Lunch Box of the Week: Hogan's Heroes

Theme Song of the Week: Hogan's Heroes (1965-1971)

Horror Lexicon 4: The Sting in the Tail/Tale

In his landmark book of genre film analysis, James Bond in the Cinema (1981), the great John Brosnan often wrote about "the sting in the tail," that moment near the end of a James Bond film, when the surviving villain gets the jump on 007, and there's one last thrill before end credits roll.  Think of Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd spoiling a perfectly nice cruise at the end of Diamonds Are Forever (1970), for instance, or Nick Nack doing same in The Man with the Golden Gun (1974).

In the horror lexicon, the sting in the tail/tale is that devilish scorpion strike at the very end of the movie, the turn or twist of the tale towards the unexpected in the final, valedictory moment.  In the horror genre, the sting in the tail/tale is designed to forge a final, spiky crescendo, one that audiences will remember as they file out of the auditorium.  Sometimes the sting in the tail/tale causes a laugh; sometimes a shriek.

The sting in the tail/tale comes in many shapes and sizes.  Often the final "sting" is a development you don't expect, something that ratchets up the terror and changes the very nature of the narrative, even setting up the grounds for a sequel.  

The sting in the tail/tale at the end of AVP (2004) is the birth of the Pred-Alien, for example.  The sting in the tail/tale at the end of Wes Craven's Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), is the shocking death of Nancy Thompson's Mom, as Nancy is helplessly driven away in The Freddy Mobile.  

In other cases, the sting in the tail/tale is a moment of high drama and terror ultimately revealed to be a dream sequence (through the auspices of the "Stay Awake" shot.)  

Films including Carrie (1976), Dressed to Kill (1980) and Prince of Darkness (1987) all resolve with stings in the tail/tale that get the blood pumping, but are revealed to be phantasms of the mind, not reality.  

A great play on this aspect of the convention occurs in Phantasm II.  Mike (James LeGros) insists to a terrified Liz (Paula Irvine) that the terror around them is all a dream.  Then the Tall Man (Angus Scrimm) appears and punctures that particular balloon.  "No...it's not!" He croaks.  Fade to Black...

Sometimes, a sting in the tail/tale reveals that a "beloved" character didn't really die (Fright Night [1985]), and sometimes, the sting resolves a lingering question in the narrative.  The great, final sting of John Carpenter's The Fog (1980) is a direct answer to Father Malone's (Hal Holbrook) interrogative about why the vengeful Blake didn't seek revenge upon him.  

Off with his head!  

One of the great sting-in-the-tail/tale endings of film history is seen in another Carpenter film, Halloween (1978). To me, this is one of the most elegant and beautiful stings in film history.  After we see that Michael Myers is still alive, Carpenter cuts to a montage of empty rooms and dark houses...places where Michael Myers already has been during the course of the film.  We don't see him, but the montage is accompanied by the sounds of his heavy breathing.   

This sort of "where's Michael" final sting is so much more effective and inventive than a last jump wherein Michael re-appears, and gets shot in the head.  Instead, Carpenter sort of "universalizes" the terror of Michael.  He could be anywhere now, the montage suggests.

Even in the back seat of your car...

Another sting in the tail/tale ending I admire tremendously arises in Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead (1983).  Here, Ash defeats the Deadites and limps out of his cabin in the woods, only to be pursued -- one last time -- by a horrible, unseen force.  

The orchestration of this P.O.V. attack is remarkable, and audacious. We race (on the camera, apparently...) through the woods, through the very cabin interior, over a fallen door, right into Ash's screaming, protesting face.    

This ending is not only terrifying, it's a reminder of the film's bravura "pummeling-the-audience" aesthetic.

Most often in horror films, the sting-in-the-tail/tale ending is as simple as a killer you believed was dead, popping up for one, final scare before being put down (Scream [1996], The Resident [2011]).

The sting-in-the-tail/tale, in various forms, has appeared in films including (but not limited to...): Carrie (1976), Halloween (1978), The Fog (1980), Dressed to Kill (1980), Humanoids from the Deep (1980), Friday the 13th Part II (1983), A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), Fright Night (1985), Critters (1986), Psycho 3 (1986), Fatal Attraction (1987), Halloween IV: The Return of Michael Myers, Hellbound: Hellraiser 2 (1988), Hide and Go Shriek (1988), Phantasm 2 (1988), Leviathan (1989), Scream (1996), and AVP (2004).

The View from My Screen #4

Which series? Which episode?

