Explain how a scene from a movie, book, play, or other story conforms to the philosopy of horror outlined in "Danse Macabre". Use the comment function below to post your reply- click on "other" and type your name. Remember, first names only!
24 comments:
Anonymous
said...
I guess I'll start this off with a bit of an odd one, I find that the Mormon complex scene in the movie starship troopers fits the definition of fear in that is outlined in Danse Macabre. There are multiple times that they open doors and cabinets and it seems like they are going to be attacked. But each time it is deserted. Although, in the end it does turn out to be a trap, it is definitely an example of horror of the unknown.
Stephen King starts out saying: "I want to say something about imagination purely as a tool in he art and science of scaring people" (364). You have to leave the audience guessing as to what is behind the door. He then describes that "the artistic work of horror in almost always a disappointment" (364). While the author has built up the scene as to what may be behind the door, you have to surprise the audience with something that maybe isn't the scariest situation but is none the less unexpected. This type of suspense is seen in my all time favorite movie, The Sixth Sense. While it may seem as though Cole (the little boy main character) and his mother are having a totally normal conversation and then as the camera pans the scene, a person with half a head is just chilling right next to them. Another example is as Cole is walking through school, a quick scene change shows three old friends hanging from the rafters, bloody and dead. This unexpected weaving of fear into the plot line keeps the audience on their toes, wondering when to be on lookout next.
King refers to a fear of the unknown. When the character goes up to the mysterious door and opens it and the terrifying beast is unleashed, "The audience screams, but this particular scream has an oddly relieved sound to it" (364). In the movie "The Village", there is a heart-pounding, suspense-filled, terrifying scene in which one of the main characters is making a journey through the woods and the "monster" or "those who we shall not speak of" as it is refered to in the movie is somewhere within that forest. The reason that scene is so tense is that the audience knows that the monster could appear at any place in the forest at any given moment. The suspenseful music and the panicked journey of the character contiue for about ten minutes or so until the audience finally is able to catch a glimse of the monster. At that moment, the viewers are finally able to catch a breath and breathe a sigh of relief.
*** "The Village" should be underlined, but I don't know how to underline on here.
In Danse Macabre, Stephen King says that, "Nothing is so frightening as what's behind the closed door..." (364) The unknown is what is scary to people. In the movie When a Stranger Calls, I think the element of the unknown being scary is shown well. The phone rings and the protagonist, played by Camilla Bell, keeps answering it. This leaves the audience with curiosity, they want to know who is on the other line. The movie maker shows the face of her tormenter in the end, an important element of horror. Showing the killer's face to the audience relieves them. Stephen King says, "The audience screams, but this particular scream has an oddly relieved sound to it" (364). Another element of horror shown in the movie is Stephen King's idea that horror is,"a waltz with death" (365). The killer calls the protagonist over and over, and the audience knows she should be coming close to death. However, "... the human imagination is not content with locked doors" (365). And because of this the protagonist and the caller finally come face to face, just like the audience wanted, ending their dance.
In Danse Macabue, Stephen Kind talked about how the best fear comes from oneself. The creature or being that one may think is behind the evil, isn't what builds up fear; it's the suspence one gets from their own imagination. "And if what happens to be behind it is a bug, not ten but a hundred feet tall, the audience heaves a sigh of relief (or utters a scream of relief) and thinks, 'a bug hundred feet tall is pretty horrible, but i can deal eith that. I was afraid it might be a thousand feet tall" (364). One movie that refelcts this idea is "Psycho". In this movie the bulild up is who is the mother that won't agree to be questioned. She is the person who is suspected for murdering the character of Janet Leigh in the begining. When Vera Miles goes into the basement, she finds the mother in a chair, turned away. This is when the fear bulids up. The person who is watching the movie is imagining who or what is sitting in the chair. When the character of Vera Miles turned the chair around, a skeleton in a wig and clothes is revealed. This is when the people sign and are relieved bacuase they may have thought it was a rotten dead woman. This example shows what the excerp from Danse Macabue was about.
