Author Topic: Pseudopod 287: Final Girl Theory  (Read 22931 times)

Metalsludge

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Reply #25 on: July 16, 2012, 07:05:13 AM
While I'm generally a sucker for creepy old movie stories, this one left me a bit cold. All the perhaps overly long descriptions that attempted to get me to understand why yet another nudity and violence pic would have such a fascination for the average viewer fell flat due to how familiar much of it sounded. Heck, even really old stuff like Un Chien Andalou contains some of these elements such as an initial opening of shocking violence. Yet most people don't go through such films frame by frame, except maybe in film school.  A lot of people yawn through such stuff, so I was left still wondering what would have made this particular film so truly fascinating for average viewers not looking for something to fixate on and without a thing for violence.

At the same time, the story goes out of its way to emphasize the almost universal fascination it has for people and how both men and women gather together in stadiums to watch the film, so that seemed to get in the way of the whole "male gaze" version of an explanation for where the story was headed in its emphasis if so much more than just male slasher film fans find the film a marvel. The more unique we are told the film is, the less likely it seems that the story is such a general, and familiar, criticism of common slasher films, especially since the final girl of this film even seems to dismiss the whole idea of slasher film theories having any bearing on events.

Not that there is anything wrong with that in itself, that the author may in fact be thumbing her nose a little at the whole train of critical thought about shocker films is perhaps one of the potentially better things about the story.

Another story that deals with similar films in a similar way, though I think to better overall effect, is The Fear, which appeared in one of the Year's Best Horror anthologies edited by Ellen Datlow. It even has the same interview scene with the girl movie victim, though with a different result that I won't spoil.



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Reply #26 on: July 17, 2012, 05:42:22 AM
I found "The Fear" to be relatively clumsy, honestly.  The inexplicability of the attraction of this film helped rather than hurt it, in my opinion; "The Fear" ended up feeling more like a generic monster piece by the end, whereas "Final Girl Theory" left me really thinking about the meaning of horror films.



Umbrageofsnow

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Reply #27 on: July 23, 2012, 01:08:10 PM
Yeah, I was left thinking that the attraction to the "Kaleidoscope" film was probably not natural and certainly mentally unhealthy.  If the film were real, wouldn't it make sense for it to be supernaturally addictive or at least otherworldly enough that it has some inexplicable draw?



loyaleagle

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Reply #28 on: July 26, 2012, 09:43:51 PM
Maybe I've missed it amongst all the analysis of the story...but wasn't the audio quality of this story horrendous?  I really couldn't bear to listen to this one without the fan of my car turned all the way up.  There was a persistent buzzing throughout the entire narrated portion.  Surely someone other than myself noticed this?

And yes, I know, the story was ages ago, but maybe the file could still be scrubbed for others who go back and listen to this one sometime?

I actually really enjoyed this story for the most part, btw.

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Unblinking

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Reply #29 on: July 27, 2012, 01:39:19 PM
Maybe I've missed it amongst all the analysis of the story...but wasn't the audio quality of this story horrendous?  I really couldn't bear to listen to this one without the fan of my car turned all the way up.  There was a persistent buzzing throughout the entire narrated portion.  Surely someone other than myself noticed this?

And yes, I know, the story was ages ago, but maybe the file could still be scrubbed for others who go back and listen to this one sometime?

I actually really enjoyed this story for the most part, btw.

It's been a while since I listened, but I don't recall having a problem with the audio, even while picking up sticks. 



loyaleagle

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Reply #30 on: July 27, 2012, 10:20:06 PM
Maybe I've missed it amongst all the analysis of the story...but wasn't the audio quality of this story horrendous?  I really couldn't bear to listen to this one without the fan of my car turned all the way up.  There was a persistent buzzing throughout the entire narrated portion.  Surely someone other than myself noticed this?

And yes, I know, the story was ages ago, but maybe the file could still be scrubbed for others who go back and listen to this one sometime?

I actually really enjoyed this story for the most part, btw.

It's been a while since I listened, but I don't recall having a problem with the audio, even while picking up sticks. 
Hmmm, maybe they put it in there like a dog whistle that only I can hear?  It was pretty migraine inducing...at first I thought it was some kind of weird effect added to give the story something extra....

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Bdoomed

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Reply #31 on: July 29, 2012, 06:04:47 AM
Maybe I've missed it amongst all the analysis of the story...but wasn't the audio quality of this story horrendous?  I really couldn't bear to listen to this one without the fan of my car turned all the way up.  There was a persistent buzzing throughout the entire narrated portion.  Surely someone other than myself noticed this?

And yes, I know, the story was ages ago, but maybe the file could still be scrubbed for others who go back and listen to this one sometime?

I actually really enjoyed this story for the most part, btw.

It's been a while since I listened, but I don't recall having a problem with the audio, even while picking up sticks. 
Hmmm, maybe they put it in there like a dog whistle that only I can hear?  It was pretty migraine inducing...at first I thought it was some kind of weird effect added to give the story something extra....
Possibly a connection issue? Some kind of interference between the mp3 player and the speakers?

I'd like to hear my options, so I could weigh them, what do you say?
Five pounds?  Six pounds? Seven pounds?


loyaleagle

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Reply #32 on: July 29, 2012, 06:01:51 PM
Maybe I've missed it amongst all the analysis of the story...but wasn't the audio quality of this story horrendous?  I really couldn't bear to listen to this one without the fan of my car turned all the way up.  There was a persistent buzzing throughout the entire narrated portion.  Surely someone other than myself noticed this?

And yes, I know, the story was ages ago, but maybe the file could still be scrubbed for others who go back and listen to this one sometime?

I actually really enjoyed this story for the most part, btw.
The file on the website sounds the same to me.  As well as the iTunes file.

