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Sunday 29 October 2017

Comics Explained: Scarecrow

Scarecrow
To finish off 2017's 'Month of Horror' I thought it would be good to end with a Batman villain considering one of the greatest comics to ever be written was Batman: The Long Halloween. I thought we should look at my personal favorite Batman villain who uses the shared weakness that we all have: fear. Scarecrow uses our primordial and irrational fears against us making him one of Batman's most endearing foes. Appearing in Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy (played by Cillian Murphy) and the spectacular Batman: Arkham games Scarecrow is truly one of Batman's best foes.

Real World Origins
The Scarecrow was actually made by the same pair who made Batman, Bill Finger and Bob Kane. In 1941's World's Finest Comics #3 Batman first faced the Scarecrow but he was fairly different from his current version. Instead of using his famous fear gas to instill fear he instead used a gun. However, he was only seen twice during the Golden Age of Comics and he had to wait until 1967 to appear again. In Gardner Fox's Batman #189 in a story which also marked the debut of Scarecrow's fear toxin. During this story Scarecrow manages to use his toxin to make Batman and Robin scared of heights - later on his toxin would be changed so you see your own worst fears - and they manage to defeat him using his own fear: the fear of being caught. Unlike during the Golden Age Scarecrow made more regular appearances with him returning the following year in Batman #200 by Mike Friedrich. Here Scarecrow makes the Dynamic Duo scared of him so Alfred has to help them become resistant to Scarecrow's toxin, as well as making Scarecrow fearful of them. Since then although he hasn't appeared as regularly as the Penguin, Joker or Riddler he has remained a key figure in Batman's Rogue Gallery.

Origins
Batman #189
Scarecrow actually has three origin stories. Unlike Marvel - which has a sliding timescale - DC has rebooted its timeline twice. His first origin was explained in both World's Finest Comics #3 and Batman #189. Professor Jonathan Crane was a university professor teaching psychology with a particular emphasis on fear. He was disliked by his colleagues for his strange appearance, eccentric demeanor and shabby clothes because he spent all his money on books. To make a point about fear and drive it home to his class he shot a gun during one class which got him rightly fired. This enraged Crane and he decided to take revenge adopting the moniker of Scarecrow combing fear, (as scarecrows are used to scare away birds), and poverty. He would take revenge on his colleagues who fired him and would also commit a series of robberies using his gun, and later fear toxin, to scare guards/Batman into submission.
Batman/Scarecrow: Year One
Following the Crisis on Infinite Earths which rebooted the DC timeline Scarecrow gained a new origin story in 2005's Batman/Scarecrow: Year One - it was assumed by fans that he had the same origin story as his pre-Crisis incarnation until that point. Crane was abandoned by his parents leaving him with his emotionally manipulative and religiously fanatic grandmother who would abuse Crane. When she disapproved something that he did she would make him wear a suit dipped in a concoction which made crows go made, made him go into the family chapel, and then would be attacked by crows. His school life was equally traumatic. For his lanky and disheveled appearance he would be bullied, and unlike most bullies his bullies seemed to know literature nicknaming him 'Ichabod' after the protagonist of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Crane started dabbling in chemistry and psychology, and after being bullied after being declined by a popular girl he decided to take revenge. Using an adapted version of his grandmother's concoction, and while dressed as a scarecrow, he attacked the girl and the bullies. One bully is partially blinded by crows, the girl is killed, and one bully is paralyzed thanks to a car crash. This would inspire Crane to later on kill his own grandmother and frame it as an accident. Years later he would become a professor of psychology at Gotham University and like his previous incarnation he would be fired for firing a gun in class to teach fear. However, unlike his previous version who was fine with just stealing from those who wronged him, this version opted to murder them. He would then become head psychologist at Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane while working at a psychiatric clinic on the side. There he would torment patients under his moniker of Scarecrow. To his dismay Batman was investigating the university murders and stopped Crane.

The final incarnation is the currently canon origin which has actually partially inspired Scarecrow's appearance in the TV series Gotham. When the DC Universe was rebooted with the New 52 they decided to rewrite Scarecrow's origins, which were told in Batman: The Dark Knight Vol.2 #13. This version of the Scarecrow has Crane living with his father who is a scientist working on weaponizing fear for the US government. Unable to procure test subjects he used his own son as a guinea pig. To test fear Dr. Crane would lock the young Jonathan in a basement full of creepy objects like replica dead bodies. Except one day he died of a heart attack leaving Jonathan trapped and traumatized until the police found him after a few days. Growing up traumatized he decided to gain controls of his fears by trying to understand fear itself and he becomes a professor of psychology at Gotham University. Although he would do unethical experiments on patients during his psychology work resulting in the creation of his Fear Gas and one experiment got him fired. A coed suffered from arachnophobia so he decided to try and cure it with an extreme habituation by throwing a box of spiders on her. He later became a psychologist with a private practice where he continued his experiments until he killed a patient which made him properly become the Scarecrow.

Appearances
To my dismay Scarecrow is often relegated to the sidelines so, unlike Joker or Two-Face, he does not have his own one-on-one story arcs with Batman. Instead he is often has a minor role so we'll go through a few of these today.

