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I'm shocked, shocked to find that [Movies] are going on in here!

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  • emp123emp123 Registered User regular
    Jaws is why I refused to get on a boat until age 30.

    There may be some hyperbole in there, but not much.

    Its weird, I used to go to the beach like every weekend as a kid despite being terrified of getting eaten by a shark, I guess I could just rationalize Jaws away as a movie and nothing else. But then I started watching Shark Week and now....

  • KafkaAUKafkaAU Western AustraliaRegistered User regular
    emp123 wrote: »
    It still blows my mind that Jaws is rated PG, mainly because this movie has been scaring the shit out of me since I first saw it probably 20 years ago at the way too young age of 6.

    I only bring this up because while Jaws isnt available on Netflix, it is available on HBO Go.

    The logic is probably that the film instills a pants-wetting terror of sharks in anyone when they see it regardless of age.

    It's also nearly impossible to avoid seeing it ever.

    Why not just get it out of the way early?

    I'm 31 and have never seen Jaws.

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    Origin: KafkaAU B-Net: Kafka#1778
  • Regina FongRegina Fong Allons-y, Alonso Registered User regular
    edited June 2013
    It's funny, I've been terrified of sharks since I was a kid but still swam in the ocean. I even continued to swim in the ocean after getting stung by a jellyfish (it's up there with childbirth and kidney stones). As an adult I don't swim in the ocean and don't think anything would persuade me to.

    -edit-

    Kafka, that's why I said "nearly".

    There's always those outlier people who have never seen Star Wars or whatever because they were raised in a Mormon convent.

    Regina Fong on
  • TehSpectreTehSpectre Registered User regular
    I just saw World War Z.

    It is a terrible World War Z movie, but a pretty solid zombie/action-adventure.


    Don't go in expecting pretty much anything from the books. Just go in expecting a globe-trotting zombie movie and you should be pleasantly surprised.

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  • KafkaAUKafkaAU Western AustraliaRegistered User regular
    It's funny, I've been terrified of sharks since I was a kid but still swam in the ocean. I even continued to swim in the ocean after getting stung by a jellyfish (it's up there with childbirth and kidney stones). As an adult I don't swim in the ocean and don't think anything would persuade me to.

    -edit-

    Kafka, that's why I said "nearly".

    There's always those outlier people who have never seen Star Wars or whatever because they were raised in a Mormon convent.

    If I were raised in a Mormon convent I might have a proper excuse. My wife is a Media teacher so I have really no idea why I've never seen it. I think I kinda got to the point where I knew everything that happened in the movie from so many pop culture references I kinda felt it wouldn't be worth it.

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    Origin: KafkaAU B-Net: Kafka#1778
  • shrykeshryke Member of the Beast Registered User regular
    I wanna watch the first Blade now.

    Even with the ending going off the rails, I still think it's a great movie. It's aesthetic was just never replicated in later efforts at comic book movies.

  • DarkPrimusDarkPrimus Registered User regular
    TehSpectre wrote: »
    I just saw World War Z.

    It is a terrible World War Z movie, but a pretty solid zombie/action-adventure.


    Don't go in expecting pretty much anything from the books. Just go in expecting a globe-trotting zombie movie and you should be pleasantly surprised.

    But it's attached to the name of a great book so I wouldn't be able to help myself but feel disappointed about What Could Have Been

  • Harry DresdenHarry Dresden Registered User regular
    KafkaAU wrote: »
    emp123 wrote: »
    It still blows my mind that Jaws is rated PG, mainly because this movie has been scaring the shit out of me since I first saw it probably 20 years ago at the way too young age of 6.

    I only bring this up because while Jaws isnt available on Netflix, it is available on HBO Go.

    The logic is probably that the film instills a pants-wetting terror of sharks in anyone when they see it regardless of age.

    It's also nearly impossible to avoid seeing it ever.

    Why not just get it out of the way early?

