Okay, I know I am condemning myself to ridicule from those who will see this after me, but:

Holy shite, I found this movie unbelievably creepy, and terrifying. For me it was like having a two hour anxiety attack. I generally enjoy "post-apocalyptic" movies (e.g., Children of Men), and I can't say I *didn't* enjoy this, but the bleakness, and the layers of fear running through this film made it excruciating for me. I literally kept looking at my watch, hoping it would be over soon, because I wanted my heart to stop pounding and racing.

Now that being said, when I was growing up, I was one of those kids who had a real sense of terror at the prospect of a global nuclear war - it was the type of thing that had me up at night terrified. I will say that this film was likely triggering some of those same buttons.

Now that said, this is a truly effective, disturbing, and terrifying film. It is everything that 2012 was not. i.e., a movie about the end of the world that probably more accurately reflects the reality that would take place. No clichés, no motivational speeches, and no airplanes outrunning disintegrating runways! Moreover, talk about a film that is a reflection of the bleak times we are actually fearful of.

Full cred has to be given to the location scouts on this film. There is minimal CGI in the movie. It is mostly filmed on real locations. Wow, is all I have to say.

Acting is first rate. Sets are brilliant. Atmosphere, as I said, creepy.

One thing I found amusing is that some of those who are familiar with the book, the source material for the movie, say the movie is not bleak enough!

I FULLY understand where you are coming from, Jeffay...so no worries.

I haven't seen the film, but based ON THE PRVIEW ALONE - I took out the book from the library. I have yet to read it and don't yet know what is stopping me. I think it has something to do with my perception of what the story is about - a father doing EVERYTHING that he knows to protect the only thing left to him - his son.

The whole IDEA of it terrifies me.

Which is also the same idea as to why I haven't been able to bring myself to watch/read Mystic River...

My assistant (masters in english lit) is about to lend me the book. She claims it is brilliant, and it has made the rounds through her family. Although, she also tells me that the movie is not as bleak as the book...

For an interesting take on the fit the book has with our real world, see:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2007/oct/30/comment.books

OK!

So I FINALLY got up the courage to OPEN the book last night and BAM! I read half of it in one sitting...even sitting up at 1:00AM with my little night light on (so as not to disturb the wife who had to get up at 5:00AM)...the ONLY reason I put it down was:

a)I was getting too freaked out

and (sorry, one more reason)

b) It WAS 1:00AM...I DID need to sleep sometime...

I'll finish it tonight. But...to borrow from Jeff's review and friend: THE BLEAKNESS...the terrorfying SAVAGENESS of this post-apocalyptic world where NO rules of society exist as we know them - only one thing: survival.

This isn't Mad Max where they fight over fuel. This is scarcity at its uttmost - no food anywhere, all animals dead, all vegetation gone. What do you do?? You NEED to eat...

And what is a father supposed to do with his only link to his past at his side? You protect that AT ALL COSTS, even beyond the boundries of "rational" behaviour. Even when the thing you're trying to protect is discussing, even begging, with you to die...is this protection? Or torture? Or both?

And I'm only half-way through!

So?! Did you finish reading the book?!

I DID!

The wife went to bed early...so I put on some moody music, poured myself a glass of aged rum (LOL! I shaite thee not - seemed appropo...) and curled up on the couch and finished it off.

The end (without spoilers) is not as "bleak" as the first 3/4s...in fact, if I were to offer a minor complaint, it kinda "ties up" too nicely in almost a Hollywood fashion...

But McCarthy's grasp of imagery and metaphor...stunning. Every passage seems like he's almost quoting scripture or philosophical works when actually he's writing original prose, he just MAKES it sound/read so swimmingly...

It made me TOTALLY re-think the whole "post-apocalyptic" world and...ironically enough, the PRE-apocalyptic world in which we live...ESPECIALLY in the context of what's going on in Haiiti right now. These people are probably experiencing the same scarcity and desperation as the protaganist father in the book (maybe not to the same extremes, but still).

I never conceived of a world ENTIRELY without resources...no food, no clean water, no vegetation, no animals/livestock...EVERYTHING has been looted or scavenged...why WOULD I expect that there would be supermarkets/drugstores still standing that hadn't been ransacked previously by other desperate survivors? Isn't that the way it works in movies...?

Basically it boils down to: keep moving, keep searching, if you're lucky you'll find something. If not, you die.

NOW - on to the movie!! I'll review, compare and contrast with the book!

So I go to RENT this movie the other day only to find it's only being released on the 23rd of March (coincidentally enough on my son's birthday: here you go, boy...it's a harrowing tale of desperate survival in a post-apocalyptic world. ENJOY!)

So, it's not in the theatre nor in the video store but in limbo...

OHTHEPAINOFITALL!

You\\\'ll have to rent it on Blu-Ray and watch it on the giant 1080p I presume you must already own, all for extra creepy depressingness!

So.

It FINALLY comes out - and I wait for the right night (tonight) to watch: wife and kids all in bed...alone on the big screen.

It was a VERY good rendition of the book and managed to capture SOME of the bleakness that ran through my mind as I read. The scenes were faithful to the book and I too give them FULL props for staking out such locales.

If I could complain about ONE (1) thing is that the movie was too "cheerful" - relatively speaking. The book descended into MUCH MUCH MUCH more depravity than the movie was allowed (most likely due to the movie ratings, I'm sure). There were passages from the book that will haunt me for a long time...not so much the movie.

They DID cover the whole "farmhouse dungeon" but not the levels of hunger the father and son fell into and how COLD they got and just how much they suffered. It seems they had quite a bit of food in the film...

Minorish quibble...the film was fantastic.

Damn that farmhouse dungeon. That scene in the movie almost made me sick. And yet you're telling me that it is somehow *worse* in the book...

Needless to say, the book sits on the coffee table unread. I haven't had the nerve to read it yet.

Really?

I found the farmhouse dungeon to be more blatantly horrific instead of the more subtle (and frankly terrifying) idea of the mother and the "choice" she makes.

It was more revealing in the book than in the movie where it played out more melodramatic. And adds to the pain of both the father and the boy

And yes, I can think of one MUCH more disturbing passage in the book than the farmhouse (and I can plainly see WHY it was omitted from the film - it's all but unfilmable). I had to put the book down for a bit and take a breather to process it. Frig - could we EVER descend to that level...??

Havnèt read a word of the above. But this will be my next rental.

Brace yourself my boy. Brace yourself.

Save it for a night when you're hoping to get lucky with the Mrs.!

Or better yet, contribute to a financial plan to pay for eventual therapy for the kids and include them in a big family night of fun in front of the big tv screen!

Whoo-Hoo!

"Daddy, what's an apocalypse?"

I heard that it is heavy, but new policy is - If I can sit through Anti-Christ, I can sit through anything.

Hell, nerves of steel, he has.
He sits through THIS almost EVERY night.....