Dread, Suspicion, and Forces Beyond Our Control - Reaction Shots Discussion topic

Welcome, film lovers, to the discussion topic for everyone's favorite month: October!  Halloween, baby! Let's do it!

Oh, and this month's episode goes public on Friday the 13th.  So that's awesome.

Since the Lumiere brothers shocked and horrified audiences with the Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat, film has had a special ability to titillate the human fear center.  From "watch out that train is going to hit us I don't understand that this is a movie" to "don't go upstairs!!!!" horror in film has evolved, through many highs and lows, into a niche and specific art form.

This month's episode will be kind of a, dare I say it, "love letter" to horror.  My favorite kind of horror is the kind that digs in, drives you mad, and DOESN'T HAVE JUMP SCARES!  (I find them cheap and irritating more than fun, but maybe that's just me.)  Huber, as he is known to say, likes intimate kills, Jason, Michael Myers, monsters.  But I think both of us have an appreciation for dread, fear of the unknown, suspicion of our fellow humans, doubting one's own sanity, and coming face to face with forces beyond our control.

Last month we talked about the Coen brothers, and the assignment film coming into this month is No Country for Old Men.  Now, you may be saying to yourself that N.C.f.O.M isn't really a horror film.  But if you look at it as an allegory for the human experience where the characters are less human beings than forces of nature then it starts to fit the mold.  A classic Good versus Evil with Humans caught in the middle (and never making it out alive) sort of affair.

The Coen's brand of horror is usually more along the existential dread spectrum, where ordinary life is tantamount to an incoming cyclone.  Some might argue that that sort of subject matter is the most terrifying you can grapple with, but Horror as a genre tackles the same issues just with a little more blood and psychosis.

Are all horror films metaphorical or can a kill just be a kill?

Let's use the film The Thing (Carpenter, 1982) as our main jumping off point for a lot of our discussion.  It contains many of the important hallmarks of an expertly crafted horror film, excellent pace, strong yet simple concept, building dread, mounting suspicion, great dialogue and cinematography, an ambiguous open ending, and yes, it even has some jump scares. 

My favorite thing in... the Thing... sorry... is that the audience, like the characters, never knows who to trust.  I think that doubt and suspicion are such amazing tools for horror films.  What other horror films employ this kind of doubt and suspicion?

The Thing places us mainly alongside MacReady (Kurt Russell) and we don't doubt that he is really himself for most of the film because he is effectively our lens, but then the movie shifts that at the end, leaving us feeling unmoored and unsure who (or what) to trust.  What are some other good examples of horror films flipping our trust in a main character?

In a previous episode we spoke about practical effects, and it'd be a crime not to just mention again how wonderful the effects in The Thing are.

Moving on to films like Friday the 13th, or Halloween, let's talk about Horror tropes.  Things like the Final Girl, or sex being a one way ticket to stabby town.  What are some classic horror tropes?

Are these tropes employed simply to force in a moral message, are these tropes damaging, or are they just fun?  Do they work?

The movie Cabin in the Woods takes many horror tropes and spins them for comedic effect, so too do the movies Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, and Shawn of the Dead.  There are many examples of horror-comedies, many of which exist simply because horror tropes are so enduring.  Does the fact that these movies are funny prevent them from being horror?  Are they just comedies with lots of blood?

One of my favorite kinds of horror is madness horror.  Think Rosemary's Baby, Black Swan, The Ninth Gate, anything where the main character is losing grip, or making a choice to step into madness for potential rewards.  It's a pity there aren't more H.P. Lovecraft inspired films (great ones) because I think that those could be really interesting.  I feel that losing one's sanity is one of the most horrible things to think about, what are some other examples of great madness horror films?

How does madness play into our trust in the characters?

How is madness filmed?  Are there common filmic techniques used to depict insanity? 

Great horror films make the audience doubt what they are seeing, or raise fears that follow the viewer home, placing the audience into the horror along with the characters.  Sure, an action movie might make you drive too quickly home from the theatre, but there are horror movies I saw as a kid that still make me look behind myself when I'm going up stairs.   Why do you think that horror specifically is so effective at this?   

This month's theme, as I said above, is rather loose.  We're just going to be gushing about our love for horror in its various cinematic forms.  What other topics or ideas about horror pique your interest?

Also Hocus Pocus is great, why are they remaking it?!

<3

Ian