Horror Month: Shaun of the Dead (2004)

             

                     I wanted to watch something funny today because I was looking at the list of movies I plan to watch this month and there's a lot of really scary ones left. I suppose Shaun of the Dead isn't a complete horror film, the majority of it is way too funny to be scary in the slightest. And that's a great thing. This movie is wittily scripted,  well paced, and superbly acted with a fantastic cast. Nick Frost and Simon Pegg are both well known actors with a strong body of work of their own, but together they form a powerful comedy duo with incredible onscreen chemistry that they showcase again in the equally as excellent Hot Fuzz. 

                    Shaun of the Dead follows the story of average, mediocre Shaun (Pegg), his video game playing, pot smoking, unemployed best friend/roommate Ed (Frost) and various others, including Shaun's girlfriend and more than slightly oblivious mother. A zombie plague breaks out, as it is prone to do in films such as this, and the characters must find safety. As I mentioned before, this is first and foremost a comedy. The dialogue between all the characters is cleverly written and well delivered, with a plethora of English phrases and expressions that North American audiences will either be baffled by or find completely hilarious. But still, there is a horror element. In the scenes with zombies there is a lot of realistic gore. People get eaten and bitten very often, and blood always gushes from their wounds. It's excessive in some cases, but still believable. One scene has Shaun blow his own mother's head off after she is bitten and turns into a zombie. Another character (who is a total dick) gets ripped apart and disemboweled by a horde of undead. It's pretty jarring to see in a film that for the most part has the audience laughing, but still, it's a zombie outbreak. There's gotta be blood.

                There were some very clever scenes at the beginning that showed people sitting in buses, or waiting in line at the supermarket, just standing there oblivious to their surroundings like.....well, zombies. Shaun's world is so dull, monotonous and repetitive that even after the plague begins, it takes him a long time to even notice that something is wrong, just because things haven't changed for him that significantly. The events of the film are almost like a wake-up call for him, something to shake him out of his boring life and reignite the spark between him and his significant other, who spends the majority of the first few scenes lecturing him about how pointless his life is and how he needs to change. The apocalypse offers Shaun a chance to prove that he's capable of greater things, and he does this by taking leadership of the group, even though he indirectly leads most of them to their deaths. 

But hey, he tried.

Horror Month: The Blair Witch Project (1999)

                 I watched this one early on in Horror Month on purpose. The reason for this is that I wanted to get it out of the way because Blair Witch Project is horrifying, and one of the very, very few movies that continues to be scary after repeated viewings. I'm not really a fan of the "found footage" horror films that have become so popular over the last decade or so, they're pretty repetitive an uninspired (with a few exceptions of course). These types of movies certainly existed before Blair Witch, but this was the one masterfully made one that got very popular and influenced all the others. And since it came out, no found footage film and very few horror films in general have reached the levels of suspense, terror, and intensity that The Blair Witch Project achieves.

                I think that the extremely low budget of this film worked for it rather than against it. If the filmmakers had had a huge pile of cash to work with, they may have produced a more polished, technically intricate experience, maybe thrown in some expensive but unnecessary CGI or just thought too big in general. No, Blair Witch is brilliant in its simplicity, and that's one of the main reasons it's so great. The picture is grainy because it wasn't shot on professional cameras, there are no big name actors, and you literally see absolutely nothing of the film's eponymous monster in the entire movie. The two former work toward its staggeringly powerful realism and the latter is a main component of the scariness of Blair Witch. This film adheres to a rule that's simple in concept but can be very difficult to follow: The less you show of your monster, the scarier it becomes. And since you don't ever see the Blair Witch at all, she becomes absolutely horrifying. All of the scares in this movie come from your own imagination, when the characters are straining their eyes searching all around them for the source of the voices that torment them at night, you're transfixed on the screen, expecting to see a monster, a person, an animal, anything. But you don't. You're left confused, scared, and on the very edge of your seat. All we see of the Blair Witch is piles of rocks that appear around the students' tent at night, humanoid stick figures hanging from trees, strange symbols carved into the walls of that terrifying house they find at the end, and a bundle of sticks containing hair, skin and teeth of the first of her victim in the film (RIP Josh). It works so incredibly well because everything is in the viewer's imagination, and the more active that imagination is (mine works overtime 24 hours a day) the scarier it is. And above all, the way it's presented is just so....real. You feel like this really happened and the Blair Witch is really out there in the woods. 

                   That's a scary thought. 

Horror Month: Hausu (House, 1977)

           This is one of the weirdest films that I've ever seen. House is the almost nonsensical story of seven teenage girls who go to one of the girl's aunt's house for a summer of relaxing, only to be methodically  devoured and murdered by the house (or a demonic cat, or ghosts, it's really hard to tell sometimes). In terms of plot and characters, House is pretty conventional. This is basic 1970's horror movie stuff. The girls even have stupid names that correspond to their one-dimensional personalities. The main character/hot one is called Gorgeous, the tough, athletic one is named Kung Fu, the smart one that can't see anything without he glasses is Prof, and the girl who plays instruments and loves music is named Melody. Yeah, pretty lame. 

