Video Games

Virtual reality, alternate reality, and time travel are all really interesting subjects to me. All three contain elements of the uncanny. I feel that we frequently create alternate realities for many different instances--many 'what if'scenarios. These realities have the same laws as our own world, but we decide the outcome rather than living it and letting the reality create the outcome for us. The film, Primer, is a good example of this along with time travel.

The two main characters go back in time to create their alternate realities and make life play to how they want it to. For the viewers, everything is so confusing and jumbled up, we have a lot of difficulty following the film. It gives us an uncomfortable feeling of not really understanding what is going on, yet everything is changing due to these alternate timelines. After we see the doubles for the first time, that uneasiness really begins to settle in ourselves. The film pushes that uneasiness even further when we discover that the main characters are physically subduing their doubles in order to create their alternate realities.

We see these other-worlds in video games as well. With Limbo, everything looks familiar--trees and run down buildings exist along with people and bugs. However, there are massive spiders, angry people, and terrifying natural dangers which try to kill us. There is also an unsettling lack of ambient sounds in the game. There is almost no music. It is as if the game is trying to tell us that we are alone and that we cannot rely on anyone but ourselves.

Limbo

The video game, Limbo, developed by a company called PLAYDEAD is an extremely eerie and atmospheric video game. Right off the bat, you aren't instructed with any directions nor controls. It gives the sense that the player determines wether or not they would play or not play the game, seeing how there are no time limits/restrictions. Once you get the little boy to rise, it's well thought out to have him rise, as though rising from a grave (or the dead/final resting place). He is nameless, faceless, and has no voice, however you feel a sense of attachment to him because you become apart of this virtual avatar that is now you. In addition, I noticed that the sounds in gameplay are ambient, and some sounds are a lot louder than others. This atmosphere it creates, gives the gameplay a suspenseful nature, and leaves the player in wonder and in uneasy unknown. Overall, I think Limbo is extremely well thought out and put together, tying elements of suspense, eerie and a supernatural characteristic that goes beyond our natural state of reality. And by supernatural I mean that in the gameplay, you have no lives, and your death is a big trail and error experience, on top of the puzzle-like game. I believe this game really relates to the supernatural in it's nobel characteristics.

Primer: An Exploration in Virtual Reality

After the surreal and mind-bending experience that is called Primer, I couldn't help but wonder what it actually all meant. Personally, as someone who watches too much science fiction television shows for their own good, I felt a desperate need to solve the puzzle the plot line presented me with. The only catch was that it was purposely written to be difficult for the audience to understand. Thus, when immediately confronted with highly technical jargon and seemingly random plot twists, I was left overwhelmed by the amount of information I received and was denied of. In fact, I was so confused by the plot that I first gained the impression that the film was about cloning as a result of radioactive from technological manipulation. That theory, of course, became futile as soon as we saw both the doubles and the original characters (Aaron and Abe) within the same frame but performing through different timelines. This is not to say that manipulation of technology does not play it's role in it all because it really does. But Primer was more about self-discovery (as predictable as that may seem) between two friends and their own personalities. The farther the film explores their story, the more complicated it becomes. The audience is ensnared along the way, entranced by the complexities of time travel and victimized by the hopeless consequences of the main characters suffer through. It is this sense of virtual reality that near makes us feel as though we suffer with them as we witness the plot go awry.

Primer

Primer, left me confused as to what was going on, but had a general concept of the film. Primer disrupts the natural boundaries of the world by traveling back in time. The film plays around with the fantastic and the uncanny with the main characters as we see the fantastic implemented as both characters time travel, breaking the natural laws. Following the film, it becomes apparent that with each time travel or time traveling in general, a clone is created. It creates this uncanny affect for the main characters seeing a projection of  themselves, coming together with over all them of human ethics and technology. This particular film reminds me of inception, where the audience had to really think about what they just watched in the film. Like most reactions to thinking about it, many went to re-watch inception, getting a better gist of what the director and writer were trying to convey. But it seems in Primer, that was the whole premise of the film, trying to get the audience to go beyond just film and make them fill in the gaps. Overall the film was just okay for me as a viewer. I did not hate, but did like as other films.

Limbo and War of Worlds broacast

When the game first started I was very confused because there were no instructions provided. At first I just started at the screen assuming the game was loading then before figuring out that I had to press buttons which made the character come to life. At first I assumed that the character was just a little zombie and perhaps we were to aid him in a mission to come back to life, however, after researching the definition of limbo I found out that refers to infants who died before being baptized, after learning the definition I felt as though I was able to have more insight on the character’s story.

Although there were some gruesome and unexpected deaths of the character which at times made me suspicious of the surrounds, as though my character might always be in danger; overall the game was extremely fun to play.

