MARTYRS

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I can’t believe that Martrys was able to prove to me that it was a promising movie just by showing its beginning. I have to admit that the start of the movie was so scary that I buckled up in my seat and prepared for the good movie awaiting all of us in class.

One of the best scenes in the movie was Lucie’s battle with her embodied sub-conscious. It was an excellent portrayal on how her guilt was slowly killing her. The way the ghoulish figure was chasing her was even enough to scare me already. The figure would suddenly bang on doors and chase her. Heck, you can even feel it was you the figure is after. The fact that her guilt was also in some distorted way emphasized the horrifying ordeal Lucie is undergoing.

I also appreciate how the film was able to incorporate different types of horror in single movie. There was the scary part — where the disfigured creature was chasing and hurting Lucie. There was the also the fear for one’s life — where the big man tortures Anna everyday. And lastly there was the fear of anticipation — the fear lurking behind everyone else’s mind wondering what is next to come in this gore movie. The different types of horror incorporated in the movie was definitely enough to scare everyone else in the room scene by scene.

Surprisingly, Brigid Cherry tells us that “By far the most popular type of horror film was the vampire film: 92 per cent of the respondents liked all or most vampire films. This was followed in popularity by occult/supernatural films (liked by 86 per cent)” I bet female viewers of this movie won’t choose cult films as their favorite anymore. 😉 But I think it was there for a reason; there was art most of all in the movie. It was not a non-sense type of abuse that we see in movies. It sort of is a tortue for a cause. There is certainly nothing more scary than a cult who believes that there is after-life, that there is a transcendence for those who are able to survive such feats of excruciating pain. There was a search for martrys. As the movie stated: “The world has come to a point where there are only victims left. Martyrs are rare.” One thing I noticed in the movie is that it is more scary for the female viewers because we have the tendency to identify with the character. Who would find an abuse center so exciting? Certainly not me! It was even scarier when they stated that young women are more vulnerable to transformation. Does this mean that young women are generally weaker? Or is the ability to stand such feats of pain and abuse are what makes them stronger and exceptional? Female victims are indeed always present in horror films. Linda Williams tells us in her article: “The terrified female victim is a cliché of horror cinema: both the display of sexual arousal and the display of fear are coded as quintessentially feminine. As Carol J. Clover puts it in Men, Women and Chain Saws, “abject fear” is “gendered feminine”. The image of a highly sexualised and terrified woman is thus the most conventionally gendered of the film.”

At the end of the movie, I think what Anna has told this “Mademoiselle” has been so impressive so much so that she wanted to see it already. This was encapsulated in the bright white light after Anna rose into transcendence. It was a paradox of bright light set into nothingness.

Martyrs is definitely the best movie to cap off such a wonderful semester. It is the pinnacle of a good horror movie and it scared me from the beginning until the end. NI have never seen a movie as gore and artistic at the same time as this one. HANDS DOWN TO YOU, SIR PASCAL LAUGIER.

GINGERSNAPS 2: UNLEASHED

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When I learned that we were going to watch Gingersnaps 2 in class, I was quite excited. The first movie was interesting enough and I keep thinking to myself: “Will this sequel run up to the standards and quality of Gingersnaps?” “Will the crazy beast monster still be there?” and most of all, “Will Brigitte become the monster now like Ginger?”

Many questions ran up my mind as I watched the movie but sadly I did not like it. Gingersnap’s ending may be vague and has left us viewers think “What happened?!” but it certainly was not enough to make a sequel. I think the movie was just a bit dragging and was trying hard enough to fight back whatever Ginger has gotten herself into. Although I did not like the movie, the movie still retained some good points.

I am glad that I got into this class because I was able to appreciate the different types of movie under the horror genre. Just like anyone else, I quicly assume that when you say horror movies, it was really just about those cheap-thrill mainstream movies like “Saw”, “Insidious” and etc. I learned that there are different kinds of movies in this genre and Gingersnaps is an example. It did incorporate scary and suspense scenes like when the beast chased Brigitte but there was more to Gingersnaps than the beast. It also showed Brigitte’s struggle to fight her horrible infection. Gingersnaps after all was about body horror, a type of movie under the wide umbrella that the horror genre is.

