What Did You Watch Today?

[thatblindgeye]

You shut your mouth and take the verbal beating Zero gives to you, Cloudy!

I dont mean to compare PA to Saw or anything. I find the story to be interesting, but I dont want the series to turn into what Saw became just because the first movie or two was successful. I thought Saw could have been decent story wise, but then they did movie after movie and ruined any chance of that, and the ending to the Saw series, while a nice throwback to the first movie, was just shit. Obviously thus far the PA series doesnt need to worry about that since they are only on the third movie, but I still worry about something good becoming something shit just because studios think they can get more money if they keep dishing out the series, regardless of quality.

I also havent seen any of the Friday the 13th movies outside of maybe one or two of them, if that, whereas Ive seen a majority of the Saw movies, so that would be why I chose to bring up Saw of all movie series that pumped out sequel after sequel with shittier and shittier results.

Edited October 24, 2011 by Vitamin E

[SRN]

Am I the only guy in the world who doesn't think Paranormal Activity is the best thing sliced bread? I mean, it is just a bunch of shock scenes caught with a shaky camera. Granted, I haven't watched the third installment but I really didn't shit my pants in fear for either the first or second one. It might have something to do with liking psychological horror much more than shock horror (although I must say that kitchen explosion scene in Paranormal Activity 2 caught me, that was a good one).

Also, don't compare Saw to PA; Saw was good for one movie, the rest of them were just really bad whereas PA is just very meh.

[zero]

I don't really get how Paranormal Activity is "shock scenes on a shaky cam." For the majority of the movies, the cameras sit completely still and while there are "BOO!" moments, most of the great scares come from building a sense of dread. A door creaking open, a sheet barely moving, footsteps, Katie hovering over Micah all night, that is creepy shit. Then they pile on with the payoff by giving you the big "BOO!" But it's not like they close a door and the monster is right behind them, it's something different: the drag, the kitchen, etc. And I know you haven't watched 3, but it has one of the best tension-building devices I've ever seen in a horror movie.

I just don't think that's a fair criticism at all.

[SRN]

I'll reserve judgement till I've seen the third one, then.

[Baddar]

I don't really get how Paranormal Activity is "shock scenes on a shaky cam." For the majority of the movies, the cameras sit completely still and while there are "BOO!" moments, most of the great scares come from building a sense of dread. A door creaking open, a sheet barely moving, footsteps, Katie hovering over Micah all night, that is creepy shit. Then they pile on with the payoff by giving you the big "BOO!" But it's not like they close a door and the monster is right behind them, it's something different: the drag, the kitchen, etc. And I know you haven't watched 3, but it has one of the best tension-building devices I've ever seen in a horror movie.

I just don't think that's a fair criticism at all.

I haven't watched PA3 yet, but that scene from the first one is the scariest out of the first two movies, I think.

[TKz]

Yeah, PA3 was terrifying and even better than the last two. I loved it, brilliant, I was iffy at the premise of them doing another one after three, but I can't wait to find out more now. They've walked the perfect line between revealing more of the overall story and making a fantastic stand alone film. It's like the Thor of the series.

[Damian WayLNKe]

Just had my annual viewing of Monster Squad last night. I always forget how politically incorrect some part of the movies are by today's standards and then how much of a statement other scenes make.

E.g. The first ten minutes of the movie just has the bullies calling everyone fags and homos, followed by a pre-teen lighting up a cigarette.

E.g. The kids make a statement about how the scary German guy knows so much about monsters and then the camera pans to the tattoo he received as a result of being a Nazi Holocaust victim.

[Maxx]

Just saw PA3, loved the first two, really didn't enjoy this one as much.

First of all, I'm fairly certain 90% of the footage shown in the trailer isn't actually in the film. No fire, no demonologist, no mother getting dragged into the bedroom, no Kristi in the car screaming, no knocking game, no Kristi jumping off the stairs, no throwing water on Toby. That is pretty fucked up and it makes me feel like I got half the movie I was supposed to. Yeah, it kept the scares in the actual film under wraps, but the stuff in the trailer looked really good and that made me want to see more of it. I like that scare, I'd like to see how it fits into the rest of the film.

I'm not sure why people think this is better than the second one. This one didn't build the same sense of dread for me at all. The oscillating camera that everyone was high on completely killed most scenes for me. You watch as nothing happens on one side of the room, so you know something is going to happen on the other, it makes it entirely too predictable. I'm not really a fan of introducing a coven of witches into the series either. The mythology established in the first two films was that it was a demon the grandmother made a deal with, and it's there to collect the first born son as payment. This film seems to contradict that.

It wasn't a bad movie, I just don't think they should have used the same characters if they aren't going to stick to established continuity.

[MalaCloudy Black]

A lot of the footage from the trailers that wasn't in the film can be found on the website, which is kinda silly. What's wrong with putting it into the movie and making it a 2 hour film and not an hour and a half?

also

I'm not huge on the coven thing either, but I don't really see how contradicts the continuity in the first two films. In the first two all you know is "she made a deal with a demon", in this one it expands that and we find out that the reason she made the deal was because of the coven.

