The Metaphors That Bring It Follows and A Quiet Place Together
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- Опубліковано 3 лип 2024
- When it comes to modern horror, It Follows and A Quiet Place are leading the pack. For not only are they fun, dark, and scary, they also have a depth and profoundness that extend way beyond what horror usually does. They do this by having their monsters serve double duty: as monsters and as a metaphor. It’s this metaphor that captures what these films are about, and also what raises them above your typical horror film.
Movies Under The Surface is a series of video essays that explores what makes great films great. The videos are about understanding movies at a deeper level, beneath plot and story, at their heart.
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Footage from:
It Follows (2015), Dir. David Robert Mitchell
A Quiet Place (2018), Dir. John Krasinski
The Godfather (1972), Dir. Francis Ford Coppola
District 9 (2009), Dir. Neill Blomkamp
Carrie (1976), Dir. Brian de Palma
The Babadook (2014), Dir. Jennifer Kent
Alien (1979), Dir. Ridley Scott
Dawn of the Dead (1978), Dir. George A. Romero
Shaun of the Dead (2004), Dir. Edgar Wright
Music from:
It Follows Soundtrack - Disasterpeace
A Quiet Place Soundtrack - Marco Beltrami
The Babadook Soundtrack - Jed Kurzel
Harvest Moon - Neil Young
For educational purposes only.
So so great! I love your videos, definitely heading to Patreon so I can have MORE! I love your videos, excellent work.
Also no shame in plugging Patreon. The world needs more MUTS!!!
@@violetplummer3436 awesome! thanks so much!!!
I love your analysation on films and movies. Please don't stop making videos :)
thanks! I appreciate it a lot!
Glad you compared the two films. I'll make sure I check out It Follows once I get the chance
definitely do! its an awesome film!
Movies are like dreams
Hi Gabe, I think you would be interested in this argument for 'A Quiet Place' being an example of whiteness: www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-new-york-times/still-processing/e/54250429?autoplay=true (Still Processing from NYT: We Watch Whiteness). "We talk about the hit horror movie A Quiet Place, which explores dystopia in a way that reveals submerged white fears of a brown invasion (we liked the craft of the movie a lot, but it’s got some problems it’s not aware of). We pose the question: what would a self-aware interrogation of being white look like?" Interested to see what you think!
Hey Morgan! I listened to the A Quiet Place portion of this podcast and there's some interesting things going on. Definitely extrapolations of the film, which is more of a Pop Culture Detective thing than what I do. I'm mostly interested in filmmakers choices, filmmakers putting themselves into the film, and how audiences connect with that, but things like obscure meanings or unintended symbolism aren't so interesting to me. I'm interested in how film reflects society, not how society is reflected in a film. There's a difference.
For example, the monsters in A Quiet Place are brown because animals who live in the woods are brown, for camouflage. Think bears, deer, elk, moose, bison, etc. It has nothing to do with the "brown" invasion of America and a polar bear looking monster in the forest would not jive with the realism the filmmakers were going for. Also, so many movies like this are set in cornfields for two reasons: cornfields are a symbol of America (corn originally came from America, American's love corn, and if you ever drive across the US, cornfields are everywhere!) and they are also super-cinematic! You can run through them, hide in them, interact with them, disappear amongst them, they move due to forces around them (creating extra movement in the frame), they are pretty, are planted in interesting patterns, and so on. All great for filmmaking! I don't think any "desire to go back to simpler times" is implied by cornfields in this movie. Cornfields still exist today after all.
The extrapolation they make about baby being stuffed in a coffin definitely is interesting and totally valid, but this is an extrapolation. In the world of the film, the characters and filmmakers do this solely because it is what they have to do based on the plot, not for any deeper meaning. And while I do agree that the baby was either an accident or this couple is privileged (I mean, who really would have a baby in a world like this, especially when it puts your other kids at risk), what's wrong with that? These things exist in the real world and movies deserve to be made about it.
To put it simply, I don't really think the film is doing what these podcasters are talking about because if it were doing those things, it would have been way more popular than it was. A Quiet Place was a hit in the way fun horror films are hits, but it wasn't a phenomenon that connected with audiences who felt their voices were being ignored until they saw this film. That's more what American Sniper was, a movie than made double what A Quiet Place made in the US. A Quiet Place is a phenomenal film, crowd pleasing, well made, deep, powerful, and if it really was doing what these podcasters were saying, it would have connected with that audience. But it didn't because in my opinion that's not really what the film is doing.
@@MoviesUnderTheSurface Hi, thank you so much for your reply! I wasn't expecting such an in-depth response from you, and I really appreciate you taking my thoughts seriously. I want to be clear that I wasn't disagreeing with your video about It Follows and A Quiet Place being a similar take on the horror genre stylistically and in narrative structure. I just think we're better movie-goers when we try and understand how different audience members have different responses to the same media. While I agree with your video in a lot of ways, I also can see the way the hosts of Still Processing are noticing a movement within white media makers that maybe they aren't even aware of! I appreciate both takes. Thanks again!
I am just waiting for immortality to be invented by scientists... then all these films will be seen as representing "problems and feelings of a bygone era", the way we think of stories involving slavery
lol, that will be the day!
Hmm. I personaly thought monster from "It follows" represents AIDS. Thats why no one sees it except those who are already "sick".
In film there are only 3 times main character has sex. First boy didn't wanna be alone in this shit, second one didn't beleive and third loved main character and was ready.
Btw Im not as good at film analysis as you
The reason I don't think the monster represents AIDS (or any STD) is because the aspects of the film that don't have to do with the monster (the love triangle, Yara, the neighborhood kid, The Idiot, etc) don't support an STD interpretation for the film, and I think the film works strong enough to have all its dynamics in alignment.
Also, if you have AIDS and pass it on to someone else, it doesn't leave you, making the monster metaphor pretty inaccurate if it is a metaphor for AIDS. Growing up however is definitely something you can pass on and not do yourself
Just my thoughts. We're all free to have different opinions, that what great films are all about!