Influence or Coincidence?The Lodger vs. The Black Dahlia

The artwork for the upcoming remake of Alfred Hitchcock's The Lodger (2009) immediately brings to mind the poster for The Black Dahlia (2006). Both designs use the horizontal profile of a woman's face, with a thin trickle of blood escaping from her parted lips.

The Black Dahlia (2006)

The Lodger (2009)

Check Your Local Listings, Part 2

One of the more popular pages on this blog has been my roundup of funny movie marquee juxtapositions. Cramming multiple film titles onto a theater sign often results in some unintended humor. In the nine months since that original post, I've collected a few more examples for your amusement.

The script for the Will Smith movie Hancock was originally called Tonight He Comes, which producers changed to avoid unwanted pornographic associations. Unfortunately for the studio, this theater chose to put up their sign's letters from right to left.


There's a message hidden in this sign. Is that how the supposed homosexual agenda works?


He's already in trouble with his contractors for the botched assignment, and now some movie theater sign is rubbing it in.


This must be the behind-the-scenes documentary on the making of those reality shows about parents with unusually large clans of offspring.


The scourge of fish farms around the world.


Would these be known as PILFs?


As always, feel free to give more examples of this juvenile pastime in the comments.

See also: Check Your Local Listings, Part 1

The Porn Identity

The upcoming release of Kevin Smith's Zack & Miri Make a Porno brings the subject of adult entertainment to the multiplex. It's not the first to do so, having been preceded by The Amateurs (2005), Orgazmo (1997), and Boogie Nights (1997). However, it did get me thinking about Hollywood and the porn industry. In particular, the influence that the former has on the latter.

Smith's film follows a pair of financially challenged roommates who try their hands at skin flicks to pay the bills. They decide to helm Star Whores, since "the porn I liked when I was a kid," explains Seth Rogen's Zack, "it was always a spoof of a popular movie." Indeed, dirty minded twists on pop culture will certainly raise an adult film's notoriety. The pornification of Hollywood movie titles is such a cliché that even an individual who has never seen an X-rated feature has probably heard of Flesh Gordon, Edward Penishands, or Pulp Friction.

Some releases will simply tweak a blockbuster's name for some light-hearted innuendo, as in Analyze These, Done in 60 Seconds, I Know Who You Did Last Summer, There's Something Inside Mary, and Honey, I Blew Everybody. Others will play off one word by swapping it with something more explicit, such as Big Trouble in Little Vagina, League of Extraordinary Genitals, Gangbangs of New York, A Clockwork Orgy, and Intercourse With a Vampire. There are a few that really stretch and take it to another level with titles like E Three: The Extra Testicle, Sheepless in Montana, and Pocahotass.

Occasionally, these porno spoofs go all out and parody a movie's logo and poster art, too. Here's a gallery of some adult releases that put a little extra effort in the design of their DVD covers.

American Booty	Not Another Porn Movie	Strap-On Club
Pulp Friction	Horat	Trixxx 02
The Porne Ultimatum	Bareback Mountain	Re-Penetrator
The XXXorcist	Crocodile Blondee Part Two	Edward Penishands