Soundtrack Wednesday - Angel Heart

Track: Soul on Fire  
Artist: LaVern Baker  
Movie: Angel Heart

Visual Parallels: Alien + Prometheus

Alien and Prometheus, though set years apart in movie-making and storytelling terms, share many similarities. Both directed by Ridley Scott and taking place in the same universe, they have strong women as the protagonists - Ellen Ripley and Elizabeth Shaw - first one fierce to begin with and forced to fight for her own survival on board of Nostromo, where xenomorph is determined to kill every single passenger, second - a little naive and too trusting changes in the course of the story when she has to find the inner strength and courage to stay alive.

Scene of the Week - Interview with the Vampire

I want some more

directed by Neil Jordan

The scene: After Louis (Brad Pitt) kills little girl named Claudia (Kirsten Dunst) when the thirst overcomes him, Lestat (Tom Cruise) sees the opportunity to create a perfect companion for his innocent hearted friend and another way to manipulate him. He decides to turn Claudia into a vampire, while Louis is present in the room. Louis attempts to stop Lestat but then changes his mind as Lestat starts feeding Claudia his own blood. Louis watches with horror as Claudia suffers and shakes in pain and suddenly she is reborn as a vampire, as her fangs grow and her hair starts to curl. After that she sits up, turns to Louis and Lestat and says "I want some more" referring to blood.

Screaming Sunday - The Others

Sati's movie rating - 93/100  
Plot:  A woman named Grace (Nicole Kidman) retires with her two children to a mansion on Jersey, towards the end of the Second World War, where she's waiting for her husband to come back from battle. The children have a disease which means they cannot be touched by direct sunlight without being hurt in some way. They live alone there with oppressive, strange and religious rules, until she needs to hire a group of servants for them. Their arrival will accidentally begin to break the rules with unexpected consequences.
The heroes: Profoundly sad and lonely Grace, determined to keep her children safe.

Saturday TV Special: American Horror Story 2x02 Tricks or Treats

This week's episode changed the game a little bit - we didn't get aliens - we did however get an exorcism scene. We also discovered Sister Jude's secret, met a new doctor who seems to be a worthy opponent for sister Jude, got a quick glimpse at Bloody Face in the 60's and were shown a scene that is hopefully a red herring. Let's get specific:

Soundtrack Wednesday - Bram Stoker's Dracula

Track: Dracula - The Beginning

Artist: Wojciech Killar

Movie: Bram Stoker's Dracula, American Horror Story (season 1)

Performances I Love: Isabelle Adjani in Possession

I can't exist by myself because I'm afraid of myself, because I'm the maker of my own evil.

Possession is a very difficult movie to get through - disturbing, bizarre and all in all hard to watch. It shows the destruction of marriage using many creepy plot devices, strange metaphors and often borders on horror movie, with all the examples of body horror that happen here. But it's all worth it because of Isabelle Adjani's performance in the film. I have yet to see The Story of Adele H. which features what is frequently called one of the best portrayals of madness in movies and it's also provided by Adjani, but for me, her work in Possession is absolutely hypnotizing.

Scene of the Week: Prometheus

  Hello Mommy

directed by Ridley Scott

The scene: After Dr Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) learns that she is pregnant with her boyfriend, who just died after being infected with something, she is horrified - not only the place she believed to be a beautiful miracle is a hideous nightmare - something strange and unnatural (the fetus is growing very fast) is growing inside her. She manages to escape and go to Meredith Vickers's room where she finds the machine that is capable of performing surgery. Shaw is trying to tell the machine that she needs a caesarean but since it's mysteriously programmed for a man all she manages to do is to program it to remove foreign object from her body. She gets into the machine, with the syringe packed with painkillers, as her stomach starts rising. The machine manages to cut her open and remove the fetus. Upon seeing it, Shaw looks at it with astonishment until it comes to life trying to attack her. She escapes and leaves her offspring behind, locked in the machine.

