--- In sonsofkong@yahoogroups.com, "Dean Webb <sonofvulcan@a...>"
<sonofvulcan@a...> wrote:
> What was the best monster flick you saw in 2002? I cast the net
quite
> widely on this one, so feel free to include any movie (TV or
theatre)
> which made use of some sort of monster. Big or little critter makes
> no difference, and neither does classic or modern.
>
> So what do you all think?
>
> Dean

Oddly enough, I think the silent film 'Vampyr' was probably the best
monster related film I saw last year. 'Vampyr' hardly qualifies as a
new film, but it was the first time I had seen it. The photography
was the factor that made it memorable, and it had several memorable
moments: a close shot of a reviving man realising he is trapped in a
casket and has been buried alive (the casket has a very small window,
which was a feature not uncommon in the victorian era); a woman newly
effected with vampirism picks up a bouquet and the flowers wilt and
the petals fall off; a man is trapped in a room in a flour mill which
fills with loose flour, the flour fills the room until the screen
goes completely white. There were also long static periods, an acting
style that was often too broad and better suited to the stage than
the screen, and several shots that were too dark to really be able to
tell what was going on, but I still enjoyed the film despite its
flaws.

I didn't go to a single film in a theater this year, since my last
few visits were miserable experiences; I'm tired of being bombarded
by soundtracks mixed so loud and so hot that they make the seats of
the theater shake. I probably would have seen a film or two in a
theater this summer, but I was out of town, any town, for most of the
summer, and I didn't even have access to televison during that period
or I probably would have gone to 'Eight Legged Freaks'. If what Dean
says is true, I'll be better off watching it on video.

So it went,
Jon