A colony of king penguins go head to head with a huge group of giant elephant seals on South Georgia Island - Photograph: Brian Matthews/Mediadrumimages
click image link for more Week in Wildlife photos.
0 notes
The Burning (1981)
Every film genre is worth exploring but of course, it’s best to prioritize the groundbreaking, innovative and defining examples. If you wish to explore the slasher genre, have already memorized Halloween, have hammered out a definitive ranking for all of the Friday the 13th films and want something less "out there" than A Nightmare on Elm Street, then you're in the right mood for The Burning. With iconic imagery, high levels of suspense, plus everything you want from a movie about a killer in the woods, it’ll leave horror fans pleased.
5 years ago at Camp Blackfoot, a prank gone wrong gave the caretaker suffering horrific burns. Once released from the hospital, Cropsy (Lou David) sets out to punish the campers of Camp Stonewater, whose teenagers are all too similar to those who disfigured him.
If you scoff at the idea of young adults being cut to ribbons as entertainment and think gore only belongs in war movies - and even then, only to make a point about how wrong violence is - you’ve got no business watching The Burning. Even if you embrace the genre, the day-for-night scenes and occasionally dated character interactions (or maybe that's just how things were back then) will still make you cringe. You get over it thanks to the ample visceral thrills. Cropsy’s signature weapon is a pair of garden shears/hedge clippers. While a knife might slip quietly between your ribs and a machete will embed itself into your skull, this tool’s specialty is to sever, which is a whole lot of unsettling. To avoid repetition, the film’s body count showcases multiple ways to slay: impalements, stabbings, slashings, etc. If you want blood and gore, this movie’s got plenty without overindulging. You get enough to be shocked but the objective isn’t to gross out.
Plot-wise, everything follows a believable logic. Cropsy used to work at a camp. He knows how things operate, when campers will become isolated and how to cover up his crimes. His murders go undetected for as long as they do because he's careful. There are a lot of campers in the film and they all have their individual stories going on. Sally (Carrick Glenn) holds a grudge against Alfred (Brian Backer) after he tries to scare her in the shower. He says he was just trying to get back at her boyfriend, Glazer (Larry Joshua) who has been mercilessly bullying him. Karen (Carolyn Houlihan) is being pressured to have sex with Eddy (Ned Eisenberg). They have an argument and meanwhile, Cropsy is watching. You get a feeling the killer is always just outside of view, waiting for the right opportunity to strike. The multitude of possible victims, along with the casual sexism of the late ‘70s/early ‘80s makes it difficult to pinpoint who is “good enough” to survive and who will be “punished” by Cropsy. When something goes wrong, everyone assumes it’s the kids trying to pulll pranks or over engaging in teenage drama. No one could suspect the truth but you know and you’re nervously watching, wondering what’s coming next.
The Burning deviates enough from the formula to keep things interesting but also retains what made the genre so popular in its heyday. The gore, makeup and special effects are impressive. The sight of those shears gleaming in the summer light as Cropsy prepares to sink them into his next victim's flesh is hard to forget. It's not reinventing the wheel, it might be tasteless and occasionally dated but what clenches it as a good movie is the conclusion. We get a terrific, final scare; a thematically appropriate final note that makes you eager to revisit The Burning again. (On Blu-ray, November 13, 2020)
0 notes
literally screaming at everybody “pete and ted can’t ever interact with each other, they’re played by the same actor : (“ DO YOU FORGET WHO WE’RE DEALING WITH HERE??
there are the insane quick changes of which we have: joey richter himself playing what i can only assume to be the entire population of independence (plus an ox) in one song:
and then, of course, the master himself, brosenthal, playing frankly 80% of the cast, but ESPECIALLY in this one scene. ONE SCENE:
“oh but joey left the scene for some of the quick changes in tto, he can’t do that if the spankoffski bros are supposed are supposed to have a conversation” FINE, the other option: just play two characters at once. which starkid has done before.
exhibit one, twisted. these two are not the same:
exhibit two, tgwdlm, a hatchetfield show. this already happened in a hatchefield show:
(also, it is two different characters, do not fight me on this. this scene is too confrontation from jekyll & hyde-coded to be the same character) SPEAKING off confrontation:
joey did already. play two different characters at once. i’m not here to argue the semantics or implications about personhood of saying confrontation and let it go has two different characters each, i’m just saying, acting-wise, there’s two distinctive characters in both songs. like. guys. absolutely joey could just simply play both of them simultaneously. they literally do this all the time. what’s your excuse now
643 notes
·
View notes