By Jorrie Simpson
Each film that I watched over the course of creating this presentation filled me with feelings of the Sublime. All of them were hauntingly beautiful and left traces of themselves behind well after the credits rolled. Not every film on this list fits into a box or genre, rather, they fit in no box at all, and simply exist to illustrate the raw and truthful feelings of life. The Wickerman, directed by Robin Hardy, while built to show the parallels between the Christian and Pagan faith, also gives us a sense of dread for the main character's sealed fate. House, directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi, has a sense of comedy, yet we are aware that the images used are equal parts hilarious and equal parts horrifying. Touki Bouki, directed by Djibril Diop Mambéty, displays beautiful cinematography paired with the haunting idea of being stuck in the place you no longer yearn to be in. Finally, El Topo, directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky, is a surrealist film that presents us with the devastating reality of the loss of oneself in this world. Looking at these four films and how they transcend genre, like all great art, they transcend categorization. This is not going to be an analysis of jump-scares, creature features, or a deep dive into the filmmaker's obsession with the dismemberment of women. Instead, I will be looking through the lens of the way they explore hyper-imaginative images in filmmaking to depict the terrific, the terrible, and the terrifying from across the world.
The use of imagery in The Wickerman is a mix of pagan traditions with the juxtaposition of the main character, Sergeant Howie, who is devoutly Christian. The subject of the movie itself is super intense, looking for a missing child named Rowan, but instead, the sergeant ends up finding much more than just the missing girl. The actions done by individuals in the movie tries in a way to show not only the brutality within pagan religions but also the parallels that exist simultaneously within Christianity as well. Yet, it’s not so much of the religious side of this movie that shows through. Instead, the horrible truth of his fate is sealed from the moment he chooses to investigate. Trapped, isolated, and scared, he comes to terms with the realization of his ultimate demise. He looks upon his death and tries his best to fight, but ultimately, he seems powerless in the midst of the crowd. Instead of the obvious horror of unknown people sacrificing a foreigner, we are confronted with a different fear, the fear of being trapped without any source of assistance. The entire island is there to kill him, and there is no one in the crowd willing to risk not sacrificing him. To the audience and Sergeant Howie, we expect that help will always come if we call, unfortunately, there is no rescue, only the slow-burning wicker man that confirms the gruesome reality of there being no salvation for anyone.
The only movie on this list to have any sense of comedy in it was House, a Japanese film that truly represents the hilarious and the hellish. A story about a group of girls taking a vacation to one of the girl's family members' homes. There waiting for them is more than just a loving aunt, but something much more nefarious. Slowly, each girl succumbs to the forces in the home, as the sad truth is revealed. The aunt represents the unloved, all the sadness and fear that can come with that title. She gets rid of any form of comfort closest to her, in hopes that her true love would one day return to her. The dread that comes from loneliness is overwhelming, and it’s beyond isolating. House truly plays with creative and funny imagery to unveil a much heavier idea to the audience. The idea that if no one will love us then we are truly alone in this world and being alone is bitterly terrifying. We are confronted with a character that we can’t bring ourselves to love, but also someone we can’t bring ourselves to hate. This is because we feel the desperation for love, we understand that she will never find her true wishes and that her actions, no matter how terrible, are in vain. Loneliness is one of the strongest and most feared feelings, House does a beautiful job capturing the truth behind loneliness, and how it can change an individual, making them worse off in the end.
There are many movies on this list that are more well-known, but none are as beautiful as this next one. Touki Bouki is a movie from Senegal that is exquisite in every way possible. From writing to the cinematography, nothing disappoints. Besides the use of beautiful imagery, the movie has a horrible sad undertone that the audience doesn’t realize until the very end. The two main characters, Mory and Anta, find themselves in a heist for money at an eccentric millionaires’ mansion. Both agree to use the money to get away from Senegal, going away to France. Each of them is excited to leave and ready to start a new beginning in a new place. The film quickly takes an uptick in promise for both characters, and we hold out for each of their boat-boarding moments. Yet, Mory’s moment never comes. As the boat sails away, the audience realizes Mory was always meant to stay, no matter what he did or tried he truly wasn’t able to leave. Everything in his being tells him t o, but there he remains, trapped forever. This movie deals with intense human emotions from happiness and excitement to depression and entrapment. No matter what he does, he will never leave, because he will never let himself leave.
Every person has emotions of the self, but they also have egos. Without either of these, we lose who we are as people and become an unrecognizable version of our past selves, a shell if you will. El Topo doesn’t just explore the surrealist movement or imagery but also explores the humanism of the main character, who is unnamed. Many strange things happen in this movie: women whip each other as some sort of game, men massacre each other, and unusual western duels take place with “masters” across the desert. Through these brutal and beautiful images, we get a story of this unnamed man who makes his way through the ranks of beating different Masters. A talented gunslinger with a keen mind that gets him through all his trials, but the endless and less of his original self is truly shown. The truth is none of his former self is present, he is nothing in comparison to what he once was. Though he is nothing in comparison, his self-evolution is for the good. The unnamed man is truly happier and more at peace with his life than he was prior. The true horror isn’t of his destination, it's of his journey. His transformation, while captivating due to the cinematography, is quite brutal. It represents the sort of sublime within human evolution, beautiful yet terrifying. The audience is left mesmerized by how a human can change, becoming more than ever originally thought possible. This film, unlike the rest, shows this sort of terrific within the terrifying, and that in its own right is beautiful.
All these films not only represent what humanity sees as the terrific, the terrible, and the terrifying, but they also represent the fear that is inlaid in everyone's life. These filmmakers set out not to scare anyone, but rather to expose the horror within our everyday life. Instead of using cheap scares for thrills they rely on the audience's humanistic tendencies and exploit them. These movies may not be popular, but they are a rarity in the film industry. This type of art is impactful, and art must represent the true fears that we feel. While scares can be fun, art that is meant to touch the soul is equally horrifying. These movies represent true human fears, and the reality of what terror truly looks like.