I think of The Purge, the 2013 dystopian horror flick from writer/director James DeMonaco, as a “wouldn’t it be cool if…” movie. That is, its central conceit is a whimsical, almost childish idea that doesn’t stand up to much scrutiny, but still makes a cool movie. Think something along the lines of, “Wouldn’t it be cool if a class of students was shipped to an island and there was a winner take all, survival to the death challenge?” And that’s how we got Battle Royale. Or, “Wouldn’t it be cool if it turned out reality was really a simulation?” That idea gave us The Matrix. Or, one of my personal favorites, “Wouldn’t it be cool if Manhattan was a maximum security prison?” That idea got audiences Escape from New York. Continue reading “The Purge”
Some of Those Responsible: Peter Gvozdas
The Autopsy of Jane Doe
Is there anything creepier than a room made for the dead? Everything in a morgue or embalming room is cold, antiseptic, and hard. There isn’t a cushion in site on which to rest a corpse. Why would there be? It’s not as if the dead will complain. They’re just motionless slabs of meat and bone, gristle and organs. The difference between the living and dead is rendered stark in rooms like this, where no living person could tolerate lying on stainless steel tables, their heads resting on blocks. Everything about these rooms would cause intolerable pain in the living. But, again, the dead won’t complain. Continue reading “The Autopsy of Jane Doe”