Studio 1- Related Works Week 5

Relic

Relic is a 2020 Australian-US horror film about a mother and daughter who travel to the home of Edna, the matriarch of the family (the mother’s mother), who has gone missing. They spend a couple of creepy days in her home looking for clues as to her whereabouts before Edna suddenly shows up, just as mysteriously as she disappeared. This is just such a well-made film; almost nothing is explained (I can’t stand when films go to insane lengths to spoon-feed you answers) but those with keen eyes may notice things in the corners of frames that start to piece together a story. Almost the entire film is set at nighttime in this big, creepy house, and every shot is so well considered- the darkness is actually many different shades of deep blue. They have nailed the balance of beauty and horror and connection to the characters. Unfortunately, it may keep you up all night.

5 Stories From The Mysterious and Creepy Dakota Building In Manhattan

I have always had a soft spot for badly made conspiracy-theory YouTube videos. There is something utterly disturbing about some of them and this one really got under my skin. My girlfriend and I had just been discussing the Dakota Building, a big apartment building in the Upper West Side of Manhattan which was used as exterior shots of the apartment building in Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby, and was home and place-of-death to John Lennon. Looking for more, we stumbled across this video from the “Top5s” YouTube channel. The chilling orchestral music combined with the narrator’s slow, soft delivery haunt over old footage and photos, telling stories of the building’s many mysteries- mostly ghosts and bizarre deaths. Though the production value is considerably lower than, say, Relic, this is definitely engaging content, and I think it’s worth exploring how they work.

Last of Us

So I finally played the Last of Us! I got a huge recommendation from a friend the night before I bought my PS4, and then at JB Hi-Fi, the guy selling me my console threw in the Last Of Us for free! What a nice guy. Anyway, I’m only a few hours in but I’m already fairly hooked. The first chapter of the game follows a regular father and daughter waking up in the middle of the night to discover their town (and by extension the whole planet) is being overrun by what are probably zombies after- what you learn- has been a few weeks of a global spike in hospital admissions connected to a strange illness. You jump in your neighbour’s car to try and escape town, but hit traffic and then are ambushed by flesh eating humanoids. The game then flashes forward 20 years. Society has completely changed, and seems to have become divided between “safe” areas and dangerous ones. You are in a safe one, but learn quickly that it is rife with poverty, terrorism, curfews, police checkpoints and guns. I loved the way the story unfolds before you: you are told where to go and who to speak to, but it never feels like you’re trapped doing something you don’t want to do. The gameplay is also very elegant: you aren’t given a map in the corner of the screen or a ton of information about what to do, so sneaking your way around police in some areas and zombies in others feels extremely rewarding and fun. Great story, complex characters, fun to play. Three thumbs up.