"A Mother is God to a child.."

Moderators: Elvis, DrVolin, Jeff

"A Mother is God to a child.."

Postby Et in Arcadia ego » Tue Aug 22, 2006 7:29 pm

*Sorry Jeff, I tried..*<br><br>I decided to take a much needed break last night and get some Hollywood-brand sedation, so I picked up the Silent HIll film. I've been a horror fan my entire life, and I loved the games, so it seemed like a fun way to spend the evening.<br><br>Well..<br><br>I don't know what the problem really was. Maybe spending too much time with subject matter here has tarnished my ability to digest a good horror flick, or maybe it's even saturated me to the point where less is more(I don't really think this; the film is excessively brutal), but I really had a bad experience watching it. If I eliminate my own influences, it would suggest that something crept up into this film's production and rendered an etirely new level of abstraction, horror, and brutality all for it's own sake.<br><br>If one temporarily abandons conspiracy-type analysis, it would be suggestable to assert that collectively speaking, we have all lost our minds, film makers and viewers alike.<br><br>Don't get me wrong; I thought the movie was great, but some of the scenes went beyond what I felt was a sustainable level of trauma for the viewer, and I've noticed a propensity in film these last few years to do that, which is what I really think I started this thread about.<br><br>So what'chu guys and gals think about the New Style?<br><br>Is there enough Garmonbozia being harvested in Hollywood for The Others to have a proper feeding? The last couple of years I've kinda warmed to the idea of movie theaters having this huge invisible straw on top that some invisible nothing is sucking raw netagive emotion straight out of the viewers' brains..<br><br>Examples that really stood out:<br><br>Silent Hill<br><br>Several scenes in King Kong.<br><br>The (greatly prolonged) sacrifice of the Lion in the Chronicles of Narnia, which is <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>supposed</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> to be a kid's movie. Attention to detail on the evil side was so prolific I felt that the movie was itself a vehicle merely for casting the image of them onto the minds of our children.<br><br>The last Harry Potter film had alot of gratuity as well, especially the last scene where Potter is essentially tortured by his nemesis. <br><br>It really boils down not so much to the content, but to it's <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>duration</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> in a film. Another example was found when browsing a newspaper's film reviews. One for that Posiedon flick was there, and in it's ratings thing(where you see content warnings like sex, drug us, etc), there was something I've never seen before: "Prolonged scenes of cataclysmic destruction".<br><br>wtf?<br><br>Does Hollywood think it needs to throw things into overdrive to sustain viewer's interest? Is it an attempt to assert itself over daily life where horror and shock are becoming ever-increasingly vogue and accepted?<br><br>Or is it something else entirely? Because I've been a horror fan all my life and the last few years I've seen many films take a direction/technique that directors in the past would never have dared to go..And worst of all, I see it happening in 'kid's movies' just as much as adult's.<br><br>Discuss.<br><br><!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>edit: years later, my typing still sucks ass..</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> <p>____________________<br>Some are born to sweet delight, some are born to endless night.</p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=etinarcadiaego@rigorousintuition>et in Arcadia ego</A>  <IMG HEIGHT=10 WIDTH=10 SRC="http://www.sickle666.com/images/Arcadia.jpg" BORDER=0> at: 8/22/06 5:32 pm<br></i>
User avatar
Et in Arcadia ego
 
Posts: 4104
Joined: Fri Dec 02, 2005 5:06 pm
Location: The Void
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: "A Mother is God to a child.."

Postby Et in Arcadia ego » Tue Aug 22, 2006 7:38 pm

<!--EZCODE IMAGE START--><img src="http://www.sickle666.com/images/daily-horror.jpg" style="border:0;"/><!--EZCODE IMAGE END--><br><br>Hollywood has it's work cut out for itself.. <p>____________________<br>Some are born to sweet delight, some are born to endless night.</p><i></i>
User avatar
Et in Arcadia ego
 
Posts: 4104
Joined: Fri Dec 02, 2005 5:06 pm
Location: The Void
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: "A Mother is God to a child.."

