My Horrible Idea
(Using Horror Movies to Teach English)
  • How to Use Monsters in the Classroom
    • What Can Monsters Teach Us?
    • Rhetorical Problems of Purpose, Audience, and Genre
    • Doubt: A Parable
  • Literary Stuff
  • Guest Blogs
    • SCARY MARY: A STUDY OF TONE
    • Horror Movie Survey
    • First Dates and Wisecracking Werewolfs
    • Rachel Tucker: A Master Gardener's take on The Purge
    • Janice Cheng: Horror & Logic
    • Zach Butler: Why All the Horror?
  • Movie Lists
    • MEAT IS MURDER: MY TOP FIVE LIST OF CANNIBAL MOVIES
    • CHRISTMAS HORROR MOVIES
    • TRIBUTE TO MR. VINCENT LEONARD PRICE, JR.
  • Archives
    • MONSTER MOVIES >
      • DRACULA (1931)
      • THE MUMMY (1932)
      • KING KONG (1933)
      • THE WOLF MAN (1941)
      • CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON (1954)
      • THEM! (1959)
      • THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES (1959)
      • THE WASP WOMAN (1959)
      • THE DEADLY BEES (1966)
      • PLANET OF THE APES (1968)
      • EMPIRE OF THE ANTS (1977)
      • THE SWARM (1978)
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      • THE ATTIC (1980)
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      • PREDATOR (1987)
      • DEAD ALIVE (1992)
      • CONGO (1995)
      • JAWS (1975)
      • DEVIL DOG: THE HOUND OF HELL (1978)
      • LEGION OF FIRE: KILLER ANTS (1998)
      • DEEP BLUE SEA (1999)
      • OPEN WATER (2003)
      • THE HIVE A LOOK AT LITERARY ENTOMOLOGY (2008)
      • THE REEF (2010)
      • THE GREY (2011)
      • SHARKNADO (2013)
      • WER (2013)
      • THE BABADOOK (2014)
    • HONORED DIRECTORS >
      • SHIVERS (1975)
      • VIDEDROME (1983)
      • THE FLY (1986)
      • DEAD RINGERS (1988)
      • CHRISTINE (1983)
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      • PRINCE OF DARKNESS (1987)
      • THEY LIVE (1988)
      • IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS (1994)
      • REPULSION (1965)
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      • THE FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS (1967)
      • ROSEMARY'S BABY (1968)
      • FRANKENSTEIN (1910)
      • THE OLD DARK HOUSE (1932)
      • THE INVISIBLE MAN (1933)
      • BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935)
      • SALEM'S LOT (1979)
      • THE FUNHOUSE (1981)
      • LIFE FORCE (1985)
      • POLTERGEIST (1982)
      • THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE (1974)
      • THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT (1972)
      • THE HILLS HAVE EYES (1977)
      • A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (1984)
      • SCREAM (1996)
    • KOREAN FLICKS >
      • 조용한 가족 (aka The Quiet Family 1998)
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      • 폰 (aka Phone 2002)
      • 령 aka DEAD FRIEND aka THE GHOST (2004)
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      • 고死: 피의 중간고사 (aka DEATH BELL 2008)
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      • 요가학완 aka YOGA CLASS (2009)
      • 베스트 세러 (aka BEST SELLER 2010)
      • 악마를 보았다 (aka I SAW THE DEVIL 2010)
      • 고양이: 죽음을보는 두개의눈 (aka THE CAT 2011)
      • 기생령 (aka GHASTLY 2011)
      • 무서운이야기 (AKA HORROR STORIES 2012)
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      • 뫼비우스 (aka MOEBIUS 2013)
    • THRILLERS >
      • DEAD OF NIGHT (1945)
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      • WHAT LIES BENEATH (2000)
      • THE DESCENT (2005)
      • THE EXPERIMENT (2010)
      • YOU'RE NEXT (2011)
      • 의뢰인 (aka The Client 2011)
      • ABRAHAM LINCOLN VAMPIRE HUNTER (2012)
      • TOAD ROAD (2012)
      • FEAR LIVES HERE (2013)
      • 런닝 맨 (AKA RUNNING MAN 2013)
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      • HOURS (2013)
      • BLUE RUIN (2013)
      • HOUSE OF GOOD AND EVIL (2013)
      • THE PURGE (2013)
      • 더테러라이브 (aka The Terror Live 2013)
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    • PSYCHOS >
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      • 1950's AWESOMENESS >
        • ROCKETSHIP X-M (1950)
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        • I BURY THE LIVING (1958)
        • THE MONSTER OF PIEDRAS BLANCAS (1959)
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        • ATTACK OF THE GIANT LEECHES (1959)
        • BEAST FROM HAUNTED CAVE (1959)
        • I EAT YOUR SKIN (1964)
      • LES DIABOLIQUES (1955)
      • PSYCHO (1960)
      • WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE (1962)
      • TAXI DRIVER (1976)
      • ¿Quien Puede Matar a un Niño? (aka WHO CAN KILL A CHILD? aka THE ISLAND OF THE DAMNED 1976)
      • THE SHINING (1980)
      • FRIDAY THE 13TH (1980)
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      • SCHINDLER'S LIST (1993)
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      • THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND (2006)
      • MR. BROOKS (2007)
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      • SKYFALL (2012)
    • THE SUPERNATURAL >
      • NOSFERATU (1922)
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      • LET'S SCARE JESSICA TO DEATH (1971)
      • THE CHANGELING (1980)
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      • HELLRAISER (1987)
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      • THE SIXTH SENSE (1999)
      • AUDITION (1999)
      • END OF DAYS (1999)
      • STIGMATA (1999)
      • Richard Matheson Tribute: A STIR OF Memories
      • THE GIFT (2000)
      • THE RING (2002)
      • THE GRUDGE (2004)
      • THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE (2005)
      • THE AMITYVILLE HORROR (2005)
      • DARK WATER (2005)
      • SILENT HILL (2006)
      • PARANORMAL ACTIVITY (2007)
      • LAKE MUNGO (2008)
      • DRAG ME TO HELL (2009)
      • INSIDIOUS (2010)
      • WE ARE WHAT WE ARE (2013)
      • MAMA (2013)
      • CARRIE (2013)
      • OCULUS (2013)
      • THE CONJURING (2013)
      • LATE PHASES (2014)
      • THE TAKING OF DEBORAH LOGAN (2014)
      • JESSABELLE (2014)
      • ANNABELLE (2014)
  • Psycho Hall of Fame
  • Crimson Peak
  • An America Terror
  • The Beat Goes On: Horror Franchises