It's been a while since I listened, but I don't recall having a problem with the audio, even while picking up sticks. 
Hmmm, maybe they put it in there like a dog whistle that only I can hear?  It was pretty migraine inducing...at first I thought it was some kind of weird effect added to give the story something extra....
Possibly a connection issue? Some kind of interference between the mp3 player and the speakers?
I used the same file that is being played on both the website and is on iTunes.  I've used multiple devices...the problem is not on my end, I'm pretty sure....
« Last Edit: July 29, 2012, 10:34:09 PM by loyaleagle »

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kibitzer

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Reply #33 on: July 30, 2012, 12:22:19 AM
Maybe I've missed it amongst all the analysis of the story...but wasn't the audio quality of this story horrendous?  I really couldn't bear to listen to this one without the fan of my car turned all the way up.  There was a persistent buzzing throughout the entire narrated portion.  Surely someone other than myself noticed this?

And yes, I know, the story was ages ago, but maybe the file could still be scrubbed for others who go back and listen to this one sometime?

I'll check it out.


Unblinking

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Reply #34 on: July 30, 2012, 02:24:38 PM
Hmmm, maybe they put it in there like a dog whistle that only I can hear?  It was pretty migraine inducing...at first I thought it was some kind of weird effect added to give the story something extra....

Could be!  No idea why it would be such a different listening experience.  I hope it gets sorted out one way or the other!



Fenrix

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Reply #35 on: November 09, 2012, 08:34:43 PM
I loved this one. One of my favorites of the year.

Especially since this movie sounds like the kind of tortureporn flick that is pretty much the only subgenre of movies that I categorically avoid.

I took it as something similar to a Dario Argento flick. Maybe an exploitation film. Something with more art than budget. Something that transcends just being gooshy. I think this story was written by and aimed at (horror) cinephiles. This reminds me that the art house theater is showing Suspiria this weekend.

I was annoyed that the title was never expanded upon within the body of the story.  Scattercat's explanation makes sense, but the fact that I had to come to the forum to find out what the theory refers to means that, to me, the choice of the title is an epic fail.  And even scattercat's explanation gives the general idea but it's still not really clear what the "theory" is here.

I'm not quite certain I can support the "epic fail" claim. The whole story is predicated on arty interpretation and layers. Titles can be another place to add a layer, and they chose to do so here. Also, the voice of the story was speaking as if to other horror aficionados, so specialized terms for analyzing horror wouldn't need to be explained.
« Last Edit: November 09, 2012, 08:40:09 PM by Fenrix »

All cat stories start with this statement: “My mother, who was the first cat, told me this...”


The Far Stairs

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Reply #36 on: February 22, 2013, 03:00:33 AM
Of course I probably have a weakness for these type of stories.  I loved "Hometown Horrible" from a few years back and "Flash Frame" by Silvia Moreno-Garcia over on Tales To Terrify #9 and I particularly loved all the "Navidson Record" stuff in "House of Leaves" which is one of my favorite books.

I've got that same weakness. Any story that describes a fictional film, TV show, or book I'm almost guaranteed to love. Those are all great examples. Stories by Borges also come to mind.

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Reply #37 on: February 22, 2013, 03:10:37 AM
The author's own response to having this story air on Pseudopod was to post a long, fictional interview about Kaleidoscope on her blog, so PP readers following this thread should have a look.  It's the June 22, 2012 entry, for anyone picking up on this thread when it is no longer fresh.

Here's something interesting and weird. The fictional interview (also well-written and creepy) is called "Bucklin Mills, Bury Me":

http://www.acwise.net/?p=1011#respond

It talks about a woman found murdered in the town of Bucklin Mills. The dead woman has writing on the backs of her hands that says "Bury. Me." and her hands are placed over her eyes. I used to have this old R.E.M. poster:



Just a little bit of insight into what the author was staring at when she was writing that fake interview.


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Mario

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Reply #38 on: March 11, 2013, 11:33:50 PM
ug;h



Scattercat

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Reply #39 on: March 11, 2013, 11:35:30 PM
ug;h

And you necroed the thread for this why, exactly?



eytanz

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Reply #40 on: March 12, 2013, 08:28:36 AM
Mario -

I recommend that you read about the forum's one rule before making further posts. Your post above is definitely neither civil nor respectful. If you don't like a story, that's fine. If you want to comment on an old story thread to say so, that's fine too. But if you don't have more to say than a single word that's not even a proper word, than don't say it.



Marlboro

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Reply #41 on: November 19, 2019, 02:32:45 PM
I thought this was a well written story.

It reminded me of the the famous "television scene" in Henry: Portrait of A Serial Killer. In that scene Henry and his buddy get off on watching a video of them murdering their victim. It's an obvious but effective parallel to the weirdos like me who are watching a movie about Henry Lee Lucas slaughtering people for 90 minutes.


In this story you don't see what's chasing the girl in the movie. I don't think you can see who it is because it's you.



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Reply #42 on: November 25, 2019, 03:19:57 AM
I also really appreciated this story, both when I first heard it and when I read it just a few minutes ago (prompted to do so by the resurrection of this thread).  I did a search for it and found it at https://www.curiousfictions.com/stories/666-a-c-wise-final-girl-theory

I’m generally a film fan, but am not much interested in horror films as a rule—I prefer the visuals in horror stories to appear solely inside my head.  I can see being mesmerized by the film in this story, though.  I can visualize it in the garish colors of the 70s version of Suspiria.  A. C. Wise is one hell of a vivid writer.



Marlboro

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Reply #43 on: November 25, 2019, 04:16:55 PM
Excellent point. The description of the movie really sounds like a giallo film. Argento used color in film second to none and the opening scene with the broken glass would have been the perfect scene for him to direct.