Postby dugoboy » Tue Aug 22, 2006 9:03 pm

yup i remember the gratuitously violent scene in spiderman 2 when the octopus guy go nuts in a surgery room and basically kills everybody with blood all over the wall and a nurse scrapes her freaking nails on the floor leaving marks. i remember thinking <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>"was that necessary??"</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--><br><br>ohhh yea!<br><br>also in mission: impossible 3 there was the gratuitous and over the top heavy handed bombardment of tom cruise while he is on some raised highway like in that highway over the water to key west. they just blew the SUVs and shot missles at the highway. it was a freaking massacre.<br><br>there were a few scenes like that in war of the worlds. i know ive seen it else where. <br><br>edit: oh yea and why do i think this is happening? well i believe its conditioning. to take whats commonly accepted and thrash and <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>rape</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> that limit further and further beyond what was even considered conceivable before the expierence <p>___________________________________________<br>"BUSHCO aren't incompetent...they are COMPLICIT." -Me<br><br>"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action." - Ian Fleming<br><br>"Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act" -George Orwell</p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=dugoboy@rigorousintuition>dugoboy</A>  <IMG HEIGHT=10 WIDTH=10 SRC="http://www.geocities.com/orcthrasher/files/images/Qn38113.gif" BORDER=0> at: 8/22/06 7:06 pm<br></i>
dugoboy
 
Posts: 619
Joined: Wed Dec 28, 2005 2:46 pm
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: "A Mother is God to a child.."

Postby HMKGrey » Tue Aug 22, 2006 9:37 pm

You need to see <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>Wolf Creek</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->. <br><br>It's one nasty little film. The violence in it is vile but it has a great story and the acting is way above the usual standard for such a small budget flick. Fingers roll. Spines roll. Heads get holes. Two thumbs way up. <br><br>+++++++++++++++<br><br>We've been talking about Hollywood a lot at work recently. We all agreed a while back that most films are 'absolute shit', that they're too long and that 90% of the trailers you see on TV leave you asking how in God's name such a patently rubbish idea actually got greenlighted in the first place. I travel on airplanes a lot and, believe me, there's no better way to come face to face with the sheer pointlessness and plotlessness of so many big movies. You're trapped, you pay attention... you make eye contact with your fellow travellers in bizarre wonderment as the farce on the screen unfolds. <br><br>I blame several things. One is video games. I think games have had a profound effect on Hollywood and this is manifestly true if you look at the speed and structure of movies now. They tend to zip along - dashing from one set piece to another, just like a game does. Some of this is because games are such a vital part of the revenue stream of a movie brand now that they bring in game writers to help shape and plan movie scripts. Yes, they build movies with the game in mind. King Kong is a great example. All those dinosaurs running down that narrow canyon? 100% put in for the game. It was an ice movie action sequence but it was a kilelr game creation. And, when the game will sell at $50 a pop on 4-5 different formats and a great game can sell a million copies world wide pretty quickly and twice that in its life time... it's money well worth having. <br><br>So, Hollywood is influenced by the games makers and, at the same time, hugely intimidated by them. Games long ago eclipsed the size of the US movie business in terms of $$, so the movie business is working hard to bring some of the what makes games special in to movies. <br><br>But of course, they're somewhat missing the point. <br><br><br><br> <p></p><i></i>
HMKGrey
 
Posts: 666
Joined: Mon Aug 29, 2005 6:56 pm
Location: West Coast
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: "A Mother is God to a child.."

Postby Et in Arcadia ego » Tue Aug 22, 2006 9:43 pm

<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>there were a few scenes like that in war of the worlds. i know ive seen it else where. <hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>Yep. One noteworthy relationship between that one and Silent Hill is in one scene the bloody viens thing is in full effect in a manner that immediately reminded me of that mega-bizzare scene in WOTW where the machines are spraying blood everywhere trying to engineer...something..<br><br>If it hasn't been made clear enough, for those sensitive to extreme horror on this board, I seriously cannot reccomend Silent Hill for you. Horror fans that are innured to that are welcome to post their thoughts on the film here after they've seen it. <p>____________________<br>Some are born to sweet delight, some are born to endless night.</p><i></i>
User avatar
Et in Arcadia ego
 
Posts: 4104
Joined: Fri Dec 02, 2005 5:06 pm
Location: The Void
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: "A Mother is God to a child.."

