Bunny Rant

HDC Idol Challenge #3 - Judge's Challenge

2009-02-16T08:19:00.000-08:00

For this round, each judge had created a challenge for the contestants. As a contestant, I had the fortune of choosing which judge I'd like to see the challenge of.

I choose Neverending, who gave me...

The following paragraph describes a famous location in the history of horror. Name the location and its connection to the history of horror. Pleas for more information or definition will be met with deaf ears and possible loss of points.

May not be the worst of the many districts in this quarter, but it is undoubtedly bad enough. You may pass on either side about twenty narrow avenues, leading to thousands of closely-packed nests, full to overflowing with dirt, misery and rags. the inhabitants are chiefly dock workers. The other half of the residents are thieves, professional beggars, rag-dealers. The Cimmerian darkness constitutes no small part of its wretchedness, and the brilliant lighting of the public-house gives it much of its attraction. Even the repute of many of these shady localities is due in great measure to their impenetrable gloom after nightfall. They are all enshrouded in that murky obscurity which in the apprehension of adventurers from more favored regions converts them all into possible assassins and thieves. As he catches here and there a glimpse of a face under the flickering, uncertain light of a lamp - the face perhaps of some woman, bloated by drink and distorted by passion - he may get a momentary shuddering sense of what humanity may sink to when life is lived apart from the sweet, health-giving influences.

My Answer: The Horror Significance of Whitechapel

NE's excerpt came from John Hollingshead’s 1861 book Ragged London, a chapter appropriately entitled “The Back of Whitechapel.”

Whitechapel is an inner city district in London which, by the 1840s began to draw a reputation amongst London residents of being particularly impoverished and overcrowded. As Hollingshead decried in his book, it was the classic Dickensian London, filled with poverty, depravity and socioeconomic strife. And out of this vile, wretched womb was born one of the most infamous serial murderers of all time: Jack The Ripper.

For those of you who are not familiar with Dear Ol’ Jack, he filled the Whitechapel Autumn of 1888 with sadistic terror: murdering at least five victims and suspected of slaughtering upwards to eleven. His crimes were heinous; The Ripper targeted prostitutes, mutilating his victims with everything from tearing open the abdomen, to removing the uterus, to severing a body from the throat to the spine, organs emptied and missing. And after this trail of violence, the Killer was never found, leading to urban legends and tales permeating throughout Whitechapel and London culture.

Jack The Ripper alone has had significant influence on the horror genre. The man has been the subject of dozens of fictional and non-fictional pieces of literature, including Robert Bloch’s 1941 “Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper” and follow-up “A Toy for Juliette.” According to Wikipedia, “more than 200 works of non-fiction have been published which deal exclusively with the Jack the Ripper murders, making it one of the most written-about true-crime subjects of the past century.” Alan Moore’s From Hell graphic novel series (1991 – 1998) reimaged the Ripper’s tale, and this story was then adapted to film in 2001 by the Hughes Brothers. The vile act of his crimes (disembowelment, defilement, exsanguination) have been repeated throughout the horror genre, from gore sensationalist Hershel Gordon Lewis to modern directors Wes Craven and Rob Zombie in their studies of human violence and bodily desecration.

But what really connects Whitechapel to the history of horror was the cultural and social upheaval that surrounded those 1888 murders. The Jack The Ripper case was one of the first instances of true criminal profiling. Physicians worked close with police to create a profile of the supposed killer which, of course, was published in the cheap penny papers that circulated the streets. Jack The Ripper’s crimes were the media’s first true foray into the world of sensationalized gore. While there had been murderers prior to 1888, this Autumn in Victorian England marked the revolution of print media that sparked a cultural sensation. His crimes were known as “The Whitechapel Murders,” a title created by the police and spread throughout the districts. Whitechapel was the first city to truly embrace the voyeuristic side of fear, that side that shudders at the crime, but desires to read more about its atrocities. In a sense, this is the birth of the horror audience: A whole city captivated and intrigued by the abominable acts of one of their own.

