Halloween Blog#3-Girls are scary

One thing that I have picked up on in recent years especially when I worked at Blockbuster is that girls love slasher/horror movies. One would think that movies about a usually male psycho chopping up naked girls would appeal to weird, horny boys. Well, you thought wrong my friend! Many girls love it too. Not all girls fit my female slasher lover criteria but if you do this what you are....

• Aged 13-45
• Attractive
• Usually in a committed relationship
  

Almost every day when I worked at Blockbuster I would have girls come in and ask me for horror movie recommendations while their boyfriends and husbands groaned and walked towards the comedy,action and soft-core porn. I enjoyed helping these gore hound girls. It was fun and I always liked talking to people about different movies. I also would love when they would return the movie and tell me they loved it. I felt like I was doing a public service and helping people get their money's worth of entertainment.
The question is why are so many girls attracted to horror movies? I thought I was the only one who had noticed this until my boyfriend and I watched a documentary called Going To Pieces:The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film where some the point was brought up. According to the documentary (and me) girls enjoy these films because most of the time a female is the hero. Look back at movies like Rear Window where Grace Kelly is hell bent to solve the mystery of the missing neighbor all while looking fabulous and saving the day. (I have a theory that Grace Kelly was the prototype for the last surviving smart girls in horror movies).

In every horror movie now there is that last remaining girl who either gets away, kills the bad guy or is left to come back for the sequel such as Nancy aka Heather Langenkamp in the Nightmare on Elm Street movies who finally gets rid of Freddy even though I love him and want him to kill all those stupid teenagers.

Then you have the heroines who do some serious ass kicking such as in 1980s I Spit on Your Grave which was the first female revenge movies and has some of the most disgusting scenes ever put on celluloid. It's a good cautionary tale and allowed girls to seek justice on those who did them wrong. Note to girls:this is not a good date movie. Watch this one alone or with your friends. I was actually told by a guy I dated in high school to watch this one alone. YIKES!

While there are the girls who save the day there are also some great horror female villains even though they are very hard to come by. Girls cheer on the heroines but we also love a good nasty, female villain. Society frowns upon women being bad which is why we are so drawn to them such as The Bride of Frankenstein. Even though we only see her for about 5 minutes in the actual Bride of Frankenstein film she is the most popular Classic Universal monster. Why? Because she a monster with boobs. What's not to love?

Some other great female villains include that awful Japanese girl in Audition, Glenn Close as the infamous Alex Forrester in Fatal Attraction, Sherri Moon as Baby in Rob Zombie's House of 1000 Corpses, and Shawnee Smith as Amanda in the Saw movies.
Another reason why I think girls are drawn to these movies is that they teach us that bad girls and whores die first. If you are a girl who has sex in a horror movie you will die! I think there is a fascination with wanting to see girls that remind us of the ones we hated in high school get hacked up. Also consider the fact that us girls bleed for five days every month gives us a higher tolerance for blood. Sorry to be gross but it's true. If men had periods they would all kill themselves. Like I said, girls are scary!
Happy Halloween!

"The memo is on your desk, Mr. Draper." aka Why I love Mad Men

Mad Men is not only one of my favorite new shows but it is also considered to be the best show on television. With only 2 episodes left of season 4, I thought I would share some of my favorite moments from the show (including seasons 1-3). *SPOILERS* Hint: click on the links for videos!

For starters this show is extremely clever. I feel like I learn something when I watch and it's also a show that I am not ashamed of (cough, cough, hint, hint Teen Mom). It helps to know business terminology when watching this show. Thanks to my almost completed Arts Administration degree this is not an issue. Who ever would have thought that a show about advertising in the 1960s would have been so interesting? There are masses of 1960s pop culture references (Who could forget the Bye,Bye Birdie style commercial in Season 3 or little Sally Draper going to see The Beatles at Madison Square Garden a few weeks ago? Or Peggy's Twist infused promotion party?) It also deals with real historical events, people and real products and companies. There was a whole episode dedicated to the day JFK was shot. It's clear that the writers and directors do their history homework. The agency also holds accounts with Bird's Eye, Playtex, Mountain Dew, Samsonite suitcases, Kodak, and Lucky Strike. This is a clever tactic because the audience is familiar with all of those brand names so it feels familiar and you can relate to the ads made on the show.
One thing that Mad Men does is that at the start of every season time jumps forward one year. This leads to things happening at the beginning of seasons that are never really explained. The audience just learns to accept them and move on . Also many major plot points are left unanswered and unresolved. Such as Peggy and Pete's illegitimate baby in Seasons 1 & 2 and what ever happened to Roger Sterling's daughter? I am sure we will find out eventually but for now we will just have to wait and wonder.

I think that Season 4 has been the best so far. It's a little different in the sense that Sterling Cooper is now Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce after the original agency was bought out at the end of season 3. It took a little getting used to a new set. The season is all about characters starting over in a new office as well as in life. Don Draper has finally gotten divorced from everyone's favorite bitchy housewife, Betty. Joan Holloway Harris is married with a husband (who is a complete tool and who raped her in season 3) in Vietnam. Peggy Olson is slowly rising to the top of the corporate latter and Roger is rekindling his affair with Joan all while starting the new agency.

My favorite part of the new season so far is the awkward somewhat romantic relationship between Don and Peggy. I did not see this coming at all. The more I see it the more I like it and I think that we will see them together possibly at the end of this season. I love the idea and I think it makes perfect sense because they are the male and female versions of each other and it just makes sense considering Peggy is pretty much the only regular female character besides Joan that Don Draper hasn't screwed. It would be a great plot twist and cause many troubles for the at the office. The more trouble we have at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce the better the show is!

