Ex Machina

If there's one movie that has freaked me out in the pat decade, that is Ex Machina! I do not watch horror movies the way Westerners do, though. That's part of their culture. They have Halloween which they celebrate that every year passionately and numerous horror movies have been made by Hollywood to keep the business going. Some good and some bad but I can't really judge because I haven't really seen many but what I can tell is the plot is most of the time the same: A person has turned to a Zombie and attacks other! 

If I wanted to name another movie, The Grudge certainly comes to mind. I watched it years ago with P. M. in this " discounted "(!) movie theater in NE Calgary which has been turned to a " discounted "(!) gymnasium now. Let me explain a little bit about these so-called " discounted " businesses in Canada (and perhaps it is the same in the US), before I get to the main point. This is for the people who have not lived in Canada ever. 

Canada is a semi-Capitalist country. It's not as bad as the US but generally it's run by the companies. Corporations control everything, most importantly the consumer price. You buy a pair of jeans from a retailer and if it's a brand name, you pay at least $60. If $35 or more was not profit, they wouldn't sell it to you. Now what happens to the people who have difficulty spending that much, say, they don't have? That's where the " discounted " business steps in. Dollarema is one of them. They copy the popular items and brands and they sell it for much cheaper price. That's how a majority of people live their life in Canada, or they would go partially hungry and dysfunctional! Some of these businesses have a suffix after their name, " for less "! It means you receive the same product/service with much lower quality and much lower price, of course. An example of would be " Fit for less "! It's a gymnasium that people go to to work out.

With that in mind we went to that theater in the notorious neighbourhood of the city, which by the way I didn't know about it (that was P. M.'s specialty!) and watched the movie which to this day freaks me out and can't watch it completely. I mean I have to skip scenes or it would be so uncomfortable. 

The Shining is another type of horrifying movie. It don't have much of stabbing and killing and other similar scenes that you usually see in the Zombie movies(!) but the combination of scenes and the theme with dialogue make it so intense.

Ex Machina is a completely different genre! It's in the new era of internet and apps and everything being controlled by them which is why make it so scary. You're in a house that everything is controlled by a " Smart System "and if that dies for any reason and there's no back up, you're dead too. This shows how fragile our daily life would be, if we carried on with this " app " and " online " thing. The movie has won an Academy Award for its screenplay. This probably is one of a few movies that they really deserved the award they got. The movie basically has three actors/actresses which are fine. The Venezuelan actor though, shines. Despite his looks, he's way away from the typical Latino actor. The Swedish lady is good in her role, although most of the conversation is between the Boss and the invited Employee. I've watched the movie twice and that's because I didn't get the story completely the first time and I will watch again to make sure I haven't missed anything, although it's not very likely. 

(Photo: The brilliant screenplay is the key to success for this movie. In this scene, the guest, the employee, suspects if he's a robot as well and cuts his arm! This was very unexpected and added intensity to the story)