"The Frolic" at WHC

[nomis]

As it seems "The Frolic" will be shown twice at the World Horror Convention this week (in Toronto, CAN) I'm hoping to catch at least one showing of it. I see there is already a review of it elsewhere on this site, so I may resist adding my own opinions, but it will be nice to have a "sneak peak" at what the DVD will be contain in regards to the feature.

[unknown]

I'm jealous! Have a good time

[Jman]

I'm very interested in hearing your thoughts on the film. If you were able to catch a screening of THE FROLIC at the WHC, I'm sure many people would love to read your thoughts.

Jake

[nomis]

As I explained elsewhere and in private, I remain unimpressed with the film. I found the direction merely competant, lacking any of the style I so enjoy in Ligotti's work. It would be a poor introduction, and unlikely to drive any new readers into the folds of his nightmares.

By that same token, the story has never really been in keeping with the rest of his ouvre, so perhaps I am asking too much that it somehow be transformed by film into a piece that is.

Whether or not I buy the DVD depends on numerous factors, but at this point I'm leaning towards avoiding it.

It truly disappoints me to write the above, and of course my opinion is my own. I do hope others who see it will post more favourable reviews — despite the fact that I will be unable to understand the strengths they may find within it.

[Stu]

Quick thoughts on The Frolic.

The story's been restructured to make it more cinematic.
The lighting seemed too bright at the beginning of the film, too cheerful. As things progressed the colours appeared more muted and shadows started to come into play.
John Doe comes across as Hannibal Lector lite. Nothing against the actor's performance but the whole psycho-playing-with-their-interrogator's-mind-thing is pretty cliched these days.
Dr Munck doesn't really respond to the obvous supernatural clue with his video camera. A quick flinch and then he carries on as though nothing has happened.
One of the audience (I forget who) thought that Munck's wife was too attractive to be in a Ligotti story.

Overall I quite enjoyed the film but it did come across a bit like a pre-credits sequence from The X-Files. Chris Teague (who's never read any Ligotti and so judged the film purely on its own merits) thought it was brilliant.

[Jman]

Thank you for viewing the finished piece and vocalizing your thoughts. Its great to hear feedback, both the good and the bad.

As I'm sure you know, THE FROLIC is one of only a handful of Ligotti's stories that are set in some form of "reality", both in setting and character. I myself thought about bringing the story into some kind of hyper reality, making the characters lives surrounded by constant devilish locations, dark shadows and an overall feeling of despair. But why go overboard and overly stylish on a film that draws you in on story alone? Ligotti's works do lend amazingly to creepily lit sets, ghoulish effects, and otherworldy thoughts, but with THE FROLIC, we were there to tell the story, not entertain the audience with our low budget version of a tent pole summer blockbuster. To me, falling into the Ligotti norm was something I wanted to stay away from and telling the story as real as possible was the key.

I hope to someday dive into another one of Tom's works and visually explore the dark world of Ligotti the way we all would love to see... possibly in the full length version of THE FROLIC, which is currently in development.

And just so you know, THE FROLIC was just placed in the top 50 finalists for short films in the United States.

Thanks again for your thoughts. I look forward to hearing more.

Jacob Cooney

[The Silent One]

While I've not yet seen the film, for the main dialogue, I've always had the impression that the living room should seem more like a room in a doll house than a real one, a sort of enclosed universe, no visible outside world beyond it.
Nothing too flashy would be necessary, merely dimmed lighting and evening filming so as to create the "dark reflecting window" effect (any semi-paranoid late-night reader knows what I mean).

Plus, John Doe never spoke in the same accent in the story, nor does he leave the impression of overtly toying with Munck. He seems playful, relaxed even, but in his own world, thinking himself superhuman but no god by any stretch. An escapee from a universe of things more terrible than he, waiting to introduce them to yet another wide-eyed child...

"The bird is dead now..."