Paths, Ink

Rating: Null/10 (26 December 2009)

When I watch these things, I am particularly aware of what is considered scary: slimy, maggoty dead things, particularly if they are in your face; surprises from out of the blue; supernatural forces, always presumed to be evil....
But most of all we fear inevitability. It is the most cinematic of horror, because the filmmaker is in control of everything that happens next. We are completely at his mercy. There is — for those of us that are serious — no escape. All he has to do is add an on-screen setup that puts the fate in the story, and a desperate, failing attempt to escape. There can be no escape.
This is what film has over books. Books can explore the hidden, the thoughts, the unseen. But film can grind inevitably at a pace that cannot be altered.
There is nothing else remarkable here, save the excellent use of a specific effect that always gets me: the inkflow.
Yes, I know it is used all over, but we see it here in three different modes, enough to know that the director understood the effect. We even have the handkerchief (the first time) following the same motion path as the main trunk of an earlier flow.
Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.