Tonight I am procrastinating on getting back to Very Important e-mail, and Other Very Important Thing because I can't keep my head about me. Nothing major, but it's been a VERY stressful 24 hours in lot of minor little ways. So instead, I'm going to write about Horror. I get asked a lot if I like horror, and I always say "yes!. I'm finding that isn't the right answer though. See, my idea of horror isn't Saw or Halloween the Remake (even with Brad Dourif in it.).... No, I have a love for the bump in the night, things that go boo! horror.
NOTE: SPOILERS PAST THIS POINT.
Have you ever seen "The Haunting"? Not the remake, but the 1960s version?
Located in a remote part of New England and isolated from any nearby community, Hill House is a 90-year-old, 19th century mansion with a long history of death and murder. When Dr. John Markway gets a chance to stay there for a few weeks, he sees an opportunity to study what is reportedly a genuine haunted house. With several other including Luke Sanderson, Eleanor 'Nell' Lance and a one-named woman named Theodora, they prepare to launch their experiments. Theo is there because of her ESP skills while Nell had a previous experience with a poltergeist and Luke represents the family that still owns Hill House. Soon after their arrival, the temporary occupants begin to face terrifying ordeals. Nell, who has lived a sheltered and repressed life life having spent all of her time caring for her recently deceased mother, is the clearly focus of the emanations and the haunting. She is both terrified ans comforted in Hill House and part of her wants to stay. The spirits seem to want to keep her as well".
No? Well, let me show you this delightful little scene were the shadows on the wall and voices that may or may not be there are the scariest thing.
That not floating your boat? Ok, how about "The Changeling? (the 1980s one, the 2008 version has nothing to do with ghosts). it's more of a "who done it" detective story with ghost, very much dependent George C. Scott pulling you in and and keeping you caring about his struggle to find out what is going on. Here's a synopsis that doesn't give too much away.
" After the death of his beloved wife and daughter, hit by a truck in a snowing road upstate New York, the composer and music professor John Russell moves to Seattle to teach music in the local university. He leases a huge mansion in Chessman Park that belongs to the Historical Society and has been empty for twelve years. John hears some weird noises always at 6:00 AM and later he experiences the contact of the ghost of a child that lived many decades ago in the house. He researches the history of the house, and discloses a despicable secret. "
Sound boring, eh? Trust me, it's is a TERRIFIC movie, and it dug in my brain and stayed there for days till I re-watched it. With out give to much away, here is the spooky ball scene form "The Changeling".
Spooky. F*cking. Ball. This movie does more with a ball and a wheel chair then most movie do with a crazy ax murder.
I'm not dissing the traditional bloody horrors at all (love Tucker and Dale vs Evil, Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland, Halloween (1978), and A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984). But I have a cut off point, and movies like "Saw" or "Hostel" are way over that cut off point. I have no idea what sub-genre those fall in to, but I haven't seen one that made me go "I think I want to see that!". It's not even the gore that bothers me, but the whole culture and atmosphere with these movies. That nagging feeling of sitting in a room and thinking "That person next to me is a little too in to that scene of the guy getting disemboweled by that swinging pendulum blade/that gal getting her her head tore open by that mouth trap thing."
Anyway, pickings have kinda been scarce in my neck of the woods on horror that I'd watch in theater. I saw "The Woman in Black" and really liked that, despite its huge flaws.
So, I'm a little existed for The Conjuring. I saw the first trailer a few months ago, and was draw in by the creepiness of the clapping hands. There have been a few more trailers, which have me a little leary (not really found of the shots of the ghosts thing we've seen) and the fact that is supposes to be "based on a true story" is kinda a turn off for me. I know every good story deserve embellishing, but there is just somthing about that little group of words that ruins a horror for me.
HOWEVER, this delightful little clip has me hopeful again. Who knew there was a way to make white sheet spooky once more?
So Spooks, what is your favorite horror (Even if it IS Saw )? Have any you'd recommend ?
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