[Maxx]

A lot of the footage from the trailers that wasn't in the film can be found on the website, which is kinda silly. What's wrong with putting it into the movie and making it a 2 hour film and not an hour and a half?

also

I'm not huge on the coven thing either, but I don't really see how contradicts the continuity in the first two films. In the first two all you know is "she made a deal with a demon", in this one it expands that and we find out that the reason she made the deal was because of the coven.

She made the deal to get rich, that was stated in one of the films, I forget which. That's where my problem comes from, we know why she made the deal. We also know what payment for the deal was supposed to be. This movie failed to expand on that and introduced new elements that really don't sync up with what we already know.

I wrote a much lengthier and coherent post about my problems with it on ze blog.

[TKz]

To be fair, only like... 3-4 scenes in the trailer are missing from the film. Granted, they're exciting scenes that I too was looking forward too, but I don't really feel like I was robbed all that much. But then the film terrified me enough regardless, I'm definitely just a big pussy but I could barely watch the end walk around the house. Too much tension! I was shaking in my stylish yet affordable shoes.

[Ruki]

I WANT to see PA3, because I enjoy the story and the style of the film. But dammit...I am seriously a big girl, these movies have freaked me out >_<

[Maxx]

To be fair, only like... 3-4 scenes in the trailer are missing from the film. Granted, they're exciting scenes that I too was looking forward too, but I don't really feel like I was robbed all that much. But then the film terrified me enough regardless, I'm definitely just a big pussy but I could barely watch the end walk around the house. Too much tension! I was shaking in my stylish yet affordable shoes.

It's more than 3-4 scenes, watch trailer #2 again, more than half of it is not in the film, including a whole character.

[Ruki]

So....i saw PA3....in my mind? Scariest of the three....i like the theater atmosphere.

[Baddar]

Saw 42

Yeah, about as entertaining as the rest as far as the traps go. If there were more of them, I'd definitely find time to watch, but I'm not bothered that this is the "final chapter" either, to be honest.

[SRN]

Don't watch Saw 7. Is it bad and shit. Honestly, I cannot fathom why I ever watched any of the Saw's besides the first one.

Also, I have been re-watching a shit-ton of FarScape these last few days. Man, I fucking loved that series.

[Asuka's Gonna Kill You]

Cloudy, I'm not picking on you or anything because I've seen it all over the internet, but I dislike the Saw comparisons for two reasons. One, Saw was not the first franchise to pump out sequel after sequel year after year... Friday the 13th beat them to that by 25 years. Two, Saw was such a convoluted mess filled with an ever-increasing cast of characters that I cared about decreasingly. Katie is the key to Paranormal Activity and while a few characters here and there come in, it's not like Saw that had Jigsaw, his assistant, his other assistant, his other other assistant, his other other other assistant, that assistant's assistants, the cop, the other cop, the other cop, the FBI agent, the cop helping the FBI agents, the FBI agent turned assistant to Jigsaw, the wife, and the dozens of victims and victims' families that got involved.

Saw was never very good to begin with, PA has had three solid movies in a row and again, I can't think of any other horror franchise that has done that. Now granted, there's only so many times a tug on a sheet or someone standing over the bed is going to be effective. They can't make it to Paranormal Activity 8: Katie's Dorm Room and expect things to still be scary, but if they move to a different location besides a home, they could keep the scares fresh.

Possibly the Lecter movies? Whether or not it'd go down as a franchise or in the same bracket as the likes of Friday The 13th, PA etc though is a different story (SOTL, Hannibal and Red Dragon...of course later Rising too).

Anyway, I watched Crazy, Stupid, Love. Why is this so much better than I ever expected? Carell is awesome as usual and Gosling was actually really good in his role. Just a really enjoyable movie.

Sadly I then went on to watch Wrong Turn 4. I'm not really sure what to say about this. I enjoyed it, yet can still sit and say it was pretty shit at the same time. Some of the acting is dire. And I've still got no idea why they decided to have three utter fucking lunatics that torture and murder people to run away from a guy and a bunch of screaming girls.

[zero]

My Halloween movie marathon yesterday included:

Shaun of the Dead

Still funny after the 100th viewing.

Dead End

Very fun black comedy with Ray Wise. Found it on Netflix and was pleasantly surprised.

Halloween II (1981)

Underrated sequel, forgot how good it is since I haven't watched it in years.

They Live

Perhaps even more relevant now than it was in 1988. With Occupy Wall Street, it's eerily prophetic.

Wes Craven's New Nightmare

The best Freddy movie besides the original.

[hot rod]

In Time, cool concept, but overall was pretty bad. Honestly it was really just the action that really dragged the movie down, because the action was so boring. I mean, nothing awesome or even remotely cool happened in them, rendering them somewhat useless since they really slowed down the pacing of the movie for me to be honest. Had some good stuff, but honestly the bad out weighs the good in this case. Oh and Cillian Murphy was so underutilized in the film it was crazy. They just seemed to have dumbed the concept of the movie down way too much.

Also, there is this one shot of a car falling down a cliff and it has some of the worst CGI I have seen since the old giant monster movies.

[Ruki]

In Time wasn't very good? Boo!