THE SERVANT (Joseph Losey, 1963, UK)

Hugo Barrett is seemingly a model servant, a man of impeccable references and character, his black suite and bowler hat a charming anachronism that delineates his social status, a man who takes pride in his job. Tony is a young man, a wealthy playboy with grand ideals but locked into a life of ennui.

Tony hires Hugo and soon comes to depend upon him both as servant and caregiver. Hugo slowly but steadily fosters this relationship and begins to place himself in a position of power, forcing his master’s fiance into a marginalized role and introducing a femme fatale into Tony’s life. Hugo manipulates Tony into allowing his (Hugo’s) “sister” to move in but it’s a ploy to seduce Tony and invert their rigid social standing by becoming masters of the household…while Tony serves the servants. Tony becomes the mark, his major flaw a sense of duty, and it’s this inherent and commendable trait that Hugo exploits: Hugo is a man of selfish needs and violent temperament who hides behind the mask of civility.

Director Joseph Losey and writer Harold Pinter once again collaborate to examine archaic British cultural mores, to vivisect the class structure and reveal the marrow of human nature that transcends any social hierarchy. Losey utilizes languid camera movements and tracking shots in claustrophobic spaces, often framing the characters as one dominates the space either by close-up with the other in deep focus or as one stands unflinchingly above the other. He often films reflections in gilded mirrors, as master and servant begin to transpose their allegiance and become opposites. Tony’s fiance is redacted from his life by the powerful influence of Hugo as she suspects that something is indeed wrong, while Hugo’s “sister” is actually a weapon of sexuality, blackmail that keeps Tony a slave to his base desires.

The keystone of the narrative takes place in a bar haunted by reflections where people are as insubstantial as whiskey fumes, eyes no longer sparkling with life but voiding it. Here, a “chance” meeting between Hugo and Tony leads to a “heartfelt” confession from Hugo as he begs to be given a second chance. Losey films the scene with Hugo as the dominant force, his tearful pleadings reflected in the bar’s huge mirror and framed by a vase full of flowers (a visual call-back to a previous trope). Losey positions Hugo on the left side of the frame and Tony on the right for the entire scenario then shockingly crosses-the-axis. He cuts to a reverse angle (or mirrored shot) which put Hugo in Tony’s previous position: a powerful visual image that foreshadows the final act. He has totally usurped his master’s place.

In a climactic scene, Tony and his servant are drunkenly playing a game on the staircase with a violent riptide underscoring the scene. Tony is on higher ground but he slowly allows Hugo to take control as he climbs the stairs until they both stand on equal ground…until Hugo orders Tony to pour him a drink. The servant has now conquered the household, and the film descends into a drug addled orgy where Tony’s fiance stumbles from the inequity to seek the cold slivered air of a winter night, slashing her back to her senses. THE SERVANT is a film that not only examines class distinction but blurs the lines; where the wealthy young man is nothing but naïve while the lower class butler seeks his deconstruction. Here, the Ruling Class is victim of its own devices.  

Final Grade: (A) 

[REC] (Jaume Balaguero & Paco Plaza, 2007, Spain)

Fear spreads like a deadly virus as a reporter and her cameraman become possessed by an ungodly terror: while the world sleeps, a government Quarantine leaves them little hope of survival. Ángela and Pablo are filming their assignment at a Barcelona fire station, going about the boring routine of interviews and introductions, hoping that something exciting will happen. It does. They race through the darkened streets, passengers with a group of veteran firemen who must rescue a person trapped in an apartment. The tension builds as what seems to be a simple emergency call soon degenerates into an orgy of violence and bloodshed, and the apartment becomes a steel cage, unattainable freedom seen through the ethereal curtain of plastic while commanding threats are shouted by military police. 

The film’s cinéma vérité style brings a frustrating realism to the events utilizing overlapping dialogue improvising chaos: the characters behave like people trapped, not actors spouting rigid dialogue. An obese bloody woman ravages the first victim as Hell breaks loose upon the world, and we see the new reality where nothing is believable unless it is seen through a camera’s digital iris, where the optic nerve connects to the hard drive. The narrative accelerates creating intense friction between characters and events but then slows down, letting us catch our breath before the tumultuous shadows cloud our perceptions once again. The cloying darkness becomes a living thing, embracing the victims in the primal fright as the human mind becomes reactionary, uncivilized, the repressed survival instinct taking control and instructing them to run, run…but where? 

Ángela and Pablo are the last survivors and reach the forgotten penthouse where they discover a mystery that reaches into the Vatican and the chasm of Catholic ideology itself. In the tremors of night vision, a demented creature stalks the gloom and their fate is sealed, the camera ever watchful as they disappear into that evil night. 

Final Grade: (B+)

THE BROTHERHOOD OF SATAN (Bernard McEveety, 1971, USA)

A small town is reduced to an abattoir where stinking corpses are preserved with dry ice and black magic eclipses the rising Son. Veteran TV director Bernard McEveety helms this supernatural tale of paranoia and dread set amid Our Town, creating a viable tension that superimposes Satanism with the corrupting counterculture and its deleterious effects upon the children of a lost generation. This poisoned seed is planted in Anytown, USA and blossoms into a village of the damned.

The bedeviling plot is a conventional exercise in satanic tropes, where a secret coven of witches and warlocks conspire towards immortality. Silver chalices, Pagan symbols, black cloaks and red robes set amid some secret antechamber in an abandoned house make for a visually repetitive setting. What makes the film interesting is Strother Martin’s diabolically gleeful performance as the leader of this brazen coven, and the use of benign children’s toys as murder weapons.

The opening sequence is a close-up of a toy tank screaming its war cry with childlike fervor, clicking and clacking tiny gears and plastic treads. But we hear screams off screen and the crunching of steel and bone, as a real tank crushes a car with the people trapped helplessly inside. This cuts back and forth, from the toy to the large tank as giant tracks grind metal and tear flesh. Finally, a child comes and picks up the toy leaving behind a bloody massacre and mysterious tank tracks like an exclamation point at the end of a life sentence. And it’s into this maelstrom that the protagonists are eventually driven by supernatural forces, emanating not from above but from the hellish depths of the abyss.

Small town America is plagued by the murder of its adult townsfolk and the disappearance of the children. LQ Jones, the versatile stuntman and character actor whose name nobody knows but face everyone remembers, plays the county sheriff trying to solve this gruesome mystery. Jones is also known for directing the Harlan Ellison post-apocalyptic tale A BOY AND HIS DOG. The film eschews a score to heighten tension and instead allows the silences between actions to carry dead weight, or the soft patter of raindrops whispering in the chill night air to create discomfort and unease. And it works. A surreal dream sequence isn't the most frightening aspect of the story: Fear takes the form of a bizarre orange monkey, a doll whose yellow face is a ghastly death mask cradled in the arms of a child. Like a baby cuckoo, firmly nested in the care of its victim whom it shall soon consume.

The Brotherhood performs its secret ceremony and meets their fate at the end of fiery swords, only to be reborn into the world to carry out Satan’s majestic request.

Final Grade: (C+)