illness, M.
Although I'm a female, I can appreciate this question on more than just a visceral response.
So, I nominate Baby (Sheri Moon) from The Devil's Rejects as such. Normal good girl and the salacious eye cand content, a discussion can't be had sans Marilyn Burns in the original Texas Chainsaw. And lots to one whod didn't fit either way; being both fiesty and sexually liberated, but ultimately a drunk that gets her ass killed. None other than Margot Kidder as the delightful Barb Coard in Black Christmas.
I'm sure there's plenty more we're overlooking. Where are the Alien purists anyway?
< insert lame evil grin here -- or should it be hellbound music instead? -- being bad is SO complicated >