“The reason these films are popular is that audiences want to see something that’s forbidden. All these films toy with the rage and anger we have within us” (Carpenter – The Aesthetics of Fright – Dickstein 1980)

Both America and Japan have a large market for horror, yet the differences in the styles and themes of the films from these countries are significant. Horror has undergone many changes over the years and it has become apparent that the horror genre in America over the last 20 years has seen a decline while recent Japanese horror has become more popular and successful. The ability of Japanese horror films to create fear in the audience is what makes the film successful and enjoyable. As with all films, success lies with the film’s ability to relate to audiences contemporary issues and developments. In the past horror was a metaphor for the fears of man, so as people’s fears change, so must the films. Fear of nuclear power’s ability to create monsters becomes the fear of genetic engineering doing the same. As technology advances so does the fear of what problems these new technologies may bring. A major part of this comes from knowing your target audience and their changing demands. A successful horror film must know how the audience has changed in its tastes, and how much terror they can handle when viewing a film. The reason many recent American horrors fail where Japanese films succeed is the simple fact that they are not taking into consideration these factors. Japanese horror proves more successful than American horror of the last 20 years because it has gone back to the classic days of cinema, where you didn’t need to completely show your monster to scare your audience. Of coarse there are exceptions to the rules, M. Night Shyamalan and Alejandro Amenábar. In terms of atmosphere and original plot twists, Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense and also Alejandro Amenábar’s The Others are the best examples of films that have captured the subtle yet suspenseful feeling of Eastern horror.

Of recent Japanese horror films the most successful have been the Ring films and Dark Water both being directed by Hideo Nakata, of which Ring has already had an American re-make, and Dark Water and Ring 2 about to be re-made. This alone may prove that American producers, unsure of what their audiences want, are capitalizing on the success of Japanese horror films.

“Nobody knows what makes a hit or when it will happen, since audiences make hits not by revealing preferences they already have, but by discovering what they like” (W. David Walls – Identifying Hollywood’s Audiences – Maltby 1999)

Ring is the story of a cursed video tape that has become an urban myth. After watching this tape you have a week to live unless you can solve its mystery and its relationship to a strange girl named Sadako. The story deals with one family who has been affected by the curse. The young single mother watches the tape, shows it to her estranged ex-husband and it is also unfortunately viewed by their young son. The movie follows this family and their fight to end the curse as well as solve it using the clues left behind in the tape itself. You are also aware of the strange presence that is haunting this family since they watched the tape.

Dark Water is the story of a young mother fighting to gain legal custody of her five year old daughter. Because of the divorce and separation, mother and daughter move into a sullen and musty apartment building. All our young mothers’ fears of insecurity and uncertainty are exaggerated by unsettling events and the appearance of another unknown girl that seems to be haunting them. In Dark Water this fear is represented buy the leaking ceiling and reappearance of a small child’s red handbag. What would at first seem like every day occurrence like that of damp take on a new and horrifying meaning in this movie, as the young mother struggle more with her problems and insecurities so does this damp patch increase in size spreading across the bedroom ceiling.

The films do not have huge special effects; there are no CG monsters or people in exaggerated make up and costumes. They are driven very much by the script, which in both Ring and Dark Water is based on a book (in the case of these two films the author of both was Koji Suzuki) Also it has a subtle score the music helping to create a more ambiguous atmosphere, the use of chilling music and sound effects (like the strange noises used during the cursed video clip) to promote fear. The music is never over dramatic it mainly exists as background noise such as the breathing of the characters, the most frightening scenes done in silence letting the imagery do the work. Japanese horror films such as Ring and Dark Water rely on suspense rather than making the audience jump at regular intervals.

The Ring plays out more like a mystery than a horror it invites you to solve the curse saving the final scare for the end of the film. By this time you are not expecting anything as the film has played out at a subtle pace exploring the relationship between the characters as well as Sadako herself and her relationships, making the final scene of the film even more terrifying. Another aspect of this movie is that as well as being a mystery and horror it is also part melodrama with the central characters being a broken family not only having to deal with issues such as separation and being a single mother raising a child but now the fear of death that hangs over them. If you were to take out the supernatural element of this film as well as Dark Water you would still be left with an interesting drama about the breakdown of family and how they no longer are able to cope with their problems and social complications. The film has its own social commentary about the family unit and then upon this other genres appear in various layers, the rest being mystery and then finally horror.

“One might say that the true subject of the horror genre is the struggle for recognition of all that our civilization represses and oppresses: its re-emergence dramatised, as our nightmare, as an object of horror, a matter for terror, the ‘happy ending’ (when it exists) typically signifying the restoration of repression.’” (Wood – American Nightmare: essays on the horror film, 1979, p10)


Both Ring and Dark Water follow the theory of return of the repressed as the characters have been oppressed as well as having the emotions repressed. The human characters have been repressing their emotions in the struggle to hold together the fragments of their families and broken lives. They are dealing with their own insecurities (especially the young mother character in both films) but these problems have to be forced down for they also have to deal with being strong in the face of their child. The young mother has to show much strength in protecting their child and by putting the child before them they don’t think about their own feelings and are far more susceptible to the supernatural element. As for the supernatural element whether it manifests itself as a woman with a veil of dark hair or a child with a veil of dark hair it is the representation of these fears and insecurities. But more importantly, these creatures of nightmares that have manifested themselves were once human and in their lives were oppressed. So in death, all that was oppressed in life comes back as a terrifying and haunting power.

Why the representation of horror in these films is a woman is a much more difficult question to answer. For one thing Japanese and American cultures are very different therefore the role of women in their society is different. Women are looked upon and treated differently in Japanese society so it’s harder for a western audience to understand the cultural significance of the female “ghost” in far-eastern culture. Western viewers may find these movies far more unnerving because it is a mother that has become the symbol of fear when normally the mother figure is something we can rely on for safety and security. Though this is not always the case; in Species (directed by Roger Donaldson) the monster is female. It is far harder to see the female ghost in recent American cinema, which normally uses a male killer or a monster, however, a rare example of the female ghost can be found in What Lies Beneath by Robert Zemeckis. The child as a representation of horror has been used in American cinema (such as the Omen movies by Richard Donner), but this has been rare in recent cinema (with the possible exception of Godsend by Nick Hamm). The child is mainly placed within the horror or is susceptible to it like in Sixth Sense by M. Night Shyamalan and Bless the Child by Chuck Russell.

A mother or a child seems much safer because we fear them less, so to see them in these different roles of avenger, tormentor and killer is far more unnerving. To eastern audiences, using women as the element of fear may make more sense because in Japanese society the women are still seen as the lesser sex. Women are rarely seen as equals in Japanese society as they take on far more traditional roles like mother and housewife. Women are more often than not repressed by their own society, so it makes much more sense that in death they seek vengeance for this repression. Another reason that the female is used to represent fear is also related to the culture that these stories are born from. A lot of Japanese horror stories started of as folk tales and myths from times when the role of women was even less respected than it is in modern Japan. Also Japan has a different religion and therefore different beliefs when it comes to the spirit world and how it can interact with our world.
Sadako herself also is a nice twist on the ‘final girl’ image that exists in American horror of recent years. The ‘final girl’ is the term used to describe the last remaining character (that is nearly always female) who can kill the monster or killer in the movie. This surviving female character is the one to out wit our monster or killer, saving herself and signifying the restoration of normality (the ‘final girl’ has redeemed herself). But in horrors such as Ring Sadako takes the live of her victims, there isn’t another girl to stop her, no character to stop her, Sadako gets the final revenge so normality isn’t restored.
The other thing that sets Japanese horror apart is the very fact that many are based on the idea of something supernatural. A majority of American horrors have an evil presence which is either a man like in the slasher cycles such as Scream or follow the “monster of the week” formula like Jeepers Creepers. But these films are wearing thin becoming formulaic and predictable. Because Japanese horrors evil presence is not a man or a monster but something supernatural and other worldly it plays by a different set of rules. It is not a presence that is inherently good or evil it haunts who it haunts for a reason; generally one of revenge and therefore the body counts for these films is significantly lower than that of American horror. The point of the film is not to create a large body count, its not about how many victims are created and how they die it’s about the mysterious presence and the fear it generates.

American equivalents such as Gothika by Mathieu Kassovitz don’t have this subtle atmosphere and play up the jumps until it become predictable to where the ghost will appear to scare you. Hollywood horror will overdo the scoring, the tension in the scene lost due to music where silence would have worked much better. There are also exaggerated sound effects when scary events are taking place, music crescendos to the climax of the scene. Where there is a monster it’s a large computer generated beast like the killer bat in Jeepers Creepers. Hollywood horrors rely far more on spectacle rather than subtlety, the ending of the American re-make of Ring being a very good example. Unlike the Japanese version which was a slower but a shorter scene, the horror comes for you and takes you; the American ending is a faster paced scene but filled with more spectacle like the husband falling over a filling unit then trying to crawl away through broken glass. The other difference is the appearance of Sadako herself, while in the Japanese version she was a girl in a white dress with long black hair that obscured her face the only part you see of her at the end is a close up of bloodshot eye, in the American it’s the same basic image but you see her arms and legs all rotted and decayed, as well as the same has happened to her face in which she has a evil expression.
American horror tends to be set away from the home, featuring teenagers lost in unfamiliar locations. The Japanese understand you don’t need to take someone far away into such remote locations. Something as simple as a block of flats can hold a frightening secret, and something supernatural can follow you to somewhere you think is safe and familiar (such as your school). American films have rural locations, unlike Japanese films that have urban and inner-city locations. This goes to prove that Japanese filmmakers understand their audience, and what that audience will find terrifying changes with changing times. The best example of this is Ring. The source of horror is a video tape, a modern invention so taken for granted by today’s society that no one could suspect what kind of horror could be created from it. By placing objects that are so familiar to us in a frightening setting they become scary to us, objects that we take for granted now become our worse fears.

