I need a palate cleanser, because reasons, and I’ve been thinking about something recently that I thought might make a fun game (for very me-specific values of fun).
Here’s the general idea: There are groups of movies that have similar attributes, and are generally in the same genre, but there are specific aspects of them that I think qualifies them as a new (sub)genre. The fun is in either proposing new names for the (sub)genre, or identifying additional movies that fit that (sub)genre. Maybe we work on a group for a little while, then vote on the (sub)genre titles, and then move on to another.
The protagonist(s) is/are trapped in an extreme and isolating situation.
They are frequently injured or partially incapacitated during their attempts to escape.
If there are multiple characters trapped together, one of them will die, often off-screen, and this will not be revealed to the audience until later.
The main protagonist will often hallucinate or have flashbacks in order to move the plot forward.
The main protagonist will often have to overcome some personal trauma or flaw in order to survive and escape.
There are often antagonizing elements that are placing pressure on the protagonist(s) in addition to their general situation.
There is often a tragic backstory that has led the protagonist(s) to climb this mountain/tower, visit this beach, dive into this ocean/pool, go into space, etc.
This backstory is often key to the trauma/flaw that they must overcome in order to find the strength to survive.
There, I think that’s a pretty good start. I’d also like help refining/expanding the list above, in addition to the activities described in the first post.
That’s an interesting suggestion. I hadn’t considered it. Maybe it makes sense to create a checklist foe each of the movies on the list to see how they score on the criteria? I may try to do that later.
There’s definitely a quality gap between movies like Gravity and the Martian, and the rest of the items on the list.