Quarantine Discussion Thread

[rodmanrc]

When it comes to scary movies, I have always believed in less is more. Unlike most people, blood and guts and gore doesn't scare me at all. For me, what is truly scary is what you don't see; something that is suggested, yet not seen, is what unnerves me.

The reason for this is because your imagination can come up with something that is infinitely more scary than anything someone could create on a computer or in a Hollywood Monster Shop. Being chased around by the scary monster with drooling fangs with two heads with boils breaking out all over its body does not scare me. Being chased around by the scary something...who knows what it is?...or where it came from?...scares the holy hell out of me.

Movies that scared me include:

The Others
Signs
Blair Witch Project

All these were movies that prescribed to the less-is-more theory: what's scary is what you don't see. I would have added "The Mist" to this list because the first half was truly awesome; when it later degenerated into a giant-mutant-bugs movie, it was still entertaining, but no longer scary.

To a lesser extent, but still quite effective, include:

The Grudge
The Ring
Quarantine

I have been waiting for a long time to add another movie to my list that scared the heck out of me, and "Quarantine" has been a long-time coming. The final ten minutes of this film, had I seen it in theaters, would have been electrifying. Luckily, for me, I had not see trailers of this film beforehand, so I had no idea that the trailer pretty much gave away key plot secrets about the end of the movie. Movies like "The Grudge" and "The Ring" and "Quarantine" scare me in a way that differs from "The Others" and "Signs" and "Blair Witch Project." The tension, the buildup, of what might happen...could happen!...wow.

I will be eagerly awaiting another movie to come along that can scare me without lots of blood and guts and gore. Trust in the viewer at home to let his or her imagination run wild with what COULD be lurking around the corner, rather than just showing us another CGI Hollywood Monster Puppet.