
i met up with tom, bernie, & a couple of tom's friends without too much wait for the film to start rolling. first, let me talk about the trailers, because the people in the row in front of my thought me shit-talking the trailers was fabulous. what the fuck trailers were they running? they. were so. bad. i mean, they weren't even aimed at the audience; there was one for a dance movie sequel, one for a martin lawrence garbage flick, & then maybe the worst "cyber-horror" trailer ever. it actually included the line "he hacked my car!" & then her car swerving all over the road. niiiiiice. i was hoping for an iron man teaser, you know? i mean, did you know tony stark is a guy who wears armor that can fly & has like, flame throwers? plus, the guy who directed elf is in charge! no, no, you show us this urban dance trailer, we're definately your target demographic.
finally the movie got into pace, with some very nice white-out shots. i have a bit of a hard-on for desolate, snowy landscapes- see above re: wastelands. & that time i really was going to move to antarctica. as the movie rolled, the first impression i got was that everyone was doing their job well except the editor. let me speak to that first: the movie was pretty jumpy, especially at first. no real chance to establish exposition or anything like that. it didn't wreck anything for me, since i went in there knowing that it was a vampire movie, but the supporting roles figuring out that they were vampires didn't make any sense, not even in a "we can assume they were up to something while the other characters were away." eventually, once the actual meat of the plot came up, instead of the establishment of the situation, it stabilized. like i said though, everything else was well enough done- the actor gave an acceptable level of pathos, the sets were oozing isolation & cold, the make-up was tastefully underdone, the photography was very nice, everything else.
i've got to say this though: i have nothing but contempt for people who respond to stress with nervous giggling. seriously, you came to a scary movie, you expect suspense. so stop fucking chickening out with your suspension of disbelief. the people in the row behind us were a real tribe of idiots. listen, fuckers. when you come to a horror movie, you come prepared to accept the emotional tableaux presented. cackling like a drunk hyena whenever anything spooky happens to show off to your friends isn't fooling anyone; we know you are afraid. all you are succeeding in doing is sabotaging the experience for yourself. this also includes romantic scenes; yes, the lines used here are cheesy. what are you looking for, exactly? do you think humans actually participate in unique expressions of love? everybody's lines are cheesy. to be precise: the separated couple thrown into a life or death situation are probably going to still have feelings for each other. groaning whenever they talk (& honestly, it wasn't that corny) just marks you as someone trying hard not to empathize; in other words, you are the worst kind of audience member, & that is why i talked shit about you in front of your face. one more thing: this isn't a "call & response" thing. when the guy falls on the shredder & gets mauled? you are allowed to go "OH DAMN!" okay? when the bad guy says the scary-dorky line? you are allowed to laugh. there is a cadence to cinema. i'm not getting all white suburban kid here. i just want to be clear about that. basically i want to contrast this viewing with when i saw the descent with

so yeah, i liked it a lot, & i can't understand some of the complaints that people have: most of them i can only reply to by asking "wait, what movie did you come to see? i came to see vampires on rampage or whatever." you know? & i think people so expect a movie to abuse cliches that when it does so kind of originally they don't notice that the cliche was used, not abused. like the scene with the girl walking through the street calling for help (again, from the trailer-- no spoilers here!). the jerks behind me are like "what a stupid girl!" & whatnot, without even catching what was actually going on-- that the leeches were trying to use her as bait. i think this movie went from executing tropes competently to giving a new twist to the vampire story, & i certainly enjoyed myself. goooooo team nosferatu!