Jancovich enlightens us in his article as he wrote: “Naremore and Tudor both argue that genres are not defined by a feature that makes all films of a certain type fundamentally similar; rather, they are produced by the discourses through which films are understood. While Naremore considers how the meaning of the term film noir changes historically, Tudor defines the horror genre as ‘what we collectively believe it to be’, and sets out to study historical shifts in the patterns of those films understood to belong to the genre, and in the social concerns that have been expressed by and about them.” Gingersnaps 2 may be similar to the movie Silence of the Lambs as both proved that horror movies are made, produced and shown in variety. “The mediation of The Silence of the Lambs illustrates the ways in which genre distinctions operate not to designate or describe a fixed class of texts, but as terms that are constantly and inevitably in a process of contestation. Imbricated in that contest are questions of cultural value, privilege and the authority to determine cultural legitimacy through the act of genre definition. Rather than horror having a single meaning, different social groups construct it in different, competing ways as they seek to identify with or distance themselves from the term, and associate different texts with these constructions of horror.” Gingersnaps 2 was not so much about scaring the audience with suspense chases of the beast but about the art of body horror; an avant-garde technique, an artistic approach in scaring the audience.

The best thing I also like about Gingersnaps 2 is that companionship was retained in the movie. Ginger may have left Brigitte (although she shows up in her mind), but the quest kept on with her new partner, Ghost.

LET THE RIGHT ONE IN

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Let the Right One In is probably the movie that is closest to my heart. The plot, the characters and the general feel of the movie incorporated very well so much so that I found the film brilliant and moving. We have this long-standing notion that horror films bring out the fear in women out of their vulnerabilities and as a result, cling on to a man beside them. Gender stereotype one might say but Rhona Berenstein agrees so too. She stated in her article: “In the dark of the theater, Mitchell seems to suggest, horror movies provide women with a socially sanctioned reason to grab on to their boyfriends, to hold tight with all their might.” History also backed up this fact as she added: “Just as social mandates invited women in the 1930s to cling to men while screening horror movies, thus encouraging them to display conventionally feminine behavior as a means of garnering male attention, so, too, did the male viewer, at least according to Mitchell, use female fear, as well as his own traditional display of bravery, to disguise his terror behind a socially prescribed behavior.”

One of the best things that I liked about the movie is that there was some kind of role reversal. Oskar was heavily bullied in school and seemed to be the weaker one as compared to Eli who later on even became his “savior” against his bullies. This was also one of the reasons why I think the movie is brilliant. The movie was honest to what it wanted to portray and did not rely on how the audience will react to the movie. I think it was brave of them to show a horror movie with a role reversal.

I also liked how the movie stayed true to how people would really react towards vampires. People were afraid of Eli, of her immense strength and most of all of her general nature. I appreciate the fact that they used a vampire character accordingly and that is I guess for scaring the audience with its odd nature. For me, she was the main horror element in the movie.

Let the Right One In, as compared to Twilight (a movie that also showed a vampire character) avoided the romanticization of vampires as evident in Twilight. In Twilight, vampires were these cool, immortal, and new kids on the block. The focus was romance between two different worlds. As for this movie, the main focus was Eli’s vulnerability as she lives in a different setting. It was all about how odd she was and even though she did not belong in the world, she found a complete partner in another misfit.

I like how the love story was raw. It isn’t the type of love story that you know was only concocted for the benefit of the audience. It was all about the art of making certain pieces of the movie fit so well like how both were misfits and that they found not only love but also friendship. It was all about, after all, letting the right one in.

PONTYPOOL

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Pontypool is one of the most interesting movies I’ve watched in class. Most of the movies we watched are unique on their own when it comes to what kinds of horror movies they belong to. I think that Pontypool is the only movie in class that incorporated the art of communication to be able to tell a story. Who would believe that an interesting horror movie would be done all in the small setting of a radio station? Things got interesting because of how communication played a big role in the movie.

