VERY IMPORTANT: WINSTON IS DRESSED AS A GLO-WORM

What I reckon: ‘Paranormal Activity’

The most important thing about ‘Paranormal Activity’ is that it was scary; legitimately, cringe into your seat, peek through your fingers scary, the kind of film you want to see in a packed cinema with no real understanding of what will happen. So, to that end, I’ll put the rest of this under a cut.

Read the rest of this entry »

And now back to our regularly scheduled cat videos

Of mixed provenance.

So I saw ‘Paranormal Activity’

It was the first film of the Hello Darkness film festival. The screening was totally sold out, so we had to sit near the front. When the Hello Darkness ID flashed on screen I, in typically tactful fashion, snorted ‘worst curated film festival EVER.’ At which point the people sitting in front of us stood up, went to the podium and introduced themselves as curators of the festival.

It was rude and I immediately regretted it. Still, I stand by my opinion. I’m grateful they brought out ‘Paranormal Activity’ before the general release, but as a horror festival it’s a totally wasted opportunity. When I came across Hello Darkness in the MIFF newsletter I was thrilled and immediately looked up the program, only to find that the only new films they were showing were a remake (‘Last House on the Left’ – really?) and a sequel (‘Descent 2′ – really?). I adored ‘High Tension,’ ‘Sheitan’ looks promising, I’ve never heard of ‘Dead Man’s Shoes,’ but ‘Let The Right One In’? Really? Really? You have the screen at ACMI, you set yourself the task of putting together a horror film festival, and you screen the Bill Henson version of ‘Twilight’ that, oh yeah, had a general release last year? This is not to say it’s not a worthy film, but the program could have been so, so much better.

My biggest problem with the festival is that, at a time when horror largely consists of remakes and sequels, they had an opportunity to showcase some of the amazing independent, original horror films doing the festival circuit. I have no idea what it takes to put on a festival, or what they were trying to achieve, and I’m totally projecting my own desires to see interesting, original horror in Australian cinemas, but I’m almost bitterly disappointed that the curators chose to give screen time to a remake and sequel. ‘Paranormal Activity’ was a late addition, and, again, while I was glad to see it, it’s got a huge amount of buzz behind it and it’ll get a general release anyway. Original horror needs support, and I’m sad that Hello Darkness didn’t provide it.

VERY IMPORTANT: THIS SKUNK IS VERY FAT

Apparently he likes sandwiches. Via Neatorama.