But the best example of a film creating fear into which it then releases unbridled panic is undoubtedly William Friedkin’s enduring triumph, The Exorcist. It followed the formula to the most literal degree possible, using semi-subliminal messages in its ‘unseen’ department and showing not one iota of restraint when it came to what was ‘very very most definitely seen – and imprinted on one’s memory forevermore.’ Add to this the almost total absence of sounds through which we might detect the approach of hide-worthy moments and you have something as close to real-time horror perfection as is perhaps possible. Still to this day – despite the pea soup, despite the dispelling of many myths, despite every attempt by its successors to trump it – The Exorcist remains a paradigm of how to initially scare people, and then neatly traumatize them for life.
Given that a balance between the seen and the unseen is a tried and trusted horror movie staple, it is likely that most horror films wanting mainstream status would be aiming to follow it. But it is also at this stage on the scale that it starts to become clear that filmmakers do have to be careful about how they bridge the gap into their big reveals. Poorly thought out or executed visuals are easily capable of destroying rather than reinforcing a film’s quality.
Mama was a fairly decent contribution to the thriller/horror group – all closed doors, distant thumps and mysterious visions- until we see Mama herself with about half an hour left of the film, at which point it’s difficult not to feel that the director hadn’t maybe seen Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban one too many times. The Conjuring was brilliantly chilling – and therefore highly promising – for a good proportion of its running time, until the mother becomes possessed. Then, all manner of hell breaks loose and as it can’t possibly do much more, it isn’t long before it’s possible to develop a sort of immunity to what is happening on the screen. Insidious crept its deserved way into the spotlight in 2010 with a first half that seethed with quiet, inescapable suspense, only to reward its audiences for their suffering with a descent into a flurry of themes to do with vessels, possession, dimension travelling and astral projection. I have houseplants that could write better endings. The Devil Inside, The Haunting in Connecticut and Dracula 3D are all further examples of films that have evidently aimed to make it into this category, but that have instead made a whole new art form out of the epic fail.
