Quote:
Originally Posted by Sculpt
Hey RDB! Good to hear from ya!
Well, it's been a while since I've seen them, so allow me to be more general...
In regards to saying I wasn't a big fan of From Beyond, I know that's likely to get folks to say some nasty things to you  . But it's pretty simple, it's a personal peeve I have with a high percent of Giallo films: I don't like illogical scenes. I can take a dream sequence in a film with the best of them, but a film that's full of illogical scenes irks me.
From Beyond, as far as remember, doesn't announce its dream sequence but it's full of illogical, unreal, and impossible scenes, including jump-cuts. You know, like the spiders killing the dude the way they did. If you know the film well, you already know what I mean. So it's just not something I enjoy. I still appreciated the film and enjoyed it in my own way, I'm just not a fan.
I was very looking forward to Opera. The trailers I saw had some great shots (thinking of movement shots through the crowded theatre). But the film as a whole had very few impressive shots (as I recall). It had some unrealistic scenes (thinking of killing scenes in the big room with props) where victims should have moved or escaped, stuff like that... which I was prepared for, but still rather something I endure. Overall, I just didn't find the story all that intriguing; and didn't really find it all that suspenseful or exciting either. I know Opera was very well received by critics, but I just have to be honest. Maybe I was in a horrible mood, and I should give it a second look. |
Thanks, nice to be remembered :-)
Ok, I gotcha. That's kind of what I was wondering as far as The Beyond.
Fulci described The Beyond as "absolute cinema". It's "like" a nightmare. You have a setting in this case a house over a gateway to hell and then you have some zombies. The rest is just a series of events that happen. Much like in a dream you can be in one room with something happening and then walk into another and something else is going on. It's random to an extent, but shaped and/or tied together sometimes by the setting. That's kind of what is going on with The Beyond. It's not that it's a dream and it's not a film with a definite plot, it's here's a setting and here's some things that happened. Just a brief glimpse of time at a particular location. It's definitely an acquired taste but I guess because I can relate to the nightmare like aspect of it I find it one of his best works.
As far as Argento's Opera well, maybe because I actually listen to opera a good deal I enjoyed the story line a little more than some others, but I thought some of his ideas, like the needles beneath the eyes so you can't close your eyes to things were really inventive and statements often about life in general. I showed it to several friends over the years who were horror film enthusiasts and usually along with Tenebre and Suspiria it ranked among their favorites from Argento's catalogue.
But either way, thanks, it's been a while since I've been on and it's nice to talk about some stuff like this. I'm trying to find a little more time to pop in once in a while and see what's going on. I'm so out of the horror loop these days I've missed pretty much the last decade, although a lot of people say I haven't missed much