The Ghost Writer

What makes a classic a classic? Timeliness, certainly; when Norman Bates saying “And then her head” was about as graphic as things got. 

But aside from that is the feeling, so central to everything I watch and read, that there will never be another original trope. Demon baby, haunted house, Oedipus complex, the unkillable, the masked, etc., I see them stamped over and over in a hundred different combinations. I suppose sometimes (definitely not always) the arrangement creates something unique, like when you shuffle a deck of cards. The components are the same. But will there ever be another ace of spades? A new card in the deck? Even ideas that feel wholly original borrow relics from the past.

But sometimes part of me thinks it’s simplicity. “Bring Her Back,” while nearly unique, seems too complicated to engender a host of little copycats. 

The closest thing I’ve come to a modern classic is the character of Pearl. While perhaps drawing from inspiration of Pamela Voorhees, who is herself a child of Norma Louise Bates, Pearl is a jealousy-ridden, man-hating bitch — and those of us who watched her namesake movie came to love her for it. 

I think my goal in this project, while needing a place to air my grievances, is to return to the classics and perhaps discover a new one. 

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