There’s a reason you’ll often find me touting The Conjuring 2 as the best horror movie of 2016, and it’s not simply that the movie scared the daylights out of me – it did, I must point out, as no filmmaker alive today is more skilled at executing scares than James Wan. Rather, what’s most impressive about the hit sequel is the focus on the characters; notably, supernatural superheroes Ed and Lorraine Warren. Wan’s love for the Warrens is plainly evident in the film, and there’s one scene in particular that stands out as being perhaps the very best in a horror movie this year.
And no, it’s not a scary scene. Quite the opposite, in fact.
As our own Jess Hicks noted in a wonderful piece she wrote about The Conjuring 2 here on Bloody Disgusting earlier this year, there’s a scene where Patrick Wilson’s Ed Warren picks up a guitar and sings Elvis’ “Can’t Help Falling In Love” to the Hodgson family; more importantly, to his wife Lorraine. It’s a quiet moment nestled inside all the terror, and the film is infinitely better because of the scene. It’s in that moment that we realize just how much love there is between Ed and Lorraine, and I strongly believe that it’s the single most important scene in the entire movie.
“Patrick Wilson looked at Vera Farmiga in such a comforting and loving way that it made me entirely lose it,” wrote Jess Hicks in the aforementioned piece, echoing my own sentiments to a tee.
Watching the scene play out, it reminded me of another from a horror movie past.
Like The Conjuring 2, the original Poltergeist is anchored by a set of extremely likable characters that ensure you’re deeply invested in their horrifying plight; and it takes but one scene to get you firmly on their side. Beginning 14-minutes into the film, the scene is fittingly labeled “Smoking with the Freelings” on the Poltergeist DVD, though I like to call it “The Bedroom Scene.” It runs just a few minutes long, taking us inside the Freeling bedroom for an intimate moment that, like Patrick Wilson’s feels-inducing Elvis cover, tells us everything we need to know about the Freeling parents.
Lying on their bed together, Steve and Diane Freeling are unwinding by reading books, watching television, and smoking a little pot; it is, though they’re not aware of it, the last peaceful night they’ll be having for a good long while. Nothing much happens in the scene. Nothing at all, really. Rolling a joint, Diane relays a sleepwalking story from her childhood, and then the marijuana-induced paranoia of her nightly trip kicks in. She begins to fear that young Carol Anne will sleepwalk into the pool being constructed in their backyard, but Steve swiftly calms her down by jumping around on the bed and flexing in the mirror. They laugh like teenagers, coming off less like actors spouting movie dialogue and more like two real people who you’d love to hang out with… and perhaps even be.
Steve and Diane clearly love one another, and that’s really all we need to know in order to love them. And guess what happens when Carol Anne is taken to the other side? Because of scenes like “The Bedroom Scene,” we care. We fear for the family. We want nothing more than for Steve and Diane to be back on that bed, smoking pot, making each other laugh, and just generally enjoying each other’s company. Such is the power of quality character-development. Sometimes, it only takes one scene.
The best horror writers and filmmakers? They all understand that.
“I try to create sympathy for my characters, then turn the monsters loose,” Stephen King famously once said, stressing perhaps THE single greatest key to making effective horror.
So what’s your favorite character-building scene in horror? Let us know!
