Howdy folks, Long time, zero communique. I've been off working on the other side of the movie screen as of late, but I wanted to drop by today to mention a new film that's opening this week, one that's worth a closer look amidst this autumn rush. The picture is Trigger Man, directed by Ti West, and of all the horror films opening in the next few weeks, this is the one to catch. Some of you may have seen West's debut feature a few years back - a grainy, rollicking little funhouse ride entitled The Roost - and his next film, due sometime next year, is Cabin Fever 2. While this work ostensibly belongs to the same genre, it confronts and shatters the conventions of the horror film with such cold precision that audiences expecting another splatterfest may well be confounded. Make no mistake: Trigger Man is definitely a thriller, but those thrills come from a more esoteric and cerebral place than, say, the latest installment of Saw or whatever other Halloween offerings we have in store. It's a refreshing change of pace. The films is purportedly based on a true story - one whose rich history goes all the way back to The Most Dangerous Game. Three friends venture into the Delaware woodlands for an ill advised hunting trip. They drink some beer and load their guns and wander into the forest. They walk. And walk. Occasionally engaging in banal chatter but mostly just trudging forward in silence. Getting deeper and deeper into the brush. And then, just when that silence has reached its peak, a gunshot echoes through the trees, a burst of blood explodes in the afternoon sun, and.. ....well, this is where most films would follow the 'all hell breaks loose' rule of thumb, but West has something different in mind. As the would-be hunters realize that they're (of course) the ones being hunted, as their numbers gradually begin to drop, West twists the ennui of the first half of the film into a taught, numbing sense of dread. He never loses his patience, never gives in to the easy scares. He draws the tension out to the breaking point, and then pushes it even further. There's a certain shot near the end of the film, leading up to the climax, that seems last for nearly ten minutes. Almost nothing happens in it, and in its uneventfulness, it distills the elements of the chase scene to its primal ingredients. It goes from unbearably tense to unbearably boring to unbearably tense, With its minimalist approach and unaffected naturalism, (not to mention its digital cinematography and the fact that premiered at SXSW in Austin this past spring), one might say that this is the first Mumblecore horror movie (a reference to the circle of twentysomething filmmakers whose work and collective aesthetic has emerged from the festival circuit and into the mainstream over the past few months). But it's also got a more refined pedigree that recalls recent independent masterpieces like Old Joy and Gerry. And, too, it brings to mind nothing less than the work of filmmakers like Antonioni or, even moreso, Tarkovsky. Trigger Man<,/i> is an experiment is sculpting in time - with explosions of brain matter serving as periodic punctuation. It opens today in New York and Los Angeles, and expands from there. Give it a shot. Until next time, Ghostboy
