Freeeky Friday

Okay. First off, before I forget. Noorhidayat found a wonderful little file that allows entertainment deprived PS2 owners like me to watch divX movies (burned to CD) on the console, and he even posted instructions! Yes! Which essentially means that through the wonders of KaZaa and various P2P apps, I can now be a fim distributor! I shall leave it to him to explain further, so head on over there! (My, my, that was a lot of exclamation marks).

And another thing. Jikon Lai has managed to draft what I feel is a pretty good disclaimer on his site, and he's sharing it for anyone who wants to. Therefore, I'd advise you to go and read it first before proceeding, as I think all the elements apply here too. At the end of the day, you're welcome to leave comments here and yes, even flames.

Welcome back to the Ox's Freaky Friday, where we talk about mostly stuff that interests me, and a small cross section of you surfers out there. Today's edition: Horror Movie Magic! Yes, Halloween is still far off, but I have been so deprived of good horror entertainment lately I find myself going back to the classics: Rosemary's Baby. Evil Dead. Until yesterday. I was flipping through the Star when my roving eyes stopped at a little ad promising (horror upon horrors!) Freddy vs Jason. Okay, cue wavy effect, I'm going into a flashback. Necessary exposition, you know.

I was very scared of cerita hantu when I was a kid. Scared, but at the same time intrigued. You know, the kind of scared where you still sit in front of the tube with a pillow over your eyes for the scary parts? I lived for those moments. I'd end up with nightmares sometimes, but whenever there was a new one, I'd be the first to be there, pillow in hand, of course. I'd watch everything, from the black and white Orang Minyak, Hantu Jerangkung, and Toyols, to Tamil and Chinese horror movies. Ahh, those were the days. Until now, I like to attribute my vivid imagination to 1) Enid Blyton, and 2) Horror Movies. Other influences include The Omen trilogy, and George Romero's Living Dead series. The advent of DVD gives us horror buffs a chance to finally keep our favourite moments without worrying about fungus and tape decay. Okay, end flashback.

Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees. Two names that literally took the late 70's and 80's by storm and reinvented the slasher genre given to us by John Carpenter in Halloween. These were half-supernatural, near unstoppable killing machines, and fans longed for the day when these two giants of horror would face off against one another (kinda like Godzilla vs Gidrah, but that's fodder for another post). Unfortunately, as the slasher genre sputtered (due to lackluster sequels), interest waned until finally word got out that New Line Cinema acquired the rights to make a new movie, one with both characters. The end result may not be great, but I'd sure watch it for the nostalgia. Oh, and for comic fans, Aliens Vs Predator is also underway. Stay tuned for Xenomorph busting goodness.

*UPDATE!!* For those of you who remember Peter Sanderson's great article on comic book movies a week back, he has a new one up! Check it out!

I could go on and on about my favourite horror movies, but I think I'll make it kind of like a weekly column or so. Freaky Fridays. Yeah, for a movie-loving geek, nothing beats having a whole movie marathon on DVD with a huge supply of Pringles and Coke. Mmmm. But I digress. I appreciate any contributions/ideas on how to structure the column. Start by genre, perhaps? Or do we explore the upsurge in Asian horror films? All this and more movie goodness will be forthcoming, my friends, and I think I'll top off each week's column with a recommendation of sorts. I'd really like to know. And for those of you who don't really dig these movies, do not fret. The Ox also watches mainstream (and art films), therefore I'll try to balance off the column, alternating between types.

This week's Horror Flick(s) are:

Rosemary's Baby (1968)
Considered by many to be among the best horror films ever, Rosemary's Baby is a study of paranoia and despair. Directed by the now infamous Roman Polanski, the impression I got after watching it was..disturbing. A young newly wed couple moves into an apartment with a bad reputation. Husband is a struggling actor, and the wife (Mia Farrow) begins to hear strange noises as she is often alone. When a woman she meets suddenly commits suicide and she finds out the is pregnant, Rosemary struggles to tread the line between trust and fear for her child. It may not appeal to many (such is the nature of these movies) but to those who are interested, it's worth a watch. There was a sequel (made for TV) but it floundered due to a bad script and casting choices (another bane of horror movies).

The Devil's Backbone/ Espinazo del Diablo (2001)
Directed by Guillermo Del Toro (who also directed Blade 2, Cronos (a must see!), Mimic and the upcoming Hellboy, this is a bittersweet tale of friendships, love, trust, and also ultimately, ghosts. Set in Civil War era Spain, the stories unfold in many different directions at once, making it a layered, almost sentimental movie at the end. A definite must see, if only for the characters, and the finale. A boy gets enrolled into a boarding school where an unexploded bomb sits in the main courtyard, the headmistress has no legs and there is a ghost in the school kitchen. Shall I ruin it for you more? No, go and catch this wonderful piece of storytelling. Pronto.

Well that's all the time we have for Freaky Friday. So have a good weekend, drive safe, and if you can't be good, be careful.

Cheers!