I’ve written many times about the “new eyes” concept, where you can’t see the same film twice with the same eyes. In fact, I wrote a whole chapter on it in my book, Discover the Horror back in 2019. But I got to thinking recently about something a little different about that concept. Yes, I still believe in that theory about your eyes while viewing a film, but I started to realize it goes deeper than just that. Sometimes, it is our brain that is “seeing”, or rather “thinking” about something differently or realizing how we’re taking in the story is much different than we thought the first time, or times, around.
I know this is a very similar concept, between the eyes and brain, but I do think it is different enough to put some thought into it. To break it down to a little easier concept, let’s say the whole “seeing” part can be more the visual aspect, seeing different elements of the frame or shot that we didn’t catch the first time around. Or how a character reacts, how the music hits, or a plethora of other items. But when I talk about the Young Brain vs the Old Brain, I’m talking about something deeper than just seeing, but more of an understanding of what you’ve watched that you missed before.
Now, before we even start, I’m not saying every film fan is like this, and that others might have picked up on this the first time. If so, good on you. I’m writing here from my own personal experience, with two films in particular that I’ve recently thought about, and how I have a much deeper understanding of the film now than I did originally.
And honestly, when I have these moments, it just makes me fall in love with movies even more. Because it shows me that even though movies haven’t changed, from 20 years ago to even 70 years ago, we all can evolve in what we see and understand. Which means a film you once thought was just boring or just okay, can now be something completely different.
The first film is Roman Polanski’s Repulsion, which I’m pretty sure I watched back in the VHS days. I don’t exactly remember when I first saw it but do remember thinking that it was just okay. Obviously not as good as Rosemary’s Baby (1968), which is where I knew Polanski from. We get to watch Catherine Deneuve become paranoid and go crazy and kill some people. Or so that’s what I remembered. When Criterion put it out on Blu-ray in 2009, I figured it was worth an upgrade and rewatched it to check out the quality of the print. But what I found myself seeing was the film for really the first time. We get to see a physical representation of a young woman losing her grasp of reality. We see the walls of her apartment literally start to crack and break apart, just like her hold on reality, which I missed all of during my first viewing(s). So, viewing it now, my brain had become a little smarter than way back then, and started to pick up on a lot more of what Polanski was showing us.
The more recent example of this is the 1957 film The Monolith Monsters, which is about a meteor that lands out in the desert area near the small town of San Angelo, California. What is different about this meteor is that it is alive. And once it comes in contact with water, it grows into tall crystal-like towers, which then break apart and fall over, busting apart into hundreds of smaller pieces. But if each one of those gets wet, the process continues, slowing taking over the area.
Now when I first saw this, I was bored to tears. I mean… there’s no real “monster”, which is stated right there in the title! All we get are giant rocks! Seriously? That’s not a monster. I bet kids that saw that in the original release were pissed as well because it was not what they were thinking.
Then I watched it recently, which is probably my 3rd viewing (???), and then felt like I really saw it for the first time. A few years ago, when we were covering the Invasion of the Body Snatchers films on our podcast, in the 1978 version specifically, we made the comment that if there ever was an alien invasion, it would probably be like that. Where an alien flower or rock, as in The Monolith Monsters, just happens upon our planet and slowly takes over, more like mold, than with spaceship and alien warriors.
In my recent viewing, seeing these citizens realizing that there are these giant rocks growing just outside of their city, and slowing moving towards them, yet devastating anything in their way, and yet have no clue on how to fight it, no more than battling an alien craft as in War of the Worlds (1953). There’s no communicating or reasoning; it would be like fighting rainfall. It made me realize, much like a river that is about to burst over the dams, there is very little you can do. It’s almost like the force of nature. And that kind of invasion is extremely hard to stop. Which in turn can be pretty terrifying.
So, I give the creators of The Monolith Monsters a lot more credit this time around for coming up with something very different from what we’d seen in that era of alien invasions. Sure, there might not be the typical alien creature, but an alien threat can come in all shapes and sizes, and some, while they might not look too threatening, might cause even more destruction. Plus, credit to the effects team that made the little model sets and showed these crystal creatures actually growing taller, then breaking apart and falling over.
What is the whole point of this little rambling? If anything, maybe I’m hoping to make you think about some films that you saw ages ago and don’t like, for whatever the reasons might be. Maybe giving them another chance now and letting yourself see and think about it a little more than you might have the first time around. I’m not saying that they will all be immediate favorites from that point on, but maybe, just maybe, you’ll feel a little different about it. I’d make a wager that more times than not, you’ll find something a little more interesting.
