LLAAA4837
Joined Dec 2004
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LLAAA4837's rating
Poison, the first theatrical film of Todd Haynes, is a grotesque, pessimistic, and extremely disturbing picture that is both celebration of misery and cruelty and a reflection of human tenderness and sexual freedom. The film interweaves three very different stories together into one narrative line. The film goes back and forth between each story, and each story is completely different from one another in theme, content, style, musical choice, genre, and tone. One story, titled 'Horror', is shot in the style of a 50s B-horror film and is about a scientist who manages to alienate the human sex drive into a vial of fluid. Unfortunately, he accidentally drinks the fluid and mutates into a blistering pile of pus and proceeds to go on an infectious rampage, spreading his disease to all he comes into contact with. Another story, titled 'Homo', is a sinister, gritty, muddy, and emotionally tender love story set in an underground prison of some kind in which two male prisoners slowly descend into an obsessive and violent S&M relationship. The story contains flashbacks to their traumatic youth. The remaining story, titled 'Hero', is shot in what appears to be a documentary format in which several members of a distraught community are interviewed about a recent bizarre tragedy involving a disturbed family. A little boy named Richard shoots his sexually abusive father and then flies out the window, and the entire incident was witnessed by his mother who considers her son to be an angel sent from God to watch over her.
Poison is a rather strangely enchanting film. One of the most enchanting things about it is that it never quite gives you any time to breathe. From frame one, the film plunges you into a world full of cruelty and chaotic confusion and you're left on your own to pretty much sort through the images. It's all rather elegantly pulled off. Haynes manages to capture a lot of the charm and the overall structure from each film medium his stories represent. With 'Hero' he manages to present that optimistic 50s family sitcom outlook gone slightly wrong found in David Lynch's Blue Velvet. He does this by using a lot of bright colors and simplistic architecture. The effect is unsettling, but it is also strangely hypnotic in it's own weird way. By using mostly mastershots and by allowing a little more time for talking heads, he's able to create a real creepy sense of foreboding fury that fits really well with the other two stories. With 'Homo', he uses a lot of low angles and close-ups. He also uses more natural lighting, at least in the scenes that aren't flashbacks. It's a much more testosterone driven story, and so the dark look really helps to highlight a lot of the sweatier, more vulnerable aspects of the bodies of these characters. This adds a much more psychological aspect of male sexuality to the film that carries over to the other two stories, making 'Hero' seem ever so slightly more perverted to the average viewer and making 'Horror' seem a lot more metaphorical and realistic in some ways. With 'Horror', we get the bleakest and most disturbing tale of the three. In order to create that classic horror movie feel, Todd Haynes uses a lot more fade-outs, more specific music cues, and noticeably melodramatic narration. He allows us to really feel sorry for this disturbed character, and that feeling of uncleanliness pervades the rest of the film as a result.
It seems to me that Haynes wanted to create this film in order to develop an intricate puzzle of how genre pictures can manipulate other genre pictures, the viewing experience of each picture, how watching one sort of theme in one picture can invisibly affect a separate viewing of another picture, and to recreate the style of multiple viewing itself. His personal reasons for making this film, however, seem to be much more complicated. Poison is what I would consider the quintessential gay picture. It has everything I love and hate about most gay themed films (the depressing endings, the perverted camera-work, the abundant strange behavior, the gratuitous sex), but it's self-awareness is so fun to watch that it rises above all the schlock and finds it's own path toward narrative freedom.
Above all, Poison is a masterpiece. Along with In a Glass Cage, If...., My Own Private Idaho, Mysterious Skin, and the films of Derek Jarman, it's one of the more challenging gay themed films that you're likely to see. Even if the subject matter disturbs you, there is still so much to digest in terms of imagery and in the wonderful music score. Even if you put aside all that, however, you still have one of the most unusual storytelling structures you will likely see for this kind of film. You can spend the entire film just studying the structure and you will learn so much about scene and theme composition. Even putting aside THAT, however, the ambition of the film is enough to admire. I find that there is way too much going on here that can simply be written off. The things I've noticed upon re-watching this film have chilled me to the bone, and watching it only makes me want to watch it again. It's one of those films that really hit the right notes with me. I will admit that the first time I watched it I couldn't quite comprehend it. It is a dizzying film in that sense, and I don't expect most viewers to digest a lot of the imagery on their first viewing. However, it's a film that I think really says a lot about human progress in terms of sex, imagination, violence, and physical desire. It's a powerful film with a lot of quiet emotion with an ending that left me feeling very polarized. Watching it once is simply not enough.
