Um... ok. So Blogger changed on me. This is... interesting.
Solomon Thorn is a really cool bro. We went to see the movie "Cabin in the Woods" last night, and decided this morning that it was a satire like "The Hunger Games" trilogy, though directed at the horror genre as opposed to general violence, oppression, hunger and gluttony, corruption, and an entertainment-addicted society. After all, as Solomon pointed out, "what's the purpose of the horror genre? It's not at all edifying. I gain nothing from watching them, yet I still endorse them..."
SPOILER ALERT. Aside from the obligatory nude/sex scene and the continuous swearing, the movie was a meta-horror film. The five characters (representing five aspects of Youth, titled whore, athlete, fool, scholar, virgin) shown in the trailers are on a camping trip, right? Normal creepy cabin in the woods deal, right? Wrong. They first pass a creepy gas station that should scream "TURN AROUND. ABANDON ALL HOPE, YE WHO ENTER HERE." The manager of said station is rude and uncooperative, even going so far as to call the blonde a whore, which, in retrospect, could have been a hinting of foreshadowing. These five kids set up in their rooms, unaware that they are being monitored by scientists who rig the sacrifice. They start a party in the living room of the cabin, while the scientists do the same in their laboratory, giving the viewer a strong sense of parallelism between scenes. During a risque game of truth-or-dare, the scientists pop open the cellar trapdoor. The kids wander over, and according to horror-film protocol, decide to go downstairs. The cellar is full of relics and things ranging from music boxes to diaries to creepy clown costumes to circular rubik's cubes to necklaces to old film reels to dolls. These, the viewer discovers through the scientists' consequential dialogue, represent how the children unwittingly choose their death. A girl reads the diary of a redneck masochistic family's daughter, who details how each of them were murdered by the father, finishing with a set of phrases in Latin that would resurrect the family as zombies. Despite the protests of her pothead brother (Distress! This film praises marijuana as immunizing from suggestion and granting foresight!), the girl reads the Latin. Zombies arise, death ensues. Whore + Athlete are driven by chemicals and variable temperatures and light settings into a sex scene in the woods. Whore strips her top (naturally), and head scientist says "It's not just for us. We've got an audience to please." Whore dies; Athlete survives. Athlete takes gang into the RV and tries to escape. Tunnel artificially collapses. Athlete dies from hitting a force field wall while trying to make a mountain bike jump across the ravine. Scholar dies from zombie hiding in the RV. Virgin girl and her pothead brother (the "fool") survive and hop in the elevator shaft that doubled as the zombies' "grave." They arrive in a control room and unleash all the countless possible nightmares upon the underground laboratory, resulting in the death of all the scientists and guards. Somehow the brother and sister arrive at the lowest part of the underground lab relatively unharmed, where Sigourney Weaver ("Alien"), who functioned also as director of this film, steps out and explains things. The five youths' annual death represents a sacrifice that appeases and restrains ancient "gods" akin to Greek demi-gods. These monsters must be contained or the rest of the world dies when they are released. Thus, it would seem to the utilitarian, five lives are a cheap price to pay in order to "save" billions. Weaver also states that this sacrificial cult exists multi-nationally, and that this year, all the other nations messed up, so it was up to the U.S. to provide an acceptable sacrifice by... uh... 5 minutes from then. So the sister's left with a hard choice. Kill her brother to save the world? Her brother is a little bit disturbed, but doesn't warn her to turn around when a stray werewolf makes its way down the stairs and mauls her. Brother shoots werewolf, werewolf exits. Redneck Masochistic Zombie Family's Daughter shows up and slashes Sigourney Weaver across the skull with an axe. Weaver + zombie girl tumble over the edge into the magma pool holding the "gods." Brother and sister say the thesis of the movie, which went something along the lines of: "It might be time for a change in control over the earth, if it takes human sacrifice to keep us going. But I only wish I could see it happen." Demi-god blows up the laboratory as its arm bursts out of the cabin in the woods. Credits roll.
It was a very artsy film, in that it made you really think philosophically about the movie-going experience, and about pornography and horror. I still feel like I'm missing a lot, and I'm secretly glad it wasn't really a horror flick. I've never really seen a horror film before, and I'd be game to try, but Solomon's words are true--if it has no benefit to you, do you do it for pleasure? How can you find pleasure from horror? Is it the suspense? Is it the gore? Is it the safety of knowing you aren't those characters? Or is it in preparation of the famed "zombie apocalypse?"
