Wednesday

[handful_ofdust]

Cal is now purging thick, yellow-tinged licks of snot freely from both nostrils, and every time I try to wipe them away he screams like I just shot his figurative puppy. Last night was Supernatural, still stupid (though I do like the characters, oddly, which is what keeps me watching...it also occurs to me that this may be the single easiest new show to pitch a spec for thus far, given my interests and bank of stored-up knowledge, so maybe I should go ahead and do that. That way I can pretend I'm getting more out of it than a gratuitous weekly shot of Pretty Times Two.), and House of Wax, which was surprisingly vicious and enjoyable, given how much everyone I know pissed on it from a height. Then again, that's what i always say, isn't it? Or nearly so.

Actually, I'm beginning to wonder whether I should just hang up my Horror Movie Critic hat for good, considering how often I cut slack to things the majority think are Dragging the Whole Genre Down a Big Hole in the Centre of the Earth and then fail to jump on board whatever the majority considers The Next Big Thing Which Will Prove Horror is Something That MATTERS. Haute Tension, for example...good gore and some solid real-time thrills, yet devalued almost completely by a break-neck third-act shift-of-perspective T-W-I-S-T that simply reeked of two French dudes in a room somewhere going: "Oh YES, we MUST do eeet! Eeet weel be zee SHEET!"

And now Cal is in a misery-lather because I won't let him hump the laundry-basket. I'll return.

Comments

[strange.livejournal.com]

You're right, that shitty ending twist totally destroyed Haute Tension, it was a pretty good flick up until that point but those last ten minutes made me loathe it.

[handful-ofdust.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's pretty much all about the second part of that statement, isn't it? Since it makes it impossible to re-watch the film as a whole, which is part of my standard for judging films generally: Once should never be enough, if it's effective at doing what it sets out to. (though, grantedly, there are certain parts of House of Wax I wish I'd never seen...getting squeamish in my post-partum old age, I guess.)

For those who don't want to be spoilered, I'll confine myself to this: When somebody's delusion is so strong it can physically conjure up an entire truck from nowhere, therapy probably ain't gonna help much. Zee Fin!

[strange.livejournal.com]

I spent a lot of the latter part of Haute Tension wondering how the logistics (truck included) of that chase could have been possible - needless to say I couldn't figure it out at all. Totally implausible.

I've noticed myself getting more squeamish too in the last year, I didn't think it might have something to do with getting old but it could I guess. It also could be that a friend's cousin was brutally murdered and that brought horror much closer to home.