The nominations for the 2006 Kaedrin Movie Awards were announced last week. This week, I’ll be announcing two winners every day, culminating in a post with my top 10 movies of the year and possibly some other wrap-up posts. Here are the awards for Most Visually Stunning film and Best Sci-Fi or Horror Film:
Most Visually Stunning: The Fountain
Pretty much the only reason I included this category was so that I could give The Fountain an award. I didn’t love the movie, but I’ll be damned if it wasn’t the prettiest fucking movie I’ve seen in years. We’re talking jaw-dropping visuals here. I don’t think there’s a single shot in the movie that isn’t absolutely gorgeous. There is some stiff competition in this category, but nothing on the order of The Fountain. Ironically, the only movie that gives Fountain a run for it’s money is Pan’s Labyrinth, which wasn’t nominated because it just came out in wide release this week (I have since seen it, and it is indeed a visually impressive work).
Best Sci-Fi or Horror Film: The Descent
I think this would be mildly controversial if the competition wasn’t so lame this year. The Descent certainly has it’s detractors and it’s not a perfect film, but I still enjoyed it a lot. It’s the only one of the nominated films that evoked sustained suspense, and that means a lot in my book. Hostel did make me squirm (which is no small feat), but was ultimately a little too sloppy and schlockey to compete. Slither was a ton of fun in a Tremors sorta way, but not at all scary. A Scanner Darkly was interesting and visually neat, though it’s ultimately a mess. Unfortunately, the Sci-Fi/Horror genre didn’t get much attention this year, so there really wasn’t much to choose from. Still, when I think of my favorite moviegoing experiences of the year, The Descent ranks somewhere near the top (this is undoubtedly because I saw it at a movie festival in a theater filled with movie lovers, as opposed to the typical multiplex filled with obnoxious morons). It has issues and I wouldn’t consider it a truly great film, but entertaining, creepy and suspenseful.
Next up: Best Sequel and Biggest Disappointment
I think we may have talked about the Descent once, before. I can’t recall.
My biggest problem with the Descent was that it was *too short*. It really needed a solid fifteen or twenty minutes more exposition to establish the characters better. I think we *really* needed to see more of Sarah and Juno’s relationship. I can figure out how they were supposed to be, but it would have been better to show us, in this case.
It was definitely a weak year for horror and sci-fi, though. Tsk.
Indeed. I was looking up sci-fi films and… there weren’t many of them at all. Most were borderline things like Slither, which was more of a horror/comedy/scifi mixture. Even A Scanner Darkly wasn’t that scifi. I didn’t look at last year’s list, but Serenity immediately came to mind, as well as Hitchhiker’s and Star Wars (which isn’t really scifi, but still).
It’s funny though, I know a lot of people who didn’t care for The Descent. Some hated it, some were more ambivalent (as you seem to be). There are obviously a bunch of people out there who like it a lot, but I don’t seem to be finding them:P I just really enjoyed it, and while I probably would have welcomed more exposition, as you suggest, I was impressed at how much they were able to pack in with so little (a lot of stuff was communicated through one character giving another a funny look, etc…) But really, I don’t require that much for a horror film to suck me in if the rest of the film is well constructed (as The Descent clearly is).
I actually really, really liked the Descent. I just wish it was longer. Heh.
I think that 15 minutes of exposition is one of the only things keeping it form moving from “that was a good horror movie” to “that was a great horror film.”
I’m holding off buying it until I see for sure if they’re going to release an extended cut.