ARTICLE: "The shocking Victorian murder that showed Charles Dickens how to finish off poor Nancy"

This article from The Guardian discusses the real-life grisly murder case that inspired Dickens to write Nancy's fictitious grisly murder in Oliver Twist.

The murder victim was one poetically named Eliza Grimwood, whose murder is described thusly:

"The evidence is compelling that Dickens had Grimwood in mind. Eliza, like Nancy, was half-dressed in bed, and both were forced to their knees by their killers. Eliza's murder was horrible in a different way - her throat was slashed before the killer stabbed her in the womb and breast areas and then attempted to chop her head off.

In both cases the killer brutalised the corpse. In both cases there is evidence to suggest the victim knew her killer. Neither screamed for help. In both cases the bloody aftermath is horrible. In Oliver Twist there is even blood on Sikes's dog, while Grimwood's squalid bedroom became a bloodbath."

They suspect that the killer was her pimp/lover/cousin, Hubbard, although that wasn't ever proven conclusively.

The point, however, was that Dickens wasn't being as outlandishly melodramatic with Nancy's death as he has often been accused of being. He in fact toned down the murder a bit. Imagine if he pulled a CSI-type move and made it more like Grimwood's. Oh, the shock!

[READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE]

ARTICLE: "The Neuropsychology of Zombies" by Christopher Shea

Well, you missed it, but on Monday night, Science on the Screen at the Coolidge Corner Theatre was showing Night of the Living Dead, preceded by a talk by Dr. Steven Schlozman, a psychiatry professor/zombie nut.

The gist of the talk centers on the ways in which Romero (and his fellow zombie filmmakers*) show their understanding of the workings of the human brain.

Anyway, the article brings up some interesting observations:

"And that's the crux of one of Schlozman's arguments: The story changes as the situation grows grimmer. Here, the professor draws on "mirror neuron" theory, which holds that humans are hard-wired to reflect the psychological states of the people around them. (Show a test subject a short film of a face displaying disgust, or pleasure, and regions of the brain associated with those feelings activate in the subject.)"

It almost convinces me that I could understand neuropsychology. But, of course, only if there are zombies involved.

[READ THE ARTICLE HERE.]

*These are--sadly--filmmakers who make films about zombies, not filmmakers who are themselves undead.

ARTICLE: "Don't Fear the Reaper" by James Parker

James Parker wrote an article for The Atlantic that explores the recent renaissance of the slasher genre, entitled "Don't Fear the Reaper." Which, okay, is arguably the most overused classic rock reference in the horror genre, but I guess if it ain't broke . . .

Anyway. He talks about the enduring appeal of the slasher film, etc, etc.

"Slasher films, as a consequence, have always done rather well. The classic slasher flick is produced at high speed, on a squeaker of a budget, and bows briefly for an anointing of critical scorn before going on to make piles of money. With a bit of luck, that critical scorn will be amplified into cultural censure—1980’s rape-revenge slasher, I Spit on Your Grave, for instance, was widely and windily reviled, to the enduring profit of its makers."

He then goes on to mention the fact that there's a remake of I Spit on Your Grave in the works, which begs a whole post unto itself. (How does one even try to remake that film? How are we expected to "update" it for today's audience? Because, honestly, updating is expected. Really, we could begin an endless discussion about remakes in general here . . .)

Maybe, as is suggested, the slasher genre endures because of its ability to pull in money. Maybe not. (He also touches on the Hostel and Saw franchises, bringing up the idea of "torture porn." Which, as you'll soon realize, isn't really my brand of movie. Give me Jason Voorhees over Jigsaw almost any day of the week.)

Parker's article is, however, definitely worth a read, doing homage to the guys this blog is more or less dedicated to:

"Your hockey-masked machete artists, your chain-saw assassins, are cinematic iterations of an ancient and venerated principle. If they unsettle, if they horrify, if they augur the end of the Western world, they’re only doing their job. They are a company, a guild. Leatherface, Jason, Michael Myers, Freddy, Jigsaw, and the sportsmen of Elite Hunting—traditionalists to a man."

[READ THE ARTICLE HERE.]