Dreams and hallucinations can be the broadest of horror staples. Throw in some weird imagery, maybe a few jarring cuts, and you have an instant scare. But an effective dream sequence is more than technique, it’s a filmmaker capturing a specific type of fear: losing control, having your life shattered, or meeting a manifestation of your guilt. The dream or the hallucination is the character’s psyche putting the pieces together or falling apart completely. Of course, dreams don’t always require messages. Sometimes, they’re just damn scary.
****
Aliens (1986)- Ripley’s nightmare
Aliens is the perfect sequel for many reasons. It follows in the footsteps of the original 1979 classic while existing as its own entity and delivering new characters that are just as memorable as the first’s. What’s more, it favors high-tension action scenes over more traditional horror-centric scenes, demonstrating the malleability of the series.
****
Aliens (1986)- Ripley’s nightmare
Aliens is the perfect sequel for many reasons. It follows in the footsteps of the original 1979 classic while existing as its own entity and delivering new characters that are just as memorable as the first’s. What’s more, it favors high-tension action scenes over more traditional horror-centric scenes, demonstrating the malleability of the series.
- 10/14/2015
- by Staff
- SoundOnSight
Long before The Usual Suspects and The Sixth Sense made it a commonplace institution, the twist ending was a tool rarely used by screenwriters, a choice of brevity which stopped the trope from becoming a stale and predictable attempt to garner some sensationalism. A superb slice of existential horror and dread from the start of the nineties, the criminally underrated Jacob’s Ladder, has as its crux a conclusion that ultimately determines the fate of the terrifying and disturbing nightmare that preceded it, defining its success. As you’d expect considering its esteem landing it a place in this column, it is a final gambit that while stark, savage and shocking, is ultimately an emphatic way to end one hell of a rollercoaster seemingly designed by the twisted minds of Hr Giger and Zdzislaw Beksinski.
Tim Robbins is the titular Jacob Singer, a traumatized Vietnam veteran who’s mismatched post-divorce...
Tim Robbins is the titular Jacob Singer, a traumatized Vietnam veteran who’s mismatched post-divorce...
- 3/24/2013
- by Scott Patterson
- SoundOnSight
To many people Valentines Day is a wonderful reminder of the love which they share with one and other, and the only day of the year in which it’s possible to glowingly gush without seeming like a worryingly overly enthusiastic human teddy bear. However, to many more it’s a day of crass consumerism – in which thousands of pounds are spent on sickly chocolates and flowers – and much worse, a bitter reminder of loneliness and the fact that yes, you’re still sitting around in your pants eating salty snacks and watching bad late-night TV.
For anyone who falls into the latter camp, here are 10 films for your consideration, all of which should give you a warm fuzzy feeling inside about being comfortably alone and far better off for it. Please also spend a moment of your day thinking of those less fortunate, who will spend tonight being forced...
For anyone who falls into the latter camp, here are 10 films for your consideration, all of which should give you a warm fuzzy feeling inside about being comfortably alone and far better off for it. Please also spend a moment of your day thinking of those less fortunate, who will spend tonight being forced...
- 2/14/2012
- by Stephen Leigh
- Obsessed with Film
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