Wednesday, October 31, 2007

The Horror, The Horror

Apparently The Exorcist has been voted the scariest movie of all time. Of course, such surveys are always to be taken with a grain of salt, but I just don't get this one. Or maybe I do. Maybe it is some sort of religious thing, where the pious really believe there is such a thing as "the devil" so they find the movie so scary because it is so "plausible."

I guess I just don't see it. I see the movie and, while I can appreciate it as a movie, I find it rather sad to see all the people who believe it is "real."

That said, I rather enjoy good horror movies. They really can't scare me anymore, but I still enjoy them as cinematic experiences. And apparently my two-year old likes them too. Now before you start calling social services, it is not like I'm making her watch slasher films. But 'Alien' and its sequels have been on cable at home and I've caught some of each and while my daughter pretty much ignores most programs I like to watch (she just plays) she will stop and watch the Alien movies with intense attention. I think she's going to be a horror fan. (Her mother can't watch horror movies - she gets scared - she said her mother would never let her watch them and would cover her eyes for any scary parts of movies she did watch - now she can't watch them). I think that is rather silly. They are just movies. My daughter is two and she seems to get that more than my wife. Now one movie I would NOT want my daughter to see is the end of Fast Food Nation - she ended up seeing part of that when it was on cable and I had no idea that it ended with showing cows being slaughtered. This was bad because my daughter LOVES cows, for whatever reason. My wife was sitting next to her and heard her say "uh oh, uh oh, cows, poor cows, uh oh" with increasing alarm before my wife noticed what it was and turned it off.

We do try to watch what we watch when our daughter is watching. I don't want her watching stuff age-inappropriate. It will be interesting to deal with the fact that we have like 200 cable channels when our daughter is older and figures out how to watch TV on her own. Right now she just likes watching her DVDs and Disney Channel. (And I try to limit how much TV she watches - my wife tends to like to just turn it on to make her happy - another reason I'm glad my daughter goes to day care where there is no TV).

Oh, and kudos to anyone who identifies what movie has the line that matches the subject for this post. (And even more Kudos if you can identify the book).

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's from "Heart of Darkness" originally, so the lines must come either from the film version of the novella or from "Apocalypse Now."

Is there somewhere on the internet where you can change kudos for pounds sterling?

Anonymous said...

For me the worst was "Alien". All the crawling around in a dark ship waiting to be preyed on put it over the top for me.

Steel Rat said...

For me it was the last segment of Trilogy of Terror, with Karen Black. There was this little Zuni Headhunter doll that came to life. It should have been comical, but it scared the crap out of me when I was a kid.

hedera said...

Well, I can't get credit because tom nolan got there first, but honest, I did guess "Heart of Darkness" for the book...

Otherwise, sorry, I don't do horror movies; although I occasionally go back and read H. P. Lovecraft stories.

DBB said...

Yep, Heart of Darkness - repeated in Apocolypse Now - which is funny in that a book set in like 1912 or something like that is essentially made into a movie in Vietnam, with surprisingly few changes overall, given the huge shift in time and space.

I've always enjoyed that book. I liked 'The Secret Sharer' as well. And I LOVE HP Lovecraft - there's just something so creepy about his writing.

hedera said...

Yes, Lovecraft does creepy atmosphere better than almost anyone.