I Can Feel You Breathe

Before taking this course, I showed the series of movies I would be watching to one of the biggest nerds I know…my little cousin Chase.  When we were younger, he would force me to watch Star Wars movies with him while I irked in pain, the fun loving, glittery, sparkly side of me dripping out of my veins with every second I watched.  I knew he would be the best person to give an opinion about weird, science fiction films.  The movie that stood out to him, and the one we culminated our science fiction journey with, was Alien.  After watching an enormous amount of films filled with hours of robots, drama, love, and aliens, the quality effects of this movie had little effect on my now knowledgeable self (I did not even squirm at the sight of the baby alien bursting out of Kane’s stomach).  However, there was one piece to this film that made it stand out from other films of its kind that I have seen.  This was the use of sound.

As a suspenseful movie, Alien had some frightening sounds to it, as do most scary movies.  The use of the sounds of a racing heart beat and breathing really added to the overall feel of the film and made it much more suspenseful.  There were several instances of this use throughout the film, adding an air of uncertainty and apprehension to the audience.  In one instance towards the beginning of the film, Kane is venturing into the hole in the alien spacecraft, attempting to figure out what the organic life form is.  While he is exploring, tensions rising, all you can hear is his breathing, slow and steady.  Again, you hear his breathing throughout the background of the film while the doctors are exploring him, attempting to figure out what the alien creature is.  Although his breathing remains calm, there is a feeling of pure panic, not knowing what is going to happen to Kane.

Later in the film, Dallas is attempting to look for the alien while exploring the airshafts.  You can feel is anxiety as he is breathing, heavy and fast.  Not only does the suspenseful music and sound of Lambert screaming for him to leave.  However, the entire scene, you are with Dallas feeling for him along the way.

One final and very suspenseful scene revolving around breathing occurs when Ripley is attempting to get answers from Mother about why she cannot neutralize the alien.  Throughout this entire scene, all you can hear besides Ripley’s typing is the sound of deep and slow breathing.  The breathing seems to be coming from Ash, foreshadowing his attempt to spy on and kill Ripley. 

Again, the background sounds in the film Alien made it stand out from other films and added to the overall suspense of a scene when it was employed.  It would have been that been that much better if there would have been the constant sound of a heart beat or breathing throughout the entirety of the film as a reminder that you are never alone. 

Props to Faith Hill on helping me with my final title.

Sunshine Daisies Butter Mellow...

I absolutely despise scary movies.  I am that annoying girl in the movie theater and sitting on the couch with her eyes closed the whole time curled up in a ball asking how much longer until its over.  It is sad I will admit, but I was scared at a young age by I Know What You Did Last Summer, then by The Ring, and then finally, Paranormal Activity…not fantastic film choices I realize, but they did a real number on my psyche. From what little I saw of these films, I was able to discover that I hated them, not necessarily because they were scary and horrifying, but because the storyline sucked. There was little to no plot development, the storyline was bland, and the characters were miserable representations of human beings. I was never able to connect with the characters on any other level than the fact that I was just as scared as they were of the “bad guy”. Thus, up to this point, horror movies have been my loathed enemies. That is, until I watched the film Sunshine.

Although a sci-fi film by nature, Sunshine has everything and more to make the ultimate horror film. There is action and terror yes, but there is also a great deal of plot development, spectacular costume choices, and ultimately, passionate characters who draw the whole film together. The entirety of the film before the horror starts is a dramatic yet scary science fiction film about a time, not far in the future, where a small group must travel to the sun and restore it to its original glory. Throughout this part, we get to know the characters, their backgrounds, and their lives with one another. We relish with them when they are happy but shrink away when we see them in danger. It is this connection that is essential to the film transitioning into a horror story. Without this plot and character development, most of us would not have stayed around to watch when shit started hitting the fan and getting really scary.

By becoming invested in the characters, I was able to feel for them throughout every step of the film, which encouraged me to keep watching even though I was insanely scared—I wanted to see what was going to happen to them. Another reason I was invested came from the plot development and insanely good storyline. The spaceship was insanely awesome with everything from a garden/oxygen production site to a room where you could be anywhere in the word (or universe) that you wanted, virtually. I fell in love with the environment of the ship and all that it offered to the passengers. This, again, altered my idea of the horror side of the film; every time I was scared and wanted to close my eyes, I kept thinking of the ship going to shreds and the lives of the people inside doing the same.

Although quite possibly one of the scariest films I have ever seen, Sunshine added a plot and character development to the film, something that most horror films do not do. This helped me become invested in the film, the ship, and most of all, the characters and how the film put their lives at risk. I did not think I would be saying this, but this is definitely one scary film I will watch again!

As a complete side note--I am talking about different Aztec gods in one of my classes right now and we were discussing the practice of human sacrifice to the sun god Tonatiuh. An interesting thought in consideration of this film I think.