In
her essay on realistic horror, Freeland discusses that horror genre
that concentrate on the terrifying and grotesque side of reality.
What could be more terrifying then finding out that your
next-door-neighbor is actually a serial killer. This week I watched
the 2007 movie, Disturbia, which is a loose remake of Hitchcocks's
Rear Window. This film follows a curious teenage boy during his
summer under house arrest as he begins to learn about the world
around him through binoculars. The young man, played by Shia LeBouf,
and his friends become paranoid when they see their seemingly boring
neighbor acting very suspiciously around the time of some murders in
the area. In the original Rear Window, Jimmy Stewert and Grace Kelly
are spying on a man who has potentially killed his wife, but in
Disturbia, LeBouf's neighbor we discover has killed many girls all
across the country. Confined to his house, LaBouf is unable to truly
investigate the situation, but his two friends and his video camera
begin to slowly unravel the true about this dangerous man.
I
think that in horror, more than any other genre of film, the viewer
is pulled into the situation and experiences of the main characters.
Realist horror does this better than any other because the audience
is experiencing something that they can picture themselves in their
reality. Part of the realism and suspense about the film is that we
only see the situation from LaBouf point of view and so are therefore
don't know the whole truth of the situation. Throughout the film,
LaBouf is constantly challenged on his theory's and plans. As the
viewer, we slowly begin to question the situation ourselves. Are we
just paranoid about the suspicious behavior or are we all in danger
of diving in too deep into the life of a killer.
Everyone has those creepy neighbors and are curious about the secrets
of the strangers they live around. When LaBouf first shows his friend
everything that he has discovered about his neighbors, we are
fascinated to see inside their very private affairs. We are attracted
to knowing what we shouldn't and, like LaBouf, become almost
obsessed with the hidden lives of those within his neighborhood. All
goes awry when the main characters discover something that puts them
in a dangerous situation, but even with the danger, something draws
us in. The need and curiously for the truth takes over even with the
evidence begins to work against our theories. In other horror movies
the reveal focuses on the facts about the monster, but in realistic
horror films, the reveal focuses on finding the monster within.
In
this realistic film, there are no need special effects or suspension
of disbelief in the situation because the monster is a type of person
that we see over and over again in our own society. The uneasiness
that the main characters and audience feel throughout the film is not
about forcing ourselves into accepting the supernatural but the
realization that these horrific type of events that we hear about on
the news are now in our backyard. Freeland comments that “realist
horror evokes real, albeit paradoxical, reactions: at the same time
it is both emotionally flattening (familiar, formulaic, and
predictable in showcasing violence), and disturbing (immediate, real,
gruesome, random).” Within Disturbia, we are all viewing a time old
story of a man killing women and the righting of wrongs, but at the
same time the situations become real when the killer befriends
LaBouf's mother and begins to confront the young boy about the way
he's been spying on him. These intimate encounter between the main
characters and the monster force the viewer into the situation of
facing the grotesque realities within our society.
Horror
movies cause the viewer to question their own reality and leave the
theater curious about the secrets that could be hidden within their
our neighborhood. One of the reasons that Horror and Thriller movies
are so scary is because of the possible lasting affect on the viewer.
Realistic films I think tend to stick with people the most because it
is an actual possibility. Have you ever walked away from a film and
had troubles falling asleep of seen a creepy man on the street and
expect the worst? Even though the scary realist film focus on the
righting of wrongs and for the most part justice is achieved in the
end, in reality, not all of these horrific situations are brought to
justice and therein lies the real fear.
In a lot of ways, I liken the realist horror of Disturbia to Nickel's treatment of Psycho in the article we read last week. I really like what you said about how we as an audience connect to the protagonist more in horror films than we do in many other genres, and thats what makes realist horror so effective. I know that I become much more invested in films like Disturbia and Psycho than I do in films with monsters jumping out at me. I think what makes Disturbia and Psycho doubly effective is that they throw some sort of doubt on the morals of the protagonist - Shia LaBeouf's character is under house arrest and Marion Crane flees with stolen money in Psycho. For the viewer, this makes us feel all the more helpless when the characters figure something out, yet no one will listen to them.
ReplyDeleteI think you and Matt are both right in pointing out that realist horror puts forth some morally dubious protagonists. But the flip-side of this seems equally true and compelling. The villains in realist horror are upsetting precisely because they do not fit within Carroll's definition of the monster. So while watching realist horror movies we can take comfort in the fact that the movie itself is a work of fiction, we cannot delude ourselves that these villains cannot and do not exist. Taking this further, what is extremely disturbing about realist horror, at least to me, is the seeming human-ness of the antagonist. It suggests that we each have the potential to act as a monster.
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