Rabid (1977) (aka Rage)

Canadian writer/director David Cronenberg's unconventional, low-budget horror vampire film (his second commercial feature film, and similar to his first body-horror film, Shivers (1975)) starred ex-porn film star Marilyn Chambers.

[Note: She was the ex "Ivory Snow Girl" who became an adult film star in the Mitchell Brothers' Behind the Green Door (1972) and then became one of the first adult stars to cross over into a mainstream film. It was her first non-pornographic film role.]

Its tagline was:

You can't trust your mother, your best friend, your neighbor next door... One minute they're perfectly normal, THE NEXT...RABID. Pray it doesn't happen to you.

Chambers took the lead role of Rose, a mutant predator with vampirish blood cravings following plastic surgery (and an experimental skin graph). Critically-injured, she had been treated following severe burning and bleeding suffered in a motorcycle crash with her boyfriend Hart (Frank Moore). In the Keloid Clinic, she underwent a new technique performed by Dr. Keloid (Howard Ryshpan) involving the neutralizing of skin tissue - grafted skin from her thigh was removed, treated, and then applied to injured areas of her body. After a month of remaining unconscious, she awoke, removed her nutrient IV tube, and temporarily escaped from the clinic.

Unable to digest food regularly following the accident, Rose realized that she required human blood to survive. And she noticed a grotesque phallic-shaped organ that burst out of her armpit. In a memorable scene, she found shelter in a barn where she put her arm around a black and white heifer. She attempted to suck blood from the cow (rather than from humans) - but her attempt failed and she threw up.

A drunken farmer (Terence G. Ross) forced himself upon her while calling her "Honeypie" and suggesting: "I got somethin' you can drink off of, and it ain't no whiskey neither" when he knelt in front of her. He noticed her bloody mouth and then she punctured his eye with the organ in her armpit. Later, the farmer died of an infectious rabies-like virus in a diner.

Upon her return to the clinic, Rose attacked blue bikini-clad patient Judy Glasberg (Terry Schonblum) in a hot tub and drowned her. Her frozen body was later found hidden in a freezer in the clinic's basement. Dr. Keloid (Howard Ryshpan) also became infected from her bite, and then was performing surgery in an operating room with his wife nurse Roxanne Keloid (Patricia Gage) assisting. Inexplicably after she passed him a pair of scissors, he cut off her finger and sucked the bleeding stump. Foaming at the mouth, and with green eyes, he was taken away in the back of a police van.

Rose's feeding scenes contained symbolic sexual imagery - since her blood-sucking bites came from a pair of vulgar, phallic-shaped (and also clitoral-shaped), stinger-like appendages from inside a vaginal-like slit or orifice in her armpit.

After escaping from the clinic, Rose visited in the Montreal apartment of her best friend Mindy Kent (Susan Roman), where she suffered severe pain and sweating on the floor of the apartment's bathroom.

In the film's creepiest scene set in a red-light district, she found another nourishing victim, credited as Man in Cinema (Miguel Fernandes) in the Eve adult porn theatre (showing Party Swapers and Models For Pleasure) - whom she allowed to sit next to her. The soundtrack of the film corresponded to the seductive wishes of the naive male patron who began fondling her. His closeness aroused her, and her needle-like stinger emerged from her armpit. She left the theatre alone after fulfilling her insatiable, mosquito-like appetite for human blood. The dead man had a bloody entrance wound on his right palm.

Rabid Infection in a Theatre - Death to Man in Cinema

Her bloodlusting bites would infect her victims with a highly-contagious, venereal, rabies-like disease that transformed them into manic, consuming flesh-and-blood consuming zombies. The bite was akin to unprotected sexual intercourse via promiscuity that was also linked to rampant, rabid infection - a new outbreak threatened the entire city of Montreal.

Mindy witnessed a rabid woman attack a man on a subway train. During the establishment of martial law, chaos ruled - exemplified by the accidental careless murder of a Santa Claus in a mall - shot by an officer.

Fearing that she was possibly accountable for the health crisis after feasting on her friend Mindy, Rose allowed herself to bitten by one of her zombified victims, credited as Young Man in Lobby (Allan Moyle) so she would suffer the same fate.

The nihilistic film ended with Rose's stiff, open-eyed body, found on a trash pile in a Montreal alley, being indiscriminately tossed into the back of a garbage truck by a sanitation crew.

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

The spectacular, cliff-hanger, breathlessly-paced, non-stop action/adventure film of the early 1980s was this immensely successful summer box-office hit. The scary scene in the fiery finale when the Ark of the Covenant was opened was reminiscent of the opening of the Great Whatsit box in the climax of Kiss Me, Deadly (1955). Retribution from the horrors of hell (God's vengeance) was released upon the rival, religious artifact-obsessed French archaeologist and his Third Reich Nazi cohorts.

When the gold lid was removed by two Nazi soldiers, French archaeologist Renee Belloq (Paul Freeman) reached in to discover only fine grains of sand within. (Had the stone tablets of the ten commandments disintegrated?) But then the Ark unleashed electrical energy and charges, zapping all electrical lights, apparatus and machines in the arena. Things turned dark, and then a loud humming noise emanated from within the Ark.

