Tag: Bat(s)

  • Taxidermia (György Pálfi, 2006, Amor Far Filmproduktion).

    Taxidermia (György Pálfi, 2006, Amor Far Filmproduktion).

    Hungarian cinema leaves us feeling stuffed! Figure A  – Lajoska Balatony surrounded by stuffed animals. Taxidermia (György Pálfi, 2006, Amor Far Filmproduktion). Pálfi’s 2006 body horror  Taxidermia, follows the story of three generations of men in three acts; each concerning a different afflicted and animalistic perversion. It begins with Morosgoványi Vendel, a sexually perverse man…

  • Batman Begins. Dir. Christopher Nolan. Warner Bros. 2005.

    Why does Batman dress like a bat? In the words of Batman himself, “bats frighten me. It’s time my enemies shared my dread.” In Batman Begins, the boundaries between human and animal are psychologically breached through Bruce’s lifelong phobia of bats. This all-consuming dread leads to Bruce’s attempt to confront this fear through exposure therapy.…

  • Cujo. Dir. Lewis Teague, Warner Bros. pictures. 1983.

    St. Bernards. Aren’t they adorable? Slobbering bundles of joy that get up to all sorts of mischief. This loveable breed of dog has certainly enjoyed its share of the Hollywood spotlight, therefore, there’s no other option but to discuss everyone’s favourite troublemaker. No, not Beethoven (Figure 1) I am, of course, talking about Cujo, family…

  • King Kong. Dir. Peter Jackson. Universal Pictures. 2005.

    King Kong is the modern remake of the 1933 classic, which follows Carl Denham (Jack Black) in his attempts to film a movie by coercing his cast and crew into following him on his voyage. His voyage is an attempt to find the mysterious Skull Island where he hopes to film the ‘last blank space on…

  • Jumanji. Dir. Joe Johnson . TriStar Pictures . 1996.

    Ever felt like your life was just one long game, and everything to happen was caused by the roll of a dice? No? Well try living 26 years inside Jumanji, a game where all of your psychological fears and anxieties manifest in the shape of wild animals, whether they are excessively oversized mosquitos and spiders,…

  • Shrek 2. Dir. Andrew Adamson, Kelly Asbury, and Conrad Vernon. DreamWorks. 2004.

    The second film in the Shrek franchise, Shrek 2 focuses on a pair of ogres, Shrek and Fiona, and their life as newlyweds: it’s time to meet the in-laws. Fiona’s human parents, King Harold and Queen Lilian, are unpleasantly surprised by the fact their daughter and her husband are ogres, and their marriage has a few magical…

  • The Neverending Story. Dir. Wolfgang Petersen. Neue Constantin Film, Warner Bros. Pictures. 1984.

    ZooScope ZOOM: The Neverending Story ‘The animal is distinct, and can never be confused with man. Thus, a power is ascribed to the animal, comparable with human power but never coinciding with it. The animal has secrets which, unlike the secrets of caves, mountains, seas, are specifically addressed to man,’[1] John Berger theorises on our understanding of…

  • Two Brothers . Dir. Jean-Jacques Annaud. Universal Studios. 2004.

    ean-Jacques Annaud transports us to the richly beautiful Cambodian jungle in the early 1920s , where two tiger cubs, Sangha and Kumal, are born to their stable and loving family unit. Their playful brotherly bond creates many adventures until violence and greed removes the two from the wild and forces them into the human domain…

  • Beauty and the Beast . Dir. Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise. Buena Vista Pictures. 1991.

    Beauty and the Beast, Disney’s early 90s offering follows the protagonist Belle, a clever and beautiful woman. Frustrated at her small town life, she hungers for adventure. She rejects the relentless advances of Gaston, the loathsome but handsome villain and instead falls in love with a ‘hideous beast’; a former prince who has been cursed…

  • Beauty and the Beast . Dir. Gary Trousdale & Kirk Wise. Buena Vista Pictures. 1991.

    Ostensibly, the transformation of a dog into a footstool in Beauty and the Beast operates as a humorous pun.[1] Visually, it works: Sultan in footstool form is around the right size, his tassels stand in for a head and tail and his decorated legs make convincing paws. Furthermore, the transformation of a dog into a footstool plays on…