*to read more, go to cuddercityfilmchronicles.blogspot.com*
Poison is a rather strangely enchanting film. One of the most enchanting things about it is that it never quite gives you any time to breathe. From frame one, the film plunges you into a world full of cruelty and chaotic confusion and you're left on your own to pretty much sort through the images. It's all rather elegantly pulled off. Haynes manages to capture a lot of the charm and the overall structure from each film medium his stories represent. With 'Hero' he manages to present that optimistic 50s family sitcom outlook gone slightly wrong found in David Lynch's Blue Velvet. He does this by using a lot of bright colors and simplistic architecture. The effect is unsettling, but it is also strangely hypnotic in it's own weird way. By using mostly mastershots and by allowing a little more time for talking heads, he's able to create a real creepy sense of foreboding fury that fits really well with the other two stories. With 'Homo', he uses a lot of low angles and close-ups. He also uses more natural lighting, at least in the scenes that aren't flashbacks. It's a much more testosterone driven story, and so the dark look really helps to highlight a lot of the sweatier, more vulnerable aspects of the bodies of these characters. This adds a much more psychological aspect of male sexuality to the film that carries over to the other two stories, making 'Hero' seem ever so slightly more perverted to the average viewer and making 'Horror' seem a lot more metaphorical and realistic in some ways. With 'Horror', we get the bleakest and most disturbing tale of the three. In order to create that classic horror movie feel, Todd Haynes uses a lot more fade-outs, more specific music cues, and noticeably melodramatic narration. He allows us to really feel sorry for this disturbed character, and that feeling of uncleanliness pervades the rest of the film as a result.
It seems to me that Haynes wanted to create this film in order to develop an intricate puzzle of how genre pictures can manipulate other genre pictures, the viewing experience of each picture, how watching one sort of theme in one picture can invisibly affect a separate viewing of another picture, and to recreate the style of multiple viewing itself. His personal reasons for making this film, however, seem to be much more complicated. Poison is what I would consider the quintessential gay picture. It has everything I love and hate about most gay themed films (the depressing endings, the perverted camera-work, the abundant strange behavior, the gratuitous sex), but it's self-awareness is so fun to watch that it rises above all the schlock and finds it's own path toward narrative freedom.
Above all, Poison is a masterpiece. Along with In a Glass Cage, If...., My Own Private Idaho, Mysterious Skin, and the films of Derek Jarman, it's one of the more challenging gay themed films that you're likely to see. Even if the subject matter disturbs you, there is still so much to digest in terms of imagery and in the wonderful music score. Even if you put aside all that, however, you still have one of the most unusual storytelling structures you will likely see for this kind of film. You can spend the entire film just studying the structure and you will learn so much about scene and theme composition. Even putting aside THAT, however, the ambition of the film is enough to admire. I find that there is way too much going on here that can simply be written off. The things I've noticed upon re-watching this film have chilled me to the bone, and watching it only makes me want to watch it again. It's one of those films that really hit the right notes with me. I will admit that the first time I watched it I couldn't quite comprehend it. It is a dizzying film in that sense, and I don't expect most viewers to digest a lot of the imagery on their first viewing. However, it's a film that I think really says a lot about human progress in terms of sex, imagination, violence, and physical desire. It's a powerful film with a lot of quiet emotion with an ending that left me feeling very polarized. Watching it once is simply not enough.
*to read more, go to cuddercityfilmchronicles.blogspot.com*
In 1988, filmmaker Todd Haynes released a short film about Karen Carpenter's anorexia-related death. The entire film is, essentially, a reenactment of the events with the people being played by Barbie and Ken dolls. The entire film was more from the perspective of Karen Carpenter and is probably one of the most sympathetic portraits of her plight in existence. Unfortunately, the Carpenter family was none too happy about the film's release and, with the addition of several uncleared music rights, was banned from distribution. Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, found it's place in film viewing from the hundreds of bootlegs currently in circulation. The film's primary appeal, nowadays, is in the fact that it's such a controversial and illegal film. With the advent of the internet and of youtube, curious viewers can now watch the film online for free without having to pay for a bootleg copy with mixed quality. I have seen the film in question several times now and I consider it a fascinating first feature from a director that would later go on to receive tremendous acclaim for several of today's modern classics.
