redefining the horror movies genre.

Usually when I have a sleepover with friends or cousins, the one activity everyone wants to indulge in is watching a horror movie.
My reply: I don't do horror movies.
They call me a sissy.

I ain't no sissy. Horror films today are most definitely not horrifying. They don't stab a crippling fear into my heart. Most of them are immensely disgusting and fill you with utter revulsion. Minus the blood, gore and sound effects, nothing substantial remains but really bad acting.

Wiki: Horror films are unsettling movies that strive to elicit the emotions of fear, disgust and horror from viewers.
Disgust? Check.
Fear and horror? Fail.
Unsettling? Yeah. My stomach.


Add to that: A lasting impact, perhaps of dread. I'm not an authority on this genre, but I opine that the movie should end with a sort of hopelessness, where the protagonists think they have got out alive, vanquished evil and everything will now be fine and dandy, but it is far from it. To illustrate: I Know What You Did Last Summer and its sequel.


Horror films can be categorized into mainly 3:
1. The unhinged killer out to savagely slash everyone on the planet.
eg.: Saw and its many unnecessary sequels, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, A Nightmare on Elm Street etc.

2. Apocalypse scenario where all of humankind has been infected with a killer virus mutating them into zombies that a precious few survivors must save themselves from.eg.: 28 Days Later, 28 Weeks Later and others I can't think of right now (feel free to add)


3. Lingering on the supernatural or demonic - the devil, witches, haunted houses, spirits, vampires and the like.
eg.: The Exorcist (this one just made me want to hurl), Devil, An American Haunting, Final Destination etc.


I refrain from watching them all. As for vampires, I prefer them in the form of Damon Salvatore.

Evil, but oh so yummy.

If you agree with me even remotely, worry not. There are movies out there that do not traditionally fall under the genre, but in my opinion they most certainly should.


To name but one:

No one said horror must be limited to the image of a psychotic murdering whack job carving numbers into the flesh of his victims.


Narrated by Matt Damon (I never liked him but now I like his voice) and starring the honourable men who destroyed the American economy, caused a two year long global recession and brought 50 million people around the world out on the street. 
Explained lucidly with graphs and videos so even a layman can comprehend, Inside Job makes intentions very, very clear. Nobody, read nobody in power cares about the common man. Wall Street has corrupt egotists running amok, all out to make a quick buck, no matter whose life's savings are lost to get that buck. As if that wasn't bad enough, they are also pulling the strings in politics. They are in academic institutions that the world holds sacred. They are everywhere. It's like a cockroach infestation. 


When a robbery takes place and the police discover the criminals, all steps are taken to apprehend them and recover the stolen goods, which once inspected are then returned to the owners. So now, when the people responsible for robbing America of billions of dollars have been discovered, why have they been allowed to run home scot free to sunbathe on the decks of their yachts and dive into pools overflowing with their ill gotten wealth like Uncle Scrooge?

not that Uncle Scrooge's wealth is ill gotten.

The movie does not prepare the viewer for the climax. It induces despair and strikes that elusive emotion of terror in one. You think I'm overacting? Watch it and tell me it didn't scare you, even a little.


Only fitting I rate this as per the 'feelings elicited' by a horror movie as stated by Wiki (and me):
Fear, with the knowledge these men are still in power and that nothing will change (that takes care of the hopelessness and lasting dread);
horror at the thought of what they're are capable of and what they have done;
disgust at the insurmountable and insatiable greed that got us into this mess and what the money was ultimately used for.


Definitely unsettling.

dead peasants society

So I just watched Capitalism: A Love Story. A real shocker.

Ever come across the term 'Dead Peasants Insurance' (if you haven't watched Capitalism that is)? It's an insurance scheme in America where a company(many of them blue chip - P&G, Citibank, Disney, Walmart, Nestle, Bank of America are just some examples) secretly takes out a life insurance policy on an employee who is unaware of the same, 'conveniently' naming the company as the beneficiary in the event of the employee's death. And not even one of the top level management, in which case it would be understandable although not entirely inexcusable, given the cost of training a person to work effectively in a managerial position. This scheme would even cover, say, a salesperson at Walmart. So if he/she dies due to a critical illness, the family has to pay for astronomical medical expenses while the company makes a tidy profit. And the employee in their lifetime never even knew about it, forget giving their consent to it!

Get this: The company is entitled to receive the cash even if the employee was fired. TAX FREE death benefits. The family, of course, gets nothing.

What is the money used for? Incentives and retirement benefits for top level executives. So basically, the company is better off if the employee is dead. And it seems women are valued more as their longevity is more than that of men, resulting in more benefits. For the company that is.

How can the insurance companies not even examine the employees' medical reports before agreeing to this? Probably because 20% of all annual life insurance is comprised of COLI - corporate owned life insurance.

Walmart supposedly, as stated in the end credits of the film, doesn't take out this insurance anymore. That's just one corporate giant less.

Were you stunned when you read Disney's name in the list? You'd think a company that gave you so much entertainment coupled with moral messages (the more blatant ones) while you were growing up would live by the code it sends out. There was the ever present message in every classic - that good always triumphs over evil. You really expect a multi billion dollar corporation to live by the ideals it propagates? You naive thing.

Why would a company that announces well over a billion dollars of profit fall so despicably low for a few measly million? How much is ever enough? What's the point of all that money, it can't buy you self respect!

And how.. HOW the hell is this even legal?!?

On top of that, these people have the audacity to give it the name that they do. Dead Peasants?? Really??

Would corporations go as far as to bump off their insured employees? Perhaps that's stretching it a little. Companies have made complaints(internally of course) that the number of employees dying are not meeting expectations. But anyway you can't really get rid of thousands of employees unless you did a Nazi and locked them in a gas chamber, and then the legal system would be compelled to make known its existence. So they'll just bide their time hiding behind whatever loophole they've found, until the poor buggers eventually kick the bucket. And that's when the easy millions roll in.

Wonder if anything like this goes on in corporate India? Wouldn't put it past them. They're no angels here either.