Pontypool

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The movie concept in itself was what I enjoyed the most. Grant Mazzy, a radio announcer, on the way to work, experienced something weird – he encountered an almost naked woman in the middle of a blizzard, perhaps foreshadowing something… She was mumbling random words, and I was piqued then and there.

When Grant arrived at the radio station, where he works with Laurel-Ann Drummond, a technical assistant who used to work in Afghanistan, and the station manager Sydney Briar, who doesn’t really like Mazzy’s attitude. As the day went on, they received a report from Ken Loney, a reporter, about a riot at Dr. Mendez’s office. Chaos ensues, and then Ken reports that an “infected” kid was nearby, mumbling to himself. The transmission stops and is cut off, but then some random French words come out.

This is where the awesome concept of the movie is established – according to the instructions, they should remain indoors, not use terms of endearment, phrases that conflict, or the English language. Pontypool is then declared to be under quarantine. Everybody is now in a state of panic, and finally Ken was able to resume the transmission – apparently the infected child was mumbling “mommy,” over and over again. Grant tried to escape the station, but once a bunch of people started attacking the station he locked himself in alongside Laurel-Ann and Sydney. However, Laurel-Ann starts to act abnormally, and mumbles the word “missing,” over and over again, and then starts to imitate the sound of a boiling kettle. Dr. Mendez arrives at the station and they stay in the soundproof booth, where he explains his theory. Somehow, a virus is in the human language, and certain words are infectious – and when these words are understood, the virus takes hold of the host. During this explanation, Laurel-Ann was outside the booth, banging her head on the windowpane, chewing her lower lip off and bleeding – then she pukes and dies. Ken, on the other hand, calls in but apparently succumbs to the virus as well – repeating the word “simple” again and again, then gets cut off.

The rest of the movie shows the struggle of finding a cure – apparently it’s by changing the meaning of the word that the “infected” is mumbling to something else. Like in Sydney and Grant’s case, Grant repeatedly told Sydney that “Kill is kiss, kill is kiss,” in order to change her understanding – apparently this made Sydney’s symptoms subside, and they kiss. Grant and Sydney, knowing the cure, start to go on-air and they catch the attention of the infected by saying contradictory phrases and whatnot, and when they got their attention, the authorities wanted to stop them as well. The movie ends with a countdown and a final kiss.

The post-credits scene thus gave me something profound to think about – suddenly what was being shown was a radical change of theme and movie direction – perhaps analogous to convincing me, the “infected,” to change my understanding of the movie.

Evil Dead

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I’m a fan of gore, and I’ll have to say that Evil Dead, gore-wise, was very much enjoyable. It made me cringe, but it made me smile, too. It’s the kind of movie that makes me cheer for the protagonists – and instead of feeling bad for them I wanted them to succeed.

Aside from all the gore, I liked the way the plot unfolded, given the complex dynamics of the characters. I like how Mia’s claims were invalidated because of her drug addiction – her claims were nullified because her friends were thinking that she was merely hallucinating and experiencing withdrawal. Although it seems as if most of the deaths were deserved because of ignorance and close-mindedness, I can’t help but feel that it was merely an unfortunate case. I can’t imagine believing seemingly hallucinatory claims from a recovering drug addict – it made sense that they didn’t believe her.

Mixed with suspense and the mere idea of a demon in their midst, plus the unregulated gut-churning gore, I believe the movie did a good job in its conveyance of horror. In fact, the foundation of the fear that I felt was established quite well given some details in the movie; mysterious and deceptive details that made me jump to conclusions; the movie was dark and eerie in general. Starting from the beginning, a solitary cabin in the woods and what appeared to be the demonic possession of a young girl, as well as her demise, a horrific death by immolation – this gave the movie for me a very chilling prelude. After that, several other details from the movie excited me. The mere idea of something terrible about to happen, but the characters unwitting, excites me. Several clues were leading to what was about to happen: the odor coming from the floor, that apparently came from a hidden room that had rotting animal corpses, a weapon and a book called Naturom Demonto inside… Plus Mia’s post-possession actions, killing Grandpa, showering with boiling water – I can’t even begin to imagine what it would feel like if I were there.

The series of events made it clear that whatever was happening was being caused by a supernatural entity. In this way, I think the movie remained faithful to its theme by not confusing its audience of what kind of horror they’ll be up against. It was made obvious when Mia was attacked by demonically possessed trees and when David tried to drive a burnt Mia to the hospital but couldn’t because of flood waters. Aside from all these, the characters were forced by the demonic spirit to hurt themselves, and I found their actions to be extremely disturbing – from Olivia cutting up her own cheek with broken glass (which made me close my eyes, by the way) to Natalie’s body getting chopped up with a chainsaw. The ending filled with Necronomicon prophesies, exorcisms, and blood rain was a brilliant cherry-on-top for the plot and theme in general. Evil-Dead, for me, is a great horror film overall.

