you drive me wi-i-i-ild, you drive me wiiild

It seems the recurrent theme this past week is souls: first it was the ripping apart of a soul and hiding it's shreds in horcruxes, then there was the stealing of a soul at midnight and finally, the signing away of a soul to The Devil. These occurances are from a book and two films repectively.

As I've already talked about The Deathly Hallows, we'll talk about the movies. First was At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul a 1963 Brazilian horror film featuring Ze Do Caixao, a spoiled brat with delusions of grandeur, a top hat and a cloak. Now, I was forewarned by a cackling gypsy during the pre-film stream of morbid teasers not to watch the movie and to just go home... ah, and why didn't I listen? Not only did I not go home, but I couldn't stop watching the stream of atrocities Ze dished out. In the end, I chalk it up to a desire to see Ze's soul taken – which gratefully it was. Phew.

Switching gears between joker and psycho, one moment he'd turn on the threshold of the local greasy spoon to make a morbid joke and threaten the poor town's people, well, and of course cackle madly, and the next be wreathing and raising is fists, ranting about continuing his blood line, jeering and taunting the heavens. As an self-professed nonbeliever, he ridiculed the poor town's folk for their beliefs in Catholicism and superstition, but aha!, in the end of this over-the-top morality tale, who's taunted by a screeching owl, a black cat, the candle-lit Day of the Day procession ultimately leading straight to the grave. Huh, Ze? Who's got your soul? Wah-hah-hah-ha-ah.

And finally, I watched Bedazzled, the original 1967 Dudley Moore/Peter Cook comedy. In this one Dudley Moore's a down-on-his-luck Short-Order Cook named Stanley. Stanley's in love with his co-worker and Wimpy Burger waitress Margaret Spenser, who's too busy changing her elaborate hairdo each scene to notice. The Devil, a.k.a. George Spiggot, convinces Stanley to sign-over his soul in exchange for seven wishes. Each wish evolves into a different wooing-and-winning-of-Margaret's-affections-scenario, with the exception of Stanley's first wish which is for a raspberry iced lolly.

Seeing as this is a comedy, Stanley is duped by George Spiggot, who throughout the movie reeks inane havok, and each wish goes completely awry (my favorite example being the Bedazzled scene with Drimble Wedge & The Vegetation). In the end, Stanley's returned his soul, Margaret still doesn't notice him and God cackles wildly for a good 2 minutes before the final credits roll.