Showing posts with label Horror. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Horror. Show all posts
Monday, June 01, 2009
Hope for Horror
Metacritic, one of my favorite sites for entertainment reference, is making a strong case for Drag Me to Hell as a good flick, possibly one of the best horror movies in a long time. It always makes me happy to see positive reviews for horror movies as I'm a big fan of the genre. Sam Raimi, long before he was the excellent director of the Spider-Man movies, was the gloriously fun director of the Evil Dead horror franchise as well as a major part of the Xena: Warrior Princess series. Mr. Raimi understands the importance of action and humor, and he knows how to make good horror. Far from being a horror-only auteur, Raimi demonstrated his range as a director (see A Simple Plan), and his prolific resume shows major input on several franchises. I hope to see Drag Me to Hell in the theaters as having an audience to laugh and scream with is a major perk of this movie. Getting out is harder these days, but it increases the impact a theater or movie experience has on me. I'm still thinking about Red Noses, a fantastic production from Strawdog Theatre that just closed. I'm excited to see Dead Wrong from my own Factory Theater as it looks to deliver a few thrills and chills of its own. It's murder-mystery-horror, as only the Factory can do. Like Mr. Raimi, I believe the Factory knows the worth of a good laugh and the impact of a startled jump. We work from our guts. Good horror and humor are visceral experiences, so they should produced well and enjoyed to the fullest of their success. I hope Drag Me to Hell has a positive, lasting impact on the horror genre as it constantly needs a good hit to keep it alive. The Factory Theater is the same way. I believe in both.
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
Other Developments in Local Stage Horror
Time's rapidly dwindling to see Operation Infiltration at the Factory Theater. Just like my previous acting experience with the Factory Theater, I've immensely enjoyed the ensemble, the cast, and the process. It's been a welcome balm in a frustrating year. The past twelve months peppered life with heights and plummets, but the Factory shows stand out as powerfully good times.
Come and support my local mental balm.
Come and support my local mental balm.
Monday, August 14, 2006
Back into Horror
Can't get away from it, especially after seeing a truly fine example of the horror genre in The Descent. I've been moaning about the current state of horror movies as I see them and talking about some new developments in the genre, mostly from Asian cinema, but it had still been a long time since I genuinely got scared watching a movie. Not after this weekend.
When I first heard a commercial for The Descent, I thought it might be another shlockly gore-fest along the lines of Hostel or the remake of The Hills Have Eyes. The deep-voiced voice-over guy who reads copy for most horror commercials opens the commercial with (paraphrased), "People are concerned that amount of blood and gore in The Descent goes too far." The basic premise is that a group of young women into extreme sports adventure get together to try exploring a deep cave system in the remote Appalachian Mountains. The caves contain a few surprises (creepy creatures being only one of them) and so do the interactions between the characters. It is true that there is plenty of blood and gore, but, I know it sounds silly, the gore is purposeful. I'll continue to write about this while trying not to give too much away.
Along with purposeful gore, a reason The Descent works is because it successfully combines four primal human fears: enclosed spaces, heights, darkness, and monsters. The scariest parts of this movie don't even involve the monsters. While the beasties are scary (and provide the best jump moments), what is truly frightening is the suffocating feel that the caves create as the women delve further into the earth. Another reason the movie works (and this is where Hostel and The Hills Have Eyes remake failed miserably) is because the characters aren't stupid. They are people out of their element and their vulnerabilities are clearly exposed, but they don't have inconvenient stumbles while being chased or have overly convenient lapses in judgment. Furthermore, the protagonists are all women and they are all strong women, which I found a welcome approach. Writer/Director Neil Marshall gives his women just enough development into their character and excels at building the fear through vulnerable surroundings. The caves are dark, there are numerous places to fall far down into deep pits and narrow cracks where slim bodies can barely squeeze through or easily get stuck. Those surroundings are scary enough. Spice in some shadowy crawlers that tear flesh with their teeth and there are four deadly elements to create plenty of shivers and jumps.
