Scott Sigler - It's Greatest Supernatural Teen Tournament Nomination Time
We've all been there: Teenagers sitting in class, listening to a teacher drone on and on about unimportant things, wishing we could simply fly away. Or, in my case, wishing I could convert the teacher's DNA to that of a drooling, mutated monster that I could squash with a cosmic hammer of doom.
We've all be ostracized at one point or another, in one degree or another, isolated, confused and embarrassed by just about anything up to and including the wind blowing funny. I think it's these feelings of confusion, of not fitting in, that make the supernatural teen such an enduring movie genre. Not popular in class? What the hell do you care, you're a witch. Or a vampire. Or a werewolf. You can (and often do) literally eat your classmates and teachers for lunch. Snotty homecoming queen giving you a hassle? No worries, you'll call down a mini plague of locusts to mess up her hair. You're busy trying to stop an invasion of demons -- does that trig test really matter all that much?
Edward Cullen from Twilight, Scott Howard from Teen Wolf, Carrie White from Carrie... many movies, many characters, but who is the greatest of them all? Well, Dear Reader, that's up to you to decide. We're taking nominations! Simply post your pick in the comments field below this column. The characters with the most nominations will make up the field of sixteen contenders, who will be announced on January 15. Your votes will determine the contenders. Your votes will decide the result of each head-to-head battle. The fights will continue in daily columns on this site, until we crown the Greatest Supernatural Teen on February 13.
The Rules:
1. Movie!: The supernatural teen has to be from a movie. You know, the
kind that played on a big screen at one point or another? Yes, we all
love Sarah Michelle Gellar, but you're not nominating her as Buffy (the
TV series), you're nominating Kristy Swanson (the movie).
2. Make that teen "supernatural." We want the character to have a supernatural element, or one that fights or interacts with supernatural elements. So, of course, Harry Potter counts, as does David (Kieffer Sutherland's vampire from The Lost Boys). The Transformer's Sam Witwicky (Shia LeBeouf) would not count, but Edgar Frog (vampire hunter teen from The Lost Boys) would.
3. Characters from pure scifi movies are out: Transformers (space robots), Star Wars (future scifi), Men in Black (high-tech aliens), X-Men (science detailed within the context of the story) and Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (future time travel) would be out. Weird Science (no way you can call that "science fiction"), Carrie (teleknesis with zero scientific explanation) and Night of the Comet (zombies are supernatural, it's just the way it is) would be in.
4. Teenager! We're looking for teens, not kids and not twenty-somethings. The kids/pre-teens/teens factor, however, is darn hard to judge. Does Cole Sear (The Sixth Sense) count? Ofelia, from Pan's Labyrinth? Those two are awful close to the "teenage" or maybe "pre-teen" level. We'll play it by ear and use common sense, so nominate away.
5. Is that movie really supernatural? The vast majority of the slasher flicks are out. Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, these guys are very resilient, true, but not really "supernatural." Freddy Krueger is, as is Chucky, so you're looking for characters that battle them on the supernatural level -- like Heather Langenkamp in Nightmare on Elm Street III: Dream Warriors. You might think Goonies is supernatural, but are there any actual ghosts in there? Nope, just physical traps. It's a thriller, not a supernatural flick, so Chunk is out!
6. When in doubt: Nominate! Admittedly, there is a ton of gray area here. Drew Barrymore's Charlie McGee (Firestarter), is she supernatural or scifi? Not sure? Then just nominate. If enough like-minded people nominate, we'll see if there's room for the borderline cases.
Get on It:
There you go, a classic tournament in the making. Bust out your IMDB
research, hit that DVD collection, IM your friends, whatever it takes
to jog the memory and get your favorite characters into the ring.
Sixteen teens enter... only one leaves with the title.
Scott Sigler writes tales of hard-science horror, then gives them away as free audiobooks at www.scottsigler.com. His new novel, Contagious, hit bookstores on December 30. If you don't agree with what Scott says in this blog, please email him scott@scottsigler.com. Please include all relevant personal information, such as your address and what times you are not home, so Scott can come visit and show you his world famous "Chicken Scissors."
I'm taking the early, easy route: Harry Potter, fo' sho'.
Carrie White for me... That movie scarred me.