When Sir Ty gave a disclaimer before the movie and said that it would be interesting for Communication students, I was curious and excited to use what I’ve learned in order to analyze the movie. And true enough, it made things more interesting given that I am a communication major and I was able to see how things worked for the movie’s plot.

Radio is one of the most accessible type of media plus it is convenient and it heavily relies on the element of sound. The movie’s plot revolved around how the radio transmitted the events from the coverage given by the reporter. And somehow when they covered the riot outside Dr. Mendez’s office, it also caught the mumbling of sick child. For me, that was the best part of the movie. It showed how the virus, after being transmitted through the radio, was powerful enough to infect the listeners. How? Communication. It somehow showed how “hearing and understanding” the mumbling of the sick child is equivalent to “hearing and getting” the virus.And that’s exactly what happened to Lauren. It was the first time I saw a movie where a virus spread through-out the whole of a city by simply hearing on the radio. It just shows how communication is powerful enough to ingrain in us whatever it wants to convey. And as a communication student, I think I appreciated the movie more than anyone else did.

The unconventional use of communication as art in the movie is somehow explained by Joan Hawkins. She stated in the article: “Negotiating paracinema catalogues often calls, then, for a more complicated set of textual reading strategies than is commonly assumed. Viewing/reading the films themselves—even the trashiest films—demands a set of sophisticated strategies which, Sconce argues, are remarkably similar to the strategies employed by the cultural elite.” It explains why an avid fan of mainstream horror films would not easily appreciate the movie. You need to see the complexity inserted to be able to eventually understand what is going on.

Given that the movie has a “weird” ending, one may think that Pontypool is one of those movies where only the director can understand what’s happening; “too complex” for the viewer maybe. But the ending of the movie is like the icing on the top. It is the perfect ending to the movie. It finishes with a type of formal bizarreness. How? In my opinion, since Sydney and Grant were the only people who survived the infection, they continued to survive by being different. Language allows us to connect but it can also allow us to not understand each other. And the movie clearly stated that in order for one to survive, one must not understand. And that’s what exactly happened in the end. Cannot understand Grant and Sydney in the end? That’s because they survived. Hope you were able to get my point. 😉

MAY

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If you’re not taking the COM 115.9 class, chances are, you will not understand how the movie May is considered a horror film. Mainstream cinemas have bombarded us with the stereotype that horror films are only about ghosts and fright scenes. But the movie May proves that while there may be no cheap thrills around to scare us, the creepy feeling we get while watching the movie will prove that it is indeed a horror film in existence.

While May is not a movie that invests on ghosts and cheap thrills, there is still an element of horror which is the doll. At first I thought that the movie will revolve around the story of the doll but much to my relief (because I’m scared of dolls), what it did was to symbolize the life of May; it was a projection of herself. I liked how the movie used the doll to reflect the life of May so we can dig deeper and properly understand the plot of the movie. Unlike movies that have dolls suddenly becoming evil slashers (e.g. Annabelle, Chuckie) and being the center of the movie, May’s doll may seem at a periphery but provides an excellent meaning to the story.

I found the love story in the movie a bit cute. It is not some kind of heavy teen love or a dramatic one but a love story that is somehow light and funny. The characteristic of the love story was able to show how May really is around people: clingy, awkward, and weird. And once I saw how May really is, I started to understand why she is eager to change herself. Several times in the movie, we can see May altering the body parts of her dolls and somehow it reflected how much she wanted to “alter” herself, to cut out her “unwanted parts” for the sake of pleasing Adam. I really like the transition of the plot. Through the love story, I was able to see how May wanted to change herself and in the pursuit of being perfect, she became obsessed and created the “perfect” friend for her.

Although the movie has a smooth transition of the events, I was not able to understand however the sexual tension between May and her friend (Anna Faris). Is it a way of showing that May is an awkward woman compared to her friend who is liberated and wild? Or is Polly a role model for how May should be around boys or particularly, how she should act so Adam could like her better? Whatever it is, I’m sure that Polly presence in the movie plays an important role in the movie.

