Desicritics Category: Media: Films - Horror

Phoonk - If Thoughts Could Kill

Deepti Lamba — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 09:17:20 EDT

I have yet to meet a person who hasn't wished another human being - death at some point of their lives. Obviously none of them decided to actually carry out the act but asked fate to do it for them .

And these are perfectly nice people. People like you and me who open doors for mothers with strollers, give their seats to old people, love animals, make donations and love their families and friends.

But when rage takes over they wish the victim of their rage- death. Maybe its the impotency of being unable to best the person or feeling invigorated by the sheer malicious of wishing someone ill.

To make matters more complicated in cases such as family disputes often one gets to hear of Tantric influencing; that is - when a person actually dies or falls sick, loses large sums of money- accusations of black magic are made quite easily.

Even amongst the educated, many believe that there are those who can harness dark powers/souls to do their dirty deeds.

It never fails to amaze me when people whisper about finding totkas in their homes or driveways. And they then believe that the misfortune was caused by someone else and wasn't an act of fate or sheer bad luck.

That's when they fall victim to pandits, god-men and astrologers. Sometimes its the other way round when the seeker is told that someone had done - 'jadu tona' on them and heavy sums of money is extracted from them to bring 'harmony' back in their lives.

Do I believe in the power of cursing or in black magic- No. Wouldn't half the world be dead if words and rituals alone could kill people?

Wishing someone ill at a heat of moment is one thing but going to a Tantric to ensure the deed is done is like giving supari to a 'spiritual assassin'.

I have a hard time believing that regular people actually go looking for Babas with killing powers. Kind of hard to believe a harried daughter in law saying - Baba kill my witch of a mother in law but its believable that an innocent daughter in law may be accused of doing so.

When the urban educated continue to believe in these arcane superstitions there is very little to be expected from our villagers.

Related Article : PHOONK- Ram Gopal Varma Film

Movie Review: The Ruins

Deepti Lamba — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 04:27:39 EDT

Keeping the message simple often has a far more dramatic effect than trying to create an out of the box thriller. Shyamalan played on American homegrown terror in the The Happening whereas the movie The Ruins brought terror to an obscure Mayan temple where naive ignorant American tourists found themselves dealing with a horror unheard of by the outside world.

Shyamalan could take a few lessons from Carter Smith. The trauma suffered by the victims in The Ruins was far more palpable than by those in The Happening.

While Shyamalan's movies tend to fizzle somewhere in the middle, The Ruins kept a tight rein on the suspense right till the end. There was no hidden subtext in The Ruins unlike Shyamalan who continues to harp on the post-9/11 effects on American psyche.

The ending of Carter Smith's movie was tinged with dry humor, reflecting touristy ignorance whereas Shyamalan's movie ending was oversimplified and illogical, given the human need to take all kinds of preventive measures when faced with an extreme situation which may cause total annihilation of human existence.

The Ruins and The Happening are both about nature turning against man but that's where the similarities between the two movies end.

Movie Review: The Happening

Aaman Lamba — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 09:52:27 EDT

The Happening is a concept in search of a storyline. It might very well have been a Sci Fi Channel special, tucked away among Sabertooths Attack! and Mansquito on the same channel that gave us the M. Night Shyamalan con job (The Buried Secret of M. Night Shyamalan) last time he had a movie coming out. This is tragic, because it succeeds in ways that would have been above average for a run of the mill B movie director, and yet is many notches below what we know M. Night is capable of.

All the same, the exegesis of the subprime crisis, post-9/11 revisionism, and a million ways to kill yourself combine to produce an intensely unsettling look at 21st century America. The director's reiteration of the unknowable nature of wonders is to be expected - the signs don't explain the happenings, as it were. It is this expectedness of the unexpected that is the problem with M. Night's recent films - it gives us a Brody-view of Kafka, rather than allowing us to experience the unknown for what it is. Dumbing down the material might be appropriate for the mainstream, but when popular culture is so much more challenging and complex, and so are the audiences - life imitating art, or vice versa - the creative artist must rise to the challenge and set ever greater imponderables in our path, not proffer the facile "there are forces at work beyond our understanding" thesis.

