Candyman (yeah, I just wrote about it in another post) has messed me up a little (in a good way).

Don't get me wrong, I don't think Candyman is a bad film at all. It is professional quality throughout, but one can still sense an air of low budgetness (minimal actors, a lot of extras (as in poorly paid actors in the background), few locations or special effects, etc.). Which reminded me of even lower budget horror films. Ones that actually lack some of the more professional budget (I assume) and talent of Candyman.

What all of these movies tend to have is a scarceness, a remoteness, one that provides the audience (akin to an artsy black box experimental theatre type performance) with an intimacy that the big budget movies seem to be unable to carry.

First and foremost it is because you feel like the characters really have very little to themselves, but YOU are part of what THEY have. Second, the actors and actress are relative unknowns so you feel a sense of reality in seeing their actions which easily dissipates when you are well aware the whole movie (or play) that you are watching a (well known) actor. You don't watch them because you are enamored with their celebrity or their academy caliber acting talent. You watch them because you are their 'friends'. You are in the scene with theme whereas you are not in the scene with the celebrity because you are not a celebrity nor are you in the scene with the unknown actor of academy caliber talent (like one you'd find in a trendy independent film) because they marginalize you out of the scene. The 'lesser' unknown actors welcome you into their scene. You are not marveling at them, you are with them.

Another thing is that the subject matter (on a low budget) cannot often get into grand themes so the conversations are usually intimate.

And also even things like simpler music or poorly written dialogue actually tends to make you relate better to the world created as in the less professional it is, the more common it is.

Let me repeat that this is not to be confused with high quality independent films that are high budget (relatively for an independent film) but rather films that are in a sense trying to be high budget and high quality but simply lack the means or capabilities. They manage however to pull off something that neither the blockbusters nor the (academy caliber) independent films can and I love them for that.

Do you guys see what I am saying? Any thoughts on this?