At the begening, there have... the horror !

Horror, Curse

Hi to you!

I'm not going to start with a great speech, anyway my title is pretty self explanatory. Here, we will talk about horror!! And more specifically, about horror movies and horror video games.

One could ask me questions that I could answer, such as :

What attracts me in a horror movie or horror game ?

 

But, frankly, to be honest, I don't know.

I'm pretty focused contemporary movies. The fantastic is good but too used. I much prefer movies mature and deep. Do not lerrer, generally, when we love horror movies, we love dirty, and it's true for me too, but this is not what I'm looking first.

For me, an horror film is a true and good horror movie when it is realistic, because it's easier to identify hiself with the characters, and to put in their place, which allows a time to project hiself in the film, andlive the horror instead of characters.

A horror movie must be scary. Not with bloody images, but at the level of sensations, feelings. That's how we feel we are alive. The horror movie should know touching the guts.

Blood, organs on the ground, dead, cries, all that did'nt interest if there isn't purpose behind : that do not want to be there. 

So, I will present a few horror movies and few horror video games that I really appreciated, and I will explain why I love them. Why I chose them.

Saw, the saga of horror

 Saw

Life or death? Let the games begin!

 

Who has never heard of the Saw series, whose title is so ambiguous that we don 't even know how to translate it?

Start from the beginning : 

1 • What is it ?
Saw is a US-Australian horror released in 2004. Written by Leigh Whannell and James Wan, he was inspired by two other thrillers: Cube and Seven.

2 • Summary of first installment :
In a disused bathroom, the photographer Adam Stanheight and Dr. Lawrence Gordon awake, at opposite corners of the room, chained by their ankles to pipes. A clock indicates 10 am. In the middle of the room, a corpse is lying on the ground, holding a gun and a tape recorder. Lawrence and Adam are in their pockets cassettes on which it is written: « play me ». Adam's tape tells him he must escape the bathroom, and Lawrence's tape informs that he must kill Adam before 18 am Otherwise, his wife and daughter will be killed and will be left for dead in this room. Then, they find hacksaws that are not sharp enough to cut their strings. Lawrence understands that their captor is the Jigsaw Killer (who's name is Jigsaw with the double meaning of puzzle and jigsaw) which never directly murders his victims, but puts them in situations that push them to do themselves. His hope is that his victims survived the ordeal with a better appreciation of life.

3 • But, Saw, for me, what is it ?

- Saw, this is first and foremost a serie realised like a puzzle (which is rather confusing because it's hard to follow the chronology of events). Everything is tied and bound so that each episode adds elements that explain past events or upcoming events. I think the film was made in several episodes to take the pun with "puzzle" that we found in the simple name of the "killer", Jigsaw.
- Then, Saw is Jigsaw, or "a puzzle man".
Jidsaw is a mastermind, a man disgusted with life, and especially by those who surrounded loan or far. This is a man who firmly doesn't believe in the goodness of human nature, and seeks a way to bring all these people who disgust his to a better life. How? Putting them face their own death. Giving them the choice between life and death.

This idea came to him while Jigsaw rushed into a ravine to commit suicide. He was suffering from an incurable cancer that his surgeon, Dr. Lawrence, did not care for a history of insurance. Unhappy about disease that killed him a little more each day, and having lost his child (we later learned), he rushed into a ravine to end his days, but missed his shot.
Stuck under his car, he felt for the first time the desire to fight, when he had seen his own death in the face. He realizes that suicide is not a solution, and that the only remedy is to fight for his own life. So he decided to do the same with all those people who haven't liver life, and used it for personal and bad purposes.

- Saw is a rule: choosing between life and death.

- Saw, these are events that every victim must do to stay alive.

- Saw is the transcendence, the desire for survival which leads to the loss of everything we fought for the wrong reasons, to recover in a better light.

- Saw, they are endearing characters such as Amanda, one of the first victims of Jigsaw, and first of all to get out.

- Saw is a little doll on tricycle, called Billy. The mascot, somehow, equally distressing that funny.

- Saw is a stressful and sad melody to each final.

- Saw is a saga that never ends, because we all believe the game is over, but there will always be someone to take over from Jigsaw.

 

 

Silent Hill, the Video Game

Welcome to Silent Hill

Even death is no longer an issue.

Silent Hill ? What is it ?

