Page 2-Sunday, September 23, 1979-The Michigan Daily
The Michigan Daily-Sunday, Septer
Hard
Nox'
BY TERR Y LeBAN
Film
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A CROSTIC PUZZLE
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BY
S TEPHEN J.
POZSGAI
Copyright 1977
INSTRUCTIONS
Guess the words defined at the
left and write them in over
their numbered dashes. Then,
transfer each letter to the cor-
responding numbered square
in the grid above. The letters
printed in the upper-right-hand
corners of the squares indi-
cate from what clue-word a
particular square's letter
comes from. The grid, when
filled in, should 'read as a
quotation from a published
work. The darkened squares
are the spaces between words.
Some words may carry over
to the next line. Meanwhile,
the first letter of each guessed
word at the left, reading down,
forms an acrostic, giving the
author's name an the title of
the work from whibh the quote
is extracted. As words and
phrases begin to form in the
grid, you can work back and
forth from clues to grid until
the puzzle is complete.
The 'Godzila' movies aren't scary
in the least. But as an expression of
the horror of World War II, of the
atom bomb, they say more to me
than 'Hiroshima, Mon Amour.'
-George Romero, director of
'Night of the Living Dead'
WO-THIRTY a.m., a hot
summer night, and I'm watch-
ing The Manster on the tube
for te zillionth time. The story never
fails to astonish me with its Sopheclean
simplicity: This journalist fellow, kind
of like the Raymond Burr of Perry
Mason days without the sparkling per-
sonality, visits a sicko Japanese scien-
tist, who deviously injects him with a
super-mega-serum he's been perfecting
for the best years of his life.
The journalist hits Tokyo and shacks
up with some "exotic" Japanese sleaze.
Then, things start-to ... happen. His
hand gets all rough and hairy, Wolf-
man-style. He feels the thump-thumpa-
thump of a heartbeat on his right side.
He grows a weird eye in the middle of
his shoulder! And that's just kid's stuff,
cause you know what happens next?
He sprouts this other head, which is
furry and scuzzy and drools a lot. This
guy isn't a journalist,anymore. He isn't
even a man. He's-you guessed it-the
Manster!
The Manster murders a few women
and runs from the law, which looks
rather funny since his second head is
actually a cheesey little hunk of paper
mache that wobbles every time he tur-
ns around. And during the climax, in
which he crawls behind a tree, growls
like a rabid dog, and SPLITS APART!,
I have my revelation: This movie, this
moment, this existential instant of
Celluloid Reality, is the MEANING OF
LIFE! I can face the world again, and I
owe it all to the Manster., that cruel,
cuddly beast whose two heads are-and
always will be-better than one.
Horror movies entice me for a lot of
reasons, not the least of which is that
the majority of the world consigns them
to the aesthetic trash heap. Part of me,
of course, is simply a lowbrow elitist.
What wicked fun it is for trash connois-
seurs like myself to flaunt their love
for The Fly or Rodan in the face of
respectablility. It's the same perverse
pleasure I get telling people I don't like
Joni Mitchell because her lyrics don't
rhyme.
Yet there's more. Contrary to what
your English prof may tell you, the
unadorned junkiness of most horror
flicks has valid aesthetic appeal.
There's something pure and beautifully
uncomplex about how I Was A Teenage
Werewolf evokes the wan complacency
of its era. Like the other "classic"
Roger Corman cheapies, Werewolf is
stripped down to the bare bones of its
thoroughly inane story. That story, of
course, has social "relevance:"
Michael Landon, running around with
fangs and a hairy face, is reallynothing
more than a monstrous version of
James Dean's misunderstood kid in
Rebel Without a Cause. Too much
alienation, and you start to bite
people-nothing strange about that. But
the significance of the relevant-theme
Owen Gleiberman is co-editor of
the Sunday Magazine. .w ,-
//
v ,
By Owen Gleiberman
formulaic. Th
yesteryear's
ned: Form (r
Always. This
Phantasm, a
by UCLA Fi
Coscarelli, I k
this guy take
seriously? Do
movie?" The;
joyous inanit
from the ridi
Blob ("It slit
all over-it's
political satir
Dead.
Watching H
parade throu
was like sittir
long, tedious
ts, crabs, and
of the fifties
hysteria bout
like this sum
arrival. Bil
movie," its c:
tle Ben with
a mutation ir
pany's willfi
stream. Now
perfectly vali
but it's the
small-mindec
everything fry
to North Dall
stands at abo
N IGHT
flacl
Dracula, ele
is something
cover. The st
like the Cou
middle of a K
of course, w
fright-fest. A
put off by the
special effeci
Director Rid
game plan.
first half, A
predictable
disappointm
out to be h
visioned a
something, nr
Space.
