Cynthia Freeland defines art-dread as am emotion of dread in response to an artwork. The sense of dread that we expeience is from something that we have encountered that is terrible to us or evokes fear. Any of the Halloween movies would be an example of this for me. For the indepent film we were supposed to watch for class, this is what I chose to watch. The way Mike Meyers appears out of no where and is always watching people is very creepy to me, and it causes me to feel this sense of dread that Freeland talks about.
The story is about a boy named Mike Meyers who is seriously disturbed, kills his family and then is put in a mental hospital. Later, he escapes the mental home and starts killing different people in the town. The character he is mainly after is a girl named Laurie. One night, she is babysitting a boy named Tommy who sees Michael in the house across the street. When he goes to tell Laurie about him, she refers to Michael as the "boogie man" and tells Tommy he has nothing to worry about. Throughout the whole movie, Michael is trying to catch Laurie and kill her but she always finds a way to escape. The movie ends with Michael disappearing and no one knowing where he is.
The fact that the audience has no idea what made Michael so disturbed and mental creates a sense of suspense in itself. This is part of the erotetic narrative causing the audience to constantly ask questions and answers about what will happen next. This is also part of Freeland's description of dread. The fact that we don't ever know where he is going to show up next or who his next victim will be or whether or not the victim will come out of the confrontation alive is an example of Freeland's idea that what causes the dread is the fact that we simply are just unsure. Also, how he disappears at the end of the movie adds to the suspense because it leaves us with the question of where he went and will he return.
The plot of this movie would be an example of Carroll's complex discovery plot. Remember that this plot theory has four phases: onset, discovery, confirmation, and confrontation. The onset in this film would be the fact that the audience knows the Michael is following Laurie, also Laurie has the feeling that someone is following her as well but none of her friends know. Also, the fact that he escapes from the mental home gives us insight that something is going to happen. Michael is discovered by someone other than Laurie and the audience when Tommy sees him outside the house across the street from his the night Laurie is babysitting. Someone else has now seen Michael, but Laurie is in denial that anything is wrong. The phase of confirmation takes place when Laurie calls her friend Annie who is babysitting down the road. When Annie doesn't anwer, Laurie goes to check and make sure everything is ok. When arriving at the house, Laurie finds Annie and turns to run back to Tommy's house. This is where she actually encounters Michael. She finally believes that he is real and tries to call others for help. The last couple scenes of the movie would be where the confrontation takes place. Michael is chasing after Laurie but never suceeds in killing her. She stabs him a few times with a couple different objects, one being his own knife. Finally, Michael's doctor shows up and shoots him several different times causing Michael to fall off of the balcony. The audience thinks that this is the end of Michael, but we then see a shot of the ground below the balcony and Michael is not laying there. This is where the movie ends causing the suspense and questions of where did he go and what will happen next.
The way that Michael is never in a hurry and always walks every where creates fear as well. It gives us the sense that he is unconquerable and is confident that he will accomplish what he has set out to do. Also, the fact that he never speaks creates a mysteriousness and curiousity for the audience. This is definately an art-dread film because no one likes to see innocent people get murdered and how he goes about what he does is terrifying.
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