Horror Films...what works, what doesn't, whys and whynots..with a top ten list of course

Read a rather interesting review of Whedon and Goddard's Cabin in the Woods by Lisa Schwarzbaum in Entertainment Weekly. Normally not a huge fan of this reviewer...who went ga-ga over Fifty Shades of Grey. But, she does say a couple of insightful non-spoilery things about this particular horror trope:

1. As the stakes become greater, storytellers Whedon and Goddard creep right up to the lip of a really interesting chasm of hell. They cha-cha around the abyss. And then they ...Nah, preferring to play with the symbols of scary movies rather than sincerely provoke and explore fear itself. And so, as countless squibs of fake blood explode and chaos reigns, this viewer is left to wonder: What does it take these days to really, seriously horrify the target audience for Cabin in the Woods?

2) Where are the intrepid genre filmmakers willing to be unironic, challenging viewers comfortable with game-style plot twists and the digitized world of mash-ups and re-tweets in which the amused head is more familar than the aroused heart? In production notes, Whedon reports with pride that ' Goddard is a true horror aficionado. He's the kind of horror director who'll spend a day watching different blood splatters to find the right one.' The scary truth is, the right blood splatters don't mean splat in a movie that feels like a game.

Her third point...

There's a lot of buzz around this movie, but it means little without the power to stir our actual blood. "The movie's biggest surprise may be that the story we think we know from modern scary cinema - that horror is a fun, comic game, not much else - here turns out to be pretty much the whole enchilda."[ETA: Further down under top ten horror films, I discuss Texas Chainsaw Massacre II - which makes me think more of Cabin in the Woods - both are black comedies about the horror genre, which became cult hits.]

( Hunger Games vs. Cabin in the Woods and other films in the horror as a game trope. )

Anyhow..the reviewer's comment: "Where are the intrepid genre filmmakers willing to be unironic, challenging viewers comfortable with game-style plot twists and the digitized world of mash-ups and re-tweets in which the amused head is more familar than the aroused heart?" This.. got me to thinking about what horror films touched my heart and stepped outside of the game-style plot. What are the "A" horror flicks opposed to the "B" pulp ones. What are the horror films that truly scared me, kept me awake at night, and I remember now with a weird sort of love that borders on the purely masochistic? [And as an aside - What are yours? What films truly scared you? What horror films moved you? What films did you love with masochistic abandon, often watching many many times? What do you look for in a horror flick, assuming you like the genre at all? For me? It's character, a sense of wit or humor that comes from the characters, and a pull at the heart. Mix of humor and heart, and surprise.]

I like the horror genre far more than I'm willing to admit. I'm curious about horror films. Find myself seeking out the reviews, and wanting to watch the films. And horror like all things is a personal. What scares us...is a unique thing. When universal, magical.

( Cut mainly for length. This is a very long meta on the horror genre, starting with ten great horror films that I find memorable and the tropes they are a part of. Also commentary on the horror genre in general and on why I see horror films and why they are made or even told. )

Stop the Arizona birth control Bill

[Some one actually created a bill about this? Forget about sexism for a second... In a world with teenage pregnancies and overpopulation, hunger, famine, high unemployment, and bone crushing poverty? Are they frigging insane? If I lived in Arizona, I'd do a lot more than sign a petition. I'd find a way to boot that man out of office. Maybe tar and feather him and ride him out on a rail, like they did back in Mark Twain's day.

I am beginning to worry about the West, whatever happened to that libertarian spirit you were so found of? No government involvement. My ass. What are you guys smoking out there in Arizona? I'm also wondering about other sections of my country. This is what happens when people aren't educated. Maybe we should make every man who runs for legislative office take an intelligence test first?]

Originally posted by rozk at Stop the Arizona birth control Bill

Originally posted by cluegirl at Stop the Arizona birth control Bill

Originally posted by aubergineautumn at Stop the Arizona birth control Bill

Originally posted by enchanted_jae at Stop the Arizona birth control Bill

Originally posted by mandatorily at Stop the Arizona birth control Bill

I just signed the following petition addressed to: Arizona Sentate, Arizona State Legislature, Debbie Lesko.

