The Horrific double standard

Horror, the red headed stepchild of the movie industry. Almost all horror movies contain a gargantuan killer wielding a sword/machete/hatchet/etc. slicing teens down the middle, though that is completely untrue. Don't let the Hollywood critics fool you, Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours in which an explorer literally gets stuck between a rock and a hard place is not an adventure or a drama, it is a straight up horror flick. Another recent film that has garnered much attention is Black Swan. The film follows the unraveling of a sweet and innocent dancer into a reckless world that threatens to destroy her. If that doesn’t sound like a horror film, then I don’t know what does. When a drama is good it is handed a plethora of awards, but when a horror movie is good it is a complete surprise. Compare the two previous films to a recent horror film, Let Me In. It follows an 8-year-old vampire that moves to a new town and befriends the boy next door. This was a generally fantastic movie but due to the fact that it had a vampire in it (thank you Twilight for ruining my childhood) it was given a pat on the head and sent to video rental hell. It is obvious that the film industry and community does not give the horror genre the respect it deserves.

Lets examine most horror movies. If there is not a monster or a maniac in a haunted house or a spaceship in is not a horror movie. That is why 127 Hours and Black Swan are such unique entries. A great horror film sets out to unnerve and upset it’s audience both of which succeed easily. James Franco has to sacrifice a part of his body in order to save the life that he never fully appreciated. Do you know what other movie has that same exact plot…Saw! Why is one treated as a drama and the other as torture porn (not saying that saw is a good movie) it is just plain ridiculous.

Nice guys finish first, sometimes....All the time.

In life many people say that nice guys finish last, but this time the nice guy finished first. Two weeks ago was Bear Creek music festival. It is a funk/blues/reggae music festival. It takes place every year at the Suwannee national park. It is one of the best venues for a music festival. The best part was that I got a job working the festival. It turns out that one of the kids in my under graduate knows the guy that does the filming for multiple music festivals like this one. The craziest part was that all the people working were from my old class. Talk about a small world. It was great to work with all my old friends on this project. The only problem with the entire weekend was that there was one kid we were working with that I never cared for. In my old degree program this kid was kind of an asshole. Anytime you had to work with him, it was his way or the high way. Due to this he earned a rotten reputation in our class. While working at the festival the boss that we were working for fell in love with most of us working. He really liked that we all we busting our asses so we could get every band on tape. There was only one person that our boss would never have work for him again. Could you guess who it is? That’s right my boss hated that same kid. After all the music stopped on the last night. My boss invited me and a couple of others to an after party that only staff and artists could get into. On our way to the after party it was just me and the boss in a golf cart, we were going to meet the rest of our crew at the party. On our way to the party my boss was telling me that he liked working with everyone except for one kid. I immediately said the kid that no one liked, and yes it turned out my boss was talking about him. This just reconfirms that I might be in the right industry.