Batman: The Long Halloween
The Long Halloween
The first story that we shall talk about is his appearance in Jeph Loeb's fantastic The Long Halloween. Starting on Halloween Gotham's crime family is being killed off on holidays so Batman goes to see Calendar Man in Arkham to see if he has any clues on Mother's Day. There an inmate escapes and the terror in the voices of the guards indicate that it can only be Scarecrow. Head of one of Gotham's crime families, Carmine Falcone, and the Mad Hatter manage to break Scarcrow out of Arkham. When Batman goes to grab Crane it turns out to be a dummy loaded with his toxin which drives Batman so insane that he is resorted to crying while clinging hold to his mother's gravestone in an extremely powerful image drawn by Tim Sale. In this story Scarecrow is portrayed as deranged singing nursery rhymes constantly as he makes his toxin with Mad Hatter's help. We then find out Falcone freed Scarecrow so he and Hatter could rob the Gotham Bank Depository on Independence Day using the fireworks as a diversion, and Scarecrow's toxin to defeat the guards. However, Batman, and to an extent Catwoman, prevent the robbery.

Knightfall
The villain Bane wanted to break Batman mentally and physically, so he launched a raid on Arkham Asylum to free each of Batman's enemies so he would mentally exhaust himself tracking them down. Scarecrow was freed and he made an alliance with another villain: the Joker. Together they kidnap the mayor, after Joker's failed attempt to kidnap Commissioner Gordon, utilizing Scarecrow's toxin with the mayor's fear of snakes to bring Gotham to its knees. While they have him they make him cancel a request from the governor to get the National Guard to help keep Gotham safe, told the papers that Gordon's poor leadership caused the Arkham breakout, and told the president of the firefighters union that he plans to reduce wages. However, their disagreements over whether to destroy Gotham or Batman first allows Batman to easily defeat them. Later on when Azrael becomes Batman he tries to use hypnotized students to distribute his gas across Gotham until Azrael-Batman stops him.

Batman: Hush
Hush revolves around a new villain named Hush, I won't reveal his identity, uniting all of Gotham's villains against Batman. We find out that Crane was Hush's therapist but instead of helping him he made his condition worst. Working with Hush and Riddler he compiles a dossier of all of Gotham's villains exposing their weaknesses allowing the duo to control Batman's Rogue Gallery. He later uses his fear gas to turn Huntress and Catwoman against one another, but is eventually defeated by Jason Todd.

Blackest Night
Yellow Lantern Scarecrow
This is a Green Lantern story where a new Lantern Corps, the Black Lanterns, made up of the dead intend to wipe out all life. However, they see in emotions but due to years of neglect, trauma, and exposure to his own fear toxin Crane now lacks emotions. He can only feel fear but the only person who can make him scared is Batman. To combat the Black Lanterns each of the Lantern Corps make several people new members and Scarecrow is made into a Yellow Lantern: the Corps which utilizes fear. This is short lived as Lex Luthor wielding an orange ring of avarice steals Crane's ring from him. After the Blackest Night has ended Crane starts murdering LexCorp interns in revenge. Supergirl and Robin try and stop him only to find his fear toxin is powerful enough to work on a Kryptonian. Both managed to overcome the toxin and defeat him.

Other Media
Arkham Knight Scarecrow
Scarecrow has had several appearances in other media; most notably the Christopher Nolan Dark Knight movies where he was played by Cillian Murphy. My personal favorite appearance is in the spectacular Batman: Arkham games. In Arkham Asylum he helps Joker create his Titan formula but is apparently eaten by Killer Croc near the end of the game, as well as featuring some of the most creative parts of the game. He later appeared in Arkham Knight as one of the two primary antagonists where it was revealed that he was mauled by Killer Croc and now wants revenge on Gotham/Batman. Scarecrow also made several appearances in Batman: The Animated Series as well as other animated DC shows. He has also appeared in the TV series Gotham where his New 52 origin has been partially adapted. Finally he appeared in the fighting game Injustice: Gods Among Us as a background character in the Arkham Asylum stage, as well as the prequel comic where it was revealed that he helped make a toxin to make Superman hallucinate. He was a playable character in the sequel Injustice 2 where he was voiced by Freddy Krueger himself, Robert Englund.

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you as well for reading 2017's Month of Horror. For future blog updates please see our Facebook or catch me on Twitter @LewisTwiby

Sunday 22 October 2017

What is Cthulhu?

Cthulhu
Today as apart of 2017's 'Month of Horror' we're looking at a being comprised solely of evil. In February 1928 in the pulp magazine Weird Tales a short story by a little known author called H.P. Lovecraft. In The Call of Cthulhu the world was introduced to a cosmic entity described as resembling a hybrid of an octopus, dragon, and human. Sleeping for centuries the anxiety which humans have is due to a general collective fear of when he wakes again; Lovecraft himself suffered from anxiety so this may be a way for him to cope with it. Out of all the entities to come from Lovecraft's mind Cthulhu has become the most famous inspiring or appearing in a whole range of media. Today we'll look at the being who to look upon causes insanity.

