The first movie, Rogue, is about a killer crocodile that torments a group of tourists taking a river cruise in Kakadu National Park, Australia. After an enjoying day the tour boat is about to head back home when they see a flare gun shot out in the distance. The tour leader, Kate, decides to take the boat over to where the flare was shot as it seemed to be a distress call. Once the tour boat reached the area where the flare was shot they found a half-sunken ship in the middle of the river. Confused upon this sight, the tourists and tour captain are wondering what could have happened to the people using the boat. All of the sudden something pushes against the side of the boat, violently jerking the boat and causing a punctured hole. At this point the tourists are startled and scared. While the boat is beginning to sink everybody runs out to this little mud island. Kate concludes that the violent jerking of the boat was caused by a crocodile and that they must have traveled into a crocodile’s territory as crocodiles are usually somewhat aggressive but that this particular crocodile seemed angrier than usual. While some of the tourists began to panic, one man gets too close to the edge of the mud island and is quickly snatched by the man-eating crocodile. He is the first to go. Soon after, a tourist screams out in anger that this little river island is in fact a tidal island which means that by nightfall the island will be under water by the tide, and the people will be sitting ducks in the water for the crocodile.

Panic has officially set in as the people realize they have a limited amount of time to do something before they die for sure. After some failed attempts to get to safety (the land some distance between water) one man, an American travel journalist named Pete, comes up with a plan to bait the monster with food (some dead birds) and then temporarily constrain the crocodile while people swim to land. After some struggle Pete’s plan works and the tourists escape to the land. However, as Kate was swimming across the river the crocodile got free and snatched her by the leg. The monster pulled her away with itself and she was nowhere to be found. Pete believed Kate was dead, but he then came across the location where the crocodile was storing her as food for later and rescued her. Of course, first not without a fight to the death between Pete and the crocodile. Pete overcomes the crocodile and helps Kate and himself to safety with the waiting paramedics. It was interesting to watch a movie where the villain was an animal. I say this because the movie did not portray the crocodile as a misunderstood animal, but as an aware, blood-thirsty villain that enjoyed eating humans.  

The second movie, Killing Ground, is about a young couple living in Australia that plan to go on a romantic camping trip until they step into the aftermath of a horrific crime. The movie begins with the young couple, Ian and Sam, driving out to a campsite. They pull over at a road stop and Sam goes into a gas station leaving the scene. While Ian is waiting, a man pulls up next to them and Ian stops him to asks him questions about the camp site. The strange man says that area Sam and Ian want to go to will be hard to drive to in their car but that he knows another very good campsite that the couple should try out. The ominous man was very persistent about the couple trying out his suggested campsite, but Ian did not seem to notice. Ian and Sam take the strangers advice and go to the new camp site. At first, all is well, and they find a beautiful place to set up camp which happens to be not too far away from another tent. Sam and Ian notice that the tent is empty which they find strange, but it is not until Sam actually goes up to the site and finds out that it has been deserted that they start worry things aren’t as they should be. After this discovery the couple decides to go home. However, while packing to leave Sam finds a scratched-up baby lying on the ground all by itself. The couple is of course very surprised and curious as to where his parents are.

There are multiple flashbacks portrayed in the movie that tell the story of why the baby is all by itself in the forest; the murder of the baby’s father, mother, and older sister. In a horrible sequence of events, the daughter was found by two hunters (one of which was the man who told the couple about the camp site, and his partner) and was held hostage until her parents heard her screams and came after. Once the parents came to the scene all three of them were tortured and killed by the hunters. The baby escaped because the hunters never saw him and didn’t know of his existence. Fast forwarding to present day, Sam and Ian had the baby and were now trying to get out of the camp site but got stopped by the same hunters. The hunters held them against there will and were trying to kill them, but they individually escaped. Ian got the furthest away while Sam and the baby were soon caught again. Ian watched from a distance while his girlfriend and the baby were being held against their will. He did not help them. Then the hunters took the baby and threw him on the ground, leaving with Sam. Ian saw the baby on the ground and did nothing, instead he fled the scene and drove to a police station. Eventually, Sam somehow escaped the hunters but was still stuck in the forest. Ian came back with the police and they found Sam, she was overjoyed yet at the same time also wondering if the baby was okay as she assumed Ian left without her to take the baby to the hospital. Ian responds by telling Sam that he never brought the baby to the hospital and that he assumed it was dead. This led Sam to understand that if Ian did not leave her to bring the baby to the hospital it meant that Ian just decided to leave her with the hunters and not try and save her. Sam was rightly devastated. To top it off, in the beginning of the movie Sam and Ian decided they were going to get married. The movie ends with Sam and Ian in the hospital and Sam standing over Ian’s bed looking at him with pain in her eyes. 

