Chubby Checker could do it. Why can't I?
Do not read this post if you haven't seen the film Seven. I need to talk about its ending and I will give it away. It's a cracking film so don't let me spoil it now. Go no further my friends!!
Is that enough of a gap? Couple more lines methinks!
Okay here we go! I was talking with a friend the other night about Seven. I refuse to write Se7en, the way the marketing people did. I love the film and had recently rewatched it. My friend hadn't seen it since the cinema and said he loved it up until the end. The problem my friend, also an aspiring writer, had is that for him it's obvious and signposted. In the car journey, John Doe (Kevin Spacey) is taunting Mills (Brad Pitt) about how he can't wait for Mills to see the huge surprise he has planned, he says this a number of times. My mate's argument is that we've essentially only been introduced to 4 characters. Mills, John Doe, Sommerset (Morgan Freeman) and Mill's wife Tracey, played by Gwyneth Paltrow. Now old Gwynny has been on the periphery of the film, we know she's pregnant, the huge surprise serial killer Doe has orchestrated will have particular resonance for Mills... so guess what the end is? The van turns up, "What's in the baaaax?" And there's a head in the box. My mate saw it coming, found it obvious and reckons it undermines all the good work the film has done up to that point. Now I definately have sympathy for that view. The film has worked so hard that it's going to be very difficult to come up with a 100% satisfying ending. For me, once I saw the guy take out the box I knew there was a head in it and it didn't take much guessing to work out whose it is. But ultimately I like the ending. I think it's brave to let the killer win. Even though he dies, he has got exactly what he wants. I like the way the use of the seven sins is resolved, in particular making Brad Pitt's character the embodiment of wrath. And, even if you've seen it coming, cutting off the protagonist's wife's head and posting it to him in a box is a pretty dark way to end a film.
But of course all conversation about that film makes me think of my own work... The problem is I am trying to make work an ending for my horror film. And my mate's comment that because we've only seen 4 characters, three of whom we're currently watching so clearly this surprise is related to the fourth, has resonance for my own ending. Viewed that way, the end is apparent long before it ever happens. Indeed viewed any way, when I read through it today I thought immediately it's signposted. It's potentially a really good twist ending. Not a twist for a twist's sake, but one that makes narrative sense, makes sense for what the story is and what it's about and puts what's gone before in a slightly different context. Not to the extent something like Sixth Sense or Usual Suspects twist endings do, but it definately gives you a feeling of, "He was fucked from the start." But in a good way. I hope. The problem is I need to have a particular character turn up in the script, disappear, then come back at the end revealed for what he really is. Currently it's badly done for a couple of reasons. The first is that he has no dramatic function other than to serve the twist which is fatal. The second is what my mate identified in Seven. There are 4 characters. This guy is coming back and if I'm following this story at all, I think I see how he'll come back.
So how do I make it work? Fuck knows. I've had a pretty good day's writing, I've improved alot of what I've written, solved another major problem that's been bugging me. But I'm on page 78 and I'm starting the last act, where everything is about to come together on what is meant to be the day of Armageddon. It can never be too dramatic. And I need to know how it's going to fit before I can properly start to write it. Our Mr Twist is about to reappear you see. So I need to come up with a convincing way of placing him in the story, giving him a dramatic function we believe then at the end reveal what he really is and what he's doing.
Fuck this is hard! But then I guess if it was easy everyone would be doing it right? Maybe I need to think out of the box.
"What's in the baaaaax?"
Is that enough of a gap? Couple more lines methinks!
Okay here we go! I was talking with a friend the other night about Seven. I refuse to write Se7en, the way the marketing people did. I love the film and had recently rewatched it. My friend hadn't seen it since the cinema and said he loved it up until the end. The problem my friend, also an aspiring writer, had is that for him it's obvious and signposted. In the car journey, John Doe (Kevin Spacey) is taunting Mills (Brad Pitt) about how he can't wait for Mills to see the huge surprise he has planned, he says this a number of times. My mate's argument is that we've essentially only been introduced to 4 characters. Mills, John Doe, Sommerset (Morgan Freeman) and Mill's wife Tracey, played by Gwyneth Paltrow. Now old Gwynny has been on the periphery of the film, we know she's pregnant, the huge surprise serial killer Doe has orchestrated will have particular resonance for Mills... so guess what the end is? The van turns up, "What's in the baaaax?" And there's a head in the box. My mate saw it coming, found it obvious and reckons it undermines all the good work the film has done up to that point. Now I definately have sympathy for that view. The film has worked so hard that it's going to be very difficult to come up with a 100% satisfying ending. For me, once I saw the guy take out the box I knew there was a head in it and it didn't take much guessing to work out whose it is. But ultimately I like the ending. I think it's brave to let the killer win. Even though he dies, he has got exactly what he wants. I like the way the use of the seven sins is resolved, in particular making Brad Pitt's character the embodiment of wrath. And, even if you've seen it coming, cutting off the protagonist's wife's head and posting it to him in a box is a pretty dark way to end a film.
But of course all conversation about that film makes me think of my own work... The problem is I am trying to make work an ending for my horror film. And my mate's comment that because we've only seen 4 characters, three of whom we're currently watching so clearly this surprise is related to the fourth, has resonance for my own ending. Viewed that way, the end is apparent long before it ever happens. Indeed viewed any way, when I read through it today I thought immediately it's signposted. It's potentially a really good twist ending. Not a twist for a twist's sake, but one that makes narrative sense, makes sense for what the story is and what it's about and puts what's gone before in a slightly different context. Not to the extent something like Sixth Sense or Usual Suspects twist endings do, but it definately gives you a feeling of, "He was fucked from the start." But in a good way. I hope. The problem is I need to have a particular character turn up in the script, disappear, then come back at the end revealed for what he really is. Currently it's badly done for a couple of reasons. The first is that he has no dramatic function other than to serve the twist which is fatal. The second is what my mate identified in Seven. There are 4 characters. This guy is coming back and if I'm following this story at all, I think I see how he'll come back.
So how do I make it work? Fuck knows. I've had a pretty good day's writing, I've improved alot of what I've written, solved another major problem that's been bugging me. But I'm on page 78 and I'm starting the last act, where everything is about to come together on what is meant to be the day of Armageddon. It can never be too dramatic. And I need to know how it's going to fit before I can properly start to write it. Our Mr Twist is about to reappear you see. So I need to come up with a convincing way of placing him in the story, giving him a dramatic function we believe then at the end reveal what he really is and what he's doing.
Fuck this is hard! But then I guess if it was easy everyone would be doing it right? Maybe I need to think out of the box.
"What's in the baaaaax?"
posted by Garreth at 5:56 pm
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