Saw VI (one and a half stars total) People can say whatever they want about the Saw series and I'll probably agree with most of what is said. That doesn't change the fact that 20 years from now, when people talk about horror movies from this decade, the Saw series will be one of the first discussed. For me personally, it's all about Shawnee Smith and her role in a made-for-TV movie, Crime of Innocence (1985). As a kid, I saw that advertised and I've NEVER recovered. I didn't watch the movie mind you, but the advertisement alone introduced me to the idea of miscarriage of justice/wrongful convictions, which I had NO ability to process at my tender age. 20 years later, I find out that's not even the half of it. The movie's actually more about prison rape and turns out it's based on a true story. I was still feeling sorry for Shawnee Smith as a pregnant teenager in Summer School (1987) when I saw her wearing an iron mask/reversed bear trap in Saw (2004), so you can appreciate why the mere sight of her on the screen has always made me feel a little uneasy. Then in Saw II (2005), she went from being threatened to becoming the threat as an apprentice to the villain, Jigsaw. Moving on to my review of Saw VI (2009), it's a "Jigsaw Family Feud" as the original cancer patient villain, John Kramer, apparently has a wife and there's even another heir with Detective Hoffman (pardon me but I'm coming back to the series after only seeing the first two movies). There's a scene where John Kramer has to remind Detective Hoffman to treat one of their victims like a human being. Either that makes you chuckle for its backward benevolence or because you realize that audiences probably justify watching these movies with the same pretentiousness of John Kramer. Truth is, most people who keep up with the current horror subgenre of "torture porn" enjoy it for the same reasons as Detective Hoffman. On that same note, I realized that John Kramer doesn't scare people just because he's a serial killer. He's scary because he's sickly. And those people who know that they'll never become serial killers don't know that they'll never become sickly. Jigsaw taught me in this movie that the reason women are more valuable than men is because each one represents a chance for new life to be brought into this world. Therefore we should treat them better than most of Shawnee Smith's roles have been treated.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Leaving Everything to the Imagination Versus Leaving Nothing
Paranormal Activity (four stars total) is the funniest scary movie I've ever seen. So scary that as I walked out of the theater, I noticed that my leg hurt and attributed it to tensing all my muscles throughout the last ten or fifteen minutes of the movie. It didn't make me scared of bumps in the night, but it did make me think more realistically about what I'd do if I heard a burglar breaking in. It didn't make me scared of being possessed, but it did make me realize how little control anyone has over their homes burning down while they're gone, or the possiblity of someone hiding out in the attic waiting for the owner's return. Contrary to popular belief, Paranormal Activity (2009) is not The Blair Witch Project (1999). Both movies had internet marketing schemes and look homemade, but Paranormal Activity also has likable characters (skeptical audiences will identify with the husband) and special effects (the Ouija board and powder on the floor). Both movies had open narratives and help within reach (why didn't the characters in Blair Witch just climb a tree to get their bearings?), but Paranormal Activity also has an uncharacteristically good jump scene for its ending and its characters have arcs and logical motives. The girlfriend goes through the five stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance). The boyfriend goes from outside observer (always grabbing his camera to go downstairs) to willing participant (agreeing to call the professionals). The demon goes from distractions (banging on walls) to physical harm (biting). Slasher movies teach that characters should never separate but this movie goes further and deals with a couple's emotional and intellectual separation. Of course I like this movie because it's set in San Diego. I tried to remember what I would've been doing on 9/18/06, the date that the movie starts, and according to my calculations, I would've lived in San Diego for two years already. The movie raises some other questions too: Who puts on deodorant before going to bed? Why does the Paranormal Activity seem to take place mostly on odd-numbered nights? Why is it only at night? Did it make anyone else scared about what they might have done in their sleep that they don't remember? Most importantly, why doesn't the boyfriend sleep on top of his girlfriend after she gets dragged out of bed???
