The Synergy of The Fly

This week might have been one of the most memorable ones for me thus far. The movie “The Fly” which I will get to later, will surely remain ingrained in my entire being.

The topic we covered this past week was Hollywood in the 1980’s, and the perfection of synergy. The presence of frontloading was at a Zenith during this era, which only helped the presence of synergy within Hollywood. Creating just movies, was no longer the approach that studios took. Blockbusters became a major goal that all studios worked towards. The synergy created between film entertainment and many movie-related products.

As I am writing this blog, a commercial for a Harry-Potter theme park came on the tv, and I thought how funny it is that while I am writing about frontloading, and synergy, a real-life example is being displayed to who knows how many other sets of eyes, watching this same Hollywood goal being fulfilled.

As Professor said this week, this assimilation that Hollywood underwent into a larger media communications industry lead to a loss of actual art being made. Studios were making films that were virtually free of risk, and without risk, there is no art. This period lead to conservative blockbusters becoming the normal mode of movie production.

Now, transitioning to “The Fly.” One of the first things that caught my attention in this film, was the musical score. The work that this screenwriter did with lord of the rings, does not fall on deaf ears, and he certainly brought this film to a higher height with his touch on it.

The story that this film portrays can be interpreted many ways, depending on which scenes you choose to look at the most. I believe this is true no matter what film you study. I do believe beyond a doubt however, that this film can universally be observed through the lens of the bodily horror, and the abject genre.

The main driving force behind the horror many find while watching these types of film, is the distinction between what is self, and what is other. The horror comes when, in this case the two items are literally brought together. The doctor teleporting himself unfortunately with the fly, was at first exposure, quite a miracle, and interesting no doubt. But I knew form the second I saw that the fly was in the pod with him, that the doctor would no longer be the same man that went into that pod.

I found this film startling and unsettling for may reasons. The primary reason was the title. The second I heard the buzzing of the insect for which the film was named, I knew that it would be the source for some horror, but exactly how involved it would be, I had no idea.

I saw many of the jump scares before they occurred, but they still managed to catch me off-guard. I had no idea how graphic this film would be, and even though I knew it was just special effects, it got to me. This film will without a doubt stay with me for a long time, and of nothing else, has discouraged any desire of teleporting myself that I had prior to watching this film.

The 80s & 90s

The seventies were a time for revival in Hollywood, many great films were being made for both artistic and commercial reasons. Young directors were emerging bringing their own personal style to filmmaking introducing the “Auteur”. The 80s and 90s were also an exciting time for film in different ways.

The Blockbuster film became a major thing in the 80s, blockbuster films are usually made with large budgets, are very flashy, have major stars, most are extremely popular. Jaws, Star Wars, Superman, etc.. all were blockbuster films, we see the merchandise, the popularity, extremely successful films that still are largely adored and have sequels being made to this day (for example Star Wars). While Blockbusters were a popular film in the 80s there were many other themes being explored. David Lynch, a director known for his films such as Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, Dune, Elephant Man, and the popular 90s tv show Twin Peaks. While the hero, good guys and feel good films of the 80s were being made David Lynch was going beneath that, he was digging to show what is under all of this commercial happiness, the “Dark Side Of The American Dream”. His heroes were tracking down a killer with their biggest clue being a severed ear, fighting surreal dimensions such as the black lodge to figure out why their friend was murdered. His films were often dark, nightmarish and surreal, diving into the subconscious to make sense of the world at the time. His film Eraserhead, an experimental cult film which follows a couple with a mutant newborn child, seemingly appearing from nowhere. The whole film has a loose narrative, shot in black and white with heavy contrast that really captures that industrial American nightmare.

The 90s was a whirlwind of new things for film, there were so many new things emerging as long as taking things from old filmmaking patters we see films like Pulp Fiction by Quinten Tarintino or Natural Born Killers by Oliver Stoner becoming popular. Pulp Fiction is an interesting one, in the reading the author talks about how Tarantino uses the Hitchcock tool of not showing violence on screen much, but building to the moment so intensely that it seems like you witnessed more violence than you actually did. I ended up re-watching some of his films this week and noticed that was an interesting thing to discover that I had not noticed before.

