Hurray! I made it to the zoo and yes, the photography came out OK. The Frog vs. Snake one at the top is one of my all time favourites, along with the monkey family. Anyway, it was another weekend of films, beating last week by one. I ended up watching six in a weekend:

• The Sitter (Cinema)
• The Red Balloon
• Cyrus
• Total Recall
• Bad Lieutenant (2009′s)
• The Big Lebowski

Last night I caught Event Horizon (1997) for the first time. The (supposed) cult-classic Sci-Fi Horror film has always intrigued me. When still at school, a friend of mine was constantly talking about it and its violence – thus I was interested to see if fourteen years had since aged its impact.

Directed by Paul ‘Resident Evil’ Anderson, it’s easy to see its influencers. The Alien series is an obvious inspiration and for the first twenty-five minutes, Event Horizon actually holds its own. There’s some brooding cinematography and it does its best at creating a gothic atmosphere in space. Tensions run high in the stereotypical cast (think Aliens meets Jurassic Park) and the vastness of space makes the eerie ship seem as claustrophobic as you’d expect. The set design is also extremely clever – mechanic, bio-satanic, futuristic – it’s the perfect representation of a ship that’s not quite right.

However, for all its thoughtful direction, it loses the plot as soon as it turns on the gore. Yes, it’s shocking (remember this is pre-Saw) and while the lost-VHS version contained more crude representations of torture, demonic possession and rough violence, the surviving cut is enough to make you feel uncomfortable, especially if you’re squeamish about eyes…

Watching Event Horizon sadly reminds me of the video game Doom. Space and Hell clash in the expected manner – people start dropping like flies; the comic relief starts growing sparse and the violence is cranked up. The convoluted narrative, weak character development and overall messiness of the plot (including the frankly ridiculous manifestation of Hell) makes it a confusing and tiresome watch in the end.

Yes, it was filmed entirely in Britain, but that doesn’t stop it from being a cluttered and ultimately misguided affair. It’s a shame because as already stated, it seemed like it was on the right track. Still, it’s better than AVP [2]

Last week I discussed the attempt to close the gaps in my cinematic knowledge. I focussed on some seminal horror films (The Exorcist and Rosemary’s Baby), but this week has been a bit more contemporary. I shifted forward to the 90s and 00′s for my cinema fix.

Having read Empire’s two star review of Due Date moments before the film started, it was difficult to approach the film without some sort of expectation. Still, Total Film gave it a contrasting four stars and I’ve found myself agreeing with their critique more of late. Criticism aside, this year’s supposed The Hangover (by the same esteemed director) has undoubtedly raised the expectation of Due Date. Shamelessly taking it’s inspiration from the classic buddy road trip comedy, Planes, Trains & Automobiles, Due Date follows its intrepid twosome as they trek across America landing on the no-fly list.

As you’d expect, not everything goes to plan and all sorts of hilarity takes place. There’s some really stand out scenes (replace the Hangover’s baby with a dog for a particularly crude set piece) and both Downey Jr. and Galifianakis are as you’d expect. Overall, it’s a decent comedy that gets the job done.

Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Pt. 1 broke the UK sales records for an opening weekend. Having been a bit busy the previous weekend, I’d not got round to seeing it till yesterday morning. It’s been a while since the 6th film, (and years since the last book), so it was nice to enter the world of Potter again. I’m a big fan so my interpretation is obviously slightly biased. Sure, it’s darker than all the rest (because my generation grew up with the books, it’s only natural that they become more adult) and it ends on the expected cliffhanger, but it’s easily one of the best in the series while being a massive improvement over the emo-tastic film before it. It’s set up perfectly for the big finale and it’s excruciating knowing we’ll have to wait months.

Jennifer, directed by Argento, is part of the Masters of Horror box set that I bought a couple months ago. So far I’ve watched two of the films (one was pathetic while the other, pure B-Movie quality) and it was good to come up against a semi-enjoyable horror film. After all, this is a collection that promises a lot. For those unfamiliar with Masters of Horror, each director was asked to create an hour long TV spot for a US series of short films. It took place in ’07 and this is Argento’s helping. I wouldn’t recommend it though – it’s just that comparatively with the quality in the box, it can be considered good.

