Stay Alive

Another 'horror' movie that evokes zero horror, except perhaps the horror that someone actually bothered to make it or the horror that I wasted 1 hour 40 minutes watching it.

Set in New Orleans, the plot revolves around a sinister video game where if your character dies, you will die in exactly the same way. I'm pretty sure this isn't the first time this convention has been utilized (see Emilio Estevez part of this movie). In any case, the film is highly ineffective. I suppose one could give credit for using a fairly non-conventional setting,( i.e. New Orleans instead of random big city suburbs), as well as blending in some gothic, voodoo, creole themes, however at the end of the day, the movie does nothing to impact my actions in daily life. If it were effective, I would ostensibly want to stop playing video games for awhile, just like I stopped camping in the woods for a loooong time after I first saw this. Instead, I am once again angered at having been duped into watching something just because it was on Showtime HD. Damn LCD television has really clouded my judgment...

The Hitcher

So far, so good...2 days in, 2 movies watched.

When you think of "scary" movies, or "horror" movies, what should realistic expectations be? There are so many of these put out these days, that the line sometimes becomes crossed from just thriller into horror. In my mind, there are various subcategories within the genre. First, the gory horror flick, like Hostel or Saw. Not necessarily scary frightening, just kind of disturbing and demented. Next are thriller types that are more psychological scary, like The Ring or anything in that Japanese horror category. These, to me, really stick with you and are much more haunting (if done correctly...there have been loads of crappy rip-offs of this genre as well). Then there are movies that try to be scary/thrilling/gory/suspenseful, but are too manic and end up being none of the above. The Hitcher falls into this category. Creepy roadside serial killer chases down two teens on Spring Break. Wow this sounds familiar...oh yeah, it's a remake of a 1986 version of the flick, duh.

Nevertheless, the suspense is never suspenseful. The plot is dull and as a viewer you just can't really commit to it. Even when it tries to go gory by basically drawing and quartering (truck stop-style) one of the main characters, it falls flat. Thank god it clocked in at under 90 minutes, making the pain minimal. I hate when horror moves aren't scary. I hate it worse when they aren't scary and suck on top of it. Not one of Sean Bean's best choices, but to his credit he was semi-convincing as a serial killer, just not really that scary. Sorry Boromir...