Gifted ho
George Rom
are hardly or
bring to the
bination of bi
sharp wit. R
the horror fi
tsburgh's sl
satirize Am
the satire is
ce, funny hor.
In fact, if'
achieve anyt
tors might c
from a scene
army of fles
the first flo
radiating m
muzak syste
zombies are
spastics, stui
of some abs
Doubtless,
somewhere,
scene captur
and death, o
Romero, I'm
pure silliness
076
'i 7I'V
DRAWING BY LYNNE SCHNEIDER
A. Traditional place for pies to cool - 2 4
30 60 82 143 104 126 140 194 171 206
B. Goddess born from the head -
of Zeus (Myth) 24 92 130 190 2 182
C. King for whom Poseidon built
the walls of Troy;- - - - - - - -
grandfather of Hector (Myth) 68 100 199 214 90 78 210 45
D. Devoid of color - - - - -
18 31 49 59 98 106 141 187
E. The Furies (Myth)-
6 154 79 95 169 57 76
F. Freshstart---
7 39 43 94 105 120 128 134 149 166 189 201
211 197
G. Joyous; gay-
9 75 .58 109 209 89 156
H. Defeat- - - - - -
41273 56 64195 162 184
1. Pricked
32 137 81 21 40 77 51
J.Telepathymedium(Comp) - -
36 38 44 71 62 74 86 99 107 152 172
K. Song of famous mythical musicin-
of Throce (2 words) 8 -46 .25 33 55 112 127 148 132 180
L. Doshiell Hemmett mystery (with-
"The") (2words) 37 3 93 16 65 157 28
M Son of Zeus known as the messen- -
ger of the gods (Myth) 19 83 164 200 217 102
N. Ancient Greek goddesses known
as "the kindly ones" (Myth)
O. Elf; bugbear
P. Son of Agamenmon and
Clytemnes (Myth)
Q. Botched: maltreated
R. Strange: offbeat
15 131 52 67, 85 114 216 145 193
23 185 70 155 188 168 119 176 91
11 175 111 96 115 215 204
5 20 29 63 97 124 167 147 203 219
27 161 177 50 61 72 88 116 183
- - - - - - - - - - -
13 47 103 121 120w 146 150 159 181 170 202 191
186 165
S. Exploring; surveying
T. Tropical S.A. creeping plant
U. Invisibility garment (Myth)
(3 words)
V. "The less- we have, the better"
Ralph Waldo Emerson
W. Beyond reach; locking contact
(3 words)
X. Greek god of wine (Myth)
Y. According to Plato. the man named
the wisest by the oracle
at Delphi
1 135 218 173 163 178
argument tends to get exaggerated.
The best horror is found in the method
behind the madness, the tingly fun of
the plot, the mingling of simple theme
and formal complexity.
ORROR MOVIES may not
deserve their low status on
the cinematic totem pole, but
it s easy to see how they got it. Most
are low-budget specials (Roger Cor-
man's infamous Little Shop of Horrors
was shot in two days and a night), the
stories thin and linear in design, the
characters and events blandly predic-
table. Yet the biggest reason is seldom
stated: At its essence, the horror movie
is a cinema of sensation. The impact is
crudely visceral, and while highbrows
may experience that impact, and even
enjoy it, they deny its value.
Horror movies rarely offer the loftier
pleasures of artistic "ambiguity." On
the contrary, they tend to unify audien-
ce response; most eveyone cowers,
sweats, and jumps at the same time.
But since manipulative sensationalism
doesn't fit very well into the "art"
category, defenders of monsterdom
will wheel out rusty examples of social
4allegory to inject some respectability
into their cherished genre. Too often,
they end up banging their heads against
the wall, or, worse, finding layers of
complexity that just aren't there.
That's easy to do nowadays, since the
seventies have given birth to the most
socially conscious horror movies in
history. American monsters have long
been incarnations of national night-
mares. Today's nightmare is
capitalism gone crazy, and something
like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
depicts American consumer society
turned against itself,, teeth bared. In-
spired by Chainsaw, a wave of low-
budget "shockers" like The Hills Have
Eyes and It's Alive echo the same
fatalistic message: We've created a
monster, and the monster is us. The
victims are cut from the same rich,
young, WASPy cloth. On their home
turf-plush, lazy suburbia-they're
safe. Thrust into the wilderness, they're
no match for the crazed, demented
savagery that awaits.
Even Chainsaw, the best of the kill-
the-middle-class flicks,. is dreary
whenever the horrifying pyschopath
Leatherface 'is offscreen. The charac-
ters, are, too thin,.the symbolism too
10 53 26 41 69 110 118 144 153 158
22 34 80 87 113 151 122 138 192 208
17 35 125 136 160 174 179 207 117 196
42 84213 54101 66142198
14 205 46 139 133 108 123 212
Look in the space next
week for the answer to
today's puzzle.
L.
,.