Horror in the Atmosphere (rambling)

Genres are something of an enigma to me. I've heard a million people argue that genres aren't important. Just go with what you enjoy! Music is a pointed example of this. Plenty of times people have told me, "Jeremiah, listen to music that is pleasing to you, don't listen to the genre!". And that's beautiful on paper, but fascism is beautiful on paper, too. Have you ever tried to carry a conversation with these people? Their massive inability to specialize leaves them babbling incoherently about the single of the week on the radio. I'm not saying that everyone needs to be boxed into their genres of choice, like it was a social caste, but for the love of God, choose something and get to know it.

For quite some time now horror has been my genre of choice in most things (he said, in an elegant transition). Maybe it appeals to my innate tendency to be morbid in nature, but scary things have always been my bag. Even when I was an apple cheeked, little, boy, I remember staying up late and watching The X-Files, alone in the dark; huddled under a quilt.

The X-Files isn't exactly dictionary definition horror, but I think it has held up the spirit for a long time. Horror has gotten the short end of the proverbial stick as far as genre identification goes. With so many facets in the horror jewel, it's hard to identify what's what. A person could argue that Hostel is horror, but someone could also argue that I Am Legend is horror. I like to think that examples like those two are movies with horror elements, but not crisp, straight line, horror.

Elemental horror, horror broken down to its most basic piece, is something that is hard to find these days. In America, at least. Without coming off like an annoying, tail wearing, "kawaii ^_^", Japanophile, let me say that Japan has been destroying America in terms of horror for ages. This is because the Japanese have a long cultural history of scaring the hell out of each other, and have learned that monsters are scary when you can't see them. Let's bring this back to a video game perspective quick.

Everyone and their nukekubi has been blowing a lot of air about how Amnesia: The Dark Descent is the most terrifying thing since Opera forgot to put her make up on. And while I'd sooner flay my own fingernails off with a flat head screwdriver than become another honking goose in the hyping flock, yes, it's scary enough to have made me rethink just how thirst I really am on a few late nights. The point is, literally nothing happens for the first few hours of Amnesia. I don't think you can take damage even if you try for at least the first hour. And even then it happens because a section of all doesn't like you getting to cozy to it.

The antithesis of Amnesia: The Dark Descent in this regard is most likely Dead Space 2; a game that opens with a person being impaled, having their face melt, tendrils poke out, and then scream in agony not 6 inches from your freshly woken eyes, all while the intro credits are still on the screen. What happened to pacing? This isn't to say that Dead Space is bad. I played the absolute shit out of Dead Space 1, but it just wasn't scary. Sure, I jumped the first time a possum playing Necromorph sliced my knees off, but by chapter 3 I was just shooting every corpse I came across from a distance out of insurance.

Living in anguish of the thought that grotesquely misshapen nightmare creatures are waiting to give you an impromptu tracheotomy is the vessel that drives proper horror. Being to afraid to explore a small room because you're so sure that when you turn around there will be an abomination standing in the door frame is the atmospheric hole-in-one.

This atmosphere is what makes or breaks the entire experience. Hearing the tiny creatures that you've read about in a bloody journal scurry around the insides of the walls is scary. Knowing they're there, and that at any moment they could break out, skitter sharply up your chest, and plant serrated fangs into your throat, is scary. Being lost in a dark basement, trying desperately to relight your lantern, hearing boards break in the distance and not knowing if it's the rotting weight of disrepair or the subjects of nightmares breaking from their prisons, that's terrifying. That is atmosphere.

Yes, I'm aware of the irony that Frictional, the company that made Amnesia, and its spidery predecessor's, is not Japanese (they're Swedish, for anyone keeping score). This just goes to show that country of origin isn't a big deal, though. Unless its America.

Like I said earlier, The United States has been dragging its heels on the pacing and atmosphere front; and I feel this is most evident in movies. The professional-ish writer that I am, I researched what Americans called the scariest movies of last year. Contenders were Paranormal Activity 3, a third installment prequel (in the industry known as a "cash cow") trying desperately to get in on that atmosphere that overly critical jerks bang on and on about, by throwing in humor and fake-out startle scares. And Insidious, a Poltergeist clone with startle scares. Shine on you crazy diamonds.

