Yes to YAZ! – Leatherface (2017)

Original Post Date: 06.10.18

Happy Sunday! I hope you had a nice weekend doing (or not doing) what you wanted. Life is good, baby, and I am glad you and I are here tonight getting our daily dose of Horror.

I would like to talk about Leatherface (2017) for a sec, but first, let’s watch that sexy trailer, shall we?

Just between us girls, this movie is 60% responsible for my love of the undeniably iconic horror character that is Leatherface. Leatherface was already cool in my book thanks to its original introduction on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), that guy was terrifying and appealing at the same time, dude, the scene where he grabs the girl and gets her back into the house only to put her thru the hook? And the other classic scene of him being mad and swinging his chainsaw in frustration for having let the other girl escape? I mean, it was a solid 40% right there. Anyhow, this Leatherface prequel made me understand the complexity of his personality and character and, to put it bluntly, this new movie humanized the monster that was meant to be.

As per usual, when I want to talk about a film I take notes so I have in front of me four pages worth of notes and whatnots but in the spirit of going to bed early for a change, I decided instead to give you my top 5 Yes to YAZ! list of my favorite characters from Leatherface, let’s begin!

5. Jed as a kid – That scene from the beginning at his birthday party broke my heart, as you could clearly see the kid did not belong with that demented family (my instincts were to protect him and take him away from there!). But oh, little Jed, you were only the product of your environment, weren’t you? That cow’s head tho.

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4. Jed as Leatherface – This young man could have ended living a normal life in the middle of nowhere, being happy raising sheep and having a family of his own, guaranteed. Had he not been there when the riot happened, had he stayed in treatment, had he be given a chance, he could have been just like you and me. But we all know how things turned out for him… (Also, not a spoiler, but the scene showing why he now needed to wear a mask to cover his now deformed face was so satisfying to watch!)

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3. Lizzy – I am not going to lie, I fell in love with her, as in, may I please take you on date kind of deal. This woman had it all, intelligence, strength, authority, compassion, kindness, and yes, the face of an angel. Lizzy was a nurse at the hospital where Jed (teenage Leatherface) had been living for the last handful of years after having been taken away from his violent home. Lizzy was also the hostage when all hell broke loose at said hospital. She stayed strong until the end. 

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2. Clarice – If Lizzy was the perfect girl you take home to meet your parents, Clarice was the girl you swear on your mama’s grave has nothing to do with you while secretly living the most explosive love affair. I believe the keyword here is explosive. Homegirl likes to go wild! Wild at the hospital, wild at the diner, while at the camper (that love scene on top of the corpse!), wild until her last breath.

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1. Verna – Mama Verna meant business. She raised her family on her own. She was bold and protective. After losing her kid to social services, she cleaned her act, married money, and hired a good lawyer to help her get her family back. Verna was now ultra-bold and ultra-protective and, shall we say, ultra-angry? She followed her heart and her heart followed her back. A family reunited makes everything okay, right?

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Okay my friend, it’s time for me to go, turn off this computer, turn off the lights, turn off the brain. Time to rest and get ready for more horror in the morning. Good night.

- Marath

Body Horror Is The Worst – THANATOMORPHOSE (2012)

Original Post Date: 05.15.18

I just finished watching the Canadian body horror film Thanatomorphose (2012) and, girlfriend, it was like nothing I had seen before.

As a fervent fan of German director Jorg Buttgereit (Nekromantik) I can appreciate a good scene with a decomposing corpse, I can even see the beauty of a sexy-time scene with said decomposing corpse but, wow, Thanatomorphose took those concepts and ran an extra mile with them! Holy fuck sweet lord baby jesus! (excuse my language, I get extra excited when horror movies elicit in me this feeling of awe… I live for this shit!)

Before I move forward, I would like to show you in a few selected shots how Laura—our main character—slowly disintegrates into nothing.

Putting logic and common sense aside, it was perfectly fine for Laura to just stay alone at her apartment while she sees her body transform from living to dead. Laura never asks for help and even when her love interests offer to take her to the hospital she rudely says no and instead kills them because oh Laura you crazy girl!

All jokes aside, Thanatomorphose is a much needed tale of the human body and the human experience, of the primal fear we all have of dying, of the fear of seeing ourselves disappear. Also, it was really refreshing to see naked bodies, genitals, people having sex, and mind you, it was not pornographic, it was simply human and real.

Now, I have never seen a decomposing corpse in person but I can tell you that the way Laura was morphing was so incredibly believable that it made me feel really uncomfortable, thus me embracing my body as shown on my pic from above. Man, the skin turning black, the maggots, the slime, the flesh falling off… STAAAP! BODY HORROR IS THE WORST!

I have nothing else to say about this indie horror film except that it was good and that you should watch it (but not while you’re eating).

Good night,

- Marath

The Wonderful, Fascinating, Intoxicating, and Confusing World of THE LURE (2015)

Original Post Date: 05.02.18

Hello friend! I hope things are doing well on your side of the planet. Over here things are A-OKAY! I am writing this entry tonight from my home in North Hollywood, accompanied by cool air coming from my air conditioner [to my left] and a cold cup of freshly brewed iced coffee [to my right]. It is always sunny and warm here in Southern California and I love it always yes you bet, but man, did I feel the 90 degree weather today or what? I was not prepared for it, hence the amazing feeling of having cool air and a cold drink with me at this moment.

