Horror Movie Month (My Name is Bruce)

[The Germanator]

Originally Posted by manasecret

I had a coworker come in the other day with the exact same reaction. He said it was terrible. What causes such polarity on a movie like this? The same thing happened with Blair Witch.

I think the polarity is caused by expectations. Sometimes you go into a movie expecting something, usually seeded into your brain by the trailer. But when you actually see the movie, not only does it not give you what you expected, you get the exact opposite and so your reaction is that the movie is terrible because it didn't give you what you were wanting. This phenomenon coincides with the fact that you often choose the movie you're watching based on what you want to watch. If you choose an action movie, but then to your total surprise, you get a love drama, you're likely to hate the movie even if it's the best love drama ever. It's just expectations. This has happened to me before.

In this case, I guess you expected a more typical horror movie, and when you didn't get that it polarized you to the I hate this movie side. Despite the general consensus that this is one of the creepiest films ever, and at the very least if not a great film then certainly not a total "piece of shit".

Or you just didn't like it

I completely disagree. I judge a horror movie based on how creepy, frightening, disturbing it is -- the best of which leave me mentally disturbed for days after watching -- not on how much "happened". And, on that criteria, this is the best horror movie I have seen in a long time. To me, the most frightening moments on film are what they don't show you and what they don't explain. Your own imagination creates the most frightening images to fill in the blanks. This movie knows that.

It still creeps me out sometimes when I'm walking around my house at night in the dark.

That isn't to say I don't like some other movies that follow the more typical formula of story arc and spooky/gory things popping out or happening. But the good ones like that are like 1 in a 100, for me.

I agree with you a lot about expectations. I had similar feelings about Blair Witch Project when it first came out, but after watching Paranormal Activity, Blair Witch Project looks like a masterpiece to me again. The thing is, I did know what I was expecting. I knew I was getting a film made for $11,000 by amateurs, and I was curious how they'd go about it. Color me not impressed.

I'm not sure I agree with you in terms of what I was expecting though. I was expecting to be scared, creeped out, terrified, etc. Those are the things I expect from a horror film. Instead I got poor acting and dull 20 minutes conversations in between doors closing and bed sheets moving. If the things that did happen in the film weren't that troubling, than how am I supposed to be disturbed by the things that I "can't see" or "don't happen?"

I agree with you that this is a different style of horror movie and I think this style of horror movie can work, it just didn't this time. Drag Me To Hell was a far better horror movie, I don't care what style. It was genuinely scarier and more fun to watch. Also, I just watched "Coraline" a couple nights ago and parts of that were much scarier than anything in Paranormal Activity.

I think the horror genre is the most difficult to make a good film out of. I feel like there may be less than 30 or 20 great horror films ever made, and I appreciate the direction that the Paranormal Activity people went, but just because it's somewhat original doesn't mean it's any good.