For the most part, my experience with this material has been with horror movies. I enjoy watching just about all kinds, but my favorites are Halloween (the original), The Exorcist, and anything with zombies. I like watching really bad horror movies just as much. There are several low-budget 80's horror movies that are hilarious. Of course I love Army of Darkness, too. I'm also interested in urban legends. I spent a good part of my freshman and sophomore years of college at abandoned buildings around town like Old Bryce, the Silo, and the old waterworks facility. I just like old, creepy buildings. It's considered trespassing to go to these places, that's why I titled this "a B&E." I've always enjoyed scaring people, and many times some of my friends and I would dress up in jump suits and masks and go to Old Bryce and scare people. That was always a lot of fun.
What came to mind when I read the Clute paper was the 2009 film District 9, despite the fact that it isn't necessarily a horror film. I think the sighting would be when you first see the brutality of the aliens and their weaponry. You realize after this that you are going to be seeing more of it. The thickening comes when Wikus spills the fluid on his injured arm. He starts feeling sick, losing fingernails, etc. Things are kind of out of his control at this point. The revel comes when Wikus begins turning into an alien. Alien weaponry becomes available to him, his father-in-law betrays him, and he turns on the corporation he previously worked for. Everything is reversed. What really sold it for me was the aftermath. Despite his efforts to reverse his transformation, at the end of the movie Wikus is still an alien and he still doesn't have his wife. There is no immediate cure for him, and the story is essentially over.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
In my book Alabama Curiosities, I wrote: "For generations of Tuscaloosa County teenagers, the building with the worst reputation, the ultimate haunted house, and the setting for a thousand gruesome campfire tales is the decaying former mental hospital known as 'Old Bryce.'" (It's a misnomer, since "Old Bryce" is newer than Bryce Hospital itself.)
ReplyDeleteI'm not familiar, Kent, with the silo and the waterworks. Tell us more about those, please.
Also, does a text such as District 9 call into question Clute's distinction between science fiction and horror? Crudely stated, Clute seems to argue that sf is innately optimistic, horror innately pessimistic. Is there any redeeming optimism in District 9? Are any of Clute's "certain fixes" in the offing?
I think it's really awesome that you've written about Old Bryce. My freshman year I tried to do some research to write a website on Old Bryce. I found some things, like the deeds for the land, etc., but overall I found very little about its history or why it closed down to begin with. I'm a senior now, and I'm a little bit better at finding useful things in a public library than I used to be. I've been thinking about returning to it and trying to complete it. What prompted me initially was the overall lack of information about it.
ReplyDeleteThe silo is probably my favorite, and the most dangerous. You can actually see it when you cross the Black Warrior going in to Northport on HWY 69 N. If you look to the left, you can see a really tall building-that's the silo. When I was in high school you could go inside and climb up an old elevator shaft, but they've blocked all of that off by now. So now if you want to get to the top, you have to climb an outside ladder up the side of the building. That part's a little scary, but if you do it you're on top of one of the tallest buildings in Tuscaloosa and it has an awesome view.
You can see the abandoned waterworks facility from the McFarland bridge going into Northport. It's on the Tuscaloosa bank of the river on the right. The reason this building is so cool is because it has all of the things a traditional water treatment facility would have, only its empty of water. There are huge holes and empty pools where water used to be. It's just a really cool and creepy place.
I think Clute's argument about sf works with District 9. I would consider District 9 a sf picture, and I think there is plenty of optimism despite the bleak circumstances of Wikus. Christopher promises to return and cure Wikus, and Wikus' wife is still hopeful that he is alive. Also, watching Wikus change from a weak and selfish man to a fearless and strong individual gives us hope in humanity.
Kent, I am unfamiliar with the distinction between Old Bryce and Bryce. As for why Bryce was shut down around the '60s or 70s, I have two videos produced in the class I TA for if you are interested.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely, I would love to check them out. I'm always interested in anything that has to do with Bryce. Usually when people say "Old Bryce" they're referring to an abandoned mental hospital in Northport. Its real name is "The Jemison Building," and it's actually named after the man that built it, I think. Like Professor Duncan said, it's a misnomer, because The Jemison Building is actually newer than Bryce Hospital, which is the one on campus that you've been hearing about in the news a lot lately. From what I can tell, the two hospitals didn't have a whole lot in common, other than both being owned by the Alabama State Board of Mental Health. People just started calling The Jemison Building "Old Bryce" probably in the 70s or 80s and it stuck. So basically, one is abandoned and one is still in operation (for a little while at least).
ReplyDeleteThe website might ask you for a username and password. If so, the username is "uahonors" and the password is "bamahistory".
ReplyDeleteBryce Video: http://www.lightscameraalabama.com/secure/videopages/bryce.html
Video about Lurleen Wallace's fight to reform the horrible conditions of mental care at Bryce and Partlow: http://www.lightscameraalabama.com/secure/videopages/lbw.html
Kent, thanks for describing the silo and the waterworks. I now know just the places you mean. My wife and I invented quite a folklore about the silo during our many afternoon walks along the Black Warrior River on the paved Northport walking trail, the one that passes Wintzell's Oyster House and goes beneath the M&O trestle.
ReplyDeleteThe old waterworks, meanwhile, adjoins the Seventh Avenue boat-ramp parking lot off Jack Warner Parkway, east of McFarland.
Here are links to the videos that Daniel mentions, both about the history of Bryce Hospital proper in Tuscaloosa, not the spooky and abandoned Bryce annex in Northport:
Bryce Hospital, a Light in the Darkness.
Lurleen Burns Wallace.
Thanks for these, Daniel.
And Kent, a site devoted specifically to Old Bryce, its history and folklore and present state, would be a worthwhile project for someone to take on. Are you familiar with Tom Motts' Opacity site, devoted to his photographs of urban ruins?
ReplyDeleteKent, I like that you've mentioned a unique medium for horror and the human interest in horror: first-hand experience. I know many people, including you and our friends, are obsessed with going to creepy, haunted places. This proves the human craving for horror, despite its frightfulness. Of course, some like it more than others (for example, you like it way more than me), but it still becomes a staple in life, whether we're trying to experience it or avoid it.
ReplyDeleteThanks for those videos, Daniel. I've grown up in Tuscaloosa, and you here a lot about the local history, things like the Wyatt v. Stickney case mentioned in the video. That video is the first time I've ever seen Ricky Wyatt or Stonewall Stickney, however. It was cool to finally put faces with the names. Also, the narrator, Willy, was one of the TAs for a theatre class I took. I thought it was funny that he was the host. He did a great job, though.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know about the Opacity site, but I'm hooked on it now. There are two galleries of abandoned amusement parks, those are probably my favorites. I actually found an old commercial for Rocky Point. Hopefully Visionland will close down soon. By the time I'm 30, it will be worn down and decrepit and I'll have a new place to hang out.