Happy Halloween season, all! I love this time of year, and we’ve been getting very lucky with the weather so far in Wisconsin. With all of the scary hurricanes going on, I am fully aware of my gratefulness to be safe and sound. I will do everything I can take advantage of this weather for as long as I can.
Because it’s the Halloween season, I thought it would be fun to review one of my favorite scenes from one of my favorite movies - not just scary movies, but favorite ever! There is so much to discuss.
A Slight Change to the Story Farm on Substack
I have decided to make this post - my series of “This Scene…” breakdowns - available only to paid subscribers after today. My primary reasoning is because it takes me a long time to create these videos, but also because I want to make sure that the people who upgrade here on Substack get the most bang for their buck. I will still publish my free Thursday educational and inspirational newsletters, though, along with free previews before every post. So my free subscribers will still receive plenty from me!
If you ever wish to unsubscribe, have at it, but it is my intention to support as many writers as I can. The truth of the matter is that my consulting and coaching business, which includes this Substack, is my primary form income. It’s how I literally survive. I hope that makes sense. And I hope you enjoy my Substack as much as I enjoy creating it!
Now on to the show…
Transcript from the Video for “This Scene…from The Others”
It’s ghost story season, ladies and gentleman, and that means I want scare the shit out of myself. Sort of. Not really. But probably. But the movie The Others certainly did! What’s so fun about the movie, though, is that while there are some genuinely creepy moments, it’s so much more cerebral than what I originally thought it would be when first seeing it. And for those of you who have not yet seen it, A) I’m jealous that you get to see it for the first time, and B) do not watch this video. Stop watching. I’m going to be giving away the twist, so spoilers will definitely be present here and this is NOT the movie to learn about before watching it. For movies like The Sixth Sense or The Others, knowing the twist ahead of time would be too big of a reveal. The whole movie - the entire concept - is built around the twist and reveal and man is it a good one. So…I’ve warned you, spoilers ahead!
With that said….they’re ghosts the whole time. Yep. That’s the twist, but you know what’s so fantastic about that twist? It’s a small twist on a twist. The old cliches of “they were dreaming or asleep the whole time”. “They were dead the whole time”, etc etc. The twist in The Others, though, isn’t just a twist and reveal that they have been dead for the whole movie, but that they are ghosts haunting this old mansion without ever, themselves, knowing it. It’s so smart. The concept itself, but also the script itself - from the little mysterious hints here and there being disguised as anything BUT hints, to the general “haunted house story” unraveling in front of us and being flipped on its head - they aren’t the ones being haunted. They’re doing the haunting!
So… what makes for a great twist and reveal? It isn’t the plot that gets twisted. Yes, a pursuit and a goal is shifted and the characters need to move in a new or different direction, but that’s the boring explanation of a twist. Really great twists - the ones we remember - are always (and I rarely use that word, “always” when referring to writing and story), they are always directly and very emotionally connected to the main characters. We get so much build-up and momentum toward a particular character believing something or wanting something so badly, that we fully understand and SEE just how important that belief or goal is to them. On top of that, though, it is something so completely out of their own realm of possibility - they would never even consider the possibility of their story shifting or “twisting” in that direction.
The tricky part for the writer is making sure the audience also doesn’t consider this possibility, but the only way to do this is to make sure the audience is personally and emotionally connected to and invested in the main character. So throughout this movie, we get the perspective of the ghosts and we don’t even realize that that is the perspective we’re in…until this scene. This scene is so thrilling, chilling, emotional - this is the scene where Nicole Kidman and her children fully understand and become aware of their situation, and it’s done in a way where the audience can directly relate. We’re like the people holding the seance, only we as the audience get to see what the ghosts - these people, these characters we’ve spent the last hour and a half with - what they’re doing, how they’re reacting, and how confused and frustrated they are by this strange experience of people holding a seance in THEIR home. Who are these people? Why are they acting like this? Why can’t they see us? What does it mean? It’s an incredible exploration in character perspective and a character learning brand new information about themselves - information they were so terrified of learning that they blocked it out.
As much as the plot is revealed in this scene, we see the the power of the plot reveal because of the characters involved. Plus…it’s just fantastically creepy. Let’s remember, when analyzing scenes, as writers we have to look at how a scene will be placed on the page (and by that I mean the literal words presenting visual representation), where this scene would occur structurally, how much we know about the characters, feel for the characters, and understand regarding their pursuits and goals prior to this scene coming into play. The acting performance is only as good as the writing on the page and the director behind the camera (OK, sort of…some actors are just naturally incredible). Nonetheless…let’s get into it. Let’s celebrate the Halloween season with this scene from The Others.
—Max Timm & The Story Farm
This Scene...from The Others