I have a new store NEW STORE new store NEW STORE!!!
The new HE store is live at explosm! There are new signed prints and posters (previously only available at conventions), and for the first time I’m offering signed books! More info HERE.
I saw Gravity last night and I was all :O the entire time. If you are interested in my more in depth thoughts on the film, please head over to the SUPER SPOILERY Gravity thread on the Fancy Bastard Facebook Group.
Potentially mild Gravity spoiler in the next sentence…. Ok, so was that a horror movie where the monster was momentum? Or inertia? Or possibly… GRAVITY?!? WHUT?! DUN DUN DUNNNNNN!!!
Either way, I really enjoyed it. Reminded me of Aronofsky’s The Fountain except for the linear storyline that made sense. It was beautifully shot, totally immersive and allowed you JUST enough time to not quite catch your breath between gaspable moments. It plays with the kind of suspense that nearly becomes stress, but never quite makes you so uneasy that you want to leave the room. I give it two bloody thumb nubs up.
COMMENTERS: What movie has provoked the biggest physical reaction (ie raised heart rate, jumping out of your seat, actual tears, dizziness, etc.) in you?
UPDATE ON THE FANCY DIGITAL SKETCH DRIVE: If you are still waiting on your Fancy Digital Sketch, I am SUPER BACKLOGGED on these. I am very sorry it’s taking so long. I am working through them, but if you need yours urgently, feel free to let me know via email.
Have you seen my wife’s Etsy store, “Science and Fiction?” Check out her Starfleet pips choker!
Comments (29)
Gravity is the answer to the biggest physical reaction question for me. For the first time in my life, I hyperventilated and almost blacked out during a movie (mild spoilers: that happened during the second debris sequence). I didn’t realize I was breathing too fast until I started to get dizzy. This made me love the movie even more!I seriously had my hands to my mouth for most of the movie. It felt like a ride.
TJ “Kiltman”Anderson · 87 weeks ago
The first time I saw saving private ryan…that opening 25 min Normandy invasion sequence was extremely intense.. haven’t seen gravity yet.
Carlos A. · 87 weeks ago
Some people weren’t happy with it: http://arstechnica.com/science/2013/10/poking-hol…
Danger, Danger, Spoilers and science in link.
petsinwinter · 86 weeks ago
Pokemon: The First Movie made me cry but +I was like 6 at the timePersonally I was put off by the deafening volume of the pre and post credits SFX and music, and yes I did take umbrage with some of the more obvious scientific fallacies the formed the core plot of the film, but that said I really, really enjoyed Gravity!It isn’t often that a genuine thriller can deliver suspense like that while maintaining real, fleshed out characters and a setting that is relatable enough to produce real stress and emotional responses. Well done to everyone involved (except the sound guy, fuck that guy)
Candace · 86 weeks ago
Martin Scorsese’s ’91 remake of Cape Fear starring Robert De Niro and Nick Nolte. Robert De Niro was completely and utterly terrifying in the role of Max Cady, and I spent the entire movie alternately on the edge of my seat, and cowering in my seat grabbing onto my friend next to me while squealing in terror.I believe that may still be the most frightening, chilling movie I have ever seen. (I have not seen Gravity yet.) I would say that Scorsese topped Hitchcock with Cape Fear, and that is no mean feat. (Of course, Hitchcock didn’t have De Niro.)
Varmint · 86 weeks ago
Probably the climax of Back to the Future (do I even need to say that spoilers follow for a movie released in 1985?). The whole race to get the Deloreon some juice from the lightning striking the clock tower while everything that can go wrong does go wrong still keeps me in suspense on some level even after all this time, despite repeated viewings.The two minutes immediately afterward, with the wide shot of Doc Brown walking through the wreckage of the whole aftermath dumbfounded before he suddenly runs down the street yelling in triumph as the horn section plays a few bars of the orchestral theme, still make me want to involuntarily pump my fist. It’s possibly my favorite movie moment of all time.
BrerBear · 86 weeks ago
I suffer from extreme acrophobia so i will give gravity a wide berth. And don’t come at me with “you lose you sense of height at a certain altitude”-bullshit. i know exactly how high and how long i will be falling 😀
Scarlettb · 86 weeks ago
I almost passed out during The Dark Knight. I saw it on an IMAX screen, and we sat HELLA close (not my choice). When he jumped off the building at the beginning, I had to put my head between my knees.
Dave · 86 weeks ago
I had to consciously supress my physiological response to “Headhunters” (featuring Jaime Lannister) because I was donating platelets at the time. They’ll probably need to ban “Gravity.”There was some sort of excessive fluid build up in my eyes watching “Pay it Forward.”
Hotsauce · 86 weeks ago
Gravity: Two Hours of “So you have a thing about heights, do you?”“Angular Momentum” should have been the title according to Neil deGrasse Tyson. I have not seen the movie and likely won’t.Atonement had me hysterically crying in the theater. Like, heaving, gasping, loud, ugly sobs. Completely out of control, I’m so sorry everyone who was in the theater with me, but I couldn’t make them stop. It was horrible and embarrassing. I 50% blame that on seeing it at JUST the right (or wrong) time of the month, and 50% on James McAvoy’s accursed blue eyes.Im not making fun, but I laughed out loud imagining someone crying that “inconsolable child cry” in a movie theater.
