Characteristics of a Horror Film - Movie Review Example

Horror is about excess. One of the most pervasive characteristics of horror films is that they exhibit or expose something that we, as human beings, are at once repulsed and attracted to. Quite often, this simultaneous attraction and repulsion is generated by the portrayal of emotions or desires that we all have, but displayed to their relative extremes. Williams writes, "Gratuitous sex, gratuitous violence and terror, gratuitous emotion are frequent epithets hurled at the phenomenon of the 'sensational' in pornography, horror and melodrama."1 This much about horror films is almost universally true, as well as relatively obvious. However, sometimes a filmmaker might choose to reveal these gratuitous aspects of their craft less directly, or even just imply them. As the genre of horror films grew more sophisticated in the mid portion of the 20th century, filmmakers such as Georges Franju began making important decisions about which horrific scenes to display and which so leave up to the audience's imagination. In his 1959 classic Eyes without a Face, Franju deliberately paces the film to heighten the anticipation of the truly graphic scenes. In this case, it is all about the audience's expectations. Meanwhile, the themes of the film were not simply bodily excess, but the full extensions of psychological control in its characters. Accordingly, the horror stems from the excessive control of a father over his daughter, his possible lover and the world around him. This level of control is reflected in the mask that the girl is forced to wear and the environment in which she is forced to live - only the latter of which is the audience privy do early in the film. Ultimately, Eyes without a Face is an example of a horror film that makes use of invisible horror, in order to heighten the audience's awareness of what it may be about to see, and allow its imagination to run wild. Essentially, the film is driven forward by the moral choices of Dr. Genessier, whom we are told feels that he must be in control of everything - including the road when he is driving. Louise states that Mr. Genessier possesses the "desire to control others, even on the road."2 When we are introduced to Mr. Genessier and his assistant they have both already made dangerous choices, not just for themselves, but for Dr. Genessier's daughter, Christiane, a most of all. Early in the film Louise briefly questions the actions of her employer - who, as the film implies, may also be her lover or even her husband, which could even make her Christiane's mother. Before the audience is even fully privy to the actions that the pair of murderers is taking, Louise states that she cannot go on, and Mr. Genessier promptly slaps her, which brings her back to her senses. This brief scene illustrates one of the main themes that will run throughout Eyes without a Face, which is the control of Mr. Genessier over everything in his life. The issue of control is significant because it highlights one of the ethical messages that Franju attempts to convey through the film. Since this is a horror film, it is not enough to merely illustrate how the control of one man over the lives of two women can be detrimental to everyone; instead, the audience must be brought face-to-face with the most extreme or even gruesome consequences of such a form of control. Genessier specifically wants to control the appearance of his daughter and, accordingly, the course of her life. The audience is left to infer that he believes that his daughter will have a better life if she is beautiful once again. However, this is never directly identified by Christiane as a personal goal belonging to her. This is clearly her father's goal. It is suggested that Mr. Genessier holds himself responsible for the injury to his daughter; but rather than attempting to correct the possible flaws in himself that led to her disfigurement, he acts to take more firm command of her life, as well as the lives of other women in Paris. Women are abducted, mutilated and murdered with zero regard for their well-being or even their humanity. This is a consequence of the type of control that Franju depicts: It is male domination over females. In Eyes without a Face the end result of an outwardly beautiful Christiane is only held by her father; Christiane, Louise and the dogs all participate but in a somewhat involuntary manner. It is Genessier's vision and his drive to accomplish it - namely, to use medical science to overcome the forces of chance and nature - that make the atrocities of the film possible. This reflects his masculine obsession with the ideal of feminine beauty. Williams writes, "Each of the three body genres . . . hinges on the spectacle of a 'sexually saturated' female body, and each offers what many feminist critic would agree to be spectacles of feminine victimization."3 In the case of Eyes without a Face, on some level, viewers are intended to identify with the doctor's feeling of loss regarding his daughter's supreme feminine beauty. From this vantage point, it is not merely the loss of her possible future - and her prospective husband - that is the loss; it is the loss of the beauty of the female body itself to the corrosion of violent life. So, it becomes Mr. Genessier's responsibility to restore this beauty. But it is extremely significant that the importance of restoring feminine beauty only extends to his daughter, whom he owns, from his perspective. Other women, by contrast, whom he has no claim to, cannot have their beauty associated with the same level of value; to him, they are completely expendable. Yet while it may be possible for male viewers to identify - at least to some limited extent - with the extreme perspective clearly adopted by Dr. Genessier, the female viewer is unlikely to view the atrocities of the film in the same manner. According to Miller his might be expected because in addition to there being a sadistic appeal to horror films, there can also be a masochistic appeal: "In horror films, while feminists have often pointed to the women victims who suffer simulated torture and mutilation as victims of sadism, more recent feminist work has suggested that the horror film may present an interesting, and perhaps instructive, case of oscillation between masochistic and sadistic poles."4 This characteristic is perhaps reflective of the place that many females believe they occupy in modern society - that of being partially slave to the whims of males. While, in practice, this feature of