Emics were displayed in both movies. Both movies, showed off Australia’s beautiful landscape. In the first movie, Rogue, they proudly displayed Australia’s scenic rivers and lakes. In,Killing Ground, the movie showed off Australia’s greenery. Also, Australian wildlife was presented in both movies. In the movie Rogue, a crocodile, which is indigenous to Australia, wasn’t just used as the villain of the movie but also as a way to inform the audience of the amazing facts about the prehistoric animal. In, Killing Ground, a kangaroo was presented in the film, an animal that is also indigenous to Australia. Australia is home to some of the world’s most famous and legendary wildlife, of course, the country takes pride in that. After watching both movies, it is clear that Australia portrays more independent construal’s of the self. For example, in Rogue, families were only looking after themselves and not others. Also, phrases said in the movie such as ‘I am not letting myfamily die out here’ are inherently independent, which you can tell from the word choice of ‘I’ and ‘my’ used. In another example from the movie, Killing Ground, Sam’s boyfriend, Ian, chose to save himself and leave Sam to die by the sadistic hunters even though he had every opportunity to save her. Ian valued his own life over Sam’s and he was not going to risk putting himself in harm’s way to save another, even if the other was his girlfriend. Ian himself was more important to him than his relationships. All in all, I greatly enjoyed both movies. Both were rich in culture and included beautiful scenery, as well as thrilling to watch. On a scale of 1-10 (1 being the least scary and 10 being the scariest) Rogue, would be a 2 and Killing Ground,would be a 3, in my opinion.

The first movie, The Third Eye, is about two sisters who move into their childhood home after the death of their parents. Once they move in weird things start happening to the younger sister, Abel. Abel keeps imagining there are strange figures in the house trying to attack her. The older sister, Alia, and her boyfriend think the younger sister needs psychiatric help. Before Alia is able to bring Abel to a psychiatrist she has agreed to see a psychic which Abel has been secretly seeing. Once at the psychic’s house the psychic informs Alia that Abel’s third eye is fully open. She clarifies that we all have a third eye but not all of them are fully open, Abel’s third eye is fully open and Alia’s third eye is not. When your third eye is fully open you can see ghosts (the people from the other, dark world). The psychic warns that these ghosts are not always friendly and might have malicious intent. Alia does not believe a word of what the psychic has told her to be true. So, Alia makes a proposal. Alia tells Abel that she will have her third eye opened by the psychic but if nothing happens they will then go see a psychiatrist. Abel and the psychic warn Alia that this is dangerous and she that she does not understand what kind of fear she will experience if she fully opens her third eye. Nonetheless, Alia insists. The psychic conducts a ritual to open Alia’s third eye. Of course, after the initial eye-opening Alia experiences nothing. However, soon after vengeful ghosts start to appear. Now knowing that Abel has been telling the truth about the house the whole time Alia begins to fear the same malicious spirits. The sisters call back the psychic because they believe she has the ability to rid the house of the ghosts. When in the middle of a ritual to get rid of the ghosts, the girls are taken back in time to the moment when the current ghosts lurking their house were in fact murdered in the house prior to their family’s ownership. The girls find out that the murderer of the previous owners is in fact still the gardener of the estate. A little later on, one of the ghosts possesses Alia and goes to track down the gardener who killed his family. The ghost successfully kills the gardener. After all of this, Abel and the psychic somehow are able to turn Alia back to herself and they rid the spirits from their home. Both Alia and Abel will continue to have their third eye fully open forever, but they will learn how to manage better in the future. 

The second movie, Sabrina, is about a couple who takes in their niece after her mother has been possessed by a demon and the father killed by said demon. The child, Vanya, has a hard time adjusting to living with her uncle Aiden and aunt Maira. Aiden is a toy maker and company owner of the toy manufacturer. Aiden is also the brother of Vanya’s deceased father. As a gift, Aiden brings home a doll named Sabrina which he is manufacturing in his business. Vanya instantly loves it. Ever since the doll entered the family’s life weird subtle things keep happening such as Vanya’s music box continuously playing by itself. Sooner than later, Maira starts noticing the strange things happening in the house and things gradually start to become more threatening until the demon actually tries to kill Maira multiple times. The demon is disguised as Vanya’s dead mother, therefore fooling Vanya into thinking it is her mother. At this point the family’s lives have become so jeopardized that Maira and Aiden call in a paranormal investigative couple who come to try and remove the demon from their lives. The demon explains that it was summoned. Suddenly, the woman from the paranormal investigating couple, Laras, experiences some kind of flashback in which she discovers shocking news. The flashback portrays Aiden going to a man who performs witchcraft, asking the man to take his brother out of the picture somehow so that he can be the sole owner of the toy company. All in all, Aiden agreed to give the demon his brothers physical body and soul so that his brother could not own any part of the company, but it turned out the demon wanted his wife’s body and Aiden agreed to that request knowing that his brother would still go away. Shortly after, Laras finally defeats the demon with the help of everyone else. Aiden goes to jail. The spirit of Vanya’s mother comes to visit Vanya, telling her to stop being sad and to be happy she has her aunt Maira, who loves her, and who will be here to take care of her. 

