Artsy Fartsy

I love all the artsy fartsy remarks on movies like this. About how the plot wasn't tied together and crap like that. Metal Gear solid is a game with a gigantic plot. (although it's about the gulf war and says DNA 100000 times) The game alone would never have stood any ground without the rediculous plot. All of the Resident evil games are plot and plot alone. (games with aweful controls tend to fade away fast)

None of the original dooms or Quakes had any plot apart from: Alians/Demons are atacking, get your gun soldier! Despite this lack of plot the games have they go down in history and their companies keep growing. This is basically just plain quality in another department. The games themeselves were first of all innovative. Next they had good controls and a good feel. The next thing they had were great programmers behind them. John Carmack is held up as a legend. Even ZZT is still really popular. No plot there though just quality.

I play games like doom and Quake. I personally hate Metal Gear and dislike the Resident Evil games (although they made good movies). The point that I'm trying to make is that critisizing a scary movie based on it's plot is a waste of time. It's like consiously making the argument that the Jurassic Park books were better than the movie. OF COURSE THEY WERE!!!! We get it, shut then fudge up. And also since the book was better go read the book again. I'm a fan of Hitchhikers guide and the movie disapointed me. That's why I own all of the books and do not own the movie.

But getting back to task you can't use the argument that the plot was bad in a scary movie and ignore other similar arguments. What about the idea that kid ghosts are scarier than adult ghosts? (the ring, the grudge, Children of the corn, even the Passion had kid demons...) This is a retarded generalization that I've learned to ignore. Kids are fun and playful, and most importantly stupid. A kid doesn't automatically know the where why and when about every ghost and their bad suggestions are never right. That's one of the innovative things about the new War of the Worlds. The scared child is actually a burden and need taken care of like in real life!

A better example is the overhyped portion of Signs where the daughter comes in and says "There's a monster under my bead can I have a glass of water?" This was advertised as a scary scene but was actually a joke in the movie. These are simply tactics in a movie that have worked before so why bother explaining them away?

Another thing not to be argued is the elements of mystery. Most of the bodies in Dead Birds are not accounted for, they just disapear. Same with the Grudge. What happens to people who get taken in Wes Craven's They? To what end are the characters in Saw? IS Freddy really dead? What really is under Michael Myers mask? These are mystery elements that generally are asking for a sequal. These elements are almost always badly done so it is safe to assume they were badly done in this movie as well as several block busters.

Be thankful that the 1st person heavy breathing angle is no longer used in horror. Be glad that this one wasn't a teen sex romp movie that all the sudden get's a murderer. Be thankful that the characters actions are so badly written that you scream at the movie (both Jeepers Creepers). Be glad that you didn't get a single bad song played on a $20 keyboard over and over again (which would make a good dance tune). Heck I heard a car commercial today that used a Nutcracker song in a dark tone that was scarier than most horror movie themes.

Yes the book was better, The plot doesnt close, and children are used. These are constants. Black and White horror movies avoid all of these problems. Try the orginial house on haunted hill, or The Thing From another world. But don't expect a slasher or a pop-up and scream kind of horror movie to have these kinds of elements. You might as well expect a character with actual depth in an action movie. Once again black and white movies genreally give depth to all charaters, but that's hardly an action movie now is it? Go ahead and argue how unrealistic Airplane! or Top Seceret are. That makes just about as much sense as arguing about the plot in a horror film.