Ahh, Real Monsters!

Went on kind of a scary movie binge this weekend. Yesterday I went to see Paranormal Activity 3, and before that I watched John Carpenter's The Thing on my computer. (NOT the one in theaters.) Both really good. I wouldn't say that The Thing was scary, but entertaining for sure. Paranormal Activity, however: terrifying. I have to say that I don't know if I have seen a more suspenseful movie in my whole life. In fact, the entire franchise is built on suspense, and I think they've cornered the market. I don't know if my muscles relaxed the entire last hour of the movie. Or if my hands came down from my face. They had this camera that was set up on an oscillating fan, so it went back in forth between two rooms. It was set at the exact speed to drive you CRAZY but not make it excessive. That was genius in my opinion. In fact, waiting for that camera to rotate to the other room was practically painful. It was so much fun to watch, I couldn't believe it was over when it was. I wanted to keep watching. I'd say the scariest part was the Bloody Mary scene. Ho. Ly. Crap. One of the best things about this one compared to the others is that it actually had some comic relief. I know the first one attempted it with the banter between the couple, but this really was funny. It made it so much better, in my opinion. I will say, that while the ending was mind-blowingly surprising, I was disappointed. I think it ended in a really weird spot (obviously setting up another one come next October, but hey, I ain't mad). And it ended so suddenly, I felt like this was the climax of the movie and it got cut short. I don't know, maybe I'm just complaining because I wanted the movie to be longer. Who knows. The funny thing about this entire franchise is that after the movie, after I thought about it... not much happened, but I was terrified the whole time. Crazy how a movie can do that.
The other movie I watched, The Thing, was pretty good, too. I first became interested in it when we watched a clip of it in my screenwriting class. Then a guy in another film class was talking about how awesome it was. He was right. It's pretty freaking awesome. When it came out, it got slammed by critics. Which I can understand, it's a stupid horror movie. Cheesy and funny in some ways, but I like those kind. I usually like either really scary horror movies, or ones that don't take themselves too seriously. That was The Thing. I feel like it was meant to have that cheese factor. I loved it. The best/ most impressive thing about the movie is that it was made before all of the CGI bullshit, and it has some pretty great effects. I'm not saying they're completely realistic like it would be in a computer, but it's damn impressive knowing that they didn't have really any computers to make the thing transform. I'm going to put a video up, but be forewarned, IT IS GRAPHIC. So, if you don't like that stuff, don't watch.