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Monday, October 31, 2022
The Midnight Hour
Unlike most holidays, HALLOWEEN is one that you can make entirely your own. There are no pressures to decorate (which I do), or cook, (which I don't) and there are no family meals or visits from that cousin you choose to avoid most of the rest of the year.
There are no gifts to buy and no battles over whether the religious connection should or should not be in the play. Halloween is also the night you can dress as you would the rest of the year if only you could get away with it! One can also never forget the appeal of the mini KitKat!
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!
Hitched & Cocked
'Fear isn't so difficult to understand. After all, weren't we all frightened as children? Nothing has changed since Little Red Riding Hood faced the big bad wolf. What frightens us today is exactly the same sort of thing that frightened us yesterday. It's just a different wolf. This fright complex is rooted in every individual.'
Alfred Hitchcock
Some FH readers may remember that I wrote about my previous hesitation to watching classic motion pictures. Then, anything before the 1980's was 'old' and for many years, I avoided pretty much any movie that wasn't a new release. Torture back then would have been having to watching something in...ugh, black and white!
Thankfully, I've overcome that silly bias. Thanks in part to FH, and some friends who've made some great recommendations, TCM has become one of my favorite channels and classic movies, with class film stars, are always on my television menu. Today, I'd rather watch a classic film I know I'll enjoy, than the endless stream of forgettable new releases.
At Halloween, it's all about classic terror. The Haunting, (1963) The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, (1947) Rosemary's Baby, (1968) and so many other classic, campy and corny horror flicks from the 1970's and 1980's. It also means a return to the iconic films of the master of suspense, director Alfred Hitchcock.
I did, thanks to my parents, see a bit of classic Hitchcock when I was a kid, but never watched one his film, all the way through, until I got older. Today, most Halloween's mean a viewing, even partial, of some of my favorite Hitchcock classics. My favorites include the most well known; Rear Window, The Birds and Psycho, as well as films including; Rope, Strangers on a Train, The Man Who Knew Too Much, North by Northwest, I Confess and The Trouble With Harry.
There are certainly other Hitchcock films I enjoy not listed above, but those are the ones I usually re-watch when I see that they are listed. Hitchcock films often begin strong and stall in the middle, so watching just the first half, or part of the film, can be as enjoyable as watching the entire film.
This Halloween season, with the FH focus being on the movies, I knew that Hitchcock's films has to mark the climax of the Halloween season. over the next few pages, celebrate Hitchcocktober with a look back at some of Hitchcock's classic films and moments and a bevy of Hitchcockian hunks,
Some of my favorite model's and photographers also share their own visual interpretations of many of Hitchcock's films, with the focus of course, being on the male form. Check them out on the next TWO PAGES HERE: & HERE:
Kicking off the celebration are these original artistic interpretations, from artist badsign769 of an iconic trifecta of Hitchockican horror.
Check out much more Halloween inspired artwork from badsign769 on Instagram HERE:
Horror Hunks: Ian Sera in Pieces
'The co-eds of a Boston college campus are targeted by a mysterious killer who is creating a human jigsaw puzzle from their body parts.'
The 70's and 80's are known for bad, campy horror flicks and Pieces is certainly one of them! What's better than a chainsaw wielding killer, lame dialogue, questionable acting and a little male full frontal!
The male full frontal in this case comes from actor Ian Sera in a darkly lit window scene. Despite the lighting, the scene was a welcome surprise weaved within all the chopping, dicing and body splicing. Sera had a relatively short career as an actor in the late70's and early 80;s before moving behind the camera as a writer, producer and director.
You can download the scene on Sendspace HERE:
Skin & Boned: Zilo by Lights On Studio
Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones,
Now shake dem skeleton bones!
I didn't think I'd have the work of photographer Tom Nakielski (Lights On Studio) this Halloween, I was hoping, and my fingers were crossed, but it was down to the wire. Many of you remember my early Autumn post featuring some of Tom's favorite captures of the male behind. (HERE:) In that piece, I shared that Tom was in rehab recovering, and that future shoots were uncertain.
Well, as you can see, Tom's recovery is moving along, slow and difficult at times, but with enough improvement, Tom was determined to shoot for the holiday season. The male form is certainly a motivating force, everyone who checks into FH is aware of that, and with a new models to shoot, Tom got his ghostly groove back just in time for the spooky season!
One of those new models Tom was anxious to shoot was 21 year old Zilo. Tom has struggled to find new models in his area to shoot, but noticed Zilo's profile on Model Mayhem,. Tom liked his look, and noticed that he'd just joined the site this past summer. Given Zilo was also in the Michigan area, Tom got in contact about a possible shoot.
'Zilo was very relaxed from the very start. I had originally planned on doing a Thanksgiving theme and then some pin-up style shots. but I decided to do a Halloween session as. I had some facial tattoos that I wanted to try out and Zilo was very open too any ideas.'
