Also, moving
May 11th 2010 21:03
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Fear And Loathing in Southern Missouri
May 11th 2010 20:50
Let's talk about fear for a moment. Or rather, the utter lack of it in modern entertainment.
When's the last time an actually scary movie came out? I can't really remember one.
I understand what it comes down to, the bottom line, and a lot of people just don't like to be actually white knuckles and edge of the seat scared, but it feels like a lot of directors don't understand any more what makes a movie scary.
A monster, villain, or eldritch abomination tends to lose a lot of its edge once you explain it. Classical example would be, say, Lovecraft. A lot of his creations were - in-universe - utterly unknowable whilst retaining sanity, and were far scarier because of it. Of course, cultural drift makes it hard to take some of his stories seriously (Rats in the Walls springs to mind, with the narrator's cat being named Nigger-man) but the ones that aren't are no less terrifying.
For an alternate take while still knowing the base concept, Stephen King. Say what you will about his endings, he understands that monsters are more unsettling when you don't know what the hell they are... and doesn't like to keep them that way. (See: IT, Crimson King)
I don't know. It seems like it should be relatively easy to make a decent horror movie that doesn't try to make the villain sympathetic, or explain him entirely.
Shameless Related Self-Promotion:
My review of Nightmare on Elm Street - A fairly decent example of why humanizing the villain makes them way less fucking scary.
When's the last time an actually scary movie came out? I can't really remember one.
I understand what it comes down to, the bottom line, and a lot of people just don't like to be actually white knuckles and edge of the seat scared, but it feels like a lot of directors don't understand any more what makes a movie scary.
A monster, villain, or eldritch abomination tends to lose a lot of its edge once you explain it. Classical example would be, say, Lovecraft. A lot of his creations were - in-universe - utterly unknowable whilst retaining sanity, and were far scarier because of it. Of course, cultural drift makes it hard to take some of his stories seriously (Rats in the Walls springs to mind, with the narrator's cat being named Nigger-man) but the ones that aren't are no less terrifying.
For an alternate take while still knowing the base concept, Stephen King. Say what you will about his endings, he understands that monsters are more unsettling when you don't know what the hell they are... and doesn't like to keep them that way. (See: IT, Crimson King)
I don't know. It seems like it should be relatively easy to make a decent horror movie that doesn't try to make the villain sympathetic, or explain him entirely.
Shameless Related Self-Promotion:
My review of Nightmare on Elm Street - A fairly decent example of why humanizing the villain makes them way less fucking scary.
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My Friends..
May 4th 2010 22:24
...and what the fuck is wrong with them?
Today was god damn surreal, even by my standards. I guess living with a big family will inure you to weird stuff, especially one as weird as mine, but even they couldn't have prepared me for this.
It started off simple enough. I made sure a friend of mine would lie if I put him down for an employment reference, and his response was to ask if I'd try some acid, to make sure it was okay. Why I would know, I dunno. I'm not a drug user, but hey, maybe it's one of those things that you just know. I guess if I started hallucinating that my skin was melting, it'd be pretty obvious.
That's not so weird, though. My friends generally try to get me to do stupid things, and aside from mind-altering substances, more often than not they succeed.
Later, a friend of mine started a conversation with 'So, I was masturbating earlier.' I had to stop him because really, there's no possible positive way that statement can go. The best outcome involves him blinding himself and it only goes downhill from there. And that was a terribly poor choice of words.
The final straw was a simple text. "Girlfriend asked me to shave the nether regions. Cut myself bad enough to need stiches."
Honestly, nothing I can say can make that any better. There are just no words.
Today was god damn surreal, even by my standards. I guess living with a big family will inure you to weird stuff, especially one as weird as mine, but even they couldn't have prepared me for this.
It started off simple enough. I made sure a friend of mine would lie if I put him down for an employment reference, and his response was to ask if I'd try some acid, to make sure it was okay. Why I would know, I dunno. I'm not a drug user, but hey, maybe it's one of those things that you just know. I guess if I started hallucinating that my skin was melting, it'd be pretty obvious.
That's not so weird, though. My friends generally try to get me to do stupid things, and aside from mind-altering substances, more often than not they succeed.
Later, a friend of mine started a conversation with 'So, I was masturbating earlier.' I had to stop him because really, there's no possible positive way that statement can go. The best outcome involves him blinding himself and it only goes downhill from there. And that was a terribly poor choice of words.
The final straw was a simple text. "Girlfriend asked me to shave the nether regions. Cut myself bad enough to need stiches."
Honestly, nothing I can say can make that any better. There are just no words.
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Welcome!
April 30th 2010 09:56
Welcome to my blog. I'd put something witty here, but hey, it's too late to be particularly witty.
The goal here is to discuss various things, with my as-yet unknown style of humorous cynicism. I may or may not wind up using large amounts of sarcasm, too[ Click here to read more ]
The goal here is to discuss various things, with my as-yet unknown style of humorous cynicism. I may or may not wind up using large amounts of sarcasm, too
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