Editorials
Arthouse Exploitation? Exploring the Meta-Horror of ‘Nocturnal Animals’
Meta-narratives may have only recently become popular in mainstream media, but stories within stories have been a part of human culture since ancient times. From One Thousand and One Nights to Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman, our fascination with the repercussions of storytelling has itself been transformed into fuel for compelling stories, and this also applies to the horror genre.
Cosmic horror yarns are chock-full of characters who go mad after reading cursed tomes, and we’ve already covered the meta-terror of Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves, but few movies have managed to capture the magic of being deeply disturbed by an unnaturally gripping story. One exception to this is Tom Ford’s controversial thriller Nocturnal Animals, with the fashion-designer-turned-filmmaker using the film’s Russian doll setup to explore how horror narratives can be used to communicate.
Based on a novel by Austin Wright, the 2016 film follows art gallery curator Susan (Amy Adams) as she works her way through an unsettling manuscript mailed to her by her ex-husband Edward (Jake Gylenhaal). The manuscript describes a terrifying thriller about an unsuspecting family being harassed by criminals during a Texas road trip, with the father (again played by Gyllenhaal) being forced to embark on a grief-filled quest for closure after the horrific incident. Along the way, Susan is slowly affected by her reactions to the deeply personal novel, with the film intercutting her life and memories with the story she’s reading.
While critics almost unanimously praised Adams, Gyllenhaal and Michael Shannon (who plays a cancer-ridden detective in the story-within-the-story), many reviewers accused the film of being excessively dense, pointing out the paper-thin connections between the layers of narrative and some baffling creative decisions (like that bizarre opening). There was also plenty of criticism directed at the film’s treatment of women, with some outlets even labeling Nocturnal Animals as an exploitation flick masquerading as an arthouse picture.
Despite these controversies, the movie was ultimately well-received by film festivals and awards shows, proving that Ford wasn’t just a one-trick-pony when it came to filmmaking.
So Why is it Worth Watching?
For starters, the aforementioned praise of the film’s performances wasn’t exaggerated. Almost every single actor is at the top of their game here, from Gyllenhaal’s frantic grieving father to Shannon’s doomed detective. And while Adams’ character is mostly a reactive figure, even she finds ways to insert nuance and personality into a complex individual that could have easily come off as unlikable.
Aaron Taylor Johnson also delivers some of the best acting of his career as an all-too-believable sociopath, with the filmmakers being confident enough to let the actor portray the character as a flawed human being instead of taking the easy way out and making him a cartoonish villain. It actually takes a while for you to register Johnson and his buddies as a genuine threat, but once things kick into gear, they quickly become some of the most hateable antagonists in fiction.
Other than the smorgasbord of memorable performances, the film also works as an intellectual exercise, letting viewers figure out the stories’ connections on their own time without spelling out any obvious answers. While certain recurring themes, like the contrasting depictions of masculinity, make it clear that there is an overarching narrative at work here, the story also functions at face value as a surprisingly harrowing thriller.
After all, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, and the film’s individual pieces work on their own as excellent bits of genre entertainment, making it so that you can still enjoy Nocturnal Animals even if you’re not willing to engage with its narratological baggage.
What Makes it Horror Adjacent?
Backwoods horror may not be as prevalent now as it was back in the 70s, but it’s hard to watch the story-within-the-story of Nocturnal Animals and not be reminded of uncomfortable classics like Deliverance, Straw Dogs and even Wes Craven’s The Last House on the Left. Ford’s film may not be a bona-fide horror flick, especially during the melodramatic “real life” segments, but it certainly emulates a lot of genre thrills and even features an unexpected jump scare or two.
That being said, Johnson’s character and his gang come off as genuinely scary individuals precisely because of how stripped down the narrative is, with Ford (and Wright before him) forgoing common genre tropes and focusing on the primal emotions behind this awful situation. This grounded perspective transforms a familiar setup that could easily be the opening act of a Liam Neeson flick into a truly horrific ordeal.
Hell, the kidnapping itself feels so real that it could have been ripped straight from tabloid headlines (even if the ending gets a bit more symbolic), but the build-up is just as terrifying. It slowly dawns on the viewer that things are worse than they appear and there’s nothing that these characters can do to escape. Honestly, I can’t even remember the last time that I was so uncomfortable while watching a movie, and the knowledge that this is just make-believe doesn’t actually make things any less terrifying, with audiences being left to question why exactly Edward would want Susan to read this.
Sure, the tension lets up a little bit once the family’s ordeal is concluded and Gyllenhaal’s character is left to pick up the pieces, but that first half of the story will certainly appeal to fans of realistic terror. I don’t quite agree with critics who accused Nocturnal Animals of being an exploitation flick, especially since it features some really poignant reflections on ill-fated relationships, but there’s no denying that the film has at least one foot in the horror genre.