What also makes the city of Whitechapel so iconic and culpable in these crimes was the advent of The Killer’s Note and the public reaction. Through the killer’s murders, both the police and various newspapers received letters, some of them claiming to be from the Killer himself. Some of them proven to be fakes. Regardless, the entire community, for better or for worse, was involved: Letters were published and greedily read in detail. In conjunction with the publicized criminal profile, the letters created a realistic Evil ready for consumption by the general public. Whitechapel was home of one of the first instances of pure true crime horror lust. And so horror perpetuates. In a city wrought with poverty and strife, stories of Jack The Ripper were, in a sense, escapism from the dull lives of the people. People began to recognize true horror as a macabre form of entertainment. In a sense, the horror audience was born and a precedent was set for the dark reverence of the mysterious serial killer. With this pure media frenzy and public enthusiasm, Jack The Ripper and Whitechapel created a pure legend that would influence the archetype of all future serial killers and the portrayal thereof.

...

It's been a while since I've had to write an essay, critical or otherwise. And I have to say, I was pretty damn proud of this entry.

The judges awarded me with an A, and I tied for first in that round.

HDC Idol Challenge #2 - Generous Critics

2009-02-16T08:09:00.000-08:00

The Challenge:

All of you are very generous and magnanimous critics of horror flicks. You are well known for your love of horror movies of any type, even trashy, cheesy and downright awful ones. For this particular Test, you have to point out the highlights of the movies you choose, and praise them wholesomely to no end.

In other words, you have to give a very open-hearted and loving review of the movie of your choice.

Ready? Here we go...

Choose from - The Village, Alien vs Predator, Boo!, Killjoy, Boogeyman, The Exorcist II, Jaws The Revenge.

I had seen three of those movies: The Village, AVP, and Boogeyman.

However, while watching The Village, I was so incredibly plastered that it made no impression on me - Good or bad.

In terms of The Boogeyman, that film I had seen in the wee hours of the morning on the other side of the world... I was in The Philippines, it was 2 in the morning, and even in my boredom this movie couldn't keep my attention.

That leaves AVP: Alien Vs. Predator. A movie that I had actually gone to the theater to see. And watched all the way through.

Alien Vs. Predator: Modern Horror for the Intellectual
With the failure of 2000’s Alien: Resurrection, it was clear that the horror audience needed more in their franchise than just another scary monster movie. And perhaps with the advent of this addition to the franchise, those same viewers will be reticent to spend their money on “Just another Alien flick.” But this is where I must stop you and appeal: Alien Vs. Predator is not just another horror/scifi crossover franchise flick.

Veteran horror/scifi director of Event Horizon and Resident Evil, Paul W.S. Anderson is back again to frighten and entertain his fans with the latest installment of the Alien and Predator franchises. Coupled with his experienced eye is Special Effects company Amalgamated Dynamics Incorporated (ADI), whose previous work includes both Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection. The result of this cinematic pairing is two truly gruesome and believable monsters within a literal Pandora’s box of horror.

Set in a pitch black Bouvetøya, an island about one thousand miles north of Antarctica, AVP follows the story of a hapless team of scientists following a mysterious heat signal under the watchful eye (and finance) of Billionaire Charles Bishop Weyland (Lance Henriksen). The setting, a clever nod to previous scifi greats like The Thing From Another World, immediately alienates our heroes while, unbeknownst to them, a Predator ship enters the Earth’s atmosphere. The action unfolds without delay: Geiger’s iconic Alien is paired up against the galaxy’s most feared Predator within a phantasmagorical maze that would make Escher drool and will strike fear in even the most jaded film-goer.

But what really separates AVP from other films in its genre is, surprisingly, its intelligence. Where the average horror movie strives simply to shock and awe with pedestrian antagonists, cheap scares, and pitifully scantily clad coeds, AVP challenges the intelligent viewer by creating a completely original pourquoi story that reimagines one of the most debated mysteries in the history of the World: the building of the Great Pyramids. Just as the founders of ancient Egyptian society invented their pantheon, so does Paul W.S. Anderson apotheosize the canonical Predator: In this alternate history, the Predators are considered Gods, with the great structures of the ancient world being built in their honor. Never before has a horror movie created an origin story that is so fascinating and all-encompassing, touching upon the history of not only Egyptian, but also Cambodian and Aztec civilizations.

Alien Vs. Predator is not just another Alien movie. Nor is it just another Predator movie. AVP is a clever re-visioning of Origin that shows that horror doesn’t always have to be about shock and awe.

5/5

...

I gained a B for that round, again ahead of the pack...

HDC Idol Challege #1 - Alternate Reality

2009-02-16T07:58:00.000-08:00

So it's been a whole YEAR since I've posted on my blog, so I figure that it's about damn time.

