Denouement Renouement

Tag: mystery

  • Hooptober 13: The Cat and the Canary (1927)

    Film #1 — 1/1 Haunted House/Building/Room Film; 1/9 Decades

    By C. Ramsay

    Adapted from the 1922 stage play of the same name, The Cat and the Canary is a melodramatic comedy-horror film that finds a group of relatives—distant in familial relation, personal relation, or both—congregating at the estate of their deceased patriarch for the reading of his will. This document and others associated with it are used to open the story, catching the audience up at the same time as the family members and establishing parameters around the inheritance that make obtaining it dangerous. Enmeshed in the domestic drama is the added stress of an alleged escaped lunatic from a nearby asylum supposedly hiding somewhere on the mansion grounds, leading to increased paranoia and opportunity for sabotage.

    Some of the ambience of a stage production is maintained throughout the film while other aspects, unique to the medium of photography, are harmoniously incorporated to distinguish director Paul Leni’s adaptation from simply being a filmed reproduction of the original work. Multiple-exposure shots and superimposition are implemented at various points , effects that a stage play would not be able to accomplish in the same way. In-camera effects and some creative point-of-view camerawork are also relied on as a means to better immerse the audience in the setting and atmosphere, tying our viewpoint to that of different characters and forcing our involvement in the mystery coursing through the night. These same effects further function to disturb the scale of the scenes, adding a touch of nonsensicality that better informs the overall mood.

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  • 2026 Release Review: Backrooms

    By C. Ramsay

    Having developed the web series of the same name throughout his teenage years, director Kane Parsons’ feature-length directorial debut Backrooms seeks to transliterate the appeal of his indie passion project to suitably extend it to a more commercial audience. Parsons’ willingness and excitement towards working with a variety of media, allowing him to mix approaches as he sees fit, has here resulted in an impressive collection of practical effects and built sets that help feed the environment for the actors and audience alike.

    The most notable component of the film is its incredible atmosphere, on which every other component relies to be successful in their own ways. The concept of the Backrooms, this sort of extradimensional, never-ending liminal space of mostly empty corridors and rooms, preys on a variety of broad and specific fears, and at times almost invites its audience to project our fears onto it as much as it can bring brand new sensations of fear to us. Shifting between the sense of confinement that can be felt through both narrow and open space, between feelings of disorientation and being watched, between the dread of the unknown or of the inability to see a threat hiding in plain sight, Parsons has orchestrated the creation of a nightmarish world that is fueled by displacement and helplessness. Viewers are repeatedly held to the POV of the cameras being used by the people within the Backrooms, giving the sense that we’re being used as human shields to protect the characters as they move through the hallways, rooms, pools, doors, and archways. Whatever might be lurking will meet us first, and the stress of this is amplified by the fact that more often than not what’s lurking is simply nothing at all.

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  • Hooptober 12: [REC] (2007)

    Film #31 — 5/5 Zombie Films; 6/6 Countries (Spain)

    By C. Ramsay

    Opening on a reporter and cameraman covering the night shift at a fire station, the viewer is dragged with them on a call to help an elderly woman trapped in her apartment, an excursion that culminates in the lockdown of the building due to the spread of a rabies-like virus that is contagious to humans. We stay within the point of view of Pablo, the cameraman, for nearly the entire film, forcing the viewer into the center of the action along with every other frantic character. The sense of helplessness experienced by the audience is made worse through having no choice but to move with Ángela, the reporter, and Pablo to keep up with the professionals who were meant to be captured in the first place, but not being able to contribute anything except for witnessing and documentation. The group we’re placed with has no expertise for the crisis and is constantly struggling to remain calm—even those with authority completely lack in the ability to do anything that might matter, though they try.

    Manuela Valesco, who plays Ángela, is extremely charismatic in her role, developing a combination of naivety and initiative that rounds out her characterization in places where others might remain stereotypes or caricatures. The makeup and practical effects are great, and though we see a lot, it’s constantly fragmented due to the camerawork, making us crave more. It helps that the colours of the building and most of the clothing are muted, allowing any blood to stand out.

