Monster of the Day #899

The Rev.

Hey, glad to see you back, buddy!

I have a guess on this that is predicated on almost nothing, since I’ve not seen it. If I’m actually right then I’m a hell of a guesser.

My guess is almost entirely because this looks like it came from a ’70s made for TV movie. So if it’s not one of those I’m out and have no clue about this.

Flangepart

Me compadre Mike say it’s STEPFORD WIVES. He had to watch it over and over when running a Lowe’s then.
Say’s they had to run it, to get FUNNY LADY.
Now, Imagine S W double billed with MAME. That could keep a collage gender studies prof. yapping for a week!

bgbear_rnh

I love thee
Wilma, with hair like silk,

Lips like cherries, skin like milk,

Your shell-like ears, your dainty hands,

And eyes so black, like frying pans

Ken_Begg

Huh, this isn’t what I was thinking of then, but hey, black eyes are a pretty common trope.

bgbear_rnh

black eyes are a pretty common trope

Like in slapstick comedy? ;)

Beckoning Chasm

There was a special issue of Cinefantastique devoted to Dick Smith. In the interview, he talked about working on this film, and how “incredibly pleased” Katherine Ross was with her, um, “enhancements” in this scene. (Not the eyes, I hasten to add.)

Rock Baker

Yeah, I think it’s THE STEPFORD WIVES. The rest of you must’ve gotten something out of it I didn’t, because I thought it was absolutely asinine. I suppose if you’re an impressionable women’s libber there might be some meat to this goofy fantasy, but it’s intriguing concept was completely undercut by the presentation. Things fall apart pretty quickly just in the notion that if you move to the suburbs to find a better pace of life, it makes no sense to be horrified when you actually find it. The idea that happiness must be connected to some dark conspiracy is just a leftist daydream put on film. This scene in particular was so astoundingly silly, even I thought it stupid that it was played straight. I burst out laughing at the -and I hate to use this word because it’s so often misused- propagandist nature of it. The story itself had a good concept, but the presentation is so hopelessly skewed it seems more a valentine to man-hating feminists. It was very firm in it’s believe that anyone who doesn’t see things exactly as our heroine does must be yanked violently over to her way of thinking. Something a bit more even-handed might have worked better. (On the other hand, there’s no denying it’s box-office tally, so I must’ve been the only one who thought it too heavy-handed.)

bgbear_rnh

It certainly gave the left an over-used short-hand insult of any Republican/conservative woman. Real women don’t think like that!

Rock Baker

True.

sandra

Anybody see the tv remake ? It had the women being microchipped, but apparently they were a little unclear on the concept, because they also had one of them shorting out, like a robot.

The Rev.

Well, I guess I was wrong.

I haven’t seen Stepford, or read the book.

Eric Hinkle

I just never got why the guys making Stepford Wives didn’t just plain sell them and make themselves into multimillionaires rather than commit needless murders.

Eric Hinkle

I don’t know why, but for some reason that very human lady with those inhuman black eyes is scarier than just about every ‘modern’ monster I can think of.

Petoht

Huh. My first guess was V.

Petoht

There was a “Conformity Is Bad You Guys” episode of the X-Files, but it wasn’t played completely straight, rather played in the weird tongue-in-cheek manner that the X-Files could do sometimes.

Essentially, the psychotic HOA rules were enforced by monster. It had Mulder and Scully going undercover (naturally) and at one point he decided to drive the monster into a rage by putting about 20 plastic pink flamingos all over his yard.

Gamera977

Do you mean the recent version with Matthew Broderick and Nicole Kidman? This one was such a confused muddled mess of a film I assume it had an agenda but I had no idea what it was. I mean in the end the women and the gay guy sat around ranting about how men are scum (um the gay guy was a MAN so like huh!?!) but it was a woman who created Stepford in the remake and Broderick who destroyed it. So it came off more about women who create their own living hell and then blame it on the men around them instead of taking responsibility for their own problems. Or so the idea I took away from it though it was probably the opposite the creators intended.

Flangepart

Hummm…wonder how many movies use that trope of ‘weird eyes’ as giveaways of evil. Yet how many evil characters have normal eyes? I mean, it may be a lazy scriptwriters shorthand for ‘there be evil here!’

SteveWD

The episode was called ‘Arcadia’. Anyone who has had to deal with an overzealous HOA ‘enforcer’ can relate.

We’ve lived in our current house a couple of years and we used a POD when we moved in. Had it parked neatly on the driveway just outside the garage and were taking our time unpacking (that’s the whole point in getting a POD, right?). We had been there about 2 weeks and I got a letter stating that having the POD in my driveway was basically not good. We were done unpacking, but I decided to keep it there another 2 weeks just ’cause. I remember telling my wife I hope the monster from X-Files doesn’t get us.

Gamera977

NOOOOOOO… Gerdi LaForge is not evil!!!!

Rock Baker

I saw that episode. One of my favorites.

Rock Baker

Yeah, the idea of “perfecting” women seems more like something from a spy movie from the 60’s, doesn’t it? Although rather than exploit the free market, such a plan would likely be to have a stock of perfect women on hand to re-populate after killing off the earth’s population with a sterility bomb.

Eric Hinkle

That idea wouldn’t make a lot of sense with this movie given that they were robots. But yeah this does sound kind of like a very odd James Bond movie.

Rock Baker

In essence, the Mike Connors spy flick KISS THE GIRLS AND MAKE THEM DIE had a similar plot, though minus the robotics angle.

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