Let the Right One In.
I haven't seen much Swedish filmography, but what I HAVE seen, I liked. "Let the Right One In" is... not an exception, but it's close. Overall, I did enjoy it, but it's hard for me to say that when all I really remember from the film are the moments when Eli showed evidence of her being a vampire; beyond that, I found it difficult to focus my attention on what was happening, especially when it came to Oskar.
I've learned that I tend to judge a movie based on how it handles its character development (normally that of the main character), and I just thought that Oskar's was agonizingly slow, and when he finally did develop, it was nearly a complete 180 (approx. 167) from "take it like a bitch" to "f*ck all of y'all!". I realize that the purpose of the scene, in which the bully-kid threatens to push Oskar into the freezing water, was to show what finally pushed Oskar past the limit of his patience, but nothing had really happened to push him. Previously in the film, our white-blonde protagonist had been repeatedly beat with a stick, and eventually had his face cut by it, but then he was pushed to retaliate after an idle threat? I just wasn't feeling it.
One quality of the movie I really did enjoy, however, was the completely-unrelated-to-my-last-point handling of the lighting and color direction. The "Sin-City"-reminiscent use of crimson blood on white snow, cloth, walls, etc. was very tastefully used and never screamed in your face with bright, red saturation. It really added to the overall dark and tense tone that was present throughout the movie; hell, a little more of it and it'd be almost responsible for the darkness and tensity. Well, that and the sound design. As a quick final note, the use of silence in various scenes was just brilliant.
--William Avery
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Frankenstein, the novel.
It's by Mary Shelley, by the way. "Frankenstein" is a story that has risen to a tier of legendary work within the world of fiction, but I'm sure I don't have to tell you that. Regardless of whether or not you, dear reader, are Dr. Steiling or not, I can guarantee you've heard of the Frankenstein monster. I was incredibly excited to read this book prior to the first day of class, but unfortunately couldn't find the time to finish it (it's been placed on the ever-expanding "to finish" list of mine). At the very least, I managed to get the book off of the ever-expanding "to read" list of mine. Onto the story, though, I'll be frank (hark! a pun!): I was disappointed. I'll admit, my inner child was ready to read all about chilling monster behind the title character that he'd been hearing about since he was four, and this was probably what killed the excitement for me. I'd forgotten that "Frankenstein" is considered to be a great work of fiction, and a novel does not achieve that title without a distinct complexity and writing style that's both unique and powerful. Therefor, the story cannot just be about a monster running around and terrorizing people. Poor, poor inner child. I found the main character, Dr. Frankenstein himself, to be a rather unpleasant and pathetic man, as I've never been fond of the "woe is me" characters. But again, I had to wait for my child-like expectancies to wither and die to really understand him. Once that had happened, and I considered the psychological effect that reanimating a creature made from various corpses could have on the poor guy. It's rare that you find a character in any book or movie who had acted upon the opportunity to play God and walk away unscathed, and I'm not sure why I had expected just that from the Doctor. It's unfortunate that a majority of my time with this book was spent thinking that the story needed to be told by a more exciting author, when in fact it just needed to be heard by a more appreciative listener. It's peculiar how the years have changed this deep and macabre tale into a PG-rated embodiment of a child's fears.
--William Avery
It's by Mary Shelley, by the way. "Frankenstein" is a story that has risen to a tier of legendary work within the world of fiction, but I'm sure I don't have to tell you that. Regardless of whether or not you, dear reader, are Dr. Steiling or not, I can guarantee you've heard of the Frankenstein monster. I was incredibly excited to read this book prior to the first day of class, but unfortunately couldn't find the time to finish it (it's been placed on the ever-expanding "to finish" list of mine). At the very least, I managed to get the book off of the ever-expanding "to read" list of mine. Onto the story, though, I'll be frank (hark! a pun!): I was disappointed. I'll admit, my inner child was ready to read all about chilling monster behind the title character that he'd been hearing about since he was four, and this was probably what killed the excitement for me. I'd forgotten that "Frankenstein" is considered to be a great work of fiction, and a novel does not achieve that title without a distinct complexity and writing style that's both unique and powerful. Therefor, the story cannot just be about a monster running around and terrorizing people. Poor, poor inner child. I found the main character, Dr. Frankenstein himself, to be a rather unpleasant and pathetic man, as I've never been fond of the "woe is me" characters. But again, I had to wait for my child-like expectancies to wither and die to really understand him. Once that had happened, and I considered the psychological effect that reanimating a creature made from various corpses could have on the poor guy. It's rare that you find a character in any book or movie who had acted upon the opportunity to play God and walk away unscathed, and I'm not sure why I had expected just that from the Doctor. It's unfortunate that a majority of my time with this book was spent thinking that the story needed to be told by a more exciting author, when in fact it just needed to be heard by a more appreciative listener. It's peculiar how the years have changed this deep and macabre tale into a PG-rated embodiment of a child's fears.
--William Avery
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Here we go, folks.
In this blog, I'll be posting anything related to the class "Literature of Horror, Fantasy, and Science Fiction" of the Fall 2012 semester at Ringling College of Art and Design. Class looks cool as hell, and the guy in charge is pretty chill, so this should be fun. Talk to y'all soon.
-Will
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