Grace

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Although I was barely affected by the gory and saddening nature of the movie, what struck me most was the extent of the mother’s love for the child. Madeline, Grace’s mother, reached great heights – I could no longer distinguish if her efforts were noble or despicable. Madeline’s love for Grace was perhaps borne out of desperation to have something valuable in her life; add the fact that she’s a widow; perhaps living life alone was unacceptable for her. The price she paid, however willing she was, to me was extremely disturbing and nerve-wracking – and there was really nothing I could say considering that, despite the atrociousness of her actions, she was only being human.

I like how the plot properly established this desperation that I’m talking about. Given the dynamic between the characters; a loving couple who were desperate to conceive a child and have failed twice, the typical annoying mother-in-law who thinks she knows everything and imposes her views, and the conflict between the diagnoses of two doctors practicing in the same field but in very different manners, the plot, although it became a bit predictable, still was interesting because the extent of the intentions and motivations of the characters were amplified in such a humane way.

Aside from the praiseworthy dynamic and plot, I enjoyed the irony of Madeline’s love for Grace – an undead child who wasn’t necessarily possessed, but given the conditions of her birth, her healthiness depended on something else aside from milk – it was human blood. I think this says a lot about a mother’s love. A mother’s love can be so strong that the sacrifices that she makes for her child could lead to her own demise, offering her own blood, her own life, her whole humanity. Although the execution of this idea wasn’t too evident, beneath all that horror was a heartwarming reassurance of humanity. I wouldn’t blame anyone for not being able to realize what I have, though. The gore and absurdity in the movie hid the genuine humanity behind the scenes. On the surface it may seem like the mother was crazed; murdering Dr. Sohn in order to feed her own child, nursing the child with her own blood (until her breasts were literally raw), all these things can easily be seen as inhumane. But even so, given Madeline’s motivation that was established early in the film, the underlying motivation for all of her actions was no doubt the love for a child.

Finally, naming the child Grace already said so much. Usually, the word grace pertains to something that is given beyond what is required: a free-gift, a blessing. In turn, however, the “grace” that Madeline received was on the contrary similar to a curse. Instead of her life being filled with joy, her life became sad and filled with pain. But the idea here, I believe, is that humanity isn’t only realized while rejoicing — it’s also realized during suffering. After all those years of waiting relentlessly for a child to give meaning in her life, Madeline finally received the grace she needed – just not in the way she thought she would.

[Rec]

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The title suggests nothing about the plot of the movie, except for the fact that it means “record.” Even so, the idea of the movie being “recorded,” has no significant relevance in the story – but it has relevance in the technique that was used to strike fear to its audience. Apparently Being a “found footage” movie about what happened in Barcelona that night, the whole movie gave the impression that what was happening behind the camera was real, fully immersing viewers into the story, allowing them to experience fear – the same fear that the Angela and Pablo felt during the whole fiasco. This technique didn’t seem so effective, however, and any horror that I felt was due to panic and suspense that the “found footage” was conveying. This “shaky camera” technique unfortunately ruined the movie for me – it became hard to follow and I’m quite sure I felt nauseous after watching the movie. Nonetheless, it was a necessary technique to immerse the audience into the story.

Towards the end, the story was mixed with a hint of conspiracy, but I feel like it’s such a cheap attempt to add conspiracy to a movie by relating it to the mysterious institution we call the Vatican. I found it corny – but even so it gave a decent spin to the transpiration of events. The sickness, apparently, was due to demonic possession and not merely a disease. But despite clarifying the source of the disease, it didn’t add any excitement for me. Again, I found it corny and forced.

The only thing that I would dare commend about the movie would be the immersing experience of the shaky camera method. Running around the building, dark spaces and the sounds of infected people echoing in the halls – these aspects of the movie, I would have to admit, allowed me to empathize with the emotions of the people behind the camera. It actually reminded me of the excitement I feel when playing Left 4 Dead – a first person shooting game that involves fighting through hordes of zombies to reach a certain destination. In a similar way, Angela and Pablo had to retrieve several items in different parts of the building. The only horror I felt was due to the fact that they had to traverse five floors in order to retrieve a key, and then eventually come back down to exit via a sewage system. I reiterate that the movie in itself didn’t make me feel the horror that I’m talking about, but since I was somehow able to relate to the idea I was stricken somewhat with a little suspense. This fear that I’m talking about is derived from the most typical question for situations such as being trapped in a building: will I be able to make it out alive?

I’m no professional film critic, and the only basis of my words is my experience. In terms of experience, I would have to say that the movie did a great job, but the plot in itself was corny.

