Horror Movie - 28 Days Later

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scullars

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Unsettling Horror Movie

In light of the thread about how many people are desensitized to horror these days, I wonder whether anyone can be unsettled, at least. I must be more sensitive then most. For example, a few years back, I literally jumped when a ghost casually flitted across the screen in The Sixth Sense, taking me by surprise. Just recently on cable, I caught the movie 28 Days Later, which actually inspired a nightmare. And after the movie was over, I found myself staring warily into dark corners while outside a pair of running feet set my pulse racing.

For a quick synopsis, a rage virus overtakes London when animal rights advocates release an infected chimpanzee, thinking they are doing a good thing. Unfortunately for them, they are the first casualties of a man-made virus that infects and turns a human into a raging maniac within a matter of 10 to 20 seconds. A few scenes later, the protagonist awakens from a coma after London has become a ghost town, and finds out the hard way from several survivors just what has happened.

The "zombies" are indeed frightening, as is the premise. Faces distorted with rage and maybe hunger, bloodshot eyes, and the agility to nearly outrace their prey, these creatures made for some harrowing scenes.

Has any other movie ever caught you guys by surprise? I mean, yes, it is harder to be frightened these days, but has something in a movie or book just unsettled you, if not necessarily frightened you?
 

maestrowork

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If you guys are going to discuss plot, can you put a SPOILER ALERT at the beginning of your post?

Thanks,
 

Anatole Ghio

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The whole issue of desensitization is an interesting one. It is true that over time, one becomes less afraid of old icons. It is a natural physiological reaction, and one that therapists use to help people overcome irrational fears.

However, the belief that one is thus less afraid in general is a mistake, I believe. One is just less afraid of the old, familiar things. If something new is presented, or something old is given a fresh spin, it is just as easy for our buttons to be pushed as when we were not desensitized. Fear is a primal reaction, after all, so once the frame of the unfamliar or the unknown is created, that primal response of fight or flight and the adreniline kick behind it becomes uncovered.

I find myself getting scared by a lot of the asian films lately, for a couple of reasons.

1) Cultural: already there is a difference is the cultural meaning behind the tropes being used, and in the style of presentation. They tend to spend more time on each shot, so the pace is a little slower at points, which helps to develop a false sense of security and lower ones guard. There is also a strong emphasis on famliy and society, so themes of alienation and honor are very important. This all helps to develop the feelong of being in an unfamilar place, coming from a western perspective.

2) Many of these film makers have either gone to film school, or developed through television, so their skills are better than some schlock director. Ju-on, The Ring, The Eye... all are technically well shot and composed.

The Ring is one of the scariest movies I have ever seen. Ju-on was one of the most unsettling. The Eye was a well made film that had a couple of scenes that are scary enough to show no one is completely desensitized.

As far a 28 days later, all that has been given away of the plot is like the first 5 minutes... so you can watch it and the movie isn't spoiled. I really liked 28 days later... only a couple of the scenes were really horrifying... the whole movie was more unsettling, and I really responded to the existential undertone to the film (this is a motif
Danny Boyle uses in in films, protagonists struggling with an existentail dilemma).

So I do agree getting the scare is harder in our current culture... just not impossible.

- Anatole
 

scullars

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By the way, The Ring 2 (correct title?) opens today. Salon has already reviewed it. I remember liking the laid back mood of the first; it wasn't out to give you the jumps with every scene. It let some of the suspense build up. Also, the camera work was interesting.

Another thing about 28 Days Later is how near it is to being a possibility, not so much the turning into a raving maniac, but how quickly we could be overtaken by a man-made viral pandemic.
 

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scullars said:
Another thing about 28 Days Later is how near it is to being a possibility, not so much the turning into a raving maniac, but how quickly we could be overtaken by a man-made viral pandemic.

I thought I saw this, but after your short synopsis, I'm not sure now. I don't go to the movies much, I wait until they are placed on cable's ON Demand. I think my brain has lost a few cells the past couple days, I recall seeing 28 Days Later in the listing, but I don't recall the description you've given. Hmmm. I'm outta here to see if it's still listed. :)

Joanne
 

maestrowork

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28 Days was good -- did you see the alternate ending? But the best horror last year was the remake of Dawn of the Dead. Wow. I almost peed my pants.
 

Ivonia

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maestrowork said:
28 Days was good -- did you see the alternate ending? But the best horror last year was the remake of Dawn of the Dead. Wow. I almost peed my pants.

