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July 14, 2003
Scary as Hell!
Alan Yu, the director of the <a href="http://www.gdconf.com/">Game Developers Conference</a>, was in Montreal last week on business. I hung out with him a bit to discuss IGDA activities at GDC, and also arranged an informal lunch date with some of my Ubi Soft Montreal buddies (Eric Le, coder on a top secret project; Danny Oros, art on <a href="http://www.ubi.com/US/Games/farcry/"><em>Far Cry</em></a>; Nicolas Rioux, programming studio manager, and the <a href="http://www.igda.org/awards/nominations.htm">award winning</a> Clint Hocking of <a href="http://www.ubi.com/US/Games/splintercell/"><em>Splinter Cell</em></a> fame).
Anyway, at the end of the busy week, Alan suggested we take in a movie to relax. And, since <em>Pirates of the Caribbean</em> was sold out, we went to see <a href="http://www.28dayslater.com/"><em>28 Days Later</em></a>.
Hot damn, what a freaking scary movie! It is frightening in so many ways: the tension, the suspense, the violence, the believability, the isolation, the hopelessness, etc, etc. I really enjoyed it :) Alan, on the other hand, was "not prepared" for the intensity and came out shaking a bit...
On top of being an exciting movie to watch, it had a lot of depth. The ideas of rage being a virus, current sensitivities to biowarfare and terrorism, human survival and needs, society and violence, and other such messages and commentary are threads that I am still trying to wrap my brain around. Of particular note, I found the balance between the viral rage, and the "rage" displayed by the uninfected hero to be quite ironic.
Despite the visceral and overtly violent nature of <em>28 Days Later</em> (appropriately rated R), it has a lot to say about the current condition of humanity. It is sad to think that many pop-culture critics will see the film as a formulaic blood and guts affair out to incite rage in all of us...
Posted by della at July 14, 2003 01:10 AM
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