    I'm 31 and have never seen Jaws.

    You need to rectify that.

  • GoumindongGoumindong Registered User regular
    KafkaAU wrote: »
    emp123 wrote: »
    It still blows my mind that Jaws is rated PG, mainly because this movie has been scaring the shit out of me since I first saw it probably 20 years ago at the way too young age of 6.

    I only bring this up because while Jaws isnt available on Netflix, it is available on HBO Go.

    The logic is probably that the film instills a pants-wetting terror of sharks in anyone when they see it regardless of age.

    It's also nearly impossible to avoid seeing it ever.

    Why not just get it out of the way early?

    I'm 31 and have never seen Jaws.

    Jaws is a really amazing movie, and you should watch it.

    wbBv3fj.png
  • knitdanknitdan In ur base Killin ur guysRegistered User regular
    Goumindong wrote: »
    KafkaAU wrote: »
    emp123 wrote: »
    It still blows my mind that Jaws is rated PG, mainly because this movie has been scaring the shit out of me since I first saw it probably 20 years ago at the way too young age of 6.

    I only bring this up because while Jaws isnt available on Netflix, it is available on HBO Go.

    The logic is probably that the film instills a pants-wetting terror of sharks in anyone when they see it regardless of age.

    It's also nearly impossible to avoid seeing it ever.

    Why not just get it out of the way early?

    I'm 31 and have never seen Jaws.

    Jaws is a really amazing movie, and you should watch it.

    It's no Deep Blue Sea.

    “I was quick when I came in here, I’m twice as quick now”
    -Indiana Solo, runner of blades
  • emp123emp123 Registered User regular
    KafkaAU wrote: »
    It's funny, I've been terrified of sharks since I was a kid but still swam in the ocean. I even continued to swim in the ocean after getting stung by a jellyfish (it's up there with childbirth and kidney stones). As an adult I don't swim in the ocean and don't think anything would persuade me to.

    -edit-

    Kafka, that's why I said "nearly".

    There's always those outlier people who have never seen Star Wars or whatever because they were raised in a Mormon convent.

    If I were raised in a Mormon convent I might have a proper excuse. My wife is a Media teacher so I have really no idea why I've never seen it. I think I kinda got to the point where I knew everything that happened in the movie from so many pop culture references I kinda felt it wouldn't be worth it.

    Its most definitely still worth it.

  • Harry DresdenHarry Dresden Registered User regular
    knitdan wrote: »
    Goumindong wrote: »
    KafkaAU wrote: »
    emp123 wrote: »
    It still blows my mind that Jaws is rated PG, mainly because this movie has been scaring the shit out of me since I first saw it probably 20 years ago at the way too young age of 6.

    I only bring this up because while Jaws isnt available on Netflix, it is available on HBO Go.

    The logic is probably that the film instills a pants-wetting terror of sharks in anyone when they see it regardless of age.

    It's also nearly impossible to avoid seeing it ever.

    Why not just get it out of the way early?

    I'm 31 and have never seen Jaws.

    Jaws is a really amazing movie, and you should watch it.

    It's no Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus.

  • DarkPrimusDarkPrimus Registered User regular
    knitdan wrote: »
    Goumindong wrote: »
    KafkaAU wrote: »
    emp123 wrote: »
    It still blows my mind that Jaws is rated PG, mainly because this movie has been scaring the shit out of me since I first saw it probably 20 years ago at the way too young age of 6.

    I only bring this up because while Jaws isnt available on Netflix, it is available on HBO Go.

    The logic is probably that the film instills a pants-wetting terror of sharks in anyone when they see it regardless of age.

    It's also nearly impossible to avoid seeing it ever.

    Why not just get it out of the way early?

    I'm 31 and have never seen Jaws.

    Jaws is a really amazing movie, and you should watch it.

    It's no Deep Blue Sea.

    You say that like Deep Blue Sea doesn't owe its very existence to Jaws.

    And Jurassic Park.