Finally was Trainspotting. Yes, I’ve never seen Trainspotting (until last night), not because I’ve never wanted to, but purely because of a matter of time. I’m not the biggest fan of injections on screen, but it wasn’t actually as bad as I’d thought it’d be. If you’ve never seen it, do. As far as I’m aware, I haven’t seen any other Danny Boyle films (I’m looking forward to 127 Hours with James Franco though), so this was my first experience of his film making. The film’s fantastic, the acting brilliant and the dialogue, really really literary.  I do wish I’d seen it sooner than I have.

On a side not, I finally finished the first season of Covert Affairs. Pretty good.

Many films leave lasting impressions, but Paranormal Activity (2009) is a one of a rare breed. It’s a low budget exploration of what’s fundamentally frightening to our frail psyches; The Unknown. It doesn’t yield anything particularly novel, but instead chooses to play upon a concept that’s traditionally confined to the thriller genre.

There’s something in your house when you’re at your most vulnerable. Asleep, we’re powerless and by watching a normal couple subjected to increasingly horrific events, powerless to interact, it instils deep fear. But why did a film, filmed on a meagre budget of $25,000 manage to gross over $100 million? I try to explore the reasons.

Courtesy of Zimbio

You can relate to it

OK, maybe we’re not all being stalked by aggravated demons, but we’ve all been in the situation where a creaking pipe makes you think twice. It’s just the wind, isn’t it? From a young age, the dark frightens all but the hardest of wills. You’re not able to fight back, run away or even understand your surroundings.

It’s the one concept that Paranormal Activity unflinchingly panders to – night is when the bogey men come out, concealed by a veil of natural secrecy. Satan is darkness. Crime is darkness. There’s nothing we can do about it. It’s the one constant, aside from death, that the Western World cannot control. Lights may piece the darkness, but the unknown forces that co-inhabit our world don’t play by the rules. Doors can be locked, but it’s not going to prevent anything.

Elsewhere, the majority of us have wondered what it’d be like to watch ourselves sleep – do we talk to ourselves, pouring out our consciences to empty rooms? Are we restless,  turning amid the black of the night? How did those keys end up on the floor – do I secretly sleepwalk? Paranormal Activity takes this concept and merges it with the 19th Century Ghost Story. Gone are the men in sheets and in its place is the consumer camera controlled by the Everyman couple.

Content with life and playful in their performance, you’ll continuously have to remind yourself that you’re not watching the real life American Dream. An unabating curiosity drives on the leads as their desire urges them to understand. The audience, like the characters, need to grasp the ever elusive reason. It’s the modern, scientific way of thinking and Paranormal Activity plays with this cruelly.

Courtesy of Movie Mobsters

You see nothing

There’s nothing more scary than our shadow. It never leaves us and it’s ever watching. It’s nothing but an outline. Alien is perhaps the best example of this in recent years. It left the creature unveil right to the end  It isn’t the subject that’s scary, but rather the desire to see. Generation Yers may suffer in the imagination department, but withholding the horror only acts as a catalyst. It drives the tension (something often left to the score, but a factor left out in the film to increase believability) and causes the uncanny to flourish.

Paranormal Activity makes you squirm. You find yourself willing on the mock-recordings only to curse when the plot develops its next scare. A flutter here, a footstep there – it’s a combination of the aural with a lack of control that unnerves us. It’s an approach that’ll always trump outright gore and a style more horror films would benefit from.

Disgust is merely a method of making someone feel uncomfortable; raw fear is far more complex. Once understood, Directors can really begin to play with their audiences.

It builds slowly

Take the subtle move of the door. A whisper in the middle of the night. You know it’s going to get worse, but you find yourself powerless to stop watching. It’s no use turning on the light, you’re transfixed.

It perhaps the most impressive thing about Paranormal Activity, a fact compounded my subsequent watching of Drag Me To Hell. The latter is cinema that tries too hard relying on shoddy special effects and crippled clichés. It throws you right into the action and expects you to be afraid. There’s minimal development and maximum indulgence.

Paranormal Activity is by no means a long film – it never drags, even when the scene is being set – but it manages to lay down a natural arc that yields increasingly worrying set pieces. By the time you reach the shock conclusion, you don’t know what to think. The majority of films want to grab you straight away, rushing you through a whirlwind of SFX and character exploration. The result is a hagged film that lacks subtlety. Thankfully, Paranormal Activity doesn’t fall into this category.

It’s scary

’nuff said.