Which is the best horror movie you have seen ever?

[vasanthsp64]

Everybody has their best horror movie..when it comes to me, Ussh Kannada movie directed by Upendra was the best horror movie I have seen ever...

[Becci]

Stoker may not even be a horror but is my current favourite.

The very best films defy categories.

I have now watched this film several times and have increasingly identified with India Stoker, although on my first viewing it was Charlie, India’s uncle, who initially pricked my interest. Charlie was born interestingly different. I like the idea of inexplicable ‘evil’ and the shock of motiveless murder. We looked at Shakespeare’s Othello at school and I had found the Iago character to be fascinating. We had a debate; did Iago act to destroy Othello because of jealousy? No, I suggest he destroyed Othello simply because he could. He saw weakness, saw how he could exploit it and so he did.

At first viewing of Stoker, India seemed to me to be an innocent who overcomes her weakness and confusion in the face of the murders committed by her uncle through discovering her own ability to kill, and finding that she really enjoyed killing to the point that she wanted to kill some more. It was Charlie who brought India to life. However, through subsequent viewings I realised that the uniqueness in Charlie’s character is a strain running through the family’s genetic structure that is dominant not only in Charlie but also in pure form in India herself.

Charlie is drawn to his niece because he senses a kindred spirit. While his brother rejects him his long harboured hope of a special affinity with his brother’s daughter is realised. India soon forgives Charlie’s murder spree, taking in her stride the killing of her favourite aunt but taking a little longer to accept the murder of her beloved father. The removal by Charlie’s murderous ways of all those who enclose India in a straight-jacket of love leave India free to rapidly develop to her full potential. To become an adult is to become free. However, whilst her coming of age is stimulated and assisted by Charlie, India rapidly surpasses her teacher. As a child she has already learned to nurture her darker side. From an early age, thanks to her father’s instruction, she has been a cold blooded efficient killer of birds and animals.

India had never had much of a relationship with her icy distant self-obsessed mother played beautifully by Nicole Kidman. Although critics have sometimes suggested that this character is too one dimensional and unsympathetic to me the character is perfectly realised. I suppose in part my view is informed by reference to my own icy distant self-obsessed mother. With the housekeeper, her aunt and her father all gone Charlie provides the only light in the greyness of India’s life. While her mother becomes a rival for Charlie’s attention.
As India finds herself exploring her relationship to boys she finds that these are hateful and base creatures.

Confused hurt and yet stimulated after spying on her uncle’s seduction of her mother, India runs out into the night and finds a boy. Her first journey into the excitement of romance and danger as she explores her awakening desires with a boy soon finds her fighting off an attempted rape. The boy is on top of her as her uncle comes to her rescue by deliciously strangling the boy with her father’s belt while India looks into the frightened eyes of her boyfriend come attacker as his head is pulled back, the neck cracks and the boy falls forward lifeless onto India’s prone body.

After helping to bury the corpse of her first love, India soon enjoys her first orgasm touching herself in the shower reliving in her mind her short-lived boyfriend’s final moments. Soon India realises that she no longer needs to live in Charlie’s shadow, dispatches him and sets off on a killing spree of her own. (I can go with that, it’s ok but if I was in her shoes her mother would have got it first). Her first love, the taking of life, becomes her enduring love. I hope there is a sequel.

Mia Wasikowska is so lucky to have secured such a wonderful role.