The final climatic scene of horror in both Ring and Dark Water is so terrifying that the scene itself haunts you like a ghost long after the movie is over. The image of Sadako implanted in your memory lingering there so that the movie stays with you. Even at the very end of the movie you are left on a cliffhanger still guessing the true nature of this evil presence as well as wondering what will happen next to the characters affected by Sadako. As with Dark Water the image of the child that has haunted the family now haunts you. It’s this subtle nature of telling the story that makes Japanese horror so much more effective for you are not presented with over glorified monsters but a more supernatural atmosphere. One factor that also makes these Japanese films scarier is the very fact that most of the time they are left unresolved or open ended. By the end of the Ring you are left with this cliffhanger, therefore the thing you fear is unresolved and you are left to think about it. Again this allows the movie to stay with you haunting your thoughts and continuing to scare you, a true sign that it has indeed been an affective horror. With Dark Water the plot has been resolved; you know who has been haunting the family (the small girl). You also know the fate of the small girl (how she became a ghost and why water and a red handbag relate to the haunting). Lastly you know why she has been haunting this family (she wanted a kind and caring mother to replace the one that abandoned her as a child and led to her unfortunate death). Though even with this film there is an open end, for the ghost has won, it was able to take the mother away leaving her daughter alone. The mother is now a ghost herself and alone with the ghost child they still haunt the apartment where this nightmare occurred. Normality hasn’t been resolved, the child’s vengeance may have been carried out but she hasn’t moved on she still lingers in this apartment continuing to haunt it, the difference being that now she has someone else to share this fate with.

“Sublime terror rests in the unseen – the ultimate horror. Things seen, fully described, explained, and laid to rest the last reel or paragraph are mere horrors….” (Rockett – Journal of Popular Film and Television, 1982, p.132)

Hideo Nakata’s movie was to create one of the most famous characters in the form of Sadako. Her image would become a famous image in nearly every horror film made after Ring. Sadako’s image, the women with a veil of dark hair partially or fully obscuring her face, would become a motif for horror movies. She would not only now represent fear but repressed emotions turning into the most horrifying events. Her image would later appear in other Eastern movies such as Ju-on a.k.a The Grudge 1 and 2 (again having had an American re-make) by Takashi Shimizu, Tale of Two Sisters by Ji-Woon Kim, Kakashi by Norio Tsuruta (which is not unexpected as he was also the one to direct Ring 0) and even American horrors such as Gothika by Mathieu Kassovitz and Saw by James Wan.

The movies themselves are also edited very differently from American films and they contain far less cuts. There are no close ups of characters till the end of the film where it is the horror element like Sadako or the ghost child that get the close up. The camera stays motionless with characters moving abut the frame entering or exiting the scene. Where characters interact the camera is positioned so both characters can be scene rather than cutting between them. The films themselves seem to have a slight hinting to them, Ring it is blues and grey whereas Dark Water is more green in colour. The colours in Ring could symbolize the sorrow of Sadako’s death as well as the coldness of Sadako’s isolation from the society that oppressed her. While in Dark Water green is used to emphasize the damp and root from the water that stains this movie.

As mentioned in an early quote by Maltby that discusses that in fact American producers have really no idea what their target audiences want, so it’s not surprising that they have been making less successful horrors in comparison to Japan and are increasingly re-making successful Japanese, Korean and Thai horrors. If the success of the film relies on being able to relate to a modern audience, then trying to cater for a wider audience is also valid. Horrors have been seen as something for a younger audience, mainly teen generations. As a result, they feature a cast of teenagers and do not deal with issues that would relate to an older audience. Therefore, what makes both Ring and Dark Water more successful is that they cater for a wider audience. Both films at their core have a family unit and play out more like a melodrama with supernatural elements. Since everyone can relate to the themes of family it makes the films that more frightening. It’s not just teenagers that are at risk but anyone. Both films reflect issues that would scare a family without the supernatural element like divorce and separation. These issues are made even more horrifying with the supernatural elements. Ring and Dark Water use everyday objects and situations to breed horror. They understand that you need go no further than your own home to find something to scare you.

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I had the chance to see the UK premier of a new film from China staring Daniel Wu and Kevin Spacey at the 2012 Terracotta film festival. I have to say didn’t know exactly what to think I knew it was a comedy of sorts and I thought probably a buddy movie but it surprised me with being a bit more than these things. The plot follows Li (Daniel Wu) a trouble young man having problems at home as well as at work and after a failed suicide attempt befriends his eccentric neighbour Chuck (Kevin Spacey). The two soon become friends with Chuck bringing out Li’s more outgoing side allowing him to have the confidence to do more things and to really live. But things are not as they seems and Li soon learns that his problems come back to haunt him and his lines of reality begin to blur. It’s not hard to guess that some of the people he is meeting and hanging out with are not really there and that he is in fact hallucinating and has to choose whether to continue hanging out with these figments or face the reality of his life and the problems he is hiding.

This film is a mix of brilliant comedy, touching tale of friendship, a drama and just pure moments of surrealism. It makes you laugh and cry which all the best films do, you really feel for Li so sucked into his world of crazy you yourself forget that he stated the movie trying to kill himself and have no idea why he would do that. His friendship with Chuck is fun and they play off each other so nicely with chuck bringing out the confident person with Li. The best scenes of this film defiantly Li and Chuck forming a vigilante crime fighting team complete with costumes driving round the city looking for crime and uncovering illegal tofu rings. But it’s not just silly crime fighting Li’s with is an investigative journalist and Li decided to bring to justice people she try to expose but didn’t have enough evidence to bring to the police. In a twist we find out that Li’s wife lost their baby after she took supplements from a company that skipped putting folic acid in them and therefore causing the children to not develop. Li in his new superhero guise is able to confront the head of the company and get proof to the papers and the police. It’s actually a touching moment when you realise what Li is fighting for and that he has suffered trauma in his past but he is facing it. What makes scenes funny is the fact that once you know Chuck is a figment he starts turning up in all sorts of situations that he shouldn’t be, behind Li’s boss when she’s telling him off pretending to smack her arse and Li has to keep a straight face.

Knowing chuck is a figment was a twist easy to spot from the beginning as the looks people give him when he’s talking to Chuck in public places and soon they come to an agreement of when the best time to acknowledge Chuck is and when he has to behave. It also comes in handy when trying to intimidate criminals; no one is going to mess with the crazy guy who keeps asking his imaginary friend to rough you up. There are also moments of surrealism such as a hair clip that starts barking at Li showing that he is getting a bit too into the imaginary world he is hiding in and that he is losing touch of reality.
Apart from being a very funny and touching film it is also filmed very well with beautiful cinematography of romantic flashbacks and ideals. The superhero scenes are filmed as is they really are vigilantes with show motion walking, standing on buildings and even the background explosion. And yet even with dramatic scenes like this it juxtapositions it with dramatic scenes showing the distant and troubled relationship of this married couple not facing the tragedy of losing a child together but just living separate lives and the loneliness they are imposing themselves to. You have comedic scenes with witty dialogues and situation comedy and then you have the harsh reality seeping in invading Li’s joyful and fun fantasy world. All these themes mix and blend leading to Li finally realising how bad his grasp on reality is and that he has to face the fact that his world are blurring. Once the worlds have blurred so far he realises he’s in danger of losing touch completely and decides it’s time to start facing his reality. He does in fact face his demon and his tragedy, realising he needs to talk to his wife, face the problems at work and start living more honestly.

This film really is a brilliant film just full of fun and joy and a definite must see!!!!!

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“sexually explicit sequences often constitute only a small section of lengthy and complex narratives, slash is not so much a genre about sex as it is a genre about the limitations of traditional masculinity and about reconfiguring male identity, most slash fans concede that erotic pleasure is central to their interest in the genre” (Jenkins, Textual Poachers 190-1).

