Audition (dir. Takashi Miike [1999])

*Movie Spoilers!*

Oh my goodness! What is with the crazy women lately? This Asami girl makes the one from last week look normal, and she was psychotic in the end! And really, this is the fourth film we’ve seen and only one has been in english. Not that I mind, I just find it odd. And yes I know that this week is Japanese Horror so of course it’s not in english, but I mean the other weeks...I’m just pointing it out.

Anyway, I don’t know if I would call this a horror movie. Yeah, it’s defiantly not a normal story line, but when I think horror I think something involving beings like monsters, vampires, werewolves, so no and so forth. Get what I mean? So a movie with none of those things and no real hint of gut retching scenes until the last twenty minutes can’t be classified as horror in my book. Me - I would say more of a light slasher film or something.

My favorite character was the guys son. I instantly felt bad for him when you saw him in the first scene bringing a get well gift for his mother that dies right before he gets to her room. So when later the crazy girl tried to pepper spray (?) him to kill him later I was yelling at the screen telling him to turn around. Then yelling at him for going up the stairs instead of out the front door when she started chasing her. But hey, he was able to kill her and not get himself hurt so I’ll let him off for that.

I liked that, while it was a foreign film, it was Japanese simply because I’m use to watching subbed anime so the japanese language going off with words appearing below is easier to wrap my head around then it being in Swedish or something. Also, after watching subbed anime for five years you pick up a few words and sayings - making it that much easier to watch.

So, quick recap: wouldn’t call it horror, the women seem to be getting crazier each week, favorite character is the son, the dad movies way too fast, the best friend is right all along, and if my youngest sister saw this she would be hitting me saying it was my fault the crazy lady killed the dog even though I have no control over the movie.

Thirst (dir. Chan-Wook Park)

Okay this was one of the strangest movies I’ve seen. I mean a Korean film were a priest gets turned into a vampire? How strange is that?

I felt bad for the guy until he started going after the main girl who’s messed up from the start. My favorite character was the mentor priest until he wanted to become a vampire too. Then he wasn’t.

The girl, if she was crazy in the beginning, she’s psychotic by the end - and just keeps bringing the ex-priest down with her. I’m glade that he is still kind enough in the end to do what he did in the end. (I’m not going to spoil it.)

Other then this movie I’ve seen 2 other vampire films - Lost Boys (the original: back when I was little my mom had us watch it because it’s her favorite but it’s a bit much when you’re only 10) and the Twilight series (though who really goes to see it for the vampires - the werewolves are so much more interesting to watch). 

Back to the movie. If, and when, comparing Lost Boys to Thirst there are several differences. Lost Boys moves along quickly getting to the vampire stuff right away, Thirst takes a while until you get to that point. Lost Boys has a feeling to it that gives you more of the impression that this is how life in this town is since it is similar to how people were in that time. Thirst takes place in 2009 - the year it was made - but it’s main character is so precise and clean that it make the movie feel surreal at times.

As I said vampires and me get along to some extent. I don’t think that I will ever watch this movie again - again not because it’s in a different language - but because it was too bloody and sexual for me. Was flipping my iPad over on more than one occasion. And before you ask I did put the book down every now and again as well. Though no matter what I would like to see Interview with the Vampire soon.

Regardless, this is good bye to vampires for the class - well except for the in class discussion. Farewell blood suckers.

Interview with the Vampire - Anne Rice

Okay, I haven’t read or seen any real monster or zombie movies before this class - I’ve said that before. I don’t really care about them, the movies and books we’ve been through were okay but none that peeked my interest. But vampires, vampires I like - to an extent. Don’t ask why, they’re just more interesting.

So the book. Good, quite good. I do like the main character - his struggles and events in his life are as realistic as I can imagine. But I’m not here to tell you what happened in it, read it yourself or watch the movie - I know I plan to.

One of the reasons why I liked this book was because of the way it was written. There was always something going on, dialog that helped move the story along - or at least move my eyes to the next line. No dialog means nothing to interest me in continuing down the page. However, while this book had lots of dialogue (the vampire’s story all written in his speech) the large blocks of solid text is not encouraging.

Another thing that I have against the book is that there are no chapters. It makes it very difficult to find a spot to stop for the day. Okay, there are the gaps every-now-and-again but unless you have a book mark - and you can’t use one if you use the school’s copy since you’re not allowed to check it out - it doesn’t work.

But yes I do enjoy vampires a bit. I wouldn’t say they are my favorite characters, not at all, but they are more enjoyable then everything we’ve covered so far. And at least these vampires don’t sparkle and get pregnant.

So next week Japanese Horror. We’ll see how that goes in a weeks time.

Night of the Living Dead (1968 dir. George Romero)

Ug. Defiantly not a movie I would care to see again. Could have gone my whole life without seeing at all and I would have been fine actually. 

Anyway, really, the movie. It was in black and white, which I don’t have a problem with at all. Some of my favorite movies are black and white. It’s just that this one seemed to do so little in the amount of time that it played. 

Within the first twenty minutes of the movie I wanted Barbra to just shut up. Then when she finally did she was so out of it that I would have just put her in the cellar so she was out of the way. Mr. Cooper I wanted to die with his first two words. He’s such a jerk! And the way he keeps thinking he knows everything or tries to always be in charge is so annoying!

