Cellphones, horror and suspense
Dec. 10th, 2005 12:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethI had a think bubbling at the back of my mind. I wrote it down. I'm not convinced its terribly useful. But here it is.
The uses of mobile communications in horror and suspense.
BtVS mostly didn't use cellphones. Neither did Angel. Dawn used hers once. Mostly they were only mentioned so they could be broken or turned off or left behind.
For why?
Cellphones can be really great for building suspense, or horror.
Key thing is, calling for help is not getting help.
In 'Ultraviolet' there is an awesome sequence, where one of the guys is trapped in a warehouse with a bunch of vampires. They've been travelling, so they're in their coffins, but each has a timer on it and will open at sunset. The sun is sinking, he can't get out. He has a cellphone.
But this is by no means 'problem solved'.
He calls for backup, but they are more minutes away than he has left.
And the brilliance of the sequence, the part that burns it into my memory so much, is the subsequent combination of isolation and connection. He is talking to people who know and can help with what he's going through, but he is having to deal with it himself. He is with his friends, but he is also totally, utterly alone. And the way that heightens the suspense, and reveals and highlights the characters, is absolutely brilliant.
Its like the way the single scariest scene on BtVS was the one where Glory catches up to Tara. Surrounded by people, help on the way, and yet absolutely alone with an overwhelming problem.
Like when the bad thing happened to Xander's eye. Everyone seeing it, but not being in time to help.
The other sequence that depends on a cellphone for the effect was in the 100 greatest horror moments the other week. Scream. She's talking on the phone, thinking she's alone, certainly nowhere near the caller, but a mobile phone can be anywhere. (panto moment - behind you!)
The combination of isolation and connection allows you to do things that you couldn't do with just one or the other.
A character alone is a character unlikely to be speaking. Some people (Ethan, for instance) talk to empty air a lot, but on the whole its unlikely. Even if you're writing in first person and can watch them think, a character alone can only ever tell you about that character. Connect them and you get all the fun interactions.
But a character with a team around them is in a completely different situation. Heroics and horror are certainly both possible, but as a team.
Cellphones, or other mobile communication methods, leave a character physically alone, yet still talking to someone. Which leaves them emotionally *both* alone *and* with. And still mobile. And potentially any place on earth.
Millions of tricks to play with that.
Mutant X, which I think I've only mentioned here to diss it, actually uses communications all the time. As in, if a character is *out* of communication, it is noteworthy. They have rings that let them talk to each other constantly. And, okay, they don't exactly work it much. The writing on that show irritates me a lot. But they have used it for things like luring a team mate into a trap. All the fun things that can happen if you hear but not see or reach.
Sometimes the specific horror you're going for is 'alone in the dark'. 'Hush' was scary because "can't even shout, can't even cry". Alien tagline - "In space no one can hear you scream". Its a scary thing.
But its only one of a number of different scary things.
And cellphones can be useful to a bunch of them.
Plus, if you have to, they aren't exactly hard to make useless. So often I see people do the no-signal dance, or standing in odd corners to try and get a signal. (And there's another event-hook, reason to wander off). Stuff interferes. Batteries run out. And the other day when the fire alarm went off, everyone in my building had a cell phone, yet nobody had credit. Only official emergency numbers dial out regardless. And for a great many horror problems, officials are not the ones you want to reach.
Though I also have plot bunnies for a 999 operator dealing with the supernatural. Ghost calls, repeating the last words before a murder. As with any conversation from beyond, you can hear, but you can't reach, or do a thing to change. Connection/isolation again. And of course even once the person picking up the phone decides something needs doing about a freaky call, there's the problem of persuading anyone to move on it. Alone in a crowd indeed.
Thoughts? Comments?
More relevant examples?
any links to other people saying it better would also be welcome. I think a lot about stuff, but I only read writing books when I'm trying to avoid writing, so lack study.
The uses of mobile communications in horror and suspense.
BtVS mostly didn't use cellphones. Neither did Angel. Dawn used hers once. Mostly they were only mentioned so they could be broken or turned off or left behind.
For why?
Cellphones can be really great for building suspense, or horror.
Key thing is, calling for help is not getting help.
In 'Ultraviolet' there is an awesome sequence, where one of the guys is trapped in a warehouse with a bunch of vampires. They've been travelling, so they're in their coffins, but each has a timer on it and will open at sunset. The sun is sinking, he can't get out. He has a cellphone.
But this is by no means 'problem solved'.
He calls for backup, but they are more minutes away than he has left.
And the brilliance of the sequence, the part that burns it into my memory so much, is the subsequent combination of isolation and connection. He is talking to people who know and can help with what he's going through, but he is having to deal with it himself. He is with his friends, but he is also totally, utterly alone. And the way that heightens the suspense, and reveals and highlights the characters, is absolutely brilliant.
Its like the way the single scariest scene on BtVS was the one where Glory catches up to Tara. Surrounded by people, help on the way, and yet absolutely alone with an overwhelming problem.
Like when the bad thing happened to Xander's eye. Everyone seeing it, but not being in time to help.
The other sequence that depends on a cellphone for the effect was in the 100 greatest horror moments the other week. Scream. She's talking on the phone, thinking she's alone, certainly nowhere near the caller, but a mobile phone can be anywhere. (panto moment - behind you!)
The combination of isolation and connection allows you to do things that you couldn't do with just one or the other.
A character alone is a character unlikely to be speaking. Some people (Ethan, for instance) talk to empty air a lot, but on the whole its unlikely. Even if you're writing in first person and can watch them think, a character alone can only ever tell you about that character. Connect them and you get all the fun interactions.
But a character with a team around them is in a completely different situation. Heroics and horror are certainly both possible, but as a team.
Cellphones, or other mobile communication methods, leave a character physically alone, yet still talking to someone. Which leaves them emotionally *both* alone *and* with. And still mobile. And potentially any place on earth.
Millions of tricks to play with that.
Mutant X, which I think I've only mentioned here to diss it, actually uses communications all the time. As in, if a character is *out* of communication, it is noteworthy. They have rings that let them talk to each other constantly. And, okay, they don't exactly work it much. The writing on that show irritates me a lot. But they have used it for things like luring a team mate into a trap. All the fun things that can happen if you hear but not see or reach.
Sometimes the specific horror you're going for is 'alone in the dark'. 'Hush' was scary because "can't even shout, can't even cry". Alien tagline - "In space no one can hear you scream". Its a scary thing.
But its only one of a number of different scary things.
And cellphones can be useful to a bunch of them.
Plus, if you have to, they aren't exactly hard to make useless. So often I see people do the no-signal dance, or standing in odd corners to try and get a signal. (And there's another event-hook, reason to wander off). Stuff interferes. Batteries run out. And the other day when the fire alarm went off, everyone in my building had a cell phone, yet nobody had credit. Only official emergency numbers dial out regardless. And for a great many horror problems, officials are not the ones you want to reach.
Though I also have plot bunnies for a 999 operator dealing with the supernatural. Ghost calls, repeating the last words before a murder. As with any conversation from beyond, you can hear, but you can't reach, or do a thing to change. Connection/isolation again. And of course even once the person picking up the phone decides something needs doing about a freaky call, there's the problem of persuading anyone to move on it. Alone in a crowd indeed.
Thoughts? Comments?
More relevant examples?
any links to other people saying it better would also be welcome. I think a lot about stuff, but I only read writing books when I'm trying to avoid writing, so lack study.
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Date: 2005-12-10 06:47 pm (UTC)Gina
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Date: 2005-12-12 01:57 am (UTC)