Stephen King talks about how a build up of suspense is what makes a good horror movie, book, etc. I think that "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allen Poe is a good example of that. After the main character kills the old man, chops him up, and hides him under the floor policemen come in saying that someone heard screams. The main character begins extremely calm and cool. The policemn search the house and when they get the the room that the old man is hidden the main chracter begins to hear a beating heart. He believes that it is the heart of the old man and that the policemen can hear it, but are mocking him. The heart beat grows louder and louder until the main character can't stand it anymore an reveals where the old man is.
In "Danse Macabre," Stephen King claims "What's behind the door or lurking at the top of the stairs is never as frightening as the door or the staircase itself" (page 364). In "Disturbia," there is a scene that proves this idea. The main character is inside of the house of a serial killer, and is banging on a wall to find a secret door. While he is doing this, my imagination causes me to feel scared that the killer will jump out any second. When he does find the door, he opens it really slowly and builds up the suspense of what is behind it. The door opens up to a dark room, which makes me afraid of dead bodies or the killer himself. My imagination got the best of me, and made my mind go wild with scary thoughts. As King says on page 364 of "Danse Macabre," "Nothing is so frightening as what's behind the closed door."
In Danse Macabre, Stephen King writes that, "nothing is so frightening as what's behind the closed door" because of the suspense and curiosity that builds (364). An example of this is evident in the book Coraline. The character Coraline follows a creeping black shadow, which leads her to a door. This door is slightly ajar, even though it had been closed earlier that day. The reader's anxiousness in what is behind the door literally relates to King's theory of suspense in horror. King also states that that imagination can be used, "...as a tool in the art and science of scaring people" (364). The reader imagines the various possibilities in what is behind the door that Coraline is about to open. Ultimately most of the ideas that the reader is conjuring are more daunting than the truth of what lies behind the door. King's theory about suspense and imagination is reflected in this part of the plot in Coraline.
I barely ever watch or read any scary stories or movies. If I do watch a scary movie, I am usually hiding under a blanket for most of the film. I did see The Shining however. Since it is set in a huge hotel, the film is suspenseful because the viewer is wondering what hides behind every door and hallway, just like in Danse Macabre. The movie makes the viewer use ther imagination to think about what is going to happen next.
The last scary movie I saw was called 'Vacancy', but I stopped watching half-way through it. I'm not a fan of those kinds of movies! Anyway, it starred Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale. Their car breaks down in the middle of nowhere and they are forced to spend the night at the only motel near them. The only thing to entertain them is the TV... until they discover that the low-budget slasher movies they're watching were all filmed in the very room they are staying in. The couple must struggle to get out alive. The fact that I could not stand to keep watching this film was because my imagination got the better of me. I was just waiting for the axe murderer to pop out of the closet or something. This relates to Stephen King's Danse Macabre because your imagination can be a lot more terrifying than the actual thing.
One of my favorite movies is White Noise. Just like Stephen King describes in Danse Macabre, there is the fear of the unknown. Throughout White Noise, the main character tries to get in contact with his dead wife. While doing this he also seems to attract other evil "beings". During the movie, you never know who is causing all the deaths but you know that there is something out there. Even towards the end they don't really show what the antagonists are. This leaves the watchers with a sense of fear, like what they saw could still be alive and out there; even though "it" is still unknown.
One movie that really captured Danse Macabre's idea of "Nothing is so frightening as what's behind the closed door..."(364) was this movie called Final Destination 3. It was only scary because you had to try to figure out the plot. It is a story about these several kids and death is after them. The main character Wendy has a premonition before she gets on a rollercoaster that it is going to crash, and she was right. Through pictures she took that night she is able to tell who is going to die next. Her and her friends have to come together to try to cheat death. This is like Danse Macabre because it is the unknown that scares you. This movie has you on the edge of your seat building up possibilities in your head. It is only scary because the person watching it makes it scary.
