The family is the smallest unit that carries the social order, so once threatened, it can cause the most widespread fear. Take a look at many horror films from the East and the West, whether it is "The Shining" (The Shining, 1980), "The Grudge" (Ju-on: The Grudge, 2002), or the recent "The Conjuring" (The Conjuring, 2013), They all promote the plot centered on the family or house objects. Especially in American horror movies, they take the trouble to play haunted house tricks. It is believed that up to 60% of the stories take place in their homes or backyards. Steven. King (Stephen King) wrote in the original novel of the movie "Ghost Shop": "When you enter the taboo zone, evil things will come." He pointed out the general rules of the haunted house movie.
In haunted house movies, it is common for the protagonist to move his family to a remote old house in order to break through the bottleneck of life or start a new life, and these houses that have been abandoned for a long time are often haunted or haunted houses. The well-received "Sinister" (Sinister, 2012) is an example. The movie combines evil spirit themes and pseudo-documentary 8cm murder images in an attempt to create a new pattern. The story develops to the second episode, Ethan. The novelist family played by Ethan Hawke has become a case of numerous murders. Although the surviving deputy sheriff (James Ransone) is no longer in his position, he continues to investigate and try to prevent the same tragedy from happening again. happen. Only then, the young mother Courteney (Shannyn Sossamon) and her two young children have stepped into the forbidden realm of evil spirits...
In fact, long before the Courteney family entered the taboo world, the order in the film had already collapsed. The reason why Courteney moved with Chuck (Dartanian Sloan) and Dylan (Robert Daniel Sloan) alone was to escape her original family and her violent husband Colint (Lea Coco). In other words, Courtney's departure has disintegrated the family structure, but its value has been destroyed. Fathers abuse their family members, mothers cannot protect their sons, and sons are extremely afraid of their fathers. The middle-class family value constructed by capitalism is completely gone, so "monsters" can invade; or, it is precisely this shaky value structure that nurtures Out the so-called "monster".
In American horror movies, the exorcists or at least experts in related fields are often responsible for exorcising ghosts and rebuilding order. For example, the Warren couple in "The House of Li Yin", but "Omen 2: Double Madness" does not see such a role. Appeared, and even eliminated it completely from the beginning. "Evil spirits cannot be subdued, you can only protect yourself." The priest's words on the one hand deny the power of faith and place the exorcist in a useless position. On the other hand, it is also quite metaphysical and mocking. The clichés of past exorcism movies. After removing the salvation of religion, the power relied on in the film is the deputy sheriff, who represents the law, that is, a rational order. What's interesting is that he is no longer in the police system, and he claims to be a "private investigator", which means that the rational order of the law is also excluded; at least, the authoritative legal order is so.
Regardless of family values, religious beliefs, or legal order, what is behind it is patriarchal authority. It is obvious that "Omen 2" intends to break the tradition. So Courteney in the film does not need to maintain purity or morality. As a woman and a mother, she can still make friends with the deputy sheriff, and even let him step into the house in a majestic manner. In addition, Courteney does not have to become a "masculine woman", holding swords and guns and other weapons that are symbolic of penis and resisting opposition. She only needs to master the power of motherhood to effectively stop her husband's violence against Dylan. However, the patriarchal violence is like a shadow and is omnipresent. It can be transformed into various forms, with a pair of invisible hands controlling everything, just like a white-faced evil spirit that appears from time to time. Therefore, Courteney let the deputy sheriff into the home, which seemed to break the patriarchal family's limits, but she must also take the child to stay at home obediently and stay in the woman’s private sphere, otherwise it would cause evil spirits (father) Right) anger.
"Omens 2" destroyed on the one hand, and immediately began to rebuild on the other. The most significant example of it is "motherhood." In the film, the Dylan brothers watched horror movies on TV. Courtney turned off the TV when they saw it and said, "I don't like watching horror movies before you go to bed." Dylan said back to her: "That's not true. Yes.” Judging from this scene, Courteney seems to be a competent mother who cares about the education of her children, but that is not the case. When Dylan went to bed at night, he was frequently awakened by nightmares, but he did not see Courteney caring; he followed ghost friends into the basement several times to watch murder videos, but Courteney didn't notice it. In addition, Courteney did not notice when Dylan was bullied by his father and brother. There is no way to protect him. As the ghost friend said, Courteney will only prevent false terrorist violence on TV, but she always stands by and allows real violence to take place. After all, Courteney is a negligent mother; fortunately, there is a chance of atonement in the end. When she stepped forward to stop her husband and successfully protected Dylan, she seemed to complete the maternity ceremony in an instant, so that the punishment would not fall on her. Dylan’s phrase "Mom, I love you" was a perfect echo, making the ceremony even better. For Consummation.
Later, when the story develops, Collint and Chuck, who imitated and inherited his father's traits, became victims, but the relatively cowardly Dylan and Courtney survived. Is this a reaction to patriarchy? I have reservations about this. After all, the last voice from the radio pointed out that evil spirits (patriarchy) still existed, and whether Chuck (who inherited the patriarchal authority) was dead or missing is a mystery after all.
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