Following on nicely from our foray into horror filmmaking last week, Mark Kermode's latest blog post is in relation to screen monsters...check out the video and then consider his two questions
1. what is the scariest screen monster you have ever seen?
2. why? what is it about that monster that gets under your skin?
answers on a post card......or below is fine
MEDUSA!! Clash of The Titans 1981 version....lets not talk about the re-make.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8X7W-oPhY48
Why?
The sound was great and not overpowering.The animation was not over the top. My imagination allows me to be absorbed in the idea so I believe it.
How Medusa moves and looks around those pillars.Her hair adds the monster element too. I remember thinking don`t look at her eyes when you pick her head up aahhhhh! The film was made with love...unlike the re-make!
traditional movie monsters don't frighten me at all - zombies, vampires, werewolves, serial killers (freddie, jason, ghostface, etc., etc.)...it just doesn't work. perhaps as the filmmakers are trying so desperately to convince me that they are "scary"
ReplyDeletei remember as a child i saw 'the witches' (based on the roald dahl book) and the scene in which they transform freaked me out...i spilt orange soda (fanta?) all over myself in the cinema!!! why did they frighten me? hmmm, probably as i was a child...
since then, nothing has really freaked me out in terms of movie monsters...i'd probably have to say the last time i felt weird was the giant spider in lord of the rings - of all things...simply because i dont like spiders or anything creepy crawly (also disliked the insect sequence in peter jacksons king kong)
i think monsters are interesting as a concept...i really enjoy the idea that the real monsters are 'us', i.e. mankind...the idea that we are far more frightening and dangerous than anything that lurks out there - as in pan's labyrinth with the captain...and this idea was also done very well in 'the mist' which i really liked (although i know it splits opinion)
in the 2005 war of the worlds i found the scene in which a mob attack the family car disturbing (not frightening)...simply as it was so real (especially in a post-summer riots world)
it may sound strange but something i found absolutely unsettling was ralph fiennes performance in schindlers list...the inhumanity was what i found terrifying.
isn't that ultimately what makes something a 'monster' - inhumanity???
its an interesting debate...hopefully we can start one here (???)
From an early age, the one monster/horror icon that really spooked me was Halloween's Michael Myers.
ReplyDeleteBecause it was all about how he managed to always get back up when it seemed like he was finished. I do admit that the countless add-ons/remakes kind of lost the touch of a seemingly indestructible force constantly coming back from the dead. An unstoppable force that only lives to kill is (in my opinion) the furthest aspect from humanity and thats why it spooks me even to this day.
Going back to the comment the real monsters are us...This line has stayed with me since watching Terminator 2.Its where John O connor says 'Were not gonna make it are, people I mean..?
ReplyDeleteThe Termintor replies:
'It's in your nature to destroy yourselves.'
I see this in papers on news. Its what we do to each other which is monsterous I feel. I read an article yesterday which deeply effected me- a married couple killed (suicide) themselves because they couldn`t afford to survive-to generally live on a day to day basis. It was front page news in the Metro.I had tears in my eyes, put it that way. The creation of government and society-is it the invisible monster that this is allowed to happen?
@seth - interesting take on myers. hadnt considered it that way - that he is frightening as his sole purpose is to kill...hmmm....also agree that sequels can ruin what was once great....shame
ReplyDelete@amy - that line in T2 is brilliant! perhaps one of the most honest lines in any film...ever
"its in your nature to destroy yourselves" - one rule of writing is "create conflict".....we thrive on it as a species...take conflict out of any film and what would you have???
'the invisible monster' - you may be right....
I find monsters and villains really interesting, and I am really easily scared. I find villains that could plausibly exist in our world, or monsters based on actual people that did unthinkable things to be the most terrifying, like, if I hear something's based on a true story to some extent, it always resonates with me more so than something so completely supernatural like Freddy. Leatherface was originally based partly on Ed Gein, and reading about him scared me more than any horror film I've seen.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I do agree with Seth about Michael Myers. I've never really been into horror, and the '78 Halloween was one of the first I really sat and watched. I have had recurring nightmares about Myers, where he's just relentlessly after me, they scare the living daylight out of me, and I still don't exactly know why I am so scared of him! He never speaks, and because of the mask he never shows any human emotion. I don't really see him as human, he is a monster, a relentless killing machine. I think that could be partly a case of the amazing atmosphere in that film though, not just Myers himself.
...I didn't mean to write that much, haha.
Films based on real events do have a tendency to engage me more. It does depend on the way the film is presented to me too.
ReplyDeleteSaving Private Ryan was a film which did scare me. That intro was immense. The monster which is war.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/gallery/2011/oct/31/halloween-john-landis-monster-in-movies?fb=native#/?picture=381188726&index=0
ReplyDeleteI really want to read Landis' book :)