The Reef (2010)

6/15/2014

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This month is all about the shark flicks and this one is a good one. It’s an Australian entry based on a true story. I said in a previous post that all shark movies might as well be titled “Another Shark movie that’s Not Jaws” because nothing will ever live up to that film in regards to the layers of characterization, plot, pace, and suspense as well as special effects and sound track. Jaws may not be the scariest shark movie that will ever be made, but it’s deeply etched into our cultural psyche and is likely to stay there.

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Which brings us to The Reef. I’m sure the Australian tourist commission rolls its collective eyes every time they hear someone is making a shark movie based near the Great Barrier Reef. Nothing like a flick showing people getting eaten one by one by sharks to drive away tourists in droves along with their dollars. But The Reef doesn’t cash in on exploitation or gratuitous carnage. I’d say it’s even less bloody than Jaws. Whether that’s a budget limitation or an artistic choice…it works for this film.


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I have written before about the one most important element of setting in a horror movie and that’s isolation. You’d think the vast oceans would be difficult to see as isolating, but this film creates a dual world of isolation. The delima? Stay on a capsized boat that may sink and put you in the water with sharkies also taking the risk you may not be found thus dying of dehydration and starvation? Or make a swim for dry land you know is there, but can’t see thus making you literally a movable feast for the sharkies?


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It’s a nice recipe for suspense.  Staying on the boat isolates you. Going in the water isolates you. You can tell yourself, “It’s a great big ocean. I’m sure this wet suit doesn’t make me look TOO much like a floundering, tasty seal.” Once the group of four leave the boat, we are stuck with them in the water and at the mercy of the director. There’s one guy with a diving mask. He’s the only one able to see what’s going on in the water beneath them.


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And THAT is how you build suspense. By giving just enough information for your audience to empathize, but not enough to create dramatic irony. Dramatic irony separates us from the people we are reading about or watching. In The Reef, we’re right in the water with them and every ominous splash sends a thrill down our spines. Every fin we see break the water makes us catch our breath. It helps that the acting is excellent in this film. The actors are very restrained and realistic. Some of their actions are inexplicable, like one guy has a knife in one scene, but never uses it against the sharks. There’s very little soundtrack, no copy of a musical motif to signal us that danger approaches. Again, this is an excellent choice that helps delineate this film from its famous antecedent.


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Total isolation in a great big setting.
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All in all it’s the manipulation of all these elements that make this film succeed as a horror film and as a reminder of Man’s place on the food chain.


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    SUSPENSE

    It's all about manipulating information.

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