Postby FourthBase » Tue Aug 22, 2006 9:46 pm

I'm glad you raised this, et.<br><br>I've always found even the tamest of horror films to be traumatizing. Even most television drama is traumatizing to an extent. Violent. All the time. Always death. Murder. Rape. Etc. Yes, the ante's been raised, it's been raised a little every year. But I've been sensitive to the deluge of violence, terror, grief on TV and in movies my entire 30 years on earth. The 70's, 80's, 90's...not that much tamer.<br><br>It disturbs me that anyone can actually be a "horror movie fan". You like watching people being terrorized and sliced apart? I mean, isn't that what it basically is? On a short bio, perhaps a personal ad, next to your "likes"...would you write "watching people being terrorized and sliced apart"?<br><br>King Kong was a fucking revelation about how mentally deranged our culture is. A mainstream blockbuster with some of the most horrific shit I've ever seen. I mean, those anus-looking worm-creatures with razor teeth? Yeah. 2/3 of the movie was a brutal, repetitive creepshow. And I felt this sense that the movie was trying to reach a primal part of our consciousness, in order to traumatize the holy shit out of it. The beginning atmosphere with Naomi Watts reminded me of Mulholland Drive, the same deluded sense of doom. The whole movie was psychotic.<br><br>And that's what I'm saying. Pop culture is conditioning us to think of psychotic shit like that as ordinary. Horror movie fans (sorry et) have been abusing their consciousnesses for years. But nowadays, pretty much everyone who goes to the movies and watches TV is a horror fan. <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=fourthbase>FourthBase</A> at: 8/22/06 7:48 pm<br></i>
User avatar
FourthBase
 
Posts: 7057
Joined: Thu May 05, 2005 4:41 pm
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: "A Mother is God to a child.."

Postby bvonahsen » Tue Aug 22, 2006 9:47 pm

<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>edit: oh yea and why do i think this is happening? well i believe its conditioning. to take whats commonly accepted and thrash and rape that limit further and further beyond what was even considered conceivable before the expierence<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>It is an addiction, and like all addicts, we will push our tolerance until it breaks or someone or some event forces us to. The disease will run it's course untill we make different choices than we have been. For that to happen there has to be a reason. We have to see some benifit in making a change and without that, we'll just stay where we are.<br><br>I don't accept that there is some dastardly conspiracy behind it, human nature is explaination enough. <p></p><i></i>
bvonahsen
 

Re: "A Mother is God to a child.."

Postby Et in Arcadia ego » Tue Aug 22, 2006 9:47 pm

<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>So, Hollywood is influenced by the games makers and, at the same time, hugely intimidated by them. Games long ago eclipsed the size of the US movie business in terms of $$, so the movie business is working hard to bring some of the what makes games special in to movies.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>The Silent Hill games are totally eclipsed by the film in regards to surreal horror and viscerality. Have you seen it yet? <p>____________________<br>Some are born to sweet delight, some are born to endless night.</p><i></i>
User avatar
Et in Arcadia ego
 
Posts: 4104
Joined: Fri Dec 02, 2005 5:06 pm
Location: The Void
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: "A Mother is God to a child.."

Postby Et in Arcadia ego » Tue Aug 22, 2006 9:53 pm

<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>It disturbs me that anyone can actually be a "horror movie fan". You like watching people being terrorized and sliced apart? I mean, isn't that what it basically is? On a short bio, perhaps a personal ad, next to your "likes"...would you write "watching people being terrorized and sliced apart"?<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>But nowadays, pretty much everyone who goes to the movies and watches TV is a horror fan.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>If so, then why did you single me out for the personal attack you just made?<br><br>You know nothing of the detail in my life that manifested later in my conditioning and acceptance of the horror genre and it's a pretty fucking judgemental statement you've made here against me that I don't appreciate at all.<br><br>I need time off this board. If I'm going to be dissected in a petri dish and judged for bring up a discussion about films it's time to get the fuck out of here.<br><br> <p>____________________<br>Some are born to sweet delight, some are born to endless night.</p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=etinarcadiaego@rigorousintuition>et in Arcadia ego</A>  <IMG HEIGHT=10 WIDTH=10 SRC="http://www.sickle666.com/images/Arcadia.jpg" BORDER=0> at: 8/22/06 7:53 pm<br></i>
User avatar
Et in Arcadia ego
 
Posts: 4104
Joined: Fri Dec 02, 2005 5:06 pm
Location: The Void
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: "A Mother is God to a child.."