Bah, I hated the Dawn of the Dead remake. Too many flat characters (honestly, there were maybe 3-4 characters you were even concerned about in it, and I didn't understand exactly how the security guard chief went from being a total jerk to a total nice guy, it just sort of happened), and they broke the "zombies are slow" rule, yet kept the "hordes of zombies" rule, making the zombies less scary overall and more of a comedy (I was laughing when I saw people who were slow or what not suddenly gain super speed when they turned into a zombie lol. Maybe athletes should take what the zombies have in them instead of all those supplements hehe).

What made the original Dawn scary with the tons of zombies was the fact that you could fight a couple at a time reliably, but when there's like 20 of them, it's a lot harder, if not impossible. So yeah, they were slow, but unless you had infinite ammo (seemed like they did hehe), a high ledge where they couldn't get to you, and a lot of time on your hands, there was no way you were going to be able to kill all those zombies (shame they don't sell flamethrowers or rocket launchers in mall gun stores). But that's just my gripe with it, otherwise it wasn't too bad (I liked how the movie was supposed to take place in Milwaukee, WI, my hometown hehe).

Regarding 28 Days Later, I have to say, that beginning part was pretty freaky. I also liked how they would just kill people if they thought they were infected, unlike other horror movies, where they usually wait until the person turns before killing them. That was definitely something different and cool, because you weren't sure who would survive and who wouldn't. It wasn't the greatest "zombie" movie I've ever seen (I really loved the Night of the Living Dead remake), but it was certainly one of the better ones.
 

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three seven said:
I'm afraid to say that I watched The Grudge very much in the manner of an eight year old girl.

Don't feel like you're alone on this...my husband freaked at the bed scene, right after teasing me for jumping at the first scary scene we see. If I make that noise at 2am, he'll sit bolt upright in bed with a racing heart for a minute before he realizes it was me and whacks me with a pillow :)
 

three seven

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I know what you mean. I was walking the dog in the woods the other day and I heard it behind me. Turned out to be a tree creaking in the wind, but it certainly got my attention...
 

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three seven said:
I know what you mean. I was walking the dog in the woods the other day and I heard it behind me. Turned out to be a tree creaking in the wind, but it certainly got my attention...

I wonder why certain noises, like natural sounds such as this one, stay with us and give us chills so much longer than the rest of an experience?
 

maestrowork

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BlueTexas said:
Don't feel like you're alone on this...my husband freaked at the bed scene, right after teasing me for jumping at the first scary scene we see. If I make that noise at 2am, he'll sit bolt upright in bed with a racing heart for a minute before he realizes it was me and whacks me with a pillow :)

Really? I was usually very scared at horror movies, but the Grudge bored me. The only good scene, I think, was with the sister and the security camera... that was freaky.
 

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maestrowork said:
Really? I was usually very scared at horror movies, but the Grudge bored me. The only good scene, I think, was with the sister and the security camera... that was freaky.

That was the best scene to me, especially since one of my hobbies is trying to capture video footage of ghosts. If I saw that in the viewfinder, I'd have my proof but I'd probably be too unnerved to ever view it again.
My husband said the thought the movie scared him because it was so suspenseful. But really, I think he's scared of ghosts :)
 

Anatole Ghio

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I haven't seen the American version, but that scene in the Japanese one was one of the truly scary ones in the film... mostly the film was just really unsettling to me. Spolier: The seance near the end also kind of freaked me out, and just the look of the little kid.... brrrr.

- Anatole
 

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The Grudge was one movie I did go to see. I thought the previews were better than the entire movie. The camera scene was pretty good. When the cat jumped out was a scare, but that was only because I was so bored it surprised me.

There were a few other horror movies advertised that I haven't been to see; Saw and Two. Again the previews looked great, but I'll probably wait until they come out on cable.

Joanne
 

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I've read some bad reviews of the Ring Two. The first one was excellent, I think. I have a feeling they are having sequelitis again. That's a shame. I don't think Hollywood knows how to make horror films anymore. They have to borrow from Japan (the Ring was actually a Korean film originally) and then ruin it...

Meanwhile, the trailer of Amityville Horror looks really scary...
 

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Re the security camera footage in The Grudge: Am I the only one who finds the erratic movements of "ghosts" in newer movies to be really creepy? The same technique was used in The Ring and Gothika, with equal creepiness, IMO.
 

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28 Days Later was a good spin on an old idea. Dawn Of The Dead had it's moments, haven't seen the Grudge or the Movie Saw, but from what I read they have very scary concepts. Only a matter of time before I see if they pulled them off well enough to give me the wilies.

Chris
 
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Ivonia

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The Grudge had its scary moments. Like others here have posted, the security camera scene was pretty scary (particularly when the police chief views it), but the scene just before that (where the girl was in the staircase) freaked me out too, having worked in a similiar building before.

