tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1885320105550742793.post7415451113793172569..comments2024-03-29T05:36:34.996-04:00Comments on NEW ENGLAND FOLKLORE: Melonheads Part II: Why So Many Big Heads?Peter Muisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05939949561996555115noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1885320105550742793.post-83613359620834146312015-09-14T13:03:06.588-04:002015-09-14T13:03:06.588-04:00Hey Peter! It wasn't established where Crystal...Hey Peter! It wasn't established where Crystal Lake was, exactly, until Jason Goes to Hell. The first movie was filmed in New Jersey and the second was filmed in upstate New York. The majority of the sequels were filmed mostly in California, with Jason Takes Manhattan being filmed almost entirely in British Columbia (Vancouver standing in for Manhattan). However, geographically, for Jason to wind up in NYC in that movie, it would make sense for Crystal Lake to be somewhere in the tri-state area.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04078073519588905394noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1885320105550742793.post-55383403188445906492015-09-14T12:43:03.677-04:002015-09-14T12:43:03.677-04:00Hi Charles! I really like the connection you'v...Hi Charles! I really like the connection you've made. You're right that horror movies and modern folklore/urban legends do tend to share a lot of similar motifs - homicidal maniacs, vengeful ghosts, misbehaving teenagers, etc. Older folklore tends to focus on witches, the Devil, buried treasure, and ghosts - all that good old fashioned pre-industrial stuff. Evil scientists, crazed psychopaths and mutants tend to be newer.<br /><br />My hunch is that there is a lot of give and take between movies and folklore. Hollywood writers probably incorporate motifs from the legends they heard when young, which in turn were probably influenced by movies. Or maybe they are both similar reactions to the same social and psychological concerns? <br /><br />I have seen almost all of the Friday the 13th movies. Do you recall where JASON TAKES MANHATTAN is set (other than Manhattan)? In that one, a group of high school kids take a cruise ship from Crystal Lake to New York. Maybe Crystal Lake was in Connecticut in that one too?<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Peter Muisehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05939949561996555115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1885320105550742793.post-63672473950714899622015-09-14T11:30:11.590-04:002015-09-14T11:30:11.590-04:00Peter, being that it's Halloween season and my...Peter, being that it's Halloween season and my mind turns invariably to slasher flicks, I wonder if Jason Voorhees from Friday the 13th can be viewed as a more modern manifestation of the Melonhead motif in pop culture/folklore. He was depicted as a developmentally-disabled (down syndrome), hydrocephalic child in the first film and the supernatural watchman of a cursed forest in the subsequent sequels, punishing teenagers who intrude and transgress against traditional morality (i.e., engaging in drug use and premarital sex) - a recurring theme in a ridiculous amount of 20th century folk tales (urban legends).<br /><br />I've read before that Friday the 13th was heavily inspired by the Cropsey campfire story popularized in the sleepaway camps of upstate New York, a story also plundered for the contemporaneous film The Burning. But could the Melonheads of Dracula Drive also be an influence? It is worth noting that when New Line acquired the franchise for Jason Goes To Hell, the plot of that film explicitly set Crystal Lake in Connecticut. I'd love to hear your thoughts!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04078073519588905394noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1885320105550742793.post-20756608001327398532015-09-05T17:47:30.364-04:002015-09-05T17:47:30.364-04:00Hi Bret! Thanks for the comment. I agree there are...Hi Bret! Thanks for the comment. I agree there are a lot of historic/cultural connections between New England and the Midwest. I wish I knew how to trace the diffusion of this particular legend!Peter Muisehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05939949561996555115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1885320105550742793.post-40839258580828219132015-09-01T10:06:47.177-04:002015-09-01T10:06:47.177-04:00I suspect the tradition of Melon Heads in Northeas...I suspect the tradition of Melon Heads in Northeast Ohio might be related to the fact that this part of the state was settled initially by Connecticuters? This part of the state was Connecticut's Western Reserve, after all.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05309788930821697776noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1885320105550742793.post-32028665449594353082015-08-25T12:51:12.935-04:002015-08-25T12:51:12.935-04:00The Melonheads speak to us on many levels, I guess...The Melonheads speak to us on many levels, I guess!<br /><br />If you do find the explanation for the big-headed monster motif please let me know. I have read that neoteny (childlike features and proportions) makes organisms cuter, but these monsters seem to prove the opposite of that somehow.Peter Muisehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05939949561996555115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1885320105550742793.post-74076531385579870752015-08-24T00:43:14.060-04:002015-08-24T00:43:14.060-04:00So much can be hung on a legend like this -- criti...So much can be hung on a legend like this -- critique of institutions (asylums are institutions from Hell, of course), the need for abnormality to be cordoned off from "normalcy" and the fear of its obverse, distrust of the "Other" in the exaggerated form of the ultimately odd ethnic group and the sub-theme of their dwelling in a liminal zone (the forest), the usual evil-scientist (thus unethical science) motif, and etc. <br /><br />You are quite right in making the interesting connection between the large-head space-alien motif. I cannot remember where I read an interesting explanation for this motif in psychology. Damn my memory! Wade Tarziahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02876387351164907807noreply@blogger.com