Hotel Transylvania

I had a look at all the movie trailers that I missed reviewing this summer and decided that there were too many for me to try to catch up on. So, I will just pretend that I am here and have always been here and thus, I am current... or will be... one day... Kindly disregard the previous sentences.

When I was a kid, I was obsessed with old scary movies.  Bela Lugosi's Dracula.  Boris Karloff's Frankenstein and The Mummy, Lon Chaney Jr.'s The Wolfman and every other wannabe/remake/homage to movies with those "monsters" in them.  I grew to be somewhat of a horror movie buff.  Lately, though, not so much.

I watched many of them growing up and into adulthood.  At some point, I noticed something about the monster/horror movies that I loved so much.  Perspective.  The perspective changed.  Specifically, the camera perspective. In the old movies when the monster was attacking the victim, the camera perspective was from that of the victim; meaning that the audience would look into the eyes of the monster as it was attacking.  Audience as victim.

Then one day, and I can't pinpoint when, the camera perspective changed.  The perspective is now from that of the killer/monster; giving the audience the monster's perspective.  Audience as killer. Is it because we are more violent as a society?  Probably, but it's just an observation.  What do you think?

I watched the short trailer (1:16) for Hotel Transylvania and it's simple message was like a grand homage to the monster movies that I used to love as a kid.  Hotel Transylvania is a place where Dracula appears to be the host, which makes sense because he's not a random killing machine like the others - he can actually have a conversation - and monsters go to take a holiday from their... um... random killing....  Enter a human backpacker and you have the story.

The wife had been bugging me for a week to go and see the film and I kept refusing.  She finally convinced me to watch the trailer.  I'm glad I did.  Any film that pays homage - even comically - to something I love(d) is a film I want to see.  And, the wife is happy.  Everybody wins, unless it's crap.  Stay tuned.