It's Day 276 of my project and of the year. That means, that it is Day 2 of the 31 Days of Hallowe'en movie challenges I'm doing as well. I talked about my own challenge back at the beginning of August.
Let's start with my own 31 Days of Hallowe'en challenge, and today's topic is A Stephen King Movie. I picked Cujo.
The story follows a woman and her son as they go to pick up their car from a local repair man, only to find themselves stranded alone on his property with his rabies infected dog.
If you haven't seen this yet, believe it or not but the Cujo part is not the actual point of this movie. It's the relationships of the two women in this movie. The main character is having an affair, which her husband finds out about just before he's set to go on a business trip. The other female character is the wife of the repair man. Both women are from different sides of the tracks literally and figuratively; but both suffer at the hands of violent men. The wife of the repair man is abused by her husband, while the main character is attacked by the man she'd been having the affair with. Cujo gets bitten at the beginning of the movie and because the repair man doesn't care or notice, the poor dog becomes sick. This causes Cujo to become violent. What I got out of this story, is the underlining theme of neglect, abuse and self preservation.
The mini theme for the 31 Days of Horror challenge being hosted by Nightmare on Film Street, is Tim Burton. I picked Corpse Bride.
Here we have a young couple who are set to have an arranged marriage in the late 1800's. Both are worried they will not like the other person, but upon meeting fall instantly in love. The only problem is that Victor can't seem to get their vows memorized because of his nerves. While practicing out in the woods, he accidentally puts his ring on the finger of a corpse thinking it's just a tree branch. The corpse then awakes and pulls him down into the afterlife. Meanwhile, Victor's real bride is being pressured by her parents to marry someone else. This someone else is a Baron, and once it's revealed that this bride is broke, he tries to kill her. We soon learn that our corpse was his first victim.
I know this is considered a classic in the Hallowe'en and horror communities, and I have to say for a stop motion movie, this is top tier. But...it's okay. Yes, I know it's a big gateway horror for so many, and it's a major success for Tim Burton, but I actually find the story too light and the characters to be one dimensionally written. There is an old folktale I remember having read as a kid back in the late 1970's that was called the Girl Who Married a Ghost, and this movie has some of those elements in it. Was that Tim Burton's inspiration? Hard to say.
What do I think the moral of this is? Always marry for love never for any other reason.
It hasn't escaped my attention that both my picks today are about, to some level abusive relationships. Thou vastly different in their portrayal, in the end they are about women who have suffered at the hands of others.
Don't forget, I'm also taking part in the #100HorrorMoviesIn92Days challenge again this year. You can follow along to all these on my Letterboxd lists.
I'll be back tomorrow with the next set of movies. Come back and see what's on the slab.
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