The Call of Cthulhu
We first shall look at the story which brought Cthulhu into the world. The Call of Cthulhu is told through a series of manuscripts of the recently deceased Francis Wayland Thurston, recounting the notes of his grand-uncle Professor George Gammell Angell. Angell had been killed in the winter of 1926-7 after being assaulted by a mysterious man. While looking through the notes of his grand-uncle Thurston discovers a clay, bas-relief of a crouching humanoid with an octopus head and wings of a dragon. Thurston discovers that a student at the Rode Island School of Design named Henry Anthony Wilcox, a student who had been experiencing horrific nightmares and deliriums. In these deliriums two words constantly crop up: Cthulhu and R'lyeh. Pouring through Angell's notes Thurston discovers that Wilcox's deliriums coincided with worldwide deliriums. People as far apart as London, Haiti, India, South America; a mob of 'hysterical Levantines' attacked the police and a mysterious Theosophist cult in California adopt white robs awaiting a 'glorious fulfillment.' 
A figurine
Looking through his grand-uncle's notes Thurston discovers that Angell had found the word Cthulhu almost twenty years prior. At a meeting of the American Archaeological Society in 1908 a police officer from New Orleans, John Raymond Legrasse, had wanted a bas-relief identified. A year prior he had raided a 'supposed voodoo meeting' in search of several women and children who had vanished from a squatter community. The cultists had been chanting 'Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'yleh wgah'nagl fhtagn.' Interrogating the cultists he found out about the cult:
They worshipped, so they said, the Great Old Ones who lived ages before there were any men, and who came to the young world out of the sky. Those Old Ones were gone now, inside the earth and under the sea; but their dead bodies had told their secrets in dreams to the first men, who formed a cult which had never died [...] hidden in distant wastes and dark places all over the world until the time when the great priest Cthulhu, from his dark house in the mighty city of R'lyeh under the waters, should rise and bring the earth again beneath his sway. Some day he would call, when the stars were ready, and the secret cult would always be waiting to liberate him.
The phrase when translated meant: In his house at R'yleh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming. The leader of the cultists, Castro, leads the inspector to a passage in the insidious book the Necronomicon which reads: That is not dead which can eternal lie, And with strange aeons even death may die. One of the archaeologists, William Channing Webb, declared that in 1860 he too had seen the cult, but in Greenland. After reading this Thurston decides to investigate the Cthulhu cult himself.

By chance he discovered an article in the Sydney Bulletin from April 18 1925. It detailed the story of Norwegian sailor Gustaf Johansen, the second-mate on the schooner Emma, which had been attacked by a yacht named the Alert. After killing the crew of the Alert they discover an uncharted island in the area of 47° 9' S, 126° 43' W. However, the entire crew bar Johansen is slaughtered. Thurston travels to Australia with a hunch which is confirmed when he sees what was recovered from the Alert: a Cthulhu statuette. Travelling to Oslo to speak with Johansen he finds out that the sailor had been murdered by two mysterious sailors, however, his widow hands him a manuscript written by Johansen. Reading the manuscript he learns of what the crew discovered on the island. The island itself was 'abnormal, non-Euclidean, and loathsomely redolent of spheres and dimensions apart from ours.' Exploring a cavern they discover something horrific: Cthulhu has woken. Johansen is left virtually insane upon seeing the being and says that 'The Thing cannot be described.' He does attempt to do so saying it is 'the green sticky spawn of the stars' with 'flabby claws' and an 'awful squid-head with writhing feelers,' with it being the size of 'a mountain.' Only Johansen and one other shipmate manages to not immediately sent insane as Cthulhu sets off after them. On the yacht Johansen crashed the Alert into Cthulhu's head which starts reforming. 

Thurston ends his manuscript commenting that humanity has been briefly spared by Johansen. The beast will slumber some more as its head reforms giving humanity some time to breathe. However, he knows his time as come. Cthulhu in its 'Loathsomeness waits and dreams in the deep, and decay spreads over the tottering cities of men.' waiting to return and 'I know too much, and the cult still lives.' Like so many others the cult will be coming after him, and eventually Cthulhu will reawaken.
A sketch of Cthulhu by Lovecraft

Cthulhu History
The being known as Cthulhu was born eons ago. Before humans, before civilization, perhaps even before the Earth itself. Chtulhu was born on the distant planet Vhoorl descending from Yog-Sothoth, one of the cosmic entities known as the Outer Gods. Instead of being an Outer God Cthulhu is really a Great Old One (or perhaps a cousin of them), one of the malignant beings who once ruled over the Earth and were worshiped long before humans evolved. Cthulhu arrived on the Earth centuries ago, long before humans appeared, building a great city called R'yleh on the now lost continent of Mu. Here he was worshiped by various ancient races, quite possibly by the Mi-go from the planet Yuggoth. A great war erupted between the ancient beings and entities over the Earth which resulted in the Earth being divided between them. Eventually Mu was sunken and R'yleh vanished. Cthulhu went to sleep waiting to return but in the meantime his legacy would create a cult readying the world for his eventual return. Meanwhile, humanity would subconsciously fear his return. Our depressions, our anxieties, our unexplained anger are all because of Cthulhu. Humanity collectively fears Cthulhu waking up again.
A depiction of Yog-Sothoth


The Necronomicon
A fan version of the Necronomicon
There is a book named the Necronomicon, or as it was originally called the Kitab al Azif. Written in the eighth-century by Abdul Alhazred, 'The Mad Arab,' (Lovecraft was very racist) it details the horrors of time immemorial. Although the book doesn't actually exist you can get fan versions and some collections of Lovecraft's stories are collected under the title 'The Necronomicon.' Among the information contained in the Necronomicon includes how to summon Yog-Sothoth, information on the ancient beings who once inhabited Antarctica, and even a passage how to resurrect the dead. The chant of the Cthulhu Cult is written in the Necronomicon: That is not dead which can eternal lie.'
And with strange aeons even death may die. 

