When you hear the knell of a requiem bell...

I am really excited about this! I don't normally care all that much about stuff like this, but this. This, my friends, makes me want to do a little happy dance.

Yes. It does.



Oh, and when you do hear the knell of a requiem bell, weird glows gleam where spirits dwell.

If you read this blog, there's a good chance you already know all this. But it bears repeating.

The one thing I don't like is that del Toro said he was aiming for a PG-13 rating in the article by Dark Horizons. The reason I'm not keen on that is PG-13 scary films seem to be more about startling people than actually scaring them. Quick camera shifts. Things popping out of closets. Just creepy stuff. And that scares me more than blood and gore. Example: The Village by M. Night Shyamalan. That is probably the scariest movie I have ever seen in my life. Seriously. It creeped me out. Like really REALLY bad.



I could not find a clip where the village monster is in the woods just off camera about to attack the poor blind girl. I was literally yelling at the camera to pan because I just couldn't stand it anymore.

Another creepy movie? One of my all time creepiest? E.T.



Again, couldn't find the scene that made me wet myself. When the astronauts come in the house? I hate E.T.

But my point is this. It's the suspense and weirdness that get to me. Not straight up violence. Remember Jaws? One of the scariest movies of all time?



Not really scary to me.

The Shining?



Again, nothing.

Exorcist?



It?



All meh on the "I'm-scared" meter.

Well, it seems like everything I'm giving as examples are about older horror films. What about something more recent? Saw perhaps?



Yeah. Scared me. Why? It's startling. I used Jaws as an example earlier and it does have some startling scenes (like the shark popping up from the water while Brody is chumming). But most of the time, you know the shark is there. Daaaaaa-dum. Daaaaaa-dum. Da-dum da-dum.

It seems like most of today's horror films are just about startling and that scares me. So I guess, at least for me, that is the true horror, so I guess they are getting it right.

So what does del Toro mean when he says the scary will be scary? I really REALLY hope it's not startling scary but scary-scary (which I am not as scared of).

Perhaps I should rent Pan's Labyrinth for a clue:



Never seen it, but I'm just sorta discovering del Toro, so bear with me. But I'm loving what I'm seeing and hearing.

This should be one Grim Grinning Ghost...



TTFN