Text / Bai Mojun
Not long ago, the release of a trailer caused a lot of chatter among fans.
Really coming! A remake of the horror classic "The Storm"!
Luca Guadagnino, the director of last year's hit movie "Call Me by Your Name", made a high-profile appearance, pulling in the heroines of "Fifty Shades of Grey" Dakota and "Doctor Strange", the ancient master Swinton, It is about to set off a new century "yin wind". The supporting cast is also very luxurious: "Super Killer" Chloe Moretz and 77 version of the heroine Jessica Harper all participated. The original classic and the luxury of the new lineup have made people's expectations for this film soar.
On September 1, after the film was screened in a small area at the Venice Film Festival, the first group of moviegoers who watched the film have written a film review. As expected, the comments were very polar: some people were fascinated, and some people wished they could leave early.
The days of waiting for resources are still far away, so let Xiaobai, who is a loyal fan of the old version of "Squirrels of the Wind", show you the classics, dig deep into the preview, and "calculate" the probability of the success of this adaptation by Guadao!
Many people say that "The Storm" is probably the most difficult horror film to be remade in film history. "The most difficult" is not necessarily, if you add "one", it will definitely not run. why? To figure this out, we must first take those fans who have never seen the old version to review how the original version became a horror classic.
In the 1970s, Italian Giallo was in full swing. Lead-yellow movies, in one word: bloody, perverted, erotic, heavy taste, none of them can be missing. Young director Dario Argento has made a few well-known thrillers and has made Goblin's screeching surly music his signature. Finally, in 1977, the thirty-seven-year-old Argento brought together his personal style and dedicated the audience to Suspiria.
The story of "The Storm" is simple. Suzy from the United States flew to Germany late at night in a heavy rain. She was going to a dance school in Berlin to learn how to dance. This dance school is full of weirdness: on the first night of registration, a girl was killed after escaping from the school; Ms. Blank, the deputy dean of the school, and the teacher behaved abnormally, the servants looked ugly, and the dean never disappeared; Susie practiced for the first time, She fainted inexplicably; when she woke up, she was required to eat only "healthy" food every day... All kinds of visions all tempted the weak and weak to explore the secrets hidden behind the school.
At the time, the film was almost out of the blue. It is not only different from traditional lead-yellow films, but also different from the style of global horror films at the time. When you watch "The Storm", you will be surprised to find that the characters are not important, the dialogue is not important, and the core of the film is two elements that you rarely pay attention to: color and music.
Can color and music be the protagonists of a movie? Believe it or not. Let me tell you how Argento used 14 minutes to establish himself as a master of horror films.
In the first shot, when Suzy walks out of the airport, the psychedelic music of the goblin band is playing urgently. You are not even ready, and the atmosphere is already overwhelming you. Amidst the eerie sound of music, even the most ordinary automatic glass door is daunting.
The hostess got into the taxi, and her nervousness did not ease in the slightest. Susie's face was bright red from the streetlights outside the window, and the raindrops were as terrifying as splashing blood.
The taxi is about to arrive at the destination. On the red outer wall of the Dance Academy, the rain was pouring down one after another, as if it had been soaked in blood.
After getting out of the car, the heroine wanted to enter the door quickly in the wind and rain. A panicked girl rushed out of the building and ran away.
At this point, 14 minutes have not been used up. An ordinary freshman check-in scene was performed by stage-style lighting, extremely weird music, and extremely stylized shots. You know, the really scary scenes haven't appeared yet! Forms and elements are so gorgeously permeated throughout the film.
You see, in the middle of the night, the hostess opened the door and walked into the corridor of the academy. The inside of the house was a fluctuating blue, and the outside was a dangerous red.
You see, in the climax, the heroine is at a loss and wants to escape, and the people who are fighting fiercely around her are clearly blood red and bright yellow.
