The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul

Watched 28 Days later with Lise on Saturday. Despite some irritating plot holes, it was worth seeing. One thing that always annoys me about horror films is how stupid the people in them are, on occasion. Attention, people in horror films:

Don’t go alone into dark places where nasties might be (one can be forgiven for this at the start of the film when one doesn’t know the nasties are around, but after that, it’s your own problem).

When you think you’ve won, you still need to pay attention to your surroundings rather than engaging in a tearful group hug (or, in the case of J. Lo in Enough, phoning a friend. Chicks, eh?). Inevitably, one of the nasties isn’t as dead as you’d like (a classic horror or drama staple, that one), or it has a friend around.

Right, glad that’s sorted out.

Also found that The Editing Room has now has a script for The Matrix Reloaded which skewers it mercilessly. At least Austin Powers had the right idea in calling the “M” character Basil Exposition.

Slept late on Sunday, went into town and bought a white shirt so as to appear more like Agent Smith for the Matrix themed bop that evening. Ran out of things to do and entered the Long Dark Teatime of the Soul. (Aside: the phrase originates as a parody of St John of the Cross’s “Long Dark Night of the Soul”, an idea also taken up by Jung, who seems to crop up a lot in my LJ of late, thus proving the Fundamental Interconnectedness of All Things).

The Matrix themed bop turned out not to be very Matrix themed. Suspect this was down to them telling other MCRs it was, and neglecting to tell the college’s own members. Music started badly, briefly got better and then dissolved into soft rock hell. Still, bopped a bit and enjoyed myself. And so to bed.

2 Comments on "The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul"


  1. One thing that always annoys me about horror films is how stupid the people in them are, on occasion.

    That’s why I like Scream so much, not just as a general parody, but as a genuine horror film where everyone follows “the rules” and still ends up dying. Take the first five minutes, where Drew Barrymore does everything right – she locks the doors, tries to ring for help, she runs away, she screams, she goes outside, not upstairs (a crucial mistake made by many a teen heroine, and by someone in Scream 2) and tries to get to her parents, but still gets offed gruesomely.
    It makes for a chilling opening sequence. Audiences like it when the hero or heroine are clever and not dumb plot devices!

    Reply

  2. Was thinking about the ending of 28 Days Later, which appears to have caused much confusion on the Imdb discussion board, but with a little lateral thinking is not that ambiguous.
    (Not really a spoiler, as does not correspond to the bulk of the film, but hee comes the ending!)

    We see Selina at her sewing machine finishing something off; Hannah comesin and says “he’s back!” which is when they go out with their newly made sign. Selina asks, “Do you think he saw us that time?” and everybody smiles. Roll credits.

    Now, I think the resolution is actually quite clear; there’s an implied series of events leading up to this finish, vis:

    1) An aeroplane has been by before, obviously. It didn’t see them last time, perhaps they tried to flag it down just by juping and waving. So…

    2) They decide to make the sign, which we see Selina just at the point of finishing when the pilot returns.

    3) We go to an aerial shot in which the sign is very clearly visible. So…

    4) Selina’s last line is an ironic understatement – we *know* that the pilot saw their newly-made ruddy huge sign, as we saw it from the aerial view (POV pilot) ourselves. Hurrah! They are surely saved, and thus they are all smiling. No ambiguity at all, really.

    And, in any case, the zombies are all looking rather weak and emaciated, and it looks like a nice little cottage they’re in, so bar the “nuclear bombing ending”, nothing can really go wrong for them after the credits anyway.

    I dunno where the confusion stems from, really…

    Reply

Leave a Reply to lisekit Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *