Huldra Forsvant (Theodor Kittelsen)

Huldra Forsvant (Theodor Kittelsen)
Huldra Forsvant (Theodor Kittelsen)

Monday, June 2, 2008

Scary!!


E and I saw The Orphanage on Saturday, which was AWESOME. I loved it. I love horror movies, and have been whinging lately about how I haven't seen one for yonks. So as I was saying, it was freakin' awesome.

I don't scare that easily, but this was truly scary. Boy, was it scary. It's a Spanish film, produced by Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy, Pans' Labyrinth and the upcoming The Hobbit), and is a really well made, classic ghost story. It is not gratuitous horror, but rather implied horror, which is far scarier!

It reminded me a bit of a few other movies I really like-- Rosemary's Baby, The Omen, The Shining, The Amityville Horror. I thought E would hate it (not a horror movie fan), but she liked it too. Here's a review.

5 comments:

Pedro said...

Hmmmm....Gotta say BJ, we watched 'El Orphanato' on Saturday and to be honest, it didn't really do it for me. You know how easily I get scared and I really felt they could have done a lot more with the story to really make it super scary. The story was okay but it just didn't resonate with me and wasn't what I was expecting from such a good storyteller...

Just my 2 cents worth....

Ben McLaughlin said...

Really cuz?! Did you see it at the movies? On the big screen it was amazingly scary--especially that 'night vision' bit. I thought it was super scary, and thought it was really classy and cool. Will definately get dvd.

Ali said...

So um, let me just clarify, you have a child-free day to spend with your wife, and you take her to a horror film?!

Ben McLaughlin said...

Ok, Ali, I'm glad you asked, because in fact I was being very selfless and compromise-ish by saying we should go to The Painted Veil (a 'sprawling saga' that E was sure to enjoy), but then SHE said we should see the horror.

And secondly, people need to realise that horror is not that far distant a cousin from the classic chick flick. Please consider-- Pride and Predudice is not THAT far removed from Jane Eyre, which is not far at all removed from gothic horror like The Turn Of The Screw, which is the kind of classic horror that The Orphanage was working apon.

So basicly, I might as well have been taking E to see Briget Jones Rides Again for just how chickflick it was.

Ali said...

:)

I'm totally lost for words ...