'Afterimages', a local horror film from the makers of 'Haunted Changi', has opened islandwide. It promises a kaleidoscope of scare with its 5 mini stories. SINdie writers Jeremy Sing and Joseline Yu dissect them and discuss the hits and misses of these scares in 'Afterimages'.
Jeremy Sing is the editor of SINdie and Joseline is a final year English Literature student at NTU.
Jeremy: Hey Joseline, sorry I almost left you sitting alone
in the cinema, thinking you were not afraid of horror but to my surprise you
are. So...... any 'afterimage' after watching 'Afterimages?’
Joseline: Some of the gorier parts did made me resort to your
suggested method of only peering at the screen. But to be honest, the more
interesting bits are the ones free of blood and impending violence. Shall we
dissect the scares we remember the most, both the gruesome and non-gruesome
ones?
Jeremy: Oh! Did the peering at the screen work? Would love to
know! Lol. It always works for me because you fear it yet you want to watch a
bit of it.
Joseline: It made the viewing more bearable, and afterwards I
didn't really feel like I missed much since I know that basically bloods will
spurt, mutilation will happen etc. Even viewers who don't come for the visual
violence can still be interested in watching horror films if only for the
narrative. As long as the violence isn’t the plot point itself, not fully
taking in it isn't that detrimental to the experience.
Still,
not to detract the enjoyment of those who watch horror for those kind of scenes
and the people who make them...where else to enjoy gratuitous violence, if not
in horror films?
Jeremy: Haha. Some logic there. And yes, I think as much as creating an
arresting story, many horror filmmakers love to create scares, an exercise sometimes
totally separate from the story. I have seen the director Tony's previous
works. And yes, despite him being an American, he has a wide vocabulary of
Singaporean tales from the dark. But of course, whether he knows to milk them
to the best effect is another question. So yes let’s examine the scares.
The
first scene that spooked me was actually not a scare. In story one, Ghost Pool
Leg, the pervert has his telescopic view of this lady across the block who had
just emerged from the shower. The blurriness of it and the unsuspecting nature
of that moment actually made it a bit spooky. I felt like, perhaps the director
has something up his sleeves in this scene.
Maybe
its because when I was younger, I also sometimes was curious at night and would
use my binoculars. (by the way.... curious in a general sense haha!)
Joseline: Aha! Most people nowadays would keep their curtains
tightly drawn though, since estates nowadays are packed closer than ever. I
didn't really think much about the expat being a pervert...but on second
thought the shot did set up a sort of transition from the blurriness of the
naked woman to the dripping lady swimmer, as if some erotic link is
established. Feminine beauty or desirability is often presented as a precursor
to violence in this film, but we can delve into that later on.
Speaking
of the unexpected, I was pleasantly surprised that the security guard
caricature turned out to be a ghost himself!
Jeremy: Actually that got me a little confused at first. Maybe
it is because his emergence as a ghost was shadowed by the frenzy that was
happening in the water. Your eyes are on the woman and what surprises she will
unleash on the pervert. Otherwise, the passer-by ghost warner being also a
ghost himself is quite common in the horror formula.
Joseline: I think I saw the actor before playing the same kind
of stock character, perhaps even in a TV drama. So do you think that the ghost
of the woman and the security guard will move on in peace once they have
sacrificed the pervert?
Jeremy: Actually this is where I would mention a fundamental
flaw in the whole movie 'Afterimages' - the lack of a substantial back story. The
movie concentrated too much on the scares and tactics, it tends to neglect the
most important part of horror, the context and background. We know nothing
about why the girl drowned in the swimming pool and we care even less about the
security guard. So whether they move on after sacrificing the pervert or not,
is inconsequential to me.
Joseline: Yeah, and what's there to lose with the pervert
drowning? Anyway, since there are 5 films, we can excuse this one as those of
the quickly made B-genre. The film wants us to not take this one so seriously
too as shown by the meta discussion of the students in the frame story
regarding the ambiguous ending. The next film though, about the suicide,
incorporates context and background. Do you think it makes the central
character more sympathetic in any way?
Jeremy: Yes, I think so. And strangely, the scares and
moments and details in this filmlet were more meticulously executed. And when I
say details, one example I am referring to is the girl trying to delete the
photos she had taken, which contain that of the girl who just jumped. I think
if I were her and for no scientific reason, I get an error message about being
unable to delete, I would leap off my chair!
