Scary Movies @ MindSay 
weekend fun
- I saw two movies over the past two weeks and they were both better than I expected. The first one I saw was "Drag Me to Hell". Talk about scary! The story was decent and the special effects were pretty good. It even had me jumping. It was PG-13 so it didn't have any sexual content. It was just good old fashioned "look behind you" scary movie stuff. The kiddo went with me because it is an unsung tradition in my family to watch scary movies. I have no idea why, but all of my siblings and cousins grew up watching scary movies from the age of about 6 or 7. One of the first movies I remember seeing is "The Incredible Melting Man". The kiddo is a big movie buff and since her dad is a graphic designer and artist, she knows a great deal about "movie magic". Oddly enough, she is also a big Sam Raimi fan. (I know, it's weird, but she is like her dad when it comes to knowing and favoring certain directors.) When she saw Sam Raimi's name flash on the screen she shouted, "Oh cool! It's Sam Raimi! I like him." LOL!
The next movie I saw was "The Hangover". I thought, "Okay, I'm going to be fair. I chose the movie the last time me and the husband went out. I can suffer through an hour and a half of sophomoric humor." Well, I was wrong. I didn't suffer at all! Of course it had crazy hijinks and such, but I really like the way the screen play was written. It really made you feel like you had time you couldn't account for. Some of the antics in the movie really pushed the envelope. I kept thinking to myself, "OMG, can they get away with that?" It was the same feeling I got the first time I saw the 90's series, "In Living Color". By the way, the kiddo did NOT go with us to see this movie. LOL!
- Apparently I hold a grudge longer than I thought. Is it normal to still want to kick somebody's ass that you hated in high school? There's one guy from high school who I would love to kick his nuts unto his gut. I hated him that much. If I saw him on the street, I'd probably throw a rock at him. He was that much of an asshole.
- YES!!!! FINALLY, THE ANSWER TO A BURNING QUESTION I'VE WONDERED ABOUT FOR DECADES WAS ANSWERED!!!! "Why are some people tone deaf?" I knew it was inherited, but what was it about the structure of the brain or the signal from brain to the ear that causes people to sing off key? Basically, people who are tone deaf were found to have thinner white matter in the right inferior frontal gyrus. White matter helps neurons communicate by acting as sort of a channel or bridge and the right inferior frontal gyrus (which contains the Broca's area that is responsible for producing speech) is also responsible for helping us discriminate between pitches. This explains amusia, which is a severe form of tone deafness where people have no ability to hear different rhythms or pitches. (Can you tell I REALLY liked my neurology class?) Not all people who are tone deaf or people who simply sing off key have this severe of an impairment, because most people who sing off key can tell when other people are singing off key and can replicate rhythms. However, it has been found that "bad singers don't seem to have the coordination between music perception and music production." It's kind of like a person at bat who can see the ball coming toward them and even judge how fast it is going, but they just can't hit it. While a person with amusia would be more like a batter who was blind, a tone deaf person is just a lousy batter.
Look at it this way, the slippery slides that help carry messages to the part of the brain responsible for determining pitch isn't as slippery in tone deaf people. That area of the brain, which contains the Broca's area is responsible for helping us form speech and it is often damaged in stroke victims. This is why they can understand what you're saying, but have a hard time physically repeating what you say.
- Damn, these were some long ass musings! Sorry!
O.k. I don't know where to even begin.....
My Hats off to Eli Roth.
First let me start with my experience with the movie. I don't know all the ins and outs of movies as far as how they work and who does what or whatever. I usually base my viewing of movies on the trailer or what people have said about the movie. I do watch independent movies because some are really good and you don't know for sure unless you watch them. I saw the previews for the this movie and it looked like a movie I'd want to see as a horror buff but then I saw presented by Quentin Tarantino I thought "no way" this movie is going to rock.
When the movie came out I couldn't wait to see it. I left there like "whoah" that blows my mind ...a place where people pay to kill other people. So I'm driving home and I'm thinking about the movie because it still blew me away that it was a place where people paid to kill people. I must say I didn't see it coming at all and I was thinking what the hell is this place? Are they going to sell their organs? What do they do here? Why are they doing this to these people? Then the fact it turns out that people we paying someone to kill other people...That was f'in brilliant! The concept, no one had ever done a movie about that or thought about that.