Thank you for reading. For future blog posts please see our Facebook page or follow me on Twitter @LewisTwiby. Also, those interested in history, classics and archaeology will be interested in the Retrospect Journal. This is the journal for the University of Edinburgh's History, Classics and Archaeology department which I am very privileged to be one of the editors for it. If you're interested in History, Classics and Archaeology, (or even writing for it), feel free to check it out. Thanks and next week will be the last week of 2017's Month of Horror.

Friday 13 October 2017

13 Facts about the Friday the 13th series

Jason, star of the show
Finally a Month of Horror coincides with a Friday the Thirteenth. What better way to continue 2017's Month of Horror but by looking at one of the most famous horror movie franchises of all time. Jason Voorhees is easily one of the icons of not only the horror genre but also 1980s popular culture. Only perhaps Freddy Krueger from Nightmare on Elm Street manages to have the same standing. Several years ago I did a piece of trivia for each entry in the film series, (here it is if you're interested), so today we're going to look at general trivia for the entire Friday the 13th franchise, 13 in fact. So let's look at the man behind the mask...

Warning- May contain spoilers

1- Alice Cooper made a song for the series
Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives is by far my favorite entry in the series and had a song made for it by one of my favorite artists. Alice Cooper is quintessential 1980s campy rock which made him perfect for Part VI. This entry was the first to stop taking itself seriously and just embraced the absurdity of a man giant zombie in a hockey mask hacking people to death. It made sense that the two should come together. Cooper recorded The Man Behind the Mask which featured in the movie. It was not even the only Alice Cooper song to be featured in the film. A further two songs were featured! One was Teenage Frankenstein which is a nod to how the Universal Frankenstein movies helped influence Part VI. The Man Behind the Mask also made a second appearance in the series. In a novel tie-in to the series released in 2005 characters are listening to the song.

2-There were going to be 13 entries into the series
As of writing there are twelve Friday the 13th movies. There are the ten original movies, the 2003 crossover where he fights Freddy Krueger and finally the 2009 remake. There were plans to make a sequel to the remake but poor reception, lackluster box office returns, and producer Michael Bay's anger over the remake caused plans for a sequel to be dropped. However, Paramount Pictures announced that they planned to make a new remake which would have been released on this exact day that I am writing this, (13 October 2017). It was going to be written by Aaron Guzikowski and it was going to be a quasi-origin story with it filling in the blanks of Jason's origins. Recently video game series have been having guest characters for cross promotion and Netherrealm studios had been very big on this. In Mortal Kombat X Jason, the Alien, the Predator and Leatherface (from Texas Chainsaw Massacre) all appeared and all have new movies, (Alien Covenant, Leatherface and a new Predator to be released in 2018). After the both financial and critical failure of Rings earlier this year it is likely that this is why the remake was cancelled before shooting began. The thirteenth Friday the 13th movie won't be happening for the foreseeable future. 

3- Friday the 13th TV series
The opening
Although we don't have a thirteenth movie we have a TV series. Despite having several people who worked or appeared in the movies working on the series, sharing the name, and the same font of the title it has nothing to do with the movies. Allegedly when it was released in the UK it went under the name Friday's Curse. Instead it revolved around some owners of an antique store hunting down cursed objects. There was a decision to have Jason's hockey mask to appear in the series but it was scrapped so the series could be independent. Also, there is a rumor that the final episode before the series was cut short was to focus around Jason's mask and possibly even confronting Jason. Despite being cut short people have spotted how it may have inspired Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, The X-Files and the show Warehouse 13 has even been accused of plagiarizing this series!

4- Jason isn't the killer in every movie
Despite being one of the most famous horror movie character from the 1980s Jason is not the killer in two entries of the series. In the first movie it is actually his mother, Pamela Voorhees played by Betsy Palmer, who is the killer. Sent mad by her son drowning at Camp Crystal Lake when two camp counselors were busy having sex she decided to go on a killing spree when the camp reopened. Jason only appears at the end as a corpse, (in a possible dream sequence), dragging the last survivor underwater. The other entry is Part V. After being killed by Tommy Jarvis, (Corey Feldman), at the end of Part IV it is a copycat killer pretending to be Jason in perhaps the weakest entry in the series. Something which brings us to fact five...

5- Tommy Jarvis was supposed to be the new Jason
Tommy at the end
The fifth entry was entitled Friday the 13th: A New Beginning as that was the intention of it. Throughout the movie it had been hinting that after the events of Part IV that Tommy Jarvis had been driven to madness by Jason's murders and was now the copycat killer. However, we find out that instead a character who had about five minutes of screentime with no dialogue was actually the killer. At the end Tommy dons the infamous hockey mask and armed with a knife goes to attack one of the other survivors, (pictured above). Thanks to Jason coming back to life in Part VI this scene has been assumed to be a dream sequence but originally this was meant to make Tommy the new Jason. Tommy was meant to be the new murderer and the original opening was supposed to reaffirm this. Originally it was going to open with Tommy attacking hospital staff immediately after the events of the previous movie, fighting his way to the morgue where Jason wakes up, and then Tommy wakes up from a dream. Through poor reception from both fans and critics it is likely that Tommy becoming the new murderer was dropped in favor of resurrecting Jason.

6- Tom Savini made the first iconic effects
Savini working on Jason in the first movie
Tom Savini is well known among fans of horror movies as he is a special effects artist and actor. He became well renowned for his effects, as well as acting, in Dawn of the Dead which led him to being nominated for a Saturn Award for make-up. Although Dawn is by far his best work he has managed to create groundbreaking effects in everything that he has worked on. He has worked on two movies in the franchise: the first and the fourth. It is no coincidence that these two have some of the most graphic kills in the series. Savini is extremely good in creating realistic gore and he went full out on Friday the 13th. Not only making the gory kills he also made Jason himself. Above you can see the first steps in creating the rotting corpse of Jason which jumps from the lake at the end of the movie. 

