Partially to keep with my absurd history of vivisecting the Doom franchise, I'm tempted to dissect Doom: The Movie.
It would be extremely educational. See, the movie goes through all the motions of being a scary movie, but utterly fails to build much in the way of tension. In fact, there's some pretty cool ideas in there. Like the girl who gets her hand severed: bringing her back alive was very clever.
Dissecting the movie in detail could reveal some of the critical ways to build a terrifying story - the difference between the right way and the two-degrees-off way that Doom did it. So close... but still, failure.
The problem is, I would want to do it in detail. Commenting on literally every scene. Talking about everything from filmography to set design to tension control. In fact, ideally it would be a modified version of the movie with me sitting in, MST3K-style, and pausing it to point out interesting details. Of course, that won't work, but the text version would also end up being painfully long.
The question is simple: is anyone interested in reading such a thing?
7 comments:
I'd rather a good essay on how to make something scary. I have not watched the Doom movie, and I have no intention of doing so. From all I've heard, it is mediocre at best, and not nearly campy enough to redeam its ridiculous origins.
Kestrel: Need examples! What should I use for a scary movie that failed to be scary without being campy?
I think Doom is a good choice, and I think the critique would be readable even to those who hadn't watched it.
Or you could watch it with the critique, MSTK-style.
You know, I was thinking of starting a blog with some good people, the content would be devoted to game studies essays like this, which is a little deviant, being about a film based on a game, but would still work. So yes, I encourgage you to write that.
I was kinda frustrated when I realized I wouldn't be able to read it right now.
Sounds like it would be popular enough to merit making. It might take a while, though.
Keep your eyes here!
You should release it as a podcast. Your audience could then listen to it as they watch the movie.
That would be interesting. Unfortunately, my recording capabilities are limited to a ten-year-old microphone that makes me sound like a really bad announcer from a fifties' newsreel. "Newsflash: Demons invade Mars! Hundreds of casualties! The cavalry is on the way!"
It would require some extremely good timing on my part. It would require the audience to have the movie.
Hm. Still, it has class.
I don't think I can pull it off, though.
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