Trifecta Of Terror: The British Ghosts Gone Wild Stakes

In today's installment of Trifecta Of Terror!, we reach into the world of spirits.  Ghosts are a pretty popular subject when it comes to horror, and there is a plethora of films to choose from. I've incorporated a more specific theme here, in that the characters in these films are quite literally attempting to create (or at least entice) an entity to appear. In all three, someone is actually trying to disprove the existence of ghosts. Additionally, these are all "period" films made-in-the-UK, lending an international flavor to this "competition".

To recap, in each Trifecta of Terror!, I choose three films with a similar topic or like-minded theme that would compliment each other and put them in the order that represents a win (the best film of the three), a place (second place finisher) and a show (the third place finisher). And with a Triple Crown of horse racing on the line tomorrow in the Belmont Stakes, I couldn't miss the opportunity to get this post in before post-time! (See what I did there?)

First up is our "show" film.  This third-place finisher is 1995's HAUNTED, starring Aidan Quinn and the (sometimes naked) Kate Beckinsale.  Quinn stars as Professor David Ash, an expert in the field of parapsychology.  He's literally written the book on how to debunk ghosts and when the film opens he has been summoned by the Mariel family to come and investigate a supposed haunting at their estate, Edbrook.
David struggles with his desire to disprove the existence of ghosts because of the untimely death of his twin sister when they were young.  He blames himself and in turn seems unwilling to believe that she at times appears to him.  At Edbrook, he meets the charismatic and flirtatious Christina (Beckinsale), who with her brothers and their fragile-minded Nanny Tess (Anna Massey) make up a very strange and exceptionally "close" family.  Brothers Simon (Alex Lowe) and Robert (Anthony Andrews) are less than enthused when Christina seems to take a particular interest in David and try to discourage him from staying on at the house.  Adding to this, during David's investigation he begins to have what he believes are hallucinations- including seeing his dead sister who repeatedly warns him to leave Edbrook. 

While there are no ghastly scares to be found - and certainly none of the red stuff - Haunted does present a cohesive plot and certainly puts the fun in dysfunctional family.  As Christina makes her mind up to seduce David, her brother Robert seems a little too pissed at the idea, and further evidence of the strange family ties is indisputable when David witnesses Robert painting a portrait of Christina.  A nude portrait. 
Regardless, Haunted does have appeal for the ghost-story loving crowd and is certainly worth a look.

Coming in as our "place" film, we have the recently released  THE QUIET ONES, in which we travel back to the 70's to Oxford where Professor Joseph Coupland (Jared Harris) is entertaining the idea that anything that is deemed unexplained or supernatural is indeed mental illness.  He's gathered a few students together to set up an experiment at a house in the country in which he will "prove" that a young woman's supposed ability to cause paranormal activity is a psychological disease and not an unearthly skill of unexplained reasoning. The subject, Jane Harper (Olivia Cooke, Bates Motel), has been living in foster homes most of her life and has been continually subjected to loud rock music while locked in a tiny room in order to try and produce the desired effect (in other words, paranormal activity).  As the Professor continues with his increasingly unethical experiments, one of the students, Brian (Sam Claflin) takes a particular interest in Jane and delves into her disturbing history which leads him to - of all things - possible devil worship as well as the predictable demonic possession.

This film had mixed reviews when it came out, and in fact performed poorly at the box office - but I saw it at the theater and enjoyed it.  While I wouldn't say it blew me away, I did like the concept and thought the acting made it worthwhile, in particular Cooke, whom I had only seen in Bates Motel (where I like her character very much and think she is an above-average actress).  There were the obligatory jump scares, which dumbed-down the plot a bit, but for the most part the film reeked of foreboding atmosphere, particularly in those shadowy corners of a dark house. You could do a lot worse than this recent Hammer production on a rainy Saturday afternoon. 

And for our winner: 2011's THE AWAKENING.
We've already reviewed this film (in fact it was Marie's first review here over two years ago!) but it is a great, atmospheric haunted house film that deserves to be mentioned once again. Rebecca Hall stars as Florence Cathcart, a woman with a lost love in her past and a chip on her shoulder.  She's taken to debunking supposed ghosts and like our hero from Haunted, she is also a published author on the subject. When she is called upon by Robert Mallory (Dominic West), a teacher at a boarding school to investigate a "real" ghost on premises, she at first declines, but has a change of heart and makes the trip.
In the process of investigating by setting up "traps" for a spirit to trigger, she discovers that the "ghost" may be that of a boy that had a fatal asthma attack after being reprimanded by a harsh teacher.  As school lets out at the end of a semester, only a few adults (including herself, Mallory, housekeeper Maud (Imelda Staunton), and one student -Tom (Isaac Hempstead-Wright)- remain behind.  When Florence is about to leave for good (feeling her work is done by assuming that the boys at the school have been pulling pranks since the other boy's death), she nearly drowns after falling into the pond.  Thinking that a hand had pulled her in, Florence deepens her scrutiny into the ghost theory and finds much more than she bargained for. 

