Drabble Geeks

Geeks…Being Total Geeks.

Tag: horror

Let’s Solve a Puzzle Pt 4

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Let me start by saying, “I am confusion.” I went into watching the fourth Saw movie, not expecting much. The third movie was a good enough ending in my opinion, and the story could have been done. But no, I am more confused about the story than I was before and putting more pieces together than the creators probably would have wanted. There is really no real way of describing the story without too many spoilers (if you know, you know). While this is the weakest movie in the franchise so far, my need for answers is overcoming my distaste for it.

The movie honestly starts immediately, and there is no time to gently get yourself ready. As soon as the opening title cards are over, you are in it. While I did like that the movie immediately started and got going, they did a bad job of interesting me in the different characters. The only thing that was really keeping me engaged was knowing that the story would have to get to a certain point and the reappearance of characters they did well to introduce before. While there were new puzzles, the main “puzzle” of the movie was the same as a previous one, with someone who should have known better. I was honestly rolling my eyes most of the time. While I’ll be watching the rest of this franchise, it is definitely to only answer questions and not because I can’t stop thinking about the story and trying to work out different clues or situations. Definitely not that.

Let’s Solve a Puzzle Pt 3

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I’ve just finished watching the third Saw movie and am slightly confused. I am somewhat happy with the story, but there’s more… First, this movie is definitely not for the squeamish, as the body horror is very hard to stomach, and it should come with an epilepsy warning. Also, my theory from the last movie was both correct and wrong. I just knew there was something weird about the second movie, and I was smart enough to pick up on it even though I didn’t know what. It was somewhat explained toward the end. Also, this movie kind of pissed me off.

While this movie does include an escape room for someone to escape, I feel that this person is the worst. He stands there. Where people in the other movies were trying to figure out the puzzles or freaking out, this guy just stands there. In fact, there are no puzzles; he just has to do something and fast. In horror movies, I sometimes get mad when people do stupid things, but at least they are doing something. I have never been so mad at a horror movie “protagonist.” Can I even call him a protagonist? No one really is in these movies, except Kerry; she’s awesome.

The last thing that confuses me is that this movie feels like it is the perfect ending for the series, yet there are more movies. At this point, we have reached a suitable stopping point, especially as it appears to be shifting from a psychological thriller to a more gory horror. I’m going to watch the fourth movie to see if it’s even worth commenting on the rest series. I know it’s a classic, but at a certain point, too many sequels spoil the franchise.

Let’s Solve a Puzzle Pt 2

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I’m back after watching the second movie in the Saw franchise, where instead of two people stuck in an escape room, there are seven. The puzzles were back and still blew my mind. I did get some of them, then there were others that were head scratchers, and I was still piecing everything together at the end. (Is it weird that I was slightly proud if I solved a puzzle before the characters? They technically have more time to figure things out than I do.) The other interesting thing was that there is a converging outside plot line that really kept the intensity high.

This movie was interesting in that it introduced a group dynamic to everything. Not only did they have to worry about solving the puzzles, but they also had to worry about others. While the puzzles were still surrounding human desperation, I’m not too sure that that’s entirely true. Probably just part of it. Connecting back to everything in the first movie, and all that we learned in this one, I’m suspicious of some of the motives. It will be interesting to see if my theories turn up with anything, or if it’s just the writers messing with our heads. I could have done with more of the type of body horror from the last movie, where you didn’t really see anything, you just knew it was happening because of the context and other character interactions. So, if you are squeamish, this probably isn’t the film for you.

Let’s Solve a Puzzle Pt 1

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Happy Spoopy Month, everyone. In honor of the best month of the year, I have started my annual rewatch of the English dub of Ghost Stories, and more importantly for you, I’ve decided that I would begin to watch that famous series Saw, starting with the first one and then slowly working my way through the movies available to me. Spoopy Month is the perfect time to willingly terrify myself for the fun of it, so let me begin making my way through this classic series.

Even though this movie was made upwards of two decades ago, it is still beautiful, in a horrifying, hiding part of the screen with my hands, and needing to pause sometimes type of way. Watching it, I know why it is considered a classic. While it doesn’t evoke the stereotypical monster or supernatural horror vibes, I would definitely classify this as a psychological, ‘is this even real?’ horror. For those who don’t know, and without spoilers, Saw follows two guys in an escape room, and they’re not having fun. Everything is, unfortunately, at times, very grounded in reality as you delve into the depths of human desperation. At all times, I was wondering if there was another choice for characters to make. Some, yes. Others, no. I’m very interested in how the rest of the series unfolds, as it seems that the horror is not necessarily in the puzzles, but in the extent and desperation of the will to live. Also, as a Criminal Minds fan, I’m very interested in how the victims are decided. It feels like there should be more exploration of that and I can’t wait to see.

~Sent from my iPhone

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Let me begin with the title of this post is honestly one of the most terrifying things a college student can get from their professor. It strikes fear in a similar way that I think this was supposed to in the piece of media that I will be reviewing today.

When it first came out, I was interested in what Baby Reindeer was about. I love a good crime drama, but I have tons of other ones that I have yet to get to. I’ll add it to the bottom of my list, I thought. That was until in my YouTube recommended feed, it said that the “real-life stalker” was being interviewed. And then I saw the video that another victim was also being interviewed. It was only until this came up when this show was moved up on my to-watch list. I also wanted to see if the complaints I was hearing were called for.