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  • Hooptober 12: It Comes at Night (2017)

    Film #26 — 2/2 Post-Apocalyptic Films

    By C. Ramsay

    Opening in medias res, with high stakes and no information other than what is directly visible to the audience, It Comes at Night is a drawling, shambling, slow burn of a character study. Surprisingly relevant to the hyper paranoia that has festered since the arrival of COVID-19, the film seeks to escalate by exploiting the uncertainties of the audience and characters alike. We never get much context around what’s happening or why, we only get a vague idea: a disease has ravaged the world, or at least the microcosm accessible to us, and we are introduced to the aftermath through two families and their experiences.

    Bruegel the Elder’s The Triumph of Death is featured at the beginning of the film, a painting depicting a browning landscape, charred by fire and littered with bodies and their useless earthly possessions. Legions of undead have come to lay waste to people of all classes and backgrounds, whether they accept their fate or vie against it. As with the families we meet, there are options for how they can respond to the threat of death, but there is ultimately no real chance of escape.

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  • Hooptober 12: The Outwaters (2022)

    Film #24 — 2/3 Wildcard Films

    By C. Ramsay

    Following four friends traveling deep into the Mojave Desert to make a music video, Robbie Banfitch’s The Outwaters combines elements from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Picnic at Hanging Rock to create a horrifying pastiche of back-country dread. Though a weighty share of its runtime feels painfully amateur—a negative reflection of Banfitch’s combined efforts in writing, directing, producing, starring in, doing the cinematography for, and editing the film—the latter half transitions to being evidence of what can be achieved through the confines of a small budget mixed with unbounded creativity. It never feels like there’s much effort put into the characterization of the group we follow, with nearly the first hour reflecting only their drab, predominantly mopey personalities. While this begins as a fault in the writing, it eventually becomes a testament to the gruesomeness presented and the degree to which it makes the characters as they exist sympathetic to the audience. Where every minute initially seems to drag under mediocrity, each later feels endlessly inescapable, with the characters reduced to sniveling, huffing, bestial renditions of their earlier selves who we can only hope are able to achieve some sort of salvation. The plot is structured fairly well and moves in completely unexpected ways, with the fear coming from a lack of formula and no forewarning to the audience of what might happen. Everything is panic, despair, and pitiful terror.

    Using an experimental approach, many scenes from the first half of the film are effectively unsettling in how they’re framed and edited, and in the types of audio overlaid instead of relying mostly on musical score. The soundscape overall is fantastic, but sometimes goes a touch overboard, aiming for shock value rather than immersion. Relatedly, the greatest feature of the horror presented is its abstractness: only being able to see a fraction of what’s going on and having our brains fill in the rest, or having visual access to what’s happening but not being able to make sense of it. Where things falter slightly is in occasionally showing too much; if certain visuals were toned down and retained a status of being slightly off from making sense instead of turning into jumpscares, then every scene would be just as effective. For so much imagery in the last act being abstract, there’s also some specific, clear imagery that feels a bit too out of place to meld properly with everything else. Altogether though, the gore is designed well and conveys complete depravity, and the angles of certain shots and how they capture the people in them are nauseating.

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  • Hooptober 12: Black Mountain Side (2014)

    Film #22 — 1/1 Canadian Film; 9/9 Decades

    By C. Ramsay

    Featuring a premise that’s always fun to see new approaches to—an isolated group of people being slowly picked off by something or someone in an extremely remote area—Black Mountain Side is unfortunately unsuccessful in its addition to the catalogue. Sticking relentlessly to its slow pace, which serves more to simply wait out the story beats than it does to contribute to the atmosphere, an attempt is made to keep attention on the characters, but the mediocre acting means the film is constantly shoving a stick into its own spokes.

