Month: November 2019

Over the past few weeks in class, we’ve been watching horror movies to help along with our horror unit, along with reading Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. So as a finale, we watched two movies that went together: the 1932 version of Frankenstein and then Gods and Monsters, which was about the director.

Frankenstein, the movie, was genuinely quite good. As a horror movie? No. But as just a general classic movie? Yes. It was interesting to see all of the ways that it varied from the book, which was quite a bit. The book has more introspection into the monster and has commentary on humanity as a whole. However, the movie takes that away and gives the monster a ‘criminal’ brain to excuse all of his actions. Because, obviously, being a criminal is genetic.

I can see how, in the time, the movie of Frankenstein was scary. I think it mainly had to do with the lighting and the cinematography. The way that Frankenstein is presented is truly magnificent, with the suspense building and all of the dark lighting to set up his character. The only light scene that he’s in really is when he’s with the little girl, though that doesn’t end well.

Gods and Monsters was interesting, though I didn’t like it as much. Perhaps it was watching Gandalf be a pedophile, but it wasn’t my favourite movie. However, it did shine a light on James Whale. He was a closeted gay man, living in a time when he would have been seen as an outsider for that. Gods and Monsters does a very good job of making the parallels between James and the monster, even going as far as having a dream sequence in which someone is taking out James’ brain.

It would be hard to classify both movies as ‘horror’ movies in today’s standards. I wonder if they would have even been made at all with today’s standards, considering Frankenstein is nothing like the original source material and how Hollywood needs to work on making properly representing gay characters before they vilify them all to be pedophiles.

I suppose that’s all for now! I’ll see you in the next one

Parker

Hello!

Continuing on from last week, we watched more horror movies in class. This time we went for a more modern one, Jordan Peele’s Get Out.

Personally, for me, this one was far scarier than Halloween. Perhaps it was because Halloween had all of those typical tropes that I’m used to and Get Out had to work with new material that wasn’t just playing off of old tropes. And I think Jordan Peele did a really good job of that.

What really made the movie for me was how unsettling everything was. It was a ‘Uncanny Valley’ moment, watching all of the characters just be have slightly off.

It’s that sense of unease, that nothing is quite right and you don’t know why. Such as the lunch scene, where Chris is going around and meeting all of the relatives. On the surface, it just seems like subtle racism with the comments that play into the stereotypes of black people. Though as you dig deeper into it, more and more people just aren’t acting right, especially when it comes to “Logan” and how unnatural everything about him is.

It’s similar to Frankenstein, and how he is almost normal but still not there. It plays into the fear of the unknown, and that sense of uncertainty and distrust that you feel when your reality isn’t how you expect it to be and people aren’t acting normally.

Get Out over all was really well done, and it was a perfect commentary on the ongoing issue of racism. I think if it were to be done in a different time, say the 80’s or 90’s, not much of the plot would change as the issue is something that can be related to any point in time. Though setting it now was the best time period to set it in. In a time where so many people believe that racism just sin’t a thing anymore because’s not ‘as bad’ as it used to be, Get Out was a healthy reminder that it is still very much prevalent in today’s society.

I want to take a moment to talk about all of the small details in this film as, for those who know me, I love detail in film.

The Deer

At the beginning of the film, Chris hits a deer with his truck. It’s one of the only proper jumpscares in the film, but it’s more than that. It leaves you with this sense on unease. Later in the film, it’s revealed that Chris feels guilty because he didn’t do anything after his mother was hit in the car accident. This is likely why he went to check on the deer, it reminded him of his mother.

But more than that is the family in relation to the deer. When Chris recounts hitting a deer to Dean, his girlfriend’s father, Dean starts to go on a rant about how that’s good, and how they’re pests that should be killed off. The whole rant has an uncanny familiarity to how certain people talk about POC. How they’re ruining neighbourhoods and how they shouldn’t be interfering with our lives. It really sets Dean up as a character, showing his true intentions from the beginning.

And then the end. The triumphant moment where Chris gets the upper hand and stabs Dean with the antler decoration on his wall. This is truly Chris taking what Dean owns and shoving it back in his face – or, more likely, his chest. In this scenario, Chris is the deer. He’s supposed to be Dean’s trophy, something he can put on display and be proud of without it causing any trouble. And Chris defies that, turning himself against Dean and killing him.

The Teacup

Missy is seen using a teacup throughout the film as a form oh hypnosis. It starts with a therapy session, sending Chris into the Sunken Place, but it does eventually get used as a weapon to try and abduct Chris. So why a teacup?

Tea in fine china cups is really considered an upper class thing. It’s nice, it’s cute, it’s dainty. How could a teacup ever be dangerous? And that’s the point. The whole purpose is this film is throwing your trust, taking things that you thought couldn’t be terrifying and making it that way. For instance, a nice white family in a nice manor. How could they ever do any harm? The teacup is just like that, hiding in plain site but equally as dangerous. When Chris breaks that cup, it breaks the illusion. A broken teacup is sharp, it can cut you, and it is shown to be dangerous.

I would also like to add on as a side note that when Georgina spills iced tea in the beginning of the film, it’s because Missy tapped her spoon against a cup and she was sent into a temporary hypnosis.

Jordan Peele did such an amazing job with this film, the commentary and the imagery is so stunning and I can’t way to see more of his work. I cold rewatch Get Out a million times and catch something new every time.

Read You Later,

Parker

Greetings!

Before I get anyone coming for me, I know it’s November. I know its past the traditional spooky season. That being said, we’re ignoring that and talking about horror. So put your decorations back up and your jack-o-lanterns back, we’re getting spooky in November.

Over the past few weeks, our class has taken on a few things. First, we went down to Seattle to do things like check out a car museum and study the history of horror at the MoPop. Second, we took on reading one of the most classic horror books, Frankenstein, and looking at the differences and similarities between horror back then and horror today. Finally, we’ve taken on a horror movie (but more on that at a later date). 

So back that second point about seeing continuity and change in horror. To really see what has stayed the same and what hasn’t, we’re also looking at more ‘modern’ horror stories (using the term ‘modern’ loosely here seeing as a lot of this is from before the 2000’s). As a first comparison, we watched the classic movie of Halloween.

Already, that theme has probably put you on edge. It’s the most iconic horror theme of all time, arguably. Automatically you start thinking of that creepy mask and the guy with the knife, that moment when the doctor looks out the window and Michael is gone. And that is precisely what makes this movie so scary. The sound effects and the music is truly what makes the film halloween so scary.

In an interview with John Carpenter on medium.com, Carpenter states that when he showed the movie with no music or sound effects to an audience, they just weren’t scared. There were no shrieking violins or ominous piano notes to go alongside Michael walking across the street to Laurie in that eerily calm way. There were no crashing symbols to go with Laurie discovering her friend in the bed, or in the closet. It just wasn’t scary.

 So he set out to “save the movie” with the music. That iconic Halloween score, with all of the sound effects? It was made in two weeks, and it’s truly what makes the movie horrific. Because, let’s face it, it’s not the blood and guts (if we can even call it that).

Though let’s think more in terms of setting and plot. Why was Halloween so monumental and why does it still hold up today? Watching the movie from todays eyes, it frankly wasn’t that scary. But for the time, people were looking away, uncomfortable in their movie theatre seats. Why? Because it was one of the first ‘slasher’ films. Michael doesn’t have any motivation (I’m looking at it through the angle of 1978, so none of the sequels and that terrible new one count here). He’s just a man who isn’t right in the head and decides to go on a killing spree after escaping a mental institution. At the time, the idea of someone who was just blatantly human killing other people for no reason hadn’t been done in film before.

However, it had been done in real life. The 1970’s had had some bad experiences with killers out in the real world. Ted Bundy, Charles Manson, so on and so forth. It was already a reality in the 70’s that people like that were out there, and Halloween was a reminder of that. Though the end of Halloween doesn’t provide the closure of Michael being arrested, he instead gets away. It left that lingering feeling of unsafety that the news of Charles Manson being arrested had taken away.

The movie could have possibly been done today, but it wouldn’t have the same cultural impact that it did back then. Most horror movies these days would have to focus on more pressing issues, such as Us. On the flip side, there are things that would work today. The setting of suburbia, that feeling of a safe place suddenly feeling unsafe it something that will always work for horror. Having Michael Meyers as a human killer would also work, as long as he still had some more real motivation.

We understand that in the later movies, they give Michael Myers more of a back story. They try to make him more human, almost develop sympathy for him. Much like in Frankenstein, where we get to actually see the Monster’s perspective of things. It gives the viewer an internal horror, because we start to sympathize with the Monster just a bit. Of course he’s upset, everyone hates him because he’s ugly. The original Halloween, however, doesn’t have that. Both stories deal with that struggle of ‘what is humanity’, but in different ways. Frankenstein takes a slightly not-human entity and tries to humanize it, while Halloween takes someone human and does the opposite. It’s that non stop debate in your mind of ‘is this killer properly human? If they are, what does that mean about the rest of society?’ That constant struggle of what that means about the ‘monster within’.

What makes the movie Halloween such a horror phenomenon? It’s a mix of two things. On the technical side, it’s all about that terrifying soundtrack, which helps add on suspense. But on the moral side of it, it’s all about that one question:

What makes someone human?