Silent Hill is a video game like survival horror developed by Konami Tokyo CE and published by Konami for the PlayStation in 1999. It is renowned for having revolutionized the horror game by his psychological approach to fear. It marks the beginning of a long series of games which continued until 2012.

In 2006, the film adaptation was performed, by Christophe Gans. Although many elements were taken a little every Silent Hill, the main frame follows the story of the first Silent Hill, with Harry Mason and Cheryl.

In 2012, the following of this film was released, in 3D. It takes the frame of Silent Hill 3, with Heather Mason.

The arrival of Silent Hill marks a new approach to the genre. Until now, the survival horror was mainly represented by Resident Evil. While the latter is geared more to action and panic, Silent Hill brought a dimension more psychological that focuses on the emotions and psychoanalysis. The oppressive atmosphere relies heavily on staging and the scenario's esoteric aspirations.

Silent Hill, and more precisely

We begin with Harry Mason, a widower and father of Cheryl, little girl with black hair deep, discreet and reserved, he found that about 7 years ago, on the edge of a road to Silent Hill.
For the summer, Harry decides to take his daughter on vacation. She decides, against all odds, to go to Silent Hill, while he has never spoken of this city. At the entrance of the village, Harry's headlights illuminate a monster. He turns the wheel sharply, the shock is violent and loses consciousness... . When he awoke, Cheryl has disappeared.
Outside, A thick fog, crossed by large snowflakes, covers the city. He called Cheryl desperately, but his cry echoes in the city without any response. The town seems deserted. Where are the people ?
What's going on? And where is Cheryl?

Harry will have to cross the city, and especially understand the secrets of this city, to find Cheryl. This is in the midst of a thick fog he will have to navigate fighting against monsters too human, more horrible than others, and to face to characters most frightening and crazy than ever, under sounds and sound effects paralyzing.

What I say:

Silent Hill, it's the game that changed my life. It may seem stupid, as it says, but now that I think about it, I could never live without having this game at least once.
This is THE ultimate Survival Horror!

Paradoxically, this game makes me freak out ! But that means that Akira Yamaoka did a good job!
And paradoxically, the "chapters" of Silent Hill that I prefer are the ones that scare me the most, that is those which appear Pyramid Head.

Because Pyramid Head haunts me even in my nightmares.
But again, it means that Konami has done a good job! And probably also because I'm a little mazo.
After all, to play psychological stressful games and love it, it must be a little crazy.

- Silent Hill, it is a psychological approach. People who have psychological problems should not play this game. I shouldn't play this game.
- Silent Hill, it's sudden and stressful noises.
- Silent Hill, they are sad melodies.
- Silent Hill, what is the tone of the first Wednesday of each month.
- Silent Hill, they are disturbing and ugly monsters.
- Silent Hill, it is a fetched stor.
- Silent Hill, it is full of chapters, all different and exciting.
- Silent Hill is Alessa. But too Pyramid Head, and nurses. 
- Silent Hill, I am here every time I take the subway!
- Silent Hill, is a city in which we will never set foot.

Come on, let's go ! 

Silent Hill is my Revelation !

for more information you can go to the official French website of the game Silent Hill : http://www.silenthill.fr/

Resident Evil, the video game.

Resident Evil

Welcome to the Umbrella Corporation

No, I will not talk about Milla Jovovich, it would hurt us all. I'm not saying I do not like her, but... she has nothing to do there! 

Go back to our sheep and really talking about Resident Evil!

Resident Evil, what is it ? 

Resident Evil (Biohazard in Japan, バイオ ハザード?, Baiohazādo) is a action adventure video game, type survival horror, developed and published by Capcom in 1996 on PlayStation. Conceived and directed by Shinji Mikami, Resident Evil is a monument of horror video games, marking the beginning of the Resident Evil series.

  

Resident Evil, the story : 

Strange things have happened in the mountains surrounding the town of Raccoon City. Many people were indeed missing, and the torn body of a young hiker was found in a river. The police then think to deal with a pack of wild dogs or larger predators such as bears or cougars. But the murders continue and we think increasingly a kind of cult, that would certainly be installed in the immense forest surrounding Raccoon City.
The city decided to react, and then the police sends members of the team Bravo of STARS (Special Tactics and Rescue Squad), an elite unit specializing in muscular and dangerous interventions, to remove the mystery of these "murders". But the team Bravo disappeared above the forest and all communications were suddenly cut off.

