A bit OCD with horror films. Enjoy micro-classifying. Genre as a concept is intriguing. I become completely obsessed with the most minute distinctions. Classification is a hobby and a passion for me. I will decide that a horror genre exists about say, small cursed objects (Hell Raiser) or Building (Shivers) or in this case super computers obsessed with the flesh and try and compare every single one of them. In order to define the rules for that genre I need to consume ALL of them and compare. The times of these obsessions w classification usually coincide with a period where I feel alienated. I gain solus by drowning myself in a distant memory from my youth. Something so distant it’s barely audible. Not a specific memory - what I am after is a bit more nebulous. It’s an aesthetic. A texture. For me it always seems to manifest itself in bits and pieces of horror from the late 70s and early 80s. Something I must have been exposed to a lot (or fascinated with) when very young. It’s not any specific movie. I sometimes focus on audio quality, color, film stock and wardrobe just as much as the concept or plot.
I watched this last week but I've been too tired to post it up. Not sure how it snuck past me for all these years but Demon Seed (1977) surprised me. It sent me flying into my own weird meditative abyss. This film stars a floating golden polygon computer. I like that alone a lot as a sentence. It is devious. A super computer that succeeds in raping it's creator's wife and incubating it's genetically and digitally programmed hybrid child. How did I miss this one? Julie Christie's character is trapped in her house while Proteus IV (polygon computer) has taken control. All machines. All locks. The house is terrorizing her as the "unseen all knowing" system of cameras and sensors envelops her. A bit like 2001’s HAL but I think I actually prefer Proteus IV. First, it's physical form, an always unfolding golden geometric shape, a constant perfect equation - a thing of nightmares. This quote from a review sums it up perfectly "Proteus IV, the evil computer in this rather absurd film, is what HAL would be if HAL read porn and added a little reverb and digital delay to its voice."
From Proteus IV "Eternity does exist, but the price of admission, death, is too high for me to pay"
4 comments:
I have a copy of the book--that description is accurate for that, too. It's in the first person, from the computer's point of view, and it's coldly, analytically pornographic.
Reminds me American Psycho. The book was so much better than the movie because it was first person - almost uncomfortable to read.
The movie's sort of in the first person, too, isn't it? "American Psycho", I mean. I haven't seen it in ten years or so.
I think it had moments of internal monologue but I mostly remember the weird Genesis and Huey Lewis critiques. Those were more of a performance. The fact that you actually watch his character (Christain Bale) throughout the movie rather than what his character sees kind of makes the 1st person too hard to buy. Since the book lacks visuals I think the idea of 1st person comes off stronger - plus reading about the violence is so much more intense than watching it when it's described that way... "I did this..." Yikes.
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