    And Samuel Jackson

  • Regina FongRegina Fong Allons-y, Alonso Registered User regular
    The best thing about Deep Blue Sea is, in order:

    Tom Jane running around in a not-much-left-to-the-imagination wetsuit for 1:45
    The subversive ending
    Black guy lives, girl dies

  • Regina FongRegina Fong Allons-y, Alonso Registered User regular
    Also I'm going to throw out there that it was test audiences that gave us that ending.
    The original ending went to form, and test audiences pointed out that the scientist was to blame for everything and it was totes unfair that she was one of the only survivors.

  • Harry DresdenHarry Dresden Registered User regular
    Also I'm going to throw out there that it was test audiences that gave us that ending.
    The original ending went to form, and test audiences pointed out that the scientist was to blame for everything and it was totes unfair that she was one of the only survivors.
    Her death was fine for being a subversion but I wanted her to live. :(

  • Mild ConfusionMild Confusion Smash All Things Registered User regular
    A fucking shark ate me!

    I'm not yelling! This is how I talk!

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  • emp123emp123 Registered User regular
    edited June 2013
    Im watching Jaws and I forgot how perfect this movie is. The wipes during the first beach scene are fantastic, the acting is superb and despite having seen it many many times its still intense.

    emp123 on
  • RT800RT800 Registered User regular
    Sharks are never really what concerned me about the ocean.

  • Rhesus PositiveRhesus Positive GNU Terry Pratchett Registered User regular
    KafkaAU wrote: »
    It's funny, I've been terrified of sharks since I was a kid but still swam in the ocean. I even continued to swim in the ocean after getting stung by a jellyfish (it's up there with childbirth and kidney stones). As an adult I don't swim in the ocean and don't think anything would persuade me to.

    -edit-

    Kafka, that's why I said "nearly".

    There's always those outlier people who have never seen Star Wars or whatever because they were raised in a Mormon convent.

    If I were raised in a Mormon convent I might have a proper excuse. My wife is a Media teacher so I have really no idea why I've never seen it. I think I kinda got to the point where I knew everything that happened in the movie from so many pop culture references I kinda felt it wouldn't be worth it.

    I spent most of my time when I finally watched Star Wars thinking, "Oh, that's what that reference meant."

    [Muffled sounds of gorilla violence]
  • KingofMadCowsKingofMadCows Registered User regular
    RT800 wrote: »
    Sharks are never really what concerned me about the ocean.

    Yes, their hooked tentacles with suction cups are perfectly adapted to grab onto our scalps and open our skulls like a tuna can so that they may devour our juicy delicious brains.

  • AstaerethAstaereth In the belly of the beastRegistered User regular
    My favorite Jaws story is that somebody I knew once went out on boat in the ocean with a group of a friends, stopped the boat, positioned a TV set so they could see it, and then watched Jaws while in the water.

    --
    gjaustin wrote: »
    Astaereth wrote:
    So the reason this sort of confusion exists is that the loose groupings of films we call "genres" are actually founded on several different types of groupings. My film studies professor called them themes, styles and iconography, but I prefer to think of them in the more accessible terms of ideas, effects, and setting. The ideas are what the movie is about in a broader sense; the effects are what feelings the movie wants to create in the audience (and the techniques it uses to do so); the setting is physical location, time period, world-building.
    I'd come to a conclusion similar to this regarding video game genres. Both Dark Souls and Final Fantasy are roleplaying games, but they're nothing alike.

    Can I use this quote next time there's a stupid argument in G&T about what counts as an RPG?

    Absolutely. And in games, of course, it's even stranger because you still have all the narrative genre constructions as well as constructions built around gameplay, which is how you can have things like Far Cry: Blood Dragon, which feels like a cheesy 80s action/sci-fi movie(/game) but plays like an action/adventure/stealth/FPS. Game genres are crazy complex.