I also love that we saw some more Joan and Roger. For those of your with penises I am sorry that this is all you get to see of Christina Hendricks ;)




Now for some other great moments from past seasons...
The lawnmower incident. This is just one of those what the f*ck moments that only this show could pull off. It's hilarious yet horrible and unlike any other scene ever put on TV. Even if you have never seen this show you know that someone got their foot cut off with a lawnmower on Mad Men.

Vomit. Yep you read that right. Vomit. For some reason this show has an excessive amount of vomit. There is no video for this because, well it's vomit and that's gross. I am not really sure why there is so much vomit on this show. It's gross yet funny at the same time. The most memorable vomit scene on this show would have to be Roger on the stairs after a lunch of martinis and oysters and before a heart attack after he and Don have sex with twin sisters. Okay moving on....
Betty VS. The Birds
This is such a great Betty moment. He truly showcases how crazy she really is. She is pretty fab. Gotta love her!

Now for some unanswered Mad Men questions...
How in the hell did AMC get away with showing a 10 year-old Sally Draper starting to masturbate? WTF?!?!? I feel a little wrong posting this. I am actually a little disturbed by this.

Why do Joan and Don randomly kiss? I fully support this but what does it mean? Is it some kind of odd brother-sister love or is it unresolved sexual tension?

I hope everyone enjoyed my thoughts on Mad Men. Please feel free to share your thoughts.
" Look, I want to tell you something because your very dear to me and I hope you understand it comes from the bottom of my damaged, damaged heart. You are the finest piece of ass I ever had and I don't care who knows it. I am so glad I got to roam those hillsides."-Roger Sterling
After reading the Rolling Stone article about this show I love it even more because it was pretty much self made by a bunch of Hollywood rejects. It's always great when nobodies can rise to the top :)

I wanna do bad things with you...

As most of my close friends now I love, love True Blood! It's my favorite show on TV right now. It's like they made that show just for me. It's funny, sexy, romantic, dramatic, and filled with some great blood splatter moments.
Season 3 has been my favorite so far. Season 1 was intriguing and was a great set up for the following seasons. While Season 2 had it moments, I have to say it was my least favorite so far. The whole Fellowship of the Sun and Mary Anne drama went on a little too long. Season 2 did bring us some great flashback moments and had a great season end cliffhanger.
Since us fangbangers only have 1 episode left I thought I would discuss my favorite/least favorite moments in Season 3. But first of all I want to meet the sick fuck who ordered the veggie burger with bacon!

Favorite: Pam and Jessica's Relationship

I love that Pam has unwillingly and hilarious taken babyvamp Jessica under her wing. Jessica is well on her way to becoming a bad ass bitch vamp like Pam. I love their scenes together this season. I can't wait to see what they do with Jessica.

Favorite: Pam in general aka Lesbian Weirdness
From the very beginning I have been a Pam fan. This season we really got to see more of Pam even though we haven't gotten any flashbacks from her yet. I got my fingers crossed that we will see some in Season 4. What we have learned about Pam this season is that she is a lesbian, she hates kids, she was once a hooker and she isn't as tough as she seems (we saw her cry last Sunday). Please Pam, don't cry anymore! Sookie also doesn't want anymore of your lesbian weirdness but I think that viewers would disagree.


Least favorite: Tara
I am sick of her drama. I got sick of her in Season 2 with the whole Eggs and Mary Anne situation. She is not funny or interesting. Just kill her already! The only cool thing Tara did this season so far was bash that crazy but awesome motherfucker Franklin in the head.
Tara is too dumb to realize that the only ways to kill a vampire is to stake them, cut their head off, or put them in the sun.


Least Favorite: Crystal

The whole werepanther thing is cool as hell but Crystal is not. Maybe we will finally get a cool werepanther in a later season. I find Crystal annoying and stupid just like Tara. Let's hope they never have a scene together :( If I wanted to see white trash meth head girls I could just go to the Wal Mart in my hometown at midnight on any random Tuesday.

Favorite: Russell Edgington
I understand that he is evil and needs to die but damn this guy is funny! He is such an interesting and entertaining character. This scene is one of the best moments on the so far.


Favorite: Eric and Talbot

If you are a fan of the show and you don't like Eric just give up and become a Twihard! This gay sex scene shows how far Eric is willing to do to get revenge for the death of his family. SPOILER ALERT: Russell's killed Eric's family 1,000 years ago. Gays rejoice! It's about time we got some gay sex on TV!

Favorite: Lorena

We got to know her in Season 2 as Bill's evil and possessive maker. This Season she met as they say on the show "the true death" at the hands of Sookie and Bill. It was time for her to go but I personally thought she was a great character. She also would show up when you least expected and when you saw her you thought "Oh shit!" but it was a good "Oh shit!" We will miss you Lorena!

Least Favorite: Bill

I am about sick of him. He lied to Sookie and sexually choked her (even though she liked it). I don't think that Sookie and Bill will end up together. He is an important character and you need him on the show. I think he does love Sookie After all that happened this season he just too shady for Sookie to trust again. NOTE: Sookie get with Eric... NOW!!! Which brings me to my next favorite moment.

Eric and Sookie's real kiss
Finally! We all saw this coming from the start. Team Eric!


Favorite: Werewolves

These are not CGI wolves these are the real deal. Vampires and werewolves have been feuding for years in all kinds of books and movies. True Blood does a great job at portraying this and putting their own spin on it. Not to mention Alcide is hot!


I can't wait to see the finale in 2 weeks to see what they do next!