By Susan Hill (story), Jon Croker (screenplay) and Tom Harper (directing)
Much scarier than the first one is my verdict. So scary in fact, that the woman sat in front of us had covered her face up with multiple coats by the end of the film. But how did they create such tension, suspense and horror?
Firstly, I liked their quick and easy set-up. The London Underground, and our main character, Eve Parkins evacuates Schoolchildren to Eel Marsh House off the eerie coast of Norfolk. Edward, the mute (and in the context of a horror film, gifted) child character's parents have just been blown up in the bombings, all the information needed, and we also have empathy for one of the main characters. And we also have a reason for why they've gone to stay in such a horrible house - for supposed 'safety...'
Around ten minutes in, and we already have our first jump scare when Eve looks through the window of a deserted building to find the madman Jacob leaping out, warning her about 'her...' This is a sequel, and even if you haven't seen the first, the title is a massive giveaway concerning who 'her' is. Therefore, the whole film in fact is a guessing game as to when and how 'Her' will appear, and Hill and Croker don't fail to keep us guessing. This is the pinnacle of horror; when the audience knows what's there but doesn't know how or when it's going to inflict its terror.
Normally, the formula for your typical jump scare goes as follows;
Walks into scary room... What's behind the curtain? Tension rising towards curtain... AHHH THERES SOMETHING THERE!!!
This film however takes suspense to the next level;
Walks into scary room... What's behind the curtain? Tension rising towards curtain... Opens curtain, there's nothing there, relax... AHHHHHHH WASN'T EXPECTING THAT!!!
It also had other tricks up its sleeve, my favourite being the the girl following the red rope. You know there's something at the end of the rope, you just don't know when its going to end and what happens at the end of it is a complete surprise.
It is this fear of the unknown, of what's not there that gives the Woman in Black its power to play the audience, and sets the bar high for horror in 2015.
Into the Woods 11/01/15
By James Lapine
A really good concept, it may well be the Pulp Fiction of Fairy Tales, but the musical style didn't quite do it for me,
Like Pulp Fiction, Into the Woods takes Archetypal fairytale plots we all know and condenses them into subplots which eventually merge to together into a chaotic climax testing the power of human perseverance. What makes them archetypal and not stereotypical stories is because they represent human needs. They're like heightened, fantastical, psychological outpourings on life; Jack and the beanstalk tells us not to steal, Red Riding Hood tells kids to be wary of peadophiles, Cinderalla tells us to be true to ourselves, whilst Rapunzel tells over-obsessive mothers not to wrap their kids in cotton wool. And that's why Lapine exploits these narratives since they're so instantly identifiable.
The fact that it was a musical, however, was disappointing, as it didn't need this. The film was already stylised enough with its fantastical fairytale plot and setting, it didn't need to be made more ridiculous by singing every single line of dialogue so there weren't even any cohesive songs. When Cinderella randomly stopped time and proceeded to do a five minute solo on the stairs of the castle I started to notice the buttache by cinema seat was giving me. In contrast, during moments of bathos like the Baker's wife's gag as she explains to Cinderella; "My husband? Oh, he's just reversing a spell..." I stopped noticing the pain in my rear.
An exciting idea taking the storylines of popular fantastical, tales into one super archetype, but expressing it through the earthy realism of dialogue instead of singing would've restored the balance of fantasy and realism needed to identify with it... And for it to distract me from chronic cinema seat cramp.
The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway
"It would be better to gut the dolphin a little later to save the blood in the meat, he thought."
An Old Man tries to catch fish in the Sea. Such a simple premise, but one in which Hemingway's able to create so much tension. This is possibly in his stream of consciousness type style, which you can see above, and sense of anticipation as the reader calculates the uncertainty of the Old Man's future fortune as a fisherman.
A thriller doesn't have to involve gun fights, something a simple a hunting can create just as much, if not more, tension.