The Devil Inside (article)

Lately the advertisement belching Jabberwocky I call my television has been reminding me that my life will not be worth living if I don’t rush out and see The Devil Inside. After having the shakily recorded commercial drool down my ear roughly every 15 minutes for a day or two, I’ve developed some opinions on it. And I think they’re about what you can expect someone to say about anything dribbling saliva into their unwilling ear holes.

I’ve decided to approach this from the point of view of the every man. Yes, I could do research and learn about the plot, setting, development, et cetera, but I’m writing about a commercial. People don’t do research when they see a commercial. They make a knee jerk reaction to see a movie or not see a movie. That is to say, people not terrified of seeing a bad movie and wasting $12 at a theater, do that. But, if Hostel, taught us anything, it’s that people will part with their money with a smile if it means having flashing lights to stare at for 90 minutes.

 

The ad in question is the 30 second TV spot for the movie; The Devil Inside. It’s not a lot to go on, but it's what the majority of the public will go on. Those 30 seconds are the film’s opportunity to make the viewer move from indifference to willingness to part with their hard earned. So what happens? A camera dead set on giving me a headache staggers like a drunk at a party, for one. I understand that the whole “record the movie like it was done with a handheld camera” thing is popular now, but even a rudimentary film maker understands the usefulness of a tripod when people are talking. This film maker, however, is Hell bent on getting their cardio, because it appears that they jog in place at all times while shooting.

To be fair, not every scene was shot by a winded asthmatic in their death throws. Several shots were done with stationary, wall-mounted units designed to look like surveillance cameras. You know, the same style we saw in Paranormal Activity 1-3, The Fourth Kind, and every other ghost MacGuffin film in the last 6 years.

The right angles and camera work will make or break a horror movie selling itself on atmosphere. Would Psycho have been so unsettling if every angle was perfectly eye level? Would Hellraiser have been so tense if not for eerie shots from the ceiling of light and dark? Having a camera that controls like its being held by a person is gritty. It’s engrossing. In some ways it breaks the fourth wall and makes the audience feel like they’re a part of the action. The problem is, many film makers have realized this. The Blair Witch Project, Quarantine, and Cloverfield are just three examples of major blockbusters that worked the handheld style into the ground; and that’s not to mention all of the independent films that didn’t gain recognition.

At this point you could be saying that those are all movies based around the fact that one of the characters in the film is literally holding a hand held camera. The operator speaks to the other characters, the camera changes hands, when the camera’s paused the movie jumps ahead to when it’s unpaused. But that’s the problem. From what I can tell, The Devil Inside is trying to do that with in every way save the additional character. At one point there’s even a handheld cameras spot light shining in a dark room while the characters deal with their demonic predicament. It’s like they wrote in a cheeky sidekick character with a camera, but forgot to give him dialogue.

Hand-held shooting is a good tool to have, but don’t exaggerate it when you’re not basing the entire movie around it. And as for the stationary, security cam style shots, Hollywood, can we please leave this dead horse to rot rather than beating it too enthusiastically? I was already sick of them even before I finished Manhunt back in 2007.

The second deficiency I found in this short lived trailer is the fact that it’s about botched exorcisms. Yes, if you hadn’t guessed by the shockingly generic title, The Devil Inside is about exorcisms. I want to take a moment to point out that as satisfyingly dark and broody as this title will no doubt seem to the apathetic, Hot Topic clad, high school audience that it appears to be targeting, those of us with fully changed voices will find it forgettable. I forgot it three times while writing this article, as a matter of fact.

Title notwithstanding, the 14-19 year old crowd seems to be about the target audience for this movie; maybe as far as 23 for the slow ones out there. In the ad, characters talk about “non-sanctioned exorcisms” while contorted human figures with expressions of agony have their bones broken by an unseen, diabolic force. I’m not even exactly sure what the movie’s trying to prove with all of this. Possibly that Catholicism can be corrupt and heartless? Ooh, edgy.

The Exorcist did a phenomenal job of making The Church look weak and powerless and they made a priest the hero. Subtlety is the frosting that separates your movie from being a satisfying cake and dry, vanilla, bread. I know it’s easy to sit in a theatre with snacks you had to take out a second mortgage to afford and enjoy lights dancing on the wall; all of the subtlety removed, all of the thinking done for you, but it’s so much less fulfilling. Some people seem to genuinely like that though. And while I’m perfectly okay with declaring that my opinion is right, I’m not okay with telling everyone that their opinions are wrong. If I did that I’d be no better than the corrupt and heartless Church that The Devil Inside is straining so hard to vilify.