The Machinist is a film about a man called Trevor who accidentally hit a boy with his car and drove off; because of this incident his guilt stopped him from sleeping and caused him to develop insomnia where he hadn’t slept for a year. He had blocked the incident from his memory and gradually strange things started happening to him in his living nightmare.
Trough out the film post it notes appeared on his fridge and one of them said who are you? Which is a question he and the audience where trying to answer though out the film. He was very skinny because of his insomnia, which was visually quite shocking.
“Trevor Reznik (Christian Bale) is literally a shell of the man he used to be.”(David R Perry, 18/05/2009) This quote expresses how much Trevor’s personality and appearance has changed trough his guilt.
This is a clip from the film and as you can see he is extremely skinny. His skeleton frame looks quite disturbing. Also the dull colours and lighting in this clip and in other parts of the film, kind of show how he is feeling, as they are quite dull and depressing colours and this creates quite a creepy atmosphere.
He meets a guy called Ivan who has just started working at the factory Trevor works in. Well so he thinks anyway as his other work colleges say no one called Ivan works there. Ivan is quite a mysterious character who distracts Trevor wile working which causes an accident with one of the machines, which injures a man called Miller. After this incident along with his disturbing appearance and odd behavior his work colleges turn against him. Trevor becomes very paranoid and thinks that the post it notes where being left my Miller.
The only people who he regularly spoke to in his life were a waitress and a hooker and they became worried about his behavior. His insomnia and paranoia seemed to take over his whole life and affect everyone around him. He started to question who Ivan really was and eventually he murdered Ivan because Ivan claims to have killed a boy called Nicolas but in fact it was Trevor who had killed him in the car accident.
Trough out the film you start to wonder who is real and who is just in Trevor’s imagination. Ivan tuned out not to be real, he was like Trevor’s guilty conscience trying to tell him what he has done, something Tevor had blocked out of his memory.
“There are moments in this film where you can almost see unimaginable horrors in Bale's eyes. Also, his voice is soft, almost soothing for much of the film, but as he unravels, so does his voice.” (Judge Gordon Sullivan, May 19th, 2009 )
In this quote it mentions about how Trevor’s voice changes trough the film as the story unravels which is very true. At the start his voice was soft and sounds like he had very little energy. As the story unravels and Trevor gets more and more paranoid and suspicious he starts to get angry and this shows in the tone of his voice as it gets louder and harsher.
In the end after Trevor finally remembers what happened he turns him self into the police. He looks very relieved at the end and the clear bright white walls seem to represent this. Now that his conscience is clear he can finally sleep!
Rear Window
Rear window is about a man called Jefferies who had broken his leg so he is bound to his room for months. To pass time he looks out the window daily watching his neighbors lives go by. His girlfriend and a maid regularly visit him. One day when looking out his window and from the actions from one of his neighbors he suspects a man has murdered his wife. Him and his girlfriend keep watching the man for more clues to the murder. “Rear window, a classic film by Alfred Hitchcock, shows what voyeuristic tendencies would be had if left no other means of entertainment.”(Samuel McAtee, 16/11/10)
The neighbor looks very suspicious occasionally looking out his window to make sure no one can see him. Other suspicious behavior such as him cleaning a knife, his wife’s handbag had been left behind with her jewelry including a wedding ring in it and him packing her belongings makes Jefferies more and more suspicious of his neighbor.
Jefferies calls his friend who is a police officer over to his house to tell him of his suspicions but he doesn’t believe Jefferies and thinks its all in his mind from being cooped up inside. This makes the audience doubt as to weather his suspicions are right. But Jeffries girlfriend and maid believe him and want to help. Another neighbors dog is found dead and Jefferies believes the man killed the dog because it kept sniffing around in his garden and digging up the mud. They think the dog was digging up the mud because the man may have berried evidence of something to do with the murder.
Jeffries girlfriend wanted to find out what the dog was digging for, so Jeffries phoned the man and told him to meet him at a local bar. When the man had left his house Jeffries girlfriend and the maid when over to his garden and digging up the mud where the dog was digging but there was nothing there so the girlfriend snuck into the mans house, Jeffries didn’t want her to go into the house but there was nothing he could do and this left him feeling helpless. As she was sneaking around in the house this left Jeffries and the audience in suspense wile they wait to see what happens. She found his wife’s wedding ring and took it for evidence but as she was about to leave the man came back and found her. Once again this left Jeffries feeling completely helpless, as all he could do is watch wile the man attacked his girlfriend.
This whole film was filmed from Jeffries window so the audience could see what he sees like looking trough his eyes in some parts of the film. The man worked out where Jeffry was and came over to his apartment. The room was very dark and you couldn’t see the mans whole face which made the situation even more creepy, wondering what was going to happen next.
What makes the film creepier is that it makes you think that you never know who is watching you and you don’t really know what happens behind closed doors.
The psychological horror in both these films is quite subtle and thats what makes them more scary. Psychological horror is all about getting into someone's mind and creating deep fear with out in you face gore, which are often real situations that you believe could happen to you and often subtlety suggested. It can be something that looks quite normal but behind closed doors its something else, such as in the Rear window with the neighbor how he seemed to be quite normal to the outside word but behind closed doors he was something more terrifying. Thats what makes him more scary and the fact that it could easily be a real life situation so it plays on peoples fears. Another part of psychological horror is often a certain character who identity isn't really reviled until the end of the film. This plays on your mind as you know there is something not right about them but you don't know what. This is shown in the machinist as you know something isn't right about the main character and as he becomes more paranoid and odd situations happen around him this puts you more on edge about what his character will be revealed as in the end.
Physiological horror is very cleverly done, I think in your face gory horror would be easier to create rather than physiological horror, as physiological horror plays with your mind and sticks with you longer after watching the film. With gory obvious horror it can often be predictable and you have the comfort of knowing that it couldn't or is very unlikely to happen to you as its unrealistic but you don't have the same comfort with physiological horror.
Image references
http://static.cdn.masjo.com/movie/images/the-machinist-.jpg
http://www.craigerscinemacorner.com/Images/BALE%20-%20THE%20MACHINIST.jpg
http://www.joblo.com/newsimages1/imiva.jpg
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1pfsCr-xR0dMP9ptVojxY2TlI-M53nhh_trxBpkvVxZmh2TcLRETxuhLZyHvsGCK8-JKcJwifiIuxZFKtkZsqRxGvXi80Ia_PwHvAlGE0Adhiw8bgOfqlvuOXIeaHeRYIfRosxFnzV_0/s1600/Rear-Window.jpg
http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMjEwMTQ1MDA3Nl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTYwODM1NzI2._V1._SX420_SY303_.jpg
Quotes
David R Perry, 18/05/2009 http://blogcritics.org/video/article/blu-ray-review-the-machinist/
Judge Gordon Sullivan, May 19th, 2009, http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/machinistbluray.php
Samuel McAtee, 16/11/10, http://sbccfilmreviews.org/?p=10950
Artical
Steven Casey Murray, 2001 , http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art58867.asp
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