Inside the box itself, there was a wondrous, brilliant light, and a white smoke undulated out of it and blanketed the ground. Nearby tied to a pole together, Indy (Harrison Ford) warned Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen) to look away (similar to the Biblical story of Lot warning his wife not to watch the destruction of Sodom, or Adam and Eve's knowledge of the forbidden fruit and subsequent loss of innocence in the Garden of Eden):

"Don't look at it. Shut your eyes, Marion, and don't look at it, no matter what happens."

Belloq had an obsessed, transcendent look on his face - he believed that the blinding light in the Ark was beautiful. Ghostly spirits hypnotically zoomed around everyone - but apparently, God's wrath had been summoned, as the forms changed from wondrous to deadly visions. Belloq was besieged by the ghostly images and screamed in horror - the interlopers were punished by a lethal dose of death for breaking the sacred taboo.

Zapped With Fire

The villain was consumed by flames, and piercing firebolts and shafts of fire zapped the rest of the Nazis through the heart. One firebolt actually traveled through one of the movie cameras, destroying the visual evidence of the event! Major Arnold Toht's (Ronald Lacey) head, along with the heads of several other commanding Nazis, including Colonel Herman Dietrich (Wolf Kahler) melted into dripping ooze by the extreme heat, while Belloq's head exploded.

The climactic firestorm created a rushing vacuum of wind and a rising plume of fire above the island. Suddenly, the blinding fire in the heavenly sky reversed itself, and the fire was sucked and swallowed up by the Ark. When the forces were returned inside the Ark, the lid slammed down tightly and neatly shut and sealed itself, and covered up the divine powers.

Only Indy and Marion survived the holocaust because of their humility and reverence for the awesome forces.

Re-Animator (1985)

#69

Director Stuart Gordon's gory, cult-classic comedy was about re-animated dead people - a combination mad zombie and mad scientist film (and a retelling of the original Frankenstein films). There were two sequels to follow by director Brian Yuzna: Bride of Re-Animator (1990) and Beyond Re-Animator (2003).

It had a number of clever taglines, such as:

"...It will scare you to pieces"
AND
"Herbert West has a good head on his shoulders...and another one on his desk."

The twisted film was based on an H.P. Lovecraft serial tale, Herbert West - Reanimator. It was shot in only a little over two weeks, and told the outrageous tale of a demented medical student who was experimenting on regenerating dead bodies.

In this grisly horror tale (and black comedy), the film opened as university student-scientist Dr. Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) was doing "independent research" in Zurich, Switzerland, behind a locked lab room where screams were heard. When the door was broken into and unlocked by guards with guns drawn, there was the terrifying scene of West leaning over professor Dr. Hans Gruber (Al Berry) with a hypodermic syringe and insisting he had to get the man's vital signs. Gruber was screaming in agony, then stood up as his head turned purple, and his skin and eyes bulged outward - with blood spewing everywhere. Gruber then collapsed dead to the floor. Dr. West explained how a life-resurrecting dosage was lethal:

West: "Of course he's dead. The dosage was too large."
Female: "You killed him."
West: "No, I did not. I gave him life."

Third year student Dr. West transferred to the US (at Miskatonic Medical School in Arkham, Massachusetts), and became friends and roommates with co-partner/fellow student Dan Cain (Bruce Abbott). Cain's secret girlfriend/fiancee was Megan Halsey (scream-queen Barbara Crampton), the daughter of the Dean of the medical school Dr. Alan Halsey (Robert Sampson). Cain was discreetly having sex with Megan, since her puritanical father would object. One of the eminent professors at the school was megalomaniac Dr. Carl Hill (David Gale), specializing in brains (and brain death), one of Dr. West's research competitors.

Deceased Cat Rufus Stored in the Refrigerator	Re-Animated Cat - Now Dead a Second Time
Reinjecting Rufus With The Green Serum	Rufus Briefly Back to Life a Second Time

Dr. West conducted his first attempt at reanimation in his apartment's basement, after he alleged that Dan's black housecat Rufus had accidentally died of suffocation (and then was stored in the refrigerator in West's room), along with a glowing green substance. When Dan asked about the green fluid, West suggested blackmail when he retorted that it was none of his business:

"...just as it's none of my business that you’re sleeping with Dean Halsey's daughter."

The cat was revived in the basement, although it became hyper-crazy and screeched, and both Dan and Herbert tried to kill it with a baseball bat and croquet mallet, respectively. When Dan heaved the cat against the wall and broke its back, West began laughing hysterically. Then the incorrigible researcher admitted what he had done - he had attempted to reanimate the recently-deceased creature by injecting it with a luminous green flourescent goo, reagent or serum - a substance designed to bring back the dead (he bragged: "I conquered brain death"). To prove he could regenerate the dead animal again, he reinjected it a second time - and the cat briefly howled and twitched.

When Dan told Dr. Halsey about Dr. West's regenerative experiments, the strict administrator expelled Dr. West from the medical school for conducting experiments that were unauthorized and "beyond the scope of...legitimate studies." And Dan was required to submit a written apology, and his student loan would be rescinded (effectively ending his studies). Dan continued to aid Dr. West to salvage both of their careers - he wheeled Dr. West (under a sheet) into the medical school's autopsy room filled with corpses.

There were a number of scary scenes as West's bizarre experiments went awry in the basement of the medical school:

• The first awakening of an autopsy room patient from a slab and the ensuing struggle with the superhuman zombie, who in the melee attacked Dr. Alan Halsey - who had arrived to accuse them of trespassing. The zombie was killed by Dr. West applying a surgical buzz bone-saw to its back and emerging from its chest. The dead Dr. Halsey, now the "freshest body" available, was now reanimated as an undead zombie ("We can bring him back to life"). Soon after, Dr. Hill became the "guardian" of the zombified, strait-jacketed Dr. Halsey (held in a padded observation cell/office). To investigate the cause of death by exploratory surgery, Dr. Hill secretly performed a lobotomy on his boss, and discovered that Halsey had been reanimated.
• The scene of the murder of Dr. Hill by an enraged Dr. West, who feared that Hill would soon plagiarize his research (Hill had already plagiarized Dr. Gruber's work) when Hill threatened: "I want your discovery." Dr. Hill's head was crushed when a shovel was swung at it, and then severed from his body at the neck. Dr. Hill's decapitated head was then placed within a silver tray, and West injected reagent into both parts - the head and the body. In retaliation, Hill's reanimated, headless body grabbed Dr. West from behind and knocked him unconscious. Using mind control, weirdly-obsessed Dr. Hill sent a reanimated Dr. Halsey to kidnap his own daughter Megan ("Alan, it’s time for you to come out now..."). Megan was brought to the lab by Hill's body (with an anatomical model of a head propped on its neck stem, and Hill's head in a bag). She fainted, was stripped and her left arm was strapped onto a metal lab table next to Hill's head in the tray.

Severed Head Sexual Attack

• The next scene was an outrageously humorous and horrifying scene - the film's most famous over-the-top, perverted sequence - "rape-by-severed-head." Decapitated competitor Dr. Carl Hill's disembodied, reanimated 'head' was aroused by the sight of a naked Megan while she was restrained and bare on the laboratory gurney next to him. After Dr. Hill's body (with the anatomical model head propped on the neck) massaged both of her breasts, Megan kicked off his fake head. Hill's body picked up his own head in the tray, then leaned over her with his disembodied head (held by his own body) and managed to speak in a gravely voice to her, while trying to kiss her breasts:

"I've always admired your beauty, my dear. I think I've always loved you. (She screamed and attempted to push him away.) And you will love me. You will!"

As she protested and screamed: "Please stop, let me go," he attempted to provide oral sex ('head') to Megan, but was interrupted by West:

"I must say, Dr. Hill - I'm very disappointed in you! You steal the secret of life, and then here you are trysting with a bubble-headed co-ed. You're not even a second-rate scientist."

Megan was rescued by Dan from the table, and the two escaped, as all the other corpses (reanimated by Hill's body with a new laser-drill lobotomizing procedure) in the room were commanded by Hill to come to life. West was held down on a metal lab table and was beginning to be laser-drilled in the head, but was interrupted when Halsey grabbed Dr. Hill's disembodied head. He squeezed it and gouged out its eyes, and tossed it into the hallway - then, was torn to pieces and had his head ripped off by the other zombie-corpses.

To destroy Hill's body, Dr. West injected it with a large overdose of the reagent from two syringes, while he cried out for his work to be saved. Hill's body fought back, attacked, and began to mutate (and grabbed West with twisted parts of its intestines).

In the conclusion, as Dan and Megan fled into the basement hallway, she was choked to death by one of the re-animated corpses (a burn victim) in the elevator. After attempting CPR, Dan wheeled Megan into a nearby upstairs emergency room, where there were vain efforts to resuscitate and save her. The room was cleared, but then Dan had an idea - he opened Dr. West's medical bag (holding a syringe) and injected her in the neck with the reagent as he told her: "I Love you!" The screen faded to black, and then she screamed!

Rear Window (1954)

Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window (1954) was an intriguing, brilliant, macabre visual study of obsessive human curiosity and voyeurism. The opening voyeuristic sequence was an example of efficient visual story-telling in which the camera tracked out through the framed windows of a Greenwich Village apartment, and introduced the setting and entire complex - a lower courtyard and garden, surrounding Lower East Side apartment structures; followed by a long panning camera movement to view the lives of some of the apartment neighbors:

Some of the intensely frightening moments:

• the suspenseful scene of pretty Lisa Fremont's (Grace Kelly) tense exploration and search of suspected wife-murderer Lars Thorwald's (Raymond Burr) apartment for incriminating evidence just before he returned, while her fiancee L.B. "Jeff" Jefferies (James Stewart) looked on helplessly from across the courtyard - she was ecstatic when she found an alligator hand-bag, proof of Thorwald's guilt - he must have murdered his wife because, according to Lisa, no woman goes on a trip leaving behind her favorite jewelry (or handbag); Jeff nervously reacted as he watched powerlessly from across the courtyard when she was trapped and confronted face-to-face in the apartment by Thorwald (who called the police), when she pointed to the wife's wedding ring on her finger
• Lars noticed her signals and the wedding ring, and triangulated the view - spotting the mortal threat; he looked up and discovered that Jeff, his tormentor, was watching from the apartment window across the courtyard, looking directly into his telephoto lens; it was the first time he had noticed the voyeuristic spy in the apartment complex - it was a chilling moment in the film as he saw the threatening spectator and knew where he lived
• at the start of the exciting finale, Jeff was left alone in his apartment, and he noticed that Lars' apartment was dark; when his phone rang (after an earlier call from Det. Lt. Thomas J. Doyle (Wendell Corey)), he didn't wait to hear who the caller was, assuming it was Tom. He blurted out: "Tom, I think Thorwald's left. I don't...Hello..." The phone clicked off and disconnected, and Jeff slowly realized his error - it was not Tom, his detective friend
• when Jeff heard heavy footsteps climbing the stairs outside his apartment, Jeff wheeled himself around to grab his flash equipment and a long box of flashbulbs to protect himself; then, he positioned himself in front of his rear window so that he was darkly silhouetted by it; eventually, the dark figure of Thorwald slowly opened the door and entered; Jeff fought him off by flashing or firing his profession's main instrument - his camera and its exploding flash mechanism - once, twice, three times, and then a fourth time; each whitish-blue flashbulb flash was followed by a red after-glow filling the entire frame, from Thorwald's dazed perspective
• during a physical struggle, Thorwald fought with Jeff, tried to strangle him, and then dumped him out of the wheelchair and through the open window; Jeff was hanging and dangling from the window ledge three floors above the courtyard as Thorwald tried to push him to his death; detectives grabbed Lars from behind at the last minute, but Jeff let go and fell backward to the ground below; his fall to the courtyard was partially broken by detectives; reunited, Jeff's head was cradled in Lisa's arms as she heard him congratulate her: "I'm proud of you"

Jeff Using Flash-Bulbs to Ward Off Attacking Thorwald in His Apartment
Thorwald Blinded by Flashbulbs	Physical Struggle	Jeff Falling From Window

Rebecca (1940)

Hitchcock's Rebecca (1940) was a classic gothic thriller and a compelling mystery (and haunting ghost story) about a tortured romance. A naive, plain and innocent (unnamed) young woman (Joan Fontaine) experienced a quick courtship, and then a tragic marriage and relationship with a brooding and overburdened widower - aristocratic, moody patriarch Mr. de Winter (Laurence Olivier), who lived in an estate called Manderley.

The pathetic, bewildered and shy bride experienced fear, pain and guilt when psychologically dominated by the 'presence' (and memories) of the deceased first wife (named Rebecca but never seen on screen). She was tormented by Rebecca's blindly adoring, sinister and loyal housekeeper Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson), who fondly recollected the dead woman.

Mrs. Danvers' Torment of the 'Second' Mrs. De Winter
		Mrs. Danvers: "You can't fight her. No one ever got the better of her. Never. Never."
Mrs. Danvers: "You tried to take her place"

In the film's scariest scene, demonic Mrs. Danvers plotted to eliminate the second Mrs. de Winter by urging her to jump to her death from an open window - urging that she could never be the true replacement and mistress of the estate.

Why don't you go? Why don't you leave Manderley? He doesn't need you. He's got his memories. He doesn't love you - he wants to be alone again with her. You've nothing to stay for. You've nothing to live for really, have you? Look down there. It's easy, isn't it? Why don't you? Why don't you? Go on. Go on. Don't be afraid!

In a trance-like state and ready to end her life, distractions from explosive flares and shouts of the discovery of a sunken boat ("Shipwreck! Ship on the rocks") following a storm at sea prevented her from losing her sanity and jumping.

Red Eye (2005)

#25

The title of the film had a double meaning - obviously, the "red eye" late-night flight, and a shipment of "red eye" snappers used to hide terrorist weapons. The creepy set-up of this Wes Craven airplane thriller was a chance encounter on a red-eye flight from Dallas to Miami - with two passengers sitting together:

• Lisa Reisert (Rachel McAdams), a swank Miami, Lux Atlantic hotel manager, a recent rape victim (with a scar on her chest), and a fear-of-flying traveler
• Jackson Rippner (Cillian Murphy) (a name-play on "Jack the Ripper") - a handsome stranger, and creepy, ruthless terrorist- kidnapper

He stunned her with details about her family and her personal life, and hinted that he had plans for her: "As fate would have it, my business is all about you." He demanded that she do as he said. Otherwise, he threatened to have a hitman kill her father, divorced retiree Joseph "Joe" Reisert (Brian Cox) in Miami.

She was to assist in setting up Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Charles Keefe (Jack Scalia) and his family in the hotel where she worked. They were to be assassinated by a portable rocket missile launched from a boat in the harbor. Rippner compelled her to orchestrate a room-switch for Keefe by calling on the plane's JetPhone - so that the Deputy would be changed to an ocean-side room facing the harbor. Otherwise, Jackson's hitman partner in a silver BMW would violently kill her father in his Miami home.

Terror in an Airplane Bathroom

• He angrily pushed her into the airplane's bathroom wall after he saw that she had written a warning with soap on the mirror ("18A HAS BOMB"). He threatened her: "...these little communiques! You know, if they'd have fallen into the hands of a by-the-book stewardess, she'd have gone straight to the cockpit and we'd have landed somewhere else! If that happens, Lis, our guy in the BMW's gonna know about it, so do Dad a favor and stop gambling with his life!"
• After he noticed a scar above her right breast, she refused to explain the cause - and he was further angered. He grabbed her tighter: "You know what I think? I think you're not such an honest person. Because I've followed you for eight weeks now and I never once saw you order anything but a f--king Sea Breeze!"
• Later to retaliate after the plane had landed and the fasten seatbelt light went out, she lunged at Jackson and drove a pen right into his throat, grabbed his cell phone and ran to the plane exit. She had just finished telling him that the rape incident from two years earlier "would never happen again"
• The murder plot was thwarted - she successfully alerted the hotel to evacuate all of the guests, and the Deputy and others were saved just before a Javelin missile targeted the room.

The Final House Struggle

The film climactically ended with their struggle in her father's Miami house before Jackson was killed. She shot and wounded him in the stomach with the dead hitman's gun - and her father shot Jackson again (with a bullet to the chest) to save his daughter - just as the police arrived.

Repulsion (1965, UK)

Roman Polanski's horror film (his first English-language film) was an intense study of madness - and resultant murder. The film's tagline described its premise:

"The nightmare world of a virgin's dreams becomes the screen's shocking reality!!"

The opening image during the title credits was a closeup of an eyeball, followed by the slow pull-back from the female's dead-eyed stare (paralleled at film's end with a zoom-in).

The main character was:

• Carol Ledoux (Catherine Deneuve), a sexually-repressed, virginal, and fragile young Belgian beautician

She became progressively more insane after she was left alone in her sister Helen's (Yvonne Furneaux) leased apartment - who had left for a brief two-week holiday to Italy during an affair with her married boyfriend Michael (Ian Hendry). She was very disturbed the night before they left, when she heard her sister's moans of orgasmic pleasure with Michael in a nearby bedroom. Soon after, Carol began to have psycho-sexual hallucinations of nocturnal rape, and she lashed out with two murders.

Crazed Fantasies
Imagined Rape	Real Rape
Grasping Phantom Hands in Hallway

There were many scary moments:

• the incessant sounds of a ticking alarm clock and dripping kitchen faucet
• shots of a plate with rotting food (a dead skinned rabbit) with buzzing flies, and three sprouting potatoes on the kitchen counter - images of decay, death, and deterioration
• startling hallucinatory images of cracks appearing in the wall and grasping phantom hands reaching out at her in the hallway
• Carol brutally murdered would-be male suitor Colin (John Fraser) by beating him over the head with a candlestick (when his back was turned) and afterwards immersing his body in a bathtub already full of water

Colin Appearing Through Carol's Door Peekhole	Colin Before Shutting Carol's Door (and Removing Possible Witness)
Carol's Brutal Bludgeoning of Colin from his POV	Colin's Body in Bathtub

• there were many disturbing scenes of Carol's imagining and hallucinating that she was being raped; there was also one true instance of a sexual assault - the apartment's middle-aged, creepy, sweaty, and lusty Landlord (Patrick Wymark) barged in to collect Helen's rent; he complained about the filthy and dark condition of the place and the "pigsty" look and smell of the apartment (with the decaying rabbit carcass with buzzing flies and the damaged, barricaded front door)
• after the Landlord called her a "poor little girl all by herself" and a "frightened animal," he proposed a sexual bargain to lessen her loneliness during her sister's absence: ("I could be a very good friend to you, you know. You look after me and you can forget about the rent. Come on. Come on. Just a little kiss between friends, huh, come on"); when the lecherous Landlord forced himself upon her on the sofa and attempted to sexually assault Carol, she fought him off; when he persisted and approached her for a kiss, she slashed out in a retaliatory way with Michael's straight-edged razor; she first cut him across the back of his neck, then hacked away at him when he fell back onto the sofa, spraying blood onto him and herself; she overturned the sofa to hide his bloody corpse

Seeking the Rent Payment, Landlord Disgusted by Condition of Apartment	Landlord Noticing Carol in Her Flimsy Nightgown	Assaulting Her on the Sofa
Approaching Carol For a Kiss	Slashing Him Across the Back of His Neck	Hacking at Him on the Sofa
Carol's Slashing Murder of Lecherous Landlord

Carol's hallucinatory delusions intensified, with further wall cracks; she was viewed obsessively ironing Helen’s married boyfriend’s dirty undershirt with the iron unplugged (shown with a striking tilt-down camera angle); she applied lipstick before reclining on her bed and having another rape fantasy with a man who appeared next to her; she also pretended to scribble words on a window pane with a pair of tweezers.

Upon the return of Helen and Michael after their two-week trip, Helen was the first to be stunned by signs of upheaval, carnage and disregard, plus a nasty smell; after she discovered the bloody body of Colin submerged in the bathtub, Helen began to hyperventilate in the hallway; Michael notified a neighbor to call the police; then Helen realized that the catatonic Carol was lifelessly lying under her own bed with her arm sticking out, and she reacted in shock; Michael entered the room and gave Carol a strange glance before picking her up in his arms, to carry her away down the stairs amidst inquisitive neighbors.

In the ambiguous ending -- highlighted by a slow panning camera motion, there was a thematic slow zoom (a reversal of the opening zoom out) into the partially-obscured, sinister, old family photograph with a view of the same young, mad-looking Carol staring angrily away. The zoom ended with an extreme close-up of her eye. In an earlier image of the full photograph, she appeared to be glaring at her father (abusive?) seated to her left.

The Enigmatic Yet Revealing Family Photograph
Family Photograph	Zooming In	Close-Up of Aloof Carol

Requiem for a Dream (2000)

Director Darren Aronofsky's harrowing, downbeat thriller-drama (initially rated NC-17) was about addictive and obsessive self-destruction - intoxicants that brought about addiction ranged from food (specifically chocolate) to television, prescribed diet pills, and heroin. It told about members of the Goldfarb family, who suffered from self-delusion and cravings that ultimately brought about their entrapment and enslavement.