The film itself gives the audience a hint at something more romantic developing between the two leads and offers a starting point for slash fans. In particular the scene in which Starsky and Hutch take out two cheerleaders and in a ploy to impress them Hutch begins to play his guitar and sing to them. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Hutch, Starsky has been using what he thought was sugar to sweeten his coffee but it is in fact cocaine. Starsky begins to act a little strangely and hallucinates a blue bird on Hutch’s shoulder. What makes this scene such an obvious moment for the two men is while Hutch sings his Ballard of “don’t give up on me, baby” he is not looking at the women but in fact singing to Starsky who is sitting there awe struck looking at Hutch. They seem to be in their own world where, just for this moment, there is no one but them. The women are forgotten and to a slash fan this is the moment when Starsky falls in love with Hutch. The camera moves from both men showing their expressions and emotions. They look at each other with love written all over their faces both moved by Hutches song and both caught up in the moment. We never once see how the women react to the song or to the fact they have been forgotten by the men, the female characters simple no longer exist in this moment as it’s a moment only shared by Starsky and Hutch that we as an audience have been allowed to witness.
By this point in the film the friendship and partnership between the two is cementing and when Starsky finally snaps because of the cocaine Hutch is there to look out for him and even carries Starsky to bed in his arms putting him to bed and saying to him, “go to sleep tiny dancer”. Hutch gives Starsky his own name a term of endearment meant only for Starsky.

Of course these gay undertones are more easily picked up by slash fans and shortly after this scene, while Starsky is asleep, Hutch ends up in a threesome with the two cheerleaders defusing the homoerotic nature of the previous scene so that a non-slash audience would not complain or be offended by the implied homoerotism.
The film also has a sequence known as “the break up montage”, where our two main leads have had a falling out. Starsky and Hutch are no longer working together and have gone their separate ways with both of them suffering because of it. Both characters are shown as sad and lost through this montage as Starsky begins to reminisce about the good times they shared. The sequence is played for laughs but also it helps to emphasize the homoerotic undertones. With another romantic Ballard playing over it and scenes such as the two characters running along the beach together wearing matching Starsky and Hutch t-shirts laughing and playing about. It’s almost like they are frolicking in the sun and sand, not an image normally associated with two males.

Also it leads to a later scene when they make up and decide to get back together and work as partners again. Starsky cries as he tries to apologize to Hutch, Hutch forgives him and hugs him kisses him on the cheek. This can been seen as an obvious moment of there being something more to their relationship as you would not expect a kiss between two men even something a touching as a kiss on the check to show Hutch has forgiven Starsky for their fight. It is these tender moments that can be re-told in fan fiction as they are good scenes to elaborate on. This scene already has a romantic under current and therefore can be re-appropriated by the female fans having it play out according to their desires.

It is worth saying that during the writing of this essay Brokeback Mountain came to UK cinemas. The importance of this is that Brokeback Mountain is the first film to be made by a Hollywood studio and Director, Ang Lee, which deals with the relationship of two men who fall in love. The fact that it tackles the subject matter of men in a same sex relationship makes it not only the first to do so but a very important film in today’s society. It breaks new ground by showing something that Hollywood and mainstream cinema do not like to show, two men falling in love. It is important to say this film is not a gay film but it is a romance. The two male leads were straight and just happen to fall in love with each other forcing them to deal with a relationship new to both of them and not accepted by the society they are part of. This is the kind of film slash fans have been waiting to see as it pulls together many of the things they enjoy about slash. The film is about two men that form a close bond and a friendship. They are thrown together by circumstances and out of these they realize there is something more developing between them. They decided to take that next step to take the bond that has grown between them and cross the line from friendship into romance. They enter a romantic relationship and a sexual one but unfortunately due to the world they come from it is a relationship that can never fully be fulfilled.

This film will hopefully open the way for more films that are not afraid to include an openly homosexual relationships. Other directors may also see that having a same sex romance in their film will not automatically make it part of the independent and art house cinema but can have cross over appeal with mainstream cinema. This is a hope for many slash fans who want mainstream culture to realize that same sex romance or a more homoerotic feeling in your film does have a wider appeal. Brokeback Mountain proves that the subject matter can have mainstream appeal. As well as the very fact that this film is hugely popular with women, so there is a large fan base out there for it. Sight and Sound and Empire magazine both very different magazines state that the film has female appeal due to the tender and emotional treatment of the relationship between the two young cowboys. The fact that this film has been highly accepted by female cinema attendees proves that women not just slash fans are attracted to the idea of same sex love. From talking to various people that have seen the film there is defiantly a higher number of women in the audience and this group has a full spread of age ranges and interests. You don’t have to be a slash fan to enjoy this film it also proves that women who may not have heard of slash find same sex relationships emotional and romantic. It proves that society is changing and a film like Brokeback Mountain is far more accepted than it would have been a couple of years ago and therefore that today’s society is ready to accept more films like it.
Just because society is ready for more films like this does not mean that slash fans will stop slashing the rest of mainstream cinema. Slash fans will still take existing characters and films and re-appropriate them according to their desire. Slash is still about erotic pleasure as much as women being able to take something and re-invent for it themselves. Slash offers women a kind of power within their fandom’s to take the material and use it for themselves, to own a very unique part of their viewing culture that non slash fans cannot. Slash provides its fans a way of deriving an extra pleasure from the narrative as well as offering them a chance to re-create that narrative according to their wishes. Slash is also non commercial as it is made by fans for themselves as well as for other fans. It is not made for any commercial or profit making needs as it is about the freedom to express your ideas, opinions and desires without the boundaries a commercial enterprise would impose on it.

“I think part of what makes slash so alluring is not so much that it’s taboo, although that does give it an extra edge, but that we create it, our community, unhindered by all the rules of creative writing professors, of publishers and of marketers. We create the fiction we want to read and, more importantly, we allow ourselves to react to it. If a story moves or amuses us, we share it; if it bothers us, we write a sequel; if it disturbs us, we may even re-write it! We also continually recreate the characters to fit our images of them or to explore a new idea. We have the power and that’s a very strong siren. If we want to explore an issue or see a particular scenario, all we have to do is sit down and write it. It gets read and instantly reacted upon in a continuing dialogue among fans. You can’t do that very often in the ‘real’ world. For me, that’s one of the strongest callings of slash in particular and fandom in general.”
– Kim Bannister, “Desert Blooms,” SBF 2, August 1993

Slash is its own culture and while it is wonderful that Hollywood is opening up to the idea if showing us same sex relationships slash fan will still re-appropriate and re-create other films and narratives to add to this culture. A slash fan can not help to see the homoerotic nature of a film such as Troy or the homoerotic subtext that lies through a film such as Starsky and Hutch. Slash culture is about the power and freedom fans can have over their fandom as well as the erotic pleasure this allows them.

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I only just got round to watching this series and like many British shows it was only 6 eps so finished it in 2 evenings. I remembered the trailers when they were on and how creepy and inviting they looked, truly gripped my interest and were very well made so it’s good to finally see if the show lived up to the imagery of the trailers. This series joins my collection of creepy supernatural shows like American Horror Story as I love relocating the haunting genre to families and social groups and seeing the worlds of supernatural versus insanity and thrillers verses normal human lives combine. As also a brit i love british dramas and this one is as good as some of the other supernatural shows I’ve watched over the years such as Being Human and Hex. The series focuses on an upscale apartment block called ‘Bedlam Heights’, renovated from the structure of an abandoned mental asylum, and the strange hauntings that occur there. New arrival Jed Harper (Theo James) possesses the ability to see the ghosts, which are generally not visible to others, and receives visions of their deaths. The hauntings are generally malevolent, and it is up to Jed to determine the spirits’ motives and thwart their goals. His flatmates are his cousin, Kate (Charlotte Salt), who manages the complex; Ryan (Will Young) who is troubled by the recent violent death of his brother; and Molly (Ashley Madekwe), a childhood friend of Kate and Jed.

The show was better than I thought it would be didn’t think 6 eps was enough to flesh out the characters and the world they inhabit but by the end of the first ep you know your character types and motives. Jed is a reluctant hero type plagued by his demons and life spent in and out of mental asylums because of people not believing in his ability to see ghosts. He’s all broody most of the time and every time he gets a chance to step into the light and have a better life something conspires against him to make him miserable again. The show does at least try to find ways to show underneath his sadness and loneliness he is a good kind man that actually cares greatly for people and if it wasn’t for his fate as a ghost seeing mystery solving outcast he would have been a regular fun guy. The only thing I didn’t like about the characters is that they could never make up their mind who they fancied or liked, I’m not a romantic so nothing bores me more than love interests and love triangles when there are much more interesting things going on like dead people stalking you. So the fact that every episode someone would fancy someone else and in the case of Ryan’s character couldn’t decide if he was gay or straight did get on my nerves. As for the 2 girls Molly is a pleasant girl and I feel bad for the way she is sometimes treated and by the end I understand why she left the way she did I would have to get out of a place like that. As for Kate I hated her she’s the kind of girl I just can’t stand, playing men for her own gain, vain and selfish there is little to like about her and I found it hard to feel sorry for her when she was getting haunted and plagued by horrible visions and nightmares.

