Editorials
Send in the Clowns: ‘Joker’ and the Presence of Genre Films at the Oscars
Joker: Gritty origin story for one of fiction’s most iconic characters, an attempt at a complex character study not often seen in the comic book film genre, and most recently – this year’s Golden Lion winner. For real.
It was always a bit of a risk for Warner Bros. to debut Joker at the famous fall festivals instead of just waiting for the wide release in October. If the movie’s early reviews were disastrous (as was the case with Batman v. Superman), it could affect the movie’s box office, which is projected to be huge as is, considering the story being told. Mainstream films debuting at Toronto International Film Festival and Venice Film Festival is not new, but Joker came in with extra pressure from both Joker enthusiasts and general audiences who may still be wary of DC films.
Then all expectations were thrown out the window with Venice’s first reactions to Joker being overwhelmingly positive, praising Todd Phillips’ adaptation as a potential game-changer for the comic book movie genre and a massive showcase for lead actor Joaquin Phoenix as the face-painted agent of chaos. Even some of the film’s more mixed responses highlighted the bold nature of the clown’s origin story, with many responses citing Martin Scorsese as a major influence to the film, which Phillips himself has admitted.
While there may still be some hesitation towards the film’s alleged morals and portrayal of such a disturbed character, Joker still has a ton of hype to ride on as the film comes closer to release. By itself, this initial hype is enough to quell some fears for the film’s quality, but writing this now, the film now has a surprise ace up its sleeve in the form of a surprise Golden Lion win at the ceremony for the Venice Film Festival. That’s right, the top prize at Venice managed to go to Joker of all films in one of the year’s most surprising bits of film news.
The Golden Lion is not only an incredibly prestigious film award in the industry, but it is also a strong indicator of the dynamic of the Oscar race that will soon follow early next year. Just last year, Roma won the Golden Lion before taking home three Oscars (including Best Director for Alfonso Cuaron) and nabbing a Best Picture nomination. The year before that, the Golden Lion went to Guillermo Del Toro for The Shape of Water, which led to him winning Best Director AND Best Picture at the following Oscars. Now, Joker is following up both of those Oscar powerhouses and the film’s Oscar campaign will have some serious strength going forward.
Joker stands as the first comic book film to win the Golden Lion and will now campaign to become the first comic book film to win Best Picture and while that’s something that we should definitely pay attention to going forward, it’s important to note just what kind of comic book film we’re talking about. This isn’t an international blockbuster on the level of Black Panther nor is this a child-friendly action-comedy like Into the Spider-Verse. Joker is unique in this field because despite its label, it’s not being promoted as a traditional blockbuster.
Joker looks way more like a gritty horror-drama and this could be HUGE.
Genre films in horror are often shortchanged at the Oscars and even with a supposedly progressive environment today, it’s rare to see horror (or at the very least disturbing) films even being seriously considered for the Oscars. The most recent example of this was just last year, with Hereditary’s Toni Collette missing out on a nomination despite the universal acclaim for her performance in Ari Aster’s domestic horror-drama. She DID receive a nomination for The Sixth Sense, another horror-drama, but came up short, as did the film in every other category for that year.
In 2017, the horror genre had Jordan Peele to cheer on with its 4 major nominations for that year (eventually winning Best Original Screenplay), but it served as one of the decade’s only instances of a major Oscar win for the horror genre; the other being Natalie Portman’s Best Actress win for Black Swan. Much like Get Out, Aronofsky’s ballet horror-drama was also nominated for Best Picture, but it lost like expected, just like Get Out.
In fact, those two films are among the only horror films of the decade to be nominated for Best Picture. Worst of all? They’re actually 1/3rd of the horror genre’s presence in the Best Picture category overall. In the Oscar’s 90+ year history, only 6 horror films have been nominated for Best Picture: The Exorcist, Jaws, The Silence of the Lambs, The Sixth Sense, Black Swan, and Get Out. Out of those 6, only Silence of the Lambs has won Best Picture, showing a remarkable ability to move past genre bias to win the year’s top prize.
Now it may be a little reckless to lump Joker in with those 6 films since it’s being promoted more as a gritty comic book drama, but considering that we’re talking about a film centered on an insane and psychopathic man in clown makeup, the horror elements aren’t exactly subtle either. It’s quite strange to see the film’s promotion shy away from anything related to horror, despite the reviews clearly implying that the film might actually be terrifying in its depiction of mental illness and isolation.
The trailer for Joker seems to imply a level of horror as well, with several shots of Phoenix’s Joker embracing his madness, presumably after committing a horrendous crime. Even the film’s color palettes suggest an experience that a simple drama couldn’t bring, with each shot doused in dim, dark green and blue, highlighting the drained and beaten-down world that Mr. Arthur Fleck lives in. In many ways, Joker feels like it’ll primarily be a drama, but both its comic-book and horror aspects are sure to be downplayed in the inevitable Oscar campaign because genre entries like these are, and maybe never will be, Academy-friendly.
