Paper Topic?

For my paper I want to show the progression of the horror genre over the decades. Specifically, I am going to talk about the differences between the 70’s TV show “In Search Of…” the 1999 Movie “Blair Witch Project” and the more recent movie “Paranormal Activity”. These examples are all a type of documentary or “mock”umentary. These are the most interesting to me because the writers try to scare people by making them think that fake things really happened or are real. I have always been interested in horror movies, ever since my dad had me and my little sister watch “Chucky” on Halloween when I was 4 and she was 3. That was the first scary movie I ever watched and even though I was little, I still remember that Halloween very well. For some of my resources, I plan on using interviews with the writers of “Blair Witch Project” and some customer reviews of the movies and shows. I also want to find magazine or newspaper articles of professional reviews, so I can see what the experts thought of the different movies. I feel like it is going to be harder to find information on the 70s TV show, so I may have to see if I can find episodes that I can watch myself and do some of my own reviews if I need more information. Paranormal Activity should be easy to find information on because it is the most recent and Blair Witch should be easy because it was the first movie of its kind, and that was a huge deal in the movie industry. Choosing my topic was easy because, like I said I have always been interested in scary movies, and I think that it is one of the genres that changes the most over time. People seem to be getting harder and harder to scare, and with that, the movies and the techniques for scaring people have to change. 

-326

Blair Witch Project

I would give this movie about 2 out of 5. The Blair Witch Project was one of those movies that may be good the first time you see it, and then it gets worse every time you watch it after that. This movie was good the first time watching it, I was young and in a dark room full of friends. Not, watching it almost 5 years later, it is definitely not as good as it seemed the first time. I think that the writers did a good job of trying to scare people without the gore and blood that are usually present in horror movies. I believe that the writers wanted people to be scared even when they left the theater, not just when they were in the theater. Movies like Paranormal Activity 1,2 and 3, which are more modern “mocumentaries”,  also tried to scare people without the violence.

Although the movie did not have the violence of other horror movies, there was other substance to the movie that the writers tried to use to make it scary. Some things that they tried worked, others did not. The “actors” are not trained in acting or using a video camera. In the beginning of the movie it was very slow, I wanted to fast-forward through the first 15 minutes or so, just to get to the part where they were in the woods. As I was watching I wanted to fast-forward again, because nothing really happened until about an hour into the movie. After the pointless random interviews in the beginning when the actors finally started talking, they were shooting like they were supposed to be shooting a documentary but it was VERY dramatic, and it just did not fit the rest of the movie. When she was shooting the opening scene in the cemetery, she was very serious and depressing but it just did not seem to fit the rest of the movie to me.  There was a huge difference when the actors were reading a line from a script and when it was improvised, the lines from the script were over dramatized and did not seem natural at all. The script was also very cheesy in some parts. When I was watching the movie for the first time, I thought that the shakiness of the camera made the movie more scary and realistic, but when I watched it the second time I got very dizzy and could not even watch it during some parts. Also, I know that the directors were trying to make it seem more “homemade” and less professional, but the lighting was really bad and did not fit with the scary mood the whole time.

I also think that there was too much unnecessary screaming. The screaming just got very annoying after a while. There was also a lot of swearing. So even though I know people probably would not let their children watch this, I don’t think that people that get annoyed by constant cursing should watch this movie either. Overall I just think that the movie may be good to watch once, just to experience, but after you watch it once, it is not worth wasting your time and watching it again.

-538

My Super "Exciting" Spring Break

Over spring break I am not doing anything super fun, like some trips that other people may be going on. I am just going to go home and relax. Our spring break is so early, and nobody else has the same as us, so I will have none of my friends home to hang out with, except the ones that go to community college, even though they aren’t on spring break either, at least they will be home. Friday night I will be going to my aunt’s to hang out with her, my uncle and my two little cousins, the boy is almost 4 and the girl is almost 3. I am very excited, I miss them, and they are too cute for words. 

Other than that I am doing nothing but maybe going to visit my old accounting teacher from high school to catch up and visit with her. I am going to go shopping for new business casual and professional clothes for Business Week events, because I am a part of the mentor/mentee program. So for that I am also going to be having to update my resume to bring to all those events. Some fun stuff, haha. My break is honestly going to be very boring with homework and looking for summer jobs. 

My best friend’s birthday is on Saturday and I have been telling him that I will make him a cheesecake since Christmas and I still haven’t, so I have to make him one sometime this week for a birthday present. I will probably be baking a lot over this break too, I want to make bacon brownies, cheesecake and then some cookies for my other friend that I promised him a while ago too. Maybe I will try to take a trip to Chicago one day, or go the outlet mall and get some new clothes. I really haven’t thought about it too much, I just know that we had to write what we are doing over break, and I really do not have a plan. I am just going to go with the flow.

-351

Normal Theater/Movie Fan

So I am going to be honest, I did not have time to go to the theater of go over to the Movie Fan. I was told by some people that I should just make it up, but I am really bad at winging those kinds of things, plus I knew that if I put descriptions that were wrong, it would be really obvious that I did not go to either. This week has been my craziest week, and there have been other family things going on, I just didn’t see it as a priority. I did want to write a blog though, maybe get some points for showing that I wasn’t being completely lazy by not going and not writing one. I have walked past the Normal Theater a few times, and looked in, but I have never been inside it. The outside reminds me of this little theater by my grandparents’ house though. 

The ones by my house are pretty big, with an IMAX screen in addition to 30 others, or maybe it is 30 total, I don’t know. This little Normal Theater, like I said, reminds me of the one in my grandparents’ town. Theirs is very small, only 2 screens, and I like the ticket window outside. It gives the feel of a cute little old movie theater. The inside of the Normal Theater might be more modern than the one that I go to with my grandparents, but since I have never been inside, and it is hard to see through the windows, I wouldn’t know. I think that it is interesting that the Normal Theater only has one movie playing at a time, and half the time I have never even heard of the movie. It seems a lot more community based than the ones that I am used to at home, and gives me that “small town feel” whenever I walk past it.

-320