Man Versus Monsters - Essay Example

Horror movie Characters in the movie Mr. James- A father and a husband whose occupation is farming and fishing. He is the main character in the movie. Mrs. Howard- The wife of Mr. James and a mother. She is purely a house wife who helps her husband with the farm work from time to time. Margaret- She is the eldest daughter of Mr. James. She is through with her college education and is yet to get her first employment. Donald- he is the boyfriend of Margaret who works in a local fish processing industry as an accountant. Jefferson- Donald’s father. An all-time rival of Mr. James Devin- The neighbor of Mr. James who also does fishing. Martha- An old superstitious neighbor of Mr. James. She is a widower who lives alone with her numerous cats. Plot The movie starts with Mr. James on the lake in his boat. It is late in the afternoon and Mr. James is fatigued with the day’s work. He harms his usual favorite tune as he goes about his final fishing of the day. Devin, his childhood friend and a neighbor, is watching from the sides of the lake as he smokes tobacco from his pot. Somehow Mr. James’ vessel stops to move and he does not understand why. He tries to speed up the engine but all is in vain as the boat rocks up and down from the forming waves in the lake but does not move a single inch forward. From the shores of the lake, Devin spots the mayhem that is going on in the lake. He stands up and looks on more keenly and closely. He discovers that Mr. James is indeed in some kind of a limbo and that not all is well with him. He shouts at the top of his voice inquiring on how Mr. James is faring. His voice is however drowned by the sound of the roaring engine of the vessel which Mr. James is trying to speed up so as to get off the stuck position. “James, are you alright?” shouts Devin over and over again. After struggling with the vessel for some four or so minutes, Mr. James decides to find out what is getting the vessel stuck and to deal with it at once. Over the years of his fishing endeavors, Mr. James has come about such instances but every time the vessel would veer off the path of whatever was getting it stuck if the engine was speeded up. This does not seem to work this time round and it got Mr. James a little bit nervous. As Mr. James approaches the side of the boat to check out the state of the water surrounding the boat, the entire vessel is abruptly lifted up and it comes down tumbling in the water in a capsizing position. Devin gets all jittery as he is helplessly watching Mr. James going into the water with his head first. Mr. James has been brought up near the lake and he has very perfect swimming skills. He drops into the water and recollects his senses, then immediately tries to come up above the level of the water and swim to the shore. He feels something pulling his leg down in a manner that would definitely get to drown him. He uses his left foot to kick the foreign creature that is pulling him down. The first sight of the monster flashes on the screen for seconds as it is shown receiving the kick blow from Mr. James and letting him loose. As proposed by Kleeblatt (58), this is a perfect way of introducing a key element in a film. Apparently, Mr. James gets to kick the monster in his left eye and it loses its composure. Devin jumps into the water and helps James as he is swimming outside. They get to the shore and both can not tell what exactly has attacked them. The winds drive the James’ boat to the shoreline and it spends the night there unmanned. James and his neighbor Devin go home with no fish and with very frightened faces. Soon, the story of the ordeal that has happened at the lake gets to the entire locality. People have mixed reactions concerning the story. Most of the people find it difficult to believe that the story has indeed happens. Some believe in it partially, but still leave some room for doubt. The James’ old neighbor Martha is among those who have a very weird explanation of the ordeal. She believs that the story indeed takes place and insinuates that it could even get worse for the locals. She is a very superstitious old woman who has some believes that no one but her alone can live with. She believes that her several cats are deities and that anyone who would show any kind of selfishness or get to harm any of her cats would be attacked from heaven. In this regard, she believes that her cats are responsible for all that has taken place at the lake and she somehow feels proud of them. She has always accused James of being mean to her cats as he has on several occasions thrown stones at them and called them harsh names. James denies Martha’s theory as sheer nonsense for she iss old and weary. He has always resented Martha, especially for her practice of keeping several cats which suffer from malnutrition and constantly go to scavenge for food from the neighborhood. James’ wife Mrs. Howard started to see some sense in the theory brought up by her old neighbor and resorted to talking to her over it. Days went by and things seemed normal. No hitches were observed apart from occasional huge rains with torrents. A month after the lake ordeal, on a Saturday afternoon Donald was relaxing in his room and was expecting his girlfriend Margaret to come over and pay him a usual weekend visit. She used to go to her boyfriend’s place every Saturday afternoon and spend the night there before leaving the following afternoon after the Sunday church service. Donald heard the doorbell ring and knew it was Margaret so he went on to open without making any inquiries. It turned out there was no one at the door. Confused and suspecting himself of hallucinating, Donald shut the door only to hear the doorbell ring again. This time he was sure and so he opened promptly. Again there was no one at the door. He was convinced that Margaret was trying to pull a fast one at him and so he went round the house in search of her. He then thought of a brilliant idea of calling her so that the ringing of her phone would get her to be seen from wherever she would be hiding. Margaret had left her phone on the dining table at the time and was out in the field admiring their plantation. Her father happened to be close to the phone as it rang. He saw Donald’s name as the caller and all his anger was rejuvenated. James had despised Donald a lot and he was very much against his relationship with his daughter. Dosk had