Ghouls on Film

During the days of her courtship with shock-rocker, Marilyn Manson, Rose McGowan became something of a B-list goth icon. While she makes appearances in her then-beau’s music videos, the film that solidifies her status is the 1999 dark comedy, “Jawbreaker.” Rose McGowan’s own set of “jawbreakers” take center stage in the film, helping to define the overly-sexual aspect of her villainous prom queen character that makes any one of the “Heathers” seem John Hughes-wholesome by comparison.

Portraying the ultimate mean girl, Courtney Shayne, McGowan’s character is dubbed “Satan in heels” by the film’s narrator — gawky wallflower Fern Mayo (Judy Greer in an early role) — who discovers that Courtney accidentally killed the most popular girl in school via a birthday prank gone awry. Courtney and her cohorts kidnapped their friend, Liz Purr (AKA — “the Princess Di of Reagan High”) on her 17th birthday, gagged her with an over-sized Jawbreaker candy in the back of the trunk, intending to treat her to a pancake breakfast before tying her to a flagpole in her bra and panties.

Well…That didn’t work out so hot. Liz accidentally choked to death on the killer candy in the trunk of the car. Oopsies! While sweet, sweet Julie (Rebecca Gayheart) and Marcie “Foxy” Fox (Julie Benz) feel varying degrees of remorse, Courtney coldly and calculatingly assembles an elaborate cover story. She’ll be damned if she’s going to be put in the hot seat for “being sweet enough to pull a thoughtful birthday prank on her girlfriend.” She pulls out all the stops to cover her tracks: Impersonating Liz’s mother, falsifying a rape/murder crime scene, and — the cherry on top — blackmailing a horrified Fern Mayo with a popularity makeover to buy her silence.

Courtney Sticks It To Them

Sporting a candy-colored wardrobe akin to the titular (“tit”ular?) Wonka favorite, Courtney’s tight bustiers and fitted retro tops put the “sweater” in “sweater puppets.” She smiles like a piranha at allies and enemies alike and even goes so far as use her passive-aggressive sexual proclivities to bend others to her will through sheer terrorism. She attempts a posthumous character assassination on Liz by attempting to pass off her own strange kinks as a contributing factor to Liz’s death: “They’ll believe it because it’s their worst nightmare: Elizabeth Purr, the very picture of teenage perfection, obliterated by perversion.”

Using the persuasive power of her pert n’ perkies, Courtney picks up a sleazy dude in a bar (Marilyn Manson in a non-speaking, leisure suit-wearing cameo) to obtain a certain, uh, “substance” to paint her dead “friend’s” bedroom with “evidence.” Courtney could care less that an otherwise innocent perv would be blamed for the girl’s murder.

Courtney's Killer Dress

In “Jawbreaker’s” final minutes, Courtney gets her crown — and her comeuppance — as she’s made prom queen. In a twist of fate equally cruel as Courtney Shayne herself, Julie, her drama club member boyfriend, and Fern play back a recording over the P.A. of Courtney’s cocky confession that she killed Liz and the “teen dream” along with her… “Deal with it.”

The students of Reagan High don’t take too kindly to Killer Courtney’s confession, pelting her with corsages and other debris. Tears spill down Courtney Shayne’s face as her cleavage spills over the top of her sublime silver prom gown, and she has a mascara-running meltdown to the tune of “Young At Heart,” presumably before being hauled off to the hoosegow.

Goths with tails? Real-life “Teen Wolf?”

Oh Wolfie Blackheart! How the thirteen-year-old me pines for you. Strange. No mention of furries in this story…

This scene in the classic and ridiculously funny horror film “Braindead” (aka “Dead Alive”) by director Peter Jackson (pre-pre-”Lord of the Rings”) will force you to do a thorough check of any pudding, flan, or crème brulee you are ever served again.
 
I love custardy desserts.  All that rich, creamy goodness that’s whipped up until it is perfectly smooth and delicious.  It’s chock full of fat yet deceivingly light.  What could be bad?  Hmmm … a harmless little after dinner treat until the quintessential “Mum” of horror, Vera Cosgrove, adds her unwelcome ingredients to it. 
 

So if you ever spot something funky in your dessert, here are a few appropriate responses you can give to your gracious host:
 
Darn, I just maxed out on my weight watchers points.
 
Scream out in a panic, “my earring is gone,” then duck underneath the table and search for it until the dessert course is over.
 
Ooh!  Is that custard?  I don’t want to tell you what happens to me when I eat eggs.
 
House fly!  (then, quickly cover the bowl like you’ve managed to trap it and discreetly run to the kitchen to discard).
 
They can’t be mad at that.

Courtesy of Dread Central

“Sucker” is a great name for a movie.  It’s also a great idea from the mind of actor/director Michael Manasseri.

