Pontypool. Watch that shit!

First, a mini-review.

Pontypool is a Canadian horror set in a radio station. The employees of the station are going about their morning as normal when a strange report comes over the police radio and a few strange calls start coming in reporting riots. The reports escalate violently and it becomes apparent that the people of the town are being hit by a peculiar virus.

By setting this film, indeed restricting it, to a radio station, the makers of this outstanding film are able to create one of the most tense cinematic experiences available. The tension, ohhhh the delicious tension, is created by a slow, uncertain, drip... drip... of details combined with the genuine concern  and panic displayed on the employees faces and heard in their voices as they realise this is not an ordinary day.

This really is one of those diamonds that comes occasionally appears from the low-budget horror film "rough". See it. That's an order.

From this point on, I’d suggest those who haven’t seen Pontypool to stop reading. I have thoughts that I need to remove from my head that are not so spoiler-free as the above mini-review. For a unspoiled first viewing…

OK, now that the kiddies have gone to bed we can talk about this in more detail.

You see, as soon as it became apparent that the virus was carried through language, two things popped into my head. The Tower of Babel, and Snow Crash. For those unaware, the Tower of Babel is a bible story that explains the diversification of language. The basic story is that for the generations after the great flood, humanity was united under a single language. They gathered together and decided to build a tower so tall that it would have it's top in the heavens. Unfortunately they did it as a symbol of the glory of man, not of God. This pissed God off for a variety of reasons so he confused their language and scattered them to all corners of the globe. Hence why there are so many languages.

The novel Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson, uses the story of the Tower of Babel to suggest that there is a forgotten language that all humans have an innate understanding. This awesome cyberpunk novel talks about the original language working like a computer virus that infects our minds instead of our computers, allowing us to be controlled. Once again, it’s the understanding that causes the infection.

Ever since I first read Snow Crash, I’ve found it to be an incredibly intriguing thought. Now that I’ve seen seen Pontypool though, I can’t help but add a small degree of terror to that intrigue. It’s well established within the horror genre that “the unknown” is infinitely more frightening than the “known”. Add to that a complete inability to protect yourself. I mean, seriously, Grant said it. How do you make yourself not understand something? What if you didn’t even know you understood it?? *Shudder* It’s enough to keep you up at night… night… I mean, not day, it’s not night… night. night. night… *pop*

del.icio.us Tags: Pontypool,Tower of Babel,Snow Crash,language,virus,fear,unknown

New Format! Woo Hoo!

Hey ramblers!
So, with the new template designer in blogger, I've decided to jump on the bandwagon and mix my blog up a bit. I think it's a little lighter and makes much better use of the space.

Whaddya think?
Any complaints, comments, suggestions?

Pretty please?

Happy Birthday to 3 Fabulous Fellas!

Everybody knows it was George Romero's birthday on 4th Feb (yesterday).

Happy Birthday!

Did you know it is H.R. Giger's birthday today ?? Me either! My friend at The Glass Walking Stick told me!

Happy Birthday!

And lastly, just for shits and giggles, it was Heavenztrash from In Nervous Convulsions birthday yesterday as well :)

Happy Birthday!

(not actual photo :P)

Go and see 9

That is all.

What? You want a reason? Pffft, no faith.

Well I really can’t be bothered reposting my review from CoolShite.net so you can find it there. Instead I’m going to go through the numbers and decide what aspect of humanity they represent. (Why, you say? Go see the movie, says I).

1. Caution. He would rather hole up indefinitely than be free.
2. Invention. Or perhaps Insight. He’s interested in 6’s drawings instead of disregarding them as scribbles.
3. &   4.  Memory and curiosity. They catalogue what they find and are always on the lookout for new things.
4. see 3.
5. The Observer. He watches.
6. Madness? Or maybe Empathy. He seems to know some truths within his ramblings.
7. Courage. She’s the only one to keep fighting when 1 creates his sanctuary.
8. Protector.
9. You could argue that 9 is all of these, but I think he’s Honour. He believes in doing what is right.

My favourites are 3 and 4. They’re awesome.