Finally, to return to the gore, the movie works because the characters fight for survival against the elements and frightening predators that pitilessly kill just like any other animal or element. Animals eat people. When people get eaten, gory things happen. Thus, purposeful gore that is ripe for horror fodder, especially when paired with elemental combat against nature and somewhat supernatural nasties. The fight for survival is thrilling as the women descend into savagery to match their creature and nature antagonists. There is more than one Cro-Magnon moment that's very satisfying. The icing on the cake is the interactions between the characters and how their relationships break down or strengthen in the circumstances, especially between two characters with a history. I won't say more as it would spoil the richness.
So go to this movie. See it in the theater because you can share the inevitable titters with those around you as you experience fears and jumps together. If horror is your love, this is an exotic romance in a rich land with an alluring partner. Enjoy your night together.
When I first heard a commercial for The Descent, I thought it might be another shlockly gore-fest along the lines of Hostel or the remake of The Hills Have Eyes. The deep-voiced voice-over guy who reads copy for most horror commercials opens the commercial with (paraphrased), "People are concerned that amount of blood and gore in The Descent goes too far." The basic premise is that a group of young women into extreme sports adventure get together to try exploring a deep cave system in the remote Appalachian Mountains. The caves contain a few surprises (creepy creatures being only one of them) and so do the interactions between the characters. It is true that there is plenty of blood and gore, but, I know it sounds silly, the gore is purposeful. I'll continue to write about this while trying not to give too much away.
Along with purposeful gore, a reason The Descent works is because it successfully combines four primal human fears: enclosed spaces, heights, darkness, and monsters. The scariest parts of this movie don't even involve the monsters. While the beasties are scary (and provide the best jump moments), what is truly frightening is the suffocating feel that the caves create as the women delve further into the earth. Another reason the movie works (and this is where Hostel and The Hills Have Eyes remake failed miserably) is because the characters aren't stupid. They are people out of their element and their vulnerabilities are clearly exposed, but they don't have inconvenient stumbles while being chased or have overly convenient lapses in judgment. Furthermore, the protagonists are all women and they are all strong women, which I found a welcome approach. Writer/Director Neil Marshall gives his women just enough development into their character and excels at building the fear through vulnerable surroundings. The caves are dark, there are numerous places to fall far down into deep pits and narrow cracks where slim bodies can barely squeeze through or easily get stuck. Those surroundings are scary enough. Spice in some shadowy crawlers that tear flesh with their teeth and there are four deadly elements to create plenty of shivers and jumps.
Finally, to return to the gore, the movie works because the characters fight for survival against the elements and frightening predators that pitilessly kill just like any other animal or element. Animals eat people. When people get eaten, gory things happen. Thus, purposeful gore that is ripe for horror fodder, especially when paired with elemental combat against nature and somewhat supernatural nasties. The fight for survival is thrilling as the women descend into savagery to match their creature and nature antagonists. There is more than one Cro-Magnon moment that's very satisfying. The icing on the cake is the interactions between the characters and how their relationships break down or strengthen in the circumstances, especially between two characters with a history. I won't say more as it would spoil the richness.
So go to this movie. See it in the theater because you can share the inevitable titters with those around you as you experience fears and jumps together. If horror is your love, this is an exotic romance in a rich land with an alluring partner. Enjoy your night together.
