November 19, 2006: Big Brother's Listening
I had a feeling
Brad Anderson's
Masters of Horror entry,
Sounds Like, would be grim. Anderson's critically acclaimed low-budget thriller,
Session 9, remains one of the most grim and cerebrally horrifying movies I've ever seen. Whenever I recommend
Session 9, I describe it as one of those movies that made me hear things at night. Only two other movies to date have had that effect on me:
The Exorcist and
The Blair Witch Project.
The Exorcist stands out as way more "in the face" (in more ways than pea soup) of the three, but
Blair Witch and
Session 9 both delivered that subtle, "crawl in the brain and haunt me for days" effect, which is my favorite kind of horror.
I believe the most powerful link between these three films is the masterful use of sound, both subliminal and overt. It's no surprise that
The Exorcist is known for using subliminal sound throughout the film, as well as huge contrasts between silence and audio assault to increase the feeling of terror and dread. For me, the most horrifying parts of
The Blair Witch Project unfolded in the scenes when the video cameras showed very little, but stirred disturbing sounds around my head as I lived the nightmare with the filmmakers in the cursed woods. In
Session 9, the use of demonically warbled voices on stretched tapes, as well as shocking contrasts between silence and stingers caused my skin to crawl... all night. Many times, what I hear in a horror film will scare me more than what I see; when the two senses come together perfectly, it's the kind of movie that keeps me up at night.
I actually had hoped that Anderson would opt for the same grim psychological subtlety as
Session 9, but also wondered if he would do something gorier, since I'm certain that MoH's budget offered enough to cover that ground. It turns out, Anderson did opt for grim subtlety and very little gore, as well as masterful use of sound. Unfortunately, the story of
Sounds Like added very little intrigue to this dark winning formula, and made the episode fall flat.
I've never worked in a call center, but HHH (horror-hound-hubby) once did, and he's told me stories of people who had really "lost it" during their tenure in that environment, including a man who started screaming about "fat donkey people" on the day of his meltdown. Apparently, shortly before that day, the man started barking at people; and I'm completely serious. Even though the story is told through a supernatural perspective, the magnified feeling of paranoia, sound sensitivity and impending meltdown felt pretty believable to me. I also identified with Larry throwing himself back into work without letting himself grieve after a horrible loss; many people do this to cope with loss, and it's often to the detriment of their psyche and well-being. So the
themes that Anderson explored in his adaptation of Mike O'Driscoll's short story at least seemed identifiable in some ways.
The strength of this episode resounded in its namesake, and it was definitely a masterful use of sound. Anderson and the audio team deserve many accolades for effectively creating an unbelievable amount of tension and conflict more through the sound of inanimate objects than through the characters. And maybe that's why the story didn't live up to the episode's strengths. Maybe too much focus was placed on all of the grating sounds, and not enough on character development. Sure, some moments happened with The Missus, the boss, and even a pathetic attempt to befriend a young subordinate. However, these brief encounters weren't enough for me to care, let alone feel any sense of horror.
When it all comes down to it, Larry was not a likable character. Not in the slightest. Had Larry been one of the call-center employees, rather than the call center's "Big Brother" (and I don't mean that as in, "my big brother cares about me"), maybe I would have been more invested in his well-being and scared for him. As an unsympathetic, slightly creepy, nutjob of a quality-control manager paid handsomely to spy on everyone right out of the gate, I didn't like him. By the time his personal tragedy had been revealed, it was already too late. I just didn't feel for the guy.
Overall, Anderson did a great job directing the episode; there is no doubt that he's a "Master of Horror."
Sounds Like is loaded with dread, thick tension, amazing audio terror and well-placed, subtle gore. The grim yet beautifully shot conclusion was well done, and at least I had the satisfaction of a decent ending. I just wished that I had more to feel for Larry than constant irritation from his supernatural hearing. Had I really cared for him, I may have also feared for him. Sometimes, seeing a creepy character becoming karma's victim just isn't enough.