This week in class we watched David Cronenberg’s The Fly, this film was referencing the aids epidemic at the time, the way he portrayed the body turning against itself was funny but also really dark to watch. At points there were funny things like “Get in my teleporter, it will make you feel sexy.” When Jeff Goldblum said that it just made me laugh, but then you see the innocent (at first) tender relationship turn bad over a mistake so easily avoidable it makes you want to shout at the screen. We watch as the seclusive scientist Seth Brindle splices his genes with a fly and turns into a fly mutant man. It was unnerving. The ending scene where he basically gives up and puts the gun to his head and she puts him out of his misery honestly brought tears to my eyes, it was not only a gross, entertaining film it also managed to pull at the heartstrings and I enjoyed it very much.

1980’s Cinema, and “The Fly”

Cinema in the 1980s took a very interesting turn. I feel like I have always been able to tell if a film was made in the 80’s without prior knowledge of that fact, as they all, or a great majority of them at least, seem to have a similar look and feeling to them. 80’s films usually seem to have a bit of sci-fi/ fantasy in them. Some examples of these films are “Back to the Future”, “Ghostbusters”, “Gremlins”(one of my favorites), “The Labyrinth” (even more of a favorite) and the movie that we were lucky enough to screen in class this week, “The Fly”. something that I love about films from the 80’s is the hopeless romance in them. This romance was heavily contrasted by horror and fear. These themes were not only played out on screen, but with the AIDS epidemic coming to play in the 80’s, this was also what was happening in real life.
Back to our screening, this week we watched “The Fly”. “The Fly” is a film from 1986 directed by David Cronenberg, who is a director known for making films having to do with sci-fi body transformations and infection, caused by futuristic technology gone wrong. The Fly was produced by  Brooksfilms and distributed by 20th Century Fox. This film is a perfect example of the science fiction/ horror/ romance that I mentioned before. The film stars Jeff Goldblum, Geena Davis and John Getz. This plays out the almost unrealistic fast moving romance of the 80’s, while also holding the extremely unrealistic and dramatic sci fi horror themes. I feel as though the pairing of the two themes is a tactic used to grab and hold the attention of several different audiences. I myself am more drawn to the romantic aspects of film, for the most part, which is why I enjoyed this film. But others who may hate romantic movies, but who love sci fi, would also find great enjoyment in this film. The love story between the two main characters, A scientist who has discovered but not perfected teleportation, and a journalist reporter  trying to out his discovery until she quickly finds herself to have fallen in love with the scientist, was one that had me hooked quickly. This, also paired with the reporters own personal drama with her ex boyfriend/ boss was a great addition of drama to keep me interested throughout the entirety of the film. This film did an amazing job at holding a good amount of action from beginning to end, never trailing off or slowing down much. The special effects that became more and more apparent throughout the film as the scientist was morphed into a human sized fly after accidently teleporting himself with a fly in his teleportation machine, were just how special effects of the 80’s always looked. Very costume like, almost too much to take seriously, which gives a cheesy horror vibe which is a characteristic of old horror films that I love. Overall, I had a great time watching this film, the love story continued through to the very end where the audience gets to really feel the heartbreak of the ending of the relationship between the two main characters when the reporter is forced to shoot the scientist, as his body had completely changed into that of a fly’s, and he was deteriorating in front of her, grabbed the gun himself and held it to his own head, asking her to shoot him. A truly heartbreaking ending to this rollercoaster of a film.

Jeff Goldblum is Pretty Fly For a Fly Guy

This week in class we discussed the 1980’s, the decade where so many beloved franchises bagan.  I love this decade, but after learning the history behind it, I can definitely see how it caused problems in a big way.  These problems still persist today, and all of them are based on money before quality.  This makes little room for art, and even less for a director to have freedom when making a new film.  The idea of “front-loading” comes about in this era, and it is the process by which a movie has all of it’s merchandising and products and toys released before the movie to not only generate maximum hype but to also ensure the movie is an instant success.  The problem would occur however if all that money was spent and then there was a flop made out of the movie all the products are based on.  That’s why studios started to take away creative freedoms from all of their directors and really started to craft the movies themselves.  They would stick with tried and true ideas that really made guarenteed hits but were at the same time all too safe.  George Lucas and Steven Spielberg really paved the way for the types of safe movies for the 80’s.  They figured out that male fantasy was a relatively untapped well but that movies in that genre worked really spectacularily.  This led to the beginning of the end.  Movies started to fit three main genres; horror, sci-fi fantasy, and action.  These were the tried and true money makers, and not much has changed today.  It looks to me like Hollywood is going to continue on that path for as long as it takes in order to milk the cash cows those great pioneers gave us in the late 70’s to early 80’s.