My latest stint of creativity has come from a contest on HDC, a horror forum that I frequent. For the past four months, I have been a participant in HDC Idol - A challenge to determine who, in the forum shall be crowned the HORROR IDOL.

In an attempt to keep my challenge entries organized for MYSELF, I will be posting them here.

HDC Idol Challege #1 - Alternate Reality

Several critically-acclaimed flicks have failed miserably at the BO - Night of the Living Dead, The Exorcist, Jaws etc. all have been flushed down the toilets. For some reason, the audiences arent willing to accept any of those horror flicks. You are a talented and eccentric filmmaker who is hellbent on making the audiences turn towards horror. What ideas can you use to conquer such hard-headed audiences of the world?

I really scratched my head with this one... How the HELL do you sell horror to people who hate horror? It's something that I come across in my life, every day...

And then I thought... "Well, touch on what's KNOWN to rope them in... And THEN give it to 'em!"

So I came up with...

Challenge Answer: Return to Wonderland

I’ve decided that my alternate reality brings us to now, present day and this I why: I am assuming that, in this alternate reality all horror has been panned, all “Blockbusters” leading up until now, which encompasses the aforementioned Night of the Living Dead, Exorcist, and Jaws. Of course, this will also include everything from Kubrick’s The Shining (panned in 1980), to 1999’s utter disaster The Blair Witch Project, proving that the audience as a whole is not willing to embrace pure, non-diluted horror.

In coming up with my proposal, I did some preliminary research in terms of highest grossing films of all time. In order to bring horror to a public who does not like horror, one must encompass elements of the film industry’s past successes. Titanic, The Dark Knight, Star Wars, Shrek 2, and ET: The Extra-Terrestrial are the top 5 Box Office successes of all time. Recent Blockbusters of the last five years include three Pirates of the Caribbean movies, two X-Men sequels, two Spiderman sequels, and three Harry Potter movies.

The recipe for success seems to be a combination comic book heroes and anti-heroes, adventure, and pure fantastical escapism.

So we need to take that and turn it into horror.

I propose that, in order to introduce this public into the concept of horror, we must take elements of classic fairy tales (a recipe for success year after year with early Disney as well as a baseline of familiarity) while also using the vehicle of serial comic book adaptation that proved to be successful over the past few years. As an upcoming filmmaker I propose that, specifically, we take Zenescope Entertainment’s Grimm Fairy Tales’ comic spin-off mini-series Return to Wonderland and adapt it to the screen. Since this mini-series is already a cult success amongst comic book enthusiasts, we’ll already have a base for our audience. For the rest of the general public, the success in recent years of Shrek and its sequels, shows that it is clear that the public is romanced by the concept of the redone fairy tale. I think that we can springboard off of the midrange success of 2006’s Pan’s Labyrinth and push the envelope farther. Return to Wonderland possesses a decent cross-section of horror sub-genre that had been previously rejected when presented holistically in an entire film (Carpenter’s pure Slasher Halloween caused some audience members to actually vomit into their Raisinets). So, with Return to Wonderland, we introduce the audience to horror little by little: Parts of the Slasher can be found in the Queen of Hearts and her gardening Playing Cards (literally painting the roses red with the blood of their own), the Monster sub-genre can be found in the horrifying, stalking, larger-than-life Cheshire Cat, and even the sub-genre of Cannibalism and Pulp in the Lecherous Mad Hatter. The movie(s) as a whole will play delightfully with the Surreal/Fantastical horror sub-genre, which seems to be a bit more palatable to the general audience. What’s great about adapting this entire comic mini-series is that it will enable us to create a series of sequels with which to ease the public into the genre of horror while simultaneously keeping them in familiar territory with a known fairy tale.

...

This post was received well by the judges, won me a B+ for the round, and put me ahead of the competition.

SHARK VS ZOMBIE

2008-03-06T09:28:00.000-08:00

Take 1 real doped-up shark.
Combine 1 crazy stunt man in zombie make-up.

And you get...

SHARK VS ZOMBIE in the venerable Fulci's Zombie.

Possibly one of my favorite scenes in horror cinema. Ever.

The Ceti Eel

2007-11-08T18:40:00.000-08:00

I think that this is quite possibly the creepiest thing that I've seen in an hour.