At once atmospheric and ominous, The Awakening has a lot to offer fans of ghost and hauntings.  The acting is superb and there are heaps of fun scares that aren't in the least bit cheap or predictable.  Hall carries the bulk of the film with ease and it's a pleasure to watch her get caught up in all the supernatural mystery of the plot. The best parts are when she is bound and determined to unravel a hoax and she instead falls further into the abyss.  As such, I wouldn't put this in the same category as say, The Haunting (1963) or The Innocents (1961), but it's an above-average tale of ghostly antics that is a breath of fresh air in amongst all the blood and gore we call horror, and by far one of the most beautifully shot films I've seen in quite some time.

WiHM: Our Favorite Female Roles In Horror, Day 2

Another round of favorite performances features an actress in one of my all-time favorite television shows and the other from my favorite sub-genre of horror: ghost stories.  Again, these are both from me. Don't worry - Marie will be back quite soon!

Gillian Anderson - The X-Files

I adored The X-Files with all my heart and was terribly upset to see it end. And though those last few years didn't hold a candle to the first several, there was a glue that held it together: Gillian Anderson as Agent Dana Scully.

For anyone thinking The X-Files is not horror, to you I say watch the episodes entitled "Squeeze", "Die Hand Die Verletzt", "Irresistible", and/or "Home", among many others.

The show did have a serious mythology to it in regards to alien life and whether or not Mulder's sister was truly abducted, etc., but it also had a really stellar 'monster-of-the-week' side, too.

Scully's character is the skeptic, the physician in her just won't let her believe in the wild supernatural or paranormal activity unless there is proof.  Over the years she had to rethink that theory when evidence kept piling up to the contrary. All the while, her relationship with her partner, Fox Mulder, grew into first a deep friendship and then (of course) love.

Anderson was a perfect fit for Scully. Her reserved demeanor and disbelief bounced off David Duchovny's Mulder's sarcastic, dry wit, making them the ideal combination.

 And just when you thought she wasn't going to ever show any serious emotion - not even fear, the writers would pen a fabulous show like Irresistible (an episode about a death fetishist who has his sights set on Scully) or Beyond the Sea (in which her father passes away) and you then see how much range Anderson has as an actress.  

Some of the episodes really asked us as the audience to suspend disbelief, due to the fact that more than half the series is spend chasing down people who are holing away aliens and such, but damn if it isn't easier to believe with Dana Scully on the case. She is always looking for the scientific explanation and it plays well against Mulder's "I'm a believer" stance.

The winner of SAG, Golden Globe and Emmy awards for her portrayal of Scully, Anderson has since been in mostly British films and other foreign productions, and will be back on television (BBC2) this spring on The Fall, a series in which she stars as (what else?) a police officer investigating murders in Northern Ireland.  Hopefully it will be available here in the states eventually, as I can't wait to see her back on the small screen!

Rebecca Hall - The Awakening

Hall is no stranger to genre films, having been seen in both The Prestige (2006) and the underrated Dorian Gray (2009).  She has also been in several critically acclaimed films as well (Vicky Cristina Barcelona, 2008; Frost/Nixon, 2008; The Town, 2010). But she really made an impression on me in the 2011 British ghost story, The Awakening.

Hall plays Florence Cathcart, an author who spends her days debunking claims of supernatural phenomenon. She is still mourning the death of her lover in WWI, and this plays heavily upon her profession, as it's pretty obvious she is hoping to actually find proof of ghosts. This would help her heavy heart rest easier after parting on poor terms before her lover went off to war, if she could communicate with him somehow.

When she is asked to investigate claims of a ghost at a remotely located boys boarding school, she at first refuses, and is gently accused by the administrator Robert Mallory (Dominic West) of being afraid to find out the truth, lest she has to face the fact that it may not be a hoax. She ends up going to the school, where she learns that a boy was found dead there not too long ago with the death being blamed on the ghost of a boy who died many years before.

Though there are some haphazard wanderings within The Awakening, it is made so much more effective by Hall's top-notch performance. She emotes a varied range of mental states within the film, from utter despondence to indifference to a passion and determination to discover the truth of what is going on at the school.  It's easy to see that she and Mallory are meant to have a relationship, but the roundabout way that they get to that point, and the secrets that both of them hold close and resist letting go results in a multi-layered performance that lifts the film up a little higher than it would be otherwise.

I was really impressed with Hall's acting prowess here, as I was with it in Dorian Gray and other films I have seen here in.  She has a believability to her - a natural girl-next-door flavor to her work that makes it easy to relate to the characters she plays. I look forward to whatever she has in store for us next, and I would have to recommend The Awakening with all sincerity for any fan of a good old-fashioned, atmospheric ghost story.

