Mixed tape movies - Carnival

In the eighties it was the-thing-to-do to make a mixed tape (like a mp3 but touchable, always in need of a pencil and most definitely cooler). On it you would make a little playlist of all the cool songs. Now the trick was to make each song correspond with the rest of the tape. In this post I will try to do the same with movies.

Every once in a while I will select a general topic and select movies to accompany it. As you can see the more child-friendly movies are at the start of the day, but  when night falls: ‘here be monsters’. Please feel free to give suggestions of other unknown movies.

One rule though: Auteur themes like ‘Shakespeare’ or ‘James Bond’ are not allowed. ‘Spy-movies’, naturally, are.

Theme: Carnival

The first theme I’m going to tackle is Carnivals. Why? Simply because I came up with this ‘mixed-tapes’-topic when I noticed that a lot of movies I watched at the time were about carnivals. Now, I don’t know why. Maybe it is about the mystery of it all, maybe it is about ‘being on the road and free’. Anyways, here’s my mixed tape of carnival movies. 

08:00-10:00

Pete’s Dragon:  A wonderful song and dance movie from Disney to start the day with. True, the story is far too sweet for my taste, but the villains and their songs are so deliciously naughty. A child will love the animation of the dragon. The adults will snigger at the villains and their attempts to capture Elliot the dragon.

10:00-12:00

The thief lord: A sweet children’s movie that actually plays with the age-old notion of kids wanting to become adults and adults wanting to be children again. A magical carrousel can make this happen. And it is all set in beautiful Venice with an Oliver Twist vibe to it.

12:00-14:00 

Something wicked this way comes: The darkest children’s movie on the list. Again the question of growing up, growing down and, again, a magical carrousel to make this happen. But this time the villain has control of the device. Making people’s wishes come true, for a price. Children will probably hide behind the pillow, but adults will be in awe of Jonathan Price’s superb turn as a complete demon of a man.

14:00-16:00

The seven faces of Dr. Lao: Slowly turning to the older children, this is a fun little tale of a one-man carnival coming to an ol’ western town. Dr. Lao plays seven characters to teach various townsfolk a valuable lesson. In the end all is well and that is just as it should be.

16:00-18:00 

Goosebumps and the nightmare room: (My Name is Evil) Let’s end the children’s part of our program with some genuine children horror. Carnival, all kinds of creepy things and children in peril. Wonderful stuff to keep them up at night. 

18:00-20:00
Cirque du freak: A carnival consisting of real vampires and other mythological freaks. Too bad the movie did so poorly at the box-office that the sequel was never made. Nonetheless it is a very good start of a franchise that keeps the tweens in awe. And hey, maybe they’ll start to read the rest of the books afterwards...

20:00-22:00 

Viva Maria!: A bit of a gamble this one. Is it a carnival movie, or is it a circus movie? Anyway it is a great fun movie that, though bloody at times, has some fascinating things going for it like a shoot-around-the-corner rifle and the main villain (somewhat) happily walking around without a head.

22:00-00:00

TV-series Carnival : Of course this one has to be on the list. I suggest everybody watches the two seasons.*

Carnival is a great TV-show that mixes mythology with the dustbowl and life in the depression era. True –since it’s HBO- the sex stuff can be a bit distracting (and sometimes it feels it’s simply there to make the quota). But past that there’s a nice, slow burn, story of right and wrong, heaven and hell going on.

00:00-02:00 

Dead silence: Nobody likes this movie but me. So, since I’m writing this, here it is. A wonderful little (classical) horror story of a demon-like ventriloquist trying to kill everyone the main protagonist ever loved. And the main protagonist trying to find out the truth. James Wann and Leigh Whannell did one last twist ending in this movie and never did it again since. Which is the way to go if you want to prevent being pigeonholed.

I guess people were expecting more Saw like mayhem (even though the first two Saw movies aren’t bloody at all) and were disappointed when the blood didn’t spout to the ceiling. Their loss, I’ve got a wonderful supernatural thriller to watch over and over.

02:00-04:00

The funhouse: Now we are in the realm of true horror. It is a classical B-movie with bad acting and fake blood all round. But who can turn away from a ride in the funhouse with a demented killer on the loose. 

Honorable mentions: I didn’t include Das cabinet des dr. Caligari because –even though it is a great movie- it is more known for its usage of expressionism nowadays than the carnival angle. I also didn’t include circus movies like Dumbo, The greatest show on earth, Trapeze or Freaks because I really wanted to stick to small time carnivals. So how about my first post, are there any movies I should have mentioned?

*This show actually marked the end of my losing streak. For years I’ve been watching TV-shows that got cancelled right when they got interesting (e.g. Nowhere man). After this I caught Breaking Bad and –wonder oh wonder- they made it to the end.