tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3350096535937978369.post6623510871792004949..comments2024-01-09T18:40:53.465-08:00Comments on Ramblings of a Creative Double Dipper: The Wolf Gift--25Christwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17590823821715820817noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3350096535937978369.post-86264282041644571302013-06-14T09:43:21.068-07:002013-06-14T09:43:21.068-07:00I think I've got that essay lying around here ...I think I've got that essay lying around here somewhere as an unpublished post. If nothing else I've got the notes for it sitting on my harddrive somewhere. <br /><br />Victim blaming so as to blunt the effect of onscreen deaths on the audience is a favorite pet peeve of mine. It's a storytelling construction thing that is so deeply ingrained in movie making and horror culture, telling a Friday the 13th type story <i>without</i> using social undesirables as the first set of victims is almost impossible. You have to be a GOOD writer interested in telling a GOOD story, and most of the writers who pick by-the-numbers slasher films as a project are lazy as fuck. <br /><br />Of course the alternative (having good, easy to like cannon fodder) is hard on both the writers and the audience. It's hard on the writers because we don't like writing violence, and using an unlikable character is one way a writer copes with having to work on something nasty (Shitty writing is another. Filter words like "seemed" and the favorite "He saw/looked/turned to see" construction kill active flow and give a writer one more barrier between themselves and what they're working on) If the writer manages to park their own self-protective instinct long enough to get an actual good scene down, the impact on the audience will be <i>devastating</i>. So by "Good writer" I mean one who knows how to balance humor so that the moral reality of what is onscreen isn't blunted, but so that enough emotional pressure gets released so the audience doesn't walk out. <br /><br />The only thing "better" is making the unlikable villain by-the-numbers evil. Evil doesn't wear a black hat all the time, and when it does, it's that socially acceptable top hat for the black tie party. It gives us the impression that we'll recognize evil the first time we meet it. In reality you're more likely to meet active social dangers (what we usually mean by evil) in a church than a dark alley. So not only do by-the-numbers-slasher films give us a distorted view of victims, they give us a distorted view of killers. <br /><br />So yeah: favorite pet peeve. One day I'm posting that goddamned essay.Christwriterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17590823821715820817noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3350096535937978369.post-61039737075100072432013-06-14T08:48:58.057-07:002013-06-14T08:48:58.057-07:00Next up: he discovers a woman who attempted suicid...<b> Next up: he discovers a woman who attempted suicide, drags her off to the nearest nightclub so that she can be rescued, and runs off.</b><br /><br />A nightclub? Manwolf!Reuben ran through the streets, a suicidal woman in tow, until he found a nightclub? So somewhere on YouTube there is shaky smartphone-video of a dude in a bloodstained werewolf costume cutting in line at a nightclub and pushing a terrified woman at the bouncer?<br /><br />Awesome.<br /><br /><b> Voice of the beast rattling deep in his chest. To have and to have not. Mothers’ milk.</b><br /><br />Not awesome.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05828438966741169694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3350096535937978369.post-12541185410383794642013-06-14T08:04:58.355-07:002013-06-14T08:04:58.355-07:00"This is literally like the slasher movies ca..."This is literally like the slasher movies casting that hot promiscuious blond as the first to die so that you don't feel icky about it."<br />Which as a societal concept deserves its own essay :/<br /><br />I'm just going to relax and enjoy the nice picture of Hicks there and...snerkRubenthePubeWolfasgkgfHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!Duamuteffehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03467912396487349539noreply@blogger.com