Saturday, February 16, 2013

The Grotesque Reality

*Spoiler Alert*

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.

2 comments:

  1. 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.

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  2. I 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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