However, her "death" doesn't seem as scary as the Japanese one. Although they both get killed the same way in both versions, the Japanese one doesn't simply have the girl hide in bed.

SPOILER below:

She actually turns on the TV, and the image starts to get really messed up, then the ghost comes from under her bed. (I've done stuff like that before, turning on the tv if I'm really scared, and it doesn't seem to help much unless I'm watching something really funny).





I went and saw Ring Two this weekend. Overall it's kind of scary, but they seem to focus more on scenes that make you jump rather than the creepiness of the atmosphere like the first one. Also:



SPOILER:


Samara walking around the TV doesn't seem as scary this time, probably because we're all used to it now. For some reason too, her face isn't as scary this time around. It was creepy as heck in the first movie (remember her face at the end?), but it seems they forgot to age/waterlog her face like they did her hands.
 

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Zombie movies are just too hokey (IMO) for me to get scared at. Grossed out, maybe. But I just can't seem to suspend disbelief enough to be effected by them too much, and I often find myself laughing at the wrong moments.

Of course, I'll still watch them for the cheese factor.

The original "Night of the Living Dead", is a classic, and I love it. But as for any modern Zombie movies...there is only one that really kicks much a**, and that's "Shawn of the Dead".

THAT is what a zombie movie should be! :ROFL:

Now, "The Grudge" was, IMO very good. Not great...but better than alot of stuff that's come out lately. I just could not get into "The Ring", although, I understand the original Japanese versions are much better.

I don't know...I guess a "horror" movie just doesn't have the time to build up the suspense, and the dread that a book can, and maybe that's why movies categorized as "horror" just don't disturb me that much.

On the other hand (And I know I've mentioned this before), there are certain sci-fi movies that sent chills down my spine, and kept me awake at night.

The last Horror flick that did that to me, was "The Exorcist".
 

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BlueTexas said:
I wonder why certain noises, like natural sounds such as this one, stay with us and give us chills so much longer than the rest of an experience?

Because we evolved from early, arboreal primates. Recognizing and being attuned to natural noises was a crucial part of what kept our ancestors alive, and nowadays -- now that we don't have cheetahs crawling up our oak in the middle of the night -- that particular trait's sort of useless, but it's still there.
 

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drgnlvr said:
The original "Night of the Living Dead", is a classic, and I love it.

I couldn't sleep, one night, so I watched that movie about two years ago, on TCM, for the first time, at about three o'clock in the morning. It didn't help my insomnia any.

The sheer inevitability of all those zombies just coming and coming and coming and coming and not stopping.

SPOILER....



That part, near the end, where the little girl that's been comatose in the basement turns into a zombie creeped me out to no end...Scary scary stuff. The black and white helped immensely.
 

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Zombies, calling all you zombies

First off, I want to say it's great everyone is posting spoiler alerts in this section, it's just a courtesy that even though you don't get thanked every time you do it, there will always be someone reading it who will be thankful for it.

On to zombies... because of modern technology, cyrogenics, nanobots, viruses, genetic splicing and a thousand other things, these creatures date better than some of the other traditional monsters. I've seen em fast, slow, stupid, intelligent, organized, disorganized... whatever, it all works for me.

About Night of the Living Dead, what I love most about the first is how the ending reflects the time period the movie was made in. So because it's an independant film made in Pittsburg without studio financing, it's already an indie film, and add to that it's themes of racial conflict, social strife, and the futility of resisting society (here I'm reading the zombies as a social body simply to draw up comparisons with other films of the time period that had this theme)... and one could argue this movie was as much an 70's film as any of dozens going from Easy Rider to around Star Wars, where the climate of movies began to change.

I love the way the film ends (semi spoiler), with the step printing instead of regular film. It really brings you out of the movie, which makes it all the more disconcerting and strange.

- Anatole
 

scullars

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Anatole Ghio said:
and the futility of resisting society (here I'm reading the zombies as a social body simply to draw up comparisons with other films of the time period that had this theme)... and one could argue this movie was as much an 70's film as any of dozens going from Easy Rider to around Star Wars, where the climate of movies began to change.


The movie that really showed the futility of resisting society was the 1970's remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.



SPOILER...




When the movie sneakily switches from Donald Sutherland's perspective as protagonist to that of Veronica Cartwright's, it takes you by surprise. You think he's still the hero and lo and behold he's become one of them. The original as well as the 1994 remake with Gabrielle Anwar at least gave you some hope at the end (although it provided an extra chill when the beloved younger brother was overcome and the sister had to take measures to deal with him).
 
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