2011's The Awakening (And A Formal Shout Out To My New Compadre, Marie)

Hello, fellow horror fans! I am thrilled to introduce myself, my name is Marie and I shall be reviewing the 2011 British film, The Awakening, directed by Nick Murphy, whose only previous endeavors were several television shows.

First of all, I love the poster. For some unknown reason Rotten Tomatoes is using an extremely boring all-black poster, when this one is perfectly marvelous! It captures the creepy atmosphere that is carried throughout the whole film, and I daresay you might have to watch this one twice to wrap your head around it!

The setting is England in 1921, just after the end of Word War I. The city is foggy and dark, cloaked in the anguish the war has left behind. Our opening scene unfolds onto a séance, where a group of people are seated around a long table lighted with tall candles, each with an object placed in front of them—a lock of hair, a photograph, a string of pearls, etc.

The group begins a chant, asking the spirits to come forward; a woman’s candle extinguishes before her, and from the other side of the table, a pale-faced, long-haired figure starts to approach. The woman becomes hysterical, believing it to be her deceased daughter making an appearance from the afterlife, when suddenly a young woman stands up from the table, storms over to the apparition and rips off its dark tresses, revealing the specter to be nothing but a little boy in a dress with his face painted white. This young woman—who is our protagonist, Florence Cathcart, played by the lovely Rebecca Hall (seen in Vicky Christina Barcelona and several stage performances)—rips open the curtains and exposes the audience to what this scene really is, a hoax.

Florence Cathcart is the author of an acclaimed book entitled, “Seeing Spirits” which denounces the existence of ghosts. She is known around England for debunking hauntings and exposing hoaxes. After the séance, Florence declares that she is no longer taking any more cases (but not before she gets bitch-slapped by one of the séance attendees). She is overcome with grief of a lover lost in the war; she carries his initial-engraved cigarette case with her everywhere.

Of course, it isn’t that easy getting out of the ghost-hunting business—if that was the case the movie would be a mere ten minutes long. A handsome man (Dominic West) appears at her doorstep, begging for her help.

This man goes by the name of Robert Malory, and he teaches at a school in Cambria where a boy was allegedly murdered some years ago, before the building had become a school and was still a private home. However, three weeks prior to Mr. Malory’s visit to Florence, a student claimed to see the dead child.
 
So off she goes through the sweeping landscape of the English countryside! After pulling up to a massive and foreboding gray-bricked mansion, Florence and Robert are greeted by Maud, (Imelda Staunton, most widely known as the biggest bitch in Hogwarts, Professor Umbridge) a woman who works at the school and Florence’s biggest fan. She informs Florence that she keeps her book right next to the Bible, and she has no patience for all the talk and fear of ghosts going around.

Florence receives a formal tour of the school, making sure to meet all of the other creepy staff members, and then proceeds to set up her various equipment she uses to catch “ghosts”. One of her devices is a newspaper covered in flour, which she claims is used to trace footprints. “Ghosts have footprints?” Robert asks. To which Florence aptly replies, “No, people pretending to be ghosts do.”

Things take a turn when Florence begins getting instant results; her traps are being set off by a child she can only catch a glimpse of as he darts around corners. She believes the culprit to be a sad, quiet boy named Tom—the last person to see the recently murdered child alive.

As her usual methods begin to fail and she continues to experience inexplicable events that her usual methods can’t resolve, her sanity starts to wane and no one is as they seem in the boarding school.

The story unravels at a steady and satisfying pace, and the events that happen along the way are exciting, original and unpredictable. Halfway through you might get the idea that you can guess the ending (I had a few ideas myself) but I guarantee that you cannot.

This movie reminded me a lot of The Others (don’t think that means I’m giving away the ending!) and Henry James’s novel the Turn of the Screw, two other English ghost stories that I thoroughly enjoy. It is a spooky, atmospheric film with limited special effects and beautiful shadowy cinematography.

Personally, I loved the character of Florence Cathcart. She’s not necessarily a likable character, she can be kind of a jerk, but hey, that is because she has a very dark and troubled past. People in the film are constantly commenting on how she is an “educated woman”, which is totally condescending but makes her a bad ass of her time. She is a tough chick who manages to kick some ass, come to terms with some terrible things about her past, and have some steamy romance, too (two guesses as to who she pairs up with).
Rebecca Hall has put on a wonderful performance as Florence, capturing her emotions and personality beautifully.

I’m a sucker for understated ghost stories, but I really enjoyed this film. It was released in Canada, Ireland, the U.K, and Italy in 2011, and will be out in the United States August 10th of this year.
If anyone else has seen it please tell me what you think!

 *Marie Robinson is an aspiring folklore expert, fledgling writer, and obvious old soul from St. Louis, MO.  She considers Roman Polanski one of her favorite directors, The Sentinel among the scariest of films she's seen, and has read both Algernon Blackwood and M.R. James. All this makes her a class act already, and she's not yet 21.
In her spare time, she does what any true genre fan does - she works at the local movie theater, slinging popcorn and Twizzlers to your sorry asses.

Show her some love, people.