Xander ,'Conversations with Dead People'
A place to talk about movies--old and new, good and bad, high art and high cheese. It's the place to place your kittens on the award winners, gossip about upcoming fims and discuss DVD releases and extras. Spoiler policy: White font all plot-related discussion until a movie's been in wide release two weeks, and keep the major HSQ in white font until two weeks after the video/DVD release.
But the characters aren't reacting like it's Evil. It's unfortunate and needs to be stopped, but that's a different vibe.
No, I think there's a distinct difference between how Richard Dreyfus' character reacts to the shark and Robert Shaw's character's reaction. The story Quint tells about WW II and the sharks picking off the sailors is a horror story.
Quint's story is even more affecting because it comes at the end of the great scar-comparing scene, and then, after the story, the barrel pops up.
We're going to need a bigger boat!
Jaws is a horror movie, but it's also a comedy.
I concede that the aliens (do they have a more identifying name?) are more intelligent than sharks, but it's all in service of a predator mode. They're not composing sonnets to each other inbetween kills, or working out how to score a non-procreational shag. They're killing/reproducing machines.
The story Quint tells about WW II and the sharks picking off the sailors is a horror story.
Dude, I totally said that upthread! Also, I have totally had too much beer, and I am going on like 5 hours of sleep, and you can totally tell because I cannot stop saying totally! And also dude!
I turn into a Valley Girl when I'm drunk, and I don't know why. ANYWAY.
I'm just saying Jaws isn't a horror story overall. Quint's story is definitely (i.e. totally) a horror story nested within it. So... er, neener, maybe?
And I'm also reserving the right to sleep A LOT tonight, and sober up and tomorrow claim I don't know what the hell I'm going on about. But right now this distinction makes so much sense in my head (totally!). Even if I'm unable to articulate it.
So... er, neener, maybe?
You don't know! You're a drunk valley girl!
I turn into a Valley Girl when I'm drunk, and I don't know why. ANYWAY.
You're very entertaining, in any case. (P.S. I'm going to be reading Nextwave soon.)
Drunk Strega is totally adorable.
Drunk Strega is totally adorable.
Yeah, but nothing's going to beat Ple's Red Bull and Vodka drunken belligerence.
"What the fuck ever!"
(do they have a more identifying name?)
Xenomorph. I don't know how widely recognized it is, though. If you'd said "Xenomorph" I'd know you meant Alien(s)(^3)(etc.) but it doesn't roll off the tongue and I can't always remember the term myself.
You don't know! You're a drunk valley girl!
I totally am!
But I do get what you're saying. I am just fond of theorizing because, hey, that's fun. Any other day but today I'd probably have said Jaws is a horror movie, because it does use the tropes. The lead-up here made me think about how I'd personally definite horror as a sub-genre. And just like horsies & cowboy hats doesn't automatically make a story into a western, I'd have to say scary man-eating beasts don't inherently make it horror. Which I think is how I got to here.
Man, it'll be fun when I get to reread this tomorrow night and wonder what the hell I'm talking about. If I ask, please assure me that this made sense to me at the time.