Of course the review for this film would not be complete without mentioning the surprising ending of the movie. I already saw how crazy May can get but I certainly did not expect her to be “I’m-going-to-take-my-eyeball-for-this-dead-collection-of-bodies” crazy! It really showed how far May could go just so she can finally be perfect and happy. To cap off the crazy ending, the arm of her “perfect friend” moved as if it was consoling her. I don’t know if it was May’s imagination or if it actually really came true. In the end, the movie did not fail to entertain. I liked how artistic and symbolical it was.

EVIL DEAD

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The movie “Evil Dead” reigns supreme in terms of the execution of the mise-en-scene. I have to say that the movie caught my attention right away because of the excellent scoring. In some horror movies, the scoring only comes out whenever there is a scare scene but in Evil Dead it was consistent all through-out. The music is bad-ass; consistent with the identity of the movie. Apart from the scoring, Evil Dead is cringe-fest at its best. To say that the movie is gore would be a complete understatement. Most of the scenes in the movie showed bodies that were brutally slashed, ripped, and all horrific things that you can think of. It was perfectly executed; it was very life-like. In fact it was very life-like, very realistic, that for the entire movie, I was cringing and closing my eyes every now and then. I think I may have spent more time closing my eyes than watching the whole movie!

Because of the time mostly spent on cringing, I was not able to catch the whole plot of the movie. Why is Mia being punished? What is the unresolved mystery in the house that haunts them and eventually affects their trip? Like most horror stories, Evil Dead’s plot seem a bit clichè. Put together the element of a rustic rest house with bad weather condition all along in an isolated forest area and you have yourself a recipe for disaster. And do not forget the sketchy cult-inspired, demonic book that makes all the difference.

But aside from the slight cliché the movie has, there were unconventional scenes presented but nevertheless worked for the effect of humor or the like. When the demonic Mia was placed down the basement, she said: “Want me to suck your cock, pretty boy?” and I think the humor worked well in the movie! It was so funny since you did not expect that coming. This is the first time I have watched a movie where the demon spoke of something modern. In the usual horror movies, you would hear something latin from the evil spirit but never the like of the modern lingo like cock. You might as well expect to hear Mia say “f*ck” in the movie and that’s why Evil Dead is, as I have identified awhile ago, a bad-ass movie.

I, for one, think the movie is so bad-ass that it surpassed the usual ending of horror movies and replaced it with an even better one. Usually horror movies end in peace (demon finally out of the house etc.) that’s why I thought when Mia was buried, that’s where it all ends. But Evil Dead, as proclaimed as “good as the original one” is not praised so for nothing. The ending scene, of which I call the “Red Event” was probably one of the best scenes I have watched. Not only was it ‘”red” because of the gore but it was also action-packed. And this time, two girls are fighting. It somehow showed that women, once classified as “Others” in horror films, are now one of the most relevant characters in the movie. And when Mia finally cut the enemy in half, I cannot express how glorious it was to be a girl that moment. It was not only about the plot but also the subliminal message behind the movie which made Evil Dead one hell of a clip.

GRACE

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Of all movies we have watched so far, Grace would probably be the movie I dislike the most. We have watched different types of horror (ex. Body horror) and this one seems to be the “new kid in the block”. By “new kid in the block”, what I mean is that the type of horror presented in the movie is somehow unfamiliar and unpopular — a kind of “what-is-going-on” type of horror.

I encountered this type of horror while watching Gingersnaps but later on I learned that it has to do with the art of body horror. Meanwhile, Grace somehow presents a more realistic fear upon viewing the changes in the body. Sure in Gingersnaps, you could feel sympathetic to — when she transforms little by little into a beast. But in the movie Grace, everything seems so real that to be apathetic while watching seems impossible. When the mother was breast-feeding and the baby sort of bit it more than he should, I cringed so much. It was as if I can feel the pain of the mother! I think I can identify with the mother because we are of the same gender and truly, it horrifies me to watch those types of scenes.

