Movies
UPDATE: A Special Public Service Announcement About Cell Phones
I know I am supposed to use this platform to talk about horror, so here you go, the horrors of seeing a movie in a theater. I’ve had it, I’m fed up and I’m raging war. I urge you all to spread the word, who knows, maybe the collective voice of us horror fans will turn into the collective voice of CHUD fans or AICN fans, before erupting into the public eye of CNN, FOX and beyond. Cell phone use in movies, it’s out of control. I paid $13-f*cking-50 tonight to see a movie in a theater that swears by their “no cell phone use” policy (the Arclight in Sherman Oaks, CA). Through the entire feature people were checking their texts and answering calls. One douche next to me had it on the ENTIRE movie, but made sure to cup it with his knee. This isn’t fair and it’s bullcrap. We all work really hard to go out and enjoy a night at the movies just to have it ruined everything-single-mother-effin-time; it’s ridiculous. If you’re one of these people, I beg you to cut it out, tell your friends to cut it out and spread the word. Don’t tolerate it anymore. Complain before, during and after the movie. Demand refunds. If enough people start ragin’ war, they’ll start to listen. I want to live in a world where there’s zero tolerance for cell phone use in theaters and people are escorted out for doing so. For real, what’s so important that you need to be texting through the entire movie? Your girl is next to you (hopefully) and your buddies are still gonna have plenty of booze after the movie ends. Now I’m going to bed pissed off and angry, thanks. Talk about it below.
“So Bob says to me, ‘Nancy, you’ve got to get an iPhone!'”
UPDATE: Arclight’s response below:
“Dear Brad:
Thank you for contacting ArcLight Cinemas.
I apologize for your experience at ArcLight Sherman Oaks. May I inquire as to the date, show time, and film your experience was in, so that I may further follow up with the managers at ArcLight Sherman Oaks?
I read the article, and I understand your frustration, as obviously many others do by the large number of responses to your article. As an employee of ArcLight I am obviously uncomfortable with the name of our theater publicized in a bad light, and we wish to correct the situation as much as possible. I hope we come to a point at which it is not necessary to baby-sit our guests and check on cell phone usage–we check our theaters to maintain our picture and sound presentation, usually which takes place out of sight of the guests, in the hallway. Certain films seem to bring out the cell phone-using guests, however.
Again, I do apologize for the situation, and I encourage you to visit guest services after a show like that, or find an employee during the show to correct the situation–not just in our theaters, but in any theater or performance.
Please feel free to contact me again if I can be of any further assistance. We value and appreciate both you and your business.“
The trailer for Ti West’s upcoming adaptation of A Christmas Carol raised a lot of eyebrows when it dropped earlier this week. While plenty of folks initially dismissed Ebenezer as a derivative project meant to cash in on the recent wave of unnecessary prequels that expand the backstory of beloved characters (such as 2023’s Wonka), Charles Dickens’ original novel already made a point of exploring Ebenezer Scrooge’s origins in detail – meaning that this new film is likely just a particularly faithful adaptation of the source material under a different name.
Couple that with the fact that the movie is being helmed by a genuine horror auteur and I think it’s safe to say that the latest iteration of the first modern ghost story is in good hands.
That being said, one detail that immediately jumped out at me during the brief teaser (other than a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nod to Johnny Depp’s iconic bedroom death scene from the original A Nightmare on Elm Street) is the fact that many of Ebenezer’s ghosts appear to have been directly lifted from the iconic John Leech illustrations that accompanied the first edition of Dickens’ novel.
Here are a couple of stills from the trailer compared to the original artwork:
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
The Phantoms in ‘A Christmas Carol’ and ‘Ebenezer’
Marley’s Ghost in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
Mainly working with old-school wood and steel engravings that would later be transferred to print, Leech was instrumental in crafting the iconic look of history’s most influential phantoms – especially since Dickens is said to have been deeply involved with the creation of these so-called “comic illustrations.”
And since the novel is commonly said to have popularized spiritualism in Victorian England, much of the ghostly iconography that we still see in genre media to this very day (including some of Ti West’s previous films) can be traced back to the author’s partnership with Leech.
Ebenezer won’t be the first A Christmas Carol adaptation to borrow heavily from these designs, but I can appreciate how Ti West is incorporating an important part of horror history into his latest film.
Ebenezer will be available in theaters starting November 13.
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