The Big Ten: Looking Back on Some Popular Just Dread-Full Posts

Jaelyn's LogoWell, it’s official.  I’ve written an uneven 73 posts on Just Dread-Full since the blog’s inception in late October of 2015.  Now, before I continue, I had a different introduction written in this piece, but the ghost of Miss Jessel is apparently bitter about how I depicted her in my piece on The Innocents, because she’s crawled out of the movie and consumed my laptop.  Really.  Michael and I lost my laptop in the transition from his parents’ house to his house (one of us was carrying the bag).  We, and his parents, have searched every conceivable place, and it’s simply disappeared. As such, I’m typing from his laptop, and I have to start this piece over again.

Continue reading “The Big Ten: Looking Back on Some Popular Just Dread-Full Posts”

The Big Ten: Looking Back on Some Popular Just Dread-Full Posts

We All Go a Little Mad Sometimes: Examining Evil, Psychosis, and Human Error in Psycho and Other Films

psycho 2Tonight, after a dinner at the Public House, Michael and I headed to Erie’s Warner Theater on 8th street to watch Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho on the big screen while the Erie Chamber Orchestra sat under the screen, playing the score.  The experience was phenomenal.  Watching musicians play the opening score while credits splashed across the screen was so exhilarating I got chills.  Of course, one pivotal musical moment happens during the infamous shower scene, but the music was similarly arresting when the last remains of Marian’s car sink under the swamp, and when “Mrs. Bates” turns around, and we see her “in the flesh.”  (Or, if I may, in the lack of flesh).  In fact, I never realized how beautiful Psycho’s score was until I saw it produced by a live orchestra. Continue reading “We All Go a Little Mad Sometimes: Examining Evil, Psychosis, and Human Error in Psycho and Other Films”

We All Go a Little Mad Sometimes: Examining Evil, Psychosis, and Human Error in Psycho and Other Films