YES.
I believe that the first 2/3 of the film were specifically written and shot to come across the same way that Trent sees Cane's writing: Pedestrian, run-of-the-mill horror fiction riddled with cliches. Bad prosthetic makeup, snarling monsters, creepy old ladies... All of it designed to BE that unimpressive horror claptrap.
Building this is the only way I can think of for the final act's big reversal to really work.
I think that, in keeping with this build-up to the eventual reversal, Julie Carmen's performance was intentionally guided to evoke the thought of the "unnecessary female character for sexual tension" archetype of the horror genre.
Notice how, in the final act, her performance, while not exactly diagetic to the narrative, is MUCH MUCH more intense.
This, to me, is one of the most brilliant takes on the horror genre to have ever been produced, and it gets far less attention than it should.
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Lee733
8 years ago
Was totally on board with what you'd written until this: "Notice how, in the final act, her performance, while not exactly diagetic to the narrative, is MUCH MUCH more intense" That sentence makes no sense. Diagetic is a term that relates to sound, sound that is coming from the something on or off screen in a movie relating to the story. Theme music typically being an example of non-diagetic sound. I know this because I just learned this word last week. ;)
I'm also not entirely convinced that the parts in Hobb's Town was supposed to play out like a bad horror novel. Being the early 90's the effects/gore didn't look particularly bad to me. Although I do agree that Julie Carmen does not seem like a bad actress, so I think I'm on board with the interpretation that she was purposefully subdued early on because that's how Sutter Cane had written her. Unfortunately this would mean that Sam Neill's character was being manipulated by the writing of Sutter Cane as well, but we don't really see any evidence of that, or do we? I could be convinced, but I didn't see it.
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Tales-from-the-Goondocks
8 years ago
Actually, diegesis is a word that refers to the fictional world created by its author; everything that's happening in-story. The expressions "diegetic sound" and "non-diegetic sound" derive from the broader meaning of the word "diegesis", but are in no way, shape or form the only way to use them.
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