#Boxing Helena

[tragantia]

I have just received a revelation

(truth to be told I was just looking for pictures of Bill in leather pants because of *that fic* and... 👀👀👀👀👀 Was looking for copper and found gold! They knew what the female public wanted 💅)

[littletroubledgrrrl]

Bill Paxton seemingly getting lapdanced!

[denastudio]

Boxing Helena (1993) dir. Jennifer Lynch

We need to talk about this movie! It's a romantic body horror/erotic thriller directed by Jennifer Lynch (daughter of David Lynch) and starring Sherilyn Fenn, Julian Sands, and Bill Paxton. It was completely panned at the time of its release but I think it deserves a second look.

[slushi-chan]

Bill Paxton in Boxing Helena

[hotmonkeelove]

I'm not only heartbroken by the loss of an actor I've long admired, but mortified that this is the first I'd heard about Julian Sands having gone missing on the mountain I grew up by. Seriously, Mount Baldy is the main feature of the skyline in my hometown. My dad would take us to play in the snow there sometimes when I was young, about an hour's drive up the mountain roads. I'll be visiting my folks who still live in the area next week. This is so surreal to me.

Time to watch some of his films again. Gothic will always be a favourite movie of mine, but now it's especially sad that both he and Natasha Richardson died tragically. He will also always remain my favourite on-screen version of Percy Bysshe Shelley and my original choice for Lucius Malfoy. (I do think Jason Isaacs was great, but Sands was who I imagined when I read the books.)

[neoyan]

Boxing Helena Director Jennifer Lynch

[doctorphagliacci]

listen i know this is a low quality image, but i am so fucking obsessed with Bill Paxton's mesh shirt leather pants outfit in the underappreciated and widely misunderstood film Boxing Helena that i am morally obligated to post

Bill Paxton in Boxing Helena (1993), dir. Jennifer Lynch

[infennity]

[emiarainewrites]

Rest In Peace, Julian Sands

The world has lost a phenomenal actor and gentle soul.

Julian Sands went missing in early January whilst going on a hike. His body has only just been found now in late June, 2023. He was 65 years old.

Along with many, many others, I am deeply saddened by his passing. The only positive thing is that his body has been recovered. I’ve been hoping for the last few months that this would be the case. At least his family can have some form of closure now.

This is a terrible tragedy that I truly wish had not happened.

But, to honour Mr. Sands, I thought I’d briefly go over a few of his films that I’ve seen and highlight the amazing range that he had.

Boxing Helena (1993)

I first became aware of Julian Sands a few years ago when I saw this film.

Directed by Jennifer Lynch, Boxing Helena tells that story of Nick (Sands) and his obsession with one-night-stand Helena (Sherilyn Fenn). After an accident makes her dependent on him, we explore Nick’s psyche and how far he’s willing to go to keep Helena with him.

This is a film that will not appeal the everyone unfortunately, but I’d still highly recommend you see it. It’s a brilliant picture with many layers and at the centre is Julian Sands and his amazing performance.

Nick’s character is heads over heals obsessed with Helena, despite her outright stating she has no interest in him. She’s quite cold to Nick for most of the film, and you can understand why. However, for Nick, that coldness is incentive to try harder for her affections. He ensures she has to rely on him for everything because he “loves” her and wants to keep her for himself.

This showcases Julian Sands’ range as an actor. He has done many serious performances throughout his career, but for me this one is special. Nick is kind of a sad person and even a tad pathetic at times. But you never lose track of why he’s like that.

He’s emotional and even intimidating when need be. It’s a comparatively softer character than some of his other work, but Nick still stands out as a sympathetic and sometimes abhorrent character - played to absolute excellence by Julian Sands.

Warlock (1989)

Directed by Steve Miner, Warlock follows Julian Sands as the titular villain who travels from the 17th century to the 20th in order to end the world. As you do. Along the way he is pursued by Redferne (Richard E. Grant), who follows him from the past, & Kassandra (Lori Singer), a modern woman caught up in the dangerous medieval magic.

This is a good film, and it’s one of the biggest things Julian Sands is known for (the others undoubtedly being Room With A View (1985), Gothic (1986) and to a lesser extent Argento’s Phantom of the Opera (1998)) Not without reason, either.

Julian Sands is excellent in this, playing a cold hearted and cruel sadist of a character. The definition of evil. He’s very direct and at times his menacing stare does most of the talking. He brings a presence that few could ever hope to match.

From the first moment you see him, you know he’s bad news. A complete one-eighty to Boxing Helena.

I for one was quite surprised to see him in this role, having known him primarily for that film. He disappears into this terrifying, yet not outright scary, role. Rocking the long-hair-ponytail look, Julian Sands will make you fear magic and what it’s (and, by extension, he’s) really capable of.

