Monday 23 May 2011

Film Review

Reviews of Psychological horror in the films, Rear Window, The Shining, The Haunting and The Machinist for the unit ‘The Creation of Metaphoric Space;

For this unit, The Creation of metaphoric space, we watched a variety of films involving psychological horror that I will be reviewing in this essay.
            The film rear window, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, was one of the first films we watched. The main story line of the film is about a man who has broken his leg so he is confined to his apartment where he has a large back window where he can see what his neighbours get up to. As time progresses he starts to get more and more distracted by his neighbour’s activities that he spots what he thinks a man who murders his wife but the he is unable to convince the police of this. He has a beautiful girlfriend who will do anything for him but to begin with his unsure of whether she is right for him. At this point in the film I notice that the 'man gaze' occurs quite frequently. The camera focuses quite closely on the women as she comes in to the apartment and prepares dinner for her man. The camera appears at different angles like the camera is looking through the man’s own eyes. The film doesn’t go to any other scenes apart from in his apartment and into the windows and back gardens of neighbour’s houses through the windows. When his girlfriend ventures into this mans house to find evidence that he killed his wife, it soon becomes quite terrifying as he cannot help her to escape, and therefore she is caught by the man. This contains the element of psychological horror as you don’t know what is going to happen. The man soon learns a valuable lesson towards the end of the film, not to mess with other peoples business as the man who is suspected of murdering his wife finally sees that he is being watched and throws the man out the window before falling and breaking both legs again,. It turns out that at the end the man did kill his wife; she was buried underneath the flowers in his garden which the neighbour’s dog kept trying to dig up. Although the film didn’t venture outside of four walls the film manages to keep your attention just so you can witness the final outcome. According to a film review on the website rotten tomatoes, another critic who also watched the film thinks ‘the film surely remains one of the most memorable and downright essential examples of the slow-burn thriller genre’  ( rotten tomatoes, 2011)
The Shining was the next film we watched, I watched the Shining for the first time, I found it fascinating as though looking at it through creative eyes but I did not like the story. There were certain scenes that I really liked and thought could work well for our set design involving psychological horror. There was a scene at the beginning there was a flood of blood into the hallway and I found this quite effective. The film is a great combination of the supernatural, crazy murders and insanity, according to a review on the website rotten tomatoes ‘Ostensibly a haunted house story, it manages to traverse a complex world of incipient madness, spectral murder and supernatural visions... and also makes you jump’ (Rotten tomatoes, 2011). We spoke about the shining in a theory lecture and spoke about the ID, EGO and SUPEREGO that is present in this film as well as others and I found this extremely interesting. I started to think more about other psychological horrors that could help towards the process of deciding what sets to make. Some of the camera angles that were used in the film to focus on certain characters faces when something frightening was happening added to the element of psychological horror that possessed the main character throughout the film. The most popular scene of the film where Johnny hacks his way through the door and says, ‘here’s Johnny!’ (The Shining, 1980) is one of the most popular horror scenes of all time.
            The 1960’s version of The Haunting was the next film that I watched. At the beginning the narrator makes a very in depth description of the house, explaining that is haunted and unexplored. The music and the opening titles work well with the eerie image of a haunted house in the background. The furniture and the layout of the rooms in the house look normal, like it still for everyday use, but no one is living there or has lived there for a long time. So the idea that there is something there that they have experienced but cannot see adds to the psychological horror. The very decorative interior of the house shows the original residents must have been wealthy. The loud noises and ghostly goings on that is experienced by the visitors of the house, and that there is no visible reason as to why it is happening creates an eerie feel for the viewer. The camera also zooms in a lot in to specific areas, like something is supposed to be occupying that area creates a very strange feeling for the viewer that makes you wonder what is going on? Why is it happening? And the main question who is doing it? These are the main elements of psychological horror. According to a film review on the Rotten Tomatoes website, another film critic also thinks that the film has‘ A dark brooding atmosphere, disturbing psychological insights and a handful of suddenly executed surprises make this old horror as fresh and vital as the day it was made. (Rotten Tomatoes, 2011)
            The last film I watched was ‘The Machinist’. The beginning is very strange. It starts with the main character rolling a man in a carpet down a hill in to a river and then switches to him a few different scenes that are all un related. It creates a lot of confusion to begin with but starts the ball rolling for the involvement of psychological horror. The main character has some kind of disorder that is unexplained throughout the film. He hasn’t slept for a year and things in every day life keeping messing with his mind. He is a very skinny man that weighs himself everyday and he gets lighter and lighter, he tries to find very odd things to do to keep him self busy as he can’t sleep. The element of psychological horror in this film is the characters mental state throughout the film, taking him to bizarre thoughts and incidents that are occurring all around him, involved in a usual everyday setting with Trevor, the main character getting caught up in odd situations. He leaves post it notes around his house and the main one that keeps within the viewers mind says ‘who are you’ (The Machinist, 2004) which is what the character is trying to explore throughout the film. The characters house is very small and dingy like it is unlived in that expresses a very creepy feel. According to a film review on the Rotten Tomatoes website, a film critic also thinks that ‘with time as a buffer, it's now easier to see The Machinist for what it is: a labyrinthine leap down the rabbit hole into a nightmarish wonderland(Rotten Tomatoes, 2011)
  One scene that creates a very strange feel is where Trevor goes through a ride simulation which relates to what has happened in his life. He soon works out that he was involved in a hit and run incident that he has tried to block out of his life but it has come back to haunt him. The film dives deep in to the viewers mind to create its own psychological terror, the terror is not put right in front of your face as it is something you have to work out for yourself which really creates a sense of horror more than any other type of film can.







Bibliography







Fig 1. Rear Window


Fig 2. The Shining
Fig 3. The Haunting
Fig 4. The Machinist






Illustration List








2 comments:

  1. Thank goodness you put the machinist up! i totally forgot to put tht film in my essay, thanks lol great blog btw!

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