After hearing the War of Worlds broadcast I thought that the reaction the public had back then was incredible since the broadcast was only about an hour long. I actually saw a video about the operators who worked the phones that night and one woman call a about a man was willing to shoot his entire family before the Martians got to them.

Both Limbo and the War of Worlds broadcast I believe dealt with the way in which we can immerse ourselves into the virtual forms of alternate realities and believe them as if they were real.

 

 

Primer

To start off, the movie "Primer" offers a lot of deep interconnected story lines that are not evident until after more of the plot has been revealed. An example is when we see that Aaron's wife is complaining about "rats" in the attic, and the relaxed reaction of Abe and Aaron barely acknowledging her and saying it couldn't be rats. At first view this seems like a scene that serves only to show some personal normal events in the lives of our two main characters. However, once we find out that the doubles have been hidden in the attic, we suddenly realize the meaning behind the scene of the "rats" in the attic. This event tells us a lot about the characters because at this point of the story it is obvious that the two friends are trying to work on their own and are not letting anyone close to them in despite the fact that telling Aaron's wife had been discussed. I'm sure that if I were to watch this film for a second time I would see many more connections such as this that I had missed.

This film is also interesting because the small details are what give the story its real meaning. For example, on the surface this film seems to be simply a story about time travel that is told in a really confusing manner. It is easy to skip over the fact that the main characters are slowly deteriorating the more they time travel and just disregard it as a standard consequence of messing with technology. However, it can be seen that this is happening in correlation with the number of doubles that are running around society. The more time the original character is split, the more terrible their handwriting becomes and the more their ears bleed. With this interoperation, this film is commenting on the unnaturalness of being more than one person and how trying to "split" your personality and be two people at once, as many people try to do when they lead double lives, you are being detrimental to yourself.

Primer: A Geek's Delight

        After watching it last Tuesday, Primer instantly became one of my favorite movies. As soon as I got home, I started researching about the film, reading all I could and figuring out the charts. I watched the movie twice more that same day, once with English subtitles and once with a fan audio commentary. All of this until I could finally get a somewhat clear picture of what happens in the film. I doubt there are more than a fistful of films right now that allow the audience to be such an active participant of the viewing experience. Primer is unique in that sense. In only 1 hour and 13 minutes, the film manages to create a super condensed, fascinating plot that invites the audience to re-watch, to speculate, to think.

        I love time travelling films. Back to the Future is one of my all time favorite movies. In Back to the Future, however, the way time travel is depicted is fairly easy to follow. You get two characters, the smart one -Doc Brown- and one with average intelligence -Marty McFly-, and no matter how complicated things are, Doc Brown always takes the time to explain Marty (and the audience along with him) how everything works. In Primer, we get two amplified versions of Doc Brown and no Marty. Furthermore, we only get to partially listen to our Docs talking to each other. Nowhere in the movie we get a sense that something is there for the sake of the audience. As a result, after watching Back to the Future you go home feeling contempt because everything was laid out in front of you, clean and clear, ready to be understood and, thus, your viewing experience ends as soon as the movie does. But with Primer, having so many questions and guesses and holes in the story, the end of the movie is only the beginning of the experience.

        Primer is made to be re-watched. It's made to be analyzed and picked apart and pondered upon. For anyone who gets easily obsessed with puzzles and paradoxes, Primer is the perfect movie to watch.

Primer

After watching the movie Primer, I was very amazed at how well this movie was produced at such a low budget. It was bewildering to see how one can accidentilly tap into the power of time travel. With such an awesome power, there is a huge amount of consequence for its use. There is alot of ethical and moral walls that are pushed and a struggle to do what is right in an area that no man has gone before. The two main characters, Aaron and Abe, must deal with this dilemna, learning to deal with their desires and greed. We learn from the movie that some powers are too big to handle and can have dire consequences as a result.

Limbo

The game Limbo gave me goose bumps throughout the whole game. Right in the beginning, it was very ominous. The whole setting was very dark and dimly lite. I kept thinking that something was going to jump out at my character or something, but nothing really ever came. I kept getting impaled by the spider and falling into bear traps… It nearly gave me a heart attack each time. I really am not good at games that require the character to jump and stuff. I will always slip (since I am not good a gauging the distances and momentum). The game was also every confusing at times because I did not know what to do, especially to use old trees to make a bridge and such. It took me forever to figure out certain things (even when my friends joined me while I played it).

The story for the kid was very confusing because that was no dialogue. But in the beginning, it just seems that he was dropped there out of nowhere. Given the title’s name “Limbo”, I would think that the kid had died but is not quite dead, so he is stuck in Limbo and trying to get back home.

