And among the supernatural horror movies, when it comes to influence and box office performance, "Calling the Soul" is undoubtedly a leader.
Why are people afraid? Psychology proves that human fear comes from nature or acquired experience, and it is an instinctive stress to a dangerous state. Death, disasters, and painful experiences can make people feel scared. But what distinguishes humans from animals is that they are afraid of "non-existent" things, that is, brain thinking may also become a source of fear. This fear of the unknowable tends to have a deeper impact than other sources of fear. Because of "non-existence", it has become "ubiquitous". Thinking infinitely amplifies small factors, and fear arises from within, eroding people's emotions. And this kind of emotion can be spread among people through media such as words, text, images, etc., so that individual horror experiences become group feelings. Therefore, Kyogoku Natsuhiko uses the Kyogokutang series of novels to define ordinary words as A kind of spell. The so-called supernatural horror movie is a cultural product that sells this kind of stimulating experience. As a long-standing film genre, it has become increasingly difficult to innovate in the form of horror films. The repetition of techniques and the stacking of elements have turned the so-called "unknown" into a foreseeable stylized symbol, and horror film authors who are tired of it With a small budget, I am more willing to do collages and parody. The audience's immunity is getting stronger and stronger. When Japanese-style adaptations were declining in Hollywood, pseudo-record styles were rampant, and plasma spraying was repeatedly ridiculed. Returning to the tradition, "Exorcism" has re-saved the banner of inner horror. Under the American crude shell, it is wrapped in the delicate core of Asian horror. With this, it bridges the cultural barriers and has achieved recognition and success in the global film market.
Although there are gimmicks of "real story adaptation", in the distant 1970s, American religious exorcism was still difficult for domestic audiences to feel substituting. In terms of theme and plot trend, "Calling the Soul" is basically still a routine mode, and the various horror elements that appear are hard to be called fresh. It has been satirized by "The Cabin in the Woods" a long time ago. For so many years, the scary routines of ghost movies have long been familiar to the audience and even tired. Wen Ziren's genius lies in his ability to give play to the unique sensitivity and delicacy of Asians, starting from details and emotions, with stalled clocks and creaking doors. , Body bruises without warning, closed basements, all intangibles are given the spirit of ghosts, so as to create a rich and layered atmosphere of horror. The audience can probably guess in what form the horror will appear, but they are completely unable to grasp the director's narrative rhythm: the girl who is pulled by a ghost at night puts her head to the bottom of the bed, and suddenly a dead person emerges from the darkness without being tacky. Before this, there was still a warm conversation between husband and wife, and the sky changed suddenly. The white sheets blown away by the wind were suddenly drawn out of the human form, and they were close to the woman. Such unexpected relief and sudden shock continued in the film. Intertwined appearance... Wen Ziren relied on the layers of the horror atmosphere to gradually introduce the audience into the preset emotions, and finally showed the horror.
And the sense of rhythm has almost become the most important magic weapon for the success of "Calling the Soul". It can be seen that in the movie, the characters are not entangled with whether there are ghosts or not, which is boring to the audience (the ghost film is basically a feature of the motherland), except for the necessary emotional accumulation and details. Performance, the plot of the movie is advancing at a high speed throughout the whole process, and when showing the horror segment, Wen Ziren is very clever to pause and switch between relaxation and tension in a timely manner, so that even if the audience can anticipate a certain horror scene, However, it is always impossible to predict the specific time point. Through the rapid change of rhythm that is properly controlled, the audience stays tense during the movie watching, and dare not relax for a moment.
Another success of Wen Ziren lies in the careful creation of the film's screens. A few long shots make the film appear "advanced" a lot, which undoubtedly speeds up the audience's entry into the situation. The lens shows the constriction of the closed scene, and preserves the possibility of terror in the intertwined light and dark picture. In many cases, ghosts do not really appear in the camera, but the furnishings of the scene and even the simple darkness have become the endorsement of fright. Compared with many old Americans who like to sprinkle blood in the film (yes, it's you! The new version of "Ghosts"), Wen Ziren's borrowing method is obviously more clever and practical. After all, returning to the previous argument, the unpredictable fear is always more frightening than the direct presentation of ghosts. It is a pity that Wen Ziren failed to persist in this regard. There are also paragraphs directly describing evil spirits in the film, which may shock the audience based on the visual impact, but for the kind of deliberate creation of the whole movie. If there is no horror atmosphere, it is undoubtedly a kind of dissolution and weakening, which is probably a compromise that the director has to make for the sake of the cinema effect. Therefore, at the climax of the movie, the exorcism ceremony has completely relied on sound and picture support, which is more than tense and exciting, but the horror accumulated before has been wiped out.
It is commendable that, as a Hollywood horror movie, "Calling the Soul" has always maintained restraint in the blood. The so-called scenes of evil spirits appearing in the whole film are actually only two or two, regardless of length and proportion. More often than not, after all, movies still focus on the construction and transmission of emotions. Special praise is that after successfully completing the main storyline with a bright ending, audiences who think they are familiar with the director are ready for another cliché and inevitable reversal ending, but Wen Ziren just let the film end cleanly. NS. Therefore, this film is hailed as the most terrifying and troublesome supernatural event experienced by the two exorcists in real history. With the result of zero deaths of the parties, it was perfectly closed.
Is this another surprise?
Ps:
1. In terms of the horror film configuration, the cast of "Call of Souls" is a dazzling star.
2. Wen Ziren takes over "Fast and Furious 7" and wants to leave the horror movie temporarily and go to a wider field.
3. Is the Asian actor in the film definitely not a relative of the director?
4. Compared with the mighty power of Chinese celestial masters to catch ghosts, American exorcism always feels too weak, and the effect does not seem to be obvious.
5. It is a great progress that the film was introduced into the country in some kind of genuine form.
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