Horror, Not Horror (Part 4) - Under The Shadow

2015, d.Babak Anvari  - Netflix

As a North American-raised viewer, the idea of living in a war-torn city is not only unfamiliar, but inconceivable, which is what makes Under the Shadow such a potent movie. The setting of the film is mid-1980's Tehran in the midst of the lengthy Iran-Iraq war offers sights, sounds, drama and tension that Western cinema just can't offer without delving into additional levels of fantasy.

But this setting isn't just the backdrop, it's the point, highlighting the psychological impact of the war, the toll it takes on every aspect of someone's life.

Shideh (the compelling Narges Rashidi) is denied her return to school, crushing her hopes of being a doctor, because of her leftist activism years earlier. Immediately we understand that Shideh is living in a world she is unhappy with, but this blow is dealt shortly after her mother passed away, mortality obviously on her mind.

The war looms large as her husband is conscripted into service, placed into one of the heaviest battle zones, leaving Shideh (and their daughter Dorsa) even more alone. Tensions were high when he was home, as they attempted normalcy even as the air raid sirens would send the to the basement on an almost daily basis, but with him gone there is no normal.

The film deftly uses the basement shelter during the air raid drills as a benchmark for Shideh's isolation, going from the building's full tenentcy to just Shideh and Dorsa, the isolation and quiet of the building making every sound and movement more prominent.

Warned to get out of town, Shideh holds steadfast, underestimating the threat, until an Iraqi missile hits their building, but doesn't explode. The impact causes the upstairs neighbor to have a heart attack and Shideh can't save him. Her feelings of inadequacy and ineffectiveness as a result only worsens her anxiety and are doubled when Dorsa starts running a fever that won't break. Is it the fever causing the child to talk to thin air? Or is there truly malevolent forces at play in their building. It gets to a point where Shideh's anxiety is at such height that she can't even did even between her own nightmares and reality.

This film acts as mood piece, cultural document, and metaphor, and does so brilliantly all around. It's scoreless, so it doesn't have the all too typical (and frankly cheap) way of generating tension or scares, it relies on clever editing and outstanding direction (plus great performances) to build up it's suspense and create it's unsettling atmosphere. The sound design is key, placing explosions, creaks, wind, rustling, knocks and so many other atmospheric components, some sudden, some omnipresent, throughout. At the film's apex, the rustling of a tarp ingeniously becomes the manic soundtrack to a struggle.

There are cultural aspects that could be easily overlooked but serve well in informing Shideh's character, including her use of a VHS player is something that needs to be hidden, her Jane Fonda workout (I see both this and the unexploded ordinance as two different impacts of America influence on her life), and her arrest for being outside without a hajib (for a law which she's obviously against, given her activist history). Life in Iran is foreign, but not alien, so it's easy to empathize with Shideh, and to understand why her situation is having such a traumatic impact.

This came as a recommendation from April Wolfe from the Who Shot Ya Podcast, an always fantastic listen with insight from a diverse and delightful cast of reviewers, not just the all too common straight white guy opinion.

Horror, Not Horror (part 2) - The Apostle

2018, d. Gareth Evans  - Netflix

There's a tonal imbalance in The Raid director Gareth Evans attempt at a horror movie.  At the outset, it seems he clearly has in mind a modern horror spin on The Wicker Man and other such secret cult stories, but loses the thread about halfway through.

The first half builds a crawling tension as Thomas (Dan Stevens, bringing ultimate Dan Stevens-style glowering and brooding to the role), infiltrates a mysterious cult on their secluded island in search of his sister, whom the cult's leadership is holding for ransom. The cult worships a mother figure of the island, a provider to whom they sacrifice blood for a fruitful harvest, and follow their leader preachings of an ideal community free of taxes and money and armies and war. The hypocrisy​ screams loudly - doors have locks, there's a police force, weapons abound - and the people, while devoted, are definitely under strict rule. Their leaders, outcasts, fugitives, traitors to the king cannot be good men.

Glimpses of the mother figure skulking around the island (who is at once free to roam and yet bound?), coupled with the sacrifices to her and the severe rule of law on the island all present an atmosphere of definite unease. Thomas' infiltration is a dicey one, as he doesn't know the rites and rituals and songs and tenets of the church, and it's only a matter of time before he gives himself away. The leadership, resources running low, community on the verge of collapse, need the ransom he brings but most assuredly will not allow Thomas and his sister their freedom should he present it, but they know he's among them and need to draw him out before he starts sewing unrest.

