It Follows (Mitchell, 2014)

It Follows (Mitchell, 2014)

What makes It Follows (Mitchell, 2014) so effective as a horror film is that it tells the spectator that they are right to fear the unknown, because the unknown is the voyeur. The Male Gaze objectifies the subject (usually feminine) and empowers the gazer (usually masculine), It Follows subverts this typical film convention. If we gaze into the unknown we believe that we hold the power, yet if the unknown gazes back, without noticing, we are objectified. Mitchell’s use of camera panning encourages passivity, the camera moves for us, the spectator holds no power as in our nightmares, we are passive. Many shots of our protagonist, Jay, are positioned uncomfortably. Some show Jay passing a window whilst others place us with her, gazing at the antagonist. Through the repeated use of the wide shots, the spectator is left vulnerable as we gaze at the shot in it’s entirety, much like our protagonist, we have no idea where it is. 

Another way in which It Follows is incredibly effective is it’s use of isolation as a key theme. In order to pass on the curse, sex is needed. Although this should connote intimacy and love, sex is the cause of this isolation for the ones who suffer from the curse. In isolation, we find ourselves at our most vulnerable and when we are in need, only we truly knows what we need. The almost art-house-esque focuses on the stillness of the shot, the minimalism of most of the shots and mise-en-scene also connotes the emptiness of the film and furthermore, anchors the lack of intimacy. 

Some of the most beautiful shots I’ve ever seen:

1. Drive (Refn, 2011)

2. Requiem for a Dream (Aronofsky, 2000)

3. Se7en (Fincher, 1995)

4. Shaun of the Dead (Wright, 2004)

Is family the biggest horror of all? Discussing The Witch (Eggers, 2016)

Modern Horror, at times, misuses the notion of Family, films like Maggie (Hobson, 2015), Poltergeist (Kenan, 2015) and The Conjuring (Wan, 2013) are just some films that use family as an empowering theme. In these films, our hero fights the Monster for the sake of the family because family is always safe, always strong and always there. This is why the start of The Witch appears too slow because the audience does not suspect the family at all, all Eggers provides the audience with is the beginning of a tale. The film immediately invokes sympathy with them, they are banished from their village and forced to go it alone in the forest. The characters are easy to identify with, the use of old language can put some spectators off but fundamentally, Eggers encourages the audience to understand this Puritan family as our own. At the core of this film is a family coming to terms with loss but this, by no means, suggests that the family is innocent. The Witch shows that horror starts at home and by the halfway point of the narrative, the audience loses all sense of family values.

The audience is forced to experience this film with the characters and once they leave the Village, the setting switches between the forest and their new makeshift home. The use of long shots connotes that the family is completely alone, they only have each other and their Puritan religion to keep them going. This is one of the most interesting aspects about the film, as all they have is each other, they quick to turn and suspect one another. The audience shares the narrative experience with the family, both completely unsure about when and where the horror will emerge from. Will it be from the Witch in the forest or will it be from inside the family which is being torn apart in front of the audience’s eyes?. As the narrative progresses, the audience clearly suspects the latter more. It is interesting to add in here that this film is set in 1630, yet family is still a questionable structure to this day. A 2009 FBI report stated that 25% of murders take place within the family and furthermore, over half of all murder victims know their killer. The Witch shows that fear does not come from the ambiguous creature who lives in the forest, it comes from the people who are “supposed” to love you unconditionally. The terror each family member feels is caused by a sense of loss and confusion with their relatives, their own flesh and blood whom they suspect is terrorising them.

The Witch is a film that lingers on the mind and after viewing it I was completely unsure how I felt. The audience is immediately put on edge and the strategic use of intermittent blank screens makes us wait in fear for the next potential scare. The film is more of a tale than a horror movie, the narrative is incredibly rich and engaging but the best thing about this film is its use of family. The Witch challenges the notion of family, family traps you, family suspects you and ultimately, family can kill you.

Fargo: The Crocodile’s Dilemma (S1, E1)

“Your problem is you've spent your whole life thinking there are rules. There aren't. We used to be gorillas.”

Lost in Translation (Coppola, 2003)

“I don’t want to leave.”

“So don’t. Stay here with me. We’ll start a Jazz band.”

Is Maniac (Khalfoun, 2012) a Horror film that only women will fear?

The narrative starts in a place that people who have ended, what should have been an “amazing night out with friends”, completely alone. For some, the experience of walking home alone at night surrounded by drunk people may not be a jarring thought. However, for many, the experience is incredibly uncomfortable and films like Maniac reenforce the horror of these situations.  Aziz Ansari hilariously pointed out the difference between the genders in this situation in his Netflix series Master of None. In an episode dedicated to pointing out Ansari’s own feminism, his character Dev walks home and so does another girl who was at the bar with him that night. The editing cuts between both of them, when the camera fixes on Dev the music is cheery and more specifically plays the tune from “don’t worry, be happy” but the female’s music is much more sinister. Dev believes his night has gone poorly as he steps in dog poo, whilst the woman’s night goes badly as she is followed home by a drunk man who would not leave her alone in the bar and is catcalled frequently. After he follows her home, the drunk man states, “let me in…let a nice guy win for once”.  As 90% of all rape victims know their rapist, it seems fair to suggest that the “nice guy” is more dangerous than the creepy person lurking in an alley (This scene can be watched here). Unlike Master of None,Maniac forces the audience to see through the disgusting eyes of the completely sober man following women home at night.

All the above shots have voyeuristic elements but the whole film is shot in POV (the last one is used through the protagonist, Frank, looking in a mirror) and only once does the film allow us to see outside of Frank’s vision. Frank only targets women in his attacks and the other men in the film are used as ways of intimidating Frank, whilst he anonymously follows women home, he stutters when he speaks to other men. Maniac is a film designed to scare women, as to men, it simply poses no threat. However, what makes Maniac a truly abhorrent film is Khalfoun appears to suggest that Frank’s poor relationship with his Mother is too blame for his behaviour. At various points the film cuts to a flashback of Frank watching his Mother have sex and the audience quickly comes to the conclusion that this plays a huge part in his psychosis. It is impossible for the audience to identify with the Mother as she does not seem maternal throughout the narrative and her character is simply there to show how her sexuality has harmed Frank. Through the flashbacks, Khalfoun creates a sense of sympathy with Frank as he shows him as a young child looking afraid, it becomes difficult for the audience to remain unsympathetic towards the character. This makes the film more uncomfortable, sympathy is encouraged with a sadistic, psychotic murderer and the female characters are hugely undeveloped to the point where at times it is difficult to have sympathy towards them.

Maniac is clearly designed to terrify a female audience. The unrelenting use of POV shots forces the audience to gaze at a victim, whilst the eyes we are looking through are clearly a man who, on the surface, appears completely ‘normal‘. Khalfoun plays with the concept of the “nice guy” but still, forces sympathy with the protagonist. Maniac is an incredibly uncomfortable watch at times, particularly when discussing the cause of Frank’s psychosis and Khalfoun clearly suggests that female sexuality is too blame. Is the director suggesting that female sexuality is the cause of attacks on women? After re watching the film, I do believe that at times the director appears to take a victim blaming approach. To a certain extent, most Horror encourages a victim blaming approach. The typical “if I was in a horror film I would never….” or “is that character stupid?! why would they do that!” response is victim blaming at it’s core. Rather than the audience feeling abhorrent towards the murderer, victim blaming seems to be an audience’s way of dealing with the texts. What makes the film so unnerving is that at times Khalfoun forces us to identify with the man who ruthlessly kills anonymous women that the audience know nothing about.