Life Imitates Horror: Flesh Eating Virus
Posted by Ms Harker | Filed under Life imitates Horror
Sitting here as the wind outside blows a cold gale, reclining in my slightly hungover state, I have been puzzling of what to bring you for the next “Life Imitates Horror’ feature. When it came to me in a flash of undead inspiration… all things zombie are the rage, zombie flesh is decaying flesh, what type of diseases out there create the same effect on living human beings? Is there such a thing as a ‘Flesh Eating’ virus? Well ladies and gentlemen, I will go to many lengths for my readers, so despite said hangover, I have researched this issue and am happy to report back in the affirmative ‘Flesh Eating’ viruses indeed exist!
There are in fact a number of bacteria that can attack human flesh but today we will be looking at ‘Necrotising Fascitis’. ‘Necrotising Fascitis’ took the lives of approximately 35 injecting drug users in Ireland and the UK in 2002, with the most concentrated number of cases in Glasgow. Forcing the government to issue a health warning.
Symptoms of “Necrotising Fascitis’ occur at the site of an established wound and large blisters form beneath the skin as the bacteria penetrates the lower layers. The victim then experiences flu-like symptoms and diarrhoea can also occur, with victims developing toxic shock syndrome as the disease spreads to the underlying tissues. If caught early the disease can be treated with anti-biotics, however if not the bacteria eats away at the body, creating gaping zombie like wounds!
So beware, next time you are down a dark alley, or cruising past your local crack dealers den, carry some evaporative antiseptic in your pocket, there may be flesh eating bacteria spreading around!
Ms Harker
Tags: Horror, Life imitates Horror
‘Wolf Man’ has horror hounds howling!
Posted by Ms Harker | Filed under Horror Films
I was intending on keeping my luscious lips shut about the release of the ‘The Wolf Man‘ trailer (thanks to Bloody-Disgusting for the video below). One, I haven’t seen the original and two I’ve been on a vampire binge of late. However my fellow bloggers (see Monster Land and The Vault of Horror) seem to have their panties in a little bit of a twist in regards to the CGI being used to transform the fabulous Benicio Del Toro from man to wolf.
Now I will probably cop a serve for this but… lighten up bitches! I thought the transformation looked great, Del Toro has the acting chops to display the pain and anguish of becoming the beast; which without said talent would render make up or CGI effects to something you put in little plastic bags when your walking your wolf in the park.
The atmosphere appears to be suitably gothic and we all know by now how much I love seeing a bit of ye olde psychiatry in horror films. Anthony Hopkins makes another appearance as a slightly mad supernatural sage, which is reminiscent of his role as Van Helsing in ‘Bram Stokers Dracula‘. Its Hopkins people, he’s a knight and can do no wrong in my eyes (except that weird film about the New Zealander who raced across the desert in a go-cart)!
‘The Wolf Man’ has the potential to make amends for any ‘New Moon‘ bollocks we will have to endure in the coming months, so suck it up and rejoice ye merry gentlemen and lassies, Werewolves for grown ups are coming!
Ms Harker
Tags: Horror, Horror Films, Werewolf
Blood, Bowie and Bisexuals: The Hunger
Posted by Ms Harker | Filed under Horror Films
I treated my self to a horror trifecta on the weekend, watching three very different horror films on a lazy Sunday afternoon. But as night closed in I was in the mood for something a little left of centre, something daring, vampy and with a bit of raunch… I turned to ‘The Hunger‘.
Made in 1983 this was a neo-gothic blast from the past, with all the electronic synth, spandex and red/hot pink eye shadow you could handle opening with a suitably spiky long fringed singer in a nightclub, behind some type of cage, singing ‘Bell Lugosi is dead’. Promising beginning. Patiently observing the writhing post modern macabre pleather wrapped punks are a man and a woman, an art decoesque clad raven haired pair. Said pair are David Bowie and Catherine Deneuve, vampires on the hunt for some sexy snacks. Mind you the skanks they pick up are hilarious, I still haven’t figured out why all of them were wearing sunglasses… at night, and the dance the chick they pick up does against the wall is a drug addled mess. But all is forgiven, this is Bowie, as a vamp, meow!
The story is based upon these two characters John and Miriam. Miriam being the ‘maker’ whose undead journey commenced in Egyptian times. Miriam has a low tolerance for wandering the centuries alone and we discover has had many companions, John being the latest. However Miriam has eyes for another Sarah played by the sensual Susan Sarandon. Miriam’s motives are never really clear; does she have John or her own interests at the forefront. However this is the eighties, this is po-mo (post modern) horror people! Symbolism, gender and sexual ambiguity and plenty of the crimson flows as we watch Miriam work her charms on the beguiling Sarah.
“The Hunger’ is famous for its raunch. The history making erotic romp between Sarandon and Deneuve, which some believe is the only reason to watch the film, lives up to the hype. Over at ‘The Vault of Horror’ the two vixens were recently named in B_Sol’s ‘Horror’s Hottest Couples‘. I think this film has more to offer than just titillation. Don’t get me wrong I’m all for a little bisexual vampire romping and thoroughly enjoyed the vision of Denevue’s dainty french hand reaching down to cup a young Bowie’s ripe buttocks, or the sight of Sarandon reclining with her perky breasts going neither east nor west, wearing barely there panties.
‘The Hunger’ has a David Lynch feel to it, reminding me of ‘Blue Velvet‘, another film that features a European goddess, in this case Isabella Rossellini challenged by their sexual nature and a certain madness that lies within. Surrounded by contexts that expose the horror of not only the human condition but the ethics of sex and death. So drag out your pleather, don some shady glasses and anklet boots and immerse yourself in the debaucherous po-mo horror of ‘The Hunger’!
Ms Harker
Catherine Deneuve-Miriam
Tags: Horror, Horror Films, Vampire
