Chelle: Well Rob has forced quite a few horror movies on me in the last 18 years, but "WOW"! We watched it with all the lights off at Rob's behest and the whole time my conscious mind is going "This movie is so well done." Meanwhile, my subconscious had apparently fled and hid somewhere under the covers. The movie had just ended and Rob had jumped up to turn on a light when Aidan came out of his room for one of his variant reasons. It wasn't until I got up off the couch to tuck Aidan back in that I realized how the movie had affected me physically. Yep, physically. I could feel the blood throbbing in my head and my limbs were shaking with adrenalin. This is why I say "WOW", 'cause I wasn't even aware of how tense I'd become. This movie scared me; it really, physically scared me.
During the final scene, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Rob pull the afgan he was under up to his mouth in dreadful anticipation (he knew what was coming and was still scared), but I didn't have time to consider why before I was whispering "What in the hell was that?" I still have that first glimpse of the "creature" playing in my head and marveling at it. A humanoid (this is the only word for it) silhouette that is way too tall, way too skinny, and dangling backwards like it was hanging on unseen lines from celing. But suddenly it straightened up from that awful contortion and began to move toward our doomed heroes. I now know exactly how most of H.P. Lovecraft's characters feel when they are finally confronted with the dreadful countenance of their own particular tale. I too, ended up pulling my blanket up to my eyeballs.
I had to watch the making-of feature just to see who could pull that performance off. The "creature" is actually just a guy (who is way too tall and way too skinny) covered in prosthetics, but even in broad daylight he looked terrifying. I can understand why they brought their lead in to see him before the shoot; they literally might have scared her to death if they'd just sprung that "creature" on her.
I also really like the "explaination" of what is afflicting the people who live in that Barcelona apartment building. The Vatican is obviously involved so it's demonic, yet on a tape a mysterious character (who one might be able to blame for everyone's death, due to miscalculation) is heard to be said "I think I have finally isolated the enzyme", so it's scientific too; a disease. You're left wondering which it is. This mysterious guy's penthouse is a squalor of newspaper articles about possessed little girls, filthy labratory and operating equipment as well as oversized Roman Catholic paraphernalia. And all of it is viewed in a POV perspective that is narrowed down by absolute darkness; the only light a weak camera bulb.
I was impressed and truly horrified. Hats off to Jaume Balagureo and Paco Plaza.
Rob:
Well that screening went about 100x better than expected. I thought Chelle would like it, but I didn't expect we'd stay up an extra hour wide-awake with adrenaline, discussing what we'd just experienced. You can imagine my pride when Chelle told me it was the scariest horror movie she'd ever seen. The film holds up surprisingly well on the second viewing. The first time around, the ending caught me completely off guard, which added to the shock value, but this time, the anticipation of what I knew was coming was almost worse. I had really been looking forward to seeing Chelle's expression when the creature was revealing, but in the heat of the moment, I forgot to look. I couldn't tear my eyes away from the screen. When we finally did get to bed and I insisted that the lamp stay on, Chelle was like, "I wasn't going to turn it off, not tonight." This, ladies and gentlemen, is why we watch horror films.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
[REC]: a Preview
Rob:
For my first pick is a little Spanish horror film that utterly blew my mind out of my ass. I've been trying to get Chelle to watch it for almost as long as she's been trying to get me to watch Sleepless Town. In fact, the last time I suggested she watch it with me, she said she would, on the condition that I watch her boyfriend Takeshi's movie. Always looking for a new writing project, she said (half-jokingly), "We should start our own movie review blog and call it 'Films my Spouse Made Me Watch'." I jumped on the idea, and here we are.
I reason I want her to watch [REC] is to see if she has anywhere near the same reaction as I did, particularly to the last ten minutes of the film. My reaction: slack-jawed horror and disbelief, saying to myself, I know that's not real, but it's not CGI either, so what in God's name am I seeing? And that's the film's strength--the whole POV angle is so well done that a simple monster make-up effect felt shockingly real, so much so that it took me watching the special features to figure out how they did it (I know, it should have been obvious, but I was sucked in utterly).
Horror is a strange beastie, and just because a certain film can elicit poo-poo in my personal pantaloons, that doesn't mean it is universally scary. The Exorcist scares me silly, but I've heard plently of people who don't even consider it a horror movie. With [REC], I'm simply not sure if anyone else finds it as frightening as I did. I think Chelle will like it, and I really can't wait to see the look on her face when the creature is revealed.
