The horror of discovery

"All these horror movies are slasher film now. I like them, they're fun, but they wink at the audience and you're really not terrified through the movie."
--Gina Philips

So to make up for the lack of writing I did over the past couple of weeks I had a flourish of writing over the long weekend, but no computer to post with. So there will be several consecutive post here these next few days. I just have to transcribble my hand written stuff to this here computation device. At any rate. Here is the first of three.

I have been watching a fair amount of horror movies recently, good ones, bad ones, campy ones, the works. But there was one thing that stuck out to me that I feel is one of the greatest and probably more overlooked part of the horror movie genre. Most bloggers and blogettes (bloggesses (? wait no there is only one bloggess apparently)) focus on the monsters or the subject matter of the horror genre and rightfully so, because they are fun topics. But me I like to nit-pick and talk about minutiae, which is probably why there is only one other person that reads my blog...but I digress. I clearly have chosen a much different topic and so... I give you ladies, and bacillus (that's the smart way of saying germs), what I can only describe as the moment of horrific discovery. Or the discovery if you are into the whole brevity thing.

The moment of horrific discovery is the point where the protagonist or group of protagonists finds the first gruesome bit of whatever that spells the beginning of the end for them. I find that quite often the most macho man or the ditsy big boobed female supporting role are the ones to make such discoveries, and you know they will live just long enough to tell everyone what they saw, or not tell everyone to spite them and then die once everything is revealed. Ahh stereotypes.

At any rate here are my top five favorite types of horrific discovery that reveal for most of the characters that "the end is extremely fucking nigh."

5. The dripping, evil fluid on the shoulder

It can be blood, some snot like looking gak, cocoon fluid, drool, it really doesn't matter because it is classic. It becomes even better when the dripping fluid is acidic and burns through the skin of the unlucky victim. This one is usually found in horror movies featuring animals or aliens of some sort but its always great. However, this one only makes it to five because it is repeated a lot and sometimes well after the horror has been established. For example in 28 Days Later when the father gets the infected blood in his eye and begins to zombify. The whole zombie bit was well established but the discovery of the transformation from human to disease riddled undead was still really cool to watch and super dramatic. The drippy evil fluid discovery moment is simple and sweet and that is what makes it so memorable.

4. The ole' switcheroo

This can happen a number of ways, but basically the thing the character thought they were touching, eating, petting, having sex with, suddenly ends up being something different or something that is just no longer alive. This is one of those discovery moments that happens commonly in slasher flicks. The couple out at "heavy petting point" in the convertible, things getting hot, one person goes down on the other and reaches up or comes up for air and their significant fuck-buddy is without a head. That is the switcheroo. Other times it could be someone eating something delicious and wonderful and then they jam their spoon into that delicious bowl of food and come up with an eyeball or their drink is suddenly blood. That is the switcheroo. But my favorite switcheroo comes from one of the campiest movies of all time: From Dusk Till Dawn not because of Selma Hayek, not because of the hilarious dialogue, and not because of the penis gun in Sex Machine's pants. It is because the switcheroo is so complete that the band is even playing instruments made out of body parts. Just watch:



3. Falling Limbs

This is one that is not used much as a form of horrific discovery, but when it is used it is done to perfection. It is one that is seen more commonly in zombie films where a zombie arm falls out of nowhere to grab the shoulder of some unsuspecting human. I particularly love it when that one character who 30 minutes into the film went off by themselves to take a shit or something gets attacked but somehow barely survives to semi-warn the others that something is out there. The character does this by slamming their blood covered hand on an unsuspecting human only to reveal that he/she was attacked by something but dying right before he/she actually reveals what it is. Classic horror plot movement. Sadly there are very few films where the horrific discovery involves a falling detached limb, that usually comes later in the film like in when Samuel Jackson's arm falls on Laura Dern in Jurassic Park. Nevertheless the falling limb gimmick is one of those time honored horror trends that is meant purely for shock value but never ceases to entertain no matter how predictable it may be.

2. And behind door #1...

I also call this the "Head on the Door" moment of discovery, yes that is a Cure reference, yes I am okay with that. Think about the song "Close to Me" by The Cure.

"Just try to see in the dark
Just try to make it work
To feel the fear before you're here
I make the shapes come much too close
I pull my eyes out
Hold my breath
And wait until i shake..."

Pretty much describes what I am talking about here. This is one of those moments when somebody in the horror movie thinks they see something go around the corner or through the hall, and at first they don't see anything. They get called crazy, they get ignored, so on and so forth, when suddenly they see something not alive, not human reveal itself in an ominous manner, like slowly turning around to reveal blood, and perhaps a weapon or a human head. The character is thinking, "if only i was sure that my head on the door was a dream," indeed. I guess Robert Smith really liked horror movies, and it kind of makes you think twice about those songs you used to slow dance to with your girlfriend huh?


1. Cute little animal with limb in mouth













This is by far my favorite type of horrific discovery, because it is so disturbingly funny. It often involves a dog, and if you are lucky or watching a suberbly awful horror film, a little child. It typically goes a little something like this:

"Hey [insert ironic and cliche dog name here] what'cha got there?"
Dog growls and continues to chomp on prize
"OH MY GOD it's a human hand!!!!! WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE"

Something like that. The point is its the perfect mix of cute, disgusting and funny all mixed into one little package. It's so simple of a reveal that something is afoul that it just gets overlooked as campy humor, but to me this is one of the best ways to throw people into the action of a horror film be it award winning (if there is such a thing in the horror genre) or ultimo camp the world champion luchador of campy horror films --which as of this moment is being disputed by Human Centipede and Trolls 2.