It's to the midway point that Evans has tension drawn extremely high, but he lets go of the ropes and can't seem to draw them back. He becomes far too interested in the humanity of the characters, exploring their pasts and families, and there's no contribution to the central tension in those stories. Had Evans's established a much different tone (with a subtler, less scratching​-at-the-walls kind of score) from the outset, making more of a drama with moments of horror or suspense, it would all work a little different, but the tone of the second half is all revelations...including the mother figure, who is clearly metaphysical (though her creepy, basket-headed caretaker is a real conundrum...who is he? Why is he doing what he's doing? why the basket head? How does he know how to use a gun? Why can't he speak? What's his entire deal?).

The second half brings a lot more gore and uneasy visuals, which belong in the horror movie of the first half but feel out of place in the far more dramatic second half. Evans also can't help but make his short fight sequences inherently kinetic - his sensibilities from The Raid perhaps a little too ingrained - and the camera motions feel way out of place in the production.

It's not altogether an unfulfilling movie but it's not consistent, and unsure of what it wants to be. Too bloated by at least half an hour for standard horror, and far too invested in it's characters and setup to fit comfortably in the genre.  At the same time it's too gross, and too interested in presenting a new horror mythology to be drama, and the mixed bag nature means it spoils any parable it may have been reaching for.

The Watcher in the Woods

1980, d. John Hough, Vincent McEveety -- DVD

An elderly woman has given up her estate home to live in the smaller servants quarters in the British countryside.  A family moves into the house, but Mrs. Aylwood, looking at their teenage daughter, is reluctant.  Something about Ellie disturbs the old woman.  Jan, for her part, is likewise unsettled.  Then strange things begin to happen.  Glass cracks, mirrors shatter, wind howls, lighting strikes, horses run wild.  Voices.  Jan's little sister, Ellie begins hearing voices.  There's something wrong in the woods, and a mystery. 

The Watcher in the Woods is a particular subgenre of film that doesn't really exist anymore.  It's an all-ages suspense/mystery.  These were quite prominent in the 1980s,  before frightening children seemed to fall out of favor.  But Watcher isn't horror as it was becoming at that time, it's not gore and disturbing scenes, it's the thrilling intensity of the unknown. 

Watcher is a bit of a cult film, but obviously not one of the larger ones, since I hadn't heard of it until recently. It's a Disney horror movie, and that intones almost a certain level of cheese, which early moments with Bette Davis as Mrs. Aylwood seem to uphold. But it doesn't take long for the rather earnest tone of the film to win over the viewer and invest them in the mystery that Jan investigates (and seeming supernatural abilities she appears to manifest)  Once one mystery is revealed, the film keeps the viewer rapt as there's still another to discover in order to bring about a resolution.

The finale of the film comes in multiple varieties.  The first brings a happy ending, revealing the supernatural to actually be something more cosmic in design.  It's blindsidingly bizarre and yet absolutely, fantastically 1980 in its execution.  Though enjoyable, the ending skips over addressing some rather important consequences of the events that transpired...what is the fallout on the people who were involved, now that they know what they know?

The DVD has three alternate and extended endings.  The first is shorter, and darker.  It keeps more in the spirit of the horror aspect of the movie, foregoing the cosmic bait and switch.

A second ending pads out the one that accompanies the feature, with more special effects, and a visit to "the Other World".  With more time, it has a more logic to it, however it's less satisfying in a way, it feels more disjointed and separate from what came before.

A third ending, the original ending when the film was rushed into theatres, was reshot to exclude the unfinished special effects.  As a result it's very disjointed and virtually breaks the movie.

Three of these four endings actually work well enough though.  Like a "Choose Your Own Adventure" the film is kind of made better for having all these alternate ways of interpreting what happened.  It allows the audience to have a more visual ending, a darker ending, or one that allows the viewer to use more of their imagination.

I wasn't sure what to expect out of this, but I rather loved it.  It's not campy like I was expecting, and it fuels my jones for 80's aesthetic quite nicely.  It may not be classic cinema, but it is thoroughly entertaining.