My Kindle, The Girl Next Door and An American Crime

One of the first things I purchased when I got my first "adult" paycheck (also commonly referred to as a paycheck that doesn't make you weep in soulless misery) was a Kindle. Yes, I was one of those people that turned their nose up at Kindles once but now all that has changed. My Kindle and I have now formed a bond that can only be described as passionate and unrelenting LOVE. Yes so bookstores are going out of business.....okay bad luck there...but Kindles and ereaders aren't getting rid of books you know. In the case of me for instance, Kindles are turning people into better readers and human beings.

I'm not lying either. Remember that one time when I read a book and was all excited about it? It wasn't too long ago when I felt like sitting down and actually reading a book was something that I had trouble doing. Now however, I'm flying through books left and right and loving every minute of it.

A few weeks ago I decided to buck up and purchase Jack Ketchum's The Girl Next Door. After I had seen the movie fairly soon after beginning my blog, I couldn't ignore all the comments about the book. This was of course during a time when books and I did not get along and so the moment passed. The Kindle however opened up that door to.....the Girl Next Door.

If you've seen The Girl Next Door then you know how horrible, brutal and disturbing it is. You know how it takes the real life torture and murder of Sylvia Likens and morphs it into a somehow even more terrifying story. The book on which the film is adapted from however---is worse. Much, much worse. When I first watched The Girl Next Door, I was filled with this overbearing sense of anger. How on earth could these kids stand there and let that happen? How could they participate in it willingly and gleefully? It just didn't seem to make sense to me and I think a part of me resented the film because of it (Despite however much of those incidences were true in the real case).

The book filled me with even more anger however because it brings you even closer--much, MUCH closer than you would like to be anyways, to the psyche of the participants. In fact, I think there's still a part of me that does not truly like the book and film still because of this. I don't care how many times I've read up on the Milgram experiments--there is NO possible way that none of those children did not feel any sort of conscious or desire to tell someone what was happening. It is this anger and this unbelievability however that makes both The Girl Next Door so terrifying.

An American Crime is also based on the Sylvia Likens case but with a decidedly more accurate depiction of events. It is in no way as disturbing as The Girl Next Door, but due to the repeated actions of the children it still manages to repulse you all the same. I'm not entirely familiar with the exact case of Sylvia Likens, but one thing that is quite obviously different between the two films is the apologetic nature of Gertrude and Ruth respectively. In the Girl Next Door, Ruth is depicted as nothing less than evil. Her mental fragility is touched upon more than once and she never ever seems to talk herself down or to apologize.

An American Crime however has Gertrude suffering from at most a bad cough, and depicts her at many moments breaking down, crying and apologizing to Sylvia stating that it's for her own good. Even the ending shot of Gertrude in prison with a vision of a brittle Sylvia in her cell shows Gertrude on the cusp of saying, "I'm Sorry". Hopefully I'm not alone in saying that this rubs me the wrong way. It felt like the film was trying to turn Gertrude's character into a bit of a sympathetic case---a minuscule one but still that feeling seemed to be there.

The film also does a terrible job of completely tricking you into a false sense of hope. One that if you know the story will anger you and cause mass confusion. This alternate escape route of Sylvia is both bothersome and cruel and seems pointless in the grand scheme of things. Ultimately, while An American Crime stays truer to the actual events and trial of Gertrude, it is Ketchum's Girl Next Door that manages to stick with us longer. It is important to note however, that both films handle that whole implied nature of torture well--that is to say they both somehow do it in a respectful manner. A manner that does not in any way, shape or form, resemble something in the "torture porn" subgenre and for that I suppose I can't hate it.

Still though, I can't help but feel that my life would be somehow brighter had I never discovered The Girl Next Door and An American Crime. Now I'll never be able to erase those feelings of anger and disgust. Bah.

How Rude!

Last night the carbon monoxide detector went off in my apartment. For those that do not know, the actual sound that the carbon monoxide detector makes when it goes off can easily be equated with death. It's very loud and very upsetting. At any rate, when the alarm went off my first thought was, "How long until we die!" and also, "CATS. Gotta save the cats!". After coming to my senses, my dinner party and I filed nicely out to the porch while keeping contact with the cats who took shelter by open windows. I then phoned the local fire department and told them the situation to which they replied they would send someone over.

