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Luckily for me, every day is NOT like Sunday!
Slept and slept today, eventually. In truth, I got up after just 4 hours of sleep as I thought Ryan and I were going out. Didn't hear from anyone until several hours later, and by that time i was in the magical land of nap. Was about to get up and make H dinner when he dicided it was time for him to go to bed. No sense in getting up at that point, I thought, so I was lulled back into horrible zombie nightmares once again. H and I figured out that I'd been having norrible nightmares (we often call them simple "Mares" since I often have them while sleeping during the day) since I ordered from Tio's on Thursday, and ate the leftovers over the next two days. First i dreamed that my brother mark was killed--for a whole night I dreamed that! The next night, Anthony Perkins was our house guest and he was trying to stab me in my sleep or something. Sleep plagues me, but I love it still.
Got a comment from someone new to LJ who asked my opinion on horror movies and whether or not I thought they were going downhill. My response was so good, I thought I'd share it with all of you, and here it is:
I would have to say that movies in general have taken a big slide downward over the last 20 years or so. Audiences demand less and less from moviemakers overall, and people pay to see shittier and shittier films.
The fact that crapfests like Mummy Returns or Van Helsing make any money at all tells me that the responsibility for getting good movies made lies with the public moreso than the filmakers. Hollywood movies are a business, and they give people what they want, much like television. As long as 10 million idiots will tune in to watch shit like American Idol or Fear Factor, some asshole will make sure these shitbox shows get on the air.
As for horror specifically, I think horror (zombie fans specifically) fans are among those who are less likely to settle for a peice of watered down shit. That's why House of the Dead makes very little money--people know its crap; while 28 Days Later and The Village do great guns even though mainstream moviegoers call them "boring".
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Got a comment from someone new to LJ who asked my opinion on horror movies and whether or not I thought they were going downhill. My response was so good, I thought I'd share it with all of you, and here it is:
I would have to say that movies in general have taken a big slide downward over the last 20 years or so. Audiences demand less and less from moviemakers overall, and people pay to see shittier and shittier films.
The fact that crapfests like Mummy Returns or Van Helsing make any money at all tells me that the responsibility for getting good movies made lies with the public moreso than the filmakers. Hollywood movies are a business, and they give people what they want, much like television. As long as 10 million idiots will tune in to watch shit like American Idol or Fear Factor, some asshole will make sure these shitbox shows get on the air.
As for horror specifically, I think horror (zombie fans specifically) fans are among those who are less likely to settle for a peice of watered down shit. That's why House of the Dead makes very little money--people know its crap; while 28 Days Later and The Village do great guns even though mainstream moviegoers call them "boring".
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I would have to say that movies in general have taken a big slide downward over the last 20 years or so. Audiences demand less and less from moviemakers overall, and people pay to see shittier and shittier films.
The fact that crapfests like Mummy Returns or Van Helsing make any money at all tells me that the responsibility for getting good movies made lies with the public moreso than the filmakers. Hollywood movies are a business, and they give people what they want, much like television. As long as 10 million idiots will tune in to watch shit like American Idol or Fear Factor, some asshole will make sure these shitbox shows get on the air.
Okay, I don't think film IN GENERAL is in any kind of decline. There have always been a surplus of crappy films. The reason we don't hear about crappy films from the 1940s and 1950s is because they were crap! Hardly anyone cares to release them to video/DVD. Look at all the horrible movies from the 1950s and on that were featured in MST3K, some of them Hollywood products!
Now let's look at 1999, a mere 5 years ago and a spectacular year for movies. Many of them were from Hollywood. We've got, off the top of my head American Beauty, Being John Malkovich, Fight Club, The Green Mile, The Iron Giant, The Matrix, Office Space, The Sixth Sense, South Park B.L.U., Three Kings, and The Virgin Suicides all from one year. Most of these will be the films that people remember. Crap like Wild Wild West, 8MM, and Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo will very likely be shuffled under the carpet.
