Whenever you set out to make a supercut, an obvious goal is to be as comprehensive as possible. Of course, to be completely comprehensive would be extremely unlikely (you are human, after all), but you should at least get the essentials down. I didn't do that in Mirror Scare, and it kills me. It's been brought to my attention several times that I left out Evil Dead II and Repulsion, among films. For that, I offer this atonement. Know that this will haunt all future dreams of the completist in me, whom as a child traveled with my entire set of Encyclopedia Brown or Ramona books when I was reading just one of them because bringing them all along just felt right.
Obviously, it's for reasons like this that I refrain from labeling my videos as containing all of whatever they're devoted to. I fuck up all the time, and oversight is a fact of life. Still, leaving these out bothers me because they're both important films. I was particularly stupid in the case of Evil Dead II, because it's a film that I love, that I've seen many times and that I knew I wanted to include in this 'cut -- somewhere in the months it took me to put this together, I just forgot to pull it off the DVD shelf and then forgot about it all together. Repulsion bums me out less, because even though I own it (and not as of, like a few hours ago -- I will scan in the receipt, if it please the court), it's not a film I particularly enjoy. I appreciate its moodiness and that it is as disorienting as its protagonist (or whatever she is) is disoriented, but to me, watching it is tedious. I've seen it once the whole way through, and that's enough for me. The 10 seconds of mirror in there wasn't something I was going to remember, anyway. What can you do? The brain has limitations.
Because of the latter omission, however, Jeffery Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere (a blog I do not read and won't be starting any time soon) labeled me "handicapped" and decided that I created something endemic of cinematic ageism or something. I've never seen someone get so pissy over a supercut, but I don't fault him. We all have things that we hold dear. In the comments (which, via readers, list some other less egregious omissions), he writes additionally: "Anyone posting a montage of all the key mirror-shock scenes who doesn't include Polanski's Repulsion clip is simply derelict and probably ignorant. That's it, end of discussion, no excuses....generational myopia. In the doghouse until further notice." I think that myopia is not accounting for human error, which is what was at work here. I also find the doghouse comment foolhardy, as it implies that I would figuratively choose to visit or reside on his property, when in fact I wouldn't even dignify it by shitting on his lawn.
I used to do that with my Ramona books too! What if I magically get through the next 120 pages of Ramona and Her Father while waiting for 20 minutes in the dentist's office? WHAT WILL I READ THEN?! I better bring along Ramona and Her Mother, Ramona the Brave, Ramona the Pest, Ramona Forever, Ramona's World, and Beezus and Ramona- just in case.
Posted by: Rachel | February 11, 2010 at 12:26 AM
I thought that the point of your original post was to show how:
A - Modern movies are using the mirror scare to excess
B - How taken out of context they lose a bit of their shock value
C - And also how when viewed in mass, they're more amusing than scary.
I think the key points here are that most of the movies you used to illustrate your supercut were more modern and also derivitave.
Its totally outside of the point to talk about Repulsion, one of the few movies that got the mirror scare right and actually utilizes the device to further plot rather than as a cheap gimmick, as you more or less are already saying that Repulsion did it right with its omission, no?
Posted by: matt | February 11, 2010 at 11:38 AM
One of my favourite scary mirror scenes is in Poultergeist, when this one guy is looking in the bathroom mirror and he starts picking at his face and then he practically rips his own face off, but then his face suddenly goes back to normal. Scared the crap outta me.
Posted by: Petra Sphinx | February 11, 2010 at 05:10 PM
ignore the fucker. not even going to check out his blog.
Posted by: Warren | February 14, 2010 at 10:57 PM
Hahahahaha I really hate how so many on the internet think that their opinions matter to anyone outside of their readers. Thanks for not only shutting this guy down, but doing it with wit. Love you
Posted by: Noel | February 15, 2010 at 10:38 PM
What about the "Mirror, Mirror" trilogy?
Posted by: Richard | February 17, 2010 at 12:22 AM
I'm glad you included Repulsion only because the newspaper on the dressing table reminded me of the beloved Edies.
Your previous omission was the most disgusting, atrocious thing ever to happen in America.
Kisses.
Posted by: Bapril | February 17, 2010 at 02:12 PM
Fatal Attraction has one of the best (final scene)
Posted by: Tom P | February 23, 2010 at 03:16 PM