Post by Casablanca on Jul 16, 2009 20:51:33 GMT -5
"Frankenstein" (SCF)
With this latest feature, SCF hands us down another horror gothic of epic proportions, taking and giving from both the genres of drama and thriller, with a methodic, lingering atmosphere that outlives the film, and may well leave you impressed. In many essences, the film bears striking resemblance to “Wolf Man”, in terms of structure and of mood; but it is those few, albeit noticeable differences between the two that both push it slightly past expectation, and also creates a moat, blocking the film from the former’s sheer greatness. Fortunately, however, we have here a film that managed to swim through halfway before the curtain closed, even is Heidi couldn’t swim at all.
The film can be split in two halves, and while there will be, most likely, a majority vote against me, I find myself with a preference to the first of them. A moody drama-suspense to a stirring horror, you cannot deny that characters and themes are introduced nicely and effortlessly. There is no shameless indicators about when to feel terror and when to sit on the edge of your seat, it is a prolonged experience, and will, in due time, create a more consistent anxiety that lasts until the end. Which brings up my favorite of all praises, the film is fluent. In the second half, less so, since you have this series of great scenes, which makes it feel that the director is attempting to haunt us, or move us, with each, a vastly increasing darkness. And maybe this is why I prefer the first; it feels like a large stretch of storytelling, showing motives, alluding to the character’s past, and setting us up for a mid-way finale.
What a risky was for “Wolf Man” certainly was here, by making the characters from a different time, with manners and speech relative. Do they come of as dull and wooden? Emotionless? To be sure, they come off more as vessels, I’d say. Humans, granted, with desires and obsessions, but I’d venture to say that more then move abut and interact with each other, which you commonly get from characters, these were extremely useful in how they told the story. They develop, they change, and they carry us with them through the film, ethics and mindsets both clashing. I felt I couldn’t help but change sides, occasionally. That’s what the film does, it sucks you in, and you spend more time thinking about the moral ambiguity and crazed madness then you do how many pages are left to go.
I’d say that the only thing this movie may do to harm itself it turn itself away from the casual reader. It is, after all, a lengthy and sophisticated wall-of-gothic-text. I think that, for some, the way the people move, think and speak will be daunting, and uninteresting, where as “Wolf Man” felt slightly more mainstream. Yes, I said that I prefer the first part, but it is slower, no doubt. You have to be willing to concentrate, think and spend time on this, rather then fly through it with the same breeze you would a “Catching Kerby”-similar. This is an adult horror film for readers who accept to play on those terms and on that turf. If you want slasher-sex and axes crammed into college girls heads- you may well just need to look elsewhere.
A final thing worthy of mention is the pacing, something that, even brief, deserves its accolades. There is no moment in the film where a scene overstays its welcome, or perhaps, leaves too soon. In fact, with a situation like this, it is best not even to think of “scenes” or “parts”. Don’t spread the movie out over days or weeks, just read it as what it is meant to be, a story, not a collection of thrills to please you. Just horror till the end, a very nice ending, at that.
Overall, this is a very impressive feature which stuns me in how all repetition has been spared. One of the many SCF monster films, one would expect the formula to be getting quite over-used. On the contrary, he manages to create and re-create a nice, sleek, tension filled movie every time, without the clichés you anticipate. Looking at the body that lay stretched on a table, Henry gleefully refers to it as his “masterpiece”. SCF may have felt the same about his monster of a movie here, and so will others, it is only a personal fondness which forces me to say I feel the wolf outruns the monster.
