Note: I know that the blog has gone offline at least twice during the past 24 hours. It might be a hardware issue; still looking into it.
[Yesterday's column]
After reading Neil Gaiman’s novella “Coraline”, I am now eagerly awaiting the film version. Although I am not exactly a fan of 3D animation (I really hated Gumby as a child), I am keeping an open mind in the case of the film adaptation of Coraline. I loved the novella that much.
I am a fan of horror movies. But I have been a fan of horror stories for far longer. When my 16-year-old daughter, Sam, started to show the same inclination, I wondered if she would ever outgrow the notion that horror is synonymous with gore. She grew up in a generation where cinematic standards have practically blurred the distinction between the two and I think that’s really sad.
While blood and gore are horrific, I prefer stories that combine mood with imagination to scare the pants off the reader or viewer. I like stories that tease the mind rather than numb the senses with one gory scene after another. Examples?
The 1944 adaptation of Dorothy Macardle’s “The Uninvited” was a film my mother often mentioned. After I scared myself silly reading her paperback copy of William Blatty’s “The Exorcist”, she said that was nothing compared to “The Uninvited.” I finally found a copy of Macardle’s book in the Circulation section of the U.P. Main Library and checked it out.
It is the story of a brother and sister who move to a country house called Cliff End that is haunted by an apparition, preceded by a deathly cold, that appears on top of the stairs, and a moaning, accompanied by the smell of the mimosa flower, in a room that used to be the nursery. Stella Meredith who used to live in the house talks about her mother who, she was told, fell off the cliff probably pushed by a Spanish girl, Carmel, who used to model for her artist father.
The twists and turns in the story, and the final confrontation, makes the novel a worthy thriller. But it is the description of the unearthly presence in the house that makes it a real horror story. For weeks after reading the book, I refused to go up or down the stairs of our house without turning on the lights. The horror played on my imagination so well. I saw the film years after I read the book (my father loved renting Betamax tapes of old films) but it wasn’t half as scary as reading Macardle’s words.
“The Innocents” is a 1961 film based on Henry James’ novella, “The Turn of the Screw” (there are claims that most of the film’s script was written by Truman Capote). It is a story of a governess caring for a brother and sister in a country mansion. The children are possessed by the spirits of ill-crossed lovers (a former governess and valet) but the real horror in the film was created through a combination of a good setting (a Gothic mansion in England), minimal lighting and music.
“The Others”, partly based on James’ novella, utilized similar techniques. A large isolated house surrounded by fog, soft underlighting and a pace that starts slow so that the horror creeps on you rather than shocks you.
“The Others” tells the story of a mother and her two children living a life of rigid rules. Curtains must be drawn when the children enter a room because sunlight could supposedly kill them as they suffer from some mysterious disease. The mother punishes the daughter for telling lies when she speaks of a boy that no one else saw. In the end, it turns out that the boy is a real boy and it is the mother and her children who are the spirits bound to the house.
“The Shining” which starred Jack Nicholson was based on Stephen King’s novel of the same title. I was in college when I saw the film and the experience left my knees weak. Jack is a writer and a recovering alcoholic. He takes on a job as winter caretaker of a hotel where he brings his wife and son. As the snow grows deeper, they become isolated. Meanwhile, Jack slowly goes seemingly insane and tries to murder his wife and son. The film script was not faithful to the novel where the horror goes to farther lengths. Still, the film adaptation managed to achieve such vividly horrific imagery that it was able to stand on its own.
And now there’s Neil Gaiman’s Coraline. A girl and his parents move into an old house that had been divided into flats (apartments). Bored, the girl, Coraline, unlocks a door that supposedly held nothing but a brick wall beyond it and discovers a house—and family—like her own. The Other Mother and the Other Father are more attentive than her own and they want her to stay. But there is something eerie about them with their sewed on black button eyes. Coraline returns to her real house to find her parents gone and she knows they had been taken by The Other Mother and The Other Father. She returns to The Other House to set her parents free. Will the film be as scary and as unsettling as the book? I sure hope so.