For my first pick is a little Spanish horror film that utterly blew my mind out of my ass. I've been trying to get Chelle to watch it for almost as long as she's been trying to get me to watch Sleepless Town. In fact, the last time I suggested she watch it with me, she said she would, on the condition that I watch her boyfriend Takeshi's movie. Always looking for a new writing project, she said (half-jokingly), "We should start our own movie review blog and call it 'Films my Spouse Made Me Watch'." I jumped on the idea, and here we are.
I reason I want her to watch [REC] is to see if she has anywhere near the same reaction as I did, particularly to the last ten minutes of the film. My reaction: slack-jawed horror and disbelief, saying to myself, I know that's not real, but it's not CGI either, so what in God's name am I seeing? And that's the film's strength--the whole POV angle is so well done that a simple monster make-up effect felt shockingly real, so much so that it took me watching the special features to figure out how they did it (I know, it should have been obvious, but I was sucked in utterly).
Horror is a strange beastie, and just because a certain film can elicit poo-poo in my personal pantaloons, that doesn't mean it is universally scary. The Exorcist scares me silly, but I've heard plently of people who don't even consider it a horror movie. With [REC], I'm simply not sure if anyone else finds it as frightening as I did. I think Chelle will like it, and I really can't wait to see the look on her face when the creature is revealed.
Sleepless Town: Discussion
Rob:
Chelle had been attempting to get me to watch this film for months, tempting with promises of boobies aplenty. And boobies there were, yet I suspect her motives went deeper, that perhaps she wanted me to watch this film because it's, I don't know... good. And good it was. The first thing that struck me was the look of the film: its gorgeous photography and vivid color palette of neon blues and greens against the backdrop of night. It was definitely a film noir with all the classic tropes.
Its femme fatale was especially good, so good, in fact, that I had really hoped she would end up going against type and turn out to be a decent human being underneath it all. Played by Mirai Yamamoto, she wasn't the sultry, drop-dead gorgeous asian babe you might expect. She was pretty, but it was her personality that made her so attractive. She was absolutely charming, so much so that I, as a viewer, fell for her act as much as poor Takeshi Kaneshiro did. Again and again his character was warned against her, and he never fully trusted her, but in his awesomely understated performance, you could see that he had fallen for her. She betrays him, and in the end, he kills her for it. Which kind of pissed me off. With all the film noir build-up, I was really hoping that the story would take a turn for the unexpected and end happily. I suppose I can't fault it for not having the ending I would have liked, and the end had a poignance of its own.
My only major criticism of the film is that as an ignorant American, I could not keep straight all the character names that would come up during the discussion of the warring crime bosses. As a result, I really didn't know what the plot was half the time. Honestly though, I think the plot was beside the point. The film was really about the relationship between the two leads, and as such, it was a sexy, tragic film that I will probably watch again. If only to work out what the plot is. And for the boobies.
Chelle: I was afraid he was going to fall asleep. While there is lots of dialogue, it's all in Japanese, Mandarine, Taiwainese, and possibly Korean (my ignorant ear is untrained except to tell Japanese, Mandarine and Cantonese apart, and it's sound identification, not comprehension), which doesn't really register to the average Westerner 'cause it's all English on the bottom of the screen for us. And Rob is right, there are lot of plot complexities to sort through. But half way thru he started drowning himself in coffee and did enjoy the characters (and the nudity).
Having been a film student, Rob noticed the film noir immediately, which totally escaped me. It is classic noir and it is beautiful filmed. Hell, it won Best Cinematography at the '98 Hong Kong Film Awards. But, truth be told, that's not why I like it so much.
Chelle had been attempting to get me to watch this film for months, tempting with promises of boobies aplenty. And boobies there were, yet I suspect her motives went deeper, that perhaps she wanted me to watch this film because it's, I don't know... good. And good it was. The first thing that struck me was the look of the film: its gorgeous photography and vivid color palette of neon blues and greens against the backdrop of night. It was definitely a film noir with all the classic tropes.