Postby bvonahsen » Tue Aug 22, 2006 9:59 pm

A second thought:<br><br>What about a list of good films? I don't care for horror, I like drama. I like for.... you know... an actual plot, storyline and character developement. I know I know, I'm crazy. Oh well. <!--EZCODE EMOTICON START ;) --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/wink.gif ALT=";)"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> <br><br>My recomendation for a truely inspiring move is <!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0379557/">"Touching the Void"</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--><br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>In the mid-80's two young climbers attempted to reach the summit of Siula Grande in Peru; a feat that had previously been attempted but never achieved. With an extra man looking after base camp, Simon and Joe set off to scale the mount in one long push over several days. The peak is reached, however on the descent Joe falls and breaks his leg. Despite what it means, the two continue with Simon letting Joe out on a rope for 300 meters, then descending to join him and so on. However when Joe goes out over an overhang with no way of climbing back up, Simon makes the decision to cut the rope. Joe falls into a crevice and Simon, assuming him dead, continues back down. Joe however survives the fall and was lucky to hit a ledge in the crevice. This is the story of how he got back down.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>This movie just blows me away. I get so much out of it because what the movie does is to throw your own life into stark relief by comparison. It gives me the will to go on even when I don't believe I can. <p></p><i></i>
bvonahsen
 

Re: "A Mother is God to a child.."

Postby FourthBase » Tue Aug 22, 2006 9:59 pm

<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>If so, then why did you single me out for the personal attack you just made?<br><br>You know nothing of the detail in my life that manifested later in my conditioning and acceptance of the horror genre and it's a pretty fucking judgemental statement you've made here against me that I don't appreciate at all.<br><br>I need time off this board. If I'm going to be dissected in a petri dish and judged for bring up a discussion about films it's time to get the fuck out of here.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>Dude...CALM. THE. FUCK. DOWN.<br><br>It wasn't a personal attack.<br>It was a critique of horror movie fans.<br>You happen to be one.<br>Please explain rather than pout.<br><br>The question still stands:<br>Would you write that in the "likes" part of your bio?<br><br>Also, everyone today is a horror fan <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>without realizing it</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->.<br>It's the true horror fan who disturbs me.<br>But I'm curious what the appeal of it is. <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=fourthbase>FourthBase</A> at: 8/22/06 8:01 pm<br></i>
User avatar
FourthBase
 
Posts: 7057
Joined: Thu May 05, 2005 4:41 pm
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: "A Mother is God to a child.."

Postby streeb » Tue Aug 22, 2006 10:37 pm

I've been a horror fan my whole life, but I find it hard to get through many new films, of any genre. When Silent Hill was released, I posted a blurb from the Toronto Star about it, because I thought the wording was so interesting. There's no way I'll find it now with the EZ Board search (dys)function, but in effect it said something about the growing "spooks got my kids" genre. To anybody here, the double-meaning should be obvious (albeit inadvertant). It made me think about inoculation, as laid out tirelessly by Hugh Manatee Wins. The former film critic for Slate, David Edelstein, has been harping on Hollywood's booming obsession with child abuse, infant death and so forth, for a couple years now. It's a chicken-egg relationship to me, but the theme of children in peril is definitely a dominant one these days, which might further be traced to a mass loss of innocence that has occured in the last six years, and the struggle I think most people have in trying to ignore the horrible truths that are emerging every day.<br><br>I'm not really addressing your question, Et in Arcadia - just thinking out loud. But I dig horror movies, and am left cold and disgusted by many new ones. "Cabin Fever" was interesting if you read it as an indictment of America's health system (er... so far, I'm the only person I know whose done that..). No matter what they do in that film, nobody can get medical help. Not even at the hospital. It's excruciating. Meanwhile, movies such as the Hills Have Eyes re-make seem to have no such thematic co-ordinates, and really exist as pumped up versions of the original, which is too dilute for modern audiences. And yet - no amount of grue, or lactating mothers being suckled by mutants while a gun is held to their baby's head - no amount of that can seriously match the opening shot of the original, which depicts nothing more than a red sky and a mountain in silhouette, and yet is tremendously unsettling.<br><br>Fourth Base - I understand your visceral reaction to the very idea of 'horror fans', because I've encountered it all my life, but I think you have to remember it's about a great deal more than slicing people up. I suspect many of the readers here are Lovecraft fans, for one thing. The more I think about it these days, the more I'm convinced he's one of the towering figures of our time! Horror makes things manifest that would quite likely damage us if we didn't contemplate them. But it's not for everybody. <p></p><i></i>
User avatar
streeb
 
