Chain Reactions

Alexandre O. Philippe: Chain Reactions (US 2024).

Country and year: USA 2024

Rating: 16

Duration: 102 min

Director and writer: Alexandre O. Philippe

Producer(s): Kerry Deignan Roy

Cinematographer: Robert Muratore

Music: Jon Hegel

Language: English

Subtitles: No subtitles

With: Patton Oswalt, Takashi Miike, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Stephen King, Karyn Kusama 

Format: DCP

Night Visions Maximum Halloween 3024.

Viewed at Night Visions, Kinopalatsi 1, Helsinki, 15 Nov 2024

 

Night Visions 2024: "Genre-elokuvahistorian keskeiseksi analyytikoksi noussut dokumentaristi Alexandre O. Philippe (78/52 – Psykon salaisuudet, Memory: The Origins of Alien) löytää oman kulman myös modernin kauhun klassikkoon. Tobe Hooperin The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) esitteli teinikauhun sekä maaseudun ja kaupungin jännitteestä ammentaneiden perähikiäkuvausten pohjapiirrokset. Mekaanisten tapporallien kantaisä oli kuitenkin taiteellisesti kunnianhimoista avantgardea, jonka 16-millisissä kuvissa autenttinen pelko yhdistyi yhteiskunnalliseen ymmärrykseen."

"Philippe ei toistele tuttua triviaa tai kaluttuja anekdootteja, vaan jäljittää pioneeritöiden syvempiä merkityksiä. David Lynch ja Ihmemaa Ozin (Lynch/Oz, 2022) lailla Chain Reactions jakautuu elokuvantekijöiden ja -tuntijoiden monologeihin. Koomikko ja näyttelijä Patton Oswalt, kriitikko Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, kirjailija Stephen King sekä ohjaajat Takashi Miike ja Karyn Kusama kertovat moottorisahasuhteestaan. Havainnoista rakentuu kuva Hooperin elokuvan globaalista vaikutuksesta ja ajattomasta inspiraatioarvosta."

"Arvovaltaisella Venetsian elokuvafestivaalilla syyskuussa parhaana elokuvaa käsittelevä dokumenttina palkittu Chain Reactions on Philippelle ominainen elokuvaessee, jossa sulavat ja älykkäät kertojaäänet kuljettavat timanttisesti kuratoitua kuvavirtaa. Moottorisahamurhien syväanalyysin ohella dokumentti avaa kiehtovan näkymän Miiken kipua yli pelon korostavaan ohjaajavisioon. Todellinen harvinaisuus on Kingin suorapuheinen panos, joka valottaa myös kauhun kuninkaan sielunmaisemaa."

“A fascinating examination of a horror classic”

– Emily von Seele / Daily Dead

“Not only solidifies how a film as iconic as The Texas Chain Saw Massacre remains that way, but how, even decades later, we’re still finding unique burrows within it to explore.”

– Spencer Perry / ComicBook.com

“Exploration of our inexplicable attraction to horror is the true theme of the brilliantly titled Chain Reactions.”

– Christian Zilko / IndieWire

“Might be [Alexandre O. Philippe’s] best film yet”

– Damon Wise / Deadline

“A love letter to an all-time classic, Chain Reactions shines as one of Philippe’s most entertaining works.”

– Alan French / Sunshine State Cineplex

“Unlike your typical film history doc, the film wastes little time with behind-the-scenes footage or production horror stories. Instead, it unfolds through a series of conversations with five high profile fans of the film: Patton Oswalt, Takashi Miike, Stephen King, Karyn Kusama, and critic Alexandra Heller-Nicholas. While most of them begin by citing specific elements of the film that they appreciate, the interviews quickly turn into free-flowing discussions about the period of their lives in which they saw the film and how their own relationship with horror changed.” – Christian Zilko / IndieWire

– Quotation montage by Night Visions 2024

AA: Alexandre O. Philippe's Chain Reactions is a 50th anniversary tribute to Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. It had a terrible reputation in wide circles, especially in Nordic countries. In Finland it was banned and only premiered in 1996. I had read in Film Comment Robin Wood's essays on contemporary horror film which he with Richard Lippe soon collected to a volume called The American Nightmare, also republished in Wood's Hollywood from Vietnam to Reagan.

When I finally saw The Texas Chain Saw Massacre in the early 1980s, I was struck by its avantgardist and psychedelic poetry with affinities with the New American Cinema of the 1960s (such as the films of Stan Brakhage).

At the time the film also seemed to be about coming to terms with the Vietnam War - the desolate disillusion of our highly admired America trying to destroy by brutal massacre (such as carpet bombing) a little people fighting for its liberty. In Finland we identified with Vietnam. Robin Wood also saw contemporary American horror film as an address about the state of the union.

I had friends who were critical about the horror because they saw in it an expression of misogyny. I had also female friends who were also admirers of the film because of its audacious address. I can understand the suspicion about misogyny. To me the film is among other things about misogyny as a root cause to the horror of the deranged family.

I congratulate Alexandre O. Philippe for the structure of five conversations that are displayed individually so that we can fully immerse ourselves in their meditations - instead of the regular bonus feature soundbite approach. A fascinating comparison emerges of their various interpretations of the sunrise imagery. In vampire movies, sunrise kills the monster. In The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, sunrise highlights the monster. 

Most commentators first saw the film in a terribly beat-up print. "Visually it's completely different now", says Alexandra Heller-Nicholas. But seeing the movie in bad prints does not diminish it, perhaps on the contrary. Its visual power is immune to troubles of print quality.

Robin Wood, one of the film's earliest public admirers, saw in it a reflection of a recent past. In her final comments, Karyn Kusama sees in it a film much ahead of its time, a prophecy of what is happening now.