Horror’s
golden age in 1931-19461 begat Dracula, Frankenstein and the Wolfman
(werewolf).The boom of the 70s-80s birthed Freddy, Jason and Michael Myers. 21st
century horror has witnessed torture porn and this current fad of found
footage. It is yet to create an icon2.
2 There is an argument for Jigsaw but I contest he is
not iconic. The ‘bad’ with the
best potential is Sam from Trick ‘r Treat 2009
but until there’s a sequel his status will always remain ‘potential’.
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| bad icon/good icon |
The ghost story is a subgenre immune to fads.
This is because it is beyond cinema. Ghosts are conspicuous in every culture in
the world. Every culture in the world has its own ghost story to tell. Ghosts
don’t die.
The ghost story is a subgenre by default but
a genre by definition. It comprises romance (Ghost 1990),
comedy (Heart Condition 1990)
and kiddie flicks (Casper 1995)
but despite its scope it is best told as horror. It is best told in J-Horror (Ringu 1998),
in Spanish (The Orphanage 2007)
and in ye olde English country manor.
The
‘haunted house’ is located worldwide3 but it is different in England. It
could be because of the accent. Many people die in their beds but no one points
to a 50 year old tower block as being full of (formerly unemployed) ghosts. A
ghostly location – at least in the movies – is more secluded. It is more
romantic.
The powers-that-be in Britain like to project
this country to the rest of the world – especially America – as a ‘tally-ho old
chap’ bunch of better-than-thous. This is an image most Brits find laughable.
In order to hoodwink Johnny Foreigner the powers use film (& television4) propaganda
to hark back to the past.
It is a specific past before the Windrush5
and when the working classes knew their place. It is a time of empire when the
rich could still afford the upkeep of their country estates through crimes
against humanity. It is turn of the 20th century to the end of the
Second World War. It is a time of modernity; there are cigarette holders and
telegrams and motor cars. It is the class system’s last hurrah.
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| posh ghosts |
Ye olde English country manor is a small
section of the haunted house subgenre. It is costume drama with ghosts and posh
accents. Costume dramas in and of themselves are a huge market. Downtown Abbey is Amazon’s top selling
DVD box set of all time6. With the success of The
Woman in Black 2012 there will be more of these
films. It could become a 21st century fad.
Ghosts don’t die. They live in a fantasy era.
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| Rebecca Hall: rather RADA |
The
Awakening 2012 opens with a curtain
raiser to introduce lead character Florence Cathcart played by Rebecca Hall. The
story is set at the end of The Great War where Cathcart is famous as a
ghostbuster. This sceptic delights in exposing fraudulent séances wherein lies
the problem. Cathcart has the arrogance of a 21st century construct
channelled back in time by the screenwriters. Before the opening sequence is
over she gets to play the bitch card: “Just because I’m a woman... (insert
whine here)”
The Haunted House film is sometimes part of
the woman-in-peril subgenre (The
Others, The
Innocents). This requires a sense of vulnerability
from the lead character even when the role is played by a man (The Woman in Black, The Skeptic 2009). Florence Cathcart displays
little if any vulnerability because the character is politically correct to the
point she stops a school master from administering corporal punishment.
The
Awakening takes place in a boarding school for boys. In
order to keep production costs low the students migrate home for the holidays.
The only people left are a solitary boy and a skeleton staff. Dominic West
plays the love interest and nothing more. Imelda Staunton is matron as cipher.
There’s a stock working class caretaker who would have been played by a black
man had this been set in America. There isn’t a single character written with
organic truth.
The story these characters populate is even
worse. It is contrived, clichéd and coy. Nothing about this film has the
strength of storytelling although it does look great. The performances are
involving. The actors are engaging. The net result is akin to a royalist
getting dressed up to watch the royal wedding in their sitting room. By the dénouement
all coherence is lost.
The
Awakening is a
harbinger for the quality of films to come. The old English haunted house is a
scant subgenre that used to deliver but like everything else in this country
the glory is in the past.
45%
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65%
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71%
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Metacritic
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MRQE
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Movie Review Intelligence
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The
Awakening is available on DVD in the UK. US release
dates to be announced.
Read more Thrill Fiction: Babycall
1 Golden Age of Horror Films A Shroud of Thoughts
3 Haunted locations worldwide
Wikipedia
4 Midsomer Murders race row BBC
5 Windrush – the passengers BBC
6Amazon top selling DVD set of all
time Metro
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