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... to This Was the Film that Was.

I'm a moving image student currently based at a small college in the Midlands hoping for bigger and better things in the future. This is a blog about films, artwork and literature that I experience over the course of my time studying and working as a video artist/filmmaker.

I recently visited the Tate Modern and saw The Fortune Theatre's production of "The Woman In Black". Due to time restrictions we could only go around the surrealism section. What struck me about both was the simplicity of the work involved to create such powerful images and sounds.

The simple beauty of Dali's "Mountain Lake" (shown above) with it's bizarre inclusion of a telephone receiver off the hook creates a sense of loneliness. This image stuck out to me for the rest of the day until we made our way to The Fortune Theatre.

 Here, we were treated to two hours of sheer terror. The Brechtian use of the stage was never distracting as the play deals with the fact that it is a play. I had heard about this play before and how creepy Mrs Drablow but I had no idea how this was to be done. Her first appearance is truly terrifying. Emerging from the audience under a thick cloud of smoke to torment Mr. Kipps (Anthony Eden, above) just by mere glances. From then on, each and every audience member was paranoid that she would show up again. I was able to part my glance from the stage for a moment to see people looking around for her. The repetition of sound in "The Woman In Black" made for an  incredibly suspenseful build-up to a final reveal that made us (as well as the rest of the audience) ready to throw up our guts with fear.

I am inspired to tell a classic ghost story in film and this play really helped me understand the nature of horror. The audience cannot stay tense the whole way through and will see through your attempts at making them scared if you are too bold. Introduce the fear gradually and let it build delicately, relieving the tension as you go along - the master of suspense Alfred Hitchcock used to always put a joke in after something terrible happening to remove some of the tension before building it back again -  until by then the paranoia has set in and the audience is helpless against what you are about to show them.