Frightening Films

Tony writes:

Michael and I decided that for October we would watch one “horror” movie each week leading up to Halloween. We chose Let the Right One In (Sweden), The Devil’s Backbone (Spain), Splice (Canada/France) and The Orphanage (Spain). The subject matter of each film varied and included entities such as vampires, ghosts and a scientifically created creature. One of the common elements was that all the films except Let the Right One In were produced by Spanish filmmaker , Guillermo del Toro, who is probably best known as the director of Hellboy and Pan's Labyrinth. We both were taken with how different the films felt from typical US horror movies. The pacing was much slower and methodical. The films did not seem preoccupied with cheap scares. They were thoughtful and in-depth portrayals of everyday people caught up in other-worldly situations. What caught my attention was the fact that the “monster” in each film was eventually portrayed as a sympathetic character while some of the “real” people were the actual fiends. This theme was especially so in Let the Right One In and The Devil’s Backbone. One final note, I think that the swimming pool scene at the end of Let the Right One In was one of the most clever horror scenes ever. If you get a chance, check it out.