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DZ - you said there hasn’t been a great werewolf film since The Howling, I was curious what you think of Canada’s menstruation romp, Ginger Snaps.

F13 - I’ve never read anything to this effect, but I was wondering if you perceive the character of Rorschach from Watchmen as a sort of visual homage to a masked/gloved giallo killer?

I like Ginger Snaps. I thought Ginger Unleashed was closer to being an undiluted werewolf film than the first GS. I don’t consider them great as werewolf films so much as great as metaphorical manipulations of classic monsters. Considering Ginger became a shaved werewolf rat-like thing it’s easy to think they could have re-themed any monster for their purpose of demonstrating budding sexuality… and of course, the monthly visit from Aunt Flow.

If I may interject/add my 2 cents here, I’d say that at the very least Rorsach is a visual homage to giallo killers, namely the one pictured below from Mario Bava’s brilliant blood and black lace, which looks virtually identical…

I’d say so visually and possibly in theme also. Rorschach is extremely disturbed and no longer considers himself to be Walter Kovacs, he refers to the inkblot mask as his true face and considers Walter to be dead.  Much like killers in Giallo films who have completely turned the bend and lost all of their former humanity in pursuit of their one goal. He is an absolutist in that to him there are no “in-betweens” or “shades of grey”. All of his violent techniques to him are justifiable as a means to an end. A lot like Giallo killers who aren’t psychopathic per-se but just singularly and wholly obsessed with one thing, enough to make them kill for it.

Watchmen is currently one of my favorite books and the end of the book (I wont spoil it) made perfect sense to me and in my estimation is the only way that his characters story could possibly end with out being a cop out or a fluff piece.

I REALLY have to pick it up. I can’t believe I’ve never read it considering what a comic nerd I was/am when not blowing my wad on dvd’s..

Thanks for the thoughts, all three of you. I’d figured that the Rorschach thing was kind of a “duh” corollary, but since I only know about giallo killers what you’ve taught me, I thought I’d toss it up for discussion. I’m really wondering why it isn’t pointed out more.

Any more thoughts on the Watchmen movie? It’s pretty much gotta be fantastic or it’s going to be a huge waste of time, I think. The book is just too perfect.

I’ve not seen any of the Ginger Snaps sequels, but I did kind of like the first, if only for the effort it made. It’s definitely not a masterpiece, but a decent indy horror flick (with chicks).

I don’t know.  I think I have to disagree about Rorschach having a giallo influence.  He’s based on the Steve Ditko creation The Question, in the vein of Randian Objectivism (just cranked to an extreme in the case of Rorschach), and represents the blindness of moral absolutism and the loss of self to a perceived ideal. 

As far as aesthetics, he’s certainly a tweaked version of the blank-faced Question, who in turn was almost certainly influenced by mask-oriented visual styles of early pulp and comic heroes such as the Clock, the Crimson Avenger, the Sandman, the Shadow, etc. (not to mention the much more obvious influence of Dick Tracy rogue, the Blank).

If there does seem to be a strong visual correlation, I think it’s more attributable to giallo and the character(s) that inspiration for Rorschach was drawn from both coming to rise in the late 20s and early 30s.

As for the Watchmen film, I’m going to be very cautious and try not to get my hopes or expectations up.  I hope the rumors that were floating around a couple years back about the script having a completely different ending aren’t true; I can’t imagine anything would pack the punch of the original.