But away from the characters the show has a good atmosphere and it mixes traditional supernatural story telling with modern young adults just trying to live their lives. Another extra idea in the mix is that by living in a converted asylum are the people themselves being infected by the madness that once ran rampant here. Kate’s dreams and visions put her more and more on edge that you could question her own sanity, does insanity breed insanity, is it the environment that changes a person and inspires dark acts or was it always in the nature of that person to lose touch and do evil acts. This is reflected as you find out more about the background of the asylum and its inmates some of the original occupants where put in their not because they truly deserved to be but because it was convenient to those who they had offended. For example a serving girl who got pregnant by her master, instead of owning up to the affair has her thrown into Bedlam to have the baby causing her to go mad with grief and then she is lobotomised to silence her covering up the conspiracy. It isn’t surprising Bedlam has so many angry ghosts and it defiantly holds with the lore that those that die violent and unfulfilled deaths are imprisoned on earth not allowed to move on till they find justice or a conclusion that makes them satisfied. The ghosts of Bedlam are more than restless they are full of hate and evil now that their cells are the homes of happy families, couples and people they want to make sure these inhabitants feel the pain and sorrow they feel.

The series is stylishly done though as a horror nerd it wasn’t creepy enough to scare me but it has great potential to actually be very scary. The ghosts fade in and out, watch from secluded corners and stalk characters vigorously. The ghosts leave creepy messages sketched onto walls, petals scattered on floors and horrific drawings on children’s bedrooms. The show is well filmed part surreal in its imagery and harsh in it open portrayal of hauntings, Jed’s visions are chaotic and violent, Kate’s dreams bright and harsh but terrifying. The show had a decent budget behind it so it looks realistic and a very artistic side as well, Kate drowning in the bath tub sinking further into an abyss, a dark pool of water waiting for someone to break the surface and reach far enough inside to reach her. This also reflects her as a character, her shell of vanity and cruelty hides the fact she is lost and scarred, living up to the pressures of her father, scarred of her feelings and not wanting to get close to people causing her to drown in her own self-imposed pit. Kate’s dreams are one of the most disturbing scenes of the series, she is lost and alone wearing nothing but her nightdress, running the corridors of Bedlam that she should know but somehow are unfamiliar to her and are cold and empty. These scenes are filmed very brightly and slowly she realised she’s not alone but a body of a woman wearing a cloth bag over her head is lying in wait for her causing her more grief and unsettling us in these surreal images.

It is a shame that after 6 eps the series wasn’t renewed as there was so much more to tell and the story was not finished but for a good little supernatural series this is very much worth it.

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“Slash fan fiction, to give it its proper title, describes scenes between existing media characters (or real people such as musicians, actors and sports stars) that are usually homoerotic, often explicit and almost exclusively written by young, heterosexual females” Elisabeth Easther: Metro Paper.
“Slash fan fiction, which posits same-sex relationships between the (mostly) male series protagonists, originated with Kirk/Spock fan fiction in the 1970s; the term slash derives from the “/” employed to denote a specific romantic pairing (Jenkins, Textual Poachers 186-7). Slash fan fiction has been discussed by a number of academic writers (cf. the work of Henry Jenkins, Constance Penley, Camille Bacon-Smith, Patricia Frazer Lamb and Diana L. Veith). It has been described as “romantic pornography,” as a critique of traditional masculinities, because quite often traditionally “feminine” traits such as nurturing and the open declaration of feelings are extended onto the male characters, or as a utopian vision of a continuum of male homosocial and homoerotic desires, because the most popular formula of slash writing sees two men who were formerly best friends suddenly discover their physical attraction to each other.” Susanne Jung, Queering Popular Culture: Female Spectators and the Appeal of Writing Slash Fan Fiction University of Tübingen, Germany

Slash fiction as well as fan art only depicts same sex relationships, the characters you are slashing will be either be both male or both female. Most surprising about this phenomenon is that the majority of Slash is in fact written by women. This opens up an idea that does not often get talked about; the idea that women do fantasies about male on male sex. It is common place to find that men fantasies about women and lesbianism but people are only just beginning to realize that women have similar fantasies about men and homosexuality. One of the major aspects of Slash is that it is done because women find it erotic. Slash may be about a wish to see homosexual relationships but it is because of desire we want to see this. Slash offers women a chance to indulge in their own sexual fantasies, if film will not offer women depictions of what many find erotic then slash becomes a very important and fulfilling option to women.
Although slash is only just being recognized it can be traced back to the 1960’s especially within the Star Trek Fandom . One of most popular fandoms was that of the Star Trek community and it was with this community where slash was first seen.

“Slash, or K/S fiction, represents a long-standing tradition in the women’s fan-writing community which poses ways of con¬structing homoerotic fantasies employing the series characters. Slash, as many writers have now noted, represents a powerful form of resistant reading, an active appropriation and transformation of dominant media content into forms of cultural production and circulation that speak to the female fan community’s needs and interests. Slash has proven empowering to its female fan readers and writers, helping them to articulate and explore their sexual fantasies, bringing them together into a community across various barriers which isolate them. Slash, by translating politics into the personal, gave them a way to speak about their experiences and commitments. Some members of the Gaylaxians have embraced slash as a form which can also express their fantasies about the series and their desires for its future development. Science Friction, a Star Trek: The Next Generation slash zine distributed at the 1992 Gaylaxicon, specifically presented itself as a response to the failure of the letter-writing campaign: “Our motto is: If Paramount can’t give us that queer episode, just make it so!” Henry Jenkins, “Out of the closet and into the Universe”.

The Star Trek fandom was the first to really start addressing issues of slash and how it represented the fantasies of its female community. Many other TV shows also achieved this female appreciation such as Starsky and Hutch, Blakes 7 and Battlestar Galactica but still slash had not been recognized in relation with films. Slash has primarily been associated with the world of TV shows and more specifically sci-fi and fantasy shows. This may be due to the type of individuals that are attracted to such shows already being more open to fantasy and therefore more open to indulge in their own desires. As well as this, sci-fi/fantasy series can offer more characters therefore more character development for its fans to concentrate on and offers a longer running time with more scenarios to involve characters in. But things are changing and movie fandoms are becoming far more slash friendly. Maybe it is because women are now more open about their sexual fantasies and more willing to express what they find erotic.
There have been gay icons in film for many years. Stars such as James Dean have been adopted by the gay community but slash fans are not interested in gay stars. What they want is to see depictions of love and sex between men. Maybe it is the still slightly homophobic nature of Hollywood that denies movie slash that has kept knowledge of slash fiction quiet, but no matter what people know or don’t know about slash it is clear that it has become highly popular and a far more noticeable part of fan culture.
From this the questions arise: ‘What makes a film Slashable?’ and ‘How can what has been talked about in relationship to TV show fan culture be applied to Hollywood film?’ Using specific examples, I will attempt to answer these two questions. I will address issues of turning subtext into text and how old TV shows that were slashed have been re-made into films that recognize and show the slash. I will also look at how films have been made so that any homoerotic element that would have been there has been written out so it is no longer historically accurate but will not upset homophobic viewers. This leads me onto my first case study, Troy by Wolfgang Petersen. Troy details the events that take place in Homer’s book, The Iliad. It is the story of the Greek war against the Trojans after the young Trojan prince, Paris, steals the beautiful Helen away and the various heroes that stood on each side: Hector, Achilles and Patroclus. This film was a prime example of re-writing a historical text to exclude something Hollywood would not want to promote: the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus. It was implied in the book that they were lovers. The film instead offers them up as cousins to explain their closeness as well as introducing a female character as a love interest for Achilles.
It is a known fact that during Greek time homosexuality was not viewed in the same way as it is in today’s society. Men would often have young boys as lovers until these boys grew to men . Also, homosexuality was promoted within Greek armies. Warriors were encouraged to have a male lover on the battlefield as it was thought they would be more likely to fight for a lover than a simple comrade in arms. The relationship between Achilles and Patroclus was one of the most famous relationships in Ancient Greek society; their bond has been admired and respected. Yet this homoerotic relationship was not something a Hollywood studio wanted to depict in their film and was therefore changed to suit how it would be looked upon in today’s society. Even with this knowledge many slash fans still see something to Achilles and Patroclus relationship of “cousins”. They show enough of a bond and closeness for these two characters to be slashed. Slash fans know there was meant to be something more so it is not that far a stretch of the imagination to think of these men as lovers rather than cousins. From the first time you see them spar, two handsome men chasing each other round Greek ruins obviously both familiar and comfortable round each other; you can read a more homoerotic element to the characters. The way Patroclus admires and looks up to Achilles and the way in return Achilles feels protective and mentoring towards Patroclus shows they are very close so even without any overtly homoerotic tones slash fans can still read far more into the characters.
However Achilles/Patroclus is not the favorite pairing amongst Troy slash fans. The slash pairing for this film that most fans write fiction about is in fact Hector/Paris. However, these two characters are not only brothers, but Hector is married and Paris is the reason for the war in the first place as he fell in love and ran away with Helen. So how is it possible to slash these two characters? It is the very nature of slash fans to re-imagine and recreate according to their desires. Hector and Paris make a desirable pairing due to the nature of their relationship. They are close to one another, they respect and care for one another, they fight for one another and they protect each other. This relationship can be explained as brotherly love but this is no barrier for slash fans. Since slash fans have a desire to see one taboo relationship (homosexuality) many do not view a taboo such as incest as offensive. Slash fans see two attractive men that share a bond of love which can be re-interpreted according to the slash fan’s desires. It is this reason that also allows slash fans to overlook and, a majority of the time ignore the female characters. Hectors wife and Helen herself are simply put out of mind so as not to intervene in the world recreated in slash fiction.