Saturday TV Special: American Horror Story: Asylum - 2x01 Welcome to Briarcliff

One thing to know about Ryan Murphy, the creator of American Horror Story, is that he has an unusual gift of screwing up his own series. His series Nip/Tuck which was great in the beginning seasons turned into such an unwatchable mess it was actually painful to witness. I'm not talking about the level of awfulness True Blood 5 is presenting - something even worse. Fortunately, he didn't reach that point with American Horror Story yet and I hope he never will.

7 Days of Halloween announcement

Killer Joe

It takes a lot to disturb me. For such a horror movie geek like me, it's really difficult to feel genuinely uncomfortable while watching the movie. I've seen so much messed up stuff in films - mostly due to recent popularity of torture porn trend in horror movies - that I'm now almost completely numb to violence and disturbing scenes in movies. But Killer Joe is so superbly acted out and directed there where plenty of times when I felt genuinely uneasy about what I was watching. It's thanks to the story, based on Tracy Letts 1991's play of the same name that Killer Joe is as twisted and messed up as every review of the film says it is.

Scene of the Week - Running Scared

Monsters hide in plain sight

directed by Wayne Kramer

"I said back the fuck up, you sick, twisted, motherfucking cunt!"

The scene: In the most memorable and intense scene of uneven Running Scared Teresa (Vera Farmiga) gets a phone call from Oleg who is her son's friend. He is trapped in the apartment where he was taken to by strange couple. He is calling her from the bathroom and manages to get an address off prescription medication bottle. Teresa drives there and knocks on the door. Edele (Elizabeth Mitchell) opens and is very reluctant to let her in but Teresa threatens to call the police. Edele shows her the bedroom with two sleeping kids, who we know were in the van with Oleg, that she claims are her children. Teresa sees the creepy room with all the toys and drawings. She is also introduced to Edele's husband Dez.

To Rome with Love

There are certain people working in cinematic world whose decisions puzzle me. One of such decisions is working, working and then working some more when they really don't need to do that - look at composer Alexandre Desplat. For the last few years it has been embarrassing to witness how much he is wasting his talent away. Instead of focusing on quality, he is focusing on quantity. And now look at Woody Allen. He makes one movie a year. And when the movie is as bad as To Rome with Love, I really don't understand the praise he is getting for being so prolific. I for one would much rather have no new movie by Allen this year when the result is that awful.

Looper

Rian Johnson's Looper is one of those movies that are destined to be a future cult classic.It's not one of those films with gigantic budgets, directed by famous directors self proclaiming it as something amazing, as if the movie was the same caliber as the second coming of Christ would be. Like last year's Drive, Looper is the brainchild of clever indie director and a true labor of love. Driven by terrific story and strong performances, Looper is one of the best science fiction movies in recent years.

Cinematic Corner is 1 year old!

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5 posts I loved writing that you may have missed:
1. 10 movie pets you'd love to adopt
2. Black Swan - Possession theory, step by step.
3. Sisterhood in film
4. A Guide for Alan Rickman's movie partners.
5. The Tale of Michael Fassbender and his many on-screen deaths.

Performances I Love Special: My 10 favorite performances

(countdown to Cinematic Corner's first birthday - 1 day)

Soundtrack Special: 20 favorite movie tracks

(countdown to Cinematic Corner's first birthday - 2 days)

Saturday TV Special: 10 favorite scenes from beloved TV series

(countdown to Cinematic Corner's first birthday - 3 days)

Autumn Gallery

Autumn - the time when leaves have warm, gorgeous colors as they fall from trees, when days are shorter and nights longer and when it rains for most of the time. For me it's usually the only time of year when I fall ill, but even that doesn't change the fact that it's a lovely season - one that has my favorite day of the year - Halloween. It's also beautifully depicted in movies - all the shots of leaves on the ground, creating this cozy surroundings around the characters, the rain falling from the sky and people walking outside, in their coats and with their umbrellas, not being discouraged by the days are becoming darker and colder with each moment.

Movie of the Month - October - Angel Heart

Harry Angel has been hired to search for the truth... Pray he doesn't find it.

It's only 29 days till Halloween so the only right choice for October's Movie of the Month is one of my favorite movies and one of my favorite horror films - Angel Heart.