30 Days of Night - Terrifying New Vampire Vision

2007-11-04T13:59:00.000-08:00

I think that humanity as a whole has goten far too comfortable with vampires. Think about Anne Rice's Louis and Lesat. Joss Whedon's Angel. Coppola's vision of Dracula. The new CBS show Moonlight. The vampires of the past 20 years embody raw, passionate, beautifully dangerous human sexuality; heterosexuality, homosexuality, virtiginous androgeny - the penetration and imbibing of fluids creating new sexual meaning. Sure, they have their pair of pointy mincers, but that's about it. It's interesting how vampires have anthropomorphized since Murnau's grotesque and iconic Graf Orlock in his 1922 film, Nosferatu. Now we have sympathetic visions of the vampire, poor creatures riddled with inner tumoil over their human/subhuman struggle, far removed from their animalistic primal origin.

But 30 Days of Night puts the monster back in the monster. The vampires in 30 Days of Night are quite possibly the most horrifying visions of the vampire that I have every seen.

The 30 Days of Night threat go far beyond the mere two sharpened canines. The vampires in this movie have a whole set of sharpened points lurking behind carnal sneers, their smooth sloping angular faces reminiscent more of sharks than of man. When they claim their victims, there are no clean bitemarks. Their victims are totally and utterly masacred. Unlike the our modern trend of vampires, who somehow manage to drain their victims of blood as cleanly and meticulously as a surgeon, their clothes and skin spotless, the vampires in 30 Days of Night unabashedly dig their teeth in, proudly wearing their victims' blood as a badge. As the movie progresses, the snow begins to fall over Alaska, white caresses the air, and blood red shines on the chins and bibs of the horrible night-stalkers. The direction is incredible and definitely creates visions of a terrorized paranoid town. The vampires created in this movie are monsters; there is no humanity left within them.

30 Days of Night is an adaptation of the graphic novel of the same name by Steve Niles. The concept is that a Family of Vampires target an Alaskan town that every year has an entire month of night. Director David Slade definitely creates an intense seige movie, emphasizing paranoia, fear, and claustrophobia. Josh Hartnett plays the believably altruistic hero and Melissa George the love interest. David Slade creates an ambiance so intense that I actually found myself holding my breath, feeling the quiet as the survivors huddled in fear and hiding.

I was definitely impressed with this movie. I went in with high expectations, and the movie held up ok (yes, only ok). The "only ok" rating comes from impending yet ultimately unsatisfying showdown (vaguely inferred so as to avoid spoilers).

But it's not that bad. I give it * * * *. Definitely a must-see for blood-thirsty vampire fans.

Dark Ride - Slasher Goes Amusement

2007-11-04T12:45:00.000-08:00

Yet another film of 2006's 8 Films to Die For (I've seen 4 so far), Dark Ride pairs an amusement park ride with a maniacal asylum-escaped killer.

Which amusement park ride?

Well, a dark ride, of course. I didn't even know that those archaic mechanical horror perambulators found at the corners and outskirts of every county fair and portable amusement center even had names!

I love dark rides! The last one that I had been lucky enough to take advantage of was at the Champlain Valley fair in Essex Junction, Vermont. My boyfriend at the time and I barely fit into that precariously rickety vehicle, and the only horror that passed through us was the unadulterated fear that we would be cast overboard around one of the tight turns... And not be able to scramble out of the wooden car of doom as the subsequent cars pile up and pile up and pile up...

Those rides aren't for adults, folks. Leave them to the skinny kids.

But I digress.

In this film, five teenagers have the presence of mind to spend the night in a Dark Ride, which ALSO happens to be the home of an escaped mental patient.

Obviously, it all goes downhill from here.

The Dark Ride itself is actually pretty creepy. The concept of being lost in a haunted house is certainly not novel, but is definitely interesting. Most of the scares come from the counterfeit apparitions that occupy the ride's every nook and corner. The killer himself uses a boy mannequin's face to hide his own, a visage that should be enough to send shivers down the audience's collective spine... But, yet, it's lacking.

I definitely have a penchant for not only all things horror, but all thing slasher as well, so movies like Dark Ride definitely catch my interest and hold a special place in my heart, even before it commences. But that's all it has going for it. It has formulaicly bad dialogue, formulaic bad acting, and formulaicly bad characters.

I'd kill them myself if I had a chance.

It gets * * . 5... But only because I love the slasher.

