Cinefantastique Online

2077 MMFF AWARDS:

A fantasy film about robots made from recycled material battling evil forces copped the coveted 2007 Metro Manila Film Festival Best Picture plum during the Awards Night Saturday at the SMX Mall of Asia Convention Center in Pasay City.

HORROR WITHOUT THE GORE:

As American horror has devolved into a butcher’s market, where the hacking, lopping and chopping of captives has become the central purpose, the genre has forgotten to care about the people doing all the screaming — you know, the “us” in the movie.

Hollywood has repurposed the genre into an efficient carnage delivery system; as “torture porn” films such as Lionsgate’s “Saw” and “Hostel” have taken in more than half a billion dollars, their characters have been rendered as nothing more than upright lambs to the slaughter. Sure, the genre has occasionally flirted with a more art house style from abroad (those creepy girl-in-the-well “Ring” films by way of Japan). But even those efforts have ignored their audience’s deep-seated need to empathize with somebody — anybody.

TROUBLING TIMES, FANCIFUL STORIES: 2008’s upcoming fantasy films offer a much-needed escape:

[...] in the first few months of 2008, movies are taking escapism to the extreme. There are the usual horror flicks (”One Missed Call,” “The Eye”), the smart monster movies (”Cloverfield,” produced by “Lost” whiz J.J. Abrams) and the fantasies aimed at children (”The Spiderwick Chronicles” and “Inkheart”). Also a caveman movie (”10,000 B.C.”) and a Dr. Seuss tale (”Horton Hears a Who!”).

[...]

But what, exactly, are we trying to escape from?

“We are in a rough time,” says Paula Mazur, a producer for “Nim’s Island,” Jodie Foster’s next movie, which involves fantasy aplenty. “Escapism is really attractive.”

Mark Waters, the director of “The Spiderwick Chronicles,” agrees.

“We’re seemingly enmeshed in a war nobody wants to be in, including the people who put us into the war,” he says. “We have an economic crisis, a housing crisis. Generally, there’s no hopefulness in American life right now.