Blogaversary The Fourth

Folks, today marks the fourth anniversary of Popcorn Culture, and it’s amazing we all survived this long, let alone this little blog. Now, our good friend Hunter over at Kinemalogue started on the exact same day, so I want you to head over there and give him a little love. Our blogs are fraternal twins, after all. In celebration of this landmark, and in honor of the traditional fourth anniversary gift being electrical appliances, I have a little list prepared for you.

THE TOP 5 HORROR MOVIES DEATH SCENES INVOLVING ELECTRICAL APPLIANCES

#5 TV Set in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors

The boob tube gets a bad rap. It might turn your eyes square and your brain into mush, but at least it won’t murder you… unless you’re in the nightmarish thrall of Freddy Krueger. This TV kill is one of the most iconic Elm Street scenes ever, and for good reason. It’s pithy, playful, and yet still unspeakably dark in its absurdity.

#4 Microwave in The Last House on the Left

The Last House on the Left remake was altogether much less grim than Wes Craven’s original, but that also allowed them to go to some incredibly silly places that even the intermittently goofy 1972 flick couldn’t reach. The highest peak of this bonkers attitude is this scene that brings a popular urban legend to bloody life: death by having your head shoved into a microwave.

#3 Lawn Mower in Misery

Is a lawn mower an appliance? I’m not actually sure about that, but who could resist Annie Wilkes’ inimitable gusto and the creative way she dispatches one of her captive’s only means of potential survival? [Editor's Note: OK, I'm dumb. This scene is in the book, not the movie. But it's still great.]

#2 Toaster in Inside

Inside is a bleak, incredibly gory movie, but one of the scenes that has the most impact is this little moment of blunt force with a toaster. It’s a startling gag that’s so abrupt you want to giggle, but quickly devolves into full-fledged horror.

#1 Blender in You’re Next

You don’t get to be one of the best new horror flicks of the decade without an awesome kill scene, and You’re Next is chock full of them. One of the most memorable is the incredible denouement where our heroine demonstrates the incredible versatility of a common household blender.

Word Count: 399

Blogaversary: Third Time's A Charm

Hey, everybody! Today is a very special day. June 12th. Filipino Independence Day. The beginning of summer break (for those plebs who are still in school). And the anniversary of Popcorn Culture! The traditional gift for a third anniversary is leather, so today our celebratory list is...

The Top Ten Horror Movie Punks

Now, to be fair, I did fudge the term a little bit and threw in four leather-clad characters who aren't actually punks, but it's my list so I can do what I want. Also, please do a blogger a favor and hop on over to my good friend Hunter Allen's blog Kinemalogue to wish him a happy blogaversary too! That's right, we both started our blogs on the exact same day! Talk about fate.

#10 Rod Lane (A Nightmare on Elm Street)

After watching his girlfriend be dragged across the ceiling and eviscerated by an invisible maniac, he rightly assumes he'll take the blame so he takes off: in just a leather jacket and jeans. No shirt, no shoes, no service. How hardcore is that?

#9 Dr. Katherine McMichaels (From Beyond)

This outfit might just seem like another bout of Stuart Gordon exploitation, and it is. But it's also an exploration of a buttoned-up doctor discovering a new dimension of experience and being ruined by its cessation. It's dark, it's sexy, and it's hilariously 80's.

#8 Aaron Boone (Nightbreed)

The newly immortal Boone strolls around bearing a bloody stab wound and a bullet-riddled leather jacket, making him an instantly iconic Halloween costume. That is, if anybody had actually ever watched Nightbreed.

#7 Sex Machine (From Dusk Till Dawn)

I loved Tom Savini long before seeing this film, but now it's more of an undying all-consuming passion. With his beer whip and penis gun, Sex Machine is the badass of a generation.

#6 Amber (Green Room)

She's not the punkiest of the bunch in her look, but her blasé attitude to violence and death is unparalleled. It's the best performance by Imogen Poots maybe ever, and her prickly humor serves the film tremendously.

#5 Vinnie and Pete (Friday the 13th: A New Beginning)

OK, I couldn't find a great picture of these two leather-clad bros, but their car unfortunately breaks down on the side of the roads within the vicinity of the motiveless copycat killings that plague the film. So what do they do? One of them sings a song while the other goes to crap in the woods. Gotta love 'em. "Crap, my ass!"

#4 Boom Box Punks (Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan)

These punks are just minding their own business in the Day-Glo nightmare vision that is Toronto-Manhattan (although this particular scene was shot in actual Times Square) when Jason crushes their good time by smashing their boom box. They prepare to fight, but one glimpse under the hockey mask shuts them up real quick.

#3 David (The Lost Boys)

The bleached blonde mullet that defined a decade of filmmaking. Kiefer Sutherland's super gay seduction of Jason Patric is both deliriously subtext-sexy and the ultimate punk manifesto. "Sleep all day. Party all night. Never grow old. Never die. It's fun to be a vampire."

#2 Taryn (A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors)

"In my dreams, I'm beautiful... and bad."

The dream of the late 80's came alive with Taryn, an ex-heroin addict whose dream power is being a tarted-up, butt-kicking punk. She didn't deserve what came to her, but she took it with style and panache.

#1 Trash (The Return of the Living Dead)

The standout in a group of dementedly hilarious punks, Linnea Quigley's trash does a graveyard striptease while fantasizing about the best way to die. It's only fair that she becomes one of the first zombies, wreaking naked havoc upon her punk friends. Isn't that the ultimate dream?

Word Count: 640