7- The series was meant to end several times
Friday the 13th was never intended to have so many sequels. Initially it was meant to be a trilogy with Part III ending with Jason dying and staying dead at the end of the movie. However, Paramount was not content in having Part III being Jason's last killing spree, mostly because it made a profit of over $34 million. It was decided that the series should end with the fourth movie. It was even entitled The Final Chapter to signify that this was to be the last entry of the series. Due to Tommy looking disturbed staring into the distance it was left up to the audience to decide what this meant. With it making over $19 million it was decided that the audience needed a new entry. In 1993 it was decided to end the series with the ninth entry: Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday. This movie literally ends with Jason going to Hell, (and another character dragging the last image of Jason with him), and that actually ended the series for six years until Jason X literally took Jason to space. 

8- Horror Crossovers
Freddy vs. Jason
We already know that Jason has met other horror icons with 2003's Freddy vs. Jason where he battles Freddy Krueger from Nightmare on Elm Street. This was not the first time that Freddy met Jason though. As mentioned in the previous point another character dragged Jason's last image to Hell at the end of the ninth entry. The movie ends with Jason's mask in the desert where Freddy Krueger's hand burst from the sand and drags it to Hell. Part VI was even intended to be a battle between the two but it was cancelled when Paramount could not obtain Freddy's rights. The ninth entry also contains a reference to another film series. Almost an hour into the movie you can very visibly see the Necronomicon prop from the Evil Dead franchise. Based off of the Necronomicon from H.P. Lovecraft's famous mythos the Necronomicon brings the zombie like Deadites to life. Due to this cameo we got the comic book Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash where Freddy tries to get back at Jason from Freddy vs. Jason by using the Necronomicon in Jason's hut. Then Ash from The Evil Dead finds out and tries to stop them. One last thing is that another horror icon was meant to appear in Freddy vs. Jason but it was cancelled due to how expensive the rights were. Freddy and Jason were meant to be dragged to Hell where they become shackled by chains. Then Pinhead from Hellraiser would come out and say 'Gentlemen, what seems to be the problem?'

9- Video Game Easter Eggs
The game
Earlier this year a video game was released where you either play as a camp counselor trying to survive or play as Jason trying to massacre them. This game contains so many references to the movies. Many of the counselors are inspired by the characters from the movies, many of Jason's kills are directly from the movies, Jason's costumes are exactly like his film variants, and Jason even smashes through doors in a similar way to how he does it in Part VI. These are not the only references. The Higgins Haven map has a damaged bridge which is damaged in the exact same way in how the bridge was damaged in Part III. To kill Jason you have to combine several ways how Jason is killed in the movies. One of the female characters have to wear Pamela Voorhees' jumper and the Tommy Jarvis player has to deal the killing blow.

10- Many Actors
Kane Hodder
Ten people have played throughout the history of the movies. The first was Ari Lehman who portrayed Jason as a child in the first movie. Kane Hodder is the person to have played the character the most and is well regarded by fans. Hodder has played Jason in every entry of the series between Part VII and Jason X. There was a controversy with fans when Hodder wasn't cast as Jason in Freddy vs. Jason as director Ronny Yu wanted someone to tower over 5'10'' Robert Englund who was portraying Freddy Krueger. Yu wanted it to be a 'David v. Goliath' type match so Ken Kirzinger was cast instead. Recently Hodder has been recast as Jason with serving as the killer via motion capture with the new Friday the 13th Game.

11- Mortal Kombat Appearance
As earlier mentioned Jason has appeared in the hit fighting video game Mortal Kombat X, possibly as a way to advertise the now cancelled thirteenth movie. Jason was a DLC, (downloadable content), which the player would have to buy in order to play. There Jason would be able to fight Mortal Kombat's ninjas, gods and monsters. Or alternatively you could have Jason fight Jason. Jason was released at the same time as the Predator and later was joined by the Alien and Leatherface. Jason and Leatherface weren't the first horror characters to appear in Mortal Kombat. In the previous game, entitled Mortal Kombat but referred to as MK 9 by fans, Freddy Krueger was a possible playable character. Like with Jason his inclusion may have been a way to cross promote the then recent Nightmare on Elm Street remake.

12- The famous stalking noise
Those who have watched the movies will recognize the above noise. When Jason is stalking or about to murder someone this sound is played. There is actually some meaning behind it according to the original score composer Harry Manfredini. Normally people say that the sound is 'chi, chi. chi, ha, ha, ha' but instead it really is 'ki, ki, ki, ma, ma, ma'. Manfredini has said that in the first movie it is really representing Jason saying 'kill, kill, kill, mom, mom, mom' as Pamela believes that Jason is telling her to kill people. In the later films it is shown that Jason is killing seemingly on Pamela's orders. In Part V it is changed to 'ki, ki, ki, ta, ta, ta' if you listen carefully. This is a subtle nod to how it is now Jason telling Tommy to kill.

