Word: shocks
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When Yeltsin sacked Sergei Stepashin last week, few in Russia were surprised. True, Stepashin had been in office only 82 days. But in his jealous protection of his waning presidency, Yeltsin has made the unpredictable predictable. His second move of the day, however, created shock waves. In a seven-minute television address that bade Stepashin farewell, in which his tongue and eyes strained to find the words on the TelePrompTer, Yeltsin named Vladimir Putin, a virtual unknown to most Russians, not only his acting Prime Minister but also his heir. Bestowing his trust in Putin, Yeltsin implored voters...
...country's leaders are bracing for a firestorm of dissatisfaction. Calls for the resignation of cabinet ministers look set to snowball, and the more efficient relief effort in regions run by the opposition Islamic Virtue Party presents a substantial political challenge to Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit. "Once the initial shock wears off, the political recriminations will grow," says TIME correspondent William Dowell. "Poor construction work in a region known for earthquakes caused a death toll that was far higher than it might have been had stricter standards been enforced." On Monday, as officials in the capital, Ankara, ordered...
...horror genre's attraction-repulsion for the filmgoer: what-happens-next? vs. why-am-I-watching-this? It makes canny use of dramatic longueurs. It's scary even when nothing happens, because something awful might, and, eek!, right now! Anticipation is all. Anxiety is a more powerful emotion than shock. Knowing we are to die is worse than dying...
...there's Blair Witch. It has no sex or even sexual tension, no music of any kind, no demonic power tools. No prowling, voyeuristic camera from the killer's point of view; this movie is all about victims and the victims they make of each other. There are no shock cuts to the monster. In fact, no visible monster! Because the audience sees only what the camera does. At night it is sometimes pitch-black; for excruciating minutes, we are literally in the dark. The physical mayhem is limited to one conk on the head. There's no slashing--except...
...Pittsburgh, Pa., for a piddling $114,000, the film has a grainy look, cheesy acting and a preposterous premise. But the characters we root for are eliminated with grisly dispatch, and the claustrophobic tension mounts so ruthlessly that many early filmgoers had to leave the theater midway--in shock. Sequels and imitators notwithstanding, it remains the most terrifying movie ever made...