akashiver (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} akashiver) wrote,@ 2009-11-01 19:08:00 |
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Paranormal Activity
It's official: I'm going to ICFA this year. My paper got accepted, so Orlando, here I come!
In other news, I just came back from seeing Paranormal Activity. As far as "docuterror" movies go, it's good, but a little too predictable.
Sometimes when you crit story drafts you come across stories that have been revised maybe one too many times: ambiguity has been ironed out of the draft, and the plot moves like a heavy, thudding machine. Reader questions are addressed in very clear terms before they can even be asked: "Here's why they don't leave the house! Here's why they don't call an exorcist!"
The movie felt like that to me, so I wasn't surprised to learn that the director had continued to reshoot the movie over the years and changed the festival ending based on some advice from Steven Spielberg. The final product shows the effort of heavy revision. It's very... workmanlike. It's designed to be scare the audience and for the most part it does (particularly in the very effective last scene). But there's not much that's fresh, or original, or ambitious here.
For that reason I prefer The Blair Witch Project. Plotwise, that film wasn't as well put together and its "scares" weren't as calculated as PA's are, but as a horror movie it scared me more. There was more messiness in Blair Witch, more left to the audiences' imagination, and as a result it stayed with me longer than I think this film will. To be scared by the final scene of Blair Witch you need to be *with* the film; you need to be putting clues together and you have to figure out what the final shot means *as you see it* for the scene to work. It's horror as moment of revelation. Watching PA, on the other hand, you don't have to use your imagination or put clues together: the film will practically beat you over the head with what's going on. As a result, more people will enjoy this movie than enjoyed Blair Witch, I think, but I consider BW to be the better horror movie.
To put it a different way: PA could well be the better movie, but BW is a better horror movie. Does that make sense?
It's official: I'm going to ICFA this year. My paper got accepted, so Orlando, here I come!
In other news, I just came back from seeing Paranormal Activity. As far as "docuterror" movies go, it's good, but a little too predictable.
Sometimes when you crit story drafts you come across stories that have been revised maybe one too many times: ambiguity has been ironed out of the draft, and the plot moves like a heavy, thudding machine. Reader questions are addressed in very clear terms before they can even be asked: "Here's why they don't leave the house! Here's why they don't call an exorcist!"
The movie felt like that to me, so I wasn't surprised to learn that the director had continued to reshoot the movie over the years and changed the festival ending based on some advice from Steven Spielberg. The final product shows the effort of heavy revision. It's very... workmanlike. It's designed to be scare the audience and for the most part it does (particularly in the very effective last scene). But there's not much that's fresh, or original, or ambitious here.
For that reason I prefer The Blair Witch Project. Plotwise, that film wasn't as well put together and its "scares" weren't as calculated as PA's are, but as a horror movie it scared me more. There was more messiness in Blair Witch, more left to the audiences' imagination, and as a result it stayed with me longer than I think this film will. To be scared by the final scene of Blair Witch you need to be *with* the film; you need to be putting clues together and you have to figure out what the final shot means *as you see it* for the scene to work. It's horror as moment of revelation. Watching PA, on the other hand, you don't have to use your imagination or put clues together: the film will practically beat you over the head with what's going on. As a result, more people will enjoy this movie than enjoyed Blair Witch, I think, but I consider BW to be the better horror movie.
To put it a different way: PA could well be the better movie, but BW is a better horror movie. Does that make sense?
