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.

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.