There isn't a whole lot I want to say about the film, because part of the mystique of the film comes from viewing it. I do want to say, however, that it is as creative, disturbing, and interesting as everyone has heard. To say that it's a masterpiece of cult cinema is a bit of a stretch, but structurally the film is intelligent. It does have a rather slanted perspective. It's more about Karen Carpenter and her troubles. It paints a very fair portrait of her difficulties with fame, and as weird as it sounds you do feel really sorry and sad when watching her. The film's treatment of the rest of the characters, however, is a lot less fair. Richard Carpenter, her brother, is shown to be very fame-driven and rather selfish. Haynes, in fact, goes so far as to imply that his hesitations in revealing Karen's anorexia are out of fear of her outing him as a homosexual. Their mother is shown in an even more disturbing light. She is ignorant, small minded, loud, and stubborn, and comes across as very manipulative and controlling. However, the worst portrayal is of their father, who seems almost like a mockery of sitcom fathers of the late-50s. It's an ugly and spiteful portrayal, and to be perfectly honest if it were my family that Haynes was making a film about I would probably want to wring his neck. Putting aside the wrath of the script's treatment of the characters, however, it is only a reenactment and reinterpretation and I have seen far more mocking portrayals of famous people on several different made-for-TV movies (Man in the Mirror anyone?). I don't think that the Carpenter family should have taken Haynes so seriously, but I understand completely why they did. It's a well-known fact that Haynes, in order to properly portray Karen's weight problems, actually shaved off layers of plastic off of her Barbie doll avatar in order to graphically show her descent. In addition, he edits in footage of informal ads, television news audio, and graphic footage of holocaust victims. This is a much darker film than many would think.
If there's anything wrong with this, it's that the impact of the film is weakened on repeat viewings. Once you get past the actual visual nature of the film, the dark tone, the graphic material of the footage, and the power of the music of the Carpenters in particular, there isn't much left to really dive into. This is really sad to me, because one thing that I can say with total confidence is that the depth Todd Haynes exhibits in terms of musical storytelling, visual power, multiple centered characters and character arcs, set pieces, genre manipulation, tone distortion, atmosphere, breaking of convention, and sound editing make his films some of the most re-watchable films in existence. Still, just because Superstar doesn't hold up does not mean that it is not worth seeing. It is a must-see film. Just don't bother watching it again, because once is enough.
There isn't a whole lot I want to say about the film, because part of the mystique of the film comes from viewing it. I do want to say, however, that it is as creative, disturbing, and interesting as everyone has heard. To say that it's a masterpiece of cult cinema is a bit of a stretch, but structurally the film is intelligent. It does have a rather slanted perspective. It's more about Karen Carpenter and her troubles. It paints a very fair portrait of her difficulties with fame, and as weird as it sounds you do feel really sorry and sad when watching her. The film's treatment of the rest of the characters, however, is a lot less fair. Richard Carpenter, her brother, is shown to be very fame-driven and rather selfish. Haynes, in fact, goes so far as to imply that his hesitations in revealing Karen's anorexia are out of fear of her outing him as a homosexual. Their mother is shown in an even more disturbing light. She is ignorant, small minded, loud, and stubborn, and comes across as very manipulative and controlling. However, the worst portrayal is of their father, who seems almost like a mockery of sitcom fathers of the late-50s. It's an ugly and spiteful portrayal, and to be perfectly honest if it were my family that Haynes was making a film about I would probably want to wring his neck. Putting aside the wrath of the script's treatment of the characters, however, it is only a reenactment and reinterpretation and I have seen far more mocking portrayals of famous people on several different made-for-TV movies (Man in the Mirror anyone?). I don't think that the Carpenter family should have taken Haynes so seriously, but I understand completely why they did. It's a well-known fact that Haynes, in order to properly portray Karen's weight problems, actually shaved off layers of plastic off of her Barbie doll avatar in order to graphically show her descent. In addition, he edits in footage of informal ads, television news audio, and graphic footage of holocaust victims. This is a much darker film than many would think.