         But House's strengths aren't in it's plot or characters. Just judging it by those, it's a fairly lame movie. What makes this film remarkable and entertaining is it's ingenuity, both visually and in terms of editing. All of the sequences where the protagonists are attacked by the house are really, really strange. Most of them left me going "What the heck did I just watch?". I was especially confused after scenes where a character is quite literally eaten by a piano only to turn up later trapped in a grandfather clock that's oozing both blood and another unidentified green liquid, and another memorable one where another girl is attacked my mattresses. Mattresses. Pretty much anything in the house is apparently capable of killing people, near the end Kung Fu is eaten alive by a deranged light fixture. All of these scenes contain retro animation and ridiculously crude special effects, which are hilarious and very charming. Seeing the screen flicker different colours while a victim screams at the stump oozing cartoony animated blood where her hand used to be is really entertaining, and though they're not believable in the slightest the special effects are extremely creative. I won't soon forget the climactic scene near the end when a painting of a cat spews out blood until it fills up the entire room, or when one of the final survivors is pulled into this lake of blood by what appears to be a jar with teeth. It's just so over the top you can't help being entertained by it. And I definitely was.

Horror Month: Silence of the Lambs (1991)

               This is another fantastic horror film I've seen before. Silence of the Lambs is a brilliant thriller all around. Its deliberately slow pace in the beginning builds up into a stellar climax that leaves the viewer reeling afterwards. The performances are particularly remarkable, Jodie Foster is great as an FBI agent on the trail of a serial killer called Buffalo Bill, and Anthony Hopkins delivers arguably one of the most intense and memorable performances in modern film as charming, brilliant, but deeply disturbed killer/psychiatrist Hannibal Lecter. It's hard to think of him as a main character since he's only actually onscreen for 15-20 minutes of the whole film, but every scene he's in is deliciously tense, and his unpredictability makes him all the more enthralling. One of the best scenes in this movie is when he brutally murders two police officers and escapes from a maximum security facility by cutting one of his victim's faces off and putting it on his own, allowing him to escape in an ambulance. Hannibal's seems relatively passive and nonthreatening most times, but as soon as an opening appears for him he's all violent insanity.

             Another scene that I have come to appreciate after repeated viewings is the end of the film, where Jodie Foster's character is exploring the den of Buffalo Bill, trying to find and arrest him. The set design is perfect, creating an extremely sinister, foreboding atmosphere. Everything is filthy, the house is in a severe state of disrepair and the whole place just seems to be a labyrinth of doors and rooms, containing countless hiding places for the  fleeing killer. This leads to an incredibly suspenseful scene where the killer turns off the lights and approaches Foster with night vision goggles on. We see the entire encounter through his eyes, her groping around in the dark, oblivious to his presence while he slowly approaches her and readies his pistol. Although she eventually does kill Buffalo Bill and end his string of grisly murders, the ending of Silence of the Lambs is bittersweet, because while one killer is dead, a much more clever, cunning and brutal one has escaped. This sets the stage for the sequels nicely, but in my opinion none of them are near as good as this completely brilliant thriller.

Horror Month: Antichrist (Lars von Trier, 2009)

               I should mention before beginning that the list of horror films to watch this month consists of about 50/50 movies I've seen before and liked and movies I haven't seen and heard good things about. Antichrist fits both of those criteria: I have seen it (once) before and I have heard about it's brilliance from several people. The first time I watched this film I wasn't sure what I was in for, and was horrified by the end. The sexual violence that takes place in this film is completely disgusting, it is so explicit that most people would stop watching and condemn it altogether. But visually, the film is so completely riveting that any serious film proponent can never give up on it. Lars von Trier is clearly one sick dude to create something so visceral and disgusting, but a complete genius to come up with a film so visually impressive and thematically enthralling as this. Antichrist is disgustingly violent, but so incredibly well shot that no matter how violent it gets I can't pull myself away from it. The atmosphere is completely serious and horrifying from the beginning, and Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg's performances are spectacular right from the start. They are really the only two actors in this film, and they shine all the way through. The film follows Gainsbourg's descent from grief into madness very well, and she is incredibly unpredictable for the entire experience. I loved how quiet and serene the environments are, but how deceptively corrupted they are. Antichrist is a very disturbing but very, very well directed film, and I enjoyed every second of it.

A great film, and a great start to Horror Month.

October 2013: Horror Month!

So since it's October, the month that Halloween falls on, I'll be watching horror movies all month. The plan is to watch 5-6 horror films a week. I'll be writing posts about each film I watch, they'll be short and sweet because I'm in school, Grand Theft Auto 5 is out, and I have other shit to do. Stay Tuned.

Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch

           

              Before I begin this post, let it be known that I really don't like anime. I understand the appeal of Japanese cartoons, and a lot of my friends love them, but I personally am not a fan. Dragonball Z will of course always hold a special place in my heart due to how much I absolutely loved it when I was a kid, but other than that I've never really found an anime I've found immersive and fun without being completely stupid. "But Matt", you say, "You haven't seen (insert anime title here)! how can you say you don't like anime if you haven't seen (insert title here)!". Well to you I say, that doesn't matter. I don't need to see every anime show ever to tell that it's not my thing. I don't have anything against it, and if you like it that's totally cool, I just don't. Leave me alone.

               Despite my dislike for anime, I have found an extremely well made, immersive and memorable game in Level 5's overwhelmingly huge RPG, Ni No Kuni. I bought the game a few months ago on sale, the guy at the store told me it was a good choice and that it would keep me busy for a looooong time. "Yeah, whatever", I thought, "This dude is just trying to sell it to me to make money for his store", but I was totally wrong. EB Games Dude, you were 100%, completely right (for once.) Ni No Kuni is an absolute masterpiece of the Japanese RPG genre and one of the best games of 2013, if not the complete best. I'll admit that at first I was not really that into Ni No Kuni. To me, it seemed like a fairly generic role playing  game with nicely designed visuals by an actual anime studio and nothing else substantial behind it. Young boy loses his mom and travels to an alternate world with a living version of one of his toys to save her. Not a terribly original plot. Why do I care? I didn't at first. But as the long story of the game wore on I became incredibly emotionally invested in the characters and their roles in the plot, and hopelessly addicted to the deep gameplay and massive world. The main quest of the game follows the adventure of Oliver, a young boy who travels to a parallel universe along with one of his toys which comes to life and has apparently been a fairy all along. During this journey he meets up with Esther and Swaine, two others who follow him on his adventure for various reasons. In the most basic terms, his objective is to destroy the White Witch, an evil entity intent on destroying the world to make way for a new one, and somehow bring his mother back to life. This story isn't largely important to the game, most of the plot devices consist of NPCs saying "Oh, you need this to continue your adventure? Well do this for me and I'll give it to you" which is fairly standard for role-playing games. I found myself several times doing an errand for someone so they would give me something which I would give to another person in exchange for all or part of what I really needed all along. And that in itself is one of the big appeals of Ni No Kuni, if you play it and find that you like it you're really in for a treat because the game goes on FOREVER. There are literally hundreds of sidequests and bounty hunts you can perform for the various denizens of the game world. Some of them take minutes to complete, others hours, and to get 100% task completion in the game will take you weeks if you're a committed player, months if you take your time. The world is massive and very well designed, containing the various ecosystems you would expect in an expansive RPG: deserts, tundras, caves, oceans, forests, volcanoes, islands, and some incredibly weird levels that are perfectly at home in a Japanese fictional universe. This world never feels like a chore to traverse either, you thankfully gain the ability to fast travel early on in the storyline and later acquire both a ship and a dragon you can use to fly to parts previously unreachable. There are about a hundred hidden treasure chests to find and if you want to create every single alchemy recipe (a task that took me about 30 hours of playtime alone) you'll be travelling a lot.

               But that's enough about the world. A role playing game is nothing if it doesn't have good combat, and in that aspect Ni No Kuni is great, nuanced but simple at heart. The combat system in this game is real-time, and most of the time your characters will not be fighting directly but instead using creatures they have tamed called "familiars". These are essentially the enemies found in the game. When you defeat a creature, you sometimes get an opportunity to tame it. If you choose to recruit it, it becomes a member of your party and you gain control over it. Familiars can equip weapons and armor, and gain abilities and stats as they level up. This probably sounds a lot like Pokemon, and to tell the truth it is. There are several different types of familiars, and over 300 species, so you'll need to find strong ones and know which types to use to succeed in combat. This means travelling all over the world and fighting all the creatures lots of times to capture them, and then fighting tons more to level them up to make them strong (and evolve them to their strongest form, just like in Pokemon). Having a strong team of familiars for each of your party members is the key to victory in Ni No Kuni, and to make it through the endgame and fight the postgame ultimate bosses you need to pretty much find the best familiars and get them to max level. Doing this took me a looooong time but running around with  a crazy strong team destroying everything at the end of the game was extremely fun.

              The ridiculous amount of content and easy-to-learn, hard-to-master combat system in Ni No Kuni is brought together by simply amazing production values, and these elevate the game to a level of quality rarely seen in video games. The entire game is drawn and animated by the famous Studio Ghibli, the studio responsible for several critically acclaimed animated films including Howl's Moving Castle and the irresistibly charming My Neighbor Totoro. Everything in the game is absolutely gorgeous, from the cutscenes to the varied terrain, everything is beautifully brought to life. The soundtrack is also stellar, being performed by the Tokyo Philharmonic orchestra. Just listen to this. Or this. Or any of the other songs, they're invariably fantastic. There aren't many games that come out these days that make me want to just stand still in a dungeon or town, just listening to the gorgeous soundtrack. In terms of presentation, Ni No Kuni is amazing, and almost unrivaled in its quality.

               You should play this game. You might think it's for kids, but if you have any inner child left in you at all you will love it. There is so much to do and see in Ni No Kuni. And all of it is of the highest quality, and most definitely worth experiencing.