Text | Plato is not
Doctor of Film Studies, lecturer of Communication University of China, mainly teaches courses such as photography and image creativity, and is committed to the study of visual arts and culture
This year is a bumper harvest of horror movies, iris has introduced many films before, such as "Busan Trip", "Seoul Station", "Crying", ah, how come it is all Korean?
"Crying"
Not only South Korea, but also the West has produced a lot in the field of horror films.
The above are all supernatural types of horror films, but real horror films, this year also has a good work, such as the following one, no ghosts, no zombies, so what to rely on to scare people?
A blind man.
This is the previously acclaimed small-budget horror film "Hold Your Breath" in the United States.
"Hold Your Breath" is a violent crime genre, and if compared with the supernatural genre, its horror level is inherently insufficient. If you think about it, when you walk at night, is it more terrifying to encounter ghosts, or is it more terrifying to encounter robbers? Therefore, to make violent crime films feel terrible, the requirements for directors are actually higher.
The film's director, Feder Alvarez, is Uruguayan, and has previously attracted a lot of interest in the industry with a sci-fi horror film that cost $300 (you read it right, 300, with no "10,000" words in the back).
"Terrorist Attack" (2009)
"Hold Your Breath" is about three thieves who rob houses and go to the home of a blind veteran to steal a pension, but they did not expect to be counted by this blind man and closed the door to beat the dog. Blind people are portrayed as terrifyingly as the Grim Reaper, and the director shows superb characterization skills.
But the story does not end like this, the thief soon discovers that the blind soldier's home is not simple, and there is a huge secret hidden behind the surface...
Does a similar story of enclosed spaces remind you of Audrey Hepburn's "Blind Girl Horror" in the 1960s? Or Ye Yuqing's "Blind Girl 72 Hours"?
The Blind Woman (1967)
Huang Qiusheng and Ye Yuqing in "72 Hours of blind women"
"Blind Girl Horror" focuses on fighting wisdom, "Hold Your Breath" replaces the protagonist with a veteran, which must focus on fighting courage, no one wants to see several big men chattering together, simple and rough direct fighting is the most effective solution in hollywood.
Veteran in "Hold Your Breath."
However, the story of "Hold Your Breath" does not stop at low-level sensory stimulation, and the violent and bloody shots are certainly eye-catching, but they are only limited to the necessary plot needs, and there is no excessive rendering. The film integrates multiple social issues into a short one-and-a-half-hour story.
Juvenile delinquency, single-parent families, the gap between rich and poor, social injustice, and the aftermath of war are all shown in the film. So everyone seems to have committed a crime, but they all have bitter intentions, and the boundary between good and bad is like the exit of the cloister of the blind soldier's home, which exists, but is not so easy to find.
Therefore, this film goes beyond the level of simply creating horror and provokes us to think more deeply.
The story takes place in an enclosed space, the director makes full use of the structure of the room and the furniture and props in the room to create every plot twist, the tension is very reasonable and natural, it is really "a dojo in a shell".
Of course, this does not mean that this movie has no flaws in the plot design, for example, we all know that the best way to deal with blind people is to fight east and west, but in several places where life and death are at stake, several thieves seem to have intermittent IQ short-circuits, completely unable to propose countermeasures, so that the contest between the two sides is somewhat unbalanced.
The film is not so much a visual art, it is better to say that it is the art of time, all the art involving time, the rhythm is its core, the rhythm is chaotic, the gas is dispersed, and the rhythm of this film in addition to the end of the heroine ran out of the house after a slightly stagnant, before the always relaxed, in one breath, the title of the film "Hold Your Breath" is not so much a summary of the horror atmosphere created, but rather a compliment to the film in the grasp of the sense of rhythm.
As a horror film, this movie doesn't make you scream, it doesn't make you close your eyes in fright, and it achieves the effect of "holding your breath" as the title says. So the title has meaning both inside and outside the plot.
This film has no supernatural elements, nor is it mysterious, it is just as thrilling, providing a good reference for how to make horror films in countries that have banned ghosts and cannot become elites after the founding of the country.
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