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Collective Nightmares – The Tall Man (2012) (2008)
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/collective-nightmares/id1323255235
We continue April-Laugier with a discussion of the film The Tall Man (2012). This is Pascal Laugier’s film subsequent to Martyrs (2008). We recorded this episode prior to the Martyrs episode. In fact, this film inspired us to watch Martyrs again. We wanted to post our discussions in order that Laugier created the films.
Laugier’s newest film Ghostland (2018) is being released this coming Thursday April 18th, 2018! We are excited, optimistic, and hopeful for this film! We will post our discussion of Ghostland just as soon as we are able to see it. However, I have yet to see it listed as showing in Denver theaters. So we will return to April-Laugier as soon as possible.
SPOILERS IN THIS EPISODE FOR BOTH THE TALL MAN (2018) AND MARTYRS (2012)
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“Horror films are our collective nightmares.” Robin Wood.
SPOILERS BELOW
The Tall Man – Topic Index
4:59 – Laura begins our critique
8:49 – Unconvincing bleakness and lacking characters
13:27 – About that voice-over
16:03 – Ambition and pacing
16:44 – Music
17:50 – Similarities to Martyrs
20:11 – Emotional investment in characters and character motivations
23:02 – Gender politics?
25:06 – Provoking questions in Tall Man
27:28 – Compare to provoking questions in Martyrs
31:08 – What would have been interesting
33:03 – Emotional struggle
36:56 – The Tall Man as advocating a neoliberal argument
38:08 – The UN comes to the US to highlight our extreme inequality and poverty
“As the UN special rapporteur himself put it: “Washington is very keen for me to point out the poverty and human rights failings in other countries. This time I’m in the US.”'”
39:35 – Colonial concerns about removing kids from homes as evidenced by U.S. history of removing Native American children from homes. Some more info here.
40:05 – A note on human “instincts”
44:52 – The acting vs the writing
45:51 – How would we have improved the film?
50:05 – Ghostland
50:19 – The Odyssey
52:21 Compare to Beware the Slenderman (2016)