While reading "Dense Macabre", Stephen King reveals that both timing and suspense are the main causes of the audience's ultimate fear. For instance, in the movie "Rose Red" - also by Stephen King - phychics roam a huge mansion that is manifested with the paranormal; they search the entire house hoping to find and talk to the paranormal "hosts". With the music in the background, scenes are hinted to when something is going to pop out of the closet. However, the suspense would be ruined by someone walking into the room. After setting a mindset of "oh, nothings going to happen...", Stephen King finally finds the right moment to drop a dead person from a ceiling or by simply shutting off the electricity so that a person can be killed. With this tactic, Stephen King thoroughly captures the attention of the audience by throwing them off-gaurd.
A series of movies that describe the philosophy described by Stephen King In "Danse Macabre" are the Halloween movies with Michael Myers. In many scenes of the movies, a lone character will be becoming wary and music will be building up making you expect the psychotic killer to be on the other side of the door, when it turns out to be a friend playing a trick on them. This relates to "Danse Macabre" because King talk about people building up the fear themselves and it also talks about how timing is critical in horror movies, perfectly demonstrated in the Halloween movies.
Scary movies are not really my thing and i usually never watch them. One of the few scary movies I have watched is "The Grudge". What made this movie so scary was that you never knew where the little boy was hiding and he would just pop up out of nowhere. The suspense leading up to when he popped out was even more horrifying. In the movie the house where the ghosts were, was also really creepy. You just knew nothing good would come out of that house. Stephen King says, " What's behind the door or lurking at the top of the stairs is never as frightening as the door or the staircase itself"(364). The way the director made the attic and closet look it was more scary than when the little boy popped out of the attic or the closet.
Stephen King tells the reader in Danse Macabre, "You can scare people with the unknown for a long,long time..." (pg 364.) In the movie Signs the main charcter, the Reverend, enters the corn feild on his farm. He chases after the sound of someone moving through the stalks of corn. For a while the viewer is afraid of the unknown "alien" attacking. Instead of revealing the monster, the camera focuses on the Reverend's dropped flash light and him as he runs from this evil being, which remains unknown. The suspense is still built up as the Reverend enters his house and locks himself and his whole family in the basement. They hear as aliens kill their dog, enter their house, and begin to attack them. During this whole scene the alien is never seen causing the instilled fear of the unknown.
In Danse Macabre, Stephen King believes that fear is not letting you know what behind that door. He says how when you know what’s behind the door you will think of something more fearful. In Jeepers Creepers, there is a short song that always plays when the monster is about to come and kill. When that song plays suspense starts and the longer they drag it out the more horrifying it is. Some scenes they don’t die or get attacked but in most they do. The scenes that he doesn’t attack follow Stephen King because in those scenes all the suspense builds up and creates fear because you have no idea if “Jeepers Creepers” is there or not.
In Stephen King's Danse Macabre, "nothing is so frightening as what's behind the closed door..."(364). I compare this to what I saw in the movie, The Messengers. In this movie there are always things popping out of no where and it is the main thing that scares you in the movie. Even though it is not exactly the same because in Danse Macabre they talk about things being not as bad when you acually see them, in The Messengers the crows that pop out of the sky are not as bad when you think about them. If you think about it afterward you can see that it was very obvious when things were going to appear.
I'm not a fan of the horror genre, but on some occasions I'll watch a film or two. In the film "The Silence of the Lambs" Clarice Sterling (the detective of the film) is walking through the basement of Buffalo Bill's(the serial killer) home and the power goes out. You just get the feeling that something bad is going to happen. In Danse Macabre, King talks about building up suspense and how just the idea of what lays behind a door is scary, almost as what can happen in the dark. Also, throughout the film Clarice is talking to Hannible the Cannible for his assiantance, because he knows more about Buffalo Bill. Silence of the lambs is a horrifying movie because of how it gets to your thoughts, and your imagination runs with those ideas of a killer skinning women, and a intelligent man eating people.