Deadgirl

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Perhaps one of the weirdest movies I’ve ever encountered, Deadgirl‘s characters are driven with the most primal sense of lust — to the point of raping a dead girl they discovered in an abandoned asylum. The horror in this film is derived not from the display of gore or screamers – it is derived from the sickening absurdity of the motivation of the characters. It’s a movie that made me seriously question whether or not people like those in the movie existed – it exaggerated the sex drive found in young boys. Rickie’s affection, however, counter-balanced the absurd motivations with genuineness.

The absurdity of motivation reached new heights when the four supporting characters actually teamed up to continue exploiting the undead woman in the asylum basement. The story became more sickening and unbelievable when they did, all to satisfy lustful desires. The consequences were poetically just, however – I enjoyed Johnny’s exploding intestines; it served him right. Needless to say, I enjoyed Johnny’s demise, because his surrender to his primal lust led to a death that he seemed to deserve. The same goes for the other lustful teens he was with, Wheeler and J.T., suffering the wrath of the dead girl.

I wonder, however, what the dead girl symbolizes. Could it be that the lust of man reduces a woman so much to an object, that she is deemed good as dead? And could this mean that Rickie’s noble act of freeing the dead girl meant freeing her from the oppressive dynamic of rape culture and objectification? Perhaps such a statement could be made about the movie’s plot: that man’s primal lust can reduce a woman to a tool of pleasure. The exact response of the dead girl could symbolize the hate towards douchebags (excuse the word use) like Wheeler, J.T. and Johnny, the violent resistance to rape culture.

Following this train of thought, what then could be made of Joann’s response at the end? She surrendered to the idea of being undead in order to continue living. It’s quite sad, actually, that she would rather continue living lifelessly instead of accepting death. Could it mean that some girls find comfort in rape culture — some kind of glorification of their bodies? What did she really mean when she told Rickie to “F**king grow up?” Perhaps such response is borne out of a distorted understanding of life, a twisted sense of maturity? So distorted, in fact, that surrendering to the idea of becoming undead (or basically, a sexual object) was considered as a form of help.

And on a subtly striking note, the movie ends with Rickie living normally, walking to Joann, the new Deadgirl. The horror, in my opinion, is not made fully obvious until the end. After all the sickening transpiration of events, the plot ends with a suggestion of normalcy for this kind of behavior; that essentially means that the concept of a Deadgirl, or rape culture, is tolerated in today’s society, and is borne out of distorted thinking coming from both men and women.

Innkeepers

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I liked the plot of the movie more than anything.  Driven with the enthusiasm for the unknown, the development of the story was filled with suspense and eeriness. I wasn’t necessarily on the edge of my seat, but nonetheless the movie kept me curious and wanting to know more about the history of the hotel.

The movie is about two ghost hunting enthusiasts working in an old grand hotel with a haunted history. Claire, a college dropout, and Luke, who runs a website about the hauntings in the hotel, are fascinated with the hotel’s history – the legend of Madeline O’Malley.

Madeline O’Malley apparently hanged herself in her room during the 1800s when her husband left her on her honeymoon, and rumors are the hotel owners hid her body is hidden in the basement.

The plot unfolds as Leanne Rease-Jones, a former actress, checks in the hotel. Throughout the movie her reason for staying is was unknown, until it was revealed in the latter part that she actually abandoned her acting career to become a spirit medium. One night, Claire hears noises coming from the garage while taking out the trash. She padlocks the door, but then uses Luke’s ghost hunting equipment to confirm the presence of spirits. During her experiment, she sees the grand piano in the lobby play by itself and hears faint voices. This was when she ran into Leanne, and Leanne told her the reason she was staying, and warned Claire not to go to the basement.

An old man was checking in to the hotel that day, and asked for a room on the third floor (the third floor no longer had any sheets and furniture because the hotel’s about to close) but Claire nonetheless provided him with bed sheets.

Out of curiosity, Luke and Claire decide to check out the basement, and they experienced paranormal activity. They panicked, and Luke left the hotel. Claire runs to Leanne for help, but Leanne says that they need to evacuate the hotel immediately. Claire goes to the third floor, and finds that the old man had slashed his wrists, with Madeline’s apparition hanging from a rope. She gets startled and runs away, but falls down the stairs and dies of asthma when she confronts Madeline’s apparition in the garage. Luke told the police that he wasn’t able to save Claire, despite hearing her screaming from the cellar.

The movie ends with Claire’s apparition looking out of the hotel window, and the door shutting behind her.

The significance of the plot, as I see it, is this: the repeated appearance of Madeline’s apparition suggests that her soul was trapped in the hotel, and that her presence affects the people within the hotel, an example of which is the old man killing himself (where Madeline’s apparition was shown as well). The hotel was driven with a spirit of death, and Claire’s curiosity led to her demise. In the end, her soul was stuck in the hotel as well, and she was literally kept in the inn.

Gingersnaps

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I thought at first that the movie was merely one of those lycanthrope horror films – filled with surprise deaths and raging werewolves. I was right in thinking so, but instead of being stricken with fear I found myself laughing at some parts. My dark humor coincides with that of the movie.

I also thought that the title literally meant that Ginger would snap into a werewolf – yes it literally meant that, but more than that I realized the significance of it all. Turning into a werewolf is symbolic of Ginger’s teenage angst. I realized this idea when I remembered that during the time of Ginger’s first menstruation. I thought about the relevance of the menstruation for a while, and upon my research apparently it’s the time when the girl’s hormones go crazy. I laughed to myself, thinking that the writers actually equated hormonal rage to lycanthropy. The consequences of teenage angst were taken to a level of absurdity as evident in the deaths of the persons involved in Ginger’s life — and when I mean to an absurdity I mean that in contrast to the regular things a teenager with angst would to, from shunning friends and not listening to them, using piercings as an outlet (when her friends thought that a piercing of silver in her navel would actually help alleviate her angst), and having conflict with the school guidance counselor, as well as her heavily menstruating. I say that it reached a level of absurdity because regularly the consequences of teenage angst do not kill people. Following the symbolism of the film, Ginger’s snap literally killed people in her life because of her hormonal swings. The idea of teenage angst is solidified in Ginger’s constant effort to ease her angst, but of course the natural consequence is to be ballistic. She tried to cut her tail off, meaning to say that she wanted to get rid of her angst but couldn’t.

Aside from all of this, I enjoyed the dark humor of the movie – the dog getting hit with a drug dealer’s van, Trina slipping during her confrontation with Ginger and dying because she hits her head on a kitchen counter (and justifying the blood in the kitchen as part of a school project!)

I might be reading too much into the movie (hopefully not), but I think the movie suggests that “drinking” is the cure to teenage angst – the monkshood solution that Brigitte and Sam were desperately trying to give the crazed Ginger could be symbolic of alcohol, especially since it worked with Jason, another teenager infected with angst, immediately pacifying Jason, calming him down.  Moreover, it could be that the parallelism is suggesting that teenage angst is infectious, that a bite or close contact could, in turn, fill the other person with angst.

But what I can’t reconcile, however, is why Ginger had to die in order for to end her angst – is the death symbolic of her whole person, or just that aspect of her personality? 

Triangle

Before we watched the movie Triangle in class, I watched the trailer and I guess because of that, I missed some of the movie experience. I knew beforehand due to me watching the trailer that the anonymous killer in the ship was Jess herself.
Nevertheless, the movie was still a great one in my opinion. It left me with so many questions about certain aspects of the movie like how do the bodies of people in the movie theatre not pile up like the ones in the upper deck wherein there were about 20 piled up bodies. I also asked myself what the movie alludes to or if it even alludes to anything.
Leading up to the ending, I formulate theories in my head about what’s happening and why and as the movie progresses, my theories either get debunked or reaffirmed. I like that about movies. I like to think about what’s happening and not just relying on the movie spoon feeding it to me.
I like the fact that even after leaving the ship, Jess was still stuck in the cycle. The events in the first part of the movie were in fact also events in the latter parts like when Jess was comforting her son, telling him that it’s all just a dream. There were many aspects of the movie that were amazing even the little details such as the pile of pendants or the pile of crumpled paper which signifies that the events in the movie have happened before with a different Jess.
The ending was the epitome of it all. It took my attention the most because I wondered why Jess went back to the boat and seem to forget what just happened to her. That was the biggest question for me because even if I contemplate the ending, I never seem to find a sound reason for it all. The best theory I came up with is that Jess forgot about everything when she was asleep in the boat and maybe thought it was just a dream, which is pretty unlikely to happen because if I were in Jess’ shoes, I wouldn’t forget all the horrible things that had happened to me. Another theory I came up with is that Jess probably realized that she cannot escape the cycle that she’s in so she probably just went on with it, pretending not to know what would happen next and just spend time with her friends and her son, which is also pretty unlikely since it would be absurd to willingly go back to the psychological torment Jess went through.
As a movie, Triangle was great but as a horror film, I didn’t think it was a successful one. This may be because I wasn’t fully immersed in Jess’ experience. I treated the events that were happening as external to myself. The movie didn’t provide the means for the audience to be fully immersed in its horror aspects. This may also be because this was my first time to experience a horror film not about ghosts or zombies or other cliche supernatural creatures. Then again who am I to say if the movie was a great horror film or not? I’m just stating my opinion.