Primer

While I understand that the movie Primer is intentionally meant to be confusing, I thought I would have a better understanding of what was happening by the end of the movie. This did not happen. The level the filmmakers took it to made me progressively more confused as time went on, and by the end I was just as, if not more confused than I had been when the movie started. Despite my frustrations, I believe this contributed to the overall effect of the movie because the subject of time travel is generally portrayed as very simple, such as in Back to the Future or the Time Traveler’s Wife, where the characters very easily go back in time, do fairly normal things, and while they do mess things up for the future sometimes, the consequences are never very severe and for the most part everybody acts responsibly. The fact that this movie was very technical and confusing, even for the creators of this time travel, shows how utterly complex and disastrous it can actually be. It also highlights human nature to be more realistically selfish because Aaron and Abe both take advantage of one another and even cut their original partners out of the invention because they want to reap all the benefits for themselves.

Primer

Primer was a confusing movie to follow, but I enjoyed watching it. At first, I wasn’t sure what they were building and was very lost. Once the movie started picking up momentum and the concept of time travel was introduced, I became more interested. What they did with the “time-machine” seems to be similar to what people in other movies do; they try avoiding their other self, stop certain events from happening, and make themselves rich. The ending was very strange because one of the characters left to another country, but we’re unsure if his other double stayed behind or what happened to him at all. Overall, the movie was confusing, but as we were told in class, the director intended for that to happen. I think the movie is intended to be watched more than once so that the viewer can notice more details that make the movie easier to understand. 

Primer

Aaron and Abe engineer a powerful machine that seems to create alternate realities through time travel. What was most interesting about this film was its realistic portrayal of the possibilities of time travel. In this way, this science fiction film offers the idea of time travel with greater believability. The elements of the film, such as the setting and the characters, are familiar portrayals. We see Aaron and Abe working in Aaron's garage, and both seem to be normal, down-to-earth men who are intrigued by their research and inventions. However, despite their scientific intelligence, both Aaron and Abe seem to lack ethics and quickly fail to fully understand the consequences of their invention. We see them sacrifice hours in the process of time travel, mainly to get their hands in the stock market, and this materialistic greed soon overshadows their relationship with each other and with those around them.

Primer

Primer was overall a very confusing movie to watch. I think it defenitely takes a couple of viewings before someone can figure out everything about what is going on. I think this is most likely due to the nonlinearity employed by the film makers when telling the story. Also, the complicated scientific jargon which is often used through out the movie inhibits the viewer from completely grasping what is happening in the movie. The basic plot line of the movie is comprehended but the subtler nuances sorounding time travel are lost. I dont entirely dislike the use of the scientific wording, however, because I think it really brings the viewer closer to what the characters are thinking and allows the viewer personal insight into the thoughts of the characters. Also it underscored the importance of technology in the movie and how this transcends into real life. In real life, the majority of the population has the ability to understand consumer technology but the knowledge tends to not go further than that. This movie pushes the viewer to think past the consumer based knowledge and delve into a more refined appreciation for what technology is and what it can do.

Primer

With technological advancement comes power. In our day in age, technology has greatly advanced fairly recently and it is everywhere. One will most likely encounter a person using a smart phone versus an "older" phone. In terms of cellphones, they are so advanced, most people are not even tapping into its full potential. There is so much one can do within the palm of their hand, and they do not even understand.

Shane Carruth's film, Primer, tells of a friendship that breaks down as a result of the two people's inability to cope with the power given to them by technological advancement. The two friends are scientifically accomplished, discovering a means of time travel, thus highlighting the science fiction portion of this film. The drama comes in as the audience realizes that these two individuals are ethically confused, initially wanting to make money with the device. And instead of wanting to alter their former selves, they decide to prevent events from happening, trying to alter the paths they take and the outcome of situations. This plan obviously blows up in their face.

Time travel obviously does not exist right now, but we have powerful technology in our society and there is a high chance of time travel to occur. One can never say never. As a person, as a society, it is important to understand that with technological advancements come power. One can do so much and not realize how much they have in the palm of their hand.

Primer: Happened What?

Confused by the title? You should be. The title of this post, like the movie Primer, highlights the confusion produced by a non-linear timestream. What I understood of primer was only a basic gist of the plot, but that was definitely intended by the writers. Essentially, two young men invent a device that allows them to travel back in time, and abuse it to rewrite history, becoming rich and using the device to prevent a shooting. It all goes awry when the paradoxes kill a family friend who accidentally discovered the machine. Time blurs as the two go back in time once more to undo the paradoxes, and ensure that events progress as they did originally. This is an issue of time travel, because while to those engaging in time travel, events still progress linearly, to an observer, the end may come before the middle, and the beginning may be rewritten. It is all highly confusing, and not only do paradoxes pile up,  but the human mind begins to lose track of all the changes and variations in the timestream. The mind is built to handle a linear progression of cause and effect, Primer deals with what happens when that order is scrambled.