13- Possible fan theory
The original Friday the 13th is effectively a poor attempt to replicate the horror classic Halloween with a regular human committing the murders, and initially it was assumed that Jason dragging the last survivor into the lake was a dream. That is until Jason actually returns and kills the only two characters to survive the previous movie. Fans wondered how did Jason age up if he was a corpse child at the end of the first movie. Was he actually alive the entire time? A fan theory has cropped up based on the Necronomicon's cameo in Jason goes to Hell. There is a theory that Pamela Voorhees discovers the Necronomicon and decides to bring Jason back. The murders that she committed throughout the movie were then actually part of a blood ritual to bring Jason back which became complete when Pamela was beheaded. After his first appearance he rapidly ages to the age he would have been if he had not drowned. 

Thank you for reading. If you would like to keep up with the blog please see our Facebook or follow me on Twitter @LewisTwiby.




Friday 6 October 2017

Jack the Ripper

A Victorian Cartoon depicting Jack
Long time readers of this blog know that every October we do a 'Month of Horror' dedicating this blog to all things dark and terrifying, (on a side note on our Facebook page we're celebrating Black History Month where each day of October we look at an influential figure in black history). To start the 2017 Month of Horror off we'll be looking at a real life figure of horror. Starting in 1888 a serial killer started mutilating prostitutes in Whitechapel, London. Thanks to a letter sent to the media this serial earned the nickname 'Jack the Ripper'. Jack was never caught and since then he has become a key figure in popular culture. Ranging from Alan Moore's masterpiece From Hell, (and the poor film adaptation of the same name), to inspiring Marie Belloc Lowndes' novel The Lodger, to even the manga/anime Black Butler. Nicholas Rance has argued that Bram Stoker's Dracula was inspired by Jack the Ripper. Today we'll be looking at the mystery of Jack the Ripper.

Jack's London
An Alley in 1880s London
As mentioned earlier Jack the Ripper murdered his victims in Whitechapel in the East End of London. For centuries London's East End has been viewed differently than the rest of London. Whitechapel, and many other districts of the East End, started as hamlets which grew over the centuries as industries like slaughterhouses, tanneries and breweries moved there. Naturally this created job prospects and the population started to increase. By the 1700s former hamlets like Whitechapel, Limehouse, and Ratcliff became self-contained urban communities which were densely packed with intricate networks of courts and alleys. The structures weren't well built so many houses were derelict and tightly packed together. Until the passage of legislation in the second half of the 1800s diseases such as cholera and typhus spread quickly through these districts. Big cities always attract immigration and London at the center of a global empire was no exception. Xenophobic feeling grew from this. Thanks to the British empire in India a type of cloth called calico managed to be imported cheaply to the metropole, (at the expense of Indians). Local weavers blamed calicoes from India for their bad fortunes and riots broke out in June 1719 in Whitechapel and Spitalfields. These riots spread across London so Parliament in 1720 banned wearing of calicoes. Britain's colony in Ireland led to Catholic Irish to go to London. Although widely discriminated against Catholics were marginally less discriminated against in England. However, anti-Catholicism and xenophobia led people to blame the Irish for their issues, (poor housing, low wages etc.) which led to riots. In 1736 around 4,000 weavers and laborers protested against the employment of cheap Irish laborers in Whitechapel and Spitalfields which again spread across London.

During the 1800s London became the place for political exiles. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, the authors of The Communist Manifesto, had fled to London where they lived in the East End, (although Engels lived in Manchester for several years). If someone could not flee to the United States they fled to London which developed a particularly thriving Jewish intellectual culture. Particularly German Jews had fled the Continent thanks to either horrific anti-Semitism or persecution through their socialist or anarchist views. However, through British anti-socialism and anti-Semitism they too faced discrimination. London's Jewish population boomed after 1881. With the assassination of Tsar Alexander II Russian anti-Semitism blamed leading to intense pogroms. Through fear many fled abroad; those who could afford it went to the USA while the rest fled to less anti-Semitic regions of Europe including London. As we'll see later anti-Semitism would play into the case of Jack the Ripper. Thanks to the British Empire colonized peoples also came to London, (also facing xenophobic abuse). Indian and Chinese communities grew in particular. A famous depiction of the East End are Victorians getting high in Chinese ran opium dens. The Irish, Jewish, Chinese and Indian communities all faced discrimination from the Protestant, white population and elite.

East End Murders and Mysteries before Jack
The London Monster
Long before Jack the Ripper the media had focused on murderers from the East End. We'll look at two today. The first that we'll look at the London Monster. He, however, wasn't a murderer but instead a sexual abuser and attacker of women. Beginning in 1788 mainly wealthy women complained that a large man would shout obscenities at them, sometimes rip their clothes, and then stab them in the buttocks. Other accounts say that he would invite victims to smell a posy only for them to be stabbed in the face with a hidden spike among the flowers. Over a period of around two years it has been estimated that 50 women were attacked. Recently historians have debated the extent of the London Monster's reign of terror, or even if it actually happen. The Georgian media seized on the story of the London Monster and created a frenzy. In 1790 Rhynwick Williams was accused and incarcerated for being the London Monster although historians have doubted if he actually was the London Monster, or if he was tried to quieten down a frenzied public.
The Ratcliff Highway Murderer
Those who have recently watched the movie The Limehouse Golem, or read the novel it is based on Dan Lino and the Limehouse Golem, will recognize the Ratcliff Highway Murders. In Ratcliff and Wapping seven people were slaughtered. On December 7 1811 the Marr family and their apprentice were horrifically mutilated and were discovered by their servant. This created a media sensation which dwarfed that of the London Monster. Twelve days later a second set of murders took place. At The King's Arms Tavern the tavern owners John and Elizabeth Williamson and their servant Bridget Anna Harrington were brutally murdered. Eventually a sailor named John Williams was arrested for the murders and he later was found hanged, apparently he commit suicide, in Coldbath Field Prison. In both these cases the 'penny press' became enraptured by the stories and spread them across the country. However, in 1888 a series of murders would become more well renowned.

The Ripper Murders
The Location of the Murders
A prostitute named Mary Ann Nichols had been living in a doss-house. On Friday August 31 1888 she was found in Buck's Row, Whitechapel with her throat cut. She was last seen alive by her roommate at 2.30 and had been discovered by a cart driver at 3.40. The police determined that she had been murdered at the scene due to the amount of blood. Throughout the year two other women, Emma Elizabeth Smith and Martha Tabram, had been murdered in the area leading to The Star to link the three murders together. Emma Smith had been assaulted in Osborne Street, Whitechappel where her right ear was torn and she had been stabbed in the stomach. She later died in the hospital. The prospect of a serial killer led Scotland Yard to send Detective Inspectors to the area, one of whom being Frederick Abberline. To this day criminologists debate whether Smith and Tabram were the first Ripper victims. Eight days after Mary Nichols had been found at Hanbury Street another prostitute named Annie May Chapman was found dead. The coroner found that she had been 'terribly mutilated' and that her throat had been cut with a thin narrow blade of a knife which a surgeon would use. A witness, Elizabeth Long, said that Annie Chapman had been talking to a man at 5.30 in an overcoat and deer-stalker hat who spoke in a 'foreign' accent. At 6.00 she was found dead. She had been disemboweled and most disturbingly a part of her uterus was missing. Like Mary Nichols she too had been murdered at the scene.

On September 30 two more victims were found. At 12.35 a.m. a police officer witnessed Elizabeth Stride outside the International Working Men's Educational Club, a socialist and primarily Jewish club, with a man in a felt hat. She was found with her throat slashed at St-George's-in-the-East at 1.00. Catherine Eddows unfortunately met a more disturbing fate. I must warn readers that the coroner's report of Eddows will be disturbing:
the intestines were drawn out to a large extent and placed over the right shoulder-they were smeared over with some feculent matter. A piece of about two feet was quite detached from the body and placed between the body and the left arm, apparently by design. The lobe and auricle of the right ear were cut obliquely through.
The last confirmed Ripper murder was found on November 9. Mary Jane Kelly had been spotted by a friend entering her accommodation at 2.45 and at 3.00 another resident Mary Ann Cox shouted 'Murder!'. Mary Kelly had been brutally murdered being disemboweled with her face slashed beyond recognition. Those were the five confirmed Ripper killings although more murders took place which today still have not been conclusively linked to Jack the Ripper. Sometime after Mary Kelly's murder a prostitute was found strangled in Poplar which a police surgeon described as the handiwork of the 'Whitechapel Fiend'. Again in St-George's-in-the-East and Whitechapel two more women were mutilated. The last possible murder happened on 13 February 1891 in Whitechapel. Found in an alley her throat had been slashed so violently that she had almost been decapitated. After no further killings happened and today we are no closer to finding Jack the Ripper at the cost of the lives of possibly eleven people.