Also, simply liking bad films doesn't make someone an idiot. Surely you and I are film fans, so we take the time to hunt down films we prefer. Like true fans should be, we're also students of film ... so as we watch more our tastes develop and we become more critical of what we watch. Think about the brain surgeon who goes to see Van Helsing so he can relieve the stress of his job. It's not that's he stupid, it's just that films for him are nothing more than entertainment, and in my opinion that's perfectly all right. I know nothing about football, not a damn thing, but does that make me an idiot? I'm sure someone who doesn't know anything about Kurosawa or Italian horror films from the 1960s could really school me on the intricacies of football.
Besides, some movies should be about entertainment, which is what Hollywood specializes in. There's nothing patently wrong with that. It's not like films will play a big roll in shaping the universe. Also consider that many of the independent studios are also owned by the big Hollywood studios, and right now we're going through a renaissance of independent film-making. Look at the widespread success of David O. Russel, Wes Anderson, and Sophia Coppela.
Now, I'm certainly not saying that everything Hollywood churns out of its ass is great, or even good for that matter. But to say there are MORE bad things coming out than in prior years just isn't true. If anything, the 80s were a low point, and the late 90s through today have been a major upswing! Have you noticed that
As for horror specifically I think horror (zombie fans specifically) fans are among those who are less likely to settle for a peice of watered down shit. That's why House of the Dead makes very little money--people know its crap; while 28 Days Later and The Village do great guns even though mainstream moviegoers call them "boring".
As far as horror fans being more picky ... all you have to do to realize you're wrong is venture over to the Fangoria Message Boards (http://www.fangoria.com/forums/index.php?) (you will need to create a username), and read the posts there. My lord, if we were going to talk about stupid people, Fangoria has the market cornered. After a while I just felt embarrassed to be a part of the forum and took it out of my bookmarks. Those people would slop up anything labeled "horror," no matter what the quality. They'd bash anything that wasn't horror, but the moment they started watching anything that WAS horror, their "critical skills" would immediately disappear. Keep in mind that Fangoria has the American horror market pretty well cornered, too.
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Liking bad films only makes you an idiot if you care about films. I wasn't really referring to the average filmgoer who likes Julia Roberts movies because they require no thought. I understand and appreciate that people look for different things in films at different times.
I seem to run into lots of people who complain about the quality of films today, but run right out and spend $9 a ticket on Wimbeldon or Shark Tale or Ladder 49, just because it has a name attached. My point, of course, is that by tolerating and paying to see crap, we send the message that it is profitable to make a bunch of crap. As such, fewer people have the opportunity to make better films. My pet example of this is Van Helsing, which cost $120 million to make. It was complete shit, while that money could have gone to make 120 character driven films, any 20 of which might have been fantastic.
Your comments re: Fangoria are true enough. I realized this about the time I turned 25, that they would like anything with blood in it. I don't consider them real horror fans, but then I am very snobby about such things. I would contend though, that the Fangoria forums are probably not much worse than one can find at IMdb.
I do have to disagree with your point that films don't shape the universe. I think media is extremely important to not just our worlkd view, but also the way we will present ourselves to future generations. How many people worldwide think ALL Americans watch American Idol??? A LOT! ...and that doesn't make us look too bright.
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I have to agree with
I also agree with
Movies aren't thought provoking because people don't want to see thought provoking movies; not because studios don't want to make them. The supply changes to fit the demand.
Wimbledon wasn't a bad movie(my wife wanted to see it), it just wasn't very creative, or original. We could have sat at home and watched any one of the countless love stories already made.
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D'oh.
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I said to H, "I'm scared to wake up Wednes when she's asleep. What do you suggest I do?" He then said he'd go in and explain the situation to you (because I told him). He came out 2 minutes later and said you no longer wanted to go. Technically, no I didn't talk to you. I was going to but H decided it was safer for him to go in and disturb your slumber. However, the only reason we didn't go was because you said you didn't want to go. If you don't remember talking about it, fine, but we also talked about it when you did wake up, and you said the exact same things you said while you were asleep, and you seemed to know what had taken place.
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Quit trying to jedi-up my mind!
Then say what you mean and mean what you say
This is why I take so long to explain everything because what you meant to say and what Nate and I read weren't the same thing.
Re: Then say what you mean and mean what you say
Re: Then say what you mean and mean what you say