Sunday, August 9, 2015

Hooper's Most Interestingly Staged Scenes

Well, here's a laundry list... Perhaps I will capture most of these scenes in an uncharacteristic stream of posts, removed of most commentary since I have already made a point of their importance here.  In any case, these are the Hooper scenes that strike with me the most note of an intelligence working steadfastly behind the camera.  These are longer scenes rather than shorter moments mostly (which frees me from listing every other moment of The Funhouse) and is a combination of scenes of formal craft mixed with scenes of concerted dramatic purpose. Also, to keep things fresh, I've left out scenes I may have otherwise included if it so happens I have talked about them once or more times before (this, again, mostly concerns and eliminates scenes from The Funhouse; I could praise Amy's conspiratorial eyeing with the Girl Tent barker until the cleft-headed cows come home).

- The time-lapse ghost ride in Eggshells
- Sally being loaded into the Cook's truck in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
- Mr. Wood and Libby arrive at the Starlight Motel, introduce themselves to Judd in Eaten Alive (Eaten Alive is essentially about people "introducing" themselves to Judd and the ways in which he reacts; this crystallizes in this scene.)
- Roy hunting the alligator/his demise in Eaten Alive
- The Glick boys are abducted in the woods in Salem's Lot
- All scenes of vampires at windows in Salem's Lot
- Mark's parents are killed/Father Callahan faces off with Barlow, Straker in Salem's Lot
- Ben and Mark's entire petrified and clumsy escapade killing Barlow in Salem's Lot
- Death's dice splits the car evenly between genders in The Funhouse
- Liz faces off with the old pervert behind the girl tent in The Funhouse
- Every time Amy treats a derelict kindly and Liz treats them spitefully in The Funhouse
- Joey enters the funhouse through a POV shot in The Funhouse
- The Carnival Manager and Joey's parents converse in his trailer in The Funhouse
- Every "death," especially Richie's hanging and Liz's fall, in The Funhouse
- Liz and the Monster's uncertain encounter in The Funhouse
- Any of Carlsen's psychic/romantic episodes with the Space Girl in Lifeforce
- Carlsen and Caine interrogate the Nurse in Lifeforce 
- Interrogating Dr. Armstrong in the green room in Lifeforce is another sadomasochistic episode of Nick Ray psychodrama proportions
- A sex-mad zombie London is seen and imagined through Caine's eyes throughout the climax of Lifeforce
- David and Linda share a tender moment in the school basement (complete with a love scene camera movement) in Invaders from Mars
- Chop-Top's introduction/Stretch's "tour" of the radio station in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2
- All of Spontaneous Combustion
- Fatima the house servant pours salt on Genie's windowsill, a protective ritual (substitute for the marketplace scene in which Fatima gives Genie the charm, which I have talked about enough) in Night Terrors
- The Marquis de Sade and Genie as Madame de Beaumont face off in his jail cell in one of Genie's fantasies in Night Terrors
- Chevalier's party scene beginning with his introducing of himself to Genie and ending with Genie's comforting of Beth in Night Terrors
- Dr. Matheson's discovering the buried chamber at his dig site in Night Terrors
- Genie's unraveling, from her discovery of Beth's severed head to her drugging by Sabina in Night Terrors
- Officer John Hunton sneaks into the Blue Ribbon Laundry ending with his righteous storming out of Gartley's office in The Mangler
- George the foreman tries to discontinue the mangler, ending with his dismemberment in front of an inconveniently arriving Sherry in The Mangler
- Sherry's perverse kidnapping scene in The Mangler
- The climactic face-off between the characters through to the monster's chase through the bowels of the factory in The Mangler
- Any scene involving Byron the landlord in Toolbox Murders (not really, mostly the scenes where Nell confronts him in his basement office)
- Hudson the actor reveals he did not land the role in the midst of Nell's building investigation in Toolbox Murders
- Steven leads a posse of (metaphorically) scurrying mice into the Euclidean spaces of the hotel in Toolbox Murders
- Hooper (non-diegetic director) jettisons Nell's trusty utilitarian coffee table (almost) out the window in Toolbox Murders
- Jonathan's victorious first kiss with Liz behind the counter of the diner arrives in conjunction with the return of his zombified nemeses in Mortuary
- The entire car ride and escapade in the mist, particularly the American backpacker's reappearance in Djinn
- The ghost hand is actually a bird in Djinn
- The djinn's siege of the van in Djinn
- Sammy inspects (and de-familiarizes) the apartment and Salama meets her neighbor in Djinn
- Salama prays in Djinn
- Salama finds the ultrasound photo/the glass drops in Djinn
- The elevator scene (Khalid meets Sarah) in Djinn
- Khalid comforts an irritable Salama and the photo hallucination is revealed and Sarah invites the two over to her apartment in Djinn
- Sarah infiltrates Khalid and Salama's bedroom in Djinn
- The djinn approaches Khalid in the elevator/Salama comes face to face with the Um al-Duwais in Djinn
- Khalid faces the room on floor PH in Djinn
- A blanketed baby is a blanketed, cowering Salama in Djinn
- The Um al-Duwais arrives at last in Djinn