Lord of Tears (2013) is definitely an odd film and not one for everyone. You think its going to be a monster movie, but really what it is is a very slow burn ghost story. And its a lovely one, with some lovely performances... and a really odd, artificial looking monster. Spoilers ahead.
Ghost Stories in movies have always been a bit problematic for me. The big ones were always things like The Uninvited (1944) or The Haunting (1963), or The Legend of Hell House (1973). Or if you wanted to get whimsical, its things like The Canterville Ghost in its many filmed versions, or The Ghost and Mrs Muir (1947).
But.... what can ghosts really do, other than be spooky? There danger is rarely physical in the ordinary sense. They prey on the mind, and use that to put you in situations which are ALREADY dangerous, but easily avoidable if you are thinking straight. Thus, in The Haunting, we already KNOW the spiral staircase is dangerous, but the ghosts play with Eleanor's mind until she goes up that already dangerous staircase, or they trick Stella out onto the crumbling cliffs in The Uninvited. Its only when you get to things like The Legend of Hell House that you start getting more poltergeist and possession tricks being played, but even then I always felt that if people could only manage their fear, they could be protected in a large degree from ghosts.
Many MANY of the more recent 'ghost' movies play more on the idea that its a demon instead of a ghost... which is, to me, a far more boring concept. Demons are one note bad guys. You know if a demon shows up, they are going to be the bad guy. They are going to do bad things. Its LITERALLY all they ever do. And that makes them boring and predictable to me. A good recent "ghost' Movie would be Mama (2013) in which the creature DOES take on many of the more demonic characteristic, but which is definitely a GHOST, and which behaves as a ghost (in that it has very human motivations based on unresolved emotional issues) and is finally laid to rest as a ghost should be, by resolving its issues.
And that, interestingly, brings us back to Lord of Tears. Because it IS a ghost story AND there is a demon involvement... but they are not interchangeable, and for a change, the demon is done in a really interesting way.
So, the film follows James Findlay (played Euan Douglas) who is a school teacher who is trying to settle his late mother's estate. He was estranged from his mother for many years, and is shocked to discover that his mother owns a second house... which is a large, remote manor house, which his mother left instructions he should never visit. However, being puzzled by this, that is EXACTLY what he does. He doesn't remember much of his childhood, but when he arrives there, he has vague memories of time spent at this house. He shortly meets his neighbor (who lives in the converted carriage house) Eve Turner (Lexy Hulme), an American. He also begins to realize he had a mental breakdown as a child, brought on by visions of an owl headed man.
This does not sound like its a terribly involved plot when laid out like that. However, it is far more involved. As I said, its a slow burn. The romance between James and Eve grows as they uncover more of James' past, and discover that James' parents were involved in magic in order to maintain their fortunes, and Eve and James manage to discover that in particular, the parents worshipped Moloch.
Now here's the thing that confuses me. I'm not sure where they got the connection between Moloch and the Owl Man. As an occultist, I tend to critique these things probably more that I should. The image of the Owl Man looks like it comes straight out of Collin de Plancy's Dictionairre Infernal and in fact that is where I thought I had seen it. The problem is, I went back and checked, and in de Plancy, Moloch is depicted with the head of a calf, not an owl. There are several owl-headed demons in the book, the closest to this is probably Andras. I also think its a stretch to take Moloch, who was a Canaanite god to which sacrifices were made, into the god of ALL sacrifices. Admittedly, what has come down to us in history and archaeology about the historical worship of Moloch has largely only consisted of information about the sacrifices. It is also one of the few actual 'demons' actually mentioned in the Bible, and thus they were able to tie it in easily with information that is readily available to most people. They don't NEED to find a reason to have them find a copy of de Plancy, or other texts on demonology just lying around.
Returning then to the film, what I found curious at first, which pays off massively at the end of the film, is the very sweet romance that develops between Eve and James. There is a bizarre scene, which seems out of place at first, but which is simultaneously beautiful, surreal, romantic, and erotic, and a little creepy. Eve and James have just shared a bright moment, and Eve delightedly says she wants to dance. James reveals he can't dance, and she promises to teach him... and then she proceeds to give a impromptu ballet recital for him, dancing around the room and around his seated form. This is a seduction, but it doesn't culminate the way you think would be obvious. Eve and James are not at that point in their relationship yet, but they are aware of each other. Again, the payoff for this is later, but on a meta level, it is just to showcase the fact that Lexy Hulme is a dancer.
The movie moves slowly again... and we start to discover that Eve has secrets of her own, and much like James, has holes in her memory. The Owl Man begins to appear more and more often.
Lets talk about The Owl Man.
There is nothing else in this film that betrays its low budget quite like this. There is an artificiality to the owl man, and a cheapness to the costume that is apparent. They try to minimize this, wisely, with quick cuts and long, wide shots. However, as the influence of Moloch becomes more strongly felt, the Owl Man comes closer and closer, and the more obvious it becomes that this is a gigantic mask and creepy, unarticulated hand prosthetics. Its unfortunate effect is to suddenly make you aware that you are watching a movie. It mostly pulls you out of the narrative. On the other hand, the artificiality of it does lend a surreal air to the proceedings. Even if it IS something artificial, it is still a bizarre encounter to have.