That isn’t to say that there weren’t any good movies in those genres though.  There were plenty, Back to the Future, Indiana Jones, one of the greatest sequels of all time came from one of those dreaded cash cows in the form of The Empire Strikes Back.  This week, we watched one of those “good ones”, The Fly.  I missed class unfortunately due to a stomach bug, but I’ve seen The Fly a few times already, so I know what it’s all about.  As far as casting, almost nobody does mad scientist as well as Jeff Goldblum.  The man knows how to act weird and strange already, it’s part of his everyday life.  The body horror that occurs in the movie is also a really good parallel to the Aids crisis in the 80’s, showing that your body could really betray you.  It didn’t focus on jump scares, but rather a slow, methodical burn that really gets under your skin as Jeff Goldblum loses his.  David Cronenberg does a fantastic job spinning a tale that is equal parts horror and a statement on where society stood when faced with these new challenges.  Overall, I think The Fly is something that everybody should experience at some point in their life, if not for the ride, then at least for the make up effects which are just outstandingly grotesque.

I am an 80s child and the Fly is awesome.

Our reading chapter this week was Revisiting Genre Films in the 1980s and 1990s.  I have an advantage over my fellow students because I was their age in the late eighties and remember that time and the cultural atmosphere.  I enjoyed this chapter as it reminded me of some of the greatest movies I had ever seen (at least at that point in my life).  These movies include Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T., Dances With Wolves and RoboCop.  And one of my favorite tv series, Twin Peaks.  These films are across the different spectrums of the 80s and early 90s.  First and foremost, most of these movies were technologically advanced, or at least gave the impression.  Second, most were heartwarming, or dealing with humanity.  There were lots of military type operations or skirmishes in the eighties.  Grenada, Falkland Islands, the high jacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro, and Panama are the first things that come to my mind.  America seemed to be entering a constant state of heightened state of nervousness.  The 80s were a time of new as well.  There was new test for screening blood for AIDS, Live AID the concert started and even Coca Cola introduced a new recipe (It was horrible and failed).  So, what does all this have to do with movies.  Movies developed humor, humanity and horror.  We see a cop love his family, die and come back thru technology.  His humanity over writes his programming and becomes human again.  A young boy helps an alien stay out of government hands and gets him home, while a soldier realizes he has been fighting on the wrong side.  Most of the movies I remember of the 80s were somebody overcoming something…and usually that something was themselves.

This brings us to The Fly.  Cronenberg wove a science fiction film with love, mild humor, drama, gore, and horror.  Technology and a jealous scientist, Seth Brundle, create BrundleFly.  This is where I usually rehash the film, but I wanted to instead point out key elements or scenes that I feel are important.  In the beginning when Ronnie (Geena Davis) and Seth (Jeff Goldblum) arrive at his lab it becomes tense.  Seth is playing a piano and says to her, “You have already seen them, so you can’t leave.”  At this point we don’t know if he is evil or good, so we are tense.  I tried not to laugh out loud when she called the Telpods designer phonebooths.  (Believe it or not in the 80s there were phone booths on most corners and in the malls and just about every grocery store.  Some of them were designer and made to look like different things – doll houses, semitrailers, etc.).  BrundleFly quickly comes into play.  Super athlete and he is delirious on the drug of the fly gene splicing.  It is obvious that he is losing it mentally as the film progresses.  Physically he is changing, and at first, he is scared, then he is excited, then scared again.  He tells Ronnie at one point, “I’m free and your jealous.”  When he realizes why he is changing he says, “I was not Pure!”  This is important as it is the heart of the movie.  Is BrundleFly a human or a fly.  Is he good or evil?  Inner demons.  (Robocop is the same basis).  BrundleFly as he refers to himself states, “BrundleFly is becoming something that never existed before.”  This statement is perfect because through the movie as he changes, his state of mind changes and the way he views himself.  He tries to warn Ronnie at one point, “Insects are very brutal.  They don’t compromise.  I’m an insect that dreamt he was a man and loved it.  But now the dream is over, and the insect is awake. I’m telling you I’ll hurt you if you stay.”  In the end, BrundleFly has one last bit of humanity or Seth left and holds the muzzle of the shotgun to his head in a silent plea to Ronnie to end him.

1980s

Here we are in the 1980s, a decade full of movies we all know and can reference. As we went over the slides and talked about great films. Everyone in class had that “ohh I love that MOVIE” or “what a classic”. I mean between the film greats like “The Breakfast Club” or all the John Candy movie. The 80s are filled with the film I love, even if they embraced some of the not so great techniques of the 70s.

