Film Filter: Off - The Call of the Cthulhu

Film Filter: Off- Yay for my awesome brother buying me not one, but TWO scary movies for Christmas!  This one was particularly intriguing as it was a more recent film (2005) that attempted to re-create a story in old fashioned silent film style.  Never having watched a silent film of any kind, I was interested to venture ahead.

Pros- This movie had a lot of things going in its favor.  Again, never having seen a silent film, I can only gauge its effectiveness from my inexperienced perspective.  I liked the minimalism in subtitles, as it really forced you to pay attention to the film to realize what is going on.  They didn't overdo it and spoon-feed you the entire plot, which was nice.

   This movie was filmed in Mythoscope, which seems to be a method of recording or editing recent film to make it look antiquated.  This was a nice homage to how movies would have been filmed in the 1920s.  Surprisingly, I didn't find it as distracting as I thought I would.

   Speaking of the whole throwback idea of the film, the acting, "special effects", makeup, and set design all felt very appropriate to the time period.  It was very interesting to me to think back to a time when movies were this drastically different.  I found myself asking very stupid questions with very obvious answers: "Why did they make silent films in the first place?" or "Why couldn't they just shoot this scene on an island?" were some of the gems I came out with,

   I have to give this movie props, as it was likely a very scary story back in its time.  It's hard to imagine, though, with the way we currently view and value horror flicks, that this was actually frightening to anyone.  I don't want my lack of knowledge of older silent films to cause me to slam this film as "lame" when I have nothing to compare it to, so I will just say that I thought the psychological/dreaming aspect was kind of neat, and felt to me to be the attempted "horror" in the film, as opposed to the monster itself.  I liked the ending, and thought it was a good indication that the aforementioned is true.

   I liked the score!  I'm obviously big on music in movies, and it was so fun to see music actually shaping and assisting with the story, as opposed to just being present for ominous parts, or foreshadowing.

   Lastly, no loopholes!  The one error I thought I caught (the lead character reading English text from a Swiss man's journal) was cleared up as the journal entrant did not want his wife to read it, so he chose to write in English to keep it a secret from her.  Well played. indeed.

Cons- In the beginning of the movie, the time period and perspective changed three or four times, and it was hard to keep up with.  Without modern luxuries like color and sound, those transitions weren't as seamless as they obviously would be today, which caused some brief confusion at times.

   Disregarding nuances that were clearly meant to be time-period relevant, I didn't find a lot of cons in this.  I didn't think the monster was super scary, and I thought they could have done more with less actual shots of it and more shadow shots.  A minor complaint, though, given the point of the film.

Wrap up- I didn't actually enjoy this film as much as I might've enjoyed others, but in retrospect I really think it did a solid job of telling the story in the desired fashion.  It's not a type of film I'm probably ever going to love, or seek out, but I'm really glad I got the opportunity to watch and review a silent horror.

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Film Filter: Off - Red State

Film Filter: Off- I had passed this on Netflix many a time, so I figured I would finally sit down and watch it.  I have to say, I was surprised when I did.

Pros- This film definitely gets points for its originality.  I don't think I've ever seen, or heard of for that matter, another movie that is quite like this one.  It started out like a typical horror movie, but then went in a very different direction.

   Overall, I think the actors in the film did an admirable job, especially Michael Parks in the role of the minister.  John Goodman was a surprise in this film, and although his characterization was a little weak, he did the best he could with it.

   I think the idea of using a public religious controversy like the Westboro Baptist Church worked in this film's favor.  It's something that most audience members have likely heard of, whether or not they know a lot about it.  It definitely sheds some light on religious fanatics in a cult-like fashion, which is well received when it comes to horror films.

   One of the surprises I got out of this film was that it was directed by Kevin Smith.  After doing a little research, which I would strongly recommend if you're interested in Smith as a director, I found that this movie was not meant to be comedic, which is pretty evident when you watch it.  The description, along with Smith as director, leads you to believe otherwise, so it was an unexpected twist.  He also mentioned in an interview that there are little to no redeeming characters, which is also pretty evident when you watch the film.  This is also interesting, as it sort of breaks the mold of the traditional horror movie formula.

   The ending was pretty poignant.

Cons- I would be lying if I said that this was not a frustrating film to watch.  As previously mentioned, this movie breaks the standard formula, and as a result kills off some characters that shouldn't die, and prolongs the life of those that should.  You could argue that this is a brilliant strategy, as it lessens the predictability, but there was too much ungratified and unjustified instances of it that it turned me off.

Wrap up- I would recommend this film, based solely off its individuality.  It might not be my favorite, but it's different and eye opening.

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