The Cult-TV Faces of: Fish

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Sci-Fi Headline of the Week #4

Monumental Destruction #3: Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers (1956)

Horror Movie Lexicon #3: P.O.V.

This week's selection from the horror movie lexicon remains one of the most controversial "vocabulary words" in the cinematic language.  In the P.O.V. "stalk" shot or subjective shot, the camera adopts the first person perspective.   

Essentially, this mean that, in quite a few cases, we are "seeing" through the very eyes of a film's killer.

The P.O.V. shot is so controversial because many film critics suggest it is, in some fashion, an immoral composition.  They argue that we -- the audience -- are knowingly being transformed by filmmakers into killers ourselves.

Behind the eyes of a murderer, we experience the vicarious thrill of committing murder.  We occupy the space and body of the killer, and his hands are our hands, this argument goes.

Contrarily, I've always believe that the P.O.V. shot does precisely what it was designed to do.  First and foremost, it maintains the mystery of the "eyes" owner, the very person doing the killing in a particular narrative.  

John Carpenter's Halloween (1978) is a perfect example of this particular approach.  Consider the lengthy, elaborate P.O.V. tracking shot that opens the film, and whch reveals the film's first murder.  The punch line or narrative twist at the end of this sequence is the surprise revelation that the brutal murderer is a child, little Michael Myers.  

As this wholly unexpected horror is at last revealed, Carpenter's camera withdraws up, up and away from little Michael as though consumed by horror and indignation.  The receding camera move represents a highly moral composition, then.  But we wouldn't even get so artful a withdraw as punctuation were we not first surprised and terrorized by the identity of the killer.  

Simply put, in many cases, the P.O.V. stalk shot actively preserves or elongates suspense, so that the killer's identity cannot be easily intuited.  It seems appropriate to note, as well, that the first death sequence in Halloween -- the one that utilizes the P.O.V. perspective -- is far less explicit than it might have been.  Michael's plunging butcher knife (partially obscured through the peep holes of a clown mask) is never seen to touch or otherwise penetrate human flesh. 

So, at least in the hands of a maestro like Carpenter, there is a sense of tact and propriety when the P.O.V. is adopted.

The argument that the P.O.V.  angle somehow encourages sympathy with the killer or encourages the act of killing seems suspect to me, anyway.

Film grammar consists of a wide variety of compositions and angles, and every one makes people "feel" a certain way.  Instead of receiving some kind of vicarious thrill from observing up-close a murder, it's just as likely that a percipient in this scenario would be repulsed and horrified by the proximity to such violence.  

And the horror film format is about engendering revulsion and horror.   

Long story short, I find the application of the P.O.V. technique far less morally compromised than the glorious, full-color, bloody murders routinely depicted in action films like Rambo (1985), wherein we are expected to celebrate the death of a "villain" simply because he subscribes to a different ideology (communism), or is from a different nation (such as Vietnam).  

The Point of View or P.O.V. Stalk Shot has indeed become a crucial element of the common horror lexicon, evoking feelings of shock and disgust in the audience, and also prolonging suspense before a slasher's identity is revealed.  In some cases, the P.O.V. is even a directorial "feint," and the killer camera actually represents a practical joker, or a harmless friend "creeping up" on a Final Girl.   

In other films, such as Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead (1983), the P.O.V. shot appears untethered from gravity itself, and seem to race about madly, at high velocity, on that famous "shaky cam."

In other horror films, the P.O.V. is useful in noting how different creatures actually "see" the world.  In this case, consider Wolfen (1981), the infra-red vision of the extra-terrestrial in Predator (1987), or the finale of Alien 3 (1992).  In each case, a new perspective is offered to audiences.

Especially popular in the 1980's and in slasher films, the P.O.V. shot has been featured in: 

Halloween (1978), The Boogeyman (1980), Dressed to Kill (1980), Friday the 13th (1980), The Watcher in the Woods (1980), The Dorm that Dripped Blood (1981), Halloween II (1981), My Bloody Valentine (1981), The Boogens (1982), The Burning (1982), Hell Night (1982), Humongous (1982), Visiting Hours (1982), Curtains (1983), The Evil Dead (1983), One Dark Night (1983), The Prey (1984), Predator (1987) Child's Play (1988), Halloween IV: The Return of Michael Myers (1988),  Night of the Demons (1988).

The View from My Screen #3

Guess which series. And which episode...

The Cult-TV Faces of: Crows and Ravens

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