Just shtuff

[feliciakw]

Paranormal Activity

After hearing this movie praised by a few friends (Izhi and a couple of theater peeps from back home who are really into horror), Geo and I gave Paranormal Activity a try. I don't think he was really enthused about seeing it, but after it was over, I think he actually liked it better than I did. Not that I didn't like it. It just tickles me when I tell him we should watch something he isn't really interested in, and I end up being right. *g*

Wonderfully understated, "cheap" thrills. By cheap, I mean the movie was made on the shoestring budget of $15,000 (and even that was over budget). Shot in the director's house, with only an outline of each scene. (I wondered how much ad libbing was going on.) It's a slow build, and most of the scares are based on what you (or the characters) don't see. It's very skillfully constructed and is, for my money, waaaaaaaayyyyyyyy better than Blair Witch Project, which is what I was afraid it was going to be like at first with the video camera. (Blair Witch gave me a headache with its camera work, and honestly? I remember nothing of the trek in the woods. I thought the best part was the interviews with the townspeople. And when my bro and sis-in-law saw it in the theater, SIL had to leave because it made her motion sick. Anyway, Paranormal Activity wasn't like that.)

It was a very uncomfortable movie for me, in that it made me the kind of scared that haunted houses did when I was a kid. It's the kind of movie I have to consciously not think about when walking around my house afterward. It's not what you can see that scares you, it's what's making noise and lurking in the dark. I was actually only glancing at the screen by the climax because I knew that whatever it was was going to either A) jump out at me; or B) be incredibly, understatedly creepy that it would stick with me for a long while.

It's also the kind of movie that makes me say out loud when one of the characters is being an idiot. Heh.

Luckily, that's not what I went to bed on. We watched The Whole Truth afterward. And may I say that Rob Morrow is aging as charmingly as ever? Not that he's "old" by any means, but he's sixteen years the senior of my other thespic infatuation. Can they be in a show together, please? Preferably in something wherein they're required to wear kevlar?



More Lost Boys

Another SPN/Lost Boys comparison to add to the list. In each show, the older brother gets (almost) turned into a vampire. I mean, he gets turned, but it's not permanent. Neither one feeds.



The Trouble With Sam

Upon re-watch of LFoTH, something occurred to me. I think it's pretty safe to say that Sam let Dean get turned on purpose, that he did so knowing about the cure (which he conveniently forgot to tell Dean about). Sam let Boris escape for a reason: so they'd have to infiltrate the nest to get the cure, and therefore get inside the nest to see what was going on. However, Sam failed to anticipate a few things.

1) That Dean would escape to go say good-bye to Lisa. Or as Samuel thought was more likely, that Dean would escape to go feed, because "He's not himself, Sam. He's a monster, and he's hungry." Sam, knowing about the cure, knew that if Dean fed, he'd be turned permanently. Yeah, they'd still have their inside man, but they'd have to kill him. But apparently Sam thought Dean would be strong enough to fight the hunger. (Which is actually to Sam's credit, but it was still an incredibly reckless and risky course of action to take with his own brother, letting Dean out of his sight.)

2) Sam did not count on Dean going to the nest alone. After it was decided that Dean would infiltrate the nest because he was one of them, Sam immediately said he'd go with. He did not count on Dean telling him no, that there was no way anyone could go with Dean, because Sam reeked like a walking hamburger. Sam's next excuse was that they hadn't found the nest yet, to which Dean replied that he knew exactly where it was. Was Sam concerned that he wouldn't be there to back Dean up? Or was he frustrated that he wouldn't get to go into the nest? Or was it a combination of the two . . . that he suddenly realized that this could go south very easily and he could actually lose Dean, and in doing so, lose his only line of insider information, and risking his brother would have been for zilch? Sam, for being a better hunter than you ever were, I'm thinkin' that you're not thinkin' through all possible scenarios. And if you are, and you're still willing to risk Dean . . . *squinty eyes at you*

3) And this is my own thinking . . . Dean, had he been hopelessly desperate and not believed that Samuel would be willing to gank him, and not learned about the cure, Dean would have found a way to decapitate himself. We've seen a window act as a guillotine on the show before. Dean is resourceful enough that were he left with no other choice, he could have figured a way.



Thoughts on Samuel

I know a lot of the fandom doesn't trust the Campbells. And I'm not saying they don't have some 'splaining to do, but I'm inclined to trust Samuel. Perhaps not in a warm and fuzzy, flufffy kind of way, but when it comes to hunting, he is about saving those who need to be saved. He's a "tough love" kind of hunter. His methods are no-nonsense, but his goal is to prevent unnecessary death of innocents and allies. He does what needs to be done, and he was willing to kill Dean if there was no other choice (or if Dean insisted). But if there was another option? He's not going to ignore it. At least not when it comes to his grandson.

Yes, Samuel is going to continue to make things interesting, I think.