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« Masters of Horror
November 19, 2006: Big Brother's Listening
I had a feeling Brad Anderson's Masters of Horror entry, Sounds Like, would be grim. Anderson's critically acclaimed low-budget thriller, Session 9, remains one of the most grim and cerebrally horrifying movies I've ever seen. Whenever I recommend Session 9, I describe it as one of those movies that made me hear things at night. Only two other movies to date have had that effect on me: The Exorcist and The Blair Witch Project. The Exorcist stands out as way more "in the face" (in more ways than pea soup) of the three, but Blair Witch and Session 9 both delivered that subtle, "crawl in the brain and haunt me for days" effect, which is my favorite kind of horror.
I believe the most powerful link between these three films is the masterful use of sound, both subliminal and overt. It's no surprise that The Exorcist is known for using subliminal sound throughout the film, as well as huge contrasts between silence and audio assault to increase the feeling of terror and dread. For me, the most horrifying parts of The Blair Witch Project unfolded in the scenes when the video cameras showed very little, but stirred disturbing sounds around my head as I lived the nightmare with the filmmakers in the cursed woods. In Session 9, the use of demonically warbled voices on stretched tapes, as well as shocking contrasts between silence and stingers caused my skin to crawl... all night. Many times, what I hear in a horror film will scare me more than what I see; when the two senses come together perfectly, it's the kind of movie that keeps me up at night.
I actually had hoped that Anderson would opt for the same grim psychological subtlety as Session 9, but also wondered if he would do something gorier, since I'm certain that MoH's budget offered enough to cover that ground. It turns out, Anderson did opt for grim subtlety and very little gore, as well as masterful use of sound. Unfortunately, the story of Sounds Like added very little intrigue to this dark winning formula, and made the episode fall flat.
I've never worked in a call center, but HHH (horror-hound-hubby) once did, and he's told me stories of people who had really "lost it" during their tenure in that environment, including a man who started screaming about "fat donkey people" on the day of his meltdown. Apparently, shortly before that day, the man started barking at people; and I'm completely serious. Even though the story is told through a supernatural perspective, the magnified feeling of paranoia, sound sensitivity and impending meltdown felt pretty believable to me. I also identified with Larry throwing himself back into work without letting himself grieve after a horrible loss; many people do this to cope with loss, and it's often to the detriment of their psyche and well-being. So the themes that Anderson explored in his adaptation of Mike O'Driscoll's short story at least seemed identifiable in some ways.
The strength of this episode resounded in its namesake, and it was definitely a masterful use of sound. Anderson and the audio team deserve many accolades for effectively creating an unbelievable amount of tension and conflict more through the sound of inanimate objects than through the characters. And maybe that's why the story didn't live up to the episode's strengths. Maybe too much focus was placed on all of the grating sounds, and not enough on character development. Sure, some moments happened with The Missus, the boss, and even a pathetic attempt to befriend a young subordinate. However, these brief encounters weren't enough for me to care, let alone feel any sense of horror.
When it all comes down to it, Larry was not a likable character. Not in the slightest. Had Larry been one of the call-center employees, rather than the call center's "Big Brother" (and I don't mean that as in, "my big brother cares about me"), maybe I would have been more invested in his well-being and scared for him. As an unsympathetic, slightly creepy, nutjob of a quality-control manager paid handsomely to spy on everyone right out of the gate, I didn't like him. By the time his personal tragedy had been revealed, it was already too late. I just didn't feel for the guy.
Overall, Anderson did a great job directing the episode; there is no doubt that he's a "Master of Horror." Sounds Like is loaded with dread, thick tension, amazing audio terror and well-placed, subtle gore. The grim yet beautifully shot conclusion was well done, and at least I had the satisfaction of a decent ending. I just wished that I had more to feel for Larry than constant irritation from his supernatural hearing. Had I really cared for him, I may have also feared for him. Sometimes, seeing a creepy character becoming karma's victim just isn't enough.
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Nov 19, 2006 9:04 PM
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I couldn't agree more. The ending was the best part of the eppy and was indeed satisfying for me unlike with the previous weeks.
I don't know what else I can really add because I agree with Jeannine's commentary so much. I mean even when we found out that it was ultimately his fault that his son died when he did I still felt nothing for the guy. And to be honest, with the amount of time that it took for them to show us his wife again I was expecting something way worse than just maggots eating her face, and was she pregnant or not? I mean she was right about their neighbor, which was also creepy. I kept wondering the whole time does his wife have some kind of ability too?
I found it unbelievable that they lived in Seattle, and of course right after we became privy to that information it started to pour although it had not rained the entire time before that!
Granted, it was unrealistic to me that they would live in a city where it rains all the time considering his problem, but, I think more rain spread throughout the eppy would have been a nice mood touch.
The audio sound effects were awesome, however.
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Nov 20, 2006 11:50 AM
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Yep, blueree, I totally agree with your comment too!
I had thought that about Seattle, but forgot to mention it: Talk about a SERIOUS case of "S.A.D.!" But I agree that they should have added more rain throughout the eppy; it would have made the story even more mood-drenched.
And you're right, I too wonder if the wife was pregnant. Maybe after the loss, they both had supernatural abilities? That could have been another interesting storyline to explore. Instead, they made her annoying and him creepy. She was a beautiful lady, though... I actually thought to myself, "How did THAT guy end up with such a pretty wife?!"
The maggots were gross, but I thought there'd be body parts everywhere. Yes, he put a pillow to her head, but considering what he did to the house, I thought he may have gotten more... creative with her once he crossed that line. 
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Nov 20, 2006 1:00 PM
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Yes! The way he destroyed the house I find it hard to believe that he calmly suffocated her! 
"How did THAT guy end up with such a pretty wife?!"
That's funny. The woman that played his wife was beautiful and according to IMDB.com her name is Laura Margolis. I thought I had seen her somewhere before, but, maybe not as I don't recall seeing her in any of the filmography that's listed.
When the credits rolled I was looking for the name of the guy that quit, but they had all of the character's listed as "Tech 1, Tech 2", etc. Well, OMG! Imagine my surprise when I just noticed that IMDB.com has his character's name listed as David and he was played by Richard Kahn who plays Marco on The 4400. I can't believe I didn't realize that was Marco!
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Nov 20, 2006 3:38 PM
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