There are three major scenes in Troy that prove to slash fans the nature of Hector and Paris’s relationship. The first is the boat scene where Paris first tells Hector he has taken Helen with him back to Troy. This scene includes the line “do you love me brother?” spoken by Paris to Hector. The use of the word love shows just how strong the feelings are between these brothers. Paris craves his brother’s love as strongly as Hector later gives him his love. At first angry with his young brother when Hector learns that Paris is willing to return to Sparta with Helen to face certain death for what he has done, Hector cannot deny his brother. Hector is prepared to face his brothers actions knowing it will lead to war but he would rather face that than see his brother killed.

The second scene that had the attention of slash fans was what is known as “The leg hug scene”. Paris has challenged Menelaus to the right for Helen but after realizing he is no match succumbs to fear and crawls to Hectors feet holding onto his brother’s leg for dear life. Menelaus shouts for vengeance and the right to kill Paris but as he strikes Hector replies “he is my brother” and kills Menelaus first. Hector proves his love for Paris when he kills to protect him as he would rather break the promise for Paris to fight Menelaus alone than see his brother killed. The other part of this scene is the very fact that Paris clings to his brother’s leg. It is an intimate connection; their bodies joined at that point, their emotional connection made physical. It is very clear from this scene that Paris is not a warrior; he is a lover not a fighter and though he tries he never stood a chance against an older and more experience warrior like Menelaus. Hector is a fighter; it is up to him to fulfill his role as the older brother and, to a slash fan, his role as lover needing to protect the person he loves. Hector is older and more experienced and loyal to his younger brother and it is these character traits that also define their roles as lovers, Hector is the “aggressive” while Paris is the “passive”.

The third scene is also the last time that Hector and Paris appear on screen together in a final tender farewell to each other. Hector goes to face Achilles after he mistakes him for his “cousin” Patroclus and killed Patroclus. Hector says his goodbyes to his family before this battle, not knowing if it is indeed his last. This scene is one of beauty and tenderness as he kisses Paris’s forehead, holding his face in his hands. This is a moment normally shown between lovers rather than brothers, such a tender and personal show of love and devotion. This scene shows the conclusion of the two slash relationships Troy has established. Achilles, after retiring from the battle, returns after the death of Patroclus by Hectors hand. He is so grieved by the passing of his “cousin” that he wants nothing more than revenge on Hector for taking away the person most dear to him. Hector, who fights for honor and to protect those he loves, accepts this challenge but is killed by Achilles forever parting him from Paris.

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Eun-Ju: “Do know what’s really scary? You want to forget something. Totally wipe it off your mind. But you never can. It can’t go away, you see. And… And it follows you around like a ghost.”

Introduction
Directed by Ji-Woon Kim, who also wrote and directed The Quiet Family, later to be re-made as Happiness of the Katakuris by Takashi Miike, A Tale Of Two Sisters proves that it’s not just Japan that is leading the way for the horror genre. This beautiful Korean film may borrow some of the iconography of Japanese films such as Hideo Nakata’s Ring but it also brings its own unique twist to the horror genre. This film feels much like that of an M. Night Shyamalan picture in terms of atmosphere and original plot twists, making it similar to Western horrors such as The Sixth Sense and also Alejandro Amenábar’s The Others. These Western movies are the best examples of Western films that have captured the subtle yet suspenseful feeling of Eastern horror. A Tale of Two Sisters proves itself as one of the best horrors of recent years, drawing on elements of the aforementioned films while crafting an original and terrifying tale of its own. It shows us that less is more, and that a great deal of fear can be created from the unseen.

“Sublime terror rests in the unseen – the ultimate horror. Things seen, fully described, explained, and laid to rest the last reel or paragraph are mere horrors….” (Rockett, 1982, p.132)

“The reason these films are popular is that audiences want to see something that’s forbidden. All these films toy with the rage and anger we have within us” (Carpenter – The Aesthetics of Fright – Dickstein 1980)

Synopsis
The film centres round two sisters, Su-mi and Su-yeon, who have recently been released from a mental institute, where they were hospitalised following the death of their mother. They have now returned to live with their father and new step mother, Eun-Ju, where it becomes apparent that this home is not the happy place Eun-Ju would like it to be. Almost immediately strange things begin to occur in the house. Unusual events, which only certain people can see when they are emotionally unbalanced or under extreme stress, begin to occur. It is not made clear whether these occurrences are supernatural, the result of the father’s medication, the step mother’s plotting, or if they’re the fabrication of an unsettled mind. As the plot unravels, so does a past trauma that could explain much of the behaviour of the lead characters. But as things appear to become clear they start to spiral into a new world of insecurity, lies, deceit and distrust. We are left wondering if the supernatural element is the most plausible answer, leaving us questioning what we’ve seen and heard in this movie.

Genre Theory
The film plays out like a melancholy melodrama, subtle and haunting and with the characters each carrying their own emotional burdens that have been made worse by a possible supernatural element. What makes this film even more interesting is the human drama that exists at its core. If we leave aside the horror, we are still left with an interesting movie about the breakdown of a family unit. How does a family cope with the death of such a significant member as the mother? How do children cope with such an important person being replaced by someone they neither like nor trust? How does a father deal with such a situation, torn between his daughters and his new wife? How does a step mother deal with having daughters that dislike her? By being caught up in the human drama, we are drawn further into this tale and become very interested in the lives of this family unit. Our sympathy naturally lies with the young girls; we feel cold towards the increasingly withdrawn and absent father, and find the step mother untrustworthy and creepy at times. By being so involved in their world, it therefore scares and unnerves us even more when things become unsettling. The strange events really get to you; the supernatural element is far more unnerving because you really feel for the characters and the situation they are in. The movie moves at a subtle pace, allowing us to really get to know the characters and their problems. There aren’t as many scares as you would expect, and it is not over-reliant on the use of jumps, as seen in recent Western horrors. Instead scenes are built upon suspense and tension, creating an atmosphere where horror isn’t revealed until you are at breaking point. You keep expecting something to happen, but the longer you wait, the less happens. Finally you are lulled into a false sense of security, believing that nothing will be there to scare you, only for it to hit you when you least suspect.

Scoring And Cinematography
The film has a beautifully composed score that works perfectly with the mood of the film. Like the movie itself, it is both subtle and atmospheric, never overwhelming the scene but instead adding to it. The music is never overly dramatic, and sometimes it exists as a simple noise in the background of the scene, like the sound of wind blowing through trees. The use of silence and sound effects is essential to the feel of this movie; the scariest moments are played out in complete silence, with the only sound being the breathing of our characters or the creaking of floorboards. Little noises in the background or the absence of any music in the scene affords us more focus on the developing events. There is, however, one melody that plays over many of the scenes of human drama, a pleasant tune that almost reminds us of happy times forgotten. This tune is memorable and seems to symbolize the mood and emotions of the characters. As the movie goes on this melody gradually begins to take on a sadder tone, as any happiness inspired by this piece of music is lost or forgotten in the sorrow of the characters and their increasingly difficult situations.
The camera itself switches from following the characters and their conversations to showing us views of empty rooms and lonely corridors. The camera nearly always follows one of the characters’ views so we see what the characters sees, whether it be who they’re talking to, or the room they’re looking into. This also applies to the supernatural element, as even the possible ghost gets to look upon the other characters and we see them from its point of view. This allows us some more interesting views of the family, with the camera looking up at characters from below surfaces. By the end of the movie, when events have become more frantic, the camera doesn’t distance itself from the characters; instead it tries to stay close to them and their actions.

Mise-En-Scene
The film is steeped in richness, not only in the portrayal of the characters but also in the interior design of the house. But despite its lush, green wallpaper that is of a William Morris design, and expensive furniture that fills rich-looking rooms similar to the interior design work of Laura Ashley, this house still has a coldness to it, a loneliness and hollowness to the atmosphere. As mentioned this film does share some of the iconography used by Hideo Nakata in Ring. The most pertinent example of this is that it is a woman that provides the element of fear in this house, as represented by the step mother as well as the possible ghost that is haunting the house. This iconography includes a very famous visual motif that has been seen in many Eastern horrors: the image of a woman whose face is either fully or partially concealed by a veil of dark hair. Nakata’s famous character Sadako from the Ring movies has cast a legacy across the genre, with nearly every Eastern horror since Ring making nods to its famous climactic scene. Despite this having become a familiar image it never fails to scare the viewer, especially Western viewers who are not accustomed to this image.

Conclusion
“One might say that the true subject of the horror genre is the struggle for recognition of all that our civilization represses and oppresses: its re-emergence dramatised, as our nightmare, as an object of horror, a matter for terror, the ‘happy ending’ (when it exists) typically signifying the restoration of repression.” (Wood.1979, p10)

Where this film succeeds, when most horrors made in the last 20 years have failed, is in the simple fact that it has gone back to the classic days of cinema, where you didn’t need to completely show your monster to scare your audience. It relies on the idea that less is more; you are far more scared of what you don’t see. This film doesn’t rely on glorified monsters or mass bloodshed; it doesn’t follow the recent formulas for contemporary horror, like the “monster of the week” or the slasher cycles. A Tale Of Two Sisters understands that you do not need to look further than your own home and family to find things to scare you. This film also respects its audience as intelligent, socially aware people; it doesn’t just target the teenage audience but also the older members of the family. It allows us to look into a family unit and relate to the problems they have as a family before we become aware of a more supernatural element. It allows us to vicariously experience our fears over issues that could happen to us, such as the death of a family member or re-marriage, and then exploits and intensifies these fears. It truly follows the theory of the return of the repressed, for these characters have repressed, and are oppressed by, so much that it’s no surprise that it should manifest itself in such a terrifying manner.