Primer

The way Primer was filmed made the movie seem much more realistic than other time-travel movies I have seen. It appeared to be incredibly low budget, almost documentary-like. One thing that stood out to me was the way that the actors had conversations, especially in the opening scene. When they were all sitting around the table and talking, some were talking over one another, others were talking slowly as if they were actually thinking about each word before they said it, and I feel like this is something that most movies overlook because conversations are always so smooth and uniform, whereas this movie actually mimicked real life. This is important to the overall feel of the movie because it makes the audience feel like they are watching something that has the potential to be incredibly real, rather than some elaborate, high-tech, and beyond our time, futuristic plot. In a way, the realism made Primer one of the creepiest things we’ve watched in class all year because it made time travel seem so possible.     

Primer

Although the movie was really interesting to watch, I feel like a lot of the scientific terms thrown around got in the way of me truly understanding what was going on and confused me even more as I tried to follow along with the non-linear progression of events. Yet, I think this directional choice also plays into the ideas of intelligence and power that surround the concept of technology. In the context of the film, technology is something for the elite and educated (given in the film by the extremely scientific and complex language) and not something for the working class or uneducated. In contrast to today's world, this is a completely false accusation, however, perhaps that is because we live in a world where the technology is simplified to us from a consumer standpoint. I also feel like the movie is also suggesting that technology can divide people, which I feel is more relevant to a modern day situation.  

Primer

Primer is a movie that explores the idea of time travel and the consequences of a project like this. A special aspect I noticed about the filming of the movie is that, like most time travel films, the plot is not linear and flashes from scene to scene. The director also chose not to "dumb down" the vocabulary and scientific ideas used between the two researchers. These two details makes this movie very confusing.
As the film progresses, the relationship between Abe and Aaron deteriorates. The stress between the two about what to do with the time travel machine they have accidentally created reveals that they have been working without the others' knowledge, manipulating each other in order to achieve what they each believe is right. Coupled with the idea of time travel and the non-liner plot line, this also makes the movie very difficult to follow.

Cabin in the Woods

The Cabin in the Woods, offers a different kind of interpretation to horror films which I have never seen before. Through the film we see humans controlling supernatural entities, making me question the fact if it is supernatural. The supernatural is when the natural laws of the real-world does not exist, but in this reality the natural laws exist it is just the supernatural is controlled by humans. This reminds me of Philip K. Dick, which reality can is distorted by different outside forces. But I am having a hard time calling this film supernatural. I mean it does have supernatural entities such as zombies and ghost, but they are all man made which questions the reality of the situation.  

Cabin in the Woods

For this movie, the Cabin in the Woods, I was more mind-blown than any other emotion. It was not as scary as I thought it would be, even though it was a horror film and I greatly dislike things that pop out. It was kind of predictable on how each person would go, except near the end when everything just became very complicated and confusing. The characters themselves feel very stereotypical: the jock, whore, fool, scholar and virgin. I personally would have added a sixth person to make things even, like “the fake” or “the pretender”. What I thought was interesting was that the jock could have also been the scholar because in the beginning of the movie, he made a book suggestion to Dana (which suggests he does keep up with his school work and knows his stuff). The movies does have its stereotypical horror film moments but it was a bit more on stranger since once all the monsters come flooding out of the elevators. There were also lots of supernatural elements to this film, especially with the monsters and such. It also became stranger that “gods” would be involved in all of this. Aren’t “gods” suppose to be good and protect people? Not keep monsters that are dangerous to the humans of earth? Overall, I came out of watching this film very intrigued on how it all played out… and kind of grossed out by all the violence.

Cabin in the Woods

This story surprised me as a horror film. It had a lot of supernatural elements in the story that it did not completely turned this movie into just a "horror" film. The fact that the whole plot was based on a cultural ritual, made the movie more realistic. Aside from the supernatural elements, some of the comedic elements that happened throughout the movie made me, as an audience sit on the edge of the seat because I never know when the next scary scene would be. But overall, the horror film made me question whether it really is just a horror film because if one thinks about just the supernatural element, there is a purpose in a film rather than just gruesome deaths of college students.

Cabin in the Woods

I thought that the film Cabin in the Woods was a great film. The men working in the office reminded me a lot of the Boneys from Isaac Marion’s Warm Bodies in the sense that they both seemed to powered or working for some dark, mysterious, and unknown force.  

I thought the film was very thought provoking because it wasn’t about some psychopath killer in the woods, it actually showed some force at work and a reason for the need of the characters to not just killed but also tortured, the need for the characters was for them to be sacrificed.

Cabin in the Woods

Cabin in the Woods was not a movie that one would expect to watch just by reading the title. This movie surprised me with it's super-supernatural elements and being that were introduced to us as the audience. The movie portrayed supernatural elements, that originally were thought to possess their own spheres, and mashed them into a pot all at one time. With this, us as the audience, become later confused as to the nature of the storyline. In the beginning, there are two narratives that follow in the same footsteps. There is one narrative that is in control of all the actions and the other that have somewhat control, but are put into the position where they feel helpless. I feel that this movie, in a sense, broke down the fourth wall when the college student realized they actually had the power to control the outcome of the world's destiny. And I think it's and interesting perspective, especially given that this movie is intended to be a horror film (where the victims feel utterly helpless and have predestined end). I wonder what would have happened if they knew before that they were in control they whole time to the supernatural being they were being sacrificed to?

