Lianne Spiderbaby (Lianne MacDougall) is a writer for Fangoria, Cineplex, Famous Monsters, FearNet, Film Journal International and Video Watchdog magazine. Her new book, Grindhouse Girls: Cinema’s Hardest Working Women, is being published by St. Martin's Press. Lianne is also the host of Fright Bytes, and her journalistic force has started to "bleed" out of the horror genre and into the mainstream. Lianne Spiderbaby holds an honors degree in Film Studies, University of Toronto.
Fangoria #315 is coming soon and this issue features my interview with lovely Sheryl Lee (aka Laura Palmer) of TWIN PEAKS fame! My story got got the COVER of the magazine! My first Fangoria cover - hopefully the first of many to come! Pick up the issue, coming soon!
Full details of this issue:
FEATURE: “MARS ATTACKS,” PART ONE They’re back in many media
this summer to turn Earth into a red planet.
PREVIEW: “RED LIGHTS” “Buried” director Rodrigo Cortés
marshals a top-flight cast to explore issues of psychic investigation.
PREVIEW: “THE AWAKENING” First-time feature filmmaker Nick
Murphy casts Rebecca Hall as an anti-ghostbuster.
INTERVIEW: ROBERT FUEST, PART TWO Once he finished his “Dr.
Phibes” double threat, there was “Devil’s Rain” in his forecast.
INTERVIEW: CRISPIN GLOVER, PART ONE If his choice of acting
roles wasn’t eccentric enough, his own movies are even more so.
INTERVIEW: CARL GOTTLIEB, PART ONE When they were gonna need
a better script for “Jaws,” Steven Spielberg and co. called on this writer.
Plus: the big fish on Blu-ray.
PREVIEW: “THE BUNNY GAME” Adam Rehmeier’s unflinchingly
torturous shocker starring Rodleen Getsic has a lot of ears burning.
PREVIEW: “SOUTH TEXAS BLUES,” PART SIX More of our advance
peek at Christopher P. Garetano’s “Chainsaw” comic.
INTERVIEW: SHERYL LEE On “Twin Peaks,” she was perhaps the
first TV-series central character to be deceased when it began.
INTERVIEW: RAY WISE He answered the question “Who killed
Laura Palmer?” in the most memorable way possible.
PREVIEW: “SOME GUY WHO KILLS PEOPLE” He discovers new
reasons to live even as he finds good reasons to murder.
INTERVIEW: JEAN-CLAUDE LORD The Canadian director turned
“Visiting Hours” into the worst part of a hospital stay.
INTERVIEW: BILL MOSELEY His many roles spread the fear from
the Great White North to the Deep South.
INTERVIEW: ELLEN BURSTYN She called on “The Exorcist” to
save her daughter and helped make screen history.
“THE DALI AFFAIR” Actress Jenny Wright remembers her strange
times with the legendary artist.
FEATURE: SCHOOL OF SHOCK, PART TWO Car and schoolbus safety
films were enough to drive schoolkids crazy with fear.
LIFE IN THE BOX: “HELLRAISER III: HELL ON EARTH” Never mind
Eddie Murphy; 20 years ago, Pinhead was coming to America.
In the newest episode of Fright Bytes hosts Lianne Spiderbaby (Fangoria scribe) and Steve Mac (score composer on the upcoming Henry Rollins film, In The House Of Flies) share their love of Alfred Hitchcock with a tribute to PsychoandDial M For Murder.The episode starts out with a humorous and clever introduction where Lianne and Steve encounter Norman Bates himself on their way to the infamous Bates Motel.What happens when they get there is absolutely ridiculous.
The episode also features a discussion on what makes Hitchcock’s suspense/horror films so terrifying, and the director’s ability to make the safest places (the shower) unsafe and threatening.It is a known fact that after shooting Psycho, Janet Leigh wasn’t able to take a shower for several months in fear of what lurks on the other side of the curtain.
This episode includes a close look at a few of the photos taken at the Dial M For Murder photo shoot with talented photographer Julia Busato (www.facebook.com/pages/Julia-Busato-Boudoir-Photography), make-up artist Megan Haddad (www.facebook.com/pages/Megz-Make-Up), and hair stylist Susan Rice (www.facebook.com/pages/Creative-Designs).Go behind the scenes of Fright Bytes as Lianne interviews all three of these talented women.