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Stop the Arizona birth control Bill

If this bill passes the senate then women of Arizona would be forced to provide documentation that birth control is for medical purposes only. The "company" would not be required to cover birth control if it was for prevention of conception. Additionally this bill would give companies the right to fire women if they discovered that she was using a contraceptive to prevent pregnancy
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http://www.change.org/petitions/arizona-sentate-arizona-state-legislature-debbie-lesko-stop-the-arizona-birth-control-bill#

Cluegirl note: Please don't roll your eyes and click past because you're tired of this nonsense. We're all tired of this nonsense. We're exhausted with the Tiny White Men That Other White Men Seem To Insist Need To Live In Our Ladyparts, and we're tired of being treated like cattle and chattel just because we're capable of conceiving life, but WE CANNOT IGNORE SHIT LIKE THIS! We must speak up, in our thousands, and we must speak up EVERY DAMN TIME! We must roar and shake the bars because every time even one of these appalling little incremental atrocities passes without uproar, then the Tiny White Men use it as a platform from which to to launch another, only slightly more atrocious attack.

Don't get tired, get mad. Talk about it. Yell about it. SCREAM about it. Deny nay-sayers sex over it. Do. Not. Be. Worn. Down. Because once the chains go on, it takes a lot of blood to get them off again.

This signal needs to be louder than all the 'stop internet limitations' signals. This Conservative Agenda includes the enslavement of better than half the human race. It really, really is more important.

Act like it.

Common Sense Disclaimer: If you are not me, then these opinions, relative to the experience of being me, are not yours. Also, if your gender makes it impossible for you to become pregnant and carry a foetus inside your body without resorting to science and surgery, then you must expect that your opinions on a woman's right to choose when and whether to reproduce will NEVER carry as much weight with me as an actual breeder's opinions. For you, it's abstract. For us, it's real. Ergo, I expect any debate on this subject to be handled with maturity, courtesy, and restraint. No poo throwing, no tubthumping, no trolling, and no shaming. I will ban commenters who are deliberately provocative, rude, and cruel over this. Don't be douches.

You have been warned.

Five things before bed...Mad Men's Mystery Date, and Buffy doing a normal life?

1. Lethargic most of today...possibly result of lack of sleep most of this week. It does catch up with you eventually, doesn't it? Pretty day though, quite warm. Did venture out long enough to get groceries.

2. This past week's Mad Men was impressive. Various interloping stories - all circling around actual events at the time, Vietnam and the Richard Speck murders. I know about Richard Speck because my mother told me about it - she was living in Chicago at the time of the murders. The nine nurses that he raped and killed.

I'm tempted to write meta on this episode, but I have no energy for much of it. None. There are highlights...though, bits and pieces I'd like to reference..so a mini-meta as it were.

( Mad Men - Mystery Date )

3. Was thinking about following famous writers. And got to talking with the Momster. The weird thing about art is the successful ones aren't really that good, they are just really good at marketing themselves, while the really good and talented artists...you've never really heard of. For example, raise your hand if you heard of John Green before green_maia and I went nuts over his book? He's a very good writer. Doesn't write genre. Isn't really on the best-seller list. Got a brief interview in a mag. I walk in Barnes and Noble, and the mediocre writers are displayed and right out front, while the less well known but better ones are hidden and you have to scrounge to find. (All hail the Kindle - where all books are equal and spread by word of mouth!)

At any rate, my difficulty with the prolific writers or following writers in general is..
often they are one-hit wonders. ( Read more... )

I'm looking forward to Aaron Sorkin's HBO TV series entitled Newsroom starring Jeff Daniels, Emily Watson, Sam Waterson, Jane Fonda (yes she plays the network head), and various guest stars from Joseph Malina to Jesse Zuckerman (from The Social Network).

4. Speaking of hit or miss, Shondra Rhimes new show Scandal is a bit too cheesy for its own good. Too light. One almost wants to make fun of it. And it falls into cliches.
I feel at times as if I'm watching a Nora Roberts novel made for television and that can't be good.

5. So the writers of the Buffy comics think "Buffy" wants a normal life. Apparently they skipped S6 and S7 and the first part of S9, when she tried that?
( snark on the comics. Note I'm not reading the comics, I'm just reacting to the reviews and links that I've read about them. So this isn't really helpful to anyone who wants insight. IF you love the comics, don't jump down my throat, you can love them...we don't have to like the same things. )

As an aside...If you haven't read it yet? Whedon's interviews on EW and NY Times are hilarious.
( little on the snarky side. )