When shooting a new model, Tom is always careful to ensure they're comfortable with everything we're shooting, but Zilo wasn't the least bit phased with any concept or pose Tom threw at him. Zilo shared with Tom he'd had some bad experiences in the past with let's just say 'dramatic' and 'irritable' photographers and really enjoyed working with Tom and the fun holiday themes that they shot.
''I had an absolute blast with the shoot! Both the process and Tom were very professional and I loved the theme. I cant wait until my next shoot and to work with Tom again.'
With Tom still recovering, he's not quite as flexible as he used be. Given that, Tom shares that Zilo was very friendly and helpful with moving props, including a heavy locker box. Zilo was also great with hauling those old bones, (the skeleton's, not Tom's), around the studio. Tom says Zilo was very at ease with his body and helped make the session fun and successful. Tom is looking forward to his return to the studio in the future.
If there was one complaint both Tom and Zilo shared, it was how difficult it was working a pair of thirsty skeletons. Both pairs of bones came from a local laboratory, and were named Albert and Madge. They were a young couple who were both tragically killed in car accident back in the 196o's while on their honeymoon.
Their car ended up going over a cliff, and the coroner's report stated the accident occurred during an intense session of road head... Albert must have been distracted while Madge was at work, and as you can see, though dead inside, certain basic human impulses remain firmly intact. It took all of Tom's energy to ensure Zilo wasn't too badly boned during the shooting process.
Check out Zilo on Model Mayhem & Instagram
& check out his brand new Twitter page HERE:
Sunday, October 30, 2022
The Body in the Woods:
'He looked exactly the same when he was alive, only he was vertical.'
Jennifer
One of my favorite Hitchcock films is actually not a horror film, but the 1955 comedy, mystery tale, The Trouble With Harry. Harry's a dead man, and although no one seems to mind, they all feel responsible. After Harry's body is found in the woods, several locals must determine not only how and why he was killed, but what to do with the body...
The Trouble With Harry (1955)
Visual Interpretation
by LukeG
One of the reasons I love the film so much goes beyond the story to the location and visuals. The film is set during Autumn and it's filled with colorful Autumn imagery and colors. The color were actually part of the film's original marketing. Red! Gold! And Glorious! The full flavor of autumn in Vermont in VISTAVISION
Although very much alive, artist and model Luke G headed out into the woods to recreate Harry's hillside position surrounded by the glorious red and gold. It was a bitterly cold day when Luke re-created these moments from the film and I'm grateful for his time, and for his freezing his beautiful body off, to capture a few moments to commemorate the film.
Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!
'It Begins With a Shriek... It Ends With a Shot!'
Based on the 1929 play by Patrick Hamilton, Alfred Hitchcock's Rope was originally adapted for the screen by Hume Cronyn with a screenplay by Arthur Laurents. The story focuses on Brandon (John Dall) and Philip, (Farley Granger) two brilliant young aesthetes who strangle to death David Kentley, their former classmate from prep school.
The murder takes place in their Manhattan penthouse apartment, just hours before the pair host a dinner party. One of the guests is their prep-school housemaster, publisher Rupert Cadwell. (James Stewart) who helped plant the idea.
Rupert had previously discussed with them, in an apparently approving way, the intellectual concepts of Nietzsche's Superman, as a means of showing one's superiority over others. For Brandon and Philip, the murder is part of an intellectual exercise, a perfect murder as a way to prove their superiority
Rope (1957)
Visual Interpretation by
Tom Nakielski, Lights On Studio
'I've always wished for more artistic talent. Well, murder can be an art, too. The power to kill can be just as satisfying as the power to create.'
Brandon, Rope
Rope is completely infused with homosexual subtexts. After he had come out as gay later in life, the films screenplay writer, Arthur Laurents, shares on the films DVD commentary that to him, it was obvious that Brandon and Philip were gay.
In addition to the murder weapon, rope is also a metaphor for how emotionally twisted the characters become after the murder. This is especially true for Philip who cannot hide his nervousness, fear and guilt. In real life, John Dall was also gay but died in 1971 without talking openly about his sexuality. Farley Granger was supposedly bisexual when the movie was made, but was in a lifelong gay relationship starting in 1963.
Alfred Hitchcock was well aware of the sexual orientations of both actors and was reportedly pleased with what is now called the on-screen “chemistry” between the two. Hitchcock avoided obvious gay stereotypes in his portrayals of Brandon and Philip. Also, he could have easily incorporated indications that they were straight. Other directors regularly “straightened out” characters that were gay in the source material. He chose neither option for Brandon and Philip, keeping their homosexual relationship as just another, rather minor, aspect of their twisted personalities.
Badman & Russell, Mensa
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