Archive for the 'Horror' Category
The Truth in Horror
October 4
I love horror movies more than a lot of people I know. Just today I sat and watched Re-Animator (and on a side note, if you look at the source code you’ll see a perfectly valid use of the <i></i> tag, since movie titles are supposed to be italicized). I have serious problems, though, with this recent trend in remaking the horror “classics.”
I think the worst offender lately is The Amityville Horror which came out this year. I didn’t watch it. I don’t watch remakes (for the most part). Especially not ones where the producers didn’t even do basic research.
Research? For a horror movie? Normally I’d say that’s overkill; after all, who doesn’t love a good, mindless scream? But for America’s most famous haunting/demonic posession (at least of a house), you need to do at least a couple inches of digging. Namely you need to realize that the book behind the movie is a fiction novel. Yes, I know it originally (and may still) say “Based on a true story” but the authors have admitted to making the story up with the lawyer of the guy who murdered people in the house. If you don’t believe me (and why should you?) here’s a Snopes article and one from the Wikipedia. Oh, and for one final nail in the coffin (no sort of pun intended), how about a link to the documentary exposing the story as a lie? Here it is Notice that it came out 5 years before the new movie was made.
Anyway, just wanted to bring that to people’s attention. It’s all a lie and wasn’t based on any truth other than the fact that people were murdered in the house. This is a lot like The Exorcist in people’s belief that it really happened. Yes, there are really cases of demonic possession (or at least people who believe they are possessed. Whether they are or not, I can’t answer). But the actual events in the story are made up and aren’t based on any fact at all. Still, a damn good book and a truely scary movie.