May 13 2009
Dark Movies or Movies in the Dark?
If I told you there was a picture of a monster above, you’d just have to take my word for it wouldn’t you? (because you can’t see a thing) That’s how I felt this week when I was trying to watch a movie called “Quarantine”. The movie started out well enough, in that you could actually see it, although the first fifteen minutes was a little boring. After that, I suppose it could have been a good movie ~ I wouldn’t know ~ I couldn’t see anything. The producers of this kind of movie apparently think we’re so impressed with the dialog that we won’t notice the absense of anything to look at on the screen. When I pay to see monsters, I want to see monsters. I didn’t care for the “documentary” style that it was done in, but even that is bearable if you can see what’s going on.
One of the main reasons I can’t stand the “Ghost Hunter” stuff is that we’re expected to get all excited about the things that the “hunters” say they can see and hear, while we can’t see or hear any of it.
Not only is the “darkness” prevalent in the monster and ghost movies, but it seems to be creeping into the CSI’s too. I can understand why the CSI techs might be able to pick out clues better with a flashlight, but is it a rule that all the power goes out at any crime scene? They can be looking for clues in a Wal-Mart size empty room, and they’ll never turn the lights on!
And have you ever wondered why a deserted building always has a broken pipe dripping water somewhere? Do they not turn the water off when they desert the building? The crime scene can be out in the middle of the desert, in a building that has been empty for 20 years, and if anyone goes below ground level, there will be water dripping!
It takes a lot to scare me these days ~ at least in monster movies. The only things that really scare me are the actual things that happen on a daily basis in our world today. I’m really scared that our entire way of life is teetering on the brink of extinction. I’m really scared that my grandkids will never know our world the way we knew it.
I used to listen to my parents and grandparents talk about the sad condition of the world, and thought they were crazy because there didn’t seem to be anything wrong with it to me. Now I know exactly where they were coming from ~ and it’s much worse now than it was then. I suppose each generation goes through this, but you know, there really isn’t a lot left to lose. Morals have gone to hell ~ responsibility for one’s self is non-existant.
Guess maybe we’re better off in the dark.
“Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work; you don’t give up.” (Anne Lamott)