modern society may be reviled and resisted, in horror films this can be amplified to emphasize the worst subconscious fears of many women - specifically, being utterly controlled by a man. This notion is somewhat exemplified by Christiane's emotions regarding her mask and her physical condition. At one point in the film Christiane states, "My face frightens me, but my mask terrifies me even more."5 In addition to the fact that this statement clearly reflects how Christiane's goals regarding her recovery and life strongly contrast those of her father, it also highlights her helpless position. For many women viewers, Christiane's situation may be one of their greatest fears, if it is not at least to some extent directly experienced. Obviously, Christiane fears both the prospect of living her life grotesquely disfigured and living her life wearing a porcelain mask. However, she undoubtedly fears defying the will of her father even more than either of those scenarios. But as the movie progresses, so too does Christiane's willingness to speak out and to ultimately defy the will of her oppressor. She states, "I know the dead should be silent, than really let me die."6 Christiane is a captive to the type of reality that her father attempts to impose upon her. She is unable to look into the mirror, forced to wear a mask, forced to remain closed-off from the rest of society, and it is even suggested that she will be forced to assume a new identity. In Genessier's world her will in meaningless; it is his version of his daughter's feminine beauty that must be restored, and not what she, personally, might believe will lead to her happiness. Even so, for almost the entirety of the film Christiane is forced to wear a mask of some form. It is important to note that this is not truly for her own sake, but for the sake of her father. Dr. Genessier cannot stand to see his daughter without her mask; when he catches her without it, she is scolded into putting it back on. And when she has another girl's pretty face grafted onto her gaping wound, he father tells her, "Now there's something angelic about you."7 The shining faade is what her father finds beautiful, not the dying woman within. Genessier also becomes excited about the prospect of giving his daughter a new identity; a notion that she seems to inwardly dislikes, but silently ascents to in her father's presence. Yet, from the audience's - as well as Christiane's - perspective, there is something wholly horrific about her pristine appearance. It is not simply the physical truth that she is wearing another woman's face that makes it repulsive; it is the falseness of it. The open wound of Christiane's face may be difficult to gaze upon - the audience is only shown this in one, blurry instance - but it is real. The ugly face is who she truly is. Franju brilliantly builds the anticipation of the audience leading to the scenes in which first Christiane's face if briefly shown, and second when the doctor performs the bloody and horrific face removal procedure. These are the two clear instances of visible horror, but the vast majority of this film relies upon psychological and invisible horror. As aforementioned, the mask itself is horrific. This is both because it is the physical manifestation of Dr. Genessier's refusal to gaze upon the reality of his daughter's life and condition, and because the placid look of the face implies a serenity that is altogether false. The audience is aware from the beginning of the film that something terrible to look upon is hidden beneath the mask, which on some level makes the appearance of the mask itself that much more frightening. In this way the mask allows the disfigurement beneath to take whatever form happens to frighten the viewer the most. Christiane's somewhat melancholy look while wearing the mask is mirrored by Lucile's almost unwavering devotion to Dr. Genessier's vision throughout the film. The look of the porcelain mask is calm, deliberate and yet slightly sad and depressed appearing. This is, obviously, the emotion that the doctor desires in all of his women - we can draw this conclusion from the fact that Mr. Genessier made the mask and strongly desires his daughter to wear it. Meanwhile, as Louise carries-out the numerous acts of deceit and murder in the name of her presumed lover, she wears a look of perfect calm and grim determination. Fundamentally, Louise is the ideal woman in Genessier's eyes; nearly unquestioning in her faith, unobtrusive and perfectly amoral. In this way, the mask worn by Christiane is Genessier's vision of the perfect daughter; he is simply unable to duplicate the mask he created in porcelain in human flesh. In Eyes without a Face there are many victims and one truly tragic figure. It is unclear the number of women in total that Genessier claims in his attempts to realize the dream of masking his own flaws - represented by the car accident - and his own daughter's true identity. These innocents are expendable to Genessier as well as to Louise. Louise may on some level disagree with the actions taken by her likely lover, but she is willing to carry out his every wish in the hope of adhering as closely as possible to the ideal woman that he desires - and, indeed, attempts to create. In the end, they both suffer the consequences of forcing their desires upon other people and of trying to reverse the consequences of natural fate. Conversely, Christiane, exhibiting her typically-exaggerated grace, evaporates into the distance, finally free of everything but the past. Overall, Eyes without a Face underscores these themes by making use of the audience's expectation for violence and gore. Franju, however, takes his time in revealing the full gruesomeness of his tale. And - as he also exhibits with his other films - Franju finally approaches violence in a direct and antiseptic way, which simultaneously suggests detachment and moral culpability. The audience is shown bloody an almost unimaginable surgical violence, but it is deliberately revealed through the weathered lens of a surgeon; and because of this approach, the reprehensible nature of Genessier's actions is made even more apparent. His crime is a crime of hubris, and it is exacted upon women. Not surprisingly, Eyes without a Face is a powerful example of mid-century horror, for daring to explore these themes and doing it in such a magnificent manner. Works Cited: Franju, Georges. Eyes without a Face. B & W, 1959. 90 min. Williams, Linda. "Film Bodies: Gender, Genre, and Excess." Course Material, 2009. Read More