Thursday, June 01, 2006
Horrible Horrors
Back to horror movies (a favorite subject):
What I want to do is think back to the primal and the viscerally terrifying within the cinema. That’s what modern Japanese horror movies have done. They're fresh. They draw upon the same instincts that make the older horror movies so scary: primal fear. Everything else is a copy or it’s gimmicky. Saw is cool, but it’s not based in primal fear: it's mind gimmicry. What makes The Exorcist so scary (like so many other successful horror movies, in my mind) is that it taps a most basic fear in many people: assault from the unknown and, even more, the unpredictable and unexplainable. Same with Nightmare on Elm Street. It’s a movie about dreams: something we can’t totally explain or defend ourselves from. Technology and Science have made so many things much more controlled and predictable. Ghosts and demons are still scary, but they seem to have lost the edge. Buffy and The X-Files made those things more accessible while still leaving them scary, but familiarity drained the mystique. Same with cars breaking down in extra-rural America (i.e., out of cell phone range) where there are murderous hillbillies or truckers. Part of Stephen King’s success comes from his ability to mine something that so many people have thought about at one time or another: what if I get attacked by a vicious dog, what if my other pets decide to become uncontrollable animals and turn on me, what if that funny looking clown is actually evil, what if a super-sickness wipes out all of civilization, what if someone could predict exactly how & when other people are going to die? And so on and further.
Recently, there have been a couple of new things in horror movies, mainly from across the Pacific. Sure, a videotape that kills people is a rather silly and kitschy concept, but it was new, and the execution was spectacular. It tapped into the primal fear of something strange and deadly, just like other Japanese films have done with basic concepts such as curses or angry spirits. I’d like to find something that is contemporary but still retains that sense of the primal unknown/unpredictable that yanks the basic fear right out of your guts. The slap of cold water to your face that makes your innards grind before you feel the ice on your feet. All my boredom-numb blasted mind can come up with at the moment is something evil lurking on the Internet, but that won’t work. Fear Dot Com had the chance to do internet horror and failed convincingly. The idea of a malevolent website won’t work now. But maybe something that goes back to the wilderness, the primal, while still having to do with modern technology (not something Terminator-esque) will do. Maybe that's the ticket to contemporary horror, but maybe not. With all the re-makes going on, society is begging for something else.
In case you're interested, there's previous musings on horror movies here. What can I say? I love 'em.
Oh, and here's an example of a really good horror movie that works well with the primally and viscerally terrifying.
By the way, Dee Snider will be hosting "Fangoria Radio" on Sirius satellite radio channel 120 starting June 25. I'll be interested to hear that, though Dee will have to prove his horror knowledge. Here's hoping.
UPDATE: I listened to Fangoria radio and I liked. Dee's got his work cut out for him, but so far, so good. It airs Friday nights at 10PM ET on Sirius 102.
ANOTHER UPDATE: The "response" to this post was almost better than the original post itself. See below. I left in a really long post from another anonymous douchebag that you don't have to read; just skip to my comment immediately after. I'm glad that this post was my most trafficked one, and I still don't know why this particular post would seem to be a great place to post links. Maybe there's more people online looking for good horror movies than I thought.
What I want to do is think back to the primal and the viscerally terrifying within the cinema. That’s what modern Japanese horror movies have done. They're fresh. They draw upon the same instincts that make the older horror movies so scary: primal fear. Everything else is a copy or it’s gimmicky. Saw is cool, but it’s not based in primal fear: it's mind gimmicry. What makes The Exorcist so scary (like so many other successful horror movies, in my mind) is that it taps a most basic fear in many people: assault from the unknown and, even more, the unpredictable and unexplainable. Same with Nightmare on Elm Street. It’s a movie about dreams: something we can’t totally explain or defend ourselves from. Technology and Science have made so many things much more controlled and predictable. Ghosts and demons are still scary, but they seem to have lost the edge. Buffy and The X-Files made those things more accessible while still leaving them scary, but familiarity drained the mystique. Same with cars breaking down in extra-rural America (i.e., out of cell phone range) where there are murderous hillbillies or truckers. Part of Stephen King’s success comes from his ability to mine something that so many people have thought about at one time or another: what if I get attacked by a vicious dog, what if my other pets decide to become uncontrollable animals and turn on me, what if that funny looking clown is actually evil, what if a super-sickness wipes out all of civilization, what if someone could predict exactly how & when other people are going to die? And so on and further.
