28 Days Later: Thoughts on scary movies

[spritechan]

I was getting ready to leave for work when I came across my double feature of 28 Days Later/28 Weeks Later. I stuck it in my bag for Isaac, my work partner, because he loves watching scary movies in his downtime. Probably because it's hard to fall asleep to a scary movie.

Just being in proximity to the movie made me ultra paranoid. When  I got in my car I saw shadows and thought someone was running up to my car. Turns out it was just a truck coming down the street. And when I got to work I thought the same thing, but it was just a resident coming out for a smoke. It is SCARY. I couldn't sleep for days after that movie. I kept thining someone would break in my windows and come get me.

I don't watch scary movies that often just because of the above reason. I am a huge baby for movies. Let me remind you that while I LOVE Jurassic Park, I have nightmares about velociraptors every few months, and I haven't seen that movie in years. 28 Days Later terrified me to my very SOUL. I think it's the scariest movie I have ever seen (but I know it's incredibly personal and probably lots of people didn't find it as scary). I thought it was really well done. It put it into me just how scary it would be to have nowhere to go, that your very scent is what made it easy for the infected to find you. Nowhere was safe. Talk about PTSD-inducing, being in that situation.

28 Weeks Later, however, I thought was a little overdone in the gore, and I thought the catalyst for disaster was incredibly stupid and unrealistic, which made me mad for the duration of the movie. Other than that I bet it actually was pretty good. I was too busy glaring with my arms crossed and stuck on the catalyst to enjoy it.

But other movies that are supposed to be realisticish, like Quarantine, annoyed me and weren't scary at all. No person in real life would act as stupid as the characters in that movie did, especially professionals like army men and cops. Any movie that has a REALLY STUPID way to get everything in motion ie what makes the Peace start falling apart and Havoc takes over, ruins the entire movie for me. For some reason The Ring was scary the first time I saw it, but then lost its charm. The Grudge was really scary because of the intensity of the jump-inducing effects. I actually was mad that the American version had an American actress and a real story. The original is better.

The Chaser, a Korean thriller, was very well-done and could really happen. It is about escorts disappearing and trying to get to the bottom of it. It jumped between the murderer and main character escort, the pimp-like guy trying to solve the mystery, and the investigators. It was really good. One thing I really like about foreign movies is not having to tie everything up into a pretty little package with a happy ending.

Like I Am Legend, why the fuck change the ending to the original story? I hope anyone who's seen that movie also saw the cut-out alternate ending. SO. MUCH. BETTER. and makes a hell of a lot more sense. Of course, the book is a million times better just as most books are.

Hostel was also a terrifying movie, because again, it really could happen. I was very afraid of that movie for awhile too, but when I heard the sequel was pretty much just gore porn, I decided not to see it. I don't need gore to be afraid. As for the original, I thought it pretty well done and well thought-out, but I'm not sure if I have the stomach to see it again.

Overall, I'm not actually much of a thriller buff. I don't need to see scary movies, and I once-in-awhile get the urge to scare myself, but I need a safety net rpesent so I don't die, too.

Comments

[silver-tiamat.livejournal.com]

I'm really bad with horror films. You'd think that given the fact that I have balls of steel, and am the person most likely to not let myself get overwhelmed by fear, I'd be a hardcore horror film lover. No f-ing way. D= Because in addition to being confident and brave, I have an amazing imagination, and the most interesting dreams of anyone I've ever met (I have plot lines, character development, world-building cultural elements...I apparently read books not yet written in my dreams XD), and HOLY FUCK. I don't even BELIEVE in ghosts, not the way horror films show them anyway, and they SCARE THE CRAP OUT OF ME.

I did laugh through most of The Grudge (American version) though. The sound the ghost made just was too ridiculous. I was like, "Okay, that would scare me for the first few seconds...and then just annoy the shit out of me." And I was most bothered by the part where the ghost starts crawling up Buffy--er, Sarah Michelle Gellar, because I would have kicked the damn thing in the head several times before it even got that far. I have very violent impulses toward ghosts, for some insane reason. The Japanese version actually bored me. D=

Ring 0 scared the beejesus out of me though. I didn't sleep right for a week--I kept wondering about what it would have been like to create an "other self" from all my rage and anger and pain as a child, one that would develope into something else, and eventually seek the death of everyone I knew. *shudder*

The horror films that scare me the most though are the ones with the most realistic actors. I love Japanese horror films (though you have to sift through a lot of trash to find the gold, sort of like American action flicks), because you very often have brilliant, brave, intrepid heroes...who lose in the end. That is so fucking scary, it makes me afraid to sleep with the lights off. I love the way they let the nasties win--we Americans are so caught up in being Heroes that we always try to Save Everybody, and bring them to the light. I LOVED how The Ring ended--where The Hero Bringing Goodness And Freeing Innocents fucked up. I hate the way we wrap up our horror films, because even when they sometimes do the "dun dun DUN" ending, the people are still happy, and at least the main romance couple survived. Shoot, I saw one where the guy DOESN'T save the girl--he fails, and she dies in his arms, and the ghost wins. I had nightmares for weeks.

The only genre of horror that has never been able to grip me is the Zombie movies. Or vampire movies, now that I think about it. Or monster. Gore doesn't scare me. =/ It just makes me go, "ewwww." Like the most recent incarnation of "13 Ghosts." SUPER GORE, and such a weak ghost film. It was way more gorey than ghosty. I wasn't even mildly scared, and I'm not that hard to scare with ghost films.

Long story short: horror films are scary for me. But, you know the worst thing? Sometimes I get into this Mood, about once a year, where all I want to watch for like an entire day is horror films. Then, I scare the crap out of myself. @_@

[vixenofflames.livejournal.com]

Hahaha, I totally see where you're coming from. I really have to be in the right mood, because I'm sure if I hadn't gone into the Grudge thinking I was going to shit myself, I would probably have felt similar to you. Though the very beginning with the girl in the attic and the jaw they find got me pretty good. Ugh, fuck Buffy being in it. And the kid didn't scare me either.

I'm really jumpy, so movies that have those cheap jump effects get me really good. I jump in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire when the maze suddenly shifts. Or in Half-Blood Prince when Harry's peering into the water after scooping it, and the inferi lunge at him. I know it's coming goddammit but it still works!!!

And that's exactly what I mean! - I LOVE foreign movies for being so much BETTER and realistic. Like "No, real life is NOT always where the good guy wins and the important people live. NO!" I think that's why I like Stephen King books too. You're always wondering who gets to live.

Gore definitely doesn't scare me. Whatever caused the gore, though, might. Imagining how painful an act would be to experience, and that there are people willing to perform those acts, scares me. And I also have a very wild imagination. As Steve and I finished Lost, it is ALL I dreamed about. Messing with the story, finishing the series, being a character, anything.

Tbh, I haven't seen the original Ringu. I need to.

As for 28 Days/zombies, it was scary because if you looked past the Rage virus and thought maybe they were infected with something more realistic, like rabies or some other crazy-inducing microbe thing, how horrifying. Actually, the thought of ANY pandemic of disease/virus/bacteria terrifies the shit out of me. I got absorbed in the idea of having to keep running, keep hiding, and it being nearly impossible because there were so many of them. I get caught up in the adrenalin rush, imagining having to be on my toes at all times and just trying to GET AWAY from death. Hell, if it was Ebola I'd be acting like that, and ebola doesn't even make you violent... just... violently dead.

I think that's my main thing - the premise of a ghost/zombie/infected movie doesn't have to be realistic as long as you can suck me in with the hype, with the idea of being there and being just as scared shitless as they are. Throw in plenty of jump-inducing scenes and I'll be afraid.

Do you read Stephen King? If so, have you read Misery? I assure you if you've seen the movie, it is NOT like the book. I remember old people telling me the movie was the scariest thing ever, but THEY have not read the book. When I closed the book after I finished it, I jumped in the dark for literally no reason because I was so scared. I jumped while READING the ending, because it was so convincing, the human terror at RUNNING FROM YOUR IMPENDING DOOM was so vivid in the words. jfc that book is amazing. It's one of the very few Stephen King books that I have read that I believe has no supernatural elements to it.

[namidanotsuki.livejournal.com]

The end of Hostel 2 was absolutely fantastic. Loooooooove

[vixenofflames.livejournal.com]

Hm. I MIGHT see it then. I'm curious, and Hostel did scare the crap out of me. I just might check it out - I never heard anything about it from people I knew.