Contracted, the Movie and Three More Thing Not to Do.

As always this is from the viewpoint of writing and not a movie critique per say. This is more to ask the question of what when wrong and what can be learned from this? Fine line, I know.

So with that said I just finished forcing my way through, "Contracted." I had truly hoped it was better than what the reviews had reported. The first forty five minutes came across more like a soap opera than a horror story, it had character development, but I wish it had a faster tempo. I honestly had to force my way past this and continued watching it later in the day. Also, the reverse of that, once the story took off and got interesting, character development went out the window and it was eye candy for the most part.

It starts off stating that this is, "Day One," but gives no indication how long the timeline is. When you get to the all important forty five minute mark you start to wonder if there are thirty days of this or ninety days... It should have given the ticking time bomb count down from the get go. It isn't until day three that we learn that there are only three days to the story.

Second, is this mystery character, B.J. that was at the party, he slips something into our main characters drink and rapes her, and is now part of a police investigation, but this is only spoken from one character to another, there is no visual contact for the viewer to make with the investigation and there is no indication of why he is wanted. Not only that but it is systematically brought up throughout the movie as if important, the viewers interest is peaked in this guy, but nothing is said or done about answering the viewers questions ~ unlike Psycho when you gain more interest in the characters and the money is not only lost, but forgotten by the viewer, it isn't continually brought up.

Third, the story ends for no reason. Don't ever end a story so open ended that there is no reason for the story to end. Kill off the main character, solve the mystery to what caused the events to take place, find this B.J. and get some resolution from him, but don't ever end a story fading to black with a scream and nothing answered! That's more annoying than watching a murder mystery and the power goes out as they say, "...and the murder is..." It's like watching a soap opera.

That's my nickle worth of free advise on that.


Toklotox Forluna Tansikna Wun Yoleeblah Morlee & Morlee Itox Ithno Yoleeblah Inx Youloth Crunum Wonnay. With that said, "Sleep with one eye open and have a 'Horrific' day." B)

Coprophages

A look into The X-Files season 3, episode 12, "War of the Coprophages."

This episode has so many things going for it. I truly enjoyed watching this one on many levels and in the end there are no answers found; it's just great story telling. I want to parallel this blog with Alfred Hitchcock's, "The Birds," and why I personally did not like, "The Birds" for for the same reason of no answers in the end.

First let me mention why I did not like, "The Birds" out of the way and I will focus more on the reason I do like this X-Files episode even though both end without everything being answered. In the movie "The Birds," you get no answers at all, there is no character development, no ideas to why the birds are attacking or why they stop, why the characters are there. It plays more like a music video with eye candy. I never was scared for the characters because I had no attachment to them. They simply went through this small ocean front town and left. In the end I did not like it because it didn't focus on the birds and why they were attacking and it did not focus on why the characters were doing what they did.

The basis of the X-Files story has Mulder disappearing to a small town to clear his head and getting pulled into local reports of killer cockroaches. (Which is a borrowed situation from Hichcock of the unsuspecting hero in the wrong place at the wrong time.) The fear of cockroaches is a very common phobia since roaches live on every continent ~ Katsaridaphobia. In the opening scenes an exterminator gives his rant on bugs and history there of and is quickly consumed by roaches (Note the character that hires the exterminator he reoccurs and I missed that fact the first time I watched this.) From the very beginning you are hooked into finding out what is going on, yet this is not a story of the bugs, this is a story of how people react to bugs. The roaches are in fact the, "McGuffin," a mere means for the characters to be brought together so that the story can focus on developing the characters. You can take this formula and plug anything into the slot that grabs the viewer or readers attention. (In Psycho you have the stolen money that gets lost in the story because it isn't about a money theft ~ Psycho is about the characters. The Birds isn't about the characters, and oddly enough, it isn't about the birds ~ See where I'm going?) Other examples are Hellraiser being about the characters and not the box. In Poltergeist it isn't about the poltergeist, it's about the characters. In the original Aliens, it rarely shows the alien because it's about the characters. Plug whatever you want in the McGuffin slot, and write about the characters, tell of their reaction to it. Like I said at the top of the blog I enjoyed this episode on many levels, and this being the center of why. This episode as well as all The X-Files can be found on Netflix.

Toklotox Forluna Tansikna Wun Yoleeblah Morlee & Morlee Itox Ithno Yoleeblah Inx Youloth Crunum Wonnay. With that said, "Sleep with one eye open and have a 'Horrific' day." B)
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