So I'm thinking back on the movie and I'm like, I have to tell my best friend Beth about this movie its going to f'in blow her mind. She has to go see this movie. To me for me it was like the Sixth Sense I couldn't stop talking about it. So of course I bought the movie when it came out and watched it again and I loved the second one equally. I recently bought the second dvd which when I was viewing it I pressed for the subtitles to come on because I didn't understand when someone said something and when I pressed for the subtitles I saw all this other stuff you could view and decided to watch it after the movie was over and what I realized after I put on the subtitles that there was alot of stuff being said in the background you just make out as chitter chatter but it was actually the actors talking and a bunch of other dialogue I had originally missed so it made the movie that much better for me as if that was possible. So when the movie was over I started it back to the beginning with subtitles to see what I missed from the beginning making me love the movie that much more. So when the movie was over I wanted to know everything about it and listened to the interview and saw the gag reels and listened to his commentary.
And I'm like are you f'in serious this was this guys first movie to write. This guy is a f'in genius. Kind of like Eminem. I know you may not like Eminems' music but you have to say he was a f'in genius. His lyrics, he could wrap and here is this white rapper saying these things. He was genius in representing how the younger generation feels sometimes, they don't talk about it but they feel those feelings. But anyway back to the movie. So he made this movie on $3 million dollars unbelieveable. It had the quality and feel of a big movie. These actors were just genius, the fact that he just happened or thought about including these actors and they fit so perfectly to the charactar was unremarkable. So I'm listening about his intentions for the movie and how he wanted the audience to feel and so I went back and watched the movie again and it worked perfectly. I didn't realize it but his intentions were for us to really like Josh and see the world through Joshs eyes and really care about Josh and when he was killed off it was a real let down because Paxton was a jerk and Oli was just along for the ride. Then you find yourself feeling sorry for this Jerk when he realizes hes all along and things are getting really weird. I liked how Eli kind of drew you to the softer side of Paxton when they were walking down the street talking about the drowning it made Paxton alot more likeable before he killed off Josh. Eli just thought of everything.
So anyway I love his political views you should listen to them I agree and they make alot of sense and the movie does coincide with politics and money and greed. Where ultimately the rich can't get rich enough, they are bored and ultimately they have all the power and use it in violence.
The fact that some of the people who stood in the movie but weren't actors they had a role on the set but they fit perfectly in that role. All so genius.
So anyway I think there should be a Hostel 3 I want one. This time I think Beth should come back for them. Shes smart, she has a ton of money and she is the type of person that would have to put an end to this. But how does she go about doing it if they have their hands in everything? So how is she going to put an end to this and go into how the factory operates, how do they get their clients?, how come all these people are involved but no one important not involved hasn't found out? Eli your a genius you can do it.
Yes, as a matter of fact, I most certainly do like scary movies.
My favorite? Well, that's simple, Psycho. It's true, no matter how much you may hear me talk about Hannibal Lector or Freddy Kreuger or Leatherface, they still can't hold a candle. Which is interesting because Leatherface and Buffalo Bill (another character in the Hannibal Lector series) were both based off of the same person, Ed Gein, the butcher of plainsville.
Three movies were based off of this person, but I would be willing to bet that unless you are a fan of horror movie trivia or you're a criminologist, you have never heard of Eddie Gein. You've heard of Ted Bundy, Charles Manson, the Unabomber. But how many of them have had three of the all time best horror movies ever made after them. None. Nada. Zilch.
When people talk about serial killers, you don't even hear this guy's name mentioned.
But whatever, I don't actually have a point to this. It's just one of those weird things in the world that I don't really understand, that I thought that I should call to someone's attention.
Oh and yes, that was a Scream reference I made earlier. I just finished watching it, not bad, it was the edited for TV version, so, you know how that goes.
I'm starting school tomorrow.
Now that could be a scary movie.
Or is it that scary movies are getting scarier? Or, not so much scarier but they're able to show alot more now. I recently saw a movie in which Josh Hartnett hacked someone's head off with an axe...and it was shown and not implied. That brings out the squeamishness.
But some of the scariest movies I've seen have lacked gore...The Grudge...The Ring...and they're not new. Although I think that's a personal fear, little kids scare me. Ever seen that episode of Dr Who? "Are you mummy?" Sweet Jesus that makes me start crying.
Or maybe the acting is just getting better....or worse depending on your view lol.
Although, the scariest movie ever made is IT. Don't make the mistake of thinking it's because I have a clown fear. My clown fear is the result of that movie. I saw it when I was like, 5, and my brother was babysitting me and he was watching it. He would've been 12 he shouldn't have been watching it either. He had to walk me to the bathroom and wait outside while I peed.
So, what makes things scary? For me, a movie is scary if it has clowns, little children evil things, and baddies that jerk around....that sounds crazy but y'know the movie....er...House on Haunted Hill...the remake, the evil doctor thing shows up on the cameras as being jerky and just doesn't move right, same with Samara (sp?) in The Ring she faded in and out and jerked around and stuff....it freaks me the frick out! Bone cracking serves to make me whimper too...the movie Misery? Argh! I can feel it, I've broken my ankle in 2 places and it just makes me relive the pain.
