All Hallows Eve Approaches…

For a primarily American tradition, Halloween is well known in Australia for trick-or-treating, costumes and scaring yourself silly with horror movies. The level of exposure here is thanks in most part to the multiplicity of American television and movies screened here every day.

In celebration of the impending pumpkins, skeletons and ghosts and the brilliant new film Black Sheep I am devoting this month to HORROR.

As a teen I too was, not surprisingly, swept onto the bandwagon of watching horror flicks late into the night. It saddens me that the genre has lapsed over the past few years. The Ring and Wolf Creek are probably the best horror films I’ve seen of late… But the overall quality and quantity of horror has severely waned.

Okay, so horror isn’t everyone’s thing. It’s formulaic, gory and more often than not haunts you for days afterwards. At least, that’s what good horror should do. A genuine horror movie should scare the living daylights out of you. A common criticism of horror used to be that it was too gory with blood literally flooding the screen. But with everyone desensitised to gore, regularly exposed to forensic visuals on CSI type programs, blood and guts has long since taken a back seat. Lately, the formula has moved towards clichéd twists, to the point that you are expecting some twist which inevitably spoils the twist. These might be relegated to the thriller section were it not for the perfunctory ‘creatures’ thrown in. That said, some recent films have returned to supernatural or science fiction themes – curses, demonic possession, zombies, vampires, lichens, aliens.

The latter has always been a popular medium and I still count Alien and Aliens amongst my favourite films of all time. They continue to instil fear in new audiences even though they were made over 2 decades ago. The anticipation fear factor is the key in Alien. I’ll always remember a story my parents told me about one of their first dates. They went to see Alien and after an hour glued to the edge of their seats and at the crucial moment, the guy sitting three rows in front of them suffered an epileptic fit – mirroring the horrific scene occurring on screen. This poor man emptied the theatre in record time!To get a really good scare out of a horror there needs to be considerable tension, gore and that eerie accompanying music. You can always rely on the classic horrors for a good scare such as:

• The Shining
• Halloween
• Nightmare on Elm Street
• The Candyman
• The Exorcist
• Carrie

The number of grown adults STILL terrified of clowns can surely be attributed to Tim Curry’s portrayal in IT. It amuses me which particular subcategory of horror people fear. Though I must confess that ANY werewolf film (no matter how unrealistic the special effects – e.g. An American Werewolf in London) has me too frightened to put the bin out after dark. I suspect I’ve never fully recovered from my childhood fear of Gmork, the wolf in The Never Ending Story.Horror should make your flesh crawl from the tension and at times the gore should horrify you. But a common criticism levelled at horror is that it is simply too predictable. Since studying film construction, this has become especially true for me and thus I have rarely been genuinely frightened in many movies.
However, all that ended recently when I came across a real stunner, relatively new to the weekly shelves.What should you get??

THE DESCENT

Before giving you the basics, I have to say I found this film disturbing. It is claustrophobic and has a true jump factor throughout even from ordinary things. As my favourite reviewer suggested, the pitch black surroundings serve only to heighten the genuine feeling of paranoia.

And as a marketer by day, the graphic design of the cover is the most innovative and impressive I’ve seen in years.

PLOT: After a tragic accident, six friends reunite for a caving expedition. Their adventure soon goes horribly wrong when a collapse traps them deep underground and they find themselves pursued by something savage and bloodthirsty living in the caves. As fear erodes their friendships, they find themselves in a desperate struggle to survive the creatures and each other.

DIRECTOR: Neil Marshall (Dog Soldiers)CAST - Relatively unknown as is usual for horror: Shauna Macdonald (“Spooks”), Natalie Jackson Mendoza (“Hotel Babylon”), Alex Reid.

LOCATED IN: Horror section

FOR MORE HORROR SEE:

• The Ring
• Arachnophobia
• The Blair Witch Project
• I Know What You Did Last Summer
• Scream

TOP TIP

Really experience horror:
Leave the lights off and watch after dark and don’t watch the special features until after the film. They nullify the jump factor. After all, if you know how it was done, it’s a lot less scary.