D@bbe Turkish Horror movie... views
07-13-06, 06:10 PM
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D@bbe Turkish Horror movie... views
Just saw this last night through the Turkish dvd. Before I get started, the subtitles were migrane indusing. and the movie didn't help either.
This horror movie, follows almost exclusively Kurosawa's Kairo about human's interaction with technology and the potential of this technology to lead to the downfall of man. Dabbe borrows heavily from the most succesful J-horror films of the past five to ten years. following close to Kairo (Pulse) and Ju-On and a touch of One missed call and phone. So why would anyone want to see a Turkish J-horror? Precisely the question I thought of while watching this film. The attraction to dabbe was the inclusion of Islamic mysticism and apocalyptical views from the Koran. Ultimately the film fails in doing this and rather opts into following the J-horror recipe. Maybe my studies of the Koran and Islamic mysticism have failed me since college or maybe it was the old argument heard during Gibson's The Passion. Where more details or background to the story of Jesus might not have been needed since basically everyone in a christian country should know the basics of Jesus' life or so the argument went. Therefore maybe the viewers of this film in an Islamic country wouldn't need a background on Jinnis and the Dabbe phenomenon and apocalyptical messages from the Koran, something most would have a background in or so I figure the filmakers arguments would go.
As a "westerner" I don't think this film delivered enough of the religous symbolisms, koranic theories and regionalisms to make it truely unique and a true horror based on Islamic/Turkish beliefs. The story follows what I call the Scooby-Doo phenomenon. A quartet of friends where one seems to have dissapeared while starting a new job doing some work in the internet. This friend seems to have dissapeared completely from all who knew him. What would become the lead of the movie goes to check up on him and witnesses that her friend is acting strange and has the walls covered from newspapers and black tape. Soon there after he kills himself and is now up to his friend to figure out along with the others as to what is going on. Add a detective not to far from the detective from Ju-On, weird messages on the phone ala One missed call and Phone and you got yourself a story. There seems to be many suicides happening in Istanbul and along European countries and America which may be connected but no one can put any pieces together besides that they used the internet. And honestly who doesn't?
The acting is pretty bad, and by pretty bad I mean horrible. The actors are very stiff or maybe a little self concious especially when it comes to "acting" scared. Much like Ju-On the detective seems to have his own demons to fight which I believe added more to the story that just following the 3 remaining friends in this mystery over their friends death. Is not until after the midway point that a somewhat interesting religious fanatic not unlike those seen preaching on many cities downtown's through the US, warns of some Koranic verses and the famous web (dabbe). This is where I thought the film would go towards the more religious/cultural aspects of it, but it really didn't. There was so much potential following the warnings of the religious fanatic, maybe some scholarly investigation, religious conspiracies/theories, pretty much anything that would have given it what I think was the strongest point of the film, the regionalism, instead the filmakers chosed to continue the J-horror pathway.
The film does not relly too much on cheap scares which is a good thing and it does have what I feel are pretty good special effects, especially those that are computer generated. The film's sound is more than adequate especially the DTS track but the film rellies on the soundtrack way too much, whith a lot of annoying sounds that could be headache inducing. The image is fine and it was abviously shot on digital video the one thing that really bring the image down is the yellow tint used throwout the film. I would have opted for a less bright color maybe just a softer gray definately not the blue filter used in may japannese films but maybe something a bit more subtle. The yellow was just too much.
The subtitles were real bad, only slightly better than some of those older HK english subtitles. The biggest problem with them was the constant omission of words in the middle of sentences and the constant grammatical errors such as using 'at' instead of 'in' and switching the letter 'o' for an 'a' and wanting to put "is" in all sentences. "All your weapons is belong to us" type. Also on many instances the subs would be on the screen for a fraction of a second when in conversation.
Even with all this and the horrible acting I don't regret buying it but I would find it hard to recommend to anyone unless, like me, curiosity gets the best out of you.
*will come back and edit later for corrections and additions
This horror movie, follows almost exclusively Kurosawa's Kairo about human's interaction with technology and the potential of this technology to lead to the downfall of man. Dabbe borrows heavily from the most succesful J-horror films of the past five to ten years. following close to Kairo (Pulse) and Ju-On and a touch of One missed call and phone. So why would anyone want to see a Turkish J-horror? Precisely the question I thought of while watching this film. The attraction to dabbe was the inclusion of Islamic mysticism and apocalyptical views from the Koran. Ultimately the film fails in doing this and rather opts into following the J-horror recipe. Maybe my studies of the Koran and Islamic mysticism have failed me since college or maybe it was the old argument heard during Gibson's The Passion. Where more details or background to the story of Jesus might not have been needed since basically everyone in a christian country should know the basics of Jesus' life or so the argument went. Therefore maybe the viewers of this film in an Islamic country wouldn't need a background on Jinnis and the Dabbe phenomenon and apocalyptical messages from the Koran, something most would have a background in or so I figure the filmakers arguments would go.
As a "westerner" I don't think this film delivered enough of the religous symbolisms, koranic theories and regionalisms to make it truely unique and a true horror based on Islamic/Turkish beliefs. The story follows what I call the Scooby-Doo phenomenon. A quartet of friends where one seems to have dissapeared while starting a new job doing some work in the internet. This friend seems to have dissapeared completely from all who knew him. What would become the lead of the movie goes to check up on him and witnesses that her friend is acting strange and has the walls covered from newspapers and black tape. Soon there after he kills himself and is now up to his friend to figure out along with the others as to what is going on. Add a detective not to far from the detective from Ju-On, weird messages on the phone ala One missed call and Phone and you got yourself a story. There seems to be many suicides happening in Istanbul and along European countries and America which may be connected but no one can put any pieces together besides that they used the internet. And honestly who doesn't?
The acting is pretty bad, and by pretty bad I mean horrible. The actors are very stiff or maybe a little self concious especially when it comes to "acting" scared. Much like Ju-On the detective seems to have his own demons to fight which I believe added more to the story that just following the 3 remaining friends in this mystery over their friends death. Is not until after the midway point that a somewhat interesting religious fanatic not unlike those seen preaching on many cities downtown's through the US, warns of some Koranic verses and the famous web (dabbe). This is where I thought the film would go towards the more religious/cultural aspects of it, but it really didn't. There was so much potential following the warnings of the religious fanatic, maybe some scholarly investigation, religious conspiracies/theories, pretty much anything that would have given it what I think was the strongest point of the film, the regionalism, instead the filmakers chosed to continue the J-horror pathway.
The film does not relly too much on cheap scares which is a good thing and it does have what I feel are pretty good special effects, especially those that are computer generated. The film's sound is more than adequate especially the DTS track but the film rellies on the soundtrack way too much, whith a lot of annoying sounds that could be headache inducing. The image is fine and it was abviously shot on digital video the one thing that really bring the image down is the yellow tint used throwout the film. I would have opted for a less bright color maybe just a softer gray definately not the blue filter used in may japannese films but maybe something a bit more subtle. The yellow was just too much.
The subtitles were real bad, only slightly better than some of those older HK english subtitles. The biggest problem with them was the constant omission of words in the middle of sentences and the constant grammatical errors such as using 'at' instead of 'in' and switching the letter 'o' for an 'a' and wanting to put "is" in all sentences. "All your weapons is belong to us" type. Also on many instances the subs would be on the screen for a fraction of a second when in conversation.
Even with all this and the horrible acting I don't regret buying it but I would find it hard to recommend to anyone unless, like me, curiosity gets the best out of you.
*will come back and edit later for corrections and additions
Last edited by BuddhaWake; 07-13-06 at 06:14 PM.
