I finally got around to watching this, so it's time for the analysis!
Freud's Unheimlich
There is not much to speak of. Only two rather weak examples could be argued. First, most people don't expect a large castle to show up in some Californian mountains, but the castle itself is hardly anti-mountains. Second, most people don't expect maniacal old men to live in caves, yet they may expect something creepy to inhabit a cavern, hence the old man does not make it un-cave like.
Lovecraft's Cosmic Horror
In spades. The whole premise of the movie is that a supernatural realm not countenanced by modern science exists alongside our own, and that forces of good have long fought against the forces of evil summoned from this realm, which include the ridiculous gorilla thing on the cover. These forces converge on a book of demonology being carried around by the main characters, which rather reminded me of The Necronomicon of the Mad Arab Abdul Azhalred. The main villain of the story is some kind of demon disguising himself as a park ranger named Asmodeus, which kind of blows the whole purpose of the disguise if it weren't for the fact that the main characters are hopelessly genre blind. The stop motion models used for the monsters present a double-edged sword. On one hand, their uniform speed of motion, odd texturing, and real-but-obviously-fake look conveys a good sense of otherworldliness and doesnotbelonghereness. On the other hand, their rather over the top ludicrousness acts as a good source of nightmare retardant for anyone that may have been genuinely scared by them.
Art-horror
The aim of the movie is clearly to evoke a sense of art-horror from its monsters, which, as I mentioned above, partly succeeds and partly fails due to the puppets used. The monsters are fearsome and physically threatening, and are both physically and morally impure, being demonic chimeras of great size. There is a bit of suspense element that pays off fairly well (I don't want to spoil anything), and the plot could arguably be considered fantastic-marvelous, though it does not really try to convince us that the protagonist hallucinated the entire thing. The plot structure is onset-discover-confrontation, with confirmation largely ignored, as the only other character is the villainous park ranger; there are a few half-hearted attempts to convince him that something is going on, but none that give any kind of narrative pleasure to the audience.
Overall, Equinox is worth watching if you enjoy really bad horror movies; or if your name is Robert; or if you want to hear the line "This wouldn't be a bad place to start a nudist colony" uttered in a non-comedic, non-documentary screenplay. Anyone looking for a genuine scare will be disappointed, except perhaps by the twist ending. For optimum viewing pleasure, watch with your most snarky friends.
Freud's Unheimlich
There is not much to speak of. Only two rather weak examples could be argued. First, most people don't expect a large castle to show up in some Californian mountains, but the castle itself is hardly anti-mountains. Second, most people don't expect maniacal old men to live in caves, yet they may expect something creepy to inhabit a cavern, hence the old man does not make it un-cave like.
Lovecraft's Cosmic Horror
In spades. The whole premise of the movie is that a supernatural realm not countenanced by modern science exists alongside our own, and that forces of good have long fought against the forces of evil summoned from this realm, which include the ridiculous gorilla thing on the cover. These forces converge on a book of demonology being carried around by the main characters, which rather reminded me of The Necronomicon of the Mad Arab Abdul Azhalred. The main villain of the story is some kind of demon disguising himself as a park ranger named Asmodeus, which kind of blows the whole purpose of the disguise if it weren't for the fact that the main characters are hopelessly genre blind. The stop motion models used for the monsters present a double-edged sword. On one hand, their uniform speed of motion, odd texturing, and real-but-obviously-fake look conveys a good sense of otherworldliness and doesnotbelonghereness. On the other hand, their rather over the top ludicrousness acts as a good source of nightmare retardant for anyone that may have been genuinely scared by them.
Art-horror
The aim of the movie is clearly to evoke a sense of art-horror from its monsters, which, as I mentioned above, partly succeeds and partly fails due to the puppets used. The monsters are fearsome and physically threatening, and are both physically and morally impure, being demonic chimeras of great size. There is a bit of suspense element that pays off fairly well (I don't want to spoil anything), and the plot could arguably be considered fantastic-marvelous, though it does not really try to convince us that the protagonist hallucinated the entire thing. The plot structure is onset-discover-confrontation, with confirmation largely ignored, as the only other character is the villainous park ranger; there are a few half-hearted attempts to convince him that something is going on, but none that give any kind of narrative pleasure to the audience.
Overall, Equinox is worth watching if you enjoy really bad horror movies; or if your name is Robert; or if you want to hear the line "This wouldn't be a bad place to start a nudist colony" uttered in a non-comedic, non-documentary screenplay. Anyone looking for a genuine scare will be disappointed, except perhaps by the twist ending. For optimum viewing pleasure, watch with your most snarky friends.
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