Cloverfeild, the Host, 28 Weeks Later and Writing Porn

I went on a Horror movie bender this weekend because I often feel that horror movies have the potential to break new ground more so than science fiction and fantasy. Horror is grounded in our day to day lives with a big heaping dose of reality breaking terror. Science fiction and fantasy movies to me seem to be stretching further and further into absurdity that removes the personal element. Of course this sentiment disqualifies slasher gross out horror, which is more interested in making you physically ill rather than mentally. Watching horror movies to me i a lot like mining for gold in a latrine. You have a bunch of shit to dig through to find the gems.

‘Cloverfeild’ is a gem. Critics have called it Blair Witch meets Godzilla because the point of view is entirely within a home movie camera but to me it reminded me more of blogging. Hud, the guy with the camera, documents everything out of a vague sense that people will want to know what goes down. Friends die, buildings collapse and Hud breaks down but damn it, he keeps filming. Hud has a sense of responsibility that transcends logic to most people but makes perfect sense to an audience that blogs their tragedies.

In the movie, some terrible thing attacks New York. While the characters are evacuating, one of them receives a phone call from the love of his life. He decides to turn around and go rescue her from her apartment, and the friends tag along. Here to me is movie’s biggest weakness: Once the characters rescue the love of his life, the movie is just about over. We spend an entire movie losing characters we like, in order to save a character who is virtually a stranger to us. I resented the fuck out of the girl once she was rescued, and I never really got over it. The girl was a plot device. The fact that she is a whiny skinny white girl who repeats over and over “Why is this happening?” projects a sense of privilege. The main characters went through Hell to rescue this woman who seems upset that she something bad happen to her.

Which brings us to ‘The Host’. This 2006 Korean movies was referenced by 50% of the ‘Cloverfeild’ reviews so I gave it a look. In this movie, a young girl is snatched by a horrible river monster and tucked away in a sewer like a squirell stores nuts. The poor girl calls her idiot father letting him know she is still alive. The idiot father, his drunk brother, his bronze medal winning archer sister and their snack stand owning father go out to rescue the girl.

What a huge difference this rescue team and rescue victim are from ‘Cloverfeild’. As an audience we care for the girl who is one of the few good things that has ever happened to this family. We love this girl just as much as the family does and the failures of the family replicate the feeling of helplessness we the audience feel watching this play out. The special effects are weaker and the monster is much smaller but the tension and connection is so much stronger.

Out of bad luck, I also watched ’28 Weeks Later’ this weekend. This loud sequel was all special effects and one minute character development. Rarely have I seen so many people die that I could give a rat’s ass for. It was even more bizarre considering how small and intimate the first movie was where it explored one survivor and his experiences. This movie was all death, gunfire and loud noises. Characters existed to act stupid and die.

So what does all of this have to do with porn? Everything. When a monster eats a character, wether we care or not depends on how well we know the character involved. The DVD cover for ‘The Host’ has a picture of a schoolgirl being snatched by a monster. My eyes glazed over the image because it reminded me of posters where Jaws is about to eat some anonymous swimmer. After the movie, when I realized the DVD cover was depicting THAT girl that I had spent two hours watching, I felt a jolt knowing it was showing the abduction.

I think beginning porn writers have even more to learn from ’28 Weeks Later’. In their minds, their characters may represent lost loves, current crushes or cherished spouses, but if the writer doesn’t make us feel the same way then all they are writing about are bodies fucking. I’m not saying writers need to do full biographies of their porn characters, but give us something to hold onto, even if it is a cliche. Idiot camera guy wasn’t as interesting as idiot father but he was far more interesting than warm body that passed as a character in ’28 Weeks Later’.

Invest in your porn characters and your readers will too.