A Week of Frightening Movies
June 17th – June 22nd
Disaster Zone: Volcano in New York, Mansquito, and Wraiths of Roanoke – Ouch. Sure, our COLON: A Sci-Fi Channel Original Pictures Production Triple Feature was a lot of fun. But it was a little painful as well. Disaster Zone was seemingly shot by someone suffering from Parkinsons–all shaky cam for no apparent reason. And using stock footage of the Twin Towers smoldering from 9/11 was certainly film making at its finest. TOO SOON!!! Still, I love me a disaster movie. And this one was a disaster. Mansquito, thankfully, lacked the off-putting camera work. But that’s about the best I can say. It was pretty bad. As for Wraiths, I’m not even sure. It was late and I was tired. I frankly don’t remember much of it. It looked like somebody had watched Terrence Malick’s The New World and thought that maybe the fortress and the costumes in that movie would make for a good idea for a much worse movie. Setting and costume are important. But you also need a writer and director, too.
You know, I’d much rather be making horribly bad movies for a living than working at my current job. But man, it’s sometimes hard to comprehend how this crap gets made. Sure they’re made cheaply and quickly for an audience that is pretty much expecting badly made fare. But this same audience would very much appreciate a smartly executed horror or sci-fi film as well. I don’t know. I sure enjoyed it though. I kinda want more.
Funny Games (2008) & Diary of the Dead – These two made for an interesting double feature. In their different ways, they were both kind of looking through the camera at the audience (more or less overtly) to see how complicit the viewers were/are in violence. Funny Games played like a psychology experiment. As George (Tim Roth) says: I get it. How must we feel about ourselves when we enjoy such violence on screen? Good? Horrible? Should we walk out? Vomit? I actually enjoyed the film. But I don’t enjoy violence. I do wonder what the experience would have been like having seen it at the theater. Would that crowded public setting disarm people enough so that they laugh even in inappropriate places? Or take it more or less seriously? For that matter, I wonder how I would view a movie like Hostel if I saw it at the theater, surrounded by a bunch of frat boys who don’t look much different from the victims up on the screen (dumb Americans). I’ll admit I’m a bit of a film snob–the megaplexes around here aren’t exactly teeming with a sophisticated audience. Then again who am I to say that some level of sophistication is required to enjoy any movie?
Diary didn’t take itself quite that seriously. Still it was trying to say something about how we hide behind our technology in a way that removes us from the reality of violence. I could have done without the figurative hammer to the head at the very end (“Are we worth saving?”). Still it was a lot of fun. Romero’s zombie movies may come with a message, but you can always count on having a lot of fun along the way.
Soldiers in the Army of God – Another look at the pro-life terrorist movement. Scary, scary stuff. This was a 2000 HBO documentary about the radical elements in the pro-life movement. The documentary itself was reactionary. I think Lake of Fire takes a fuller look at the issue–approaching terrorist Paul Hill before he murders and illustrating a variety of outlooks on abortion. Lord I hope Obama wins in November.
