issue 10// vol 46 Possibly the darkest movie of all time >» ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ review Sonam Kaloti Arts Editor In this column I review movies that are hugely popular in the Western world—ones which I haven't seen before. This is a fresh and unbiased take on those classic films, without childhood nostalgia or rose- coloured glasses influencing my perspective. keen T* Hunchback of Notre Dame is incredible—and terribly uncomfortable to watch. This classic Disney movie is about the hunchback bell ringer of the Notre Dame cathedral, Quasimodo (Tom Hulce), who is trapped in the tower by his evil master Frollo (Tony Jay). Frollo finds himself an admirer of gypsy Esmeralda (Demi Moore) who is uniquely stunning and charming. However, Frollo’s thoughts of Esmeralda are not pure whatsoever—he puts Esmeralda in a fun dilemma where she either becomes his sex slave, or she is burnt at the stake by him. Ah yes, classic Disney. Putting the story aside for a moment, the entire film kept me enchanted throughout with the colours, animation, and score. Of course, those features are nothing new to a Disney film—but there was something special to this movie that’s not apparent in all Disney films. Perhaps it was the score, which featured a church choir with cathedral reverb— making already haunting scenes feel much more eerie. Or, it may have been the general “acid trip” feeling of the movie, which left one not really knowing what was going on, and thrown everywhere regardless. i] From Quasimodo’s insane parkour skills— jumping from pillar to pillar atop the cathedral—or the entirety of the festival of fools... because that whole scene was just insane. There were people breathing Still from 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame' fire, a contest for who the ugliest person in the city was, and a strangely sexual performance by Esmeralda which turned into guards throwing rope and fruit at Quasimodo, seemingly trying to kill him Let's just forget that one » Hollywood's franchise obsession is leading them to a new way of reviving franchises Craig Allan Staff Writer n November 1, Terminator: Dark Fate, the sixth film in the Terminator franchise was released. This film was different than the previous editions in the franchise as it established itself as the direct sequel to 1991s Terminator 2: Judgement Day. This is an example of the growing trend studios are participating in to take advantage of intellectual property (IP) that has since worn out its welcome. This is known as retroactive continuity or retcon. Other examples of this include the Halloween franchise, which ignored decades of previous movies in order to release in October of 2018 what they established as a sequel to the original movie from 1980. Another example is 2006 movie Superman Return which ignores Superman IT and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. This trend will continue in the next few years, with films like Ghostbusters 2020 ignoring the continuity set in the 2016 movie Ghostbusters: Answer the Call and the DC Comics cinematic universe, which ignores large parts of its already established universe to shift the story in a different direction. The reason studios are pursuing the idea of doing away with continuity of previous films is due to the movie industries obsession with IP’s. Coming up with new movies has become more difficult these days. Newer franchise bait movies are not resonating with audiences, and that’s why studios have been heavily banking on the star power of older properties. This is problematic though, as in the case of the Terminator franchise, some movies do not warrant becoming long, multi installment franchises. Terminator has had two successful movies in Terminator and Promotional image for ‘Terminator: Dark Fate' via Medium.com arts // no. 7 with the noose and tomatoes. Don’t even get me started on Quasimodo’s gargoyle friends he talked to throughout the movie, who turned out to be just hallucinations because he was so lonely. Yikes. Back to the story though— “Hellfire” is a masterpiece. This song is the reason I wanted to watch this movie in the first place. “Regarded as one of the darkest and most complex Disney Villain songs of all time,” according to Genius, this song goes there. It features Frollo, a creepy old man with too much power, confessing his sinful lust for Esmeralda to the Virgin Mary, whilst priding himself on his virtue with, “Tt's not my fault! I'm not to blame. It is the gypsy girl—the witch who sent this flame.” Although Frollo said, “I'll find her if I have to burn down all of Paris,” I didn't expect that to be literal. He really did do that. Straight murdered masses of innocent people because of his lust. Watching The Hunchback of Notre Dame was mostly just uncomfortable because it was too real. The movie features a creepy old man with too much power preying on a younger girl and blaming her for his attraction instead of taking personal responsibility. Well maybe Esmeralda shouldn't have dressed like such a gypsy— she was asking for it. Sound familiar? Because the movie touched ona huge issue and properly represented it in the utmost evil light, this film ranks high on my radar. Every aspect (especially the production) is amazing and I regret not having watched it until now. Judgement Day, but the later installments have not been as successful. Yet due to Hollywood's obsession with IP, they keep drudging out and restarting the franchise in the hope that one day something will stick. This is the same problem with the Alien franchise, which had two well received and profitable movies to start but has made continually disappointing sequels, restarting and dropping continuity plotlines all along the way. The movie studios’ failure to come up with new ideas is troublesome, but part of the blame can be put on audiences. Even if this new Terminator movie does fail, it may still make enough money for them to re- contextualize it again, because it’s still safer than trying to come up with something new—especially with what it costs to make movies these days. Instead of ignoring the continuity of previous films, why not take film franchises that didn’t get off the ground, or single films that didn’t work from yesteryear and try to establish a franchise on that? Yes, it’s risky, but so is bringing back the same failing franchise over and over again and just hoping that audiences will forgive and forget. Movie studios need to stop making the same mistakes twice, or in the case of Terminator, three... and possibly four times.