Dark & Twisty

 These are entries from my original blog.  There are several on Dr. Moreau.

Who is the monster on Dr. Moreau’s Island? - 3.10.09

The answer to the topic is, everyone.

Everyone on that island is a monster in some way. The narrator becomes one trying to frighten the manimals into obedience. Moreau and his sadistic vision is easily defined as monsterous. Montgomery, of course a monster. The manimals are by definition monsters even though they are mostly good. Then there is the real monster

The island is the monster. I said it there it is. How can an island be a monster, Jared?

Thanks for asking.

Easy. Everyone there goes nuts. Sure Moreau was nuts before he got there, but look at the effect on the others. Of course the island drives them crazy. They are stuck in the middle of the South Pacific with no help and no way of communicating. I’d go crazy to. Dr. Moreau’s Island is like the hotel in The Shining. It isn’t haunted, but it is a malevolent character that drives the other story characters into doing horrible things. So it is the ultimate monster. One last point, this kind of stuff wouldn’t have happened on any other island or location. I like when location is monster.

***

The Island of Dr. Moreau (1995) - 3.10.09

Jared

Where else would you find Val Kilmer and Marlon Brando in a movie but on Dr. Moreau’s island? No where. Only something as weird as this tale could get these two giants of the cinema together.

So this movie not so good, but an interesting take on Moreau’s twisted ideas. The movie moves away from vivesection to genetic manipulation, which is good because it makes more sense. The problem is everyone is either a loony tune or a drug addict. There was more dope smoked on screen and in the making of this movie than Up in Smoke. There was also a lot of monkey love.

The story carries it own. The evilness or madness of Moreau’s idea still carries over in this adaptation. Brando is not very convincing. I keep thinking about Dom Deluise in Robin Hood: Men in Tights. “You should come over for a canolli.”

So as I have reviewed movies based off the works we have read. I liked the book better than the movie. The movie to me is also not as well known as other works which makes it a bit obscure for most movie viewers. The concept and special effects were wonderful. I loved the pregnant manimal giving birth and having 6 nipples. That was sweet. The little rat people were good too. The love story was too much for me, and like all American movies, has to be there to please the masses. Stupid masses.

***

Fall of the House of Pain - 3.10.09

Besides being a band from the 1980’s or 1990’s (with such good music who can remember), the house of pain was the major disciplinary hut for Dr. Moreau.

Moreau was a sadist, no doubt about it. He wasn’t even a fun sadist either. There was no spanking or ball gags for him, nope just straight cut you up put you back together fun. Nothing says sweet delicious pain like that. The house of pain was his lab. He performed his sadistic rituals here and called it science. Like Callie said in her poem, the ideas were heavily based on evolutionary theory, either Darwinism or something else. The author is a product of his own beliefs. H.G. Wells didn’t care too much for religion. Some people might call him an atheist. He probably was. He put his belief in science no matter how brutal. His story mixed the two. Although Moreau doesn’t seem to have religion, he passes himself off as a god and gives the manimals he created 10 commandments of sorts. Not to walk on all fours that is the law.

The story seems to be this is what happens when science and religion try to mix. Science always wins. In this story it did. The house of Pain fell because the animals went back to their instincts proven scientifically.

Is Wells saying this? I think so.

***

A psych analysis of Dr. Moreau - 3.7.09

Arznen wanted it, so here it is.

In my professional opinion, Dr. Moreau was a nut job. That’s technical professional terminology.

In the truest since of things, Moreau does not have a diagnosis as such. He is not schizophrenic because he wouldn’t be able to do what he has done if he was. Schizophrenics are too loose to be able to make human-shaped animals. The fact is, he suffers from personality issues if not disorders.

The first disorder I think he would suffer from would be narcissism. It is obvious that he thinks very highly of himself, but when challenged has very little underneath to support it. This is the reason he fashions himself as a god if not God himself.

I think as we delve deeper in Moreau that he also suffers from Antisocial personality disorder. As many know, this is called the serial killer disorder. I don’t think Moreau was a serial killer and that title for the disorder is a misnomer. The true traits of this disorder is a total disregard for rules and life. Moreau makes his own rules and has no regard for life human, or manimal. We know that early on people who suffer from this personality disorder torture animals. I would say Moreau fits this. He just never stopped.

Oftentimes if not always, we find antisocial and narcissistic personality disorder walks hand in hand. They are as we say professionally “comorbid”. This is reason most serial killers get caught. They feel that they can’t (the narcissism) and do something over the top. (Think about the Unibomber and his manifesto, the BTK killer and his letters written from his church’s computer, or the Cheryl Tate slayings of the Manson family). Moreau does this and it gets him killed by his manimals.

So for an analysis of Moreau this is it. He has no Axis I diagnosis (ie typical mental illness). he suffers from at least two Axis II diagnoses (personality disorders) Antisocial and narcissistic. Some might argue he also suffers from Schizoid PD due to his hermit type life but he doesn’t seem to have the psuedo-psychotic features for this. If he has a third PD, it would be avoidant, which is a shyness type PD which migh explain his want to live alone on a island with manimals.

***

The Planet of Dr. Moreau - 3.6.09

In my strange wonderings, I thought what would happen if Dr. Moreau landed on the Planet of the Apes. I would watch this movie. Would he be bent to make the humans more ape like? Would Dr. Zaius turn around and make Moreau in his own image.

I think that it would be an interesting idea for a story. Imagine a man who has made men from apes on a planet where apes have evolved past men. It is great. He would caught up in a strange version of his own story. In ways it reflects what happens. The creatures Moreau make kill him, doubtless the Apes from POA would do the same, but they might vivasect him, which would be only his just rewards for the cruelty he instills on this victims

***

Let’s make Manimals - 3.5.09

Dr. Moreau was a good man. He liked animals so much he decided to make them human by experimenting with them and causing them considerable pain. That’s a great way to say I love you. Here kitty, kitty, I’m going to make you a manimal. Not only that I’m going to not give you guidance but expect you to know the ways of man and act like him.

I think that Dr. Moreau should have read or seen The Jungle Book. King Louie would really like to be like you. See Moreau wouldn’t have to made Manimals. H.G. Wells meet King Louie.