Creepy Ballets

If there's one thing Christmas always reminds me of, it's seeing my dear sister perform in the Academy of Performing Arts rendition of The Nutcracker. And not just seeing it once mind you, seeing it about 5 times. We were a devoted family okay? Few people know that Emmy Doomas was a bit of a ballet prodigy in her day and that I lived vicariously through her by tagging along to all performances and after parties. As such, I am an expert in everything that involves ballet. Okay maybe not, but my mind doesn't have to know the truth.

When Black Swan came out I was completely blown away and secretly having brain orgasms because of how awesomely it portrayed the darker side of ballet. Not just the actual darker side of eating disorders, bad blisters and broken toe nails but in general--how it so deliciously portrayed the somewhat dark story of Swan Lake.

For many, ballet is a very frilly pink and girly thing. And to those many people I shake my head in annoyance. Ballets are often much more dark than people realize. Most likely due to the fact that a great deal were based on fairy tales, where the original versions were of course extremely dark. Cautionary tales that teach us lessons by scaring the crap out of us is how the original fairy tales usually worked. So it makes sense that ballets would also follow suite. Plus, ballets are performances on par with something like an Opera. A spectacle of drama only instead of voice the instrument is dancing.

So let us talk about a few ballets that are extremely dark. And that would make FANTASTIC horror movies, shall we?

The Red Shoes

When Black Swan came out many people were quick to draw similarities to Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's 1948 film The Red Shoes. Itself based on a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, the film is another cautionary tale about how ballet often has the potential to control and take over one's life.

Although the ballet based on the fairy tale is rare to find performed these days, it still falls into the category of insanely creepy/awesome in my book. The story is about a peasant girl who gets adopted into a rich family. After lying to obtain fancy red shoes and becoming all vain and lame, the girl gets cursed by a mysterious soldier who condemns her to dance for the rest of her life (and beyond it as well).

The story is riddled with violent imagery, like the girl being forced to dance through thorns that rip at her skin and body. The girl even tries to cut off her feet hoping to destroy the curse. Plus, I just love the common theme of "dancing to death"...isn't it just the greatest!? Also, let's not forget the ill-fated Asian horror film The Red Shoes. Where the red shoes were really just pink shoes. But who's keeping track?

Giselle

Giselle is the tale of a young woman who goes crazy and dies from a broken heart after learning that her love is actually a Duke and not a peasant like she thought. After Giselle's death, the second act of the ballet takes place by her grave where Hilarion the gamekeeper who was also in love with Giselle, grieves. It is here, that Hilarion encounters the Wilis, vengeful female spirits who rise from their graves at night and seek revenge against men by dancing them to death.

Giselle is then summoned out of her grave and invited to partake in the festivities. But when the Duke arrives he begs for forgiveness, which Giselle accepts. Hilarion however, is not so lucky as he chased by the Wilis and then thrown to his death in a nearby lake. Ultimately, Giselle's kind heart allows her to separate from the Wilis and sleep peacefully in her grave. But still, poor Hilarion huh?

Naturally this ballet has awesome written all over it. Vengeful spirits that take revenge on men by making them dance to their death? YES. Not to mention that Giselle rising from the grave invites gentle whispers of ZOMBIE. Well, ghost zombie I guess.

The Rite of Spring





Many recognize Igor Stravinsky's ballet The Rite of Spring as being the music for the dinosaur segment in Fantasia but it was actually first a ballet that filled the audience with horror because of how unconventional it was. Taking place in Pagan Russia, the Rite of Spring is something of a fertility ritual where a young virginal girl is sacrificed by being forced to dance to her death.

Clearly a central punishment in many ballets is this idea of dancing to your death. Which really is kind of the ultimate definition of my favorite kind of horror--something that is terrifyingly beautiful. It also speaks largely to that whole idea of being far too consumed by something you truly love. What if one day someone condemns me to eat sandwiches or play Zelda FOREVER? Well, I guess there could be worse things.

