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By Robert Scucci | Published
Head breakage is beginning to become a problem in high horror, and I don’t know how much the concept can be explored before it becomes an old hat. It is quickly becoming the new jump scare, as seen in films such as Hereditary, longlegs, And more recently, Weapon.
On the one hand, I understand. Seeing someone assigning their dome with a blunt object is such a visceral way to represent the destruction of a mind on the screen that is an easy way for filmmakers to take over while surprising their audience to the center.
But like jumping scares, we begin to desensitize them for them. Personally, I have had my filling because the sound of gray matter and the splashes of bones against the floor triggers the same type of discomfort that people pretend to feel when they listen to the word “wet.”
Interestingly, the wet word and a shattered head are not mutually exclusive.
The literal destruction of a mind
The clinging of the self -inflicted head in high horror has a very specific purpose: to show the audience that a character has lost control of his faculties. This happens twice in 2018’s Hereditary.
The first instance involves an almost catatonic Peter Graham, who begins to turn his face on his desk and screwed in the midst of the philosophy class. Perhaps there is a possibility of percentage that he has taken the message of “punishment brings wisdom” on the board too literally, or that he was only hungry and protested the only way he knew how he expected the lunch bell. But at this point, the film has already established that the demon Paimon is slowly assuming his being.
Was it necessary to crush, or Peter’s mental state could have broken down in a less literal way? The most likely reason is prepared for the final sequence of the film, when his mother Annie, completely possessed, Jackhammers his skull against the attic door in one of the most discordant sequences of the film.
Longlegs and weapons
Similar to Peter Graham, Longlegs’ The character of the title meets a more final destination during the interrogation scene, when he reveals that he works for “The Man Downstairs” before hitting his face on the table until he delivers the fatal and self -inflicted blow. After having been a duct for a satanic force since the 1970s, Ferdinand Kobble could well have released from the mental torment that took his mind decades before.
I thought Longlegs’ The sequence of the interrogation room was the cinematographic peak for the head breaking in high horror because it was so disconcerting that I am still talking about that. That is, until I saw Weapon. Playing with our fear of the unknown in a similar way, Weapon He keeps his head on the head for his third act. This time, it is not a person hits a table, but two heads that collide repeatedly on the kitchen floor until one of them stop screaming.
The popularization of the branch of the head
If I had to identify when the head failure became a plot device, I would see The Walking Dead’s Premiere of season 7, “the day will arrive when you will not be.” This is the episode in which Negan kills Abraham and Glenn with his Louisville de Louisville toletero with spike wire wrap called Lucille. It is not exactly a high horror, but its impact on the public was massive.
“The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be” is one of the best qualified episodes in the series, and Glenn’s spooky end is still one of the most polarizing moments in the horror of modern television. I never saw a single episode of The Living DeadBut I still listened to Chatter the second that the episode was broadcast due to the disturbing one that was for his fans base in 2016. When I finally looked for him to see for myself, he ruined the Night of Espueti for a week.
Glenn finally receives his flowers (more or less)
It makes sense that the filmmakers would like to pursue the same reaction that Genn’s death received. The entire sequence is horrible and stayed in our collective consciousness, a wet splash at the same time. The high horror thrives in those reactions; Head Smashing is a reliable way to get them.
I don’t see that the trope leaves soon. It is a job too good to drop the jaws, even if the effect weakens each time. At some point, he will lose his advantage, but until then, Glenn, regrets that this is for what you are remembered.
