At the heart of what we might call the "normal perversion" subjected to such stringent analysis by Hellman is the division of men and women into rigidly defined and mutually exclusive groups which enable males to assume positions of psychological and legal superiority simply because they possess, in the words of the song "Women's Delight," sung in the film by Joseph Culp, "a thing that I have not, a little above the knee." The irony of Iguana's final section is that it is Oberlus rather than Carmen who develops a feminist awareness—specifically an awareness of the fact that his suffering (as well as all the suffering he has caused) can be traced to societally imposed gender roles. When the baby is born, Oberlus looks at it with affection, but when Carmen asks, "Is it a boy or a girl?" (a question that is never answered), his expression changes. It is in that moment — the silent equivalent of Laurie Bird's "No good" in Two-Lane Blacktop—that Oberlus, seeing the vicious circle about to begin all over again, decides to kill the child and commit suicide.30 Yet, despite the unrelieved harshness of this conclusion, one can hardly accuse Hellman of pessimism. Robin Wood's account of Fritz Lang's American films is relevant here: "Already in his late German films, Fate for Lang is becoming more a matter of social mechanism than of metaphysical principle: the individual is still trapped and ultimately helpless, but the entrapment can be subjected to analysis and explained. If the protagonist is trapped, the spectator is set free."31 Although Oberlus' newfound awareness leads only to his death, Iguana's climax leaves one with a curious combination of emotions; simultaneously oppressive and liberating, it depicts a situation of total devastation (as in King Lear, nothing survives to be rescued from the wreckage) while implying that the vicious circle can be broken. It is one of the cinema's great tragic endings.
Chapter 16
Silent Night, Deadly Night III: Better Watch Out! (1989)
Pozzo: The blind have no notion of time. The things of time are hidden from them too.
Vladimir: Well just fancy that! I could have sworn it was just the opposite.
— Waiting for Godot
According to Hellman, "I finished Iguana in early March 1988. Went to the Cannes Festival in May. Possibly another festival before it in April. Then another trip in June, the Midnight Sun Festival. Traveling again the first three weeks of September, showing Iguana at the Venice Festival. It won a Film Critica award."1 Hellman then visited the Amiens festival in France, where, on November 22, Romauld Karmakar shot (on Super-8) the documentary Hellman Rider. Filmed inside a moving car and a café, Hellman answers random questions about his career and discusses recent projects, including Dark Passion ("a trip from New Jersey to Reno via Miami") and Secret Warriors ("a trip from Geneva to the Sudan"). He says, "I think to stick it out in America now as a filmmaker, you've got to be a little bit crazy and have tremendous patience. I'm never without a project."
Predictably, Hellman's next film was not any of those outlined at Amiens, but rather a second sequel (produced by Live Entertainment) to Charles E. Sellier, Jr.'s Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984), a notorious slasher film featuring a serial killer dressed as Santa Clause2: "This is really a movie I did not want to make, I agreed to do it, reluctantly, because Arthur H. Gorson, one of my closest friends, had been trying to become a producer for a long time, and this was his first shot and he begged me to do it. Again, it was a situation where I started with a script that was so bad I regretted having agreed, and I said, 'Listen, I can't go on with this unless we throw this script away.' This was late February, about a week before we were supposed to start preproduction. And within that week Arthur and myself came up with a new story, and Rex Weiner did the first draft of a new script. Steven Gaydos and my daughter Melissa (who also played a small role as Dr. Newbury's assistant) then did a dialogue polish; Steve spent several days writing the scenes between Robert Culp and Richard Beymer, and Melissa wrote the dialog when Laura and Jerri meet for the first time. I pasted it all together in a day, and wrote the joke Laura tells her brother about how a mentally deficient person gets his belt off. I think I may also have done some polishing here and there, possibly in the Santa scene in Ricky's hospital room. It's hard to remember, since it really was a group effort, more like a bunch of comedy writers sitting around writing the Sid Caesar TV show than a normal movie writing experience. It was also done very quickly, taking no more than two weeks for the whole process. The screenplay was credited to "Carlos Laszlo" (the name of Rex Weiner's new baby, which can be seen in the hospital lobby, along with its parents), as a pseudonym for Rex, Arthur, Steve, Melissa and myself.3 We started prepping the first week in March, even before we had a script — we knew we needed Granny's house. I cast another girl in the role of Laura, had bad dreams about my choice, and changed my mind the next day. I brought back Samantha Scully, whom I had initially rejected because of her facial tics, and worked with her on relaxation. We reduced the tics to the point where I felt they actually worked for the character, and I cast her. She did research at the local school for the blind, and found some of her own props (the watch). We shot the movie in four weeks in April. I was happy and had a great time working on it. Robert Culp was a lot of fun. It took about one day for us to get used to each other. The first night of shooting was very nerve-wracking. I had a hard time and had to shoot about ten takes before I got what I wanted. After that we both relaxed and had a good time making the picture. I did the picture edit, though the editing credit was given to associate producer Ed Rothkowitz. Ed was the owner (meaning he had the hardware) of an editing system called Touchvision, which was an early version of a non-linear system using numerous VHS tape decks. Ed loaded the dailies onto the system, and I edited the film in 10 days, telling Ed where to make the cuts. It was my only film where I didn't edit on film. I then went to the Cannes Festival to relax, came back to supervise the sound, music, and final mix. We had an answer print before the Fourth of July, just in time to hand-carry it to the Barcelona Festival."4
In Silent Night, Deadly Night, a traumatized man called Billy commits a series of murders while dressed as Santa Claus. In Silent Night, Deadly Night Part II, Billy's younger brother Ricky Caldwell (played by Eric Freeman) also becomes a serial killer, and is finally shot down by the police. In Silent Night, Deadly Night III: Better Watch Out!, Laura Anderson (Samantha Scully), a young blind woman with psychic abilities, is being encouraged by Dr. Newbury (Richard Beymer) to make a mental link with the comatose Ricky (Bill Moseley). When Laura, along with her brother Chris (Eric Da Re, who, like Beymer, would soon become a regular on David Lynch's TV series Twin Peaks) and his girlfriend Jerri (Laura Herring), leaves to spend Christmas at her grandmother's house, Ricky follows, killing several people (including the grandmother) along the way. He is pursued by Dr. Newbury and Lieutenant Connelly (Robert Culp, essentially repeating his characterization from Abel Ferrara's 1986 film The Gladiator). When Connelly reveals that he has no intention of allowing Ricky to live, Newbury arranges to arrive at the house first, but is himself killed by Ricky, who also murders Chris and Jerri. Inspired by a vision of her dead grandmother, Laura uses her special powers to trick Ricky into falling onto a stake.