There were multiple emics portrayed in both movies. For instance, there was the theme of possession in both movies, the presence of family relationships, both movies portrayed the Indonesia’s landscape, a psychic/paranormal activity investigators, also there were plot twists in both movies. It was interesting that both movies ended on a positive note, with goodness prevailing. I would say both movies definitely portrayed interdependent construal’s of the self. In, The Third Eye, the two sisters constantly fought the ghosts together and, in the end, they defeated the ghosts together. No one character saved the day all by themselves. In Sabrina, the family and the paranormal activity investigators worked together to fight the demon. If one person was being singled out by the demon the rest came running to their rescue. I personally loved the landscapes in the movies, beautiful oceans and greenery were displayed throughout both movies. Overall, the Indonesian movies were the scariest in my opinion. I rate the first movie, The Third Eye,as a 4 on a scale of 1 to 5 (1 being the least scary and five being the scariest). And, I rate the second movie, Sabrina, as a 4.5. 

The first movie, Mexico Barbaro, consists of eight short films each created by a different Mexican director that re-tell some of Mexico’s most terrifying folk-tales and legends. What was interesting about this movie was the format, one full-length movie comprised of eight mini-movies, this was a fresh take from the typical movie format. Also, it was interesting to see the director’s take old folk-tales and legends and use new technology to make these stories come to life in shocking realism. I also appreciated each director’s unique artistic style to their movies. The stories themselves included tales of the boogeyman, trolls, ghosts and other evil spirits, monsters, a take on Día de los Muertos, and even Aztec sacrifices. Although gruesome and unsettling, this movie truly was an explosion of Mexican culture, history, and traditions. Each movie brought something to the table, however my personal favorite was the last movie in the sequence entitled Día de los Muertos. Día de los Muertos (“Day of the Dead”) is an actual holiday celebrated in Mexico with the purpose to honor and celebrate loved ones who have passed on. However, in this movie that director adds a sinister twist to the holiday. The movie starts out with a Madame instructing her “girls” to prepare for a night of work. It appears that the women are part of a human trafficking ring and are forced to perform at some seedy bar. The women were instructed to paint their faces as sugar skulls in honor of Día de los Muertos before going to work. Now at the bar, the women are instructed to seduce these grimy men hanging out. But then there is a turn in events, these seemingly entrapped women are actually ghosts of the men’s pasts who were raped, abused, or left for dead. This is now a story of vengeance and justice. In the end the women dominate the men and kill them while their Madam sits back and watches the whole affair with a smirk on her face. 

The second movie, Romina, was about a group of friends who go on a camping trip in the woods. The camping site is empty except for one other girl staying there by herself. We don’t see the other person staying at the camp site for a large chunk of the movie and then there is a scene where one of the guys from the group of friends at the camp site goes off to find firewood. While in the search for firewood the guy comes across the girl staying by herself at the site, Romina. Romina happens to be swimming nude in the lake and the guy is creepily peeping on her from behind a tree. While this is happening, back at the camp site the rest of the friend group starts to wonder where he is so one other guy goes looking for him. Soon the guy finds the missing friend, seeing him spying on this girl. After some thought the guy who had been leering at the girl for some time snuck up on her and raped her with the help of his friend as lookout. After, the guys go back to their campsite and go to bed thinking they will run out in the morning. However, by morning everything has changed, a story of revenge now breaks through. The group of friends wake up to find their car destroyed so they cannot drive away. Now the group starts to panic. Besides the rapists, the rest of the group is wondering what happened and consequently starts to freak out. The main rapist suddenly disappears, and then other people start disappearing in pairs as well. In the end everyone has been killed in a torturous and gruesome manner except for one guy who surprisingly was in on the attack and also happened to be Romina’s boyfriend. 

