The Daily Stream becomes the Daily Scream for spooky season!
It may not be considered a “traditional” horror movie, but then again, I’m the sort of movie lover who typically doesn’t find “traditional” horror movies all that scary or unnerving. This one, though… *whew*
In 2010’s 127 Hours, director Danny Boyle and star James Franco bring to agonizing life the true-life tale of mountaineer Aron Ralston, who was canyoneering in remotest Utah when his arm got trapped by a falling boulder. He was in the middle of nowhere, all alone, with no way to call for help. He had told no one of his plans for the day. After a few terrifyingly fruitless days of trying to extricate himself, he realized he had no option but to amputate his own arm using nothing but a dull pocketknife. Which he did.
Boyle does not linger on the gruesomeness of the task, but this is a body-horror story nevertheless, not least for how it invites us to contemplate the fragility of the meatbags we walk around in and the remove we have, in modern civilization, from the frequent messiness of our flesh and blood. Ralston’s predicament is far more distressing to me than any science-fiction nightmare, because it actually happened.
US: rent/buy on Prime and Apple TV
UK: stream on Disney+; rent/buy on Prime; buy on Apple TV
See 127 Hours at Letterboxd for more viewing options.