Now, Baby Reindeer deserves all of the content warnings and is not at all for the faint of heart. It is gripping and terrifying, yet at the same time, tries to explain the motivations of all the characters, even if it is stomach-turning to think about. Strike one for this fear is understanding that this is a true story, or as true as Netflix thought they could get. In most stories like this, it’s comforting since it is well known that it is fake, even if these are situations that happen in real life. There is no cognitive dissonance here. Strikes two and three, well, aren’t for the faint of heart and cannot really be mentioned here.

One thing that I did have to keep in the back of my mind here was that there was a possible lawsuit in the mix, with it apparently being too easy for people to figure out who different characters were based on. From the little information I knew beforehand, I would completely agree. The only thing I could tell they changed about one victim was their sex. Everything was exactly the same: look, occupation, location, mannerisms. Connecting the dots would have been way too easy, and changing a lot of things would probably have saved everyone a lot of headache. (I completely don’t support people trying to find these people, but the internet is going to internet.) I’m actually interested in the story as it goes from here, as there were a couple of things that were dramatized under the notion of being a true story, rather than “based on a true story.” If anyone hears about this before me, please let me know.

Down the Rabbit Hole

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It is the final week of spoopy month 2021, and I decided to read what should be considered a classic since the movie came out: Coraline by Neil Gaiman. I mean, this is a children’s story, right? It shouldn’t be that scary, right? Wrong.

The entire time I was reading, I was switching between two thoughts: this is the perfect book for October two thoughts and this should not have been written for children. The creepiness factor was there the entire time, and I was on the edge of my seat. I’ll be watching the movie for the first time soon (no judgment) to see what they decided to replace to make it more child-friendly. Great horror story, I just won’t be reading it to a child anytime soon.

Adding Horror to the 60s Pt 2

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I have finished reading Lovecraft Country, and what can I say besides how fantastic the book was. I understand why it was made into a TV show; I just hope it did the book justice. Even though the stories are seemingly disjointed, there is a very clean wrap-up at the end.

One of the things I enjoyed most about this book is the realism. Sometimes when there are supernatural elements in stories, you have to suspend disbelief to a great extent. Some aspects of the story are based on stereotypes which are not very hard to believe that there would be people who believed in that sort of thing, such as the Magic Negro. Yet still surprising you enough the everything would still come as a surprise as you didn’t know what story. No black person died during this book, which is a plus. Also, I love a good villain to hate. What could be better?

Adding Horror to the 60s Pt 1

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Spoopy season is continued by my reading of seemingly connected horror stories. I’ve taken the adage to heart: if they make an adaptation, it must be good. I’m confident that no one has said that, but I’m pretty sure that is the only reason why I’m reading Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff was turned into a TV show. So far, the book is fantastic. I do not want to put the book down between stories, but I have tests to study for and experiments to conduct.

One thing that I love about the book is that stories revolve around Black people. It varies rare to consume something within the genre that doesn’t evolve all the black people dying or lasting the entire situation only to die at the end. Giving the setting of 1960s America, the realism of the characterization and character interaction adds to the horror in a very Get Out way. If that movie was not an inspiration in some way, I would be surprised. I guess I’ll have to wait a bit to get through the rest of the saga.

A Not-so Scary Classic

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I decided that my first post for this year’s spoopy season would be a classic. I think that almost everyone knows about The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Whether it’s from watching the Disney movie, watching the apocalypse-based TV series, or just everyone’s general knowledge of the horror that is the headless horseman. I don’t think you can go a Halloween season without this story being pushed in front of you, but I would like to posit that this is not the horror story that we were lead to believe it is.

I will agree that the book’s atmosphere is perfect, but probably not in the way you were imagining. If anything, this should be a story of karmic retribution against a terrible person who got exactly what they deserved. Everyone has grown to love Ichabod Crane from his many iterations, myself included. Still, man, is he a terrible person, and we should not celebrate him the way we have.

When Birds Attack

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Over the course of this quarantine, I have continued watching amazingly bad movies. As of writing this post, I have watched the entirety of the Birdemic series. For those who have never heard of this series, it is a really bad attempt at having an environmental message. Both movies center around birds coming and attacking people because they are mad at global warming. Yes, that is the premise of both movies.

The thing about both movies is that even though I have told you the summary of the entire movie, you are still going to have to wait about forty minutes for anything to happen. In the first movie, Birdemic: Shock and Terror, a good portion of the movie watching the protagonist drive to work, fill up his gas tank, and get stuck in traffic. For a movie about saving the environment, a lot of time is spent driving. That and protagonist and a flat board of nothingness. Also, the CGI is utterly atrocious, but that is part of the fun.

The second movie, Birdemic 2: The resurrection, the protagonist spends the majority of his time getting from place to place on foot, so there is an improvement. Also, he does show emotion. It’s really creepy but is an improvement over a flat board. The majority of the second movie revolves around call-backs from the previous movie. Not much was added, but references. I would say the second movie is a bit better because it is more self-aware of how crazy everything is.

Love bad movies, most definitely check this series out. Both movies are on Amazon for your viewing pleasure.