Warlock II: The Armageddon (1993)

Directed by Anthony Hickox, the sequel follows the eponymous Warlock (Sands) as he is resurrected into the 90s (oh no!) and once again sets off on a quest to obtain mystical macguffins so he can put an end to the world as we know it. While that’s going on we follow a group of good warlocks that aren’t Julian Sands who must ready for the coming evil.

This film does away with the seriousness of the first and just about loses its damn mind with how crazy it can get. But if you’ve seen Hickox’s other works such as Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1992) & the Waxwork films (1988 & 1992, respectively), you’ll probably be used to the amount of darkly wacky he puts into his pictures.

The lore is almost completely revamped in terms of the Warlock and he’s after. Plus, the expansion of other magic practitioners is interesting in theory, but the result for the latter is underwhelming.

Julian Sands, however, is magnificent. This is a bit of a lesser product compared to the first, but you can’t tell that from his performance alone. I feel like you get way more of him in this one (kinda rocking his Boxing Helena look a little bit, no surprise considering it was probably filmed around the same time). You follow the Warlock as he interacts with the modern world and it’s inhabitants, tracking down mystical stones that will bring about the end of the world once assembled.

The character feels more accessible too for modern times, in terms of his presentation and demeanour. So this means there’s less medieval speak and more one-liners. Also seems like they ramped up the sexiness too at times.

The movie is much sillier than it’s predecessor, but it’s goofy fun. And you have Julian Sands dispatching people in increasingly gruesome and creative ways. Very Wishmaster (1997), with the vibe of Wishmaster II: Evil Never Dies (1999). His performance remains intimidating and cruel, but all around less cold.

Tale of a Vampire (1992)

Directed by Shimako Sato, Tale of a Vampire follows Alex (Sands) as he finds reprieve from his lonely existence in the form of Anna (Suzanna Hamilton), a kind librarian. However, all is not well as parts of his past, and his bloodlust, come back to haunt him.

This seems to have been released direct to video and, call me crazy, may have been capitalising on another vampire film that came out the exact same year. Even this film’s poster shares some similarities. Although, Julian Sands was apparently in talks to play Lestat instead of Tom Cruise, so there’s another connection. At the moment, you can find this film on YouTube (VHS rip).

Setting that aside, this is an interesting film that I don’t believe gets talked about much. It won’t change your life and I don’t think it quite gets across its ideas perfectly, but Julian Sands’ performance, as ever, is brilliant. You believe he’s been around for ages and has never been able to keep a love for himself. We get flashbacks concerning a previous companion throughout the film as Alex tries to get close to Anna in the present. There is a type of warmth that Julian Sands brings to the role, whilst also maintaining the lonesome chill of a corpse. You get a sense of confliction from him as the film goes on - whether to pursue Anna or leave her be; damn her or let her go.

Edgar Allen Poe’s ‘Annabel Lee’ also features in the film, so the idea of youth and love lost are meant to be front and centre.

There is still an element of danger to Julian Sands’ character. The film doesn’t shy away from the fact that he’s still undead and thus, must consume fresh blood. ((Special warning to all cat lovers, by the way.)) He even has a brief flash of harming Anna due to his nature and personal feelings towards her.

You feel his pain and it’s a shame that Julian Sands didn’t play more vampires, or had roles like this. Or maybe he did and I just don’t know about them. Either way he was great in this role.

Arachnophobia (1990)

Directed by Frank Marshall, Arachnophobia follows a doctor (Jeff Daniels) and his family who move to a town that is soon besieged by tons of lethal spiders. As the death toll rises, it’s a race against the clock to stop the eight-legged menace from killing everyone there.

Julian Sands has a smaller role here compared to the previous films mentioned, but he is still important and does serve as the catalyst for everything. He plays Dr. James Atherton, who is studying an undiscovered type of spider that, of course, makes it back to a populated area and spawns off a deadly chain of events.

The film itself is fun and Julian Sands is a great, somewhat pompous, doctor who can be very dismissive of those around him. Very British and very passionate about his work.

Though, of course, he does not survive the film. The big hoss spider gets him. Then again, he did declare himself as “supper”. And when you see his body, it’s pretty gnarly. He’s covered in webbing with spiders crawling all over him. Real spiders. No CGI. That alone increased my respect for him one-hundred fold when I saw it.

From unhinged sap to scary villain to lonesome creature to apathetic doctor to even romantic lead, Julian Sands led a varied and fascinating career. He seemed unafraid to attempt any role and did so with impressive commitment and astounding results.

The world has lost a great talent that will never be forgotten.

RIP Julian Sands, we will all miss you dearly.