One of many great scenes from a great movie. I was between this and the golfing part.

We talked about Harry Potter franchise and all the money out there for the industry to make money off. When we first started talking in the 70s about the increase money a film can make by selling merchandise, is now on a whole new level. With so many sources of revenue for most it can seem like a rip off. For most kids of my generation and the one before, this is normal for companies to wrench every cent out of a film. Even if that means it can ruin the franchise as a whole. We have all experienced it, from a horrible remake to a toy or a video game that was just awful. With talking about how big Jaws was, we didn’t even mention its three other sequels. I think this is mainly due to how bad they are or because it just repeated what the first movie did and didn’t change anything from the first film. It is just like going to see an appalling remake and who wants that when you can just watch the first one again. This is what I hate about so many sequels. They try to remake the magic the first film had, and it isn’t the same as the first one.

Now I say how I dislike sequels and yet I still love to watch the Star Wars Saga and the trio of Indian Jones films (not the fourth, that one blows). I think that Spielberg and Lucas have done some great thing and have made some of the best films I know of. I think sometime films are just so very entertaining and enjoyable that you don’t care about them repeating the original.

As we learned more about John Hughes and the films he produced. He reminded me of another director/ producer we learned about a few weeks prior. I kept comparing him to Corman and American International Pictures because just like them, Hughes went to make films that spoke to a younger audience. With Sixteen Candles, Breakfast Club, and Ferris Beuller’s Day Off it was all so relatable for a teenager to relate to.

Now on to the main screening of the week with the Fly. I exited to seen Jeff Goldblum because he has been in many films, I enjoyed like Jurassic Park. At the start I wasn’t sure why Professor was so worried about showing this or why he picks and chooses which semester it will be on. Well, I now know why he does that. It wasn’t how he was acting that got to me. It was they sounds and the looks of Seth Brundle that got me. When he vomited onto his food to break it down and then you could hear him slurp it up was just gross. Even think about it made me want to gag because I can still hear it. Or at the end when he is melting the hand and is spewing this liquid out of his body. I was left with so many gross thoughts and images of his head and body kept deteriorating over the whole film. It was gross, but I may show it to some friends for a chance to view it again.

Had to pick out a more pleasing photo because I cannot stomach another viewing this film

The Eighties Were Fly

The 80s was when money really surpassed art and creativity in film. Marketing tactics were used to maximize box-office potential, but this meant less risk. Hollywood started making use of a strategy known as “front loading”. “Front loading” meant going all out on the promotion of a film before it’s actual release—releasing movie themes toys, posters, video games, merchandise and even food.

In the process of capitalizing profits, Hollywood reinvented itself and became a larger conglomerative media industry. In this day and age, it seems impossible to speak about the profits of Hollywood without sequels coming to mind. During the 80s, Hollywood observed what worked and what the audience liked, and stuck to what worked. Many franchises started to emerge, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, and Raiders of the Lost Ark. This paved the way for the future of Hollywood, such as the Jurassic Park series in the 90s, and Harry Potter in the 00s. Since then, Hollywood has pretty much stayed the same, if you add in the birth of the internet and online streaming.

When I think of film in the 80s, what comes to mind are teen films, like the iconic Pretty in Pink and The Breakfast Club. These films portrayed teen life and were greatly influential on a generation, and still live on as great teen classics today.

In the 80s, fantasy, horror and sci-fi boomed. Many horror series were started in the 80s, such as Halloween, The Amityville Horror, and A Nightmare on Elm Street. Sci-fi films such as The Fly and Alien came out in the 80s.

Every Wednesday, I am left thinking that I just saw the greatest movie of all time. After Wednesday’s screening of The Fly (1986), I am certain that I saw the greatest movie of all time. The Fly follows a journalist, Veronica (Geena Davis) on her quest to find her latest scoop. Soon, she encounters scientist Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum) who has just discovered the secret of teleportation. They fall in love but things turn ugly when Brundle unknowingly shares a teleportation pod with a fly, fusing with it on a genetic level.

The Fly tackles romance, psychological horror, sci-fi, and even the aids epidemic that was prominent in the 80s. It revolves around losing control of your body—or rather your body turning against you, everyone’s worst fear. Geena Davis and Jeff Goldman’s chemistry is undeniable, which is not surprising considering that they were married the year after The Fly came out.

