question of the day: ‘The Hangover’’s baby versus ‘Drag Me to Hell’’s kitten: who wins the grudge match?

[SPOILERS for Drag Me To Hell!]

I haven't seen The Hangover, but I'm surprised that anyone could be that offended by the cat sacrifice in Drag Me To Hell. For one thing, all the violence in this scene is firmly off-screen; for another, Christine feels a hell of a lot of remorse for killing that animal, and anyone who finds it hard to root for her as a hero after that will surely be placated by the ending.

Gary Larson once defined a joke as the collision of two familiar elements in a way that makes you see the absurdity of one, the other or both. The cat scene in DMTH is a perfect example of that; we know Christine has a cat, and it's established that animal sacrifice could lift the curse. But people think of animal sacrifice as an ancient rite practiced in agrarian societies, so as soon as it's mentioned you think of goats or pigs or something. The immediate cut to Christine in her house cooing "Here, kitty kitty..." is where the joke lies - two familiar elements brought together in an unexpected way.

Everything in DMTH is set up brilliantly, in fact. That's probably the main reason why I enjoyed it so much. It doesn't cheat.

The baby got some new sunglasses and his mother is Heather Graham, so I think he definitely got the best of it. The baby getting whacked by the car door would have gotten a bigger laugh from me in the theatre if they hadn't shown that scene in the trailer a thousand times. (I'm getting to the point where I change the channel when a movie trailer for something I want to see comes on.)

As for the cat in DM2H ***SPOILER***

I suppose the death of the cat was wryly humorous, but I wouldn't call it funny. I was irked by its inclusion in the movie until I understood that the movie was about a selfish person looking for a scapegoat -- literally at one point -- and wasn't just a cynical shocker, which it would be in a lesser horror movie.

Spoilers ahead:

I haven't seen The Hangover and don't plan to, but I saw Drag Me to Hell.

I don't think the kitten scene was meant as comedy. Or rather, it functions on that level, but it's also a real conundrum, posed explicitly in the film: would you be willing to kill a kitten to avoid eternity in Hell?

And then the follow up which is asked in the subtext: Would killing a kitten to avoid Hell end up condemning you to Hell anyway?

According to the film the answer to both questions is yes. Which means we all deserve Hell, so yeah, the movie is pretty damn subversive :P

Spoilers, obviously

Yeah, I didn't see the the kitten as necessarily humorous. Actually, it was the kitten's death that caused me to correctly predict the true ending of the film, because I suspect all genre flick directors of being cat people, and no cat person would let a woman live after killing a kitten. I have decided to start collecting data to this effect, and I will start questioning directors when I attend convention panels.

I had to see Hangover with my hubby. His fav is stupid comedies like Joe Dirt. Most are borish. I was suprised I was laughing along to Hangover at certain parts. However, as a over-protective mom type, I was disturbed by the scenes with the baby. Actually, appalled at the baby jerk-off bit and baby in the hot car. It would have been funny if in real life these behaviors were not so real. Unfortunately, baby porn and babies strapped in carseats in hot cars happen more than you know. (or you would have been appalled too) Goes without saying not many cats are killed to avoid hell.