Horror films - 2012
In doing a bit of web research of the horror film genre for 2012, one finds that there were quite a few movies made . . . just not many good ones. We cast our eyes on three which received the most buzz.
| A Cabin in the Woods | Dark Shadows | Underworld: Awakening |
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I'd heard mostly good things about A Cabin in the Woods. No one was very specific about it, since it has a serious twist in it and no one can say very much about it without ruining the twist. Promotional materials make it look like a horror movie. Well, it's a horror movie in the same way that Men in Black is sci-fi.
Our story begins with a group of archetypical young people going off for a weekend trip. This is interspersed with scenes of men and women in some sort of vaguely-defined mission control facility. It takes a while to piece together what's happening. It's scary and, honestly, ridiculous at once.
It doesn't quite work as horror because of all the references to stereotypes and the joke cracking of the observers. And the monsters, while they definitely appear dangerous, look too fake to be really frightening. It doesn't quite work as comedy because too many of the characters and the audience still think they are in a horror film. I think the film-makers were trying to be clever and turn the genre on its ear. It just doesn't quite work.
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Dark Shadows . . . The words conjure up grainy images of creepy, moody old houses, cemetaries, and dismal countryside. When I was a kid, I was afraid to go in a room where Dark Shadows was on, lest those eerie images pervade my dreams and lurk in every unseen corner. If this is what audiences expected from this film then they were disappointed.
But no one has a right to be surprised either. Tim Burton excels at the creepy and the macabre, but the scariest things I can recall from him are Sleepy Hollow (1999) and Sweeney Todd (2007). He frequently injects humor into his creepy and macabre, though to a lesser degree in the aforementioned films. But that humor is definitely present here.
So, how many comedy horror films can you think of? How many comedy vampire films? that didn't suck? (Sorry, juvenile pun, couldn't resist.) The best comedy horror film was arguably Young Frankenstein (1974). Playing vampires for laughs has been hit and miss - Love At First Bite (1979), Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995).
I actually enjoyed Dark Shadows. This summer of alien invasions and terrorists needed some levity injected into our fantasy. Johnny Depp plays the part of Barnabas with comic straightness. Eva Green is deliciously bad and desirable as the powerful and vengeful witch Angelique. The rest of the Collins household is portrayed by a wonderful assortment of actors including Michelle Pfeiffer and Helena Bonham Carter.
Burton chose to set the story in the 1970s and included gags directed at that era. One may surmise he did this because the film didn't seem funny enough without it. But this may have actually hurt the film. It would have been just as funny if set in the present. In that way the audience doesn't have to deal with imagining a double anachronism - a man from the 1770s in the 1970s - both unfamiliar periods to many viewers.
Some would argue this isn't even a comedy because of all the blood, but it definitely is one because of the acting and the direction. Interestingly, if one pays attention only to the dialog as written, it could have been played dramatically as well. Would that have been better? This is a matter of taste. Burton may have thought that the last thing we needed was another vampire gothic romance. This one is at least intentionally funny.
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One of the problems with the Underworld series is that they keep killing off their most interesting characters. Underworld (2003) cost us Viktor, Amelia, Lucian, and Raze. Underworld: Evolution (2006) disposed of every original Corvinus immortal, Kraven, and Tanis. By the time we have reached Underworld: Awakening, Selene, the vampire assassin and Michael, the vampire-lycan hybrid, are pretty much all that are left. What stories are there still to tell? Prior to Awakening, they answered this question by creating a prequel, but I think the public is usually less interested in knowing what happened before and Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (2009) is the series' lowest grossing film. So, forward again.
Having mostly fought other vampires/werewolves/lycans, now the adversary in Awakening is that most deadly and insidious of species - humans. Early in the film, Selene and Michael are captured. Later, Selene escapes after a 12-year imprisonment to return to a world where vampires and lycans have apparently been all but exterminated.
The action is good in the movie and of course there are many of us who are happy just seeing Kate Beckinsale in all that tight black leather, but the series is showing signs of strain. The shortage of interesting characters hurt this installment. The villains here were poorly developed compared to those in the prior movies. This was the highest grossing Underworld film but the critical response was so poor, one wonders if they will attempt to continue the series.
It would be interesting to see where the Underworld storyline might lead if a decent direction can be plotted and scripted. They will have to do better than this however.