There’s no understating the importance of a balanced media diet, and since bloody and disgusting entertainment isn’t exclusive to the horror genre, we’ve come up with Horror Adjacent – a recurring column where we recommend non-horror movies that horror fans might enjoy.
It’s been 75 years since The Thing From Another World first warned us to “watch the skies”, and filmgoers have done just that by showing up to multiple instances of extraterrestrial contact on the big screen. This makes sense, as a recent CBS news poll estimated that 63% of Americans believe in intelligent life on other planets, and the ongoing disclosure movement aims to raise that number with each passing day.
With Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day leaving many genre fans hungry for more alien footage (preferably of the spooky variety), today I’d like to share a list recommending six underrated alien invasion thrillers for your viewing pleasure. After all, regardless of whether or not you believe that we’re alone in the universe, it can be fun to dream about the worst-case scenario if our cosmic neighbors ever decide to visit.
For the purposes of this list, we’ll be focusing on lesser-known invasion stories rather than the popular extraterrestrials of franchises like Alien and Close Encounters of the Third (or even Fourth) Kind. That being said, don’t forget to comment below with your own alien favorites if you think we missed a particularly thrilling movie.
While it won’t be featured in this article, I’d highly recommend checking out Dean Alioto’s UFO Abduction/The McPherson Tape if you’re up for some ufology-inspired found footage thrills.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
6. The Arrival (1996)
Not to be confused with Denis Villeneuve’s Academy Award-winning Amy Adams vehicle about learning to communicate peacefully with extraterrestrial life, David Twohy’s The Arrival is a much more straightforward (but no less entertaining) genre romp where Charlie Sheen faces a global conspiracy involving hostile alien invaders.
It’s not exactly up there with Close Encounters or even Independence Day, but Twohy’s conspiratorial thriller plays out like an exceptionally fun episode of The X-Files that I’d recommend to sci-fi/horror fans who don’t mind a little bit of wonky CGI and 90s excess alongside their alien thrills.
5. Extraterrestrial (2014)
The Vicious Brothers made a name for themselves with the success of 2011’s Grave Encounters, but that was far from the Canadian duo’s only collaboration. And while it’s not exactly a fan favorite, I always point out 2014’s Extraterrestrial as one of their most underrated projects simply because I agree with the filmmakers’ opinion that there aren’t enough ‘cool alien abduction movies’ out there.
Admittedly, the majority of the picture functions like a run-of-the-mill creature feature with paper-thin characters and familiar horror tropes, but I’d argue that the cosmically-terrifying final act elevates the experience to new and memorable heights. The movie also boasts great performances by both Michael Ironside and Emily Perkins – a combination that more than makes up for the occasionally janky CGI.
4. Alien Raiders (2008)
Director Ben Rock has gone on record lamenting how his John-Carpenter-inspired creature feature was forcefully renamed from Supermarket to the painfully obvious Alien Raiders (a change which likely resulted in many potential viewers skipping out on the experience), but the new title doesn’t change the fact that this single-location thriller is something of a hidden gem.
Taking place entirely within a supermarket, Alien Raiders tells the story of an ensemble of customers and employees who are taken hostage by a group of armed men looking for something far more dangerous than an easy payout. I won’t get into details in order to avoid spoiling the experience, but I’d highly recommend this criminally underseen flick to fans of John Carpenter and the Resident Evil games.
3. Phoenix Forgotten (2017)
You’d think that a Ridley-Scott-produced retelling of one of the most infamous real-life UFO sightings of all time would have a bigger following, but I rarely see Justin Barber’s Found Footage period piece brought up during discussions about extraterrestrial-focused horror movies.
This is a huge shame, as Phoenix Forgotten is just as spooky as it is convincing, with this well-researched dive into the Phoenix Lights incident benefiting from surprisingly believable special effects as well as an appropriately horrific finale.
2. Communion (1989)
I wouldn’t blame you for disregarding Whitley Strieber’s controversial book about his alleged close encounter as sensationalist slop, but I’d argue that Phillipe Mora’s 1989 adaptation of these events is much better than the source material. After all, the movie works as a standalone piece of speculative fiction while also benefiting from an incredible performance by the one and only Christopher Walken!
Mora’s take on Communion may not be particularly scary, but the film is still an unforgettable character study regardless of whether or not the abduction really happened. Not only that, but the flick also paved the way for plenty of future sci-fi stories where the extraterrestrial invaders aren’t as evil as they initially appear.
1. Altered (2006)
Originally envisioned as a Sam Raimi-style horror-comedy titled Probed, Eduardo Sánchez (of The Blair Witch Project fame) eventually realized that it would be much more interesting to turn the film into a serious exploration of the emotional aftermath of a traumatic abduction incident.
That’s how we got Altered, a clever inversion of the standard abduction narrative that follows a group of troubled friends as they capture and experiment on an alien in order to enact revenge for their own abduction years prior.
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