The Fly is so disgusting that it is impossible to tear your eyes away from the screen. At one point, Brundle is shown vomiting on his food in order to make the digestion process easier. At another, a baboon is shown with his insides out. Fingernails are plucked and puss is oozed. The movie may be a bit gruesome, but for me, the romantic story completely overshadowed the gruesomeness of it all. I was rooting for the couple until the very end, despite Brundle’s weird, disfigured fly figure.

The 1980’s: Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid.

While reading the text book this week, I was pleasantly surprised by how many of the films I recognized. Back to the Future, Goodfellas, Fargo, even Twin Peaks are all titles that I’m familiar with. I grew up watching my parents’ favorite films, such as Indiana Jones and 16 Candles, and always joked with them that I was really an 80’s kid born too late. But behind all the action, stunning film scores and gorgeous actors the 80’s was a time of fear. Fear of the body, as the AIDS epidemic finally started to be addressed by citizens after the diagnosis of beloved actor Rock Hudson.

Goodfellas-full of dark humor, gangsters, and this nut job character

While the 1940’s and 1960’s craved films that reflected the audience’s every day lives, films from 1980’s up to present day mainly focus on one genre—fantasy. George Lucas and Steven Spielberg became known for their action-adventure epics in films such as Star Wars and Jaws. Since the success of these films, Hollywood has continued to see the most profit from fantasy action adventures. The Harry Potter series, Pirates of the Caribbean, and ever popular Avengers franchise are just a few modern examples of movies that have capitalized on the action genre. However, while the younger generation of film makers entertained audiences with reimagined myths of good vs evil, movies like Deer Hunter and Coming Home tackled a more realistic danger many Americans shied away from. The after effects of the Vietnam War.

Directed by Michael Cimino Deer Hunter, follows a trio of men from the Pennsylvania who see the horrors of the Vietnam War. The film received critical praise, even winning five Oscars in 1978. Much of the audience at the time of the film’s release were shocked by the depiction of torture and violence in this film. While fantasy primarily dominated the box office, anti-war films like Deer Hunter stood out as eye opening films that depicted a brutal reality that many audiences were unaware of before. Just as audiences turned a blind eye to after effects of Vietnam, so too they try to ignore the AIDS epidemic—until a famous actor took center-stage in a real-life tragedy.

The 1980’s also brought a new series of teen films. Save Ferris anyone?

Rock Hudson’s passing in 1985 caused a panic in Hollywood as the media covered Hudson’s slow death. As a result, directors like Adrian Lyne created films like Fatal Attractions, in which the main message of the film is to fear casual unprotected sex. The film also was famous for reversing character roles, such as having the male lead meeker and more sensitive while the leading lady showed more masculine qualities. These simple role reversals started to break the mold of generic characters, in which a hero/heroine had to act a certain way to fit societies’ image of the gender. However, no movie depicted the horror of loosing a body to diseases better than that of The Fly, directed by David Cronberg in 1986.

At its core, The Fly is movie about body horror. Although I’m not usually a fan of horror, this film really kept me engaged. The plot was simple, yet intense. Watching Seth and Ronnie slowly grow closer, then to be ripped apart by an experiment gone wrong made me wish for a happy ending, even though I knew it would never happen. But what really caught me attention was the make up for Brundlefly. The gore in this film was realistically horrible—never over the top like the B-movies in the 50’s, but honest in its depiction of decay. I was fascinated by the effects in this movie—like the arm breaking in half, or the limbs melting (that was hard to watch not gonna lie).  The make up was done by Chris Walas, who worked on the movie Gremlins a few years before The Fly. In the beginning, Walas was concerned that Goldblum’s face would be too difficult to work with for the makeup. In an interview asking about the stages of Seth’s transformation into Brundlefly, Walas stated “We really needed to have a carefully worked out, logical visual development of the character that would keep Jeff onscreen as long as possible. The final transformation wasn’t as drastic in David’s original script. I think the jaw coming off and the head splitting open are the only descriptions.”

Overall, I’m glad that out of all the films we could have seen from the 80’s, we say The Fly. It’s a kind of horror that everyone can relate to—the fear of having our own bodies turn against us.