If you really want to get to the bottom of it, many plots of the old version of "Gloomy Wind" can't stand up to scrutiny, and there are too many bugs. I still remember the black question mark on my face after reading it for the first time: Will every student in the school die, or will the one who discovers the truth die? If the villains are afraid of being discovered, why do they continue to recruit students? What happened to the endless love scene between the heroine and the handsome little brother? In the end, did the classmates go to the theater and never come back? ...
After the second brush, I suddenly realized that these kinds of things can prevent "The Storm" from occupying a place in the history of horror films. After all, in such a strong light and shadow, the plot seems to have retreated to the corner of the stage. Here, is the home of color, music and camera language.
So, the question is, how to remake this style of classic?
I was puzzled and couldn't see the whole new version of the film, so I could only eagerly watch the new version of the trailer a dozen times. Suddenly I found out that this trailer has already exposed Gua Dao's remake ideas almost!
Gua Dao's first move, pay tribute to the classics.
In these flashes, we can find the same color passages as the 77 version, for example, in the flashes of green and purple light, Swinton's Lady Blank is looking weird.
For example, the frame shot outside the window used in the 77 version to show that the character is isolated and has nowhere to escape, also appears in the new version of the trailer.
For example, the blurred virtual image in the mirror in the 77 version can also be found in the new version.
These tributes are technical, even inconsequential details. Because, in the new version of the trailer, you can feel more, is the change.
Facing the high stylization of the previous work, Gua Dao's thinking is very clear: if your style cannot be more extreme than the predecessors, then the plot adaptation seems to be the only breakthrough.
The new version adopts an obvious realistic style, with cool colors and depressing music.
The story of the 77th edition of the film all happened within a short time span after Susie came to the dance school, and almost all the scenes were in the school. The time span of the new version has become significantly larger, you can even see the footage of winter snow in the trailer, and at the same time, the physical space of the story is also wider.
At the same time, the character settings have also undergone major changes. Obviously, the old professor who appeared as an instrumental role to help the heroine answer questions in the 77th edition seems to have a greater role, and is directly involved in the action of uncovering the truth.
And a flashing notebook lens exposed the possibility of adding two-line or even multi-line narrative in the new version. After all, the new version is 152 minutes long, nearly an hour longer than the 77 version. According to the published cast list, the girl named Anke on the notebook is played by the 77 version of the heroine who is about to turn 70 years old, and the swastika above the cover is particularly eye-catching. Obviously, the dusty past of this school during World War II will also be dug up by the heroine.
After making these huge plot changes, a new question arises: Is there a high probability of success for Director Gu's "Squirrels of the Wind"?
Considering that Director Gua brought a lot of quality assurance in this filming:
The works photographed by photographer Sayop Mukdipro include the sunny "Please Call Me by Your Name" and the mysterious "Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives", which won the Palme d'Or.
Musician Tom York, who is the composer of the new version, is even more assured. Although the work is not as magical as Goblin, do you still remember the suffocating "Dancer in the Darkness"?
In addition, Director Gua has also put a lot of effort into the design of "dance" movements in the dance school. The sharp three-shot editing in the trailer shows that the combination of action design and horror plot is coming. These dance segments are quite worth looking forward to.
Therefore, you don't have to worry about the artistic quality of each link of the film. But as I said at the beginning, film reviews are bound to be polarized. The idea of adaptation that only retains the story frame and abandons the style of the original work will inevitably have the inherent disadvantage that it is difficult to paint the skin of the tiger. The most likely fate of the new version of the film in the future is that the old fans will not buy it, and the new fans will not be amazed. There are good sentences but no good chapters.
The ugly words have been said, and I still believe that the new version of "The Storm" is definitely the most anticipated horror film of the year.
At that time, the 77th edition of "The Storm" raised horror films to the height of works of art. Today, if anyone is suitable to remake this classic, it is really possible, and it is the director of literary films such as Gua.
Come, let's go to the literary horror together. Are you afraid?
(This article was first published on the WeChat public account of "Wanda Movie Life"; reprinting is declined; comments and reposting are welcome)
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