Steven King once said, "You can scare people with the unknown for a long,long time..." (pg 364.) Alford Hitchcock used this tactic. He scared people by presented storylines that could happen in real life. One of the most haunting scary movies he made, was Psycho. In this film, a girl named Marion spent the night at the Bates Motel, and after checking in; she was never heard of again. Norman (who seems to care way too much what his mother thinks) is in charge of this hotel. Although he seems innocent, he is anything but. He has a split personality in which he believes he is also his mom. He puts on a wig and everything. He kills innocent people who are guests in his hotel. One of the most chilling scenes in this movie is when he stabs to death Marion in a shower. The viewer never sees the act but knows it happened. This is what Stephen King was talking about when he said, "I want to say something about imagination purely as a tool in he art and science of scaring people" (364). Because Hitchcock didn't show the whole scene, viewers are horrified by their own imaginations of how gruesome the attack was.
I think that a good example of a movie director using Stephen King's ideas described Danse Macabre is M. Night Shyamalan in his movie The Village. Stephen King said, "I want to say something about imagination purely as a tool in he art and science of scaring people." This refers to the idea of peoples fear of the unknown. When people do not know what is chasing them, or making that noise upstairs, their imagination creates the image of something they will fear the most. In The Village, the whole movie is based off a community of people living in fear of a beast that no one has seen or ever witnessed. This story line goes along with Danse Macabre because every character lives in fear of something awful that they created with their own imagination.
In Danse Macabre, Stephen King says that imagination is a tool in the art and science of scaring people. This theory is evident in his book, (and later movie) It. In this book, the main characters are a group of children (and later adults) who are stalked by a supernatural monster that shapeshifts to whatever its prey fears most (ex: one of the characters is afraid of werewolves, so the monster appears to him as a werewolf). In the end, you see the monster in its true form (a spider) and its kind of lame, despite its scariness earlier in the story when it wasn't a spider, proving that imagination is what scares people.
I think that the movie The Village uses the Danse Mascabre element of the unknown because in many scenes the creatures in the story are not fully shown. At first they are shown from a birdeye veiw and next only a hand is shown. Also, the color red symbolizes danger in the community so this is shown as a sign of these creatures. Without showing a creature fear is created. This movie isn't that scary, because once the monsters are shown and the secret is revealed they aren't really monsters, it's not that scary, but at first, with this element, there is fear created. So I think this is a good example of the element of unknown.
24 comments:
I guess I'll start this off with a bit of an odd one, I find that the Mormon complex scene in the movie starship troopers fits the definition of fear in that is outlined in Danse Macabre. There are multiple times that they open doors and cabinets and it seems like they are going to be attacked. But each time it is deserted. Although, in the end it does turn out to be a trap, it is definitely an example of horror of the unknown.
-Jacob
Stephen King starts out saying: "I want to say something about imagination purely as a tool in he art and science of scaring people" (364). You have to leave the audience guessing as to what is behind the door. He then describes that "the artistic work of horror in almost always a disappointment" (364). While the author has built up the scene as to what may be behind the door, you have to surprise the audience with something that maybe isn't the scariest situation but is none the less unexpected. This type of suspense is seen in my all time favorite movie, The Sixth Sense. While it may seem as though Cole (the little boy main character) and his mother are having a totally normal conversation and then as the camera pans the scene, a person with half a head is just chilling right next to them. Another example is as Cole is walking through school, a quick scene change shows three old friends hanging from the rafters, bloody and dead. This unexpected weaving of fear into the plot line keeps the audience on their toes, wondering when to be on lookout next.
King refers to a fear of the unknown. When the character goes up to the mysterious door and opens it and the terrifying beast is unleashed, "The audience screams, but this particular scream has an oddly relieved sound to it" (364). In the movie "The Village", there is a heart-pounding, suspense-filled, terrifying scene in which one of the main characters is making a journey through the woods and the "monster" or "those who we shall not speak of" as it is refered to in the movie is somewhere within that forest. The reason that scene is so tense is that the audience knows that the monster could appear at any place in the forest at any given moment. The suspenseful music and the panicked journey of the character contiue for about ten minutes or so until the audience finally is able to catch a glimse of the monster. At that moment, the viewers are finally able to catch a breath and breathe a sigh of relief.
