The Brothers Grimm

[poliphilo]

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.

Comments

[queen-in-autumn.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen The Brothers Grimm, but I agree 100% with this statement: What's really scary these days in girls with hair all over their faces climbing out of TV sets.

That movie had me sleeping with the lights on for weeks afterward.

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

Oh, you're right about Matt Damon - I never thought about it till you mentioned it. (it was The Virginian, BTW.)

I always thought Ben Affleck was the more attractive and charismatic of that pair.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

I did find American Werewolf in London frightening.

Even though the movie was partly comedy, the tension mounting as the victim felt the changes beginning in his body was handled so well by the director--at a slow pace--that the result was wonderfully creepy!

In fact, my son and I were watching it on TV, and when the man's face began to stretch into a wolf-face, we were both so creeped out that we turned off the TV to recover, then agreed we were ready again, and flipped it back on!

Vampires, now: they terrify me. Scariest book I ever read was Dracula. oooh.

[happydog.livejournal.com]

Doug McClure was in The Virginian, which is almost but not quite Bonanza or High Chaparral. Basically, they were all about cowpokes hanging out on a ranch, so it's easy to get them all confused.

He died of lung cancer in 1995, sadly. His performance in At The Earth's Core is classic; I have to give the guy props for even being in that movie, which was total garbage. At one point they are attacked by allegedly carnivorous flying fish, which attack consists of a ton of rubber fish obviously being thrown at McClure, Peter Cushing and the ever-wondrous Caroline Munro. McClure does his best not to die laughing, and for keeping a straight face he deserved some kind of award. At The Earth's Core also featured the deathless line, "You can't mesmerise me, I'm British!" (spoken by Cushing).

[red-girl-42.livejournal.com]

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.