The Holy Mountain: Jodorowsky, Armless Midget Lover? I Think So

Well, it finally happened. I threw away my tax forms from when I was 15. And also, I found a film that is weirder than Hausu. I didn't believe it either at first, after all what purpose does a tax return filed in 2001 really serve, but there you have it. By the way, The Holy Mountain? What the fuck? This is The Cremaster Cycle times infinity. This is a film that should be banned because it might cause your face to be stuck in the "I'm so confused it hurts" position forever. I'm serious. I literally have a headache from squinting, shaking my head and saying "WOW" out loud for 1 hour and 50 something minutes. The wow is in capitals because it's a Tuesday.

Hopefully it goes without saying that all this craziness, and weirdness, all this nakedness and all these oddities are in fact what make The Holy Mountain a must see. I must warn you though---The Holy Mountain requires you to mostly submit to pure aesthetic.

The understanding will come later (Although in most of our cases it is doubtful that it will ever come), but there's no point in avoiding the fact that what we have here is art. Of course this "must see" status applies only to those of you that are enthralled by weirdness and massively cool and bizarre images on screen. It is not a horror movie, but that doesn't mean that it won't completely mess you up--in either a good or bad way depending on your age and race. (That's a joke!)

While my last experience with an Alejandro Jodorowsky film filled me with immense inspiration and divine awesomeness, The Holy Mountain fills me mostly with a sense of despair. The kind of despair that is only achieved by seeing a man poop in a glass jar and having that poop turn into gold before your very eyes. What is The Holy Mountain about? I have no idea and I'm pretty sure that nobody knows (By the way, if you tell me that you know and understand what this film is about, I will assume that you are a liar and that you cannot be trusted. I will also eat your baby should you ever have one).

As far as I can tell, The Holy Mountain is about a guy who looks like Jesus, that rides a big fishing hook up to a tower where Alejandro Jodorowsky lives. Jesus becomes his apprentice and meets several important people that represent planets and weird things. These people and Jesus then journey to The Holy Mountain to find out something important. That's all I got. Read a summary if you feel cheated and believe me, you'll still be confused.

Although the story is I assume important in some way, for me the main draw of The Holy Mountain is the imagery. I'm not exaggerating when I say that I wanted to take a screen grab of everything. As you look at these screen grabs that I have captured, I think you will get an understanding of the kind of film The Holy Mountain is. A fucking weird and awesome one. It's important to note here also that I would classify The Holy Mountain as a disturbing film. Remember the true definition of "disturbed" and you'll understand why. The things that you see in The Holy Mountain are things that you will probably never see again in your life--but you will never forget them. These things, sometimes flashes, sometimes long drawn out shots of colors and exact meticulous positioning, will stick with you as you're trying to fall asleep. They'll stick with you during times of sadness and happiness. Times of agony and times of fear.

But why should I tell you about these things when you can find them out for yourself? JUST LIKE THE HOLY MOUNTAIN. It's true though. Why would you listen to someone tell you about how a monkey shows up at one point wearing a sweatshirt taken from the closet of A.C Slater, when you could see it for yourself?

Why listen to someone try to explain the genius of a full spectrum rainbow

or a room filled with testicles in little glass jars,

or a penis ice sculpture,

or a woman bleeding strawberries,

or a really tall toilet,

or a frog circus that turns into a terrifying frog massacre/volcano explosion? Exactly.

I could go on and on and on about what I just saw and how it's the most fucked up and crazy thing I've ever seen, but you won't care. You'll laugh and say, "Oh ha ha yes Andre that is very funny....BUT SHOULD I WATCH IT?"

I have no answer for you. Should you feel compelled to someday watch The Holy Mountain, then I will shake your hand. The Holy Mountain is not for everyone, that much is proven---but those of us who can appreciate the fine art of well....art, it just might be for us. Jodorowsky is a filmmaker that continues to mess with my head. My creative juices continue to be depleted after watching his films because I simply cannot turn my brain off.

I have no fucking clue what The Holy Mountain is about nor do I care. And that my friends, is awesome. But don't blame me if you watch it and then can't look at a chicken, a frog, wax, flies, a tiger, gumballs, poop, or a green penis for years.

