King Kong

[Samael Hands of Stone]

Just to be clear, I'm not one of those guys that sees a Ravenloft angle in every movie, but King Kong, which was otherwise a visually stunning but incredibly melodramatic and drawn-out movie, had a "Rav moment" that was simply too fantastic to ignore.

I'm refering to the part where the ship is sailing into the unknown waters, looking for Skull Island. They build the tension really well as the crew is about to abandon their search, when suddenly, the mists surround them and they get whisked away to another place.

Did anyone else turn to their girlfriend in the theatre like me and go "Raaaaaaavtastic!" ? I do that sometimes...

[Jester of the FoS]

Haven't seen Kong yet. Felt Mr. Jackson is too big and powerful now and thus no one was to edit his movies or even shoot down his crazier ideas. He's like Lucas or Spielberg or JKRowling: too many yes-men and no motivation to trim anything out. And that's what kills ya.
Always used to joke that what seperates a director who makes 90minute filmes and big three-hour epics is a little gold statue. You get one of those and you suddenly have the freedom to turn even the smallest hour-and-a-half flick into a sprawling 'masterpiece'.
But that's off topic just *slightly*

Most of the time I don't see Ravenloft. But some movies or scenes just scream it out. Like the Others, I wasn't even touching Ravenloft at the time. But that movie with a house surrounded by thick mist that people dived into and all the atmosphere. Very creepy.

[Samael Hands of Stone]

I couldn't have said it better, I came out of the theatre ranting calmly along those lines. Editing, editing, editing. I'm talking about shaving off a good 30 minutes of longing glances and pointless interractions like Peter Jackson shaved off 80 lb over the last 2 years. There was simply no excuse for some of the filler in this flick. And yeah, I absolutely got that vibe like Jackson was taking sweet revenge on the studio heads that forced him to cut something like 2 extra hours from each individual intallment of LotR.

Foolish of Jackson really, he could of mopped up on the DVD sales again by releasing 17 various gold, platinum and definitive editions of King Kong over the course of 2006.

About the Others, which just happens to be one of my alltime favorites in the genre (despite the fact that I despise the director and have no particular love for Kidman), I'm right with you on the whole ghost-haunt-mist observation. It was at once very Ravenloft and very Wraith to me.

Good stuff

[Boccaccio Barbarossa]

Yes, Samael - VERY wraith!!!!! (But also very Rav.)

And I, well... I'm the guy who quietly sees everything as one big expression of Ravenloft.