Its femme fatale was especially good, so good, in fact, that I had really hoped she would end up going against type and turn out to be a decent human being underneath it all. Played by Mirai Yamamoto, she wasn't the sultry, drop-dead gorgeous asian babe you might expect. She was pretty, but it was her personality that made her so attractive. She was absolutely charming, so much so that I, as a viewer, fell for her act as much as poor Takeshi Kaneshiro did. Again and again his character was warned against her, and he never fully trusted her, but in his awesomely understated performance, you could see that he had fallen for her. She betrays him, and in the end, he kills her for it. Which kind of pissed me off. With all the film noir build-up, I was really hoping that the story would take a turn for the unexpected and end happily. I suppose I can't fault it for not having the ending I would have liked, and the end had a poignance of its own.
My only major criticism of the film is that as an ignorant American, I could not keep straight all the character names that would come up during the discussion of the warring crime bosses. As a result, I really didn't know what the plot was half the time. Honestly though, I think the plot was beside the point. The film was really about the relationship between the two leads, and as such, it was a sexy, tragic film that I will probably watch again. If only to work out what the plot is. And for the boobies.
Chelle: I was afraid he was going to fall asleep. While there is lots of dialogue, it's all in Japanese, Mandarine, Taiwainese, and possibly Korean (my ignorant ear is untrained except to tell Japanese, Mandarine and Cantonese apart, and it's sound identification, not comprehension), which doesn't really register to the average Westerner 'cause it's all English on the bottom of the screen for us. And Rob is right, there are lot of plot complexities to sort through. But half way thru he started drowning himself in coffee and did enjoy the characters (and the nudity).
Having been a film student, Rob noticed the film noir immediately, which totally escaped me. It is classic noir and it is beautiful filmed. Hell, it won Best Cinematography at the '98 Hong Kong Film Awards. But, truth be told, that's not why I like it so much.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Sleepless Town: Preview by Chelle
Who's heard of Takeshi Kaneshiro? If you have, I really don't need to explain why I like this flick. Takeshi is extremely compelling. He is hands down the most beautiful mortal walking the earth, but in addition to that he is a marvalous actor. His filmography is vast, going way back to like 1990 (which is even before Rob and I were dating). I'd watch anything Takeshi was in, but because all of his films are foreign (expect Too Tired to Die) they're hard to come by. Finding one is like finding a rare gem in your backyard. I had searched for this particular film in online stores to no avail. And then one day last year I'm at Hastings browsing a sale rack and lo, there it is - for $2.99! I almost skipped to the register. Why do I want Rob to watch it? It has that gritty feel that he's usually in to. It's a Japanese ganster flick with lots of betrayal and power swapping. How did I convince him to watch it? I told him there are lots of titties in it.
I just Blogged up a huge Conglomerate.
Rob:
It's official. I'm now a blogger. Despite thinking the term sounds like a wad of mucus, I'm quite excited about the prospect. For this inaugural post, let me explain the concept behind thisloogie blog. My wife and I have differing, yet oddly compatible taste in movies, and are constantly watching movies separately, then spending months and years telling each other we really ought to see this or that movie. This blog is an excuse to make each other watch those movies, and to get us writing on a regular basis.
The format of the blog will go something like this: the one inflicting the film upon the other will post a pre-game preview, explaining why that particular film was chosen, and what our expectations are regarding the other half's reaction to the film. Next, the inflictee will view said film and post their reaction. From there, a back and forth volley may ensue, or not, depending on how much we have to say. You may also post comments, but heed the warning: Do Not Be an Asshole. Assholes' comments will be stricken from the record and the offender shall be cursed with genital warts. Believe dat.
We've even been considering adding a podcast discussion in the future, but we've got to figure out this whole blogging thing first. You'll have to be patient with the layout, etc. There's a bit of a learning curve for us.
So there it is. Welcome, and we'll get better at this soon. We promise.
It's official. I'm now a blogger. Despite thinking the term sounds like a wad of mucus, I'm quite excited about the prospect. For this inaugural post, let me explain the concept behind this
The format of the blog will go something like this: the one inflicting the film upon the other will post a pre-game preview, explaining why that particular film was chosen, and what our expectations are regarding the other half's reaction to the film. Next, the inflictee will view said film and post their reaction. From there, a back and forth volley may ensue, or not, depending on how much we have to say. You may also post comments, but heed the warning: Do Not Be an Asshole. Assholes' comments will be stricken from the record and the offender shall be cursed with genital warts. Believe dat.
We've even been considering adding a podcast discussion in the future, but we've got to figure out this whole blogging thing first. You'll have to be patient with the layout, etc. There's a bit of a learning curve for us.
So there it is. Welcome, and we'll get better at this soon. We promise.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)