An interesting quote that I picked up on one of the Mac blogs that I read (I will give full credit as soon as I can find out who said it, it WASN'T me) so here goes:

Specifically, if you travel around New Zealand or Australia (or, I suppose, live there) you’ll find that a lot of motels provide a trampoline as an amenity for entertaining the kids. In my visits I noticed not a single one that included a netted safety barrier around the outside. Many of these bouncy diversions were placed on concrete slabs.




Warning signs? Not a one.




And good on the Kiwis and Aussies for having a measure of sense (and suggesting, through the lack of signage, that I have some as well). In their way they are saying,




“Before you is a device that, with little effort on your part, will propel you into the air. Surrounding that device is an unforgiving surface. We trust that you comprehend the rudiments of gravity and are confident enough in your abilities to hop up and down in a straight line. Should you fail to do so, it’s on your head, mate. Don’t come crying to us.”




Were that we in the States possessed such common sense.

It's been a long time since I have had the chance to sit and watch a movie. I subscribe to a service called Netflix, where I get rental movies in the mail to watch and then return. They are loving me, since I think they must have collected two or three months worth of rental fees without having to send me a single new film. In fact, I would probably be better just buying the films myself instead of paying the monthly rental at this rate...but I digress.

At any rate, a true love of mine is the horror film, (or thriller, or suspense, or whatever you want to call it...) and it has been pretty slim pickings so far. As teenagers have become less discerning, the horror films directed at them have been dumbed down to fit the audience, resulting in such films as "Scream" and it's ilk filling up theatres like fecal matter in a clogged public restroom.

I am currently watching a film that has some promise, "The Forgotten". Of course it seems to rely on the slightly overused cliche that the government can somehow manage to run successful conspiracies that are so incredibly complex it boggles the mind. Somehow the same government that couldn't manage to break in to a hotel room in the Watergate Hotel. But I digress.....again. It has a lot of the same old stuff, government conspiracies, evil henchmen, and the like, but entertaining nonetheless. And given the state of the nation right now, I'd say that the faceless *government* plays a pretty good foe at this moment.

Silent Hill is coming out today and despite the lack of any really decent films based on video games, I am hoping against hope that it turns out to be entertaining. The video game was revolutionary, setting an ambiance that was truly frightening in a slow, asphyxiating manner. Can a video game even translate to the medium of film?

I would like to unethically paste an excellent top 10 from the LA Times:

The Seven Best Modern Horror Films
"Silent Hill" director Christophe Gans explains his favorites.
By Deborah Netburn, Times Staff Writer
April 17 2006

"The Haunting" Robert Wise, 1963
My favorite horror movie of all time. It was made by Robert Wise — the same guy who directed "West Side Story" and was the editor for Orson Welles. It is still the most frightening movie ever made because we don't see anything. Everything is created by camera angle and sound.

"Deep Red" Dario Argento, 1976
For me this is the first horror movie that feels like a piece of modern art. It is important to consider that the horror movies should — like modern art — not have a too obvious meaning. When you watch them it is more important what you feel than what you understand. "Deep Red" really opened that.

"The Innocents" Jack Clayton, 1961
A beautiful adaptation by Jack Clayton of "The Turn of the Screw" with Deborah Kerr about the corruption of two children by a ghost. A very classic movie, beautifully done.

"Texas Chainsaw Massacre" Tobe Hooper, 1974
The first real American horror film. It defined the kind of horror a great country like America can produce. Many horror movies were produced in America before, but they were inspired by classic literature, it was not this pure American flavor. For me it is the real American horror movie, in terms of how it defined a country.

"Dawn of the Dead" George Romero, 1978
It is a pure American movie like "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" that uses fear of zombies to make a big social statement. It was the first horror movies that critics recognized and took seriously, and that was a very important moment for people who love horror film.

"Prince of Darkness" John Carpenter, 1987
It's a beautiful movie in a way because it is a very abstract movie — completely abstract. It was produced almost the same year as "Blue Velvet" by David Lynch, and they both lead the audience into abstraction. It is something that is difficult to explain, something that you feel. It was a new step in horror film.

"Ringu" Hideo Nakata, 1998
It's basically the movie that restarted the genre recently. We had the feeling that nothing new was coming, and then we saw this film from Japan. It is an amazing movie because it is basically a melodrama. In Japan horror film are made for a female audience, so this movie has opened the genre towards the female audience and today the horror genre is very feminine.


Christophe Gans' directed "Silent Hill," a horror movie that will be released this Friday, April 21.