A modern woman dragged to hell

Alison Lohman in Drag Me To Hell

Drag Me To Hell (Raimi, 2009) opens this weekend as a counter-programming film to Disney/Pixar’s Up. For a horror film, especially considering the current crop of films in that genre, its PG-13 rating seemed a little suspect. How can a good horror film have anything less than a presumably envelop-pushing R-rating? What of violence and nudity that make up most of the genre? By the time our heroin, Christine Brown (Alison Lohman), engaged in her first battle with the woman who would be placing a curse upon her (Mrs. Ganush, played with ferocity and a sense of fun by Lorna Raver), it was clear that what the film may lack in nudity and gore, it made up for it in humour and over-the-top grossed out goobs.

To be sure, there was not much here in term of plot (as expected in the genre): Christine was a loan officer who, in an attempt to prove her worthiness to her boss, made a decision to shelf away compassion (or was it really guilt?) and deny an old gypsy woman of another chance to live out the rest of her life in comfort and dignity. As an act of vengeance against what she saw as a deliberate attempt to shame her, Mrs. Ganush, after an outrageously funny and suspenseful cat fight with Christine, placed a wretched curse upon her. Christine then met with a psychic, Rham Jas (Dileep Rao) who was not only knowledgeable of the curse but also knew of whom she should ask for help from – at a negotiated price of the cold cash variety. Much haunting ensued within the three days that Chrsitine had left to prevent having her soul dragged to hell by an invisible Lamia. Of course, there was also a twist ending (that we could see miles away, but it was deliciously satisfying, nevertheless), and its conclusion underlined a strong moral statement the film seemed to take a vested interest in.

The Raimi brothers knew how to imbue their picture with a sense of humour while remaining true to the traditions of the genre. This difficult balance – winking while running on adrenaline – played itself out not only with the way the picture was filmed (music, gags, cheesy lines and sound effects were in full force, intermittently interrupted by the still scenes and slow tracking shots) but also in our heroin, Christine. Women are one of horror’s favourite subjects – most of the genre could be argued to have been built on the strength of women’s thighs and other close-by regions.  If the central character happened to be of the female variety, she would be expected to have the audience’s sympathy at least by the end of the film. Our horrified heroin is often violated against in some manners, and she would often have the higher moral ground compared to our villain(ess). In Christine, the Raimi brothers threw in their best twist and most biting comment in the film yet.

Christine was very much a picture of a modern woman, a determined social climber who, on sheer will and smarts, had gone from a chubby pork queen of a farm girl to a candidate for an assistant manager at a bank, with a young and devoted professor of psychology as her boyfriend (his name, Clay, suggested a certain boring malleability though – Justin Long was perfectly cast for once). In her first fight with Mrs. Ganush, after locking down her car windows and watching the old woman flail seemingly helplessly against the glass, she yelped victoriously from inside the car: “I BEAT you!” She was eager for self-congratulations throughout the film – she wanted so badly to beat the odds that she would prematurely celebrate any inroads. There was a certain glee in her tenaciousness and willingness to go the necessary distance to survive. No doubt in her mind she was a worthwhile heroin who would overcome and rise above life obstacles. The events that unfolded would show her to not be completely in sync with what she would like to think of herself, however.

Girl Talk: Heroine & Villainess – Woman-child

Author: amberlita
Heroine: Matilda from Leon
Villainess: Suzanne Stone from To Die For

Matilda – Leon (Besson, 1994)

I didn’t intentionally choose these two characters to contrast them but in considering them afterwards, it’s worth remarking just how much they complement each other. Matilda is the woman-child, Suzanne is the child-woman. Our heroines come in all shapes and sizes and Matilda may be the only child female character I find admirable, whereas Suzanne is someone I wouldn’t piss on if she were on fire. Matilda, a poor 11 year old girl from a broken home forced to grow up faster than the years can pass, with a forceful attitude and an inner strength lacking in women 3x her age. Suzanne, a woman so spoiled and self-centered you want to put her over your knee and smack the sensibility into her with a yard stick.

Matilda is an endlessly fascinating character to me. Like every young girl she carries the desire to be a woman faster than she ought to be. Some of the shots I posted may not be familiar to folks cause they are from the Director’s Cut, where Matilda’s Lolita-like role is fleshed out in more suggestive but (thankfully) nonexplicit scenes. In the American release I could never quite decide if there was meant to be a mutually romantic note developing or if Leon’s confession of love near the end was paternalistic. In the DC it’s a bit less likely to be the latter. Matilda blatantly asks him to be her lover, a ridiculous notion and yet why shouldn’t she? She’s already acted as a mother-figure to her younger brother, suffered the loss of people she loved and hated, been forced to independence…it is not so unexpected that she seeks this as well.