Recently, there have been a couple of new things in horror movies, mainly from across the Pacific. Sure, a videotape that kills people is a rather silly and kitschy concept, but it was new, and the execution was spectacular. It tapped into the primal fear of something strange and deadly, just like other Japanese films have done with basic concepts such as curses or angry spirits. I’d like to find something that is contemporary but still retains that sense of the primal unknown/unpredictable that yanks the basic fear right out of your guts. The slap of cold water to your face that makes your innards grind before you feel the ice on your feet. All my boredom-numb blasted mind can come up with at the moment is something evil lurking on the Internet, but that won’t work. Fear Dot Com had the chance to do internet horror and failed convincingly. The idea of a malevolent website won’t work now. But maybe something that goes back to the wilderness, the primal, while still having to do with modern technology (not something Terminator-esque) will do. Maybe that's the ticket to contemporary horror, but maybe not. With all the re-makes going on, society is begging for something else.
In case you're interested, there's previous musings on horror movies here. What can I say? I love 'em.
Oh, and here's an example of a really good horror movie that works well with the primally and viscerally terrifying.
By the way, Dee Snider will be hosting "Fangoria Radio" on Sirius satellite radio channel 120 starting June 25. I'll be interested to hear that, though Dee will have to prove his horror knowledge. Here's hoping.
UPDATE: I listened to Fangoria radio and I liked. Dee's got his work cut out for him, but so far, so good. It airs Friday nights at 10PM ET on Sirius 102.
ANOTHER UPDATE: The "response" to this post was almost better than the original post itself. See below. I left in a really long post from another anonymous douchebag that you don't have to read; just skip to my comment immediately after. I'm glad that this post was my most trafficked one, and I still don't know why this particular post would seem to be a great place to post links. Maybe there's more people online looking for good horror movies than I thought.
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Horrors!
My mind got rolling around last night, thanks to a great conversation with several good folks after a delightful Factory Theater show (go see it; lots of fun). Not only was the Factory Show a welcome break from the job stress and general Anxiety Monday dynamic, but I also got to talk about one of my favorite subjects: horror movies. Many topics within the subject were bandied about in the bar (Wes Craven, High Tension, really good movie scares, and lots more), but one of my favorite topics was the course of horror movies today. I saw Hostel, which was crazy over-the-top gore, but I have not seen the re-make of The Hills Have Eyes, originally done by Wes Craven. Apparently, The Hills Have Eyes goes much farther than Hostel in certain scenes in terms of realism. When I see the The Hills Have Eyes remake, I suspect I'll take issue with it if the gore and sadism is focused on being as real and graphic as possible. Horror movies are swinging back towards a trend they reached in the late 1980s when gore and special effects took precedence over scares and stories. Here's the thing: I love my gore and I love my sadism in horror movies. They're integral. I also love to have the shit scared out of me; gore is usually not as applicable to fright as is good composition. I want one or the other from my horror movies. I want straight-up shallow characters getting hacked to glorious bit with lots of bloody squibs, naked boobs, nubile-young-and-dumb victims from frat boys to coeds, comical torture, cheesy dialogue, and predictable settings. Or, I want a well-constructed scare along the lines of The Ring or the first Nightmare on Elm Street. I don't need ultra-realism from my horror. My own mind is sadistic and gore-filled enough; I don't need my horror fed to me. Intensely effective horror/torture scenes don't show all the details. A Clockwork Orange, Bill Pullman's nuts getting hammered in The Serpent and the Rainbow, and Janet Leigh's run-in with androgynous biker thugs in Touch of Evil all spring to mind, and there are many others. These movies left the money shot up to your mind, where it's far more depraved and horrible than any special effect could conjure, certainly if you have my mind. I'll still watch the Hills remade, just because of curiosity, but I wish for the swing back to a well-balanced horror genre of scare with story and effective gore. Otherwise, some outraged, uptight social group is going slow the genre down because of whatever spiritual virtue of theirs is getting too molested. I fear for our society if we don't get ourselves a good dose of movie horror.
The Second Horror Movie Soapbox Moment
A Truly Good Horror Movie
The Second Horror Movie Soapbox Moment
A Truly Good Horror Movie
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