Cabin in the Woods and the Supernatural

The film we have been watching in class, "Cabin in the Woods" displays an interesting take on how we normally see the supernatural in film. Usually in horror stories, the supernatural is something that is uncontrollable and thats what makes it terrifying. However, this film shows the exact opposite because the executives are controlling what beasts will be released. The effect this has on the audience is that we are no longer terrified or shocked by the beasts because we know they are coming, and we are not shocked by the fact that people are dying because we know that is the plan. Therefore, the supernatural is no longer the terrifying aspect of this film, instead it is the blood and surprise factor that makes this film scary and also the underlying fact that there are humans deliberately putting other humans through such gruesome trials. This film overall makes us question our view of human nature because this ritual could have been completed in a much less terrible and gruesome manner and with less fun involved.

Cabin in the Woods and Metafiction

What I loved the most about Cabin in the Woods are the metafictional aspects of the movie and how they function at different levels. First, we get the metafiction that creates the reference to The Evil Dead. Having that reference in the movie makes you think about the genre of horror movies in general. But then, taking a step back, we have the metafiction that the second narrative of the story creates (the narrative about the scientific creation of a horror movie). And this element of metafiction makes us think not only of the genre in general, but also HOW it is that horror movies are formulated. We get the stereotypical characters, settings and plot and we, as audience, become aware of the structure of a horror film. And finally, we get all the monsters of horror movies together, which adds another layer of metafiction. This time we get to think not only of horror films but of fantasy films in general and how we use mythology to create stories.

The Cabin in the Woods

When we started watching The Cabin in the Woods, I thought it was going to be scary. After watching it though, it turned out to be more comedic than scary. I enjoyed the movie because it had a lot of comedy relief, even at times when it wasn’t expected. The zombies in this movie were very different from the zombies in 28 Days Later. A major difference is that these zombies were summoned from their graves, while the zombies from 28 Days Later roamed around the entire city feeding off humans. As we talked about in class today, the audience is made aware that they are watching a movie; the use of metafiction makes the audience become aware of the characters’ situation and their fate. I think that metafiction made the movie more enjoyable to watch. 

Cabin In the Woods

I felt like the movie, The Cabin In the Woods, was definitely meant less as an actual horror movie but more of a critique on the horror film industry and genre itself. It took overly used and abused plot points characteristic of all cliche horror movies and spun them into a satirical commentary. The use of traditional archetype characters in this movie (who all seemed to have come right out of the Scooby-Doo cartoon) underscored the utilization of the cliche horror movie mold. The "whore" dies first and the "virgin" is meant to survive plays upon the differences between the pure and corrupt, which usually does factor into who is essentially doomed to die early on in most horror movies. The movie starts out a cliche, but begins to evolve into a narrative of its own, taking a less tradional twist away from what one would normally expect from a movie like this, with the introduction of the control room. The control room seemed to be a commentary on people's need or desire to control the supernatural and basically control what they dont understand.

Monsters

Cabin in the Woods was hilarious. It referenced lots of different typical monsters in horror. The film also utilizes the typical horror camera angles in the beginning. Everything is tilted on its side, characters are not centered, and the viewer has a sense of wonder as to what exactly is going to happen next. However, during the scenes with the group responsible for unleashing the monsters, everything is still. We know exactly what is going to happen next.

The film also satirized many typical horror elements. When a character was about to make, or made, a terrible decision for the specific situation, another character, typically Marty, would call them out on it. The film also poked fun at all the gore found in modern horror movies. The ending scene and most of the deaths of the characters all included a large quantity of blood loss.

Cabin in the Woods

I felt like the movie, Cabin in the Woods is more of a commentary on traditional horror films than it is supposed to be a horror film in and of itself. For example, the characterizations of the jock, whore, scholar, fool and virgin, are the ones often used in scary movies. However, at the beginning of the movie the characters had more depth than their stereotypical portrayals. For example, before they went to the cabin, the jock was giving Dana advice on school, and he seemed like he had much more substance than what the average jock is portrayed as. After only a few hours in the house, they began losing all of their other inhibitions and simply embodied the characteristics that they were supposed to. The control room needed to set the people up this way in order to complete the ritual, but I saw it more of a way to almost satirize the characters typically seen in horror movies. 