I can cite a dozen more examples but you probably get the drift at this point. I am not a fan of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” or “Saw” or “Hostel.” The only cinematic portrayals that make sense of all the blood and gore is Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho” and the three Hannibal Lecter movies.
“The Shining” made me decide to move to the tropics hahahaha. And I have never eaten liver again thanks to Hannibal!
HAHAHAHA What about fried brain? LOL That scene in the film Hannibal where Ray Liotta sits at dinner, heavily drugged and not knowing he was eating his own brain… that’s a classic.
I hear yah. These days horror flicks involve a girl with big boobs stupid enough to ran upstairs to be chopped into small pieces… everything is chopped and bloody nowadays. That’s why after watching SAW 1 and 2, and Hostel, I haven’t seen any horror flicks since. I actually thought SAW 1 was a smart movie, so I got curious with the sequel and then more sequel came out and I got disinterested with the whole thing. I love Psycho, and The Others still give me the creeps even if I’ve seen it so many times. Of course Hannibal is one of the best. Hubs and I enjoy watching old old horror flicks. In black and white no less
“These days horror flicks involve a girl with big boobs stupid enough to ran upstairs to be chopped into small pieces”
LOL I love the way you put it. Spells Paris Hilton in House of Wax hehehe
The first time we saw The Others, we watched 13 Ghosts after it. And my, oh my, the GLARING difference! Like brains and no brains LOL
Ma, Paris Hilton = NOT BIG BOOBS Okayyy?
)
Hindi ba?
growing up, we’d watch horror movies and after the movie, my mom always asks me to get her a glass of water, or a cup of coffee- downstairs! i always turn the stair lights on, and run up the stairs as fast as i can.
and my mind does wander too far. but well see….
an alfred hitchcock classic- the rear window is not a horror movie. but it sets you up and makes you mumble, “no…!” i like the shining too. never read or saw the uninvited or the others- i’ve grown to be a scaredy cat
If you ever come by a copy of The Uninvited, I recommend it over the movie. Guaranteed to make you want to keep on the lights overnight hehehehe
The Shining. Oh. My. God. I was 15 or so when I read this and I think I finished in two nights (read after our supposed lights-out). I could not go anywhere with the lights off at night too. I didn’t want to go to the bathroom at night anymore.
REDRUM!
I was disappointed with the Shining however. I think it was really built up in my expectations so it didn’t deliver. But I did love Jack Nicholson in that film.
That was how I felt when I saw Salem’s Lot after having read the novel. Huge disappointment! And to think that it was actually a 2-part miniseries that was shown locally as a major film. What a joke!
I loved The Others too.
I’m not a Nicole Kidman fan but I like the twist in the Others.
I saw the Shining only recently… disturbing indeed.
Ayaw ko din nang blood and gore. Mas nakakatakot yung suggestive. I’ve not see the film Misery yet, but I want to. Unfortunately hubby doesn’t like horror films e di ko talaga kayang manood mag-isa.
Caroline — we saw the trailer. Hayy I know I can’t take Kelvin but I do want to see it. Pag-uwi namin next week sa Pinas I will take time to watch all these R-rated films!
Auee, Misery the film is great with Kathy Bates but the book is much, much better.
I read it in Uni… I was disturbed for a week! Actually Stephen King does that to me. Not helped when you’re in UP and walking at night under all those leafy trees… very sinister ang dating. Tapos sa LB may fog pa minsan so misty yung field. Then the dorm — eeeccckkk.
Talagang di ka na magto-toilet sa takot!
napanood namin ni jet ang coraline dito. it’s a great stop motion animation adaptation of the story. ang alam ko, si gaiman mismo ang nag approach sa director na gawing pelikula ang storya niya.
pinanood namin yung 3d version – i must say, iba na ngayon ang 3d technology dahil hindi na siya nakaka hilo. credit goes to the director as well: hindi siya masyadong garapal sa pag apply ng 3d technology. in effect, he did not create the movie to show off the technology but instead he used the technology to move the story.
ayan napa english tuloy ako.
Kelan kaya ipapalabas dito… Alex has been waiting and waiting for this movie.