*** "The Village" should be underlined, but I don't know how to underline on here.
In Danse Macabre, Stephen King says that, "Nothing is so frightening as what's behind the closed door..." (364) The unknown is what is scary to people. In the movie When a Stranger Calls, I think the element of the unknown being scary is shown well. The phone rings and the protagonist, played by Camilla Bell, keeps answering it. This leaves the audience with curiosity, they want to know who is on the other line. The movie maker shows the face of her tormenter in the end, an important element of horror. Showing the killer's face to the audience relieves them. Stephen King says, "The audience screams, but this particular scream has an oddly relieved sound to it" (364). Another element of horror shown in the movie is Stephen King's idea that horror is,"a waltz with death" (365). The killer calls the protagonist over and over, and the audience knows she should be coming close to death. However, "... the human imagination is not content with locked doors" (365). And because of this the protagonist and the caller finally come face to face, just like the audience wanted, ending their dance.
In Danse Macabue, Stephen Kind talked about how the best fear comes from oneself. The creature or being that one may think is behind the evil, isn't what builds up fear; it's the suspence one gets from their own imagination. "And if what happens to be behind it is a bug, not ten but a hundred feet tall, the audience heaves a sigh of relief (or utters a scream of relief) and thinks, 'a bug hundred feet tall is pretty horrible, but i can deal eith that. I was afraid it might be a thousand feet tall" (364). One movie that refelcts this idea is "Psycho". In this movie the bulild up is who is the mother that won't agree to be questioned. She is the person who is suspected for murdering the character of Janet Leigh in the begining. When Vera Miles goes into the basement, she finds the mother in a chair, turned away. This is when the fear bulids up. The person who is watching the movie is imagining who or what is sitting in the chair. When the character of Vera Miles turned the chair around, a skeleton in a wig and clothes is revealed. This is when the people sign and are relieved bacuase they may have thought it was a rotten dead woman. This example shows what the excerp from Danse Macabue was about.
Stephen King talks about how a build up of suspense is what makes a good horror movie, book, etc. I think that "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allen Poe is a good example of that. After the main character kills the old man, chops him up, and hides him under the floor policemen come in saying that someone heard screams. The main character begins extremely calm and cool. The policemn search the house and when they get the the room that the old man is hidden the main chracter begins to hear a beating heart. He believes that it is the heart of the old man and that the policemen can hear it, but are mocking him. The heart beat grows louder and louder until the main character can't stand it anymore an reveals where the old man is.
In "Danse Macabre," Stephen King claims "What's behind the door or lurking at the top of the stairs is never as frightening as the door or the staircase itself" (page 364). In "Disturbia," there is a scene that proves this idea. The main character is inside of the house of a serial killer, and is banging on a wall to find a secret door. While he is doing this, my imagination causes me to feel scared that the killer will jump out any second. When he does find the door, he opens it really slowly and builds up the suspense of what is behind it. The door opens up to a dark room, which makes me afraid of dead bodies or the killer himself. My imagination got the best of me, and made my mind go wild with scary thoughts. As King says on page 364 of "Danse Macabre," "Nothing is so frightening as what's behind the closed door."
In Danse Macabre, Stephen King writes that, "nothing is so frightening as what's behind the closed door" because of the suspense and curiosity that builds (364). An example of this is evident in the book Coraline. The character Coraline follows a creeping black shadow, which leads her to a door. This door is slightly ajar, even though it had been closed earlier that day. The reader's anxiousness in what is behind the door literally relates to King's theory of suspense in horror. King also states that that imagination can be used, "...as a tool in the art and science of scaring people" (364). The reader imagines the various possibilities in what is behind the door that Coraline is about to open. Ultimately most of the ideas that the reader is conjuring are more daunting than the truth of what lies behind the door. King's theory about suspense and imagination is reflected in this part of the plot in Coraline.
I barely ever watch or read any scary stories or movies. If I do watch a scary movie, I am usually hiding under a blanket for most of the film. I did see The Shining however. Since it is set in a huge hotel, the film is suspenseful because the viewer is wondering what hides behind every door and hallway, just like in Danse Macabre. The movie makes the viewer use ther imagination to think about what is going to happen next.
The last scary movie I saw was called 'Vacancy', but I stopped watching half-way through it. I'm not a fan of those kinds of movies! Anyway, it starred Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale. Their car breaks down in the middle of nowhere and they are forced to spend the night at the only motel near them. The only thing to entertain them is the TV... until they discover that the low-budget slasher movies they're watching were all filmed in the very room they are staying in. The couple must struggle to get out alive. The fact that I could not stand to keep watching this film was because my imagination got the better of me. I was just waiting for the axe murderer to pop out of the closet or something. This relates to Stephen King's Danse Macabre because your imagination can be a lot more terrifying than the actual thing.
One of my favorite movies is White Noise. Just like Stephen King describes in Danse Macabre, there is the fear of the unknown. Throughout White Noise, the main character tries to get in contact with his dead wife. While doing this he also seems to attract other evil "beings". During the movie, you never know who is causing all the deaths but you know that there is something out there. Even towards the end they don't really show what the antagonists are. This leaves the watchers with a sense of fear, like what they saw could still be alive and out there; even though "it" is still unknown.
One movie that really captured Danse Macabre's idea of "Nothing is so frightening as what's behind the closed door..."(364) was this movie called Final Destination 3. It was only scary because you had to try to figure out the plot. It is a story about these several kids and death is after them. The main character Wendy has a premonition before she gets on a rollercoaster that it is going to crash, and she was right. Through pictures she took that night she is able to tell who is going to die next. Her and her friends have to come together to try to cheat death. This is like Danse Macabre because it is the unknown that scares you. This movie has you on the edge of your seat building up possibilities in your head. It is only scary because the person watching it makes it scary.
While reading "Dense Macabre", Stephen King reveals that both timing and suspense are the main causes of the audience's ultimate fear. For instance, in the movie "Rose Red" - also by Stephen King - phychics roam a huge mansion that is manifested with the paranormal; they search the entire house hoping to find and talk to the paranormal "hosts". With the music in the background, scenes are hinted to when something is going to pop out of the closet. However, the suspense would be ruined by someone walking into the room. After setting a mindset of "oh, nothings going to happen...", Stephen King finally finds the right moment to drop a dead person from a ceiling or by simply shutting off the electricity so that a person can be killed. With this tactic, Stephen King thoroughly captures the attention of the audience by throwing them off-gaurd.
A series of movies that describe the philosophy described by Stephen King In "Danse Macabre" are the Halloween movies with Michael Myers. In many scenes of the movies, a lone character will be becoming wary and music will be building up making you expect the psychotic killer to be on the other side of the door, when it turns out to be a friend playing a trick on them. This relates to "Danse Macabre" because King talk about people building up the fear themselves and it also talks about how timing is critical in horror movies, perfectly demonstrated in the Halloween movies.
Scary movies are not really my thing and i usually never watch them. One of the few scary movies I have watched is "The Grudge". What made this movie so scary was that you never knew where the little boy was hiding and he would just pop up out of nowhere. The suspense leading up to when he popped out was even more horrifying. In the movie the house where the ghosts were, was also really creepy. You just knew nothing good would come out of that house. Stephen King says, " What's behind the door or lurking at the top of the stairs is never as frightening as the door or the staircase itself"(364). The way the director made the attic and closet look it was more scary than when the little boy popped out of the attic or the closet.
Stephen King tells the reader in Danse Macabre, "You can scare people with the unknown for a long,long time..." (pg 364.) In the movie Signs the main charcter, the Reverend, enters the corn feild on his farm. He chases after the sound of someone moving through the stalks of corn. For a while the viewer is afraid of the unknown "alien" attacking. Instead of revealing the monster, the camera focuses on the Reverend's dropped flash light and him as he runs from this evil being, which remains unknown. The suspense is still built up as the Reverend enters his house and locks himself and his whole family in the basement. They hear as aliens kill their dog, enter their house, and begin to attack them. During this whole scene the alien is never seen causing the instilled fear of the unknown.
