Saturday, October 15, 2016

#14 - Suspiria (1977), #15 - Donnie Darko (2001)

Since I missed last night's post due to family stuff, I am posting twice tonight.  Tonight's theme is, horror movies that aren't particularly terrifying, and ones that I don't really get.  No, really.  I don't get them.  And I'll go into exhaustive, boring detail about it, too, so, aren't you guys lucky?  :-D 

Suspiria (1977) has to be one of the all-time, most beautifully made, classic horror movies that I find neither horrifying nor understandable nor entertaining.  It's probably just me, because lots of people love this movie, but let's sum it up.  A ballet dancer heads to Italy to study with a prestigious ballet school.  She witnesses a woman running away from the school, a woman who is later found murdered.  As the girl settles into her classes, odd events begin to haunt the school.  What's going on?  I have no earthly idea, but all hell is probably breaking loose, somewhere.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly:  Suspiria is a classic horror movie from horror master Dario Argento, hailed as one of his first and finest.  I have watched it several times now, and I really can't make heads or tails of it.  I mean, I get the basic story line.  Ballet dancer heads to school in foreign country, finds odd goings-on, and gets curious.  I won't spoil the plot, in case you want to watch it on El Rey network (where I caught this one, and I hear they are going to play it again at some point), but I just don't know what's so special.  Honestly, the only thing in this movie that remotely weirded me out was the maggots falling from the ceiling.  The rest of the movie was just a bunch of weird murders and bright lights and goofy crap going on.

I guess the acting was good, but I recognized very few of the actors/actresses.  Udo Kier makes an appearance, and Jessica Harper stars as Susie Bannion, the lead. The special effects were good for the time, I suppose?  I don't know.  I guess my biggest issue with this movie was, I couldn't identify with anyone enough to get into it, and the ballet dancer just doesn't seem to handle anything particularly well.  In fact, her first day of class, she passes out, bleeding from the nose.  Who does that?  Bleh.

Would I watch this again?  I've seen it a few times, now. I might even watch it again, but I don't seem to get much out of it.  I can't really recommend it as enjoyable, but, a lot of people like this one.  I got nothing.  Heads or tails whether you like this one, or not.  Interesting fun fact, they are remaking Suspiria, and Jessica Harper even has a role in it.  The remake is due out in 2017 and is slated as being in "Pre-production" at the moment, according to IMDB.com.  Moving on.

Donne Darko (2001) is another movie I have a hard time making heads or tails of.  An emotionally disturbed teenager undergoing therapy, has a jet engine fall on his house.  He meets a frighteningly tall and grungy-looking bunny rabbit who leads him through some weird acts of vandalism while he's sleep-walking.  The rabbit tells him the world is ending in 28 days, and Donnie spends the next 28 days trying to figure out wtf the rabbit is talking about.

There's a lot of fun facts about Donne Darko.  Patrick Swayze is in it.  Jake Gyllenhaal plays the lead.  Drew Barrymore is in it.  Maggie Gyllenhaal is in it.  The whole movie is set in 1988.  What does it all mean?  I have no idea.  Is it scary?  Well, the giant talking rabbit with the glowing eye is a little creepy, especially when you consider just how dirty his costume is.  I don't know why that's creepy, but it is.  Makes me wonder just where the hell he's been.  I mean, exactly where does Frank, the giant talking bunny rabbit with the glowing eye, hang out in his spare time, when he's not telling Donnie Darko to burn down schools?  Yeah.  I don't know, either, but I WONDER.

Donnie Darko was on Sundance channel, if you want to watch it.  I've seen it a couple times now, and like Suspiria, I can't make heads or tails of it.  Maybe that's the freaky part.  Maybe that's what is so scary about it.  I don't know.  I don't really find it very scary, but, maybe it is, and I'm just too jaded to realize it.  Will I watch it again?  Maybe.  I'm always on the lookout for new lessons to learn in life, and I can't help but wonder if I missed the point of suspiria and Donnie Darko.  So I may watch them again, just to see if I can catch what I missed.  I'm not really a puzzle kind of guy, but sometimes, especially when the puzzle if a horror movie, I can't help but puzzle at it.  Much like the Grinch, I tend to puzzle and puzzle until my puzzler is sore.  Then I put ointment on my sore puzzler, and move on with my life.

That's all for tonight.  Several more horror movies to watch yet this evening, just for kicks.  :-)

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