#Savage in limbo monologues how to#
#Savage in limbo monologues movie#
#Savage in limbo monologues series#

Playing the family member most determined to chart the emotional fallout of her mother’s death before it descends upon the Harpers, the young actor nimbly dances on an edge between desperation and fearlessness, suggesting Sadie believes she could move on if only she could decode the mythology of the monster. But even working alongside sturdy collaborators like Messina and young Blair, it’s Thatcher who sells the improbable reality of an old-as-time spirit preying upon the frightened and grieving.

Savage’s confidence behind the camera sustains the film’s intensity even when the connective tissue between plot and theme, logic and tone is tenuous at best. Beck and Woods, meanwhile, devote so much screen time to Sophie’s search for one helpful, expository monologue after another about the Boogeyman’s origins that they seem to forget the members of the Harper family who aren’t on screen, despite the fact they spend most of their time in the same home - and should be able to hear one another, or even just be nearby when loud, violent, scream-inducing incidents occur.

By comparison, Savage wrings creepiness from morning sunlight and refuses interior illumination unless it somehow casts a menacing glow over the characters. Back in 1978 when John Carpenter offered his take on “the Boogeyman” in “Halloween,” he understood how frightening it was to watch a sociopathic murder cut a path through clean, bright suburban normalcy.

That they lean so heavily on the twin mechanics of world-building and mood-setting further undercuts the lasting impact of what could have been a scarefest with staying power. Together, they frighten and unsettle, discomfit and shock, but the residue of their efforts is ephemeral at best.

#Savage in limbo monologues how to#

As writers, Beck and Woods (working here with Mark Heyman) have demonstrated they know how to tap into broadly shared, identifiable feelings of vulnerability and longing Savage keeps his audience poised on the edges of their seats, squinting at every shadow until a monster comes shrieking out of it. But in a genre that increasingly demands to be taken seriously, simple proficiency of technique won’t take a film to the top ranks of the canon. Suffice it to say there’s nothing wrong with that shift - and one can almost guarantee hordes of teenagers will be excited to watch it unfold on screen.

#Savage in limbo monologues movie#

And so you get a movie like “The Boogeyman,” which starts as the study of a family working through its members’ grief and pain, and concludes as a literal battle to kill the monster threatening their lives. Not only has this trend cheapened the setup, it’s invited a challenge not frequently enough met by writers or directors to meld that weight with physical or psychological thrills that cathartically pay it off. But in recent horror cinema, dead parents have become more of a plot-driving cornerstone than during Disney’s hand-drawn animated heyday. Loss is a powerfully relatable catalyst for emotion, so it makes sense that filmmakers would draw from that well to create a heightened atmosphere for their stories. She soon becomes convinced that the entity is real, and must find a way to defeat it before it claims her and the rest of her family as its next victims.

#Savage in limbo monologues series#

As Sadie attempts to navigate a way through this compounding series of tragedies, she becomes obsessed with the details of Lester Billings’ life - and especially the images of an otherworldly entity that she uncovers in a notebook he left in her father’s office. In the meantime, Sawyer has become convinced that a creature lurks in the dark corners of her room and is waiting to prey upon her after the lights go out. Weller (LisaGay Hamilton), a grief counselor, rather than discussing her feelings directly. Sadie is present when Will discovers the body, but even then he refers his daughter to Dr. Before they can arrive, Lester disappears into a closet and seemingly commits suicide. When a man named Lester Billings (David Dastmalchian) shows up unexpectedly at their home telling stories about the cryptic deaths of his three children, Will appropriately calls the authorities. Though Sadie’s father Will (Chris Messina) works as a therapist, he’s too consumed by his own grief to provide comfort for her or her little sister Sawyer (Vivien Lyra Blair), who’s terrified of the dark. Thatcher plays Sadie Harper, a withdrawn high school student wrestling with the recent death of her mother in a car accident.