not my genre

Rating: 6/10 (30 October 2006)

i tend to shy away from horror movies. i have for years. it's not that i'm scared or that i object to violence and gore or anything quite so quaint as that. my problem with horror movies has been (and is likely to remain ever so) the intelligence, or more to the point lack thereof on the part of the characters. to me a movie has to have characters that behave in (mostly) rational way. characters have to have intelligence or it feels like porn for it's plot. generally horror movies tend towards characters that lack any fiber of what could be called intelligence, they make mistakes no clear thinking human being is likely make and tend to compound their mistakes when given an opportunity. it is this behavior of characters that generally lead to horror movie fans that talk to the screen, dictate to the movie, et cetera, et cetera. I liked Dawn Of The Dead because it avoided this fairly well at times. But during a few scenes the irrational stupidity of characters shone through. In fact one of the best examples of any horror movie stupidity presented itself when the character Steve (alone and in the dark as usual) puts down a perfectly good weapon (a crowbar) and picks up a lesser weapon, a croquet mallet. A nearly unbreakable heavy metal bar or a fabricated piece of cheap wood, what sane person in dire circumstances would prefer the later to the former? Perhaps, yes, i am over thinking the movie here (instead of sitting back and immersing myself) but this type of stupidity leaves me feeling as though i am the fool for wasting my money.
low 6 out of 10