A Guide to Horror - Creature Features

[espanolbot]

More an overused plot outline than a guide to the genre in this case.

By Me,



Noticed this approximate plot happen... in more than just a few cases. And the film Prophecy I'm referring to is the one with a mutant grizzley bear, not the one with Christopher Walken (the one where he's a fallen angel, not the one where he's a lawyer with a grudge against horrible-looking singing mutant bears).

Not sure what to do next, cosmic horror? That doesn't seem to have overused plots as much as CF does.

Also, I just realised that the Pierce Brosnan volcano film Dante's Peak has this plot too.

Comments

[kamino_neko]

Overused plots?

As much as I enjoy the genre, that's pretty much the definition of slasher flicks.

[skjam]

Amused at the tree graffiti.

[mrstatham]

To be fair, Dante's Peak actually defies this for the most part.

Brosnan's team in the film don't have to deal with corrupt officials, nor is their advice ignored - they just need to gather the correct evidence and prove that there could actually be an eruption in order to evacuate the town. They actually GET that evidence and the town council are going to come to a vote when the volcano blows. The only people who are confirmed to die is the grandmother who foolishly hops in an acidic lake for a heroic sacrifice, and people who stupidly try paying for a helicopter out of town as the volcano is raining ash.

[espanolbot]

Don't forget the couple who were boiled to death in a hot spring.

[mrstatham]

Oddly, I think those two are the only part of the film who do qualify for being something like the average slasher movie 'horny teens'. Still, I don't think the movie overall qualifies, since with a few exceptions, actual scientists said it was likely as authentic as a volcano movie was going to get...

Especially considering the same year's competition for DP.

[aberrantangels]

not the one where he's a lawyer with a grudge against horrible-looking singing mutant bears

...it's an honest mistake, but that was actually Chris Cooper. :)

[shadowpsykie]

IT'S REAL!?!?!?!?!

[espanolbot]

In the Country Bears?

[nezchan]

You haven't seen the last of me!

BEARS!!!

[shadowpsykie]

i say slasher flicks

[majingojira]

As I said on Deviantart, the idea of corrupt government stuff didn't really hit hard until the 70s. You could stretch it to say things like the main scientist in "The Thing from Another World" fits that trope, but it's a stretch. In the 50s and 60s, for the most part (more the 50s), Government and Scientists were heroic primarily. They may cause the monster to appear, but they also solved it.

Sorry, film school grad, I've taken classes and stuff on this very subject ("The Horror Film" class. It was as cool as it sounds), so I'm a little up tight about this subject.

[espanolbot]

The above plot is mainly post-Jaws, the formula pre-Watergate is somewhat different as you say. Though scientists who accidentally make the situation worse by being kind of flaky about the monster involved are fairly common, beside the guy in TTFAW.

[lucky_gamble]

Cosmic Horror? I'm not familiar with it. Anyone care to explain it to me?

[dorksidefiker]

Think HP Lovecraft. Ancient things beyond man's ken who are there to destroy everything and most likely don't even CARE that man exists. We are but mayflies to them, they destroy the human mind simply by existing, and so on. Hellboy has some hints of this, and from the Big Two we get Galactus and Starro.

Movie wise, the Space Jockeys from the Alien'verse (most strongly seen in Prometheus) are this.

"Did I ever tell you my favourite colour was blue?"

[espanolbot]

I'd recommend In the Mouth of Madness by John Carpenter as well, which acts as a patische of Lovecraft's work while at the same time applying more modern interpretations of cosmic horror to the situation the protagonist finds himself in.

[dorksidefiker]

Also, I'm in favor of Cosmic Horror.

[goggle_kid]

I think Slasher or maybe Giallo might be a good subject for the next strip.

[icon_uk]

Also reference to Arachnaphobia, which lampshades the trope by having the ten year old kid who proposes the obvious situation note that if no one ever believes the kid in situations like this... and is, of course, promptly ignored.

[espanolbot]

Happened in Eight Legged (no hyphen) Freaks as well, before the adults realise that the situation has taken a turn for the worse so they deliberately start paying attention.

[icon_uk]

Ah, right, it was Eight Legged Freaks I meant rather than Arachnaphobia. (I much prefer Eight Legged Freaks's original name "Arac Attack")