Editorial
Front Page - Friday, October 15, 2010
Are we there yet?
It needs a little bite
Jay Edwards
My daughter Alexis came in the other night and after her mom served us up some great chicken cacciatorri, we decided to go to a movie. Alexis likes scary movies, as do I, but Kathy doesn’t so she stayed behind while we went to see “Let Me In.” (Spoiler alert – If you haven’t seen it and don’t want to know what happens, stop here and go read Vic instead)
It’s about a 12-year old boy who is being picked on by some bullies at school. The bullies are unmerciful, evil and rotten to the core; just the kind of bullies you love to hate, and love when they get what is coming to them, which these finally do.
The avenger of skinny little Owen, is skinny little Abby, who happens to be a vampire, which isn’t such a bad thing if they’re on your side.
Abby: I’m stronger than I look.
I came to like Abby quickly, feeling kind of sorry for her, because 12 can be such an awkward age, especially if you’re one of the undead.
Abby: Owen, do you like me?
Owen: Yes
Abby: Would you still like me... even if I wasn’t a girl?
There is something about vampire movies I’ve always liked. I can remember going to see one called, “Count Yorga, Vampire,” when I was about the same age as Abby and Owen, at the old Park Theater on JFK in North Little Rock. Of course, the vampire girls in those days were a little more mature. And did you ever notice that when they became vampires, all of their clothes magically turned into nightgowns, making them look like they should be starring in a Russ Meyer film instead?
“Narrator: A vampire, in ancient belief, was a malignant spirit who when the earth lost its sunlight rose nightly from its dark grave to suck blood from the throats of the living. Its powers were many. It could not die by the mere passing of time. It had to have been by a wooden stake driven deep into its heart, or exposure to the rays of the sun, which would instantly decompose its body into a miasma of putrid decay.” – Count Yorga, Vampire (1970)
You gotta love that. But why didn’t they just title it – “Count Yorga?” Why did they think they needed to add “Vampire,” after his name? Everyone knew what he was, if not from the trailer, then certainly from the movie poster outside, which was a full moon and a GQ-looking guy chewing on a girl’s neck.
I remember when one of Count Yorga’s victims, a brunette this time, had been locked up by her friends inside her apartment, so the friends could go talk to an expert on vampires, who would tell them the correct steps to take in case she really was a vampire. But the friends were in such a hurry to meet the vampire expert that they forgot and left the cat behind. When they returned, their friend was having kitty for supper, uncooked, which I guess confirmed their earlier concerns. That image stayed with me for a long time. It was finally erased from my memory the next year when I snuck in the Asher Drive In to see, “A Clockwork Orange.”
Alex: I’ve learned me lesson, sir. I’ve seen now what I’ve never seen before. I’m cured!
Dr. Brodsky: You’re not cured yet, boy. – A Clockwork Orange (1971)
Anyway, as far as “Let Me In,” goes, if you’re in to a good scare and have always liked vampires, as I have, by all means check it out. It’s well done, in a creepy sort of way; and young Abby at last makes the bullies wish they’d been a little nicer to Owen.
Like anything else, the debate about the scariest movie of all time will never end. (Say it like Muhammed Ali and it has a much better effect – “OF ALLLLL TIIIIIMMMME!!!)
I tell people it should be “The Exorcist,” not only because of its greatness, but also because of how much it shocked the world. (More Ali – “I shocked the World!!!”)
Because today, I’m not so sure that society can be shocked anymore, which if true, can’t really be a good thing.
Twenty-five years ago, an extraordinary movie changed the face of modern cinema. I was eleven years old when “The Exorcist” opened in America on Boxing Day, 1973. And I can remember like yesterday the amazing reaction it caused. You couldn’t open a newspaper or turn on the television without coming across some account of audiences queuing all night ‘round the block just to see the film, only to dash out of the theaters, some of them straight into the nearest church. - The Fear of God: 25 Years of ‘The Exorcist’ (1998 Documentary).
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