• obsessive Brighton Beach dieter Sara Goldfarb (Ellen Burstyn), a lonely and overweight Jewish widow, went on a diet to lose 50 pounds, in order to wear her favorite old red dress and appear as a contestant on her favorite self-help info-mercial TV program - "The Tappy Tibbons Show." She became hooked on uppers and downers (diet pills) and began to lose her grip on reality. As she exhibited symptoms of hallucinatory dementia and psychosis, the maniacal TV personality Tappy Tibbons (Christopher McDonald) appeared in her apartment, exclaiming enthusiastically: "We've got a winner." Her entire apartment had become the TV studio set with a live TV audience. The host and his female companion danced and paraded around her reclining chair, while everyone began chanting "Feed me Sara, Feed me Sara." As the scene climaxed, her carnivorous refrigerator had broken free from the wall, opened its gigantic and ravenous 'maw' and attacked her. Afterwards, she visited the show's casting agency office in Manhattan where she was pronounced insane, taken away in an ambulance, and admitted to a psychiatric ward where she ultimately received electro-shock therapy.

Sara Goldfarb's Disintegration

• at the same time, Harry Goldfarb (Jared Leto) was dating upper-class girlfriend Marion Silver (Jennifer Connelly), and both dreamt of becoming owners of their own fashion-clothing boutique; however, both spiraled downward into addiction and self-debasement; Harry began dealing drugs and became a heroin-addicted druggie, while Marion began to prostitute herself to support her own habit - first sleeping with her shrink-psychologist Arnold (Sean Gullette); she bluntly asked for money in exchange for sex: "Actually, I have a favor to ask....I need to borrow some money"; [Note: in her mind, when sleazebag Arnold reached out at the table and stroked her hand, she imagined stabbing him with her fork and crying out: "You smug f--k!"] in his apartment before sex, she requested: "Could you turn the light off?"; afterwards, she vomited outside
• in NY, drug-addicted Marion - desperate for heroin - also prostituted herself to black pimp Big Tim (Keith David) who told her: "What I like best about party chicks is they give good head"; he opened his pants before she performed oral sex: "I know it's pretty, baby, but I didn't take it out for air"; afterwards in her apartment, she submerged her head underwater in a bathtub and screamed

Marion Prostituted Herself to Big Tim (Keith David) for a Drug Score Afterwards, Marion Screamed Underwater in a Bathtub

• in one of the film's most sickening, horrifying scenes, Harry injected another dose of heroin into a hole forming in his infected left arm. In a subsequent hospital scene, Harry had his gangrene-infected arm amputated (due to repeated intravenous injections) - with blood spurting onto his face from the saw. Harry woke up to the reality of his situation in a hospital after his left arm was amputated: (Nurse: "It's alright. Don't worry, you're in a hospital"). However, he had hoped, in a fantasy dream, that Marion was waiting for him at the end of a long pier, but she disappeared - and he stepped back and fell off a tall building in the fantasy.

Harry's Deadly Heroin Addiction and Infected Arm Amputation

• meanwhile, in the film's most controversial and sequence, Marion attended a stag party hosted by black pimp Big Tim (Keith David). She participated in a decadent lesbian orgy to raise money to support her addiction. It was a nasty, extremely-graphic lesbian orgy scene with a shared anal dildo between Marion and her female partner. The two wanted to increase their earnings in front of the frenzied crowd of party animals, when Marion's partner asked: "So what are we gonna do now?" In a degrading so-called "ass-to-ass" scene, Marion shared a two-headed greased-up dildo with another female as a group of spectators watched, tossed bills at them, and shouted as the pace quickened: "Ass-to-ass!" and "Cum! Cum! Cum!"

Stag Party Orgy Attended by Marion to Raise Money to Support Her Addiction

• as the film concluded, Harry (in the hospital), Marion (in her apartment), Harry's friend Tyrone (Marlon Wayans) (in jail) and Sara (in a mental institution) were all curled up in fetal positions.

Reservoir Dogs (1992)

Director Quentin Tarantino's violent crime drama, his debut film, was a dark, noirish cult hit (and independent film) that broke many of the rules of conventional crime films. The male-oriented, testosterone-fueled tale was about a group of cigarette-smoking, shades-wearing, code-color-named Los Angeles criminals (including director Tarantino as ill-fated Mr. Brown), and others involved in a jewelry heist (off-screen), such as:

• Mr. White/Lawrence Dimmick (Harvey Keitel), a career criminal
• Mr. Blonde/Vic Vega (Michael Madsen), crazed
• Mr. Blue (Edward Bunker)
• Mr. Orange/Det. Freddie Newandyke (Tim Roth), a newcomer
• Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi)

The gang of tough guys began to mistrust each other and suspected a rat amongst them when the robbery plan was foiled and everything went awry.

• in the infamous, violent, shocking and menacing ear-slicing torture scene following the jewelry robbery, suspicious, psychotic gang member Mr. Blonde - while dancing to the music of Stuck in the Middle With You by Stealer's Wheel - excised (off-screen) the right ear of chair-bound, duct-taped cop-hostage Marvin Nash (Kirk Baltz) with a straight-edged razor. He then threatened to douse him with gasoline. Before he could ignite him, Mr. Orange shot and killed Mr. Blonde
• Eddie's (Chris Penn) father Joe Cabot (Lawrence Tierney) arrived and confronted Mr. White over the loyalty of Mr. Orange; after Joe accused Orange of being a cop ("That lump of s--t's workin' with the LAPD") Mr. White tried to defend Orange to Joe: ("Joe, trust me on this. You've made a mistake"), but Joe was adamant ("The cocksucker tipped off the cops and got Mr. Brown and Mr. Blue killed...Dead as Dillinger"); the scene evolved into a violent Mexican Standoff as all three (Joe, White, and Eddie) drew their guns and Eddie shouted out: "You stop pointin' that f--kin’ gun at my Dad!"; all three seemed to fire at one time - although White actually got off two shots and both Cabots were killed, but White was also injured
  
• in the film's violent conclusion -- the uninjured Mr. Pink fled with the stashed diamonds; as Mr. White cradled dying Mr. Orange in his arms, he heard Orange's simple confession that he indeed was a cop: ("I'm a cop...I'm so sorry"); as the police stormed the warehouse after arresting Mr. Pink outdoors (he was faintly heard surrendering off-screen), Mr. White was ordered to put his gun down: ("Freeze!...Drop the gun, man!...We're gonna blow you away!") but disobeyed and possibly shot Mr. Orange in the head (off-screen) - and then collapsed during more gunfire

The Death of Mr. Orange From An Abdomen Gunshot Wound

The Ring (2002)

#20

Director Gore Verbinski's remake horror film followed the Japanese film of the same name (Ringu (1998)).

The film's enigmatic tagline explained what the film's title was all about:

"Before you die, you see the ring."

It told about Seattle investigative reporter Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts) who was looking into the deaths of individuals who viewed a bizarre and cursed videotape. As per the recent deaths, anyone who watched the videotape died in seven days. Time ticked away for Rachel herself after she viewed the tape. She learned about a horse ranch on a remote island owned by horsebreeder Anna Morgan (Shannon Cochran) and her husband Richard (Brian Cox), and their 'adopted' daughter Samara (Daveigh Chase).

As she delved into the mystery, Rachel visited the Morgan ranch, where she found out that the horses went mad and drowned themselves, and that Anna had committed suicide. The unloved and feared Samara had apparently been a problem child.

A flashback scene revealed Samara's murder. Coming up from behind Samara, her mother Anna Morgan partially suffocated her sleeping-gowned daughter with a black plastic bag. Then, she pushed her daughter down into the deep circular water well. Samara watched from below - her final sight, as the well was sealed with a stone cover, was a corona-like ring above her. She survived for seven days before dying. Later, Shelter Mountain Inn, specifically Cabin 12 (the site responsible for the first four deaths in the film) was built over the site of the well.

Samara's Murder in the Well - Seen as a Ring From Below

The cursed videotape was created or caused by the spirit of Samara, who had an unusual ability, known as nensha (projected thermography). With her mind, she was able to thermographically imprint her thought images onto specific surfaces (ie, the VHS tape). The tape's surrealistic series of random objects and haunting images were actually aspects of Samara's short life. The curse along with the tape was also specifically designed by Samara - either copy the tape and pass it on, or suffer your own death in seven days (the length of time that Samara survived down in the well). In all, seven individuals viewed the tape, and those that died watched the tape, but did not copy the tape and pass it along.

The tape's images included (in this order):

• flowing, bloody water rushing into the ocean
• an empty, solitary chair (with reflected shadow) in the center of a room
• a close-up of comb strokes through hair
• an enigmatic woman (Samara's mother Anna) brushing her hair, seen within a framed oval-shaped mirror (1st time)
• a view of a 2nd mirror on the wall in the same room - this time a shadowy view of the undead, decomposed young girl Samara
• another view of the enigmatic woman looking over and smiling at the 2nd mirror (off-screen) (2nd time)
• a brief view of a nail, with blood at its tip
• a view looking up at a person (Richard Morgan) standing behind a closed window (1st time)
• a windy coastal scene (notice the fly walking in a circle on the image)
• a huge object (bubbles?) coming out of a person's open mouth as they drown (Samara drowning?)
• a view of thrashing black plastic (the garbage bag used to suffocate Samara) (1st time)
• the closing of a well cover viewed from inside the well (1st time)
• a burning Japanese maple tree (1st time)
• an index finger being pierced by a nail, and detaching the fingernail
• a sea of squirming maggots
• a sea of floundering humans
• a glass of water on a bare table in front of an empty, wooden chair
• a gigantic centipede crawling on the floor, appearing from under the table
• a lame farm animal (goat or three-legged lamb?)
• a close-up of a horse's large eyeball (in shock?!)
• the closing of a well cover viewed from inside the well (2nd time)
• a box full of seven amputated or detached twitching fingers
• a burning tree (2nd time)
• the thrashing black plastic (2nd time)
• the enigmatic woman turning around - her reflection seen in the framed oval-shaped mirror behind her (3rd time)
• a view looking up at a closed window (without anyone looking out this time) (2nd time)
• a twirling chair, spinning upside-down and in mid-air
• a ladder (1st time)
• a view of waves washing atop a horse corpse(s) in the ocean
• a zoomed view of a woman (Anna) falling forward to her suicidal death off the coast-side cliff
• the ladder, now toppling or falling forward to the ground (2nd time)
• the closing of a well cover viewed from inside the well - now sealed (last time)
• more of the ladder toppling down (3rd time)
• a view of the well from distant eye-level

