Thursday, September 19, 2013

James Wan and the Classic Horror Movie

Movie reviews have always been a turn off to me because I like seeing the movie and formulating my own opinion.  But this one about Insidious: Chapter 2 director James Wan seemed very interesting.



I usually don’t read film reviews and hype articles for upcoming movie premieres, because I like going to the theater to watch a movie and deciding myself, whether I enjoyed the movie or not, especially if it’s a movie I really want to see.  However, these pieces on movies that I have stumbled upon in the past, have been great examples of journalism on their own, especially reviews online which can include many types of media on one movie/story.  This was the exact case for the article I found on Yahoo! Movies, “’Insidious: Chapter 2’ Jolts Expectations With $41M Haul.” 
          The different forms of media used in this great article are print, video, and interactive.  To start, the writing of this review and financial update is very informative, as it should be, but it also gives the reader enough context and backstory to possibly want to, in this particular case, see other films by the same director.  At least this is how it affected me.  And although I have not seen Insidious Chapter 2 yet, I intend on seeing it because the director, James Wan, also directed The Conjuring.  I had seen that movie and thoroughly enjoyed it and the style in which Wan approaches the horror genre.  A link is provided in the middle of this article to another one on The Wrap, another online news source but one that is mostly focused on entertainment, where Wan’s horror movie expertise is better explained.  The name of this article is, “How ‘The Conjuring’ Propelled Director James Wan From Torture Porn to Vin Diesel.”  It reads, “The movie — which stars Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as married ghostbusters brought in to investigate strange doings at a rickety house – steadily builds tension, scaring people with visual and aural trickery. The camera movements and music are as chilling as any stabbing could ever be.”  And that’s exactly what I enjoy about Wan’s take on horror; something that keeps you on edge just enough to be looking all over the screen for things in the background or biting your fingernails, can most certainly be as scary, if not more, than seeing a gory, murderous, act.
            As the original Yahoo! article moves on, it merely reports the past weekend’s earnings of other movies playing that weekend and compares a few to how much money was spent to make it.  After this however, there is a video relating back to the original story about Insidious Chapter 2.  The video shows a few quick clips from interviews done with members of the cast and crew, montaged along with various clips from the upcoming film.  And even though I am planning on seeing it anyway, these few clips and short interviews actually got me even more excited to see it. 
            This piece of journalism was actually very informative and better than I expected when I think about movie reviews and articles, especially because this is the first one that I’ve probably read with a purpose and enjoyed it.  I love the horror genre and the background info about the director and everything else I was able to access on this one page article was helpful in getting different perspectives and information about things related to the main focus of the piece.  

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