February 26, 2008

Cue Carmina Burana



TB created a very special box set of DVDs just for my birthday. This gift stems from my peculiar fascination with 1970s horror movies, and my more general and rather recent bout of 70s nostalgia. Even though 70s retro has been popular for a while, I've never experienced this nostalgia until now. In fact, while living through the 70s, I couldn't stand the 70s, couldn't wait to get out of the 70s, and throughout the 80s and even some of the 90s, thought "thank God the 70s are over"! So, how does one know that one is suffering from creeping 70s nostalgia? I think that a sure sign is a sudden, inexplicable ability to sit through many an episode of Fantasy Island; a truly, truly, horrible show. A show I never even watched when it was originally on TV. I think it's some kind of yearning for simpler times in contrast to our current glossy, highly corporatized world where everything is focus-grouped to death. Or maybe it's just middle age.

Unlike today’s crop of high-gore torture movies, these movies don’t aim to shock. They just very quietly get under your skin in rather unsettling and unnerving ways. And for some reason, the spooky, evil child was a particularly popular theme (witness “The Exorcist”, “The Omen”, and one of my favourites, “Rosemary’s Baby”, though not technically a 70s movie). I’m sure film historians and critics would point to societal issues such as the crumbling family unit and the rise in popularity of birth control. Yes Dina and Maggie, THAT’s why I have no children ; )

At any rate, thanks TB for another awesome gift!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Anytime, my dear...though I just seem to keep raising the bar for myself:)
BTW, for genre purists, Black Xmas includes the '74 and '06 versions.
Phew! Glad I got that straight.

Maggie said...

Try explaining that to my kids - y'know, the ones who accused DB of forgetting "to put his seed" is his wife.

Irene said...

We can always bring "The Omen" over next time we come for dinner. No wait. That might give them ideas. With one of them being precocious and the other creative, who knows what havoc they'd wreak?

Anonymous said...

Yeah and I dunno if you remember the film that well but your staircase is, well, a little too similar to the one in the movie...