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Introduction
During the 1990’s a new movement in American independent film began to emerge. This movement was known as New Queer Cinema. New Queer cinema was a phrase coined by B. Ruby Rich about a new set of provocative and inventive lower budget gay and lesbian films. Amongst these were films such as Gregg Araki’s The Living End and Gus Van Sant’s My own Private Idaho. I will go on to talk about Gregg Araki in more detail in particular his film Mysterious Skin.

What is New Queer Cinema?
New queer cinema can be seen as a more commercially viable form of the gay cinema that was part of the 1960’s avant guard and featured filmmakers such as Kenneth Anger. These films were thought of as more underground or experimental compared to the new queer cinema that has a more recognizable narrative form and a broader appeal. New queer cinema was a move away from “camp” comedies and the stereotypes of gay people. Stereotypes such as a gay villain representing the fear of aids or the opposite in the gay best friend were now replaced by more realistic characters. Homosexual characters were no longer the problem or the source of amusement but also these films weren’t out to create positive or safe images of homosexuality. These new queer films are confrontational and aggressive featuring a harsher truth about homosexuality in the modern day.

Theory
B. Ruby Rich states in The Queer Cinema The Film Reader Chapter.
“Of course, the new queer films and videos aren’t all the same, and don’t share a single aesthetic vocabulary or strategy or concern. Yet they are nonetheless united by a common style. Call it “Homo Pomo”: there are traces in all of them of appropriation and pastiche, irony, as well as a reworking of history with social constructionism very much in mind. Definitively breaking with older humanist approaches and the films and tapes that accom-panied identity politics, these works are irreverent, energetic, alternately minimalist and excessive. Above all, they’re full of pleasure.”

Characteristics of New Queer Cinema.
There is no one characteristic that connects these queer films they don’t share a look or style. What brings them together under the term queer is the sexual identities of the characters. Characters may not even be gay or striate but happy to drift between different sexualities. What these films share is the portrayal of characters that are more open minded about their sexual preference. These films predominantly feature young people dissatisfied with the society their part of and feel they are stuck in lives that have no meaning or direction. These films deal with “teen angst” the unsatisfied youth culture whose lives are being wasted; they have no jobs, no direction, come from broken homes and childhood traumas. They don’t equate sex with love which is why they are so willing to flit between sexual partners and experiences and when love is found more often or not it goes unfulfilled or is twisted and in the worse cases bring nothing but harm and death. New Queer cinema is about this generation of youth and how they deal with there day to day lives. It doesn’t ask you to feel sorry for them or even understand them it just confronts you with the harsh truth and reality of their lives.

The Cinema of Gregg Araki
Leading this movement and very much making up a large body of work is gay director Gregg Araki. Gregg Araki was born in 1959 and has been making independent movies since 1987. His body of work includes:
CrEEEEps! (2006) (announced)
Mysterious Skin (2004)
This Is How the World Ends (2000) (TV)
Splendor (1999)
Nowhere (1997)
The Doom Generation (1995)
Totally F***ed Up (1993)
The Living End (1992/I)
The Long Weekend (O’Despair) (1989)
Three Bewildered People in the Night (1987)
His films have always been highly provocative and in your face combining the slacker generation principles with a fluidity of gender orientation and often violent homophobia. The plots of his movies change and he has dealt with teen angst road movie, the end of the world and most recently the effects of paedophilia on its victims. Of coarse there are signifiers of the Araki style especially in his pre Mysterious Skin films, bleak humour, comic violence, pop culture references and the coming of age of young protagonists. I want to use this last film as my main case study. Mysterious Skin(2004) directed by Gregg Araki is the storey of two boys one who cant remember and one who cant forget. The films deals with how paedophilia effects the victims, how two very different boys deal with their teenage lives based on the events of one summer in their past. Sloan Freer, Broadcaster and journalist said this of Araki’s latest feature:

“The beautifully composed drama is, without a doubt, his most mature film to date, reliant on the unsettling power of the actual storyline and performances, rather than the quick-hit shock tactics that characterized his earlier work. Gone are the cartoonish extremity and black humor of the erotically charged The Doom Generation (1995) for example, replaced by the sober nightmare of real-life horror? Yet for all the atypically tight construction and deep emotional resonance Mysterious Skin is still unmistakably a Gregg Araki picture. From the angst-ridden protagonists and easy-going, pop culture hipness to the extra-terrestrial symbolism that played such a similarly large part of Nowhere (1997), it’s textbook Araki down to the very last frame. ”

Like many of his films this is a “rites of passage” and coming of age tale that deals with the personal development of two young protagonists. The difference lies that when before there was black humor and comic violence now it is no longer a laughing matter or a subject one should joke about. Mysterious Skin is not only a coming of age storey for its characters but also its director as he proves how well he can deal with such emotional charged and difficult material. Mysterious Skin deals with its subject matter very well all the scenes of pedophilia are done from the point of the coach so you never directly see the children in sexual situations. The use of fades and voice overs tell use exactly what’s going on and how the children are treated. What makes much of the first half of the film interesting is how the character of Neil tells us of his encounter with the coach as a child.

The tale is without malice and violence, Neil speaks about his abuse more like it was his first love. There is a slightly magical feel to Neil’s encounters an almost sweet seduction. This may seem like a strange thing to say about such a subject as pedophilia but this also seems to make it feel so much realer. If a man was to seduce a child he would use such innocent devices and sweets and toys so the storey being told through the eyes of a child is why it looks like a fantasy. It’s not until Neil is older does he really begin to understand how that encounter shaped him and affects him as a young adult. It’s this older life that is full of harsh reality and brutal truths, his teen life is full of pain and dissatisfaction unlike the sugar coated memories he has of the past.
The other half of the story is told from the point of view of Brian who is trying to piece together the pieces missing from his life. When he was a boy something happened to him that he has no recollection of apart from waking up in the cellar with a nose bleed. As he grows up he believes this missing time was the result of an alien abduction which he now wants to prove. He believes he saw a UFO when he was a child and he has strange and terrifying dreams about his abduction. From these dreams he tries to remember what happened to him and soon remember that another boy was with him, this boy he discovers is Neil and he sets out to learn as much about Neil as possible so he can meet him and learn the truth.
Mysterious Skin is an adaptation of a novel by the same name written by Scott Heim. The reason he chose this book to adapt is it shares many of the iconography of his early films as well character types from his early work. The use of aliens has been a running theme especially in his apocalypse trilogy of Total Fucked up! /The Doom Generation/Nowhere. As for character types Neil is very confident in his sexuality he knows he is gay and is has no problem sleeping with men and Brian is strangely non sexually he seems to have no interest in either sex as we wait to see how this may develop or change. Araki shares these characters types and images with Heim’s book which is why it was such a perfect choice for a film adaptation. Mysterious skin is powerful, provocative, artistic and haunting making it a key film to the new queer cinema movement. It embodies much of the characteristics of early queer cinema but also shows a new level of maturity and sophistication of plot.

Neil: “As we sat there listening to the carolers, I wanted to tell Brian that it was over now and that everything would be okay. But that was a lie, plus I couldn’t speak anyway. I wish there was some way to go back and undo the past. But there wasn’t. There was nothing we could do. So I just stayed silent and tried to telepathically communicate how sorry I was about what happened. And I thought of all the grief and suffering and fucked up stuff in the world, and it made me want to escape. I wished with all my heart we could just leave this world behind. Rise like two angels in the night and magically disappear.”

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Synopsis: Train Heartnett, code named Black Cat is the thirteenth member in an organization known as Cronos. Cronos are an elite group of “erasers”, professional assassins that are sent in to assassinate targets they deem too dangerous or too corrupt to be dealt with in any other manner. But Train learns a valuable lesson in human compassion from young “sweeper”, professional bounty hunters, Saya Minatsuki. He learns there is more to life than being the cold hearted killer he has become and soon yearns for a life of freedom where he can make his own choices and follow his own path. He leaves Cronos and his path crosses that of Sweeper Sven Volfied. They cross paths while investigating a bio-weapon that turns out to be a genetically created girl named Eve. After Train decides not to kill her Sven takes her in as well as Train. They form a small “unconventional” family unit and group of Sweepers living their lives free and as they choose.
Unfortunately their lives are disrupted by the appearance of Train’s x-partner Creed Diskence from Cronos who himself has left the organization but to pursue more sinister and destructive goals. Creed is determined to see Train return to his cold hearted nature and help him and his newly formed group of villains cause havoc in the world. Train must learn what his true nature is and where he really belongs in this world he has chosen to live freely in.