Warning! Warning! This is the part where I tell you there will be spoilers ahead: There will be spoilers ahead!

The Lure (2015) is a very ambitious horror fairy tale musical from Poland. Let me say it again, it is a Horror Fairy Tale Musical… A HOOOORROR MUUUUSICAL. (I KNOOOOW!!)

I stumbled upon a clip of it on Instagram a couple of weeks ago but at the time I did not know what its title was, or any other identifiable information for that matter, so I asked around in my horror community but none of us knew about it, and none of us spoke Japanese either so that wasn’t helpful. The video clip that made me fall in love with the then-mysterious movie was this one, go ahead, click HERE and go watch it, I’ll wait for you.

*sips iced coffee*

What did you think? Wasn’t it extravagant and big and loud and colorful and fantastic and human and sexy and frightening, all at once? Didn’t your mind explode with questions and demanded more? Weren’t you aroused by it just a little? Nope? Just me!?

*sips iced coffee awkwardly*

So, where was I? Oh yeah, me not knowing the title of the movie. So yes, days passed and I kept coming back to the clip until—don’t ask me how—I finally found it on Monday and I was so happy and wanted to watch it right then and there, but I had to put a pin on it because I had stuff to do that evening (my husband had returned home from out of town and I was thrilled to have him around again). So Tuesday came and I rented online Corki Dancingu (aka The Lure) and OMG I couldn’t even. Wednesday arrived and I watched it again and this time I took notes, like, literal notes, five pages worth of notes, I am looking at them right now, I am touching the pages right now, the point being, it got super intense.

*sips iced coffee smugly*

On Thursday I took a wellness class and also had a massage so I was super chill by the time I arrived home so I was like, nope, I am not talking about any movie tonight, hence you reading this on a Friday evening — welcome, to THE LURE!

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The story is about two mermaid sisters, Gold and Silver, who are making a stop in a small town before they go to America. The sisters have beautiful voices so they sing, and I mean they sing sing, like, in a band, like in a get-your-wardrobe-ready band. The sisters are so different from each other: Gold sees humans as food, while Silver sees them as beautiful creatures to fall in love with which is the reason why they get into trouble. Gold is trying to protect Silver from destruction because if she falls in love with a human and he marries someone else, she will turn into seafoam. So romantically dramatic! Gold loves her sister too much and can come across as overprotective and insensitive. You, as the viewer, can develop certain animosity towards Gold because, come on girl, live a little and let everyone be happy, am I right?

Gold definitely has some low points, not only does she alienate Silver but also acts out by going out and hunting humans, using sex as a gateway –she seduces, gets intimately close, and attacks her prey by ripping out their hearts. Gold has a dark past and it shows. Gold is my favorite.

This was my favorite song sequence from Gold. Even though she was surrounded by the whole gang, she was lonely in her own world:

Man, I have so much to say about this movie that it is overwhelming for me to continue gushing about it, after all, I have five pages worth of notes for heaven’s sake. I’ll tell you what, I will list ten things I loved about it, no explanation, just a list:

1.        Mermaids’ bizarre anatomy while on their human form (no anus, no vagina)
2.       Their ability to communicate telepathically
3.       The lesbian sex scene between the detective and Gold (omg so hot!)
4.       Silver trading her tail for “real legs and a pussy”
5.       Triton! (so badass!)
6.       The dream sequence where the human leader of the band sees herself as a mermaid, breastfeeding Gold and Silver
7.        All the musical acts (The Lure would make for a great Broadway musical)
8.       Random moments of the film score that reminded me of Bjork’s Vespertine album
9.       Anytime the sisters transformed into their mermaid form (those snake-looking tails!)
10.      The eerie sequence from song “Czy to Juz” 

To be fair, not everything was perfect and, honestly, there were a few things that were not clear to me, such as:

-   Was the human trio a family? Mom, dad, and son? If so, why did they show the mom giving oral sex to, nope, cannot finish that sentence
-   Did the owner of the club sexually assault Gold and Silver? Was that the reason why they were almost dying on their human form after they were left alone with him?
-   What happened to Gold’s face? One moment her left cheek was fine, the next she had a long thick cut on it
-   If water turned their legs into tails upon contact, why did they not transform under the rain?
-  What was the poison that almost killed the human trio? They all had some sort of sexual interaction with the sisters so, was that it? (so many sexually inclined theories!)
-   In the ending scene, once Silver died and turned into seafoam and Gold killed the guy and ran toward the lake, in that moment, what did it mean when the camera took us to the bottom of the lake and zoomed into rocks? Was that Gold? Did she also die and dissolved into nothingness? I mean, what was that all about?

Wow. I am exhausted. Not only because it’s almost midnight, but because my brain capacity is maxed out thanks to the wonderful, fascinating, intoxicating, and confusing world of The Lure.

Going to bed now. Hope to have sexy dreams with mischievous mermaids who break into dance and song every time something exciting happens. Good night everyone, until next time.

—Marath