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poliphilo ([personal profile] poliphilo) wrote2006-04-20 11:22 am
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The Brothers Grimm

Werewolves are fun, but they're not frightening. Is anyone out there frightened of werewolves? I mean, really frightened?

Didn't they shoot the last "real" werewolf in sixteen hundred and something? In rural France?

So if you're not living in rural France and the date isn't sixteen hundred and something, why should you be scared?

I know, I know, it's an archetype. The Beast within. Yaddayaddayadda.

So I just watched the Brothers Grimm. It has a werewolf in it. And I've been asking myself ever since, "now what was the point of that?"

Why make gothic movies when the gothic isn't scary any more?

The Japanese have a handle on what's really scary these days. What's really scary these days in girls with hair all over their faces climbing out of TV sets. But werewolves? Nah.

The only way to handle the gothic these days is to make it funny. The model is Ghostbusters. Don't you just love Ghostbusters?

I think The Brothers Grimm was trying to be funny. Leastways Heath Ledger fell over a lot.

But a script would have been nice.

And I could have done without the services of Matt Damon. (I had a revelation yesterday; I realised who Matt Damon reminds me of. He's an absolute dead ringer for Doug McClure who used to be in Bonanza or High Chaparal or something- only Doug McClure had more charisma.)

But, all in all, I think the comedy gothic horror has had its day. We want to be really frightened, not pretend-frightened.

Irony will only stretch so far.

Before it snaps *ping* like knicker elastic.

[identity profile] red-girl-42.livejournal.com 2006-04-20 01:32 pm (UTC)(link)
I don't find any sort of horror movies to be scary, so I didn't expect "The Brothers Grimm" to scare me, either. The only movie that has ever really creeped me out was "Blair Witch Project," so I guess for me it doesn't matter what kind of monster or villain you have--if you actually *show* it to me, I can't manage to fear it.

My stepdaughter loves horror movies, and she's always making me watch them, assuring me that "this one will scare you." And they never do. It's really disappointing.

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2006-04-21 02:03 am (UTC)(link)
I love a good ghost story, because ghosts are the one thing I find scary.

My favourite scary movie of recent years is the Devil's Backbone- which has a genuinely (to me) spooky spook.