The Cat Scare Revisited

I was watching the movie "Wolfen" last weekend with Fretty and Trey. It was a pretty damn good movie, but there was something missing I couldn't quite figure out. Then, as the protagonist stuck her head out the window to investigate a noise, a cat comes flying into her face and scares the shit out of her. Ah-Ha! The cat scare! Now this movie was bumped from good to great in a matter of one scene.

I saw Trey physically jump about 6 inches in the air. Trey, not being conditioned to such horror movie tactics, fell victim to one of the most common scenes in horror movie history.

I figured, in an homage to the cat scare, I'd re-post my original piece on the subject.


Wednesday, March 22, 2006

The Cat Scare

I've noticed, over my many years of horror movie viewing, that there is a recurring theme in every good horror film... the cat scare.What is the cat scare? It is a suspense technique used to give the audience a thrill, followed by a sense of relief, and typically followed by somebody getting killed or chased by a killer. Still unclear? This is how a typical cat scare will go.

Enter victim to dark room, stage left mostly.

Victim: "Hello? Is anybody in here?"

a noise in the corner startles him/her

V: "Is that you, Brad? This isn't funny!"

a noise from the closet prompts him/her to investigate

V: "Brad your such a jerk, if your trying to scare me I'm going to kill you."

he/she timidly opens the closet door (suspenseful music plays)

cat dives out of the closet

Cat: RRRRRAAARRRR!
V: "HOLY SHIT!!!! Whiskers! You scared me!"

At this point the audience is kicking themselves for being such pussies (no pun intended) and jumping at a damn cat flying out of the closet.After the initial thrill is over and just about the time the audience is feeling safe again, the killer emerges and makes everyone shit their pants.

There are, however, some instances where the cat scare is overused.The first "Alien" movie uses three cat scares in a matter of five minutes. Seriously? It's a big stretch to use two in an entire movie. But three in five minutes? Lets get real Ridley Scott.

Posted by Shep at 7:37 AM

T.O. Uses Big Words, Still Sounds Stupid

I watched an interview of T.O. on the NFL Network after their training camp special yesterday. I love the NFL Network. It is nothing but football and football related shows, which is all I really give a shit about. The training camp special on the Cowboys was great, it was very in depth and informative. However, the after-practice interview of Owens revealed what a fool he truly is. They were really kissing his ass, which is what you have to do, I guess, to get some face time with the mega star. Questions were asked regarding the new coach and T.O. would begin every answer with "obviously this," or "obviously that." Is it really obvious that Wade Phillips respects your talent? I would be led to believe he thinks you're overrated since you had the most dropped passes in the NFL last season. They proceeded with a question over his media coverage and what he learned in the off-season about some of his mistakes. He answered somewhere along the lines of "well, it's obvious I had alot of time to reflect in the off-season. I had some epiphanies and some realizations while I was cogitating over the things that I exposed myself to during the season, and I think I've grown-up a little and gone through a maturation process." My ass you have. If he had any "epiphanies" he would realize what an idiot he is and commit to bettering himself as a player and as a teammate, not to say he hasn't, but it'll be a cold day in hell before I believe that load of bullshit. And as for this "maturation process" he's supposedly gone through, he's been in the league 13 or 14 years and I'll be willing to bet his habits are set in stone. He might go along with it for a short while, but if he notices a drop in the amount of passes he's seeing, you can bet the old bitchy T.O. will come back in a heartbeat. I don't understand why all these thugs try to use big words when they talk to the media. Do they think they can pass themselves off as educated individuals? I guarantee you they hear this stuff from their lawyers and try to pass it off as their own. It makes them sound dumber than they really are. Instead of saying, "Well you know, I was consortin' wit some of my associates" why not just speak normally and say, "Yeah, I was hanging out in a strip club with my boys when I fired a gun at some guy when he started talking shit."

David the Gnome

A while back I did an entry on "Kick-Ass Shows You May Have Forgotten" Well here is the opening for "David the Gnome" a kick-ass show I actually forgot about. But, as I did a little reading, I found out David was an ageing hippie vegan. The story taught children to not eat meat and to respect the planet we live on. I don't know what kind of effect this had on me seeing as how I eat more red meat then 90% of Americans and annually shoot 4 to 5 mammals and countess dove and quail. Nice try hippies.

Also, hippies can't spell. Check the title of this episode..."Good Medecine?" Did they mean Medicine? Unbelievable.