Cabin in The Woods

What I find interesting about the movie as we watched in class was how it was able to to blend it many different elements and genres into one movie and somehow retaining each of the genres authenticity. While incorporating many different horror themes and cliches, it still maintained a very strong genuine horror in the viewer. On the other hand, when the film unravels its comedic side, it stays true to the comedic theme and manages to not hinder the horror genre as a whole. Being one of the very few films that seemingly incorporates both elements without coming off as a failed amalgamation makes it a very rare and impressing feat. As we see more films being released, I hope there are more that are able to do such and balance the themes while maintaing an amazing plot line.

Dark Gods Below: The Cabin in the Woods

The distinct cheesiness of a horror film is intentionally created in The Cabin in the Woods as a distinct subplot of a much larger story arc. Beneath the Earth, demons sleep, and governments across the world manipulate staged deaths in a ritual to keep the dark gods asleep. The classic horror film plays out, as the teenagers are hormonally manipulated into the typical stereotypes associated with a truly awful horror flick, and then are killed by a combination of chemically induced bad-decision making, and any of a random assortment of supernatural monsters donated courtesy of said dark gods. While the horror movie style, and the complete lack of ethics on the part of the governments are sickening, they do pose an important philosophical question. If the world is indeed supernatural, do the ethics of the past really apply? If the government does not conduct these rituals, will the world really burn? Its also a question of whether the primitive beliefs that these sacrifices are necessary or not that drives this. It appears the demons are real, which makes the whole thing seem like a sickening, but important process. But how powerful are they? Could humans challenge them and win? Or are they just a figment of our imagination, a relic of a bygone age?

The Cabin In The Woods: A Study in Horror and the Supernatural

When The Cabin In The Woods came out in theaters last year, my intolerance for (by which inability to watch) horror led to completely ignore it. Thus, I rolled my eyes at the mere mention of the movie or the sight of the poster. Perhaps, however, I should have paid attention to it. The trailer and description fools one into thinking that this is a typical scary movie but, if one pays more attention to the poster it's housing floating because of it's puppet strings. If this realization in itself isn't indication of its purpose, then the beginning minutes of the film itself should. Essentially, The Cabin In The Woods is a study of humanity response to horror in relation with relation to the supernatural. This company of sorts takes a baseline plot of horror story in a computer-operated "woods" and purposely makes it so that unsuspecting kids (well, comparatively to the adults in the company) fall into play with. From what we know, none of those characters play into the stereotypes in their ordinary lives. But one has to note that people are watching these occurrences as they unfold and enjoying it. This fact in itself is nearly the writer's way of showing what illness goes into watching horror films. But the writer goes far deeper than that. He (as in the writer is human, not assuming gender) then shows the hilarity of the stereotypes, the way the character's choices are futile no matter the intellect behind, and the habit of humanity's naivety around the supernatural. In this film I like to think the company is the supernatural force for there not yet an explanation why they are doing all of it, who is making them do it, and how it all began. On the opposing side, the young adult who voluntary sauntered into the woods are stuck teetering between a fantastic and uncanny mentality because unsure (as any human, manipulated or not) what to make of all that is occurring around them. The most interesting part to me is that classic stoner character in this film is not the dim-witted first character to get killed off. To the contrary, he is actually the only one who catches onto the unidentified company's motive and manages to escape even after it seems his plot line is over. He is the only one who goes from fantastic mentality to supernatural and I hope that he can catch onto the entire truth and survive, as unlikely as those chances are at this point in the film.

Cabin in the Woods

This film that we watched in class was very interesting. It was different from most horror movies in that we can see that the "monsters" are created by the government in some sort of sick motive. The group of friends are a diverse group of students who fit into different social groups: nerd, blonde girl, jock, etc. As the movie progressed, I realized the plot was similar to most horror movies with a group of unaware teenagers going to a secluded cabin in the woods. There are many foreboding signs that the group ignores and disaster is only waiting to happen. It was a typical scary movie except we could see that the government was working behind the scenes to appease the "ancient ones" which is a reference to the audience. The movie as a whole was like a puzzle to me, keeping me wondering what was to happen next.

Cabin in the Woods

The Cabin in the Woods, if I may say, was absolutely horrifying. I thought the concept of the movie was interesting, yet quite sickening. The story of a group of government officials setting up a torture scene for a group of young people is very twisted, and it really plays on the idea of the debate of realities including both humans and monsters. While watching the movie, there were many questions unanswered, and this mystery really helped build up anxiety both in the characters and in the audience. This anxiety is key to horror films such as this one, and is created through multiple cinematic elements. Even though, I, as the third person viewer, knew of the government's control over the cabin in the woods, the story of the young group of people was still horrifying, because I could not establish a connection between the two realities. I am anxious to see how everything comes together.

The Cabin in the Woods

Cabin in the Woods, directed by Drew Goddard, tells the story of five friends who visit a cabin in the woods and are one-by-one killed by zombies. This is a horror film, so there is no doubt that there will be killing and torture. However, the film does some interesting things and says a lot about society’s desensitization to violence. Even in class as we were watching the film, people were laughing because it was humorous, but in a sick and twisted way.

