Let The Right One In

I thought it was interesting reflection of the child's mind and way of thinking that he could be openly and comfortably friends with a vampire. It seems almost comedic - though this film certainly is not. An interesting insight into the darker ends of Swedish society.

Black Christmas

I was slightly indifferent to this film; maybe because horror movies generally don't interest me as much as other genres of film. The female protagonist becomes convinced that her boyfriend is the killer - in desperation she kills him. Everyone thinks he was the murderer but the killer remains living in the attic. The characters were pretty humorous and two-dimensional for the most part. The protagonist's boyfriend is clearly psychotic, and this characteristic leads to his vilification and subsequent murder. There are some interesting necrophilia motifs with the killer keeping his original victim in a rocking chair by the attic window with a clear plastic bag over her dead face. He had a strange relationship with her, and was certainly the most unsettling part of the movie.

Dark City

I thought Dark City presented some interesting original ideas; the concept of a world that is completely reconstructed nightly to serve as a living experiment on a municipal scale. The idea that a race of superior intellect could be envious of our emotions and individuality to the point where they would devote their existence to the study of our kind - it seems almost self centered of us to often postulate in our literature that we are the centre of some grand scheme. It also plays to our paranoid fascinations of being surveilled or manipulated by some higher authority. There where also psychological thriller elements in the manipulation of memories - somewhat reminiscent of the concepts in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, though on a less personal scale. 

The costumes and sets were generally very rich. The tuning mechanism and the outfits of the tuners have likely influenced much of the genre's art to this day; I see similarities in the cloaks with the Theron guards in the Gears of War series, for example.

Despite the richness in costume and environments, some of the richness of the world fell flat on a couple levels to me. Could these people really forget about the outside world? Is there no world news or media? I guess in our age of internet and instant global connectivity, interacting only with others inside of one single city seems absurd. How could these people not notice they are in an isolated system and not part of planet earth? In comparable films such as The Matrix, the illusion is complete - the experimental space or virtual space is as large as the physical space that we would understand earth to be. Not so in Dark City - this made it feel like more of a fantasy than something that could be real. I think that element of believably in The Matrix helped make it a bigger success.

Time Bandits

The first thing that really impressed my about this movie was the breadth and scope of the sets. Terry Gilliam and Michael Palin depict interesting renditions on classical events and figures. Napoleon's outrageous behaviour and obsession with his height was pretty comical. I liked the Robin Hood scene a lot because it seemed like if that story had actually gone down, it would have been more like this... The merry men are very sparing on formalities and John Cleese adds a lot of his personal style of humour to the scene - in a moment reminiscent of many of his Monty Python sketches, he ambiguously accepts/tricks them in giving him the massive treasure that the midgets (dwarves?) show off to him from previously visited times - early 1800s during a French attack, Ancient Mesopotamia - where they steal King Agamemnon's Crown and all of his treasure (gotta feel bad for the guy losin his crown :0). I liked the Michael Palin's appearance; it seemed very in-character for the types of roles he plays which are always funny.

The ending was quite bizarre... I guess the "it was all a dream" realization was a cool theme back then. Although it does tie the ending back to the beginning somewhat. I didn't really fully understand the sleep-bridge between these worlds? Maybe it's just supposed to be accepted.

Regarding my discussion on Legend, it is interesting to note that in this film the all-powerful item is a map - a man made item.

Legend

This movie seemed really interesting but I found it super hard to follow. The continuity between scenes was petty sketchy at times, and by the end of the movie I had a pretty vague idea of what actually happened.

I enjoyed the fantasy world that Ridley Scott created - it was interesting to see the human, Tom Cruise, be in a position that felt subservient of his environment and the mythical creatures that inhabited it, such as the unicorns. I thought it was notable that the unicorn horn was the all powerful item in this film - usually it seems to be something more man-made - a ring, a sword, a wand or a tome. In this film, the ring was significant in a very different way; it was part of a chain of events that screwed up the whole fantasy world and sent it into winter.

The princess character is hopelessly naive, and doesn't appreciate the potential consequences of her actions or the ridiculousness of her requests - like throwing her ring into a river and saying that whoever found it, she would marry. This puts Tom Cruise, our intrepid hero, out of commission for a minute, and events transpire without Com Truise there to save the day - of course lady does nothing to help.

In all what made the most lasting impression on my were the effects and the world that was created. The story is very secondary in my mind.

Frankenstien: conventions of horror

Frankenstein is full of horror conventions - building suspense through music and slow movement on screen, and releasing with a climax. Dramatic lighting, inclemate weather, a damsel, a deformed assistant are all hallmarks of or horror and the mad scientist sub-genre.