Biopics, dramas, and Hollywood-focused films make up the bulk of Oscar-friendly films, or Oscar bait, if you will. Blockbusters like Avatar, The Dark Knight, Black Panther, Inception, and Dunkirk will sometimes break through the bias, but these films shy away from the world of horror; and judging by the genre’s track record, it appears to be a smart choice. Not that these films didn’t deserve any of the acclaim and Oscar buzz they received, but it still boils down to an anti-horror attitude that is still prevalent to this day.
As I’ve mentioned in other articles, horror is a genre that reflects real-world fears and if executed in a genuinely creative and/or nuanced manner, the cultural impact can render the stories timeless, which is something that the Academy is supposed to celebrate. I don’t see why a psychological horror like Black Swan should be shortchanged for a film like The King’s Speech when the online community continues to share clips from the former. Aronofsky’s exploration of absolute perfection is terrifying AND timeless for its creative filmmaking and strong presence almost 10 years after its release. Who can honestly say the same about The King’s Speech (you know, the film that WON over Black Swan)?
It’s this kind of stuff that always creeps around in my head whenever I see websites and other writers voice their predictions for next year’s Oscars. During the first half of the year, Lupita Nyong’o was all the rage among the community for her wonderful performance in Jordan Peele’s Us and now that Peele is an Oscar winner, it’s understandable to think that the Academy might bite again for a horror film. We also have Florence Pugh’s emotional turn in Ari Aster’s Midsommar, which fans hope can make up for Toni Collette’s egregious snub last year.
As of now, the horror community is also backing Robert Eggers’ follow-up to The Witch: The Lighthouse, which has been receiving critical acclaim ever since its premiere at Cannes. Willem Dafoe is an Academy-friendly actor, so it’s possible for the film to receive Oscar buzz leading up to January. But at the end of the day, all of the films mentioned are still on shaky ground simply for the genre they represent going into the ceremony. Horror allows for creativity to run absolutely wild, but some of the end results could turn off traditional Oscar voters for their provocative nature and filmmaking.
But this is something that can and most likely will change with the addition of newer and younger Oscar voters each year. Voter demographic is slowly, but surely shifting away from the ways of old, if the Oscar success stories of Get Out, The Shape of Water, and The Favourite are any indication. A newer audience that has grown up respecting different values and finding entertainment in more unconventional places is bound to be more open to the idea of horror being a major presence at the Oscar. And if The Dark Knight, Logan, and Black Panther taught us anything, it’s that the Academy does indeed have space for films that resonate with a more modern audience.
Joker is not building itself up to be a traditional horror film, but a story about a mad clown inflicting chaos on Gotham City could easily open up the door even further for genre films to stroll in and get their time in the limelight. If the Venice Film Festival sees Joker in the same light as something like Roma, maybe the mainstream-friendly Academy can do the same for it and worthy horror films as well. Horror is a timeless genre and it’s about time that the Academy realizes this.
The penultimate season of Tales from the Crypt (1989–1996) aired its first three episodes on October 31, so it’s understandable that at least one of those three stories is set on Halloween.
Sandwiched between “Let the Punishment Fit the Crime” (Russell Mulcahy, Ron Finley) and “Whirlpool” (Mick Garris, A. L. Katz & Gilbert Adler) is the most severe episode of the bunch. Maybe the entire series? William Malone and Dick Beebe’s “Only Skin Deep” traded the show’s typical sense of fun for startling amounts of bleakness and kink.
“Only Skin Deep” is, apart from the Crypt Keeper’s intro and outro, noticeably unfunny. There are no considerable attempts at making the viewer laugh. Come to think of it, if those bookends had been replaced, and there was more of a sci-fi element in the story, HBO could have easily squeezed this tale into that successor anthology, Perversions of Science (1997). In Crypt, though, “Only Skin Deep” is much too grim for an audience that had become accustomed to campiness and levity.
What makes “Only Skin Deep” feel dark, among other things, is its protagonist. Showing up to a Halloween party where he’s not welcome, and where his former girlfriend (Diane DiLasco) is attending, Carl Schlag (Peter Onorati) first comes across as your standard bitter ex. You soon realize it’s much worse than that, once Carl threatens Linda (“You know, silly me, thinking I gave you what you deserved. If I’d have done that, I’d have killed you”). Now, I haven’t forgotten that Tales from the Crypt was teeming with vile men who did women harm. Yet Carl’s brand of misogynistic menace hits differently—it borders on being too realistic for this kind of series.
