The Blair Witch Project
wiki / imdb
This film was a pretty big deal to a 12 year old slothmonster when it dropped. It was right around the time I discovered independent and low/micro/no-budget films and combined my new found obsession with them with my love of the paranormal, unsolved mysteries and the woods in the fall. It was also scary as hell and really, still is. If you can suspend disbelief and distance yourself from the countless times it was parodied and lampooned all over the place and take it at face value it really is a smart, unnerving horror film that relies more on atmosphere, conflict amongst the characters and the sheer desperation of their situation to create the horror as opposed to the standard fare of jump scares and monsters. After rewatching it the other day I was surprised at just how scary a simple pile of rocks or a bundle of sticks in crude effigy could be.
They Live!
I'm not really sure if this counts as a Horror film because really it's more of a Science Fiction story but I'm going to include it anyway because it's themes tap into some pretty scary shit and the aliens in the film are pretty skeletal looking.
I love John Carpenter, If I grow up to be John Carpenter I'll be a happy guy. They Live! is probably my favourite Carpenter film, not because it's the best but because it's the most fun and the one which speaks most directly to my own sensibilities. It's got a lot going on it, aliens, poverty, revolution, conspiracy. It has a ridiculous 5 and a half minute fight scene, it's got guns, it's got people being thrown out of windows and plummeting to what would surely be a quick death if those people weren't Rowdy Roddy Piper. The basic plot is hardened drifter "Nada" as played by Rowdy Roddy Piper wanders into LA, homeless, looking for work. He gets a job working on a construction site where he meets Frank who brings Nada to a shanty town. It's there where Nada's curiousity gets the best of him and he notices somethings up in the church across the street. The next night a government raid takes place on the church leaving the place in shambles save for a hidden box of sunglasses that Nada finds the next day. He tries a pair on walking through the city only to find they're frequency descramblers and he's able to see the world for what it really is. And things just aren't as they seem.
The original [rec] was one of the scariest movies I had seen along time. I watched it on the dark on my laptop, alone, with headphones on. It scared the hell out of me a couple times. I rewatched it several months later with a friend and while it wasn't that scary it still held up as a good movie. That's basically my feelings on [rec]2. Alot of you may be familiar with [rec] or it's plot because it had a shot for shot American remake starring Dexter's sister Deb called "Quarantine" I haven't seen it but I hear it's pretty much the same movie without the Catholic stuff at the end. So I'm not 100% sure if [rec]2 could also be considered a sequel to Quarantine because the Catholic sub-plot introduced at the end of the first film is very heavily in play here.
From there on out Nada makes it his mission to get to the bottom of things. It's a fun ride definitely worth the price of admission. It's interesting because you can see it's influenced alot of people and art after it. From Cage (opening sample on Teenage Death) To Shepard Fairey (pretty much the entire OBEY campaign.) They Live has made it's ripples. You can also Watch The Movie in It's Entirety RIGHT HERE!!
[rec]2
The original [rec] was one of the scariest movies I had seen along time. I watched it on the dark on my laptop, alone, with headphones on. It scared the hell out of me a couple times. I rewatched it several months later with a friend and while it wasn't that scary it still held up as a good movie. That's basically my feelings on [rec]2. Alot of you may be familiar with [rec] or it's plot because it had a shot for shot American remake starring Dexter's sister Deb called "Quarantine" I haven't seen it but I hear it's pretty much the same movie without the Catholic stuff at the end. So I'm not 100% sure if [rec]2 could also be considered a sequel to Quarantine because the Catholic sub-plot introduced at the end of the first film is very heavily in play here.
As I mentioned earlier [rec]2 falls into a bit of "more of the same" trappings and it loses alot of it's scariness because of it. I think the directors could tell so they added another layer of Horror over top of the creepy apartment complex and jumpscares with the demon possession and the connotations that it brings up. The film kinda comes off as The Exorcist meets Cloverfield in the creepy mansion from the first Resident Evil game and that's A-Ok but I guess my lack of religion realy prevented me from being all too scared, which is ok too because the movie itself is cool as hell. The idea of it being shot from the helmets of a SWAT team is awesome and there's a quite a few cool deaths and zombie kills for such a small cast. There's a few plot devices thrown into the mix through out the movie to create tension and while you can tell that's what they are they didn't bother me too much and were really quite effective. I'd recommend this to just about anyone as if you haven't seen the original or the remake there's plenty to scare you here and if you're a fan of the original it's a worthy sequel.
No comments:
Post a Comment