Attempting to catch up with what have been regarded as the "classic" horror films. Not sure why this sudden hunger for horror, but anyway, ride it on...
"The Grudge" and it's sequel, the Japanese originals - well, okay, not bad. A certain stylishness. I do love the mother ghost, probably one of the sexiest monsters I've seen in the movies. That lovely inward throat-death-ratttle, and those eyes - if she was crawling towards me down the stairs, jerking her head around like her neck had no connections, skin pale as a three day old corpse, glaring with those huge "I come to kill!" eyes and giving that sexy rattle, I'd be more inclined to want to fuck her than run away. But ultimately, didn't get much in the way of fear from this. The whole usual cliche of walking sooo slooowwwlyy towards a door or something just puts me off. Some nice ideas, though. Not sure why, at the end of the first movie (I realise these are part of a series that came from television pieces) the murdering father gets a gurnsey, seems a bit of a let-down to me, and isn't repeated in the sequel. Ultimately, okay but doesn't deserve the praise they always get.
"The Shining" I had seen before. I'm a Kubrick fan, I love his way of letting a story unravel slowly, and even though I think the hand was tipped a bit too soon, there's no doubting both the wonderfully stylish way this movie was shot and Nicholson's masterful performance. The movie belongs to him, and rightly so. Fug, I know Kubrick was a prick to Duvall but her performance in this very nearly drags down what would have been nearly a faultless masterpiece. Perhaps my only other grudge was the abundance of the soundtrack - as much as I respect W. Carlos and love the music of Ligeti (what little I've heard I admit), it seemed to clog up the background somewhat. Maybe I'm a bit intolerant of too much music behind performances in movies. Leaving these grudges aside, this is a great movie that I'll want to watch again, like other Kubrick films.
"The Blair Witch Project". Not scary, but very interesting. I've seen other "hand held camera" films by amateurs before I'd seen this, so I was spoiled a bit as to the method, but this worked for me more as a movie than a horror movie. That being said, it's very well paced, the whole idea of keeping what is haunting the victims as much behind the scenes as possible works very well, and the acting is very good, the gradual demolition of their psyches as they trudge on through nothingness towards extinction... And the soundtrack is pretty good too.
"Evil Dead". Saw this years ago as a teenager with a bunch of school-friends at an all-night birthday party. Crap. Why the hell is this lauded as one of the best horror movies going? When it got to the part when what's-her-name had her hand hacked off and it was spewing some white goo I just turned off. I can look at internet porn for that kind of kick. Fuck this stupid movie.
"Cloverfield". A friend suggested that the first twenty stupid minutes "character introduction", or whatever they call it, is deliberately annoying so you have no problem when hell breaks loose. I wouldn't have anyway. If there's one thing I love, it's watching humanity perish under the mighty hand of a superior force, and that's what gives me a stiffy about watching the head of the statue of liberty (which, I understand, is actually smaller than how it was represented in the movie) go barelling down the middle of Yuppy Street as a prelude to their fucking misery. Loved watching these puny humans running around screaming "oh my god!" as their stupid god deserts them and their stupid world was torn down around them. The ridiculous "I love you" ending must have been some concession to some hopeless Hollywood executive, but what the fuck, they get killed and that's the main thing. Particularly love the bit in the helicopter when the wanker with the camera is cheering the monster being bombed, only to finally meet his doom in that very monster's jaws. Makes me believe there is a god.