The shock value of the film plays on both usual disaster movie themes and classic American Paranoid styles. It becomes hard to distinguish between a neurological infection and fear of the stranger. Post the Green Revolution, it is not hard to imagine the plants might feel the same way, having had enough nitrogenous fertilizer for a decade.

The science teacher turned survivalist is beset by too many issues, rocky marriage notwithstanding. He doesn't get to go on a Resident Evil style rampage, the crisis peaking and tapering off. Life then inexplicably returns to normal, although the plant menace doesn't go away for good.

Neither will M. Night. Give him a year or so and he'll be back with another predictable tale of warnings ignored, dark events, and strange happenings.

Movie Review: Cloverfield

Aaman Lamba — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 00:28:54 EST

Post-WWII, there was a spate of monster movies, mostly the kind that rampaged and pillaged cities. One theory was that these were a reaction to the horrors of war, and particularly the atom bomb. We have fortunately not had to deal with such terror in our generation yet, but nevertheless, there is a sense of having lost our mooring, of being another lost generation, amidst all the prosperity.

Terrorism only crystallizes fear, and in many ways, brings together many tropes of early horror films - from the now-you-see-it, now-you-don't variety, to the 'they're always watching, and they're here'. Of course, there isn't always a monster in every closet, or a spook under every bed. The difference, however, can mean life and death, as it does in the movies.

******MONSTER SPOILERS AHEAD*****

Cloverfield plays on these fears, and more, rendering a fractured perspective on urban life. It dispenses with the steadicam, skilfully rendering what is intended to be handycam footage, and in effect, signifying that the stable truths are no longer valid, strange horrors can interrupt 'the goody-good people who worked shitty jobs for bum paychecks' and their going-away parties. Godzilla stomps Sex and the City, and Spidey won't save the day.

Like the Iraq invasion, however, this Blair Witch Godzilla is mostly a marketing stunt for the Facebook generation, complete with PR-spin, made up backstory about deep sea monsters of mass destruction, and foreign threats turning up in your backyard. This is why, although the film works as a film, it fails in its faux attempt to channel post-9/11 vibe. Unlike The Battle of Algiers, say, Cinema vérité can only take this film so far, and its getting tiresome to see filmmakers expecting viewers to appreciate their knowledge of film trivia, throwing in references of everything that came before. The modern, perhaps infantile, obsession with self-documentation lends credibility to the core structural component of the film - the documentarian who keeps the camera running throughout the fear and destruction. This is an infectious obsession, as we can all attest to, and the final scenes have Rob, the documentarian's brother, hitherto detached from the action, taking up the baton, or camera.

The film channels all the usual suspects, from Alien to The Host, and coming so soon after I Am Legend, The Mist, et al, one can only hope Hollywood moves to another meme soon enough.

If you really need the backstory of the movie, you can't do better than read the IMDB FAQ on Cloverfield.

Movie Review: I Am Legend - Hollywood Ending

Aaman Lamba — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 11:51:03 EST

The effect of the writers' strike seems to be showing up on films made even before it began. The real horror in I Am Legend is not the post-apocalyptic future or the misshapen zombie vampires, but the screenplay and its schmaltzy Hollywood ending. This is a real pity because Will Smith turns in perhaps some of the best solo acting ever, and had they only stuck to the book's plot, we might have had a savory repast. Instead, we are presented with a fine-seeming buffet, only to be asked to sign up for the cruise to be able to enjoy the taste.

The book's post-war themes dealt with a changing world and a man at odds with it, a world where a new society was emerging which finally discards the last survivor of the old age, reminiscent of William Golding's The Inheritors, with the Cro-Magnons discarding the last Neanderthals. The film dispenses with the defeatist themes of the novel, replacing them instead with a sort of American exceptionalism, a belief that there is still hope and the advancing tide of global change can be held back and even reversed by the actions of a few good Americans, or perhaps only one. In this respect, it embraces the Hollywood tradition of Independence Day and the like without reaching the heart of the horror.