Apart from the mother, the development of the baby was enough to scare us. When the mother was getting blood as a substitute for the formula, not only did I cringe but I also felt very weirded out. Again, this movie is not here to scare us with elements of ghosts and haunted spirits but more of a worry-inducing kind of fear. Something like when you worry about the health of your loved one, you have this fear that creeps up around you making you fear what if they never get well. That’s the kind of fear that Grace presents — real life fears. And even though I did not appreciate the film (maybe because I haven’t watched such a thing), I still appreciate the type of movie because it widened my perspective about horror movies: it is not always about ghosts and cheap thrills. Sometimes, the fear that we encounter in our real lives can be used as an element of horror.

Although the type of horror presented in the movie is unpopular, they slightly implied the element of religion in the movie which on the other hand is a classic among horror movies. We have witnessed several block-buster films that deals with religion and demonic deeds (ex. The Exorcist) but in the movie Grace, it seems that religion has only been subtly implied. Just look at the title of the movie. As Christians, we all know that God provides us the wonderful gift of grace or the free and unmerited favor from God. Indeed, the baby was a grace to the mother’s life since he did not almost make it.

—And truly, when a mother is given the grace of life, it only seems reasonable that she does whatever it takes for the baby to live even if it has to cost a life of a person.

REC.

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Let me start this essay by stating that REC is one of the best movies I’ve watched in class. It’s different point of view makes all the difference; it was raw and it gave a different kind of fear.

REC is a documentary type of film and the raw kind of footage in the film actualizes the spontaneity and the horror in the film. The movie thrived in body horror similar to previous movies we’ve watched in class like “Gingersnaps” and “Deadgirl”. But those movies seem too fictional to happen in real life. This, however, seemed more possible to happen in life which adds fear to the film. This kind of horror also seems to be more appreciate now in the market as several movies and series are based on this kind such as “The Walking Dead”. I guess it is becoming the trend right now.

I have to admit that most of the terrifying parts in the movie worked for me because I felt fear for the victims inside the trapped apartment. The fact that the apartment was also put in quarantine gives a type of anxiety which contributes to my sympathy for the victims. All parts of the film’s setting worked greatly to the production of the film; how the lights went off, the revelation of the abandoned room, etc. It was also scary because as a viewer, it seems like you are also part of the movie, it seems that you are Pablo, the camera man. You are anticipating the infected people and the scenes are just cringe-worthy! Everything seems real that’s why it’s so scary. There were also startle scenes in the movie which made the movie all the more scary. Imagine already being anxious trying to survive when all of a sudden, an infected “zombie” grabs the camera. Indeed, REC gave me the chills (and the screams). It is a panic-inducing kind of fear; it really worked its way to being a horror film.

The only question in my mind is that why does it seem that the “zombies” are so wild and loud? Where did the silent zombies who just kept on walking with tilted necks go? But then zombies and the infected people are not the same so maybe the director intended it so. There is also one particular scene where it did not work. When the child who had a fever was infected, the police ran up the apartment to catch her. In trying to give her a medication or something, she screamed loudly. All I thought was “Ummm”. I just can’t point my finger on why it does not fit in the movie. Could it be Robin Wood’s explanation that kids are also part of what society deems as “Other”? Is it a symbol that kids sort of have a weak stance when they “scream’?

The movie also touched on religious ground. In the ending part of the movie, Angela and Pablo stumbled upon the “abandoned” room in the apartment and it seems that there is a person who does not believe in the religious realm and has taken science too far. It seems that what happened might have been a cause of a terrible experiment. And I think that they also saved the best for the last. The last infected person seen in the night vision of the camera is the creepiest looking one in the film; it almost resembles an alien or some kind. Well done, REC!

DEADGIRL

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The first thing that I noticed upon watching the film was that the girl is well… super awkward. Not in a geeky-awkward way but more of a she-looks-awkward-it’s-so-creepy-and-scary look. The movie is indeed one of the best movies to watch if you’re a fan of body horror. Although the gore was minimal, the scenes will make you cringe. The dead girl’s body looks a bit rotten and it’s unexplainable why she’s sort of numb; case in point: when JT stuck his finger inside a pus-filled hole in her body. EWW.

I kept on thinking, “Is she dead? Is she alive? Or both?” Truly, this film thrives on body horror than startle scenes in being a horror film. The situation of the girl, found in an abandoned mental mental asylum is enough to scare me.