Also, the contest for a new Fright Bytes logo is still going on – you have until June 1st to get your entries in!All you have to do is design a new Fright Bytes logo, and you have a chance to win some great prizes: Fangoria t-shirts, magazines, and horror jewelry by Tonjia Atomic (indie horror film director)!Submit your entries by June 1st to:lianne@liannespiderbaby.com for your chance to win!The best logo will be featured on several upcoming episodes of Fright Bytes, including the upcoming Prometheus episode featuring a review of the film and a special sci-fi introduction directed by Fangoria-award winning director, Brian Clement.Spiderbaby in a space suit!Don’t miss it!
Here is a sneak peek look at our Fright Bytes Dial M For Murder / Hitchcock photoshoot with photographer Julia Busato (Julia Busato Photography) This shoot will also be featured on our Hitchcock episode of Fright Bytes, coming in late May! Click to enlarge images!
Make up by: Megan Haddad: magzmakeup83@gmail.com Megz Make-Up
Hair By: Susan Rice @ Creative Designs designsmode@gmail.com
In this review episode of FRIGHT BYTES hosts Lianne Spiderbaby and Steve Mac review Tim Burton's DARK SHADOWS (2012). Definitely check out this review before you go see the film -- there are NO SPOILERS in this review.
Also we are looking for a new FRIGHT BYTES logo!
There are several first, second, and third place prizes up for grabs:
1. Classic FANGORIA t-shirt by Fright Rags (please specify your size: S, M, L)
2. Issues of FANGORIA magazine
3. Horror Jewelry donated from feminist horror filmmaker Tonjia Atomic
To win these prizes, all you have to do is submit a new and original FRIGHT BYTES logo by June 1st to: Lianne@liannespiderbaby.com
Please include your name, address, and your shirt size in case you are the winner! We will be giving prizes out to 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place runner-ups!
If your logo is chosen as the best, it will be featured in upcoming FRIGHT BYTES episodes.
Please SUBSCRIBE and 'LIKE' us on Facebook! xox Lianne Spiderbaby
I'm so excited to announce that my feminist critique of Pedro Almodovar's THE SKIN I LIVE IN is going to be featured in VIDEO WATCHDOG magazine, Issue #170.
My article takes a very detailed and intimate look at the film and Pedro's commentary on the horrors of being a woman in a man's world. You need to pick up the issue - actually - you need to subscribe to the magazine, because I'm going to be publishing with VW often.
I've been such a huge fan of Tim Lucas' work, so to have him edit my essay, give me feedback, and love it enough to want to publish it is a total dream come true and a stellar opportunity.
You can visit the VIDEO WATCHDOG website at www.videowatchdog.com and you can get a subscription here: http://www.videowatchdog.com/home/subscribe.htm
You get a lot of bang for your buck - Video Watchdog is your #1 resource for articulate and thoughtful insight on genre films of all kinds.
Be sure to pick up Issue #170 for my feature, and like I said - subscribe! Do it now!
In Mary Ann Doane’s article, “Caught
and Rebecca: The Inscription of Femininity As Absence,” she singles
out two scenes from Hitchcock’s Rebecca
in order to explore female subjectivity and desire. However, she is unable to sustain what the article sets out
to do and the scenes from the film only demonstrate the limits of the typical
woman’s film produced in Hollywood in the 1940’s. Elizabeth Cowie proposes that to focus on only a
few scenes from an entire film at the exclusion of the entire duration of the
film is to ignore how meaning is created across the whole of the text. To examine this further, I will very
briefly examine Doane’s article followed by Cowie’s assumptions about how films
make and convey meaning while in the process position both the film’s
characters and spectators. After,
I will enact a reading of Hitchcock’s Rebecca,
examining a larger narrative than the two scenes that Mary Ann Doane sets
forth.
A ‘woman’s film’ is a label that
implies women will enjoy the film or relate to the film in one way or another. Mary Ann Doane states that Hollywood
narratives are designed to relieve the male spectator of the threat the image
of a woman possesses. The idea of
the woman’s film goes against this notion and is based upon female fantasy
(Doane, 70). The issue with these
films is that they are frequently compatible with persecution by either the
husband, a lover, or a friend. The
films attempt to portray female desire but they fall short because the forms
and conventions of Hollywood cinema cannot sustain such an exploration (Doane,
70-71). Doane takes issue with
Hitchcock’s Rebecca and discusses it
with another film entitled Caught. The two scenes she analyzes dwells on
the issue, yet focuses on the woman’s relation to the gaze and ultimately
delineate the impossibility of female spectatorship (Doane, 81). Doane believes these two scenes fail to
summon a sense of female spectatorship and leaves only a disturbing absent
spectator in the women’s picture.
