The Horror In Hopelessness

In writing this I must confess I really had no plans in doing any sort of “Halloween themed special” sort of thing, but it just so happened that the moment I got around to writing another one of these was just right for that.

When I take the time to think about Horror as a genre in film, one thing that stands out to me as being elemental to its “effectiveness” and that is an unshakeable feeling of hopelessness. And it’s easy to understand why when we analyze the way we feel fear in our real lives. As humans, feeling in control of our own situation is somewhere at the top of our psychological needs, it doesn’t really matter if you’re actually truly in control, as long as you feel like you are. Were anything to come along and break this illusion, panic would instantly follow as your brain goes into overdrive trying to calculate some other angle in which you’re back on top of it; the sudden realization that there’s something wrong going on and you have absolutely no way to prevent or fix it, that is where fear is born.

The Horror genre is possibly one of the most “active” in terms of new releases coming along, like a steady stream, and obviously this tends to mean that there’s also an issue with the quality of them. Many amateur moviemakers out there set their sights on it as it allows them to start off their careers without breaking the bank, this because there’s plenty of useful tropes at their disposal and templates to work from that don’t really require much in the way of resources or even work. As Wes Craven once said, you just take a bunch of teenagers into a cabin and chop ‘em up.
But to me the stand out titles all have this in common, they don’t simply take you on an amusement park ride where you’re just sitting there waiting for the next big scare, but they go to lengths to make sure that you understand the situation the characters are in. The protagonists aren’t simply walking from one guy with an axe to the other, there’s a focus on the overwhelming scale of the threat and the futility of their actions; the heroes can’t win, they know it and you know it. Hope is scarce, only present to keep your brain in “panic” mode as your brain experiences the protagonist’s denial, trying to figure out a way out of a hopeless situation while your heart sinks because you know it’s just not happening.

Kill List (2011) is one of these movies that use the concept of utter defeat to create tension and produce shocking horror.

It’s not all about hopelessness of course, there’s other elements that contribute to the overall grasp on your senses that a movie has. In the case of Kill List, it has a lot to do with its disorienting nature as nothing in it is ever really what it seems. The story unfolds in a way that you’re always aware there’s something really wrong going on, you just don’t know what it is.
To me it was an impressive film, carefully crafted, channeling that same claustrophobic paranoia that made me love Rosemary’s Baby and if that sense of impending doom is something you’re looking to dabble in this Halloween, it’s a movie I’d strongly recommend.

One more thing that I really like about the Horror genre is the creative freedom that it allows, you can pretty much do anything, go anywhere with it. Whether it be intense action scenes, emotional dramatic moments or even goofy antics, anything is fair game. You can cook up any kind of story you can think of, nothing is really out of question as you can be as realistic or fantastical as you want, and it allows for plenty of symbolism and surrealism.

On that note I’d like to make a second recommendation.

Gokseong (The Wailing) is a Korean horror/thriller that is equally gruesome as it is suspenseful, but it still allows itself some moments of humor and to pull at your heart’s strings when it’s time.

The best of Korean cinema is usually laced with a very particular type of black humor that I’ve come to really enjoy and this picture is no exception, yet I wouldn’t call it a comedy, it’s far from its main goal here. If anything the few moments where the movie chooses to ease the tension a little bit serve to connect the audience with the characters and the environment; sometimes a good sense of humor is what you need to make your world relatable for those watching and immerse them into it.

This is a movie I really enjoyed, for many reasons. Visually it’s striking, from the choice of environments to the lighting used, the makeup and special effects, all the way to the framing of every shot. The story is pretty creative and full of twists, the characters interesting and beyond being a horror movie it feels like a journey, a grim and bizarre adventure.

Finally, before I end this iteration of my midnight ramblings, I’d like to make one final recommendation of one of my all time favorite movies. It’s a horror movie. It’s a comedy.
It’s fantastic.

I mean, I’m sure you’ve seen it already. You must have seen it. If you haven’t, don’t hesitate, it’s a really good time.

With that, all that’s left for me to say is:
Thanks again for taking the time to hear me out!
Hope you enjoy the movies, and Happy Halloween!
See you on the next one…