It's not that I mind gore or frights (Aliens is one of my favorite movies, for instance and I had no problem with Saving Private Ryan, probably the goriest movie I've ever seen). What I hate is the anticipation that something awful is going to happen. This is what I cannot stand. I call it the "Lassie syndrome."
You see, "Lassie" was a television show that was on when I was a kid (I always envision it in black and white so it must have been before we got a color TV in 1967). The basic plot of every Lassie episode was (it seemed) Timmy and Lassie go out to play (happy music), heavy foreshadowing of something bad happening (scary music), something bad happens to Timmy (falls down a well). Lassie runs back to Timmy's ranger father and barks a lot, and the father figures out that Timmy is in trouble and goes saves him. But the problem cam from the foreshadowing of something bad. When I watch a movie (or in life) anticipating something bad going to happen is to me is worse than it happening. And horror movies always build up this anticipation so that they can scare the bejeesus out of you.
For instance, in the movie Walk the Line (about Johnny Cash), at the beginning his older brother is sawing wood with a huge circular saw and you just know that something bad is going to happen. And I hated it. I nearly turned off the movie at that point. But I didn't.
So that's why I don't do horror.
No comments:
Post a Comment