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Case Study: Elements of Horror in Take Me to the River

<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1">Genre is&comma; as it relates to filmmaking&comma; an unspoken agreement between filmmaker and viewer&period; While genres are used to categorize films&comma; to identify their defining qualities and group them with other films with similar qualities&comma; they also function as a way for filmmakers to communicate with their audience&period; As film spectators&comma; we utilize genre as a kind of roadmap to navigate certain expectations and anticipate our own enjoyment of the film&period; Filmmakers&comma; on the other hand&comma; use genre to communicate these expectations to potential spectators&comma; and establish certain artistic parameters with which they can also anticipate&comma; to a lesser degree&comma; the audience&&num;8217&semi;s reception of their work&period; <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1">When making a Western&comma; a director knows that there are certain expectations particular to the genre&semi; viewers generally want to see films set in the past&comma; often times in America&comma; with vast landscapes&comma; gunfights&comma; heroes and villains&comma; to say nothing of the various stylistic choices&comma; often related to familiar music&comma; staging&comma; and exposition&period; In horror films&comma; viewers expect to be frightened&comma; or at the very least &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;unsettled&comma;” and this can be achieved through a variety of different narrative forms and stylistic practices&period; However&comma; there are certain films that seemingly defy these genres&comma; or lie on the periphery of their respective genre classification&comma; or even combine elements of various genres&comma; thus confusing any hope of true classification&period; Such is the case with Matt Sobel’s 2015 film&comma; <em>Take Me to the River<&sol;em>&period; Though by all approximation&comma; <em>Take Me to the River<&sol;em> is not a horror film&comma; it does produce a sense of &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;art-horror” for viewers&comma; so much so that it works to transcend genre by mixing disparate narrative ands stylistic elements&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1">To begin&comma; it will be useful to define what is meant by the practices of the horror genre and the concept of &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;art-horror&comma;” as it has been laid out by Noël Carroll&period; According to Carroll&comma; a film can be included in the horror genre as long as the filmmakers have the intention of arousing &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;art-horror” in the audience&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Art-horror” is loosely defined as a sense of fear and&sol;or disgust with the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;monster&period;” The monster must meet three basic criteria&comma; which are&colon; 1&rpar; the monster cannot be explained by contemporary science&comma; 2&rpar; the monster is threatening&comma; and 3&rpar; the monster is impure&period; The combination of these three traits arouse fear in the audience&comma; and can be enhanced by characters in the story who demonstrate their own fear of the monster&comma; which is then mirrored by the audience &lpar;Carroll&rpar;&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1">In <em>Take Me to the River<&sol;em>&comma; a young gay man named Ryder &lpar;Logan Miller&rpar; and his parents&comma; Cindy &lpar;Robin Weigert&rpar; and Don &lpar;Richard Schiff&rpar;&comma; drive to a family reunion taking place at the family farm in rural Nebraska&period; The three argue over whether or not Ryder should come out to the entire family at the reunion&comma; with his mom adamantly against it&period; Ryder begrudgingly gives in to his mother’s wishes and agrees to stay silent&period; However&comma; once at the reunion&comma; Ryder insists on dawning flamboyant clothing that immediately draws attention and ridicule from many of his conservative relatives&period; Ryder’s penchant for art and his posh&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;cool guy” attitude cause his four young&comma; female cousins to obsess over him and vie for his time and attention&comma; particularly 9-year-old Molly &lpar;Ursula Parker&rpar;&period; When Molly invites Ryder to accompany her to the barn&comma; he agrees&comma; but after a few minutes go by&comma; the rest of the family sees Ryder stumbling back from the barn&comma; while Molly screams for help&comma; the front of her skirt covered in blood&period; Naturally&comma; Ryder’s uncle&comma; Keith &lpar;Josh Hamilton&rpar;&comma; assumes the worst and is furious with Ryder&comma; which leads to him being ostracised and forced to sleep in an old shed for the remainder of the reunion&period; Tensions heighten as Keith attempts to reconcile with Ryder&comma; adopting a much more congenial&comma; but nonetheless disconcerting attitude toward him&period; As an apparent show of good faith&comma; Keith insists that Ryder accompanies Molly to the river for a swim&comma; only to have Molly exhibit sexually charged behaviour toward him&period; As the film reaches its final act&comma; Ryder comes to realise that everything is not quite as it seems&comma; and that he has become entangled in family secrets that go far beyond his relationship with Molly&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;1125" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-1125" style&equals;"width&colon; 850px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-1125" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;12&sol;vlcsnap-2016-06-14-17h19m16s686-300x133&period;png" alt&equals;"Keith and Molly talking" width&equals;"850" height&equals;"378" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-1125" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Keith and Molly seem to conspire against Kyle and his parents &lpar;Take Me to the River&comma; 2015&rpar;&period;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1">While <em>Take Me to the River<&sol;em> is ostensibly a familial drama that borders on being a tense thriller&comma; it exhibits certain characteristics that are more closely related to the horror genre&period; Ryder and his parents&comma; though not without their own issues&comma; seem like a relatively happy family at the onset&period; There are definitely signs of future issues though&semi; it becomes apparent that the rest of the family will not be as open-minded about Ryder’s sexuality&comma; and Cindy has grown somewhat distant from her brother Keith&comma; but otherwise they hope to have a nice weekend with their family&period; However&comma; once they arrive&comma; and Ryder interacts with the rest of the relatives&comma; it becomes increasingly apparent that they are very different from Ryder and his parents&period; These people represent an extremely mild&comma; more realistic version of the backwoods psychopaths one might see in a slasher film like<em> <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;2017&sol;04&sol;22&sol;review-mothers-day-1980-&percnt;E2&percnt;98&percnt;85&percnt;C2&percnt;BD&sol;">Mother’s Day<&sol;a><&sol;em> &lpar;1980&rpar; or <em>The Texas Chainsaw Massacre <&sol;em>&lpar;1974&rpar;&period; They stand in stark contrast to the more modern&comma; progressive &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;city folk” that Ryder and his parents represent&period; We see things mostly from Ryder’s perspective&comma; so we are made to see these conservative&comma; rural people as the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Others&comma;” and&comma; as their transgressions grow increasingly flagrant&comma; they become a kind of tribal monster&comma; bent on destroying Ryder and his parents&period; Within this tribal unit&comma; Keith and his young daughter Molly are the central antagonists&period; When Ryder first emerges from the barn&comma; he seems dazed&comma; and is unable to adequately explain what happened&comma; which only exacerbates their suspicion and hostility toward him&period; He is then subjected to bizarre reactions from everyone around him&comma; seemingly isolating him and further confusing the situation&period; Molly continues to be a mischievous nymphet throughout&comma; displaying a disturbing libido for her age&comma; as well as an unhealthy obsession with Ryder&period; Her father&comma; Keith&comma; shifts between violently aggressive and strangely calm and understanding&comma; in an almost sociopathic fashion&period; Meanwhile&comma; Ryder’s mother refuses to let them leave&comma; insisting that everything will eventually be mended between him and the rest of the family&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1">While both Molly and Keith meet two of the three &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;monster” criteria by being threatening &lpar;they directly threaten Ryder’s well-being at various points in the film&rpar; and being impure &lpar;Molly exhibits extremely sexual behavior while Keith has bizarre mood shifts and potentially sinister motives&rpar;&comma; it is less clear whether they meet the first criteria&period; Much of their behavior could be explained away by contemporary science&period; However&comma; it is primarily Molly’s sexuality that allows her to be inexplicable by contemporary science&comma; threatening&comma; and impure for the audience&period; While there are cases of children developing sexual fantasies around this age&comma; it is extremely rare&comma; especially for girls &lpar;Fortenberry&rpar;&period; Therefore&comma; while Molly does not technically meet the first necessary characteristic of a monster based on her sexuality&comma; it is a borderline case&comma; and still causes a sense of unease and possibly even disgust in the audience&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1">This is where Carroll’s theory on horror hits a barrier&period; While Carroll has done extensive research into the horror genre&comma; his theory is not without its deficiencies&comma; as argued in my <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;2014&sol;04&sol;25&sol;birth-as-a-problematic-test-case-for-art-horror-2&sol;">analysis of the film <&sol;a><em>Birth <&sol;em>&lpar;2004&rpar;&period; There are a plethora of horror films that involve &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;monsters” whose existence can be explained away with contemporary science&comma; namely the psychopathic killers whose popularity began in 1960 with Alfred Hitchcock’s <em>Psycho<&sol;em>&comma; and continued to gain popularity throughout the 1970s and 80s&period; Carroll admits that these films lie at the periphery of the genre&comma; but they certainly do not adhere to the strict definition of horror that he has outlined&period; Therefore&comma; it stands to reason that <em>Take Me to the River<&sol;em> still meets the criteria&comma; albeit not as much as films like <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;2017&sol;06&sol;13&sol;review-the-mummy-2017-&percnt;E2&percnt;98&percnt;85&percnt;C2&percnt;BD&sol;"><em>The Mummy<&sol;em><&sol;a> &lpar;2017&rpar; or <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;2017&sol;05&sol;23&sol;review-train-to-busan-&percnt;EB&percnt;B6&percnt;80&percnt;EC&percnt;82&percnt;B0&percnt;ED&percnt;96&percnt;89-2016-&percnt;E2&percnt;98&percnt;85&percnt;E2&percnt;98&percnt;85&percnt;C2&percnt;BD&sol;"><em>Train to Busan<&sol;em><&sol;a> &lpar;2016&rpar;&comma; which clearly lie much closer to the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;core” of Carroll’s definition&period; This is problematic for Carroll’s theory&comma; as it allows for films like <em>Take Me to the River<&sol;em> to be considered horror&comma; when few &lpar;including the filmmakers&rpar; would consider them to be anything but drama&period; <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1">What is most interesting about <em>Take Me to the River<&sol;em> is that it can exist&comma; on the surface&comma; as a familial drama&comma; but produce the same effects as a standard horror film&period; For example&comma; Ryder functions as a typical protagonist in a horrific story&period; At first&comma; his life is rather simple&comma; perhaps even idyllic with his mother and father&period; Then&comma; the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;monsters” are introduced&comma; and things quickly become uncomfortable for him&comma; though the exact reason has not been revealed yet&period; Later&comma; after the incident at the barn&comma; it is apparent that Molly is sexually attracted to Ryder in a way that is inexplicable&comma; threatening&comma; and impure&period; Ryder is unable to exonerate himself to authority figures &lpar;in this case&comma; his parents and the rest of the family&rpar;&comma; and is therefore exiled&period; The &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;monster” returns when Ryder accompanies Molly to the river&comma; and Keith establishes himself as the monster behind the monster&comma; actively manipulating the situation to his own ends&period; While the ending of the film explains some of what has transpired&comma; it never undoes Molly’s status as the primary monster&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;1126" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-1126" style&equals;"width&colon; 850px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-1126" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;12&sol;take-me-to-the-river-logan-miller-josh-hamilton-photo-by-thomas-scott-stanton-300x178&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Take Me to the River gun scene" width&equals;"850" height&equals;"505" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-1126" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">In a particularly unnerving scene&comma; Keith forces Ryder to handle a gun for the first time &lpar;Take Me to the River&comma; 2015&rpar;&period;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1">To Carroll&comma; while horror is defined by certain criteria related to the monster&comma; it is primarily characterised by the <em>intention<&sol;em> to arouse &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;art-horror” in the audience&period; In other words&comma; the filmmakers want viewers to suspend their disbelief enough that they become frightened by things that they know to be fictitious and a non-threat to their own well-being &lpar;Carroll&rpar;&period; Even though it was not the intention of the filmmakers to make a horror film&comma; there are certain aspects of the film that still induce a great deal of fear&comma; anxiety&comma; and disgust&comma; much in the same way any other horror film does&period; For example&comma; by framing the larger family as the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Others&comma;” there is already a dichotomy in the film between what is normal and what is not&comma; a common staple of the horror genre&period; Once it is believed that Ryder commits a transgression&comma; the Others turn on him&comma; threatening him with violence and the possibility of criminal charges&period; However&comma; once the initial anger subsides&comma; the fear and anxiety is strangely increased&period; When Keith invites Ryder over to the house for dinner&comma; he behaves in a way that almost seems inhuman&period; He produces a gun&comma; and insists that Ryder hold it&comma; all the while assuring Ryder that he harbors no ill-will&period; His mannerisms are uncanny&comma; confusing&comma; and deeply unsettling&comma; both for Ryder and the audience&period; Anxiety is aroused concerning Ryder’s safety&comma; as well as Keith’s intentions and Molly’s unending sexual energy&period; Though the initial transgression in the barn