The lean and sparse landscape of Southern California and hence Dr Neville's interior world is replaced by the all-too-popular stage set of New York, helping reinforce the post-9/11 intent of the film. The sets are impressive, and the staging of some of the scenes, such as the Brooklyn Bridge one, deserve an Oscar nomination at the very least. The heart-stopping frights work, at least for a while. All the vampires have a vaguely familiar look to them - almost as if they were bastard clones of a blended Lord Voldemort and Gollum. The urban environment is like that in Constantine,which is not surprising, both coming from the same director.

The film's been a long while in the coming, with putative directors such as Ridley Scott and Guillermo del Toro. Francis Lawrence turns in a good effort. The lighting and camerawork is well done. The empty spaces in the midst of the metropolis are more effective than the rarely seen vampires or "dark seekers". He creates significant tension in certain scenes by using silence to great effect. The opening sequences with a deserted New York, overrun by wild things is a fine precursor to the coming darkness. Will Smith gives the role his very best, leaving us to wonder at times whether he has finally gone insane.

The finale is a terrible letdown, however, coming too soon, turning the film into a moralistic creed. and leaving one feeling as betrayed as perhaps Dr. Robert Neville felt when Ruth turned on him in the book.

Movie Review: The Host

Aaman Lamba — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 00:18:51 EDT

In the best tradition of monster movies, Korean flick The Host is both a frightening tale of very bad things that go bump in the night and a political film. From the grand-daddy of them all, King Kong, which took on colonialism, to the monster that ate Tokyo, Godzilla and it's anti-nuclear warning, the monster-political genre has been a rich lode to mine for film-makers.

The Host, directed by Bong-Joon Ho, takes monster film stereotypes and partly upends them in favour of a enviro-political genre film, retaining the monster of course. Apparently inspired by actual events in a U.S. military base in South Korea, the film begins with a tyrannical scientist ordering his assistant to pour every last bottle of formaldehyde and other unspecified poisons down the drain pipe, which connects conveniently enough to the nearby Han river.

Mucho bad chemicals later, and a few years hence, a fisherman lands a hefty catch. This one does not get away, rather, it is the fisherman that is the submarine monster's lunch. Soon after, we get to the monster's rise from the depths - it's got a slightly goofy air to it, and is shaped somewhat like a cross between a velociraptor from Jurassic Park and a trout, or is that an aquatic lizard gone bad? There are significant periods of time with aqua-Zilla lurking underwater, as a family struggles to hunt down it's hiding place in the sewers of the city.

The parallel, political theme of the film starts up soon after the appearance of the monster, when the witnesses are taken away to an 'undisclosed location' while scientists run a battery of tests on them, and politicians rack their brains for a plausible explanation. The American influence is palpable, as is the sense of a post-9/11 vibe. T

he framing of the fight against the monster in the context of one family's personal struggle gives the film greater depth than making it a traditional hero-driven quest or a band of misfits and fallen angels against the evil dark lord kind of story. No, that was the Harry Potter review.

Anyway, the monster continues to appear when you least expect it, inducing quite a few shocking (and not schlocky) moments. The family is separated, and lose one member at the monster's hands. As they draw closer to the lizard's lair, we learn that the US Military is planning a scorched-earth solution to the problem, using Agent Orange-style chemicals to blast the baddie to Axis of Evil territory, where it doubtless came from, as no good doctor would ever do such a horrific thing. The original bad doc being the commanding officer of the US science corps makes this more believable, doubtless.

The rampaging mutant is barely slowed by the chemical attack, and it takes the combined efforts of the decimated family to stop him. The action narrows its focus to their struggle, as we recognize that other dangers might like beneath the river's surface, and wonder what potent combination might be getting brewed as a combination of the earlier and the more recent chemical soups.