The humor mostly comes from the fact that the audience never goes down beneath the bunker level occupied by ancient Gods, and stays with the agents as they watch the activity going on in the cabin. When the nightmare creatures are let loose in their scenarios to attack, they seem to be attacking the audience for enjoying horror films. The full implications of killing are never considered. I went ahead and finished watching the film (because we happened to end at a climax point, and I just wanted to see how the film ended), and even in the finale, it seems as if the director is asking the audience to question violence and death, beyond the film. Since the film was presented in this manner (the agents are watching people die as sport), violence has turned into something emotionally ambiguous. The end of the film, I felt strangely okay even with the signal of the end of the world. Violence was brought to us, it made us re-evaluate violence, and overall horror as a real thing.

The Cabin in the Woods

The Cabin in the Woods is a lot deeper than the cookie-cutter scary movie. Instead of being a simple horror film, it is more like a parody of one, in that it makes commentary on the creation of horror films. Before the movie was released, the description was "Five kids go to a cabin in the woods. Bad things happen", which is both hilarious and strange, but is similar to the description of every scary movie in existence. The film begins the way many horror movies begin - with a dumb blonde, a quiet and reserved girl, a nerd, a jock, and a burn-out. The five most diverse group of friends go to an ominous cabin in the woods, secluded, where the viewers know something terrible is going to happen. Even on their way to the cabin, there a specifically casted creepy old man who owns a gas station that gives them a warning. However, unlike a typical scary movie, it is a company - "puppeteers" - that is being forced to make these terrible things happen by controlling hormones, lighting, and enclosing the kids with a fate that they were to choose of how to die. They make bets, and are forced to abide by a set of rules in order to appease the "ancient ones", a metaphor for the every-day horror movie watcher. We, as the viewers, hold the power in to how scary movies are created and how they end.

Zombies and Mob Mentality

We have had many discussions about what these zombie stories are saying about the human race as a whole. The idea that resonated most with me was analyzing the affect of "mob mentality" or absence of it, in Warm Bodies. When all the zombies are together and acting as a mob in other stories we have looked at, it becomes impossible for the humans to really understand them for what they are. Instead, it is easiest to just classify every zombie as something negative and scary without looking beneath the surface filled with stereotypes. However, when R ventures away from his pack of zombies in this text, the humans are able to see something more underneath the zombie surface. This says a lot about how humans look at unfamiliar or frightening groups of people. I have seen it in my own culture where a lot of East Indians are classified as terrorists when in reality the people using these names do not actually know anything about our religion or our culture.

Brainnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnns

Warm bodies and 28 Days Later were interesting critiques on militaristic society and beliefs. Both the film and the novel focused on survivors who believed that living in a militaristic structured setting would bring safety. However, in the film, this false sense of security led to the closest encounter to death that the survivors had in the entire story. The dichotomy between military bonds and familial bonds were compared extensively. One of the soldiers fought against his superiors in an attempt to save the survivors from their purpose as breeders. However, not once do we see the bond between Jim, Hannah, and Selena falter like the soldiers' bond.

In the book, "R" calls Julie's home a "concrete tomb" (Marrion 210). This encampment did indeed protect the survivors from the zombies. However, the end message of the novel suggests that you need something more than bullets and death in order to save humanity. Because of "R" and Julie's relationship, they created the possibility of preventing any more deaths from acts of love rather than continuing to wage war between the undead and the living.

Warm Bodies

Isaac Marion's Warm Bodies left me with a mixed opinion. Although Marion's underlying messages of dehumanization and humanity were very well done, I felt like the Romeo and Juliet aspect of the story did not work for me. The humanization of R could still contain romantic elements, but I feel like it shouldn't have been done in such a cliche manner. However, R's internal narratives are engaging and amusing, and I believe it actually plays on our fear of the "other" being capable of thinking similarly to humans. Yet, we sympathize with R and root for him as he strives to question his own existence and physical self. However, if we were given the story from Julie's point of view, would our perspective change? Would we automatically be biased due to Julie's descriptions and impressions? Would we sympathize with R less and sympathize with her anguish over Perry's death? How we relate to R's character sort of challenges the Uncanny Valley concept that we discussed earlier in class, however, perhaps the Uncanny Valley never really addressed the question about whether or not the "other" was capable of advanced cognitive thought. If there was an Uncanny Valley constructed from the "other's" point of view, where would humans place? I feel like Warm Bodies asks us to question these ideas of humanity, cognitive thought, and how much similar we can really be through thoughts and emotions.

