Technological
Terrors!
by
Kristin Battestella
Vehicles,
machinery, movie making behind the scenes, and scientific horrors
fill these thrillers, documentaries, and throwbacks with horror
intrigue, real world fantastics, and the bemusing importance of
mechanical safety.
Contemporary
Gem
Berberian Sound Studio –
Typewriters, dials, rotary phones, and vintage spotlights spice up
the unseen horrors and claustrophobic sense of tightly wound tweed
for solitary sound engineer Toby Jones (Infamous)
in this 2013 thinking person's thriller where visuals amplify sounds
– yet we never see the film receiving the Foley. Silenzio
red signs, cramped sound booths, and itemizing receipts add to the
tense watermelon sloshing, splatting squash, stabbing cabbage, and
ripping radishes used for the gory sound effects of the film
onscreen. It's said to be trash but the touchy director objects to
calling the Malleus
Maleficarum, organ music,
witches' spells, eerie moaning, or satanic chanting therein horror.
Tape recorder pause, playback, and rewind repeat the screams as the
sound sheet calls for footsteps, ticking clocks, hoof beats, and
blenders standing in for chainsaws. Boiling food with the mike beside
the pot for drowning witches and sizzling frying pans hear said to be
a hot poker in the vagina horrors become too much for our
increasingly strung out engineer torn between his quaint letters from
home and the uncomfortable studio with a chilling vocal specialist
doing some intense cackling in the sound booth. The director intends
to show the gruesome no matter how difficult to watch – using
dialogue and audio to build the internal movie that we never see
despite the Latin prayers, whooshing sounds, and increasing decibels
escalating the eerie. The screen goes black when the jumping reels
run out, mirroring power outages and film within a film parallels as
our only anchor is more and more disturbed by the testy crew,
mistreated actresses, and turnabout projector revelations. Our small
sound booth world grows darker amid rattling doors, revenge curses,
damaged gear, and threats on tape. Upsetting letters from home force
the repression out amid waxing on witches versus God and suggestive
innuendo as everything we see and hear becomes suspect. The audience
can't rely on visuals we know nor familiar sounds and information we
thought to be true, and the final half hour will have many scratching
their heads over the silent attacks, revisited scenes, re-records,
and tormenting of new actresses to get that perfect scream. However,
we're seeing an internal reaction to simulated stimuli – is that
not the voyeurism of film in itself? Viewers can't expect a by the
numbers slasher in this meta within meta versus madness or even
giallo violence despite the genre homage, but this is an ingenious
concept in an era where cinema over-emphasizes bombastic effects and
forgets the other senses.
Nostalgic
Vehicles
The Car – Empty desert
roads, dusty wakes, mountain tunnels, dangerous bends, and perilous
bridges spell doom for run over bicyclists in this 1977 ride accented
by Utah scenery, vehicular point of views, and demonic orange
lighting. Regular rumbling motors, honking horns, and squealing tires
are devilishly amplified as this cruiser uses everything at its
disposal to tease its prey while up close grills and red headlights
create personality. No one is safe from this Lincoln's wrath! Rugged,
oft shirtless single dad deputy James Brolin (The
Amityville Horror) takes
his daughters to school on a motorcycle, insisting they wear helmets
because of course he can't or it would hide that suave seventies coif
and handlebar mustache. The hitchhiker musician hippie moments are
dumb, however roadside folks don't live long and witnesses aren't
helpful on plates, make, or model when people are getting run over on
Main Street. What brought on this evil? Suggestions on the small town
past with alcohol, domestic violence, and religious undercurrents go
undeveloped alongside brief suspects, red herrings, and personal
demons. Despite
Native American slurs, it's nice to see Navajo police officers and
foreboding tribe superstitions as the phantom winds, cemetery safe
havens, terrified horses, and school parades reveal there's no driver
in the car. Giant headsets, operators plugging in the phone lines,
retro vehicles, and yellow seventies décor add to the sirens,
decoys, roadblocks, radio chatter, and sparkling reflections from
distant car mirrors as the real and fantastic merge thanks to this
tricked out, mystically bulletproof, unnatural, and evil classic
roaming about the rocky landscape. Although the editing between the
unknown killer menace and asking why public fear is well filmed tense
with foreground and background camera perspectives setting off turns
around the bend or approaching headlights; some of the video is over
cranked, ridiculously sped up action. It's an inadvertently humorous
high speed effect amid the otherwise ominous idling, slow pushes off
high cliffs, and fiery crashes – our titular swanky flips but
remains unscathed and
it doesn't even have door handles! Rather than embrace its horror
potential or call the army and get some tanks or tractor trailers
with passenger priests on this thing that no garage can contain, our
police go it alone with a lot of dynamite for a hellish finale
against the preposterous road rage. If you expect something serious
you'll surely be disappointed, but this can be an entertaining shout
at the television good time. Besides, no matter how stinky, today you
know we'd be on The
Car: Part 12 with
a different hunk per sequel battling the star Lincoln.