Joseline: Indeed. I nearly expected her to try to burn her
phone and CPU, but that would be more painful than horrifying. Why the neat
ending for this one, though? I'm guessing from the sepia tone that it might be
meant to replicate a student film, and those tend to end with closure.
Jeremy: Hahaha you just insulted student films! But good
point on the neat ending, which was different from all the other films.
Joseline: Noo...I was not! Just said that it looked like one
>__<
In
contrast to the first film, this one has an underlying message to it, that the
dead haunts the living for a specific reason and not just for spooks.
Jeremy: Personally, I quite like the subtle touch in this
closure. It was literally touch and go. If you blinked an eye you would have
missed that closure moment. So, yes I agree with you.
Joseline: We can even read a bit of character development to
the central character as she got over her own fear and find out more about her
ghostly tormentor's previous life. As the film ends with it teaching us
something, I guess this can be another way in which we can consider it as a
student film in spirit.
Jeremy: Any other memorable moments or scares for you in this
filmlet?
Joseline: For a moment I was scared that something terrible
will happen to the cats! Thankfully, they were left alone.
Jeremy: Are you a cat lover?
Joseline: Yes! As of late I've even warmed up to black
cats...it's not their fault that certain cultures perceive them as ominous
symbols due to the coat colour they are born with.
Jeremy: I see. That reminds me of a recent news I saw in
which a cat was thrown down the flat. The newspaper photo showed a pool of
blood. Same predicament as the girl in the story, different body weight. Which
also reminds me the split second moment when we saw some black and heavy thing just
drop across the screen, partly shrouded by the curtains, a pretty scary moment.
Joseline: Yeah, now I wish we hadn't seen the mutilated corpse
so that will be the image of the dead woman that will stick with us.
Jeremy: Haha. Afterimage. That's what it is! Remember the
opening scene?
Joseline: Yeah, with the reference to Hamlet that went nowhere.
That was effective because it relied on putting the audience in the students'
place, in which they are required to use their imagination to see the
invisible.
Jeremy: I loved that scene and the idea. I generally like simple
ideas with huge extensions and I felt the simple close-up shot of the skull
prolonged had a very unsettling effect on me. For one, of course, there was
this nagging suspicion that there would be some scare in ambush waiting to
emerge. But the idea also outlives the duration of the visual because it's like
being transplanted into your brain and it germinates on its own.
Joseline: Exactly...straightforwardly scaring the audience
would make the viewing experience more passive. It's like the opening scene
gets the audience to scare themselves.
Within
the confined space of the 3rd film, the one in the elevator,
do you think it's
still possible to direct it in such a way that the audience still has room (pun
unintended) to exercise their imagination?
Jeremy: Yes, but I think to achieve that, the effort is more
in the scripting. So many ways you can make an elevator spooky. Actually,
what's even better, is if the director can play up more the unknown and unseen.
Make the characters in the lift panic about something that will not even rear
its face in the film. But alas, the one and only scare in the film was very
literal and flat. What do you think?
Joseline: Indeed...I did not need to see a woman cut her face
open nor did the film make me want to. The twist of her being a zombie all
along took away most of the sympathy I had for her as well.
Jeremy: So was there anything in the 3rd film that spooked
you at all?
Joseline: At one point, one of the male characters started
filming the conflict in the elevator with his phone and the events being
filtered through the grainy screen made me feel like there's something else in
there with them. However, he was so unessential to the story that I can't even
be sure if this happened.
Jeremy: Hahaha. I dont even recall this portion. For me the
only scary moment was this particular shot of the lift. It was an infinity
reflection shot of the mirrored interiors of the lift and it seemed like there
was a message in that shot or something I could spot.But..... not important it
seems. Moving on, the fourth film should be quite interesting to discuss. What
spooked you and what didn't?
Joseline: Spooked me: Everything to do with the hawker's friend
until the twist of the hawker's repressed memory. What didn't: Everything to do
with lady's fingers... It's like...an increased preference for the food
happened to coincide with the chopping of literal lady's fingers. It would be
more relevant if the hawker is a seller of lady's fingers, or if the food is
the thing to jog his memory instead of the ring.
Jeremy: I was like, trying to
jog my memory if chicken rice hawkers sold ladies fungers alongside chicken
rice........ and only Nasi Padang came to mind.
What
about the hawker friend spooked you?
