Tis Halloween. Horror films abound!

I hate "horror" films. Mostly because they're just gore films. They insult my intelligence, using cheap shock tricks and splatters to make an audience afraid. I don't want some gory Jason Vorhees movie, or some cheap Wes Craven remake. I want something that messes with my mind, takes my brain down those scary places that haunt me afterwards as I can't help but replay as I drive home.

One of those films that always struck a nerve with me is Nosferatu. What about this movie doesn't frighten a viewer? The antagonist, horribly deformed and genuinely sub-human, does the most unnevering, inhuman activities. From the way he rises to the way he falls, the vampire is completely alien to us all.

Along these same lines, zombie flicks have the same effect. Nothing stops a zombie except fire or a shot to the head. Zombies want nothing more than to consume flesh and reproduce themselves through some viral-like agent. Zombies are not phased by Hulkmania. They truly are inhuman.

Finally, the favorite kind of scary movie of mine, the kind that truly strikes fear into my heart, makes me retch at the mere thought of it, makes me wonder what kind of gross, disgusting injustices have happened in this world, are any films by the Wayans Brothers.




Oh, I forgot to mention how much Duel rocks

Cult Classics.

What the hell. Sometimes, I honestly do not understand why a certain film becomes so popular within a niche of society. Other times, I fall right into that niche and cannot comprehend how someone could NOT like a movie I like. Examples of each:

Labyrinth. Yes, it has David Bowie, a forgotten member of the Olympian Pnatheon. Yes, Jim Henson dropped a metric ton of acid to make all the muppets and scenes for that movie. Yes, the music is good. But I don't get what the big deal over the whole movie is, although I do enjoy it.

Night of the Living Dead. How could people NOT like this movie? It has tension. Character development. A strong protagonist. A poignant message. AND ZOMBIES. 'Nuff said.

Rocky Horror Picture Show. I fall inbetween on this one. On one hand, RHPS fans who go all out and dress in drag and constantly sing its praises as if were the Word of God freak me the hell out. But on the other hand, I like it a bit. It's quirky. It's a musical from hell. It's so deliciously sacreligious that you can't help but want to dive into it.

Napoleon Dynamite. Stop it now, for fuck's sake.

The Wall, Magical Mystery Tour, Tommy, Yellow Submarine, 200 Motels, etc. First rule of band-made movies: Band-made movies are the worst movies in the world, unless it's your band. If this is the case, there is no equal in all the world of cinema.

Blade Runner. How can one NOT like cyberpunk neo-noir?!

I'm done with this. I need to go watch some of these.

There are a few places in the world that absolutely make me stop and smile or absolutely beam when I can visit them or show them to people. One of these places would be the historic Rialto theater in downtown El Dorado. This place is a palace to film, and built during the heydey of the oil boom in the 1920s, it is absolutely a relic of the roaring 20s. Here are some pics:


This is a shot of the screen with the curtain down and the faux boxes.


The screen proper


The lobby!


This old camera sits by the concession stand.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Having watched some of the first talkies, and seen how awkwardly and horribly they were done as the first of a new generation of technology, a question has to be asked:

What will be the next generation of film technology?

Some have said that the advent of digital technology (read: 1001011101011010111010101010111110010101011) was the vanguard of a new wave of technology as CGI became commonplace, more realistic, more embedded, and light and sound was stored as a series of digits instead of captured electromagnetic maves. This certainly has allowed for creative freedoms and greater scope in both locales and characters in films (What percentage of the Star Wars prequels' characters never really existed?) It certainly shares that same awkward beginnings as sound, namely being used in inopprotune ways and to an extent that is almost dizzying, like the constant sound attack in Lights of New York.

Although, I don't think this is the next generation of revolutionary film technology. If anything, it is the advancement of technology that we already have. Whereas the swap from silence to speech was a paradigm shift of untold proportions, digital technology has done nothing more than refine and polish what we already have. So what should we look to? Smellovision like on some Bugs Bunny cartoons? Effects like the ones in 3D theaters in Disney World that puff air on your legs to give the illusion of something brushing past your legs? Maybe just a return to 3D film proper, especially since we now know how to do so in color, with the aforementioned digital refining.

Who can say? Who says there's even a new paradigm waiting to be broken?

Let's just hope it avoids this lovely little bit of Dilbertian insight:
Dogbert - "If you refuse to let my friend go, I'll wear this hat backwards! Your hardwired little accountant brains will explode at the sight of it"
Dilbert - "What was that popping noise?"
Dogbert - "A paradigm shift without the clutch"