In “Representing The Women: Cinema and
Psychoanalysis,” Elizabeth Cowie uses the film Coma to present her ideas about how films make meaning and how they
position both characters and spectators.
Coma is a
thriller/sci-fi/detective/horror film in which Susan Wheeler is the main
protagonist. Susan Wheeler is portrayed
as a strong, smart women, an active agent who provides a good example of modern
day women. However, Cowie points
out that while Susan possesses these elements, there are other aspects in the
film that prove to be totally conventional in its representation of women
(Cowie, 38). For example, Susan is
the only women in this film of her caliber. All of her colleges (she is a doctor) are male and her
investigations in the film leader her to encounters with more male
characters. The film also ends with
Susan being rescued by her partner, Mark (Cowie, 38). So, while the film could be serve as progressive for women
due to Susan and her role in society, the film could also served up as
stereotypical due to the ending of the film. However, these discussions individually ignore certain
aspects of the film in order to further a particular argument. Cowie states that these elements that
are pulled out of the film to be examined already hold meaning outside of the
film narrative. These elements
cannot and should not be separated as singular outside of the narrative
structure because to do this would be to suppose that an image/sequence is just
an object, a lone being that can be used for either camp of belief (Cowie,
41-42).
Cowie
states that narration opens us to knowledge of events and why those events
occur. We come to understand what
“motivated a character to act as they do, and this motivation, rather than the
actions themselves, may become what the fictional work as a whole is about”
(Cowie, 42). Simply
unfolding the story is not enough to understand the totality of the narrative,
it is also important to recognize it’s construction in “stories” (Cowie,
45). Cowie uses the example of Coma to discuss how the film’s use of
the connotations of feminist politics in its portrayal of Susan does not make
is a progressive feminist, let alone political film. If the film were to be political, feminist or progressive,
it would depend on the narration’s articulation of these elements, which would
make for a very different reading of the film. Cowie suggests that we must understand the character of
Susan as a construct of the plot so that “she is strong/weak, active/passive,
to the extent that the plot requires her to be” (Cowie, 46) so that the
depiction of Susan comes out a positive one. Narration of a film not only enlightens the spectator of
knowledge, but the narration also organizes how the spectator comes into
possession of this knowledge. When
a spectator is watching a film, says Cowie, they must wait to gain knowledge
and work through the narrative. As
a result, the spectator becomes an active follower of that knowledge, trying to
scrap together information that is afforded by the narration to foresee how the
characters within the film will respond (Cowie, 47). Most narratives in the Hollywood cinema are created through
an oscillation between narrating through the main protagonist in the film and
narrating through a certain element of suspense or unknown information (Cowie,
66).
Cowie makes an important statement when she says that, “one cannot
substitute the weighing up of images in Coma
with a weighing up of the narrative construction, whereby one strategy is
progressive and the other repressive.
These two strategies are interdependent” (Cowie, 66). In relation to Doane and her reading of
Hitchcock’s Rebecca, Cowie is stating
that you cannot remove two elements from a film and examine them independently
because to do so would take them completely out of the intended context of the
film. Doane’s examination is a
slight injustice to the director and the writer of the film, as well as the
film itself. Films can have
several different readings, depending on what aspects of the film are examined. Cowie insists that it is crucial that
the film in its entirety be examined and nothing less.