Joseline: As for the hawker friend, the script gives him more
action than what is usually allocated to bit characters. For example, teasing
the Caucasian lady and taking the extra step to paste directions to the lady
finger's stall on the front of the hawker's stall. It seems then that he has a
larger role in the murder, especially his insistence that the victim has fled
for China.
His
story about the ring that can't be knocked down made it seem like he's
attempting to mislead the hawker as well.
Jeremy: Yeah, I agree mystery and horror go together and
there was something mysterious about him.
My
next scary moment is rather obvious one. It was when the hawker saw the ring
come to live by itself, and something knocked on the door as if on cue. I think
it's especially scary because we just saw a severed palm moving on its own in a
previous scene!
Joseline: It took me some time to make the connection though,
that the hand wants the ring to return to it. But then again, the victim hated
that ring in the first place...Were you confused in the last bit when the body
parts were put back together again? Like who was in charge of the corpse?
Jeremy: I have to say the story rules were not set very
clearly and much was lost in the scare frenzy. Somehow, at several points in
the film, there were good build-ups, though they often ended in poorly-executed
climaxes. This monster that appeared in this fourth story was a let-down for
me. Feels like suddenly, we are all in a Universal Studio ride!
Joseline: Speaking of monsters,
it just occurred to me that 4 out of 5 monsters feature female monsters. And
for the fifth, the ghost of the haunted house never takes a visible form. I
shudder to think of the implications...*not monsters, films
Jeremy: Well, you know what
they say about how hell hath no fury like a scorned women? Yup, women make
scarier ghosts (challenge me on that!). haha,
Joseline: Aha, but then again, quite a few horror icons are
men! See, it's when we attempt to seek a thematic connection among the films
that we notice this underlying gender bias. Another missed potential to provoke
thoughts on top of inducing fears.
Jeremy: haha yes. Sadako, Carrie, Pontianak......
Joseline: Overall, I'm still ambivalent on how to approach this
film on its own terms.
be
one thing if we're expected to be casual watchers, but then that contradicts it
starting with the definition of 'afterimage' and expecting us to remember it without
explicit call-backs.
Jeremy: My next talking point of horror is a different kind
of horror. Its the horror of native Chinese-speaking characters speaking in
English like a Channel 5 drama.
Joseline: Aha! I took it as unintentional humor. It would make
more sense if the kept woman is of any other non-Chinese race.
Jeremy: Case in point, it's strange enough that the hawkers
are conversing in English. Name me one coffeeshop where this happens! The
ultimate horror surfaced when his PRC wife tried to do a 'lulu' form Channel
5's The Noose - i.e. speak in English with a heavy accent. For whatever markets
this film is aimed for, that really made me shudder.
Joseline: We can always pretend this is a dubbed film and the
English is conveyed through voiceover. Don't think it's relevant to the
storytelling, anyhow.
Jeremy: Still! Alright, we have different thresholds.
Joseline: An image that ought to be relevant to the
storytelling is the short scene of the Asian female student in the white dress
looking through the previous owners' things. The symbolism was so blatant! And
yet it went nowhere.
Jeremy: Yeah, there was some expectation built in there but,
like I mentioned, did not take off. In fact, a lot of things were happening in
the final segment very rapidly, almost signalling the lack of time to finish
telling the story. Again, there were some excellent build-ups to the screening
of the final film.The idea of the film strips foretelling their fate is
potentially a creepy one, though it was not milked for maximum effect.
Joseline: I'm still confused on whether it is truly 'fated'.
What does the ghost have to gain from burning all of them?
Jeremy: It would have nice to support that with a back story
but alas, the film succumbed to a
'all-ghosts-are-blood-thirsty-don't-need-a-reason-to-kill' justification.
Joseline: To wrap this conversation up, I would like to finish
up with a question.
Jeremy: Sure, fire away.
Joseline: Among the plagiarist students, who did you initially
think would be the first to die?
Jeremy: Mmmmmm.....there are a few equally likely as prime
targets, either due to their curiosity, their arrogance, their devil-teasing
ways. Instead, perhaps I will tell you who I thought was least likely to die -
the Chinese boy.
Joseline: Shucks, I expected him to be the first to die, just
because the film is so much like a typical Western horror film.
Jeremy: Hahaha. Where the Western guys survive and save the
day?
Joseline: Yes! But then again, the girl in white who I
mistakenly thought would be the Final Girl is Asian and also died.
Jeremy: True. Like I said,
this film likes to 'overkill'. So no one lives. (evil laugh!)
Written by Jeremy Sing and Joseline Yu