Mike Vosburg’s EC-style comic cover for “Only Skin Deep”, as seen in the Tales from the Crypt episode.
Despite donning a party mask for much of the episode, Carl can’t ever mask his true nature. The invitation did say “come as you are”, after all. That inability to change and be better, however, is why Carl ends up in such a karmic predicament. His outburst of anger at the party attracts the attention of one loner partygoer named Molly (Sherrie Rose, who was also in Season Four’s “On a Deadman’s Chest”). Her bone-white, featureless “mask” and body-bag costume don’t initially register as too strange, especially on a night like this. But at a party chock-full of colorful, cartoonish, and lighthearted ensembles, it does look out of place.
Darkness attracts darkness as Carl ditches the party and accompanies the mysterious Molly to her place. Which, by the way, should have been an immediate red flag. But perhaps she’s so hot, he doesn’t seem to mind the serial killer aesthetic. Resembling a warehouse that has been converted into living spaces, but never then decorated to remove the cold, industrial look, Molly’s home (or lair) is as gloomy as this whole episode feels. It’s like the set of a grungy music video, albeit a tad cleaner. The environments in a typical Crypt episode tend to be small, overfilled, and broken-in. Warm, regardless of any weird goings-on. All that empty space in Molly’s hovel, on the other hand, elicits a creepy feeling that Carl was unwise to ignore.
Tales from the Crypt featured more sex than it didn’t, but hands down, “Only Skin Deep” boasts the steamiest scene in the show’s history. Pushing it over the line, in addition to Onorati showing bare buns and the camera never turning down one of his pelvic thrusts, is the twisted dirty talk. Carl stays in the moment, whereas Molly unleashes charged lines like “the hurt, the anger, give it to me” and “take it out on my flesh like you want to”. It’s all quite kinky, as well as tied into the story’s theme of pain.
How else “Only Skin Deep” differs from other episodes is its twists. Or rather, its lack thereof. Nothing comes as a great surprise here, particularly because the deuteragonist’s ulterior motives are so obvious. By no means is Molly a wolf in sheep’s clothing; her face is a fright mask, she practically reeks of death, and she lives in what can best be described as a serial killer’s hideout. That last-act revelation of Molly’s mask really being her face is also nothing shocking. Cleverness is certainly not this episode’s strength.
A page from “…Only Skin Deep!”, as seen in EC Comics’ Tales from the Crypt.
While “Only Skin Deep” isn’t the most universally loved episode of Tales from the Crypt, it’s an interesting preview of William Malone’s future as a director. Most notably, he went on to helm House on Haunted Hill (1999) and FeardotCom (2002), the former of which was co-written by Dick Beebe, this episode’s writer. Dark Castle Entertainment, that genre house founded by Crypt producers Joel Silver, Robert Zemeckis, and Gilbert Adler, was instrumental in bringing out Malone’s gruesome, over-the-top vision in House on Haunted Hill. However, FeardotCom and Malone’s Masters of Horror episode, “Fair-Haired Child”, are the most stylistically compatible with “Only Skin Deep”.
As one might guess, this episode is nothing like its source material. The “…Only Skin Deep!” found in the pages of EC Comics is set during Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and save for its last couple of pages, is pretty sweet in nature. There, a man named Herbert is enamored with a woman he met five years prior to the present-day story. Every year, he has come down to Mardi Gras to see Suzanne, who’s always dressed as a hag-faced witch. Well, this time, Herbert plans on popping the question and marrying someone who is, for the most part, a total stranger. Suzanne accepts his proposal, but with one condition: they stay in costume until they’re officially hitched. You can probably see where this is going…
Once they are married, Suzanne remains incognito, even when she and Herbert have consummated their vows. A semi-predictive nightmare then rattles Herbert; he dreamt that Suzanne’s real face was as wizened as her mask. Finally, in his haste to find out the truth, Herbert winds up killing his new wife. Faceless and well on her way to bleeding out, the dying Suzanne manages to say she never wore a mask.
For more traditional EC-style ghastliness, your best bet is reading the comic. It’s wickedly sad. For something less conventional, as far as Tales from the Crypt goes, the role-reversing adaptation is worth watching. It’s not the best this show had to offer, although Malone’s visual style, plus the sexual abandon, does set the episode apart. If nothing else, “Only Skin Deep” leaves an impression that, even years later, shows no signs of fading.
Season Six of Tales from the Crypt can be streamed on Shudder, starting on June 5.
Tales from Tales from the Crypt celebrates the show’s Shudder premiere by singling out one episode from each season. So don’t even think about changing that dial, boys and ghouls. More spot-“frights” are to come.
Carl discovers Molly’s collection of human ‘masks’ in the Tales from the Crypt episode, “Only Skin Deep”.
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