HP prequel of awesomeness

I've never read the prequel to Harry Potter even though I've read most of the books and seen almost all the movies. It has a feel of rebellious teenagers mixed with fantasy into one exciting package. It's basically a detail of two important characters, James Potter and Sirius Black escaping from police using magic as an aid. They portray what most people would believe to be delinquent teens going through life with cocky attitudes and smart-ass dialogue. While it's a coming of age story like the rest of the Harry Potter series, it depicts it in a rather short humorous tone. It's not necessary to read the prequel to understand the whole Harry Potter series but it's nice and enjoyable if you feel the need for a good laugh.

a troublesome bridge life for a Troll

For the topic of epic adventures I've seen the movie the Hobbit but haven't read the book. However I've also seen spoilers as to what differences the movie had compared to what the book had. So instead I decided to read a different tale called Troll Bridge by Terry Pratchett. I didn't know what to expect when I first started to read the story but to my surprise it was humorous and amusing. I expected action and adventure or at least an evil troll but instead it was just a tale about how the things that were in the past are changing. The troll was the biggest shock as he was a family man with a poor relationship with his wife. The only really fantasy element was the taking horse and that the family were trolls. A interesting read that was unexpected.  
 

Witches of all power

From what I know about witches, they are either mischievous or manipulative women that use their power to either bind people to their will or pull cruel tricks to their expense. But from the reading, Aunt Maria, I've gotten a different taste as to what witches do with their power and how they act upon it. There are only a few details that pertain to theme that make them a stereotype to other witches I've seen. They are pertained as old, weak women but have amazing power and control on the male species. Aunt Maria also takes the villains role of appearing to be weak but has control over the entire town and make the men her puppets. What are some differences to her compared to other witches is that she exhibits her weakness as to old age and manipulates her family. What makes this unique is that the way she gets people to do things for her is similar to how regular humans do so. Rather if their injured or weak or even old, the guilt of seeing them helpless makes people have to take care of them. Those qualities still exist in everyday life and are acted upon by people constantly.

What makes this similar to the way our culture models female is that it interprets women wanting their way while the men just follow helplessly to their control. And if children try to interfere they have them all grouped together into an orphanage. Some women (specifically to feminist) view men as unruly creatures that need to either back off or know their place. Our culture's women with power like to think of themselves as the dominant species and look down upon any action man would take. While there are many similarities between the witches of Black Maria and today's society it was a good read and brought back a lot of old memories to how manipulation and control works in civilization.

Horror in terms of "Weird"

I've heard this word stated by many people for many different subjects and it can either have a negative connotation to it or a positive one. Some people that find things weird and abnormal so they try to avoid those types of things because it's things that they aren't accustom to with their everyday life. It's sometimes rare that people try different things or experience different actions that they normally would and just want things to usually be the same. I'm no exception to this but my taste tends to be different than others in other subjects. People description of "weird" is completely opinionated. It's to what is different and out of the norm to them. Several movies and books use "weird" to strength their plot and setting.

Brazil is a movie that most would classify as weirdness to it's max. The setting is in the future where appliances are auto operated, food looks different than what one would expect, and torture is applied with people in lab coats and wearing mask. The most notable part of the film itself is it's main character's plot sometimes has the audience going through his mind and how he views things compared to how they really are. Kind of like escaping reality for your own pre imaged dreams. To others this is wacky and confusing but a rare few would find this natural as many people find reality difficult and wish to escape their hardships.

To bring the topic in focus with horror, I've read a online novel called "Monster Island". It describes a former U.N employee trying to survive a zombie infested island. Through the middle of the chapters it tells of a zombie himself who was a medical student and he's retained his consciousness, which is abnormal for zombies to do. The whole pacing is confusing at first and it doesn't help that the first novel starts in the middle and the second is more of a prequel.

The positive thing about weird is that is can also fascinate people. While some feel comfortable with their normal lives, others like in the movie "Brazil" wish to escape to find something different. Whether it is abnormal or just wacky, the boredom of regular life can weigh people down.

Assumptions of J-Horror

My thoughts on the reading and films of J types of horror seem to seem to tell me the differences between the themes in western views. I watched the film, "Audition" since the name looked harmless over all things and I was curious as to what approach they would use to generate horror as a theme. I won't spoil too much what occurs in the film but I'll get into details later as to what use of gore they used to demonstrate horror. For now I'll tell how the movie enticed me enough to watch through it without a lack of interest. It starts off a bit slow setting up the mood to get the viewer familiar with the plot and the situation that befalls the protagonist. As the film continues we get a sense that something is wrong with a certain persons actions and are cautions as to what they my do or have hidden. Right in the middle either something paranormal happens or we get to the core of the plot as to what's going on and start to feel tense in the context. The finale has the female character torture the main protagonist with needles and goes as far as to saw one of his feet and attempted to saw the other.

What themes that came off this film as well as others make j-horror movies a theme in themselves. They focus on the atmosphere so the pacing is slow but the feeling is unsettling and eerie. How good and evil is expressed compared to common western themes is completely different. When the audience sees the ghost or monster type creatures we're rooting to the characters to survive the situation and destroy the beast. But with J-Horror, there's either a paranormal entity that has a reason for it's actions then to just be malicious or the suppose villain had a dramatic past that has changed how they view things then to just kill for fun. The directors of J-horror know how to build up suspense in a scene and not rely on music and sounds as their dominate focus for shock value. They also let the result speak for the type of horror they create rather than have murder the first few seconds of the film. This type of direction isn't usually seen in gothic horror but it's more integrated with the psychological aspect some films care to create. It's more about what's thought out in emotions like depression or trauma and it builds off through the paranormal.

J-horror has a different sense of horror that most westerns are accustom to and it breaks past assumptions people (including me) has seen in the field of horror.