No Core Like The Hardcore

Sunday 08/20/2006 11:37 AM

Wowie zowie.

Do you like your movies scary? Do you like your movies intense? Then check out The Descent.

On some discussion board, someone wrote that The Descent is the perfect blend of terror and horror. That about sums it up.

If you haven't seen the trailers, here's the story: Six women go spelunking in an undiscovered cave system somewhere in the Appalachian Mountains. Something bad happens and they can't get out the way they came in. While trying to find another way to the surface, they discover they're not the only ones wandering the tunnels in the bowels of the mountains. It isn't long until they are all fighting for their lives in the deep end of the dark.

With cheap scares, slowly building terror, realistic (cave accidents) and surrealistic (scary, scary creatures) gore, plus character development with some subtlety, The Descent is a helluva ride.

While my opinion may change after a while, for the moment I'm placing The Descent among my favorite horror films, which include the following (in no particular order):

The Shining
John Carpenter's The Thing
Alien
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (the original — not the remake)
Session 9

Due to travel and such, I wasn't able to see The Descent when it first opened, like I wanted. But by the time I did see it, it was everything I hoped it would be.

Highly recommended if being spooked and scared is your type of thing.

I got a big shout-out going out to The Man: Mr. Howard Phillips Lovecraft, who would have been 116 years old today if he was still alive, so it's probably a good thing he's not around anymore. Most modern horror can be traced to one of two writers: My Lovecraft and the much more well-known Edgar Allen Poe.

Lovecraft was, without a doubt, a different breed of cat. As a child, he gave up on Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the whole lot of Christianity. Shortly thereafter, while still a youngster, he started using his toys and building blocks to contruct altars to pagan gods.

His twisted tales of suspense, horror and otherworldly terrors were published in pulp magazines and books. Never a success while he was alive, it wasn't until years after his death that his creative genius started to be acknowledged.

Most of his stories were based on the idea that eons ago there was a race of malevolent, all-powerful beings called The Old Ones. Having long since been destroyed, put to sleep or moved on to other dimensions, Lovecraft's stories usually involved a brainy protagonist (professor, private detective, etc.) discovering a plot to bring back one or more of these ancient, evil creatures. In the end, though, the hero would usually either die or go mad.

Not exactly Mary Poppins approved type of stuff.

So Happy Birthday, HP, wherever you may be. Hopefully the great beyond isn't anything like the way you wrote.

File Under: Birthday; Movies
Music: Nine Inch Nails "With Teeth"

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