There were multiple similarities (emics) portrayed in both movies. For starters both movies were gory, and both movies had twists that came as a definite surprise. This may not be a legitimate emic, but from what I have observed it seems as though revenge is a popular topic among Mexican films, but then again it could just be a coincidence. Interdependence was highly exemplified throughout both movies, there was a sense of teamwork between characters. In Día de los Muertos, the ghosts worked together as a team to take revenge on the men who hurt them. In Romina, the friend group that was getting targeted would generally stick together in pairs and try to help each other out when being attacked by Romina. Also, even though the audience could not know this until the end, Romina’s boyfriend (who was part of the friend group) was working with her the whole time so Romina’s plan for vengeance relied upon a relationship and not her own doing. The setting and imagery in both movies were interesting to see. In Día de los Muertos, there were numerous settings ranging from the desert to the city, it was interesting to see how diverse Mexico’s landscape could be. All in all, I found both movies to be quite interesting, however I particularly favored Barbarous Mexico because I got to experience more aspects of Mexico’s culture. On a scale of 1-10 (1 being least scary and 10 being most scary) Barbarous Mexico is a 4 and Romina is a 3 in my opinion.

• 

The first movie, Goodnight Mommy, is about a woman and her twin sons, Elias and Lukas, living together as the mother has just come back home from face reconstructive surgery. The movie gives no explanation at first as to why the mother had this surgery. Nonetheless, her face is covered in bandages – a very creepy and unsettling picture. The two twin brothers do everything together. Since the mother has come home she has become very distant, even refusing to talk to one of her sons, Lukas, but we do not know why. The mother tells her sons that her doctor has required her to get rest and that there are certain rules the boys should follow so that the mother can get her rest. Of course, the boys start to break rules. The mother gets angry and locks the boys in their room. During the course of all this the boys get it in their head that their mother is not their actual mother because of her unusual behavior. But instead, the woman is pretending to be their mother. After this, the dynamic completely shifts. One morning the mother wakes up and her hands and feet are tied to the bed. Her sons are holding her captive and questioning her for the whereabouts of their ‘real mother’. Various torture tactics are used; the boys burn a piece of her face with a magnifying glass, they shove a stick in her mouth to prevent her from talking, they glued her mouth shut, and her eyes. The whole time the woman is insisting that she is their mother, but the boys, especially Lukas, do not believe her. Finally, the boys attempt to burn the house down but before they get the chance it is revealed that Lukas had been dead the whole time and was actually just a figment of Elias’ imagination. The weird scenes in the movie finally make, sense such as why the mother refused to speak or feed Lukas, why Elias was the only one to talk to outsiders, why the mother only gave Elias a gift at one point in the movie. Also, the mothers reconstructive face surgery must have had to happen because of the accident that left Lukas dead. In the end, Elias burns the house down, killing himself and his mother. But on the positive side, Elias, Lukas, and their mother are all together again.

The second movie, Antibodies, is about a serial killer named Gabriel Engel and a small-town policeman named Michael Martens. The movie begins with the arrest of the serial killer Gabriel and then panels to the policeman’s town where a young girl had been gruesomely murdered. The policeman feels there is reason to believe Gabriel has killed the little girl, so he goes downtown to meet the killer in person and interrogate him. The conversations the policeman, Michael, has with Gabriel take a toll on him and begin to break down his faith in what’s good. Gabriel tries to convince Michael that human beings are inherently evil, including Michael himself. This proves to work on Michael as he gives into temptation and cheats on his wife (something he previously never believed he would do). Not only did Gabriel weaken the foundation of Michaels marriage, but he convinces Michael that his own son is the actual person to have killed that little girl. Disturbed and disgusted by this news, Michael believes the only way to stop his son from becoming a serial killer like Gabriel is to kill him. Just before Michael is about to take his sons life his colleagues arrive at the scene with evidence proving Michael’s son did not commit the murder of the little girl. Michael almost fell for Gabriel’s lies and evil almost prevailed. 

There were multiple emics portrayed in these movies. Both movies were psychological by nature; these movies were not meant to make you scream, but were meant to mess with your mind. Both movies have plot twists and/or surprises. Signs of Catholicism were hinted at numerous times throughout both movies; crucifixes were displayed intentionally for the viewer to see all throughout both movies, there were also church scenes in both movies. It was interesting to see how important it was for both directors to add religion into their movies. Another aspect present in both films was nudity of both male and female. Also, both movies portrayed predominantly independent characteristics of the self. In the first movie, the twin boys did whatever they felt they needed (torture) to get what they wanted. The boys did not care at all that they were harming and going against a parent figure, they felt zero need to respect their mother’s interests, but only their own. In the second movie, the policeman also follows his own desires as he loses his morals and does whatever he wants, he is not thinking of his family (his relationships), but solely himself. Overall, both movies were interesting. The first movie, Goodnight Mommy, was spookier in my opinion because of the ghost theme while the second movie, Antibodies, was more so disturbing in my opinion as it dealt with serial killings and child murder. Out of a scale of 1 to 5 (1 being least scary and 5 being most scary) I would rate both movies at a 3. 

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton