美国国家公共电台 NPR--2 new films join others at the junction of horror and comedy

2 new films join others at the junction¹ of horror and comedy

Transcript²

Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey and Cocaine³ Bear are out this month. NPR's A Martinez talks with writer and producer Jordan Crucchiola about movies that combine comedy and horror.

A MART?NEZ, HOST:

There are a couple of movie titles coming out this month that were designed to catch your eye and also maybe scare you a bit. Check this one out, "Winnie The Pooh: Blood And Honey." It reimagines Winnie as a feral, bloodthirsty beast.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "WINNIE THE POOH: BLOOD AND HONEY")

NIKOLAI LEON: (As Christopher) Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, we were friends for many years. And they're out there.

NATASHA ROSE MILLS: (As Jess) There's someone else outside. What was that?

MART?NEZ: And then later this month, "Cocaine Bear." That one's loosely based on a true story about a black bear that got into a stash⁴ of coke. And then this one goes on a kill-crazy rampage.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "COCAINE BEAR")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character) Millions of dollars' worth of cocaine fell from the sky this morning in Knoxville, Tenn.

ALDEN EHRENREICH: (As character) The bear did cocaine.

CHRISTIAN⁵ CONVERY: (As character) You're safe. Bears can't climb trees.

JESSE TYLER FERGUSON: (As character) Of course they can.

(SCREAMING)

MART?NEZ: Both films are somewhat at the junction of horror and comedy, a blend that's become quite common in recent years. So when did slaughtering⁶ people become just so darn funny? For that, let's bring in Jordan Crucchiola. She writes about film and even talks about it occasionally. Jordan, welcome.

JORDAN CRUCCHIOLA: Hi. Thank you so much for having me.

MART?NEZ: Yeah, killing⁷ people, really funny, right (laughter)?

CRUCCHIOLA: Well, it's long been at least on the scale of somewhat funny to uproariously so. If you take it, really, into the slasher genre⁸, obviously, as it commenced formally with Bob Clark's 1974 film "Black Christmas," very not funny. Very somber⁹ and harrowing. Then you have "Texas Chainsaw Massacre¹⁰" by Tobe Hooper, also more on the not funny side, same thing with "Halloween." But then you bring in the fourth horsemen of the apocalypse, Freddy Krueger in "A Nightmare On Elm Street" in the 1980s. And Freddy has always been quite the cut up.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 4: THE DREAM MASTER")

KEN¹¹ SAGOES: (As Kincaid) I'll see you in hell.

ROBERT ENGLUND: (As Freddy) Tell them Freddy sent you.

CRUCCHIOLA: And then the "Child's Play" franchise¹² that starts in 1988. And Chucky has always been...

MART?NEZ: (Laughter).

CRUCCHIOLA: ...Always been practically a man of the stand-up stage.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "CHILD'S PLAY 3")

BRAD DOURIF: (As Chucky) Nothing like a strangulation to get the circulation going.

CRUCCHIOLA: The relationship between horror and comedy structurally¹³ is quite similar. You're doing build-ups to pay-offs for your bits. But instead of the breakthrough of those bits being laughter, the breakthrough of those bits is shrieks¹⁴ and terror. So the relationship with horror and comedy, I mean, we can take that all the way back to, like, the "Abbott And Costello Meet Frankenstein" kind of in the 1940s. But the relationship, like, between the "Body Count" movie and comedy has been entrenched¹⁵ since the slasher really was settling into its first heyday¹⁶ in the 1980s.

MART?NEZ: Let's take a pacifist view for just one second, Jordan.

CRUCCHIOLA: Sure.

MART?NEZ: So let's - violence played for laughs. I mean, is that cool? Or are we kind of at a point where that's OK if it's in a movie?

CRUCCHIOLA: The thing about horror is, is that it has always been a mirror of our social anxieties. So you have this genre of film that is the sledgehammer instead of the scalpel of cinema. Like, it's not coming in here to deliver a subtle message of what's going on around you. It's the wrecking¹⁷ ball dropping the word upon you. And so, I think, in times of great social stress, the horror film is our pressure release valve. And so having an option within that to have the pressure release valve include laughter, that makes the horror genre, to me, our most textured¹⁸ genre of film...

MART?NEZ: Wow.

CRUCCHIOLA: ...In terms of the communal¹⁹ experience that you can share with people in that great, like, church of the theater.

MART?NEZ: But, Jordan, do we know that we love horror comedy films? Because for someone that goes to the movies a lot, if I were to give that person, you know, a pen and a paper and said, write down the best movies you've seen this year, they may have loved a horror comedy film that year. But they won't, probably, put it in their Top 10 of best films of 2022 or 2023. Why do you think that is?

CRUCCHIOLA: Horror fans are not people who are looking for the institutional validation²⁰ to validate²¹ their own tastes and what they know to be true. But I think that kind of validation, were it to become more commonplace, would give others in the broad populace of movie watchers more permissions to be like, I can celebrate what these movies achieve on the same level as an "All Quiet On The Western Front," these Best Picture nominees²². But that conversation, unfortunately, does, in some way, need to start at the top so that the general population may understand what horror watchers have long known, which is that our movies are better than yours.

MART?NEZ: That's Jordan Crucchiola. She writes about films. And sometimes she even talks about them, like she just did with me. Jordan, thanks a lot.

CRUCCHIOLA: Thank you so much.

1 junction   

n.连接，接合；交叉点，接合处，枢纽站

参考例句：

• There's a bridge at the junction of the two rivers.两河的汇合处有座桥。
• You must give way when you come to this junction.你到了这个路口必须让路。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 cocaine   

n.可卡因，古柯碱（用作局部麻醉剂）

参考例句：

• That young man is a cocaine addict.那个年轻人吸食可卡因成瘾。
• Don't have cocaine abusively.不可滥服古柯碱。

4 stash   

v.藏或贮存于一秘密处所；n.隐藏处

参考例句：

• Stash away both what you lost and gained,for life continues on.将得失深藏心底吧，为了那未来的生活。
• That's supposed to be in our private stash.这是我的私人珍藏。

5 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

6 slaughtering   

v.屠杀，杀戮，屠宰( slaughter的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The Revolutionary Tribunal went to work, and a steady slaughtering began. 革命法庭投入工作，持续不断的大屠杀开始了。 来自英汉非文学 - 历史
• \"Isn't it terrific slaughtering pigs? “宰猪的！ 来自汉英文学 - 中国现代小说

7 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

8 genre   

n.(文学、艺术等的)类型，体裁，风格

参考例句：

• My favorite music genre is blues.我最喜欢的音乐种类是布鲁斯音乐。
• Superficially,this Shakespeare's work seems to fit into the same genre.从表面上看， 莎士比亚的这个剧本似乎属于同一类型。

9 somber   

adj.昏暗的，阴天的，阴森的，忧郁的

参考例句：

• He had a somber expression on his face.他面容忧郁。
• His coat was a somber brown.他的衣服是暗棕色的。

10 massacre   

n.残杀，大屠杀；v.残杀，集体屠杀

参考例句：

• There was a terrible massacre of villagers here during the war.在战争中，这里的村民惨遭屠杀。
• If we forget the massacre,the massacre will happen again!忘记了大屠杀，大屠杀就有可能再次发生！

11 ken   

n.视野，知识领域

参考例句：

• Such things are beyond my ken.我可不懂这些事。
• Abstract words are beyond the ken of children.抽象的言辞超出小孩所理解的范围.

12 franchise   

n.特许，特权，专营权，特许权

参考例句：

• Catering in the schools is run on a franchise basis.学校餐饮服务以特许权经营。
• The United States granted the franchise to women in 1920.美国于1920年给妇女以参政权。

13 structurally   

在结构上

参考例句：

• The house roof was (structurally) unsound. 这屋顶（结构）不牢固。
• Pinhole on shot-hole damage is never structurally significant. 针孔和蛀洞所造成的危害对结构的影响不大。

14 shrieks   

n.尖叫声( shriek的名词复数 )v.尖叫( shriek的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• shrieks of fiendish laughter 恶魔般的尖笑声
• For years, from newspapers, broadcasts, the stages and at meetings, we had heard nothing but grandiloquent rhetoric delivered with shouts and shrieks that deafened the ears. 多少年来， 报纸上， 广播里， 舞台上， 会场上的声嘶力竭，装腔做态的高调搞得我们震耳欲聋。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

15 entrenched   

adj.确立的，不容易改的(风俗习惯)

参考例句：

• Television seems to be firmly entrenched as the number one medium for national advertising.电视看来要在全国广告媒介中牢固地占据头等位置。
• If the enemy dares to attack us in these entrenched positions,we will make short work of them.如果敌人胆敢进攻我们固守的阵地，我们就消灭他们。

16 heyday   

n.全盛时期，青春期

参考例句：

• The 19th century was the heyday of steam railways.19世纪是蒸汽机车鼎盛的时代。
• She was a great singer in her heyday.她在自己的黄金时代是个了不起的歌唱家。

17 wrecking   

破坏

参考例句：

• He teed off on his son for wrecking the car. 他严厉训斥他儿子毁坏了汽车。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Instead of wrecking the valley, the waters are put to use making electricity. 现在河水不但不在流域内肆疟，反而被人们用来生产电力。 来自辞典例句

18 textured   

adj.手摸时有感觉的, 有织纹的

参考例句：

• The shoe's sole had a slightly textured surface. 鞋底表面稍感粗糙。
• Shallow burial seems to preserve chalky textured porosity. 浅埋藏似能保留具白垩状结构的孔隙。

19 communal   

adj.公有的，公共的，公社的，公社制的

参考例句：

• There was a communal toilet on the landing for the four flats.在楼梯平台上有一处公共卫生间供4套公寓使用。
• The toilets and other communal facilities were in a shocking state.厕所及其他公共设施的状况极其糟糕。

20 validation   

n.确认

参考例句：

• If the countdown timer ever hits zero, do your validation processing. 处理这种情况的方法是在输入的同时使用递减计时器，每次击键重新计时。如果递减计时器变为零，就开始验证。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
• Although the validation control is a very widespread idiom, most such controls can be improved. 虽然确认控件是非常广泛的习惯用法，但还有很多有待改进的地方。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

21 validate   

vt.（法律）使有效，使生效

参考例句：

• You need an official signature to validate the order.你要有正式的签字，这张汇票才能生效。
• In order to validate the agreement,both parties sign it.为使协议有效，双方在上面签了字。

22 nominees   

n.被提名者，被任命者( nominee的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• She's one of the nominees. 她是被提名者之一。 来自超越目标英语 第2册
• A startling number of his nominees for senior positions have imploded. 他所提名的高级官员被否决的数目令人震惊。 来自互联网