Ring-the original… the one and only.
Posted by Ms Harker | Filed under Asian Horror, Horror Films
This post is really a poorly masqueraded excuse to have a crack at Hollywood. I am proud to say I have never seen the Hollywood versions of The Ring,The Grudge, Darkwater or The Eye and the slimy list goes on. Having only seen trailers I cringed at the poorly executed frights and cruddy translation of angry lady spirits.
Now I may seem jaded, Ring for me was a hook into the horror genre. I remember squealing with delight as a few girlfriends and myself sat in the dark watching. One of the girls sneakily used her mobile to ring our home phone and all the girls proceeded to jump five feet in the air and crap their pants. Classic! The final viewing of the tape by the male lead, the picture of the well, the drenched figure stumbling out of the TV psychomotor retarded, sloshing her way creepily forward… eeek!
I have quite an affection for the japanese horror genre, the movement of the ghostly women sends chills down my spine and I never fail to scream when a blue tinged wide eyed child appears under a sink or under a blanket! It makes me steam from my ears when these films are remade and remade poorly. I am repeatedly amazed at the lack of originality in the Hollywood machine. It appears to be the rage now in to remake all things Asian. The simultaneous pillaging of Japanese cinema and comic books is enough to make any righteous ghoul spin in their grave, and head for the Hollywood hills and get to haunting.
Tags: Japanese Horror
Supernatural Season 1
Posted by Ms Harker | Filed under Horror TV
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Supernatural series here is a quick rundown of the shows premise. Sam and Dean are brothers who lost their mum to a demon. They were then brought up by their father who taught them how to hunt all types of supernatural beasties. Their father has gone missing and the boys are now questing to find him, their mother and now Sam’s girfriends killer, destroying all ghoulies in their path on the way. Now both lads are not hard on the eye, they also often take a beating which is quite macho, but this does not rescue the show sinking into the ooze of mediocrity. The lads all too easily figure out each beasties origin and how to defeat it, going to local libraries for info (hot and smart!). The plot of papa being one step ahead in finding the demon becomes tiresome and the witty brotherly banter also becomes annoying. The use of mythology to explain some of the ghosties was good, I especially liked the ‘Woman in white’ episode. However the effects are a bit tatty and I long for something that can go toe to toe with Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer series, bring on Dollhouse I say!
Tags: Horror TV
Breaking Dawn
Posted by Ms Harker | Filed under Horror Reading
Horror Lite
So being the horror enthusiast that I am, I purchased a copy of the latest of Stephenie Meyers teen vamp series ‘Breaking Dawn’. Before I start lets get something clear, I like my horror spooky not gruesome, scary not traumatizing and sometimes raunchy… but not dirty bird porno style. So even though the Meyers series is horror ‘lite’ the world she has created is interesting and complex and I think has managed to maintain a reasonably traditional mythology (if you suspend your disbelief that the vamps walk around during the day). I enjoyed the book, it took a darker turn than some of the others and finally the protagonist couple… ‘coupled’! However having read some of the fan-sites it seems many are unhappy with the final novel, some felt the darker turn a bit gross (little bit of blood and guts), others feel the main plot line is too much of a stretch. For those of us who read horror regularly, these new turns in the narrative are easy to accept, I think that fans are disappointed the vaseline was wiped from the lense for this novel, leaving them with the harsher reality of the vampire world. Which for myself was a relief from some of the earlier pseudo gothic fairy floss.
Tags: Horror