In Danse Macabre, Stephen King believes that fear is not letting you know what behind that door. He says how when you know what’s behind the door you will think of something more fearful. In Jeepers Creepers, there is a short song that always plays when the monster is about to come and kill. When that song plays suspense starts and the longer they drag it out the more horrifying it is. Some scenes they don’t die or get attacked but in most they do. The scenes that he doesn’t attack follow Stephen King because in those scenes all the suspense builds up and creates fear because you have no idea if “Jeepers Creepers” is there or not.
In Stephen King's Danse Macabre, "nothing is so frightening as what's behind the closed door..."(364). I compare this to what I saw in the movie, The Messengers. In this movie there are always things popping out of no where and it is the main thing that scares you in the movie. Even though it is not exactly the same because in Danse Macabre they talk about things being not as bad when you acually see them, in The Messengers the crows that pop out of the sky are not as bad when you think about them. If you think about it afterward you can see that it was very obvious when things were going to appear.
I'm not a fan of the horror genre, but on some occasions I'll watch a film or two. In the film "The Silence of the Lambs" Clarice Sterling (the detective of the film) is walking through the basement of Buffalo Bill's(the serial killer) home and the power goes out. You just get the feeling that something bad is going to happen. In Danse Macabre, King talks about building up suspense and how just the idea of what lays behind a door is scary, almost as what can happen in the dark. Also, throughout the film Clarice is talking to Hannible the Cannible for his assiantance, because he knows more about Buffalo Bill. Silence of the lambs is a horrifying movie because of how it gets to your thoughts, and your imagination runs with those ideas of a killer skinning women, and a intelligent man eating people.
Steven King once said, "You can scare people with the unknown for a long,long time..." (pg 364.) Alford Hitchcock used this tactic. He scared people by presented storylines that could happen in real life. One of the most haunting scary movies he made, was Psycho. In this film, a girl named Marion spent the night at the Bates Motel, and after checking in; she was never heard of again. Norman (who seems to care way too much what his mother thinks) is in charge of this hotel. Although he seems innocent, he is anything but. He has a split personality in which he believes he is also his mom. He puts on a wig and everything. He kills innocent people who are guests in his hotel. One of the most chilling scenes in this movie is when he stabs to death Marion in a shower. The viewer never sees the act but knows it happened. This is what Stephen King was talking about when he said, "I want to say something about imagination purely as a tool in he art and science of scaring people" (364). Because Hitchcock didn't show the whole scene, viewers are horrified by their own imaginations of how gruesome the attack was.
I think that a good example of a movie director using Stephen King's ideas described Danse Macabre is M. Night Shyamalan in his movie The Village. Stephen King said, "I want to say something about imagination purely as a tool in he art and science of scaring people." This refers to the idea of peoples fear of the unknown. When people do not know what is chasing them, or making that noise upstairs, their imagination creates the image of something they will fear the most. In The Village, the whole movie is based off a community of people living in fear of a beast that no one has seen or ever witnessed. This story line goes along with Danse Macabre because every character lives in fear of something awful that they created with their own imagination.
In Danse Macabre, Stephen King says that imagination is a tool in the art and science of scaring people. This theory is evident in his book, (and later movie) It. In this book, the main characters are a group of children (and later adults) who are stalked by a supernatural monster that shapeshifts to whatever its prey fears most (ex: one of the characters is afraid of werewolves, so the monster appears to him as a werewolf). In the end, you see the monster in its true form (a spider) and its kind of lame, despite its scariness earlier in the story when it wasn't a spider, proving that imagination is what scares people.
Sorry about all the ()
I think that the movie The Village uses the Danse Mascabre element of the unknown because in many scenes the creatures in the story are not fully shown. At first they are shown from a birdeye veiw and next only a hand is shown. Also, the color red symbolizes danger in the community so this is shown as a sign of these creatures. Without showing a creature fear is created. This movie isn't that scary, because once the monsters are shown and the secret is revealed they aren't really monsters, it's not that scary, but at first, with this element, there is fear created. So I think this is a good example of the element of unknown.
Post a Comment