I just want to lie responsibly
I wanted to watch more movies, after my lovely two days of trailers, so I went to my local video store - which, apart from not having a great selection, is also not 'barrier free' and will easily admit neither wheelchair nor pram (and why do passing businessmen not help the mum struggling with the pram up the concrete steps, huh, where are the gentlemen?) - and I was fortunate enough to find both the Proposition and Freedomland. I'd read good stuff about the Proposition, and I'd wanted to see Freedomland since I'd seen the trailer.It was one of those situations where I'd convinced myself that freaky supernatural stuff was going on Freedomland, based on the trailer and a probable crossed wire with Julianne Moore and the Forgotten, and the hint of the mysterious missing son. Of course, it was a much better movie for not being freaky and supernatural. Just a good, solid movie. Both movies had great, complex characters, well-acted, in terrible, tough situations. Great storytelling. It was an interesting contrast with Joss-Whedonish storytelling, where everything feels intricately sculpted, so that all of the characters make a particular, planned shape. I'm thinking (and this probably makes no sense, but it's the image that sticks at the moment) of my tomato plant - each character being a tendril, a branch, all twining around a central story. The two movies I've just seen didn't feel like that at all. The characters were like messy, complicated sacks of stuff, in comparison. People rubbing up against each other, coming into conflict, offering understanding if they were lucky, reaching out to each other, misunderstanding, being real people. Very cool. I enjoyed them both a lot. Though the Proposition was very grim - not a good time or place to be a woman. And the story itself left me feeling empty.
Complete change of subject - been thinking today (while watching Event Horizon again) about science fiction and horror, and fantasy and horror. Mostly that there seems to be a few sci fi horror stories out there, but precious few fantasy horrors. This paragraph is about to be the culmination of an afternoon of idle thinking, and a bit of after-work discussion with
merknz, and it's also past midnight, so prepare for disjointedness.
What is it about sci fi that lends itself to horror, where fantasy doesn't? Is it possible to write a fantasy story similar in setting and tone to, say, Event Horizon or Alien? In no particular order: horror juxtaposes the odd/unnatural/supernatural with the human/prosaic/mundane - aliens in the cargo bay. Fantasy, by it's very nature, is already fantastical. It's harder to get that shock of mundane versus uncanny. People just doing their job in the sci fi world can be so very normal, but jobs in fantasy stories are not so normal. You expect magic, and other dimensions, and beings from other places. (Are there any sci fi horrors set in a universe that has an integrated alien population? Because that would likely have the same problems.) Ghosts just aren't so suprising in a fantasy. And
merknz really hit the nail on the head when he pointed out that you can easily put yourself in the place of sci fi folks - sure you could be a lowly space marine, or a techie engineer on a salvage ship - it's just a few years in the future, after all - but it's not so easy to imagine youself backwards into a fantasy, and to some extent, horror depends on your ability to put yourself into the picture for it's power over you. If you can't empathize, it just doesn't work as well. There's also that contrast between the setting - metal, human-made, linear, empty, purposeful - and the chaotic, crazy nature of the horror. Very effective. I was watching the lovely ship they designed for Event Horizon and wondering what the fantasy equivalent of the spaceship is? 'Castle' was what I came up with. This great, ambitious structure, designed to protect and serve a population, so very wrong when empty and echoing - with all the corridors and hidey-holes for searches and pursuits. No self-destruct, though. Pity. That's always a great scene. (Though why do they always seem to vent steam everywhere while counting down to self-destruct?) But, for instance, I could imagine a fantasy story where a troop of soldiers (space marines) come across an abandoned fortress (spaceship) in the middle of nowhere (drifting in space) only to find that a wizard (government scientist) has opened a portal (portal) to another dimension and let in monsters.
It's well and truly bed-time.