Saw VI (one and a half stars total) People can say whatever they want about the Saw series and I'll probably agree with most of what is said. That doesn't change the fact that 20 years from now, when people talk about horror movies from this decade, the Saw series will be one of the first discussed. For me personally, it's all about Shawnee Smith and her role in a made-for-TV movie, Crime of Innocence (1985). As a kid, I saw that advertised and I've NEVER recovered. I didn't watch the movie mind you, but the advertisement alone introduced me to the idea of miscarriage of justice/wrongful convictions, which I had NO ability to process at my tender age. 20 years later, I find out that's not even the half of it. The movie's actually more about prison rape and turns out it's based on a true story. I was still feeling sorry for Shawnee Smith as a pregnant teenager in Summer School (1987) when I saw her wearing an iron mask/reversed bear trap in Saw (2004), so you can appreciate why the mere sight of her on the screen has always made me feel a little uneasy. Then in Saw II (2005), she went from being threatened to becoming the threat as an apprentice to the villain, Jigsaw. Moving on to my review of Saw VI (2009), it's a "Jigsaw Family Feud" as the original cancer patient villain, John Kramer, apparently has a wife and there's even another heir with Detective Hoffman (pardon me but I'm coming back to the series after only seeing the first two movies). There's a scene where John Kramer has to remind Detective Hoffman to treat one of their victims like a human being. Either that makes you chuckle for its backward benevolence or because you realize that audiences probably justify watching these movies with the same pretentiousness of John Kramer. Truth is, most people who keep up with the current horror subgenre of "torture porn" enjoy it for the same reasons as Detective Hoffman. On that same note, I realized that John Kramer doesn't scare people just because he's a serial killer. He's scary because he's sickly. And those people who know that they'll never become serial killers don't know that they'll never become sickly. Jigsaw taught me in this movie that the reason women are more valuable than men is because each one represents a chance for new life to be brought into this world. Therefore we should treat them better than most of Shawnee Smith's roles have been treated.
Saw VI (one and a half stars total) People can say whatever they want about the Saw series and I'll probably agree with most of what is said. That doesn't change the fact that 20 years from now, when people talk about horror movies from this decade, the Saw series will be one of the first discussed. For me personally, it's all about Shawnee Smith and her role in a made-for-TV movie, Crime of Innocence (1985). As a kid, I saw that advertised and I've NEVER recovered. I didn't watch the movie mind you, but the advertisement alone introduced me to the idea of miscarriage of justice/wrongful convictions, which I had NO ability to process at my tender age. 20 years later, I find out that's not even the half of it. The movie's actually more about prison rape and turns out it's based on a true story. I was still feeling sorry for Shawnee Smith as a pregnant teenager in Summer School (1987) when I saw her wearing an iron mask/reversed bear trap in Saw (2004), so you can appreciate why the mere sight of her on the screen has always made me feel a little uneasy. Then in Saw II (2005), she went from being threatened to becoming the threat as an apprentice to the villain, Jigsaw. Moving on to my review of Saw VI (2009), it's a "Jigsaw Family Feud" as the original cancer patient villain, John Kramer, apparently has a wife and there's even another heir with Detective Hoffman (pardon me but I'm coming back to the series after only seeing the first two movies). There's a scene where John Kramer has to remind Detective Hoffman to treat one of their victims like a human being. Either that makes you chuckle for its backward benevolence or because you realize that audiences probably justify watching these movies with the same pretentiousness of John Kramer. Truth is, most people who keep up with the current horror subgenre of "torture porn" enjoy it for the same reasons as Detective Hoffman. On that same note, I realized that John Kramer doesn't scare people just because he's a serial killer. He's scary because he's sickly. And those people who know that they'll never become serial killers don't know that they'll never become sickly. Jigsaw taught me in this movie that the reason women are more valuable than men is because each one represents a chance for new life to be brought into this world. Therefore we should treat them better than most of Shawnee Smith's roles have been treated.
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