Since the opening scene of the first episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Joss Whedon has defined himself by his revolutionary thoughts that challenge and undermine genre conventions. In the aforementioned scene, a typical 'guy takes helpless girl on a date to an abandoned building (in this case the school), then turns out to be evil and kills her' situation seems to be taking place. However, it is then revealed that the girl is actually a badass vampire, and she turns around and kills the guy, making him the helpless one, and her the powerful one. This scene did something that hadn't been done before, and challenged the notion of the 'helpless, damsel in distress' stereotype that was pervasive in fiction at the time; the scene then paved the way for a wave of new, much less mysogynistic texts.
Cabin in the Woods attempts to do something similar by undermining the cliched genre of the horror movie. However, while his thoughts in Buffy were new and revolutionary, the comments that he makes in Cabin in the Woods are far from new or unique; he mocks the exact same conventions that have been mocked many, many times by now. From "the virgin dies last, or is the only survivor", to "the first girl to have sex is the first to die, and she usually does so topless", the cliches that Whedon mocks are ones that are already widely recognized as being flawed. In fact, an entire 4-part (soon to be 5-part) parody series entitled "Scary Movie" has been designed specifically to poke fun at these exact same conventions, and has seen quite a bit of success.
So, although Whedon does successfully manage to question genre conventions, he is hardly doing anything new: he's simply asking the same questions that have been asked by a large number of people for a long period of time. He also is hardly witty about a lot of his parody: although the idea of the 'corporation' that uses drugs and technology to set up the perfect horror movie is a really good concept that brings the metatheatricality to the forefront and provides a lot of humor, the film's "ritual" element is a little too blunt and uninteresting to add any value. The 'ancient engravings' of the horror movie archetypes, and Sigourney Weaver's textbook-like explanation of the cliches that they represent are a bit too anvilicious (in other words: so in-your-face, it's like they dropped an anvil on your head saying "hey, look at us! We're parodying horror movie archetypes!").
Don't get me wrong- I had a good time, and enjoyed watching the movie for the most part. The elevators releasing untold evils was pretty awesome, the whole meta-theatricality of the 'organization', and the dialogue (which is by now known as Whedon's specialty) was witty and impressive. Overall, the film was enjoyable. My main issue is simply the fact that Joss Whedon acts like he's saying something new or interesting, when he's really just repeating the same argument that's been made for years, and in the case of the 'ritual', he's doing so in an overly straightforward, dull way. Between the previews and the involvement of Joss Whedon, I simply expected something more groundbreaking.
The end of the film, however, was very nice, and very typical "Whedon". The sudden nature of the ending, combined with the lack of any semblance of closure leaves the audience with a very "unfinished" feeling that is fresh, unique and enjoyable in a time where most movies feel the need to have unambiguous, fulfilling endings. The way the movie ends brings up memories of the last episode of "Angel" in the mood it creates, and for that I was very pleased.
Apr 25, 2012
Mar 19, 2012
Style By Jury
Hey, I originally had this on my Deviantart, however I decided to move it over here, because it fits a blog much better, and I'm starting to focus on my Blog a lot more than my Deviantart. So, I figured I'd post it up here.
They're destroying beauty, one woman at a time.
For the last several years, reality television shows that revolve around makeovers, and "improving" women's appearances have become unnaturally popular. They appear to be multiplying scarily fast, invading cable TV, and it is absolutely disgusting. These shows take into no account the idea that people are unique, and instead pride themselves on turning everybody who enters their dressing rooms into cookie-cutter, stereotypically "pretty" clones.
When women enter a reality TV show like this, they often exhibit some form of uniqueness, or originality in their appearance, and tend to simply suffer from a great lack of self-confidence. Unfortunately, the professionals on the show are unable to comprehend the idea of originality, and are instead confused and scared by the thought of somebody who does not fit into their stereotypical, formulaic concept of beauty. Therefore, instead of attempting to help boost the woman's self-confidence in natural, healthy ways, they tell her that she is hideous, and then put her through a complicated, harsh process in order to crush and squeeze out anything that made her different.
One of the most well known of these shows is the disturbing Style By Jury. The episodes begin sufficiently eerie, when an unexpecting woman is brought into a room with the pretence of a simple interview, yet is unknowingly being spied on by a group of people behind a one-way mirror. The people then proceed to harshly criticize her appearance, and make her feel horrible about herself, which is hardly healthy for someone with low enough self esteem to sign up for a makeover show.