Save yourself the trouble; Halloween should still be available on DVD.

Penny Dreadful - Indie Take on Old Tale

2007-11-04T08:36:00.000-08:00

Penny Dreadful was one of the 8 Films to Die For 2006. It takes a fairly familiar story: The Hitchhiker. Two women pick up a hitchhiker. Car breaks down. Hitchhiker terrorizes women. Oh, and according to locals there has been a recent onslaught of gruesome murders. Oh, and apparently a woman has escaped from a local mental institution.

...

My pulp senses are metaphorically tingling with veritable delight.

...

"Penny Dreadful" by definition is a term for a specific type of British pulp novels sold to readers for, well, a penny. Strategically using this phrase as the title for this horror film definitely sets an initial tone of expected pulp (using the theme and set up of the hitchhiker; a theme that is not novel) as well as a certain sense of homage. The beginning of the movie, in fact, has a cameo of Michael Berryman of the original Hills Have Eyes fame, giving a well-done nod to seige-based isolated victim horror movies that have come before (not to mention a theme-based foreshadowing of what is yet to come). So it's clear, even at the beginning of the film, that director Richard Brandes was meticulous and attentive when putting this indie film together.

So we have a nice set-up for a cliched horror movie, but yet Brandes selects a script that does a new take on the hitchhiker urban legend mythos. In this version of the tale, Penny has an mortal fear of cars (being a survivor of a car crash when she was little), so she is already on edge at the start of the movie. Couple that with a killer who imprisons her in the car, and what you have is the typical stalker tale, but with an added sense of claustrophobia. Brandes definitely captures the car as an encasing prison with Penny as its victim.

The scares are good (definitely had me clenching my fists), the mood is certainly creepy (wonderful suspenseful build-up), and while the blood certainly does flow, it does not flow in an obscene sense.

Kudos to you, Brandes; fantastic new take of the classic urban legend.

I give it * * * *. REALLY liked it.

Fido - Another Zombie Movie... But... Different

2007-10-28T11:58:00.000-07:00

Another addition to Horror Movie October, I just watched Fido, an independent movie that becomes another addition to the increasing tome of pop culture zombie myths and lore.

Movie Highlights:

A Vision of Life After World War Z. Fido takes place, presumably, immediately after Romero's Night of the Living Dead leaves off, a zombie-ravaged 1968. The movie opens with a mock 50s propaganda film extolling the benefits of the company Zomcon, who seemingly has created a way to control and manage the zombie outbreak; by enslaving them. The concept of using the undead to your advantage is not novel; the same device employed in Land of the Dead or, even the epilogue to Shaun of the Dead. The enslaving of zombies becomes a paradigm of human cruelty. Zombies are, afterall, human, though the extent to which one can consider them human is arguable. In Fido, the Zombie Plague is SO under control, in fact, that the survivors live inside a veritable bubble of zombie-free territory. The only persistent problem facing humanity is the radiation permeating through the atmosphere that had begun the horrible catastrophe (the "radiation" was introduced in a rerelease of Night Of the Living Dead, in an attempt to "explain" the cause of the rising), so, essentially, everybody who dies becomes a zombie. Suddenly the old and the infirm are society's greatest threats, which is an incredible notion. Funerals are now controlled and licensed by the government, a ceremony that assures that the head is completely separated from the body and that the undead will never rise again. So your choice upon dying: Either become an undead slave or a desecrated body: How delightfully macabre. The premises that has been set before us is most definitely a horror-buff's wet dream.
Period piece. Taking place after the great Zombie War, society is completely frozen in post-civil rights yet pre-feminist movement. Let's remember that NLD itself was social commentary of the race riots breaking out at the time, encapsulating the spirit of civil racial unrest. This is 4 years before Ira Levin would have ridden the ground-breaking Stepford Wives, a chilling view of the 50s nuclear family, consisting of their 1 car and 2.3 children. But in this world. The Stepford Wives haven't been written yet. The feminist movement has been frozen, so what is left is the quintessential 50s world. Fido creates a brilliant period piece of the post-war 50s, from the costumes to the cards to the sets to the brilliant dialogue and campy acting. Dylan Baker as over-worked, stiff, emotionally removed and prudent Dad, focusing not on putting food on his family's table, but on the assurance that he will be able to afford a funeral for all of them, a reverse of the classic model of the nuclear family. Carrie-Anne Moss plays a brilliant Mrs. Cleaver-esque Mom, clean, beautiful, submissive, and dedicated to keeping up appearances, which, in this context, means buying a zombie (Fido) to be the family butler. K'Sun Ray plays their child (aptly named "Timmy") who is the stereotypical ostracized student, beat up by bullies and ignored by his father. The juxtaposition of the 50s family with the civilized zombie culture is an obvious comparison, as in most zombie movies; Who are the real monsters? The metaphor is futher crystalized when Dad loses interest in his familial bonds and the family's zombie, Fido suddenly becomes a surrogate father to Timmy and a confidante to Mom.
Concepts. Life after death after undeath. People die. The become the undead. They are either decapitated or they become zombie slaves. What director Andrew Currie presents us with is a sympathetic zombie culture that can learn, develop, and even manifest some memories of life. Would you want your body desecrated after life? Or would you want to live as a zombie. Dad chooses to pay out for his family to all have elaborate funerals. But Mom and Timmy: They opt for the way of the zombie.
In most zombie movies we see humans become monsters. However, can these monsters become human? In Fido, the answer is yes. While it seems clear that zombies are flesh-eating beasts when not under control, it seems that Fido is able to make the conscious decision not to hurt Billy or his family. He almost serves as a kind of Angel to billy's Buffy. Without, well, the gypsy curse of the sexual tension. I guess the concept of zombies having organic consciousness with the ability to choose right from wrong (NOT eating humans between eating humans), then are they actually zombies? And, biologically, how is that possible?

