Aug 03, 2007 06:32 AM
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(Updated Aug 05, 2007 09:12 PM)
The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.
H. P. Lovecraft.
In the real world As in dreams, Nothing is quite What it seems. Book of Counted Sorrows.
Note: **For this review I categorized horror movies under various genres. I listed some mentionable ones under each, while providing detailed explanations for some. Forgive me for crossing the sacred limit of "five, " although I only crossed it by "one" (i.e. six movies reviewed).
Genre: Supernatural horror.
Poltergeist:*
Made under the able direction of Tobe Hooper, the original director of the creepy 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre, ' 'Poltergeist' is not graphic like its predecessor. However, it still manages to whip up a high level of dramatic
tension that it maintains through out its length. The plot is simple. A typical American family with three young kids (one of them a girl named Carol Anne) moves into a house in the suburbs. What they are unaware of, is the fact that the house is built upon an ancient burial ground with only the head stones removed i.e. the bodies still lie under the ground. Soon, weird things happen and their daughter Carol Anne is talking to evil spirits via the television set. Shortly after that she disappears altogether. Does her family succeed in getting her back? Do they get out of the house alive? Watch it to find out and let me repeat the popular cliché “It does to TV what Psycho did to shower stalls.”
Pet sematary:
This is undoubtedly one of the better on-screen adaptations of Stephen King's novels. Based on his novel by the same name, 'Pet Sematary' introduces us to the Creed family (which includes Louis, wife Rachel and kids Ellie and Gage) who move into a big house. Just behind the house is a cemetery where children once upon a time, buried their dead pet animals. Hence the name of the movie (and the novel). The family has a pet cat that goes by the name Church (Churchill). They soon meet and get friendly with their neighbor Jud. A while later, Church is involved in an accident and is dead. When Louis expresses his fear of how the children might react to the death of their pet, Jud takes him to an ancient Native American burial ground that lies beyond the pet cemetery behind the Creeds' residence. He then proceeds to tell Louis that animals that were buried in this location have strangely been resurrected. Not one with out doubts, Louis agrees to bury Church there. Come next morning the cat, now resurrected and once again alive, returns to the family. But the pet is no longer his old self and acts in a peculiar zombie-like fashion. Creepy! A while later, in an unfortunate accident, son Gage is run over by a truck and dies. Does Louis attempt to bring him back to life in the same way he did with the cat or does he learn to live with the grief that results from the loss of a child? You won't hear it from me!
Other mentionable movies in this category are The Exorcist,
Evil Dead 2, The sixth sense and many more.
*Genre: Slashers.
Cape Fear:*
In this Martin Scorsese directed flick, Robert De Niro plays Max Cady, a character that’s charismatic one moment, psychotic the next. He's an ex-convict who firmly believes that he was wronged by his defense attorney Bowden, because just before his trial Bowden found some evidence that could have been used to get Cady off the hook. But he’s silent about this file during the trial. Revenge is on Cady’s mind when he goes after the unsuspecting attorney and his family after serving fourteen years in prison. The suspense gradually escalates after that. De Niro speaks in a strong southern accent. If he spoke with his eyes in this flick he'd speaking only one language - Madness. "Come out! Come out! Wherever you are!" Watch it for his performance.
Others mentionable here are Halloween series, Friday the 13th series, Scream series, Urban legend series etc.
*Genre: Hauntings.
1408:*
I thought of putting this under the genre 'supernatural' because although at first this might seem like a haunted hotel room its not. But then, I changed my mind because the haunted category is what deals with paranormal occurrings linked to a certain location. As opposed to popular opinion, this is about a room that is inherently evil and not so because some ghosts/spirits haunt it. I came across this story when I first read Stephen King's book "Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales, " a short story collection. This film is based on the short story "1408" featured in the book. Simply put, the film deals with a cynical man (John Cusack in another brilliant portrayal of an unconventional character) with absolutely no faith in anything since the death of his young and very loved daughter.
His faithlessness is such that once a successful writer, he now exclusively writes on supposedly haunted places where people have noticed a certain supernatural presence. His plan of action is to spend one or more nights in one such place, prove that its not haunted and then write about the experience in one of his books. During one such excursion he checks into suite 1408 of the Dolphin hotel in Manhattan, paying no attention to all warnings not to do so by the hotel manager (Samuel L. Jackson in a small but stand-out role). Once he checks in
However, he's in for a BIG surprise. Don't want to say anymore! Being able to offer intense suspense, edge of the seat thrills and yet deep and touching some times, this movie is immensely enjoyable.
Others mention able in this genre are The shining, Amityville horror, The Haunting, Haunted and so on.
Genre: Sci-fi horror.
Let me mention some memorable films in this genre that I’m unable to give you details about because of the word limit are: Alien, Alien resurrection (Alien part 2), Predator (both parts 1 and 2) and above all ‘The
Thing.’*
Note: Continued in the comments section*