Posts: 1061
Joined: Thu Feb 09, 2006 9:19 pm
Location: Zona, BC
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: "A Mother is God to a child.."

Postby JerkyLeBoeuf » Tue Aug 22, 2006 10:46 pm

Just chirping in with my "I am Spartacus" comment here: <br><br>I, too, am a lifelong "Horror Fan". <br><br>Furthermore, seeing as some of the greatest artistic minds of all time were fascinated by the topic (Blake, Poe, Shakespeare, Sophocles, etc), I feel absolutely no pressure to defend my interest in the genre, beyond pointing out that it was the heavyhanded censorship of horror films in the 1980s that made me aware of the Heavy Hand in the first place, with the PMRC coming in a distant second. <p></p><i></i>
JerkyLeBoeuf
 
Posts: 146
Joined: Fri Jan 27, 2006 6:49 am
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: "A Mother is God to a child.."

Postby FourthBase » Tue Aug 22, 2006 10:59 pm

I understand that way of thinking, streeb, but written horror and implied off-screen horror is a different animal than graphic on-screen simulation of gore and mutilation.<br><br>Also, I now tend to disagree with the assumption that if we don't contemplate certain evils then those evils will fester unconsciously, etc. I used to agree with Milton's argument in Areopagitica about virtue that avoids exposure to evil being inauthentic and powerless...but more and more I feel that the act of avoiding exposure to evil is a lost, important art -- especially as representations of evil continue to flood the media. Sometimes it's just best not to contemplate things for too long, and some things not at all.<br><br>e.g., Texas Chainsaw Massacre: why do we the public need to see that re-enacted? Think of the cops who must've stumbled into the remains at that crime scene. Cops and soldiers are permanently scarred by just seeing the aftermath of shit like that. And yet, here's a full-scale re-enactment, placing the audience at the scene as if they're there as it all happens. Can anyone who's seen TCM ever forget the horror? It's as if they experienced it first-hand, and that's both a testament to the power of film and a testament to how psychotic this culture is. No one should want to experience a simulation of horror. Unless they're masochistic and enjoy inviting PTSD on themselves...or sadistic and enjoy seeing people being mutilated and murdered. Is there something I'm missing in that regard? <p></p><i></i>
User avatar
FourthBase
 
Posts: 7057
Joined: Thu May 05, 2005 4:41 pm
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: "A Mother is God to a child.."

Postby Et in Arcadia ego » Tue Aug 22, 2006 11:19 pm

<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>Is there something I'm missing in that regard?<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>Totally. Unfortunately, I didn't start this thread to address your lack of understanding, and I don't so stupid human tracks no matter how many times you demand I answer your insulting and ignorant questions.<br><br>If you want to grok the 'Horror Fan', start a new thread and get out of mine, cause that's seriously not what this thread is about. I'm <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>TRYING</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> to discuss this with other 'mature' horror fans here and see if they agree with the impressions I'm getting on this genre's(and peripherally others) descent into unpallateable venues that transcend the nature and intention of the established horror genre, which you clearly do not understand at all, fourthbase.<br><br>This lack of understand precludes your usefulness in this thread entirely, and you're serving as a major distraction I'd as soon mitigate so I can get back to what I was talking about in the first place. So instead of pummeling horror fans here, take yourself on a side trip and do some of your own research into what makes a horror fan tick, cause this thread's about something else, ok?<br><br>Great, thanks. <p>____________________<br>Some are born to sweet delight, some are born to endless night.</p><i></i>
User avatar
Et in Arcadia ego
 
Posts: 4104
Joined: Fri Dec 02, 2005 5:06 pm
Location: The Void
Blog: View Blog (0)

Next

Return to Culture Studies

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 6 guests