    --
    Astaereth wrote: »
    Horror doesn't always need a monster: consider the first 90% of Sunshine, where motherfucking space is the source of all your terror. Or the Andromeda Strain, where it is quite a stretch to say that a naturally-occurring virus is a monster. The same goes for all the other plague movies (that don't have manmade sources). Also, consider movies like Jacob's Ladder (which is fueled by existential/spiritual terror), or movies where a character descends into insanity (no monsters in Repulsion), or the horrors of the truly surreal (I'm thinking of the Exterminating Angel, here). To define these so broadly as to call them "monsters" is getting close to the near-tautology of "wrong things are scary." Well, yeah. But that doesn't tell you anything.

    Nor do movies necessarily need the unknown to be horrifying. Think about it--horror is the combination of fear and revulsion, and the whole beauty and difficulty of the genre is that fear is powered by suggestion (and mystery and ignorance and plain old "what will happen next?" tension), while revulsion is powered by reality, by (in the movies) visual and auditory cold hard facts. It's the source of the age-old tension between keeping the monster off-screen and putting it on and hoping it scares the fuck out of the audience anyway. And it boils all the way down to the decision every horror movie has to make, about how much gore and violence it must show in order to work properly.

    Anyway, the point there is that you can get by on horror that's alllmost all revulsion. Psycho is a very classy example, but this also applies to torture porn, movies like Alive! (about the soccer team whose plane crashes in the mountains, therefore cannibalism), and George Romero's zombie films. Push hard enough on revulsion and you start to break taboos, and that is horrifying. All the way over on the fear side of the scale, though, you get elegant (but sometimes bloodless, metaphorically but also sometimes literally) chillers like The Blair Witch Project, Wise's The Haunting, and The Innocents, where ambiguity and suggestion allow you to creep yourself out.

    There's also a lot of horror that trades on a much more mundane sort of unknown: a very solid, comprehensible monster (Jaws, or Cujo, for instance) that spends its time lurking offscreen. You know exactly what it is; just not where it is.

    Overall, I would say there's no wrong way to achieve horror, and no hard requirements either. We humans are too easily scared for that to be true.

    @Houn Thanks! :D

    I think that Carroll would alternatively say that some of those movies are not horror movies (like I doubt that he would count Jacob's Ladder. For that matter so would I.) Sunshine would be because of the third act, and were it not to have that, then I think Carroll would say that as well is not a horror movie. It's more of a disaster movie. I mean, Armageddon isn't a horror movie, and a space rock is the enemy. Andromeda Strain he might argue that there is a monster there. The disease breaks our rules, it's a special case that doesn't play by the rules of disease that we had.

    Well, nuts to Carroll, because they feel like horror movies and Armageddon does not. Something like Sunshine is much too personal to be a disaster movie: in a horror sense, it is specifically about how utterly terrifying it is to live in the extremes of space, where you are always one misstep away from a horrible death. The disaster movie is taking place back on Earth, but Sunshine is about a handful of people who are separated from a burning or freezing demise by thin metal and a continuous act of will.

    What would you call Jacob's Ladder, if not a horror movie?
    He might even be comfortable saying that what qualifies as horror changes over time. Andromeda Strain might not be horror anymore because it isn't very far outside the norm. But disease movies are so close to disaster flicks that maybe they just aren't horror. They might be thrilling, causing our heart to race, but not be horror.

    For Carroll I think that horror does entail a certain degree of revulsion (in the sense of "do not want") as well as fear.

    I'm not really sure that Carroll is correct. My friend writing his dissertation disagrees with him, and he's done a lot more thinking about this than I have. That alone gives me some reason to believe such. I'm very interested in the Paradox of Horror though. Which there doesn't seem to be an SEP article on....doody. You can get Berys Gaut's paper here (http://aaablogs.uoregon.edu/aad250-shuette/files/2010/05/6-gaut.pdf), he's responding to Carroll, but not effectively I think (he's the one who brings up slashers).

