28 Days Later and Much Much Later

Let me start by saying that this blog isn't exactly what I expected it to be. I thought that I would have something to say on a regular basis, and while I wanted that to be the case, we all know how that turned out. I am going to try and think more about this blog and work at it, but I am going to try and have my life be injected into it, instead of movies having life injected into them.
Today's movie is 28 Days Later, the English zombie apocalypse movie from 2003. Directed by Danny Boyle, who would later give us the hit Slumdog Millionaire, a film I admit I haven't seen. This film stands out to me as one of the best horror movies I have ever seen, being effective on almost every level a horror movie should be. The film's infusion of loneliness is something that seems to be lacking in most movies of this genre. It seems to be logical that if the world was truly in a post-apocalyptic state, there wouldn't be a whole lot of people around, but most do.
The scene that stands out to me is when the two main characters, with a father/daughter team, make their way through a tunnel in order to cross a river. The main character, played by Cillian Murphy, says "No No. See, this is a really shit idea. You know why? Because its really obviously a shit idea." Then, of course, while driving through, they meet plenty of road blocks and obstacles that cause them to have a tire blow out. During the tire change, of course, the zombies come, and the race is on to fix the tire. They make it out, and the story moves on for our characters. That line, while being a tad salty, invokes something you rarely see in a horror movie, the concept of true personality trait. Often, horror movie characters move and act in very stereotypical ways, making actions predictable. I won't say this film don't have those characters, but you can understand their actions with a sort of logic that should be more present in this genre. So remember to yell at the screen, "That is a shit idea! You know why? Because it is so obviously a shit idea!" next time Tina, the stereotypical slasher fodder runs upstairs to flee from some big guy with a big knife. In conclusion, if you are a horror movie fan or if you can simply stand the adult material featured, see this movie. It isn't a suggestion, its a command. Don't worry, you won't be disappointed.
You might be asking yourself what social problem I have to associate to a zombie apocalypse? I'm going to return to religion and talk about the end of the world. Why, you might ask, is the end of the world a social problem? I think we all recognize that the Earth will not be around forever and ever. Whoever you are, religious or not, there is a scenario realistic to all of us that involves everyone dying and something happening after. While a lab grown virus that creates blood thirsty zombies is not top on my list, it was a good movie, and I thought that it worked, so there.
What brought on this post was a discussion that I had with a man selling a self-written book. He was convinced that he had mapped out the events in the Bible and Book of Mormon that told him the end of the world was coming as soon as next year. I just wanted to know more. So much more that I was almost compelled to buy the text. I wasn't pulled into the idea that the world is going to see Jesus return in 2011, but I was pulled into the idea that someone would believe that they knew the event was happening. I also viewed a documentary, "Waiting for Armageddon," which invoked the same feelings. I wanted to know more. Not about belief systems, but what makes one person, who believes they will see Jesus soon as a function of "The Rapture," different than one who does not. I don't think this is an issue of religion. The man that I encountered earlier in the week was Mormon, and most Mormons I know don't think Jesus is coming next year.
My issue with this thinking comes in when you ask yourself, "What are you going to do differently, now that you know that the end really is nigh." (Side note: there is a scene in 28 Days Later, when Cillian Murphy is walking up some stairs in a church and encountered the statement "The End is Really Fucking Nigh." I laughed.) In "Waiting for Armageddon," there were interviews with people stating they won't see grandchildren and children won't see high school graduation. Christian groups laugh when they see pictures of the Temple Mount, altered to feature the New temple of Jerusalem, instead of the Dome of the Rock. A quote that I find appropriate here is from Bill Maher, "The only thing I hate more than prophecy is self-fulfilling prophecy." That is exactly my fear. What motivation do these people have to continue with business as usual? I would say, nothing. People of this caliber are preparing for the end instead of preparing for tomorrow.
I'm not saying that I want to control religious freedom to believe that your God is coming to cleanse the Earth of non-believers, but I would like people to remember that Earth is still Earth today, and probably tomorrow. Life is still out there. Remember the example of the great lion. A lion will still do lion things today, tomorrow and the next day until he dies, gets eaten, or gets shot by some hunter on safari. Everyday, we have an obligation to make life better and richer. Or maybe we just have an obligation to live it. Don't try and lead yourself to the end; let the end happen.
Lastly, I would encourage my few readers to remember we all love to believe what we want, let others do the same.

The Last Exorcism and the Religious Fantastics

The film The Last Exorcism follows Rev. Cotton Sweetzer, a preacher more devoted to theatrics than faith, as he performs an “exorcism” of Nell Sweetzer, daughter of farmer Louis Sweetzer. The original goal of the “documentary” is to show the deceptive nature of the practices of Cotton in order to expose what Cotton believed to be a dangerous business. The Sweetzer case appears to be a normal case, with aspects common to most the cases Cotton has encountered. After the performance of Cotton’s “exorcism,” Nell appears in Cotton’s motel room and the spiral downward for the battle with the devil truly begins.