ARealGirl: You? Taking the easy route? Come on, Girl, you always have deep thoughts on this blog, you've got another teen up your sleeve ...
Frank: Yep, that Carrie girl just ain't right.
Hmm, no Mutants, no Jedi, you're making this tough.
I'm tempted to go with Tina Shepard from Friday the 13th VII (she was telekinetic), but I will cast my official vote for Hermione Granger.
My nomination would be for the character Clear Rivers (Ali Larter) from Final Destination
My nomination is Kate Fuller from "From Dusk Till Dawn." I can't decide which was worse for Kate; The swarm of vampires, or the creepy inappropriate advances from Tarantino.
Sigh. OK, FDO™, have it your way. Although I think there's going to be lots of love for Harry, I've got four other nominations:
Pumpkinhead: Little dude's got it pretty rough in the afterlife. And again in this life. And so on.
Peter Pan: You want supernatural, it doesn't get more non-reality based than a kid who never grows up, wears a dress most of the time, frakkin' flies...and still the chicks dig him.
The Stygian Triplets from Kevin Smith's Dogma: interdimensional within the movie and badass enough to use their hockey stick to "tear" the film stock itself. Plus, moody.
Clark Kent...his nickname is Sups. Also, like our pal Petie, he gets all the girls even though he wears tights and a cape for a night on the town.
Better?
I'll throw a couple of new ones out there:
Yegor - Nightwatch and Daywatch (Russian films by the director of Wanted. If you haven't seen these, do yourself a favor and find them dubbed in English)
Will Stanton - The Seeker: The Dark is Rising
David Rice - Jumper
And I'll second the Stygian Triplets, good call on that one.
Buffy would eat Edward alive. have you seen here fight with an axe? holy jesus on a cracker she is hot!
VOID: This is nominations, so both votes count. Tina is a great call.
CJ Wellman: Final Destination, that's a good call.
CW: Nice! I hadn't even thought of Nightwatch and Daywatch.
RealGirl: Peter Pan? Dammmnnn! That is definitely digging into the bag o' tricks.
Okay, as much as I adore Peter Pan and have frequently been compared to him, he's the BOY who never grew up. No way he's a teenager. Nice try RealGirl.
Few nominations of my own:
Milla Jovovich from The Fifth Element, the Resident Evil series, and the Messenger. Her age is indeterminate in all three. Are we talking about the character or the actress? And the Fifth Element is definitely more on the supernatural side than the sci-fi side IMHO. But the FDO is the final arbiter of these things. Going with the when in doubt nominate policy here.
Claire Danes from Stardust. Yeah, definitely going with character on this one. No way she's *actually* a teenager anymore ;)
Emma Watson from the Harry Potter films. What's this? An actress who's actually playing a teenager? You don't say....Must be the British thing.
And a couple I'm sure won't even make the nominees list they're so old now:
Joanne Whalley (Kilmer) in Willow. Yeah, she was a teenager, or playing one way back in 1988. That was 20 years ago.
Sandahl Bergman in Conan the Barbarian. One of my all time favorite fantasy films. Not a whole lot of supernatural element, but there's James Earl Jones turning himself into a snake, Mako bringing Arnie back from the dead, and Sandahl saving his ass from the afterlife. Is that enough?
Arioch: Quite an impressive list. It's for the character that's a teen, not the actor/actress. So, Mila is out, but characters from Willow or Conan the Barbarian work great.
Sad to say, but my nominations are:
Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson): Twilight
Emmett Cullen (Kellan Lutz): Twilight
my vote is for hermione... she's a smart chick who's still pretty badass (and magical)
I think I'm leaning toward
Sean Crenshaw from Monster Squad
He had absolutely nothing going for him except
a geeky obsession with monsters and he got the
job done.
Lyra Belacqua from Golden Compass
Judy Shepherd (Kirsten Dunst) from Jumanji
Lydia (Winona Ryder) from Beetlejuice
Kat Harvey from Casper
Thought I'd throw in a few good horror noms, since they seem to be lacking...!
Ginger (Katharine Isabelle) from Ginger Snaps (best female werewolf ever!)
Samara Morgan (Daveigh Chase) from The Ring - not sure of the age, she might be 9-13 years old.
