Best of the Decade Marathon UpdateThe DescentMany, Many ViewingsI said it before and I’ll say it again…The Descent will scare you. It’s the one great horror film fans wait every 5-10 years for. The balls-to-the-wall fury of the final half-hour is a roller coaster of a rush on the heels of a first hour filled with plenty of shocks and tension. The film’s biggest scare is a classic bit of misdirection, and the most effectively terrifying moment since Scream.
However, this isn’t merely a catalogue of scares. There’s tension within the group, a dynamic that grows, much like the marines in Aliens. A moment of human error crumbles the group’s friendship and sets the final stages of redemption into motion. This could have just been a superior claustrophobic cave picture or an exciting “us vs. them” creature feature. The Descent works as both.
In horror, as with comedy, timing is everything. Director Neil Marshall knows exactly how to play an audience like a piano, and we never see the crescendos coming. He shows such confidence in his direction that the bulk of the movie is a highly tense cave exploring film. With each obstacle, he brings on the claustrophobia, escalates the tension, and throws personal conflicts at our characters. By the time a creature element is introduced, the film is already working just fine. The final third is a trip into full gore horror, and it may lose some people like with From Dusk Till Dawn, but the transition here is much smoother.
Natalie Mendoza’s Juno is the group leader, but there’s much more going on underneath. Juno always has something to prove (notice her leg stretch in front of the other women after her morning jog.) She feels her leadership threatened at every turn, whether by youth or calmer heads. (Interesting how our first moment with her is a vulnerable one, when the group dunks her in the river.)
Mendoza plays Juno as almost separate from the group because Juno sees herself as the most capable member, and holds some deep secrets. On top of all this, Mendoza is perhaps the decade’s biggest bad-ass. When danger strikes, she’s like Ripley, tearing through trouble with athleticism and gusto. I don’t understand why this didn’t make her a big star.
Nora-Jane Noone stands apart from the other “chicks with picks” immediately. With her short, spiky hair and youthful aggression, she represents a more reckless version of Juno. Many actors who portray athletic enthusiasm shoot past realism and come off like adrenaline junkies selling Mountain Dew. Noone keeps the character grounded.
Marshall goes too far with his use of blood, sometimes straining the realism of the situation. It often feels like it’s just there to please the horror fans who come strictly for the gore. There’s a scene early on where a character suffers from rope burn. Cut gloves and red hands I get, but her hands are sliced open and blood pours out of the wounds. Then there’s the occasional minor misstep like when someone ignites a torch by clanging two metal hooks together until they spark (and in only two tries.)
So, The Descent is not a perfect film. I really don’t care. If you’re looking for thrills and scares, this gives you more than your money’s worth. The best horror film of the decade.
Pulse (Kairo)2nd ViewingI’ve seen three films from critic’s darling Kiyoshi Kurosawa, including his most acclaimed Cure (where a serial killer works through hypnosis) and Charisma (about a strange tree that infests a village with evil.) Kurosawa’s movies are not “horror” the way us Americans know it. They’re artful meditations…morality tales. I HATE them. Kurosawa can create atmosphere, but the films are painfully slow and numerous scenes exist for reasons I cannot fathom.
Kairo (Pulse) is the first Kurosawa film that equals the hype, delivering everything I’ve been told he was great at. Once again, this is not horror with big scares that made me jump, but it’s profoundly disturbing and more than a little creepy, with numerous scenes that made me nervous.
The plot of Pulse revolves around the internet, asking are we really still “connected” to fellow human beings anymore? The film’s answer… with technology we’re actually more isolated. Each person is an individual, and within each individual is a bottomless pit of loneliness that never ends. We live alone, and remain alone after death. The ghost world is very similar and that shared loneliness creates a bridge between the two worlds. The ghosts don’t have an evil plan. They just want to make a connection.
There is a hopeless look and feel to the film from the very beginning. The universe seems forever cast in shadows, regardless if it’s night or day. The ghosts are never shown in stark light, and they quiver and slink about in a disjointed way. They appear gradually within a static frame.
With many horror movies you sit through 90 minutes of our heroes trying to convince the world that “something evil” is out there. Here, our world is presently being invaded by beings from another dimension, and there is a ripple affect as everyone begins to experience similar events. Slowly but surely, the world starts to thin out, but not in the loud and splashy way you expect.
With previous Kurosawa films (and some other Asian horror) I‘d pull my hair out at the slow pace as characters ponder the happenings -- and ponder, and ponder, and ponder some more. This is his fastest movie, but it’s still pretty slow going. The film also makes good use of music, and the soundtrack, utilizing computer beeps and hiss, proves to be an asset.
There was an American remake with Kristen Bell that sucked. The Japanese version is fantastic horror for the brain and recommended to anyone who prefers to get their mind stimulated over their adrenaline.
My Current List...
37. The Descent
38.
Waltz With Bashir39.
Wall-E40.
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring41.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire42.
Snatch43.
The Squid and The Whale44.
Inland Empire45.
A Bittersweet Life46.
Amélie47.
The Bourne Ultimatum48.
Oldboy49.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix50.
The Brothers Bloom51.
204652.
The Lives of Others53.
Gangs of New York54.
Mission: Impossible III55.
Love Actually56.
[REC]57.
Sin City58.
Monsters Inc.59.
The Royal Tenenbaums60.
Serenity61.
Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang62. Pulse (Kairo)
63.
Borat64.
No Country For Old Men65.
District 966.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban67.
Shaun of the Dead68.
Fantastic Mr. Fox69.
Almost Famous70.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone71.
Grindhouse72.
Into The Wild 73.
The Magdalene Sisters74.
In Bruges75.
Million Dollar Baby76.
Grizzly Man77.
Inglorious Basterds78.
The 40-Year-Old Virgin 79.
The Dark Knight 80.
Brotherhood of the Wolf81.
North Country82.
The Last Kiss83.
Bloody Sunday84.
Moon85.
Sexy Beast86.
Cold Mountain87.
X-Men88.
Whale Rider89.
Super Size Me90.
Akeelah and the Bee91.
Interstella 5555 92.
The Departed93.
The Mothman Prophecies94.
Dirty Pretty Things 95.
O Brother, Where Art Thou? 96.
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring97.
Better Luck Tomorrow98.
Hustle & Flow99.
28 Days Later100.
Road to PerditionHighly Recommended, but dropped from the list...
Blade II,
Charlie's Angels,
Chicago,
Drumline,
Infernal Affairs,
Joint Security Area,
Lost in Translation,
The Pianist,
School of Rock,
Spider-Man 2,
Touching the Void,
Versus,
The Visitor,
X2: X-Men United,
ZoolanderComing Up...
Crash
House of Flying Daggers
Ocean's 11