Jesse here again. It’s my birthday today and I couldn’t have been lucky enough to receive the best gift ever. My nephew, Mason, who is 8 years old was finally given the go ahead to watch Jurassic Park for the first time. This was huge news for me. Not only is it one of my favourite movies of all time, it’s also as stereotypical as it sounds, one of the most inspiration movies I’ve watched as a creative person. Now, it’s inspirational in the sense of how it affects people as a horror/thriller. I’m not calling it one of the best movies of all time (influential, sure), because there are so many other movies I would call ‘better’. This movie, like Steven Spielberg’s ‘JAWS’ that came before it, proves in a simple sense that these movies are classic examples of horror.
If you’ve never seen Jaws or Jurassic park, let me watch them with you. I get a kick out of it. I know both of them basically line-by-line so the scare factors are gone for me (although, whenever the surround sound is really good and I hear a velociraptor behind me… I still jump), and while I can always appreciate the wonderful cinematography, Spielberg-ian directing, dialogue and much more, sometimes I forget how truly terrifying these movies can be.
With Jaws, I recently watched it again with a Jaws virgin, Connor Peck. He jumped at all the right places. It proves even a shark that ‘looks fake’ with the right angles, pacing and music can still terrify today.
Jurassic Park with Mason on the other hand is a different story. There was a real mix of genuine excitement with real fear. The opening scene with the raptor pen, he wasn’t scared, but as the movie moved on, he learned slowly what was happening. When the T-Rex broke out, he was scared and a few times even hid under a blanket, so it’s safe to say the movie, even today has immense fear factors.
Basements have horrible lighting, but my scared little buddy here might make a good ‘Home alone’ reboot.
There’s a scene in Jurassic park that is very reminiscent of a scene in Jaws in tone. Films very often use music to help set the scene, but sometimes, there’s no music. In jaws, when Matt Hooper is underwater searching the boat of the poor soul of a fisherman, he inspects a hole in the hull. There’s no music in this scene until the head of the dead fisherman pops out. It’s met with a piercing shriek of music gold and (as Connor will tell you) is still terrifying. Jurassic park has a similar scene. Ellie Satler has just turned the power back on to the park, she’s happy, and radio’s into John Hammond that she thinks they’re ‘back in business’ as she leans against a giant wall of pipes. All of a sudden, with no musical cue, a raptor jumps through the pipes and provides his own shriek as Ellie runs away in terror. This scene is the only scene that mason SCREAMED at. Wow. 8 years of waiting for that. Was it worth it? I do think so.
I love films. I love filmmaking. DH Media has some interesting projects on the way. Who knows. We might have a film or two in out future.
Until next time, I’m Jesse, signing off. Birthday with the family. Life is good.