Everyone's childhood must have such a period of unforgettable horror enlightenment, like a wind of early autumn getting into a short-sleeved shirt. A sense of wonder, like a child's first attempt at popping candy.
In order to prove to his friends that he is brave and fearless, reading horror novels and comics with fear and curiosity in the warm sunshine of the afternoon is a secret that bear children rarely tell when they grow up. For many post-80s, this creepy childhood experience may come from the series of horror movies "Creep Show", Chinese name "Ghost Show".
The first two films of "Ghost Show" are classic horror B-level films presented by two horror masters, George A. Romero and Stephen King. They were released in 1982 and 1987 respectively. The two films not only gave 80 Later, the children brought them to the cool night, and it also became the old image for them to check in when they grew up. Chinese people's initial impression of American horror films as dry, sticky, broken arms and stumps, and blood splatters can best taste the original flavor in these age-filled images, and the horror unit of the same name premiered on the shudder platform on September 26. The drama "Ghost Show" is a tribute and a continuation of this classic.
"Ghost Show" has been very stylish since the first movie. The interactive switching and transition between the live-action interpretation and the horror comic style of the 1980s made people think that this is a comic adaptation work, and a story in twenty minutes. The rhythm, the short excitement it brings, is like Gudu drinking a big sip of iced Coke - neat and refreshing, without the depression of most Asian horror movies, this series is known for its weird and curious imagination, when you are caught by a certain plot. I was suddenly shocked, as if I could hear the main creators laughing - hey, coward, are you scared! It's the kind of smug childhood friend who managed to pull off a prank.
The first episode of the adapted unit drama brings us two short stories.
The first story is about a decadent, alcoholic father who turns into a slimy, wet monster and destroys the world. The first feeling after watching it is that it is relatively mediocre. Although the neat and regular two-line parallel narrative is indeed much more refined than the original work decades ago, the plot that has always been predictable is a flaw that cannot be ignored. "Sure enough, his father became a sticky monster." "Sure enough, these two kindhearted people are delicious food delivered to the door." When the audience's intuitions are confirmed by the plot, a sense of mediocrity arises.
Is there any necessary connection between the decadent father's love of beer, fear of light, and high heat in the first half of the episode, and his later transformation into a green lump of slime-bodied monster? It doesn't seem to be; the disgusting monster is like a clown who has been dragged over to miss the rough props of the 1980s, using unknown substances like snot and the ability to eat people at will, trying to make the audience feel that the hairs stood on end decades ago, which is a bit far-fetched , blunt, and lacks Stephen King's dark humor.
In fact, the bloody or disgusting scenes are just the carrier of the feeling of surprise, the routines and jokes when making a prank, the first time a joke is a surprise shock, the second time it is a joke and fooling again, but it is used again and again as a joke. The main gimmick can only be considered boring. The only unexpected thing is that the story also has a small moral: the most terrible thing in the world is not greed, but the connivance of greed. However, from today's aesthetic point of view, it is still a bit of a cliché.
The second story is about the haunted dollhouse the girl kept in her room, and compared to the first, it's amazing. To know the stories about the haunted house, I don’t know how many ancient and modern Chinese and foreign stories. It seems that a ghost lacks a little face if he doesn’t find a style and secluded house. Even a person who does not often watch horror movies can tell a thing or two about the haunted house. It is no easy task to shoot a novel haunted story in twenty minutes, and this second story uses ingenuity to let the toy family encounter a haunted incident, allowing the audience to witness everything from the perspective of a girl.
This little design is a new way of playing the old haunted plot. From a new perspective, the audience not only spy on the horrors of the toy family, but also spy on the bear children who are full of fantasies, hiding from their parents. The secret is that a story has two tensions. The audience is not only nervous for the toy family, but also sweats for the girl. After holding your breath and curling up silently in the corner of the sofa, there is only one feeling - satisfaction!
Fantastic horror films always leave an open ending, implying that the devil is still roaming the world. When I was a child, I believed it to be true. Later, I was so afraid that I even went to the toilet and was paranoid. I hid in the bed in the middle of the night. The protective cover, as long as the hands and feet are not stretched out, the monsters and monsters cannot reach them.
As a well-informed adult, looking back now, I can't help but feel funny, and it is precisely because there is no child's innocence, the thrill of the heart-throb, the thrill of peeping even if you are afraid , also disappeared. How to make grown-up people experience the chills and chills in their backs at a certain moment is the biggest gift that nostalgic horror films can give back to adult audiences.
Horror genre films have deep routines, and their classification and structure have long been cleaned up by the screenwriters. The essential elements of various horror films have been imprinted in people's brains and become stereotypes, and several expression techniques of horror films are also It has been played almost over and over by the pioneers of horror films. How to be retro and nostalgic and unlock new gameplay, so that the audience still has a sense of novelty for the old themes, is a thing that makes all nostalgic creators rack their brains.
Although what the audience wants is the terrifying feeling of the past, but with the passage of time, the audience's taste has been adjusted to be cunning and picky, and the plot that can be intuitively guessed will only make people feel boring and uninteresting, like eating a piece of sweetness. The toothless maltose, single, direct and stimulating, may have been popular in the streets a few decades ago, but in this era when even fresh meat mooncakes have crab powder, crab roe, and shrimp, it is simply not enough to copy the past. , the ingenious conception and counter-intuitive and counter-routine design will make the audience regain that surprise.
In other words, what nostalgia misses is not the sweetness of sugar, but the freshness of the first sight, the first time a child puts a popping candy on the tip of the tongue and feels the sweetness explode in the mouth, both scared and surprised feeling.
The two stories in the first episode of "Ghost Show" demonstrate for us both positive and negative nostalgic poses. It is reported that the length and tone of each episode of the show will be different, so let's expect the next five episodes to bring surprises.
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