A Deep and Disturbing Feeling
I watched "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" this weekend, a remake to a 1973 horror classic. I'm not a huge horror fan but I have been on a horror kick recently and this seems to have been the cumulation of it.
It was really a disturbing film. It was not so much the blood and guts (that come standard with pretty much any horror film) that made it terrible. It was more the stark realism of the film and the feeling that this truly could have happened (I thought I had heard that it was based on a true story (it isn't), making it all the more grim). That feeling of stark reality stayed with me through about the first 2/3 of the film, which for me is the longest I have ever watched a film before relaxing back into the "this is pure fantasy" feeling. I think I would have been even more disturbed if I hadn't had to turn the film off halfway through to make sure the young lady I was watching the film with (who had reverted to the fetal position, fingers jammed in her ears) wasn't going to get up and leave.
More than anything, what disturbed me the most about the film was the whole deep south rotting motif. As many beautiful things there are about the south (and there are many), there are certainly parts where life hasn't moved into the 20th century, much less the new millenium. Yellowing black and white pictures, rotting houses, lots of pickled pigs feet, hot wet summers, dirt roads, broken eyeless dolls, rotting people who are still alive... you know I really don't know how to describe it. The Drive-by Truckers once wrote "There's a lot of bad wood underneath the veneer." I think that describes some of it.
Anyway, more than anything, I think that motif, and my own personal experience with the south (much of which was wonderful) reinforced the idea that there are old counties and dead end roads that people simply don't come back from. Any thoughts and ideas? I would really like to hear some other peoples' ideas on this.
It was really a disturbing film. It was not so much the blood and guts (that come standard with pretty much any horror film) that made it terrible. It was more the stark realism of the film and the feeling that this truly could have happened (I thought I had heard that it was based on a true story (it isn't), making it all the more grim). That feeling of stark reality stayed with me through about the first 2/3 of the film, which for me is the longest I have ever watched a film before relaxing back into the "this is pure fantasy" feeling. I think I would have been even more disturbed if I hadn't had to turn the film off halfway through to make sure the young lady I was watching the film with (who had reverted to the fetal position, fingers jammed in her ears) wasn't going to get up and leave.
More than anything, what disturbed me the most about the film was the whole deep south rotting motif. As many beautiful things there are about the south (and there are many), there are certainly parts where life hasn't moved into the 20th century, much less the new millenium. Yellowing black and white pictures, rotting houses, lots of pickled pigs feet, hot wet summers, dirt roads, broken eyeless dolls, rotting people who are still alive... you know I really don't know how to describe it. The Drive-by Truckers once wrote "There's a lot of bad wood underneath the veneer." I think that describes some of it.
Anyway, more than anything, I think that motif, and my own personal experience with the south (much of which was wonderful) reinforced the idea that there are old counties and dead end roads that people simply don't come back from. Any thoughts and ideas? I would really like to hear some other peoples' ideas on this.
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