Horror october #21
Oct. 21st, 2017 10:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beer_good_foamyRewatch: 10 Cloverfield Lane is still one of my favourite movies of recent years. There's a couple of reasons for this, and for why I think it's one of the most relevant horror movies recently, no less so after the discussions of the past few weeks, but since this is one of those movies where you really want to be unspoiled the first time I'm going to put it under a cut.
Michelle wakes up in a bunker, chained to a radiator. The man who brought her there, Howard, tells her the world outside has ended, and only the three of them - her, Howard, and his hapless neighbour Emmett - have survived, he's saved her life, and now it's up to them to hunker down for however long it takes until it's safe to go out again. So is Howard right about what's going on outside, or is he just a crazy redneck who likes to kidnap young women?
I was never a huge fan of Cloverfield, and of course this isn't a sequel so much as a completely different movie that may or may not be set in the same 'verse, and may just be taking the same basic idea to a completely different plot. But it's interesting to see what 10 years does in terms of what horrors are imagined, and how our hero deals with them. Where Cloverfield was very much a 9/11 movie with aliens, where the entire city of New York ran around in confusion trying to help each other and everything looked like those first few hand-held movies of the planes striking the towers, 10 Cloverfield Lane is a personal, even personalized, apocalypse for the 2010s and, after a decade of increasing individualism, our hero ultimately only has herself to rely on. Cloverfield had giant kaiju stomping NYC and getting hit by armed forces, 10 Cloverfield Lane has an apocalypse too big and distant to fight or even show, but a very human villain in John Goodman who honestly believes he's just trying to keep people safe after an apocalypse has wiped out everything outside the bunker... maybe.
I think I mentioned before that it's interesting how Ariel Castro and Joseph Fritzl have become the archetypical boogeymen of the 21st century. There's been a LOT of movies about women kept prisoners in basements, beds or kitchens by men telling them it's for their own good in recent years, ranging from light comedies (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt) to straight-up torture porn and beyond (Martyrs). It's hardly surprising given both the discussion finally being had about what women are expected to put up with, and a very noticeable conservative backlash against the gains made in the past 40 years. But what 10 Cloverfield Lane does with it (in addition to giving Michelle a male sidekick who is pretty much useless) is have her not just fight her own way out, but make it about more than just one man's obsession. The whole damn world is in on it.
Opinions are split on the twist at the end. And while it goes rather over the top with that big alien fight which Michelle somehow manages to win, I love it. The answer is both: Howard IS right about what's going on, and he IS a crazy redneck who likes to kidnap young women. The fact that there actually is an alien apocalypse going on outside changes the whole question of the movie from "What if you get captured by a nutjob?" to "How do people react against each other in light of a very real problems?" The fact that Howard is right about the aliens doesn't mean he's in the right. There are multiple stories being told here; about men and women, about men in power and their subjects, about safety and paranoia, and thanks to brilliant performances by both Goodman and Mary Elizabeth Winstead, they all get to matter. Michelle has to fight her own fight, because over the last 20 years of personalized experiences we've built a world in which the apocalypse happens to you specifically and it's your own damn responsibility, but when she's finally out, when she's escaped the bunker and survived the apocalypse and is given a way out, she sees that this is happening to everyone and she chooses to search out and help others.
I also watched the first two episodes of Slasher, which... nah. Nicely done and everything, but it feels way too much like a regular 96-minute slasher movie, albeit a good one, stretched to a whole television season. But it's impressive what the Canadians manage to get away with putting on television screens in terms of gore.
Michelle wakes up in a bunker, chained to a radiator. The man who brought her there, Howard, tells her the world outside has ended, and only the three of them - her, Howard, and his hapless neighbour Emmett - have survived, he's saved her life, and now it's up to them to hunker down for however long it takes until it's safe to go out again. So is Howard right about what's going on outside, or is he just a crazy redneck who likes to kidnap young women?
I was never a huge fan of Cloverfield, and of course this isn't a sequel so much as a completely different movie that may or may not be set in the same 'verse, and may just be taking the same basic idea to a completely different plot. But it's interesting to see what 10 years does in terms of what horrors are imagined, and how our hero deals with them. Where Cloverfield was very much a 9/11 movie with aliens, where the entire city of New York ran around in confusion trying to help each other and everything looked like those first few hand-held movies of the planes striking the towers, 10 Cloverfield Lane is a personal, even personalized, apocalypse for the 2010s and, after a decade of increasing individualism, our hero ultimately only has herself to rely on. Cloverfield had giant kaiju stomping NYC and getting hit by armed forces, 10 Cloverfield Lane has an apocalypse too big and distant to fight or even show, but a very human villain in John Goodman who honestly believes he's just trying to keep people safe after an apocalypse has wiped out everything outside the bunker... maybe.
HOWARD: Crazy is building the ark after the flood has already come.
I think I mentioned before that it's interesting how Ariel Castro and Joseph Fritzl have become the archetypical boogeymen of the 21st century. There's been a LOT of movies about women kept prisoners in basements, beds or kitchens by men telling them it's for their own good in recent years, ranging from light comedies (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt) to straight-up torture porn and beyond (Martyrs). It's hardly surprising given both the discussion finally being had about what women are expected to put up with, and a very noticeable conservative backlash against the gains made in the past 40 years. But what 10 Cloverfield Lane does with it (in addition to giving Michelle a male sidekick who is pretty much useless) is have her not just fight her own way out, but make it about more than just one man's obsession. The whole damn world is in on it.
MICHELLE: Oh come on.
Opinions are split on the twist at the end. And while it goes rather over the top with that big alien fight which Michelle somehow manages to win, I love it. The answer is both: Howard IS right about what's going on, and he IS a crazy redneck who likes to kidnap young women. The fact that there actually is an alien apocalypse going on outside changes the whole question of the movie from "What if you get captured by a nutjob?" to "How do people react against each other in light of a very real problems?" The fact that Howard is right about the aliens doesn't mean he's in the right. There are multiple stories being told here; about men and women, about men in power and their subjects, about safety and paranoia, and thanks to brilliant performances by both Goodman and Mary Elizabeth Winstead, they all get to matter. Michelle has to fight her own fight, because over the last 20 years of personalized experiences we've built a world in which the apocalypse happens to you specifically and it's your own damn responsibility, but when she's finally out, when she's escaped the bunker and survived the apocalypse and is given a way out, she sees that this is happening to everyone and she chooses to search out and help others.
VOICE ON THE RADIO: We have taken back the sourthern seaboard. We are winning. If you have any medical training or combat experience, there are survivors *breaks up*
I also watched the first two episodes of Slasher, which... nah. Nicely done and everything, but it feels way too much like a regular 96-minute slasher movie, albeit a good one, stretched to a whole television season. But it's impressive what the Canadians manage to get away with putting on television screens in terms of gore.
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Date: 2017-10-22 12:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-10-22 07:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-10-22 09:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-10-22 11:01 am (UTC)Another similar book is Marlen Haushofer's The Wall, which I really loved too.
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Date: 2017-10-22 03:05 pm (UTC)