Jul '18
Damn, that scene chills me to the bone. I'll try to elaborate
1. It starts off with that terribly depressing song, "The Midnight Special." I like plenty of CCR songs, but this definitely isn't one of them. It's depressing in a way that I find the MASH theme song depressing, except this one gives me the willies too.
2. Two recognizable faces in Dan Aykroyd and Albert Brooks. Something about seeing two very well-known actors not normally recognized for horror lulls me into a false sense of security.
3. They begin playing TV trivia humming theme songs to well-known, instantly recognizable television shows, which I think also lulls me into some kinda false sense of security. These are just two guys having a good time, much in the way I've seen myself act numerous times. There's this sense of realism. When the Twilight Zone theme comes up, there's this sorta sinister presence that slowly begins to emerge, like "oh, fuck. Now you did it."
4. "Wanna see something really scary?" No, I don't! Lol. First of all, no way in hell would I pull over in the middle of nowhere like that in the dead of night. I just wouldn't.
5. When Dan Aykroyd makes this exaggerated face and holds his finger up with this wicked sense of glee like "now you're gonna get it," it just freaks me out.
6. The fact that not only does he turn into a monster and now you're face to face with this hideous thing in the middle of fucking nowhere, but the idea that he turns into one so damn quickly. There's no metamorphosis or painful body horror transformations. He just turns his head and "bam!" It just freaks me the hell out.
7. The fact that, for no good reason, he's a monster and that what if, Albert Brooks' character said he DIDN'T want to see something scary...would he have been spared?
I don't know. What do you all think? Do you find this scene scary? What movie scenes, if any, have that sorta creepy impending doom type feeling that never fail to have an effect on you? The thing behind the dumpster in Mulholland Drive has a similar vibe, I think. Where things just feel "wrong."
1. It starts off with that terribly depressing song, "The Midnight Special." I like plenty of CCR songs, but this definitely isn't one of them. It's depressing in a way that I find the MASH theme song depressing, except this one gives me the willies too.
2. Two recognizable faces in Dan Aykroyd and Albert Brooks. Something about seeing two very well-known actors not normally recognized for horror lulls me into a false sense of security.
3. They begin playing TV trivia humming theme songs to well-known, instantly recognizable television shows, which I think also lulls me into some kinda false sense of security. These are just two guys having a good time, much in the way I've seen myself act numerous times. There's this sense of realism. When the Twilight Zone theme comes up, there's this sorta sinister presence that slowly begins to emerge, like "oh, fuck. Now you did it."
4. "Wanna see something really scary?" No, I don't! Lol. First of all, no way in hell would I pull over in the middle of nowhere like that in the dead of night. I just wouldn't.
5. When Dan Aykroyd makes this exaggerated face and holds his finger up with this wicked sense of glee like "now you're gonna get it," it just freaks me out.
6. The fact that not only does he turn into a monster and now you're face to face with this hideous thing in the middle of fucking nowhere, but the idea that he turns into one so damn quickly. There's no metamorphosis or painful body horror transformations. He just turns his head and "bam!" It just freaks me the hell out.
7. The fact that, for no good reason, he's a monster and that what if, Albert Brooks' character said he DIDN'T want to see something scary...would he have been spared?
I don't know. What do you all think? Do you find this scene scary? What movie scenes, if any, have that sorta creepy impending doom type feeling that never fail to have an effect on you? The thing behind the dumpster in Mulholland Drive has a similar vibe, I think. Where things just feel "wrong."
I agree that it might be partly because it's two well-known comic actors in the car, so you can't help but relax and expect something silly, dumb, and funny. Then he does THAT... Jesus.
Were they supposed to be friends? Are you sure? I thought the Dan Ackroyd character was supposed to be a hitchhiker.
When you ask what secenes it reminds me of, I don't know if I can really defend this, but I think of the scene when Angela does something extremely yucky to Stooge, in Night of the Demons (1988). That scene isn't really as bad, because you know something bad is gonna happen, but you don't know it'll be THAT bad.