I found this film had all the elements to be a great addition into the “hand cam” genre of horror, but there were a few elements that were completely off. In a movie culture that has epics such as The Exorcist and Paranormal Activity, it is very important for films that touch on exorcism to be unique in some way. I can tell that Last Exorcism attempted to do this, with what I believe is a failure. Upon the completion of viewing this film, I realized that Last Exorcism would be more appropriately grouped in with Rosemary’s Baby or Lost Souls than with The Exorcist and Paranormal Activity. While I would welcome this twist normally, this film is billed as an exorcism. I understand that the girl is “possessed” and we do encounter a demon through the body of Nell, but the main idea here I believe is completely understated. Nell is not a victim of the devil, but a victim of worshippers. But perhaps that is what the filmmakers were aiming for.

Another aspect of this film that could be seen as a positive, and I usually would agree, would be the lack of special effects. Nell, performed expertly by Ashley Bell, has a few body-twisting moments where we are meant to think “Oh, she’s possessed because people can’t do that!” I was instead thinking, they couldn’t get someone with more background in body manipulation to do this part? Not to say that Ashley Bell didn’t perform well, but I know that I’ve seen better. Also, tiny bits of special effects will never hurt a film, they can only improve it. I said TINY. This film’s elements of terror are completely hinged on the abilities of Ashley Bell as Nell and lighting. A few additions of Hollywood’s smoke and mirrors would have been greatly appreciated here. Cotton is willing to expose his smoke and mirrors, but we as moviegoers can accept that smoke and mirrors are going to be utilized.

As this is the first post of the blog, I’ll explain a little about what is going to come next. This blog is called Horror and society, so we’ll get to the society part of this. I’ll take a real-life concept from this film, and try to discuss it with as much knowledge as I can personally muster. I’m not going to go into too much detail, but hopefully I’ll bring up something that will make you, the reader, think for a second.

I went back and forth on the topic that should be brought up here, and I think that religious fanaticism would be best here. Our good friend Wikipedia defines fanaticism as a belief or behavior involving uncritical zeal, particularly for an extreme religious or political cause or in some cases sports, or with an obsessive enthusiasm for a pastime or hobby. However, religious fanaticism is a subjective evaluation defined by the culture context that is performing the evaluation. Mind you, this is from Wikipedia, but I think it brings up a couple of great points. It is us as a society that determines what religious fanaticism is and what is simple religious practice.

So, under our current societal boarders, the break from “normal” religion and fanatic religion is the point where practices become dangerous or beliefs completely ignore commonly accepted beliefs about the world and society. I will try not to pass judgment on the beliefs of others; however, I will put the same “subjective evaluation” society puts on religion so I can process it. A group like the FLDS church, I would count as a religious fanatic group. Looking at the FLDS church, we can see a clear break from our society to their society. Their society, which is almost an import from 1800’s, carries with it all of the values from 19^th century Mormonism. Polygamy and placement marriage, blood atonement, dress standards, and other practices are set in the FLDS church. We have deemed these practices to be either archaic or just flat out wrong, so these people are religious fanatics.

What groups this idea in with the Last Exorcism, and also Rosemary’s Baby, is devil worship and demon conjuring. While I would consider demon conjuring to be physically impossible, these films present situations where this act is possible. Just think about real life religious fanatics. Do you think that there is a group out there that believes that they can bring a demon out of hell and into this world? If you don’t, I would suggest you reconsider.

I urge us all to look deep within ourselves and determine not whether our religious beliefs are “mainstream” but whether they are morally sound. Does our religion cause us to be better or does it command us to be distinct for some other reasons? If you don’t have religion, what motivates you?

Welcome!

After long hours of writing just for myself, I recently decided someone might want to know about it. I remember back in the day, my very first "adult" movie (aka rated R film) was Freddy's Dead: A Final Nightmare. For me, this was a door into a new world. No matter what has been going on in my life, I have always come back to the horror genre. I don't claim to know everything about it. I would even say that I might not even know more than most, but I'll still give my best.
Let me first say that this site will not feature a rating system. There will be no grades, checks, or thumbs. Well, maybe a few lost thumbs, but they certainly won't be for a "grade." I might ruin a movie or two for some of you. For that, I'm sorry. I urge you to treat the movie portion of my post as you should any movie review, as a guide. If I speak highly of a film, and you like what I have to say, check it out! But its all up to you.
The second portion of this blog is society. What do I mean by society? Society is everything else. The film will be my vehicle to bring forth another topic. For example, in Die Hard (I don't imagine I'll ever post about this film, so I think I'm safe) we see an obvious indestructible hero element. What is the necessity of that hero in today's society? Do we as a people believe that someone out there will save us in any horrible circumstance? Or do we enjoy the element because it really doesn't exist? I know these are all questions, but I don't want to go into full post about Die Hard! Do we all get the idea?
So, enjoy and I hope that this will motivate people to think, if not about the film, but about an issue that goes beyond the screen.

P.S.
I will try my hardest to not integrate politics here, I don't think I want to bring that elephant in this room.