Fortunately, we'll find out soon enough. The Korean film industry is not immune to sequel-itis and a follow-on to The Host has been announced. Perhaps this time, the monster will take on Chinese overtones and cause a bird flu epidemic.

Of Monkeys and Modernization

Uma Ranganathan — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 03:19:42 EDT

I first heard about the Dard Shin or Dard tribe, or Broghpas as they are also sometimes called, on account of a hydroelectric project I had read about, which threatens to wipe out the entire ecosystem of the Gurez valley in Kashmir.

The 330 Megawatt, multi million dollar project on the Kishenganga river (still apparently in the initial stages) aims to inundate the entire valley, driving out more than 25,000 people belonging to the Dard tribe. Not only is the unique culture of this little known tribe endangered, but also the wildlife in the region including rare animals like the snow leopard and a number of little researched, exotic species of plants.

This is not the first time that the monster called "I don't care about you" has come to us in the form of modernization. However you try to justify the gains brought about by gigantic projects that adversely affect the lives of poor people, you end up with the fact that precious, sometimes unnameable aspects of our lives and culture are lost through the destruction they bring about. The finer aspects of life are then replaced by some kind of robot like worship of money and grandeur, which has nothing to do with the actual wellbeing of people.

The modernisation of defence in fact seems to have opened the very doors to hell. With so much brain power being invested in creative ways to destroy each other, what has happened is that the same barbaric psychology we human beings have been saddled with for centuries (which nobody bothers to deal with at the emotional level in order for us to be able to overcome it) is multiplied a thousand fold, offering us the potential to destroy the world itself several times over, with a lot more aplomb than before.

You get the strange feeling of an arsenal of lethal equipment having fallen into the hands of a species of deceptively civilized apes. What makes it grotesque are the slick theories and concepts these intelligent apes have managed to formulate to justify its use. At any point however, the leaders of the various monkey factions could get into a serious squabble over a bunch of bananas and send the whole planet hurtling back into the void from which it came.

It is not technology that is the problem, of course. It is our mindset. It's the way we have consistently abused the gift of human intelligence from the word go. It is remarkable how little we have used the advanced circuitry of our brains to make the world a genuinely better place for all, instead of for the benefit of a handful of us.

What else was it I wanted to say about the Dard tribe? Oh yes. The fact that the process of modernization had begun to wear down their culture long before the gigantic hydroelectric project was conceived.

The Broghpas are the last representatives I discovered, of an ancient and unique culture whose influence at one point spanned the area from north eastern Afghanistan to central Tibet. Their fame is even recorded by the ancient Greek and Roman writers. Supposed to be descendants of a group of soldiers who, following the battle with Porus, lost their way returning to Greece, they settled down in the fertile valley of Dhahnu in Ladakh.

Norboo, a scholar who has extensively studied this tribe, describes some of their practices which include cow worship, sacrificial offerings and rituals centered around music, wine and dance at the onset of spring.

The interesting thing is that the Brogpas traditionally practiced polygamy and polyandry. Like the Gonds in central India they did not look down upon pre-marital sex. However, it has been difficult for the tribe to hang on to their cultural roots.

Long before the proposed Kishenganga dam threatened their existence, modern Indian culture (which at its worst is such a horrendous mish mash of old and new prejudices) had begun to chip away at the local customs, which were denounced as "uncivilized." Till 1970, men and women would kiss each other quite openly without consideration for their marital partners. The Indian army, aided by the local urban population in this region however, seems to have changed all this.
The Broghpas began to be initiated into the ways of Victorian prudery (which remains a part of Indian culture long after it has worn off in the country of its origin) and to be ticked off for sinful indulgence.

"We didn't know what shame was," says Tashi a member of the tribe. "But we are learning it gradually, because of modern education and we are giving up our culture and traditions.

"Now we kiss only when there are no outsiders around," he adds. Who knows, soon the Broghpas might stop kissing altogether by which time anyway their homeland would have been flooded by the waters of the great new dam.

