Getting Emotional with Movies, Part 5: Fear
Be sure to get all hot and bothered with Desire before taking on Fear.
FEAR
Let’s get the scariest movie scene in the history of humankind out of the way right now:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eC5HZzjjI9Y[/youtube]
Yes, that’s the kind of stuff that freaks me out. Floating vampire kids. Very few movies actually frighten me. Disturb, perhaps. But not frighten. For some reason, the only films that do manage to put the fear in me are supernatural in nature, and I don’t even believe in the supernatural. Go figure. I guess what we believe (or don’t believe) on a rational level can be bypassed by an overactive imagination. I’ve been keeping myself up at night for years thinking about things that aren’t real.
These are the two movies that I freely admit to being spooked by at some point in my life. Interestingly, they are both about a group of people menaced by the ultimate evil.
Prince of Darkness
“Hello… Hello… I’ve got a message for you… and you’re not going to like it.”
Aside from the above scene from Salem’s Lot, no other movie that I saw during my youth freaked me out like this John Carpenter flick. People often sing the praises of Halloween as being his best horror film. I beg to differ. There is nothing Michael Myers can do to you that could possibly be worse than what happens to some of the folks in Prince of Darkness (not to imply that The Thing is a walk in the park). Go to about the 2:40 mark in the clip below and you’ll see that any death brought on by Myers would be merciful by comparison:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ld4guguU-lU[/youtube]
Before the guy falls apart, I believe his warning is: “Pray for death.” So, actually, dying is better that what’s in store for the soon-to-be victims.
In the film, a group of scientists and a Catholic priest team up in an old church to prevent the return of Satan to our dimension. Explaining exactly what happens in the movie is complicated (there’s physics mumbo jumbo), but it involves a cylinder full of green liquid in the church’s basement. From what I understood, the green liquid is Satan’s essence, or something of that nature. While the scientists are trying to make sense of how it works, it gradually possesses them one by one. Meanwhile, whenever anyone lays down for a nap they experience the same dream, which turns out to be a warning transmission sent from the future. I credit the dream scenes as being the creepiest parts of the movie:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vFpCC4wl38[/youtube]
Event Horizon
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gd0nQUF00Sg[/youtube]
“Hell is only a word. The reality is much, much worse.”
Probably the first movie I saw as an adult that scared me like I was a little kid. I went into Event Horizon expecting a sci-fi space adventure type of flick, but what I got was a pants-messing terror-fest. I’ve watched other movies as a grown-up about evil spirits tormenting the living that offered some scares here and there, sure. Like the recent Insidious, which at least started out moderately frightening before slipping into silliness. Or the gruesome House on Haunted Hill remake, which also started out kind of scary before losing steam. I always liked this part:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hDJQ4HbU-w[/youtube]
Unlike those movies, Event Horizon isn’t just about malevolent manifestations causing trouble. No, the unfortunate souls in the film are up against all the powers of Hell itself. In a way, Event Horizon is similar to Prince of Darkness as far as being about people trapped somewhere as infernal powers try to kill them. But while Carpenter’s movie takes place in a church, Event Horizon is set on a spacecraft orbiting Neptune. The remote locale adds considerably to the atmosphere of gloom and doom, which is maintained effectively through to the end. Though, maybe Sam Neil does look kind of silly after returning from being blasted into space. And how’d he get his eyes back?
Before being blasted into space:
After returning from being blasted into space:
Anyway, the title Event Horizon is also the name of the haunted spacecraft that the characters in the film are sent to investigate. It’s explained that the ship was designed to travel great distances by entering a dimensional gateway that allows it to jump from one point to another. Except that upon entering the gateway, the craft vanished for seven years before reappearing. As it turns out, the Event Horizon was visiting a dimension of “pure chaos and pure evil” that massacred the crew. For those of you wondering what sort of massacre took place, there is a scene in the film where the characters view the ship’s log and discover the horrific nature of the crew’s fate. Here’s the clip, if you haven’t already seen the movie. I should warn you that it’s distressingly graphic. (NOTE: The person who uploaded the clip added funny music to it, so that might soften the blow.)
At the climax of both Prince of Darkness and Event Horizon, one of the characters sacrifices themselves to prevent the powers of Hell from being unleashed on the others. In Prince of Darkness, Satan is attempting to pull his father through a mirror into our dimension. While everyone else is occupied wrestling with Satan’s minions, one woman leaps into the mirror and takes the evil pair with her. The priest then breaks the mirror with an axe, thus trapping the poor lady on the other side. In Event Horizon, Laurence Fishburne blows himself up so the portal to Hell can’t open and condemn his crew to eternal torment. I always wondered what happened to the both of them, since the movies never say for sure.
I’ll leave you with this Jessica Biel tribute video. It’s not scary, but it does show scenes from Blade: Trinity and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake, which some people might consider horror movies.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXZucG2nflQ[/youtube]
Grab your Kleenex for tomorrow when we’ll have a good cry with Sadness.
This post is part of our User Showcase series. You can find Chad as kingofpain on Flickchart. If you’re interested to submit your own story or article describing your thoughts about movies and Flickchart, read our original post for how to become a guest writer here on the Flickchart Blog.
Maybe it’s because it’s out of the context of the film, but I didn’t find that first clip particularly scary at all. That Prince of Darkness does look pretty damn creepy, though, but also gross, and the kind of horror film I tend to stay away from. I like scary, but not grotesque.
That’s probably why Event Horizon really got to me, too; I don’t think I was expecting exactly the kind of film it was, either.
The movie I most remember totally scaring the crap out of me (besides Event Horizon, anyway) is The Silence of the Lambs. I’ve often considered rewatching it, but never managed to summon up the guts.
My favorite horror film of all time would be Alien, which has its grotesque moment, but maybe it’s the fact that it’s dressed in the sci-fi trimmings that makes me like it so. After that would be Frank Darabont’s adaptation of Stephen King’s The Mist, which is kind of a similar situation.
I kind of like spooky ghost stories without the gore. Dark Water and 1408 are a couple of recent examples of movies I enjoyed, but they probably don’t contain nearly enough shocks for the average moviegoer to consider them truly “scary”. Maybe I just thought they both had nice atmosphere. Horror’s never been my favorite genre.
I’m finding these pieces interesting to read, at the very least. Good job.
If you’re talking about that Salem’s Lot clip’s lack of scariness, the context you’d have to view it in would be me as a little kid. I was pretty young when I watched it and that scene just about gave me a heart attack.
When it comes to “grotesque” films, very few faze me anymore. I’ve sat through all the major cannibal films and zombie films over the years, which is enough to make most other flicks seem tame. Prince of Darkness is mildly gross, maybe. It’s always been one of my favorites, probably because it’s weird.
I agree that Silence of the Lambs has some good scary scenes, particularly the climax. Rarely do serial killer movies truly freak me out, though. Have you watched the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre? There’s not really any gore in it. Just lots of relentless tension.
I wouldn’t call myself an horror fan, exactly. I like movies in general that are a bit messed up, and horror has its share of messed up movies.So I find myself watching a lot of movies from that genre. Being scared isn’t a big priority for me. I’m more into finding “WTF?” films.
When it comes to my choices for these articles, I’m just discussing the films that had the biggest impact on me. I didn’t plan on making it a series, but it turned out that way. I’ll have to see how it turns out…