Hitchcock’s
Rebecca could be read in several
different ways, especially if the spectator chooses particular scenes to
discuss, such as Mary Ann Doane has done in her article. However, even the two scenes Doane has individually
examined in a certain way, I believe could be read differently when in context
with the entirety of the film, as Cowie would suggest to do. In Rebecca,
the focus of our suspense rests on the unnatural presence of an absent female
character as another female character (played by Joan Fontaine) discovers clues
and pieces about this absent female’s life. Throughout the narrative, Fontaine’s character (who does not
have a name) does not quite fit in with the other characters and certainly
appears unable to live up to the name of the absent female, Rebecca De
Winter. Joan Fontaine plays the
new Mrs. De Winter who has married Maxim after the strange death of his last
wife, Rebecca. Among the many
extravagant sets and expressionistic scenes, the new Mrs. De Winter appears
oddly small and infantile, as she is unable to do anything right in her new
home, Manderley. Mary Ann Doane
chooses a particular scene in the film in which she read as being typical to
the conventions of patriarchal cinema in Hollywood. This is the scene where the camera literally enacts the
“repression of the female - the woman’s relegation to the status of a signifier
within the male discourse” (Doane, 76).
During this particular scene (when Fontaine and Maxim are in Rebecca’s cottage
discussing Rebecca) the camera movements appear to be searching for something
that is not there, or something that should be there. The female form of Rebecca Is read by Doane as an attempt to constitute itself in the
same way any other Hollywood film would function, in centering and placing the
female as an object to be looked at (Doane, 76-66). Doane also takes up issue
with the fact that Fontaine’s character is never given a name (Doane, 74). However, I would like to put forth the
idea that perhaps Fontaine’s character does not need a name because the
spectator should not be confused with who this film is about: Rebecca. Fontaine only serves as a character who
uncovers information about the primary subject of the film, Rebecca De
Winter. Fontaine forwards the plot
so that the audience can discover more about Rebecca. She does not have a name
because the audience should not mistake the movie for being about her. From the moment that Fontaine marries
Maxim, the spectator learns information about Rebecca based on how she differs
and compares with Fontaine’s character.
After the being of Rebecca is introduced, there is not a scene that goes
by without mention of her: in the form of
images of her possessions, or conversations between characters. Even the dog Jasper is devoted to the
memory of Rebecca, as he sleeps outside her bedroom door and runs off to her
cottage on the beach, kicking up dust on Fontaine’s character as she runs after
him. Several of the conversations
Fontaine has with employers at the house are all about Rebecca. For example, she walks into a room
where Frank Crawley is working on invitations and she sits down next to him and
asks, “What was Rebecca really
like?” Frank replies by saying, “I
suppose she was the most beautiful creature I ever saw.”
The spectator gets an even more in-depth look at the life of
Rebecca through the interactions between Fontaine and Mrs. Danvers. Mrs. Danvers proudly shows off
Rebecca's dressing room possessions, including her furs and lingerie. Mrs.
Danvers gloats that Rebecca "knew everyone that mattered. Everyone loved
her." Fontaine is urged to
sit at Rebecca's dressing table and follow the routine of Rebecca’s old habits.
Mrs. Danvers pretends to brush her hair and repeats conversations between
Rebecca and herself. She also shows off a delicate, sexy nightgown: one of
Rebecca's most intimate articles of clothing. Mrs. Danvers, in “contact” with
the world of spirits, suggests to a now crying Fontaine that Rebecca still
inhabits the house and comes back from the dead to watch the new couple "I
wonder if she doesn't come back here to Manderley and watch you and Mr. de
Winter together".
The
scene in which Mary Ann Doane discusses (in Rebecca's cottage) is very
significant, but can be read in a very different way than Doane perceived
it. I believe the male gaze and
male centered spectatorship in this scene is ruined due to the absent but
omnipresent Rebecca. Rebecca is
the invisible femme fatale in this film who disturbs the normal flow of male
spectatorship, bearing the look that gives nothing back in return, gives no
pleasure. The male spectator and
the male characters in the film only can see Rebecca as a memory. She is never seen onscreen, therefore
she can never be fetishized or looked at.
Thus, the male spectator/characters are denied the image that they long
to see. It is only through the
awkward, unpleasant, and uncomfortable (Fontaine) that the spectator gains
knowledge and an imaginative image of Rebecca. When Fontaine wears a dress Rebecca previously wore had to
the costume party, the audience is given an idea of how that dress might have
looked on Rebecca. The spectator
sees her clothing, her undergarments, her pillows, her address books, her
handkerchiefs and her personally decorated bedroom and cottage by the
lake. The spectator is told that
Rebecca feared nothing, she was strong, intellectual, articulate, elegantly
dressed, dark, and beautiful. The
only thing missing is the image of Rebecca herself, the image in which the male
spectator is denied.