    I'll try and read that later. But my problem with Carroll's argument as you've presented it is that it seems to come from a top-down classification rather than a bottom-up approach--Carroll is defining what is and is not a horror film based on his pre-existing notions about what makes a story scary and then using that to approve or exclude things. I would rather start from "what actually is scary?" and then determine what that set has in common. Carroll (or at least your representation of his arguments) is like a scientist going, "This data doesn't fit my hypothesis, therefore there is a problem with this data."
    It's really crazy why we would seek out revolting experiences that we would normally avoid. We do it, but how can we make sense of such a desire for something that we don't desire.

    Horror is bizarre and fascinating that way. You should read King's Danse Macabre, if you get a chance (or haven't already, given your interest). He has some interesting suggestions about the precise nature of the catharsis horror gives us.

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  • MalReynoldsMalReynolds The Hunter S Thompson of incredibly mild medicines Registered User regular
    The thing that freaks me about the ocean is have you seen that fuckin' place? Goddamn, there's some creepy, fucked up shit down there. Things whose very existence is to stab other things just by being. What the fuck, nature? Shit that swims up in urethras? Who came up with that. Stupid dick fish. Don't even get me started on sea-cucumbers; they drew the short straw with evolution and somehow still came out ahead. Shit in the ocean is stupid AND deadly. It'd be like everyone up here walking around swinging knives and randomly shooting guns while blindfolded. It's a crapshoot.

    In short, fuck the ocean.

    "A new take on the epic fantasy genre... Darkly comic, relatable characters... twisted storyline."
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  • zagdrobzagdrob Registered User regular
    Dick fish are in the Amazon, not the ocean. But your point stands.

    Also, I'm willing to concede that Jurassic Park is a thriller with horror elements, and not a true horror movie. The Mist is a horror movie with thriller elements. The outline of both is very similar though, at least up until the end.

  • RiusRius Globex CEO Nobody ever says ItalyRegistered User regular
    Is this the place to talk about how terrible World War Z was? Because it was terrible. And not in that terrible-but-still-enjoyable way, like The Core or something.

  • Harry DresdenHarry Dresden Registered User regular
    Rius wrote: »
    Is this the place to talk about how terrible World War Z was? Because it was terrible. And not in that terrible-but-still-enjoyable way, like The Core or something.

    Yes. Go into over-detailed explanations about why World War Z was terrible. *get popcorn*

  • RiusRius Globex CEO Nobody ever says ItalyRegistered User regular
    Rius wrote: »
    Is this the place to talk about how terrible World War Z was? Because it was terrible. And not in that terrible-but-still-enjoyable way, like The Core or something.

    Yes. Go into over-detailed explanations about why World War Z was terrible. *get popcorn*

    I detect some sarcasm in your post, good sir, so I will oblige you in condensed list form.

    1) Hollywood Science. Really, I expect things to not be "scientifically accurate" (though I wish I didn't have to) but WWZ revels in being incredibly stupid. What's really funny about this is the Zombie Survival Guide and WWZ both make a decent effort at building a scientifically-plausible, yet still very inexplicable, Zombie.
    2) Almost-but-not-quite-intelligent solutions to problems. Fantastic, you built a 100-ft wall around your capital city to protect it from zombies. Why doesn't your wall have observation platforms? Why isn't your wall capped with an outward-sloped barricade or other deterrent? I won't ask where you found all that concrete in a week.
    3) Fast zombies with Zombie Tourettes. Really more of a 28 Days Later feel than a Romero feel, which would be fine if it weren't for the Tourettes.

    If I could turn off the portion of my brain that has read/seen and enjoyed things like The Andromeda Strain and The Hot Zone, I'd enjoy a movie like this a lot more. That probably makes me a snob.

  • nexuscrawlernexuscrawler Registered User regular
    I'm pretty convinced the zombie resurgence is about done

    it got a prestige TV series in the Walking Dead and now a crummy top tier Hollywood movie. there's nowhere else to go from here.

