Monday, April 20, 2009

Monday Morning Movie Review

Sorry for the posting delay today. Had a power outage this morning in my area so I'm completely off my normal schedule. Let's face it, there's nothing like using the john with a flashlight. You don't even want to know what my hair looks like.

I love to see movies (who doesn't, right) and I have a particular affinity for horror. I'll see them all - A, B, C, or Z - doesn't matter. And for horror I have different ranking standards than for other genres. Horror gets a vote for plot/character dev - the usual - but it also gets the additional rating for "creep factor." A movie with a horrid plot and no character dev at all (think asian horror like The Ring) can still score high in the creep factor category.

This past weekend, I saw A Haunting in Conneticut, which is supposed to be based on a true story of one family's experience with an old house that used to be a funeral parlor. Now, first off I'd like to say that I liked the movie. It had plot, it had a complete backstory, and it had compelling characters that you could root for. But it also had the one thing I can't stand that seems to be the staple of all horror movies - the "huh?" factor.

For instance, in this movie the spirits were scaring the crap out of one kid primarily, but the rest of the family had started to experience odd things. So no one was unaware that the house had issues. But yet they still all slept with the lights off in their separate bedrooms - huh? Okay, not for nothing, but if ghosts or demons or whatever were haunting my house and scaring the poop out of me, the next day, we'd be moving mattresses into the largest downstairs room and preferably the one connected to the front door. Why lock yourself away upstairs where you can be trapped by fire or something worse?

Stupid, right? And not very realistic. I really don't understand why it had to be that way as they could easily have written it the way I said and had the spirits/demons separate them in other ways. But anyway, I digress.

So what's your stupid movie pet peeve?

Deadly DeLeon

11 comments:

Gemma Halliday said...

I love how the blonde always has to go investigate the creepy noise. Alone. Armed with something stupid like a curling iron. I mean, haven't these characters ever seen a horror movie themselves?

~Gemma

Heather said...

I genrally don't do scary movies, but I did see the original documentary a couple years ago on one of the cable networks. Totally creeped me out!

Jana DeLeon said...

Gemma - Ah yes, the blonde that always creeps upstairs when she ought to be running outside. But then, that didn't work in Scream. Hmmmmm.

Jana DeLeon said...

Heather - I didn't see the documentary, but I'm going to try and find it in download or rental or something. I'd really like to know the "facts" surrounding the case versus the fiction. It is a very interesting case.

Terri Osburn said...

I don't do horror. Haven't since I was a kid of the 80s and was bombarded with all that Jason & Mike Meyers and Freddie Kruger and they all gave me nightmares. I take no pleasure in being scared out of my socks.

But my pet peeve is the same, when characters do things you know they would never really do.

Whether it's watching the news bulletin about the serial killer on the loose then checking out the breaking glass noise in the basement ALONE, or a grown woman doing what she's told against everything she wants and knows is right for her, it's still irritating. :)

Jana DeLeon said...

terrio - Oh, Nightmare on Elm Street is one of my favorites! Rest assured that if I go looking for a noise, it's not in the basement, and I'm doing it with cell phone in one hand (already set on 911) and a gun in the other. :)

Christie Craig said...

Jana,

I don't do horror either. However, my pet peeve with movies is simple. I don't want to have to work to understand a movie. Now, it can have twist and turns and have me wondering, have me questioning, and sitting on the edge of my seat, as I'm following everything. For example Sixth Sense kept me wondering, but it never lost me. But if I get completely lost . . . I get mad. I stop caring. I start wanting my nine dollars back. I go to a movie for entertainment, not to work my brain to the point of a headache or to be made to feel stupid.

Jana DeLeon said...

Christie - I feel the same way. I am much more forgiving of a complicated book than a complicated movie. I wonder why that is? Easier to turn back and look it up - can't rewind in the theater, maybe?

catslady said...

I too saw the movie and enjoyed it but why for heavens sake would he keep sleeping in that downstairs room for goodness sake!!!! I had problems with the "stuff" that supposedly came out of the mouth during the seance but I could believe a lot of the other stuff.

Jana DeLeon said...

catslady - Yeah, I really didn't get why he kept staying in that room. That was "the" room and he was the most susceptible one, etc.

Ectoplasm, however, is one of those "documented" paranormal occurances. You should Google it!

Delia DeLeest said...

Susie's missing! Something horrible may have happened to her, so the best thing to do would to all split up and go in different directions because that would be MUCH safer than sticking together.