Movies

My favorite movies are mostly of the fantasy and horror genre. It is not always easy to explain why I like those movies. My mean motivation is escapism. By watching films that are clearly fantasy, I can escape my everyday life for a shot while. Fantasy allows one to dream, to think about what the world would look like if only ... I have also found that fantasy can be a great way to get your imagination working again, something I can use when trying to develop a story for my RPG campaigns.

Horror movies appeal to me because of their dark nature. Call me a pessimist, but I do not think the world that we live in is necessarily a bright and good place. Unless you have spend your entire life without any contact with the outside world, you will know there is a lot of ugly stuff going around out there. Horror movies tend to exaggerate this ugliness, the evil, the vile acts of mankind. In doing so, they can make the real world a bit easier to deal with.

Besides escapism and soothing of my miseries, horror movies offer something else of great impotance and that is Fear. Fear (or at least getting scared by seeing unexpected things at unexpected times) is great for releaving tension. It allows you to react in a primal way, to get rid of some of the adrenaline you have kept inside all day. So much for amateur psychology.

Hellraiser

My all-time favorite has to be the original Hellraiser movie. The sequels aren't all that great (although Hellraiser II is a good movie), but the setting of the movie really got me when I first saw it.

Almost halfway through the first Hellraiser movie, we meet the Cenobites, creatures that exist in another dimension. These creatures are specializing in giving people the ultimate experience in pleasure and pain. To them, pain is pleasure. Lucky enough, for most people at least, the cenobites can only be summoned by someone willing. To summon them, a human has to complete a difficult puzzle in the shape of a box. A couple of these puzzleboxes, developed by someone called Merchant, exist.

Soon after Hellraiser was published, it became clear that it had a certain cult following. What is even more, the Hellraiser movie introduced a new monster (or is that hero?) to be added to the horrorgallery. Next to names like Freddy Krueger we can now see ... Pinhead.
Pinhead

A good site for pictures and information is www.cenobite.com

Besides the Hellraiser movies, there are lots of other good movies out there. My favorites in the fantasy/horror genre include the following movies (the link will get you the FAQ for the movie in text format):
Hellraiser (the original movie)
Hellbound: Hellraiser II
Hell On Earth: Hellraiser III
Bloodlines: Hellraiser IV

Alien movies (1-4)
Cube
Devil's Advocate
Jacob's Ladder
Leon (le Professionel)
The Matrix
Memento
Silence of the Lambs

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