But I'm probably imposing way too much thought into this...

Anyway.

The Downside:

As much as I found this movie an absolute delight to watch (and I do mean absolute delight; the brights were bright, the nights had huge glowing fanciful moons, and every smile expanded beyond the cheekbones), and as much as I find it unique and unprecedented... Fido was, ultimately... Boring. There is a part off me that argues that being boring was the intent
(consider "Leave It to Beaver" monotony... that lasts for an hour and a half), but I'm more willing to believe that this was just an innovative concept that ultimately ran flat.

I give it * * * .

Liked it... But that's about it.

The Horror Films So Far

2007-10-22T17:11:00.000-07:00

So I've already ranted about Bug, but I figure I should list the movies that I have already seen this October... Using, of course, the 5-Star rating system.

* Hated It
** Didn't Like It
*** Liked It
**** Really Liked It
***** Loved It

Bug: * * * * * For my true and loquacious feelings about it, see my previous rant.
28 Weeks Later: * * * * * Better than the original. No fooling. I actually feel so strongly about this conviction that I might have to dedicate a future blog in its honor. Zombie and post-apocalypse fans: go see it.
The Hidden: * * Kyle MacLachlan poses as an FBI agent pretending to bring down a serial killer who turns out to be... A PARASITIC ALIEN... The only thing that raised this abysmal little film above the 1-Star rating was the introduction to one of my absolute favorite actors, Kyle MacLachlan. But even his patented charmingly eccentric thespian skills couldn't save this dud.
Zombie Nation: * Reminded me of one of those Saturday Afternoon made-for-TV USA movies... We didn't get as much as 10-minutes into it until it was revealed that the "zombies" would be distinguished from the living by being elaborately decorated in... eye makeup. That's it. There's simply no excuse for poorly-made-up zombies. Take a page from Romero's book.
The Bad Seed: * * * * * Absolute. Classic.
Reincarnation: * * * * From director Takashi Shimizu, the same director of Ju-On, the original version of The Grudge. Fantastic direction, slow and chilling horror pace, and fantastic well-made twist in a pay-off.
Planet Terror: * * * * * The first of the two Grindhouse movies, this half directed by Robert Rodriguez, and definitely the outstanding one off the two. Like From Dusk Til Dawn? This is better. A perfect parody of 70s sexploitation films, Rodriguez creates another adaptation to the zombie mythos, the "plagued" created through a mysterious gas captured and carried by Bruce Willis and his band of army men. And who is set out to fight them? Why Rose McGowan with a gun for a leg... It doesn't get much better than that.
The Abandoned: * * * * Not a perfect ghost story, but it definitely has perfected thoroughly creepy ambiance.

Movies coming up on the Netflix queue (I can hardly wait!):

We'll see how many I can get through by Halloween.

