mtwentz wrote:Soolsma wrote:I'm very much with Rhodes when it comes to the scary stuff. During The Return I never really crapped my pants like I did during FWWM, MD (that ending!!!) or IE. What probably came closest were the Woodsmen reviving Mr. C, their skull crushing bogeyman practices, not so much.
A little more of Lynch being the true master of horror he can be at his best would be great. I want this raw feverish feeling of inescapability, like a sleep paralysis one is unable to wake from, haunting images that will be imprinted in ones mind for many nightmares to come. Until this day, Lynch is still the one who scared me most through film, and I've watched a lot of horror movies. Admitted, most of those (horror movies) are really bad; cheap jump scares, loads of predictability, gore.
-I jumped out of my seat when the Evolution of the Arm Doppelganger suddenly appeared out of the statue. I did not see it coming and it was reminiscent of the MD elderly couple jump scare for me.
-Totally got the chills when the Woodsman was following the Army lady (forgot her name). Not a jump scare but very creepy.
-The Experiment chopping the faces of Sam and Tracy was pretty freaky the second time I watched (didn't get me as much the first time as on rewatches)
-Mother trying to burst through the door to get at Cooper while he was escaping through an electrical socket (reminiscent of the final battle in Mimic when the creature is trying to get through the hatch door at Jeremy Northam's character) was pretty intense.
I noticed Lynch used no 'stinger' musical cues this time. That may be part of the reason you felt there weren't as many jump scares. By 'stinger', I mean like the music in the original series when the unseen man hides behind a tree while Leo is meeting Mike and Bobby.
It's not the jump of the scare or other use of horror tropes that frighten me most. It's the way Lynch can set up a mood before leaving me in pure agony. This is a process that takes a while, possibly hours. What's important is that there are multiple hints throughout the work that point towards something very unnerving going on. What is probably also vital is how the character that gets scared acts. Some examples:
-the way Laura screams and trembles in utter fear after seeing BOB in her room.
-Diane screaming as she's terrorized at the ending of MD.
-Sue/Nikki's exaggerated, somewhat psychotic facial expressions during the hallway scene.
All of the above were properly built up to with an increasing sense of dread. Think convenience store scene, MD dinner scene etc.
(Or am I just a fan of frightened blonde women? Like Lynch?)
In this sense: another thing I found pretty damn eerie about TPTR was Hastings describing the murder of Ruth "There were SO many people there". I've always been so curious about what exactly happened there. The major's head floating up and all. Now there's a scene I'd like to see in season 4!
I very much have to agree with you about those mother/judy scenes being very well done, downright eerie, freaky and unnerving. There were other good moments as well. I'm not saying TPTR misses any sense of horror, it's still scarier than 95% of all horror movies; just not as scary as some of Lynch's other works. Poo didn't flow while it did before, that's my main point.
I Think that during the time the tree popped out I was too busy contemplating over the dynamics of the lodge to be scared. When the woodsman crossed the hallway, my mind was occupied by the police investigation. A proper horror mood was not set up for me during those scenes.
Maybe it has something to do with the format. And would the series have really benefited from watching them as an 18 hour movie. Having one or two scares per episode, while last week's have already slightly faded, might not work well for the fear factor.