There were also elements in the movie that I think does not fit but nevertheless gave me an idea as to what is happening. I recall that there are vicious and big dogs that always appear in the movie. At first, I thought it was owned by an evil doctor inside the asylum who’s out to get the naughty kids who wander in the abandoned place. But eventually no doctor/any person appeared which made me believe that the dead girl may have been an experiment. It is believable though that she may be injected by a DNA of a dog or something because she is just as vicious as the dog. But the fact that she is invincible and does not die makes me think that is she portraying another animal? A cat maybe because of its nine lives — in her case, multiple lives? Who knows what is injected into the dead girl.

Robin Wood’s article regarding the “Other” in the genre of horror film is apparently evident here. The dead girl is tied which means that her moves are restricted and she also seems to be passive as several boys use her body for pleasure. Is this a symbol of how women should be? Submissive and objectified? But I also noticed that she is strong and that these thing won’t happen if it weren’t for the cuffs that restrained her. Could it be possible that this is also a symbol that all along, people might have known how powerful women are? There is also a scene in the movie where Rickie and Wheeler tried to make a girl unconscious by hitting her but to their surprise, the girl hit them back. I have to admit that the humor worked in the movie. It sort of released the tension in the movie. But then during the class discussion, I realized ‘What’s so funny about it?” Really, is there something funny about women being strong and powerful? Is it funny because it’s not how it works or is it because that’s not how society want it to work? Indeed, Robin Wood makes a lot of sense in explaining the terror of the “other” in horror films. But in the movie we see that the girl cannot be killed and i think that says a lot about us women in our society. 😉

INNKEEPERS

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Innkeepers. Well, well. well. Every time the class watches a movie, I write down all my comments in my notebook so I would not forget some of my comments and reactions towards the movie. And in my notebook, there was a huge note that says: “sh*t” and I guess that’s enough evidence that I was really scared by the movie. For the most part, I guess the movie was successful in pulling it off is because they incorporated a spooky scoring all through-out, the plot was good and that they invested in a lot of startle scenes (that really got our class).

The movie was accompanied by a spooky music background which I guess enhanced the anticipation and overall scare of the scene. The setting of the movie was also excellent; two caretakers of an old hotel working during a rainy weekend already sends me the creeps.

The plot of the movie was also good. A story within a story, along with investigations and such is a good theme for Innkeepers. Although I have to say that at first, the pace of the movie was quite slow. It took a bit of a time before it transitioned into a scary movie. The movie was also divided into three chapters which I believe is an evidence that the movie is indeed a process; they tell the story one by one, or for that matter, chapter by chapter. I think they really needed to explain everything bit by bit for viewers to be able to understand the movie well. Although the chapters seemed a good idea to explain the full story in the movie, what’s disappointing is that we never got to know what really happened in the hotel. The case of Madeline O’Malley remain unsolved. Who is that old man? Could it be possible that he is the fiancee of Madeline? Did he commit suicide? So many questions were running into my mind but I guess the movie isn’t about the tale but rather how the twist of the events led to the truth in the movie: that there are indeed evil spirits lurking in the hotel.

But what really got me interested in the movie was the startle scenes. In class, we discussed that these are considered as “cheap thrills”. Heavy make-up, loud music, dead people suddenly appearing out of nowhere etc. are some of the elements of what makes a “cheap thrill” and boy, Innkeepers did use a lot of those.

My favorite scene that startled me was when Claire dreamt that she was beside Madeline. Madeline was first in a blanket but when her face showed up, that’s when I started to scream. And that’s why it’s called a cheap thrill; you invest in immediate ways to scare the viewers and commonly, by surprising them. True enough, it was a cheap attempt beacause I laughed so hard after screaming. I realized that horror films could be a source of laughter too.

The best thing about the movie is that it also has light and funny scenes. When Claire woke up from a bad dream, she rushed to the front desk wearing only an underwear. Luke also confessed his love to Claire which was out of the blue but nevertheless, cute. Innkeepers is one of those mainstream movies that invests in startle scenes and creepy, out of this world spirits to scare its viewers. And good job to the director because it really worked for me. Well, as my notebook said, “shxt”.