Hope: Now Fully Transferable
Regular Reversals readers know I love a good (okay, even a bad) horror movie.
That's my lead-in to talking about Black Christmas. Which wasn't, by the way, all that bad. At the very least, it was fun-- gleefully silly, as opposed to the increasingly common dialled-in gunk.
Anyway. Black Christmas follows a bunch of sorority sisters as they're stalked by a serial killer. Subconsciously, as a viewer, you see several potential victims, and start placing your bets on who will stand up as the hero and survive this ordeal.
Without even realizing it, I placed my bets (in the form of hoping/assuming they'll survive) on the character played by Michelle Trachtenberg. The only other sorority sister with a recognizable face was Lacey Chabert, and her character seemed too dumb to last. But Michelle... she seemed sensible. Ready for a fight.
So midway through the second act, when Michelle bit it, I was genuinely surprised. And started casting about for the next possible hero I could pin my hopes on.
And that's when I realized: sometimes horrors are simply about someone surviving. It doesn't actually matter that much who. The horror movie is the world gone wrong. As long as one of our characters can take down the monster, the world is set right again.
Other examples of this "as long as someone survives" phenomenon: Pitch Black and Deep Blue Sea. (Got others?)
I can't believe it's taken me so long to process this simple truth. I'm sure there are many-a-masters-thesis out there on this very subject.
That's my lead-in to talking about Black Christmas. Which wasn't, by the way, all that bad. At the very least, it was fun-- gleefully silly, as opposed to the increasingly common dialled-in gunk.
Anyway. Black Christmas follows a bunch of sorority sisters as they're stalked by a serial killer. Subconsciously, as a viewer, you see several potential victims, and start placing your bets on who will stand up as the hero and survive this ordeal.
Without even realizing it, I placed my bets (in the form of hoping/assuming they'll survive) on the character played by Michelle Trachtenberg. The only other sorority sister with a recognizable face was Lacey Chabert, and her character seemed too dumb to last. But Michelle... she seemed sensible. Ready for a fight.
So midway through the second act, when Michelle bit it, I was genuinely surprised. And started casting about for the next possible hero I could pin my hopes on.
And that's when I realized: sometimes horrors are simply about someone surviving. It doesn't actually matter that much who. The horror movie is the world gone wrong. As long as one of our characters can take down the monster, the world is set right again.
Other examples of this "as long as someone survives" phenomenon: Pitch Black and Deep Blue Sea. (Got others?)
I can't believe it's taken me so long to process this simple truth. I'm sure there are many-a-masters-thesis out there on this very subject.
Labels: convention, horror, protagonist, tension
posted by Jennica at 11:14 a.m.
4 Comments:
Chuck Russell's remake of The Blob was terrific at setting up all kinds of characters and turning several we start to feel some empathy for into blob food.
Since Deep Blue Sea there seems to have been more attention paid to reversing expectations about who dies first, but I'm still waiting for a horror movie where the virgin or girl on the dean's list dies and the bad girl survives. Black Christmas wasn't up for that.
I want that too... such a sexist convention. And, let's face it, it's downright unlikely. Wouldn't the bad girl be the better fighter?
At least Scream acknowledges the cliche, and lets Sidney have her lover and kill him too.
I'm assuming you're talking about the recent remake of Black Christmas...
The original was supposed to be groundbreaking or something, enough so that I learnt about it in English class. I still haven't seen either of them though (we only had time to watch clips in class).
Definitely talking about the remake (I really hope Michelle Trachtenburg wasn't around the first time!)... but I had no idea the original was so revered! Thanks for letting me know, Andrew-- I'll have to investigate.
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