The one person I liked was the only one you never learned the name of. The tall black man you meet twenty some minutes in. He was the only sensible person there. Of course they thought he was a ‘murderer’ so killed him in the last five minutes.

The other girl, Judy, she was another odd one. From the way they talked it sounded like she had almost a problem with leaving places. They said how she didn’t want to leave the house with a flood, the she didn’t want to leave the house with zombies coming after them, wonder if she would have left the house had she been in one of the evacuation zones in Jersey for the hurricane.

How did it relate to the book? Well for one there were both about zombies. (duh) Two: Each had a guy who thought that he was doing what was best for the group when really the weren’t (Jack from the book and Mr. Cooper from the movie) Three: there was a girl that the main guy was trying to protect in some way (Delkalb was trying to protect Ayaan from war the best he could, Mr. Tall-and-Dark tried to protect Barbra from the zombies, Mr. Cooper and herself) Another thing - backing up here - how come the zombies in the movie walk so slowly but in the beginning when Barbra was being chased the guy seemed really agile? And what time was it? On the TV it was always light and the Chef gunman guy said that they would hunt all night - in the house they had just been saying how it was ten to three - so why was if always so dark at the house? 

Well that’s all for zombies (except for the class discussion of course). Next week, Vampires - and not the sparkly kind that skipped their basic biology class. Real vampires.

Monster Island by David Wellington

Monster Island is not a book about monsters but rather zombies. I personally have never been a zombie person, but I know a lot of people who are. 

This book was first created online, later published into a book. I remember seeing the cover at Borders one time - most likely a long time ago. I’ll have to ask my sister is she’s read if, though I don’t think so.

Back to the story. Because it was online, the format was similar to fanfiction or other online reading sites. I liked this for two reasons. One: I have been reading a lot of fanfiction recently so I was very comfortable with the format. Two: The chapters were very short and though there were sixty of them, since they were not that long it felt like you were getting a lot done. James Patterson also writes like this which is one of the reasons I will read some of his books.

The story itself is pretty good in my opinion. Sure, I don’t like zombies, but that won’t stop me from stating the truth. 

For those who read this would would like a bit more to go on in order to determine if you would read it, here. The story is zombies. For some reason when you die you come back to life within a minute. However, because your brain lost oxygen you’re mindless. The story is from two points of view and switches off every chapter. One story is about a guy who traveled from Africa to NYC to get AIDS medication for their contours warlord in exchange for safety for himself and his daughter. The other story is a medical student in NYC who kills himself while connected to a respirator and dialysis that way he can keep his mind. Of course the two stories intertwine. A Scottish mummy comes back to life an can control all the dead. They find a group of survivors. One guy thinks killing everyone would be best and tries to do it. Yeah-da, yeah-da, yeah-da, read it yourself, I’m not going to spoil it by telling you the whole thing.

Anyway, personally my favorite character is Ayaan - she understands what has to be done even if everyone else is to noble to consider it. I did also like Gary in the first part, but then after he talks to the mummy I just want him to go die.

So there is Monster Island. Two down, fourteen to go.

Elements of Horror

The things I think are in horror books/movies:
* Lightning
* Assistances
* Rain
* Death
* Something humans shouldn't be able to do
* Elements of surprise
* Creatures not seen in everyday life
* A full moon
* Lots of things happening at night

( I've seen maybe 3 horror movies ever so there are more than likely other things too.)

Movie: Let the Right One In (Swedish dir. Tomas Alfredson, 2008)

The movie in one word: odd. 

My roommate tells me that this movie was re-made in America and is called Let Me In made last year, 2010. This is definitely not your typical Vampire movie, or creature movie for that matter. No overly gruesome parts, not tons of blood, no sudden appearances that make you jump in your seat. I honestly don’t see it needing an R, though I wouldn’t say PG-13. Why don’t we create one that’s in the middle and call it that. It can be AR for Almost R (but not quite).

My sister would never watch it. Not because of the genre but because it’s Swedish. She refuses to watch pretty much anything subbed. Me, I don’t mind. After spending five years watching subbed anime, it being in Swedish is fine.

I thought the bully’s older brother was a jerk. An eye for an ear, who taught him in school? The vampire, Eli, was cool. I get why this movie was paired with Frankenstein. Both Eli and the Creature just wanted to have a friend in there life. I felt bad for her / his “father” even if he was killing people. All he was trying to do was feed Eli. I thought the way he died was good. Sacrificing himself to feed her, at the same time dyeing so no investigation can lead to Eli.

Oskar was one messed up kid. Sure his parents are divorced, his dad forgets about him when he drinks, mom works all the time, but couldn’t they have payed more attention to him so he wasn’t stabbing trees? And people who collect newspaper articles about murder, death, and knives grow up to either be murderers themselves or the crazy people that create groups to follow them. Your telling me that the parents knew no one that could watch him every now and again so he doesn’t spend so long by himself? That’s just bad parenting. So I don’t blame him for still being friends with Eli even after her finds out she’s/he’s a vampire (or at least drinks blood to survive). But still, as creepy, unethical, unmoral or what-have-you as it is to be friends with them, a Vampire on your side can be helpful.