Some movies and books are nearly impossible to read. To the point where many people will hear that you read or watched them, look at you, and ask what the f@#$ is wrong with you. Now, for some products, this is because they’re so painful to digest – The Eye of Argon, for example, or Billy Jack Goes to Washington.
In other cases… it’s because the material is so objectionable that your brain instinctively rejects it. Jack Ketchum’s The Girl Next Door, for example, or 120 Days of Sodom. The 70′s saw numerous examples of both of these – the era gave birth to several abysmally bad films, as well as to some that are almost impossible to actually get through (Last House on the Left and I Spit on your Grave are good examples).
I’ll come clean here. I haven’t actually managed to watch LHotL or ISoyG. And, for the longest of times, the opinions of those like Siskel and Ebert kept me away from movies like Carpenter’s The Thing. But I’ve started to watch a bit more, and I’m surprised by what I see.
John Carpenter’s The Thing isn’t just a barf-bag thrill ride, but a chilling look at a world that was seeing a rash of epidemics, not the least of which was HIV/AIDS. Actually closer to the original novel by many accounts, The Thing presents a group of men who learn that the world is doomed if they don’t destroy the creature… and that the creature is one of them, but they can’t be sure which. An act of charity towards an animal ends up damning them all, because it’s entirely possible that they can’t even be sure of themselves. The only way to stop it is to ensure that nobody who *might* be infected survives – an excellent opening to Carpenter’s so-called Apocalypse Trilogy.
The Girl Next Door is a film I *still* haven’t managed to watch. But what looks to some like a sadistic ride through Hell is actually a searing condemnation of the sort of people who condone child abuse through their inactivity. And the worst part of it is that the movie actually tones down what actually happened in real life. By presenting the heart-wrenching story that he does, Ketchum deconstructs the myth of the 50′s, and exposes the hypocrisy of people who turn their heads away and simply say “it isn’t my problem.” For all that I can only make it about a half-hour into this film, one of these days I’m going to make it the rest of the way.
Deadgirl is an unusual case, in that I haven’t tried to watch it at all yet. However, from what I can gather out of the reviews I’ve heard, it’s almost identical to The Girl Next Door and The Thing in its reviews. People, normally smart people, simply can’t see past the veneer. The movie’s purpose is to shock, but not for the sake of the shock itself. Through its shocking imagery and horrors, Deadgirl presents a view into the world of high school politics, and the zero-sum game where we encourage people to advance socially through ripping apart the people who are “lower” than them. It’s through the degradation of the titular girl that our ‘heroes’ find a sense of power and control in their lives. I plan on picking this one up for a rental at least when it comes out in the US, to see if Cadaver Lab has it better than the folks over at Rotten Tomatoes… though given that the folks at Rotten Tomatoes seem to think that Jackson’s King Kong was a great film, I think I know where I should put my money.
Looking at another one that I haven’t seen yet, I Spit on your Grave is one of the world’s most reviled genre of films – a rape/revenge piece. This one has become so incredibly notorious for the simple fact that it has what is widely considered one of the most brutal rape scenes in film history, at least 20 minutes of brutality that utterly savages the victim before she manages to pull herself together, slowly recover, and go out to destroy the men who destroyed her. However, while even normally open-minded reviewers often shut down and can’t see any real purpose to the film, I’ve found out that the movie itself was actually a reaction to the director’s discovery of a rape victim, and her treatment by the police. That adds an entirely new dimension to the film, one that needs to be considered while you watch it.
Moving away from films, we hit what I consider the creme de la creme of ‘impossible to watch’ pieces – or, more accurately, impossible to read ones. 120 Days of Sodom, by the Marquis de Sade, proves that nothing, not even torture porn, is a new craze. I’ve actually read this one through, cover to cover, over the course of several weeks; like most of the ‘unwatchable’ pieces here, it’s rather difficult to explain having this book on your shelves. Reading this book, you will (hopefully!) be utterly horrified, if not disgusted to the point of putting it down; De Sade’s philosophy is horrific, a case of ‘social Darwinism’ taken to its illogical extreme. But still, the book does have its redeeming features, if nothing else than to serve as a litmus test. If you can read this book without feeling ill by the end of it, you need therapy.
So, why the hell do I watch these films, and read these books? Why would anybody? Well, the easy answer would be “I’m a sick bastard.” But that’s not really true – I don’t enjoy these materials in the traditional sense. I get a reaction out of movies that aren’t this twisted too, so it’s not desensitization (the next most popular theory with people who want to get rid of these films). Instead, it’s because I *do* get a reaction out of these pieces, a very powerful one. I feel emotional resonance with romances and adventure films too. I love King Kong (the 1933 version, thanks.)
But the unwatchable holds a certain appeal; they affect me on a level most films simply can’t. They go for the jugular, and start punching you in the gut while they’re hanging on tenaciously. In its simplest form, they take their message, and they ram it down your throat without any apology or softening of the blow. Unfortunately, a lot of the time that turns people off from listening to that message… but, over time, it becomes more and more obvious. The Thing communicates the horror of the HIV/AIDS scare (I have to wonder – is it a coincidence that this movie is cast entirely with men?) While that wasn’t seen 20 years ago, it’s gradually becoming acknowledged now that people are taking a fresh look at the film. Eventually, people will look at the Girl Next Door, and see it not as a sadistic celebration of abuse, but as the condemnation of it (and the ‘look the other way’ mentality) that it is. Eventually, people won’t view Deadgirl as an ‘S&M porno,’ but as a look at what creates the sort of sick creatures that populate its world.
