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thehefnerSo I finally saw the movie SESSION 9, which I'd borrowed from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
gawayn about a year ago. And ok, I have my complaints, I suppose. I mean, the plot was convoluted and muddled and I'm still not certain what I think of the ending. But regardless, I'm still tempted to call this one of the best horror movies I've ever seen.
And when I say "horror", I don't mean gore and monsters and splatter and all that. I mean horror in the sense of the original THE HAUNTING and TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE, of PSYCHO, THE SHINING, John Carptenter's THE THING and the criminally underappreciated (and perhaps my second favorite horror movie of all time) EXORCIST III. True horror, in my opinion, is not just in shock. Any idiot can go "Boo!" It takes no creativity to go "Boo!" (like the entirety of the horrible TEXAS CHAINSAW remake). I think true horror comes from a constant, growing sense of dread and malice. If you'll recall, the original TCSM had virtually no gore, and yet it's one of the most terrifying films ever made.
SESSION 9 was notable to me, first and foremost, for the characters. The five main characters weren't just stock characters waiting to get killed off, they were fully fleshed out, complex human beings. That was really interesting right there; I love a horror movie that actually has a story it wants to tell rather than just scare you, even if that story is flawed.
But the real star of the movie was the setting. The Danvers State Mental Hospital, the real-life abandoned 100+ years old asylum with an all-too-real dark and unsettling past of its own. To give you an idea, this was the building that inspired Arkham Asylum. (well, at least, inspiration for Lovecraft, whose work inspired the Batman creators. Splitting hairs) I was so sad to have discovered that they finally tore it down earlier this year, because man, to have seen that building, wow. It has to be seen to be believed, and I mean inside and out. This has to have been one of the scariest damn places on earth. The makers of SESSION 9 didn't have to dress the set or anything to make it creepier, it was actually just like it was in the movie.
Beyond that, I don't really have anything to say about the movie that wouldn't be a spoiler. But flaws aside, it's totally worth watching for the building itself and the amazing, horrifying atmosphere it provides. It's not exactly "style over substance" because with this kind of horror, the style is the substance.
I've really been meaning to write up my opinions of what I think make a truly scary move, but at some later point when I'm not brain-fried from working the comic shop and memorizing lines for THE DAVID DANCE. Off-book tonight!!!
gawayn about a year ago. And ok, I have my complaints, I suppose. I mean, the plot was convoluted and muddled and I'm still not certain what I think of the ending. But regardless, I'm still tempted to call this one of the best horror movies I've ever seen.And when I say "horror", I don't mean gore and monsters and splatter and all that. I mean horror in the sense of the original THE HAUNTING and TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE, of PSYCHO, THE SHINING, John Carptenter's THE THING and the criminally underappreciated (and perhaps my second favorite horror movie of all time) EXORCIST III. True horror, in my opinion, is not just in shock. Any idiot can go "Boo!" It takes no creativity to go "Boo!" (like the entirety of the horrible TEXAS CHAINSAW remake). I think true horror comes from a constant, growing sense of dread and malice. If you'll recall, the original TCSM had virtually no gore, and yet it's one of the most terrifying films ever made.
SESSION 9 was notable to me, first and foremost, for the characters. The five main characters weren't just stock characters waiting to get killed off, they were fully fleshed out, complex human beings. That was really interesting right there; I love a horror movie that actually has a story it wants to tell rather than just scare you, even if that story is flawed.
But the real star of the movie was the setting. The Danvers State Mental Hospital, the real-life abandoned 100+ years old asylum with an all-too-real dark and unsettling past of its own. To give you an idea, this was the building that inspired Arkham Asylum. (well, at least, inspiration for Lovecraft, whose work inspired the Batman creators. Splitting hairs) I was so sad to have discovered that they finally tore it down earlier this year, because man, to have seen that building, wow. It has to be seen to be believed, and I mean inside and out. This has to have been one of the scariest damn places on earth. The makers of SESSION 9 didn't have to dress the set or anything to make it creepier, it was actually just like it was in the movie.
Beyond that, I don't really have anything to say about the movie that wouldn't be a spoiler. But flaws aside, it's totally worth watching for the building itself and the amazing, horrifying atmosphere it provides. It's not exactly "style over substance" because with this kind of horror, the style is the substance.
I've really been meaning to write up my opinions of what I think make a truly scary move, but at some later point when I'm not brain-fried from working the comic shop and memorizing lines for THE DAVID DANCE. Off-book tonight!!!
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no subject
Date: 2006-05-03 06:47 pm (UTC)I loved John Carpenter's The Thing. Man, that was a good film. Carpenter is just highly underrated anyway. Ever seen They Live with Keith David? Awesome film. I'm looking for someone to partner up with me to bring the two main characters to Sages for a one-time post of fun. "PUT ON THE GLASSES!"
