Since I’ve got about forty or so pieces for girl show (a good chunk of them thanks to napowrimo), or at least forty or so half-assed pieces (of which I'll probably keep about twenty), I’m taking a break before delving to any revisions and going to work on some Cornell poems...largely because I’m getting tired of shifting all the books and notes I've ammassed over the course of the last two years around on the table at home and want to get them out of the way.
Last night went to see An American Haunting, which while it sounded promising was a little disappointing. The whole Bell witch thing is cool, and I like the basic idea behind the plot twist –the whole incest, trauma, adolescent poltergeist thing-- but in this case it’s a little bit too suddenly hatched and feels way too much like it’s been done too often before. I found myself wishing about halfway through for some twisted dark stuff instead of just ghosts, but it doesn’t deliver until the very last ten minutes or so, and even then seemingly out of nowhere with no clues woven throughout the rest of the movie that would have made it a much smarter film. I also kind of thought it rather odd of them, after the movie is over, to flash the definition of “poltergeist” on the screen for the dimmer members of the audience in case they somehow didn’t get it. The scares, while good at building some good startle moments, were sort of lame, and sometimes funny bad (the girl getting lifted in the air and bitch-slapped repeatedly by the “ghost”). Also, the camera movement was a little out of control when they were doing all these swoopy ghost things and it sort of made me nauseous . And I so hate when some grand explanation sort of dims the scariness. I like the ones that are frightening over and over again, regardless of what is uncovered.