Cited Work

https://www.tested.com/art/movies/532460-chris-walas-makeup-effects-fly/

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/deer-hunter-review-1978-movie-1161827

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091064/

https://www.hivplusmag.com/people/2015/03/11/23-celebrities-who-lost-their-battle-aids

70’s Cult Cinema

This week I really enjoyed learning about cult films of the 70’s and “midnight movies”. The 70’s was an extraordinary period for cinema and is argued to be one of the greatest decades for movies. Midnight movies was a phenomenon that emerged in the 70’s and lasted until the end of the decade. What truly began the culture of Cult movies was when Alejandro Jodorowsky’s film El Topo was screened at the Elgin Theater in Chelsea, New York. It became a hit and people were lining up outside the theater every midnight to see the film, some went to see it as many times as they could. According to the documentary we watched in class, after the movie was bought again to be shown at another big theater, it was blown out in 3 days and lost it’s aura and theatrical value, and the craze for the film died down. However, Alejandro Jodorowsky will forever be known as the starter of midnight movies and will go down in cult cinema history. After El Topo, Theater owners realized there was an audience for midnight movies and films began to be shown at midnight in theaters across the country. The documentary explained it as a giant search for the next El Topo.

It is funny because I pass by this theater all the time. What use to be known as the Elgin Theater is know the Joyce Theater. However I never knew about the history, and how this theater started this sub-culture of cinema. Strange how different the theater is know compared to how it used to be in the 70’s.

Soon other odd films, way different from mainstream cinema were shown at midnight screenings, including Night of the Living Dead, Rocky Horror Picture Show, Pink Flamingos, Eraserhead, Freaks, and much more. Most cult films often had themes of immorality, sensitive topics, non-conformity, graphic violence, sex, etc. However the audience or following is what gave that film its cult status. In order for a film to be considered a cult it had to have a loyal following. For example, Rocky Horror Picture Show, one of the most iconic cult films ever created especially when it comes down to the film’s loyal fans. Going to a midnight showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show in the 70’s seemed like a whole different experience. People would show up to the theater dressed as their favorite characters, recite the dialogue as the movie played, people made up their own scripts and yelled them out at the screen at the right time, live performances of the movie would be enacted as the actual movie played in the background, audiences would throw toilet paper, rice, toast, their drinks, etc. to react with whatever was happening on the screen. The extreme level of audience participation turned it into its own production. Rocky Horror Picture Show is a great film, it’s fun and colorful, has catchy music, it’s weird and different, it is no surprise it became such a cult classic.

Midnight Movies and the Rocky Horror Picture Show

This week, we talked about cult movies, midnight movies, and watched one of my favorite movies ever, Rocky Horror Picture Show. There are several things that contributed to the rise of midnight movies. One thing was major economic distress in the late 1960’s. The infrastructure of the film industry was fragile. TV and independents were also competing for viewers. In the late 1960’s, people’s tastes were also changing. Because of the more risque films of the late 1960’s, viewers wanted more from the 1970’s. Another reason midnight movies became so popular is film brats. Film brats are people who were raised on film criticism. They grew up film literate because of movie theaters. They watched european and hollywood films which resulted in a different aesthetic of movie making. Scorsese, Spielberg, and Ron Howard are a few film brats. Art cinema brought about the anti hero which is very popular in midnight movies. An anti hero is basically a main character that lacks classic heroic attributes such as idealism, courage, and morality. Anti heroes start to be found in media such as: MASH, Midnight Cowboy, and Bonnie and Clyde. One early cult movie we talked about is Jaws (1975). Jaws was one of the first films to be vertically integrated. This means there were video games, soundtracks, books, VHS tapes, and comic books as well as many other types of merchandise released for the franchise. Jaws was very much a return to 1950’s spectacle films. The Poseidon Adventures (1972) was a film with several new aspects that were important to the 1970’s. First, it had the anti hero. Hackman’s preacher was all about taking matters in to your own hands. He had gotten kicked out of the church for the most part because of his preaching style. This film had major plot twists, mainly, primary characters dying. This now let supporting actors carry the film. The character actor becomes the leading man in The Poseidon Adventures because main characters are killed off. This film also demonstrates the anti authority vibe of the 1970’s.Midnight movies started with midnight showings of older movies such as Reefer Madness, Freaks, and Night of the Living Dead. Midnight movies helped define cult movies. A huge part of cult movies is audience participation. A prime example of a cult movie with audience participation is Rocky Horror Picture Show. Two of the leads, Brad and Janet, are portrayed as wholesome… at first. Every time Brad’s name is mentioned, the audience says asshole, and for Janet it’s slut. When Brad and Janet’s car breaks down, they find themselves at the castle run by Dr. Frankenfurter. They quickly get “welcomed” to the culture of these strange people. The story is very symbolic of the late 60’s and 70’s in the way that two of the main characters start off pure and wholesome and slowly turn against previous ideals.