Apparently sending someone over is fancy fire department lingo for sending a giant fire truck with flashing lights followed closely behind by the deputy. When the man in the fire truck walked up to us his first response was, "Are all the windows open?" To which we replied..... "Yes...." To this he answered, "How are we supposed to check for gas if you opened the windows?" At first I laughed and thought oh those funny local fireman always being sarcastic and what not! I soon realized that he was not being sarcastic, he was serious.

Jeez I'm sorry it's the middle of summer and we had all the windows open. Yes actually, my first thought during a possible carbon monoxide leak is to immediately close all the windows and doors and vacate the building, leaving my cats inside to die! How silly of me.

In any case, this particular fire man was rude. So rude, that he made us feel bad and foolish for calling the fire department in the first place. Like we should have known that the alarm only went off because our oven was leaking carbon monoxide when turned on (?!!?). Aren't they there to be helpful? Isn't it better to be safe than sorry? That's what they tell you anyways, and then when you're home alone and in the 2nd grade you realize that being safe rather than sorry probably does not mean calling 911 when you suspect a burglar is in the attic moving boxes around. As a side note, fireworks going off in the distance DOES sound like a burglar in the attic moving boxes around, and I stand by it.

ANYWAYS where was I? Oh yeah, this guy was fucking rude. You know what I think about rude people? They stink. Here are some other people that can join rude club. Enjoy.

Freddy Krueger

Freddy Krueger is rude for a number of reasons. First of all, he invades our beautiful peaceful dreams and tries to kill us in them. Secondly, he's very crass and dirty and likes to stick his tongue through the phone at you, and also invades your private bathtub time by trying to mutilate your vagina. Could it get any worse? Oh right he is a child killer which is 80s talk for pedophile. Rude, rude rude. And also...he just never shuts up does he?

Homeless Cricket Man

One of the greatest and most complicated questions in the world is, why is that homeless man eating crickets in Hellraiser? Aside from the fact that yes he's probably some representation of evil or whatever---it's a weird little scene right? Not only is it strange, but it also perfectly exemplifies the very same kind of rude behavior I hate. Is there a sign in the pet store that says, "Eat all the crickets you want"? No! Are those your crickets to eat? Definitely not. RESPECT THE PET STORE YOU RUDE HOMELESS MAN!

Mean Evil Dwarf

One of my biggest pet peeves is when people are rude to someone because they made an innocent and harmless mistake. Like when the train lurches and you fall on someone and they give you this scowl like you purposely meant to fall on them. The same happens at the end of Don't Look Now. The Donald, merely thought the mean evil dwarf was his daughter right? That's really what he needed to see after all. Harmless. But nope, the mean evil dwarf has to take real offense and stab him in the neck! What a fucker.

Sharks

All sharks are rude. End of story. Although I suppose the shark in Jaws is the rudest of them all because it likes to pop up all the time without warning which makes me upset. There's also no picture because sharks are too scary.

Herbert West

Because I like to think of you all as my friends, I will bestow upon you some very important advice. Do NOT and I repeat, do NOT take people's beloved pet cats without asking and perform freaky, horrible scientific experiments on them. This is considered very rude. I suppose you could ask first but it's more like the thought of it that is rudest. Let's just leave the cats out of this huh?

Investigating Inferno

These days I find that I like a lot of things without ever really knowing why. For instance, I really like to eat oatmeal with a certain spoon in the silverware drawer. But why? I have no idea. I just know that I like that spoon. The same thing goes for Inferno—a film that many people seem to get all mad at because it’s not as good as its older sister Suspiria. Unfortunately for Inferno and just about every other Argento film ever made—nothing is as good as Suspiria. If you want to start liking Argento and if you want to really start appreciating the work that he does, you need to first repeat those words to yourself.

All set? Good. Inferno is something that I’ve always really enjoyed and I realized recently that I don’t have a good reason for doing so. What is it about this film that keeps me wanting to watch it? Why do I feel like people are really selling Inferno short, when it deserves to be looked at in a much more favorable light? In order to figure out why exactly Inferno rubs me the right way, I have decided to dissect it much like I did with Suspiria. The following is a study of why this film remains steadily on my top 5 list of favorite Argento films.

Underwater Ballroom

There are some nights when I lay awake and think about the underwater ballroom scene. It’s not because I have some raging hard on for it, rather it’s because it reminds me of a nightmare. A common “theme” in my dreams is the idea of finding a doorway into a whole new section of a house that leads to an entirely new room. I can’t describe exactly the feeling that happens when I discover the new passageway, but it’s an odd sense of both dread and excitement. This is the way that I feel when watching the underwater ballroom scene. It’s a scene filled with beauty, stillness, quiet and horror and it gets better and better every time I watch it.

