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11/12/99

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Nights Of The

Planning to catch
a movie this
weekend?
There's a good
chance you'll
encounter a
film with a
A-upernatural theme.

March '99

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Danny Raskin, June '99

"

At The Movies

2650 Orchard Lake Rd.
Sylvan Lake, MI
248-682-5776

control," when truth dictates otherwise.
Exactly, says David Koepp, director
of Stir of Echoes. "What ghost stories
do is confirm what we all hope, that
I see dead people.
there is justice somehow."
They are all around me, up
Maybe the makers of such sensa-
there on the screen, all over the
tions
as The Sixth Sense — in which a
multiplexes.
youngster sees ghosts all around him
The Blair Witch Project, The
— had the good sense to market their
Haunting, The Sixth Sense, Stir of
movies just in time for the millenni-
Echoes, Stigmata and Sleepy Hollow —
um. Perhaps they sensed a renewed
why has the supernatural so stirred up
interest in religion and spirituality at
producers in Hollywood, with so many
the end of this 1,000-year era.
movies shrouded in the dark chill of
"People's thoughts turn to mysti-
haunting and harrowing horrors?
cism
at this time," Koepp says, and
Is it the mystery of the millennium
that could be a major reason why the
that awaits us in just a matter of weeks?
spirit moved Hollywood to inundate
Or has Hollywood haphazardly hit upon
the screen with otherworldly "pre-
the right genre to scare up money at the
sents" as the year closes out.
box office? Maybe it's a bit of both.
"People who aren't terribly religious
"I think this society is a religious
come
back to their religion" when they
one and is looking to make meaning"
fear
the
unknown, says Alpert, and
of life, and movies are taking advan-
films
such
as The Haunting and
tage of that, says Rabbi Rebecca
can
have a harrowing hold on
Stigmata
Alpert, assistant professor of religion
an audience's mind. "Hollywood is
at Temple University in Philadelphia
more aware that people are interested in
and co-director of the school's
exploring the unknown. It
women's studies program.
"There is something pow- Above: "The Blair Witch is a time when we want
assurances.
Project" in augurated
erful in the transition
But is it a time for
a spate of horror
from one millennium to
Jews
to be part of this
is
year.
t
lm
s
the next. "
picture?
Maybe that's why
"The irony of all this," says Alpert,
moviegoers are showing extraordinary
"is that the millennium should mean
interest in extra-terrestrials, out-of-
nothing to us as Jews; it's a very
body experiences and the afterlife. The
Christian concept. In a way, we've
horror of having hell on earth as the
been dragged along," she observes.
calendar flips from one millennium to
"We are looking in a Christian way at
the next is an age-old concern.
what
happens in society. In the world
"I am sure in the year 1000 they
of 'should,' Jews shouldn't be observ-
expected an apocalypse," says Alpert, so
ing the millennium."
why should 2000 be any different?
Jews set their clocks not by
"People are now getting in touch with
Christian time, based on the birth of
fears of death and the fact that we don't
have control of things. We spend a lot of Jesus, but by a Hebraic calendar, with
the second and hour hands pointed to
energy as human beings saying we have
our people's past. Rabbi Stephen Weiss
Michael Elkin is entertainment editor
of Congregation Shaarey Zedek in
of the Jewish. Exponent.
Southfield calls the secular calendar

MICHAEL ELKIN
Special to the Jewish News