  • MalReynoldsMalReynolds The Hunter S Thompson of incredibly mild medicines Registered User regular
    OH

    I also saw This is the End, and man - the movie hit some really good pathos with regards to friendship and support, but holy shit, I was crying during several moments and I couldn't catch my breath.

    The McBride/Franco argument being one of them.

    You know the one

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  • AstaerethAstaereth In the belly of the beastRegistered User regular
    I'm pretty convinced the zombie resurgence is about done

    it got a prestige TV series in the Walking Dead and now a crummy top tier Hollywood movie. there's nowhere else to go from here.

    undead.jpg

    ACsTqqK.jpg
  • TaranisTaranis Registered User regular
    They need to bring back Westerns next.

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  • ElJeffeElJeffe Moderator, ClubPA mod
    edited June 2013
    RT800 wrote: »
    Sharks are never really what concerned me about the ocean.

    I, too, am terrified at the prospect of having to watch another terrible Michael Crichton movie.

    ElJeffe on
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  • ElJeffeElJeffe Moderator, ClubPA mod
    As for the Is Jurassic Park horror? question, I think a prerequisite of a horror movie is that it is trying to be scary and/or horrifying. Any good action movie will be tense and maybe startle you, and any good movie where something is being chased by something else will imbue a certain empathetic dread of the first something being captured. But that's not sufficient for horror.

    Jurassic Park is never trying to instill fear or horror. It's trying to instill awe and excitement and tension. Jaws is trying to instill fear and horror. Just because a character is terrified doesn't mean the film is trying to terrify the viewer.

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  • DecomposeyDecomposey Registered User regular
    ElJeffe wrote: »
    As for the Is Jurassic Park horror? question, I think a prerequisite of a horror movie is that it is trying to be scary and/or horrifying. Any good action movie will be tense and maybe startle you, and any good movie where something is being chased by something else will imbue a certain empathetic dread of the first something being captured. But that's not sufficient for horror.

    Jurassic Park is never trying to instill fear or horror. It's trying to instill awe and excitement and tension. Jaws is trying to instill fear and horror. Just because a character is terrified doesn't mean the film is trying to terrify the viewer.

    So basically, you can tell the difference because of sound track?

    Think about it. Jurassic Park music, listen to it in your head. It's brash, uplifting, exciting, the kind of music that promises adventure.

    Then there's: duuuuuuuuh-dun.........duuuuuuuuh-dun.....

    Before following any advice, opinions, or thoughts I may have expressed in the above post, be warned: I found Keven Costners "Waterworld" to be a very entertaining film.
  • ThirithThirith Registered User regular
    I'd definitely agree with that, ElJeffe. Watching Jurassic Park, we're supposed to be excited first and foremost, not terrified.

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  • Xenogears of BoreXenogears of Bore Registered User regular
    Rius wrote: »
    Rius wrote: »
    Is this the place to talk about how terrible World War Z was? Because it was terrible. And not in that terrible-but-still-enjoyable way, like The Core or something.

    Yes. Go into over-detailed explanations about why World War Z was terrible. *get popcorn*

    I detect some sarcasm in your post, good sir, so I will oblige you in condensed list form.

    1) Hollywood Science. Really, I expect things to not be "scientifically accurate" (though I wish I didn't have to) but WWZ revels in being incredibly stupid. What's really funny about this is the Zombie Survival Guide and WWZ both make a decent effort at building a scientifically-plausible, yet still very inexplicable, Zombie.
    2) Almost-but-not-quite-intelligent solutions to problems. Fantastic, you built a 100-ft wall around your capital city to protect it from zombies. Why doesn't your wall have observation platforms? Why isn't your wall capped with an outward-sloped barricade or other deterrent? I won't ask where you found all that concrete in a week.
    3) Fast zombies with Zombie Tourettes. Really more of a 28 Days Later feel than a Romero feel, which would be fine if it weren't for the Tourettes.