The Dionaea House

2007-10-21T17:49:00.000-07:00

Possibly one of my favorite modern horror stories... Epistolary horror lit adapted to the World Wide Web... Gave me chills the first time I read it... And I'm not generally one for reading stories online.

The Dionaea House

Apparently the plan is to turn this unique gem into a movie, though I highly doubt that it'll translate as well as it does in its current format. The problem with adapting something like this to the big screen is that it resides within a certain branch of the haunted house mythos that is ultimately difficult to depict; the sub-genre of the possessed house. Think Amnityville Horror, Poltergeist, The Shining. I use the term "possessed house" to contrast to the hunted house sub-genre of the slasher, such as Halloween, Friday 13th, and even to a greater extent, Alien.

In the latter sub-genre, the House merely serves as a medium; a means to trap our heroes and provide our monsters with a vehicle in which to haunt, stalk, and kill. In the former sub-genre, the House is the monster. Unless you are an individual with a penchant for the supernatural, the former sub-genre generally requires a bit more suspension of disbelief. Sure, there are the elements of the supernatural in Mike Meyers and Jason, but it doesn't fully come to fruition until the later episodes in the series. And I am more likely to believe in the unleashed psycho-killer than I am in a possessed house (think the Simpsons' spoof in their first Treehouse of Horror).

GOD, I love the Simpsions; What ever happened to them?

But I digress...

I think that the modern possessed haunted house story is going more in the direction of Japanese horror artisans such as Takashi Shimizu, director of Ju-on (The Grudge) or Reincarnation, one of the "8 Films to Die For" in 2006. Sure, the "monster" still is the House, but the House takes the physical manifestation of its ghosts and skeletons (literally) that extends beyond the its walls for the purpose of pure revenge (and not just of the Indian Burial Ground type).

At any rate, I guess the point that you can find within this tangled web of ranting is that The Dionaea House is a quality read... Definitely check it out. 'Tis the season, aftere all.

Time for Horror - BUG

2007-10-13T15:30:00.000-07:00

So it's that time of year again...

Halloween

And, naturally, being the crazed horror movie fan that I am, it's time to root out the best horror movies out there and watch as many as humanly possibly ("humanly" being a relative term of course).

Last night we started with the movie Bug, a modern yet not cliched take on the paranoid psychological-thriller genre.

Bug started off as an off-Broadway play (Michael Shannon, who played the male lead actually starred in the stage version in the same role), and is now adapted by William Friedkin, the acclaimed director of The Exorcist. The script is intense and minimalistic, relying heavily on writing that not only slowly builds character development, but also creates a gradual and deliberate tension between the two main characters to illustrate their descent into paranoia. Fridkin's direction serves to emphasize the frailty of the human spirit and create a feeling off claustrophobia and tension that kept me holding my breath until its final scene. The movie stars Ashley Judd, who I am more and more beginning to view as an incredibly underrated actress of our generation, Harry Connick Jr., and the aforementioned Michael Shannon in the backdrop of a melancholic and dingy trailer park in Oklahoma.

The movie has a simple plot: Down-and-out Agnes (Judd) lives alone in a trailer park, constantly fearing the return of her abusive Ex, Goss (Connick), until she meets the acquaintance of enigmatic Army Vet Peter (Shannon), whom she takes in. Agnes' life seems to be taking a turn for the better until Peter begins to become paranoid that her tiny abode is infested with bugs. Soon Agnes absorbs Peter's fears and the couple turn their home into an enclosed salvation from infestation, draping themselves with flypaper and bathing in spray.

But it's not the plot that is the main feature of the film; as Agnes and Peter become obsessed with the notion of infestation, they become paradigms for the latent paranoid yet human gravitation toward to self destruction. Friedkin expands on the psycho-thriller and creates a horrific, tortured tension while we are forced to see these two characters descend.

In short: Incredible writing creates believable yet empathetic characters while the outstanding acting of Judd and Shannon really brings the script into horrifying color. Incredibly underrated and overlooked when it came out, Bug is a tense psycho-thriller that definitely should be on your list of horror movies for this up and coming Halloween.

GOD I love good horror films. I'm not sure WHY they are so difficult to produce, yet within the bar age of serialized, cliched, unadulterated vacuous gory tripe put out by Hollywood, I am relieved that I can say that I am refreshed every once in a while. And between grasping my boyfriend's hand and holding my breath, I was certainly refreshed with Bug.

Go. See. It.