AT&T and Verizon and their stupid maps are all lies. AT&T claims 97% coverage in most of America so does that mean 100% of horror movies where a phone doesn't work take place in this remaining 3%?I guess it does. Well I have nothing new today to post so you get a Dharma Initiative: GENERIC HORROR BLOG CLICHE POST.
Enjoy!
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The "no cell phone coverage" cliche is endemic these days, and a holdover from the lazy days of pre-cell when all you had to do was get the victims away from a phone booth or "cut the wire!" to isolate them. The world has changed, and the horror filmmaker's bag of tricks needs an update as well.
ReplyDeleteI recently watched a movie called DARK NATURE (2009, I think), an otherwise forgettable movie in which a family go out to a remote country estate for the weekend etc., which solved the cell phone problem in the simplest possible way. No "accidentally" stepping on it/dropping it in a sink/forgetting to recharge the battery.
No, the cell phones worked flawlessly, and once the killer came after them the victims were able to call the police on the first try. However, since the house was out in the middle of nowhere, it would be at least an hour before the cops could get there! See? Now there's the added suspense of the time-limit they have to stay alive till help comes, and the excitement of the killer trying to beat that time.
Or there could have been--sadly the makers of DARK NATURE were so into "subverting audience expectations" that they ended up subverting my expectations of watching an exciting story. :P
end rant
Hey, thanks for using my video! Been working on another one. They're a ton of work to put together. That "No Signal" one is one of my favorites, done by Rich from FourFour.
ReplyDeleteMatt - No doubt. Good stuff you put in there. My bad for not giving you a link back...so here:
ReplyDeleteHorror Cliches Volume I: The False Alarm via No Room In Hell.
Vicar - I totally agree. Stop with the cliches and base some reality into horror. Gonna totally check out that flick you mentioned.
Hopefully hollywood will be creative instead of being lazy