Artistic Inspiration In The Cell

I've always been under the impression that Tarsem Singh's, The Cell was one of the most artistically intriguing films to ever be made. It wasn't a great film really, but the segments done in the minds of our characters were some of the most creative and oddly beautiful that I had ever seen. Sure, I could do without the police banter, and the miscasting of Vince Vaughn as an intelligent and haughty FBI agent--plus can I really buy that Jennifer Lopez's character smokes pot and frolics around in a sexy pair of black underwear while in the comfort of her own home?

Not so much. Still, you can't deny that The Cell has some truly breathtaking segments that are just cool looking.

I had always thought that The Cell was pretty original, that is until I did some research surrounding the artistic inspiration and then I thought a bit differently. This isn't necessarily a problem--people are inspired all the time and Tarsem's visions usually are pushed much further than the original inspirations go. What I find to be interesting however, is that Tarsem and his team rarely if ever, talk about the inspirations that went into the film and instead, the crew talks about his originality. After doing this research however, I've found that inspirations behind the art in The Cell are pretty damn interesting. Exact copies or not---this is the kind of art that makes YOU want to create---which is presumably why The Cell happened in the first place.

Damien Hirst

Damien Hirst was one of the dominating forces in the British art scene during the 1990s and still today is reported to be the wealthiest living artist in Great Britain. One of his most famous series involved taking actual dead animals, preserving them in formaldehyde and dissecting their bodies.

Most notably this was done with a cow, sometimes halved with its inside being exposed,

and other times broken into pieces.

Look familiar? It was this particular piece that inspired the famous horse scene in The Cell.

I do love this scene, and obviously it IS a bit different since we do get to witness the actual splitting of the horse. But I still find it odd that Hirst is not mentioned in the commentary on this particular scene. It's a pretty blatant "rip off" that the writer seems to get all the credit for--thanks to his insistence on using a horse, and yet I still find it to be one of the most effective scenes in Carl Stargher's head. Mostly, I can never seem to get that wildly fast ticking clock out of my head. Oh and P.S. little Carl Stargher is Lizzie McGuire's brother. Whatever happened to him?

H.R. Giger

I don't see a ton of influence by H.R. Giger in The Cell, but he is still referenced as a notable inspiration. Giger will be well known to us horror fans, as he won an Academy Award for Achievement in Visual Effects for Alien. It was in fact Giger's compendium of images, Necronomicon, that was given to Ridley Scott during Alien's pre-production that prompted him to hire Giger to produce the artwork and conceptual designs for the film. Perhaps this is why I fail to see a real correlation between Giger and The Cell. All I see is the alien...in erotic alien sex positions.

I feel very "naughty" when I look at these......*blush*

The only real sort of inspiration I can really see, is from this particular artwork from The Necronomicon.

I can definitely see a tad of inspiration taken for the design of Vincent D'Onofrio's scary alter ego in The Cell.

Although I suppose you could also see a bit of Jennifer Lopez's "slave" gear as well.

It IS a little alien-ish no?

Odd Nerdrum

Besides having a sweet ass name, Odd Nerdrum is Norwegian and made a name for himself by doing art that was not so agreeable to Norway's standards at the time. Now however, many realize that his art is pretty neat. Sometimes creepy, sometimes romantic--Nerdrum explains his art by calling it kitsch rather than art. It is these two paintings however that win the award for most direct inspiration.

If you combine what the three strange men (?) (I mean I think I can see their enormous bulges but who knows) are wearing with the position that the people are in the second one you get this extremely memorable image.

My love for this particular scene knows no bounds. In fact, it was this scene that got me infatuated with the film in the first place. It's insanely creepy and surreal, and the way that the three women whisper things and then go back to gaping at the sky, really does wonders on your mind.

The Brother's Quay

The kind of art that the Quay Brothers make, is the kind of art that keeps me up at night. By that I mean, it's creepy stop-animation short films featuring scary broken dolls, and sometimes creepy old men. Their most well known film, Street of Crocodiles is the epitome of this, and when one looks at it, it's not too difficult to figure out where The Cell got some of its inspiration from.