Albert Wesker, captain of STARS in Raccoon City, decides to intervene itself and to leave with the team  Alpha, to trace the team Bravo, and investigate. Just arrived at the scene of the crash of the team Bravo's helicopter, problems arise : Joseph Frost is eaten alive by zombie dogs (the Cerberus), driver of their helicopter fled with the device for fear of being attacked and the rest of the team flees to avoid ending up in lint. They run to take refuge in a mysterious mansion located not far away ...

We are far from incredible stories of Milla Jovovich, isn't it? 

For me :

I love this game, because the story is simple and full of suspense. And I love shooting the zombies!
I don't have a favorite character, and if I had to choose a Resident Evil, I think I would choose the 5, because it was a shotgun in unlimited mode! And we can play with two players.
And I do love movies just for the rendering, and it's really all ! For me, the films from Resident Evil are not Resident Evil, and I think they should change the title to something more similar to what they offer, like "Alice in Umbrella Corporation". It would make a comic parallelism with "Alice in Wonderland".

"It", the movie, and more, the book !

"It"

It come back

"It" is income, also known under the title "It", directed by Tommy Lee Wallace, released in 1990. It is an adaptation of Stephen King's novel "It".

"It", what it's about?

Periodically, in the small town of Derry, in Maine, tragic events occur. Children disappear, others are killed, shredded body. Six boys and a girl of eleven, forming a group of faithful friends, pursue this "thing" abominable who hunt in their thoughts, who lives in an abandoned sewer and may take the form that pleases him, including that of a clown named Pennywise that attracts children with colored balloons.

They'll be able to destroy the monster, but thirty years later, the past returns.
Become adults, small heroes of 1958 come together to face again evil at pure state. A long and perilous struggle that requires love and friendship to defeat "It", which also can be afraid... .

Why I like this movie?

Firstly, you should know that I also read the book, split into two volumes, and I really enjoyed reading this book! I appreciate the "almost" loyalty of movie from the book. 

"It", this's primarily a clown. A clown who scares and eats children.
A clown that can appear with shower discharge holes, which make vomiting sinks of blood and nobody sees.

The first time I saw this series, I was paralyzed to the point of not being able to take a shower or bath without fear that a clown appears by the exhaust hole. Later, when I saw this film again, I realized that if this movie scared, this is not only because images - because in the end we do not see much - but mainly because of the psychological approach of the film. The behavior of the clown, following the group of misfits without hurting them but always threatening them, his turn autistic completely crazy, his look, his long face which gives the impression of being inflated like a balloon. The atmosphere, the parents who are crazy and who see nothing. This is an oppressive loneliness which affects not only the children in the film, but also those who look it.

Yes, this film is scary, and makes uncomfortable!

Stephen King is crazy! And we become hammer with him.

Freddy Krueger, Nightmare on Elm Street

Freddy Krueger, Nightmare on Elm Street

one, two, Freddy will cut in two

 

 

The story :

Freddy Krueger was born in 1942 in a hospital in Springwood. Amanda Krueger, his mother was accidentally locked in a room with hundreds of patients, who raped her and put her pregnant. Nine months later, she gave birth to Freddy and died in childbirth.

The little Freddy doesn't have a happy childhood.

When Freddy will be married and will haveca child, he will commit many murders of children. He will kill twenty in an old abandoned boiler in Springwood. First charged, it will be released due to a missing signature. One evening, after the killer has claimed another victim in the boiler, parents gather around his house and set it on fire, using Molotov cocktails. Freddy, trapped inside will be burnt alive. But fear, always present in people allows Freddy to relive in their nightmares. This is he will attack adolescents in the "Rue de l'Orme" (Elm Street).

After : 

Years later, completely forgotten by the entire population of Springwood, he managed to resurrect with another diabolical creature : Jason Voorhees (Friday the 13th). This commit murders in the city and everyone will think that Freddy is once again back, and fear will give strength to Freddy who will terrorize the city once again, before giving up the ghost permanently thanks in part to Jason.

For me :

Freddy Krueger, it's an iconic character, specially with :

- his claws

- his sweater striped dark green and red, and his hat

- his face burnt

It is also a film about dreams. And a dream is something that intrigues me a lot. That die in his dream  returns to die for real ; and whether we are really ourselves, when we are in our own dream or if we are only a pale imitation of what we would be, with another self-insurance and another fear and if it will still be enough to survive. Finally, the dream is another world, another country, another world in which we evolve, and in which others can always reach us.