My Blog In the Middle of Your Net

I was sort of on a quick horror fix this past week.   Battle Royale you could argue for, though I qouldn’t quite call it horror.   More of an action film.   Let Me In, one of the best horror films I have seen since its predecessor.   And now, Paranormal Activity 2. Paranormal Activity 2 is about a family that is being tormented by a demonic presence and must find a way to get rid of it.   As I heard about the first film, and experienced when watching the first film, Paranormal Activity 2 is basically a haunted house put to screen.   I don’t mean a movie about a haunted house.   I mean that it’s like going into a haunted house at an amusement park, but instead of actually being there, you are watching it all happen. I knew something was distracting me in the film from the beginning.   Really, it was three things.   They were the only three things that made this movie any worse than the first. The first problem I was having was that I kne...

Today I’m going to highlight one of my many weird dreams that I’ve had.   I’m leaving it here for everyone to see.   Judge me how you may.   I just want to let you all know me a little bit more by sharing something that has taken over my mind while I slept. I was a child when I had this dream.   Not once, but it was a recurring dream.   It has haunted me for a long time because I was only a child when I had the dream.   Of course this one would freak me out when I was little.   It’s just something that would happen with this kind of thing. The dream was Jack and the Beanstalk.   I was Jack.   What happened?   Don’t you know the story?   I climbed a beanstalk and ended up in a giant’s castle.   The giant wanted to use my bones in or on his bread.   Either way, the bread would have my bones and he would eat them.   That’s what scared me the most.   A giant was trying to find me to eat me.   And to get my ...

In movies that I’ve seen recently, horror has not really come across as it should.   Scary should be scary.   A feeling is scary.   Excessive gore is not scary.   I don’t know why people feel the need to replace the looming feeling with gruesome deaths.   That’s just not what horror should be.   Horror should be an experience.   This was brought back to the forefront with Paranormal Activity, and more recently, the movie I am about to write about, Let Me In. Let Me In is the story of a boy who lives a life where nobody truly cares for him.   He then meets a girl in the courtyard of his New Mexico apartment complex.   But first impressions aren’t always what they seem.   It stars two great up and coming child actors, Chloe Moretz and Codi Smit-McPhee.   There are also some great supporting performances by the always good Richard Jenkins and Elias Koteas. I’m going to start with a nitpick before going into what I like.   Sno...

One class, two transfers, three days and a giant fight to the death.    This is the basic idea behind the Japanese film Battle Royale.   I recently watched Battle Royale to see what all of the commotion was about.   I do not see why there is so much hype behind the film but I enjoyed it all the same. Once again, I do not like to overanalyze the plot of films so I’m just going to discuss a few of the things within the film that I liked.   If you want a synopsis find some other way to get it because you aren’t going to get a play by play here. Not trying to be racist in what I say here but I do like the physicality of oriental actors.   From the martial arts to the small little things, I appreciate how they move so much in film and keep everything flowing.   The hiding and falling in this movie seemed very well done in terms of the actors’ abilities to move quickly while making every motion count.   It intensified the fear that you are supposed...

I forgot how much I sucked at Call of Duty until I played it again this week.   I’ve never actually taken the time to get any skill at any game.   All I ever want to do is run around, kill a couple of people, get myself killed, then leave.   That’s about all I do when I play. I don’t have any idea what I am doing when I play video games.   I just run around doing whatever I think should be done.   In first person shooters I run around aiming towards people.   I don’t shoot them, but I shoot at them.   My aim is that bad.   I lurk around corners but there are better lurkers behind me ready to kill me.   I die easily.   I am the meat that is there only to be killed and boost the other team’s stats. But as much as I die, I enjoy playing.   I do manage to get the occasional kill in.   I am satisfied with myself when I get that kill.   Then I see my ratio.   1 and 10.   1 and 15.   The occasional 1 and 20. ...