    The effort is felt right off the bat, and while thought behind the camerawork is appreciated, every single shot feels overly planned and meant to represent some deeper meaning, which becomes distracting very quickly. It seems like there was indecision around whether the camerawork should make the audience feel like a fly on the wall, held hostage to witness the events but helpless to do anything about them, or a member of the crew, equally at risk to what lurks in the shadows. Though it’s to be expected that John Carpenter’s The Thing would be inescapable for inspiration to some extent, certain characters here are stylized so similarly that a couple of the actors even have a physical resemblance through their physical features, facial hair, clothing, and mannerisms, which further works to remove the viewer from the moment rather than linking them to it.

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  • Hooptober 12: Spoorloos (The Vanishing) (1988)

    Film #18 — 4/4 Films Based on Novels

    Also filed under: A-One

    By C. Ramsay

    An extremely slow burning, quiet character study about loss, grief, and the human condition in the face of tragedy. Rex and Saskia, a couple on holiday, pull up to a busy rest stop where Saskia suddenly disappears. Rex, never having given up the search and taunted by postcards from the supposed abductor, returns to the scene after three years desperately seeking answers. Aside from a few minutes the audience has alone with Rex and Saskia at the beginning of the film, the killer is introduced early on. The focus is almost never on who, but on the depressingly unanswerable question of why.

    Jumping between character perspectives, director George Sluizer subjects the viewer to a mixture of firsthand accounts of the actions of certain people as well as the secondhand understanding of them through stories and explanations. From our own viewpoint there is no telling what’s reliable or to what extent, we’re forced to accept what we’re given without question or risk our questions being forever unresolved. The scene of Saskia’s disappearance at the start of the film, shot from Rex’s point of view, provides a sample of the frustration this feeling brings—of realizing something isn’t right and thinking there must be an easy explanation, something simple we’ve overlooked, before the aching sense of dread starts to creep in, giving way to overwhelming panic. Everything can be done right and it still won’t matter.

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  • Hooptober 12: Salem’s Lot (1979)

    Film #13 — 1/1 Tobe Hooper Film

    By C. Ramsay

    A fun score, immersive camerawork, and some gnarly special effects with some equally gnarly pants situations. I’d been thinking about how much the location reminded me of Point Dume from Messiah of Evil and then Elisha Cook Jr. appeared playing basically the same character, which was delightful. 

    The makeup and gleeful grins the vampires have are effectively haunting, especially considering the contacts give them a somewhat unfocused gaze, making them seem lost in their bloodlust. They often appear to be drooling, and the way the prosthetic teeth fit almost make it seem like their lips are swollen, cut in their eagerness to feed with tools they’ve not yet adapted to. The insides of their mouths remain fleshy and pink whereas the rest of their skin is made to look rotting and dead, the person they used to be now just a husk commandeered to feed.

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  • Hooptober 12: Cat People (1942)

    Film #4 — 1/1 Most Popular Film from the 1940s I Hadn’t Seen; 3/9 Decades

    By C. Ramsay

    Although the pacing is a little slow during the first half, the characters are so endearing that it’s worthwhile spending time with them. Irena, originally from Serbia and still mostly askew in New York, is especially sympathetic as a protagonist experiencing isolation from her country, culture, friends, and family, as well as through the gendered expectations placed on her. She spends most of her time desperately trying to fit into a box that was never sized for her, fearing the consequences of not being able to do so, and performing for the satisfaction of the people around her to her own detriment. 

    Irena’s arc is resonant for the same reasons as Medea’s in the play of the same name—a woman capable and established in her own right is seen as different in an unfamiliar society and is betrayed by a husband she thought she could trust, leading to a compulsion to commit acts of violence as her only means of escape. The caged panther that Irena regularly visits reveals her fundamental misunderstanding of the creature she projects herself onto, even if she means well, which is paralleled by how the people in her life treat her and her reactions in turn. Neither she nor the panther are innately evil, but when pressured and lacking alternatives both will escalate in accordance with what is assumed of them by the masses, fitting in only in how they were expected not to. “I love silence, I love loneliness,” is uttered by Irena in despair at the eventual realization that she cannot pretend herself into someone she isn’t for people who claim to care about her but never really change their own behaviours in meaningful ways. Isolation at least provides the opportunity for a less challenged understanding of oneself.

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