Let me know what you think of my assessment. Agree, disagree, think I’m reading too much into it, let me know!

del.icio.us Tags: 9,movies

Keeping it on the QT

My blog hasn’t been going for all that long so there’s some things that aren’t really well known about me yet. I think I’ve made it pretty clear that I’m a big horror fan and that I enjoy the low-budget, splat-pack movies. Well here’s another Rach’s Media fact. I worship at the church of Tarantino.

I’m not ashamed of this. In fact, since I finally realised that I’m always going to enjoy a movie by QT it’s enriched my life considerably. Stop smirking, I’m not taking the piss.

So I’ve decided to use this post to give thanks for all that he has provided.

1. Reservoir Dogs
   I saw this at an age where I wasn’t supposed to be able to. I may have inhaled a substance that I shouldn’t have and found myself absolutely devastated with the scene where Orange is in the car screaming about being killed (and bleeding to death). I mean I was seriously disturbed.
   
   
2. Natural Born Killers
   I consider this one of my favourite films (before anyone’s knickers get twisted, QT wrote this film). We tried to see it in the cinema but we were all too young (in Australia R ratings have an age restriction. They ask for ID. Bastards). I ended up getting my mum to hire it for me when it was released :)
   
   
3. All his collaborations.
   I’m talking about Four Rooms, From Dusk til Dawn, Grindhouse, his scene in Sin City, etc. QT is obviously a people person. And a lot of his peoples are just as talented as he is.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Eli Roth
   That kinda cute, kinda hot, kinda sexy, hilariously funny, but not funny looking writer/director. I know that Cabin Fever was already doing well, but it’s thanks to QT that we have Hostel and its sequel. More importantly, QT has put Eli in front of the camera. Twice. I am grateful.
   
   
   
5. Omar Doom
   He’s just so giving that Quentin. He meets a hot guy, he puts him in a movie for us all to share (twice). With a spider web tattoo on his elbow. Mmmmmm.
   
   
   
6. Music
   I absolutely love QT’s soundtracks, they are all gold. Inglourious Basterds has some amazing instrumental tracks. I just wish he would get into using his twitter account to blip some tunes in between releases.
   
7. The end to Inglourious Basterds
   I’m not going to give the end away but if there’s anyone who wants to argue it out with me, DM me on twitter. Any time.

There’s more, but this post is getting a little long. I’m gonna end by just saying:

Thanks.

del.icio.us Tags: Quentin Tarantino,Eli Roth,Omar Doom,Reservoir Dogs,Inglourious Basterds,soundtracks,Natural Born Killers

The Day of the Triffids

I’ve just started reading The Day of the Triffids again. For those who haven’t heard of this John Wyndham masterpiece, here’s a quick synopsis:

The world is treated to a magnificent display of green meteors that light up the night sky. The next day everyone who watched is blind. That’s bad.

Previously to this event was the discovery of a new plant called a “triffid”. It’s discovered that they are carnivores, killing with a whip-like sting and eating the decomposing corpse. That’s worse.

The triffids can walk and communicate. They have been shown to posses some form of intelligence. So the basic idea is that the biggest threat to the triffid (humans) has lost the only thing that made them superior (sight). Oh dear.

I read it for the first time when I was a tween. I’ve always thought of it as a science fiction novel, which it undoubtedly is, but reading it again now with my horror-impacted imagination…

There’s some disturbing shit in this book.

Seriously. I’m up to chapter 3 and there’s already been 2 suicides. We haven’t even gotten to the triffids yet! There is a movie that was made, but it’s a little dated and doesn’t really focus on scarier aspects of the book (though the poster above is frikken classic!). But it is being remade. Hmmm. Maybe it’s because I’ve been on a “all horror, all the time” bender, but this could really benefit from the subtle, slow-burn of Grace, or the eerie, silent isolation of 28 Days Later.

Basically, I think The Day of the Triffids needs to be remade by one filmmakers referred to in my post about Budget Horror Films. Or Danny Boyle. Whoever’s free first will be fine.

del.icio.us Tags: triffids,geekery,scifi,horror,splatpack,remakes,books,Danny Boyle,Grace,28 days later