It takes so little to destroy a culture, people's spirit, the environment, just about anything you can think of that is valuable. The price we pay for our loss - whether we are speaking of the loss of innocence, our connection with nature or the destruction of our ties with each other - is heavy.

In the scramble for those extra dollars we end up calloused and oblivious to our own and each other's suffering. Those of us who truly mourn the loss of our natural heritage are eventually left to hold each other's hands or to make our way to the nearest psychotherapist whom you have to pay a bomb to sort out the resulting mess in your head.

Canadian Anti-Terror Law Not Struck Down, Only Fair Trial Demanded

Richard Marcus — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 07:18:14 EST

When the Supreme Court of Canada's decision on Security Certificates (the governments right to hold non-resident Canadians suspected of terrorist activities indefinitely without trial) was announced, headlines everywhere shouted that Canada's anti-terror legislation had been found unconstitutional. In actual fact what the Court had ruled was that indefinite imprisonment on the grounds of suspected terrorism was on occasion necessary for reasons of national security, but defendants did deserve a chance to defend themselves, know the charges against them, and have proper representation in court.

They ruled that the Canadian government had a year to come up with a solution to this aspect of the Security Certificate law or face the possibility of it being declared unconstitutional. The Court suggested the Canadian government look to a system the British have developed to deal with the same set of circumstances.

But according to lawyers who have worked in the British system, it is fact unworkable and no more then a ..."fig leaf of respectability and legitimacy to a process which I found odious." Ian Macdonald was a senior member of the team of defence lawyers who were responsible to help defend those detained on the British equivalent of Security Certificates, and obviously from that quote did not think very highly of the system.

Ten years ago Prime Minister Tony Blair of Great Britain authorized the formation of a special panel of defence attorneys who were given the highest possible security clearance. These lawyers were then allowed to represent those individuals being held under the security act by cross examining security agents, and arguing before judges for disclosure of material the state was using as evidence.

But Mr. Macdonald, whose retirement two years ago from the fifteen-member lawyer's panel causes a political furor, said the system was flawed and the hearings were a sham. Since his resignation one other lawyer has resigned, and nine others appeared before a British House of Commons constitutional committee saying they did not believe the process made it possible that those detained received justice.

It is interesting to note that the former Liberal Party of Canada Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan in the previous government had considered this alternative in 2005. For unknown reasons she did not pursue the matter, but it can only be assumed that she or her staff deemed it unworkable for some reason or another.

The problem, Mr. Macdonald said, was the fact they were dealing with vague security risk assessments as provided by special agents, not hard and fast facts like is normal in a criminal law case. So instead of a report by a police officer stating so and so was seen meeting with so and so and carrying away an AK-47 and enough plastic explosive to blow up Buckingham Palace they would receive comments like, He's of Syrian descent; was seen in the company of people who have in the past been considered potential threats; and he could represent some sort of threat to the crown."

That's not really the type of information a lawyer can rebut very easily, because he is not being told anything conclusive. But instead of those cases being dismissed for lack of evidence the Certificates were issued and defendants detained indefinitely. Hence Mr. Macdonald's fig leaf comment and his refusal to keep working for the panel of lawyers.

Will Canada's Supreme Court justices be satisfied with a result of that nature, where only the appearance of due process is given? Will they insist the government ensure that a real case has to be made against defendants, not just vague assurances that he or she posses some sort of threat to peace and stability? A case that will allow a defence attorney to examine real evidence being used against his or her client and enable him or her to mount some semblance of a defence?

If not there would be no real point in appointing any lawyers because it would just be wasting the taxpayer's money. I think the Court should have insisted that not only does the government come up with a system where the defendant can contest their confinement, but are also forced to offer assurances that the system implemented is more then just a veneer of respectability over the same old process.

What the Supreme Court of Canada did last Friday, February 23rd /07 was not strike down the idea of indefinite confinement under the Security Certificate system, but they reinforced the right of every person in our society to have representation during legal proceedings against them no matter what the circumstances. It's now up to the government of Canada to comply with this ruling, and hopefully in a way that is more than just the illusion of justice.