been a great rival of James’ from back in the years and James was always against the idea of his daughter getting married in the family. He picked the phone angrily and warned Donald against calling again. Just as Donald was still on the phone, an axe fell from above and missed his head by an inch. He yelled in horror sending the sound over the phone. On hearing the yelling over the phone, Mr. James was convinced that it was Donald’s father attacking her daughter for being in their home. He threw the phone down and got into his jeep. He drove so fast that the bumps and the pot holes on the route posed no challenge to him whatsoever. All that was running through his mind was getting the throat of Donald’s father Mr. Jefferson and strangling it to death. He was so bitter that his fingers were trembling on the steering wheel. Donald threw the phone on the ground as he tried to examine his body for any forms of injury that might have been caused by the falling axe. He discovered that he was fine and hurriedly found his way to the house. As he opened the door of the house, a black out hit the room all over sudden and it got dark even on the outside. The use of lighting modulation to create moods in the film is postulated by Anfam (2004. p. 62). Whiling winds produced very frightening sounds and Donald could feel his feet trembling. Sounds of a woman giggling came from his bedroom and it came with some frightening echoes. He took one step into the room and left the door open. He had a man yelling from outside the house and he was sure that he had heard right. “Where the hell is my daughter” Mr. James was yelling loudly and angrily at Donald as he stepped out of his jeep. Donald was so frightened that he remained motionless and speechless. He just looked over as James came charging with rage at him. As James approached Donald, a sound of breaking class cut into the air and created a shrill that ran down the spine of both Donald and James. It was the axe from heaven tumbling over a pane of the window of Donald. Pieces of glass fell on the ground like shrapnel. James got confused and his rage and speed was cut abruptly. A gale of rotating wind came from the outside charging towards Jams and Donald. They rushed into the house in terror and shut the door. They all remained motionless in the dark room and prayed for the intervention of their Gods. The door sprang open all over sudden and the room got brightly illuminated. As the two occupants of the room looked at each other helplessly, they saw Margaret standing at the door smiling broadly. Margaret was in time for her routine visit and was elated to see his boyfriend and his father coexisting in harmony. She could not believe what she was seeing and she was all smiles. All that was going through her mind was a grand wedding and kisses for her father and her boyfriend. Margaret made a step forward towards her father and her boyfriend who could now afford a smile. She was just about to express her joy and her gratitude when all over sudden this huge ugly creature grabbed her form the back by her hair and lifted her up. The terror and horror got back to the face of Mr. James and that of Donald. They both felt a lot of love and compassion for Margaret and could not afford to watch helplessly. Mr. James grabbed a stool and hulled it at the head of the monster. The stool was slapped back to the face of James and it hit him with a thud, sending him right on the floor. Donald reached for a knife on the dining table by making a long stride and stretching his arm at full stretch. The monster kicked the table up and it buried Donald on the floor. Margaret was now yelling loudly as she was both terrified and feeling pity for his father and boyfriend. Her hair which was grabbed up also felt painful and she could not help but scream at the top off her voice. This made her father regain his strength and he stood to his feet. He withdrew his pistol from the holster and pointed it to the monster. On firing the first shot, the monster dropped Margaret and roared in anger. Subsequent shootings turned out to be blanks as no further bullets were left in the pistol. The monster came charging at James. On seeing this, Donald grabbed the knife that had fallen next to him and through it at the monster. The knife caught the right eye and the monster fell on one knee. The injuries inflicted on the monster made it so furious that whirls of wind came oozing from it. The roof of the building blew off and all the glasses were shattered. The monster threw an axe at lightning speed at Donald which pinned his arm on the wall. As Donald was yelling in pain, the monster went charging at him swinging another axe on its arm. Mr. James threw a sheet of cloth that was covering the dining table at the monster and this momentarily blocked its vision and orientation. He quickly unpinned Donald from the wall and they made a run towards Margaret. As the monster regained its vision, it through a cupboard at the main door hence blocking it. Spotting a piece of broken wood on the floor, James hurled it at the monster and it went right into the remaining eye of the monster. The monster got so outraged that it hurled axes all over the room aimlessly. One of the axes got Donald on the foot and he lay down helplessly. James and Margaret lay down as well, as they avoided the flying axes. Sporting a perfect opportunity as the monster opened its mouth wide roaring in pain, James perfectly through an axe towards it which went straight into the mouth and down the throat. This cut down the roaring of the monster as it choked in distress. The monster got powerless as the effects of the axe sunk in. James got to his feet and pushed into the Monster’s throat a couple of more axes. The monster died in agony as it tried to remove the chocking axe. As proposed by Sandler (1978. p. 47), the protagonist gets to pull the toughest stunt in the film. James and Jefferson family got to be the best of friends following the incidence. Their children married in a big public wedding which was attended by everyone in the locality. Sources Used Anfam D. Abstract Expressionism. New York & London: Thames and Hudson; 2004. p. 22-64 Sandler I. The New York School: The film makers and directors from the Fifties New York: Harper and Row; 1978. P. 4-97 Kleeblatt, N. Action/Abstraction: Pollock, de Kooning and American Art, New Haven: Yale University Press; 2008. p. 44-106 Read More