It: Nostalgic Horror

I saw It last month (like most of the world) but never got around to writing a review. However, this weekend, after bingewatching Stranger Things 2, and with Halloween just around the corner, it felt like the perfect time to remind anyone who hasn't seen this movie to watch it immediately for a nice warm dose of nostalgia and creepiness.

I'll confess I'm not a horror enthusiast. I've seen my fair share of horror movies but mostly due to coercion and peer pressure, and the type of horror I prefer has a satirical bent (like The Cabin in the Woods) or underlying social commentary (like Get Out). The only reason I went to see It was because of a colleague who repeatedly told me it was awesome (hi Phil!) and a friend who said I was the only person she could persuade to go with her (hi Elizabeth!). Having never read the original Stephen King novel or seen the iconic TV series, all I was prepared for was some sort of gory slasher film with a creepy clown. Instead, what I got was a Goonies-esque 80's adventure with a bunch of preteens riding around on bicycles and trying to piece together what was happening in their town. It was a joy.

Yes, there's a creepy clown (played to spectacular effect by Bill Skarsgard). And he gets up to a number of creepy things and terrorizes the kids in a myriad ways. But the terror tends to be mostly psychological, albeit with some bloody bits strewn about to keeps things traditional. There are terrific set pieces in underground sewers and abandoned buildings where all you can do is shout at people for being dumb enough to go into the dark, but then breathe a sigh of relief when they emerge unscathed (well, maybe not all of them). But the true joy of the film is in seeing the main cast of children interact and learn how to navigate a world in which the adults are useless and they are the only ones with the wherewithal to protect their town from a horror of epic proportions.

The movie is rated R, probably less for violent imagery and more for the language - there's nothing more delightful than hearing a preteen swear. This is how kids talk when they're away from adult ears (sorry to break it to you parents), and watching their petty squabbles and eventual reconciliation in the face of true evil is a super entertaining ride. Stranger Things' Finn Wolfhard is one of the kids, playing completely against type, and it is wonderful to slip back into the glory days of movies when children actually played outside, spoke to each other, and had fabulous adventures, instead of staying indoors playing videogames.

It may be a horror movie, but I would class it more as an 80s movie. It has weird tonal shifts and is just as funny as it is creepy. It has its bloody and violent moments, but most of the time, it is a thoroughly engaging piece of entertainment that will transport you back to the summers of your childhood and make you glad that you were only playing with your friends instead of being murdered by clowns. If you haven't seen it, go to the movies this Halloween and indulge. You won't regret it. 

The Handmaid's Tale: The Bitches Shall Inherit the Earth

Well, I finally watched The Handmaid's Tale this week. And I'm as depressed and incensed as I expected.

If you don't know what the show (or the original novel by Margaret Atwood) is about, here's a brief summary. Set in the near future, the world is dealing with plummeting fertility rates due to disease and pollution. The United States has turned into a totalitarian Christian regime called Gilead where every Commander with a sterile wife gets assigned a fertile woman to serve as the family's "Handmaid." During the month, the Handmaid is a servant who does the daily shopping. But one night a month, she gets raped by the Commander in a biblically inspired "Ceremony" to bless the couple with a child. Praise be.

I won't go into further detail because this show does a superb job of slowly revealing how such a dire state of affairs came to be. Like any great adaptation, the show is faithful to Atwood's brilliant source material but then takes it ten steps further by giving each character a robust back story and updating the timelines so that the story feels fresh and relevant for our present age. The writing on the show is stellar, the cinematography, production, and costume design is searingly beautiful, and the soundtrack is an absolute joy. In particular, the use of "Perpetuum Mobile" in the fourth episode stirred my soul to fever pitch. I have loved that song since I was a teenager and often thought about how I would deploy it in a movie or TV show; now I've heard it deployed perfectly.

The Handmaid's Tale also features the best cast on television, and I will be shocked if they don't win Best Ensemble at the SAG awards this year. This show places great reliance on close-up shots to capture every nuance and passing emotion on the characters' faces, as they live in an oppressive regime that won't let them express themselves in much more overt ways. Many times, even their costumes restrict them further, like the Handmaid's stifling headdresses or in one instance, a mask that means the character is only able to express herself through her terrified eyes and inarticulate screams. To watch each woman demonstrate her superior acting talent over the course of each episode is a sheer wonder.

Let's be clear: this is a violent and cruel story that will make any woman cringe with horror. Women are punished in graphic and bloody ways for disobedience and subjected to atrocities in the name of religious totalitarianism. But the reason it particularly strikes a chord is because it reveals how easily inaction and apathy can allow a democracy to disintegrate into a dictatorship. Watching the formation of Gilead is nauseating - first, women are subjected to casual misogyny and called sluts if they show up in a coffee shop in exercise clothes. Then, their credit cards are shut down and they are told they can't have jobs anymore. All assets are handed over to husbands (if you're a lesbian, good luck, you're a "gender traitor"). And all of this is perpetrated under the pretense of temporary security measures following incidents of domestic terrorism. By the time the main characters wise up and try to flee to Canada, it's too late. Martial law is in effect, and their lives will be irrevocably changed.

This is eerily similar to what we see in America today. We have a President who could easily foment war and impose restrictions on the populace in case of domestic attacks. If he is impeached, we will be in the hands of a Vice President who is so deeply Catholic that he believes homosexuality is a sin and cannot eat alone with a woman if his wife is not present. This administration is rolling back abortion rights, denying women access to birth control, and is led by a man who is known for rampant misogyny and sexual harassment. In such an environment, is it any wonder that women feel the need to embrace the book's pseudo-Latin motto of Nolite te bastardes caroborundorum (Don't let the bastards grind you down)? This is perhaps exemplified by the fact that this show will be returning for a second season, and unlike the novel, we are going to get the chance to actually see the resistance in action. In this adaptation, the women get the chance to fight back.

However, let's not forget that the society The Handmaid's Tale portrays may seem extremely dystopian but is actually a reality for many women around the world. In Saudi Arabia, women can't earn property or work without the consent of a male guardian. 200 million women living today have undergone female genital mutilation. Women are routinely being raped, subjected to acid attacks, and trafficked as sex slaves. American women might be more fortunate than most, but as the Weinstein scandal has revealed this week, women have been harassed and raped in Hollywood for years and some people still have the temerity to say the women "asked for it." So let's not pretend that we have to fight to avoid dystopia. Dystopia is already here. We need to fight to ensure it doesn't get worse. Nolite te bastardes carborundorum, bitches.