Part One of Two?

Had some unexpected excitement tonight, got to be away from updating the blog. I'll try to tell the story next week.

-F

Raindrops on Roses (Part Twenty-Six): The Lighthouse

(trailer)

If you remember, this is something I wanted to do a year ago, alternating between comparing both the old and new Suspiria movies and comparing Robert Eggers’ previous work, The Witch (or The VVitch) with his then-upcoming film The Lighthouse. I managed those first three, but my schedule didn’t line up for the last, most recent movie and I defaulted to another horror film. But it’s been a year now, and I’ve seen the light… house and now is the time to talk about it.

What a strange movie.

I don’t mean like “strange” in a bad way, of course. If I did, I’d have attached it to a different blog series. Plus, most of the choices it makes are conventional. It’s filmed in black-and-white and with a 1.19:1 aspect ratio, which is outdated but not unheard of in modern times. It has a minimalist cast of three but one can easily conceive of that working. What I find most interesting, though, is how it deals with building up and releasing tension.

If you’ve seen The VVitch (or most any horror movie; I’m using this one to compare the same director) this might be something you already understand on an intuitive level. This movie works towards increasing the audience’s awareness that something scary might happen before giving them the catharsis of actually being scary, whether that’s a brief moment of action a la a jump scare or delivering on narrative payoffs. One can find a similar structure in comedy movies, which is why horror-comedies like Shaun of the Dead can exist and be popular.

This is not true of all movies in either of these genres. For example, It Comes At Night barely releases any tension for most of the movie, which is probably why it is so divisive. And the reason I want to talk about The Lighthouse is because it does the same thing horror-comedies do, building up scary tension to a comedic release. But I wouldn’t call it a horror-comedy. Now, to be fair, the line is blurry, but also the comedic aspects of The Lighthouse are more used to draw even more tension for the scarier moments.

A lot of this is in the framing. The movie is about two lighthouse keepers who, isolated from the rest of the world for months on end, go insane, and it’s this insanity that leads to the funny moments. But that means that each comedy beat in the movie only serves to amplify further tense moments. Sure, the moment was dissolved now, but what does that mean about the next moment? Or the next after that?

Is it better than The VVitch? That’s a difficult question. They’re so different from each other, only really connected by having a small cast, an isolated situation, and a folk tale atmosphere. It isn’t like the two Suspiria movies where, you know, one’s technically a remake of the other (and even then I think I declined to answer). I will say, though, I am excited to see whatever movie comes next.

-F

 

Costuming

 I can’t remember the last time I actually dressed up for Halloween. Well, that’s not entirely true -- I had a plague doctor costume two years ago that’s hilariously out of taste now, but I didn’t wear it in public. The year after that I just had a Pikachu hat on while passing out candy. And I don’t think I’m wearing anything this year.

It’s weird, like, I still get the urge to, like as a “It would be cool if” but there’s never anything more than that. I don’t know who I would be if I did; it never gets that far. Maybe what I admire then is the artistry, the creativity of it, and I like projecting onto someone else’s. I also -- and I know this is weird -- might have this aversion to being looked at, to being conspicuous at all.

There’s this hoodie I own that’s very flashy, like, in a colorful nebula sort of way. It’s comfy, and I enjoy wearing it, but I also don’t really enjoy wearing it out and about. I know intuitively that nobody cares, but I still feel like I’m drawing eyeballs.

That’s okay. I’m cool living vicariously through others. I mean, I better not this Halloween, and I don’t plan to encourage it, but in other moments.

-F

Spooktober (Introduction)

 October doesn’t feel as spooky as it used to. Some of that is, you know, how obviously scary just going outside at all can be without precaution, but also, I don’t know how to describe it, actually. It feels like the veil has been lifted. I’ve seen multiple people criticise “spooky season”, trying to push all the scares on just the 31st. And maybe that’s a general societal pushback because of that first point, but I never really noticed anything about it until it happened. I’d seen more “Halloween is on a Saturday this year!” which then turned into “Halloween is on a Saturday this year, so don’t screw up quarantining or there’ll be hell to pay.” which has now become “Dang, and Halloween is on a Saturday…” at best.

The past few years, I made a habit of doing some media discussion on spooky things I liked in October, and while there are certainly still some plans for that, there’s some other stuff in the tank for this month. Here’s to hoping at least a little Halloween spirit returns, and may your pumpkin patches be as sincere as they can possibly be.

-F