Copyright 2019 by Gary L. Pullman
Chillers and Thrillers
has posted several articles about using horror movie posters as
prompts to fire up the imagination. Such posters make good muses for
writers in search of themes, especially if authors brainstorm about
the posters without knowing the plots of the movies the posters
promote.
By
using the posters' images, visual and textual figures of speech, and
captions, authors can work out plots of their own; at the same time,
they can acquire clues as to what the posters' creators regard as
their audience's fears, anxieties, and concerns with respect to
specific themes.
In
this post, bugs are the topic. There's something about creepy
crawlers that many people find unsettling.
A
poster for the 2011 film Millennium Bugs
suggests that this movie is aimed specifically at Millennials, those
who are born
between 1980 and 2000 or so. According to this label, the members of
the targeted audience would be between 31 and 11 years old at the
time of the motion picture's release.
Curiously,
a “fear of bugs” is characteristic of children between the ages
of five and seven, but it's easy to see how many of the fears of
children between the ages of 12 and 18 (and, indeed, young adulthood)
could involve a fear of insects as well. Insects can threaten safety,
cause sickness, carry germs, and even precipitate death. In addition,
the presence of bugs which one fears and loathes could cause people
to “throw up” in the presence of others or hamper romance.
The
poster's caption, “What's bugging you?” further suggests that the
story would involve psychological issues. The bugs might, in fact,
symbolize the characters' emotional states, in which case the school
counselor or a psychologist would also apt to be among the story's
characters.
The
poster for the 1985 movie Creepers
suggests a different take on insects as villains. The poster shows a
teenage girl. The right side of her face is pretty, but the skin has
been eaten away on the left side of her face, as has much of the
underlying issue and muscle. In fact, her skull shows through the top
of her head; a hole through the exposed cranium offers viewers a
glimpse of blue sky.
A
swarm of insects flies against a full moon; as they approach, they
become visible in detail, and viewers can discern that the swarm is
composed of an unlikely assortment of various kinds of insects, some
of which appear to be unfamiliar, perhaps never-before-seen species.
They land in the girl's open, upraised palm.
“It
will make your skin crawl,” the poster's caption warns. “It”
doesn't refer to the girl or to the insects (unless it alludes to the
whole swarm), so it seems to suggest the movie itself. Either way,
whether “it” refers to the film or to the swarm of insects the
girl holds in the palm of her hand (and to the many others on their
way), either will be enough, viewers are warned, to make their “skin
crawl.”
Interestingly,
this movie takes place in a school; the girl is herself a “school
girl,” additional text informs viewers, but she is a teen with
unusual abilities:
Horror movie enthusiasts know [director Dario] Argento
as the master of modern gothic horror films . . . .
Now they can see what he does with maggots, spiders,
killer bees, and a school girl who has telepathic powers over them
all.
What
she can do “will make your skin crawl.”
Much
of the plot of a horror story built upon this theme is suggested by
the poster, but there are questions yet to be answered, such as:
- Who is this school girl?
- How did she come by her strange power?
- Why does she seem intent upon harming, perhaps killing, others?
- Who are the “others” she targets?
- Can she be stopped?
This
poster also suggests many of the characters such a story would
include: high school students, the principal, an assistant principal,
coaches, parents, maybe the school nurse, a janitor or two, and
perhaps a bus driver, but also, at some point, an etymologist and
maybe a team of exterminators. In a story of this sort, the
paranormal teen's motives will be a big part of the narrative.
The
poster also suggests a few scenes:
- A science teacher's classroom lecture on insects
- A science fair
- A field trip to a beekeeper's hives
- The school girl's collection of her swarm
In plotting a novel or a movie about villainous insects, it's probably a good idea to research phobias related to bugs: entomophobia, acarophobia, or insectophobia, as well as more specific insect-related phobias such as arachnophobia (fear of spiders), isopterophobia (fear of termites and other wood-eating insects), acarophobia (fear of insects that cause itching), scolopendrphobia or chilopodophobia (fear of centipedes), xarantaphobia or myriapodophobia (fear of millipedes), myriadpodophobia (fear of decamillipedes [millipedes with 10,000 legs]), lepidopterophobia (fear of butterflies), melissophobia, melissaphobia, or apiphobia (fear of honey bees), spheksophobia (fear of wasps), muscaphobia (fear of flies), katsaridaphobia (fear of cockroaches), mottephobia (fear of moths), myrmecophobia (fear of ants), pediculophobia (fear of lice), skathariphobia is the fear of beetles,
necroentomophobia
(fear of dead insects), and
cnidophobia
(not a fear of insects per
se,
but, rather, a fear of stingers and of being stung).
(With
so many insect phobias, it's clear that the the school girl in
Creepers
is
well-versed in insect fear; the variety of bugs at her command allows
her to terrify a large number of victims.)
Although
phobias are regarded as “irrational fears,” psychologists have
developed theories as to why people tend to fear insects in general.
Their appearance in itself can be seen as disgusting, generating a
response of repugnance. Some insects carry pathogens. Other causes of
insect fear include “environmental” factors, “medical
conditions and trauma,” “social isolation,” “depression,”
and, strangely enough, “age.” “Fear
of Bugs and Insects Phobia—Entomophobia or Acarophobia”
explains each of these causes in more detail. For example,
static electricity,
[the] presence of mold, pollen, household allergens[,] and
formaldehyde[-]impregnated products can all manifest as unexplained
dermatitis or skin irritations. These lead the sufferer to believe
that an insect or bug is crawling on the skin.
Brainstorming
about horror movie posters' images, figures of speech, and text,
initially without any other context, can often suggest ideas for
characters, settings, conflicts, scenes, and plot development. Then,
tossing in a bit of research concerning the posters' theme can
further and refine these elements. As a result, the writer's tabula
rasa
is a blank slate no more, and he or she is ready to start writing the
next cinematic or literary horror masterpiece.
Note: No insects
were harmed in the writing of this article.
No comments:
Post a Comment