when we pretend that we're dead

the film mirrors just opened and it looks interesting enough to seek out in the theater. at least the young director, alexandre aja, hails from france and his first feature, haute tension, about a very dysfunctional relationship, is a very rare french filmmaker in that he loves the horror genre and seriously amps the gore. in aja's films there's just buckets of the red stuff sloshing about everywhere.

now if that is not a recommendation for a filmmaker then i don't know what is. seriously, when the stress level in our human lives begins to redline then a good horror film, and no it doesn't have to be about the gore, can be a palliative against the anxiety. horror is most bodily in its cerebration. jeez, can that sound any geekier? nevertheless, horror allows us to confront the frailty of the human body as it also places us face to face with mortality. watching a good horror film we think thru and with our bodies. we are not detached from pain as we look upon death within the frame of our minds. our perspectives are thus enlarged as we engage and experience the frightening reality of our eventual deaths. horror then offers a build-up and release and the phew! feeling of survival. it places petty annoyances and bothers in check. we glance at the unknown and not shrink from it nor do we shirk from our viewing. that is the metaphysics of good horror, even at its most bloody and visceral, and why i love the genre so.