I’ve always been a fan of Stephen King, and I usually make it a point to see the films that are based on his books. Although I enjoy horror movies, I utterly dislike the recent trend that seems to equate horror with slash, gore or even torture porn.
When I say I enjoy horror, I mean the old-school experience which tends to be more of a psychological one than anything else. Nowadays, directors rely on cheap shock tactics to deliver the frights.
In reality, seeing someone’s limb getting sawn off doesn’t scare me as much as it grosses me out. I grimace for a couple of seconds, avert my eyes and then continue watching. I certainly don’t get too scared to go to the bathroom on my own after the movie.
Things take on a different hue with the old-school genre that plays on the mind, rather than on gory visuals. The adaptations of King’s movies are usually pretty genius at keeping the delicate balance between showing enough monster to pique our interest and not overdoing it. It also helps that King’s monsters tend to be very visually ‘unhorrific’.
Take It, responsible for a whole generation of supposedly sane adults who can’t see a clown without freaking out. There was nothing particularly scary about the carefully painted face of the clown – except for somewhat sinister fangs, if you looked closely enough. And yet, few people remain unaffected by clowns after watching this movie.
Recently I finally got to watch two King classics that I had somehow missed out on. The first one, I’m ashamed to admit, was The Shining. I’d read the book, but somehow was put off by the movie. The fact that it features on pretty much all ‘Scariest Films of All-Time’ lists didn’t help.
So I saw The Shining. And, predictably, I got extremely scared. Who knew that the sight of two little girls at the end of the corridor could make your heart stop? Or that just the sound of a tricycle’s wheels hitting the floor could sound so sinister?
Having said all this, I did not fall in love with it. At this stage, I have become way too used to the quick buildups that come with today’s films, and – while I can appreciate the slow building of the tension, the exploration of the main characters and the setting of the scene – I started getting a tad bored half-way through.
There’s another point that will probably make the fans want to lynch me. I hated Jack Nicholson’s performance. And while I’m perfectly aware that we’re supposed to hate his character, it’s more a case of finding his portrayal annoying, barely bringing Jack Torrance to life beyond the stereotypical “disturbed writer with misogynistic tendencies” stereotype.
The one thing he got right was that maniac grin, and that was more a case of happenstance than acting. It doesn’t look like Nicholson is doing much of an effort there, and he always looks a bit creepy in all roles anyway. So that was The Shining consigned to the pile of films I consider over-rated. Sorry, everyone.
The other King adaptation I saw was Frank Darabont’s The Mist. I have not seen a more efficiently scary movie in ages. The monster (well, monsters) are only shrouded in, ahem, mist for the first minutes of the movie. They become all too real and evident extremely soon.
The film takes on a highly surreal feel, particularly with the appearance of the behemoth
And, yet the only reason they are so scary is precisely because, at the end of the day, they’re nothing more than blown-up versions of creatures that we are already familiar with.
Being a King adaptation, the film is longer than usual and clocks in at over two hours. Unlike The Shining, however, at no point did I feel bored and the action didn’t let up. Towards the end, the film takes on a highly surreal feel, particularly (spoilers alert) with the appearance of the behemoth and the very effective use of the Dead Can Dance’s The Host of Seraphim.
Being Darabont, however, it comes with a highly questionable ending that’s a bit like a kick in the stomach in the way it straddles the line between black and white. It is not the ending King came up with originally, but Darabont only made the film on condition this ending was not changed – as it happened, King loved it.
If you plan on seeing it and you’re a fan of The Walking Dead, keep an eye out towards the start of the movie. It’s almost like The Mist served as the auditions for some of the cast from The Walking Dead.
rdepares@timesofmalta.com