Hello Darkness
There’s a massive paradigm shift when an major event, tragedy, or dissonance reveals itself. Think of the works of David Lynch, like Twin Peaks or Blue Velvet, where a discordant violence reveals a confusing ugliness in the world, an ugliness that was apparently always there.
In director David Bruckner’s1 latest horror film, The Night House, Beth (Rebecca Hall) is grieving the unexpected death of her husband Owen. His suicide betrays her sense of what her life was and, coupled with supernatural nighttime occurrences that may or may not be just nightmares, Beth is compelled to probe into the circumstances around Owen’s death. The more she investigates, the more Owen and the world around her becomes incongruent to reality. Ultimately, the hole Owen left in her life is simultaneously filled with darkness and expanded with more mystery.
It is in that darkness and empty space that are the film’s tensest moments. The void where something may jump out has far more impact than what could conceivably appear. Classic “fear of the unknown” type stuff. The Night House was a joy to see in the theater for this reason. There are so many moments of anxious terror, but at the theater you can find no phone to escape to, no pause button to give you a moment, no reprieve from it save from leaving the theater. You’re trapped in the strange and dark world that Beth is. Even though the third act goes to great lengths to explain what exactly is happening to Beth, those moments earlier in the film where you don’t know exactly what’s going on are so thrilling and make it worth seeing on the largest screen in the darkest room.
The Night House is in theaters now.
Stray Observations
Martial arts star Michelle Yeoh was profiled by The Guardian to promote the latest Disney-Marvel spectacle Shang-Chi and, honestly, it mostly served to remind me how great Crazy Rich Asians (2018) was (where she played a cruel matriarch of a wealthy family) and that I love 80s and 90s Hong Kong action cinema. They mention her breakout starring role in Yes, Madam! (1985) which also launched the “Girls with Guns”2 action subgenre. Yes, Madam! rules. Despite the seemingly stock plot (two mismatched police officers try to retrieve the evidence that could put away a powerful criminal), the movie really highlights the artistry of great clearly choreographed action set pieces.
I found time to read Akira Toriyama’s 2013 manga Jaco the Galactic Patrolman and it was a real hoot. Jaco, an alien member of a galaxy spanning law enforcement agency, crash lands on Earth and has to depend on a cranky old scientist named Omori to fix his ship while avoiding capture by the government. Jaco’s sense of justice and his inflated ego makes it hard for him to lay low so he gets himself into a number of wacky hijinks. It’s really silly and Toriyama, who is famous for drawing big muscular men in Dragonball Z, really shows off a more playful, round, and graphic style with Jaco, while maintaining the high energy he’s known for.
I’m back in Detroit! The move was rigorous partly because I have so many books and movies. I think it’s important to physically have the media you love, but it sure does take up a lot of space. Point is, this is why this issue is a lot shorter than usual. I’ll be back next week with more! Until then, like, subscribe, and share I Liked It!
Bruckner is not fresh to the horror scene. He’s been involved in several horror anthologies like V/H/S (2012), Southbound (2015), and Creepshow (2019) as well as two acclaimed indie horror films, The Signal (2007) and The Ritual (2017). The Ritual being a standout of horror creature design and how important lighting is to creature design. The creature in The Ritual has a really bizarre look, but since it is often cloaked in shadow or low level lighting, it’s shape looks even stranger and scarier. The details being obscured let’s the mind fill in gaps and The Ritual’s tone forces the mind to fill it with something horrible. The Ritual is available for streaming on Netflix.
Other films in this subgenre I can recommend are So Close (2002) and Angel Terminators (1992). I desperately want to watch Angel Terminators 2, but can’t find a high quality version anywhere. I had to buy a DVD of Angel Terminators to see watch it, but So Close is available for digital rental on most streaming services.