Tag: Tim Burton

Female Characters, Valentines

My Top 10 Favorite Horrific Romances

Joan gives us a list of her favourite romances from horror for Valentine’s Day!

1. “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” (1992): A horror story based on eternal love complicated by the side effects of eternal life. Great art direction and Richard E. Grant is awesome as a psychologist stumped by patient Renfield’s obsession with flies.

Why I love it: Gary Oldman in blue tinted shades indulging in absinthe.

2. “Crimson Peak” (2015): When a tall, handsome stranger (Tom Hiddleston) professes his desire to take aspiring author Edith Cushing (Mia Wasikowska) away to his family mansion, what could possibly go wrong? Gothic and darkly beautiful, this is a romance that only Guillermo del Toro could tell and Jessica Chastain nearly walks away with the film as the dominating, manipulative Lucille.

Why I love it: The candlelight waltz with Tom Hiddleston. Continue reading My Top 10 Favorite Horrific Romances

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Acting, Best Actresses of The Decade, Female Characters, Women in Film

Best Actress of The Decade, Entry No. 5: Amy Adams

To celebrate the last decade 2010-2019 we are counting down the best actresses and discussing some of their most notable and memorable performances of the last decade. With the help of Film Twitter, the ITOL team have selected 50 actresses. Entry No. 5 is Amy Adams, and writer Kristy Strouse discusses her favourite performances by Adams over the last decade. Continue reading Best Actress of The Decade, Entry No. 5: Amy Adams

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31 Days of Horror, Female Characters, Halloween

A Look Back On Sally In The Nightmare Before Christmas

We love Jack Skellington for not staying in his lane, for that exuberance that makes this Pumpkin King of Halloween want to wrap himself in Christmas like a kid flopping into a snowdrift. But Sally, the clever ragdoll who first loves Jack from afar, gives “The Nightmare Before Christmas” a conscience and an extra dose of heart.

Jack and Sally have been bridging two of the biggest holidays for more than 25 years now. Tim Burton, director of “Beetlejuice”, “Batman”, and “Edward Scissorhands”, first conceived of the dapper skeleton with an existential crisis in the 1980s, writing a poem about a spooky fellow who wants more out of life than just saying, “Boo!” (A book version with Burton’s illustrations was released for the film’s twentieth anniversary.) Continue reading A Look Back On Sally In The Nightmare Before Christmas

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Film Industry, Spotlight, Women in Film

Retrospective: The Musical Legacy of Shirley Walker

What do Hans Zimmer and Danny Elfman have in common besides creative genius and widespread popularity? They were either mentored or collaborated with an overlooked heroine of female representation in film, composer Shirley Walker. She is perhaps best known for creating the theme for the horror film series, “Final Destination” but achieved so much more. She truly deserves greater appreciation and recognition for her leadership as a woman in a field dominated by men as well as for her prolific body of work.

Walker was so gifted as a pianist that she played with the San Francisco Symphony while still a teenager. Not content to be just an accompanist, she branched out into conducting and composing. It cannot be stressed enough how radical and trailblazing her ambition was for a woman in the 1960’s. Even today, women conductors are rare and women composers equally, if not more so. Her first screen credit came when her skills with a keyboard landed her a job playing with Carmine Coppola in “Apocalypse Now” (1979). Continue reading Retrospective: The Musical Legacy of Shirley Walker

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