Month in Review: October 2011

This month, I celebrated GeekvsGoth.com’s first-ever OctoBurton Fest. Based on a clever (or snarky) remark by Hacker Renders, I soaked my eyeballs in so much deep, dark gothic goodness courtesy of Tim Burton that I wandered through October in a bit of a haze.

This was a busy, difficult October filled with sudden frights, sleepless nights, disappointments and new beginnings — and I’m not talking about the movies here. Mr. Burton gave me lovingly hand-crafted worlds of gothic loveliness that became my little islands of respite.

You either love Burton films or you don’t. I love them. Mostly.

Tim Burton is my people.

If I drank, I’d raise a delicate crystal glass of absinthe to Mr. Burton. Happy OctoBurton Fest.

Favourite
Edward Scissorhands (1990) on 2011/10/23

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“Heartbreaking and achingly beautiful, Edward Scissorhands holds a very special place in my heart for so many reasons. Edward Scissorhands is a fitting tribute to the incomparable, immortal Vincent Price. Tim Burton creates worlds that really speak to me. I wouldn’t mind living in a place where hedges are made into towering animals and ice sculptures of angels create blizzards of ice. Creepy, dark, wonderful beauty. Most of all, Edward Scissorhands is a film for anyone who has ever had trouble fitting in.”

Surprise
9 (2009) on 2011/10/22

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“The art style is chemically configured to appeal to me. The film was a beautiful mélange of stitchpunk, steampunk, arcane symbols, old agitprop news reels, lurching H.R. Giger-esque monsters. The post-apocalyptic world of grey, brown, rust and black was far from oppressive, in fact there were moments of soaring beauty. Light streaming through a destroyed cathedral’s stained glass window, a reference book rigged with strings and pulleys to trigger old film reels, a vinyl record player sits in the middle of a bomb-pitted garbage dump.”

Disappointment
The Haunting (1963) on 2011/10/26

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“Later still, I began to sense the reference had deeper implications. Though interesting as a piece of psychological suspense, it also offered a problem with no resolution, or acceptable rationale. Characters believe, say, and do things for reasons they cannot satisfactorily explain. Not to venture too far into spoiler territory, I will say I found the climactic scenes most guilty of this “easy out” lack of accountability.”

Least-Liked
Corpse Bride (2005) on 2011/10/21

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“Perhaps it is the fact that the entire thing is about forced marriage. Marriage when one is deluded, desperate and/or willing is bad enough …but a marriage that is forced upon an unwilling participant …well that’s just monstrous. Maybe my baggage got in the way of all there was to love.”

Show Me
The Thing from Another World (1951) on 2011/10/22

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“In fact, though I realize the later adaptations are more faithful to Campbell’s story, I’ve found them too overt to win my love. To me, they’ll always be exercises in visual effects. At the risk of a kind of tastelessness, these metaphors come to mind: the newer Things are pornography; Another World is erotica.”