The Bates motel, things you may not have known.

SO I know in one of my blog post before, I talk about the bates motel and talk mostly about the characters. However, in light of all commotion The Bates motel is causing. This drama series sure keeping its fans on their toes. Now, Instead of reviewing what amazing show it is and go on and on about how much I can't get enough of it I decided to do a little research. 

The bates motel creates an eery feel throughout  the show and their house in general is something that creates a good scene. What I found out though, is that the roof of the famous house is actually not even there. It is added on in post prediction. With the unit we are learning in class, I felt like bringing this up would correlate to that. You rally can add on anything you want and create the perfect set you desire without having to use funs in building it. 

Another random fact about bates motel is that it isn't the first time someone has tried to do a spin of of psycho. IN 1987 NBC produced a sequel to the film, however the plot is a lot different then we are seeing in this series. The original sees was about a boy who was a troubled teen who then ends up in an asylum. The boy meets Norman bates and after norman dies the boy tries to renovate the motel. Due to low ratings and negative reviews the poi lot was not picked up as a seres like it intended. 

Another thing you may want to know about The Bates Motel is that the '"ending" of norman bates isn't intruded to be the Psycho in the movie that they are basing it off of. The writers, producers and directors want to create a unique version of the story. ALSO, another random fun fact is that Freddie Highmore (Norman) will be graduating with a degree in linguistics. He is Fluent in arabic and Spanish. I have no idea why this show intrigues me so much, but I just had to talk about it again.

The Babadook

"If it's in a word or it's in a book, you can never escape The Babadook"

The Babadook is a psychological thriller released late November in 2014. Directed by Jennifer Kent, this film follows a mother (Essie Davis) and her young boy (Noah Wiseman) as they are terrorized by a monster known as the Babadook. Essie Davis plays a single mother, named Amelia, who tragically lost her husband and is trying to raise her son as he begins displaying more and more sporadic behavior.

One of the strongest aspects of this movie is the symbolism behind the monster the Babadook and what he represents. The Babadook is a physical representation of grief and how, if one does not come to terms with grief, it will eat away at them. When I first watched the film it was difficult for me to pick up on this symbolism; however, at the end of the film there is a scene that make it very apparent. It is not until our main character Amelia accepts that the Babadook will never go away, or that grief will never go away, that the monster stops attacking her. Amelia is then seen feeding worms to the monster, or feeding into and acknowledging the grief she has for the loss of her husband, that she is able to move on with her life.

There are few aspects of this film that I have a problem with. The Babadook is introduced through a children's flip-book that is, one day, randomly found in the families basement. While having a basement leading to horror aspects in a film is incredibly cliché, the art design of this flip-book was amazing.

Every scene that contained this book left me feeling creeped out and uncomfortable. My only complaint is that the monster was not nearly as frightening as the monster in the book. The Babadook is merely a tall man in all black with some white face paint and silver contact lenses. Also the same effects used in all horror movies to create tension and panic are used in this film: quick cuts, shaky camera operation, and dark lighting.

Overall, while I did not find this film to be that frightening I did enjoy watching it. I think that it was well shot, well written and had strong underlying symbolism. If I had to give it a rating I would give it a 7/10 and would recommend giving it a chance.

Fringe

So I recently started to watch the television show Fringe. I had started to watch this show when it first came onto the television, however, I got enormously creeped out at the second episode and stopped watching it.

Recently, since I have become more "okay" with gore and creepy things so I decided to watch it again by starting it all over again. The first episode was so amazing that I want to watch all of the episodes in a day. The funny part is that I remember seeing certain parts in both the first and second episode.

What can I say about this show? It's unbelievably good and the way they incorporate all of the sciafye type of themes I think is completely awesome. If you're someone that likes blood, science, and really creepy themes of a television show, then if I were you, I'd find it right now.

Use of Well Known Songs

I was walking back to the top of campus alone from the TV studio. I was scanning the campus in an almost paranoid fashion. It was cold, there was no one outside, and I could almost merge into the quiet, it was surreal.

The Simon and Garfunkel song "Sound of Silence" came into my head. But like I often find myself doing I was free styling it after the first two lines and the song transformed. It became darker, more creepy, and could fit into a trailer for a horror story. I see how the song would be mixed in my head and it would be awesome.

Anyways I started thinking about this and how movies have done this before and how effective it can be. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo directed by David Fincher used a creepy remix of "Immigrant Song" by Led Zeppelin in the movie trailer and set a mood prior to even watching the movie. Horror movies often use nursery rhymes or innocent sounding or popular songs to creep out the audience.

I found this to be really cool because it's such a simple concept. I also found it to be rather funny because I am using this idea in the "Happy Birthday" short with the song Happy Birthday.