As we continue our Hog’s Head Halloween 2009, we’ve come upon scary movies week. This week, we’ll look at effective Gothic and frightening elements in films, with particular focus on three movies: the 1922 Nosferatu, which can be viewed in its entirety on YouTube, del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth, and I’m guessing we’ll get a review of the recently released Paranormal Activity, which is getting a lot of attention right now.
That’s only three movies. I’m sure you have favorites. Talk about them in the comments!
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I’m not a fan of scary movies because, well, they make me scared!
I don’t need to go after emotions like that. When my friends watched gore-fest videos I laid down behind the lounge and went to sleep.
Having said that, I love (as I’ve said elsewhere) Val Lewtown’s very intellectual scaries such as Cat People, I walked with a Zombie, etc. Great use of shadow, and because he had no budget the monsters were always off-screen, and all the scarier for it.
Alien was very scary. The chest burster traumatised me and from then on I was rubble, ripe for Ridley’s picking.
Hmm, I haven’t seen a lot of horror movies lately. As a young teenager I watched a lot, many of them being slasher flicks which I’m no longer very fond of, though Scream was the best of them.
I think Pan’s Labyrinth and The Ring are the best scary movies I’ve seen lately. Pan’s Labyrinth was also very moving, and a great exploration of fascism and historical period as well as scary. I was in tears at the end. Del Toro was being considered to direct Deathly Hallows at one point. I’m very glad he’s not, but he did a great job with Pan’s Labyrinth.
Del Toro was also asked to do The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe?! Really?! Wow, that seems like a really odd choice. Del Toro, to paraphrase him, likes things dark. He was interested in DH because of it’s darkness, which is why I didn’t want him to direct the movie, the book is dark enough on its own and doesn’t need any extra added on, the movie just needs to tell the story that’s already there. Given that, Del Toro directing the first Narnia movie seems very bizarre. On the other hand, he would have made White Witch and the entire Stone Table scene pretty terrifying, and I’m already very uncomfortable whenever I watch that scene.
Well, he turned it down because he decided he couldn’t bring Aslan back from the dead.