Spliced

[sandwichboy]

So, I saw Splice this week, having read review after review (Including one from handful_ofdust ) talking about how thought provoking, fascinating, and well executed a movie it was and I thought "huh. I guess it's NOT as fucking stupid and rote as the trailers make it out to be." Apparently some REALLY BAD THINGS happen in it and it caused a lot of polarizing

Comments

[shiroiko]

I reiterate my thought that I thought 90% of it was quite excellent and the other 10% was intensely disturbing in a way that made me physically ill afterward

[sandwichboy]

I think in part we're talking about two different things and I didn't make that clear enough. YOU made clear that apart from those two big squick moments, you found the movie fascinating and well done. Those two moments, because they came so late in the game, left you leaving the theatre feeling upset, but you still did not condemn the entire film as being a poor creation on the whole. From what I've seen of most negative reviews, and certainly the ones in LJ comment threads, this is far from a common view. An entire thread of about a hundred people wrote it off entirely based upon a rather jaundiced review, and many like Yuki Onna have dismissed the entire movie and called it an overall failure almost entirely because of the sex scenes. THAT I take issue with. I mean, it's all personal opinion, but it fucking pisses me off to see such a good work shat upon or dismissed outright, especially by so many who haven't even seen it

[shiroiko]

I actually DO think the movie was, overall, bad, despite the fact that if you could remove 10-20% of it and give it a better ending it would have been excellent. I found the end to be shocking for the sake of shocking and not necessarily true to the rest of the story. A shite ending can still make an otherwise good movie crappy overall

[maradydd]

I won't be going to see it, but that's because the trailers alone have me convinced that I would not be able to stop myself from throwing things at the screen due to the crap science.

[sandwichboy]

yyyyyyyyyyyeah...the crap science is considerably less lazy and idiotic than 90% of the crap science out there, but it IS still clearly smelling of the excrement of a male bovine. To it's credit though, it'd dealt with in a manner that isn't distracting, though I suspect you're far more discerning of such things than I am.

[haruhiko]

Haha, this is my main reason for not seeing it either.

[ginny_t]

yuki_onna's specific complaint was that movie reviews are so spoiler avoidant that they don't discuss plot at all. Yeah, it's a monster movie, but there's all kinds of monster movies that don't include rape. Considering the sexual violence statistics out there, and the suspicion that there's a whole lot more unreported sexual violence, it's very likely that in every showing, there are going to be several people who've been raped, and this movie could severely undo their recovery. I don't think it's unreasonable to be upset about that.

However, do not see this movie if you have even the SLIGHTEST of rapesquicks…
That's all anyone's asking for.

[andora]

Beautifully put, Ginny.

[sandwichboy]

While I understand what you're saying, at the same time the primary undercurrent of the entire horror genre has pretty much been allegory for sexual violence since the beginning. If said rape victims are still in the rather delicate, easily re-traumatized phase of recovery, then I'd have to say that for their own sake that they probably shouldn't be watching films whose theme has historically been entirely built around that kind of trauma, regardless of how overt said film may choose to be. Sure, the reviews could have been a bit more forthcoming, but it's very difficult to discuss the scenes in question out of context in any meaningful way without giving away a rather significant part of the story, and you'd be hard pressed to find a reviewer that's okay with that.

[ginny_t]

Your assertion that the horror genre is built upon sexual violence is hugely problematic. You present that as a defence. If it is true (which I don't know the genre well enough to say), it is a condemnation of the entire genre.

I wholeheartedly disagree. However, I see no value in continuing to try to discuss this. You've entirely dismissed everything I said.