A Baptist youth minister with a penchant for gruesome horror movies. Right on! I enjoy the blog of Philip Meade over at The Beast's Lair and wish he would post more often. And one question I'd pose is this: Why do so many contemporary Japanese horror flicks (and their American re-makes) center on murdered children? (Ie. The Ring, The Grudge, Dark Water, Three Extremes)
Friday, March 24, 2006
Question of the Hour
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1 comment:
Thanks for the nod. I have only 2 blogmarks on my blog, and yours is one of them, I enjoy your writing.
Concerning J-Horror (Japanese Horror), the genre usually has a focus on the psychological element of fear, and is the best in the business at "cheap scares." I have never jumped so high in a theatre than when the mom said "I saw her face" in The Ring and it jumped to the closet imagery. That is a cheap scare done right!
Some critics regard this as gimmicks, and an oversaturation of any element would surely fall into that category, but all films have their own set of gimmicks, it just depends on the genre and the mood they are trying to convey.
Concerning children, I suspect that there is no better way to quickly jump into the psychological fear of the viewer than by using young children, and since that is the goal of J-Horror, I imagine we will be seeing even more of it. For those of my friends who can't watch horror films, many of them talk of the fear of being helpless, a lack of control. Adding children into the mix of that already helpless position only strengthens the filmmakers hold over the viewer. Grudge 2 is in production right now. I remember my first viewing of The Shining, I was only like 8 years old. I was terrified by the little twins, for whatever reason.
Changing the subject, I would be interested in your thoughts on this blog: March 22nd, entitled State Religions. http://lasthome.blogspot.com/
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