I was thinking of new thread ideas whilst trimming my hedges yesterday (to look at them, I think Jason could've done a better job w/ his machete than I did w/ my electric trimmers. let's just say they probably won't need any trimming for awhile).
I posted a thread way back when about how much I hate horror movie cliches, and the one where the heroine falls down while running from the monster/killer has GOT to be the one I hate the most.
But then I got to thinkin': the film that inspired that rant/thread was "Penny Dreadful", one of After Dark's 8 films to die for at last year's Horrorfest. By way of background, Penny is a teenage girl w/ a phobia of cars. She witnessed both her parents die - horribly - in front of her as a child in a car accident. So her therapist takes her on a road trip as a sort of confront-your-fears type of aversion therapy. Along the way, they clip a hitchhiker, & of course the therapist offers him a ride to make up for it. And of course, he's the psycho killer the radio's been talking about having just escaped the local mental hospital. So he chases Penny from the car, and she trips and falls. I was kind of pissed when I first saw this, because I liked the film, and thought their resorting to this hack bit cheapened it just a bit.
But now, I think this may have been the only example of this bit that actually advanced the plot of the film; it may be the only one that ISN'T a hack bit.
Why? Because Penny knocks herself unconscious, and when she comes to, the killer has dragged her back inside the car, which he's wedged into a stand of trees in such a way that the doors can't be opened & it's stuck in mud & can't drive. He then proceeds to torture Penny, who's out of her mind being trapped in a car to begin with. I know there's other ways he could have gotten her in there, and they could've avoided the whole cliche in the first place, but uif they had to go that route, at least THIS ONE TIME, it led to something.
I can't think of any more. Can anyone else? And do you agree w/ my thesis at all, or have I lost it, and this is ALWAYS a shitty, hacky bit that we'd like to see innumerable filmmakers drug out into the street and shot for indulging in?
I posted a thread way back when about how much I hate horror movie cliches, and the one where the heroine falls down while running from the monster/killer has GOT to be the one I hate the most.
But then I got to thinkin': the film that inspired that rant/thread was "Penny Dreadful", one of After Dark's 8 films to die for at last year's Horrorfest. By way of background, Penny is a teenage girl w/ a phobia of cars. She witnessed both her parents die - horribly - in front of her as a child in a car accident. So her therapist takes her on a road trip as a sort of confront-your-fears type of aversion therapy. Along the way, they clip a hitchhiker, & of course the therapist offers him a ride to make up for it. And of course, he's the psycho killer the radio's been talking about having just escaped the local mental hospital. So he chases Penny from the car, and she trips and falls. I was kind of pissed when I first saw this, because I liked the film, and thought their resorting to this hack bit cheapened it just a bit.
But now, I think this may have been the only example of this bit that actually advanced the plot of the film; it may be the only one that ISN'T a hack bit.
Why? Because Penny knocks herself unconscious, and when she comes to, the killer has dragged her back inside the car, which he's wedged into a stand of trees in such a way that the doors can't be opened & it's stuck in mud & can't drive. He then proceeds to torture Penny, who's out of her mind being trapped in a car to begin with. I know there's other ways he could have gotten her in there, and they could've avoided the whole cliche in the first place, but uif they had to go that route, at least THIS ONE TIME, it led to something.
I can't think of any more. Can anyone else? And do you agree w/ my thesis at all, or have I lost it, and this is ALWAYS a shitty, hacky bit that we'd like to see innumerable filmmakers drug out into the street and shot for indulging in?