Claudia (Kirsten Dunst) from Interview with the Vampire--she may have been 5 in the book, but in the movie she was about 12
Donnie Darko (Jake Gyllenhaal) from Donnie Darko - being able to talk to 6-foot bunny rabbits named Frank is pretty supernatural
Damien (Jonathan Scott-Taylor) from Damien: Omen II - you can't get more supernatural than the Antichrist
and finally
Reagan (Linda Blair) from The Exorcist
Oh! Just thought of:
Tamara (Jenna Dewan) from Tamara - coming back from the dead to get your revenge on the classmates who killed you? Perfect!
Icepick: That's a damn good lineup. Lydia from Beetlejuice? I should turn in my Horror Badge right now for not thinking of that.
Spoffk: Dannnng, the Samra Morgan call is gold. Might be a little young, but she climbs up the side of wells like a Chinese gymnast (who are, of course, teenagers), so she's in.
With all due respect to Buffy, my nom is for another Whedon creation...
Summer Glau as River Tamm. (Firefly/Serenity)How could she be left out???
KJ32: Is River Tamm "supernatural?" Serenity is pretty hardcore SciFi, no?
I have quite a few...though I'm disappointed this is movies only as Tommy Dawkins from "Big Wolf on Campus" would be one of my nominations. :(
Anyway...
*Edward Cullen
*Alice Cullen
*Carrie White
*Tristian Thorn ("Stardust", had to endure an evil witch chasing him as well as being watched over by ghostly brothers.)
And Vampire Baseball beats Werewolf Basketball any day.
Arioch Come on, Peter Pan is no more a boy than I am (you'll have to trust me that it's me in my avatar, but I don't have a bit of boy in me.) He's a instigator, anti-establishmentarian, and a playa. He's using the "boy" moniker to fool the powers-that-be. Capt. Hook would surely try him as an adult, if he were to ever actually have a trial. I say he counts.
I'll second the nominations for Kate Fuller, Hermione, and Lydia.
Yeah, your right, Serenity is sci-fi, but the character has a few qualities that can definately be classified as supernatural.
Alright, then I'll have to throw my nom to Harry Potter. Although the bulk of the nominations seem to be leaning towards female characters, I'd have to take Potter over Granger.
KJ32: You can nominate both, fo sho, just checking that River is supernatural. I didn't see the supernatural side, but if you make a case for it, she's in.
Hail FDO, there can be only one answer. The one, the only embodiment of all nature and magic. Sarah Bailey as played by Robin Tunney in The Craft.
how about the main character from teen witch?
Its got to be the Dragon Reborn himself Rand Al Thor from Robert Jordan's 'The Wheel of Time series. Spoiler Alert to anybody who is planning on/is reading the books!
Anybody who can get his hand cut off and have no reaction has got to be the ultimate bad ass. He has also blatantly killed more people than even the FDO™ himself! (and thats an achievement.) Admittedly he is older than 20 at this point in the series (albeit just) but at the beginning he was a teen.
I think Rex Deprovdechuk has to come a close second - I mean come on he got off on killing his bullies (quite literally.) Now that's disturbing
aljoho: Those would be great, if they were in a movie! Has Wheel of Time been turned into a movie yet? I wish NOCTURNAL was a movie, that's for damn sure.
Whoops just found the has to be a Movie part (totally missed it) although, that said Universal have optioned RJ's WoT so it may be made into a film. Still I realize my entries are null so my new nomination is: Carrie White - that is some crazy shiz
Nice list so far. Got a more obscure one to add to the pot.
Gillian Bellaver from 'The Fury' (1978) played by Amy Irving. Blows a man up from the inside out just using her brain!
Here's the scene - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njSrP-B4VN0
Okay the POLLS ARE CLOSED...
The year 1982, the character Barney Springboro.
Who is Barney Springboro you ask, ever hear of the Classic American Icon movie "Zapped" and greatest actor on the planet, Scott Baio. I rest my case. Oh crap, that is Sci Fi not Supernatural, okay Harry Potter.. Blah..
Edward Cullens:
Vampires started as the embodiment of a romantic theme. After all there is the feeling of being mezmerized by someone and an exchange of fluids... quite the raw stuff of most older teens.
Cougar_Jan aka cjstiffler
Fayded: Scott Baio as Barney Springboro? Frickin' NICE!
Martyndarkly: You always have that big historical view of cinema, I like that pick.
