First off, not alot went on today. But that's fairly normal for a Saturday. I'm a pretty routine creature. By no means organized, but routine. I have to have a routine to do certain things or I get annoyed. For example, at work I have set times that I want to get things done by and if I don't, I start getting stressed. Or at home, I have things I like to do in an orderly fashion and if that schedule gets messed up, I grow irritable. It's weird and only applies to certain things, but it makes me happy so I live with it.
Saturdays consist of getting up and watching all my cartoons in the morning. LOL Yes, cartoons. I love them, even though I'm an adult, and someday I'll discuss a few of my favorites, but not today, since I can go on forever about cartoons, comic books, and video games. After those are over, I watch all those silly "Trash to Cash shows and Designer shows on HTV". Those events are pretty set in stone, and I normally won't leave the house until they are over. Yes, I'm weird, but that's okay, we all have our little quirks.
As for today, a friend of mine came over and brought some movies to watch. One called "Identity" which was pretty interesting and another called "28 days later" which I haven't finished watching but probably will sometime tonight. Both were thriller type movies, which I enjoy when done well.
I'm a hard critic for scary movies. I rarely run into a movie that truly frightens me. That itself is kinda funny, since when I was a kid, everything scared me. But now, I find myself analyzing scary movies to pieces as I watch them. Maybe it's my way of trying not to be scared, I don't know...but it works.
I think the last movie I watched that scared me was The Ring. That movie totally scared the crap out of me. Though I prefered the Japanese version over the Americanized version. They were both similar in many ways, but I thought the American version tried to make things deeper and more "hip" by adding rediculous plot lines and special effects. The whole horse thing had me going "huh?" and the girl at the end doing those funky super fast moves made me shake my head. Still, the movie was incredibly creepy and scared the bejeezus out of me. I slept with the tv on for over a week. LMAO
Another movie that totally freaked me out was Pet Semetary. I saw that movie for the first (and last) time when I was ten. I haven't forgotten it, and I won't ever watch it again. It was incredibly disturbing and terribly frightening. Stephen King is an amazing writer. His stories never cease to amaze (and frighten me). I highly suggest reading the book, Pet Semetary, since it's far scarier than the movie (if that is even possible). I also recommend reading The Green Mile (and watching the movie), Cujo, etc. The only film I've seen of his that annoyed me was Dreamcatcher. I thought it was utterly rediculous and a mishmash of his previous works (The Thing, Stand By Me, etc). It had the potential to be frightening, but when I saw the aliens, it totally lost it's appeal.
Most of the time, I find that seeing the monsters or aliens ruins the movie for me. Many look incredibly cliche or just plain stupid. For example, the aliens in "Signs" were just rediculous. It was a creepy movie until I saw what was causing all the mischief, and after that, I grew bored. Another good example of "bad alien" portrayal was those in "Dreamcatcher". I just don't find giant slugs with teeth frightening. Gross, but not scary. "Them" was another one. I actually laughed my head off during that entire movie, though my friend swore it scared the crap out of him at the movie theater. However, there have been a few movies where the monsters have given me the chills. Alien was a great show and truly kept you on the edge of your seat. The creatures were frightening, and I wasn't disappointed by clicheness or just dumb designer flaws. Predator (couldn't find any decent links) was another good film with a creepy bad guy from another world. Unique and impressive, I was scared of the Predator. LOL
I can't really explain my reasoning for what makes a movie scary to me or not. I've tried, but I guess it doesn't make much sense to other people. If a movie tries to be "realistic" and falls short, it doesn't frighten me. The newest flick The Texas Chainsaw Massacre left me feeling a few IQ points short when I left the theater. I was utterly disappointed in that movie, perhaps because in my opinion it tried to be "realistic". Note the word "tried". It was gross, the whole meat hook thing left me gagging, but scariness just wasn't there. It was totally predictable, and completely unbelievable. I mean, I'd like to know where that guy bought his chainsaw, because it runs unbelievably well after cutting through various metals, thickness of wood, and people's bodies. It must be a Craftsman. And how the hell does he run with that thing running? How the hell does he run with it period? Geesh...Not to mention that chick, running around screaming all the time. She doesn't get smart until the end, which really set me off. I went home in a bad mood after watching that movie. I suppose, setting all thing aside, for a hack flick, it was done well. I can't deny that the fliming was done well and it WAS creepy, but the plot and characters just kill all that for me. Not my kinda flick at all, but my friends enjoyed it greatly. If you like mindless chopping and mutilation, watch this show. It requires no thinking at all, and I guess that's the point behind a show like this.
Scary movies disappoint me now a days. Many try to go over the top to be scary by creating dumb looking monsters, stupid heros/heroines, rediculous plots, and moronic special effects. What ever happened to suspense and drama? I mean, NOT seeing the monster/bad guy is creepier than having it be in your face. And whats up with all the blood and guts? Sure, that's gross, but it's NOT scary...and too much ruins the movie. Good example, Dracula 2000. It went over the top with all the gore, and ruined them movie. They could have had some better acting too, but the last fifteen minutes was pretty cool.
When you boil it all down, I guess it's a matter of preference. Some people enjoy all the gore and guts. Some people get off having a monster jump out at them every two minutes. Some people like to see a hot bodied chick run screaming through the bushes for 2 hours. It's not my cup of tea and I'd much rather be left wondering "what if" at the end of a movie. It's the fear of the unknown that gets to me, the not knowing.
On that note, I want to recommend that everyone watch this trailer Resident Evil. Though I imagine that this movie will fall into more of the "Action/Horror" genre, the video games done by Capcom are amazing! I'm really looking forward to it!
Til next time!
Zoso
ps-pardon my horrible spelling, I'm not checking my entries...
Posted by Zoso at May 14, 2004 01:42 AM