[delicious777]

Deep Kiss

Julian Sands & Sherilyn Fenn in "Boxing Helena" (1993)

[redlettermediathings]

[cattype]

Julian Sands- the original voice of Valmont in Jackie Chan Adventures- has been missing in the San Gabriel Mountains in California since January 13, 2023. The search has been hindered by bad weather but he’s a skilled mountaineer so there’s still a chance he’s hanging in there... alone… in the freezing cold… for a month… 

The above tweet is my reaction when I got the news. I didn’t have the space to fit it in but that interest I mentioned started about a year back. Since then I’ve been entertaining myself by learning about him by listening to interviews and convention panels. And of course watching some of his movies and TV appearances.

Something I’ve observed from his filmography is career trajectory. He started his acting career thinking he would only be a stage actor but ended up stumbling into Hollywood with two Oscar movies, The Killing Fields and A Room with a View. After that he did the movie he’s best known for amongst horror fans, Warlock because he was tired of- to slightly paraphrase what he called them in one podcast- ‘insipid romantic leads that felt more and more like chocolate box commercials’ that he had been offered after the success of A Room with a View. After that he did Warlock 2: The Armageddon out of contractual obligation but turned down Warlock 3 because the script didn’t interest him.

And that line of thinking has colored much of his career choices. He didn’t chose movies based on what paid more or what would gain him more fame, he did whatever interested him. He chose characters that were fun to play, people he wanted to work with and places he wanted to go. Because of that he’s played a wide range of characters in a wide range of movies. From general crowd pleasers, to niche genre flicks, to experimental and avant-garde weirdness. He’s worked with directors like David Cronenberg, Ken Russell, Dario Argento, and Mike Figgis. 

But those choices are probably why his star has faded so much over time. If you look at his IMDB you might notice that he’s gone from being one of the biggest faces on the poster to not even having his name on it. Most insultingly, one of the posters for A Crooked House has the whole ensemble except him. I haven’t seen it since it’s not on Netflix anymore but he seems like he should be a major character. His name’s in the trailer but apparently they didn’t see his face worth squeezing onto the poster.

Even the two movies he’s best known for have fallen into obscurity. Despite being nominated for various oscars that year including best picture, I’ve only talked to one person who knew what A Room With a View was. And Warlock seems to be a B-movie amongst B-movies.

If he died of some illness and didn’t get a ton of coverage aside from a few websites, I wouldn’t have liked it but it wouldn’t have surprised me. But the fact that he went missing complicates things. I first found out about his disappearance on MSNBC and I’ve since wondered if he got that level of coverage not so much because he was a famous actor who went missing as much as he was a missing hiker who happened to be a famous actor. And I find myself wondering not only if he’s alive or dead but how he’ll be reported on when he’s found. If he’s dead and it doesn’t get at least the same amount of coverage as his disappearance I’ll be pissed. If he’s alive and it doesn’t get the same amount of coverage I’ll be even more pissed and also extremely baffled because “65 year old actor survives for a month on a snowy mountain” is great headline!

Some people say the ultimate death is when someone says your name for the last time. Whether Julian is alive or dead or found or not he deserves to be remembered. Go to his wiki or his IMDB and look up the stuff he was in. Watch A Room With a View. Watch Warlock. Watch Jackie Chan Adventures. Watch Stephen King’s Rose Red. Watch The Room (the one with Donald Pleasence, not Tommy Wiseau). Watch Hotel. Watch Naked Lunch. Watch The Medallion. Watch The Painted Bird. Watch Borley Rectory. Watch The Ghosts of Borley Rectory. Watch The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Watch Boxing Helena. Watch Timecode. Watch The Tomorrow Man. Watch Vibes. Watch A Tale of a Vampire. Watch Seneca - On the Creation of Earthquakes. Watch Arachnophobia. Watch Gothic. Watch Witch Hunt. Watch The Escape. Watch his public readings of the poetry of Percy Shelly, John Keats, and Harold Pinter. Watch anything you see that catches your fancy. There’s sure to be something there for you or maybe you’ll discover something new to you that you wouldn’t watch otherwise. 

Living people need to be remembered as much as the dead.

This stuff’s been floating in my head for the past month and I just wanted to say it. Maybe I could said it better. Maybe there’s more I could say. But this will have to do.

Thanks for reading if you made it this far.

[denastudio]

The fountain scene in Boxing Helena (1993) dir. Jennifer Lynch

[slushi-chan]

Bill Paxton in Boxing Helena

Adobe is still making the gifs look weird and it’s pissing me off but I’m starting to wonder if it’s just something with this scene

[spiritsdancinginthenight]

"It always struck me the way people looked at the Venus. They didn't see her as broken, they saw her as beautiful. And it really made a huge impact on me. I thought I was broken and that maybe someday someone would find me beautiful." Jennifer Lynch

[cosplayian]

RIP Julian Sands

It’s official. The remains discovered Saturday are those of Julian Sands, who had been missing since January. While it is a tragic loss, hopefully, his family can now have some closure.

www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/julian-sands-…