Yet she’s still a child and we can always see that. She rebells, she plays dress-up, she watches cartoons. All the while exhibiting wisdom that I think most of us would lack if thrust into her situation without the tootelage of an uncaring family and unfair hand dealt. She’s a woman in her own right. Mature beyond her years and would we all have a bit of that wisdom even at our age could count ourselves lucky.

Suzanne Stone is the poster-child for vanity. She’s played perfectly by Nicole Kidman and written perfectly too, as I don’t recall a single scene where Suzanne isn’t doing or saying something to advance her career prospects which may in fact be the only thing this woman ever thinks about. She doesn’t just believe she was meant to be a star journalist, she believes she deserves to be one. Inherently, as a divine gift. Moreover, she believes you ought to feel priviledged to be a part of her ascent to superstardom. It is almost ludicrous how vane Suzanne is. I’ve never met a woman like her and I hope I never do. This is the woman women love to hate and the worst part is that she knows it. She knows what she has and that you don’t have it and that your natural reaction should be to envy her.

And she’s right, in a way. She has all the things we are trained to strive for as a woman, intentionally or not. She’s flawlessly beautiful, wealthy, married the guy all the other girls wanted, has a perfect home a perfect wardrobe, and grand career aspirations. There’s a few snags in her perfectly tailored yellow polka-dot suit though, not the least being that she’s a complete moron, lacking in the basic ability of self-analysis. It’s like Suzanne sprung from her mother’s womb already with her hair neatly tressed and skin perpetually unblemished. Suzanne’s never known herself to have a weakness and if Freud is to be believed she’s also never bothered to develop a superego. She is the center of her own universe.

I could go on and on describing her faults but ultimately this has to end. It’s not hard to see where the line becomes drawn with these two. Character isn’t born of age but of hardship. Little chicks breaking through shells. Matilda has to fight her way through and comes out the stronger for it. Suzanne has the whole thing chipped away for her and her character is crippled permanently, ultimately leading to her demise. I guess age really is just a number.

Girl Talk: Heroine & Villainess – Heroine or Villainess?

Author: Kari
Heroine: Selene from Underworld
Villainess: Selene from Underworld

Heroine or Villainess?

Selene – Underworld (Wiseman, 2003)

Everyone knows I love the Underworld movies. The lead character, a female vampire named Selene has really captured my interest and my heart. Is she a heroine, or is she a villainess, or is she just an innocent bystander caught in the middle of centuries-old lies.

Selene is a Death Dealer, a heroine to her coven, a villainess to all lycans. For the past 600 years, her job has been to seek out and destroy all lycans, the immortal enemies of the vampires. Her only reason for hunting and killing is revenge for the destruction of her family 600 years earlier. Her centuries of training have taught her the lycans are responsible for the death of her entire family. Lycans are evil and must not be permitted to live. She never once questions this information. Selene is a soldier, she does her job very well, almost too well and after 600 years, she has finally begun to question herself and her devotion to this cause.

It all starts one evening while Selene and her fellow Death Dealers are following a group of lycans. She happens upon a human, Michael, and is immediately drawn into Michael’s human innocence. At that one moment she is oblivious to the war that is happening around her. She immediately catches herself and reminds herself what her purpose is…revenge…to hunt and kill all lycans, that is all, nothing else.

Selene easily dismisses this moment as some type of school girl infatuation and continues to investigate the whereabouts of the lycans. During her investigation she realizes Michael is more than just a mere human, he is the key to her salvation. He is also the key to the lycan’s salvation and they will do anything to get him, even turn him into a lycan.

While trying to keep Michael away from the lycans, Selene forms an unusual friendship with him. She has never known love. She has never let herself love. Unbeknownst to Selene, Michael has been bitten and is now a lycan, her immortal enemy, the enemy she has sworn to hunt and kill until the entire species is eradicated. Michael is completely oblivious to the lycan/vampire war and has no idea why a strange man would bite him or why a beautiful strange woman would help him. All he knows is he is in love with Selene. With the full moon approaching, Michael begins to notice signs of the change. He turns to Selene for answers.

Upon learning the truth about Michael, Selene sets out to find answers to all those questions that have been haunting her since meeting this mysterious man. She cannot bear the fact that duty implies she kill this man, this lycan, whom she has fallen in love. Digging into the past is forbidden, however, that does not stop Selene. She needs answers, now. Through research she soon realizes her entire vampire existence is a lie.

She is not the heroine her coven has made her out to be, she is a killer. The lycans did not destroy her family, it was the vampires, her own kind. They spared her life six centuries ago, giving her immortality and turning her into a warrior, a heroine to the vampires, a villainess to all lycans, including the man she now has fallen in love with.

Selene faces the biggest challenge of her life. Does she continue on her same path, live with the lies that she has been told and kill Michael, the only person she has ever loved? Does she defy her coven and leave with Michael, her sworn enemy, or does she save Michael and the rest of his species; thereby becoming a heroine to the lycans?

Selene’s love for Michael takes over and she ends up killing her mentor, her teacher, her vampire father. The man responsible for her immortal life, the man responsible for telling her lie after lie, the elder to her own coven. She, herself, is now the immortal enemy of her coven, a villainess to her own kind. Does this make her a heroine to the lycans?

Girl Talk: Heroine & Villainess – One’s Place in The World

Author: Brittni

Heroine: Hildy Johnson from His Girl Friday

Villainess: Norma Desmond from Sunset Blvd

Hildy Johnson – His Girl Friday (Hawks, 1940)

What I admire about Hildy Johnson in His Girl Friday is that she doesn’t know what she wants. She thinks she does, but it’s never what may be the best for her. Cary Grant is arguably the star here, but Rosalind Russell does something most of his costars never do – upstage him. First of all, Hildy Johnson is beautiful and smart. She walks into a room, and you know she’s there. She just stands tall. She talks fast. She can’t waste a moment – she’s a newspaper woman, so there isn’t a moment to waste with the news constantly changing. Sure being smart and beautiful are great attributes, but that’s not really what sets her apart.

She holds her own. Not only against all the newspaper men, but against the biggest sleezeball of them all – her ex husband. Of course she falls for him – but it’s not because she is fooled, but because she’s just like him. I can only admire that in a woman. She’s willing to take on every man she meets and match them, even out do them.

When we meet her, she’s willing to give it all up for a home life and a family. She believes this is what she wants. Even though Hildy is strong – tougher than most, sometimes we all need help from someone who knows us best to remind us. Hildy is no exception.

I don’t know why I admire her so much out of all the female protagonists out there. I know there might be better ones – but I’ve always loved her character Hildy. Maybe it’s the speed she talks at. Maybe, it’s her beauty even in the toughest work world. But, I think it’s her spirit through it all. The audience knows that Bruce and her aren’t meant to be from the moment we saw Walter (Cary Grant). But, I don’t think it’s necessarily that Walter is the only one for her either in the end. The spirit you see in her – what makes her eyes light up the most is her job. It just so happens that Walter feels the same way about his job. They’re equals in every which way. What better than to share what you love with someone who loves you back? It’s a lifestyle choice. When she’s working she’s having an adventure. She’s not a hero in the sense of saving anyone with the exception of getting the story – but she seems to have it all even when she thinks she needs something else. I guess what I admire the most, is that Hildy had the choice. She could’ve gotten on the train if she really wanted to – but like all of us, we need reminding of where we are really meant to be.

Girl Talk: Heroine & Villainess – Will and Fear

Rouge and I were talking about how a consensus list we were looking at was a tad too male-oriented. And in this process, I realized that for every list that I’ve seen, it has always been a tad too male-oriented. That is, the protagonists or the villains are often male, and the girls are often just a second thought. It’s understandable somewhat, considering the majority of the people voting for these lists are male.

So we invited the girls we knew to each pick one heroine or female protagonist, and one villainess to write however much they’d like to write about them, in which ever form they’d like.

This is not an exercise in excluding the male species, necessary. I think men have insightful things to say about female characters. But I feel there is a lack of female’s voice in this aspect, and I think there is a lot to be learned from female perspectives that are not often displayed. Besides, the characters themselves are often portrayed through male lens anyway, so I’m not worried about the lack of male perspective. This would be an opportunity to find out what the girls think about their portrayal on screen. We may do something about male contributions after the girls have spoken?

So I’ll start the series with my entry. Enjoy!

Heroine & Villainess – Will and Fear

by Aurelle

Satsuki & Mei – My Neighbour Totoro ( Miyazaki, 1988 )

Hayao Miyazaki originally intended for there to be only one girl in his master work, My Neighbour Totoro. However, considering the logistic of what was supposed to go into the story, he had to split it into two – Satsuki and Mei. For this series, I feel that it would be justified to name these two girls as my one heroine because they were intended to be one, and because they present slightly different shades of the same character Miyazaki had in mind.

My Neighbour Totoro begins with 10 year-old Satsuki Kusakabe and 4 year-old Mei Kusakabe being driven by their father, Tatsuo Kusakabe (a university professor), to their new home in the country side. This relocation is supposed to bring them a bit closer to where their mother is currently residing: at a hospital where she is being treated for an undisclosed illness (confirmed by Miyazaki to be tuberculosis, though it is not mentioned in the film). The film follows their adventure in this new place near the woods, and their subsequent encounter with their “neighbour” Totoro – a grey and white forest spirit whose friends include smaller Totoros that Mei first follows around.

I hate to hypberbole, for there are other fantastic pictures about childhood wonderment (Spirit of the beehive and 400 blows come to mind), but there is no other film quite like My Neighbour Totoro. One has the feeling that the film and its characters are distilled from a purely joyous place, undiluted with fear of ‘the other’ – be it a big giant monster, a dark road, a house that is ‘haunted’, or a forest full of unknowns.

When Satsuki and Mei first encounter a kind of “supernatural” creature – the soots in their bathroom – they burst through other rooms to see if there are more soots elsewhere. There is no cowering at the feet of their father because the house is “haunted.” When Satsuki discovers that there is a door that leads up to a dark attic, the two girls – in true horror-movie fashion – creep up the stairs, cautious but curious. Satsuki immediately runs and opens the windows to let the lights in. Seeing that there is no soot, even though they could sense something is moving around, Satsuki runs downstairs to help her father. Mei lingers back, hoping that the soots would appear. And when one finally shows itself, she claps her hands together to capture it and runs downstairs for a show and tell.

Upon the discovery that the soot is gone from her hand, Mei is disappointed that she is not able to “convince” others of her discovery. This is where the film starts to show its true bias/colour: both the old neighbour and her father are fully supportive of her “imagination,” telling her about possible soots that live in places where people do not. Here, the adults display an incredible sensitivity towards a child’s imagined world, encouraging and trusting the child’s instinct and story. Maybe this is the basis from which characters like Satsuki and Mei could have grown; sensitivity to children’s imagination can foster the healthy kind of curiosity and imagination displayed in abundance here.

A second significant event leading up to the discovery of the big Totoro occurs while Mei spends her time exploring their natural garden one afternoon. She spots a small Totoro, and follows it not-so-discretely to its hiding place. Instead of being cautious and fearful of the little creature, she is held captive by the sneaky creature, with little worries about her own safety. At this age, given a healthy parenting style, most kids would not be afraid to follow strange creatures around. Where Mei differs is that she has a complete disregard for possible threats (big body, big teeth Totoro) and unknown intentions. Her curiosity and affection for others completely overshadow any sort of fear (albeit healthy) for giant creatures that could deal a world of hurt.

When Satsuki finally clues into the existence of Totoro, she is incredulous yet welcoming of the creature. Now, it’s possible that a four year old would not know any better to fear a possibly dangerous character. After all, even though fear may be a default position for some kids, especially when they are raised to fear the ‘others’, many children would simply be too curious to care. However, Satsuki is ten – she would be more experienced with things that could go wrong and she would have learned some sort of fear. Yet, there she is lending her umbrella to the big Totoro on a side of the street in a dark forest. She is a testament to the spirit that Miyazaki tries to achieve with this film that I think is particularly useful for girls: to live unafraid.

Many girls lose their sense of curiosity and fearlessness as they start to enter their teenage years and beyond. Girls are taught to be cautious, to be the gate-keeper, to keep themselves in check, to close in. Danger lies in every road taken, or so we’re told. Curiosity and fearlessness are not valued then, even if these qualities are present within us. If anything, curiosity is associated with the opening of Pandora’s (a female character) box, with pussy cats (an animal often associated with girls) getting killed.

The ability to face the world unafraid helps build a large part of self-confidence. Many girls are afraid to express and do things for themselves for all sorts of reason. They do not believe in their own competence, or their own worth. In Totoro, there is a sense of trust the girls have in the place they belong to and in their connection with others. Their curiosity is an invitation for exploration, not exploitation. While it is true that there’s more danger beyond the woods than there is in Totoro, their trust enables them to discover a world they would not have known otherwise.

What I really respond to in these young girls is their ability to walk unafraid. In my sheltered way, for a long time growing up, I did not know that confidence was something atypical in women. Even though I consider myself an AWESOME and confident person, I am afraid of some things too. I don’t think it’s possible to be never afraid of anything – it’s pretty natural to be afraid of some things that could really hurt me. However, on the occasion that I pull back because of some unnecessary fear, I hope to be able to remind myself that I, too, was once Satsuki and Mei, and I could be where they are again. Theirs is a kind of courage not often promoted in our society, especially in girls and women. That’s why they are my heroine – they remind me of how intelligent and fearless girls can be. And how wonderfully joyous the sense of discovery that’s sparked from curiosity can be – even for a girl.