The Alley

[Abishai100]

Modern film-makers are fascinated by vigilantism and horror.

Comic book superheroes such as Batman (DC Comics) and Iron Man (Marvel Comics) speak to an interest in vigilantism daydreams and are the subject of Hollywood (USA) films such as "Batman Begins" [2005] and "Iron Man" [2008].

The shock-horror-paranoia films meanwhile of Alfred Hitchcock (e.g., "Psycho" [1960]) paved the way for a new genre of horror-ghoul cinema and introduced the world to 'super-psychos' such as Leatherface and Michael Myers in American horror film franchises (e.g., Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween).

Maybe these comics-adapted vigilantism films and horror-murder films reflect a modern age angst towards urbanization-related crime.

So this thread is about how Americans 'construct' pedestrian parallaxes about strange masked urban vigilantes (e.g., Batman) pairing up against purely evil (often masked) demonic psychopaths (e.g., Leatherface).




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America had become a labyrinth of 'urban alleys,' and the urban vigilante Batman was reading stories about crimes (e.g., murders) committed in the alleys of Chicago, New York, and Washington. Batman had read a biography of the Chicago underworld bootlegger Al Capone and how the famed policemen known as The Untouchables brought Capone's empire down with a sneaky tactic of 'tax-evasion stencil' work. Batman, who was secretly the Gotham City socialite and businessman Bruce Wayne (head of Wayne Enterprises), was convinced that on Halloween Eve, some demonic 'copycat killer' would stalk the alleys of an American city (perhaps even Gotham).

Thomas Hewitt was an emotionally deranged Texan working at the meat-cutting factory outside Austin. Thomas had a cleft-palette deformity and secretly held a grudge against God for his 'endowed ugliness.' This year marked Thomas's 29th birthday, and he purchased a brand new chainsaw from a Home Depot hardware store. Thomas then dug up the body of a recently deceased Texan from a cemetery and cut up the corpse's skin to weave a special face-mask. You see, Thomas was obsessed with the Texas Chainsaw Massacre horror films and was convinced he was an incarnation of Leatherface (a chainsaw-wielding 'super-psycho').

Batman sent a memo to Gotham City police commissioner Jim Gordon:

"Jim, I'm convinced this Halloween, some maniac is going to dress up like an American horror film character like Leatherface and terrorize Chicago, New York, or maybe even Gotham. I'm going to be prowling around the alleys of one of these 'symbolic' cities to see which one reveals the ghoul. Use your contacts to make sure the police do not get in my way, because if some psycho has the gumption to 'copycat' Leatherface, they'll need more than pistols and night-sticks (a psycho like that would probably carry a machine-gun or even a chainsaw)."

Thomas had sent an op-ed article to the Texas Star newspaper under a false pseudonym:

"Texans/Americans do not appreciate the psychological importance of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre horror films. I am convinced that this Halloween, some brooding man with a grudge will dress up as Leatherface and commit some 'copycat crimes' in the alleys of an American city such as New York or Gotham, and I doubt even Batman has the gumption to stop such a demon. What Americans need is more intellectual focus!"

It was Halloween Eve, and Batman decided Leatherface would turn up in an alley of Chicago, so that's where the heroic vigilante decided to act. Batman was armed with his rope-gun, his electric stun-gun, his mini-sword, and tear-gas. As he walked along the rooftops of Chicago, eyeing the alleys below, he suddenly spotted a brutish looking individual carrying what seemed to be a chainsaw. Batman remembered the Texas Star news clipping Jim Gordon sent him which was an op-ed about a 'pedestrian omen' that someone would terrorize the city on Halloween as Leatherface and realized this psycho he was eyeing was probably the author.

Batman swooped down and stood in front of Leatherface (Thomas Hewitt) and asked him who he was and what he wanted, and the psycho replied he was the author of the Texas Star op-ed and indeed the Leatherface copycat-killer he wrote about. Batman realized the ghoul meant business and told him to drop his chainsaw, but when the psycho turned it on and started running towards him, Batman cast his rope-gun and used it to tie up the psycho's feet, and the brute fell down and the chainsaw landed on his own leg. Batman then tied him up and tranquilized him and hauled him off to Arkham Asylum (an incarceration center from the criminally insane).

TRANSCRIPT OF THE BATMAN-LEATHERFACE CONVERSATION AT ARKHAM:

BATMAN: Why did you pick Chicago, Leatherface?
LEATHERFACE: It was the city of Al Capone.
BATMAN: Why did you don the identity of 'Leatherface'?
LEATHERFACE: I like the skin-mask and the chainsaw!
BATMAN: What is it about Chicago's alleyways that lured you?
LEATHERFACE: Rodents and vagrants.
BATMAN: Do you believe you're a prophet?
LEATHERFACE: I'll become a celebrity.
BATMAN: The urban alley is redeemable.
LEATHERFACE: The urban alley is also laborious.
BATMAN: People need heroism, Leatherface.
LEATHERFACE: Perhaps. They also crave drama.
BATMAN: Focus on dreams of honor.
LEATHERFACE: Redemption is an alley.

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[blastoff]

Sounds like you just got a bad batch of LSD. You should be okay again in about a day.

 

[Abishai100]

Hell's Gate: Alley Artery


This seemed like a worthwhile follow-up.


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Spider-Man had to confront the demonic Baraka (the berserker) and Scarlet Witch (a hypnotist) who were prowling around the alleys of Los Angeles surrounding Halloween Eve in 2001. The two super-villains were soaking up the negative vibes after 9/11, and they wanted to create terrible feelings on Halloween before the frenzy and panic-well dried up. Spider-Man loaded his cobweb shooters with extra material and hoped to corner the two evil-doers in the same alleys in which they were creating terror leading up to Halloween Eve.

Scarlet Witch was a narcotics smuggler who carried a potent instant psychoactive drug spray which she released into the faces of pedestrians walking in L.A. alleys, causing them to have bizarre hallucinations. She would then force them to buy her drugs and generally prance around giddy about urban anarchy. Scarlet Witch was a real siren, and the only way Spider-Man could deal with her is to shoot enough cobwebs around her head so as to disorient her and impair her ability to shoot her lethal drug-spray.

Baraka had long titanium blades fixed to his muscular arms. He was a deformed ghoul and had a shaved head and wore festive martial arts and Oriental fineries and pretended to be an Apocalypto prophet, but when he cornered someone in an L.A. alley, he would slash their abdomens or throats with his arm-blades and leave them to bleed to death while he cleaned up his blades with tissue paper he carried in his pocket. Baraka was a real Biblical 'manslayer,' and to stop him, Spider-Man would need to tie his arms (and blades) up in cobwebs.

Spider-Man knew that Baraka and Scarlet Witch had opened up a pronounced 'urban hellmouth' with their nefarious alleyway-crime activities. To close the hellmouth (or dark gate), Spider-Man would need to apprehend both and prevent them from continuing to create 'radians of maniac brain-shock.' Spider-Man found Baraka and tied him up in cobwebs and carried him to where Scarlet Witch was and told them they were similarly creating undue fear. He then tied up Scarlet Witch too and hauled them off to an incarceration center.

SCARLET WITCH: You're a meaningless insect, Spider-Man!
BARAKA: You'll never end evil! It exists in every American alley!
SPIDER-MAN: We can at least 'cleanse out' evil, so silence your 'arsonist voodoo.'

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