    If I could turn off the portion of my brain that has read/seen and enjoyed things like The Andromeda Strain and The Hot Zone, I'd enjoy a movie like this a lot more. That probably makes me a snob.

    WWZ the book has some of the worst science to fit the needs of the story in it ever. Fuel Air bombs are going to kill the crap out of zombies for example. So the movie keeping that part in tact sounds about right.

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  • Loren MichaelLoren Michael Registered User regular
    Horror films absolutely do not require an evil villain. Relentless forces of nature with inhuman motives are perfectly relevant antagonists.

    see: Jaws

    This is interesting, because I read an article last semester by Noel Carrol that I found pretty convincing that horror requires there to always be a monster. He's pretty liberal with what monster means, as a monster just has to violate the rules of nature in some way (so the alien has acid blood, and looks like a penis, Jaws is big enough to eat a damn boat, Freddy Kreuger is a ghost thing, as well as the normal werewolves and vampires etc). One rebuttal that I read was that it doesn't account for slasher films very well, because they are just normal people without super powers (in the slasher movies where that is the case, not like Jason or Freddy). I think though that slasher movies are all about the moral monster. Here's someone who breaks the most fundamental moral rule, don't kill. And it's all about breaking that rule, and the thrill comes from the particular ways in which the monsterousness is displayed.

    It's an interesting read, and I actually have a friend in my department that's writing his dissertation on Horror and it's accompanying paradox. If you can find it, it's Noel Carrol's "Why Horror"

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Water_(film)

    Even the premise is fucking terrifying.
    No monster.
    QED.

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  • AstaerethAstaereth In the belly of the beastRegistered User regular
    Horror films absolutely do not require an evil villain. Relentless forces of nature with inhuman motives are perfectly relevant antagonists.

    see: Jaws

    This is interesting, because I read an article last semester by Noel Carrol that I found pretty convincing that horror requires there to always be a monster. He's pretty liberal with what monster means, as a monster just has to violate the rules of nature in some way (so the alien has acid blood, and looks like a penis, Jaws is big enough to eat a damn boat, Freddy Kreuger is a ghost thing, as well as the normal werewolves and vampires etc). One rebuttal that I read was that it doesn't account for slasher films very well, because they are just normal people without super powers (in the slasher movies where that is the case, not like Jason or Freddy). I think though that slasher movies are all about the moral monster. Here's someone who breaks the most fundamental moral rule, don't kill. And it's all about breaking that rule, and the thrill comes from the particular ways in which the monsterousness is displayed.

    It's an interesting read, and I actually have a friend in my department that's writing his dissertation on Horror and it's accompanying paradox. If you can find it, it's Noel Carrol's "Why Horror"

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Water_(film)

    Even the premise is fucking terrifying.
    No monster.
    QED.

    I considered that one, but dismissed it because sharks. There's gotta be a better example of just "this is scary because we are going to get lost to death." Gerry?

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  • Loren MichaelLoren Michael Registered User regular
    The sharks were just one of many things that were a condition of being trapped in a place outside civilization. They would have died even if the sharks hadn't shown up.

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  • zagdrobzagdrob Registered User regular
    I suppose Castaway could be considered some form of psychological horror. There is the horror of being trapped alone, having to perform surgery on yourself, having to befriend a volleyball to avoid going (too) crazy...then even when you escape from that, the horror of coming back to the world, and realizing that everything you thought would be waiting for you was gone.

    Maybe it's a stretch to call it a horror, but I find the idea that your place in the world is gone and everyone moved on pretty fucking horrifying. There wasn't really a monster in that...not sure what genre that should get put in.

    I'm trying to think if there is a movie that has something like 'lock-in' syndrome where a person is completely paralyzed and conscious where it's central to the plot. There was that movie Awake where the guy was conscious but paralyzed during surgery, but it was actively being done to him, and there was a clear villain.

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