Freaky Fashion

Last night I watched The Stepford Wives (1975).

It's definitely one of those movies that demands a re-watching at least every five years. One way to assess what you've learned in five years is to re-watch a movie so you can see how you view it differently (if at all). Mrs. Doubtfire is a rather dirty movie. When I was a kid, it was just funny. When I first saw The Stepford Wives, it creeped me out. The only reason I was curious about it was because of the 2004 remake that was coming out at the time (the 2004 version turned out to be complete rubbish and it was completely devoid of any message the original had to offer) and following the advice of Jay Sherman, if a movie is a remake of a classic, rent the classic! (sic)

The awesome thing about DVDs, aside from convenience, are the special features. Bryan Forbes was hired as the director and along with him came his wife, Nanette Newman. In the original screenplay by William Goldman, the Stepford Wives were all going to be dressed as Playboy bunnies. Nanette Newman's body type didn't suit the playboy bunny costuming and that instituted a costume change...and this is where it gets freaky.

ha! Really?

While I don't know too many details about the original screenplay, don't you think it would be too big of a giveaway if you moved to a new town and every housewife there was dressed like a playboy bunny? If that was the case I could easily dismiss the movie as some dork's wet dream, but that wasn't the case and the wardrobe change obviously impacted the screenplay.

I am getting the willies just looking at this

One of the things that gives suspense movies their horror factor is any element of realness. You are more likely to see a woman in a long dress and a sun hat walking in the grocery store than a playboy bunny. This was the most notable observation in my 2nd viewing of the movie. I found myself taking a second look at my Pumpkin thinking "could my Pumpkin...be that devious of a Pumpkin?" It's nothing new that there are men out there who only care about a hot body devoid of any substance. What's more scary are those men actually doing something about it. The wardrobe change allowed the director to amp up the creepiness of the movie. Perhaps the underlying message of this blog is "dressing sensibly scares the crap out of me," but really, scary elements don't necessarily require supernatural-looking, hi-tech special effects; they need to elicit that feeling of "this can happen to me."