I need to sleep.
Solomon Thorn is a really cool bro. We went to see the movie "Cabin in the Woods" last night, and decided this morning that it was a satire like "The Hunger Games" trilogy, though directed at the horror genre as opposed to general violence, oppression, hunger and gluttony, corruption, and an entertainment-addicted society. After all, as Solomon pointed out, "what's the purpose of the horror genre? It's not at all edifying. I gain nothing from watching them, yet I still endorse them..."
SPOILER ALERT. Aside from the obligatory nude/sex scene and the continuous swearing, the movie was a meta-horror film. The five characters (representing five aspects of Youth, titled whore, athlete, fool, scholar, virgin) shown in the trailers are on a camping trip, right? Normal creepy cabin in the woods deal, right? Wrong. They first pass a creepy gas station that should scream "TURN AROUND. ABANDON ALL HOPE, YE WHO ENTER HERE." The manager of said station is rude and uncooperative, even going so far as to call the blonde a whore, which, in retrospect, could have been a hinting of foreshadowing. These five kids set up in their rooms, unaware that they are being monitored by scientists who rig the sacrifice. They start a party in the living room of the cabin, while the scientists do the same in their laboratory, giving the viewer a strong sense of parallelism between scenes. During a risque game of truth-or-dare, the scientists pop open the cellar trapdoor. The kids wander over, and according to horror-film protocol, decide to go downstairs. The cellar is full of relics and things ranging from music boxes to diaries to creepy clown costumes to circular rubik's cubes to necklaces to old film reels to dolls. These, the viewer discovers through the scientists' consequential dialogue, represent how the children unwittingly choose their death. A girl reads the diary of a redneck masochistic family's daughter, who details how each of them were murdered by the father, finishing with a set of phrases in Latin that would resurrect the family as zombies. Despite the protests of her pothead brother (Distress! This film praises marijuana as immunizing from suggestion and granting foresight!), the girl reads the Latin. Zombies arise, death ensues. Whore + Athlete are driven by chemicals and variable temperatures and light settings into a sex scene in the woods. Whore strips her top (naturally), and head scientist says "It's not just for us. We've got an audience to please." Whore dies; Athlete survives. Athlete takes gang into the RV and tries to escape. Tunnel artificially collapses. Athlete dies from hitting a force field wall while trying to make a mountain bike jump across the ravine. Scholar dies from zombie hiding in the RV. Virgin girl and her pothead brother (the "fool") survive and hop in the elevator shaft that doubled as the zombies' "grave." They arrive in a control room and unleash all the countless possible nightmares upon the underground laboratory, resulting in the death of all the scientists and guards. Somehow the brother and sister arrive at the lowest part of the underground lab relatively unharmed, where Sigourney Weaver ("Alien"), who functioned also as director of this film, steps out and explains things. The five youths' annual death represents a sacrifice that appeases and restrains ancient "gods" akin to Greek demi-gods. These monsters must be contained or the rest of the world dies when they are released. Thus, it would seem to the utilitarian, five lives are a cheap price to pay in order to "save" billions. Weaver also states that this sacrificial cult exists multi-nationally, and that this year, all the other nations messed up, so it was up to the U.S. to provide an acceptable sacrifice by... uh... 5 minutes from then. So the sister's left with a hard choice. Kill her brother to save the world? Her brother is a little bit disturbed, but doesn't warn her to turn around when a stray werewolf makes its way down the stairs and mauls her. Brother shoots werewolf, werewolf exits. Redneck Masochistic Zombie Family's Daughter shows up and slashes Sigourney Weaver across the skull with an axe. Weaver + zombie girl tumble over the edge into the magma pool holding the "gods." Brother and sister say the thesis of the movie, which went something along the lines of: "It might be time for a change in control over the earth, if it takes human sacrifice to keep us going. But I only wish I could see it happen." Demi-god blows up the laboratory as its arm bursts out of the cabin in the woods. Credits roll.
It was a very artsy film, in that it made you really think philosophically about the movie-going experience, and about pornography and horror. I still feel like I'm missing a lot, and I'm secretly glad it wasn't really a horror flick. I've never really seen a horror film before, and I'd be game to try, but Solomon's words are true--if it has no benefit to you, do you do it for pleasure? How can you find pleasure from horror? Is it the suspense? Is it the gore? Is it the safety of knowing you aren't those characters? Or is it in preparation of the famed "zombie apocalypse?"
I need to sleep.
Joss Whedon is a weirdo.
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