And yet, I know all this, I know that in my old age I'm becoming a big wuss, I know that certain things make me want to hide behind some big, very pretty guy. But I keep watching them. Every single time a new scary movie comes out I think "ooh that looks good I wanna see that"....WHY?! What is this sick, twisted part of me that LIKES being scared?
x
I'd like to start celebrating it again, but I don't think I'll have the chance to do it this year. I haven't really had the time to do anything, lately. Maybe next year.
But in the meantime, I'll at least let you read one of Dave Barry's columns on Halloween. It was originally published in the Miami Herald on October 27, 1996.
I love Halloween. It reminds me of my happy childhood days as a student at Wampus Elementary School in Armonk, N.Y., when we youngsters used to celebrate Halloween by making decorations out of construction paper and that white paste that you could eat. This is also how we celebrated Columbus Day, Washington's Birthday, Lincoln's Birthday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, New Year's, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Armistice Day, Flag Day, Arbor Day, Thursday, etc. We brought these decorations home to our parents, who by federal law were required to attach them to the refrigerator with magnets.
That was a wonderful, carefree time in which to be a youngster or construction-paper salesperson. But it all ended suddenly one day -- I'll never forget it -- when the Soviet Union launched the first satellite, called ''Sputnik'' (which is Russian for ''Little Sput''). Immediately, all the grown-ups in America became hysterical about losing the Space Race, which led to a paranoid insecurity about our educational system, expressed in anguished newspaper headlines asking, ``WHY AREN'T OUR KIDS LEARNING IN SCHOOL?'' I wanted to answer, ''BECAUSE ALL WE EVER DO IS MAKE DECORATIONS OUT OF CONSTRUCTION PAPER,'' but I couldn't, because my mouth was full of paste.
But getting back to Halloween: It's still one of the most fun holidays of the year, as well as one of the most traditional, tracing its origins back more than 2,000 years to the Druids, an ancient religious cult that constructed Stonehenge as well as most of the public toilets in England. The Druids believed that one night each year, at the end of October, the souls of the dead returned to the world of the living and roamed from house to house costumed as Power Rangers.
And thus it is that to this day, youngsters come to our door on Halloween night shouting, ''Trick or treat!'' According to tradition, if we don't give the youngsters a treat, their parents will sue us. That's why most of us traditionally prepare for Halloween by going to the supermarket and purchasing approximately eight metric tons of miniature candy bars, which we dump into a big bowl by the door, ready to hand out to the hordes of trick-or-treaters.
The irony, of course, is that there are no hordes of trick-or-treaters, not anymore. We in the news media make darned sure of that. Every year we publish dozens of helpful consumer-advice articles, cheerfully reminding parents of the dangers posed by traffic, perverts, poisoned candy and many other Halloween hazards that parents would never think of if we didn't remind them (''Have fun, but remember that this year more than 17,000 Americans will die bobbing for apples'').
The result is that many children aren't allowed to go trick-or-treating, and the ones who are allowed out come to your house no later than 4:30 p.m., wearing reflective tape on their Power Rangers costumes and trailed at close range by their parents, who watch you suspiciously and regard whatever candy you hand out as though it were unsolicited mail from the Unabomber.
So for most of Halloween, your doorbell is quiet. This means that you pass the long night alone, hour after hour, just you and the miniature candy bars. After a while they start calling seductively to you from their bowl in their squeaky little voices.
''Hey, Big Boy!'' they call. ``We're going to waste over here!''
As the evening wears on they become increasingly brazen. Eventually they crawl across the floor, climb up your body, unwrap themselves and force themselves bodily into your mouth. There's no use hiding in the bathroom, because they'll just crawl under the door and tie you up with dental floss and threaten to squeeze toothpaste in your eye unless you eat them. At least that's what they do to me. By the end of the night, my blood has the same sugar content as Yoo-Hoo.
But eating huge amounts of candy allegedly purchased for youngsters is only part of the Halloween tradition. The other part is buying a pumpkin and carving it to make a ''jack-o'-lantern,'' which sits on your front porch, a festive symbol of the age-old truth -- first discovered by the Druids -- that there is no practical use for pumpkins.
Here's how to make a traditional jack-o'-lantern:
1. Cut a lid on top of the pumpkin.
2. Pull off the lid and peer down into the slimy, festering pumpkin bowels.
3. Put the lid back on and secure it with 200 feet of duct tape.
(This is also the traditional procedure for stuffing a turkey.)
But however you celebrate Halloween, make sure you remember this important safety tip: (IMPORTANT SAFETY TIP GOES HERE). Otherwise, you will not survive the night. I'd give you more details, but right now I need to do something about these tiny Milky Ways crawling up my legs.
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