Horror Movies

I'm not generally a fan of horror movies. Things crawling around in the dark eating people with far more blood and gore than is really necessary just get to me, and not in the way that they are supposed to. The plot lines are stereotypical and the ending ties everything off very nicely, whether the good guy wins or not. Most of the time, I have no interest in them.

There are, however a few exceptions to my anti-horror stance. My favorite one to recommend is John Carpenter's "The Thing" in which an alien comes to an Alaskan outpost and begins wreaking havoc. In this little tale, the alien is able to disguise itself as anything, or anyone. At this point the fun of the movie should be obvious: how, exactly, does one know that the guy next to him is really the man he's been working with and not the alien out to kill them all? This really is the fun of the movie, because by the end, when only two characters are left, the audience is still unsure of who is the alien, and who they are supposed to be rooting for.

And that's where Carpenter leaves it.

In recent years, the best I've seen is The Descent. This is about a group of women who decide to go away for a weekend at a cabin and a nice little climb through deep, dark caves. Needless to say, these caves are filled with creepy crawly humanoid things out to kill and eat them, and not necessarily in that order. Of course, most of the cast dies horribly, leaving one character still running the tunnels and caves looking for a way out. After a brief dream sequence of her escape following a good crack to the head, she comes to surrounded by said creepy crawlies. THE END. That's right, that's where the movie ends, in perfect horror movie fashion. Does she get out? Do the creepy crawlies eat her right there? Who knows?

I loved this movie, I really did. It had some suspense, it had some gore, but not a whole lot. It left you with the sense that things weren't over, which I've always felt was the key component to a good horror movie.

And then they went and ruined it.

In true cinematic greedy fashion, the director decided to make a sequel. Titled rather obviously "The Descent: Part 2" the back cover declares that following her escape, our leading lady has to explain the deaths of all of her friends and lead a team back into the caves to fend off a whole new set of creepy crawlies.

This really gets on my nerves. Sequels by nature are generally not as good as the first movie to be released. This sequel takes it a step farther, effectively ruining the end of the first movie, getting rid of that sense of suspense that keeps you looking over your shoulder. So why is it that movies, especially good ones, are no longer allowed to stand on their own?

Must we really make a sequel to everything?

Ace