I guess I’m just an early adopter.
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I’ve heard a lot of people talk about how much they love this film, particularly on Cadaver Lab and Horror Etc. I’ve heard it from friends of mine.
And I cannot, for the life of me, see why.
I’ll admit that I can see one reason – Event Horizon shapes up to be yet another Alien ripoff for the first half-hour or so, and having it turn into a Hellraiser riff would’ve been fairly new. I just can’t see it inspiring the affection that it does… and here’s why.
Event Horizon gets off to a decent start, and then it completely blows its not-inconsiderable potential. You’ve got a cast that can actually do things – particularly Sam Neill and Lawrence Fishburne. You’ve got the start of a story that’s got real horrific potential – hyperspace (and similar things, like the gravity drive here) are a sci fi staple, and the question of ‘what exists in that dimension’ is something that ought to be explored further.
Unfortunately, all we get in terms of that exploration is “bad things that make people go nuts.” I’ve heard this called a haunted house story in space, and don’t get me wrong – I like haunted house stories. But really, it ought to be a Lovecraftian piece. It shapes up to have the potential to be one, and it flirts with it in the scenes where we find out what happened to the first crew. Honestly, that’s the story I’d have wanted to see – what happened to them while they were between spaces, and what happened after they got out. It would have required a few changes to the end, potentially, but it could have created the sort of impact that the concept behind Event Horizon deserves.
If you actually enjoyed this film, let me know why. I’d really like to figure out what it is that I’m apparently missing.
Special edition Event Horizon for $7
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Opening up the Den with a post on a movie that, as far as I can tell, is pretty little known – Fear of the Dark.
Not the one from 2001, which I’ve never seen, but the one from 2002
).
IMDB 5.3, budget unknown, but I’ve come across references to a million dollars… seems a little light for me, for a movie in this decade, but what do I know? I watch these things, I don’t make them.
Now, I’m not going to go out and say that this is a *good* movie, though it’s one that could easily be watched with your family* – a rarity in horror films these days. It’s not just a PG-13 film because that sells best – it’s PG-13 because that’s what the movie deserves to be, and it doesn’t have a ton of crap tossed in to make an Unrated version that’ll sucker in the adult horror fans.
Basic synopsis: Ryan (about 10 or so, tops, I’d say) suffers from a crippling fear of the dark – to the point where, even when the sun’s out, he needs the lights on in the house and can’t bring himself to go into the basement when the lights aren’t on. He’s been in therapy for years, but it hasn’t helped… and while his mother tries to humor him, it’s seriously wearing on his father… and older brother.
Well, suffice it to say that there’s a power outage that night, and maybe the kid has a reason to be afraid of the dark….
Now, this movie features a lot of jump scares and other things built around shadows and darkness – what some people consider cheap scares. That said, the atmosphere is pretty good… and, most importantly, the two principle actors play their roles well, especially Kevin Zegers (who plays Dale).
I freely admit that the reason this movie works for me is the fact that I’m the oldest brother in my family. I’ve got a younger brother, thankfully well beyond crippling fears of the dark right now, whose had his own share of problems in the past. Dale, the older brother, starts out appearing to be mostly annoyed by his brother’s problems. But he doesn’t play with it, like most movie-brothers would do – he doesn’t go around locking Ryan in closets or turning the lights out on him on purpose. No, as much as he tries to brush off Ryan’s problems, it’s because he feels something very different from apathy – he feels the complete and utter frustration that comes with knowing that somebody you love has a problem, and there’s not a goddamn thing you can do about it. Worse, it’s somebody you love who you’re supposed to be able to protect.
Speaking as an older brother, there’s always one sure way to send me right over the edge – and that’s to give my kid brother grief. That’s my job, not yours, and no matter how much trouble I give him, I’ll do everything in my power to make your life miserable if you do the same.
Unfortunately for Dale, there’s nothing he can do about this. If there’s a bully at school, he could punch him in the nose. But what can you do about your brother being afraid of the dark, and convinced that there are monsters in it that could pop out any moment and come after him? What can you possibly do about that… especially when the power goes out?
In the end, Ryan’s fear of the dark, and what might be in it, isn’t the same fear that I feel watching this movie – it’s the fear of an older brother who can’t do anything to stop the terror that’s consuming the one person he’s supposed to be able to protect.
My only real problem with this movie is the very end. Given everything, Ryan is the last person who should be discounting a fear of the dark. He might not be afraid of it any more, but he should freaking know better.
* – The author of this post points out that it should be pretty blasted obvious that you should not watch this film with a kid who has any sort of, oh, what to call it… fear of the dark? Wait until they’re in their teens (or even in the double-digits, really), and you can be pretty sure that this flick’s a good one to toss into the “scary movie” collection for sleepovers.
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