He’s the man behind “Babysitter Wanted.” He’ll be starring in the film, as half-human half-mosquito Jim Crawley. (Get it? Crawley?) You might also recognize Manasseri from the TV show “Weird Science” or, perhaps, from his work in Teen Beat magazine.

In case you don’t know already, here’s the plot of “Sucker” ripped straight from the movie synopsis:
“Lovable loser Jim Crawley is having a pretty bad day. He gets fired from his job at the Nuclear Power Plant he’s worked at for 11 years, his car gets impounded, and he discovers his wife is having an affair with his ex co-worker. To make matters worse, Jim gets abducted by an evil scientist who is conducting tests of a controversial vaccine against a deadly virus that is spreading across the planet. It turns out that years of being exposed to nuclear radiation and a serum full of a rare insect DNA don’t mix very well with Jim … he mutates into a six-foot, blood-sucking, half-human/half-insect that sets out for revenge. The film is a mix of comic book adventure, live action, 3D animation, and stylized photography.”

There are some photos from the film over at Dread Central. (I stole one for this post. Thanks Dreadheads!)

I like what I see. It’s sort of a combo of the “Fly” and the “X-Files” episode Folie a Deux. Remember that one? About the telemarketing boss who is also an insect monster? One of my faves. (Oh sorry. I don’t consider spoilers when a show is 12 years old.)

You can find out more details about “Sucker” from Mondo-Video’s set visit review and read some fun tidbits about Lloyd Kaufman here. It’s worth clicking on the link just to see the pic of Lloyd Kaufman. I can’t seem to find any clips so please send them my way if you happen to stumble upon them.

Marilyn Manson to star in a horror film – this doesn’t sound so bad. I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for Brian Hugh Warner. I’m not sure why. I don’t really like his music and his contacts are not so much scary as just really dumb. But, I respect his undying dedication to a look.

The internets tell me that Ms. Marilyn Manson and his sometimes-sometimes not fiancee Evan Rachel Wood will be starring in not one, but two upcoming films together.

The first, which he has been working on since about 2007, “Phantasmagoria: The Visions of Lewis Carroll,” is Manson’s directorial debut. He will also play the title character, write, and score. it.

It’s easy to see the connection. Both sport a dour expression, operate under assumed personas, like frilly collars, and are tortured artists who are known for their controversial work.  Both are rumored to have a dark side involving children.  One has cultivated the rumor, which is most likely untrue, with his onstage antics and his subtly-titled “Smells Like Children,” while the other’s tendencies are still up for debate and his body of work is a bit more damning.

Maybe Marilyn could even be considered a sort of Lewis Carroll of our time. He’s a poet (stretching, I know) who deals with feelings of fear and alienation.  Like these lovely lyrics:

The toys all smell like children
and scab-knees will obey
I’ll just have to kneel on broomsticks
just to make it go away

The inauguration of the worm
then I got my wings and I
never even knew it,
when I was a worm, thought I
couldn’t get through it

Not quite “Jabberwocky,” but disturbing nonetheless.

I am personally looking forward to seeing Manson with a little less make up. A more natural look for the shock rocker. I just hope he grows back his eyebrows.

Not quite sure how Evan Rachel Wood fits into the Lewis Carroll story. A wife? A lover? A boy-girl child? Actually, Alice’s alter-ego. We’ve got a baaaaaaaaaad Alice on our hands.

The second film the couple will star in together is “Splatter Sisters” written and directed by Adam Bhala Lough. This immediately makes me think: 80s Goth band. Yeah, the Splatter Sisters I know them. I used to dance to them at Manray. Didn’t they have an album called The Screamstress?

Variety reports the film with be the first in a planned franchise and inspired by 80s slasher flicks. They are calling it a “sexploitation-serial-killer-slasher-road-movie circa 1989.” But with a fresh spin.

Totally original. Like nothing we’ve seen before. Doesn’t sound familiar at all …

According to Variety, “Lough reckons ‘Splatter Sisters’ could create a subgenre, which he calls ‘Skinemax Cinema,’ based on the direct-to-cable movies of his childhood.”

I am keeping an open mind. I like direct-to-cable. I like things that splatter. But there’s one piece of the puzzle that doesn’t quite fit for me. The Lady of the Wood who, according to the same article, will be “bringing dramatic gravity to the ensemble.”

Dramatic gravity? You mean forgetting to emote at all? That kind of gravity?  I am guessing said producer didn’t see her sad performance as the vampire queen in “True Blood.” I loved the clothing, the day room, but you’re the (literally) goddamned Queen of the Vampires. Show a little zazzle!

Another word of caution to the dark duo. Romance and acting has come back to bite Ms. Manson before. I speak of course of his cameo in the film “Jawbreaker” starring then-fiancee Rose McGowan. It wasn’t long after that the two split.

Maybe she never quite got over this image: