Words by Brendan Deeds
MASH IT UP – FANTASY FILM TRAILERS
Ever wondered what would happen if West Side Story involved zombies? What if sprout-faced DiCaprio’s Jack rose from his watery grave and turned psycho, Hulk-style, in a kick-ass sequel to Titanic? Well, wonder no more you weirdo because some guys with editing skills, sampled film footage, and (too much) time on their hands are way ahead of ya. Spoofing every Hollywood cliché from the baritone voice-over to the cheesy tagline, trailer mash-ups use old footage to create some of the most hysterical and original content on YouTube. Hurrah!
WHO’S YOUR DADDY?
When Stephen King saw Stanley Kubrick’s artful masterpiece The Shining, he was disgusted. The godfather of modern horror felt that Kubrick had excluded too many of the supernatural terrors of the haunted Overlook Hotel – where were the animated hedge creatures? God only knows what King thinks of this crafty piece of genre-bending. Shining takes a great big comedy axe to both book and film, transforming the tale of the inescapable evil into a schmaltzy comedy about a “writer looking for inspiration and a boy looking for a dad”. This was the mash-up that started them all and it’s a hilarious u-turn on the horror classic. The only shudders and chills are for music fans as Peter Gabriel warbles ‘Solsbury Hill’ as Jack and Danny hug it out.
SUPERCALAFRAGA-HORRORIFIC
If it’s horror you want then you have to go to Scary Mary. If you thought the only thing creepy about Mary Poppins was the cabbage-patch-doll-faced boy then think again. This practically perfect mash-up begins with a tolling bell and Julie Andrews mirthlessly intoning ’stay awake’ as if Freddy Krueger is the dark figure in the fog. Chilling stuff, and that’s just the first 10 seconds. Cleverly juxtaposing comic scenes from the original film (the face in the mirror at 0.28, the animated toys at 0.38) with ominous music reveals these as works of witchcraft. As the blood-curdling song ends, “stay awake, don’t close your eyes”, you’ll never be able to innocently watch the original film again. Great idea, perfectly executed. Speaking of execution, BURN THE WITCH!
BIBLE STUDIES
The best mash-ups are the ones that not only play fast and loose with the plotline, but switch genres altogether. The makers of the 10 Things I Hate About the Commandments masterfully subvert both the swords and sandals epic and the teen movie genres in this cheeky take on the Charlton Heston classic. When the baritone narrator begins, “At Pharaoh High, Ramses was the biggest playa around,” you know this is gonna have Heston’s corpse spinning faster than a dervish on crack. The sweet spot of this “comedy 3000 years in the making” arrives at 1:00, with Samuel L. Jackson’s cameo as the voice of Principal Firebush, right after appearance of ‘Sinead O’Connor’.
Posted on: 27th January 2010
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