I speak mostly of the notable scene where J Lo is investigating all the "scenes" of the living dolls. Creepy, dusty surroundings, dolls with broken arms and faces--it may not be a literal inspiration but it still harkens back to the Quay Brothers...only more naked and scarier. Also, Carl's real life dolls found in his apartment could be considered cousins of the dolls in Street of Crocodiles me thinks.

Nine Inch Nails

Surprised are you? Didn't you know that when I use the term "art" I also mean things like music videos? Remember music videos? They were once integral parts of an artist's music career, and now they are lost somewhere on MTV2 and play only at 3 AM. Sigh.

While the Brother's Quay, Street of Crocodiles inspired in some ways The Cell--it was actually Street of Crocodiles (and Joel-Peter Witkin!) that inspired the Nine Inch Nails video Closer--directed by Mark Romanek. In my opinion--Closer carries most of the inspiration behind the dolls scene in The Cell.

I couldn't remember this video very well until I saw it, and then I remembered that I did remember it but I had blocked it out because it scared the crap out of me. I guess I didn't do well with monkey's tied to crucifixes and beating hearts tied to chairs...

It looks to me like the set design in the doll chamber was influenced directly by the set in Closer. Most notably this whole contraption of a wheel with cables, that opens up a sliding panel, revealing people behind it.

Nine Inch Nails

The Cell

In the Cell these aren't weird old men however, these are scary dolls, and also a really muscular man/women.

Also, a neat thing in Closer---is this image of the two girls bound by their hair.

Which is actually an image taken from Fantastic Planet.

Which is what J. Lo chooses to fall asleep to in The Cell! Crazy I know.

Marilyn Manson

I had forgotten how fucking scary Marilyn Manson is. If you read my story up top, you'll notice that one of my fears growing up was gothic people. No offense gothic people, but you scared the crap out of me when I was little... (and maybe still sort of today....). Marilyn Manson is like the grandaddy of my terror though. I remember back in the day, while watching MTV, Marilyn Manson always popped up on TRL and then I would run screaming into the next room.

His two Floria Sigismondi directed videos The Beautiful People and Tourniquet however, are what I think are the strongest inspirations for the design of the dolls in The Cell.

Marilyn Manson

The Cell

Marilyn Manson

The Cell

The Cell

And while, there aren't any really scary tall people in long coat things in The Cell--it's really just the atmosphere, and the kind of brutality that exists in both of these music videos that really harkens back to The Cell. It's that gross dirty, sick, sexual, violence that really gets to you. A clear marker of tone if you ask me. Here are some more shots of creepiness thanks to Marilyn Manson.

Eeek!

Madonna

It feels funny to put Madonna next to Marilyn Manson and Nine Inch Nails--but if you remember, Madonna's videos had their own special brand of creepiness to them as well. And believe it or not, Mark Romanek who directed Closer and The Perfect Drug for Nine Inch Nails, also directed Bedtime Story for Madonna. It is Bedtime Story, that contains another almost mirror image of a scene from The Cell.

This rotating cube, that contains visions of Madonna, can also be scene in one of the last scenes in The Cell, when Vince Vaughn and J. Lo are searching for the key to the lost girl's whereabouts.

There's also this very familiar color scheme happening in Bedtime Story,

that reminds me of the giant purple cape scene in The Cell.

Also, there are a few shots of Madonna in a pool with some creepy skeletal animals.

Which definitely echoes a few of Carl's dolls in The Cell.

So as you can see, inspirations comes from a million things apparently. Maybe that's what I love the most about The Cell, it really does feel like the best parts of the creepiest nightmares. For your viewing pleasure, I have also decided to include a few more of my favorite images from The Cell. Perhaps you'll be able to find other instances of inspiration?

Good grief, I think I'm unapologetically in love with the surreal scenes inside the mind of Carl in The Cell. How about you? Watch this video of J. Lo's first trip inside of the mind of Carl and try to tell me it's not the coolest looking thing ever....tons of rip offed images or not.