The NICE thing about The Owl Man, or Moloch in this film, is the role it plays. Too often demons in film are depicted as slavering monsters who have an insatiable desire to kill. Why? Well, as I said before, thats what demons do. Except here. The demon here is a guide.. it offers cryptic advice and puzzling riddles. One gets the impression that if you can understand what its saying, you could actually profit from it. And indeed, James DOES learn the secret of how to lay the ghost to rest from listening to what the Owl Man says. But he ignored the other warnings that the demon gave him. And... it plays with the perception that James, as the protagonist of the film, is ALSO someone of interest to Moloch. Spoiler... he's not. Moloch's real target is someone else entirely. James is important to the film... he is NOT the center of the universe. This is his story... but its not the ONLY story taking place in the world. James is a bit part in someone else's drama. And that is something we so rarely see... a demon which seems more real mythologically, an entity which sees further than we do, and is playing a game that is wider than we realize.
Demons in other films are one note monsters. Their motivations are nebulous. Their powers are vast, but also curiously limited. They pick on people seemingly for no reason whatsoever. And this is the case even in well done films, such as The Exorcist. And its taken to a ridiculous extreme in films like The Conjuring series, where demons just.... show up randomly, do minor things, and then are eventually chased off. They are, to me, incredibly boring. They are so random in those films. And in films where people actually call on demons? There is an odd sense where they give vast power with SO MANY strings attached, one has to question why someone would bother. Look, for example, back at my review of Night of the Demon. Karswell has tremendous powers, but he is TERRIFIED of them, and of the price he pays. So why bother? In this, Moloch offers very specific powers, for very specific prices. If you take him up on it? That's on YOU, not him. He's not MAKING you do ANYTHING. This humanizes evil, which is a fantastic take on it.
So, the big twist... I sort of half expected, but they put it off so long, and put SO MUCH into building up what goes before it, that you largely convince yourself that it isn't going to happen. However, it is revealed that Moloch is guiding James to where he wants, with his agent, a ghost of a previous sacrifice, which turns out to be Eve. This turn it actually fascinating.
When James finds the other half of the photo, and sees himself as a boy standing next to Eve, looking as Eve does now, and he flees back to the house with Moloch mocking him the whole way. But when he see's Eve waiting for him, she does not come off as evil. She is the SAME Eve he has fallen in love with, but both of them are now aware of her true nature.... and its as devastating for her as it is for him. And the change in her manner is NOT immediate. She takes him to the bathroom, draws him a bath, undresses him, and then strips down to her slip.... its an incredibly gentle scene. She is taking care of him now, as a lover, like she took care of him as a child, as his nanny. And its beautiful. And then when he is reduced to his most vulnerable... naked, and lying back in the bath... only then does Moloch seem to transform her into an agent of menace, and the transformation, while simple, is TERRIFYING.
Movies don't generally scare me. Movies barely register on me when they try to scare. This? This was literally CHILLING. The effects were simple. Contact lenses. A filter. A creepy voice over. And the unnatural movements that Lexy Hulme brings to the character. And whats more... this is where the slow build up pays off. The audience has fallen in love with Eve along with James, which would not have been possible had they NOT taken their time. It would not have been remotely scary had they rushed this, or made the change to menace earlier.
The film is now fully invested in the ghost story. We know why Eve is haunting the house. THIS is the ghost story. Moloch is a demon, but he is not really the one haunting. He is the agency by which the haunting is taking place. Eve had been sacrificed by James' parents. And this is now a more traditional ghost story suddenly. James must locate Eve's skull on the hidden altar of Moloch, and reinter it, in order to lay her spirit to rest. The point that is nice though, to me, is that once he is aware of what has happened, it actually pretty easy to rectify. He goes to the hidden altar, finds the skull, buries it, and says a brief prayer of sorts, which is more of a gentle voiced hope for her to find rest. We are rewarded by a final look at Eve, finally leaving the grounds of the house and giving a final look back.
But this is not the end of the film. This addresses the ghost in the film, but NOT the demon.
One of the more inexplicable things going on are the constant images flashing to James' friend Allen using an axe to murder his ailing, elderly father. This seems quite odd, and its not really explained, until the end. James goes to see Allen after he has laid the ghost of Eve to rest, and is talking over the secrets of his parents with Allen. And this is where we find that James is NOT the one Moloch has been influencing this whole time. It was Allen. James becomes the victim now, and replaces Eve on the altar of Moloch in the film.
The ending seems almost cruel, but it also makes a good deal of sense. It brings the story full circle, and it feels like a delayed child sacrifice, in that the boy who is spared sacrifice as a child is merely sacrificed as an adult instead. However, it also feels in many ways a positive ending for him. He just laid the spirit of his lover to rest, and now must take her place. I sort of have this feeling like he is going to experience the same things that she did, and that, once his skull is found and laid to rest, he will go on to join Eve in whatever afterlife they find.
This was a nice little find. I have zero doubt in my mind that many people will actually HATE this film. They will complain its not scary, or two slow, or cheap. I would argue that these people are missing out. The story here is solid. The actors are fine. The cinematography is workmanlike, but again, perfectly acceptable. This is a lovely under-the-radar film.
There is a sequel to this film, that also involves the Owl Man. I think I've tracked that down on Tubi, so maybe I will offer a review of that soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment