Palpitations

Saw Cloverfield last night and am happy to say it winged its way straight into my top ten movies of all time. I'd love to say its my favourite but really you can only watch it once ... its the suspense and the fear that make it great and neither would be present on even a second viewing. I'd say about 20 minutes into the film my heart rate hit about 180bpm and din't let up for the rest of the movie. I think I liked it so much because its basically my ultimate fantasy, one minute you're going about your average, boring but not entirely unpleasant day and before you know it you're running for your life from a giant monster. What could be better than that? I've never really understood the fear/horror reaction to those sorts of scenarios, all I can think is LUCKY!

The concept of the LUCKY was the brainchild of Brittany and basically revolves around appreciating the fact that if you were involved in ANY scenario where you might potentially develop super powers/battle a demonic cult/travel through time or similar then what could be better? Surely the greatest thing that could ever happen to you is going on holiday to Rome, landing in the airport and in arrivals some ancient nun starts screaming at you before suddenly dying with blood spurting from her eyes. As she goes down her roasry flies out of her hand and lands at your feet. You bend down, bloodied and shell shocked, pick it up and think LUCKY! You know you're in for the time of your life. You thought you might go crazy and jump in the Trevi fountain, but NOW there's every possibility you'll be battling the forces of satan before the week is out. We decided that the ultimate lucky is the one in Terminator ... someone coming up to you and saying 'I've been sent from the future to protect you' LUCKY! Now, however, I think it might be the scene in Cloverfield where they emerge from the convenience store onto the partially destroyed, flaming street just in time to see a flash of a monster raging in the distance. LUCKY! I'd be so happy. Don't get me wrong I'd be running for JFK while booking flights to Hong Kong over the phone (Brittany also came up with SHINY, SHINY, super-clean shopping malls in HK being the safest pace on the planet and the ultimate antidote to supernatural/slasher shenanigans). Sure, you might die, but at least it won't be in car crash or of heart disease or something equally as mundane.

The LUCKY! Also applies to more minor events - someone screaing into their mobile phone, people walking into lamp posts, people getting hit in the head by flying objects, people yelling at a bus driver ... there's so much great stuff out there. Not only are you lucky enough to get to see it, but you also get to go home and tell people about it.