Horror films come in all shapes and sizes, the better to fit our individual profiles of what we find terrifying. When I was in middle school, I watched Stanley Kubrick's film The Shining in my family's unfinished, drippy basement alone at night. I had no trouble getting to sleep later that night. Fast forward to high school. I went to see The Ring in the theatre with a couple friends. From the first scene on, I was crouched into a little ball in the seat with one finger in my ear and the other fingers trying to simultaneously cover my eyes and let me peep through. I couldn't sleep all week. To this day, if I start thinking about The Ring while in bed, I have trouble sleeping.
Why is it that a movie about a psycho man with an ax--ostensibly something to really fear in this world--doesn't scare me, but a ghoul who comes out of a TV set makes me cringe in terror? Who knows. What scares us is personal and primal, and there are a thousand ways to terrify. The following movies all represent some form of horror, from ghosts to sociopathic children to one of the most evil men who ever lived. Which one scares you the most?
The Woman in Black
The Woman in Black, an old-fashioned haunted house story, is Daniel Radcliffe's first film post-Harry Potter. It's a stylish movie, with Victorian costumes, creepy old houses, and misty moors. As atmospheric as the film is, its scares are by the book.
Radcliffe plays Arthur Kipps, a lawyer and widower with a four-year-old son. His beloved wife died in childbirth and Kipps is still recovering from her death. Despite his despondency, his employer asks him to travel to a small village and retrieve the papers of a woman who recently died at Eel Marsh Manor--a large mansion just outside of town. Kipps is hardly in the mood to leave his son and run such an errand, but he does it so as not to lose his job.
As he rides into town and starts to inquire about the manor and its late owner, the townspeople become more and more hostile. They encourage him to leave, either by telling him he's not welcome or by simply glaring at him. Kipps goes ahead with his job anyway, and the scares begin the minute he arrives and the isolated manor. He sees mysterious things in the corner of his eye. He hears footsteps above him and when he goes to investigate, no one is there. He sees a figure of a woman in black outside in a nearby cemetery. Again, it's pretty by the book stuff. Meanwhile, the local children begin to meet gruesome ends. One girl drinks lye by accident and is poisoned. As Kipps looks into the papers left at Eel Marsh Manor, it becomes clear that the events (his seeing ghosts at the house and the children dying in the village) are related.
As in most ghost stories, the main character can't leave well enough alone. Instead of hightailing it out of the village, Kipps and a local man he befriends attempt to appease the ghost. And, well, let's just say the ending caught me off guard,
The Woman in Black managed to scare me in a very basic way: I jumped at the jump scenes. I winced whenever creepy Victorian toys appeared on screen. But I slept fine that night and haven't really thought much about the movie since.
Scare factor: 3 out of 5 stars
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Valkyrie
Yes, it's pushing it to call the historical film Valkyrie, which depicts the events leading up to an attempt to assassinate Hitler, a horror film. It's more intellectual suspense (not unlike Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) surrounding one of the most horrific chapters of 20th century history: the rise of the Nazi Party. However, the audience is shielded from the true horrors of WWII--the ghettos, the death camps, the torture and gruesome acts of violence. Instead, we get a glimpse into the Nazi elite. Valkyrie follows Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg (played competently, though with an American accent, by Tom Cruise). Stauffenberg was a German officer who was recruited by other high-ranking (and secretly dissenting) German officers to devise a fool-proof plan to kill Hitler. Attempts had been made before and have failed, and those who are against the Nazis want to save Germany before the Allies show up and blow them all to hell.
Stauffenberg's main concern is what they will do once Hitler is dead. They can't expect to march right into his HQ and just take over. So the Colonel plots to use a contingency plan Hitler himself has backed: Operation Valkyrie. In the event of a natural disaster, Valkyrie calls for the reserve army to assemble and maintain order while the upper-level officers regain control. Much of the film deals with the technical details of this plan and how Stauffenberg and the other men meticulously planned Hitler's assassination, only to see it fail.As far as scares go, there aren't too many. And unlike other films that depict the Nazis, Hitler is not quite the monstrous figure of evil we have come to imagine him. He is a small, hunched over little man with a sweaty brow and beady eyes in this film. Hitler's little toadies, in their handsome officer uniforms, are scarier than the Fuhrer himself. They seem to know all and have perpetual smirks on their faces. Valkyrie is an interesting little historical film that pays tribute to the German men and women who resisted Hitler's domination of their country and culture.