This reading of Hitchcock’s Rebecca
problematizes Mary Ann Doane’s conclusions for obvious reasons. I believe that Mary Ann Doane focuses
too much on Fontaine’s character (with good reason, as she is the character
forwarding the narrative) and not enough on Rebecca. I also believe that like Cowie suggests not to, Doane
focuses too much on particular scenes individually rather than the whole
picture. However, what I find most
interesting is that Doane discusses the kind of character Rebecca is in her
article “Film and the Masquerade: Theorizing The Female Spectator”. In this, Doane describes the
femme fatale character as an excess of femininity, a woman who uses her status
for particular gains (Doane, 49).
Rebecca is viewed as threatening, such as a femme fatale, given the fact
that she explores sexuality outside of her marriage, while still functioning
and garnering respect, in a sexually restrictive society. The spectator finds out that Rebecca
was having an affair closer to the end of the film in light of a possible
pregnancy. Rebecca achieves a duality of existence in which only men are
allowed to indulge. At the very
end of the film, Mrs Danvers burns the house down to ensure that Fontaine and
Maxim will never have happiness in Rebecca’s home. Rebecca gets the last laugh, as the femme fatale. She is not punished in her femininity
or her sexy nightgown, nor is she seen parading around in it. My reading of Hitchcock’s Rebecca problematizes Doane’s
conclusions because I believe she was not examining the film as a whole, and
that Cowie’s assumptions are correct.
I also believe that Doane was concentrating too much on a character
(Fontaine) that the film is simply is not the focus for.
I'd like to share with you (thanks to Google), one of my favorite art films: Chris Marker's La Jetee.
Enjoy! Click on the link to make the screen larger! xox Lianne Spiderbaby
In this episode of FRIGHT BYTES, your hosts Lianne Spiderbaby and Steve Mac review THE AVENGERS, directed by Joss Whedon.
Also: A preview of Fright Bytes in June: PROMETHEUS special featuring an introduction directed by Fangoria award-winning director, Brian Clement. STAY TUNED, SUBSCRIBE, "LIKE" us on Facebook!
In our 21st episode, FRIGHT BYTES brings you Part 2 of the SHOCK STOCK convention in London, Ontario. SHOCK STOCK is in its second year, and this year was a huge success. The guests featured in this episode are: Geretta Geretta (DEMONS, RATS, SWEETIECAKES), Joe Pilato (DAY OF THE DEAD, DAWN OF THE DEAD, PULP FICTION), artist Gary Pullin (GHOULISH GARY www.ghoulishgary.com) and Joanna Angel (BURNINGANGEL.COM, pornographic film starlet).
SHOCK STOCK is a convention that caters to guests that don't always frequent the circuit -- while you can see guests like Robert Englund at several convention in a year, SHOCK STOCK brings you guests like CLAUDIO SIMONETTI, BOBBY RHODES, DYANNE 'ILSA' THORNE, and FRED 'THE HAMMER' WILLIAMSON.
If you missed SHOCK STOCK this year, you should start planning to attend next year (it's going to be even better -- Fright Bytes was given the scoop on a possible guestt for 2013, and trust us, you will be traveling to see this one) but you can make up for lost time by checking out FRIGHT BYTES: SHOCK STOCK 2012 part 1 and 2 (http://www.youtube.com/frightbytes).
Also in this episode, hosts LIANNE SPIDERBABY and STEVE MAC give you an inside look at behind-the-scenes at the convention, featuring some amazing photographs by Fangoria photographer and scribe, DAVID GOODFELLOW, as well as the drive into London, Ontario, the concert that Joanna Angel was banned from stripping at (the cops shut down her strip tease -- see what she has to say about it in this episode of FRIGHT BYTES) and a few other treats that you missed if you weren't there (and a few you might have missed even if you WERE there)!
Please SUBSCRIBE to our channel, we have more episodes coming up featuring contests with prizes (FANGORIA issues and t-shirts, horror jewelery submitted by feminist horror filmmaker Tonjia Atomic), a review of the upcoming Tim Burton film, DARK SHADOWS, as well as a special sci-fi episode featuring an introduction by Fangoria-award-winning director BRIAN CLEMENT for the release of Ridley Soctt's PROMETHEUS! STAY TUNED, SHARE THE EPISODES ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER, and SUBSCRIBE!
