the groundhog day project

In the past 24 hours, I've watched Toy Story , Toy Story 2 and five Toy Story shorts (don't know the proper order, but they are the three "Toons" Hawaiian Vacation , Small Fry and Partysaurus Rex ; Toy Story of Terror! and Toy Story that Time Forgot ). For the record, I have never seen more than a couple minutes of the Buzz Lightyear of Star Command cartoon. Right now Toy Story 3 is playing. The "end" of the feature story, of course, leads into those shorts; they are all set after the toys become Bonnie's. Still, it is an ending of a sort of the story of these toys. (Those shorts focus more on other characters more than, say, Woody or Buzz (except Small Fry ) or Jessie (though the climax of Toy Story of Terror! does depend on her). Instead (taking the order above), they focus on Barbie and Ken (minor nitpick: Barbie and Ken stay at Sunnyside at the end of Toy Story 3 , so they really shouldn't be with Bonnie's toys), a fast food restau...

Sleep. Those little slices of death. How I loathe them. — Edgar Allan Poe So begins A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors . Gotta remember this quotation from Edgar Allan Poe, too: The death then of a beautiful woman is unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world... The slasher film, of course, shows us the deaths of numerous beautiful women, but really it’s all about that final girl, the one who will get away. The homicidal pursuit works as a surrogate for a sexual one. We want the girl, but we settle for wanting her dead. Thing is, we get neither of these things. The slasher film is inevitably a disappointment for the males in the audience, but also something quite the opposite. It’s like a gift to the id in us all—but especially the supposedly heteronormative males—twisting our lust and our longing to kill into one primal urge. The obvious question then: why do females like the slasher film? Karanovic (2012) suggests, “For the women, it may not be sexual, but m...

"The death of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetic topic in the world." - Edgar Allan Poe, "The Philosophy of Composition" To understand why we like horror, we have to understand a couple other things: 1) gothic horror led to modern horror, particularly the slasher film, and the slasher film led us to so-called torture porn and, 2) there's a thin line between horror and pornography (hence the nickname for that last subgenre there). After all, as Clover (1987) puts it, "horror and pornography are the only two genres specifically devoted to the arousal of bodily sensation. They exist solely to horrify and stimulate, not always respectively, and their ability to do so is the sole measure of their success" (p. 189). A good horror film is a scary horror film, generally speaking. And, a good porn film is an arousing porn film. The writing, the directing, the acting--these are secondary to the scare/arousal. Too on-the-nose? (Watching S...

Scream 3 gives us a woman in the shower in its opening sequence, but at least her character’s an adult. She’s quickly dispatched, no time for depth or characterization. She’s simply a tool to... well, to make Cotton’s death even more complicated. It’s also a good example of how the female attacks are more drawn out than the male attacks (more on that below). (I’ve actually only seen Scream 3 the one time in the theater, so I’m not fully prepared for what’s coming.) But, my chosen topic for today is not strictly speaking this sequel. It may come up, but I won’t force it. ... One more thing before this gets serious again. From Merriam-Webster : randy \ˈran-dē\ adjective : sexually excited Full Definition 1 chiefly Scottish : having a coarse manner 2 : lustful, lecherous randi•ness noun Origin: probably from obsolete rand to rant. First use: 1698 Synonyms: concupiscent, goatish, horny, hot, hypersexual, itchy, lascivious, lecherous, lewd, libidinous, licentious, lubric...