Wen 丨 Wu Zeyuan
"Horror Master" Wen Ziren has a new film!
This is the slogan customized by the domestic streaming media platform for "Fatal Induction". It's really worth looking forward to: Wen Ziren hasn't launched a horror film in five years since 2016's The Conjuring 2, and countless genre film fans are looking forward to his return.
Fatal Induction (2021)
What about Wen Ziren's answer sheet this time? The Douban score of "Fatal Induction" 7.0 is not very high in Wen Ziren's horror films, and its North American box office has not broken the release of "Shangqi" for two weeks, which also has the reason for the diversion of online platforms.
But for fans of traditional Western horror movies, Fatal Induction is a complete feast.
Although its story is not neat and elaborate, the entire film switches between different horror sub-genre models with ease, which not only shows the director's skill, but also reflects Wen Ziren's love for old horror films. This love can also infect and impress his peers.
The story of "Fatal Induction" has a distinctly warm character:
The heroine first suspects that her house has been invaded by ghosts, and then as if possessed by evil spirits, she sees a cruel murder that happened in other places, and thus becomes the focus of suspicion by the police. Such a plot reminds us of the "Latent" and "Conjuring" series.
But compared to the two series led by Wen Ziren, "Fatal Induction" is more straightforward and brutal in its treatment of horror elements. The horror of "Latent" and "Conjuring" mostly relies on the creation of atmosphere, but the horror of "Fatal Induction" is mostly derived from large-scale shots; the pictures of "Latent" and "Conjuring" are clean and gloomy, and the cold breath is constantly surging in it; the picture of "Fatal Induction" is warm and distinct, and Wen Ziren does not hesitate to spare blood plasma when showing the killing scene.
It is no wonder that some old fans of Wen Ziren will say: Wen Ziren, who has become blunt, or Wen Ziren?
But Wen Dao's horror works cannot remain static. More than a month ago, he had already mentioned a wake-up call to everyone on his Personal Page on Facebook -
This is a different Wen Ziren movie. It's a genre platter that embodies influences from masters like Mario Bawa, Dario Argento, Brian de Palma, David Cornenberg, and Wen Ziren's love of '80s horror/thrillers.
Therefore, if Wen Ziren has changed when filming "Fatal Induction", it is only a return to his love of horror movies.
And the classic horror film elements used by Wen Ziren in the film are indeed dazzling:
The heroine, who can sense the perspective of a serial killer, is reminiscent of John Carpenter's thriller Eyes of Laura Mars.
The heroine's extreme approach to the setting of dual personality will remind people of the grandfather of the dual personality type movie "Horror Story", especially the protagonist's eyes with his back against the prison wall and looking directly at the camera.
Some of the Baroque-style sets, the bizarre lighting, and the collision of different colors are reminiscent of the iconic style of the Italian horror master Mario Bawa (the masterpiece "Blood and Black Lace", "Black Sabbath", "Blood Beach"). The makeup of the heroine in some scenes is also a tribute to Barbara Steele, Bawa's royal heroine.
The brutal serial killer in the film wears a leather jacket and leather gloves before each murder, and carefully forges a metal weapon with an extremely attractive appearance. These elements pay homage to the object too obviously – Akinto, a leading figure in Italian "Giallo" cinema and the director of "Flower Breaker" and "Windswept".
The Flower Destroyer (1970)
But the most important tribute objects in the whole film are Brian de Palma and Conenberg. It's hard to dwell on these tributes without spoilers, but De Palmar also tells about serial murders in his early work, Sister feud (1972), which provides an important reference blueprint for the core narrative ruse of Fatal Induction.
We don't need to say more about Cronenberg. Almost all contemporary horror films related to physical distortion cannot escape his influence. The core reversal of Fatal Induction is reminiscent of Cronenberg's Baby Spirit (1979), and his other work, Buckle (1988), also had some influence on Fatal Induction.
Therefore, Wen Ziren describes his new work as a dazzling style platter, which is not an exaggeration.
But the valuable thing about "Fatal Induction" is that it is not only using the classic elements for its own use, it also retains Wen Ziren's personal style to the maximum extent possible:
The film still features the iconic Warm stealth long shot and 360-degree inversion. They fit the "out-of-body" setting that Wen Ziren has always loved, and also make the oppression brought about by the ghost chasing after the protagonist more suffocating.
When the protagonist is looking around for a hiding place in the house, Wen Ziren lets the camera hover at the top of the house, silently overlooking the protagonist's futile escape, this shot uses a completely visual way, showing the protagonist's situation of being at the mercy of fate and unable to escape, and also cleverly hints at the hiding place of the "evil spirit" through the camera setting, which can be described as a stroke of God.
As for the film's return to family affection in the climactic paragraph, it is also Wen Ziren's usual method. Whether in the "Conjuring" or "Latent" series, the last to overcome the evil forces is love, the love between partners, the love of relatives to relatives.
Like the American drama "Stranger Things" that was on fire in previous years, "Fatal Induction" may be able to rely on its own excellent quality to make another wave of Amway to pay tribute to the classic horror films of the 70s and 80s in the film. For ashes fans, the greatest pleasure of watching such film and television works is probably the pleasure brought by Tu Suoji.
But a tribute to true success can also lead to deeper thinking. Why has Hollywood been so keen in recent years to replicate the 1980s? Why are classics from the '80s being put on the remake schedule again and again? What is the isomorphism that existed in the zeitgeist of the 1980s and the present era? By summoning the shadow of the 80s, what does Hollywood and the creators want to ask and get rid of for the audience and themselves?
If retro works such as "Fatal Induction" allow the viewer to observe their own expectations and fears of the present through the examination of another era, then their existence is completely valuable.