Black Cat is an anime in a similar genre to Getbackers, there is a large cast of fun and interesting characters each with there own unique abilities. Set in an alternate world where people develop these unique abilities and then put them to use for either evil or good. The anime itself is fun, exciting, and full of action, it keeps one very entertained and the fight sequences are impressive to watch. The real heart of this anime lies in the characters of Sven, who acts as both a mentor and father figure to both Eve and Train. He shows them compassion willing to go to great lengths to keep them safe as well as respecting them as individuals. The “unconventional” family unit is at the core of this anime. It is touching to see the bond and relationships form as well as strengthen throughout the series. Black Cat has a good mixture of action and adventure with heart and emotions. It has good character development of its main protagonists including that of the villain of the piece Creed.

What it does suffer from is the fact that with such a large cast of interesting side characters there is not enough time to flesh out all the individuals. Some characters suffer from less back story and less screen time even though they are captivating and interesting. At 23 episodes it covers a vast amount and there is never a dull moment. It is well paced throughout the series up until the last episode where it would have been nice to see a little more of the individual battles as well as what happens to all the characters after the final conclusion. The last episode feels a little rushed in comparison to the rest of the series but even that is not enough to bring down the overall enjoyment factor of the series. It may have been better to have had that extra one episode just to give us a little more detail and insight but Black Cat does have a satisfying ending and a good conclusion to its story line.
The animation itself is good, clean and attractive with vibrant colours and with sequences that have been animated well. The battles as said earlier are exciting and very well orchestrated, full of detail and life with beautiful character movements. The colours are always in tune with the mood of the anime, you know when things have taken a darker turns when the colours themselves become darker. At the same time there is such a varied and beautiful spectrum of colour used during climactic scenes that the anime always looks alive and vibrant. Black Cat also has a beautiful score that uses a mixture of orchestral pieces, up beat contemporary scoring and simple melodies. The anime is well scored from exciting and passionate battle music that drives even more power into battle sequences to wonderful classical piano pieces played to emphasis the situation and character development of villain Creed. Black cat also has a simple and touching melody and song sung by the character of Saya, it’s an almost sad but touching song that reminds one of simpler times and forgotten childhoods. The song is repeated many times throughout the anime and acts as a reminder to Train of the simple and free life he wants to achieve, it a song from the heart and can dwarf even the most passionate of orchestra pieces with its calming tone.
In conclusion Black Cat is very much worth watching, with its fun cast, exciting story and touching relationships it has a little bit for everyone in it and I recommend it.

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If there is one of the new shows that came out that stands out it’s this one, my god did it grab me from the beginning and didn’t let go. This amazing piece of TV is from the awesome Ryan Murphy who gave me one of my all-time fav drama’s Nip/tuck and my fav comedy drama Glee. Yes this is a writer director of mixed tastes and has been able to appeal to both sides of mine. I love a dark and disturbing drama, full of violence, sexuality, menace and controversy but I also love a big bright camp spectacle and Murphy has given me both those. So when I found out he was doing a new show going back to his dark ideas and twisted worlds I was very excited. Also horror is one of my fav genres in fact horror is my fav genre and there aren’t enough shows that really get to grips with its true potential. Were lucky we are in an era of great horror TV such as Dexter, Walking Dead and True Blood an era that isn’t afraid to make TV shows for adults that really expose the darkness inside of us, not supernatural drama’s for teens but true horror. The dark desires and wishes of humanity, shows that push the boundaries and expose us to controversial sights and sounds that takes thing we all think about but because of our sense of morals and ethic know are wrong and therefore enjoy watching others get exposed to and cross the lines we can never. Horrors that take our insecurities and play on them, making a terrifying life events like a family death even more horrifying by bringing in a supernatural element. I digress American horror story is a modern embodiment of our dark desires run amok, out onto screen for us to witness and revel in while exposing our fears and appetites for the macabre. The plot for AHS follows the Harmon family: Ben (Dylan McDermott), Vivien (Connie Britton) and Violet (Taissa Farmiga), who move from Boston to Los Angeles after Vivien gives birth to a stillborn baby and Ben has an affair with Hayden (Kate Mara), one of his students. The family moves to a restored mansion, unaware that the house is haunted. The house also ‘comes with’ Moira O’Hara (Frances Conroy/Alexandra Breckenridge), a housekeeper who, to men, appears as young and seductive, but, to women, old and matronly. Ben and Vivien try to rekindle their relationship as Violet, suffering from depression, finds comfort with Tate Langdon (Evan Peters), one of Ben’s new patients. Constance (Jessica Lange) and Larry Harvey (Denis O’Hare) routinely and frequently affect the Harmons’ lives.

AHS is like watching the old 1970’s haunted house films, a house of secrets and sinister intensions like that of Amityville. A house of old and daunting architecture making it seem sort of out of touch with its own time period setting to further alienate the family living within from the world outside. The house has so much character that it itself is a character on its own and it’s fighting for dominance. There’s a mythology in japan that when someone dies it’s not just their ghost that can stay behind to haunt but also the ghost of the emotions born from their death. In other words if someone dies in a brutal and horrific way full of pain, regret and anger its these feelings that are left behind to haunt a place rather than the ghost of a person. This is what this house is like all the brutality and horror that it has seen has been absorbed as part of its own will giving it a conscience of itself a conscience that wants to cause more harm and continue the violent cycle within it feeding the darkness and misery within. The house only knows negative feelings and it lives for these dark desires and brutal endings, all it knows is what it’s feed off and that’s the darkness within humanity and negative emotion. Thus in order to keep living to grow and involve past its inanimate bonds it preys on the darkness within people promoting madness and violence so it can continue to feed and grow. In other words it’s a force born of evil, which only knows evil, wishes for evil and consumes evil only to create a cycle of evil for anyone who steps through its doors.

Every person who has stepped into this house has had their insecurities, pain and suffering exposed forcing them to face their fears and ultimately be driven made by those fears until a tragic and violent conclusion unfolds. This house has more ghosts than you could ever imagine and each has a tragic story to tell. As the episodes unravel you find out more about the various ghosts who they died and why they do what they do in death. Each character has their burden to bear and there is not a soul in this house that is without misfortune and sorrow. For example there is the tragic tale of Chad Warwick (Zachary Quinto) he put his heart and soul into the house making it a place to live in with his boyfriend, they were planning on adopting a baby and living a happy life. But the more he obsessed with the house and its decorating the more he alienated his boyfriend who began to stray and instead work on his relationship seek the attention he craved with another man. Before the two men ever had a chance to work out what was happening between them the house and its ghost saw they were drifting apart and saw fit to have them killed. Chad was murdered by one of the ghosts and his boyfriend brutally assaulted and killed made to look like a murder suicide. As ghosts they are trapped in a domed relationship, Chad wants to look after the house and dreams of children but has to face the reality that his boyfriend was about to leave him and he is stuck in a nightmare with a man that doesn’t love him only to watch his love go after any man but him in his need to escape chad’s obsession with a perfect life that neither can ever have.

There are so many ghosts in the house and half the brilliance of this show is trying to work out who is a ghost and who isn’t, which ghosts are in alliances, what are their own agendas and goals and how they came to be trapped in this possessive house. Some of the more terrifying ghosts are that of a gimp suited rapist, a pair of creepy ginger twins, some kind of deformed offspring lurking in the basement. What was brilliant about this show was that it gets under your skin and began to frighten even me. Now I’m a horror connoisseur I raised myself on a diet of Asian horror films like Ringu and Ju-on with dark thrillers like Silence of the Lambs. I’m no wuss, not easily scared and don’t shy away from violence and controversial viewing material. But AHS tested even me it has the unique ability to get under your skin to find the things that creep you out and wear down your defences until you are left feeling paranoid and unsettled. It’s a powerful drama it knows how to tackle the darkness inside us and at the same time make you feel very uncomfortable. It began to give me nightmares and I had to stop watching it at night. Once I started to settle with it and it finally started to explain its plot I was able to continue evening viewing but god did this show creep me out. Even the opening sequence with is surreal and disturbing images with the most unsettle score ever totally got under my skin. I had never seen an opening scene where they uses such harsh and disconcerting sounds to distress you mixed with images so unnatural you can’t help but feel scared and freaked out.

The filming is also beautiful such sensual sights, beautiful dreams and grand aesthetics make for a mix of pure pleasure and horror. Moira is a great example, she appears to men as a beautiful and seductive temptress, a gorgeous red head who can make men’s fantasies come to life and is a walking vision of sexual desire but to women she is a scorned old women who wants to mother and nurture them, protect them from the predatory and infidelity nature of men and expose men’s bestial needs. She drips lust and seduction and at the same time warns just what men are like when exposed to the desire inside them and their weakness towards such a woman. While the show looks out of place in this timeline because of the house and its imposing manner that clings to its own history it does delve into all the modern concern of our reality. It has modern issues such as a gay couple, having children once you’re in your 40’s and loss of innocence of childhood as younger girls are exposed to the expectations of the modern day. It also has a brilliant concept on the pressure on youth and how their insecurities created by the modern world can drive them mad, a madness that seems to have no explanation but can create a child that is a beautiful monster, for all their tender loving nature they are missing a part of their own humanity and can do unspeakable evil with no regret simple because they can and nothing can redeem them not even love. It’s this lack of sentimentality that I love, love doesn’t save the day you do evil and there isn’t redemption but the knowledge that even your most beautiful and heart felt acts cant wash your soul clean and once your born a monster without the same morals of socially functioning humans you stay a monster.

