My wife will tell you that I am not a fan of scary movies. She enjoys a good scary movie every once in a while, but she can't watch them with me. I attribute it to my active imagination. We watched The Others our first Halloween at 10:00 am with the sun shining nice and bright through the window. That's how much I'm not a fan of scary movies. Perhaps it was from seeing a big chunk of the movie It when I was about eight. Not a happy memory. No, I'm not afraid of clowns.
The funny thing is, my fear is primarily in events that have a super-natural element. I enjoy watching many of Hitchcock's films including To Catch a Thief, The Man who Knew to Much, Vertigo, North by Northwest, Rear Window, and (my personal favorite) Rebecca. I also like Charade by Stanley Donen, and Wait until Dark by Terence Young. Despite my enjoyment of many of Hitchcock's films as well as others, I have no interest in seeing The Birds, or Psycho. Those movies frankly scare me. Perhaps it is the idea of the ordinary becoming malicious. A normal shower becomes a scene of a murder. Crows and ravens descend as killers. For whatever reason, there are plenty of films that I have no desire to see.
Interestingly enough, the same is true of books. In fifth grade I would asked to be excused when the teacher started reading "scary stories" as part of a Halloween ramp-up. However, one day she pulled out a collection of Edgar Allen Poe short stories and I fell in love with his dark style. "The Masque of the Red Death" and "Cask of Amontillado" are two of my favorites along with "Hop-Frog" and "the Pit and the Pendulum." As I mentioned previously, Dracula by Bram Stoker is a personal favorite of mine after reading it in college. I will say, however, that when I first read it, I would not read it after 3:00 pm - just to be sure.
What many of these stories, whether printed or filmed, have in common is suspense. I attended a lecture one Halloween in college where a professor of English and film talked about what made Hitchcock so good at suspense. He explained that suspense is not the unknown, but rather when you know what is going to happen and you are watching someone who doesn't know what is happening. This image - of a person standing behind the shower curtain, out of sight and consequently unknown to the lady - is more suspenseful than this one of the woman seeing Mr. Norman Bates.
.jpg "What is truly scary is thinking about how long you were in danger without realizing it.")
Hitchcock was also good at turning that model on it's head. Rear Window has you watching a man who is witnessing this catalyst for suspense himself. He can the danger that his friend is in even when she can't. And our suspense it watching him in suspense. Rear Window may very well be one of the most suspenseful films done simply because of this strange twist on the usual formula.
The Birds is not to be left out. Here Hitchcock plays our own knowledge against us. In the iconic schoolyard scene we see a flock of crows gathering. We know that the woman cannot see them and that the crows having nothing good planned. But lets see what Hitchcock does with our expectations. Watch the scene here.
I'd have posted the clip in text, but it gives away Hitchcock's device. We know what to expect and instead of meeting them, Hitchcock gives us an overdose - a shock that turns the suspense we feel for the women to share in her terror as she realizes what is in store for her. Rebecca does a similar thing where we expect to hear one thing and then find out another. We think we have him figured out, only to find out it's much worse.
This Halloween I won't be watching anything worse than The Mummy staring Brendan Fraser or even Abbot and Costello meet the Mummy. This is in part because we will have smallish children with us, and also because I don't really like scary movies. I hope you enjoy your Halloween.
The funny thing is, my fear is primarily in events that have a super-natural element. I enjoy watching many of Hitchcock's films including To Catch a Thief, The Man who Knew to Much, Vertigo, North by Northwest, Rear Window, and (my personal favorite) Rebecca. I also like Charade by Stanley Donen, and Wait until Dark by Terence Young. Despite my enjoyment of many of Hitchcock's films as well as others, I have no interest in seeing The Birds, or Psycho. Those movies frankly scare me. Perhaps it is the idea of the ordinary becoming malicious. A normal shower becomes a scene of a murder. Crows and ravens descend as killers. For whatever reason, there are plenty of films that I have no desire to see.
Interestingly enough, the same is true of books. In fifth grade I would asked to be excused when the teacher started reading "scary stories" as part of a Halloween ramp-up. However, one day she pulled out a collection of Edgar Allen Poe short stories and I fell in love with his dark style. "The Masque of the Red Death" and "Cask of Amontillado" are two of my favorites along with "Hop-Frog" and "the Pit and the Pendulum." As I mentioned previously, Dracula by Bram Stoker is a personal favorite of mine after reading it in college. I will say, however, that when I first read it, I would not read it after 3:00 pm - just to be sure.
What many of these stories, whether printed or filmed, have in common is suspense. I attended a lecture one Halloween in college where a professor of English and film talked about what made Hitchcock so good at suspense. He explained that suspense is not the unknown, but rather when you know what is going to happen and you are watching someone who doesn't know what is happening. This image - of a person standing behind the shower curtain, out of sight and consequently unknown to the lady - is more suspenseful than this one of the woman seeing Mr. Norman Bates.
Hitchcock was also good at turning that model on it's head. Rear Window has you watching a man who is witnessing this catalyst for suspense himself. He can the danger that his friend is in even when she can't. And our suspense it watching him in suspense. Rear Window may very well be one of the most suspenseful films done simply because of this strange twist on the usual formula.
The Birds is not to be left out. Here Hitchcock plays our own knowledge against us. In the iconic schoolyard scene we see a flock of crows gathering. We know that the woman cannot see them and that the crows having nothing good planned. But lets see what Hitchcock does with our expectations. Watch the scene here.
I'd have posted the clip in text, but it gives away Hitchcock's device. We know what to expect and instead of meeting them, Hitchcock gives us an overdose - a shock that turns the suspense we feel for the women to share in her terror as she realizes what is in store for her. Rebecca does a similar thing where we expect to hear one thing and then find out another. We think we have him figured out, only to find out it's much worse.
This Halloween I won't be watching anything worse than The Mummy staring Brendan Fraser or even Abbot and Costello meet the Mummy. This is in part because we will have smallish children with us, and also because I don't really like scary movies. I hope you enjoy your Halloween.
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