is never shown&comma; the remainder of the film consists of long shots of the action&semi; these include shots of Keith staring intently at Ryder&comma; often without saying much&comma; or Molly attempting to flirt with Ryder behind closed doors&period; Much like a horror film&comma; where audience members actively question why characters wander into an abandoned house and insist on sticking around in spite of the many warning signs&comma; <em>Take Me to the River<&sol;em> has Ryder&comma; who allows himself to be repeatedly left alone with Molly&comma; even after it is obviously a bad idea&period; <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1">Part of what makes this film so anxiety-inducing is the story itself&period; Needless to say&comma; people are made uncomfortable by topics such as pedophilia or adolescent sexuality in an active state&period; It is equally unnerving to believe that someone who is truly innocent of any wrongdoing can be mistakenly accused of behaving inappropriately toward a child&comma; and therefore become the target of a witch hunt&period; In this sense&comma; the film bears a resemblance to Thomas Vinterberg’s Danish drama&comma; <em>The Hunt<&sol;em> &lpar;2013&rpar;&comma; in which a school teacher is wrongly accused of sexually abusing a student in his kindergarten class&period; In this film&comma; the child exhibits an innocent attraction to her teacher&comma; even trying to kiss him&comma; and when rejected&comma; inadvertently starts a rumor that he touched her inappropriately&period; Even though the child’s advances were naive and asexual&comma; and she was incapable of understanding the consequences of her subsequent accusation&comma; she is similarly a source of great anxiety and fear for the lead character and the audience&period; However&comma; where the two films diverge is in their respective styles&period; <em>The Hunt<&sol;em> is a rather straightforward dramatic film&comma; in which mass hysteria ensues based on a child’s white lie&period; In <em>Take Me to the River<&sol;em>&comma; the child is older&comma; and far more aware of what she is doing&period; Her father is equally responsible&comma; as he seems to conspire with Molly to continue tormenting Ryder&period; The other primary difference is the amount of information that the audience is given&period; In <em>The Hunt<&sol;em>&comma; it is abundantly clear that the protagonist is guilty of no wrongdoing&period; We see the events that occurred&comma; and we see what caused the girl to lie about them&period; However&comma; in <em>Take Me to the River<&sol;em>&comma; we are not privy to what actually happens at the barn&comma; just as Ryder sees the whole chain of events as a blur that he cannot fully explain&comma; which arouses further anxiety and confusion&period; As the characters &lpar;primarily Keith and Molly&rpar; become increasingly strange and calculated in their machinations&comma; we &lpar;as audience members&rpar; are made to feel increasingly frightened&comma; anxious&comma; and disturbed&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1">Though <em>Take Me to the River<&sol;em> clearly defies genre classification&comma; it does induce a feeling of &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;art-horror” in the audience&period; However&comma; it does not fully meet Noël Carroll’s definition of horror&semi; thus&comma; it is a non-horrific film that nonetheless produces &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;art-horror&period;” The filmmakers did not intend to make a horror film&comma; making it difficult to classify the film adequately&comma; and making <em>Take Me to the River<&sol;em> yet another problematic test case for Carroll’s theory on horror&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1"><em>Take Me to the River<&sol;em> is currently available to rent or purchase via Amazon <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;amazon&period;com&sol;gp&sol;product&sol;B01D2BF4G8&sol;ref&equals;as&lowbar;li&lowbar;qf&lowbar;sp&lowbar;asin&lowbar;il&lowbar;tl&quest;ie&equals;UTF8&amp&semi;tag&equals;mjones34880c-20&amp&semi;camp&equals;1789&amp&semi;creative&equals;9325&amp&semi;linkCode&equals;as2&amp&semi;creativeASIN&equals;B01D2BF4G8&amp&semi;linkId&equals;33c66e6a2cfa7f530502d49a97f7f4d8">here<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1"><b>Sources&colon;<&sol;b><&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p3"><span class&equals;"s1"><b>Carroll&comma; Noël&period; <i>The Philosophy of Horror<&sol;i>&period; New York&colon; Routledge&comma; 1989&period; Print&period;<&sol;b><&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p5"><span class&equals;"s1"><b>Fortenberry&comma; J&period; Dennis&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Puberty and Adolescent Sexuality&period;” Hormones and Behavior&comma; U&period;S&period; National Library of Medicine&comma; July 2013&comma; <&sol;b><a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;ncbi&period;nlm&period;nih&period;gov&sol;pmc&sol;articles&sol;PMC3761219&sol;"><span class&equals;"s2"><b>www&period;ncbi&period;nlm&period;nih&period;gov&sol;pmc&sol;articles&sol;PMC3761219&sol;<&sol;b><&sol;span><&sol;a><b>&period;<&sol;b><&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;

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