28 Days Later

 In 28 Days Later it clearly show the struggle of humanity verses survival through the main protagonist, Jim. Jim has to fight his internal morals with the exterior situation that he faced upon waking up from a coma. His mind set plays a key role in his attitude towards survival. Jim's character seem to try to find some humanity, but it is impossible to attain in the post apocalyptic world. But in the film we see the other side of humanity through the character of Selena whose character takes kin to the survival instincts. The film does a great job giving dual identity of humans and their approach to the situation. A key role in the situation is anxiety which can lead a person to go on survival mode with hesitating. Through these combination the film is able to portray humanity verse survival.   

Warm Bodies (pt. 2)

In Isaac Marion's novel Warm Bodies, I have recognized the similarities between the society we live in, and the society in which the Zombies in the novel, live in. For instance, the zombie R that is portrayed in Marion's novel, is an anxiety teenager. He strives to be understood, and to feel important in the beginning of the book. But, because he has no idea of what his future entails, he seems more apathetic towards living. It's similar to what a lot of teens feel when they go through puberty, and it kinda reflects this influx of love-based supernatural movies; though this is a novel.

In addition, the human side within the book don't necessarily feel like being in war-mode is living. They strive to feel pleasure (not sexually), but having fun and to be able to be free. The sense of being suppressed within yourself, anxiety building up and a lot of wanting, can definitely be seen on R and Julie's side of the spectrum. It's just a comment on the relation's within the novel that make me think, they're not all that different. And R is definitely something unique to his situation because he's more humanistic.

28 Days Later

I found the discussion regarding the cinematography of 28 Days Later as interesting as the topic of zombies itself. I never thought to analyze, let alone recognize, the important aspects regarding film making and editing. We discussed the formal structure which consisted of 4 major points: how the camera moves and positions, the cuts, what is included in the frame, and what is heard. All of these elements come together to create and communicate information that helps tell the story of the film. In 28 Days Later, Danny Boyle combines multiple techniques. One technique was his use of both close and far shots, making the audience aware of the third point of the formal structure, mise-en-scene, or where the character Jim was in relation to his environment. For me, this definitely created anxiety while emphasizing the abandonment of London. This technique, along with the contrasting volume of background music in the beginning of the film, really helped in producing a reaction that Boyle was intentionally seeking.

Retelling the Story of the Star-crossed Lovers

The "Romeo and Juliet" references in Warm Bodies are very hard to miss. From the moment I realized that 'R' stood for Romeo and 'Julie' for Juliet (a few pages after learning the girl's name), it was impossible for me to read the novel without constantly drawing parallels, and speculating about the way in which the story would end (given Romeo and Juliet's tragic ending). At the beginning it seemed like a nice touch, using these characters that everyone knows and giving them a tiny twist: Perry as Paris, Nora as the nurse (she is even studying to be a nurse), and M as Mercutio. But by the time I got to the balcony scene, I thought that it was too much. With the whimsy excuse that she was recording an audio journal, Marion has Julie speaking out loud out of a balcony, pondering about her Romeo and wondering "what's in a name". 

I think Marion found the need to add these very explicit references because the story of Warm Bodies -two star-crossed lovers from fighting households- was bound to be compared to the epic myth of Romeo and Juliet, so he might as well make that comparison himself. Although they annoyed me a little, the references really do not hinder the overall effect that the book has and how innovative the story is.

Warm Bodies Language

In Issac Marion’s novel, Warm Bodies, R transforms from a passive zombie into a lively human and we see this transformation manifest itself through his ability to speak. Speech in the novel plays a significant role as an indicator of humanity and livelihood, as demonstrated by R and M. Both are zombies, yet from the onset of the story, both at least attempt to express themselves in a manner other than just moaning and groaning, unlike their zombie peers. As the story progresses, so does R’s ability to communicate. He gradually improves his speaking capacity and this is quite obviously a symptom of his interaction with Julie. Prior to meeting her, he never really had a reason to attempt to vocalize the thoughts in his head because he was surrounded by other zombies who, with the exception of M, could not utter a coherent syllable. However, by the end of the novel, before he makes the full transformation into human, R is clearly much more articulate, which helps him pass as a human in the stadium and even have a phone conversation with M to strategize their action plan. In a way, R’s growth can be tracked by the evolution of his language skills.

Warm Bodies

Warm Bodies turns the traditional zombie narrative on its head, following R’s experience through love and life—both concepts that we rarely associate with zombies. Normally, zombies are depicted as emotionless, soulless and brainless beings who almost mechanically stumble through the world, devouring whoever they come across. Through R’s first person perspective, we see that he is different, he recognizes what he is doing and feels trapped in a body that doesn’t allow him to break free of his carnivorous nature. That is, until he meets Julie. With the help of Perry’s memories, Julie provides R with an odd motivation to better himself by fighting against his zombie instincts and embrace a more human side. Throughout the novel we see R evolving and redefining what it means to be a zombie, proving to the readers and to the characters in the book that life is quite literally what you make of it.