Session 9 was GREAT. David Caruso was wonderful in that film. The ending - Jesus Christ, what a kicker. Creepy as hell, and done, as you say, with nothing but good direction and ambience. No monsters, no special effects.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-03 06:55 pm (UTC)Trust me, girl, you have GOT to see EXORCIST III. Fuck the crappy studio intervention, it's still one of the greatest horror movies I have *ever* seen. And it's also Brad Dourif's greatest performance ever, I swear to fucking *god*.
Did you like my Session 9 icon? That line's been staying with me for days now.
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Date: 2006-05-03 06:58 pm (UTC)Session 9 - I still think of that that voice and just shudder. Icon rocks!
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Date: 2006-05-03 07:10 pm (UTC)You sure you're not thinking of Exorcist II, which must be avoided at all costs? I first discovered III because it was on EW's list of top five great underappreciated horror films.
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Date: 2006-05-03 08:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-03 06:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-03 06:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-03 06:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-03 07:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-03 07:35 pm (UTC)Ta-da!
Date: 2006-05-04 02:23 pm (UTC)Re: Ta-da!
Date: 2006-05-04 05:49 pm (UTC)ooooooooo
Thank. You.
Re: Ta-da!
Date: 2006-05-04 07:58 pm (UTC)Also: have we invited you to our party on May 20? At this point, there are over 50 people on the guest list and I'm starting to lose track. Go over to
Re: Ta-da!
Date: 2006-05-05 04:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-03 07:43 pm (UTC)It's about the same size, and it's on a major thoroughfare.
I drove by it every day for work, knowing full well that there were spelunkers in there at night.
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Date: 2006-05-03 07:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-03 07:44 pm (UTC)Up until the end, it made environmental work look like so much fun, too...
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Date: 2006-05-03 07:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-03 07:54 pm (UTC)I weighed the options, asbestos included, and the neat stuff won again.
I've never claimed to be a paragon of common sense.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-03 08:31 pm (UTC)It used to almost be required trespassing on the part of local Marylanders to break into the old Glendale institution. It didn't even feel like breaking in because over five years the same section of fence was always down and the same ground-floor window was always unboarded. It was more an invitation.
The last time I went was probably five years ago or so. I think I'm mostly too old. You reach a certain point when if you get caught, you can no longer blame things on youthful stupidity.
I went in at least three times -- There was so much to see that we barely even skimmed the surface of the institution. The first two times, my friend Jeff (ciretose) was the tour guide. We entered in the middle of the night each time, all of us with flashlights we were told to keep aimed at the ground or off unless necessary. The first room in the basement that you pass is the morgue, and true to form there's the wall of rectangle-shaped holes that the body trays would slide through, though the doors were all rusted or off from vandalism, and the trays were all gone such that the inside was all one big open area filled with rubble.
The complex is actually made up of two buildings -- the asylum and the regular hospital. The entrance was through the regular hospital, and it wouldn't seem that the buildings connected, since on the surface they didn't. But in the sub-basement of the hospital, there was a large furnace room like something out of Silent Hill, with rust covering all of the machinery and dirt and/or water covering the ground. Hidden away in the back of this room, there was a passage about six feet wide by six feet tall (just short enough that I had to duck the entire way) that wound underground about a quarter of a mile to the asylum. As there was generally a police car always parked on the asylum side, the passageway, mostly clear of debris, was the only way into it. The one time I brought two girls there as the knowledgable one, they were fearless going through the entry window, timid walking down the hall, visibly uncomfortable in the sub-basement and almost tearfully begging to go when they saw the tunnel, all earlier bravado now gone. I didn't think it was that bad, all things considered, but the entire place had a powerful aura of creepiness to it.
There was a theare in one building, and a large outdoor patio with a nice view in another. Most things that could be taken had been over the year, though there was the occasional book or other worthless personal item. I stole a small tray table with an ugly flower print, and kept it for years before deciding that it really was disgusting and tossing it.
It's a scary place, but damned exciting to walk through. I can't think of any other buildings I've been in with such overbearing personality as Glendale.
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Date: 2006-05-03 11:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-04 02:13 am (UTC)The building is shaped like a bat, for fuck's sake.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-04 04:18 pm (UTC)What it picks, and how it develops it, is important. And of course it'll have variable effectiveness from person to person, since everyone has different ideas about what's possible. For instance, for me, a girl who can summon lightning in your room doesn't scare me at all.
However, tales only known by the locals of some wild woman making weird sculptures in the woods, creepy noises at night, and occasionally kidnapping stray hikers who are never seen again - that worked for me. Really worked. Esp. since it did a good job of making me feel like I was there.
Looking forward to your thoughts. And it sounds like I really oughtta get my butt to the theater.