The PG-13 film's greatest and scariest scene was the pay-off scene at the conclusion:

• there was a disturbing and shocking scene at the end of the film - Rachel's ex-boyfriend Noah Clay (Martin Henderson) watched the video on a TV screen (the TV turned on by itself) in his studio. The tape was of the undead, decomposed young girl Samara (with long black hair covering her face) crawling out of the well in the woods and walking toward the screen.
• then, there was the astounding image of the demonic girl crawling directly out of the TV screen toward him, and leaving wet hand and footprints on the floor.
• the first look of her face was a lethal stare attack.
• Rachel frantically called for Noah on the phone and then raced in her car to get to him. When she arrived, she found Noah dead, fulfilling the curse.

Rosemary's Baby (1968)

#23

Roman Polanski's devil-worshipper film was his first American feature film and his second, scary horror film - following his first disturbing film in English Repulsion (1965, UK) - see above. Polanski cleverly and deliberately presented this film with enough ambiguity so that the viewer was never quite certain whether the female protagonist's experiences were truly supernatural or just fabricated, imaginative hallucinations.

The creepy, eerie gothic film was about a young newlywed couple:

• Rosemary Woodhouse (Mia Farrow), a pregnant mother-to-be
• Guy (John Cassavetes), Rosemary's self-centered, ambitious, yet struggling NYC actor husband

The couple moved into a large, rambling old apartment building in Central Park West (the Dakota), and began a loving, post-honeymoon period. They became friendly with the eccentric and elderly next-door neighbors - both overly-solicitous and intrusive:

• Minnie and Roman Castevet (Ruth Gordon and Sidney Blackmer)

Soon, the ambitious husband's acting career turned promising. Many of the Woodhouse's fears and problems began with bizarre hallucinations and dreams, especially when "dizzy," woozy and disoriented Rosemary (after eating some of Minnie's chocolate mousse, laced with sleeping powder) was put to bed by Guy.

• in an hallucinatory scene that impersonated a Black Mass, she imagined being on a mattress drifting on the ocean, and then as a passenger on a presidential yacht. Guy completely undressed her until she was shivering and naked, and then abruptly was seen wearing a bathing suit.
• hallucinatory images included the Birth of Man paintings on the Sistine Chapel ceiling, a typhoon at sea, and a naked descent into the hold of the ship, where a fire burned and Rosemary was laid on a mattress. She was surrounded by many chanting, naked figures, including Guy, Roman, and Minnie. The latter assured everyone: "As long as she ate the mousse, she can't see nor hear. She's like dead now." A bloody-red liquid was painted on Rosemary's bare chest. A person resembling Mrs. John F. Kennedy (Patricia Ann Conway) who wore a white diaphanous gown descended a staircase and suggested that her legs be tied down in case of convulsions. Attendants spread her legs apart and bound them.

Rosemary: "This is no dream, this is really happening."

• Rosemary recalled being raped by Satan in her dream-like sleep. She remembered that Guy had begun making love to her, but then his appearance changed into a grotesque Beast-like figure resembling the Devil, with yellowish eyes and clawed, scaly hands. He stroked the length of her body with his hairy claw. While being 'raped' during this horrific copulation scene, she realized: "This is no dream, this is really happening!"
• the next morning - Rosemary questioned mysterious scratches she found on the side of her body; she was appalled that Guy admitted making love to her while she was passed out - supposedly from mixing alcohol - "It was kind of fun in a necrophile sort of way." She remembered something quite different from Guy's recollection - a demonic, inhuman rape
  
• the paranoid, haunted, and hysterical woman believed herself impregnated so that her baby could be used in evil cult rituals. She suspected that she and her unborn baby were victims of a vile conspiracy being conducted by modern-day witches. [Later, she realized that she was correct - Guy had made a deal with the Castevets, members of the coven, to allow Rosemary to be impregnated by Satan himself, in exchange for Guy receiving acting jobs.]
  
• Rosemary discovered that her friendly Dr. Saperstein (Ralph Bellamy) was actually a Satanist.
  
• in the final scene of the creepy film, Rosemary snuck into the Castevet's apartment through a closet passageway - with a kitchen knife upraised in her hand. There, she found a coven of witches (including Guy), surrounding a black-draped baby cradle to pay their respects. She approached the black bassinet expecting to see her own human child. In a frightened, angry tone, she asked about her baby cradled there with an inverted cross hanging above - fully expecting the child to have "Guy's eyes." She slowly walked over to the cradle, saw her child in the bassinet and her eyes widened in terror: "What have you done to it? What have you done to its eyes?" When told by Roman: "He has his father's eyes," she screamed: "What are you talking about?! Guy's eyes are normal! What have you done to him? You maniacs!"
• Horrified that she had birthed offspring of Satan, she spit in Guy's face. Although Rosemary rejected the devil-worshipping coven of witches, she accepted the reality of the situation and showed an instinctive mothering role and maternal instinct toward the baby in the final scene - she gently rocked the child to sleep.