23rd October 2018 | 31 Days of “Alternative” Horror: Messages Deleted
It is safe to say that Matthew Lillard is attracted to projects that involve elements of meta fiction — self-awareness of the narrative, or some kind of collusion with the filmmakers, usually the writer. Writers in movies tend to be the first to point out the narrative elements or reference the many facets of the writing process. Here with Messages Deleted — much like with the Perfect Getaway -there is conflict with the reality and the narrative construct. Reality is all about plausibility, repetition, time, distance, length, light and luck. Clichés are a part of life, but not necessarily in the places we want to see in the movies.
Messages Deleted is a film that works both sides of the picture. It’s more of an experiment. We feel that this was as much an opportunity for the writer (of the movie) to plot alongside the main protagonist — in this case, the flawed antihero who a struggling writer himself. Many reviews that say that this film is full of holes, or that characters appear nothing more than badly drawn, detached forms of clichés, with Lillard’s character, Joel Brandt we feel it is safe to assume that all those negative qualities are true, but it’s not coming from Larry Cohen (that’s the writer of the movie again, not the character) but instead, the representation of the film is from the mind of struggling writer Joel Brandt himself. He is using Larry Cohen as a focusing lens, doing what he cannot do himself.
Write a solid screenplay.
Joel pays the bills as a creative writing teacher in college. He teaches what he knows, and what he knows is all you’re going to see.
There are of course many movies about screenwriters; the most “meta” among them would be Adaptation by Charlie Kaufman who is both the writer and character in the movie. We see the movie through his brand, style and language. Charlie Kaufman the character is put to rights at Robert McKee’s seminar where McKee tears Charlie down for stating that “nothing happens in the real world”. Even if it were the real world, it would still come from the imagination of the writer. His or her view is just that: a point of view. It can exaggerate, understate, cheat or even lie.
So where does this fit into Halloween? This movie was a wild card for the list, so I did not realise upon watching that it is more thriller than horror, but it does mess with your head. The subject matter and plot devices are however similar to the thriller When a Stranger Calls which affected a ton of movies that involved phone calls from killers, and this is just one of those movies. It tries to make use of the answering machine mechanism, but failed to see the plausible where the detectives could just as easily uncover phone records. The convention is still chilling, and as it is meta, it’s one that gets you thinking.
The kills are bloodier than that of Carpenter’s Halloween, although not as original in the full scheme of things. The idea that we are watching two writers — the real writer of the movie, somehow showing us the point of view of the writer, including his flawed vision of the world as if it were a badly written screenplay is masterfully done and wildly misunderstood. The horror is in the darkness, although it might not be what you expect at the end. (Think the twist ending of Along Came the Spider and you’ll get why it doesn’t work) but what if in this case the ending never happened. It’s Joel’s point of view after all, and he’s obsessed with the narrative construct. That narrative construct is his lean to motivation and also denial of his own criminal activity.
If anything, this film is there to irritate you… insult you and mislead you until you get it.
Written by: Stephen Radford
website: stephenradford.com
Next: 24th October: Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark
