This afternoon, I did something I haven't done in quite a long time: I laid down to take a nap for a couple hours after devouring a plate of the chicken florentine I made for supper. Now awake, I feel rested and clear-headed... ready to take on two more chapters on the circulatory system and the three chapters on the brain, the spinal cord, and nervous tissues.
The solution to the major essay question was finally solved at around one in the morning... right before I was ready to throw in the towel and just do the best I could. I realized that one of the eight Anatomical Chart Company posters hanging in my room is, in fact: The Vascular System and Viscera. The route for this single drop of blood was glaring at the back of my head this whole time, and I'd never looked up long enough to notice. I've alternated some poster placements, and I took the journey of that single drop of blood and turned it into a creative writing to help me remember.
I suppose I could share that with my readers, but I've previously promised two more installments to the list of my all-time horror genre top ten. Tonight, I'll give you numbers eight and seven...
8. Poltergeist (1982, Directed by Tobe Hooper, a man who will make this list twice)
This was the family that we were all growing up with. The mom was a real mom, the dad was a real dad. They were putting in a swimming pool and going about their normal lives. The scares start as low key and subtle, and then the little girl disappears in her closet in the middle of a storm. Spielberg and Hooper did a phenomenal job of remembering everything that scared them when they were little kids: thunder, lightning, clowns, the chairs re-arranging themselves... The things I remember most about this movie were the hushed and whispered conversations and the pink gunk that's all over everybody when they come out of the light... oh, yeah, and everything that happens the night they finally decide to move.
Also recommended: Robert Wise's The Haunting, Peter Medak's The Changeling, Takashi Shimizu's Ju-On, and Dan Curtis's Burnt Offerings
7. The Skeleton Key (2005, Directed by Iain Softley)
Of all the movies that have come out since M. Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense have had to have some kind of twist at the ending. Alexander Aja's Haute Tension was an absolute masterpiece of true, visceral horror up until the killer is revealed, and I'm still contemplating just what the hell really went on with those cave spelunkers in Neil Marshall's The Descent. This 2005 feature role for Katie Hudson is a little less contrived, a little moodier, and a little more relatable for a guy growing up in the deep south and always heading straight for the voodoo shops during trips to New Orleans when growing up. There isn't a single second of this movie that I did not find totally seamless, and I never once thought to suspect that everything was leading up to the climax. In fact, I found the twist startling, and I was left sitting there during the credits thinking about the ramifications that the ending meant to the rest of the story. Hudson's not a bad actress at all, but she is very outdone by Gena Rowlands as the suspicious lady of the house and John Hurt as the nearly catatonic patient. The setting looks just like houses I remember passing and seeing glimpses of between the trees and spanish moss when journeying through the most southerly Louisiana parishes. The music, especially from the Papa Justify record really had me feeling like I was right there in the house.... even encouraging Caroline to take the steps she followed in attempting to protect herself. In fact, I was definitely a believer.
Also Recommended: Wes Craven's The Serpent and the Rainbow, John Schlesinger's The Believers, Jack Clayton's The Innocents, Roman Pulanski's Rosemary's Baby, Robin Hardy's The Wicker Man (in fact, I had to really decide between this film and The Skeleton Key for the number seven spot), and Janet Greek's Spellbinder.
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