Killdozer!– Embarrassingly splendid outer space effects, red fireballs, and glowing blue rocks establish this 1974 science fiction horror television movie. Lovely sunsets, oceans, and island construction are here too for seriously deep voiced and strong chinned Clint Walker (Cheyenne) and the baby faced Spenser for Higher Robert Urich – who have some terribly wooden dialogue and tough scene chewing at hand. Our metallic humming meteorite whooshes its life force into the titular machinery, making the controls work by themselves amid fun point of view shots as the blade's teeth inch closer to its target. Deathbed confessions are too fantastic to be believed when there's work to be done, and the nasty foreman never takes off his hard hat even after the latent BFF gets really into the sensitive subtext over his fallen friend and tells nostalgic stories of how they swam alone together at night. Big K.D., meanwhile, destroys the radio – plowing over camp regardless of the caterpillar's cut fuel line or some dynamite and fuel cans in its wake. But you could lose an eye on those huge ass walkie talkies with those dangerous antennas! Camera focuses on its little headlights a la eyes are also more humorous than menacing, and the puff puff choo choo out its smoke stack backtalk makes the supposedly evil facade more Little Engine that Could cute. Tight filming angles and fast editing belie the slow chases through the brush as everything is really happening at about ten miles an hour yet no one is able to outrun this thing, just crawl in front of it until crushed. Stereotypical Africa coastal comments, Irishman jokes, and a treated as inferior black worker always at the helm when something goes wrong also invoke a sense of white man imperialism getting what it deserves as they argue over on the job negligence and burying the bodies. Everybody's testy, nobody shares information, and there's an obligatory useless self sacrifice before the hard heads finally come together to destroy the indestructible with another rig, machino versus machino. Despite an occasionally menacing moment, this idiocy is more bemusing than fearful for an entertaining midnight movie laugh.
Archaeology
Frights
Vampire Skeletons
– Recently discovered medieval skeletons in Ireland and across
Europe reveal mysterious superstitions, burial practices, and fears
of the undead in this 2011 forty-five minute documentary. The
narration moves smoothly between on site experts and sit down
conversations discussing these mutilated grave sites with crossed
legs, bones bound postmortem, boulders pinning the bodies down, and
stones wedged into the dead's mouth. Rather than the exception,
entire ancient sites have been found with corpses pegged to the
ground and staked through the heart. Did people centuries ago really
fear the deceased enough to ensure these disturbing burial
treatments? Certainly grave movement and decomposition damage
explains innate disturbances – but what of the intentionally
headless, those buried faced down, and turned away from the sun
“deviant burials” that go against common medieval Christian
burial practices? The scientific facts and revelations are well
rounded with different voices, opinions, brief re-enactments, and
vampire film footage amid up close visuals of bones and photographic
evidence, establishing the field before seguing into the vampire
possibilities, medieval lack of postmortem knowledge, and church
instilled purgatory fears. Historical texts with undead tales were
presented as factual revenants rather than eighth century penitence
or twelfth century fiction, and stories of dead family members
visiting before a plague were a common explanation for bringing the
disease. Were epidemics and religious extremism responsible for
digging up the dead, cutting out hearts, or even charging the
deceased with crimes after
they were dead? Some of these ancient practices morphed into eighteen
century fiction, Victorian literature, and today's horror
entertainment. However other folklore traditions linger in Central
Europe where villagers leave food for the departed or destroy family
graves to preserve the dead as needed. Are such burial disturbances a
barbaric violation? Or are these fears and practices a positive way
to ease the grief of the living while assuring the dead rest in
peace? This fun mix of science and undeniable archaeological evidence
combined with the spooky and morbid what if surmising isn't boo shock
in your face sensationalism but instead inspires further research
into these discoveries as well as the historical origins of our
myths, monsters, and fears – even in death. Classrooms and
sophisticated fans of the macabre can enjoy this informative piece
during Halloween or any time of year.
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