Scare factor: 2 out of 5 stars
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
We Need to Talk About Kevin
Now this is a damn horror film. We Need to Talk About Kevin is a devastating, emotionally draining film based on the novel by Lionel Shriver. It focuses on the relationship between an ambivalent mother and her increasingly sociopathic son and the events that lead up to an inevitable and insane act of mass murder, as well as the consequences that follow. We Need to Talk About Kevin is, at its core, about the horrors of motherhood. For most women, motherhood is difficult and beautiful. Having a baby grow inside you, giving it life and nourishment, raising it and teaching it; the decades-long experience of being a mom brings both enormous pain and deep joy. But not for everyone, and not for Eva (played by the excellent and truly vanity-free Tilda Swinton).
Eva's main sin is that she is passive. One day she's a free and happy woman on a tour of Europe, the next she's married to a nice but ineffectual dude and pregnant. She's not happy about being pregnant. She's not happy while giving birth. She's not happy with a screaming baby in her arms. And in Eva's defense, her dummy-hubby, Franklin (played by John C. Reilly, who is perfect in this role), gives her little support and instead tries to convince Eva that her fears about her young son are all "in her head" and that she is the one being cruel and difficult.
As Kevin grows, it becomes obvious that in addition to showing signs of a personality disorder, this little brat hasn't been raised right. Eight-year-old Kevin curses at his mom, who instead of punishing him, ignores him or tiptoes around him. Kevin treats his father with love and his mother with a disdain that borders on hatred. Eva is simultaneously resentful, fearful, and oddly submissive to her son--attempting to appease him and win him over. I'm not a fan of corporal punishment, but in the case of Kevin Eva would have done well to start spanking him for misbehavior as early as possible.
Things get really scary when Eva and Franklin have another child--a little girl. The first time young Kevin sees his baby sister, he sprinkles water on her to make her cry. These small tortures add up until a truly tragic "accident" occurs that seriously harms little Celia. Eva blames Kevin. Franklin tells Eva she needs to get therapy. Same as always, Franklin fails to see what Eva sees so clearly: Kevin is dangerous.
The film does not follow a straightforward narrative arc. Instead, we get flashes from the present (in which Eva visits her son in prison and tries to get back on her feel despite being tormented by neighbors and locals who know that she's the killer's mother), flashes from the past, and brief glimpses of the immediate aftermath of the killing spree. Most scenes last a few minutes or less, adding to a sense of chaos and confusion. Yet we see enough to put the pieces together.
By the end of the movie, I didn't understand why Eva hadn't changed her name and moved to another city. Eva's passiveness and desire to be a martyr grip her in the weeks and years after her son's act of violence. It's clear that she feels guilty about the way she raised Kevin. She probably torments herself with thoughts of "what could I have done differently?" But it's too little and too late. Although Kevin surely had this capacity for evil in him all along, one wonders that if Eva and Franklin were more of a team, if they had been more disciplinarian with their son, could they have nudged him onto another path? Who knows. Dave Cullen points out in his book Columbine that Dylan Klebold's parents were very involved and loving toward their son--but that didn't stop him from going on a school shooting spree.
It's easy to sympathize with Eva because for all the destruction her son wrought, she doesn't deserve to be the target of so much hate. However, it's difficult for me to put myself in her shoes since I do feel that I would have done things differently than her--I would have raised my son differently, married a different sort of man, and been less of a willing victim than Eva.
But then again, we don't know what lurks around the corner for us and how we would react--we can only guess, and pray that nothing so horrific happens to us or our loved ones.
Scare factor: 4 out of 5 stars
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
