Today's Script Tip: Villians & Lakeview Terrace
wcmartell
that make the films silly - SNAKES ON A PLANE and LAKEVIEW TERRACE.
Check it out:
- Bill
Remysun
try applying the villain technique to my Halloween storytelling. I
think I'll play with an old script idea that hasn't gotten all the
beats fully mapped out yet.
Just wondering though, what about the villain in SAW? As I see it, it
ends up being kind of like that villain in PHONE BOOTH, except he gets
away. That probably seems like the better resolution, even though I
know from experience that those loonies tend to take themselves out.
It seems that the important thing to that kind of resolution is the
AHA! moment, where the antagonist stays a step ahead of justice-- like
Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs.
Schlockhack
and I saw it twice. The dialogue was outstanding, and so was Colin's
performance. Sometimes the vividness of the moment can carry a movie
past a weak story line. But yeah, when it was over, my rational brain
took over and said, that was bogus.
wcmartell
in the moment, but when you come to the ending where it all has to be
wrapped up and make sense - it either peters out or has some huge
chunk of exposition.
Have you seen the French film TELL NO ONE? Man's lomg dead wife...
sends him an e-mail with information that only she could know. Now
people are trying to kill him. Compelling story, until they have to
end it - and explain how all of these things happened. This is a
problem with many thrillers (FLIGHT PLAN) because the hook keeps the
story moving and interesting. But like a great meal, eventually the
waiter comes with the bill.
- Bill
nmstevens
It's a different issue with Hannibal Lechter, because even though he
causes a lot of mischief (as it were) in Silence of the Lambs, he
actually isn't the "villain" as such. Strangely enough, he serves the
roles of the "mentor" character. He's Clarice's teacher, albeit an
extremely dangerous one. The actual "villain" - the one that Clarice
is pursuing, and with whom she has the full-out show-down and
satisfyingly blows away -- is Buffalo Bill.
As far as the bad guy in SAW, you have to realize that SAW is a horror
movie, not a thriller or an action film, and so the rules are a bit
different.
It is not at all uncommon in such movies for the "antagonist" to be
embodied in the form of some kind of indestructible evil which may,
through some means be escaped from or temporarily banished but which
cannot be ultimately destroyed (and depending on the movie one which
may not even prove to be altogether inescapable).
You find this in all sorts of movies in the genre. Everything from The
Haunting to the Friday the Thirteenth movies, or even something like
the Blob -- they freeze it -- but "It can't be killed" -- so they end
up having to parachute its frozen form into the arctic, where,
hopefully, it will remain frozen forever, or until some crappy sequel.
This isn't something that one commonly finds in other genres, but you
find it over and over again in this particular genre -- this notion of
a confrontation with some ultimately "indestructible evil." In the
end, it can be banished, put to sleep, sent away for a time. The
"doorway" can be closed. You may escape from it with your life, if
you're lucky. But destroy it? No.
It just don't work that way.
NMS
wcmartell
> Does knowing that "Lakeview Terrace" is based on a real incident change
> the caliber of the villain? While I don't know how the movie ends, in
> the RL situation the couple just called the sheriff's department and the
> guy was arrested.
The difference between real life and fiction - fiction has to make
sense.
- Bill