What else can I say about this brilliant series, it looks good, it sounds good, it unsettles and terrifies, it delights and seduces, it exposes darkness and it exploits darkness and it enthrals and captures you. It is a must see who and I for one can’t wait for another season.

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Ok so this review is long overdue but since the DVD just came out and I just came back from the Hub convention I feel inspired to write about my beloved series.

So after reviewing Children of Earth I was so torn on whether I could handle more Torchwood.
http://www.lzsy.co.uk/2009/10/torchwood-children-of-the-earth-a-critic-and-a-fans-review/
Then I did in fact watch the new series and ended up loving the first ep.
http://www.lzsy.co.uk/2011/07/torchwood-miracle-day-–-an-early-review-because-i-can’t-help-myself-it’s-my-biggest-fandom-and-i-love-john-barrowman/

Ok so there’s no point reinstate things we know by now that in my head there are 2 torchwoods and the show has now evolved into a new animal and therefore must be taken as this. But I have to say I loved the series because it did what I love most in television and use the medium of science-fiction/horror to express a social commentary on how as a race we aren’t so heroic and that when faced with great danger it brings out the worse in a lot of us. Take falling Skies I didn’t like it because it played it safe, no grey area, no exploiting the darkness in the human heart and every character was so clichéd. This is why as sci-fi Miracle day kicks Falling Skies arse. I loved the social commentary the show of human weakness and characters that don’t fit the mould. God so much to say about how this show has evolved. But let’s start with the basic plot that no one can die and how it affects the whole world throwing the planet into a situation they have no control over.

When nobody dies, hospitals fill up, supplies run low, laws have to be re-thought and people’s religions fall apart. All these things are addressed and I was so surprised by how in depth these issues were focused on this series really brought a serious social concern to light, overpopulation and the strain on our resources. We saw that laws had to change Murder no longer exists but this can breed a whole new way to torture and kill knowing your victims won’t die. How do you cope with hospital cases, who has top priority, what about coma patients, the terminally ill, those in accidents so horrific they’ll never be the same again, what is the policy for giving out drugs, how do you control the spread of disease. So many brilliant ideas all explored and that just one area of a problem likes nobody dying. How about the prison system, those with life sentences, those on death row how do you deal with crime when the punishment can be forever. Overpopulation is no one dies what about housing, nursing homes, people are still aging what kind of long term care is there, how do we feed all these people, would the poverty line drop again and what is the financial implications of all this. Then there’s problem of religion and soul, what direction will faith go in when you live in a world without death or where you should have died and your still alive, do you have the right to still live, what are you living for and if the medical is reversed what state would you be returned to. Who would have thought a series that homage classic horror and had episodes about alien sex gas possessing people would have turned into a series that asked such harsh and intense questions.

What makes Torchwood’s evolution so amazing is while all this larger picture issues are being explored its still Torchwood; Jack will always be Jack with his larger than life personality, his heroics, his quiet vulnerability that he doesn’t show to anyone, his lust for life and desire to protect humanity no matter what it has thrown at him. Gwen has evolved the most to a person who is focused and determined she has her own problems torn between the needs of her family and the bigger picture of protecting the world. She is a wife and mother and her duty love and care lies with them, we see that if it came down to it she would even kill Jack if it meant saving her family but she also is a hero she feels that need and duty to protect those innocent and in need of help. Her and Jack’s relationship has also matured, there is a deep love and bond stronger than any bond 2 people can have, but it’s not romantic it is beyond that, it is beyond the hero worship, respect and devotion and now its 2 people that understand the path they have chosen and a shared sense of duty. They need each other; they support each other but also hate each other and the sides they bring out of each other that no one else will see. Jack make Gwen reckless inspires her to fight for her beliefs and cross a line that she doesn’t want, Gwen makes Jack question his humanity, exposes his vulnerability and pushes him to make the right choices. Gwen dislikes the fact that sometimes jack is the only person ready to cross that line to get the results and she lets him, she can’t do that last bit and the guilt she feels is visible. Gwen is ready to let Jack shoulder the guilt and responsibility and live with the consequences and I feel sometimes Jack is jealous that she still has that freedom and a place to return to, a family and a life jack will never know. Jack envies the life Gwen can have and he feels bad that he needs their connection and is ready to pull her into his world even though he knows she’d be better without that life he needs her. But when it comes to it they would kill for each other and even more importantly kill each other if it meant saving the life they have made for themselves. They are both desperate to protect their life, their purpose and their humanity and if one threatened the other they would end that person’s life.

I do love how dark this series got and it really exposed the monsters that lurked inside humanity, the depths we go to and the decisions we make when in desperate situations. We wouldn’t all come together and make nice, our governments would make harsh decisions for us and we would even know half of what was happening. The camps were a brilliant idea at first just a place to send all those that were alive but in no state of living and the even worse category 1, coma victims and terminally ill being burnt alive because there isn’t space or anything that can be done for them. It was so harsh and moving, Gwen’s struggle with her dad broke my heart. Desperate to keep him with her but knowing that he was going to die, not wanting unseen forces making the decision of when he should die but allowing the family the time to come to terms with this heart breaking situation. Who really has the right to say when someone is dead and gone, what makes governments think they can play god and that they have the right to reject the emotions and wishes of families and loved ones.
The series continues to expose man’s greed, desire and turmoil. Especially in characters like Oswald Danes, where would a death row paedophile becomes a spokesperson for the forgotten, loved by people for being able to say what everyone else is thinking? He wants to preserve his life so badly he’ll do anything but at the same time he is a dark and twisted person. He feels no remorse for what he’s done, even in his dying moments to the last breath he feels no regret for his crimes, he relishes in his twisted being and his dark path. He is a truly brilliant character ready to stand up and say that people aren’t being treated fairly in this new world, riding his publicity train to fan and using the system to ensure he continues to live and then even when he decides to die for the cause he doesn’t ask for forgiveness no he is the monster to the end.

So much great plotting and characters make up this dysfunctional and dangerous world and then we have the actual alien element. This I must say got a bit confusing; there is a shaft that runs from Buenos Aires to Shanghai that somehow affected the whole world through a field and jacks blood. So ok some of it got a bit weird, it’s all connected to a beautiful love story from jack past, a secret family organisation that took jacks blood and tried to find the secret of immortality and ended up reorganising the shape of the world. The thing that interested me was the fact that unless you saw the Christmas special of Doctor Who ‘The Runaway Bride’ you would have missed something important. Jack say’s the Doctor told him about a legend about the world being formed around the spine of a ship, which we know is the Racnoss ship. So somehow the Christmas special also ties into Miracle day but I don’t mind I like my DW references and reminders the shows are still linked.

I’m not going to go too much into the plot just go watch the series and discover all the great plotting, character developments and how far this series has come. The one thing I will talk about is Jack’s love life in this series and how people got all offended. So in one ep we get like a 1 minute sex scene where jack decides to have some fun with a barman, and why not he’s human and horny and Captain Jack Harkness, the scene is brief and at the same time Rex and Vera are having their own very strait sex scene. Why this caused controversy I have no idea one gay sex scene and one hetro, both got equal screen time both just not really explicit, both showing that the characters have these needs and feeling and that we are watching a show for adults. I hate it when people start complaining that they don’t want their children watching gay sex scenes, their children shouldn’t be watching Torchwood at all its for adult. Ever since DW we’ve known Jack in omisexual, and after three seasons and the development of his relationship with Ianto we know he’s been in gay relationships so why so shocked that he sleeps with a barman. It’s stupid that it got cut from the UK version for not having plot relevance, there are about a million shows and movies that have pointless striate sex scenes and no one complains, I for one am sick of watching those scenes they do nothing for the plot. I totally reject the whole hetro monogamous couple its boring to watch, I can be in those relationships I want to see something I can’t be a part of and relationship that is beyond me and far more interesting. Plus gay sex is hotter to watch!!! So this lead onto a very important episode which introduces Angelo, Jacks lover from the past and a relationship that put in the foundations that allowed jack to later learn to let someone in and love, there would have been no jack and Ianto if jack hadn’t had this earlier relationship. Also there would have been no Miracle if not for Angelo and how this relationship literally tore Jack apart allowing his ability to be exposed to people that want to use it for their own good. But plot aside people started complaining about the gay agenda, it was one ep with one sex scene and it detailed a beautiful and important relationship. It was another world and place where homosexuality was so much more difficult, we saw another side of jack and what was missing from his life and we saw that sometimes love isn’t enough. I am so sick of putting in a relationship just to keep strait people happy, why shouldn’t there be beautiful gay relationships, why shouldn’t I be allowed to watch 2 beautiful men fall in love and make love, we live in a modern world and therefor people should be more open with the nature of modern desire.

Well I’ve talked a lot more about the social and cultural importance of this series but it really is great and I’m waiting for my box set to arrive and watch it again.
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