The Letters
The From Hell letter
Disturbingly the murderer, possibly, sent letters to taunt the police and media. These letters went into the hundreds but three have stood out to criminal historians. The first of these is the 'Dear Boss' letter sent to Central News Agency in September who then forwarded it to Scotland Yard. It was first thought to be a hoax until Catherine Eddows was found mutilated. It reads:
Dear Boss,
I keep on hearing the police have caught me but they wont fix me just yet. I have laughed when they look so clever and talk about being on the right track. That joke about Leather Apron gave me real fits. I am down on whores and I shant quit ripping them till I do get buckled. Grand work the last job was. I gave the lady no time to squeal. How can they catch me now. I love my work and want to start again. You will soon hear of me with my funny little games. I saved some of the proper red stuff in a ginger beer bottle over the last job to write with but it went thick like glue and I cant use it. Red ink is fit enough I hope ha. ha. The next job I do I shall clip the ladys ears off and send to the police officers just for jolly wouldn't you. Keep this letter back till I do a bit more work, then give it out straight. My knife's so nice and sharp I want to get to work right away if I get a chance. Good Luck. Yours truly
Jack the Ripper
Dont mind me giving the trade name
PS Wasnt good enough to post this before I got all the red ink off my hands curse it. No luck yet. They say I'm a doctor now. ha ha
Written in red ink it gave the world the name 'Jack the Ripper'. Jack had been used to describe a devil-like figure scaring Londoners and others throughout England called 'Spring-heeled Jack' so the name was widely known. The second prominent letter is actually a postcard called the 'Saucy Jack' postcard. It was sent in October and reads:
I was not codding dear old Boss when I gave you the tip, you'll hear about Saucy Jacky's work tomorrow double event this time number one squealed a bit couldn't finish straight off. Had not got time to get ears off for police thanks for keeping last letter back till I got to work again.
Jack the Ripper
The final letter is the most famous entitled 'From Hell'. The handwriting on this letter is very unlike that of 'Dear Boss' and 'Saucy Jack' but there is a reason why it isn't seen as a hoax. It was sent to the head of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee, George Lusk, with a box containing half a kidney, (likely that of Catherine Eddows). It reads:
From hell.
Mr Lusk,
Sor
I send you half the Kidne I took from one woman prasarved it for you tother piece I fried and ate it was very nise. I may send you the bloody knif that took it out if you only wate a whil longer
signed
Catch me when you can Mishter Lusk
Media and the Suspects
Prince Albert Victor
The popular press became enraptured by the Ripper killings. In the 1850s a change in tax laws allowed people to publish cheap papers available for wide circulation. The Star mentioned earlier is one such paper which emerged thanks to this. Today's British tabloids like The Daily Mirror, The Sun and the The Daily Star were only possible thanks to this law. This is how Jack the Ripper became such a cultural icon. While the London Monster and Ratcliff Highway Murders were not widely known outside London the new press allowed Jack to become widely known outside Britain itself. Jack the Ripper wasn't the first tabloid frenzy in Britain but it would be the first serial killer to grab headlines nationwide. The Manchester Guardian, (ancestor to today's Guardian), even widely reported the first murder. When CID refused to release information the press started speculating. One early nickname for Jack was the 'Leather Apron' which lead to the brief arrest of a Jewish cobbler who worked with leather called John Pizer to be briefly arrested. This description of the killer was widely circulated:
Age 37; height, 5ft. 7in.; rather dark beard and moustache. Dress-shirt, dark vest and trousers, black scarf, and black felt hat. Spoke with foreign accent.
The media frenzy was so manic that writer and journalist, George R. Sims, while reporting the story was identified as the killer. Sims believed that the murderer was 'undoubtedly a doctor who had been in a lunatic asylum and had developed homicidal mania of a special kind'. At the time a 'quack' doctor Francis Tumblety was suspected although he would later be arrested for homosexuality, (which was sadly illegal then). Other suspects have included a barrister and schoolmaster Montague Druitt, who commit suicide after Mary Kelly's murder, a Jewish barber who had 'a great hatred of women' called Aaron Kosminski (the Daily Mail a few years ago accused Kosminski of being the killer although criminologists disagree), and another barber, hanged 1905, called George Chapman, (also called Klosowski). Since World War Two others have been put forward ranging from Lewis Carroll (author of Alice in Wonderland) to Melville McNaghten, the Assistant Chief Constable appointed after the murders. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle believed Jack to really be Jill who did the murders disguised as a midwife. One popular theory is the 'Royal Conspiracy'. One part is that Queen Victoria's grandson Prince Albert Victor insane with syphilis did the murders. An alternate version was that the Prince secretly slept with the prostitutes so to cover this up the royal physician Sir William Gull murdered them. The theory goes on to say that as he was a Mason and the murders were part of an elaborate ritual, (this was the plot to From Hell). Today we are no closer to knowing who Jack really was as we were in 1888.

Sexism and Xenophobia
Contemporary depiction of the Ripper. Note how he is portrayed using Jewish stereotypes.
Throughout this post you would have noted how people described Jack as sounding 'foreign' or how contemporary suspects were mainly Jewish. Robert F. Haggard and Sander L. Gilman have both discussed how xenophobia became deeply entwined with the Ripper case. The night when Catherine Eddows was murdered a piece of her apron was found near a wall where written in chalk were the words: The Juwes are the men That Will not be Blamed for nothing. Locally a Jew named known as 'the Leather Apron' was supposedly behind the killings. As mentioned earlier xenophobia and anti-Semitism was rampant in British society. Blaming a social outcast was the perfect for the police and press. Social Darwinism itself originated in Britain and Jews faced intense intense discrimination. Associated with radical left-wing politics and not from Britain, (most Jewish migrants came from Poland), many people were eager to see Jews blamed for the murders. Even today there is some legacy of this. Aaron Kosminski possibly being the killer after a new bit of evidence was discarded by criminologists as the method linking him to the killing is seen as not being accurate. This did nothing to stop noted anti-immigrant paper The Daily Mail from running the story. 

Sexism played heavily in the media and police reports on the murders. As the victims were prostitutes the media played up how Jack must be sexually deviant and was taking his frustrations out on women. Judith Walkowitz has identified ideas of sexual danger in the Ripper case. We can see a 'Madonna-Whore' complex emerge. People were eager to claim kinship with some of the victims and witnesses tried to play down that the victims drank or were streetwalkers. However, at the same time fears of female sexuality played heavily into the contemporary narrative. The late-nineteenth century was a time of increasing emancipation for women with the emergence of what has now been called First-wave Feminism. Fears of women's autonomy emerged which Walkowitz argues could explain the idea that Jack could really be Jill. Men sometimes even claimed to be the Ripper to extort women, regardless if they were a prostitute or not. A tailor named James Henderson while drunk threatened Rose Goldstein with a 'ripping' if she did not go with him and was soon arrested, (although this could do with the fact that he hit her with his cane). Henderson was fined just forty shillings as he was drunk despite Goldstein appearing in court in bandages. This one case just shows the attitude that Victorian London had towards women.

Conclusion
Jack the Ripper is a unique case in history. A case featuring brutal murders where the murderer went uncaught surrounded by media mania, misogyny and xenophobia. It is understandable to see why  after almost a hundred and thirty years Jack the Ripper remains a key cultural figure. Through these factors we remember Jack the Ripper and not the London Monster or the Ratcliff Highway Murders. 

The sources I have used are as follows:
-Jack the Ripper and the East End edited by Alex Werner, (particularly the Introduction by Peter Ackroyd)
-Jack the Ripper: Media, Culture, History edited by Alexandra Warwick and Martin Willis

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