If there's anything wrong with this, it's that the impact of the film is weakened on repeat viewings. Once you get past the actual visual nature of the film, the dark tone, the graphic material of the footage, and the power of the music of the Carpenters in particular, there isn't much left to really dive into. This is really sad to me, because one thing that I can say with total confidence is that the depth Todd Haynes exhibits in terms of musical storytelling, visual power, multiple centered characters and character arcs, set pieces, genre manipulation, tone distortion, atmosphere, breaking of convention, and sound editing make his films some of the most re-watchable films in existence. Still, just because Superstar doesn't hold up does not mean that it is not worth seeing. It is a must-see film. Just don't bother watching it again, because once is enough.
The Human Centipede tells the disturbing story of a mad German doctor whose previous whereabouts were in the medical field in which he performed operations to separate Siamese twins. He has now gone into seclusion and has invested all of his time and energy into doing the opposite, crafting living organisms together to create a new species. Meanwhile, two American female tourists have been unfortunate enough to stumble upon his home, and now are forced to take part in his latest experiment along with a Japanese man. This experiment is to create a human centipede, with the man in the front and the two girls in the back. To do this, he must split the kneecaps of these three people, pull out the teeth of the two women one by one, and then proceed to connect them, via their gastric system, and sew their mouths to each others anuses.
Two films were released in 2010 (A Serbian Film and The Human Centipede) that were reputed to be two of the sickest and most depraved horror films of all time. After viewing both of them, one thing I can say in absolute certainty is that they are both grossly over-hyped. Neither this nor A Serbian Film, which was infamous for depicting the anal rape of a newborn baby, even come close to being as disgusting and repulsive as most have led you to believe. If I were to choose what films I find most disgusting, Pink Flamingos would still be the reigning champion. Sweet Movie, Meet the Feebles, The Worm-Eaters, Society, and especially Caligula would certainly be high up as well.
What makes The Human Centipede so gross is really the idea that has been presented and the endless atrocities that it could call for. We can picture in our heads the idea of the person in the front of the centipede defecating into the second person's throat and we can picture the idea of the person in the back vomiting into the second person's anus and we can picture the thought of that waste traveling through the bodies of these innocent people, who did nothing to deserve this great torture, until it is expelled. However, this is simply a throwback to exploitation horror films of the 70s and the 80s such as Ilsa, She Woman of the SS and Bloodsucking Freaks. This is not a film that can be taken on the same level as films such as Martyrs or In a Glass Cage, because it is not that graphic nor graphic. This is a campy, mildly gory, and funny horror film that is intended to replicate the sensation of watching a midnight movie.
Yes, the images seem repulsive in our minds, but on screen these images are very humorous. There's an already infamous scene in which the man in the front of the centipede defecates into the second woman's mouth. I'm sorry, but I couldn't take that scene seriously. I laughed. I felt bad for laughing, yes, but the expression on the girl's face is just too over-the-top. The opening scene details the doctor going after a truck driver, who stopped to take a dump in the grass, with a dart gun. The girls stumble upon a gravestone for a three-dog. The acting is so bad that even the actors have a tough time keeping a straight face all the way through. The scene in which the doctor explains his plans, via wall projection, is made ludicrous by the childish drawing of the human centipede. I mean, this is some darkly depraved comedy. If you laughed while watching The Ebola Syndrome or The Untold Story, you will laugh while watching this.
However, don't go into this thinking this is a laugh riot. In truth, there is a lot of horror here. What makes it all hold together and work is the performance of Dieter Laser, who I think plays one of the most over-the-top and stereotypical villains since Jon Voight's character in Anaconda. He is a monstrous, insane, decadent human being who shows no mercy to these girls. He basks in the pain and misery of these characters to the point where they beg for death. Laser goes all the way with his portrayal of this monster, and I loved every second of his scene chewing madness. I loved the scene where he licks the blood off the stairs. I loved the expression he made upon greeting these girls at the door. I loved this man's performance. It is just as sick and as atrocious as you are expecting.
