Saw Take Shelter. It followed a construction worker who is suffering from recurring nightmares. He dreams of his dog turning on him or about strangers abducting his daughter, always during a raging, apocalyptic storm. Clearly nature is being set up as the villain in this film but, as we soon find, nature is a red herring. It is human nature which is the true source of terror. The main character is struggling with some kind of mental illness. His struggle is compounded by his need to be the strong, masculine head of the family and by his embarrassment over the disease. He is mortified into silence and inaction by his fear and by his inability to separate fact from fiction. We clever viewers know that essentially he's right: there is a big storm coming and it will be the end of the world.
The film is essentially a drama, mostly following the relationship with his lamb-like wife (whose transparent vulnerability only compounds his feelings of inadequacy) but we are drawn very deeply into his fantasies. Several scenes from his dreams and from his life are as terrifying as any horror movie. With The Exorcist I love to argue that it is a better horror film before the demons show up. This entire film is like that pre-demon bit of The Exorcist. What ghost or goblin could be more horrifying than having a loved one slowly turn unpredictable and violent? What monster is worse than the betrayal of our own minds?
I really enjoyed the movie. It delivered dread and drama without the danger of jump-scares (which have essentially ruined horror films for me forever.) The characters are realistic and their struggle is portrayed without sacrificing our sympathy for either the husband or wife (although sometimes I felt like the wife was kind of asking for trouble. If your husband is having serious freak-outs, please don't ask him to attend public events, ok? Jeeze.) The film is essentially a drama with an ancillary pro-metal health message. It's very sublimated, very masculinely restrained. I dug it.
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