A WILD SHEEP CHASE / AUDITION

                                         

J-HORROR

This book by Haruki Murakami is a Japanese narrative of the supernatural.  The author moves away from the serious style of Japanese writing and uses a more casual and humorous technique.  This story features fantasy, mystery, drama, mythology, and good versus evil.

Japanese horror focuses on psychological horror and suspense.  Ghosts and spirits are prevalent in these stories.  Eastern traditions focus on the nature of the world and the proper way of being in the world.  Symbolism is used in horror stories.  In this book, the spirit lives in the sheep which represents a symbol of reincarnation or life after death.  The spirit is capable of moving out of the sheep and possessing several characters in this book.  An example of this would be the "Boss", Sheep Professor, and the Ainu youth who were all possessed by the spirit.  It took possession of their minds to gain power.  Also, the girlfriend with the intriguing ears had special powers and could foresee future events.  The Asian culture has strong beliefs of tradition, honoring the dead and elderly.  They believe in karma, meditation and the acceptance that supernatural forces exist rather than intervene.

Western horror is very different.  It centers around characters who have external human experiences.  It usually features explicit gore, blood and splatter, torture, graphic violence and monsters.  Western horror is usually terrifying and the demons or monsters attack physically rather than psychologically. Supernatural is found to be strange, not natural and it only occurs in miracles or great shifting events.  In conclusion, Japanese horror is not as scary as Western horror.  Japanese horror makes a viewer think and draw their own conclusions to the story.  Western horror however, gives explicit visuals which most of the time are gory.

Movie:  AUDITION (1999)

I also viewed this movie by Dr. Takashi Miike.  I found this movie to be slow moving and creepy.  A young "good girl" dates a middle-age man.  It begins very innocently until the girl isn't who she appeared to be.  Deep inside her was a very disturbed person with homicidal tendencies and a fondness of metal garrote wires.  Weird!  The climactic scenes showed true darkness and were gruesome.

INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE / ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE

VAMPIRES

 This book by Anne Rice describes many relationships and experiences that Louis, the vampire, had during his life.  To me, the book captures the themes of immortality, loyalty, love, and detachment.    The book has a good/evil theme with sexual tension surrounding the different relationships.  Most of the relationships consist of love and hate feelings.  The story contains heterosexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality, and pedophilia.  As the book begins, I found it interesting that Louis was giving an interview to a boy reporter.  I believe the intention was to expose the young boy to the positive and negative aspects of relationships along with immortality, love, and manipulations that can occur.

The relationship between Lestat and Louis starts out nurturing as Lestat teaches and guides Louis as he transforms into a vampire's life.  This seemed to me like a father/son relationship, but it turned into an immortal companionship.  Louis has conflict.  He is a vampire, but still has human feelings and clings to his human identity.  This causes an internal conflict (human morality) versus external conflict (vampire actions).  When Louis starts thinking about breaking up, Lestat turns a young girl, Claudia, into a vampire daughter in order to secure their relationship.  In my opinion, Lestat is very possessive and manipulative for his own purpose.  This works for awhile.  Louis acts as her father/protector.  Claudia matures mentally and intellectually, but not physically.  This maturity causes Louis to lust for her.  Louis falls in love with Claudia and an affair begins.  A lover's triangle is created which Claudia intends to end.  So, she kills Lestat to get him out of their lives.

Since Lestat is immortal, he survived.  Louis and Claudia visit Europe and meet another vampire named Armand.  Louis and Armand immediately form a strong, deep emotional connection which Claudia despises.  Again, a lover's triangle surfaces.  Since Claudia is insecure, she feels Louis will leave her.  She convinces Louis to create another vampire to serve as a replacement companion for her.  Madeleine is her new partner.  Lestat returns to seek revenge.  His accusations succeed in killing Claudia and Madeleine, but Louis is rescued by Armand.  

Louis never seems to fully recover from the loss of Claudia.  He was truly in love with her.  The emotional connection and partnership between himself and Armand quickly fades.  Louis returned to New Orleans.  Because of all his pain, sorrow, and bad experiences, he decides to be alone and never create another companion for himself.  Louis's decisions reflect the feelings of people who have experienced bad relationships and basically decide to live alone rather than to be hurt again in another relationship.

Movie:  ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE (2013)

The theme represented in this movie is very different from the Interview With The Vampire novel.  This film is a story about two vampires, Adam and Eve.  They have a strong monogamous relationship that has lasted for many centuries even though they have lived apart.  This vampire couple has class.  They dress well, love music and literature, and are very sophisticated.  Eve comes back to live with Adam when she recognizes that he has become despondent and depressed.  Together, they have a great life and relationship.  Eve's younger sister, Ava, comes to visit and causes a big disruption in their home.  Adam eventually kicks her out.

What makes Adam and Eve different throughout most of the movie was that they did not suck blood from victims.  They got their blood delivered through a supplier.  However at the end of the film, the supplier dies.  This is where the movie turns dark because in order to survive and with no choices left, Adam and Eve are now forced to get their own supply of blood.  They attack and suck blood from a pair of young lovers.  This film shows the human nature of survival and strong relationships.  

FRANKENSTEIN / GOTHIC

                                                                       THE GOTHIC
      
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is considered a Gothic Novel because it contains evil, mystery, dark settings, and the supernatural presence of horror and terror. Gothic refers to novels with morbid or depressed atmospheres that emphasize the unknown and inspire fear.  A prominent example of Gothic is described in the next paragraph.

In the story of Frankenstein, I found the supernatural presence of horror and terror to be prominent.  Frankenstein created a man-like monster in his dark and isolated laboratory in an unorthodox scientific experiment.  I have always associated dark and isolated places with fear and danger.  Most Gothic stories have a monster who has supernatural abilities such as this one.  Frankenstein created his monster's body from raw materials found in the dissecting room and slaughterhouse.  This is really gory and represents evil and horror.  Another Gothic horror genre is a frightening storm approaches which creates such powerful lightning that it can raise something that is dead to life.  Another motif of Gothic is the super strength and amazing superhuman speed that the monster possesses.

The monster shrieks horror and terror as a gigantic creature with a gruesome and ugly appearance.  Another scary feature is that the monster has intelligence and sensitivity.  It tries to become part of the human society and social patterns, but is shunned and rejected by society.  Revenge is a Gothic element which I have found to be present in the monster's feeling of hate towards Frankenstein. The monster succeeds in fulfilling this deep emotion by committing murder which avenges his own sorrow.

Movie:  GOTHIC (1986)

This movie by Ken Russell takes place during the 1800's.  It concerns Mary Shelley, her husband, and her husband's sister, Claire, who go to Lord Byron's mansion to read ghost stories and write spooky stories.  When they got together, they would take drugs, get crazy, hallucinate, and write masterpiece stories.  The movie does not follow a plot, instead it follows the path of surreal and strange.  The ideas of the film are expressed through images and music instead of dialog.  The film has a dark soundtrack which contributes to the feeling of horror and the point in time when candles were mostly used at night.

The horror element of Gothic is to disturb a viewer with images.  Everything happens one night during a bad thunderstorm.  The flash of lightning, sounds of thunder, and scene of heavy fog make it seem spookier.  This movie shows the darker side of human behavior by drug and alcohol abuse, excessive sex and no belief in God.  This horror film was very good, but be warned that it has some disturbing and quite unique imagery.