Alright Sigler, I read your blog plenty, but this one got me to sign up for an account. Hope you're pleased with yourself.
I can't believe some of these people have not gotten a mention.
Oz from Buffy
I'd say a charming werewolf/musician should always be there, despite the absolutely terrible Werewolf effects used on that show.
Willow from Buffy
She rips all of a guy's skin off with her mind. I'd say that's pretty hard-freakin'-core.
Clare from Heroes
Some may argue that Heroes is Sci-Fi, but please, it's supernatural with a sci-fi filter over the lens.
Oh... damn... I just saw that "has to be from a movie" bit.
Uh...
River Tam
Serenity is Sci-Fi, no doubt, but River Tam is undoubtedly a supernatural character. Telepathy? Yeah, that's supernatural.
Anakin Skywalker/Luke Skywalker
First off, yes, they are from Starwars, but excluding that "midi-chlorians" B.S. the force is a supernatural element of a Sci-Fi world. Secondly, depending on the budget, these kids can do the wildest things. Sure, Luke's most amazing feat was staring at a lightsaber really hard and getting it to move a few feet, but with the budgets nowadays? Sucka would've been doing backflips and all kinds of crazy moves.
yeliw: Sorry friend... Oz, Willow, Clare? Not from the movies, so they don't make the cut, I don't think.
Maybe Pike & Benny from Buffy (the movie version?) Or Buffy herself?
How about that pale albino kid from Powder?
melvin ferd
the Toxic Avenger
too SciFi
I think not.
Hmm.
I think I'll throw in Carrie White and that girl from the Friday the 13th film. She was a psychic who took down Jason.
me: I think Melvin is NOT "too scifi," but how old is he in that movie?
yeliw: Which Friday the 13th had the psychic? Wasn't the first one ...
I would have suggested River from Serenity but I thought she wouldn't count because they went out of their way to explain that the medical procedures done to her is what caused her telepathy and the brainwashing helped with her fighting.
I'd second the nomination of the girls from Teen Witch if only for that crazy "Top That!" rap-off moment.
I think the psychic was in the 5th or 6th one. It's the only Friday the 13th movie that I've watched all the way through (that wasn't in 3d, anyway)
I'd like to nominate Jennifer Corvino from Argento's Phenomena (1985). She's like the Teen Dr. Doolittle of insects (if Dr. Doolittle had to solve bloody murders.) Plus it helps that she's played by a very young Jennifer Connelly.
I'd like to nominate Jennifer Corvino from Argento's Phenomena (1985). She's like the Teen Dr. Doolittle of insects (if Dr. Doolittle had to solve bloody murders.) Plus it helps that she's played by a very young Jennifer Connelly.
Now. For my opinion
1st- Milla Jovovich (violet from ultraviolet) basically buffy only she is a vampire, she is Russian(hotter), and a little bit more dark and edgy.
2nd- Tamara from tamara she dies she comes back kills everyone, good clean fun. ( and when she says who wants to pitch and who wants to catch, i almost died of laughter:) )
These next couple im sorry i have to say them
3rd-Edward Cullen- Twilight He can read minds and look sexy while he does it. Do i have to say robert pattinson or can i just say edward cullen because i do not associate the two.
4th-Alice Cullen- Twilight (ashley Greene) She is amazing not only can she tell the future but she can pitch while kicking her leg up!(one of my favorite scenes)(i would watch baseball if they played like this)
5th-Hemione Granger -harry potter Emma watson (She has intellect class and she is beautiful did i mention she was a witch?)
6th-Draco Malfoy-harry potter-tom felton- you have to give props to the bad boys in a movie he may be mean but he sure does make it all look like fun:)
Mostly i'm suprised violet hasnt made the list yet if you havent seen the movie watch it she will surely become one of your favorites too
Okay.. so I may be stretching it a bit but:
Frodo -> he's a teen for a Hobbit and kicks a LOT of supernatural ass....
Kathy Kriticos (13 Ghosts) -> not the best of movies I know but kinda guilty pleasure to watch... and hey, she's not bad on the eyes....
I'll have to keep thinking, my brain wants there to be more but it's still not working right thanks to the beating of reading thru Infected and Contagious already this week... damn you Sigler!
SupernaturalNick: Nick, Violet from Ultraviolet isn't a teenager. She's out!