Bruceski · 86 weeks ago
I’m not sure if this counts since it was after the fact and due to external issues, but Jurassic Park scarred me for ten years. The movie was freaky and awesome and probably something I shouldn’t have seen as a 10-year-old kid but who cares it was CG dinosaurs. Unfortunately I had sleep apnea (undiagnosed at the time) and as a result had major sleepwalking problems where I’d be awake but my brain would still be running in dreamland.Now imagine when this occurs during a nightmare. I was in bed, and there was a TV hovering at the foot of my bed showing the scariest parts of the movie. I got up, turned off the TV, and went to the bathroom. On the way I had to pass my playroom, and the moon in the window was casting a shadow on the wall that looked like a raptor. Now when half-asleep that means you’re also half-awake: I was able to tell myself it was just the shadow of a robin or something, and my mind playing tricks on me. Then the shadow turned its head towards the doorway and lept.
Until I left that house for college, no matter how many daylight hours I spent looking at things rationally, if I had to pee during the night I went past that room at a sprint. I knew it wasn’t real but I couldn’t take that chance.
Zee · 86 weeks ago
This made me laugh so hard. But to give you some ammunition to fire back at me, anything featuring Slenderman, whether games or videos, makes me unable to sleep properly at night. I’m 32 years old, and I am incredibly jaded about horror. I can watch any horror movie you put in front of me, and come out okay. I played Amnesia: The Dark Descent, and while I will agree that it was very scary WHILE PLAYING, I had no nightmare issues. Same goes for many of what most people call the scariest movies. It is why I am not a fan of horror genre. I am so rarely scared that I just can’t enjoy it.But I had repeated sightings of a very waifish, humanlike shadow in the hallway of my childhood home when I was little. It was in the corner of my eye, when I sat at the computer at night. I would turn around, and there’d be nothing, but I could see it in my peripheral vision. There wouldn’t even be a shadow there, either. It happened well into my adulthood. I have had no episodes of hallucinations, did not do drugs, still don’t, and have not had this happen to me in any other location, nor under any other circumstance. So, with that deeply disturbing phenomena ingrained into my formative years, with no rational explanation, Slendy scares the F**K out of me.
Bruceski · 86 weeks ago
Laugh away. I loved the movie, and if not for the sleepwalking any nightmares would have been short-lived. These days my brain tends to make up its own horror. “Hey, what if in this video game that has nothing to do with being scary you turned around and there was a monster behind you?” “Shut up brain, I’m going to sleep after this. Why’d you have to do that?”
DuckAmuck · 86 weeks ago
Kill Bill 2 – buried alive. I swore I felt my lungs stop working.The Descent – not the monsters. The scene where the one gal gets stuck. If I were to go caving, THAT is where I would suffocate and die.
Monsters Inc – yes, seriously. Every time the kid screams it makes me cry.
That reminds me of the scene in the Ewok movie where the kid gets trapped under the surface of the water. That scared the shit out of my for at least 5 years afterwards. I remember there was a time that I wouldnt evet go completely under the surface of the water in a swimming pool after seeing that.Re: Monsters Inc. I know what you mean. Boo’s terrified and anguished screaming when she’s strapped in the chair are a little too realistic, especially considering how often I have seen that movie with my own daughter who was basically Boo’s age at the time.
bix · 86 weeks ago
I watched a documentary about Chinese foot binding during an anthropology class that made me pass out. I had never passed out before and had no idea what was wrong with me, but watching close ups of real women’s feet after they had been unwrapped was so disturbing that I got nauseous, followed by tunnel vision, followed by blacking out and falling out of my chair. The odd thing to me is that my body decided to shut down rather than my brain just telling me to stop looking at the screen.
Shayne · 86 weeks ago
Million Dollar Baby. She broke her neck. Died. Movie over.I was shaking with anger when I left the theater.
Chelsea · 86 weeks ago
I saw The Woman in Black in a crowded theater and basically cowered in my seat the entire time. It’s hella atmospheric and the jump scares abound – the audience was totally feeding off each others’ fear. It was an hour and a half of shocked screams, nervous laughter, and relieved exhales. A truly excellent time.Also…Up. The first five minutes of Up. Goddammit, Pixar. *sob*
bubujin_2 · 86 weeks ago
Three films come to mind:1) Star Wars (IV). Saw it live when it first came out in 1977 at the Cooper Theater in Denver–curved screen and a decent (for the day) sound system. So when the battleship came zooming from seemingly overhead it was a totally visceral moment and quite the ride to the very end.
2) Some sort of IMAX like theater at a state fair or some such. It was just short, wild clips of flying, riding a roller coaster, and other high-speed actions. There were no seats in the theater so you’re standing up and getting the sensation of falling or moving with rises and falls of the POV action. So weird.
3) Rocky Horror Picture Show–simply for the outrageous film itself but mostly for the frantic audience participation.
Away we Go – when Chris Messina is talking about his wife and their kids,(SPOLIER: She can’t have kids but they keep trying.) I just about lost it. Which is of course followed with Mya Rudolph wondering if she’ll be a good parent, followed by them finding their home, roll credits…..I had to go into the kitchen for ” a beer”, mostly to pull myself together.Also…
The original The Amityville Horror Horror, saw it when I was ten and didn’t sleep for a week.The Day After Tomorrow – I watched it first time in the summer. In phoenix. But I was freezing cold and shivering thru most of
Frostpaws · 86 weeks ago
Call me a monster if you like, but dammit, I laughed uncontrollably in the first 15 mimutes of Saving Private Ryan. I was on a date too, so that didnt go so well. She did give
Me another chance, though.
Daemnor · 26 weeks ago
Final Destination – I was on the edge of my seat for most of the movie, trying to alter the probabilities on the accidents.Also, for some reason… any time a character is underwater/around poisonous gas/must be silent, I hold my breath. Every. Single. Time.
Final Destination – I was on the edge of my seat for most of the movie, trying to alter the probabilities on the accidents.
Also, for some reason… any time a character is underwater/around poisonous gas/must be silent, I hold my breath. Every. Single. Time.