Tag Archives: Horror

The Purge: Anarchy (2014)

September 21, 2014 D. Markotin Leave a comment

The Purge: Anarchy

The Purge: Anarchy

Director: James DeMonaco

Writer: James DeMonaco

Recommended: Surprisingly enough, yes.

Bechdel Test: Pass, right off the bat

Trigger Warnings (for the film, not necessarily the review): Rape threats, intense weird classist violence

“Anarchist” was a pejorative for a long-ass time before people started calling themselves anarchists. So while I’m pretty convinced the definition of anarchy is “a society without systemic oppression” and not “when everyone runs around killing one another,” I kind of get why some people still hold onto the latter understanding of it.

That was what I told myself to steel myself to watch a film about lawless violence that had “anarchy” in the title.

Maybe I didn’t need to. The Purge: Anarchy is, well, more or less an anarchist film.
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The Walking Dead, seasons 1-4

May 13, 2014 Margaret Killjoy Leave a comment

The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead, seasons 1-4

2010-2014, AMC

Recommended? If you’re going to watch epic amounts of TV, then yes.

Rooting for The Walking Dead isn’t exactly rooting for the underdog, I know. It’s apparently the most-watched show on cable. But, after binging my way through four seasons, I’ll say this: I’m glad it’s so popular.

As a warning, this review is going to assume you’ve seen the show or don’t care about spoilers. It’s light on specifics, though.

The Walking Dead is a post-apocalyptic zombie drama set primarily in rural Georgia, based on a comic series I haven’t read. When it first came out, I gave it a shot but got kind of bored after a few episodes.

You see, the protagonist is a cop. The second-in-command? Also a cop. This isn’t a really good way to hook me. In fact, throughout the whole first season, I basically felt like the screenwriters were good-cop/bad-copping me: good cop is so good! Bad cop is so bad! Therefore, we need more good cops!
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Movies

The Purge (2013)

March 31, 2014 Margaret Killjoy Leave a comment

The Purge

Director: James DeMonaco

Writer: James DeMonaco

Recommended? you could do worse

Bechdel Test: Pass

I saw a trailer for this film awhile back, long before I convinced myself to watch it. In the year 2022 unemployment, poverty, and crime are at record lows—all because for one night a year, from 7pm to 7am, every crime is legal. (And by “every crime” the filmmakers really just mean murder.)

I’m an anarchist. My entire political understanding is wrapped up in the idea that without law and government, we’d actually all get along alright. I wasn’t expecting to like The Purge.

But the filmmakers actually took the themes of the movie in interesting directions.

First of all, let’s talk about class war. The protagonists are bootstrapping war-profiteers, basically: the husband sells security systems to rich people for the Purge. “Ten years ago we couldn’t pay our bills, and now we’re thinking about buying a boat,” he says at some point early in the film. The family puts out a symbolic display of blue flowers, showing their support for the Purge, before retreating into their secure home.
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Movies

Knights of Badassdom (2013)

February 27, 2014 Margaret Killjoy 1 Comment

Knights of Badassdom

Director: Joe Lynch

Writers: Kevin Dreyfuss and Matt Wall

Recommended? Not really, no.

Bechdel Test: See below.

It’s never any fun when your culture is represented by outsiders. Geeks know this as much as anyone—we’re much maligned, us people who favor strange costumes and make-believe. So like plenty of geeks, I’ve been waiting around for Knights of Badassdom for awhile now—finally, a film for us, by us. In fact, I’ve been waiting several years now. (There was a whole kerfluffle between the director and the studio that set it back a number of years and left us with a cut that is not what the director intended.)

But, well, if this is what geeks have to say about geek culture… then this is not our proudest day.

At the beginning of the film, a group of LARPers (Live Action Roleplayers) have their games ruined by a bunch of camo-wearing rednecks with paintball guns. Oh, the jocks… the geek’s natural enemy. I’m sympathetic to the LARPer’s plight.
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