The saddest part is that the majority of these women are actually rather attractive, but have more unique looks that anger the conformist judges. The show seeks out the less feminine, girly types, such as tomboys and country girls, or girls who dare to do something different with their fashion, and proceeds to misjudge their lack of archetypical femininity as ugliness. Then, instead of showing them some ways to "improve" their appearance, while still staying true to themselves, like a truly prestigious show would do, they do whatever possible to kill the person, and turn them into a clone of everyone else who comes off of the show.
After convincing the woman that she is the most hideous person alive, the experts at the show continue the disturbing tone by putting her through several creepy procedures. First comes the plastic surgery, where they fill her face with chemicals, and cut it up, so they can mould it into an acceptably unremarkable visage, that fits the standard opinion of attractive. Following this comes the section of the show where the stylists go through the woman's closet, telling her that everything that she bought, because she liked the way it looked, is horrible. From now on she can only wear what they think looks good, as if she likes it, it is obviously disgusting. Following this, they put her through many lessons on how to lose her personality, the most disturbing of these being their "Bombshell Coach". This woman's job is literally to teach the unlucky participants how to extinguish any trace of their personality, and instead act like a stereotypical bombshell. After this come a few more alterations in the woman's appearance, just to make sure there is nothing left of the original person left in her. In the end, out comes the result: a generic clone of every other woman whose come through the show, and has no sense of the unique flavour she came in with.
These shows are an embarrassment to television, and to our society in general, due to their lack of respect for people's differences, and their almost Hitler-like idea that everyone should be identical, forming to a standardized concept of "beauty". These shows must be stopped before they succeed in destroying every ounce of originality in our world, resulting in a Stepford like planet where everyone's the same, and thought ceases to exist.
They're destroying beauty, one woman at a time.
For the last several years, reality television shows that revolve around makeovers, and "improving" women's appearances have become unnaturally popular. They appear to be multiplying scarily fast, invading cable TV, and it is absolutely disgusting. These shows take into no account the idea that people are unique, and instead pride themselves on turning everybody who enters their dressing rooms into cookie-cutter, stereotypically "pretty" clones.
When women enter a reality TV show like this, they often exhibit some form of uniqueness, or originality in their appearance, and tend to simply suffer from a great lack of self-confidence. Unfortunately, the professionals on the show are unable to comprehend the idea of originality, and are instead confused and scared by the thought of somebody who does not fit into their stereotypical, formulaic concept of beauty. Therefore, instead of attempting to help boost the woman's self-confidence in natural, healthy ways, they tell her that she is hideous, and then put her through a complicated, harsh process in order to crush and squeeze out anything that made her different.
One of the most well known of these shows is the disturbing Style By Jury. The episodes begin sufficiently eerie, when an unexpecting woman is brought into a room with the pretence of a simple interview, yet is unknowingly being spied on by a group of people behind a one-way mirror. The people then proceed to harshly criticize her appearance, and make her feel horrible about herself, which is hardly healthy for someone with low enough self esteem to sign up for a makeover show.
The saddest part is that the majority of these women are actually rather attractive, but have more unique looks that anger the conformist judges. The show seeks out the less feminine, girly types, such as tomboys and country girls, or girls who dare to do something different with their fashion, and proceeds to misjudge their lack of archetypical femininity as ugliness. Then, instead of showing them some ways to "improve" their appearance, while still staying true to themselves, like a truly prestigious show would do, they do whatever possible to kill the person, and turn them into a clone of everyone else who comes off of the show.
After convincing the woman that she is the most hideous person alive, the experts at the show continue the disturbing tone by putting her through several creepy procedures. First comes the plastic surgery, where they fill her face with chemicals, and cut it up, so they can mould it into an acceptably unremarkable visage, that fits the standard opinion of attractive. Following this comes the section of the show where the stylists go through the woman's closet, telling her that everything that she bought, because she liked the way it looked, is horrible. From now on she can only wear what they think looks good, as if she likes it, it is obviously disgusting. Following this, they put her through many lessons on how to lose her personality, the most disturbing of these being their "Bombshell Coach". This woman's job is literally to teach the unlucky participants how to extinguish any trace of their personality, and instead act like a stereotypical bombshell. After this come a few more alterations in the woman's appearance, just to make sure there is nothing left of the original person left in her. In the end, out comes the result: a generic clone of every other woman whose come through the show, and has no sense of the unique flavour she came in with.
These shows are an embarrassment to television, and to our society in general, due to their lack of respect for people's differences, and their almost Hitler-like idea that everyone should be identical, forming to a standardized concept of "beauty". These shows must be stopped before they succeed in destroying every ounce of originality in our world, resulting in a Stepford like planet where everyone's the same, and thought ceases to exist.
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