Anthea Carson's Blog - Posts Tagged "the-conjuring"
The Conjuring
I stumbled upon this wonderful blog about The Conjuring. The blog is written by horror author Stephen Graham Jones. I've had the pleasure of attending a few of his workshops in Colorado and I highly recommend them to writers of all genres, but especially of horror.
Here is the link to the blog. http://www.demontheory.net/scared-str...
Really appreciated all the information about horror movies contained in this article. There are so many I haven't seen.
The Conjuring had me gripping my seat the whole time. As the mother (played by Lily Taylor) lit her match to find her way in the cellar after the door slammed shut I thought about some of the things I learned at the Horror Workshop Jones led in Manitou. Basic fears, fear of the dark being one of them, were very much played upon throughout the movie. This movie did things I haven't seen before. (Of course there are so many movies I haven't seen.) I was shocked by the director's choice to use an image or real arms clapping inside the wardrobe when the mother plays the blindfold game with her daughter. Things like that probably have been done before but I hadn't seen them. I kept vacillating between horror and humor.
Found Jones's comments about victim-ghosts interesting. I've always found monsters more frightening if they are wounded somehow. I think the experience of partial empathy intensifies terror rather than diluting it. I think this is due to the experience of two conflicting emotions. Adds harmonic resonance. Begins to seep into the genre of psychological horror. The specter of finding at the core of the monster some fragmented part of oneself.
Here is the link to the blog. http://www.demontheory.net/scared-str...
Really appreciated all the information about horror movies contained in this article. There are so many I haven't seen.
The Conjuring had me gripping my seat the whole time. As the mother (played by Lily Taylor) lit her match to find her way in the cellar after the door slammed shut I thought about some of the things I learned at the Horror Workshop Jones led in Manitou. Basic fears, fear of the dark being one of them, were very much played upon throughout the movie. This movie did things I haven't seen before. (Of course there are so many movies I haven't seen.) I was shocked by the director's choice to use an image or real arms clapping inside the wardrobe when the mother plays the blindfold game with her daughter. Things like that probably have been done before but I hadn't seen them. I kept vacillating between horror and humor.
Found Jones's comments about victim-ghosts interesting. I've always found monsters more frightening if they are wounded somehow. I think the experience of partial empathy intensifies terror rather than diluting it. I think this is due to the experience of two conflicting emotions. Adds harmonic resonance. Begins to seep into the genre of psychological horror. The specter of finding at the core of the monster some fragmented part of oneself.