The girls, Ashley C. Williams and Ashlynn Yennie, were very funny and I had fun watching them in their portrayals of air-headed tourists who can't even bother to learn the German language before going to Germany. There's even a scene in which one of them has the most incredible luck I think I have ever seen in a horror film and gets the perfect time to escape, and then blows it! I'm glad she did too, because I really wanted to see the human centipede! Japanese actor Akihiro Kitamura also gives it his all in his performance of the only person in the centipede who can speak. I thought he was pretty funny. Overall, not a good film, but very enjoyable, scary, and funny. Please don't go into this expecting a depraved shock film about bodily horror. Go into this expecting a twisted B-movie. This is an enjoyable film if you are willing to give it a chance.
Two films were released in 2010 (A Serbian Film and The Human Centipede) that were reputed to be two of the sickest and most depraved horror films of all time. After viewing both of them, one thing I can say in absolute certainty is that they are both grossly over-hyped. Neither this nor A Serbian Film, which was infamous for depicting the anal rape of a newborn baby, even come close to being as disgusting and repulsive as most have led you to believe. If I were to choose what films I find most disgusting, Pink Flamingos would still be the reigning champion. Sweet Movie, Meet the Feebles, The Worm-Eaters, Society, and especially Caligula would certainly be high up as well.
What makes The Human Centipede so gross is really the idea that has been presented and the endless atrocities that it could call for. We can picture in our heads the idea of the person in the front of the centipede defecating into the second person's throat and we can picture the idea of the person in the back vomiting into the second person's anus and we can picture the thought of that waste traveling through the bodies of these innocent people, who did nothing to deserve this great torture, until it is expelled. However, this is simply a throwback to exploitation horror films of the 70s and the 80s such as Ilsa, She Woman of the SS and Bloodsucking Freaks. This is not a film that can be taken on the same level as films such as Martyrs or In a Glass Cage, because it is not that graphic nor graphic. This is a campy, mildly gory, and funny horror film that is intended to replicate the sensation of watching a midnight movie.
Yes, the images seem repulsive in our minds, but on screen these images are very humorous. There's an already infamous scene in which the man in the front of the centipede defecates into the second woman's mouth. I'm sorry, but I couldn't take that scene seriously. I laughed. I felt bad for laughing, yes, but the expression on the girl's face is just too over-the-top. The opening scene details the doctor going after a truck driver, who stopped to take a dump in the grass, with a dart gun. The girls stumble upon a gravestone for a three-dog. The acting is so bad that even the actors have a tough time keeping a straight face all the way through. The scene in which the doctor explains his plans, via wall projection, is made ludicrous by the childish drawing of the human centipede. I mean, this is some darkly depraved comedy. If you laughed while watching The Ebola Syndrome or The Untold Story, you will laugh while watching this.
However, don't go into this thinking this is a laugh riot. In truth, there is a lot of horror here. What makes it all hold together and work is the performance of Dieter Laser, who I think plays one of the most over-the-top and stereotypical villains since Jon Voight's character in Anaconda. He is a monstrous, insane, decadent human being who shows no mercy to these girls. He basks in the pain and misery of these characters to the point where they beg for death. Laser goes all the way with his portrayal of this monster, and I loved every second of his scene chewing madness. I loved the scene where he licks the blood off the stairs. I loved the expression he made upon greeting these girls at the door. I loved this man's performance. It is just as sick and as atrocious as you are expecting.
The girls, Ashley C. Williams and Ashlynn Yennie, were very funny and I had fun watching them in their portrayals of air-headed tourists who can't even bother to learn the German language before going to Germany. There's even a scene in which one of them has the most incredible luck I think I have ever seen in a horror film and gets the perfect time to escape, and then blows it! I'm glad she did too, because I really wanted to see the human centipede! Japanese actor Akihiro Kitamura also gives it his all in his performance of the only person in the centipede who can speak. I thought he was pretty funny. Overall, not a good film, but very enjoyable, scary, and funny. Please don't go into this expecting a depraved shock film about bodily horror. Go into this expecting a twisted B-movie. This is an enjoyable film if you are willing to give it a chance.