Just a reminder that, “In Heaven, everything is fine.”
And Heaven is apparently behind your radiator.
“But Lisa, what is the scene about?”
Well, according to Lynch, the whole movie is “a dream of dark and disturbing things.” Is that woman really living behind Jack Nance’s radiator and singing that everything is fine, despite the fact that there’s also a mutant baby in the apartment? She may be. Or she might just be a figment of someone’s imagination.
Perhaps it’s best not to worry too much about the how’s and the why’s.
Today’s scene comes from the original The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which is one of the greatest horror films ever made. Needless to say, since this is the final scene, it’s a huge spoiler if you somehow haven’t seen this movie.
Enjoy, dance, or laugh maniacally. I leave it up to you.
Ulli Lommel’s 1980 slasher film The Boogey Man is a pretty silly movie but I do like this scene. The idea of seeing something in the reflection of a mirror that doesn’t appear to actually be in the room is one of my top nightmare fuels.
Plus, after the storms we had last night and the fact that there’s still debris all over the place and just driving from one location to another is kind of a pain in the ass right now, there’s just something satisfying about watching a mirror get destroyed.
Since I reviewed the film earlier today, I guess it makes sense that today’s horror scene that I love should be the cemetery scene from Hammer’s The Plague of the Zombies!
This is from the original, 1982 version Poltergeist.
It’s just a ghost movie about a mother’s love, suburban conformity, and a guy’s face falling into the sink. For whatever reasons, the ghosts just seemed to take a really intense dislike to this guy.
“The house is clean.”
Not bloody likely.
“You moved the headstone but you left the bodies!? WHY!? WHY!?”
When it comes to Psycho, everyone always talk about the first half of the film, in which Marion Crane steals the money, gets interrogated by the highway patrolman, meets Norman Bates, and eventually takes that fateful shower.
Those are all great scenes that are wonderfully acted and directed. But they’re also the scenes that always get shared whenever anyone shares something about Psycho. So, for today’s scene that I love, I’m sharing a scene from the 2nd half of the film. In this scene, Milton Arborgast (Martin Balsam) attempts to question Norman (Anthony Perkins, of course!) about whether or not Marion came by the motel. Detective Arborgast thinks that Norman is hiding something. Norman thinks that he can out talk the detective.
This scene is a master class in great acting. Balsam and Perkins are like two tennis players, just knocking the ball back and forth without missing a beat. What I love is that both men are pretending as if they’re having a friendly conversation, whereas they both know that they’re not. Of course, when audience saw this movie for the first time (before the famous ending became common knowledge), they probably thought that Norman was trying to protect Arborgast from his mother.
Anyway, here’s the scene. It’s Arborgast vs. Bates, Balsam vs. Perkins, and it’s rather brilliant:
Through the Shattered Lens 