That same feeling of unease and excitement is found when Mark discovers the hidden floor in the apartment. I swear I've had a nightmare just like that. That feeling that this whole other realm of living has existed right beneath you without knowing? It's an idea that somehow makes my screen crawl and I secretly love it.

Drawing Connections

In the past when I've watched Inferno, I've been very confused by one thing in particular. Who is this crazy looking woman and why did she bring her cat to music class?

Aside from the blatant jealously that I feel knowing that I'll never be able to take my cat somewhere without her running amok, I've always felt that this scene in particular means more than we initially think.

For starters, why have I never given serious thought that part of Inferno takes place in Rome? We know that the three mothers live in Germany, New York and Rome. With the bulk of Inferno taking place in New York and the rest in Rome we must of course wonder if we are perhaps exposed to the third mother prematurely? The answer I believe is yes. And also, YES.

It's so obvious that this strange woman stroking her cat in music class is the Mother of Tears. She's terrifyingly beautiful, is mumbling some crazy witch spell under her breath and is stroking a cat. I believe she sensed the danger of Mark reading the letter from his sister and aimed to get him away from it..which she partially does by causing the window to burst open. Later, we see the woman drive by in a sinister cab right after the murder of Sarah.

Furthermore, when Sarah is in the library she stumbles into the lair of an unknown scary man with scary demon hands.

Hands that of course bear a strong resemblance to the minions hands in Suspiria. This man, was clearly a servant of the Mother of Tears. Just as the scary hands that eventually kill Rose belong to the servant of Mother of Darkness

AND just like how the scary hands that kill Pat Hingle belong to the servant of The Mother of Sighs.

Signs of Hell

It's no coincidence that Inferno is largely made up of the kind of hellish imagery that makes my head spin. For starters, Inferno is much like Suspiria, in that it is plagued with a fairly decent amount of snake imagery. Snakes on the building and Rose's keychain to name a few.

There's also no shortage of red and fire throughout the film. In fact, while the main complaint of Inferno seems to be that it bears little resemblance to Suspiria, one must wonder how these people can ignore the red lights flooding our senses. Much of Inferno is cast in shadows

(rightfully as Mater Tenebrarum is the mother of darkness) and it is constantly bathed in RED.

Most exciting however is the discovery that the same cab driver from Suspiria appears again in Inferno.

"Charon in Suspiria"

"Charon" in Inferno

The two taxi scenes are practically identical, both taking place in torrential down pours with the constant flashing of headlights behind the cab. Due to the fact that the cab driver appears at two critical times, in two different films and makes an appearance right before a critical death scene, many have interpreted the taxi driver as a sort of version of Charon--the ferryman of the underworld. NEAT is right!

Sarah, Sarah, Sarah

Did you know that there are three important characters named Sarah in all three of the mother films? Sarah, Susie's friend and the girl who truly cracked the witches code in Suspiria. Marks classmate and unfortunate victim in Inferno and of course Asia Argento's character in the Mother of Tears. What does this mean? I don't know but perhaps Argento is entirely too fond of the name Sarah?

More Suspiria Connections

There seems to be no shortage of ways to connect Inferno with Suspiria--at least on a visual level. Perhaps this is why I gravitate so strongly towards Inferno in the first place. While there isn't as much of a reliance on geometric patterns, there is still quite a bit of striking colors, angles and shots. Some of these shots could even directly match up with Suspiria's me thinks.

(Inferno)

(Suspiria)

(Inferno)

(Suspiria)

Not only that, but the Great Gatsby eyes return in Inferno

(Inferno)

(Suspiria)

and there's even a similar shot that depicts the houses cooks.

(Inferno)

(Suspiria)

Clearly, Inferno is much more like Suspiria than we thought. Indeed, it's very clear to me now that one of the main reasons I react so positively towards this film is that seems to evoke that similiar nightmarish, fairy tale feeling. It's not quite up to Suspiria's level of course, but I think it does a much better job than people give it credit for.

Of course, one cannot ignore the plastic skeleton at the film's conclusion or a few of the lines, (Have you ever heard of the three sisters? You mean those black singers?), or even some glaring plot details---but it wouldn't really be an Italian horror film without those things would it? So why not cut Inferno some slack? Even after diving deep into the film and investigating scenes shot by shot, I still feel like I could study it for longer. Just like Suspiria, there is so much going on here that we don't even realize and THAT is why I love Dario Argento.